The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 12: All From One, One For All

Episode Date: April 8, 2018

Our sin is like a hereditary disease that affects and infects every one of us. The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that HE is the cure for ANYONE who would believe.

Amen and amen. How we doing, church? Doing all right? Welcome, welcome to church. If you would please stand for the reading of God's word. We are back in the book of Romans. We're going to be reading, where I'm going to be reading, Romans chapter 5, verses 12 through 21.

Pay attention. It's very complicated. Ready? Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin, 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 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. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reign through that one man,

much more will those who have received 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 in life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in 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. May God add blessing to the reading and the hearing of His word. You may be seated.

You need a couple things today. First of all, you need your Bible, Romans Chapter 5, is where we're going to be. And then also you need your Roman study journal. So if you brought it back, good job. We took a week off last week for Easter to celebrate Resurrection Sunday. And maybe you're here for the first time. Maybe you were to check this out between all of our services. maybe you were one of the 18,000 people that celebrated the resurrected Jesus with us last week. Isn't that crazy? And so that's great. If you're hopping in on the Roman train halfway through, don't worry, I'll explain where we've been and where we're going. But you need one of these.

So if you don't have your very own Roman general, just raise your hand. And we've got some ushers that will hand you on if you're too embarrassed to do this. You know, it's usually the wife. I put your hand down. You can just get one on the way out. But you need this, okay? Because you see the text that we're looking at today is pretty complex. And so what we do here around 1122 is we basically just teach the Bible verse by verse.

It's called expository preaching. And what that means is that my job is to just expose you to the scriptures. And I'm telling you, this is a dense section of scripture. I mean, even for Roman standards, it's pretty complex and pretty tight. And then so my job is to expose you to the scriptures, but only the Spirit of God can expose the scriptures to you. And so that's what we're going to do. We're just going to dig in, and so just follow along with me. And so we'll pick it up in verse 12.

It says it's therefore. Now, anytime the Bible says therefore, you've got to see what the therefore is therefore. And what the therefore is therefore is the sermon from before Easter when Pastor Britt was preaching at the beginning of Romans chapter 5. And so really what he's going to, if you go back to start at about verse 8, you can pick up what the therefore is all about. And so Paul says this in Romans 5-8, but God shows his love the way I memorized it in high school. I memorized the NIV version, and it said this, but God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is very, very important. How do I know God loves me? I mean, if I look at the circumstances of my life, how in the world can I have cancer and God

love me? How could she be leaving and God love me? If the circumstances are not going the way I thought they should go and he is in charge of the whole world, then how can I know that he loves me? And Paul says, God has demonstrated, God shows us his love in this. Even when we were still in our sin, enemies of God. That means before you ever did anything good for God, before you read a Bible verse, raise your hand, sang a song, came to church two weekends in a row. For some of you, this is your first non-Easter service of your whole life. Welcome, I'm glad you're here.

I got good news. That God has demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Before we ever did anything good, this means that God is not in love with some future version of you which you get your act together. And if you want to know the proof of God's love for us, you don't look at your circumstances. They'll be all over the place.

You look at the cross. That's what he's saying. Since, therefore, we have now been justified, justified as a law. legal term. Justified means that our record would say that we are guilty and yet the judge looks at us and says not guilty. That's what justified means. It's justified never sinned before by his blood. Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled, that's an important word, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. If you got your study journal and you just flip it over, if you back up one page, we've defined reconciliation. Reconciliation just means to put back together. And so the therefore is there to remind us that God sent Jesus to reconcile us unto him, that we were enemies of God, and because Christ came on a rescue mission, then us and God, who were broken or separated, have been put back together.

You see, it goes all the way back to God's intention for all of humankind. God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, one God and three persons says, let us make mankind in our image. And so male and female, he created them. and the Bible says that he gathers together the dust of the ground and he makes Adam. Adam in Hebrew means dirt.

And he says that's what we'll call him Adam. And there is the shell of this human being but he is not yet a living creature is the way Genesis says it. And then God breathes the breath of life. The Hebrew word is ruah. Breath and spirit mean the same thing. And he breathed it into his nostrils.

The Bible wants you to know that God Almighty, the creator of everything, spoke all things into existence until he got to his prize creation and he's working this one with his hand and then he gets face to face like right in his nose and goes and then he becomes a living creature and he opens his eyes and the very first thing the very first man sees is face to face with his creator and every single one of us regardless of what you believe that's that's what you were created for that's why you got this thing in you that's never satisfied. That's why when you lay your head on the pillow at night,

even on your best day, and you think, is this it? The answer is, no, this ain't it. This ain't it. That you were created for that face-to-face relationship with the Almighty God. And then Adam sins, and that relationship is broken. It's broken. That you and I are far distant from God. And then Jesus comes to make that thing whole again. Now, I think, I think part of the reason that Paul does this in Romans 5, 8 through 11 is because he's been using all this legal jargon. He's talking about justification and propitiation and that Jesus is the payment for our sin. And if you're not careful, you can think about it like a math problem.

All right, if I just receive the gospel and we'll think about it kind of like a legal transaction, then you go, that's cool, then I don't have to go to hell anymore. But I think what he wants us to know is that the gospel is not just God's plan for salvation, but the gospel plan is motivated by God's love for us. That the root of this, the heart of this, is God demonstrates his love for us. This is not, because I think when we hear gospel plan, I think we think like strategic plan. Like, you know, your company comes up with a five-year strategic plan. God is not in heaven going, okay, here's the eternal strategic plan.

All right, Jesus, you go and then Spirit, you'll go. next and then one day we'll bring them all here. Ready break. And then they're just running out the plant. It's rooted in God's love. And so what this means is that you can't reduce the gospel to just the legal transaction of how you get your sins paid for, which means the gospel is not just practical. It is practical. It really is. Hell is hot forever's a long time. Gospel works. It is practical. But it's not just practical. The gospel is beautiful. It's beautiful. And so now that Paul has established the extent to which God loves us,

he's going to spend the rest of this chapter describing the depths of depravity that he saved us from. But y'all going to have to listen faster. We've made it through one word. We only got to Therefore. So here we go. All right. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. And so death spread to all men.

And we say, how do we know this? Because all sinned. Paul wants us to know that through Adam, every single one of us were born sinners. That means you are a sinner. That means the person next to you is a sinner. You think about the sweetest person you know, grandma, sinner. Okay? Now listen, I know it's offensive in our culture, because there's some of you, like, how dare you?

Who do you think you are to call me a sinner? Hey, look, I'm like the mailman, okay? I don't write it. I just deliver it. And the reality is, it's worse than you think. Like that, even that defensiveness in you right now that wants to fight with me and be like, uh-uh, I don't think so. That's called pride. That's the Rose Bowl or the granddaddy of all sin, okay?

I mean, that'll take you there quick. It is how we are created. But the thing is, is when we think about sin, we think about activity instead of, like, the root of it. The problem is not that you sin. The problem is that you and I are a sinner, and I know this, because I'm the worst one in the room. And a couple weeks ago at our Good Friday service, we're here for Good Friday. So around here, we have this thing called Good Frus Day, because what we want to do, we do a Good Friday service, but because Easter starts on Thursday at 1122, we have to do it on Tuesday, so that's Good Friday.

100 years from now, they'll be doing it, and churches all over. They'll be like, back at 1122, all right, that's how tradition start. But in that, we were studying the seven things. Jesus said on the cross. And Pastor Britt taught on sin. So as I was prepping this, I said, can you send me all your notes from Good Friday? He's really good at saying. I don't know what that's about. I just know he's good at it. He said he got most of this from Dr. John Piper, so they all get credit, but here's some things that he said about sin. Because again, sin came into the world. This is what we're talking about. He says, what is sin is an important question

because every human I've ever met, myself, the chief among them, think that sin is an issue or at its most severe case a struggle. Sin is not a thing that we do. Sin is not just something we do or something we have done. It's not just a mistake we made or an error in thinking or speech. There's more gravity to it than that. In other words, the problem is not that we sin. The problem is deep in here we're a sinner.

Some examples I thought about. It's not that I told a lie. That is a sin. But that's not the problem. The deeper problem is, what is wrong with me that in that moment, I bend the truth or just flat out lie because I'm more concerned about what you think about me than I am concerned with the truth. What is wrong with me that I seek your applause instead of the applause of heaven? That's the root of sin. That's the problem with sin. It's not just

that I slander or gossip, but what is wrong with me that I can intentionally mistreat somebody else or dragged their name through the mud just to get the four people in the cubicle that I work in and I don't even like those people that much. What is wrong with me that I just want to get a laugh out of them right now? The problem is not that you look at pornography, though that is a sin.

But the problem is not the picture. The problem is what is wrong with me that I would participate in an industry that enslaves people? And for my own instant gratification, treat some body's daughter in a way that I would pray to God nobody would ever treat mine. But in that moment, go, I don't care. Do what I want right now. The sin isn't racial injustice. It's not just the power race mistreating the minority.

The deeper issue is, what is wrong with me? What is wrong with you? What is wrong with us that takes pride and credit? for a thing you literally had nothing to do. You did not vote on your race. Do you remember making that decision? Uh-uh. The almighty king of kings and lord of lords decided for you,

and who in the world are you to come eyeball to eyeball with another imaged bearer of God and think you are somehow better than them? I tell you the problem. The problem is not that we sin. What's wrong with me? The problem is me. I am wrong with me.

I am a glory hound, and so are you, that wants to just try to, at the expense of everybody else, make much of ourselves. That's what it is. I want to be the center of my own universe and do whatever I can for my own glory. Sin is a state of being. It is a powerful force coated into our DNA.

It is alive, it is aggressive, it is deceptive, it is impossible to cure in and of our own efforts. and in a very practical sense, sin is a deep rejection of God's ultimate good and God's glorious rule. I know Piper wrote this part. Here's what sin is. Sin is the glory of God not honored, the holiness of God not revered, the greatness of God not admired, the power of God not praised, the power of God not praise, the truth of God not sought, the wisdom of God not esteem, the beauty of God not treasured, the goodness of God not savored, the promises of God not believed, the commandments of God not obeyed, the justice of God not sought, the justice of God not sought. respected. The wrath of God, not feared, the grace of God, not cherished, the presence of God, not prized, the person of God, not loved, and I added to this one, and the gospel of God not

believed. You see, sin is a really, really big deal. And we were born sinners. And the moment you realize that, then you're at the beginning of being ready to do what you need to do is cry out for help. Because you in and of yourself can't really. do anything about it. I haven't shared this story in a while and you look like you're about to stress out, so let me just give you a breath here. There's a family that comes to this church that they're members and they've been here a while and there's generations of them and they're the Puttnils. That's their name, the Puttnels. And they all came to Christ in the past few years and I love them, man. We're really close with their family. They can do anything. They build stuff and fix

stuff and they love to hunt and fish and I spend a bunch of time with them and they all, they all look like, I mean, they're all, they look like a tribe in Lord of the Rings, okay? They're all about this tall, every single one of them. And they're like half pit bull, half spider monkey. That's what they are, man, they are. Just, if you know them, you know what I'm talking about. You can identify them when you see them. They just kind of, they sort of look like a chest of drawers with a head on them.

That's what they look like, like a Rubik's cube with a face. That's what they, they're just kind of like that, all right? And so, and they love to hunt, and they love to duck hunt, and they duck hunt in the intercoastal right out here. And so they invited another dear friend of mine to go duck hunting with them. And I don't want to tell you his name because the story is a little bit embarrassing for him, but his initials are Lars Peterson, all right? And he's one of our elders.

And so if the Puttnels are kind of built like a little, you know, like a little water spider kind of people, and then Elder Petey, he has built the exact opposite. He's like a human carrot. That's what he looks like, okay? He's awesome, man. Most influential man in my life for the last dozen years or so. But he does. It starts big up here, and it just gets small.

It's like a railroad spike. what he's like. All right, like Big Bird, just walking around, all right? It's just a lot up here, and it just goes, poop. And so, when they go duck hunting, you got to, like, walk through the muck and the mire, you know, the marsh, the mud, the water, and the puttnels have this spiritual gift, walking on water. I think they have web feet and stuff, and so when they get there, they're like, and they just pop across, follow us. And Pete, he's like, I ain't following, I got this, man. And he is, smartest guy I know. He's like, I'm going to go this way. And so here's the thing when you're built like a railroad spike, all right, like an ice cream cone. When you

go walking out there, what begins to happen? Every step you take, you get a little deeper, a little deeper, a little deeper, a little deeper. And he gets to the place where his feet are getting stuck, and he's like, oh, this ain't going good. And the thing about the intercostal, it's tidal, right? You're walking out in the low tide. Guess what happens to high tide? You'd be under the tide. And so he's kind of getting a little panicky. And so the more he panics, the more he thinks, I got this. I can work. I got myself in. I can get myself out. The problem is, is the more he works and wiggles and jiggles, man. That thing goes deeper and deeper and deeper into the mud and the brother is stuck, stuck, stuck. To the point where he has to cry out, Putnals, save me. And so they pop on over him.

The book of Psalms says, and bring me out of the muck and the mire. Okay, that's what sin is. I don't think Paul had duck hunting in mind, but I'm just telling you that's what it is. By our own nature, nurture, and activity, we get ourselves stuck in the mud of sin. And we need somebody to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. This is what he's saying. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men. How do we know that?

Because all have sinned, verse 13. 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? Let me explain. I know it's a lot here. So what he's saying here, remember, for the last two and a half chapters,

what Paul has been preaching over and over and over is that we are justified by faith alone apart from the law. But what he wants us to know is that even before the law, even before the Ten Commandment showed up with Moses, that death still reigned because of sin, and that's why people from Adam to Moses died. Then he wants us to know that Adam is a type of the one to come. And here's what that means.

There are some commonalities between Adam and Jesus. And the main commonality is this, is that one man impacts a ton of people. Adams, one sin, infected and affected everybody. and Jesus says one act of righteousness on the cross infects and affects a whole ton of people. And what he's talking about here is in this world, there are only two teams in this world. There's team Adam and there's team Jesus. That's it.

You were either a son of Adam, born in your own sinfulness, or you were a son of God, adopted into his kingdom. That's what he's talking about. And once again, because of Adam sin, every single one of us are born sinners. And if you don't believe me, listen, have you ever met a child? You ever tried to raise one of those little cute, precious, fearfully and wonderfully made, rebellious, selfish little idolaters, have you? I mean, every single one of us, we're born sinners. We all come out of the womb like the seagulls from Nemo, just going mine, mine, mine, mine,

mine. Have you ever met a two-year-old that had patience and kindness and gentleness? No. What happens if they don't get what they want? They scream and they cry. Have you ever had your 18-month-old come to you and say, Mother and Father, you have played with me enough? Why don't you just put me in my room and spend some you time together? You've earned it. Never, ever, ever, ever, they only think about themselves. Did anybody ever have to teach them that? No, it is from the inside. You see, that is how we are born. And in this world, there are only two teams, man, again, it's team Adam or team Jesus. And you have allegiance to one or the other. And the gospel, the gospel is like this big, eternal, cosmic game of Red Rover.

Remember Red Rover? Anybody ever play Red Rover? All right, so you're millennials, let me tell you. There used to be this game. It was incredibly dangerous. I don't know how any of us are still alive. It's crazy. And I know back in the late 90s, somebody got their feelings hurt, and so you can only play

it in Sanctuary cities now but the way it works is there were two teams and you would hold hands and one team team A would look at team B and they said red rover red rover and you would you would scan the other team and you look for the wimpiest weakest like a kid with an ankle splint and an inhaler send Sherman sent Sherman right over here comes Sherman and he you know hey listen if your name Sherman I listen The percentage chance that you have an inhaler is pretty high. All right, so that's just true.

So anyway. And then here comes Sherman, right? And he'd come running. And if he could break through the handhold, the bond that you have, then he could steal one of your people and take him back over to the Emmy side. Then they're calling your Sherman on your side. But if he couldn't run through, then you kept him. You kept him.

Now, we would play in student ministry back in the day. And when you play with high school students, eventually all the Sherman's are gone and then you look over there and there's like the linebacker from the football team left and you're like all right sherman tank we call you and he comes running run you're like oh no all right so the gospel is there are two teams there's team adam team jesus and god almighty through the person and work of jesus calls to every single one of us for god so love the world that he gave his only begotten son if you can hear my voice jesus wants you on his team come on over there is the call There it is. You heard it. And he will never, ever, ever, ever, ever let you go. And when you come running at him, even with all you mess, he does never ever regrets calling you to him. This is what he's saying here. That you're either a son of Adam or a son of the most high God.

Verse 15. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For 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 Christ, abounded for me. many. So the similarity is one man Adam infects and affects a ton of people and one man Jesus, by his action, affect a ton of people. But there are differences. Here's three. Number one, we earned the trespass. But we didn't earn the free gift. It's very different. Number two, we participate in the trespass. We are active participants in the rejection of God. Whether we reject him through rebellion, I do what I want when I want, like eating the apple, or we reject him through religion. Get out of me. Get out of my face. I don't need you. I'll make my own covering with a fig leaf. You see, we participate. We're active participants in the trespass. But what's

different is that we are passive and we receive the free gift from God. The salvation is received. It's never achieved. And then the third thing that's different is the trespass infects everyone. And the free gift only applies to those who receive the cure. It is like we have a hereditary disease that we are born with sin. And Jesus is that cure. Verse 16, and the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment follows one trespass, brought condemnation. But the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

In other words, the free gift of grace is greater than any trespass you've ever committed. That that one sin by Adam led to billion. of other sins. And yet that one event at the cross, when Jesus says, it is finished, it forgives every single sin that has ever been committed to the person that would just receive that free gift. That God's grace is greater than your sin. And I'm telling you, after services, when I'm right down here, people come up to me and say, even me, I go, especially you.

And you'll say things like, well, Pastor, you don't know the things that I've done. And when you say it that way, I think, I don't even want to hear about it, okay? Sounds super shady. It might be like legally bound to tell somebody. So just when you say, yeah, but you don't know what I've done, then apparently you don't know what he's done on the cross. But the blood of Jesus is infinitely greater than anything that you could ever do. That's what he's talking about here. And then this next verse, man, you should highlight it, you should underline it, you should read it every day this week, bite your finger, bleed on it, whatever it takes to get you back to look at this.

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through one man, much more will, though, who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. So I'm going to break this down and explain it. Here's what he's saying. We're going to kind of phrase by phrase. We're going to start with this. Death reigned through that one man. See, so if I say that sin is like a hereditary disease that you inherit, the problem with that is,

when we talk about salvation, we're not talking about bad people being better. We're talking about dead people being alive. I mean, can we all admit we know many non-Christians that are much better humans than the Christians that we know? Don't point right now. This God. No. And so, so sin is not like a sickness in that we are dying. But sin is like the reality that we are dead.

And sin is like an evil dictator that reigns in our world. and this dictator is ruling this age and he is a tricky ruler. He's a tricky ruler. And he will lull us to our own death by our own comforts. Think about this. That we have an enemy that wants to keep you comfortable so that you would never, ever think that you need a savior. In fact, some of you are like, savior?

I need a savior? I got Comcast and the Masters. I am all set all afternoon. and he actually give you everything that you want so that you would miss the very thing that you need. Not only is he a tricky ruler, but he's also a tactical ruler. And he lures us by our own desires. He's been at it a long time.

The Bible tells us that he's only got three lures in his tackle box. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And he is like a bass fisherman, and you and I are like Big Billy Bass. And all day, every day, he takes that lures. lure and he throws it out in front of us and he goes how about that pride of life huh you want to be somebody you want to make a name for yourself and if you don't grab onto it he's like okay all right clips that one and then he ties on that next one the lust of the flesh and it could be sex but it's it'll be alcohol or food that means that means this desire to feel a thing he goes oh you like that

like that huh you want some of that and he's and you look at it and just like a bass looks at a lure and it's like that looks fake to me some of you do that it's not tempting you're like no I'm good And then he clips it off and he ties on the next one, the lust of the eyes, he throws that out. How about that, huh? How about spend your whole life chasing after material things that will not satisfy? You don't think, we have two hopes closets now, okay? Full of our stuff. And he uses one of these.

He is a tactical ruler, and he is a terrible ruler. He is a terrible ruler. Did you know that the enemy's mission statement is in our scriptures? Jesus says the enemy comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. And that is what he wants to do to every single one of us. And death reign through the sin of that one man. For if because of one man's trespass, death reign through that one man much more will those who receive the abundance of grace. Let's stop right there.

Talk about receive the abundance of grace. First and foremost, that when you receive something, when you receive, when you receive, a gift, that means you don't achieve. So you receive salvation, you don't achieve salvation. And you receive the abundance of grace. Grace is unmerited favor. That's a churchy way to say, you get something you don't deserve. Why?

Because of the giver. That's why. Not because of what you did. I mean, think about this. Think about some of your Christmas presents when you were growing up. I remember thinking, man, Santa's a little off this year. If he's really keeping the list, then I see me in that whole, sleeping awake and knows what I'm doing.

I don't think he knows. Because I don't deserve, and yet look what I got. I remember I was 16 years old. We're at my grandma's house. And honest to goodness, I was just stoked that we were there. Based on some stuff going on to my family, I was just happy to be there. Man, we got some stuff. I was very excited about my presence.

I had me some maybe some parachute pants and a mullet comb. I don't know. I was a child of the 80s, okay? And then I thought the presents were all done. Super stoked, no problem. go worship the Lord with some fried chicken at my grandma cooks and before we get up my dad's got one more present and he tosses it to me here go buddy and it was in a ring box and I thought sweet man a class ring and I don't know if you still do this like a champion of nothing that's what it is all right

and I thought that's what it's going to be but I open it up and it's keys to a 66 Mustang all right baby talk to me I mean it was like what are you kidding it was hidden behind my grandma's house we ran out in our underwear and went riding around it's just donut my grandma's yard. It was crazy. Let me just tell you, did I deserve that? You could probably guess, but I'll just go ahead and admit it. I am not what they would have called a responsible driver when I was 16.

My first car was a 79 mercury marquee. It was about the size of this section right here, all right? We had bench, see, we had like pews in it, right? We could go four wide, front and back, and nobody even touch each other. It's a fact. No air condition, so you'd roll the windows down, and then the little, felt top was kind of getting loose. So when you ride down the road, it go like Aladdin, you know?

And when I was in high school, don't you do this stuff, all right? When I was in high school, we used to play tag with our cars. I know. But when you got a 79 mercury marquee, guess what? You win. Dude to be stopped every day and going, boom, ha ha, got you. Gotcha. And I'd go on out of there.

So based on my driving record, do you know what I deserved? I probably deserved to be on the side of the road cleaning up garbage with the, you know, Florida Gator orange on. That's probably what I deserve. But yet what I got was this gift from my dad. Why? Because of who he is. Because of who he is. And so it says those who receive an abundance of grace. And how about, I love that word abundance. That means that God doesn't serve grace on a dish and give you just enough to satisfy. But there's an abundance of grace. Like I don't know how it works, but in heaven, he's like, all right, let's give it them abundance of grace. And then you give them some grace. He's like, come on, some more. And the angels like, that's a lot.

And he's like, come on, give me some more grace. Just keep it coming. Well, you're spilling it everywhere. He's like, yeah, yeah, the gospel's a mess, all right? And it's just an abundance of grace, an abundance of grace, an abundance of grace. Not just a little bit of grace. Not enough grace to get you through Sunday. Not enough grace to get you through the week. Not enough grace to get you through your lifetime.

But an abundance of grace, it reminds me of the way John says it in 1. 1st John 3-1. See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we would be called children of God. lavish on us. That means way too much. You're making a mess with all your grace, Lord. It reminds me of Reagan Capri, my eight-year-old. A couple years ago, man, she still does bubble bass,

but she's gotten a little better at it. But she used to lavish the bubbles all over the bathroom. You'd walk in there, you go, what happened? So my daddy, the tub can't hold all the bubbles. This world can't hold all the grace of God that he wants to just lavish upon his children. So death reign through one man. But we can receive the abundance of grace.

And then you can't miss a word in the Bible. The next word is so important is and. And he's going to say, and the free gift of righteousness. Not then. It's not that you get an abundance of grace and then you get the gift of righteousness. Not one day. And it's not just the forgiveness of our sins by grace. It's also the imputed righteousness of Christ.

Listen, most people in evangelical churches believe in a truncated view of the gospel. We believe in half the gospel. If I were to say to you, how are you going to get into heaven? Jesus forgave my sin. That's half of it. That's half of it. You see, there's a bunch of people that grow up in church, and we believe that the gospel saves us, but our works sanctify us. We think that the gospel is like a free gift, like a puppy is a free gift.

If I gave you a puppy, you'd be like, oh, thanks, free gift. But then what do you do? You have to get to work or the thing dies. And that's how we treat our faith sometimes. See, that and is important that we get the grace to forgive us of our sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ. So if you had a trillion dollars in debt and you went to the bank and you're like, I can't pay this. And the bank president had mercy on you and said, I will forgive you all of your debts. You would be so grateful.

You would be so thankful. and you would walk out of that bank and what would your condition be? You would be broke and you would have to get to work. This is what a bunch of people in church think the gospel is, so you're working your tail off.

You know that he saved you, but now you think your good works sanctify you or grow you in your relationship with the Lord. You see, the full gospel is that you go into the bank president, you're like a million bucks, there's no way. And by his mercy and grace, he says, I cancel your debt,

and here you go, here's a debit card and everything that the bank has is yours. That's what he said. That's what this is saying. For if because of one man's trespass, death reign through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness. Righteousness is not right activity.

Righteousness is right standing. Here's what this means. That when Jesus says it is finished and you put your faith in him, you believe that somehow when he died on the cross, that counted for me. That means you, you get it. get credited to your account, his perfect life. So when God Almighty sees you, he sees the righteousness of his very own son. It's illustrated in Luke chapter 15 in the story of the prodigal son. When the son comes running home and the dad goes running out to meet the son, and he's little like, we're about to

throw a party because the boy was dead, now he's alive. But first, puts a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, and then he says, bring me my robe. The boy came out of the pig style. He smells like pigs. He's dirty. And for a first century Jewish kid, man, this was dead. This was dishonorable. And yet the father, because of his great love he has for his own son, he takes his robe, his perfect spotless robe, and he wraps it around the boy. So when anybody looks at the boy, they don't see the filth of where he's been. They see the righteousness of his father.

That is what imputed righteousness is. And because of that, if you are in Christ, God delights in you. Zephaniah says that God sings loudly over you. Somebody thinks Zephaniah is a water bottleing company. It's not. It's a book in the Bible. It says God dances over his children. Why?

Because the free gift of righteousness. And with that, we reign in life. We reign in life. This means when you switch teams, you don't have to wait until you get to heaven to experience eternal life. Because eternal life is not streets of gold. Eternal life is that reconciled relationship with the father.

Do you know what you get when you get the gospel? You get Jesus. And when you get Jesus, you can live a life of abundance. This is where people get kind of wonky. Abundance and like cash and prizes, if that's your God, go for it. If that's your God.

But when you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you know that's just monopoly money. It all goes back in the box one day and we don't live here forever. Like in heaven, they got so much gold, they use it as pavement. It's not a big deal. But you know what you get?

You get an abundant. Jesus said, the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. but I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. That's John 1010. When you get to 146, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. You see that? He says, I am the life. You get an abundance of him.

And this means you get an abundance of love. Who didn't want an abundance of love? Everybody's singing on the radio does. Every movie they make. They're looking for it in the wrong places, but that's what they're looking for. How about an abundance of joy? Not happiness. Happiness is happening.

you're happy miss a put you ain't happy joy rooted in jesus because he never changes about an abundance of peace that's what you get in christ everybody i know is on a pursuit of peace you think it's in a timeshare in the bahamas it ain't that's cool got nothing wrong with going down there you just won't find peace because peace is found in the person of jesus christ that's what it means to live an abundant life an abundance of self-control. Can you imagine that? That is found in Christ. How do we know? He finishes up by saying, through the one man, Jesus. That's right. There is one way, one way. There is one name under heaven whereby we must be saved, and there is one way to be reconciled to the Father. And I know there's a lot of folks are like, how can you say Jesus is the only way? I didn't make it up. He said it.

but here's why because he is the only one that dealt with the sickness of our sin everybody else talked about some very very good things that we should do but it never deals with the core of the problem and that is the sin of our heart look man rubbing sunscreen

on top of cancer ain't going to help a lot you gotta deal with the problem and sin is the problem and Jesus came and paid the full debt for our sin and is he exclusive He's like inclusively exclusive or exclusively inclusive. I don't know which one I'm trying to say, but I know what I mean in my head. That means everybody's invited.

Everybody's invited. And that means everybody gets in the same way. There's not a caste system. You can't be out of the invitation. Everybody's invited. Everybody gets in the same way. And the way has already been paid for. That's what Christ offers.

And then he finishes up this way. He says, therefore, as one trespass, led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification for all men. And you would say, even me, I would say especially you. It's why Christ came. For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in 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. In other words, you are either on team Adam who has rejected God because you say, I got this, or your own team Jesus, because you realize I am stuck in the mud and I need help. That is it. Those are the two teams, the two sides, every single one of us. And I know it's complicated in Romans chapter 5. And so I would highly encourage you this afternoon or sometime this week to go watch a movie.

And it's an hour and a half illustration of the two sides, the side of sin and death and the reign of a king. It's a kid's movie, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was written, it was first a book by C.S. Lewis, like maybe the greatest theologian philosopher of the 20th century, at least one of my favorites. And the whole point of the book or the movie is what we're talking about here. You see, the four kids go through the wardrobe and they find themselves in Narnia. And when they walk into Narnia, it is under the rule and reign of the white witch. And it's always winter, but it's never Christmas. And they meet up with some friends.

Lucy makes friends with this guy named Tomnus. And then on her second journey back in, the white witch has captured Tomnest, the little half-goat, half-man dude. And so as they're kind of stumbling around figuring out what to do, they bump into this little family, Mr. and Miss Beaver. and they had this conversation. They're talking about like the Beaver family is kind of letting them know about the rule and the reign of this evil white witch. And then Mr. Beaver quotes a prophecy.

It's this poem about Aslan, the lion, that's going to come and make all things right. And Lucy's like a lion. Well, is he safe? And Mr. Beaver says, oh, no, who said anything about being safe? No, he's not safe. But he is good. But he is good.

And so Aslan is on the move and he's making his way to, Narnia. And meanwhile, Edmund, one of the children, one of the four siblings, Edmund, betrays his brothers and sisters because the white witch offers him a Turkish delight. Apparently it's like a twinkie or something. Sounds awful. Like when I hear Turkish, I think like not sweet but sweaty. So anyway, but the white witch offers him this Turkish delight and he sells out his relationships and his name. He sells it out for instant. gratification. And the problem is, is it's fun at first, but then it leads him to literal prison.

He's frozen. And then the brothers and sisters are like, what do we do? What do we do? We can't get him out of this trap, this prison. And then Aslan comes up on the scene. And Aslin is this lion. He represents Jesus in the movie and in the book and he shows up on the scene. And he goes to the white witch and he says, that Edmund, that one is mine. And the white witch says, come on, you know of the magic of Narnia. And you know that because he is a traitor, he belongs to me and he owes me his life. And Aslan says, well, then I will give my life. Take me and let this little boy go.

And the white witch thinks, I've won. I've won. Because if I can take down King Island, then I will rule and reign everywhere forever. And so Aslan gives himself up to the white witch and she takes him, she lets Edmund go back to his brothers and sisters, and they shave him and they shame him. And then they take a knife and they drive it through the heart of Aslan.

The king, and he dies. And when he dies, the book says there's a deeper magic that the white witch didn't know about because she wasn't there before the beginning of time. And the deeper magic is that if a righteous one, a perfect one, gives his life for the traitor, then because the wages of sin is death and the wages have been paid and the righteous one dies, then what begins to happen in Narnia is that the rule of death begins to reverse itself. And the white witch can't understand what's going on. And the place begins to thaw out.

And the trees begin to turn green and the flowers begin to bud. And then sure enough, three days later, Aslan gets up off of the stone table and it breaks in half because he's put death in his grave. And the white witch is put in a proper place. And the children are now under the rule and reign of the righteous Aslan. And they're not just rescued. They're crowned as kings and queens. And then all the rest of the book series is about what does it look like to be crowned

and to live under the rule and the reign of the righteous king. And that kid's story is Romans chapter 5. So who's ruling rain are you under? Which team are you on? Have you rejected God like Adam did? And said, forget you, God, either in rebellion or religion, or have you surrendered? And say, all right, I hear it. I hear it.

The big eternal cosmic red rover, God, I hear it. You've called my name. I'm coming running to you. And the cool thing about his game, man, he never regrets calling you and he will never, ever, ever, ever, ever let you go. Here's the point. Our sin is like a hereditary disease that affects and infects every single one of us. And the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that he is the cure for anyone, anyone who would believe.

And listen, that's not just for the first time believer. Listen, if you want to switch teams today, do it right now. Admit it, I'm a sinner. Believe when Jesus died on the cross, that counted for you. Confess it to the Lord right now. We're not going to do a formal invitation, but do it right now, and you'll change allegiances forever and ever and ever. But to the Christian, the gospel is not just to get us in.

The gospel is to keep us close with him too. And so if you would say, you know what, I know I'm under the rule and reign of Christ, but the Turkish delights of this world keep grabbing them all. to my attention and I need to repent. I need to turn my back on that stuff and act like the son of the king that I am. That's called repentance. Martin Luther, when he, when he kicked off the Protestant Reformation, he was kind of a big deal, he wrote down these 95 feces. It was basically, he goes to this church in Germany and he writes down, I got 95 problems and the Pope is one. Let's talk about this, and it kicked off the Protestant Reformation.

And the number one was this, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, repent, he intended that the entire life of believers should be that of repentance. Why? Because either you're a son of Adam or you're a son of the most high God. And we're going to close our service today by singing in Christ alone, because he is the only one that did something about the sickness of our sin. and he is the only one in whom we should place our faith, and he is the only one in whom we can find hope and a future.

So would you please stand and pray with me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, I thank you that this is love, not that we first loved you, but you first loved us, and you sent your son Jesus on a rescue mission to cure us of something that we inherited, to free us from bondage that we find ourselves in, to redeem us under yourself, God, to adopt us as your very own. God, I thank you that you don't just forgive our sins. God, we thank you that you do that,

but you don't stop there. God, then you adopt us into your family. You change our name, you change our future, you change the core of who we are. So, God, I pray. I pray for the gospel just to do what it does this day. God, would you move in men and women and students who are ready to surrender to you forever and ever? God, I pray they'd do that right wherever they are. And God, would you move in the follower of you? God, may we turn our back. May we turn our back on this world and may we turn our face to you because it is in Christ alone that we put our hope. We pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.