Let's read from verse 14 to the
end of the chapter. Scripture declares, Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure
of him that was to come. But not as the offense, so also
is the free gift. If through the offense of one
many be dead, and that's Adam's death, which plunged us into
death spiritually, much more the grace of God and the gift
by grace, look at that, the gift by grace, which is by one man,
Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many, and not As it was by one
that sinned, so is the gift for judgment was by one to condemnation. But the free gift is of many
offenses unto justification. So look at what that verse there
brings forth, that in Adam, we all became sinners and thus we
deserve judgment. But it says here, praise be to
God. But the free gift is of offenses
unto justification. So in Christ, we have all our
sins forgiven. There's no judgment in Christ.
That's wondrous, isn't it? No judgment in Christ because
all our sins were judged at Calvary as believers. For by one man's
offense, that's Adam's death, death reigned by one. Much more,
they which receive abundance of grace The gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Now look at that. Who
is the gift of righteousness? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the righteous one. You don't hear much about the
righteousness of Christ anymore because people are trying to
establish their own righteousness. But without the righteousness
of Christ, no one will be in heaven. And praise be to God.
He closes people in his perfect spotless righteousness. That's
why he came here to this earth. When he lived on this earth,
he came, number one, he came to save his people from their
sins, right? But number two, he came to live that perfect
life as our substitute in our place, weaving that coat of righteousness. Because remember, he's sinless.
The scripture says that he was manifest to take away our sin,
and in him was no sin. So the very reason he came here,
the very reason he was manifested, was to take away our sin, and
in him is no sin. If he's sinless, if he's perfect,
who is he fulfilling the law of God for? For us, for we who
are his people, that we might be clothed in that perfect righteousness. That's the wedding garment, beloved.
The righteousness of Christ is the wedding garment that the
saints in heaven are clothed in. It's perfect, it's spotless. That's why, that's why Christ
is able to present us spotless before the throne of God, without
blame. That's why. Because we're clothed
in the righteousness of Christ. So by one man's death, Adam,
we were plunged into sin and judgment. But through Jesus Christ,
it says, they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. We're made alive in Christ. We who are His people. And then
it says, look at this, in verse 18, therefore, by the offense
of one, judgment came. So when Adam fell, judgment fell
on the human race. upon all, every one of us, man,
woman, and child. Every one of us. Even so, by
the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men,
the justification of life. So, all who believe are saved. Saved by the grace and mercy
of God. Now, we know the cause of that,
right? We looked at part of that this morning about the regeneration
aspect of being born again and how it's God who begot us. But who chose us in Christ? The
Father. When did He do it? Ephesians
1.4, before the foundation of the world. Now that just makes
my mind go, wow, right? It does. It's incredible that
God loved a sinner like me from eternity. See, God didn't look
down in time and see who would choose Him. No. He looked down
in time and saw everybody dead in trespasses and sins and lost.
And He chose to save this one and this one. In this one, in
this one, a multitude that no man can number, the scripture
says. And if you're a believer, if you've been born again by
the Holy Spirit of God, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
you're in that number. Oh, my. That's enough to make
a Baptist shout, isn't it? Right? Oh, my goodness. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. For by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, that's
Christ, shall many be made righteous. And that's incredible. Moreover,
the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. And we're going to look at that
Greek word there for abound in verse 20, the second one that
ends the verse. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So this morning, I'd like us
to look at God's sovereign abounding grace and the nature of it, the
nature of it. Here in verse 20, we have a wonderful
portion of Scripture. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Well, sin abounds in this world,
doesn't it? But grace abounds even more. We might not see it,
but it does. God's still doing miracles, right?
He saves the soul here. He saves the soul there. And
that's a miracle of God. Oh, my. He's still the great
God. He hasn't changed. He never will
be. He never will change. So the
latter part of verse 20 is what we'll be focusing on. Look at
this. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. It
says in the latter part of that verse. It says moreover the law
entered that the offense might abound so that we might know.
Right? The law. What does the law do? It shows
us our sinfulness. It shows us our imperfection.
It shows us that we cannot satisfy God by our works. Because I'll
tell you, there's no one who can keep the law. There's only
one who kept the law. And that's the God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He did that in the place
of His people. But there's not one of us who can keep the law
of God. Now, that doesn't mean it's not
holy, because it is. It's holy, isn't it? But we can't keep it. My, oh, my. And so it says here,
But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Now, the
Greek word for the end of this verse, do you know what it means?
It means to superabound. So, sin abounds and grace superabounds. Superabounds. So, God's grace
is superabounding grace. Superabounding grace. It means
to abound much more, exceeding. It means to abound beyond measure. You've heard me often say, we
cannot plumb the mercy and grace of God. We cannot measure the
mercy and grace of God. You can't measure it. It's boundless. It's like an ocean that has no
depth. It's like an ocean that has no
bottom. It has no bottom. That's the mercy of God. And
remember, our sins are said to be thrown into the sea of God's
forgetfulness. Isn't that wonderful? He casts
them behind his back to see him no more. If something's behind
your back, do you see it? You don't see it, do you? He
doesn't see our sin anymore. He sees us in Christ. Oh, it's
glorious. It also means to overflow, to
enjoy abundantly. And now God's people, we enjoy
the grace of God, don't we? We rejoice in the grace of God,
in Christ. We rejoice that God the Father
sent His Son into this world to save us from our sins. We
rejoice in that. That's grace, isn't it? That's
mercy. And that's abounding mercy. And
we who are sinners can say, that's abounding mercy. That He'd save
me. That He'd forgive me for all
my sins. That's mercy. See, we don't get what we deserve.
Not at all. Not at all. So no matter how
much this verse is bringing forth, that no matter how much sin is
present, the grace of God is still superabounding. See, all we see is the terrible
things going on in this world, right? In our minds, we look
at these things and we think, oh my gosh, everything's falling
apart. Not in God's eyes. It's all going according to His
plan and His purpose. Remember, He's God. His thoughts
are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. And so, God's grace is superabounding. I'm hearing of people all across
the world. A friend of mine, I know, he
used to come up here. He came up here a couple of times.
He's over in Africa. I've never seen him so much more
happier now. He's over in Africa preaching the gospel. And he
is so happy and so joyful. And you see these people just
coming to hear the gospel. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. Amazing. Now we don't know that's
happening here right unless we see pictures of it unless we
see we have not Lance open Papua New Guinea I heard that I heard
that the work that that Lance Heller is doing in Papua New
Guinea There's churches springing up all through the jungles We don't know we don't see that
right God's grace is super abounding
grace beloved Now, we know it. We've tasted that the Lord is
gracious. We've tasted that as believers. We've tasted His graciousness.
And we've tasted this superabounding grace. But we don't always see
it being exercised all over the world. But it is. It is. My, oh, my. It's incredible. So, no matter how much sin is
present, the grace of God is superabounding. Now, sin abounds
in this world, but God's grace, do you know what, too? God's
grace abounds. It super abounds in our lives. We can testify of that, can't
we? Look what the Lord's done for us. Look what He gives us.
Look how He provides for us every single day. Look how He gives
us grace and strength to carry on. Look what He gives us. homes,
family. He's so good to us. But most
importantly for His people, He saved us by His grace and by
His mercy. How? By the shedding of His precious,
precious blood. He gave His life for us. It's
amazing grace. Think of this. Again, no matter how much sin
is present, the grace of God is superabounding. Sin abounds
in this world, but God's grace superabounds in the life of believers.
It'd be like putting out a flame from a match with a bucket of
water. So you're standing there with a match, and somebody throws
a whole bucket of water on you. That's more than you ever need
to put that match out, eh? That's how God's grace is superabounding. It's super abounding. God's grace is like asking for
a cup of cold water to quench your thirst. You ever been really
thirsty? Working outside and you come
in and you're just parched. And you take a cup of, and I'll
tell you what, a cup of cold water is like nothing else, is
it? You take that cup of cold water
and you drink that cup of cold water and it just quenches your
thirst, doesn't it? See, God's grace quenches the
thirst of believers. We hunger and thirst after the
things of Christ. And God's grace and mercy quenches
that thirst for us. That's why we come to hear the
gospel again and again and again. Give me more water. Give me more
of the water of life. I want to hear more about Christ.
Give me more. Once you get a taste, you can't
stop drinking. You can't stop drinking the grace
and mercy of God. Oh, so where sin abounds, grace
did much more abound. Oh my. The grace of God. He's given from His throne above.
We saw that in James. Let's turn to the book of James.
We're going through that book of James in our study in the
morning. But look at this. James chapter
1. We'll read this again. Verses 18 and 19. Or actually,
verses 17 to 18. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above. Well, God's grace is a gift,
isn't it? God's mercy is a gift. Where does it come from? It comes
from above. And the good and perfect gift
here is spoken of is Christ. He comes from above. And coming down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, of
his own will begot he us with the word of truth, that we should
be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Mercy. Mercy. We don't get what we deserve.
We receive mercy. So sin abounds in all its extent,
so that grace might be shown as abounding above sin. Contrast
that. There's all this sin in the world,
and yet God's grace reigns. It's reigning grace. Oh, yeah. God's not up there. You've heard
me say, God's not up there wringing His hands saying, Oh, please
come to me. Please come to me. I can't save you unless you come
to me. No, the God of the Bible has compassion on whom here of
compassion, has mercy on whom here of mercy. And God's people
say, praise God, I'm one of that number. My. And God's grace gives pardon
and eternal life to the believer in Christ. That's the key. In
Christ. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He has saved us. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done. All our works are like filthy
rags in the eyes of the Lord. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His what? Mercy. Grace. Grace and more grace. He has what? He has saved us. We can't save ourselves. But
praise be to God, He has saved us. It's in the past tense. He
did it all at Calvary. He saved us. He obtained eternal
redemption, the Scripture says, for us. When did He do that? At Calvary's cross. It's wonderful. God's grace restores communion
with God. We saw in the text that we read
that we fell in Adam. We lost communion with God in
Adam. We're born physically but spiritually
dead now. And now communion has been restored
in Christ by the grace and the mercy of God. We fell in Adam. We lost that
communion with God in Adam, but now it has been restored in Christ.
That's why Paul said that he has a ministry of reconciliation.
Be ye reconciled to God. How are we reconciled to God?
As sinners in Christ, in Christ alone. We'll look at seven quick points
here about God's grace. The first one is God's grace
acts according acts freely according to His
nature. God's grace acts freely according
to His nature in love. He loves His people. He loves
those He gave to Christ. Turn, if you would, to Ephesians
1. Ephesians 1. It's so clear here. Ephesians 1. Oh, look at this. He acts according
to his own purpose. No one can thwart his purpose.
No one can tell God what to do. No one. No one can twist God's
arm. No one can guilt him into, because
he's sinless, but you know how sometimes we can guilt people
into doing it? You know, we often do it with our family members
to our shame, right? We do, we make them feel guilty and then
they, you know, I want to go out to lunch here. Oh, oh, I
never get to go where I want to go. You know, but that's the
kind of stuff that we humans do. And then we end up going
to the place where the person wanted to go just to make them
happy, right? We both do, we all do it. Now, we do. But see,
God doesn't operate in that way. He doesn't operate in that way.
Look at this in Ephesians chapter 1. Look at this in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So right there, Scripture
declares that all spiritual blessings are in Christ. Now look at this.
He's going to take us all the way back to eternity. according
as He has chosen us in Him, that's Christ, when? Before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy. See, we're unholy by
nature. But in Christ, we're made holy. That we should be
holy and without blame. By nature, we're sinners full
of blame. But in Christ, we're made holy
and we're without blame, even though we're still sinners while
we're on this earth. Isn't that amazing? Now, if someone doesn't believe
God's grace is superabundant, just think about that. It's incredible. Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. And
look at this. According to the good pleasure
of His will. God's will. What? To the praise
and the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. Now, here we see God moving in love. In whom we have
redemption through His blood. There's our redemption purchased
by the blood of Christ. The forgiveness of sins. Again,
how many sins? All of them. All of them. Oh, that's amazing. According to the riches of His
grace, we're saved by the grace of God. And that grace is boundless. balance. Wherein he hath abounded
toward us, again, see we're bounding, toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will according
to his good pleasure which he had purposed in himself. So God's,
my oh my, God's grace, he acts freely according to his own nature
and love. And it says here, according to
His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself." In verse
9 of Ephesians 1.9. My, oh, my. Heaven made known unto us the
mystery of His will, the fact that He chose us in Christ, the
fact that we're redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, according
to His good pleasure. Let that sink in. If you're saved,
you're saved according to the good pleasure of God. Isn't that amazing? That's incredible. That's superabound
in grace, which He purposed in Himself. And we know, the Scripture
says in Daniel chapter 4, that no man can thwart God's will. No man can say to God, what doest
thou? And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing in His eyes, and yet He has mercy
on us. We're reputed like nothing. And
He has mercy on us. He sends His Son to die for us. That's grace, isn't it? That's
superabundant grace. The next point is grace is uncaused
in the recipient. There is no cause in us that
God would show us grace. None. Not even a stitch. No cause at all in us that God
would show us grace. People say, well, I'm not as bad as that fellow
down the road. Oh, you're a sinner just like
him or her. Even though you might think you're
better, you're not. I'm just a sinner saved by grace.
We who are in here, who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll
be the first to tell you we're just sinners saved by grace.
And we still struggle, and we're saved sinners now. And our lips
that used to curse His name are now full of praise for Him. Who can do that but God? Who can cause that to be but
God? In the fact that there's nothing in us, there's nothing
in us that is deserving of this mercy and grace, makes it super
bounding in our eyes too, doesn't it? That God would have mercy on
a sinner like me. Scripture says, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy, superabounding mercy, hath begotten us into
a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept, kept, kept, were
kept, how? By the power of God. through
faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Why do God's people not quit believing? Because God keeps
us believing. Isn't that amazing? Keeps us looking to Christ. Do
we go through times of trial and trouble and doubts and sorrow? Yes, we do. But He keeps us looking
to Him. Hallelujah. What a Savior. And we are saved by the grace
of God And there's absolutely nothing in us that would cause
God to save us. That's mercy. That's grace. The next point is the grace of
God is sovereign grace. He is sovereign. Since the grace of God is not
reliant on our works in any way, And since we do not merit that
grace in any way, God's grace can act and be given
to whomever God chooses. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
9. Acts chapter 9. Do you know that oftentimes it's
given to the vilest of sinners? Isn't that amazing? And we can say amen, right? We can say amen. Acts chapter
9. Look at this. Verses 11 to 16. And the Lord said unto him, Arise,
and go into the street which is called straight, and inquire
in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Taurus. For behold,
he prayeth." Now, Ananias is being told here to go to a certain
place and seek out Paul, who's called Saul of Tartarus. Now, Saul had a reputation, didn't
he? Now, Ananias didn't know that God had done a work in Paul.
Knocked him right off his horse, didn't he? But more so, revealed
himself to him. Look at this. In a scene and
a vision, a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand
on him that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered,
Lord, see God's people call Him Lord, right? We call Him Lord.
He's our Lord. He's our Savior. Now look at
this. Now Paul had a reputation. I've
heard by many of this man how much evil he had done to thy
saints at Jerusalem. So Paul is known as one of the
vilest sinners to the Christian church at that time. He's going
around taking Christians, throwing them in jail. They're being taken
into the Colosseum. Who knows what's being done to
them? Going into people's houses and hauling them out. And he's
got orders from the high priest in Jerusalem to do this. Oh, religion can be awful, can't
it? Grace changes everything. But religion can be awful. And look what it says here. And
here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that
call on thy name. So Paul had authority from the
chief priests in Jerusalem to bind up all that call on the
name of Christ. We have it pretty easy, don't
we? People aren't doing that to us. I said a few weeks ago, could
you imagine sitting around the kitchen table with your family
and in verse Paul with a bunch of other men and bind you up
to take you back to Jerusalem just because you call on the
name of Christ. My. And look what the Lord answers
him. But the Lord said unto him, Go
thy way, for he is a chosen vessel. You know, every single believer
is a chosen vessel, God. Isn't that wonderful? You're
chosen in Christ, right? You're a vessel of honor. People
say, well, that's an apostle Paul. That's true of every believer
though. Chosen vessels. Now Paul was a chosen vessel
in the fact that he was going to go to the Gentiles. But you know, you were chosen
at the same time as Paul in Christ. as before the foundation of the
world. That's super bound in grace,
isn't it? That's mercy beyond belief. But it's true. It's true. It's not beyond belief, it's
true. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a
chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles,
and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how
great things he must suffer for My name's sake." So we see there
in that text even that God's grace is sovereign. It's uncaused. Here's Paul. Here's Paul. He's
going to slaughter Christians. He's the last person people think
the Lord would save. But he's a chosen vessel, beloved.
Don't give up hope for your family members. You might think, well,
they're so far gone. No, no. The Lord saved me. He
can save anybody. That's what John Newton wrote.
He's the man who penned Amazing Grace. He said, if the Lord saved
me, He can save anyone, if it pleases Him to do so. Don't ever
give up hope for your family members. Don't ever give up hope
for your friends. Pray for them. Just keep lifting them up. Ask,
beg God to save them, if it be His will. Oh my. So God's grace is sovereign and
is uncaused in us. It's God acting according to
His good pleasure. When the Lord saved you, He acted
according to His good pleasure. And the fact that you are kept
by God is God acting according to His good pleasure. Bring it
home right now for today. He's acted in our lives as believers
according to His good pleasure. That's incredible. That's absolutely amazing. The next point is God's grace
cannot act where there is ability. If we think we have the ability
to save ourselves, God's grace is not there. Grace does not just come and
help. It's absolute. It reigns. God's grace reigns in us. It does not merely make us savable. Christ didn't die to make us
savable. Christ died to save us. He did it all. And He died and was buried and
rose again. And right now He's seated at the right hand of the
Father. Right now. Right now. It saves us. As one grace preacher
said, it saves us, period. That's it. God's grace saves
us. God's grace does it all. Psalm
27, the psalmist wrote this. He said, The Lord is my light
and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Salvation
is all of God's doing. He does it all from beginning
to end. He's the author, the scripture
says, and what? The finisher of our salvation.
I once knew an author out in Oregon, and he'd written a few
books. And I asked him, I said, now,
do you sit down before you write that book, and do you plan what
you're going to write, or do you just sit down and start writing?
He says, oh, no, no, no. He says, I plan exactly what
I want. I do an outline of what I want.
I purpose what I want to put on paper. And I just smiled. And he was a believer like us.
He's like, what's your smile about? I'm like, oh my. God plans
and purposes our salvation in eternity. And that which He plans
and purposes in eternity, He executes in time and space. It's
like you're writing that book. And then when it's all finished,
he shuts it up and goes, it's all finished. When the last sheep
of God is saved, When the last sheep for whom Christ died for
is saved, it's all over. It's all over. Not a second before
that, and not a second after. It's all over. We don't know
when that will be, but that's the truth. Salvation is all of God's doing.
He must save us or we'll never be saved. He must save us or
we'll never be saved. Add any of your works or mine
to grace, it's no longer grace. It's become polluted. You've heard me say the balloon
analogy. I'm going to say it again. The balloon, you take a little
pin, you put a little pin prick, you might not, you can barely
see that pin prick, right? And if you hold the balloon tight
and you just You let enough out where you can prick it and then
let it go. And what happens? That balloon looks like it's
whole. It's whole. It's whole. And just getting smaller and
smaller and smaller and smaller. You add a pinprick of works to
grace, and it's no more grace. Just a pinprick. It's no more
grace. No more. And think of this. The Scripture
declares that no man can come unto the Father but by Me. That's the Master's words. The
Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, No man can come unto Me except
the Father which has sent Me draw him. And I will raise him
up at the last day and praise be to God. He draws. We who by
nature are running away from God. We're regenerated, born
again in the Holy Spirit. And He draws us to Christ, doesn't
He? And we're so hemmed up, we have
nowhere else to go but to Christ. And now we spend the rest of
our lives just keep looking to Him. Just keep looking to Him until
we see Him face to face. Oh, my. See there, let's turn to John
6. Let's turn to John 6, verse 44. It says there, no man can come
to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. And I'll
raise him up at the last day. See, the reason we can't come
to Christ on our own is because we don't have the ability to
come to Christ. What did Christ say? What did
Christ say to the Pharisees? He says, I've not come for the
whole. But I've come for the sick. You see, those self-righteous
Pharisees, they thought they had the ability to please God
by stuff they did. When I was in religion, I thought
that I had the ability to please God by what I did. And whenever
something bad happened, I thought, oh my, it must have been something
I did. That's just arrogance. That's just self-righteousness.
God doesn't do that to His children. Now, He's like a father. He chastens
us. But it's in love, beloved. It's
always in love. Always. And we have no ability at all
to come to Christ. There's no circumstance. We can't
make ourselves more favorable to God because we're sinners. But in Christ, Remember what
the Father said? This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm what? Well pleased. Amen, sister. Well
pleased. If we're in Christ, God is well
pleased with us. Isn't that wonderful? And there's
nothing that we can do to put ourselves in Christ. It's God
who does it all. And it's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. The next point I'd like to bring
out is, since there's no cause in us why grace should be shown,
we must cease from trying to earn God's grace. If there's anyone in here or
anyone who will listen to this message who's trying to gain
favor with God by something that they do, cease from your labors
and look to Christ. Stop trying to do that. It will
only make you twofold more a child of hell if you try to work your
way to heaven. We cannot gain merit and favor
with God by our works. We just cannot. The Scripture
is so against that. Again, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He has saved us.
For by grace He has saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We've
entered into the rest of Christ, right? We ceased from our labors.
We looked at that a few weeks ago. We ceased from our labors.
Millions of people are trying to gain merit and favor with
God. They'll tell you they're a good person and they're going
to heaven. And some people think that God is indebted to send
them to heaven because they claim to be a good person or because
of things they do. God's not indebted to anyone.
No one. If we're saved, it's because
of the mercy and grace of God. Period. He's not indebted to
any one of us. Not at all. Because why? Everything we do
is tainted with sin, right? If we're born sinners, which
we are, then everything we do is tainted with sin. So we're
sinners from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet, like
Scripture says. Scripture says that we believe
it, because it's true. And we know it, don't we? We
know it. We're saved and we know it. We know how we are. And we're saved. The only difference
is when we were lost, we didn't think we were sinners. But we
were. It didn't change the fact that
we were. No one does good in God's eyes.
Turn, if you would, to Romans chapter 3. Folks say, well, I
don't do this, and I don't do that, and I don't do this, and
I don't do that. It's not gaining any favor with
God. None. The only way we can find favor
with God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Period. That's the only place. Look at
this in Romans chapter 3 verses 11 and 12. This is talking about
natural man. There's none that understand
it. So every person born into this world, they have no understanding
of who the one true God really is. Now they may have cooked
up in their imagination who they think He is, but that's not the
God of the Bible. When I was in Catholicism, I
used to think, oh yeah, I know who God is, yeah. I didn't know
nothing. And I jumped into landmarkism. Oh my, that was just from the
fire to the frying pan. More religious works. Thinking I understood who God
was. I didn't even know until he showed me grace and mercy.
He says, here, there's none that understand. And then look at
this. There's none that seek it after God. There's no one
who says, well, I'm going to seek God today. in their natural
state. Now, after we're born again,
we sure seek Him, don't we? Oh yeah, we want to know more.
Tell me more! Tell me more about my King. But
before that, we're not seeking after God. Why? Because we're
all gone out of the way. Again, we're like sheep just
wandering off on our own. All together become unprofitable.
There's none that do it good. No, not one. See, the problem
is people don't believe the Scriptures. And we can testify to that, because
I know before the Lord saved me, I didn't believe the Scriptures.
I wasn't interested in them. And I know some of you were raised
in a church, but until the Lord regenerated you, you really didn't
understand. You may have heard, but you really didn't understand
the Word of God. Until God gave you life. And
then this book became a whole new book, didn't it? Because
now we know the author. Now he teaches us and guides
us. My, we're not saved by what we
do. We're saved by what Christ has
done. And that alone. Again, God's
not indebted to anyone. The next point is, When God saves
us by His grace, we exhibit humbleness. Now, we don't think we're very
humble. We don't. We don't. Each of us truly, if we're honest
with ourselves, we don't think we're humble. Not at all. We're
so full of pride, aren't we? But other people may see that
in us. If someone tells you they're humble, they're not. They're
not. Because they're looking at themselves
instead of looking to Christ. He's the meek and humble one,
isn't He? He's the meek and lowly one. My goodness. Why do we exhibit humbleness?
Well, because we're bought to see our absolute unworthiness
of God's grace. And we're humbled. God humbles
sinners. When He shows us our need for
Christ, what happens to us? We're in the dust. Right? Now we know. We're just sinners
saved by grace. Did we think that way before?
No. We thought, well, I'm pretty good. I'm not an axe murderer.
I haven't done all this other stuff. I'm pretty good. Surely
God won't send me to hell because I sinned a little bit here. Yeah. Sin is sin in God's eyes,
isn't it? People make big sins and little
sins. It's all sin in God's eyes. It's all sin in God's eyes. How much sin will cause us to
go to hell? Just one. Can't pay for it, eh? Can't pay
for one sin. So Christ Jesus, our great King,
comes into this world and He pays everything that God's law
and justice demands and saves His people from their sins. And
we cry, Hallelujah! What a Savior! What a Savior
is Jesus Christ, my Lord! We're bought to know our absolute
unworthiness. We're bought to know our complete
inability to save ourselves. We're bought to know that we're
but bankrupt sinners before Christ, before God. And we're guilty under the law
of God. And then the balm of Christ is applied by regeneration. Oh, praise God He's forgiven
me for all my sins in Christ. God's been merciful to me. Oh,
it's wonderful. Turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter 4. Look at this. We're almost done. Look at this.
Romans chapter 4. Oh, my. The believer finds himself
in a blessed place. God's grace has superabounded
in our lives. And all our sins are forgiven.
We have a full pardon in Christ. It's mercy. We found a ransom. Because He revealed Himself to
us. Oh my, look what it says here
in Romans 4, verses 6-8. Even as David also described
the blessedness of the man. So, the man or woman who is saved
by grace were blessed. Why? Unto whom God imputed righteousness
without works. Righteousness allows us to be
in the presence of God. So, whose righteousness is imputed
to us? Christ's righteousness. without works. That's good news for sinners,
isn't it? Good news for people who have no ability to save themselves.
Nothing in us that would make us worthy to receive salvation.
This is good news for sinners. Unto whom God imputed righteousness
without works, saying, look at this, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven. Isn't that wonderful? How sin
gets in our minds and bothers us. Sometimes the things we've
done in the past comes up to haunt us. But all blessed is
the man or woman whose iniquities are forgiven. They're all covered
under the precious blood of Christ. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Oh my! If you're a believer,
you're under the blood of Christ. Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven, whose sins are what? Covered. What are they
covered by? The blood of Christ. And God
sees our sins and iniquities no more. This is a full, free,
wonderful salvation in Christ alone. This is our hope. Isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ. And then it says this in Romans
4. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us that were contrary to us. He took it nailing it to his
cross Blotted out The Lord will not
impute our sin to us because the Lord Jesus Christ when he
died on Calvary's cross The wrath of God that was due for you and
I as believers fell upon our Savior And He bore it all. In those triumphant words, He
cried, It is finished. He's obtained eternal salvation
for His people. Isn't that wonderful? All by
His work. All by what He's done. our room
and place. He was manifested to take away
our sin. And in Him is no sin. The sinless,
spotless Lamb of God. God's Passover Lamb dies on Calvary's
cross in the place of His people. This is mercy unmeasured. This is grace superabounding. The fact that Christ did that
for me and you as believers. May we continuously be in awe
of what He's done. The last point is this. Therefore,
the flesh has no place in the plan of God. This is why grace is hated by
proud, natural man, because it leaves them nothing to do. See,
man wants to do something to gain favor with God, or religions
are all based upon works. You start studying, you start
looking at it. They're all based upon something you do. But in
grace, it's all about what Christ has done. So God's grace has nothing to
do with the flesh. There's only two religions in
this world. I know that people say, well, there's hundreds of
religions. There's really only two. Grace and works. That's it. You can boil them
all down to works or grace. All other religions, no matter
what their name is, has something that you have to do for your
salvation, to gain your salvation. But grace says salvation is in
Christ alone. Turn to Psalm chapter 3. This
will be the last scripture we'll look at. If the Lord doesn't save you,
you'll never be saved at all. because no one can be saved by
their works. But if the Lord saves you, you'll never be lost. You're forever forgiven, freely,
by the grace of God. And I mean forever. Christ's
blood has blotted out our sins, beloved. We are fully, freely,
forever forgiven of all our sins in Christ. Look at this, Psalm chapter 3,
it says, verse 7 and 8, Arise, O Lord, save me. And he has for
his people. This is the cry of God's people.
O my God, for Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheekbone.
Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth
unto who? The Lord. That's Jehovah in the
Hebrew there. That's the self-existent one.
Salvation belongs unto Jehovah. Thy blessing is upon thy people.
If you're saved today by the grace of God, if you're born
again,