Romans Chapter 5:15-21

God has an infinite amount of grace and mercy available to each of us. Now, some of you may go, well, you pastor, you can't tell people that. They'll just go out and start sinning because they'll think, well, they can be forgiven.

Chapter six opens up with that. You know, what shall we say? Should we continue and send the grace more back?

We'll get into that. But right now we're looking at grace is available. Grace is abounding. Grace is not like borrowing money from a relative or lending money to a relative. Grace is available in infinite capacity.

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. If we tallied up all our sins, the outcome would surprise us. The good news is that God has an infinite amount of grace and mercy available. David talks about this more as he continues in Romans five from his teaching, grace and mercy.

Here's David. So we're looking at Romans chapter five. We're going to pick it up at Romans chapter five verse 15.

It says, but the free gift is not like the offense. For by the one man's offense, many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ abounded to many. 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, which came from many offenses resulted in justification. Now this one man is talking about Adam. We'll speak to that more in a couple of minutes, but so through the one man is Adam through the other man is Jesus through Adam came condemnation through Jesus. This justification, theological term, but we remember what it means by remembering just as if I never did it. Verse 17 here says for if by the one man's offense, again, that's speaking about Adam death reigned through the one much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the grift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. This verse in the new living translation reads like this.

The sin of this one man, Adam calls death to rule over us, but all who receive God's wonderful gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. So again, this fall Adam passed this on to us and you get to choose now whether you continue in the Adamic nature is what it's called that way of Adam, that way of death, that way of condemnation. You can choose to continue in that.

You didn't choose to be placed in that. You didn't choose where you were born, when you were born, who your parents were. You sure didn't choose who your relatives were, but still you get a choice now to choose Jesus. We can all become God's children.

Any of us, any of us can be adopted. Here's what the Bible says. John chapter one verse 12 says, but to him, but to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God to all who believed and accepted him. He gave the right to become the children of God. So how do you become a child of God? You believe him and you accept him. So if you haven't done that friend in love, you're, you're still an orphan.

That's the bad news. The good news is heavenly father wants to dodge and all you need to do is believe and accept him. Well, now it's not that easy, pastor. Oh yeah, it is that easy. It is that simple.

God kept it simple for us and we've been trying to complicate it for 2000 years. Let's look at verse 18. Therefore as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life.

So remember that justification just as if I've never did it. Jesus was perfect. He never sinned and Jesus was angry in the temple, but that was not a sin. Now first Peter two 22 says this says who commit speaking to Jesus who committed no sin, nor was the seat found in his mouth. So if he didn't commit sins and it says he died for sins, whose sins did he die for?

For yours and for man, for mine. Bible points this out. First Corinthians 15, three says for I delivered to you. First of all, that which also received that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. Why are, why there's so much time being given to this in the book of Romans. And there's so much time that we're devoting to it.

Why? Because it's important for you to understand. These are some basic things of Christianity, which many followers of Jesus don't understand. Jesus died for our sins, for our sins.

He was in control the whole time. He died for your sins. Whenever I hear somebody say, well, the Jews killed Jesus. No, they didn't. I mean, that's historically interactive inaccurate to begin with the Romans are actually who crucified Jesus. And let's remember that Jesus was a Jew and that the roots of Christianity are distinctly Jewish, but it wasn't the Romans. Well, who was it? It was us literally the crucified Jesus. Some of the painters and sculptors and the during the reformation would paint themselves crucifying Jesus.

Cause I understood they played a part. I heard a story. This, this guy goes in this church and sits down in a pew. Somebody comes up and goes, Hey, Hey, Hey, that's where I sit.

You took my place. Guy gets up, humbly bows, his head gets up and goes and sits in another place. And somebody else comes over to him, looks at him and goes, Hey man, that's my seat. That's where we always sit.

Hey, you took my place. Guy again, humbly bows, gets up. He sits somewhere else. Again, family comes up and the father goes, Hey, Hey, Hey, this is where me and my family always sit partner.

You need to sit somewhere else. You took my place. And about that time, the man got up and instead of walking to another place, another pew, he walked to the front of the church and he held out his hands. So everybody could see the scars on his hands. And they said, what happened to you?

And he said, I took your place. It's what Jesus did for you and I, not because we earned it, not because we deserve it, but he, he loves us that much. Galatians one, four says he died for our sins, just as God, our father planned in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. Notice that as God, our father planned, if you grew up thinking that the crucifixion was like, or if you're sitting here now thinking, well, the crucifixion was like this political conspiracy, big tragedy, you know?

No, no, no, no, no. It was the plan of God. God planned it. It went perfectly according to his plan, not according to man's plan, man's plan. And even the religious leaders of the day, they said, let's don't take him during the feast during Passover.

Cause there'll be a riot. Jesus is the one that turned up the timetable. When he turned to Judas in that upper room, he said that you're going to do, do it now, do it quickly. Judas head out and talk to the, and they weren't ready. That's why they didn't have all the false witnesses lined up because they weren't planning to do it that night. Jesus did it that night in fulfillment of prophecy.

He was in control the whole time. He planned his own execution for you and I, this passage is bringing that out. And it's our choice to choose him or to reject him. First time you, you, you just automatically got Adam.

That's the deal. When you were born, you had the fall in nature. You, you inherited all that stuff and, and, and you didn't really choose Adam, but now you do have a choice. You can choose Jesus spiritually, supernaturally today, right now you can choose Jesus. You can choose to live when you choose Jesus. If you choose Adam, you can continue to die day by day. John 11 26 says, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Jesus just breaks it down.

So just, this is the deal. If you believe in me, if you accept me, if you confess me, if you will, if you say that I'm your savior, ask me to forgive you of your sins and turn to me, done deal, done deal. And of course, you know, what we do a lot of times is we say, well, okay, but you know, I gotta get, I gotta get things right before I come to God. What an, what an interesting, you gotta get right before you come to God.

And we've actually, we've reinforced this. The church has, you know, well, what do I do? What do I have to do to come to God?

Well, you need to quit doing this and that and doing this and that. And whenever you quit doing all that, this and that stuff, then you can come to God. Now think about what we're communicating at that point. And this is some people's theology.

It's not biblical theology. You've just said, as soon as you quit sinning, you can come to God and allow him to deal with your sin. Does that make any sense to anybody in here? Because you know what we've just done? We've just built a wall in between a person and their savior, a wall that Jesus died to tear down.

We can't do that. You come to Jesus just as you are. You come to him the way you are today. And he's not going to say, well, you know what?

You need to work through some things before you come to me, buddy. Jesus never did. You don't see that in the Bible.

You don't see it. Somebody that's a sinner coming up to Jesus and Jesus say, well, you know what? You need to go get straight now. You meet me here next Friday and I'll forgive you.

That never happens. As a matter of fact, he took one look at some people and said, you're forgiven. Somehow he was able to see what was going on inside of them. 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. Friend, do you have a heart for the lost? I invite you to send us the first names of your lost loved ones and we will have hundreds of people praying for them. Just go to crossthebridge.com and click on the prayer button and you'll enter their name. And if you put your name and email address in there, I'll send you free resources to equip you to pray and to give and teach you how to reach your lost loved ones. Please, don't wait.

This is so important. So please, again, go to crossthebridge.com and click on the prayer button and send us the first names of lost loved ones. We'll send you some free information and together we can partner to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ to the whole world, the whole book for the whole world. Now let's return to Pastor David's verse-by-verse teaching in the Book of Romans. Verse 19, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.

So also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. So Paul's running with this scene, but he's wanting us to understand it, to understand that the life of one person altered human history. This one person, Adam, altered human history. This one person, Jesus, altered human history. And understand if you're having trouble wrapping your mind around history is filled with one person that changed history. If you think just a few years back, with Hitler deciding to invade Europe, change history.

Truman deciding to use the bomb, change history. And as incredible and impactful as those events were, the fall of man was more devastating and far reaching in its effects. Everything changed with Jesus.

Everything changed. 1 Corinthians 15, 45 says this, and so it is written, the first Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

However, the spirit is not first, but the natural and afterward, the spiritual. The first man on the earth made of dust, the second man is the Lord from heaven. So you hear this, you'll hear first man, second man. You hear first Adam, second Adam. First man was Adam.

The second man or the second Adam is Jesus. Verse 20, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. It's interesting that there seems to be in our lives, there's a lack of sensitivity to our sins. We're very sensitive to the sins of others. We get so distraught watching the news or reading the newspaper.

We get far less distraught about our own activities and behaviors. But when you start to realize the magnitude of your sins and how often you sin and how much you sin, the Holy Spirit shows you these things and you want to follow Jesus. And chapter six, it's going to talk more about living for God. So, you know, the scripture balances itself out.

And chapter six talks about leaving the old life, embracing the new and these sorts of things. But in this talking about the law entered and the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. When you begin to understand how much you mess up, you begin to understand God wants to forgive you and how the desperate need that you have for mercy and for grace. Romans chapter five, verse 20 says in the New Living Translation, said God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sin more and more, God's wonderful kindness became more abundant. So that's one thing the Bible does, is you study the Bible.

It'll show you where you're messing up. That's what's cool about going verse by verse, chapter by chapter, because you get to know the Bible and you're in a certain activity or behavior that's sinful. You'll just skip those passages. I don't want to look at that. I'm not doing that right now.

It makes me feel bad. I'll read this section. But as you go verse by verse, man, everybody gets it. So God's law, the Bible shows that.

The Living Bible, which I don't often use as a study Bible, but I have all these different references and stuff and I go to them. But the Living Bible puts this one like this, the 10 commandments were given so that all could see the extent of their failure to obey God's laws. But the more we see our sinfulness, the more we see God's abounding grace forgiveness. It is amazing to me that you can have a conversation with somebody and say, Hey, you going to heaven? Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Going to heaven. Well, how do you know? Why do you think that? Well, because you know, I'm basically a good person.

No, you're not. The Bible says, no, all fallen short of the glory of God. All there's none righteous, no, not one. And then the amazing thing is sometimes somebody will say, well, you know, because I've kept most of the 10 commandments. No, you haven't. If you've ever read the 10 commandments, you know that you haven't kept them now, let me help you.

Cause some of you are going, Oh, really? I've got most of them. Let's just go through a couple of them. It says, you're not supposed to have any other gods before the Lord.

Let me ask you a question at any time in your life. Have you ever put anything above God and in your relationship with him? What does that make you? Well, basically a good person. No, that makes you an idolater. It says, don't take the Lord's name in vain.

Have you ever used the Lord's name in vain and hit your hand with a hammer and said something you shouldn't have said, or just, just, just said Jesus, when, when you weren't really talking to him, that's using the Lord's name in vain. What does that make you? Well, basically a good person. No, that makes you a blasphemer.

Okay. So, well, yeah, but I've not killed anybody. It says, don't commit murder. Literally in the Hebrew, thou shall not commit murder. It's not thou shall not kill.

Thou shall not commit murder. Well, I hadn't killed anybody. Jesus said, if you've ever been angry with somebody, you're guilty of murder.

Have you ever been angry with anybody? So what does that make you basically a good person? No, it makes you a murderer.

Let's do one more just for good measure. It says, because some of you are still thinking you got a hope in this 10 commandment thing, trying to help you. It says, don't commit adultery. Pastor, I've never committed adultery.

Jesus said, if you've ever looked at somebody with lust in your heart, you're guilty of adultery. So with a show of hands, can we see enough? So, so how are we doing? We went through four of the commandments.

How are we doing? Well, so far, we're an idolater. We're a blasphemer. We're a murderer and we're an adulterer. And we're thinking we're going to get into heaven on our own good works. That ain't going to happen.

That is not going to happen. So what do we do? Well, there's good news. That's the bad news.

There's good news. God has an infinite amount of grace and mercy for you. Next life lesson. God has an infinite amount of grace and mercy available to each of us. God has an infinite amount of grace and mercy available to each of us. Now, some of you may go, well, you pastor, you can't tell people that.

They'll just go out and start sinning because they'll think, well, they can be forgiven. Again, verse chapter six opens up with that. You know, what shall we say? Should we continue and send the grace more back?

Well, we'll get into that. But right now we're looking at grace is available. Grace is abounding. Grace is not like borrowing money from a relative or lending money to a relative. Grace is available in infinite capacity. Who gets us grace?

Anybody wants it. Well, there's the chosen. Who knows who the chosen are? God knows who the chosen are. He's not telling. Spurgeon said ministry would be a lot easier if the chosen just had like a yellow stripe down their back, and then you can recognize, oh, you got a yellow stripe.

Let me spend some time with you. I'll witness to you because you're going to get in. We don't know. God knows.

He's not telling. It's for all. Titus chapter two, verse 11 says, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. First Timothy two, six, who gave himself a ransom for all.

The Lord is not in second Peter chapter three, verse nine. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises. Some count slackness, but as long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

What is repentance? Turn into God, literally changing your mind and agree, turn into the Lord. And yet somehow we get in this, our mind that God is angry and God is mad. And when we need grace and mercy, it's like, well, I'll give you a little bit, but you better not be back this week.

Understand. I mean, I grew up in a religious environment, which really twisted the way I saw God. And as I got deeper into this Bible, I realized that not only did I need to learn about God, I needed to unlearn some of the things I'd picked up along the way. Zephaniah chapter three, verse 17 and the new living translation says for the Lord, your God has arrived to live among you. He's a mighty savior. He will rejoice over you with great gladness with his love. He will calm all your fears. He will exalt over you by singing a happy song and the new King James that says that he will rejoice over you with singing.

I hope that obliterates an inaccurate picture. You may have of God to understand friend that even this morning, we were worshiping God and having such a delightful time that at that point in time, as we were singing to the Lord, he was rejoicing over us and singing, maybe holding our hands, holding us up so we won't fall. That's God. Any other picture that you've gained, it's probably inaccurate of the scripture. This is why Jesus came that we could be forgiven. So read back through verse 20 to 21. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more verse 21. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Again, looking at the new living translation of this verse, it says, so just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death. Now God's wonderful kindness rules instead given us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

It's amazing. This is not just good news. It's great news that even though we've messed up, we can do something that not only do we not deserve, we dare not even dream that we who have messed up can stand righteous before a holy God, not only be declared innocent, be declared righteous if we choose. So if you're listening right now and you're going, you know, I can't come to the Lord today because I've messed up today or yesterday or last week.

No, no. Jesus has made an offering for your sin that that can't keep you from coming to him. Now you can reject it. You can somehow sitting here in here of a God who loves you so much, he sings over you and he died for you.

And you can say, nah, no thanks friend. I hope that does not describe you because you know what, we see a picture of a person like that in the Bible. That person is Judas.

Somehow he sat in the light of God's love, had a front row seat, seeing how Jesus loved people, hearing, knowing he was headed towards the cross. And in his hard heart, he rejected. I may wish a lot of things for your friend, but I don't wish that kind of heart on anybody, but that is the choice to reject him and to keep your nature of Adam, nature of sin, nature of death, or to come to Jesus final life lesson here. God has more mercy than you have sin. God has more mercy than you have sin.

That's why he's available today. It's not that you, you can even say, well, I'm not sure I've really messed up. And God has a little, little test tube and he goes, well, yep, boy, you have, you can't come to me. You can't come to me. No, he uses words like whoever, not, not in this certain little people group, not people who look like this, act like this, do this, haven't done this.

No, he's just, whoever that tears down the walls of religion that tears down walls of spiritual pride and the picture there too is however, whenever it's a friend in love with the hand of this incredible savior extended to you, why wouldn't you take his hand? Why wouldn't you grab it? Why wouldn't you run to him? Imagine if you were at the doctor's office and doctor comes in and he says those dreaded words, you know what? You've got terminal cancer. You've got like two months to live.

And at that moment, one of your worst enemies, somebody that you had fought with and feuded with walks into the room and says, you know what, doctor, give me his cancer. That's what Jesus did. 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. 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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