Book of Romans - Ch. 5, Vs. 5-21 (09/05/2004)

We're at Romans 5 and 6, but I want to back up to 5 .5 to get a running start.

And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the

Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time

Christ died for the ungodly. Now since Christ died, or Jesus died, it has been mandatory that the ungodly receive the

Holy Spirit. For without him you shall not see light.

And it says here, in due time, excuse me, in due time

Jesus died just at the right time, the right moment in history.

It could not have been earlier or later. That means that he was born at the right time.

It could not have been earlier or later. His mother and husband had to be born at the right time.

Their folks had to be born at the precise moment. You can trace this all the way back to Adam.

It had to be at the right time. Now let me ask you a question.

Could Adam have been made earlier or later?

Who's that on the back? Okay. David, you have it again.

Could Adam have been made earlier or later in history? Greg? Russell?

Brother David? John? So if we took a vote,

David, you'd be outvoted. No, he could not have been made earlier or later.

It had to be at the precise moment. Due time, exact time,

God is a God of mathematics, absolute in time and space and motion.

He made you to know at the right moment. One cannot accept salvation.

One can only receive it. There is a difference, and you have no choice in it.

There will be none of his children in hell, just as there will be none of the devil's children in heaven.

So, John, your good or poor witness will not send someone to hell or heaven.

I get rather upset where I used to.

I haven't been exposed to them in a long time. Preachers put in a guilt trip on their people by saying, people are dying and going to hell because you will not go out and bring them into church.

In Matthew 1 .21, we read the Lord's words in the

Greek, For he will save the people of him from the sins of them.

He will save them. This does not lessen our responsibility.

We will still have to answer for our own will. His will shall be done, for he is not sovereign, one or the other.

7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. He commends.

What does the word commend mean, Brother David? That's right.

He commends his love toward us, so that in the midst of our afflictions we may know assuredly that he will be present with us while sin reigned in us.

We have been saved from the penalty of sin. He is saving us from the power of sin.

And someday he will save us from the very presence of sin.

In Deuteronomy 7 .7, we read these words, The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor chose you, because you were more in number than any people.

For ye were the fewest of all people. But he set his love upon you, because the

Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers.

Hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of a house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, which represents the world, while we were yet sinners?

This tells us that we are not sinners now. While we were yet sinners, meaning that we're not now.

Nine. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath.

Not by him, but through him, meaning Jesus Christ. It is through that man that we will be saved.

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his

Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

And not only so, but also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement, or the sealing.

Atonement. This word comes from a root word that brings another word, and that's pitch.

And we run across this word in the life of Noah as he was ordered to pitch the ark within and without.

It means to be sealed. Seal, a die, or a signet having erased or etched letters in a metal emblem used to stamp an impression on a receptive substance such as wax or lead.

The impression so made, the design or emblem itself belonging exclusively to the user.

A small disc or waver of wax. Therefore, wherefore, has by one man sin entered into the world.

Who was that? John Adam. And death by sin.

Now I want to stop here just a moment. Death came by sin.

Now, the death of what, Greg? Well, was that the only death?

All right. So it was the death of what,

Brother David? Well, that's true, but is that all that died,

Russell? Is that all?

Dave, tell us. All right.

All right. Is that all that died? All right, the creation.

Death of the creation. It all began to decay.

Man didn't die immediately. He separated from God immediately, but he didn't die immediately.

Neither has the universe died immediately, but it started then. And it's been running backwards ever since.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.

Sin is what caused this world to die. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Now, from where did sin come? John, where did sin come from?

How did he get it? Did God create sin?

Well, let me explain it to you. Since God is

God and nothing else, we conclude that sin is the place where God is not.

You must have an opposite in order to have the present. God could not have righteousness unless there was unrighteousness.

Are you with me? God did not have to create sin, for it was there as the other side of righteousness.

When you close the door and you shut something in, you automatically shut something out.

Sin is wherever God is not. It came from God in that it is the absence of God.

Did sin enter into this world against God's will? No. From where did sin originate?

From outside of this cosmos, by way of Lucifer.

So sin is simply where God is not. Lucifer is where God is not.

He is sin personified. Any questions?

13. For until the law was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law.

Let me show you. God cannot see sin.

Is that right or wrong, John? Are we responsible for keeping the law,

Russell? You're sure?

All right. We're not held accountable for keeping the law.

So there is no sin in us from the Father's viewpoint. Do you see that?

For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law.

You don't keep the law. You're not held accountable for the law. Is that right,

Greg? That's right.

So God cannot see sin. Our Lord can.

Jesus. The Christ. If sin had never been ordained, the wisdom of God could not have appeared in overruling it.

The reasons for sin. Nor his mercy in pardoning it.

Nor his power in subduing it. God loves us not for what we are, but for what he will make us in his kingdom.

He loves us, but not complete. He will love us complete when we are complete.

Are there any questions? You're a quiet bunch this morning.

All right. We're not responsible as the

Old Testament was held responsible for keeping the Ten Commandments. Well, I haven't massaged that much, but offhand

I would say no. He doesn't see it.

And he doesn't change. Yes.

Well, it was imputed to all of us. Prior to the law, they were a law unto themselves.

You had the head of the family was responsible for passing not the

Ten Commandments, but the law of God onto Cain and Abel and so forth.

So you had the family, then you had the law, and now you have Christ.

Yes. Yes. Yes. That's right.

Yes. That's right.

See, Adam and Eve knew the fact that you were not to eat of that tree.

They didn't understand sin, but they knew they were not to eat of it. Well, there must be, there has to be,

John, a choice if you have freedom. Without a choice, you don't have freedom.

So Adam had a choice to eat or not eat.

Now, they understood there was good and evil, because that was the name of that tree. But they didn't understand the evil part until they ate of the tree.

So they were held responsible for that from the beginning. Yes. Yes.

That's right. That's right.

That's right. Now, we're held responsible for the laws of the land.

That's something else. Okay. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude or likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come.

Now, the figure of him to come was Jesus. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift.

For if through the offense of one, notice it says, many be dead.

Not all are dead. Many be dead, spiritually and physically.

Much more, the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man,

Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. Now, let me read that to you from the

Amplified Bible. But God's free gift is not at all to be compared to the trespass.

His grace is out of all proportion to the fall of man.

For if many died through one man's falling away, this lapse, this offense, much more abundantly did

God's grace and the free gift that comes through the undeserving favor of the one man,

Jesus Christ, abounded and overflowed to and for the benefit of many.

See if I can give you an example of what

Adam did and what Christ did. Now, it didn't take very much thought or action on Adam's part to plunge the human race into sin.

But when it comes to Jesus Christ, he saved every single one of his sheep with one act.

But it is as though, John, we take a pellicase, a feather pellicase, and we tear it open.

And the feathers just fly everywhere. They fly all over the world.

I thought about taking a pillow and, while I was here, to tear it open, but that would have been undue work for the people that clean up, and they would have never got it all.

Jesus, then, had to reverse that act. He must pick up every feather and put it back in the pellicase.

Now, John, how much of a job would that be for you if we had just a small pillow and we scattered the feathers?

Do you suppose you'd ever get them all? Well, I doubt if you'd live long enough to get them all.

But that's just a little bit of what Jesus did. If you look at the comparisons between what

Adam did and what Jesus did to reverse it, tremendous, a tremendous act, the task of gathering up each feather.

16. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift.

For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification.

That's exactly what the illustration shows. For if by one man's offense death reigned, and this is an active voice, by one much more they which receive, present tense, an active voice, abundance of grace, of the gift of righteousness, shall, future, active, reign in the life of one by Jesus Christ.

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.

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.

Now, the all, by all men, what does it mean?

Free gift came upon all men, therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men, and the free gift came upon all men.

David? Brother David, explain that. Yes. All right.

Judgment, it came to all men, to condemnation. Adam's sin caused the seed of Satan to be born into this world.

Even so, by the righteousness of one, all men unto justification of life.

The all in the second use refers to all of those that believe. For as by one man's disobedience, it goes on, many were made sinners.

Were made sinners, meaning they were made before, but not sinners, and Adam come along and he made them sinners.

It's rather interesting, John, that by one man's disobedience, many were made, past tense, sinners.

Did you exist before? No, he's talking about those that do belong to him.

For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience shall the many be made righteous.

Change of tense. I want you to memorize this verse. For by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.

If sin had not come into the world, we would all have been righteous. That's right. That's all that would have been born.

But Adam saw to it unknowingly that he made all that were to be born, he made them sinners.

Now, one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.

That's the group of believers. They were made sinners. So by the obedience, meaning the obedience of Jesus, many were made righteous.

This many we're talking about, before Adam, when

Adam was made, there was only one class of people, the righteous, that would come from Adam.

And Adam took that group, not the sinning group, but that group, and he changed them into being sinners by sinning himself, because we all came from Adam.

Then Christ came, Jesus came, and by what he did, as he's been talking about throughout the whole chapter, what he did was pick up every feather, the many, and made them righteous.

It has nothing to do with sinners. Have I confused you completely?

Could you explain it? Yes. That's right.

Yes. You have always belonged to God. I don't want to go on if you're confused.

All right. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound.

Why did the law come into effect, Greg? That's right.

To show me that I was a sinner. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

We've seen the example. It had to take an enormous amount of grace to pick up the feathers as compared to the one of Adam releasing them.

That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our

Lord. Eternal life without beginning, without end, that which has always been and always will be.

Eternal life. Jesus the Christ. If you're not his,

I pray that you will be. I pray that he will notify you and that I will know it because I'm getting ready to leave.

And I'd like to know before I go. But with this group,

I think you all already know it. All right. Is there any discussion now from anybody?

You've been rather quiet this morning. I would ask you to read the chapter again, the last part of it.