Sunday English Service – 31 JUL 22

Transcript

Please turn with me to Romans Chapter 5. Romans Chapter 5. We have a ditching a series on redemption. And we’ve titled it as Redeemed. And to learn about redemption, I think Romans is the best book to go to. So we’ve been in the book of Romans for the last few weeks because in Romans we have the greatest teaching on the gospel. Apostle Paul teaches the gospel very clearly and completely here.We have a complete version of the gospel, we have bits and pieces here and there. He summarizes the gospel in so many ways in other of his epistles also. But in Romans, he gives a complete teaching detailed complete systematic teaching of the gospel. The first Chapter, the first 18 verses gives an introduction. And after that, until Chapter 3 Verse 20, he proves that everybody stands before God condemned because of sin, that all are sinners, Jew, Gentile, the religious, the irreligious, whoever you are. He says everybody stands condemned, he says. The condemnation of the entire human race is what he talks about from 1:18 to 3:20. After 3:20 he begins with 3:21, to end of Chapter Four talks about how God takes these people that are condemned in sin, judged as sinners, how he turns them into righteous people that are accepted before God, how God makes the sinner righteous. That’s the subject of Chapter 3, verse 21, to end of Chapter 4. And we looked at all of these things, and we came up to Chapter 4. And today we want to look at Chapter 5. In Chapter five, what he does is he’s trying to tell us that whatever sin did, even though sin abounded so much, and caused a great damage, grace abounded even more than sin or another way to say this is this, sin caused the great damage but redemption is far greater than sin in power, so that it restores. And there gives back more than what is lost.

He is trying to prove that redemption in and through Jesus Christ is far greater than what sin has done by way of damaging humanity. So that is what I want to go into today. I want to read a few verses from Chapter 5. I want to read verse 12. And then I want to read from verse 15, all the way to the end, verse 21. Romans Chapter 5 verse 12, therefore just as through one-man sin into the world, the death through sin and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. Verse 15, but the free gift is not like the offense. For if by one man’s offense, many died, much more the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned or judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. You can see that he’s comparing what happened through the first Adam to what happens through Jesus Christ. What that one man did and what this one man does, what came through that one man Adam, and through this one man, Jesus Christ. He is making a comparison. Verse 17, for by one man’s offense, death reigned through the one, much more of those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign live through the one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man’s offense, judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation even so, through one man’s righteousness, or righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners. So also one man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offence might abound but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So you can see that constantly, he’s making the comparison between what happened through that one man, Adam, and what he did to this one man, Jesus Christ, and what he did, by way of redemption. The results of these two things, and constantly, he’s pointing out that what Jesus Christ has done is far greater than what Adam did, allowing sin to come into humanity, and damaging humanity, Jesus Christ has bought grace in the humanity, and has restored more than that which was lost. That’s what he’s trying to say. Now, this can be shown in three different ways. I’ll just go about showing it to you in three ways. One is, this can be seen in all of God’s work of grace, you can see it everywhere. From the beginning, all the way to the end, you can see in everything that God’s grace is always far greater than what sin has done by way of damaging humanity. God’s grace is amazing. Secondly, this is seen, particularly the redemptive history. Bible is a redemptive history, it’s a story of redemption, a man who’s lost and how God goes about saving him. In this redemptive history you see on various special occasions, God reveals this truth, and highlights this truth in a great way. Thirdly, this redemption can be experienced, and known today by all kinds of people ruined by sin. If you ask people, there are many people who will testify to the fact of how much sin had come into their life, and ruined them and destroyed them. But yet, Jesus Christ came into their lives, and restored and made life beautiful, even after so much damage was caused, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ was more than enough for every need. That is the testimony of many Christian people today.

So let’s look at these three ways. Look at it in three ways and let’s see what Jesus Christ did, and the grace that he is brought, and see how much greater it is to what sin did and what Adam did by bringing sin into humanity. Now, I said, first of all, we can see it in all of God’s works, from the beginning to the end. In verse 12, here as we began to read, we saw that Paul is saying that through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin. Today, death has become an inevitable reality of life. You cannot avoid death, everybody dies, everybody born in this world dies. Not only people get old and die, but people that are very young also die, children born and they die in one or two days sometimes. So it is wrong to say that people die because they sinned. People die not because they sinned, people die the Bible says because Adam sinned. That’s the way Bible puts it. We have to be very clear about this. It is the original sin, the sin of Adam that has become our sin, because we were all in Adam. That’s the way the Bible teaches it. We were all in Adam. We came from Adam, because he sinned, the entire human race was plunged into sin. And it is in this way that even innocent children who have not done anything wrong, who haven’t sinned at all, still died. Death has become a fact of life, not because we have done something wrong. Of course, we’ve done many wrongs ourselves, we must take credit to a lot of wrongs that we have done. We cannot say that we haven’t done anything wrong. We as sinners, we have sinned. But before we started sinning, we became sinners because Adam sinned. That’s what I’m trying to say.

That is the way the Bible puts it. So there is death everywhere. Look at the generations of our races, which have gone down to death, who slew all of these people. Sin is that wolf, which has devoured the flocks of men, sin has poison the streams of manhood at their fountain head. And everywhere they run with poisoned waters. Remember I told you the story of Dr. Lilian Yeomans of Canada, Doctor who worked there in Canada in the public health system. She was sent once to a village in Canada to see what is happening there because people were getting sick. They’re just in that village people were getting sick, getting fever and other things, and some were even dying. So she was hurried there. And she had to inspect and see what’s going on. So she talked with the leaders of the little town and asked them where their water comes from. And they said it comes from that mountain up there. So she told them to go and check, trace the entire route, and see if there is anything wrong with the water ways. And anything has happened there. So they went and checked, and they went up on top of the mountain and on the top of the mountain, there’s a puddle of water, and they found some pigs dead and laying there. For many days supposedly, like soup, it’s just those dead pigs are infecting that water. Just imagine the water coming through that is the thing that the people drink, and use for everything. No wonder they’re sick. They removed the pigs cleaned up the water and treated it and everything is fine. All diseases stopped and everything stopped. The infection happened because at the place where water originated, where it was coming from, something was wrong. That’s what happened to humanity, place of origination.

Adam, something went wrong with him. And we’ve had the streams of water through the generations running. We’ve been poisoned by this thing called sin and therefore we die that the Bible says but then Paul says but where sin abounded, sin has abounded in this way, causing great destruction havoc among humanity. But where sin abounded, grace has abounded much more. This means the redemption has accomplished much more than sin. So I want to talk about what redemption has accomplished this morning. What has redemption accomplished? Redemption has accomplished much more than what sin has accomplished. That’s our whole point today. So we can see it in all of God’s works. Let me point out a few things here. One, sin abounded in its effect upon the human race, the sense that one sin overthrew all humanity. One fatal fault, one thing that man did wrong, that easy law was violated, God said He can eat of all the fruit of all the trees of the garden, but of this fruit, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil of this fruit, you may not eat. The day that you eat there off, you will surely die, God said. Very easy to follow. It’s not like a bunch of stuff that you cannot eat. It’s just one thing out of the whole. Everything you can eat just one tree you must avoid, you must not eat. And if you eat, you will surely die. There cannot be any greater warning than that. But man violated that. And the Bible says here in verse 19, by one man’s disobedience, it’s referring to Adam’s disobedience, that one man is Adam, the first Adam, the first man, by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners. See what one man has done that one man has caused us all to be sinners. So also by one man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.

The second Adam, Jesus Christ is the other man, the one man,through one man’s obedience, many will remain the righteous, it is said. So very easy law. God said, don’t eat this particular tree, but he chose to eat the very fruit that God said you must not eat it. The day you eat, you will surely die. Yet Paul says, the man ate it and today we see the consequences of that sin on all sides. The world is full of the consequences of sin and so many ways, in our spirit, in our soul, in our body, in our work, the difficulty that we have with our work in earning and meeting our needs. So many ways, the curse is present in human life, even the world which God has created the wonderful world which God made for man is affected by sin. Yet, Paul says,“Where sin abounded grace did much more abound.” And he gives the proof of that how grace does much more abound. He says in verse 16, in Romans 5, the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. He says you cannot think of the gift, the redemption, in other words, the same way as you think about what sin has done, he says, for the judgment, which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift, which came from many offenses resulted in justification.

So look at what Jesus has done. Jesus, the Redeemer has done, he has come into the world. And that one man, Adam sinned, and everybody became sinners. This is what happened. In what way do we say now that this one man, Jesus, and what he has done is greater than what the first Adam had done, it looks like, through one man sinning, everybody was made sinner, and through another man obeying God, now many people can be saved. It looks like it’s equal, this man caused so much damage, and this man matches that and sets it right. It looks like it’s not much greater it looks like but think about this. What Jesus did is much greater. than one man’s sinned and many became sinners. But this one man had to deal with a whole lot of things. Because by the time he came, the world has been there for now,1000s of years, and human beings have lived for generations together, and have died and other generations continuing now. And there will be more coming in the future. And what Jesus did by his death upon the cross was that he put away all the sin of every man from Adam, all the way to the end of the world, the last man, all sin that have been committed by men since the first offense in the Garden of Eden, he put away all that sin. Think of this. Just imagine the weight of such sins of all the people starting from Adam to the last man is still yet to be born and he will live. All the things that we do wrong, all our sins, every sin of every man if you pile it up, I think it’ll be greater than the Himalayas. It’ll be greater than any mountain, piles and piles of sin, mountains and mountains of sin of humanity that has been in existence from the time of Adam, everything that they did, all their sin.

The Bible says in Isaiah Chapter 53, verse 6, puts it like this. Let me just read it to you correctly. This is a very important statement there 53:6 says, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. What a statement, God took all of our iniquities all of our sin. And he laid it on him just imagine mountains and mountains and heaps and heaps of sin, the Lord took and laid it upon Jesus. No wonder Jesus suffered so much. No wonder Jesus in Gethsemane told God if there is any other way, if it’d be possible, remove this cup from me. If there is any other way to accomplish this redemption. Let’s do it that way. Let’s avoid this. Do I have to carry this be murdered? That’s this mountain heap of sin. Is it really required the time was bear it? Are you going to take it and put it on me? Are you going to take the iniquity of everyone in the world and put it on me? Is there any other way to do it? The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all of us all. That means everybody, not just that first Adam’s inequity, but everybody’s inequity. There is no other way. That’s why he finally said, not my will, but Your will be done. And he goes to the cross resolutely, having decided to die, he goes and dies there. That’s why John the Baptist looks at him coming and says, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Here’s the lamb that’s going to bear the iniquity of us all. It is upon him that everything is going to be laid. And that is the infinite grace to pardon that immeasurable sin, the heaps and heaps of sin that men have accumulated over ages are laid upon him and that must be infinite grace. It must be something to bear that and put that away.

Truly one man’s offense abounded horribly, but the one man’s obedience, the obedience of the Son of God has super abounded. That way, there’s a difference. It’s not the same. What Adam did, bringing sin and damaging entire humanity is not as big as what Jesus did in bearing everyone’s sin, and putting away everyone’s sin, restoring everyone and making possible salvation for everyone. That is far greater than what Adam did. Secondly, sin abounded in its ruinous effects. Ruinous effect means look how it damaged humanity. Look in the third Chapter of Romans were in Romans, and we’ve read through the Chapter 3  verse 10 onwards, what a description of humanity. In every part of man’s nature man is depraved by sin, he has been ruined, every part of his nature, sin is like this. It’s like that. I’ve often talked about dusty coming in and settling in, you can close the room tight, so that nothing comes in, still dust comes in, it comes in through every little crevice that you can find, from every little corner. It finds his way in and it will not leave one little place alone. It will dirty everything; it will touch everything. You cannot see it with your eyes, but it’s there. Dust is there. It’s settling while you’re not see. It is doing it, you think it’s all clean? No, it’s all coming in. And settling, everywhere. That’s how sin is. That’s how sin permeated humanity, got into humanity and settled in their mind in their heart in their thinking, in their passions, in their desires. In every aspect of their being they were defiled and ruined completely. And look at the description in Romans Chapter 3 he says, “There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands there’s none who seeks after God. They’re all turned aside They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb with tongues. They have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips.”

What a description of humanity. Just the power of people’s words, damaging words, how they can hurt, how they can destroy by words. Couple of people can be talking over here 10,000 miles away, three, four families are destroyed. So much power. In the words the poison of asps is upon their lips, he says, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery or in their ways, and the way of peace they’ve not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. So every part of man is touched. Think of the havoc that sin has made of our life and everything that God gave to us. Today we don’t even know where Eden was, the very sight is forgotten. Leave alone the light that was lived there, in that beautiful place. Man was destroyed in every aspect of his being. We have gone through Chapter 3 of Genesis and showed you that it affected spirit soul and body of man. It affected the thoughts, the passions, the desires, the will of man, every aspect of his being has been affected. We showed how things in the beginning man had to just till the garden. He just has to plant to whatever he wanted. It grew and grew beautifully. Now. It’s not enough. He’s going to eat by the sweat of his brow. Why? Because thorns and thistles are growing, soaking whatever he’s trying to produce. The whole purpose of thorns is to destroy what you’re trying to do the work and its fruit, to chock it. So work has become difficult. Our life has lost its glory and immortality. The deathlessness and in perishability is gone. From dust, you came, to the dust you shall return God says, after sin had come in.

So look at sin and what it has done to our body. We talked about the woman, how that her pain in childbirth will be increased. I showed you when we talked about it, that is not just in giving birth to a child, but in the whole problem of raising a child because the child that is born is born in sin, with sin inside, defiled by sin, with the potential of turning into a terrible person. And how many people have experienced this, they’ve raised children, and they’ve turned up so bad, and they’ve been tears instead of joy. So that having a child has become a major problem, not just the child birth, but the whole rearing of a child and the bringing up of a child. The soul of man is ruined, his mind,his thinking everything is ruined. Sin has unmanned man, man is no more man. He is not the man that was made in the image and likeness of God. The crown and glory of manhood has been trampled by sin. All our faculties are out of gear. And everything is perverted, and everything is changed. That’s what sin has done. But look at what Jesus has done as the Redeemer. Jesus Christ comes as the Redeemer to redeem us from the curse of sin, to undo the evil that has been done. So what does he do? The Bible says ultimately, we are starting from salvation and bringing forgiveness dealing with our sin, bringing forgiveness of sins, and giving us a renewed mind and change of heart, and all of that, making us a new creation, making us a new person inside.

The changes that are caused inside the human being Christ is a new creation we talked about last week, new creation is a person who thinks totally differently. There is a mega change in the way he thinks, the way he lives in his relationship with God and his relationship with the world. Everything changes, three major changes, we talked about. The changes in thinking, the change in the relationship with God, the change in his interaction with the world. All of those things are there. But then it doesn’t stop there. It goes on to the change that is yet to come when Jesus comes when immortality will come so that we’ll have an undying body, and even the creation that God made for us has suffered because of our sin, and that is going to be restored back. And so there is going to be a complete restoration. But not only that, remember this, I say to you once again, that what redemption has done is far greater than what sin has done. Why? Because we are lifted up to a position far higher today than that which we would have occupied had the human race continued in its innocence. If man had never sinned everything would have been fine, and so on. But we have been lifted up to a higher plane today than where man would have been if he had never sinned. How do I say that? You see, we’re lifted up today from our sin and brought out of sin delivered from sin, and so on, through what Jesus has done. Not to be taken back to the Garden of Eden and be placed there under some pleasant shade of some tree in the garden of Eden. That’s why I said we don’t even know where the Garden of Eden was, even the site is lost. That’s how sin has affected us.

So restoration or redemption is not bringing us back to the Garden of Eden, to go and rest in some shade of some pleasant tree in the garden of Eden, but to the very throne of God. That’s how the Bible puts it. The Bible says that we have been seated together with Christ in the heavenly places at the right hand of God. And all things are put under his feet and therefore it is also under our feet. This is a position that is far greater redeemed human nature, has greater capacities than the human nature that was there in the unfallen human nature. For example, the Lord didn’t say to Adam, the word the Son of God, joined air with God’s only begotten. No, he didn’t say that to Adam. But he has said that each believer today, each believer there has been redeemed and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We have been made joint and with Jesus Christ, the owner of all heaven on earth. The person who made everything the Creator who made everything, who owns everything, has written everything in Jesus name. He has made him heir. Hebrews Chapter 1 says that He has made Jesus the heir and what He has done is, He has made us joint heirs joined us with him. He made Adam heir but Adam gave it all to the devil. So that one day when Jesus was tempted by the devil, the devil tells Jesus, if you fall down and worship me, I’ll give you all these things because all these things were given over to me. So Jesus came took back from him, and didn’t give it to another man because another man would have lost it, just like Adam had lost it. God gave it to this man who’s also God so that he is impeccable, he cannot lose it. It cannot be lost anymore. It isn’t safe hands. And we have made joint heir in Christ Jesus so that we become the owners of the whole thing, we become the possessor of heaven and earth.

So, the restoration of Redemption was more than all that was taken away from us. We got back more than what we lost. seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly places. Even the dominion of the Lord Jesus is more glorious, than that of the unfallen Adam, in his pre fallen days. Manhood is no more great and glorious than before the fall. That’s why we say redemption is far greater than what redemption has accomplished something far greater than what sin had accomplished. Grace has so much more about it that Jesus, we have gained the more than in Adam we lost. Thirdly, sin abounded to the dishonor of God. Sin abounded. The Bible says sin abounded. That means it bounded with a purpose, to dishonor God to bring dishonor to God. Try to put yourself in the position of Satan at the gates of Eden on the day when he came and tempted Adam and Eve so that you can understand this mind and his evil nature. He had become an enemy of God, he hates God, Satan is the biggest hater of God because he has been thrown out of heaven. He wanted God’s seat, he wanted the throne of God, he wanted to sit there. But he was thrown out of heaven. And when he saw this newly made world and saw the two perfectly pure human beings, happy creatures were placed in it. He looked at them with envy and flirted somehow to do some mischief, to spoil their happiness. I believe that when God said to Adam, you can eat of all the fruit, of all the trees of the garden, but none of this one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the day that you will eat, you will surely die. Satan probably heard it.

And he found the gateway for him to enter there because he looked at it and said, He is telling him you cannot eat of this one tree. And if you eat of this tree, that you will die and surely die. So Satan thinks well, here is the chance for me. All I have to do is get in there somehow convinced the man and woman to eat of this forbidden fruit. And once I do it, God will have to destroy them. They’ll surely die, he has said. He’ll have to do destroy them. So God’s purposes will be undone, destroyed. Humanity will not be there. He hated humanity because they were in the image and likeness of God. He hated God and he hated humanity. Because man was like God, he thought, if I can get in make man to do what God has forbidden him to do, then he will be punished and he’ll die. And there will be no more humanity. If God doesn’t do what he said, if God doesn’t kill him, and if man does not die, like God says, then God, and His Word will become worthless. The whole world will know there is a God who cannot be believed, He will say things, but He will never do it. He said, the soul that sins shall die. But He let that guy go. He sinned, but he still lives. So he cannot let him live. In order to save his name, He must keep His word. And the if He kills man, let him die, there won’t be any humanity anymore. And this is how the devil was plotting and scheming and working. But in his plan of redemption, God overcame all of this.

In Chapter three, that is why we read about this, when God made the sinner righteous. It’s talking about how God made sinner righteous. He made them righteous in such a way so that God will not be just someone who makes the sinner righteous, but he will also be righteous. He should be righteous as well as make the sinner righteous. It is not enough for Him to make the sinner righteous. He must be righteous, He need to prove these two things, He must make the sinner righteous. If He kills man and let him die, then He has no more humanity. That’s it. So He cannot let him die, He must let him live. He must somehow find a way to forgive his sin. But He cannot just let him go without killing him because He said the soul that sin shall die. That’s God’s principle, God’s law. So He must give the punishment yet He must save man. He must kill him yet to allow him to have eternal life. How is that possible? He just forgives him just like that. Then He will be considered unjust, unrighteous, because he’s not living according to His word. He is not doing that which is right. How did God deal with it? That’s the glory of Calvary. Nobody knew how God was going to deal with it. They didn’t know that in the eternity past, before God even made the world before anything was made, God had already got Jesus His Son, His eternal Son of God, to agree to come down as the savior of the whole world. That’s why he’s called the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. It is all set, from eternity past, it has been decided that his son, the only begotten Son of God, will come down into the earth to redeem mankind. All plan was ready already before He made man. Before he made the world, this was already ready. Nobody knew it. And He executes that plan.

The Son of God comes, he takes the sin of the world upon himself, he dies on behalf of entire humanity, he becomes the second Adam, he becomes the representative of the human race, and dies on their behalf, so that they can be made to go free. Now, God says in Romans Chapter 3, He says, now He has become the just and the justifier. He has become both righteous, and the one who makes righteous. He does not simply make righteous, the people. He is righteous, first of all, and He makes people righteous. So Satan was a big loser in this whole scheme. He wanted to show that God is unrighteous. If God didn’t punish sin, that he will be unrighteous. That’s what he wanted to make the point. But he could not because God proved that He was righteous. And He also makes sinners righteous in the right way. So this is what Jesus has done. He wanted your dishonored God’s somehow, bring great dishonor to God. But what happened as a result of what all that happened in the plan of salvation is this. Instead of dishonor God got more glory and more honor. More honor, more glory than if man had never sinned.  Before man have you ever sinned, God was glorious. He was honorable. But He now has more glory and more honor because of what He did in redemption. He’s more honored in the redemption of man. How? Because now He’s seen as the just, and the justifier, righteous, and the one who makes others righteous. He is now seen as the God of great love. He is now seen as the father, who will not let His children perish. He is now seen as one who will do anything for the salvation of mankind, he will sacrifice his dear son. He displayed such majesty of His justice. He displayed His justice in a such a splendorous way, I would say. He displayed the glory of His grace in such a way through the great sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

The Bible says in Ephesians, Chapter 3, there’s a very interesting portion in verse 10:11, and 12 Ephesians Chapter 3, that angels and principalities and powers are still in wonder. What we are preaching today is how they learn about the whole plan of salvation. There in Chapter 3 of Ephesians, is an interesting passage where he talks about the purpose of the church. What is the purpose of the church? It says there, in Ephesians 3 in verse 10, talking about the church, it says, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God made known by the church, to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. In other words, the angels of God did not know what was happening at all, they were they’re involved in creation and involved with all the saints of God in the Old Testament, interacting with them being sent by God as messengers, many times they were doing this and that. The angels of God were involved in all kinds of activity. If you read the Old Testament, and all of a sudden, there they are involved in going announcing to Mary, that she’s going to bear a son, and she says, how am I going to bear a son while I’m not even married. And the angel says, well, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will bear a son, he’ll be the savior of the world. He will forgive people of their sins and so on. They proclaimed it, as they were told, but they didn’t know what was happening, how it’s going to happen. When Jesus came into the world, they’re probably wondering what God is doing, sending his eternal son here. And when particularly when he was persecuted when he was spit upon when he was beaten when he was handed over to die. When he was hanging on the cross, the angels wondered probably why did God allow all this? Why is not God intervening and saving his son?

No answer came to them. No one was told, no angels were told what was happening. When he died and was buried angels are wondering what happened to the eternal Son of God, he’s dead and gone. How did God allow his son to die? And then on the third day, they were told to move the stone not so Jesus can come out, but others can go in and see that he’s not there anymore. And they were simply sitting there and telling everybody coming by, he is not there. Why are you searching him here? He’s not dead. He’s alive. Even then, they didn’t know what was happening. Why all this happen? Why did he have to come? Why did he have to die? Why did God allow this? Why did he raise him from the dead? Yet questions, a lot of questions, unanswered questions? Have you had unanswered questions? The angels of God had unanswered questions. When the question is answered, today, when they’re hearing this sermon that’s answered. When the church is happening, when the preaching of God’s word is happening, the Bible says, there is a bigger audience up there 1000s of angels listening to the New Testament preaching today, because the New Testament preaching explains the plan of salvation. They themselves don’t know anything about the plan of salvation. They were simply messengers going carrying the message. But the church has the revelation of God’s plan. The church is now telling the story of salvation. And I’m sure the angels of God in Heaven are rejoicing over it. Then they say, “Oh my goodness. Now I understand what happened? Now I understand why I was told to stand outside the grave and tell everyone that he’s not here. He’s risen. Now I understand after hearing this preaching.”

So I believe every time he gathered here, more than what has gathered here, this balcony crowd there. The angels of God. That’s the way the Bible puts it. The gospel is an amazing gospel, God has been honored more than ever, He is glorified more than ever. Don’t you think in heaven today God is honored and lifted up and glorified more than ever. Angels have always glorified God, praise God and worship God. I think today, they praise God more than they’ve ever done. Because they understand the gospel. They understand the greatness of God, the wisdom of God, because the church is there to reveal the wisdom of God, to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, the Bible says. That is to the good angels. Fortunately, sin abounded by degrading human character. When it’s in common, why did the devil bring in sin? He saw that man was made in the image and likeness of God, he hated man, somehow he wanted to degrade man. Bring him down, cause him to be a shame on this earth. In Second Timothy, you read about mankind’s condition without God. In Second Timothy, I don’t know. There’s a famous passage actually. Some of you may not have read it. Let me read to you. Second Timothy, Chapter 3 verse two 2, for men will be lovers of themselves. Listen to this big horrible list of what mankind is like without God. Man without God is like. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without self-control, brutal despisers of good. Traitors, headstrong, hearty lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness, but deny its power and from such people turn away.

What a list honorable list. What a description of human beings, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control. Traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying its power. George Whitefield, great British evangelist, who brought about a great revival in England and in America. He said that man lift himself, that is man without God, man was unsaved, man who does not know this salvation, redemption. Man lift himself. That man is half beast and half devil. That’s a terrible statement. I mean, some people may really be upset at this. You mean to say that I’m half beast and half devil. That’s what Whitefield said. Man lift himself, man without God. Man Without redemption is half beast and half devil. And Spurgeon pick that up. Spurgeon came later on and he was a great preacher in England. He was preaching to at one time 10,000 people without a microphone. I just like to be in there. How that man preached that many people and was understood beats me. But he’s an amazing preacher, he is prince of all preacher. He preached and he referred to Whitefield, saying that he said the same thing man lift himself half beast and half devil. And he said, I don’t mean merely men in savage countries. I’m thinking of men in London, said, preaching in London. I think it refers not only to people in London, it refers to people anywhere, the entire human race. It can be applied to any place in this world, sorry if this is a very horrible description, but that’s the truth.

The horrible truth is like you go to a doctor and a doctor tells you got a terrible disease. You don’t like to hear the news, but that’s the news. That’s what the Bible says. Look at the world today and what is happening I think Whitefield was exactly right, half animal and half devil. What a description. Man without God. You want more proof you can go to the history, real human history. Have you heard of the Assyrians and I happen to read about Assyrians one time when I was preaching about Jonah, and Jonah story I was preaching about. And I was reading about the Assyrians, amazing. Such horrible people. They used to go and conquer at one time advancing and conquering great many areas of the world. They used to go and conquer and bring people under bondage, take them as slaves and so on when they killed people in war, they didn’t just kill them and leave them, just to terrorize the people among whom they established their rule and reign, they will skin a human being and take the skin and use it as wallpaper like. I mean, when I read that, I said, My God must be animals, which human beings will stand there and watch as a human being is skinned, and his skin is used like a wallpaper to decorate the pillars and so on. If they have to be animals or devil, only the two not human beings. A normal human being when he sees some blood itself is unable to take it. These guys not only killed but they skinned people, use the skin to display the skin so that the entire area will be terrorized by them, they’ll be shuddering at just the name of these people being mentioned.

Not only them if you read history, the Romans, the Greeks, the Spanish, the English, all of them had their share. They’ve all done damage in their own way. All human beings would feel was right, without God, are half beast and half devil. Terrible description, but a true description,has any other creature except the fallen angels ever been so cruel, has any other creature other than the devil been so cruel, so mean? Look at the villains and monsters that sin has produced in our world in the human beings, there are monsters, you look at them and you wonder, are you animal or man? Are you the devil or man? That’s the way there are people behaving out there. And what has Jesus done by his redemption? Look at this. This is why I say redemption has achieved far greater things than what sin has. Sin damaged, and ruined man to such an extent, degraded man to the point of making him like an animal and devil. What Jesus has done through his redemption is you can see, I’ve heard a number of testimonies of men that were horrible, just like these devils, just like these animals. People that lived like these animals and devils have turned to Christ and have been completely changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and by the word of God, and turned into holy men and women of God. Have you heard testimonies like that, of horrible people? That had been turned into holy people, good people. I say that is why redemption, I say has achieved much more than what sin has achieved. Sin can ruin, make man like an animal or devil but redemption and restore the image of God back in man and make man like God. Where sin abounded grace has much more abounded.

Another thing is sin abounded to the cost of great sorrow. Sin came in and the devil brought sin in why because he didn’t like the human beings living happy and God has put this man in the garden and everything is fine. Everything is going wonderfully well. He wanted to introduce sorrow into their lives. And look at the dark abyss of sorrow today, which have opened in the world since the entry of sin into this world. World has become a place of tears the world of world has become a place of bloodshed. Blood is spilled everywhere. But what God’s grace has done is God’s grace has produced a new kind of joy. The joy that is called the joy of repentance. Satan tried to introduce sorrow, but God turned that around through redemption. Now there is the joy of redemption, which man would have never experienced if he had stayed in an unfallen state, in the Garden of Eden that joy was never known, the joy of repentance. They didn’t know what repentance was, there was no need for repentance. They didn’t know the joy of repentance today, people have experienced the joy of repentance more than that, in heaven there is joy for one sinner that is saved, it seems, Angels of God are celebrating one sinner that is saved. That joy was never known in heaven until redemption came, until man fell into sin. And until God chose to redeem man and showed his love. Today, heaven is rejoicing for the sake of one man who has come to Christ. I would even go as far as to say God himself is experiencing a joy that He has never experienced before.

Look at the story of the prodigal son, the son takes half of his wealth goes and squanders it and becomes literally a beggar and goes finds a job to mine pigs. And pigs have been given food to eat, but he doesn’t have anything to eat. He sits there and ponders about his father’s house and he says, in my Father’s house, even my father servants are eating better, why should I somebody else, I’m going toget up and go back to my father and tell him, I’m not worthy to be your son, accept me as your servant. And he comes approaching the father’s house, the father is already waiting, I think, because he sees him far coming approaching the house and he runs towards him and hugs him, embraces him, kisses him, welcomes him, puts the ring on his finger, puts a new shoes on his feet, and what’s new cloths on him and tells them to kill the fatted calf, and makes a big party, and the food is ready, invites the musicians to come and people are singing and dancing, and really celebrating this coming back of the son. He said my son was dead but now he’s alive, he was lost and is now found. Come let us celebrate. That’s the story of the Heavenly Father, that Jesus was telling. The Heavenly Father, I believe has never known a joy like that. And would have never known a joy like that If man remained in an non-fallen state. The devil meant it for evil. He brought sin in to destroy humanity to destroy God, to hurt God, and hurt God’s plans. But God turned it around to His own honor to His own glory. And to that brought into existence, this new kind of joy, the new kind of happiness and so on.

Now, you can see that the redemptive history also the redemptive history in the Bible, there are occasions in which specially this is revealed that grace is greater than sin. What sin has done is nothing compared to what grace has done. Grace is far greater. One great example is the giving of the 10 commandments. God invites Moses into the mountain and he goes into the mountain god gives him the 10 commandments written with his own fingers. What more do you want? The Jewish people thought this is great. No other people in the whole world had ever been given by God handwritten commandments of God on a stone. Moses got it. But not only that, along with the 10 Commandments, God gives Moses clear instructions about what is called the tabernacle. God told him to build a tabernacle. And Moses must have wondered what in the world is this? He gives him the measurement. He gives him the materials to use. He gives him the exact description, it must have a place of sacrifice, where blood can be shed. It must have a [inaudible – 00:59:45] it must have a candlestick, golden candlestick and it must have the table of shoe bread and all these other things and it must have priests with their splendors garments. The whole system of sacrifices. Before that, there was no system of sacrifices. Individuals here and there did some sacrifice because they had the revelation of the sacrifice, but there was no system of sacrifice. Sacrifice system came. Why It came because when the law was given, the law was not given to save man. The law was not given to bring man and make him righteous before God. The law was given in order to prove to man that he’s a sinner.

And if man is proven that he’s a sinner, then what’s the answer? You need to have the answer. And that is there in the tabernacle, the sacrifice, the shed blood, the animal that died in the place of this man shedding its blood, giving its life so that people looked at the sacrifice that was killed on their behalf and went home in peace saying, well, my sins are forgiven. This is a whole teaching on what Jesus would do as the lamb of God on the cross of Calvary, which is greater. The law that accuses men and condoms them or the sacrifice that restores man to God and forgives man sins and brings man to God. Romans 8:3 says what the law could not do, God did by sending his son Jesus Christ. Which is greater. What the law could not do. The law could not be greater than Jesus and what he has done, certainly what Jesus has done is greater than what the law has done.The Jewish people could never understand it. They thought they took the law and put it on their head and they were proud of that. Law is the biggest thing. Oh, we got the law, they said. Well, there’s something greater than the law there. That is Jesus Christ and the sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. Look at the history of the people of Israel, how many times they’ve gone wrong and as a nation, they rejected God. Remember they stood outside Pilate’s house and Pilate washed his hands and said, I find no sin in him. I find nothing wrong with him. They said, no, no release Barnabas, that big criminal. Release Barnabas, we want Jesus to be crucified.

His own people, the covenant people of God, the children of Abraham said, we want him to be crucified and they crucified him, but even there, sin abounded.That’s why they said that. Sin was abounding through them. Sin was doing its work, such hatred on their part, on one who’s so innocent. Sin was abounding, but grace abounded much more because when they took him and put him on the cross and killed him and all that, after that, nobody ever talked about Pilate, this governor or nobody ever talked about Caser the high priest. Everybody all over the world is talking about Jesus and his love and his great sacrifice on the cross of Calvary because what he has done is greater, much greater, far greater than what sin has done. Yeah, sin made them do that, crucify him, but the grace of God has brought salvation and after that the gospel was preached and imagine who were the opposers of the gospel. The Jewish people were the opposers of the gospel. Everywhere the gospel was preached, they were the ones that were giving trouble to Christians, shutting down churches. Paul was brought in, in his pre-con conversion days from Tarsus to deal with this matter. They wanted to bring a man who zealous even to kill and he did. He’s the one that organized Stephen’s killing. He was in business of going and shutting down churches, catching preachers and putting them in prison and so on, working against the church. But then he himself turned to Christ. He started preaching and the Jews started hating. Everywhere he went, there was opposition. They threw him in prison, beat him so many times.

At one point he just told them, I’m never going to come back to you again. I’ve tried, I’ve told you, but you’re not listening. I’m preaching Christ to you from the Old Testament, I’m preaching everything that the Old Testament says is pointing to Christ. You’re not willing to listen. I will not come to you. This is it. I’m turning away and going somewhere else. Where does he go? To the Gentiles. That’s how we got in. Sin abounded and caused the Jewish people to reject the gospel, but grace abounded and turned the gospel toward the Gentile world, which is far greater and the Gentile world back in those days was a horrible world. When the Romans ruled, people were living in such steeped in such sin and ancient history tells us of all that was happening, the wild things that was happening throughout the world that was governed by Rome in those days.And God sent the gospel among them. Paul goes among this Gentiles who never had the 10 Commandments. There was no law to check them. They never had any restrictions. They’re just out loose to live as they’d liked. Paul goes and preaches the gospel and so many people believe in the gospel. Churches are started everywhere. Church like Corinth a horrible place, but churches were started there. People in that culture of sin and all kinds of things come and join the church. They’re transformed, changed gloriously and it went on until the entire Roman Empire became Christian.

Sin abounded, but grace as much more abounded. But more than that, when we preach about how grace has done much more than what sin has done, we always refer to some of the men and women in the Bible. I preached about abounding grace recently and I refer to, I preached on some of those men and women. Who do we refer to when we want to talk about the grace of God? Men like David, one of the worst sinners. He has been involved in adultery, murder, all kinds of things. Should such a person be blessed so much? Should he be made king? Should he be elevated to such a position? God did because where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Sin ruined him. Sin got him into those sins. Sin and its power pulled him down and made him like an animal and a devil committing those sins. But grace abounded much more. It elevated him so that later on he came to be known as a man after God’s own heart.We talk about Peter; we always talk about how he denied Christ. Peter denied Christ. Well that’s the Peter that was elevated to number one position in the church when the church began and he was the chief apostle and he was heading the church and God used him mightily. We talk about the thief that was on the cross. He’s a thief. But Jesus turned to him and said, this day you’ll be with me in paradise. Today, just like he told Zacchaeus,today salvation has come to your house. Everybody would’ve wondered, how can salvation come to this crook’s house? How much money he is taken from people, how he has looted people, how he has charged exorbitant taxes and burdened people and done so much evil? How can salvation come?

God says, that’s grace, sin abounded, made him do all those things. But grace is abounding today.That man is converted. He says, I’ll give half of everything that I have to the poor. If I’ve taken anything more than what I should have taken from anybody, I’ll give them four times as much. That’s conversion. Nobody will do that, unless they’re truly converted. Jesus says, salvation has come to your house today. Jesus changes people. The power of God changes people. The worst of people are changed by the power of God. We have Saul of Tarsus was involved in killing Stephen, arresting so many people, troubling the church. The church shattered when they mentioned the name Saul.If God took him and made him the greatest preacher of the New Testament church, he preached the gospel all over the world and he made him write half the New Testament. That’s grace, abounding. Sin abounded, caused him to do all those things but grace abounded did much more. Amen. Let me say this in closing, this is true. In the case of each and every one of us. Today, we have all kinds of people. Some of us sinned, out rightly, boldly. We were not hiding behind anything. we were proud of our sins. We said, well, it’s my money, my body, my wish. I like it, I’ll do it. That’s the way we lived. People thought nobody can change us. We acted against God, did things against God and the things of God. But today we are here.  You know that you are here because of the grace of God. You have experienced the grace of God. And if there is anyone here listening to me here or listening from anywhere and you’re saying, I’m such a sinner, I don’t care about anyone. I’ll do whatever I want, whatever pleases me, I’ll do it. I’m not scared of anybody. That’s the way I live.

I’m telling you where sin abounds grace does much more abound. I’m telling you my friend, when the grace of God comes to you, whatever sin has done to make you so hard and so difficult a person, grace will melt you and give you a new heart and change you if you will turn to Christ. There are people that have been raised better. People like us. We were raised to praying and singing and reading the Bible and everything before we knew anything, before we read any book, we read the Bible and we read the Bible so many times, that’s the way we were raised. But yet sin came in. Sin is a terrible thing. It’ll just come in.It’ll catch a hold of anybody.

Draw anybody, ruin anybody. But look what God’s grace has done. God’s grace comes in and converts such people and makes them useful people, blessed people to bless others. There are people that may say, well, I try to live for God, but I’m not able to live for God. Sins power is too much in my life. Sin is always drawing me. I’m not able to quit sinning. I’m not able to quit this habit that habit. Sin is ruling over me. I’m not able to do anything. I want to give you one verse. Take it today, Romans Chapter 5 verse 20,where sin abounded, grace did abound much more. So from today, don’t say sin is abounding.Say grace abounds much more. And the Lord Jesus Christ told the apostle Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. And I say to you today, the grace of God is more than enough for you. It’ll cause you to live a victorious life. Just turn your heart towards God. Allow the grace of God to do a work inside of you, to cleanse you, to wash you, make you clean, and give you the power to live a life for him. Because where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.

You’ve seen sin abounding, but you’re not believing that grace abounds much more. Believe in the grace that abounds much more, praise God for the grace of God that is available to you through Jesus Christ.The grace of God will set you free. The power of God’s grace will cleanse you, wash you, make you whole and make you a new person. Let’s all stand up together. Let’s lift up our hands and give thanks to God for the grace of God we have experienced most of us here, seated here, standing here. You’ve experienced the grace of God. You know he power of sin, but the power of grace. The power of grace is greater. You know what sin has done, but what redemption has done, what it has achieved. It has achieved far greater things than what sin has achieved. Thank God for the victory that you and I have through Jesus Christ our Lord.