here to see you all. Lord gave us a pretty day, didn't
he? And I'm so glad that the Lord
is bringing you a fellow to stand
in this pulpit and declare the gospel to you. That's a thankful that the Lord gave you
a pastor. And I'd say he's a fortunate
man because I know how you people treat your pastors. You treat
them well. I'm thankful for you. If you
have your Bibles, turn with me to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter
5. I'm going to read two verses
of Scripture, verses 20 and 21 of Romans chapter 5, verses that
are familiar to you. Verse 20 says, moreover the law
entered that the offense or that sin might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the word of God and he
says where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. When the word of God is preached,
it always works. When the gospel is preached,
it never meets with failure. Now, it may not get the response
we would like, but it always gets the correct response from
those who hear the Word of God. In 2 Corinthians, Paul said,
We thank God that we are always triumphant when we preach the
gospel. It always is a sweet-smelling
savor to God, always, when Jesus Christ is declared in His work
and what He's done on Calvary's tree and the accomplishment of
salvation He did there, when His blood and His righteousness
are proclaimed, when the glory of God is seen in saving wretched
sinners, Smells good to God. That's what it means. A sweet
savor to God. And that's a reference back to
the Old Testament when the fat of the beast was burned on the
altar. Because fat smells good when it's burning. You know that. You ever cooked with lard? You
know it smells good when it heats up. If you've ever fried pork
chops, you know it just smells good when the fat starts smoking.
So the fat was offered unto the Lord because once it was put
on the fire, smoke rose and it smelled good. And it pictured
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Him having gone
under the wrath of God and come forward from it and the righteousness
of God being imputed to the people of God. So that's what the gospel
is when it's preached. When I'm done today, if God has
given me grace to be clear enough to preach the gospel of his grace,
he will be okay with that. It will smell good to him. Now
it's not because I preached it. It's because the fat has been
put on the fire and it smells good to God. Now to some, it
will smell good also. It will be a savor or a smell,
an aroma of life unto life. It'll smell like that. Some of
you will hear the gospel today and say, Boy, that smells good.
Smells like life to me. Others may hear the gospel today
and say, Well, I don't get anything from that. Don't smell like life to me.
It smells like death to me. But nonetheless, The gospel always
works. It never meets with failure. Never wants. But when the gospel
is preached, it is so clear and so plain that when it is preached, it
always causes a visceral response in everyone who hears it. A gut
reaction, if you will. When I read these words, where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. You have a response both in your
spirit and in your flesh to those words. Your spirit rejoices,
your flesh doesn't feel quite right about that. Where sin abounded,
Grace did much more abound. It confounds the flesh. These
verses establish the fact that Christ came into this world to
save sinners and the driving force behind the word of salvation
was the love of God for ruined, depraved men and depraved women
who were neither righteous nor good. That's who God loved and
that's who God saved. Bad people, wretched people,
people who hated Him. people who wanted to jerk him
off the throne, people who wanted to stick their finger in his
eye. That's what God said. And there's
a part of our flesh that says, that makes me uncomfortable. Our spirit rejoices, but our
flesh does not. This is established in this chapter
and also established in this chapter is the truth that sin
and death entered this world by one man, one man. You are guilty before God because
you committed, according to the Word of God, you committed treason in the Garden of Eden. You say,
I wasn't there. Yes, you were. and you're guilty before God
of that sin. That is the law under which we
are condemned. We are not condemned under the
law of Sinai. That was given to the Jews, or
later they would be called Jews, but to the sons of Israel. We're
not condemned under that law, we're condemned under that one
law. In the day you eat of this fruit, ye shall surely die, or
in dying, ye shall die, and we're condemned. You say, well, I wasn't
there. That doesn't sit well with the
flesh. The flesh says that doesn't make any sense to me. Some people
call it imputed nonsense. Imputed nonsense. But that's
the word of God. Verse 12 says, wherefore by one
man, as by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men. And this is a weak translation
in the English here. It says, for all that have sinned. That's not what it says. It actually
says, in whom all sinned. When he sinned, you sinned. Wait a minute, preacher. That's
what it means. You see the reaction of the flesh?
That's the reaction of the flesh always. That's the doctrine of
imputation. And this is glorious truth in
that it sets Adam as a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ, in
verse 14, who by his sacrificial death, our Lord Jesus Christ
saved all whom he represented, just as Adam condemned all whom
he represented, and he made them to stand righteous before God,
the Lord Jesus Christ did. And Adam all died in Christ. shall all be made alive. It is
the declaration of grace, sovereign grace. And Paul concludes this
great chapter by assuring believers that salvation is by grace and
not by the law. He says in verse 20, moreover,
the law entered. What does that mean? If it entered,
that mean he wasn't here all the time. The law is not eternal. The law was temporal. Paul said
in Galatians, the law was added Didn't he? The law was added
because of transgression. So the law wasn't eternal. The
law was added. The law entered. The law came
along. The law came along. He said,
moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. The
law entered into, and this is what the law always does, and
the reason for it is to point out to point out sin, to identify
sin and to assess sin and to assign penalty for sin. That's what the law does. The
speed limit sign out here does not condemn you. That's the law, but it has nothing
to do with you until you do what? Till you speed. and are caught. And then that speed law applies
to you. That's why Paul wrote to Timothy,
the law isn't applied or doesn't fit the righteous man. But the
law is for the ungodly. Moreover, the law entered that
sin might abound, that it might appear to be what it is. to show
that it's worthy of death and it's condemned. But where sin
abounded as it did abound and showed all sin to be worthy of
death and all sin to be against God and all sin to be worthy
of hell and eternal damnation, where sin abounded, grace, unmerited favor, grace did much
more abound. This truth of the grace of God
is the soul's food, the food of the redeemed sinner, but it
makes no sense to the flesh to the carnal nature. And this is
set forth in scripture. The corrupt mind cannot receive
the concept of grace and cannot believe the concept of grace.
You're telling me that the worst kind of people,
the vilest of the vial, the offscouring of the universe, the scrapings
of the bottom of depravity's bucket. You're telling me those
people were loved by God freely? You're telling me that God looked
at them and said, I will show you favor I have loved you with
an everlasting love. Therefore I've drawn you to me.
I'm sending my son into this world to die the death that you
owe and pay your sin debt. And you're not even gonna know
it happened until somebody comes along and tells you later. God
did that. That's what God did. The flesh
says that can't be. You see, because the natural
man receiveth not the things of the spirit, their foolishness
to them, neither can he know them nor discern them, because
they're spiritually discerned. Our natural logic, though tainted
and warped by sin, is still a formidable trait of humanity. We have logic. You know, we looked at the things
that are going on in Paris last night, the horrible things that
were going on. And I listened to some of the ersatz politicians
today, try to apply some kind of other kind of logic, try to
apply some kind of meaning to this that it didn't have. This
is the logic. These people went in there and
killed these other people. And they did it in the name of
their God. Why not just tell the truth about
it? You say, well, them sorry rascals,
them wretched beasts, that's what you are. There's no difference between
those Islamists that carried those AKs and walked in there
and killed all those people in France. No difference between
us and them, except the grace of God. You believe that? That kind of messes with your
gut a little bit, don't it? Kind of this flesh says, no,
wait a minute, preacher. But preacher, that can't be.
Yes, it is. The Lord looked, He says, that tower that fell
on all those people and killed them. You think you're better
than all those people? You think they is bad because that tower
fell on them? You think you're better? You're not better. You're the
same. And the only difference, the
possibility of difference, the only real difference that can
be attributed is that God has been gracious. But our logic
still performs. It's our the trait of humanity
by which human beings set up principles of morality and is
accomplished by which humanity navigates its existence. When sovereign grace, and there
is no other kind, is preached, it evokes a visceral, gut-felt
response in the minds and hearts of men. You see, it interferes
with our natural thinking. It calls into question man's
notions about themselves and about their future. Even those
who have been saved by grace often struggle with the fact
that where sin abounds, grace did much more abound. Our flesh,
the flesh of the believer struggles with that. Case in point, John Newton. "'Tis a point I
long to know. Often it gives me anxious thoughts.
Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? Now, was that spiritual understanding? No, it was a song written about
His flesh. That's what it was written about.
Human natural logic holds to what the Hindus would call karma. The flesh thinks that good begets
good, and bad begets bad. The flesh cannot believe that
a generous philanthropist can ever be accounted the same as
a murderer or a thief or a pedophile. It just doesn't wash. We look
at what we see, a good man who gives his life for people and
helping people, and we look at the pedophile who's caught and
we want to kill that pedophile, and I'm all for that. Not a problem. If you need a gun, you can borrow
one of mine. If you need somebody to pull
the trigger, I'll do that for you, too. But there's no difference between
that pedophile and that philanthropist at all. And our gut says, now wait, preacher. Grace kind of grinds on our flesh,
kind of makes it difficult for us, where sin abounds. Grace doth much more abound. Have you ever said in your quiet
thoughts, sitting alone, how can I be saved and act this way? You ever thought that? You ever
thought, how can I be saved and think the thoughts that I think?
Sure you have, why? Because grace is tough. It's tough. And only by a work
of grace can you believe in grace. That's the only way it can happen. The flesh thinks that men are
somehow deserving of salvation. There is a way that seemeth right
unto man and the gist of it is that what goes around comes around.
The flesh is appalled when bad things happen to so-called good
people. It is a truth that sin has a natural course and no good
will ever come of it. But even David had trouble with
the concept of those who serve God often suffer and are poor
while evil men flourish and die in peace. He said that in Psalm
73. He says, I was upset. I was upset because God's people
just seem to be in trouble all the time and here's this rich
man who hates God, he's an evil man and he's got money and he
dies without any trouble at all. Grace is difficult. It's difficult. Grace rightly preached to the
natural man seems wrong and to preach and believe it will cause
men to say that you are saying saying what you never said. They
accused Paul in Romans chapter 3 saying, this grace you're preaching,
you're saying that we ought to go out and sin so God will show
us grace. He never said that and I'm not
saying it either. But the fact remains, where sin abounded,
grace abounded more. Grace abounded more. Folks say, well, that'll open
the floodgates of sin. No, it won't. You might think
it will, but listen, doesn't change the fact that where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. The glorious flag remains,
it's true and it's solid and unchangeable. Only the spiritual
mind can and does embrace this wondrous illogical truth and
that by God-given faith alone. You can't logic this out. You can't logic this out. Our
flesh says, where sin abounds, somebody ought to be killed.
Somebody ought to be put to death. God said, where sin abounds,
my grace overflows. My grace super abounds. And Paul addresses the state
of human logic in the epistle of Romans, perhaps more than
any other epistle that he wrote. Because men have a visceral,
natural response to the things of grace. That's why they call
grace preachers antinomians or anti-law. I love the law. I love it. With my mind, I serve it. According
to what Paul said, with my flesh, I serve the law of sin and death,
but with my mind, I serve the law of God. I love the law of
God. I go to the grave site, put flowers on it almost every
day, but I'm dead to it and it's dead to me. But human logic has
a response. When he describes the truth of
grace in a particular aspect in the book of Romans, he always
also addressed the fact that the flesh would have something
to say about it. The flesh would react to it. Our Lord in wisdom, the Holy
Spirit took men and showed them what to write down in this book
and told them what to write down in this book. The marvel of it
is that our Lord addressed the fact of how our flesh and natural
flesh reacts to the truth of the Word of God. Like I said,
it's a savor of life to some, and it's a savor of death unto
others. Savor of death unto others. He addressed the fact that grace
would engender a particular response from the flesh. And in a particular
way, humanity ain't That much of a mystery after all. How does
a man respond to the truth of God's grace? Pretty well tells
you where he's at. Being a lawyer, Paul never asked
a question that he did not already know the answer to. For our benefit,
the Holy Spirit inspired apostles to address the natural response
of the flesh to spiritual truth. Four times in this book, when
Paul set forth the flesh's response to grace, and approach it from
an if-then scenario is what we'll do. The verse is in our text, in
the last phrase of verse 20. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. What is the natural, logical
response to such a statement? We find it in the next verse
in Romans chapter 6 and verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? That's the response of nature.
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Seems a logical
argument. If grace abounds where sin is,
where sin abounds, grace abounds, much more abounds than the logical
fleshly argument is. Let's continue in sin so God
can show us more grace. That only makes sense to the
flesh. The heart of such a response
is born of natural religion, the natural religion of the flesh.
that grace is a result of doing something and God responding
to it. Generally, folks think that grace
is a kind of reward for being good. Not the case, but that's what
they believe. But we're confronted with the
fact that grace is for sinners and where sin abounds, not where
good works abound. Not where going to church abounds,
not where reading your Bible abounds, not where praying abounds,
not where giving abounds, but where sin abounds. Grace doth
much more abound. When confronted with that, religion
says, what you're saying, let's do evil so we can get some grace. I've never said that and neither
does the Bible. But that's what people say. This
text does not say because of sin grace abounds, but simply
states the truth that no matter the sin, no matter the extent
of it, no matter the depravity of it, sin is no match for the
grace of God. It's no match for the grace and
it's not even taken into consideration in grace being bestowed. Where sin abounded, where does
it abound? in all of Adam's children, but
for some of Adam's children, grace abounded. My sin, oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed
to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, oh, my
soul. Where sin abounded, God came along. And there was your
dead carcass, sick from head to toe, a babe still naturally collected
to the umbilical cord of his mom and dad, cast out into the
field, placenta and all, neither swallowed nor washed nor salted,
and laid there to die. And there you were, dead and
beginning to corrupt, Putrefaction was setting in, and God walks
alone and says, Live! And you lived, and you grew up. And the Lord said, You were beautiful
because of Me. And I dressed you in a wedding
gown, and I married you, and you became Mine. Why? Because that's what He did. Well,
surely there was something. No, it was a putrefaction, a
putrefied corpse where sin abounded. Grace did
much more abound. It's unmerited favor, unmerited
favor. When Christ died on Calvary Street, It was a culmination of God's
eternal grace. A culmination of it. The second
time we see that is in chapter 6, also in verse 14. Verse 14 says, For sin shall not have
dominion over you, because you're not under the law, but under
grace. You're not under the law, but
under grace. The response of the flesh is
saying, What then? Shall we sin because we're not
under the law, but under grace? This is the natural response
to these things. What do you mean you don't preach
the law? I preach the law, but I preach it totally fulfilled
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the justice of it answered by
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary Street, wherein he
saved all his people from their sin. I preach the law, but I
preach it finished. I preach it done, and I preach
it set aside, and I preach it dead to the believer and the
believer dead to it, but I preach the law. You're saying we're not under
law, how are we gonna live? Again, the speed limit sign.
Who does that apply to? Speeders. Nobody else. If you drive the speed limit
or under the speed limit the rest of your life, that law will
have nothing to do with you. It will not condemn you. It will
not judge you. It will not penalize you. It
will not bring you before the courts. It will do nothing. It'll
just be a sign for somebody, but not for you, but not for
you. We need laws, preacher. We need
rules and regulation. We need to tell people how to
live. People know how to live. They know how to live. People
think, I think sometimes religion, well, I know, religion thinks
people are stupid. but they know how to live. Anybody
here think it's all right to steal? Think that's okay? Think it's all right to commit
murder? No, you know better than that, don't you? Anybody here think it's all right
to commit adultery? I won't ask for a show of hands. Anybody think it's right? You
don't know that. Well, I could stand up there and preach on
adultery. I could. I could lay you out. I could
lay them adulterers down. I could whip them and stomp them
in the mud. I could really lay them out for
what rotten people they are, and they are rotten if they commit
adultery. And all you good folks who don't
commit adultery, walk out of here patting yourself on the
back and say, Oh, you really got them today, preacher. That's not going to do anything
for you. Not that I don't address it when
it's addressed in Scripture. What's going to do something
for you? For me to work on your flesh, to kill at it? How am
I going to do that? Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. And the reason people live right
is because they're not under the law. They're under grace. That don't make any sense. It
does to the believer. Makes perfect sense. Because
if you were under the law, you would be under sin, for sin shall
not have dominion over you. It shall not rule over you, for
ye are not under the law. But that says if you were under
the law, sin would have dominion over you. But you're under grace. Thirdly, when the natural mind
hears of the election of grace, that God chose some to save and
love some before the foundation of the world, the flesh responds
with the idea of equity. Back in the Old Testament, the
Lord's people accused him of not being equal or not being
righteous. David cried, Lord, treat me with
equity. Treat me equally. What does he
mean? He means make sure that the substitution
that's done for me meets The death that I deserve to die. Make sure that's right on the
balance sheet. If I owe you a death, make sure that somebody dies
in my room instead or I'll have to die myself. But people say
that's not right for God to elect some to salvation. And I know
you've heard that from just telling people. What's the usual response?
Well, that ain't fair. They just say it. That's not
fair. It's not fair. And sometimes,
even the children of God, especially when moms and dads start having
children, their flesh says, surely they're elect too. Aren't they? Oh, I hope they're elect. My
mama used to say, she's 91 years old this year, She said, I always prayed for
you like you was one of God's elect. And I'd say, Lord, ain't
it about time you brought him to a knowledge of Christ? Ain't
it about time that he opened his ears to hear the gospel?
Lord, would you do that? Would you do that? God chose some to salvation.
And the flesh says that's not fair. Not long ago, I listened
to five preachers And all of them in some form or another
said that everybody had a chance at salvation. They were responding
to what they had read in scripture that God had said of old, that
God had chosen whom he would save. This is all responses to
election. They had a forum on it. They declared that the existence
of the doctrine of election by admittedly omitting it. That's
how they said it. We'll talk about election and
here's what we're going to say about it. It's not real. It doesn't
exist. They admitted it on the basis
of fairness. It's not God, it's not fair. If God loved one and
chose one to salvation simply because that's what he did, then
that would not be fair to the others. How is that so? But that's the response. To assure
that men understood the principle of grace, Paul chose two characters
that proved polar opposites in their lives. Look over at Romans chapter nine. Verse 11 says, for the children
being not born yet, in verse 11, neither having done any good
or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand,
not of works, but of him that calleth. It is written, the elder
shall serve the younger. Well, that's backwards. The firstborn
is supposed to run the show. No, no, no. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. God chose two characters
so opposite of one another in order to prove the principle
of electing grace. God loved one and chose the other.
Is that fair? Is that fair? To assure that
men understood the principle of grace, Paul chose these two.
One would live to be a man's man. His name was Esau. And the
other would be a mama's boy. Me like up here in Michigan where
folks got out to crossbows and their guns and go out and get
some venison. Gonna fill their freezers up. Old boys in the
camo got their gun, the .30-06s and the .308s and some of them
got crossbows and bows, they're gonna go out and they're gonna
shoot Bambi and they're gonna have him for lunch. We admire that. I do. I admire
that. My daddy, my granddaddy was a
hunter. My daddy-in-law was a hunter. Brought in deer. I admire that. I used to hunt. I never did like
deer hunting much because I didn't like to sit in one place. I liked
to rabbit hunt and squirrel hunt, though. And I ate what I killed.
We admire that. There's something good about
that. Something right, it seems. But then there's that fella that
sits at home and says, You know, I just, I deserve better. I want him to go out and get
my deer and feed me. And when he brings back the venison, I'm
going to take that venison, I'm going to make a stew like he
makes stew, fake his recipe, and I'm going to give it to my
daddy and say, it was him that cooked it, not me. I'm going
to lie about it. Then when he comes in hungry
from the hunt, I'm going to take that bowl of stew and say, you
want to trade your birthright for this? Well, yeah, I'm hungry. All right. We're square. We're square. His mama helped him out. He's
a mama's boy. A whiner. Oh, it's just too much,
Lord. I can't bear any more. Oh, the
children. What about the children? That's
what he said when he was going to meet Esau. Oh, what about the children? Well, you just want to slap him
around, don't you? Want to shake him. Say, you sorry, wimpy, whiny,
so-and-so. And then God says, I love him. And that other guy, that hunter,
that gatherer, that manly man, I hate him. And what does your gut say? That
ain't right. That ain't right, these polar opposites. We'd like to know the hunter
didn't want anything to do with the mama's boy. And the rub is
that before either of these twins were born, while they were still
in their mother's womb, neither of them had done good or evil,
so that can't be a qualification. That the purpose of election
might stand, God said of the younger, I love him and the older
I hate him. And folks have difficulty with
that. The fact is that neither were worthy of salvation. Jacob or Esau were worthy of
salvation. The way this is worded leaves
no doubt that the intent of it was to teach that grace was unconditional,
and particular, and most assuredly not merited. The flesh has a
logical response to it, a gut reaction to it. They say it ain't
fair, and that's what they say in verse 14. What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with God? This is how the flesh
responds. It always responds that way.
Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Paul goes on
to say that it's just how God operates. It's God's glory to
operate in that matter. That's how God operates. That's
what glorifies Him. Glorifies Him. Glorifies Him. That He's chosen not the wise,
but the foolish. That He's chosen not the strong,
but the weak. He's chosen not the somethings,
but the nothings, that no flesh should ever glory in His presence.
This is the God of heaven. It's to God's glory. Look at
verses 15 through 18 of chapter 9. For He saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God, that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith to Pharaoh, even for this purpose have I
raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardens.
God does that. That's the way God does. You
mean he'll take a man and raise him up to be a great king and
to be worshiped by men. Pharaoh was worshiped. to have
great riches, to build gravestones that were pyramids that stand
to this day. God said, I raised you up to
that high level and set you on the throne. Just so I could show
that as powerful as you are, the most powerful man in the
world at the time, I'll take you by the scruff of the neck
cast you down into hell. I'm the one that has power, not
you. And I'll show mercy on that wretched
bunch of murmuring, light bread despising, lying, cheating, cowardly
bunch of people called the Jews. And you great, rich Egyptians,
you're gonna sink to the bottom of the Red Sea like a stone.
Why? So you know who's in charge.
To make my power known. And people have a response to
that. They say God's unrighteous. God's unrighteous. Fourthly, when the fact of this
is declared, as I just read it, this indisputable fact of the
grace, that grace is sovereign, it's an attribute of a sovereign
God. and that it is bestowed on whom
God chooses to bestow it and withheld from whom God chooses
to withhold it from. The flesh responds in arrogance
and hubris because it doesn't know anything else to do. Verse
19, this is the response to what I just read of Pharaoh. Therefore
hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, in verse 18, in whom
he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say, This is going to be your response.
Thou wilt say, why doth he yet find fault for who has resisted
his will? This is what they say. Well,
if I believed in predestination, if you believe in predestination,
why don't you, I'll just walk out in front of that bus. I said,
go ahead, walk. We'll see if it's your time to
live or your time to die. Step right out. You're gonna
be stupid like that. You mean he raised Pharaoh up
just to put him down. He made Pharaoh to be an object
of his wrath. He created the wicked for the
day of evil. You mean to tell me he did that?
Yeah. Well, if I'm wicked and I live as a hellion and I hate him, He made me this
way. How can he hold me accountable? Who has resisted his way? That's the response of the flesh.
You've heard it. You've heard people talk like
that. Well, if he's sovereign and these things are predestinated,
how can he have fault with me if I am the way I am? What's
the answer? Shut up. shut your mouth. You have no say. You have neither
right nor warrant to say anything. You are what you are because
God made you what you are and God's going to use you as He
sees fit and when He's done with you, He'll take you to glory,
He'll put you in hell, but you will serve the purpose that He
has assigned to you because He is God, and you're not. Nay, but O man, who art thou
that replyest against God, shall the thing formed say to him that
formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter
the power over the clay? to make one vessel unto honor
and another to dishonor? What if God, willing to show
His wrath and make His power known, what if God endured with
much long-suffering those vessels that He made to destroy, endured them in their sinfulness,
What if He did that just so that He might make known the riches
of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared
to glory? What if He did that? Well, He must be sovereign. He
must be an electing God. He must be a predestinating God.
He must be a God who does all things for He is God. What if
He's like that? People will say, Well, that's
not my God. And I'm quick to agree, yes, He's not your God. Not the God you think He is,
but He's the God who made you. He's the God who made you. Everybody
has a job on earth. You have a job. You go and do
it. You have a function and you're
going to do it. And you may say, Well, I don't
understand. Yes, you do. You just don't like
it. Where sin abounded, grace hath
abounded more. And we're not under the dominion
of sin because we're not under the law. And God chooses His loved ones
before the world began, even though in the womb they've not
done any good or evil that the purpose of election might stand.
And God raises men up to put them down, and some He puts down
to raise up. And you can find no fault with
Him. Your flesh does. Flesh always responds the same
to grace. But aren't you glad for the grace
of God? Aren't you? Because you know,
there's no difference between you and Pharaoh, except for the
grace of God. No difference between you and
Esau or Jacob, except for the grace of God. None whatsoever. If you hear these truths and
respond in human logic, despising them, you're minding the things
of the flesh and therefore you're still in the flesh. If you hear
these things and are glad for them, even though your flesh
still responds to them badly and believe the one who inspired
them, you are minding the things of the spirit and therefore spiritual.
Therefore you will attribute all your salvation to God and
his glory alone. And you do it. Why? Because God's
been gracious to you where sin abounded. Grace did
much more abound. God bless you. Brother, want
to close with a song?