I appreciate the songs. I appreciate sitting there thinking as we sing some of these hymns. When Brother Jerry Seiler was here, Oh, back a couple of months ago at our anniversary, really. I guess it was our anniversary service. He said this to me. He said it was interesting, and I appreciated him saying this. He told me, he said, he said, he said, I got up, he said, and I told our church that we weren't changing. And he said, listen, if you want a rock and roll church, there are plenty of rock and roll churches out there to go to, go to one of them. And he said, because that's not what we are. And I just appreciated that. It was encouraging to me. And I thought, there's a great truth there. You know, so many times people want to come in and they want to change this and that. And listen, there's some things about change that are OK. You do have to be careful. But there's some things with change that are just not OK. And so we need to be careful. And I appreciate the hymns. I was sitting there thinking as we were singing some of these hymns, I thought, well, people think, well, we need some new stuff. Well, listen, if we haven't learned all 700 songs that we have in our songbook, then there's no reason to move on to something new. Amen? We've got enough old stuff to keep us going for quite some time. And just the words of the songs, they're amazing. I will, I'm going to refer back to one of our songs that we sung. Pay attention to the songs as you sing them. Pay attention to the words. Sometimes we can, and I'm guilty of it, sometimes we get in the mode, we just sing the words, we know the hymn. But really, I would encourage you, as we sing those songs, Pay attention to the words, and think about the words, and think about what they mean as we are singing those songs, and it will be a blessing to you and an encouragement to you. Alright, that was free, that is not even the message tonight. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open to Romans, Romans chapter number 5. And we are in the I explained last week we're in the we're in. He's that Paul, the apostle Paul is explaining salvation. I gave the illustration last week that many times we don't understand the whole of salvation. And I said this, you do not have to understand the whole of salvation to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a very simple message. As a matter of fact, Jesus said that even a child could believe. And so you don't have to know every detail about salvation, but there is something about knowing really what you got when you got saved and understanding maybe better the package that you received, the present of salvation that you did receive. And so we're in Romans 5, and Paul is going through some very detailed things here. and I was reading over and studying for this, and I came across Harry Ironside, he's an old-time preacher, and he said this in his writings, he said, The moment a man is justified by faith, he is also born of God. His justification is, as we have seen, his official clearance before the throne of God. His regeneration involves his introduction into a new family. He becomes part of the new creation, of which the risen Christ is the head. Adam, the first, was federal head of the old race. Christ, risen, the second man, and the last Adam, is head of the new race. The old creation fell in Adam, and all his descendants were involved in his ruin. The new creation stands eternally secure in Christ, and all who have received life from him are sharers in the blessings procured by His cross and secured by His life at God's right hand. And boy, what a great truth. And Romans chapter 5, we're going to get into the passage where really Paul deals with Adam and Christ and how Christ was a type of Adam being the first. And so as we look here, look with me in Romans chapter 5 and verse number 12. The Bible says this, wherefore as by one man, sin entered 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 where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned, after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. but not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. and not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to the condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." And let's stop right there. And let's pray. Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for your goodness to us. God, thank you for the privilege we have to be in your house to meet together. God, you have said where there are two or three gathered in your midst, there you are in the midst of them. And God, we thank you. We praise you for your blessing and for your meeting with us. God, truly, what a blessing to be able to meet in your presence. and meet with You. God, I pray that You'd bless the service. I pray, Father, that You'd use me. I pray, Father, that You'd speak through me. I pray that You would touch each and every heart, Father, as only You can. And God, we'll be careful to give You the honor and glory for all that's said and done. In Jesus' precious name we pray, Amen. As we look at this text tonight, I want us to see a couple things. And I probably should say this right off at the beginning because I'm a three-point preacher. I always have three points. And tonight, I don't. Gasp I know you're shocked and and and you're in luck because I don't have four and I don't have five I only have two tonight all right I won't tell you how many sub points I have but but I only have two main points and so I felt like I should give you that off because I know you know you as you take notes you're like one two and three you got it all numbered and and usually that's the way I do things and I like to make it easy for you to be able to take notes but it's only two tonight But as we look at this passage, when reading the book of Romans, and especially with Paul, he's a very wordy fellow. And it's very important to pay attention to the punctuation. When I was reading this passage and studying this passage, I noticed that in verse number 13, he starts the verse off with a parenthesis. Now let me just say this, you do not have to be a grammar expert, and I do not count myself a grammar expert by any stretch of the imagination. So you don't have to be a grammar expert to understand a little bit about punctuation. And the example that I like to use with my daughter is that, I think she told it to me actually, and she said commas save lives. And, uh, commas save lives. And, and so we have this saying, and we'll, we'll say it often. Uh, it says, uh, yep, because the sentence goes, let's eat grandma. No, no, no, no, no. There's a comma in there. Let's eat comma pause grandma. We are not going to eat grandma. Uh, okay. The first one is let's eat grandma. No, no, there's a comma in there. So it saved grandma's life. That comma did. And it says, Hey, let's eat comma. Grandma. And so punctuation is very important, so you can remember that, all right? Commas save lives. But here, we don't have a comma so much as we have a parenthetical statement. Now, I do know this. I don't claim to know, be an expert, but I do know that when you put down a parentheses, that it is interjecting something in there. Matter of fact, I wrote this down because it's important And I grabbed it off of an educational institute's website, the University of Nevada, because they happened to have it on there just for me. I was grateful for that. But they put this about a parenthetical statement. In essence, a parenthetical is just a phrase that is not essential to the rest of the sentence. However, just because it isn't essential does not mean that it isn't important. When used correctly, a parenthetical can add crucial new information to a sentence without disrupting the flow. Alright, so a parenthetical statement is kind of a pause and he's going to interject some very important thoughts that he gives us. Now in verse number 13 you notice he starts with the parentheses and you get to the end of verse 13 and you would think he He forgot to close the parentheses. Matter of fact, He left it out. I can't believe that. No, you go down in verse number 14, it's not there either. Verse 15 and verse 16, He goes all the way down to verse number 17 and He closes that parentheses. And so I want us to understand that because in verse number 12, he starts a new thought. He starts the idea about Adam and the sin coming into the world. And verse 13, he starts a parenthetical statement, and he does not end that until verse number 17. Do you understand that? So tonight, we are going to look at just his parenthetical statement. After that, in verse number 18, 19, and all the way through the end of the chapter, he does a comparison between Adam and Christ, and he parallels the two ideas and what is going on there. But in this parenthetical statement, he gives us a few things that I believe are important that we need to see a few being correct, because that's only two. All right? Unless you count my sub points. And so as we look at this, I want us to understand we're just looking at this parenthetical statement that he gave. And he says there, let's go back to verse 12 now that we've looked at the idea of a parenthetical statement and and what he did. Look with me in verse 12. He says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have Let me just pause here for a moment and say this. Often times when I'm presenting the Gospel, I do like to use this verse. And I'll tell you why. Because it draws man all the way back to creation. And it draws them to the idea and understanding that, hey, God created the world. And God is the author of the world. And by Adam, sin was introduced into the world and very clearly the idea of death and how it passed on to all men was brought about by Adam. So it gives us the understanding of where sin came from. And so I like to explain that to people because many times today people just don't understand, well where did sin come from? And you can see that very clearly in this verse. Now he goes on in verse 13, And he says, for until the law, sin was in the world. And I want us to notice in verses 13 and 14, that's my first point. Sin's existence. Sin's existence. It existed in the world. And he gives that information. For until the law, sin was in the world. He starts out in verse number 12 really with the dawn of sin. And we see that, that hey, sin was, that sin took place at the time of creation. I want you to notice that when God created the world, sin was not in the world. Matter of fact, the Bible says at the end of Genesis, chapter number one, in verse number 31, he says, and God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. Now, if God would not have pronounced it very good, if there were sin existing in the world or in the universe at that time, and you say, well, pastor, then when did when did Satan fall? Well, I don't know, but I think it was sometime after the creation. I don't know exactly. But God did pronounce that everything was good at that time. And so I think somewhere in there, then the Satan and the angels that were cast out of heaven fell. And we don't know exactly, but we do know this, that Satan came along and tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden. And God's creation was without sin. And we see that was introduced into creation as a result of Adam falling in sin. Now, he makes a point here in verse number 13. He says, for until the law, sin was in the world. I started thinking about that. How long was it from the time that Adam lived in the world until the law was given? Well, I looked that up. I thought, I'm gonna find out about that. That's curious. And as I looked it up, the law was not given until about 2,400 years after Adam was on this earth. Now you think a lot took place. You go back and reread the book of Genesis, and you go back and think about the history that takes place, and how, of course, you have Adam and Eve in the garden, and they had Cain and Abel, their son, and then Methuselah and Enoch that walked with God, and he was not, the Bible says, for God took him. And men lived almost a thousand years in those times. 900 and some years, Methuselah was the oldest man, and he lived 900 and some years. And so they lived a long time. And then you think, hey, Noah, and you think about the flood. And the law still had not been given yet. It was some 2,400 years after. But at the same time, we see the same thing taking place. Men are born. and men die. Why is that? Because sin had been reigning in the world even before the law of God. We didn't need the law of God given to us. Well, we did need the law of God given to us, but no doubt sin existed and sin reigned during that time. And so we see the dawn of sin, how it had lasted all that time and that it was there and it existed. Go with me to the next phrase. He said, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Now, what does that mean? Well, I put down, so we have the dawn of sin, the fact that sin exists, we see the documentation of sin. To a certain extent, man lived kind of ignorantly. They didn't know what pleased God, and man, you don't understand how blessed we are to have the word of God. and the complete Word of God. These guys, they didn't understand a lot of things. God had given them some things. God had told them how to do a sacrifice. God taught that to Adam and obviously to Abel and to Cain. And you know the story that Cain didn't follow God's will there, but Abel did. And you know that God had given them some instruction, but they didn't have the completed Word of God like we do. And they didn't even have the law of the Old Testament. But nonetheless, sin reigned. And so when it says it was not imputed, I take that to mean, hey, that it was not recorded in that. Hey, every everything that was given in the law said, if you don't do this, you're wrong. You have transgressed against God's law. And there's a document that tells us that you're wrong against God in the sin and in the law. If you were to move to another country, even move to another state, and you say, and you may not understand all the laws of that state. I'll give you an example. In upstate New York, a preacher had moved up there, and he didn't know all the laws, and he come from a state that didn't have real strict gun control laws. And so he carried a, I don't know what he had, a .38 in his glove box. And one day he's driving home from somewhere and he got pulled over and the police said, do you have your license and registration? And he said, I sure do. So he opened up his glove box and boom, out fell some .38 shells. And he grabbed his license and registration and handed them to the police. And the police said, excuse me, are those .38 shells? And he said, why, yes, they are. And he said, do you have the handgun that goes with that? He said, why, yes, I do. It's right here under my seat. And the policeman says, do you have a license for that? He said, a license for that? I don't know nothing about that. I just moved here. In the state of New York, it is a crime to have a pistol in your possession if you don't have a license for it. You're not allowed to own one in New York in general. And the police said, well, listen, that is a high crime. He said, you could go to jail for that. He said, we have one of two options. He said, number one, I can confiscate your gun right now. And he said, because you just moved here, I will let you off the hook, but I will have to confiscate your firearm. He said, or two, we can book you and process you and run you through the system, and you can go before a judge. The preacher said, take the gun. Take the gun. I'm not going to jail. And he was, what happened? He was ignorant of the law. He didn't know that it was against the law in New York State to have that gun there. And now see, now you're without excuse because now I told you the law in New York State, it's not any different. So now don't go into New York State with a gun. But there was ignorance and so he was not doing right, but it wasn't intentional. He was not aware of some of the things and the idiosyncrasies of the laws. And listen, these people that lived from Adam all the way up till the law was given when Moses wrote it all down, when God gave Moses, all those laws in Mount Sinai, and of course we know the Ten Commandments, but there were way more than ten commandments. There were some, I think if I remember correctly, some 500 laws that God gave. And so they lived in ignorance of many of those laws that God had given them, or not given them at that time. And so it had not been documented. And listen, that's part of the purpose of the law. The Bible says in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 24, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. Listen, the law was our schoolmaster to teach us what is right and what is wrong. A schoolmaster is somebody who will teach. And I remember going to Peru and learning Spanish. And my language teacher, he's a preacher and a good guy, and I'm friends with him to this day, but man, He was a taskmaster. He was a schoolmaster. And he'd say, listen, we would start every day and we'd read one psalm in Spanish. And I would open my Bible. Let me correct that. I would read one psalm in Spanish. Maybe we started out and he would read a verse and I would read a verse. I don't remember. Maybe we both did. But I'm telling you, I couldn't get three words out and he would stop me and correct me. Say, you did not say that right. And they would tell me how to pronounce the word. And I'd pronounce the word, and then he'd pronounce the word, and then I'd pronounce the word. And man, it took us, you know, a half hour just to read eight verses for Crying Out Loud. And I'm like, he was a taskmaster. He was a schoolmaster saying, hey, you're not doing this right. This is the right way. Listen, the Word of God and the laws that were given to the Old Testament were specifically a schoolmaster to show us how great really our sins are. Before that, we lived pretty ignorantly and said, well, I think I'm pretty good with God. Matter of fact, if you go out on the street and you ask most people, hey, how do you stand with God? Most people will tell you, hey, you know, between me and God, hey, we're pretty good. You know, things aren't that bad. But when you start to bring the law and say, well, what about this? You know, the law says thou shalt not lie. Have you ever lied? They're like, well, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't. I have a lot. And then you guys say, well, you know, the Bible says thou shalt not steal. And have you ever taken a pen that didn't belong to you? Well, I guess, yeah, actually I have. Well, that's stealing. And then you go on and you go through, you can go through even just the basic ten commandments. And by the time you're done, you say, well, by your own confession, you're a lying, thieving, stealing murderer at heart. And they're like, well, I guess I am pretty bad. And with the law, it does. It points out all of our fallacies that we think, well, they're not that bad and they're not that wrong. But it documents all of those things. And when we're forced to look at them, we realize, oh, we are pretty bad before God. And it says here in verse 13, but sin was not imputed where there is no law. So before the law, they just lived ignorantly of their sin. By and large, they did know there was a God. They did know there were things that they were supposed to do, but they did not understand the depth and the greatness of their sin. And listen, even today, it is good for us to understand, to go back to the law and understand how really great our sin is. and how many problems there are from our sin. Look with me at verse number 14. So he points out in the sin's existence, we see the dawn of sin, we see the documentation of sin. In verse 14, he tells us about the death from sin. Nevertheless, he says in verse number 14, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. And so we see death by sin. You know, go with me back to Genesis. Save your spot there in Romans. Go to Genesis chapter number 2. The book of Genesis is such an important book. There's so many important things that take place right in the beginning of Genesis that it's really something that is worth going over and over and over. Genesis chapter number 2. In verse number 16, I want you to see this. Genesis 2 and verse number 16, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof Thou shalt surely die. God had given a direct command to Adam. And we talked about it this morning. Listen, God's word is pretty clear. There's not there's not much confusion about that verse. It's pretty clear. If you eat of this fruit, the Bible says that you will surely die. Adam ate of that fruit. And listen, at that day, he died spiritually inside and he started dying physically on the outside. Sometimes we'll say, we'll kind of say joking around, well, you know, We're all one step closer to death. We really are. I mean, every day, hey, we're one day closer to death. We all have an appointment with death. And it's going to come, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. It is going to come, and it will come to every single person. And the fact is, that all stems from Adam. And listen, every person sinned, even the Bible is very clear about that, and they inherited that death from their sin. And listen, life is very fragile. If you're not aware of that, life is fragile. The Bible says in James 4.14, Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Ezekiel says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And listen, death is a consequence of sin. There's not a single solitary sinless person on this earth tonight. Every person. is a sinner. Every person has done wrong and every person as a result is facing death because death comes from sin. And so he gives us the idea that, hey, death comes from sin. In verse 14, back to Romans, I was looking at verse 14. I said, that's not there. I was in Genesis back in Romans. verse 5, he says that. He says, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses. That would be before the law he's talking about. And it even reigned after the law. But I want you to notice too, this is just a minor point, but it's interesting to look at the difference of sin. He says there in verse number 14, even though them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. And listen, sometimes we like to pride ourselves in the fact that we're not as bad as someone else or we haven't done this. Listen, the Bible is clear that even if you did not sin after the same type of sin that Adam sinned after, we're all sinners. We all have sin. And so because of that sin, we are deserving of death. So we see sin's existence. In verses 15 through 17, he does this. We see sin's existence in 13 and 14. And 15 through 17, we see salvation explained. Look with me at verse number 15. because in 13 and 14 he leaves us really on a down note. We're hopeless, that we're sinners, and that we deserve sin, we deserve death because of our sin. But in verse number 15, I love this, but not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. That last phrase is what I want you to focus on. Hath abounded unto many. He's saying in that verse, just as sin affects the entire world, and there's nobody that can escape from sin. Listen, salvation is available to all people. It abounds to many. And it's available to all people. No person escapes the grips of sin as it's hereditary. But listen, as far-reaching as sin was, so in salvation is offer. And I'm glad about that. Listen, you cannot out-sin the grace of God. I've witnessed the people, and sometimes they're convinced in their mind. They've told me, they say, well, I'm too big of a sinner. God can't forgive me. Well, listen, if God can forgive Saul who was going around and murdering Christians and throwing them in jail, then I'm pretty sure He can forgive you. And I'm saying this, that hey, God's grace is available to all people. And I'm grateful that He clarifies that. And that there's no sin that's too big for God. God is able and willing to forgive all people. And He hath abounded unto many. So we see that salvation is offered unto all people. There's not a chosen group of people. Sometimes people would lead you to believe, well, that just a select few are saved. No, listen, God offered his salvation to all people for God so loved the world for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And God offers salvation to all people. And we find that it abounded to many. Look with me at verse 16. and not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. So every time you have the extensiveness of sin, you have the gift. For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. Many offenses. We see the application of salvation. Listen, I'm grateful. that when we got saved, praise the Lord, all our sins were covered. Hey, not just part of them. Not just a select few. Well, God didn't say, well, I'll take this sin, and I'll take this sin, and you know, that's not too bad, so we'll cover those, and the rest, you're on your own. You've got to fix them yourself. No, He said all of our sin. And listen, the many offenses, all of our sin have been covered. We sang that song, that since Jesus came into my heart. We sing this second verse, and man, I saw these words and I love this. The second verse says, I have ceased from my wandering and going astray since Jesus came into my heart. And he says this, and my sins, which were many, are all washed away. That's worth singing about. Hey, to know that you have a clean slate before God and know that all my sins were washed away and before God I am made just as if I'd never sinned. We've talked about justification. Praise the Lord that, hey, the slate is clean. And even though we may have many sins, hey, they wash them away. And we're grateful. What an amazing God that would save us and wash away not just part of our sins, not just some of our sins, but He washed away all of our sins. Listen, God can save anybody. And there's no sin that's too great for God to save that person. What an amazing gift that God has given us, the application of salvation. Look with me at verse number 17. It says, for if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Listen, I'm glad this evening that He offers salvation to all people, and when He saves us, He saves us completely. He just doesn't pardon half of our sins or part of our sins, but He washes away all our sins. And then we find in verse 17 that He offers us abundant life. Look at what it says there in the middle. Much more, they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one. We shall reign in life. In other words, listen, we don't have to live a life that is downtrodden. Hey, we're victorious in Jesus Christ and the salvation that He provides for us. And we ought to have a victorious Christian life. Listen, Jesus said this in John 10.10, He said, The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Aren't you glad that God didn't just wash away your sins and say, there you go. It's a done deal. You're on your own. No, he says, you know what? I'm going to help you through this life. Hey, and I'm going to give to you abundant life. And I want you to live a life that is joyful. Listen, the Christian life is not a is not a down, sad life. Well, I can't do this and I can't do that. No, listen. Hey, I'm free from that garbage of the world. I'm free from the wickedness of sin. Hey, I can live my life in a good, clean conscience before God and say, hey, we're going through the fruits of the Spirit in the adult Sunday school class. Hey, I have joy, peace, and love and long-suffering. Why? Because God has blessed me. He's given me the Holy Spirit that lives within me that produces this fruit and enables me to live a guilt-free, wonderful life. Why? Because he saved me and he gives us abundant life and he wants us to have a life that is joyful and he wants us to have a life that's peaceful and he wants us to have a life that is abundant, as we would call it. And he says there in verse 17, and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. We've said it a gazillion times. There's only one way to be saved, and that's Jesus Christ. You can't be saved at your good work. Your good works could not wash your sins away. They could not restore your relationship to God, and they could not give you abundant life. But Jesus Christ gives you all that. Aren't you glad tonight that that's not dependent on you? That'd be too much for us to bury, to bear, to be honest with you. We wouldn't be able to carry that much. But God gives it to us as a as mentioned multiple times as a free gift. Praise the Lord for the gift of salvation. Next week, Lord willing, we'll look at the the comparison between Adam and the what Adam provided and what Jesus provided. I made a list and I was writing it out this week in my office. And and and what a blessing to know that, hey, Jesus Christ comes, came and he gave us eternal life. What a blessing. that Jesus saved us with every head bowed and every eye closed as we stand to our feet this evening. Abundant life. Salvation. Aren't you glad you're saved tonight? Father, we thank you for your great salvation. And God's sin certainly did reign and certainly did bring death. But God, I'm so great, I'm so glad, I'm so thankful that you're greater than death, you're greater than sin. God, you overcame sin, death, hell. And offer to us so great a salvation. And God, that you help us in our life with abundant life. God, I pray that you'd bless each and every Christian. Help us to be thankful. Help us to be grateful for the gift of salvation that you've given to us. In Jesus' precious name, I pray. Amen. As the piano begins to play, if God's spoken to your heart, the altar's open. Maybe you just want to thank the Lord for your salvation. My sins are gone, that song says. Listen, that's what the Bible says. that our sins have been washed away. Praise the Lord for that. That's worth praising the Lord about. That's worth thanking the Lord about. That's worth living for the Lord.