Romans Chapter 5:12-16

What you have to figure out is what you're going to do. If you're going to be a carrier of sin, or you're going to be a carrier of Jesus, because every relationship that you have kind of reveals your heart in that. And if you sit there and go, well, no, no, no, I don't have a problem, don't have a problem, then you're a lot like Typhoid Mary. And while people around you might be dropping like flies, you keep going, well, there's no problem, there's no problem.

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. While it may be difficult to hear, you are either infecting people with sin or infecting them with grapes. Find out which one it is today as Pastor David continues in Romans 5 with his teaching, One Life Can Change the World.

Here's David. Verse 12 of Romans chapter 5 says this, Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned. So there's this thing going around called sin, and this is how death is spread. And see, through Adam, sin entered into the world. Now, a lot of times, especially as a young Christian, you know, I thought, Adam blew it. Can't believe Adam blew it. I wish I would have been in the garden. I wouldn't have blown it. And then as I've grown in the Lord, I realized, you know what?

I wouldn't have fared any better than Adam. See, friend, we have this thing called a sin nature that's been handed to us. And if you think that you can go through life even as a believer and never sin, you know, theologically, yes, God gives you the power to be an overcomer over all sin. The reality is we still sin.

Why? We place ourselves back on the throne. You say, my decision, not yours.

I want to handle this my way, not your way. But understand, every one of us would have fallen in the garden, every one of us. And we're not just, when we talk about sin, we're not just talking about what you do wrong. We're talking about also doing everything right. In other words, you go through a day, you love everybody in the way you're supposed to love them.

You tell everybody you see about Jesus doing everything right, doing nothing wrong. That would make you sinless. Verse 13 says, for until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. The new living translation maybe adds clarity. It says, yes, people sinned even before the law was given. And there was no law to break since it had not yet been given. See, even from Adam to Moses, even though there was no law given because the law was given through Moses, still death was raining.

It was raining. Why? Because of the fall of the man. Because of the fall of Adam. It's an amazing thing though, when we begin to take on the nature of Christ. So you don't have to live under the curse, under the penalty, under the bondage, under the power of sin. That's what the gospel is all about.

You can live the new life. Let's read on. Verse 14. Nevertheless, death rained from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. So through Adam, through his sin came death and physical death brought spiritual death. Now understand too, notice it's talking about the death rained from Adam to Moses. So it's dealing with that time when the law hadn't been given and yet sin was still there. Verse 15.

But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense, many died, much more the grace of God than the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ abounded to many. So simply put friend, through Adam came sin, came death.

Through Jesus comes grace and life. You don't have to make a decision about your Adamic nature is the word we use sometimes. That's already been given to you.

You already have that. You were born the first time with that Adamic nature, but there's a decision involved in being born again. That's being born of the spirit. Remember years ago, somebody, we were in the old building, small little place, somebody dropped by the church and I was talking to them and, you know, and I was trying to minister to them and phone rang and, you know, I was the only person there. And, uh, so, you know, I said, hang on, I got to answer phone as a telemarketer, you know, selling widgets or something. I don't know what they were selling.

And, you know, and I said, well, you know, you've actually called a church and, you know, I'm kind of talking to somebody right now. Well, you know, you need these widgets. I can't remember, maybe magnetic signs or something. I can't remember what he was saying. Yeah.

Well, you really need these. And I said, no, no, I really don't. You know, we're okay.

We're fine. You know? And then the thought, why, you know, I'm trying to minister to these people and, you know, and this guy won't get off the phone. And why is this guy not getting on the phone?

And I was like, dang, I got somebody that's not getting off the phone. Hallelujah. I said, uh, you go to church anywhere. He goes, yeah.

Yeah. I said, where'd he go? He said, I go to Catholic church. I said, are you born again? He said, born again?

Huh? So you're not born again. Nope.

No. I said, what do you do with the fact that Jesus said, you must be born again. He said, he said that. I said, absolutely. He said this John chapter three, we didn't come up with that.

Jesus is the one that came up with that whole born again thing. He said that. Yeah. He said that.

Look at John. What do you do with that? Well, I don't know what I do with that, but you know how to be born again.

No. How do you be born again? So I explained how to be born again. I said, okay, that's how you're born again.

You want to pray this prayer, receive the Lord as your savior and be born again. He said, sure. And I let him in the sinner's prayer. I was, I was so jacked. I was like, yes, man.

Praise God. You know, told him where he could go to get some more information. I hung up the phone, you know, and the people I were talking to, they're like, I said, it happens all the time. And no, it's only happened that one time, but you know, next time you get a telemarketer call, take your shot, man.

What are they going to do? Get mad? So Jesus is the one that came up with the born again thing. Our first birth from Adam, our second birth through Jesus Christ through Adam came death through Jesus comes life. Romans chapter five, 15.

And again, in the new living translation, which it helps in, in some of these to go between these translations and it says, and what a difference between our sin and God's generous gift of forgiveness for this one man, Adam brought death to many through his sin, but this other man, Jesus Christ brought forgiveness to many through God's bountiful gift. There was a woman who was born in Ireland and came to the United States and, um, born and she was, uh, working in a house. I think it was in New Jersey. And she was there for about two weeks and all the residents there got sick. So then she quit working for them and she went to work for somebody else and everybody in the house got sick, developed typhoid. So then she left that house. She went to another house. There was like 16 people in that house and she was cooking and cleaning.

And guess what? 14 of the 16 people came down with typhoid. Well, somewhere along the line, somebody said, Hey, you think there's a problem here? She said, no, there's nothing wrong with me. Well, she went to care for another household and all of them got sick.

And then the law intervened and they said, you know what? You may look healthy, but you're a carrier of typhoid. You see, you can be a carrier of typhoid and look healthy, but everybody around can catch that from you. And so they, they took her apart and they said, you know what? You're you're, you can't live among people anymore because you got typhoid.

We can't, we don't know how to cure you. So you're going to live over here. And they kept her for like three years. And then somehow she cut a deal or something. She gets back out, changes her name. Now they told her, don't work with food.

Don't work with people. What she do. She goes out and gets a job in a restaurant cook. What happens? People start dropping like flies. So finally she changed her name, went to another job. People were dying. And finally they said, you know what?

You're going to have to come live apart from people for the rest of your life. Her name was typhoid Mary. And all these people got infected because Mary kept saying, there's nothing wrong with me. There's nothing wrong with me. Friend, you can sit there today and say, there's nothing wrong with you, but you're actually the carrier of a deadly disease called sin.

And it's a disease that's killed more people than typhoid, more people than cancer, more people than heart disease. And what you have to figure out is what you're going to do. If you're going to be a carrier of sin, or you're going to be a carrier of Jesus, because every relationship that you have kind of reveals your heart in that. And if you sit there and go, well, no, no, no, I don't have a problem. Don't have a problem. Then you're a lot like typhoid Mary. And while people around you might be dropping like flies, you keep going, well, there's no problem.

There's no problem. The life lesson here, you are either infecting people with sin or infecting them with grace. You are either infecting people with sin or infecting them with grace. God is a gracious God. He's always been a gracious guy. His plan is to use us carriers of Adam to become carriers of Jesus Christ, to have that second birth to be born again, that we can carry grace and mercy and joy to other people, to carry Jesus.

But that's our choice. Occasionally, you know, I talk to people and to be honest, I kind of grew up with the notion that, you know, in the Hebrew scriptures, God was, he was really mad. In the Old Testament, God was just mad. And he was just, he kind of, I don't know, I had this picture that he kind of set up on his throne, you know, and then he just kind of waiting for people to step out of line, you know? Oh, oh, stepping out of line. Step out of line.

I'm going to have the earth open up and swallow you, boy. That was the picture I had of God. As a matter of fact, later in life, that led to some serious spiritual problems in my life because when I messed up, I started running from God. And just like God chased Adam saying, where are you? God kept chasing me and I kept running. Why? Well, I was running from the big stick God.

And here's what I mean by that. I thought God wanted to beat me with a big stick for being bad. And that's why he was chasing me. Do you know why he was really chasing me? Because he missed fellowship with me. He missed me being his friend. Creator God of the universe could miss you or I if we're not fellowshiping with him.

Absolutely. Why do you think he chases us when we're out of fellowship? Why do you think he tells us stories like the one of the prodigal son where the father was looking and he saw his son a far way off is what it says. How did he see him a far way off? Because he was sitting at the window waiting and looking. Friend, when you wander off, that's God's heart towards you. He's looking, he's waiting. He's seeing when you might come home. Finally, a friend, Christian friend who I was kind of afraid of seeing came to me and was talking to him and he said, you know what?

I love you and I miss you. And tears came to my eyes as I realized that was the heart of God. Not come here, I want to beat you.

Not come here, I want to whoop up on you. No, the world had done its, it had taken its toll on me. God said, come here, I miss you and I love you.

Come home to me. And that's what God is doing today. That's what the Lord is doing through this ministry and the television and radio and all these things.

He's shouting out to people, come home, come back, walk in this freedom that I'll give you. And he's a gracious God, a gracious God in the old and the new. Look at Hebrew, I mean, Exodus chapter 34 verse six and seven, Exodus being in the old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures says this, and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. I love that merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth. This verse 15 uses that word, by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. Parasu in the Greek, abounded, abounding. What does that mean?

To abound is enough and to spare, to super abound, to be in excess of. I'll paint a picture for you. Let's say you've messed up this week. Hmm. That probably includes all of us.

I think that's probably safe to say. And then if you feel like you didn't mess up this week, just ask your spouse, they'll help you. You messed up this week and you're here and you're going, you know what?

I do. I need, I need forgiveness afresh, but something where I come to God, will God really forgive me? And, and is it, you know, more like a, Oh, here's a little drop of grace. That's it. That's all I got. I know you need more, but that's all the grace I got.

That's not the way it works. Okay. You come to God and say, God, I need, I need forgiveness. I need some grace. And God is abounding in excess of willing to pour it all over me. Lord, I need forgiveness. God's like, here's some grace. Hallelujah.

You okay? No, there's this other thing I did. Oh, here's some more grace.

Well, there was this one other thing. Oh, here's some more grace. He's got plenty. He's never going to run out. It says his mercies are new every morning. Okay. So yesterday I know that I use up all his mercies for yesterday.

Maybe, huh? But he says, no, no, no. Even if you use up yesterday's, here's a fresh batch new every morning. The moment you wake, the moment you open your eyes, God says, here's some mercy. You need some mercy. My mercies are new every morning. They're not worn out.

You didn't wear me out yesterday. You didn't use them all up. I still have fresh batch of mercy. I got fresh batch of grace. I don't know about you friend, but I need that mercy every morning. And God is so willing to give it. Now the reality is I can say, God, you know, I don't need your mercy. I don't need your grace. And I miss out. I'm the loser.

He still has it. Can you imagine says Jesus died for the sins of the world. So are there like containers up there with people's names on it for, for grace form, but because they say, no, I don't want it.

They never receive it and they miss out. Friend, does that describe you today? Are you listening and saying, I don't need grace.

Or maybe just, maybe just a couple drops. No, you need grace poured out on your friend and God loves you enough to give it to you. Thank you for listening to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. We'll return to David's teaching in just a moment. The tragedy in Benghazi, the bombings in Boston, and the current unrest in Egypt are all vivid accounts of terrorism. Each time an event like this occurs, it often causes us to respond with fear, but it doesn't have to because God knows your future and you can too. With David McGee's teaching entitled, Know Your Future, Be Immune to Terrorism, you'll come to understand the realities of radical Islam while rejoicing in God's promises for your future.

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To help support Cross the Bridge and receive your CD or DVD copy of Know Your Future, call 877-458-5508 or go online to crossthebridge.com. Now let's return to Pastor David's verse-by-verse teaching in the book of Romans. Let's look at this gift in verse 16 and it says, And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned, for the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation. But the free gift, free gift, which came from many offenses, resulted in justification.

The free gift. We've talked about justification. That's just as if I never sinned.

Jesus is here. Think of it like this. Adam was the leader of the human race, if you will. And when Adam fell and declared war on God, all of us were at war.

Okay, we live, if you're an American citizen, a president makes a decision to go to war with somebody, he makes that decision, it puts all of us at war because he's our leader. Okay, Adam was our leader in the sense, when he fell in the sinful nature, he declared war on God. All of us were at war with God at that point. It's not that you maybe were born or even woke up every day going, I'm at war with God. Maybe you did, but it doesn't matter. You were in a state of war because your natural leader, Adam, made that decision. And now you have the decision. Do you follow Adam, which comes naturally, to sin, to death?

Or do you follow Jesus to life? And notice it says free gift. Free gift.

Man, that's good. You can't buy it. You cannot buy it. It has to be given to you. And it's a gift. You know the interesting thing about gifts? Imagine at Christmas time, you get a gift and you go, oh, that's just beautiful. And you know, sometimes it's interesting. You, you ladies can just, man, you make masterpieces with ribbons and paper and stuff. Some of you guys too. I'm a little concerned, but you know, you look at this gift and go, that's awesome. But you know what?

Sometimes I'm, you know, I just, oh, that's pretty. You know, especially kids. I mean, wrapping a gift for a kid is, it's kind of a waste of time. And then when they're young, cause wow, they're just going to tear through it, man.

Why? They want the gift. In order to get the gift, they got to open it. Now I never had one of my children pop up in April, May or June and say, Hey, what's that box with the ribbon and the paper on it? Oh, that's my Christmas present. Haven't opened it yet.

I don't have to say, no, no, no, no. Uh, Benjamin, you, you need to open that gift. No, he knows a gift is meant to be opened and enjoyed. So is this gift. And yet so many people in this world, maybe some people sitting here, maybe some people listening have a gift that's unopened sitting at their feet. And it's not just a gift friend. It is the gift. It's the gift of life. It's the gift of Jesus Christ. It's the gift of his love. It's all the difference between being at war with God and being friends with God. And yet some people say, I'm not going to open that.

I don't want to do it. Who are you following? Are you following Adam?

Are you following Jesus? It's an amazing thing when you stop to consider that Adam, his life changed the world. We shouldn't be too shocked at that because there's been other lives that have changed the world and in a different fashion, but you think of, you know, Hitler or Genghis Khan or Julius Caesar, all these people in history that they really impacted history. They changed human history.

On the other side, you got people like Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, uh, William Tinsdale that they led the world in reformation. Change the world. Their lives changed the world.

But you know what happens? We go through this life and, and, and we, we forget the simple truth. Adam changed the world. Jesus changed the world.

Who are we following? If you're following Jesus, guess what? You can change the world.

If you're following Adam, world's pretty much going to stay the same. But if you're following Jesus, you can make a difference. That's the life lesson here. You can make a difference. That's the life lesson here. One life can change the world. One life can change the world.

The question is, will it be yours? See, let me give you this analogy. What does a thermometer do? A thermometer registers what's going on around it. In other words, if it's hot, it tells you it's hot.

If it's cold, it tells you it's cold. It simply registers its surrounding. A thermostat, that little thing on the wall that you adjust in your house or your apartment or whatever, it impacts its environment. It doesn't just register what's going on. It changes what's going on around it. Now, when you're growing up, that whole thermostat thing is, it's a bit of a mystery, isn't it? You're not sure how it works.

You just go over there and change numbers. It doesn't matter really what your father said. My dad was in HVHC, heating and air. When I was a young kid, he was an engineer, so smart guy.

I'll never forget, as long as I live. One night, it was cold, so I turned the heat way up. It got too hot, so I went and opened the window. I learned a lot about heating and air that night that I didn't know before.

I didn't know that little thing was hooked up straight to Duke Bower. But, friend, which are you? Are you a thermostat or are you a thermometer? See, a thermometer just registers what's going on around it. If you're in the middle of a bad situation, then you're having a bad day.

If you're in the middle of a tense situation, then you're very tense. That's what a thermometer does. God's not calling us to be thermometers. He's calling us to be thermostats, to influence what's going on around us.

And even in the midst of a lost, dying, dark, hopeless world, you can be a light that can impact the people that are around you. The question that God wants to ask every person this morning is, which will you be? Will you be a thermometer and follow Adam, or will you be a thermostat and follow Jesus?

All this would not be possible if it wasn't for the grace of God and this free gift. But God says, you know what? Because you say, well, I'd love to be a thermostat, but I can't because I've sinned and I've messed up. Oh, loved one, there's good in theirs. His mercies are new every morning. And this grace is just waiting to be poured out upon you. And you can be set free to be the thermostat. Ask God to help you.

Ask Him to forgive you. You can be set free. I'm not talking about next week, next month.

I'm talking about right now. God is available. Not only is He available, His hand is outstretched to you. You can be justified through this gift, through this one act of believing in Jesus. Or you can choose not to ask Him for this grace and walk out with your sin and your problems and stuff going on, weighing you down.

And you can be that thermometer. Or today you can say, you know what, God, please forgive me. I need a fresh batch of your mercy and your grace. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. You've been you've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If this was your first time praying that prayer with Pastor David, we would love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Also, if you've been blessed by Cross the Bridge Ministries, would you consider supporting us with a financial gift? When you call with your gift, make sure to ask them about this month's special offer entitled, Know Your Future, Be Immune to Terrorism.

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That's 877-458-5508. Or go online to crossthebridge.com. While there, take a moment to sign up for David's free email devotional or browse our large library of teachings. Again, our website is crossthebridge.com. Thank you for listening, and we hope you'll join us again next time as we continue to cross the bridge.