Christ - Our Assurance

I've been sitting here thinking
about it since he read this scripture. Now here was a Pharisee. Our
Lord was in the home of a very religious man, a very powerful
man, a very moral man. This man had
evidently, being a Pharisee, his life must have followed the
pattern of the Apostle Paul. Wouldn't you say he was brought
up as a Jew? He probably attended the like Paul did, the leading
seminary, and he was a student of the Scriptures, he was a ruler
of the Jews, he may have been a member of the Sanhedrin, but
he was a very pious man. He was a man who knew the Scriptures,
he was a very moral man, held in great repute in the neighborhood,
and he had our Lord into his home for a meal. in order to
criticize him, in order to find fault with him, I'm sure. And
here was a woman off the street, a common, ordinary woman off
the street. They said a sinner, evidently
a great sinner. And this man was sitting there
with his friends, his religious friends, and this woman was down
at his feet kissing his feet, weeping because of her sins,
and bathing his feet with tears and drying them with the hair
of her head. And everybody, I guess, knew her. They all knew the Pharisee. They knew his position in the
community, his morality and his religion. They knew her. And
our Lord, instead of turning to the Pharisee and speaking
to him hope of forgiveness or relationship with God, he rebuked
him. He rebuked him for his inconsiderate
treatment. And then he turned to this great
sinner, this woman, and he said to her, look at that, verse 50,
he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Your faith has
saved you. Go in peace, peace with God. peace of conscience and heart,
because your faith is so. I suppose that's the most difficult
thing for any human being to lay hold of, that salvation is
not by works, it's not by morality, it's not by human merit, it's
by faith. If you'll turn to Romans 3 now,
this is what Paul, this is the conclusion he came to. After
writing in chapter 1 of the pagan Gentile and the sinfulness of
the Gentile, then in chapter 2 of the sinfulness of the Jews,
in chapter 3 verse 28, he came to this conclusion. The Apostle
Paul came to this conclusion in chapter 3 verse 28. Therefore,
we conclude that a man is justified, acquitted, accepted, before God
by faith, without the deeds of the law. Justified by faith. And then in chapter 4, using
Abraham as the example of faith and salvation by faith, Paul
declares that justification before God is by faith, never at any
He said, when was Abraham justified? When he was circumcised or before
he was circumcised? Our works, at no time did our
works, at no time do our works influence the justification of
our souls. At no time. The just shall live
by faith. We live by faith in regeneration,
we live by faith daily, and we live by faith in glory. So what
I'm saying is this. Every person in this building
who truly believes, who truly believes in Christ, who truly
believes, savingly believes, saving faith. I had a fellow
in my home this past week, a friend of mine, a preacher. And we were
talking and he said, he asked a question. He said, I'm serious
about this. He said, we use the term saving
faith. It is not a scriptural term.
You won't find what we call What we say, saving faith, you won't
find that in the Word of God, saving faith. We use the term
sovereign grace, and that's not, grace reigns in righteousness,
but sovereign grace is not a scriptural term. And he asked the question,
he said, why do you use it? Why do I use saving faith? Why
do I use sovereign grace? Well, I'll tell you why. I use
it to define the term faith and grace in a day when it has to
be defined. Everybody's using the word faith,
but they don't mean by faith what I mean by faith. I mean,
when I say faith in Christ, I mean faith in Christ, Christ alone.
I mean trusting Him, believing Him, resting in Him, and Him
alone, not Christ plus anything. The word grace is used today,
but they don't mean what I mean by grace. I mean by grace, free,
sovereign grace. God saw nothing in us that caused
him to love us, nothing in us that caused him to choose us,
and nothing in us or of us or from us or about us that caused
him to save us. And I think that can be illustrated
like this. If you sit down at the table
in nineteen Now if you would have sat down at the table back
in 1788 and asked for butter, you would have got butter. Wouldn't
you? Pass the butter. I guarantee
you, you would have got butter, but not today. You can sit down
and say pass the butter. You may get spread, oleo, margarine,
you may get something that is not even akin to butter, never
saw a cow. You said pass the sugar. If you said pass the sugar
in 1788, you'd have got sugar, wouldn't you? You may get equal,
you may get sacrament, no telling what you'll get now. And they
call it sugar. That's right. And at my house, you can say
pass the milk, but that don't mean you're going to get milk.
You may get skim milk, diet milk, 2% milk. And you can say today
faith, but that doesn't... But I'm saying, when I sit down,
pass the real butter, real sugar, and real milk. And what I'm saying
about the reason I use saving faith, I'm saying saving faith
is real faith. It's Christ alone and Christ
only. And I say anyone here that really
savingly believes, loves, trusts, receives the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we can say with Peter, here our Lord had preached to that
thousands, those thousands of people, and he offended them. He offended them with his sovereignty.
He offended them talking about them being sinners. He offended
them talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
He offended them talking about, will you see the Son of Man ascend
up where he was before? And they began to leave. And he was left with twelve disciples. And he turned to them and he
said, will you also go away? Will you also go away? And Peter
replied. Lord, to whom shall we go? Now
that's saving faith. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure. I believe and I'm sure that he's
the Christ, the Son of the living God. I believe that. And that
faith saves. All right, now Romans 5, and
this is what I want to come to, Romans 5. Therefore, verse 1,
therefore, since we are saved by faith, since we are acquitted,
therefore being justified, and justified means acquitted, it
means pardoned, it means forgiven, it means declared righteous.
When our Lord said to that woman, your faith has saved you, that woman was as holy as if
she had never sinned, yea, as Spurgeon said, Even more so. Even more so. Because being justified
by Christ and redeemed by Christ and forgiven by Christ, you have
a better righteousness than if you had your own. If you had
a perfect righteousness from a man, it would be subject to
fall, as Adam was. But if you have the perfect righteousness
of Christ, it is not subject to fall. It cannot. being acquitted,
being justified, being forgiven, being declared totally righteous,
we have peace with God. We have it, not we're going to
have it, we have peace with God now, the war is over. The war
is over, the curse is removed, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ, not to them who are in the church,
not to them who are in religion, not to them who are in theology,
there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ. And then what's
that? Why? Because he took the condemnation. That's why there's no condemnation.
Why is there no curse? He was made a curse. That's why
it is. The war is over, the curse is
removed, God's reconciled. And all because of Christ. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace. Peace with God. And it's through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Martin Luther said this, although
I am still a sinner, yet I do not despair. For Christ, who
is my Redeemer and my Righteousness, liveth. Christ liveth. He died
for me and He lives for me. And in Him I have no sin. In Him I have no fear. In Him I have no condemnation. In Him I have no fear of future
condemnation, for there is no condemnation to them who are
in Christ. Do you believe that? I am indeed
a sinner as touching this life and will remain one until God
takes me home, but I have the righteousness of God which is
above this life, who is Christ my Lord." Do you see that? Therefore,
being justified, not by our works, but by faith, we have peace with
God. The war is over. We're acquitted. We're pardoned, we're righteous,
and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now watch
verse 2. And by him, by whom, also we
have access by faith, by faith into this grace wherein we stand. What's that saying? It's saying
this, through Christ, through faith in Christ, we have an entrance. Christ said, I'm the door. I
am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved, for he is the only door." So by faith, through
Christ, we have an entrance, we have an access into this state
of grace, into this state of favor. You've found favor with
God. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. We have an influence, we have
access into this state of favor through Jesus Christ, and this
is where we now stand. In this state of grace, in this
state of favor, our standing is in Christ, and listen, and
we rejoice. What do we rejoice in? We rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. We rejoice right now. Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Bestowed
upon us. God bestowed his love upon us. That we should be called the
sons of God. Beloved, now are we sons of God. Let's rejoice right now. Right
now. Now watch what he says here in
verse 3. This will help you if you listen.
And not only so, you say, Preacher, I can sure rejoice in that. I
can too. That's the only thing that I
can really rejoice in as far as this thing of a relationship
with God only in Christ, with justified by faith, acquitted,
no curse, no judgment. I rejoice in that. But not only
that, not only do I rejoice in that standing, that entrance
into the grace of God, But I glory in my troubles too. I glory in
my tribulations too. I'm full of joy, not only in
Christ and his mercies, but I even rejoice in these troubles because
these troubles shut me up to Christ. These trials shut me up to Christ. These troubles put me in such
a state that I have to look to Christ, therefore these troubles
are good for me. If I didn't have these troubles
and temptations and tribulations, then I might put some hope in
my flesh, for many people do. But my trials and tribulations
and my troubles take all the hope I might have in the flesh
away, and I am crowded to Christ. Do you know what will crowd you
to Christ? Trouble. Do you know what will crowd you
to Christ and shut you up to Christ when you find out that
you've got no other hope but Christ? Do you know what will
strip you and cause you to cry out to Him for a robe, for a
covering? It's when you see that you have
no righteousness of your own. That's what he's talking about.
I glory in my tribulation. Now watch this. Knowing that
my tribulations and my trouble produce patience. Trials do not
produce faith, they produce patience. They strengthen faith. Turn to
Psalm 119. I want you to see this and mark
it. Psalm 119. David said this, in Psalm 119,
verse 71, talking about his afflictions and his troubles and trials and
sorrows. In Psalm 119, verse 71, he said,
it's good for me that I've been afflicted. It's good for me that
I might learn thy statutes. I tell you, when I am troubled,
when I am tempted, when my flesh begins to cause me so much difficulty,
that shuts me up to Christ. That shows me that I have nothing
to present me to God or recommend me to God Then I'll have to turn
to him whom God gave as my substitute and sacrifice. So our glory in
these troubles, our glory in these troubles produces a patience.
It produces a waiting on God. And then watch this, verse 4,
and patience develops maturity of character. We grow up. We
grow up. We cease to play with the toys
and we grow up. And this maturity experience produces hope, brings a strong
hope in God's mercy. Brother Barnard had a friend
in seminary back in Texas years ago. His name was W.A. Foster and he and Barnard were
good friends. W.A. Foster had an unusual background. He never finished high school.
He quit school as a teenager and went to work on the ranch
with his father. And when he got about 36 or 37,
the Lord saved him. And so he took a correspondence
course and got his high school diploma. He felt like God was
calling him to preach. And he got a high school diploma.
He worked hard, got a high school diploma, and then And then he
quit his job, and he and his wife went off to college. They
went to Hardin Simmons University, where Barnard went. And his wife
worked, and he worked, and he went to school, and he got a
college degree. And then he wanted to go to seminary.
He wanted to be the best trained preacher that he could possibly
be. And Ralph said he started at
the seminary, and that's when Ralph got to know him real well.
And he was then in his early 40s, 41, 42, 43, somewhere in
there. And one day he started having chest pains. And so he
went to the doctor. And the doctor examined him,
and the doctor told him that he had a severe, severe heart
problem. This was long 1920s. Had a severe heart problem. And
there was really nothing could be done. He said, in fact, I
don't believe you have too long to live." Now he said, you get
a second opinion if you'd like to. But he said, I'm pretty sure
this is accurate diagnosis. Well, Foster went to another
doctor and they examined him and told him the same thing.
And he just got down in the valley, quit school, got depressed. All these years he'd finished
correspondence course, finished high school, gone to the university
and now he'd gone to seminary, right on the verge of graduating
and becoming a pastor, and now he's going to die. And Roth told
me, said he just struggled and finally, finally Roth, he quit
school, finally Roth saw him later, but he was bright and
cheerful again, and happy. And Roth asked him, said, what's
happened? He said, well, I'll tell you.
He said, I got the right outlook, I got the right perspective of
things. He said one night, he said I
got up in the middle of the night and he said I walked out the
back door, the moon was shining, the stars were shining and he
said I walked down the hill from the house and my heart was so
heavy and I was so blue and I was crying and troubled and depressed
and finding fault with God. He said I walked down, there's
a little stream that goes through our property And he said, I stood
there by that little stream and I looked up into heaven. And
he said, I got to thinking about the promises of God in Christ. And he said, they just flooded
my soul. I saw the vanity of life and
all these things. And he said, finally I looked
at one of those little old stars and he just twinkled, twinkled,
twinkled up there in the sky. And I said to him, little old
star, little old star, you keep on twinkling. But I believe this,
one day, long after you cease to twinkle, I'm going to shine
as the stars in the kingdom of God, because my hope is in Christ."
And he said, then I looked down at that little old stream, and
he said it was just rippling over the rocks, rippling over
the rocks. And I stood there and looked
at it, and I said, alright little old stream, you just keep flowing.
You keep flowing down into the creek, and the creek into the
river, and the river into the ocean, and the water back up
to heaven, and falling down is rain, and back in you little
old stream, but long after you cease to ripple and roll, I'm
going to be standing by the river of the water of life. in the
kingdom of my Lord." And he said, that's my hope. Now if you can
get a hold of that, you can get a hold of that, that's where
it is. That's where it is. That's the hope. You see, these
troubles are what we call troubles and they're not troubles. If
we realize from whom they come and why they're then we won't
look at them so much as troubles, we'll even learn the glory in
them. Anything, anything that comes my way, that shuts me up
to Christ is good for me. That's what I'm saying. It doesn't
matter what it is, it doesn't matter if it's the death of a
son, the death of a daughter, the death of a wife, the death
of a husband, or my own death, if it'll shut me up to Christ,
it's good. Is that not right? And that's
what he's saying here. He's saying, I'm justified, I'm
acquitted, I'm cleansed. The war is over. I have peace
with God by faith. Not by my preaching, my works,
my decisions, my religion. By faith in Christ alone. And
I joy in that. I joy in that hope. I rejoice
in that hope. I have peace with God and I have
access into this grace wherein I stand by faith. That's the
only way I could come in. And you too. And I rejoice in
that. But I tell you this, I rejoice
in my troubles, because my troubles shut me up to Christ. I rejoice
in my tribulations. I know that these tribulations
and troubles are from God, and they're for my good, if they
shut me up to Christ. And I tell you this, as far as
goes for all of us, If Almighty God puts us flat on our back
tonight and He causes us to look up to Him, then it will be worthwhile
to be flat on your back. Is that not right? And we can
rejoice in it. Rejoice in it. All right, verse
5. And this kind of hope, verse
5, this kind of hope will never be put to shame. I tell you,
we'll be ashamed of our works when we stand in God's presence.
We'll be ashamed, but we won't be ashamed of that faith, God-given
faith. It'll never be put to shame,
and I'll tell you why. Because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. This
love of God is given to us. Now, friends, I don't want to
misunderstand or misplace or prostitute the love of God. God's
love is in Christ. Now, I want to declare that so
the whole world will know it and hear it, at least those that
hear me. God's love is in Christ. God's
love is a holy love. And outside of Jesus Christ,
God loves nobody. Is that too strong? But I'm telling
you the truth. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts through Christ Jesus. That's where God's love
is, it's in Christ. He that believeth on the Son
hath light, the light of love, and the love of light. But he
that believeth not on the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him. Paul said nothing can separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ. And when you have
God loving men out of Christ, God loves unholiness. When you
have God loving men out of Christ, you have God loving sin. You
say, well, he loves the sinner and hates his sin. They're one
and the same. Without the sinner, there is
no sin. You can't separate a sinner and
his sins. He is sin. You see what I'm saying? And God's love is in Christ.
God's love is in Christ, and this is the hope that we have.
Hope maketh not ashamed, because this peculiar, particular, special,
free, infinite, everlasting, unmerited love of God is literally
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And here's the
proof of it. Look at verse 6. Here's the proof of our when
we were yet without strength. Christ died for the ungodly. I read this hymn the other day.
I thought it would fit in right here. I think it's quite good.
When we lay in sin polluted, wretched and undone we were,
all we did and said was suited only to produce despair. Ours
appeared a hopeless case, and it was. except for God's grace. As we lay exposed and friendless,
needing what no man could ever give, then the Lord, whose praise
is endless, passed by and made us live. It was a time of love,
he said. This was love in time of need,
and this was grace. Yes, it was grace beyond all
measure when he bid such sinners live. He satisfied his just displeasure
and determined in himself to forgive. Yes, he chose a helpless
case with a will to show his grace. You want proof and evidence
of his love? When we were without strength,
without merit, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Now watch
this. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure
for a good man some would even dare to die. Preacher, what does
that mean? There are two types of men mentioned here. A righteous
man and a good man. Well, here's what it means. The
righteous man is the pious, strict, unbending, legalistic religionist. And Paul said a fellow would
scarcely die for a fellow like that. A man wouldn't give his
life for a fellow like that, would he? Legalistic, unbending,
pious, strict, harsh like the Pharisee. I'm not like this publican. Thank God I'm not like other
people. And then the other man is a good man. He said, some
might die for this kind of fellow, a good man, a benevolent man,
a kind man, a considerate man, a gentle man, a warm, friendly
man. Somebody might die for him. But
now wait a minute, verse 8, but God, and here's real love. And Paul's demonstrating his
love, Bob. He's saying, well, not many folks
love enough to die for Not many people, some might, some might
love enough to die for a good man, but God Almighty, He commanded
His love toward us. Toward whom? Toward those for
whom He died. Toward us. Toward whom? Toward
His elect. Toward us. Toward whom? Toward
His sheep. I love my sheep, he said. He
commended. He had such love for us, such
love for us, that while we were yet not righteous, not good,
not commendable, see, sir, but sinners. What kind of sinners? Listen to this psalm. This is
hard. Loved by God when a rich. defiled with sin, a slave to
every lust of sin, at war with heaven, in league with hell,
living only to rebel." Is that us? Ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly.
He says when we were sinners He died for us, when we were
ungodly and we were enemies, and God commended His love at
that time for us. Now watch this. He saw me ruined
in the fall, yet he loved me, notwithstanding all. I didn't
love him. Here is love, not that we love
God. We don't love God now like we
ought to love God. He saw me ruined in the fall,
yet he loved me, notwithstanding all. He saved me from my lost
estate, his loving kindness. Oh, how great. Even today, often,
I feel my sinful heart prone from my Savior to depart. Do you? But, though I have him often
forgot, his love for me changes not. And that's where it is now. It's not in you, it's not of
you, it's not by you. It's His love. And this is what
I'm saying. And this is our hope. Just like that, we're in the
same shape here. You sit up there with that Pharisee
if you want to now. You go right ahead. There are
plenty of chairs up there. But He had nothing for them.
He turned to a woman who was a sinner. She was. She knew it. He knew it. They
knew it. All knew it. But she was a repentant
sinner. She was a believing sinner. She
was a broken sinner. She was a sinner who found herself
at the feet of Christ. And she stayed there because
he said she'd been kissing my feet ever since I came in here. Do you notice that while you're
reading it? Cease not to kiss my feet. Have you ceased to kiss his feet? That's a pretty good question,
isn't it? Have you ceased to remain where he found you? And
where you found him? She ceased not to kiss my feet.
And he told her she was saved and forgiven. Now then, I'm going
to show you something here and I'll quit. Somebody said this
morning I didn't preach long enough. Okay? Brace yourself. All right. Romans 5, I want you
to see two words that occur five times. This was such a blessing
to me. And what I'm working on is assurance.
There's no assurance for righteous people. There's assurance for
sinners. There's no assurance for those who have achieved and
arrived and apprehended. There's assurance for those who
cease not to kiss his feet. There's assurance for sinners
because of the love of God, the mercy of God. In verse 9, underscore
two words, much more. Now this will be a blessing to
you if you hear it. See those two words, much more. Now verse
10, the fourth line, much more. Alright, verse 15, the fourth
line, much more. Now verse 17, in the second and
third line, much more. See those two words? Now the
fifth time it's used in verse 20. The last line, verse 20,
the fourth line. Much more. Paul just keeps using
that. Now let's see why and see if
it'll help us. Verse 9. Now I've just told you
God loved us when we were unclean. Now verse 9. Much more then. being now justified by his blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through him." In other words,
this is what he's saying. Since I'm justified, and since
I'm acquitted, and since I'm made righteous before God in
Christ, and I'm brought into a right relationship with God
by Christ, he loved me when I was ungodly and a sinner and an enemy
and died for me and justified me. then it's much more certain
that I'll be delivered from any wrath to come through him." You
know what he's saying? Since God has saved me, Christ
died for me, verse 8, then much more, it's much more certain
that Christ having died for me and justified me and saved me
by his blood, that I'll be saved from any future wrath through
Christ. You know what he's saying? Alright,
verse 10. For if when we were enemies,
now think, what were you when God chose you? You were an enemy. What were you when God sent Christ
into the world to die for you? You were an enemy. What were
you when God found you there by the roadside and called you? You were an enemy, weren't you?
Alright, look at verse 10. If when we were enemies we were
reckoned with the side of God by the death of his Son, Much
more, it is much more certain that now being reconciled by
the death of His Son, we'll be saved from any wrath through
Him, by His life. Isn't that clear? Oh, I tell
you, I think of it. Where were you when God found
you? Where were you when God chose you? Where were you when
Christ died for you? Where were you when the Spirit
called you an enemy? What are you now? You're a servant!
Well, bless your heart, if He saved you and loved you and called
you when you were an enemy, Think how He loves you and will deliver
you now that you are His son. Huh? Much more. Much more. You say, oh, I fail God. He knows it. He remembers our
frame. He knows what I'm made of. That's
where He found me. He found me in the pit, washed
the slime off of me. Alright, verse 15. But not as
the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense
of one, Adam, many be dead, much more by the grace of God. And
the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded
to many. Preacher, explain that. All right,
listen. It is true that Adam, in a sense, is a type of Christ.
We have the first Adam and the second Adam. He was a federal
head, Christ is a federal head. He was a representative, Christ
is a representative. He represented a people, Christ
represents a people. In Adam we die, in Christ we
are made alive. The first Adam is of the earth
earthy, the second Adam or man is the Lord from heaven. We have
borne the image of the earthy, we shall bear the image of the
heavenly. By one man sin entered this world, and death by sin,
and by his sin and disobedience many were made sinners. Adam
didn't put us on trial, we were made sinners. Adam's fall didn't
put us on probation, we were made sinners. Even so in Christ
shall many be not given an opportunity or put on probation or put on
trial, made righteous. You see that? In Adam I was made
a sinner. When I came from Adam, I came
from his loin, the center. Adam's fall didn't give me the
weakness. Now, I have bad hearing, and
I believe that's from my birth in my family. The weakness is
there in my family. My father was hard of hearing,
my brother's hard of hearing, my sister's hard of hearing,
and I'm hard of hearing. It's a weakness. I was born with that weakness.
But the guns in the Navy, the doctor told me, hit that weakness
and made me almost dead. I was born with a weakness. But
in Adam, I wasn't born with a weakness. I was born already dead. See
what I'm talking about? I wasn't made a possible sinner. I was made a sinner. Alright,
now watch it. In Christ, I'm not made a possible
candidate for salvation if I do certain things. I'm made righteous.
You see that? Scripture says may. But God,
He says here in verse 15, God's gift of grace is not even to
be compared with Adam's fall. It's so much more, it's so much
more wonderful. It's so, the glorious restoration
in Christ is not even fit to be compared with Adam's fall.
It's so far above it. So far above it. And we're talking about the sin
of man and his fall. And we say, in Adam we died,
in Christ we're made alive. That's not even worthy to be
said in the same breath, but we say it, we have to. In Adam
we fell, but oh, oh, oh, in Christ we're made alive. Now watch verse
17. Verse 17, listen to this. Do
you want assurance of the certainty of eternal life? Watch this.
For if by one man's offense, death reign by one." Do you see
death reigning by Adam's fall? I tell you, by one man's offense,
by Adam's sin, death reigns. We see it now this time of year,
especially in the falls coming. The trees are dying. The flowers
are dying. Vegetables are dying. Death reigns
on this earth. Did you know that death reigns?
Sure you know it. Animals die. Somebody keep pets for 10, 15
years and then they die? People die? You see the reign
of Adam fell and death reigns. There's nothing living today,
nothing, that was living 200 years ago. Nothing. It's all
dead. And I look out over this congregation
here, this preacher stands here, and in 100 years from now there
won't be anything between these walls living. Dead. That's pretty thorough, isn't
it? That's pretty thorough. You convinced of it? Alright,
verse 17. If by one man's offense death
reign, much more. Much more. They which receive
the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by Jesus Christ. Isn't that beautiful? Much more. Boy, I tell you, it's much more
certain. Can I put these in simple words?
It's certain all of you are going to die. I'm going to die and
you are. That's dead certain, isn't it? Because of our relationship
with Adam. Is that certain? Everybody believe
that? Well, do you believe this? It's much more certain we'll
all live if we're related to Christ. Come on now. No, we can't handle that,
can we? Our faith is so Gimpy. We just know everything is going
to die. Why? It's affiliated with Adam. And I don't care how much you
work and labor and save. You say, well, I'm going to eat
the best food, sleep good every night, not drink coffee, tea,
milk, smoke, all these things. I'm going to do all these things.
No, you're not either. No, you're going to die. Why? Because you're an Adam. But I
tell you, I'm just as certain that I'm going to live. And not because I'm going to
go to church every Sunday. Well, I'm going to come to church every Sunday from
now on, preacher. If it's based on that, it won't do you any
good. It's not going to make you live. Well, I'll join the
church and be baptized. It won't make you live. Well,
I'll preach. It won't make you live. I'm going
to live because Christ is my life, and that's the only reason. Is that too hard? That's where
it is. One man's offense, death reigns.
Much more. Those people that receive God's
free grace and the gift of His righteousness, they're going
to reign in life. Much more. That's certain. Alright,
the last one. I'll quit. Verse 20. Or verse
19, said, by one man's disobedience many were made, made sinners,
just flat made sinners. Sinner for this born, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. And moreover,
the law came in. Why the law can't come in? It
came in to make apparent the evil that's in us, and of us,
and about us. It came in. The law came in. that the offense might abound.
The law takes away all our excuses. The law takes away all of our
excuses and reveals to us what we really are. God's law shuts
our mouths, strips us, lays us bare before the piercing light
of God's holiness. But I'll tell you this, where
that offense, that law came in and that offense It became so
apparent, and the older you get, the more of yourself you'll see.
The law entered that the offense might become apparent, that the
sinfulness and corruption might become apparent. It overflowed.
It abounded. Abound means to overflow. It
just overflowed. It's floods. It's like, you know,
here in eastern Kentucky, we see a lot of floods and the water
just spread out all over everything. Everywhere you drive is water,
dirty old water. It just overflowed. I tell you,
religion keeps sin in nice, neat little banks, flowing. But I tell you, when the law
of God comes in and it's true spirituality, sin just overflows. But I tell you this, where sin
did overflow, God's forgiving, pardoning, redeeming grace did
much more overflow. God's blood and righteousness
covers it all, doesn't it? And puts it away. Much, much
more. Much more. All right. Much more. Much more. Much more. Look that
over again. Read it again.

Christ - Our Assurance

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