Would you turn back to Romans
fifth chapter? We're all pleased to have Lance
and Robin Heller missionaries to New Guinea with us this morning,
and he is going to be preaching for us tonight. I have entitled the message I'd
like to bring. What is. sovereign grace. A couple of years ago, Lynn,
Aubrey and I went to the Grand Canyon. We were going to be flying
into Phoenix, Arizona, and we were going to stay there for
a couple of days and we were going to be there over the weekend. And I wanted to see if there
was a grace church there that I could attend. So I Googled
in sovereign grace Phoenix. And lo and behold, Sovereign
Grace Church of Phoenix popped up. I was very excited about
that. And I was excited about going to
church I didn't know anything about, Sovereign Grace. And I got on their website, and
lo and behold, it was a charismatic church. What they meant by Sovereign
Grace and what I meant by sovereign grace were two totally different
things. The term sovereign grace is actually
becoming more popular in our day. There was an article in Time
magazine this year entitled, The New Calvinism. When something
becomes popular, you can be sure it has become corrupted and the
offense has been removed. It becomes easier to accept and
easier to receive. And what I thought about was
how in the early centuries, believers were persecuted for believing
the gospel and put to death for believing the gospel. And then
Constantine made Christianity the state religion, and everything
was fine, and it utterly corrupted the truth. Now, what does sovereign
grace mean? What does sovereign grace mean? Sovereign means supreme power,
absolute control. God is sovereign. He has all power to do whatsoever
He is pleased to do. He does as He pleases, only as
He pleases, and always as He pleases. Now listen real carefully. It is impossible to believe that
God is sovereign and to believe man has a free will. Those two
things are mutually exclusive. It is impossible to believe that
God is sovereign and that man also has a free will. Now, what
do I mean by man having a free will? Now, it's true. We do what we want to do. We're
not forced into doing what we're doing. We do what we want to
do. But the will is controlled by
the nature. Man's will is evil. It's not free to be holy. It's not free to be good. It
is evil. And man's want to is controlled
by an evil nature. And to say that man has a free
will is to say that God is not sovereign over man's will. And
He is. He is. God is sovereign. He does as He pleases. only as he pleases and always
as he pleases. Grace, what is sovereign, what
is grace? Grace is God's unmerited favor
to sinful men. Now, if there is anything that
I can do that will move God to do something for me What he does
for me is not grace. If I think that, I've entered
the realm of salvation by works. Him paying me for what I have
done. Now, to call sovereign grace,
or to call grace sovereign grace, is actually a tautology. What's
that word? Well, it's like saying all brown
cows are brown. Well, of course all brown cows
are brown. That goes without saying. To
call grace, sovereign grace, well it must be sovereign if
it's grace. If it's not sovereign, it's not grace. Now how would
the Bible define sovereign grace? Now somebody says, sovereign's
not in the Bible, well neither is Trinity. But the truth is
taught on every page. And the truth of sovereign grace
is taught on every page of the Bible. What does the Bible mean
by sovereign grace? Now, my mind has been brought
many times in the last six months or a year. I've just been thinking
about this verse of Scripture, Romans 5, 20 and 21. I believe
that this gives us the clearest and most simple illustration
of what God's sovereign grace actually is. Now, let's read
these verses again. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense 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. Now, in those two verses I just
read, I see six things that I must have some understanding of for
me to understand sovereign grace. Six things. First, I'm going
to have to have some understanding of the purpose of God's law. I'm going to have to have some
understanding of the place where sin abounds. If I don't have
some understanding of that, I'll have no appreciation of what
sovereign grace is. Thirdly, I'm going to have to
have some understanding of what the reign of grace is. Sovereign, there it is. The reign
of grace. Fourthly, I'm going to have to
have some understanding of righteousness. Fifth, I'm going to have to have
some understanding of eternal life. And last, I'm going to
have to understand that it's all by our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to have to have
some understanding of all those things. Now, I realize when we
talk about what we understand, we have an understanding. Now,
we don't have much understanding. I realize that because we're
men. And as far as the great things of the Scripture, like
any truth of the Scripture, we have some understanding, but
not a full comprehension. I realize that. So I'm not talking
about a full comprehension of anything. But I'm saying we must
have some understanding given to us by God to understand what
sovereign grace is. Now, the first thing. For me
to have some understanding of sovereign grace, I'm going to
have to have some understanding of the purpose of God's holy
law. Moreover, the law entered. Now, what does Paul mean by the
law? Well, he's referring to Exodus
chapter 20 through 23, the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. I know that's what he's referring
to, because in Romans chapter 7, he said, I've not known sin,
except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. So he's talking
about God's law that he revealed on Mount Sinai. Now, for brevity's
sake, let's talk about the Ten Commandments. Moreover, the law
entered, and he's talking about the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt
have no other god before me, or no other gods before me. And
there's a commandment against idolatry. The commandment concerning
taking his name in vain, an irreverent attitude toward him. The commandment
regarding the Sabbath. The commandment regarding honoring
your father and mother and respecting all authority. The commandment
regarding killing. The commandment regarding adultery. The commandment regarding stealing
and bearing false witness and coveting the ten Commandments. Now, the purpose of the law,
first of all, is to give us some view of the character of God. God is holy. And he has zero tolerance for
sin. You don't get three strikes. One. God is absolutely just,
and his absolute justice is seen in the Ten Commandments. Oh,
what a holy law that reflects the holy character of a holy
God. God is just, and the commandments
gives us some idea of the character of a holy God. But secondly,
the law exposes the character of men. Here's what I mean by that. I don't become a liar when I
lie. I lie because I'm a liar. I don't become a thief when I
steal. I steal because I'm already a
thief in my heart. And what the law does is it exposes
my character. See, if I, the law was not made
for a righteous man. 1 Timothy 1, 9 says that. The
law was not made for a righteous man, but for sinners, for the
disobedient, for murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers,
for the unjust, and so on. You can read that passage of
scripture in 1 Timothy 1. The law was not made for a righteous
man. You know, if you're a righteous
man, you don't need a law, do you? Not if you're righteous. The law was made for lawbreakers,
and what the law does is it exposes character. It exposes my sinful
character. But look what it says here in
verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. Now, we generally think of the
law as restraining sin. And as far as that goes in our
society, what would our society be like if we didn't have laws?
You wouldn't go out on the street, would you? You wouldn't, you
wouldn't, everything, you wouldn't have anything, you'd have people
murdering and robbing and everybody would be doing it if we didn't
have laws. So there's a sense in which I think law is a restraint. I'm
thankful for human laws in that sense, but God's law doesn't
restrain sin. God's law causes sin to abound. Now, the problem is not with
the law. The problem is with me. But God's
law causes sin to abound. It doesn't restrain sin. It makes
it overflow. Remember, Paul said the strength
of sin is the law. Now, look with me in Romans 7,
verse 7. Here's what Paul is saying. Romans
7, verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? Is the law my problem? Is the
law a bad thing? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion,
by the commandment, using the commandment as a basis of operation,
wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, evil desire. Now, if I say don't
covet, what do you do? You covet. If I say have a holy
and pure mind for at least five seconds, what happens? If I give
you that five seconds, all kinds of wicked things will take place. All the law does is stir up sin
because of our evil natures. Let's go on reading. Verse 9.
Verse 8. For without the law, sin was
dead. For I was alive without the law
once, but when the commandment came, Sin revived, sin came alive,
and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy, and
the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which
is good made deaf unto me? Is it the cause of my death?
God forbid. But sin, that it might appear
sin. working death in me by that which
is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful."
Now, if I look at God's holy law and fail to see that in my
person I've not kept one commandment one time, I have no understanding of the
law, nor do I have any understanding of my need Now, what the law
has given is to teach me that all I am is sin. The law entered that the offense
might abound and overflow. Now, secondly, to understand
sovereign grace, there must be some understanding of the place
where sin abounds and overflows. Now, when I think, or when men
think, where's a place where sin abounds, overflows? Well,
Hitler would be an example. Or some other monster from the
past. But I've missed it, if that's
what I see. The place where sin abounds, where is it? that as
sin hath abounded unto death." Where is the place where sin
abounds? Me. Me. Now, an understanding of God's
law, you'll have some understanding that you are the place where
sin abounds. This is talking about human nature. In my nature, the offense abounds,
it overflows, it's all that is there. Look in verse 21, that
as sin hath reigned unto death, sin rules, sin controls. Paul put it this way, the law
is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin, a slave to sin. The Lord said, whosoever commit
a sin is the slave of sin, the servant of sin. In Genesis 6,
verse 5, God said that he saw that the wickedness of man was
great on the earth, and that every imagination, just the stuff
going through your mind, every single one of them, of the thoughts
of his heart, was only evil continually. What this means is, I'm the place
where sin abounds. It overflows to where that's
all there is there. That's it. No spiritual ability,
totally and completely depraved, sin abounds in me. If it abounds in Hitler, yeah,
I know. But do you see where it abounds in you? To where all
you do, all you think, all you are is sin. You haven't kept
one commandment one time. All I do is sin. I cannot not sin. I can't pull myself up by the
bootstrips and say, I'm not going to sin there. I cannot not sin. And I really can't look down
my nose at anybody. I don't care who it is. I can't do it. And what I'm talking
about is all my fault. I can't shift the blame. I'm
not blaming my upbringing. I'm not blaming society. I'm
not a victim. I have no claims on God. Now, that's what you really believe
about yourself if you see that you're the place where sin abounds.
You see that all you are is sin, and if God passes you by, if
God saves everybody in this room but me, I couldn't say he's unjust
because I'm the place where sin abounds. Now, that's what you
learn when you learn something about the law. You learn that
you're the place where sin abounds. And until I have some understanding
of this, I'm not going to understand my need of sovereign grace. Now, here's the third point. To understand sovereign grace,
I'm going to have to have some understanding as to how grace
reigns. It says in our text, where sin
abounded, Grace did much more abound. Now, you find me a place where
sin abounds. Someone says, that's not me.
Well, you cut your own throat, because the only place where
sin abounds is where grace abounds. Now, where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound than as sin hath reigned unto death. Now, what is this sin reigning
unto death? How much choice do you have in
this manner of dying? I don't care what you do, what
can you do to prevent yourself from dying? What if you ate perfectly
healthy foods, were never exposed to any kind of sickness, locked
yourself up in a cell when you couldn't be around germs, if
you had a perfect environment, what could you do to prevent
death? Not a thing. You're powerless before death.
You cannot prevent it. You can't say no to death. Somebody
says, I'm never going to die. I want to bet. I want to bet.
You've got no choice. You will die. If the Lord doesn't
come back, you will die. You're going to die and you're
going to stand before God. That's the heritage of Hebrews.
And there's nothing we can do about it. Now, just as in the
same manner that sin reigns to death, grace reigns. You can't say no to it, just
like you can't say no to death. You can't say no to grace. Grace
reigns. It controls. It has absolute
sway. It's the grace of God. Now, sin
is described as a tyrannical king in its reign, the one who
controls, the one whose will is done. And here's how completely
it controls us. We can't stop it. But hear the
gospel, just as you cannot prevent the reign of sin, you cannot
prevent the reign of grace. I love this. You know, if the Lord decides to
save you, nothing you can do about it. That's our hope in
preaching. If the Lord's going to have you,
He's going to have you. And you can't stop it. It's the
reign of grace, sovereign, invincible, irresistible grace, grace that
will not take no for an answer. Now, wherever sin abounds, would
that be you? Are you the place where sin abounds?
Wherever sin abounds, grace does much more abound. And oh, how grace reigns. Grace
reigns in election. For the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of in the God. Grace reigns in election. Oh, how powerful God's grace
is. He says, you're going to be,
you're mine. And you are. Grace reigns in justification. Understand it's not justification.
It's not an offer. It's something God declares you
to be. Can you imagine a judge having the defendant come up
and say, well, I'm going to offer you justification and condemnation.
Which do you want? Well, it doesn't work that way, does it? The judge
declares someone to be justified on how grace reigns in justification. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God declares me to be justified,
not guilty. And how grace reigns in that,
the only way that can happen is by the grace of God. And it
does happen. Grace reigns in justification. Grace reigns in redemption. The fact that God sent his son
into the world to do this. Was there a reason he did this?
Was there anything in you that would merit him sending his son?
No! How grace reigns! God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Grace
reigns in the sin payment, being justified freely by His grace. Grace reigns in forgiveness.
Now, I want you to think about this thing of forgiveness. God's
forgiveness is full. It's free. It's everlasting. And it's irreversible. That's His forgiveness. That's
not at all like our forgiveness. Our forgiveness is difficult, half-hearted, narrow, with strings attached. That's our forgiveness. But His
forgiveness is full, free, bottomless, boundless, and absolute. He says their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more. Now that's forgiveness. And how grace reigns in his forgiveness. The only way he can forgive me
like that is by his grace, his complete unmerited favor. And I can't describe that as
it ought to be described. How grace reigns in calling,
Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus had no choice. He that
was dead came forth. How grace reigns in the preservation
of the sinner. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling. And how grace reigns in judgment. I tell you, when I stand before
God in judgment, I hear him say, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. I'm going to understand something
about grace at that time. Probably won't really. That's
probably the first time I really realized how free grace is when
he says to me, me, Whether thou good and faithful servant, enter
thou into the joy of thy Lord. When I hear, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect, it's God that justifies. Who
is he that can condemn? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
than risen again, who's even at the right hand. I'll know
something about grace then. When my name is called, and I'm
accepted, and I'm justified, and I'm glorified, how grace
reigns. Now, who needs sovereign grace? People where sin abounds. Now, if that would describe you,
this is what you need. Now, the next thing I need to
understand to understand something about sovereign grace is righteousness. Righteousness. Now, this thing
of grace is righteous grace. It doesn't
excuse sin. It doesn't lessen the enormity
of the guilt of sin. It doesn't sweep sin under the
cover. It's absolute just grace. It's righteous grace. If I don't
understand something about righteousness, I don't understand anything about
grace. Now, David said in Psalm 71, 16, I've made mention of
thy righteousness even thine only. And this is what the gospel
declares. It declares the righteousness
of God. Now, righteous grace, what's that? It's grace that
actually makes me righteous. The very righteousness of God. Now, my sin was placed upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. It became His. He suffered and
died under the wrath of God as the sin bearing substitute. His
righteousness is mine. And I am the very righteousness
of God. Remember, the gospel declares
the righteousness of God. So for me to have some understanding,
real understanding of grace, I'm going to have to understand
something of this thing of righteousness, being made the very righteousness
of God. And when God brings me into heaven,
it's a righteous thing. It's because I deserve it. That's
what the righteousness of Christ does. It makes us actually deserving
of heaven. Now, that's what grace does.
For me to understand something about grace, I'm going to have
to understand something about righteousness, the righteousness
of God in giving me this grace. And next, it says in our text,
verse 21 of Romans chapter 5, that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life. Sovereign grace cannot be separated
from eternal life. The life of God in the soul. And this is what God does when
He saves someone. He gives them eternal life. That's not just
talking about the duration of life. That's talking about the
life of God in the soul of a sinner. A new heart. A new creature.
The work of God. The Holy Spirit. Eternal life. As many as were ordained to eternal
life. What did they do? They believe
the gospel. That's the evidence of having
God's sovereign grace in you. You believe you have eternal
life. This is life eternal that they might know that the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. There's no understanding
of sovereign grace if it's divorced from eternal life. These are the words of eternal
life, the words of sovereign grace. You know, sovereign grace
and the gospel are the same thing. You can't separate them. If you
preach Christ, you preach sovereign grace. If you preach sovereign
grace, you preach Christ. It can't be separated. And then
notice what he says at the end. Verse 21, that as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign, their sovereign grace,
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. To understand sovereign grace,
I must have some understanding that it is by our Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the author of it. He is
the cause of it. He is the subject of it. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He is the grace of God
embodied. You see, sovereign grace isn't
just some doctrine you're trying to talk people into. It's the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the gospel is a person,
and that's why we take it personally. The gospel is a person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now turn to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. Verse 14, seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched, moved to sympathy, moved to empathy
with the of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. Now, he never sinned. When he was on the cross, he
never sinned. When he was made sin, he never
sinned. But he experienced all that sin
is. And when you are overcome with
the feeling of your infirmities, he's touched by that. And he's
felt it actually much more acutely than you have. What a high priest
we have. And let's go on reading. Verse
16. Let us, therefore, come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. I love hearing about a throne
of grace. Grace from the throne of God.
That's sovereign grace, isn't it? Grace reigning from the throne. Now, he says, let us. Who's the us? Everybody who needs
grace. That's the us. Everybody who
needs sovereign grace. Let us come boldly to this throne
of grace. How can I come boldly? Because
it's a throne of grace. Free, unmerited favor that you
can't earn and that you can't disqualify yourself for. It's
pure, free grace. And because of that, I can come
boldly to this throne of grace. Why? To obtain mercy. and find grace to help in time of need. Now, here's
the issue. Need. Need. Do you need sovereign grace? You know, I need God to let me. I need Christ to put away all
my sins. I need irresistible, invincible
grace. I need to be preserved. I need sovereign grace. I come to find grace to help
in time of need. When is the time of need? right now. Now is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation. Now, an understanding of sovereign
grace really comes from a need of sovereign grace. And you don't
need, it's just academic. It's just one position as opposed
to another. But, oh, do you need the sovereign
grace of God? I do. I need to be saved by grace,
and I need to hear the grace of God preached. I need that. Let's pray together.