enemy. That nothing will hinder your word. Lord, I pray that our lives will be good soil. That as the seed is sown into our life, we'll yield unto your bountiful harvest. Lord, you want our lives to be fruitful. So, father, have your way in this place today. Every heart say amen. Come on, give him the best praise you can. You ain't make it. Miracle worker. Thank you. Promise to you. Thank you. Light in the darkness. My god. Come on put your hands together for Jesus. Romans chapter 5. Certainly, we greet you in the grace and peace of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. He has navigated our niches and allowed us this privilege of being participatory in this place of praise once again. It's good to be alive, alert, and active for it is in him we live, move, and have our being and certainly the lord has brought us a It's good to be in the house of the lord. Uh there are many other places we could have been. Uh the grave is one. Of those places but god saw fit to shake us and wake us this morning. And start us on a new day and bless us in keeping us to come into the house of the Amen. Amen. It is good for us to be here. There's no other place I'd rather be on a Sunday morning, a Sunday noon day than in the house of the Lord. There's so many things God does for us in the house of the Lord. There's healing here. deliverance. His word. Their strength. Amen. Amen. Uh all god gives us. Uh it's at the house of god, the place of his name. And so, our coming is not in vain. Our coming is purposeful, intentional, and I would that we receive what the lord has 17 through 21. And if by one man's offense death reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin had the reign unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. Look at your neighbor and say, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Dot, dot, dot. Dot, dot, dot. God's gift of grace. God's gift of grace. Look at another neighbor and say, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Dot, dot, dot. Dot, dot, dot. God's gift of grace. Amen. Come on, bless God for grace. God's grace expressed through his son Jesus Christ is amazing. It is so amazing the unknown homologist put pen to paper and wrote the words, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Twas blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and snares, we have already come. towards grace that brought us safe thus far and grace will lead us home. His grace is amazing. God's grace is amazing but Paul reveals to us that God's grace is not only amazing but his grace is abundant and abounding. Hold that thought of abundant and abounding grace and I'll be back to it in just a minute. Paul in Romans chapter 5 he is teaching about this thing of justification. Justification is to be declared righteous on the merit and work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus's death on the cross satisfied the righteous demands of God. That Jesus stood in our place, stood in our stand, paid the price for us that we could be declared righteous before and holy God. Paul said Adam and Jesus Christ are somewhat alike. He said in verse 14 that Adam was a figure of him that was to come. He who was to come is Jesus Christ. So in verse 14 Paul said Adam and Jesus are alike but in verses 15 through 21 he says they are not alike. He says they are alike, but not alike. They are alike in that they both were federal heads. In other words, both Adam and Jesus served as representatives of humanity. Adam is our federal head in condemnation, but Jesus is our federal head in salvation. That Paul says they are alike and not alike. Now verse 15, Paul begins his contrast between Adam and Jesus. He uses words like not alike, much more, and all the more to make a distinction between Adam and Jesus Christ. Jesus is much more than Adam. He accomplished much more than Adam. We gain much more in Christ. We have been redeemed and restored in Jesus Christ. And not just to a point of where we were in Adam, but he said it is much more. Paul takes time in his epistle to explain what this really means. Now the question must be asked, why is the gift of grace necessary? He answers this question in verses 15 through 21, you have time? The gift of grace is necessary because, number one, of the consequence of Adam's transgression. Now, to really value and appreciate God's gift of grace, you must understand the effects of Adam's transgression. Verse 15 says Adam committed a transgression. It wasn't a mistake. It wasn't a mishap. It was a transgression. Transgression means to make a false step in the wrong direction. It means to stumble and fall because you have left the path. This is where we get the expression the fall of humanity because when Adam decided to make the wrong step to make a false step in the wrong direction, we were in Adam. And when he turned and made the wrong step, we made it with him. That's why we are considered fallen. We are fallen humanity. You remember Genesis chapter two verses 16, 17? I and the Lord God commanded the man saying every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day you eat of it, You shall surely die. Adam was given one prohibition. Don't eat. It is something about being told not to do something that gets us, that messes us up. Matter of fact, let me give you a few examples of what I'm talking about. It's just something about doing what you are not told to do. you see a fresh poured concrete walk and you got boundaries all around they say don't step on it don't write on it but because they told you not to You just feel within the need to do it anyway. We are bothered by what we are told not to do. I think sometimes, you know, the reverse psychology, if you tell people not to, they just might do. I wonder what would happen if I told you not to come to church. because we don't want anybody to tell us what to do. Adam was the same way God told Adam not to eat of one tree. And I just believe that this one tree was just like all of the rest of the trees, but God pointed to that one tree and said, don't eat of this tree. and Adam chose to eat of that one tree and in eating of that one tree, he took a step in the wrong direction. He stepped against the command And when Adam transgressed, his misstep did not only affect him, his transgression affected all of us. All of us. We were born in the similitude of Adam. If I had time I would make the argument how you have to be born again to have the image of Christ. Some people say, well, you're born in the image. No, you're really born in the image of Adam in his fallen state. And to be born in the image of God, in the image of Christ, you have to be born again. That's just if I had time. But he transgressed. And all of humanity was in Adam and so all of humanity became fallen in his transgression. And Paul, he makes his claim how the transgression of Adam affected all of us. Now, let let me push my point a little farther. You remember David in Psalm fifty-one? Yes sir. Five, he says, surely I was sinful at birth. Sinful from the time my mother conceived me. You're not born You're not born innocent. You know, we like to say innocent little children. Nobody's innocent. We're all born guilty. That's what David said. That's what David said. And Paul says the same thing in Romans chapter five, verses 12 through 14. He says, wherefore as by one man's sin, in and into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgressions. Who is the figure of him that wants to come. We're all born sinners. Sinners. Here it is, the consequence, the problem of sin. According to verse 15 or 16, sin brought condemnation. The word condemnation in the Greek means or suggests to divide, to separate. God's judgment for sin is separation. You hear people all the time say, well, you don't condemn me. I don't have to. Because if you're not saved, you're condemned already. I don't have to do what was already done. You know, they think they're unloading our guns, you know, when you call right, right and wrong, wrong. And they use strong language and strong words like you, you judging. That's right. You condemning. That's right. Oh, have to. That if you're not blood because you're still in Adam. See in Adam, without Christ, you are condemned. So this problem with sin is condemnation. Isaiah 59 too says, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear you. If your life is loaded with sin, You might be praying and God not hearing. Because God doesn't want you to live a life of intentional perpetual sin. He doesn't want you to live life to glorify Satan. He wants you to live life to glorify him. The problem of sin is it separates. God separates you from God. That's a problem. And I don't know about you but I don't want to go nowhere without God. I don't want to live a day, a hour, a minute, a second without God. I want God to be in all I do and It separates. I don't care how much you try to cover it. I don't care how much you try to retitle it. Call it something else that so that it don't have the effect that it should have. It separates. That's right. It's separate. It tears families apart. It tears from God. It separates. Look at your neighbor and say it separates. But not only does it separate, it has a penalty. He deals with the problem, but it has a penalty. He says in verse 17, death reigned by one. Sin brings about death. Paul, the next chapter over 630, 23, he says, for the wages of sin is death. That's all you gonna get out of it. I don't care how you try to fix it to get something else out of it. Listen, sins pay is death. You are never blessed in sin. I don't care how slick and cunning y'all are. I don't care what your maneuver strategy may be. Man may not see you, but somebody know if God said, and he looks low, You are never blessed in sin. Sin, the punitive of it is death. This does not mean that every person has committed sin the exact same way as Adam. The heathen, the incompetent, the kind, the educated, the uneducated. The entire status of human life was altered by Adam's transgression. That's why it's so easier for us to do the wrong thing than it is for us to do the right thing. Paul even makes this argument about these two members raging war within. That when we decide to do good, evil. Somebody here know what I'm talking about. evil is present. The good that I would do. I don't. Are y'all in here with me? And the evil that I don't want to do, that's what I find myself doing because this stuff is in us. And if you don't put it in its place, it'll lead to your demise. I'm preaching betting y'all say amen. That this consequence of sin has affected everybody. Here Paul answers the question of why? Why infants die? Why are there miscarriages? Why some babies are born stillborn? Why does young people die? Children die. Middle-aged people die. Seniors die. It's because when Adam made his misstep, he took all of us with him. matter of fact, the innocent came in Jesus Christ and he died. And if he died, we die. He died. He wasn't in a comatose state. He died. He went unconscious. He and sealed the tomb because he died. Y'all still here with me? I'll be where you want me to be in a minute. He died. He died on the cross because he came in human flesh Matter of fact, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He died. death is the penalty. Yeah. Death is an enemy. Paul in first Corinthians fifteen talks about the last enemy death. That death is an enemy. None of us care too much about death. I don't think many of us ran to Matter of fact, we're taking vitamins, prescriptions, eating regiments, exercising to hopefully slow him down. We know he's coming because when we look at our hair, our hair has a different shade to it. Some of us are missing a few strands in places where we used to be well covered. Get up in the morning and we used to just jump up out of the bed. Now we got to kick our leg to get up. Come on in here. We got to put some glasses on our faces to see because death is slowly locking us down. Our memories are not what they used to be, and we ain't as agile and spry as we used to be. It's because of the consequence of Adam's choice. He doesn't leave us there. He talks about how Adam's choice affected the many. But then he deals with the consequence of God's gift of grace. That God's grace, gift of grace, is Jesus the Christ. Notice, if you will, the word gift. The word gift in the Greek means something given without expectation of payment. That the gift is free to the receiver, but not free to the giver. It didn't cost us nothing, but it cost God everything. See, when you think about grace, you ought to think about God giving you the best he got. God didn't just give you anything. He gave you the best heaven had. He gave you his son, Jesus Christ. Not that you deserve it, not that you can work for it, but he gave it to you because of his love and compassion and care for you. He gives his son, he gives his son, he gave his son without expectation of payment. When you think about grace, there's nothing you can give God that will equal his gift. There's nothing you can do to pay for what he gave. And so he puts it on the grace that this grace carries in Greek which means to rejoice, joy, favor, a favor done without expectation of return, absolute freeness of the loving kindness of God to men. And God did not give his son unto us didn't give his son because we deserved him. He didn't give his son to us because we expected him. Matter of fact, John helps us. He said he came to his own. And his own received him not. He didn't give his son with expectation of but he gave his son as a gift of grace because of his love for us. Listen, help me preach if you will. Look at your neighbor and say, God love you. God loves you. God loves you. Listen, you ought to leave happy today. You ought to leave excited today. that you may not go back to a home of love, but know that God loves you. Your children may not love you, but God loves you. Your husband may not love you, but God loves you. Come on, come on, shake the hand this time and say, God loves you. He loves you. And it's not just average, mediocre love. Because his love is expressed in the grace he gave. This grace, I told you to hold the words abundant and abounding. Here it is, his grace is abundant. That God's grace is more than enough to save you. His grace doesn't produce just life, it produces abundant life. Jesus in John 10 10 said, he has come that you may have life and may have life more abundantly. You're trying to live an average life. As a Christian, you're trying to live an average life. There's nothing average about you. People ought to think you strange. You ought to think I'm strange. Because I have life. that he has given me that's abundant is more than enough. Listen, there's nothing average about God. And there's nothing average about you if you're a child of God. He gives you abundant life. You think it's something to be pitiful and broke, sick and sad. You think that authenticates your witness, but you don't have much. That you barely making it. That you are able to sing the song nobody knows. The troubles I see. You deal with life's troubles, but he gives you abundant grace to help you live over and above your troubles. Come here, Paul. Kamehameha Paul had been caught up into the third heaven and he had received knowledge from God and revelation from God and God allowed Satan to put a thorn in his flesh and the thorn was buffeting him and bothering him and when he prayed unto God he discovered that God's grace is enough Somebody ought to be a witness. That His grace is enough. That the stuff that I'm going through, that I got power and strength and ability from God to live above it. What Jesus came to do is to give us abundant life. His grace is abundant. He says things like, not like, much more. That when Jesus died on Calvary, He didn't just bring us back to ground zero. He didn't just put us in the same position we were in in Adam before the transgression. He took us higher than that. I mean as a Christian you ought to really be happy. See, if you don't get this right, your theology off. And you won't be able to enjoy the salvation that he has given you by grace. You living like everybody else. Whining and crying and bickering and griping and fussing like everybody else. There ought to be a smile on your face. You ought to feel good. In fact, when you wake up in the morning and you get ready for work, you say, good morning, grace. And good morning, mercy. Put your clothes on with a good spirit. Look in the mirror and say, listen, there's nothing average about you because the grace that God has given you is abundant. It's more than enough. He doesn't leave us there. He deal with this grace. That's abounding. Abounding. God's grace is more abounding. Which means that God's grace is more powerful than Adam's transgression. more than death in Adam. Paul says much more. That life is more than death. The life of Christ reaches an eternal status that he gives us a better place He puts us in a better position. It's abounding. We die in Adam. Made alive in Christ. That's good news. That this grace is the signature on my policy. Not an insurance policy, but assurance policy. Look at your neighbor and say, I have taken out an assurance policy. And I don't have to worry about death because my assurance policy has the greatest pain when I die. that he gives us life that reaches and goes beyond this life. That's right. You don't have to worry about it. If I don't wake up in the morning, it is well with my soul. Do I that we have assurance that keeps us in all we go through. But Paul does not only leave us with abundant grace, abounding grace, but he leaves us with altering grace. That this grace God gives changes us from the inside out. that the work of Christ changes our hearts and alters our minds. That's why Paul was able to say, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. and behold, all is made new. There's a change that happens on the inside. And it manifests itself on the I'm going to go in a different direction. Because when I was in Adam, I was busy going away from God. I was making some missteps of my own. Because I made life about my own way of doing because Jesus was able to change me from the inside out. Thank the lord. Is there anybody here this morning? Thank god for Jesus. If you thank god for Jesus. You ought to slip your hand in your neighbor's hand. And said neighbor. I thank god for Jesus. Because Jesus. Has given me abundant has given me a bounding grace. Jesus has given me altering grace. I'm being changed from the inside out. Ain't that good news? I may not be all I wanna be. But God is not through with me yet. He's working on the day by day. He's working on me. He's working on me. He's working on me. He's working on me. Hard work sometimes. But he's working on me. And I thank God. That he didn't give up on me. That he loved me enough. To send his only son. Jesus Christ. To hang in my Went up the Via Dolorosa Carrying an old rugged cross Stumbling sometimes But he wanted to satisfy his father So he kept on moving Up the King's Highway He got to a hill called Calvary And he gave them his hands And they nailed his hand to the cross Y'all sitting in here like y'all don't know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Jesus. He gave him his feet. And he they ribbon his feet. To that old rugged cross. between two feet. And he said, if I be lifted, I'll draw all men. That's why I'm saved. Because they lift him up. And I want to tell you this morning, if you want somebody saved, you ought to lift him up. Look at your Lift him up so the world can see him. Shake your neighbor's hand and say if you want your unsaved husband to get to know Jesus, you need to lift him up. If you want your lost children to know Jesus, you need to lift him up. If you want your co-workers who don't know him to know him, you need to lift him up. They lift him up. Between two thieves who stayed there for six long and three in darkness, he stayed there until he had accomplished his father's will. He stayed there until he said it is finished and he dropped his head in the locks of his shoulders. He died. He died. Until the moon dripped away in blood. He died. Until the stars fell from the socket. He died. Until the centurion said, surely, he must be the son of god. He died. Until the earth reeled and until the veil in the temple was red. They took him off the cross, put him in a borrowed tomb. He said, give me three days and three nights. Sunday morning, Sunday morning, Sunday morning before the rooster could crow. Sunday morning before the women could make it to the grave. Sunday morning before the sun could peep over the eastern horizon. He got out of that grave with all power. in his hands. Now, let me ask you my question one more time. Let me hear you. He paid it all. He paid it all. Life in him is much more than death and Adam. He didn't just bring us back to ground zero. But he gave us a better place. Put us in a better condition. now we sat with him in the heavenlies now we have life forevermore i have assurance it all is well the winds may blow and the rains may descend and beat upon me. But I have life. And it's because of his grace. Listen, you don't appreciate grace until you first understand the consequence of Adam's choice to step in the wrong direction. We know now why death is in the earth. Why so-called good people die. Why we ourselves one day will leave these mundane shores and travel to a place of pleasantry in his presence. Adam. In him we die. But in Christ we live. And he said it's a gift of grace. Gift of grace. Listen there is somebody here today. Someone here today, you have not received the gift. stand, if you will, and help them, encourage them. Come, receive the gift of grace today. In the person of Christ Jesus, he will give you that assurance that all is well with your soul. Come today. Receive him. Don't put off. He saves. The gift has to be received. Now, Paul is not preaching and teaching universalism that everybody will be saved. No, that's not what he's saying. Christ is the federal head of all who will receive it. Come on, bless you, baby. Bless you today. Bless you today. Bless you today. Come receive the lord Jesus Christ. Come on. Come on. Come on. Help me. Help me make an appeal. Come on. Come on. We're receiving today. The gift is free. If you're here, you need to be restored. Come on. Come on. Come on. He wants to restore you, refocus you, re-energize you, rebuild you, redirect you. Come on. Perfectly healed.