Grace Abounds

Romans chapter five, I would just like to say how great it is that we get more opportunities as the week goes on to worship God through reading his word and praying for his people and singing his praises. And I hope that coming to church in the morning and then in the evening and then again on Wednesday night does not discourage you. But the truth that we learn through God's word again and again is all the more great. So if we would turn our attention to Romans 5, verse 20 and 21. 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. Let's pray. Father, you have given us everything when we call you Father. Indwell us with your spirit tonight. Illuminate our hearts so that we can learn to love you greater and love your people more. Because you have given us so much. Amen. Well, about 3 a.m. last night, I realized that I had gotten this passage wrong and I realized that there needed to be a great turnaround because I was missing the point completely. I thought in this passage was a a call to attention of what you and I naturally want to do, and that is to make rules for ourselves. And I think in this passage, there is a call to not only hope, but I call to greater encouragement through the gospel of Christ. See, Paul in Romans is arguing to a people that have gotten everything wrong. The Roman era was trying to do things better by doing things more. And Paul was presenting a gospel that was telling them, believing in Christ and repenting of your sins is the answer to your life. And so as we read Romans, and I would encourage you to to read chapter five in its entirety tonight, I would encourage you to read chapter six in its entirety tonight, because there is not enough time that I have to explain the depth and the joy that comes from these texts. And I would love to tell you some commentaries that would help you out in those times and some other sermons that have helped me out in those times. But while we have tonight, I think there is an attention that needs to be grabbed, not so much on the law that Christ defeated, but on the grace that Christ gives through defeating law. Friends, we have an opportunity in the world around us to seek out sinners who need the grace of Christ, because we know that Christ conquered sin. Even though it's it's easy to say, and we kind of push it back into a VBS Bible verse, the greatest testimony of God's love is John 316. For God so loved the world that he gave that he sent his only son to die on the cross for you and me. And as we think about what we put ourselves through within the law, we should be thankful that the law was there, because if anything, the law gives illumination to our hearts and showing the more you do, the less you are. As law came in to increase our trespass, it was not God playing a gotcha on our lives. It was not God saying, Hey, I'll make another rule just so you can break it. Just so you'll want to have me more, but rather God is was giving us more laws so that he could say you are giving your attention to the wrong idol. As you and I break a law, it's not so much that we are striving after the wrong thing, it's that we are striving away from the thing, and that is Christ Jesus. I was in a, last summer I partook in a prison ministry back in Oklahoma at the church I was interning with, and I was sitting in a, not in a cell, but in a place where they would go, and I was looking at this guy who'd just gotten in. the week before because he was living in a trailer where a meth lab blew up and He came to Christ the day before because of a person that was living with him And that person was not a Christian that person was a Muslim But that person was talking about Christ in such a way that this prisoner was going. I want that I want that and this guy was looking at me, but going I want that but I have done so many things wrong and I've abused my kid. I have blown up my house. I have partaken in drugs that are ruining my soul. And there is nothing I can do. And what great encouragement do we have? In verses 20, where it says, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. What great encouragement we have to tell people as Christians living in Charlottesville through the sins that you've committed, through the law that God established and you breaking that law, grace abounded all the more. In times when we wake up and in times when we go to bed, we know that we can look back and we can go, I did this wrong and I did this wrong and I did this wrong. And it can bring us to a state of depression. But grace abounded all the more. A couple of years ago, a couple of years ago, I went with a. church back in Oklahoma to Panama City, Florida. They took their youth group to Panama City and they call it Beach Week and they spend a week on the beach and they do very intensive Bible study and very intensive preaching and very intensive discipleship. And I was on I was walking down the beach with a kid, which I know. Well, that's that's awesome. Of course, awesome things come from that. But I was watching walking down the beach with a kid. And we were talking about his life and I really didn't know anything about this guy. He was 15 years old. He was a freshman in the high school that I, too, came from. And I said, you know, let's just get real for a second. Why are you here? And he said, well, I think I'm saved. I think I'm a Christian and I'd like to believe in that. And his hands started shaking and he reminded me that his dad knows what he's about to tell me and he wants me to not tell anyone else. And he said, I want to believe that I'm saved. But I know I know that I'm a homosexual. It's a 15 year old kid. And he goes, I've never acted on it. I keep my head down where I need to keep my head down. I act certain ways as though not to bring attention. But I know that my heart is depraved. And I ask and I ask and I ask and I try to believe and I try to believe. But I know one thing. And all I have is hope in another. Fifteen year old. By God's providence that night. We sing the song. where it says the power that conquers the grave is the same power that lives in me. And it repeated over and over again, the same power that conquered the grave is the same power that lives in me. The same power that conquers the grave is the same power that lives in me. And I was on my knees praying, sitting beside this kid, that he would get it. And finally he put his hands down on his kneecaps and it just let out a gust of wind. And he said, I believe, I believe the same power that conquered the grave lives in me. Friends, we realize that the law gives head knowledge to the depravity of our heart's natural desires. Christ, in ways, was justified through the same law that unjustifies us. And by being justified by that law, he has the ability to die on the cross and be resurrected and stand before us on the judgment seat when we are facing God and say they are my friends. They are my adopted children. You crushed me so that you wouldn't crush them. Grace abounds all the more, even though the sins increased in our trespasses. God justifies the ungodly. Isn't that sweet? Charles Spurgeon said that over and over in a book called All of Grace. God justifies the unjustifiable in the ungodly. The law is for the self-righteous. Make no mistake. It is to humble their pride, but the gospel is for the lost and that is to repair your and I's despair. So if I could ask you two things tonight, I would just ask you, how are you thankful for the law? What does it protect you from if it's pornography? How does the law protect you from pornography if it's lust within your marriage? How does the law protect you from the lust within your marriage? How does it grow you in your sanctification? How does it shape you as a person within society as you sit here in Charlottesville? How does obeying God's law shape you? And then I would ask you a second question. How does that get you to heaven? How does obeying the law in those ways get you to heaven? If you are shaped a certain way in Charlottesville, does that get you to heaven? If you are obeying certain things to have a great marriage, does that get you to heaven? If you are doing things to protect you from the evils of the world, does that get you to heaven? The answer in the Bible is no, because it's through faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior is the only way to heaven. And it's not that we're trying to get across the line. It's that we're trying to get on that team. And Christ says, simply, if you believe you are on my team, what a great captain we have. And that in the deep trespasses of our sins, grace abounds all the more. The same power that conquers the grave, I pray, lives in you. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for a testimony of your love lived out that gives forever eternity to our hearts. I pray that you give us comfort as we may struggle in disobedience, that you will give us your spirit in a powerful way that we can conquer sin in the same way that you conquered the grave. And as we know that we will not be perfect, Christ, we wait patiently, but we wait fervently for your arrival. Come back for us. We are in a state of suffering. In some ways, we are in a state of exile. And we know that because you died on the cross for our sins, we have absolute certainty that you are coming for us. You conquered the grave. And You live in us. Bring us to You. Amen.