Lord Jesus Christ has secured
for and bestowed upon his people every good and perfect gift and
favour. We have, as the Lord's people,
received as free gifts every blessing we need. and every good
we require. I want for a few moments for us
to reflect upon our circumstances and our situations right now,
right here today. And think for a moment about
what we need Is it not true that the Lord
has supplied all our needs? Is there any of us that could
say in all sincerity that there is something that I need that
I don't have? The Lord has given us everything
that we need. All our temporal needs have been
provided for. Every physical convenience has
been supplied. Now, I do not say that every
desire has been granted because there are some of those doubtless
are wrong. And though we desire them, we
ought not to, nor indeed would they do us good if they were
supplied. But I say this to you, that our
gracious, loving God has supplied every genuine temporal need that
we have. Everything that we require in
this world is ours. But that's only the beginning
because every spiritual need has also been granted to us. What a weighty bag of good things
this is to reflect upon what the Lord has done for his people,
what he has supplied for his church. What a cornucopia of
blessing. Know what a cornucopia is? It's the picture of the horn
out of which all the grapes and the fruit and the grain used
to spill over as a picture of fullness and completeness in
the old classical pictures. What an eternity of infinite
mercy we have provided for us. We who are sinners in this world
have a justifying righteousness given to us, freely given to
us. We have pardon for our sins. We have a sanctifying grace. We are adopted into the family
of God. We possess eternal life. We have such a store of blessings. that will enlarge, that will
endure, that will engage us for all eternity. And yet there won't
be enough time to get to the bottom of all the good that God
has granted to us. When I was a little boy, I used
to sing a chorus. It was written by a man called
Seth Sykes. And he lived near Glasgow, I
guess about 120 or 130 years ago, probably very close to where
Jill was raised in Bishop Briggs. And Seth and Bessie Sykes used
to write and sing together around the little churches there in
the west coast of Scotland. and their songs went far and
wide. I don't know whether you've ever
heard the song Running Over, Running Over, My cup's full and
running over. Is that familiar to you? Right,
listen. Running over, running over, my
cup's full and running over. Since the Lord saved me, I'm
as happy as can be. My cup's full and running over. Now there are other verses too,
but I'm not going to sing those to you. Running over, running
over, my cup's full and running over. Since the Lord saved me,
I'm as happy as can be. My cup's full and running over. We've got some actions that we
can do to it after. We'll maybe get some volunteers
to do that for us. Listen, listen. If we're not
as happy as can be, if we're not as happy as can be, whose
fault is that? Whose fault is that? Because
we've got everything we need. We have got everything that we
need. Temporal and spiritual blessings
are ours beyond measure. It behoves us only to give our
God thanks for the great wealth of provision that he has made
for us. Paul says, we also joy in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in him, rejoice in
the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. It becomes us as the Lord's people
to be a joyful people, to be a people who face down our troubles. Oh, we have them. We have our
challenges, we have our trials, but we bring those trials every
day to the Lord's gracious provision of all his goodness and all his
mercy and all his grace towards us. And I'll tell you, if we
go through this life as a depressed people, if we forego the happiness
that the Lord has granted his people here in this world, it
is because we are not bringing our needs to him day by day,
we're wallowing in them when we should be turning them over
to him who is our great provider. Jehovah Jireh, my provider. In Romans chapter eight, verse
32, the apostle Paul, speaking in that great chapter, lays it
as boldly and as baldly as he possibly can. He says this, verse
32, he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for
us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? If he's given us the very best
Why would he be stinting? Why would he withhold anything
of these lesser things? If he has given us all that is
dear to his own heart, why would he withhold anything else from
us? And he has freely given us all
things. Freely given all things. Nothing is earned. Nothing is
deserved, nothing is merited, and yet out of his love, out
of his desire to do good for his people, the Lord is pleased
to bestow gifts aplenty to us. Freely bestowed from his love,
from his grace, from his mercy, nothing withheld, either for
our temporal good or for our spiritual good. With Christ,
God's Son, we are freely given all things. In Romans 5, verse 17, is the
verse that I want to touch upon and think about for a little
while this evening. And there are two descriptions
in Romans 5, 17. Two descriptions of the riches
we possess in the Lord Jesus Christ. The first one is this,
an abundance of grace. If we are in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we have an abundance of grace. And if we are in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we have the gift of righteousness. Now, first thing I want to stress
is that these blessings which God gives to his church, which
God gives to his people, they are not restricted in any way
to special kinds of Christians. They are given to us because
of who we are in Christ. Do you remember the labourers
in the vineyard, how that some started early in the morning
and they laboured all day? in the heat of the sun and then
a little later in the day the lord of the vineyard went out
and he found other men standing around that had no work to do
and he brought them in also and he gave them work and then towards
the very end of the day others came who had no work and the
lord employed them also in his vineyard and at the end when
it came time for the distribution of the pay Each one received
exactly the same. The lesson that we have in that
is that there is no difference in the family of God between
the people of God. There are not first class Christians
and second class Christians. There are not people who get
all of the blessings and all of the benefits and none of the
troubles and others who get all of the troubles and none of the
blessings. These things are ours. This is the commonwealth. We
live in a common wealth within God's family and we share the
blessings and the benefits which he freely gives. Every believer
being equal in God's family. Galatians 3, 26 says, ye are
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. It's one thing
that we possess and only one which brings us into the family
of God and into the relationship and union together with the Lord
Jesus Christ, faith. And while there is little faith
and larger faith, great faith, yet it is faith that brings all
of God's blessings to us. As we trust him, he bestows his
gifts. because people are all one in
Christ Jesus. And we should remember that salvation
and the family of God is a great leveler. And we are all brothers
and sisters together in the church. There's no hierarchy here. There's
no levels. There's no priesthood and laity. There are no super spirituals
and common folk. This is the body of Christ. And
we are together as brothers and sisters. And we look to him who
is the supplier of every need. Every believer, we are told,
is led and taught by the Spirit of God. We are all the children
of God by faith and we are all ministered to. It's a lovely
word. I think I mentioned this before
when I was here. The word to minister, it means
to serve. That's the meaning. That's exactly
what it is. To minister is to serve. And
so if you have a minister in your church, you have a servant
in your church, he's there to serve, not to lord it. Not to dominate, not to cause
people to come under his thumb or under his domination, but
to serve and to help and to support and to encourage and to comfort,
to minister. And as the Lord has given us
his gifts, He has promised his saints, his people, that under
this gospel age, they shall be all taught of God. And I tell you, that's a great
comfort to a minister. It's a great comfort to a pastor
to know that the Lord's people shall be all taught of God. First, it's a comfort because
The minister feels very inadequate at being able to teach anyone
anything. He's got enough problems dealing
with his own heart to be able to deal with someone else's problems
too. And yet this is the responsibility
that falls to those who are given as pastors and teachers, to be
able to draw close beside one and another, to encourage and
to help. The second reason why it's a great comfort to a minister
or a pastor to know that all the Lord's people, that they
shall all be taught of God, is that he knows this. that despite
his own inadequacies, the Lord will protect his little flock. He will protect them, and he
will provide for them, and he will sustain them, and he will
secure them all the days that he has charged over them. But
let's return to the point that I was going to make concerning
these two descriptions of the riches that we possess from Romans
5, 17. The first one is this, and I
think it's a lovely phrase that we have before us. We have abundance
of grace. Abundance of grace. Well, what
does that mean? Grace is God's goodness. That's all it means. It's God's
goodness. His goodwill, if you like, towards
us. And grace encompasses all that
the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished for his church. The Lord Jesus
Christ has redeemed his church. He has paid the price of their
liberty. He has bought them back from
out under the curse of the law. He shed his precious blood to
accomplish their redemption. And that redemption is one of
the blessings of God's grace towards his people. We have an
atonement. We have been brought together
with God. We have been made one with Him. He has granted us and bestowed
upon us a pardon and a forgiveness of our sin, because by the Lord
Jesus Christ's dealing with that, God can be both just and the
justifier of those for whom Christ died. That the Lord Jesus Christ,
by His death, by that great work of His sacrifice, has bestowed
upon us the grace of God in the atonement of our sins. We have sanctification. He has
set us apart. We have justification. And by
application of these gifts and graces, we have all of the consequential
blessings and benefits that flow from them. Blessings in the hearts
of the Lord's people. Peace with Him. Peace in this world of turmoil
and trouble. Peace because we know that our
sins are dealt with and forgiven. comfort in this world. We have the gift of endurance. He has caused us to stay and
to continue and to endure in the face of all the adversity
and trouble that we face. He has granted us strength, boldness,
patience, joy. These gifts, a love for God,
and a love for the brethren, an unfeigned love of the brethren. You know what unfeigned means?
That it's not put on, it's not kid on love. It's real love. It's genuine love. It's love
because we see what God has done for us in His love. And we see
what He has done for our brethren by His love. And we know that
if God loves us and God loves our brethren and we love God,
if Christ loves us and we love Christ, there is no hurdle There
is no restriction to having a love for the brethren that is true,
genuine and real. And he gives us a teachable spirit. That's a gift. That's a gift
from God. A teachable spirit. We've all
encountered people who aren't teachable. People who know, they
just know what's right and what's wrong. And if you've got any
doubt about it, well, they're right up there to tell you what
you should be doing. But the Lord's people have a
teachable spirit, and yet they are discerning also. For they
will not follow after those false shepherds who will deceive them
and distract them from the Lord Jesus Christ, but they will seek
out those ministers, those pastors, those shepherds under Christ
who will gather them and bring them to the Lord's table that
they may feast together in the wilderness with Him. And assurance,
assurance, assurance of an interest in the death of Christ and assurance
that our hearts are made right with God, an assurance that our
sins are forgiven. These are blessings that flow
to us from God. This is the abundance of his
grace towards us. Such blessings are as felt and
experienced though not always equally. And I recognize that
to be the case for these blessings, blessings of the heart, blessings
of the mind, blessings of the experience, are blessings that
are subject to testing and to trial. And the Lord sometimes
will try these blessings and these graces in our lives in
order to keep us alert, to keep us sharp in the knowledge that
he is the source of our every need. There is an abundance of this
grace. That is the point that Paul is
making here, that there is an abundance. It flows freely. That means it flows both without
cost to us and it flows liberally. It's not staunched, it's not
restricted, it's not constrained. It flows freely and it flows
without cost to the people of God. It is sufficient grace for
all of our needs. The Lord specifically told the
apostle Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is
made perfect in weakness. That's 2 Corinthians chapter
12, verse nine. He said unto me, Paul testifies,
he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength
is made perfect in weakness. What the Lord was saying there
to Paul was this. Paul had come to him several
times with a request that something in his life might be changed.
Something in his experience might be taken away. He calls it a
thorn in his flesh. He felt a need, he felt that
there was some deficiency. But the Lord came to him and
said, Paul, my grace is abundant and it will supply everything
that you require. Indeed, Paul, my name will be
glorified because my grace, my strength, my help, my support,
is given to you in your weakness. Paul's reply was very interesting.
He says this, oh that we could all say this at that point of
our felt weakness. Paul says, most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. That's an amazing statement that
the apostle makes. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. I would rather have these infirmities. We call a place where you go
if you've got an illness or a disease back in the UK, we call that
the infirmary because that's like a big hospital where you
go to get treated and tended. Well, he says, I would glory
in my infirmities. These weaknesses that I've got,
these perceived needs that I have, they actually will be of greater
value to me than my strengths, than my successes, than my abilities. People exercise their abilities,
don't they? They like to do what they're
good at. But the Lord, enables us to do what we are not good
at so that His name will be glorified in that situation. These are
hard things for us to grasp that we should joy in our infirmities. What a testimony the Apostle
gave. Glory in my infirmities, not
glory in my strength, not glory in my good looks, not glory in
my intellect, but rather everything that the world recoils from,
those things which are unattractive about us, those things which
the world would not in any way value, that it would despise,
that it would mock, that it would even perhaps fear. This flesh, this body is dying. Hour by hour, minute by minute,
I am closing in on that moment when the Lord will take my spirit
from this body and usher me into his presence. I won't have any
need any longer for this flesh. At the moment, it's little more
than a suit of clothes covering me while the Lord keeps me in
this world. But it is dying. And it is also
as it dies, the source of all my sin. and all of my weakness. I sometimes wonder why we're so
sad, so reluctant to see it go. Brethren, our comfort in life
is that whatever befalls us, whatever befalls us by way of
temptation or illness or poverty or bereavement, Abundant grace
is sufficient grace and it will supply all our needs and we can
have confidence in the Lord who has promised that to us. Second
thing he says is that we have the gift of righteousness. God's
righteousness, divine righteousness, Christ's righteousness, a righteousness
that fits us for heaven has been gifted to us. It's a present,
it's a prize, it's a gift. Is it not an amazing statement
the gift of righteousness. Men have struggled all their
lives to be righteous before God. Oh, they have walked the
line. They have walked the line to
the best of their ability. They have pulled themselves up
by their bootstraps. They have dressed appropriately.
They have acted appropriately. They have not touched the things
that you shouldn't touch. And they have been so careful
to maintain all the things that they should do. And they have
worked their own righteousness and it's applauded by those that
they gather around about them, whether they're churches or whether
they're politicians or whether they're socialites of whatever
nature or whatever hue. Men's prestige in their society,
whatever that society is, is gained and earned by their living
up to the standards of that society. But our acceptance with God is
different to all of that. It is a righteousness that we
have been given not something that we've earned, not something
that we've worked for. And what the best of men could
never secure under the most precise obedience to the law of God,
which is the highest standard that this world has ever known. God has given freely and bestows
as a gift of his grace. justifying righteousness by faith
in Jesus Christ. And here in this passage, we've
seen the great contrast that Paul makes between Adam, the
first man, and the Lord Jesus Christ. How it is that death
reigned by sin of Adam, who brought death upon himself and upon all
his posterity, but that the Lord Jesus Christ brings life, that
the Lord Jesus grants and gifts that righteousness, which through
our lively union with him brings us into eternal fellowship with
God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This righteousness is
not in our bodies, not in our flesh, but in our souls. Sin remains in our bodies, but
Christ is in our hearts, in our souls. We have been cleansed
by his blood, renewed by his sacrifice, restored by his life. Righteous is what we are before
God, and he declares us to be so because we are. The Lord God does not look upon
us and see us as sinners, as full of iniquity, and say, I
see their sin, but I will consider them as righteous. Rather, he
has taken away our sin. He has made us righteous. He
has gifted righteousness to us and he declares us to be righteous
because that's what we are. The Lord isn't playing a trick
here with smoke and mirrors. He has gifted righteousness to
his people and he calls them a holy nation. The Lord says, you are a royal
priesthood, princes in the king's household. We are adopted family
of God. We are heirs and joint heirs
with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are born again. We are a new
creation. He calls us to live accordingly. but He grants us the gift of
righteousness because it is His good pleasure to do so for the
sake of the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. He calls us
to live as that people who are redeemed, who are justified,
who are holy, the people that we are. What is this but to live by faith? What is this but to live by faith? It is to live by the faith which
the Lord God has given us that trusts in those promises, those
declarations, those statements he has made. Trusting in the
grace of God, resting on the work of Christ, rejoicing with
thanksgiving in the gifts of God's goodness towards us. By
faith, God's people lay hold on their blessings of abundant
grace and the gift of righteousness that flow from our union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. I just want finally to touch
on one thing. The consequences of these riches
which he has given us, these blessings that are ours, is this
in verse 17. they shall reign in life in one,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, what I'm saying to us
this evening is that here and now, this is our experience in
life. As we are in Christ, while in
this world today, You and I are not subject to death anymore,
not as other people are. In fact, we are so much free
from death as a punishment for sin that we are said to rule
and to reign over death. where death once ruled and reigned
over us. This is what God has given us
in the blessings of the abundance of his grace and in the gift
of righteousness. He has caused us to rule, to
be rulers in this world because we have been lifted above that
which besets and troubles and snares the men and women of this
world. Where once we were subject to
the fear of death all our lives, death now fears us. Think about that. Where once
we were subject to the fear of deaths all our lives, as this
world is, as men and women are, who have no hope. Now death fears
us, because it knows it can't hold us. It knows that it has
to give us up. It knows that when it puts its
grip around about us, in that day when this body, this body
of flesh, which is deteriorating by the moment, is laid down,
it will have to let it go again. It can't hold us. And it fears
that day when it will be seen to be ineffectual, even by the
bodies of the Lord's people. This fleshy body must return
to dust. Would we have it any other way? And yet, though we die in the
body, Our souls are eternally alive in Christ and even our
bodies will rise again from the grave and we will triumph over
death on that resurrection morning. We will rise again to everlasting
life. We will be given that people
that are the Lord's we will be given all of the eternal promises
that he has made. The Lord's people reign now in
their spirits over sin, over Satan, and over this world, and
they will reign together with Christ in all eternity. They will sit on thrones they
will wear crowns, they will possess the kingdom of glory forever
and ever, and all by and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not in the account of our works,
not by our merits, but by Christ. The Apostle John says of the
Saviour, He has made us unto our God, kings and priests, and
we shall reign on the earth. What a great salvation we have. What a mighty saviour is ours. What abundant grace he has bestowed. Lord, grant us faith to receive
and to enjoy thy good and merciful gifts of abundant grace and divine
righteousness. May we learn day by day what
it means to be united with Christ in his death and resurrection.
And may we reign in life in him. Amen.