ROMANS: The Reign of Grace

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Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I want to invite you to take it and open up to Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

I'll start reading verse 12.

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.

I'm on page 942.

I want to talk to you this morning about the reign of grace.

The rain of grace.

Not rain like comes down from above, but rain like re- not just restraint, but but but representation.

That'll make more sense as we get into the text, but the rain of grace from Romans chapter 5, verse 12.

Romans 5:12

The Bible says this, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.

But sin is not counted where there is no law.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass.

For if many died through the one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many.

And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

For as by the one man's disobedience to many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience to many will be made righteous.

Now the law comes in to increase the trespass, but when sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What I want to do this morning is I want to teach the text, I want to illustrate the text, and then I want you to leave and live the text.

Fair enough?

Hello?

I want to teach the text, then I want to illustrate the text, and then I want you to leave and and live the text.

There's three points that the text makes to us this morning about the reign of grace.

And the first one is that the consequences of sin are devastating.

The consequences of sin are devastating.

You've got to look no further than our own city this week, where someone set down a baby and said, I don't want this anymore.

And so people are calling from all over the world to Houston and say, hey, we want to adopt that baby.

But the consequences, just a reminder that sin is in the world and it's been in the world for a long time, and the consequences keep getting worse and worse and worse, and people seem to be less bothered by it.

We don't even use the word sin that much anymore.

It's kind of a lifestyle or a choice or personal preference or for me, this what works, or whatever.

But when I say the consequences of sin are devastating, I'm talking about verse 12.

I want you to just kind of see because what Paul says in verse 12 is so consequential, so devastating that he breaks off the flow of thought.

And then verses 13 all the way through verse 17, he unpacks what he means by what he says in this one verse.

So it's necessary we understand what verse 12 says.

He says, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, that's Adam, and death through sin.

That's why in the next chapter it's going to say that the wages of sin is death.

He said in chapter 3, verse 23, that for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

He's going to say in the next chapter, by the way, the wages, the paycheck, what we get for our sin is death because of what God said to Adam and Eve in the garden.

You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you eat of this tree, you will surely die.

There's always a consequence for sin.

It doesn't matter if no one knows or no one finds out, or if it's your little secret or your partner's little secret, there's always a consequence for sin.

And the main consequence for sin is death.

It doesn't stop there.

He says in verse 12, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin.

And so death spread to all men because all sinned.

It's that last phrase that Paul says, that's why there's a dash after verse 12 in most Bibles where he kind of says, uh, let me put a parentheses in here and explain why, what I mean by what I just said.

And it's not that death came to all men.

That's true.

We all are going to die.

I don't know if you realize this.

The main uh evidence for the reality of sin and penalty of sin is that people die.

People die.

And the reason people die is because they're sinful by nature and by choice.

That's just the reality.

But I don't know if you knew this, but there's a lot of people that think they can cheat death, like famous celebrities and athletes who have died, and right now they are cryogenically frozen and they're in storage.

And people believe that they're one day going to get a cure to whatever killed them, and they're going to thaw them out and inject them with the cure, and they're going to come back to life.

Did you know that?

That there are people that you did.

Why didn't you tell me?

Because I didn't know.

And I was studying a couple weeks ago for today, and I just thought, what is what is our fascination with immortality in life?

Let me just tell you something, folks.

You can eat all the berries Dr.

Iles prescribes, you're still going to die.

You can get all the stuff you think you've got to get.

You can take the natural green coffee bean or whatever.

You can live to be 90, 100, 115, but there's going to come a day that you're going to die.

Why is that?

Because you're a sinner.

And the wages of sin is you can't cheat that.

See, our fascination with immortality and prolonging life, really what it is, is our aversion to the biblical theology of sinfulness of man.

But Paul just unpacks it right here, and he says, that's why he says, hey, in one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

And then verse 13, he begins to unpack what he means.

The phrase that he knew the Romans were going to take offense to was, because all sinned.

All sinned.

The Bible teaches that not only do we inherit a sinful nature from Adam, but that in Adam we sin.

When Adam sinned, we sinned.

You say, what do you mean?

That's the next, verse 13 and 14, he explains, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.

He's talking about the law of Moses, the Ten Commandments.

For sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.

You say, whoa, how about that?

How'd you like to have that little arrangement?

But sin is not counted where there is no law.

You say, what do you mean?

There's no law, so what are they violating?

What are they breaking?

Sin is not reckoned to them.

It's not counted to them.

You say, I don't know what you mean.

Think next week.

Next week is what?

Spring break.

Spring break.

You ever been to Galveston on spring break?

You ever been to Panama City, Florida on spring break?

The Bible says that sin is not counted where there is no law.

If people act like there's no law, it's spring break.

People act like spring break was a parentheses within which, hey, no matter what kind of an idiot I act like, this doesn't matter because it's spring break.

Well, the Bible says right here, and by the way, you need to understand this.

For hey, sin is not counted where there is no law.

In other words, that these people, their sin was not counted against them because the law hadn't been given, so they didn't know how fast they were driving.

How could you give them a ticket?

They didn't know there was a speed limit.

Look at verse 14.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

See, Paul presents this situation.

He says, Oh, their sin wasn't reckoned to them because there was no law.

However, he says, think about this.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses.

During this time when there was no law, they could say, Hey, you broke the law, you violated God's law, that's why you've died.

He says, But there was no law, their sin wasn't counted against them, and yet people died.

Why'd they die?

They died because of the sin of Adam.

Because in Adam all sinned.

It's called the Federalist Theory in salvation.

He represented humanity.

That's his name means humanity in Hebrew.

Adam is our spiritual forefather, and so when he sinned, we sinned.

And not only did we sin, but we inherited a sinful nature.

We are by nature and by choice sinful people.

And so from the get-go, we are in need of a savior.

We are needing something in need of something bigger and better and beyond our sin.

So he said, What do you mean?

The consequences of sin are devastating.

We kind of got that.

We kind of look around.

See, some of you right now are maybe thinking, well, I don't know if I believe that.

Because not only are the consequences of sin devastating, but they're subtle.

They're subtle.

Now, real smart people, this is what I mean by subtle.

Real smart people say, I don't think I agree that I could be held responsible for what one man did.

If you do not believe that you're accountable, responsible, that in Adam you sin, if you can't believe that, that the doctrine of original sin, then you have no basis upon which your salvation can happen.

You're kind of like, you lost me there, boss.

I kind of felt you look at me kind of like, uh just a bit outside.

Let me just put it right over the plate, okay?

Let me say it again.

Unless you can believe that, hey, that in Adam, that you send in Adam, that there's no basis for your salvation, what does that mean?

It means this, for me, I'll use myself as an example.

If it is right for God to save me on the basis of another man's work, then it's also right for God to punish me on the basis of another man's work.

See, if you can't be punished on the basis of what Adam did, how can you be saved on the basis of what Christ did?

So to deny the doctrine of original sin, of uh in Adam you sinned, if you deny that, then how can you apply what Christ did on the cross?

How can that be reckoned to you as righteous?

If this is not reckoned to you as sin, how can that be reckoned to you as righteousness?

You can't have it both ways.

To be included in one is to make possible the other.

And see, when I say that the the consequences of sin are devastating, but they're also subtle.

They're subtle because in our intellect we say, Well, I'm not responsible for that.

Well, Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian, he used to ask this question.

He said, Let's just say that you were not in Adam, but you were.

But people would come to him and say, No, I'm educated.

I've got this, this, this, this, and I'm an esquire.

And Edwards would smile and ask him this question.

He would say, Let's just he told his people, and I would tell you this as well.

If Adam was the only person who had ever sinned, and all of you had never sinned your entire life, Jesus would still have to die.

Because in Adam all sinned.

But have you noticed?

When I just said that, some of y'all are like, I don't even have a frame of reference for that.

Because you cannot imagine yourself not sinning, can you?

Y'all are like, This is a little heady.

Tell a funny story.

Come on, man, you're killing us.

It's spring breakup in here.

Get us there now.

Come on.

You say, What do you say?

Edwards would tell people, let's just say that if what you're saying is true, don't you imagine that somebody would be able to live a sinless life over all the eons and decades and generations of people, that somebody would say, I was not in Adam, therefore, and I've not chosen to sin.

You'd always ask people, who do you know who's never sinned?

If you know anybody in this room that's never sinned, raise your hand.

Look around.

I rest my case.

In Adam, just like the Bible says, in Adam all have sinned.

And by the way, one of the other subtle consequences of the fall, that in Adam we all sinned, we all think we all go back to the sin of Adam.

Remember when the serpent said to Adam, when he said, Hey, God told us, you know, you don't eat.

He said, Well, God didn't say, surely did God say you shouldn't eat of the tree?

He said, Well, if we eat, we're gonna die.

And the devil lied to him and said, You won't surely die.

God knows you'll be like him, knowing good and evil.

Deep in the heart of everybody in this room and everybody in this world is this desire to be, to, to, to, to have this knowledge and be able to decide what's right and what's wrong for you.

For example, Friday night, Marcy and I are having dinner with some friends, and our waitress comes over.

Uh, we're at Charasco's, and we're sitting there talking, and our waitress comes over, and I just said, Hey, by the way, during the time you're our waitress, I'm gonna ask you random questions, okay?

And she went, Oh, I love that.

We'll see when I'm done.

But anyway, we go along there, I ask her some question, and then the second question I ask her, I said, Oh, do you cohabitate with anybody?

If you're in the back, somebody down front went, oh my gosh.

I my wife taught me you don't ask a woman her weight or her age.

That's two questions I don't ask.

Everything else is fair game.

And she said, Yes, I do, my boyfriend and I.

And I said, Oh, tell me about that.

We've been gonna 10 years and blah, blah, blah.

And we were just talking back and forth.

And by the way, at no point did this woman say, I'm offended.

She said, I'm enjoying this.

And so we got to talking.

And I said, So, so you have any spiritual beliefs that govern your life?

And she's taking our order, and people asking, How's the salmon?

Is this good?

What about this?

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And she goes, Yeah, I'm a Christian.

I said, So that's kind of the guiding ethic in your life.

I said, Tell me something.

What is the most compelling thing about Christianity?

What is the one thing that if you just said to me, hey, this is the one thing, I mean, this is the thing you've got to know about this.

She goes, it gives you a warm feeling inside.

I don't know how to say it.

It's kind of like this warm glow on the inside.

I said, That's the best thing about Christianity?

Yeah, it's this warm glow on the inside.

It just gives you this warm feeling.

To which I responded, so does bourbon.

Some of you know that feeling, huh?

And she said, Well, I guess so.

You know, my boyfriend's a bartender.

I said, Oh, really?

So she tells about her boyfriend.

And I said, So, so I mean, what how do you I said, So you do you read the Bible?

Do you value it?

She goes, Oh, yeah, I read the Bible.

And I said, uh, so tell me about that.

And she said, quote, here's the subtlety of the fall.

You'll be like God, knowing good or evil.

Translation, you get to decide what fits for you.

She said, I said, Should you read the Bible?

She goes, Oh, yeah.

She goes, I think everyone should read the Bible and then interpret it for themselves.

Say, well, say, what?

And my wife is over here.

How's the salmon?

Is the salmon good?

It's okay.

Me so glazed on that.

Because she's like, I'm I'm my husband's off the reservation.

She quit trying to fix me a long time ago.

She said, Well, do no good for you to go to my wife after the service and go, I'm praying for you.

Yeah, great.

Pray for her.

She needs it.

And so I said, So you just read it.

I thought I didn't hear her right.

That is so the fall in the Garden of Eden.

Oh, you'll be like God, knowing good or evil.

God doesn't want that.

I said, So, wait a minute, time out.

So you read it for she goes, yeah, I read it and then I think everybody should read the Bible and interpret it for themselves, which I said, then you end up with six billion versions of the Bible.

If I'm interpreting it for myself and you're interpreting it for yourself, and she's interpreting it for herself, and he's interpreting it for himself, then I can't tell you, hey, that's wrong.

What you're doing's wrong.

You just say, Well, that's what it says to me.

That's why when you sat in Sunday school and the guy that didn't study and prepare read the verse and said, So, what do you guys think about that?

Who cares?

The Bible interprets itself, it doesn't need me interpreting it.

I'm just gonna teach you this is what it says.

Now you may say, you know what?

I don't like that.

Hey, guess what?

Sometimes I read things in the Bible I don't like.

And so I just thought, now, I said, now, when you get off work, do you go to where your boyfriend works and y'all throw back a few cocktails?

She goes, Yeah, it's kind of my thing.

I'm kind of tired and everything.

I said, Are you gonna think about this conversation?

She goes, Yeah, because no one talks to me this way.

I enjoy this.

I didn't pull out religious literature, I didn't say, hey, you shouldn't live with your boyfriend.

That's wrong.

I don't want to disrupt the warm, glowy feeling she had inside.

It just amazes me how many people profess to be Christians and live far removed from what the Bible teaches.

Like crazy things like avoid the very appearance of evil, possess your bodies in honor and sanctification, not like the heathen who do not know, not in passionate lust, like the heathen who don't know God.

Now, am I saying anything about this person?

Not at all.

I don't know her.

Next time I go eat there, which will be the next time someone's paying for it, because man.

Whoo! My friend said, This is our treat.

I looked at the price, I said, it better be, yes, we're gonna get sick here.

My wife's gonna have a basket of plantains and some water.

What am I saying?

The consequences of sin are devastating.

See, that truth kind of informs our evangelism.

So you engage people not with the warm, glowy feeling, but with the law of God.

This is what the irrevocable, unchangeable law, word of God.

Second thing he tells us about this reign of grace is simply this that there's a gift.

There's a gift.

I mean, I was kind of looking at at one section of the menu.

I'm like, do you have the 795 lunch thing on here?

And then our friends say, Oh, by the way, this is uh, oh, okay.

Let's look on this side of the menu for a minute.

What do you mean?

There's a gift.

Three, excuse me, five times in three verses.

This is what he says.

Look in verse 15.

He says, but the free gift is not like the trespass.

For if many died through one man's trespass, much more had the grace of God, and the free gift of the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

And the free gift is not like the result of the one man's sin.

For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

Now stop for just a minute.

If you're in Rome and you're reading this letter, are you starting to get curious about this free gift?

Are you kind of thinking, dude has said free gift three times?

What is the free gift?

He doesn't stop there.

He says, but the free gift following the many trespasses brought justification.

If because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Five times free gift, free gift, free gift, free gift, free gift.

When you read things in the Bible that are repeated, especially that many times in that short amount of space, you need to understand what he's talking about.

Because if you don't understand what he means by the free gift, because you think you do, and we assume we do, and then we kind of have to live with the consequences of getting it wrong.

You say, What do you mean?

Friday, like two days ago, I'm in Sam's up here, getting my five gallons of mayonnaise and three gallons of pickles and all this kind of stuff they sell there in bulk.

And I guess walks up to me and he says, Excuse me, sir, we're giving away a free gift over in the frozen foods in just a few minutes, but you need a ticket to win.

So I was like, Oh, oh, okay.

And so uh I'm just kind of rolling over there.

I think I gotta go over by there.

People are kind of coagulating up by this little information booth, and I go over and get some milk, and this girl walked up to me and said, Excuse me, sir, we're fixing to give away a free gift right on frozen foods, but you need a ticket to win.

I thought, do I tell everybody I got a ticket in my pocket?

Because two tickets might increase my chances of winning.

So I just took the gift.

I didn't want to hurt her feelings, and I said, Thank you very much.

Put it in my pocket, rolled up there, and all of a sudden the guy pulls back the tablecloth and it's kitchen knives.

And I was like, Are you kidding me?

This doesn't feel like a free gift to me.

But that wasn't the free gift.

I looked up there on the little table and he had a stack of cookbooks.

And I thought, that's the free gift.

And I looked at all these women, housewives, like, sheep, you need to see through this.

And I just rolled off smug and proud of myself for having seen through the deception and not giving five minutes of my life to this.

And I went over and got some flat pretzels, which I enjoy, and I got some hummus and a few other items, and I rolled back by, and everybody had a box in their hand.

And the guy, and then I heard this lady go, how sharp is it?

And she goes, I don't want to have a sharp knife, a knife this sharp, in the kitchen where my I have these little kids.

She had three little kids around her car, all holding on to the cart like good little homeschoolers.

We're on the base, you can't beat us, okay?

And the guy took a tomato, sliced it in half, put it down there.

And I was like, and he went, and this is your free gift just for listening to the presentation.

I was so mad I pulled my tickets out.

I was like, hey man, I got two tickets.

He goes, Yeah, but you left.

You didn't stay for the presentation.

But I got two tickets.

You didn't stay for the presentation.

And I started just giving everybody there the stink eye because they all had a butt.

See, I thought they were gonna get a cookbook.

They got a knife, not only a knife, but they got a knife so sharp this woman didn't have it in her home because she has little kids.

I was enraged.

I just rolled off pushing my car with my toilet paper and my pineapples up in there.

Hard to look masculine when he got two big pineapples and some toilet paper.

Just looked at the guy.

He said, We'll be doing another presentation in about an hour.

Then I got up in the line, the lady in front of me had a little box, had the knife in it.

Lady in the aisle checking out of there had a little box with a knife in it.

And the lady in front of me set her box, her knife down, her free gift down to write a check.

And this is how depraved your preacher is.

This thought went through my head.

Maybe she'll forget it.

That did.

Stand in and saying, This might be my ra see.

The longer you're a Christian, the more you can justify your selfishness.

This thought went through my head.

This might be my ram caught in the Ticket right here.

That is broken and sick and wrong.

And I thought it.

And it didn't stop there.

I thought, if she doesn't remember, and it was free, it didn't cost her anything.

I'll forget to remind her that she forgot.

She wrote the check, got her stuff, put her stuff in her purse, and she fixed it all.

She was, oh, oh, oh, I almost forgot my free gift.

She just said that to throw it in my face.

I just rolled up to the lady and I just kind of looked, she goes, Did you get a free gift?

And like, I'll punch you in the neck, lady.

You asked me that question, all right?

I got two red tickets that mean nothing because I thought I understood what the gift was, and on the basis of my faulty assumption, I didn't stay for the three-minute presentation, so law dog back there wouldn't give me a knife.

She says, Yeah, you gotta stay for the present.

Shut up.

Just ring up my groceries.

See, you think the same way about the gift of God.

You're like, free gift.

I've heard it.

Okay, I've been in church.

You don't understand it.

He says it five times.

What does he say?

He says, What about this gift?

Look at verse 15.

He says, first thing about this gift, it's capable of much more.

Verse 15, but the free gift is not like the trespass.

For if many die through one man's trespass, much more.

Circle those two words.

Much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.

One of our problems is that we only have a frame of reference for what sin does.

We don't have a frame of reference for the much moreness of the grace of God.

He says, if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus abounded for the many.

We don't understand much more.

We don't understand that on any level.

Let me illustrate what I'm talking about.

Some of you, when we're in high school, in college, remember when you were young and you didn't have a mortgage and a minivan?

Remember that?

Remember when you were like, I'm never gonna drive a minivan?

And now what'd you roll up in today, Bo Baron?

Got that pimped out minivan with 42 kids back there?

It's like you're hosting a softball tournament, they're all yours.

Yeah.

When you were young, you're like, I'm gonna live in the mountains and drive a four by four and I'm gonna make fire and crack rocks.

And your wife is like, honey, get the diaper back.

Oh, I'm getting it, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But remember when you were young and you were in high school and college and you knew better and you did it anyway?

Oh, some of y'all are so self-righteous, you forgot what good sinners you were.

Let me try this again.

Remember when you were in high school in college and you knew it was wrong and you did it anyway?

Oh, thank you.

There you are.

There you are.

Got us some real good specimens up in here now.

And sometimes what you knew was right and what was wrong was as it related to members of the opposite sex, true or false?

Uh-oh.

You're starting to get quiet on me.

You're like, what are you talking about, Willis?

Where's this going?

Here's what I'm saying.

Don't miss this, because this is some of you in this room.

You knew right, you did wrong, and then on the basis of what you did, you started relating to yourself out of what you did.

And you let what you did not only relate to yourself on the basis of what you did, you let it, you kind of impose that upon God.

You said, Well, you know, God, I've done this, this, this, and this.

And then, yeah, there was a time with the rodeo I did that.

Oh, then yeah, spring break.

Whoo! I Jaegermaster, who knew?

I don't know what I remember.

I woke up Tuesday.

I don't know, I don't know what happened there, God.

And so, because of that, God, I here's what you do: you settle for what you think you deserve.

And especially if you're a girl and a godly guy asks you out, you're like, oh, well, you don't understand.

I uh oh man, uh because you don't understand much more.

Do you feel what just happened in this room?

Some of you have imposed upon God the way you feel about yourself because you don't understand the much moreness of the gift.

You think it's a cookbook.

What moron thinks that?

Said differently, you think all you got was a book.

And he said, Read the recipes and follow the instructions.

And you're so overwhelmed with shame and guilt, you you feel, you you feel guilty just reading it.

You don't understand it sometimes, like this right here, you don't understand it.

You're like, I see, that's just what I get for being a sinner.

No, what you get for being a sinner is the much moreness of the grace of God.

Second thing he says about is it's gracious.

You say, Well, what do you mean, verse 16?

He says, and the free gift is not like the result of the one man's sin.

For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation.

In other words, one sin, the judgment for one trespass, one sin brought condemnation for everyone, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

We mean it's gracious.

That one single sin would be answered by the judgment is understandable.

That the accumulated sins and guilt of all the ages would be answered by God's gift is beyond comprehension.

It's beyond comprehension.

Third thing he says about this gift in verse 17 is he it has to be defined.

Because unless God defines the gift, we'll consume the gift upon our lust.

That's what James says.

So you ask and you receive not, because you ask so that you could consume it upon your lust.

We want the gift to be whatever we need it to be: prosperity, three more wishes, whatever.

So God's very careful in the Bible to say, here's what the gift is.

Look at verse 17.

If because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more.

See, there's those words again.

You gotta understand the much moreness of God.

If because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance.

Let me just stop right here and just say something that's on me.

I gotta get it off of me.

Some of you feel like you got a second-class marriage because you got married at the JP.

And I don't know who you are, but it doesn't matter where you got married.

At some point, you've got to start believing the truth of what God says about you.

That you're not second-class people, and he's not kind of like you just go down there and pay for the license, and you don't deserve to get married in a church.

The gift of God says you do.

So I don't know who you are, but somebody here you just think, yeah, I never really got the wedding I envisioned as a little girl.

That's that's you assuming that God feels that way about you.

God's the old man that just kind of says, Yeah, who are we getting here?

Just go down to the JP and your flip-flops and get this done.

He's not the God of the Bible.

He's the God that closes the door and chimes the hour and then makes everybody stand up and behold you coming down the aisle in a white dress.

Not a dirty dress, not a with the stains all over it and the sleeve ripped off, and you kind of got one heel and one heel's missing, and you got some old flowers you picked out of the field over here when they come up next week.

Let's do this.

So I don't know who you are, but I'm talking to you.

And let me get back to talking to the rest of these dignified sinners.

It has to be defined.

If because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

You hear him define it?

He says the free gift is righteousness.

The free gift of God is that you get to be right with God, and it wasn't your idea or your accomplishment, but you get to enjoy it nonetheless.

When y'all come up to me, and some of you do, and you think you're like getting me, like, how did your wife put up with that?

Blah, blah, blah.

I don't know.

I I I don't try to figure it out.

I just enjoy it.

How did a woman like that get a man like you?

I don't know.

Maybe she, I don't know.

Blessed.

There you go.

Took her to breakfast this morning.

What am I saying?

It's defined.

It's it's not three more wishes, it's just hey, it's it's righteousness.

You people that were sinned in Adam and condemned because of that.

So you're because of your association with him and because of your flawed nature, by nature and by choice, and yet the Bible says you you you you can receive this gift.

That's that's the fourth thing.

It has to be received.

Look at verse 18.

After he says, excuse me, uh after after he says in verse 17 that this uh this free gift, that those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness, see, those who receive, that's not everybody.

It's those people that receive by faith that go, you know what?

I don't trust in myself.

I don't trust in my good deeds versus my bad deeds.

I trust, I am all in on Jesus on the cross, in my place, and on my behalf.

That's receiving the free gift.

You say, well, what do you mean it has to be received?

Because some mistakenly read verses 18 and 19 is universalism.

They say, look at what he says.

Verse 18.

Therefore, which is the key right there, by the way.

When Paul says, therefore, what he's saying is what I'm fixing to say is based on what I just said.

What he just said is those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift.

Therefore, what is he fixing to say?

What he's fixing to say is simply that because it has to be received, this is what it means for those who've received God's gift.

Therefore, verse 18, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men.

For as by the one man's disobedience that many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience that many will be made righteous.

He's not saying, Oh, well, see there, you know, we're all condemned in Adam, we're all forgiven in Christ.

It's not universalism.

He's talking to the people that have already received it.

He's talking to believers.

Last thing I would say about this gift is it's intended to influence how we live.

Verse 17, and all the way to the end of the chapter, uses this word rain, rain, rain.

Verse 17 says, These who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness, they reign in life through the one man, Jesus.

He goes on down, and he says in verse 20, now the law came to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rain, rain, rain.

What is he talking about?

It's the Greek word basiluo, basiluo, and it means this to be king, to exercise kingly power.

And here's the part to exercise highest influence.

The Bible says that grace reigns.

Don't think of grace just as restraint.

Think of grace as representation.

Grace does restrain us.

Titus 2 said it teaches us to say no to ungodliness.

But right here in Romans 5, he says, hey, the grace of God empowers you to represent God in the gospel in a certain way.

Do you hear the difference in those things?

That means when everyone goes to work tomorrow and they're like, all right, one more week and then spring break, teachers, you can just kind of smile because you are there to represent the truth and the reality.

You are there to contend for the well-being of your school, to cause it to flourish, not just your classroom, but your entire school.

And they see in you something different, and it's the grace of God.

It's not just restraint, it's representation.

Whether you're in law enforcement or you're a lawyer or a stay-at-home mom or whatever you do, you work in a plant, you're an electrician, you're an accountant, whatever you do, this is intended to influence how we live.

How are we supposed to live?

We're supposed to reign in grace.

We're supposed to be people that people look at us and they see a representation of something that they don't have words for.

Thirdly and finally, this morning, the law is a necessary part of the gospel.

This is gonna be one of the questions for your community group tonight, but I'll just tell you anyway, y'all are gonna huddle up this afternoon later tonight in homes and have coffee and dessert and stuff.

And one of the questions you're gonna get is gonna simply be this Do you know enough about the law to make the gospel glorious?

You're gonna be like, what?

Say, what?

Who wrote these goofy questions?

What do you mean?

He says the law came in to increase the trespass.

God gave the law just to remind people how sinful they really are.

Because God just wants people to know that.

We know that.

No.

Look at the rest of verse 20.

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

Why did grace abound all the more?

So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign.

What do you mean?

It means God doesn't just want to disqualify you, He wants to involve you, He wants you to understand how depraved and how sinful you are.

Because by understanding your depravity, you have a context for understanding His grace.

Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more.

Without the law, you have no need of the gospel.

However, with the law, you establish a man's need for the grace of God, and his response to this is overwhelming.

I told you when I first got up, I'm gonna teach the text, then I'm gonna illustrate the text, and then you're gonna leave and uh you're gonna leave and live the text.

And so I want to illustrate the text, and I brought a little video I want to show you.

It's just a short little clip.

Uh and let me tell you what you're gonna see.

In Papua New Guinea, a missionary named Mark Zook began to work with the MOOC people.

And the MOOCs were these people, their whole culture was built on deception, witchcraft, and sorcery, and they lied, and they were just backstabbing, and then one village would fight against the other one, they'd deceive each other.

And he began to go to this one village.

People say all the time, why don't we just send money to foreign missions?

Why do we go?

Because we want it, we want what you're fixing to see to happen in our village in Costa Rica.

But he began to just story the gospel.

He began to tell them the law of God, starting in Genesis, go all the way through the Old Testament.

You'll hear them talking about it.

And what happens is these people would have this incredible response when they understood grace.

They understood that the law bound them over and that they were condemned.

And then he would share the gospel.

They were so moved by it, as a matter of fact, when he it took him months to get all the way up to Jesus, dying on the cross.

He left them one night with Jesus in the garden.

And he ended the story with Jesus in the garden, sweating drops of blood, and he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.

And he looked at these people.

You ever heard people say, What about the people in Africa?

He looked at these people in Papua New Guinea, these natives, as you'll see in just a minute.

And and he just said, And tomorrow we'll finish the story.

About five o'clock in the morning, they couldn't sit, they couldn't live with themselves.

They came to his hut and woke him up and said, You must finish uh telling us the story.

We want to know what Jesus does.

And so he got up and said, Here's what Jesus did for you.

And he shares the gospel.

And these people who lived in sin their whole life, all of a sudden, grace superabounded to them.

I could explain it to you, but just give your attention to the screens and see it for yourselves.

Now, what you have here is a very excited teacher.

His name is Tawa.

He's so moved by the moment that he's having a hard time getting going.

But what he's doing is going back into the Old Testament and showing how those accounts revealed what Christ came for.

He starts right back in Genesis and works his way through the Old Testament, bringing out the principle we find in Leviticus 17 11.

The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.

For it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul.

And then in Hebrews 9 22, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission or forgiveness of sins.

He's teaching on Abraham and Isaac and how a ram was offered in Isaac's place.

This really drives home the whole idea of us being sinners under judgment, deserving to be punished, and then Jesus dying, shedding his blood to pay for our sin in our place.

Okay, now some of the people begun to catch on.

They're getting to their feet to testify that they believe Jesus died in their place for their sin.

They're popping up all over.

Men, women and children.

The teachers are asking them different questions to see if they've really understood.

Mark, tell us, what are they saying?

Okay.

Today I've heard the truth.

I believe in the death and blood as the substitutionary payment for my sin.

Jesus has taken my place and my sin is forgiven.

The teacher asked him, if you were to die, what would happen to you?

And he says, I'd go to heaven.

Teacher says, Why do you say that?

And the man answers, Because I really believe the death and the blood of Christ has taken my place for my sin.

The testimonies all have a similar gist.

But depending on who it is, the teachers tailor the question to that person.

If the guy was really a self-righteous person in the past, then they'll try to find out if he's relying on anything that he has done to be saved.

This is their own idea.

Some of those children have really understood the teaching well.

They are really sharp.

Even the moat teachers were amazed.

They'd come back and say, Wow, some of these little children really know the answers.

Even when some of the questions would stump the adults, these little guys would pop up with the right answer.

All of a sudden, they run out and just start whooping.

There's no cultural equivalence to this, it's just a result of a tremendous emotional release as they realize their sins are forgiven.

The condemnation of sin, the guilt, the weight in darkness is gone.

My family and I give in on it too.

It's a bit hard to hold the camera still.

This rejoicing went on for quite a while.

And then it just seemed to hit them that all their family that has died in the past has gone into a Christeless eternity.

They started wailing.

The grieving is really genuine.

This hasn't happened in every place the teaching occurred, but it did here.

And then it gives way to singing songs and rejoicing again.

Mark, what words are they singing?

Well, the one they are singing goes like this.

Today, the true God has been gracious and merciful to us.

Today, the grace of God, which is very good, has come to us, Mo people, and I believe in him today.

He Jesus Himself is our true Lord and Master.

One of the things that I hope you noticed in the video is that none of those people in Africa that we're all so concerned about, when they ask them doctrinal questions, none of them said I have a nice warm glow inside.

The law of God magnifies the gospel of God.

And here's the thing I just want to point out, we'll be done this morning.

I appreciate your patience.

Did you notice that one of the things the narrator said was there's no cultural uh equivalent for us for what they do?

That was all filmed live.

That was not staged, none of that.

This happened when people would understand the gospel in these different villages, and they say we better take cameras because people aren't going to believe us.

And that's just what happens when people realize we're sinned abound, grace didabound all the more.

What is a cultural equivalent in 2013 to us living that way?

Because we could all jump up together and run into each other and go out in the street and jump up and down and get arrested.

That'd be good.

For about a week.

And then your boss would call and say, Where's Jimmy?

What is a culture?

How do we live in such a way so as to demonstrate where sin did abound, grace did abound all the more?

Stand to your feet, please.

We speak of blessing over you.

Hold your hands out if you would.

Your great God has broken the power of cancelled sin.

He's nailed it to the cross and triumphed over it in Jesus' name.

Therefore, sin no longer has power over you, but now grace does.

Let the grace of God restrain you and let it empower you to represent Him.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.