Angelic Conflict part 299: Reigning in life – Rom 5:12-21; 10:8-9; Isa 51:1-2; 53:4-6; Psa 50:7-12.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 299: Reigning in life - ROM 5:12-21; 10:8-9; ISA 51:1-2; 53:4-6; PSA 50:7-12.

 

 

ROM 5:20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

 

/HEB 7:18-19

For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.\

 

The time of the Law is called the ministry of condemnation:

 

2CO 3:9

For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

 

Our text sums it up: "The law entered that the offence might abound." It is possible to stifle conscience when no law is prodding the sinner. But once the law has entered, we can do nothing but transgress it, and the law prods us, cries out against us, arouses our consciences, so that we comprehend that we are indeed sinners. Breaking the law reveals that fact to us.

 

The proud, boasting, complaining people of Israel, who had been the objects of so much grace, thus exemplify all men everywhere. Works cannot save. Law cannot subjugate the human heart. Law cannot subvert the human self-will. Law bestows no power for keeping it.

 

Broken by such failure, the heart must turn away from itself and its efforts.

 

Broken by failure, the human will must turn away from itself and its efforts and the guilty sinner must see that God desires to bless, but in His way - freely, by grace, to the sinner who is justified in Christ.

 

Believer's reject grace because they don't comprehend what God has given. Many look at the material things as the only blessings and ask, "Well if it's free then where is it?" What they fail to see is that the material things are nothing without the spiritual first. I could have wealth, promotion, romance, etc. and completely lack the ability to enjoy it, appreciate it, and cherish it. What good are material things if the heart is not transformed into conformity with the resurrection life that is freely given in Christ? If a believer is ignorant of resurrection life, or reigning in life through soul prosperity then he can only conclude that grace has to be associated with the material, beyond the wonderful grace gifts of receiving what you need.

 

Believer's also reject grace because of their addiction to self-reliance. They just simply choose to continue to see value in their flesh and so desire to contribute that value to God, but it has no value at all.

 

Grace super-abounded all the more which means every man has received the gospel that has shook heaven and earth, and every believer has received the full inheritance of Christ.

 

Believer's who reject grace for whatever reason have received and continue to receive God's gifts and they fail to see or recognize them.

 

The Jews in the early Church are a prime example of this. They knew their OT prophecy and typology and they failed to see its value or recognize that it pointed directly to Christ. They would shout out every Sabbath, "Shamah Yishrael, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Echaad," and fail to know what it meant.

 

ROM 10:8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" —  that is, the word of faith which we are preaching

 

ROM 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved

 

In the same way, the believer who fails to seek and understand the grace of God is blessed but he fails to see it. We are all blind in ways, but in time we will see all of it if we stick with the perception of doctrine.

 

If blessing is to be abounding and free, then man must recognize and admit his own nothingness. 

 

ROM 8:32

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

 

Thus we see ourselves guilty, debtors, bankrupt. So we return to the one source of supply in all the universe:

 

ACT 4:12

"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved."

 

ROM 5:20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

 

John Bunyan, famous for writing Pilgrims Progress, wrote an autobiography called “Grace Abounding for the Chief of Sinners.”

 

In the Publisher's Foreword

Grace Abounding is an autobiography that begins with guilt and despair and ends with a heart "full of comfort," a thankful heart for "grace abounding." [Publisher's Foreword]

 

When sin reached its high water mark, grace came in and flooded the world.

 

The first great point about grace is that God never withholds grace because of sin.

 

God does not withhold grace because of sin.

 

The fundamental idea of our text is that no dam erected by sin can stop the flow of God's grace.

 

God did not withhold His grace because of Adam's sin. Instead, He made great promises of grace, announcing that the Messiah would come, the Deliverer, the Seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would destroy the destroyer and bring man back into fellowship with Himself. Although man lost the garments of light which had been his covering and although he sought to cover his shame with fig leaves, God intervened in grace and clothed the guilty pair with coats of skins, in the very garden where they had rebelled. The first blood ever shed upon this planet was shed by God Almighty to provide covering for the man and woman who believed His word about the redemption that would be provided. Grace was not withheld because of sin; grace was given in spite of sin.

 

Man at one time had one language built a great tower in the plains of Shinar and attempted to organize himself without God, Gen 11. God confused their language and spread them out, as He had already commanded them to do. Yet in Gen 12 God stoops down from heaven and calls one man to Himself, a man through whom He would bring the Messiah.

 

ISA 51:1 "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,

Who seek the Lord:

Look to the rock from which you were hewn,

And to the quarry from which you were dug.

 

ISA 51:2"Look to Abraham your father,

And to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain;

When he was one I called him,

Then I blessed him and multiplied him."

 

Abraham was a devil worshipper from Ur, where his father was a priest of the moon god, a demon god and demonizing religion, but that did not stop God from calling him. We were all called while in sin and under the sentence of death.

 

EPH 2:5

even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)

 

Grace is never withheld because of sin. All men have been called by the gospel in common grace.

 

The sin of man could have surely reached its pinnacle when Christ was crucified. The Sanhedrin condemned Him on the basis of false witnesses at an illegal trial. The beat Him, spit on Him, mocked Him, pulled hair from His beard. Jews in the square shouted for Him to be crucified. The Gentiles, the Romans, condemned Him, beat Him, whipped Him skinless, put a crown of thorns on His head and mocked Him. The Roman team of executioners nailed His hands and feet to a cross and displayed His shame publically. Did this stop the grace of God, a manifestation of His love?

 

In fact, not only would He die for every one of their sins, but through His finished work, He would offer every one of His executioners His very inheritance.

 

Don’t ever think you’re any better. We are all made of the same miry clay. All mankind have gone astray, all of us are under death and sin and it is only through Him that we have anything of worth.

 

LUK 20:7

"But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, 'This is the heir; let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours.'

 

The religious Jews sought to protect their underhanded investments in wealth and power. The religious leaders were able to convince the Romans that Jesus was a threat to their empire and especially to Pilate's life. They were all trying to protect their earthly investment, their inheritance in an unstable kingdom doomed to destruction. Yet Christ not only paid the price for their sins, but He offered to all of them, as well as to all the human race, His inheritance, which is unshakable, eternal, and more glorious than all earthly inheritances combined.

 

HEB 12:28-29

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.

 

When the Jews in the wilderness complained of having no water, God instructed Moses to go to a certain rock and to strike it.

 

ISA 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,

And our sorrows He carried;

Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten of God, and afflicted.

 

ISA 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,

And by His scourging we are healed.

 

ISA 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,

Each of us has turned to his own way;

But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all

To fall on Him.

 

Water from a blow, healing from a scourge, eternal inheritance from a failed earthly one - sin and failure never stops abounding grace.

 

God chose Saul of Tarsus to be His apostle to the Gentiles, to be the greatest church builder of all time, and to write over half of His NT and almost all of His mystery doctrine. Saul was the greatest sinner of all time. Sin does not stop the grace of God.

 

1TI 1:15

It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.

 

John Newton, the man who wrote Amazing Grace, lived a fairly crazy, rebellious life, but through the grace of God became a pillar in the Church of England, the chaplain to Parliament, and even preached to the king.

 

He wrote his own epitaph and in it he wrote these words:

 

In evil long I took delight,

Unawed by shame or fear,

Till a new object met my sight,

And stopped my wild career.

 

I saw One hanging on a tree,

In agonies and blood,

Who fixed His loving eyes on me,

As near His cross I stood.

 

Sure, never till my latest breath,

Can I forget that look;

It seemed to charge me with His death,

Though not a word He spoke.

 

My conscience felt and owned the guilt,

And plunged me in despair;

I saw my sins His blood had spilt,

And helped to nail Him there.

 

A second look He gave, that said,

"I freely all forgive.

This blood is for thy ransom paid.

I died that thou mayest live."