Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the FBC Eldorado Sermon Podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Taylor Guerin.
Speaker 1: I have the privilege of being the pastor here at First Baptist and I want to thank you for listening in to our sermon this week.
Speaker 1: And I want to tell you this if you're in our area and you don't have a church home, we would love to see you any Sunday morning at First Baptist, el Dorado.
Speaker 1: Will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week?
Speaker 1: Open with me to Romans 5, beginning in verse 12.
Speaker 1: Romans 5, beginning in verse 12.
Speaker 1: I'll begin this morning by reading our text, verse 12,.
Speaker 1: Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin For sin indeed, was in the world before the law was given.
Speaker 1: But sin is not counted where there is no law.
Speaker 1: Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was the type of the one who was to come.
Speaker 1: But the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, much more had the grace of God and the free gift.
Speaker 1: By the grace of that one man, jesus Christ abounded for many and the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
Speaker 1: Condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
Speaker 1: For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men.
Speaker 1: For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
Speaker 1: Now the law came in to increase the trespass.
Speaker 1: But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
Speaker 1: So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Speaker 1: Let's pray together.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, thank you for your word, thank you for the truth of your gospel that where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
Speaker 1: Lord, by your spirit, would you speak today?
Speaker 1: Transform our hearts in Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 1: In the 1740s there was a captain of a slave ship named John Newton.
Speaker 1: John Newton again the captain of this slave ship was tasked with making multiple journeys from the coast of Africa to the coast as far as North America.
Speaker 1: This great evil and wretched, dehumanizing practice of robbing the really the humanity and dignity of individuals.
Speaker 1: John Newton was at the forefront of that of individuals.
Speaker 1: John Newton was at the forefront of that to take individuals from their home and treat them as property.
Speaker 1: This was John Newton's life, this is what he knew, this is the sin he lived out.
Speaker 1: And yet, at one point in his life, christ Jesus got a hold of his heart, got a hold of him in such a way that everything changed.
Speaker 1: And not only did he become a great preacher and teacher of the gospel, he also became a very outspoken individual against the British slave trade.
Speaker 1: In fact, he published a book against the British slave trade, a book and really his personal mentoring had a great impact on William Wilberforce who eventually was the one that quite literally led to the end of the British slave trade.
Speaker 1: All of this happened because Jesus Christ got a hold of John Newton's heart and the man who was formerly the captain of a slave ship became the slave of Christ Jesus At the end of his life, or at least towards the end, as his health was declining.
Speaker 1: John Newton stated these words that my memory fades me now.
Speaker 1: But two things I remember well that I am a great sinner and Christ Jesus is a great Savior.
Speaker 1: I am a great sinner, christ Jesus is a great Savior.
Speaker 1: I've got three points this morning, and then I'll take my seat, but they're this you are a sinner who sins, you have a Savior who saves and, lastly, your Savior can save better than you can sin.
Speaker 1: You are a sinner who sins.
Speaker 1: You have a Savior who saves and your Savior can save better than you can sin.
Speaker 1: Look with me in verse 12.
Speaker 1: Therefore, paul is turning the page, but really connecting it back to what he said before.
Speaker 1: So, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned, for sin indeed, was in the world before the law was given.
Speaker 1: But sin is not counted where there is no law.
Speaker 1: Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was the type of the one who was to come.
Speaker 1: So in verse 12, we really get a chain of events that is unfolding.
Speaker 1: So therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, that sin entered the world through one individual.
Speaker 1: And as we walked towards Easter we looked at this moment in Genesis, chapter 3, where through that individual really Adam and Eve, but collectively mankind, through Adam, as Paul states sin enters into the world.
Speaker 1: And that's number one.
Speaker 1: Sin came into the world through one man.
Speaker 1: And the number two link in this chain, in this verse is this that death came through sin, that not only did sin enter the world, but through that sin death entered as well.
Speaker 1: Now we can think in terms of physical death that quite literally, adam and Eve were punished in such a way that eventually they would die, but more than that, a spiritual death, that Adam and Eve are cast out of the garden and really there is a spiritual separation from the Lord, a spiritual death that comes through sin.
Speaker 1: So sin came into the world through one man, death entered through sin.
Speaker 1: But then here's the third link in the chain that gets very personal for each one of us.
Speaker 1: And so death spread to all men because all sinned.
Speaker 1: And so now death spread to all men because all sinned.
Speaker 1: And so what we realize in this moment?
Speaker 1: That this is not just Adam's problem, it's not just Eve's problem.
Speaker 1: But the reality is this that as sin and death have come into the world, that sin and death have now afflicted in, infected all mankind because all sinned, because all sinned.
Speaker 1: And so, quite literally, we get this idea of this sin that is even within you and I from the start, because we have been so affected by Adam's sin from the very start, this kind of the age-old question do I sin because I'm a sinner or am I a sinner because I sin?
Speaker 1: Do I sin because I'm a sinner or am I a sinner because I sin?
Speaker 1: Mainly this am I born in sin and therefore, being born in sin, I have no problem acting upon that identity?
Speaker 1: Or is it the fact that I'm born quite all right, but it doesn't take long for me to sin voluntarily and therefore inflict this damaged reality upon myself?
Speaker 1: Well, I would argue this that you are a sinner who sins.
Speaker 1: That from the start, because of Adam's fall, adam's sin, adam's rebellion.
Speaker 1: From the start you are marred by sin.
Speaker 1: I don't mean to offend you this morning I'm talking to me too.
Speaker 1: It's just the fact of our reality that from the start, you are marred in sin, you are infected and inflicted with this sin.
Speaker 1: Now we also know this.
Speaker 1: You and I have no problem living up to that reality, do we?
Speaker 1: It's not just we were born in sin, but then we did really all right.
Speaker 1: So it's really not fair, is it?
Speaker 1: No, no, we were born in sin and we had zero problem living up to that reality.
Speaker 1: We had zero problem voluntarily sinning for ourselves and doing it.
Speaker 1: Quite often.
Speaker 1: Now we could be tempted to say this Taylor, that doesn't sound fair.
Speaker 1: Like how in the world is that fair that one man's act of disobedience, however many thousands of years ago, that's his problem in the garden?
Speaker 1: How is it fair that that could have such an effect on my life today?
Speaker 1: How is it fair that one man's disobedience means now I am born in sin?
Speaker 1: Well, I'd say two things to that.
Speaker 1: Number one is this let's be careful acting as if we might have done it differently in the garden.
Speaker 1: I wonder this morning if the first man had been named Taylor instead of Adam, what the condition of humanity would be like even now and spoiler alert, I've got a feeling it would look about the same.
Speaker 1: Because, let's be honest, I believe we know enough about our heart, left to its own devices, to know that if we were in that moment and God gave us this command, this one command that we know enough about, our human heart left to its own devices to know that we would have made the same decision.
Speaker 1: So let's be careful, acting like things might would have been differently, or didn't Adam drop the ball?
Speaker 1: He did, but we probably would have done the same.
Speaker 1: And number two is this to that question of it's not fair, I would be very careful saying that we don't like the idea of what an individual did very long ago having such an effect on my reality today.
Speaker 1: Our whole gospel is based on the fact that there was an individual who did something long ago that makes a great impact on everything I do today.
Speaker 1: And we'll see, just as in Adam all die, so Christ, all will be made alive.
Speaker 1: We are saved because of what someone else did a long time ago.
Speaker 1: So this is our human condition, whether we like it or not.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you this we live in a world and a culture that does not like it, does not want to consider the fact that from the start we are broken.
Speaker 1: From the start we are marred by sin.
Speaker 1: Our culture doesn't like it, our world doesn't agree with that.
Speaker 1: Our world says surely you're doing all right?
Speaker 1: Surely at your core there is, there is goodness within you.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day I'm not talking about general goodness, I mean you are all unbelievable people.
Speaker 1: I love every one of you.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day you look at the heart of humanity outside of Christ, from the start Marred by sin.
Speaker 1: I want you to put that graphic on the screen of life in Adam, if we have it.
Speaker 1: This is not a groundbreaking graphic.
Speaker 1: It's probably showing you nothing new that we didn't just explain, but just a quick picture of how this happens.
Speaker 1: That way, back in the Garden of Eden, one man's sin now going forward to all humanity.
Speaker 1: That sin has gone forward.
Speaker 1: And every one of us, every man, woman and child, we're not just sinners because we act upon it.
Speaker 1: We do.
Speaker 1: But even from the start we are born in sin and this is our story.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to say it, but you are a sinner who sins.
Speaker 1: But I want you to see point number two.
Speaker 1: You have a Savior who saves.
Speaker 1: We talked a few weeks ago about the power of a conjunction.
Speaker 1: Paul loves doing this.
Speaker 1: We talked about the old song conjunction junction.
Speaker 1: What's your function?
Speaker 1: Well, for Paul, so often the function really has eternal impact.
Speaker 1: He's so good at this of setting the scene for all the destruction in this world and then adding a conjunction that completely changes the trajectory of our eternal lives.
Speaker 1: And here he does it again in verse 15.
Speaker 1: So, leading up to that, adam brought sin and death and destruction into the world.
Speaker 1: And guess what you and I are in on that?
Speaker 1: It's our sin now, it's our death now.
Speaker 1: Verse 15,.
Speaker 1: But the free gift is not like the trespass.
Speaker 1: Gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, much more had the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, jesus Christ abounded for many.
Speaker 1: And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
Speaker 1: What is Paul's argument in verse 15 and 16?
Speaker 1: It's simple yet beautiful.
Speaker 1: The argument in these two verses is simply this If you thought what Adam did had effect on humanity, just wait until you see what Christ has done.
Speaker 1: If you thought one man's disobedience could lead mankind into sin, death and utter ruin, just wait until you see what one man's obedience can do.
Speaker 1: If you thought Adam could mar all of human life, just wait till you see what Jesus can do, that the free gift of Christ is not like the trespass, that the trespass has brought condemnation and every one of us is condemned.
Speaker 1: You and I are condemned.
Speaker 1: That's the beauty of Romans 8, verse 1, where suddenly we realize how condemned we are and then Paul breaks in to say therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but you and I are condemned.
Speaker 1: But now the free gift, what Christ has done once and for all, has brought justification.
Speaker 1: That word justification, we've talked about it the point on the map, the point in time where you and I, because of the finished work of Christ, are now counted as righteous before him.
Speaker 1: That's what the gift of Christ has done Verse 17,.
Speaker 1: For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: I like how Paul says it here that death reigned through the one man.
Speaker 1: And then he says much more will those who receive the abundance of grace.
Speaker 1: That quick phrase, those who receive the abundance of grace.
Speaker 1: Paul doesn't want you to think for a moment that what is being described here is some universalism, that everyone will be saved and everyone is under this grace umbrella of Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: Now it is our job as believers to go out and try to make it the case that everyone will be saved.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it like that.
Speaker 1: Let's go for it and let's tell everyone about the news of Jesus.
Speaker 1: But Adam's condemnation, that's universal.
Speaker 1: Everyone gets it, every human to ever walk the earth.
Speaker 1: But Jesus' gift those who have received it.
Speaker 1: Those who will receive it now live under that new gift.
Speaker 1: So let's put Adam's graphic back on the screen.
Speaker 1: We saw this that one man brought destruction into the world.
Speaker 1: It spread to all men.
Speaker 1: But now let's see what happens next, that Christ as the center point of humanity.
Speaker 1: His free act now extends forward and backwards to all people of all time.
Speaker 1: You ask, taylor, how in the world are Old Testament believers saved?
Speaker 1: I'll tell you by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and through his resurrection.
Speaker 1: That one man's act of obedience for all time has saved those who will receive him, and so the free gift now goes out.
Speaker 1: We continue.
Speaker 1: 18, therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness here it is again leads to justification and life for all men.
Speaker 1: 19,.
Speaker 1: For as by one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners.
Speaker 1: So by one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.
Speaker 1: I love, around Christmas time, singing Joy to the World, this hymn by Isaac Watts, and you may remember the one verse that says this no more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground.
Speaker 1: He comes to make his blessings flow.
Speaker 1: Does anybody know what that last line is?
Speaker 1: Far as the curse is found.
Speaker 1: He comes to make his blessings flow.
Speaker 1: Far as the curse is found.
Speaker 1: I love what he picks up on in that moment is found.
Speaker 1: I love what he picks up on in that moment that, though Adam's destruction has gone out to all humanity and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, that Christ has now, through the free gift, through his obedience, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his defeating of sin and death, has come to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found, so that there is not a nook or cranny or crevice in all of the world or human history that his grace cannot extend further than sin ever could.
Speaker 1: His grace cannot extend further than sin ever could, that His grace cannot find the one who has been afflicted by Adam's fall.
Speaker 1: His grace can find it and, lord willing, his grace will.
Speaker 1: I remember seeing the television on September, the 14th 2001,.
Speaker 1: When our president at the time, george W Bush, stood on the rubble that three days before was the World Trade Center.
Speaker 1: It was a devastating scene at ground zero.
Speaker 1: So much activity still ongoing, quite literally to try to pull life out of the rubble still ongoing.
Speaker 1: And the president stood at ground zero and he was going to say a few words and they handed him a bullhorn.
Speaker 1: But he's in the middle of downtown New York City and what is first responders everywhere.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's loud noises.
Speaker 1: If you weren't real close you couldn't hear him.
Speaker 1: This bullhorn wasn't doing anything against the sounds of New York City, especially at ground zero.
Speaker 1: But he starts speaking and just a moment into his speech someone yells from the back.
Speaker 1: He just yells out.
Speaker 1: We can't hear you.
Speaker 1: George W Bush was never mistaken for a master of rhetoric.
Speaker 1: I sometimes think he got a much harder time than he should have.
Speaker 1: I thought he was just fine, though he certainly missed a word from time to time, or even made up a word from time to time Doesn't help.
Speaker 1: He was sandwiched between Clinton and Obama and, whatever you think of their politics, they could both give a speech.
Speaker 1: And then, right in the middle, you had George W Bush.
Speaker 1: Again, media gave him a hard time, but in this moment you couldn't have told me he wasn't Shakespeare, because this man yells out we can't hear you without missing a beat into that bullhorn.
Speaker 1: George Bush looks up and says but I can hear you without missing a beat into that bullhorn.
Speaker 1: George Bush looks up and says but I can hear you.
Speaker 1: And then he said this I can hear you, the world hears you, and soon the men who brought these buildings down are going to hear all of us.
Speaker 1: The crowd erupted.
Speaker 1: Who brought these buildings down are going to hear all of us.
Speaker 1: The crowd erupted On television sets.
Speaker 1: A nation erupted Three days before this.
Speaker 1: Such a blow to our nation, our sense of safety, our sense of who we are as a nation and in this moment, the leader of the free world stands there and says evil will not have the final word.
Speaker 1: Evil, destruction will not get the final say.
Speaker 1: As we look at Adam's disobedience, as it has spread forward to all humanity, that sin and death has gone forth, we look at one who stands ready to justify and say that Adam's destruction does not get the final word, that wherever the curse is found, however deep sinfulness goes, however far you believe you are from the grace of God and the throne of God, jesus Christ stands to say my grace can go further still.
Speaker 1: My finished work can speak into your condition, into any condition, and so you are a sinner who sins.
Speaker 1: Number two you have a Savior who saves, but I'll end with this your Savior can save better than you can sin.
Speaker 1: Verse 20.
Speaker 1: Now the law came in to increase the trespass.
Speaker 1: The law came, god's glorious standard, god's commandment regarding how we should live as followers of him.
Speaker 1: It came in and what we see is Paul says that it increased the trespass.
Speaker 1: We see is Paul says that it increased the trespass.
Speaker 1: What that means is this that once God's glorious standard came, we received the law as humanity.
Speaker 1: Guess what we found out?
Speaker 1: We found out more and more just how sinful we are, because once we have a standard, we found out quickly just how much we fail to meet that standard.
Speaker 1: But it says this where sin increased, where we found out just how sinful we really were, look where it ends.
Speaker 1: Grace abounded.
Speaker 1: All the more that Paul is saying this, as we've already said, that wherever sinfulness goes, however deep it goes, christ's grace can go further.
Speaker 1: That there's no one on this planet and maybe you know these people in your own life that you would say, maybe they're too far gone.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't say those words out loud, but in the back of your mind you just think it that I know him or I know her enough that she's never going to want to have anything to do with the God of this Bible, she's never going to want to have anything to do with the grace of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And yet what the word of God says is that wherever sin has reached, his grace can go deeper.
Speaker 1: That within the kingdom of God there's no such thing as a lost cause.
Speaker 1: Within the kingdom of god there's no such thing as too far gone.
Speaker 1: And verse 21, so that as sin reigned in death, great grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through jesus christ, our lord.
Speaker 1: I grew up in a world of infomercials.
Speaker 1: You'd fall asleep watching your TV show at 8 o'clock at night.
Speaker 1: You'd wake up at 3 in the morning and they were trying to sell you a 78 CD set of your favorite songs of the 80s.
Speaker 1: And it went on and on and you were just sleeping through it and those songs were in your dreams somehow, sleeping through it, and those songs were in your dreams somehow.
Speaker 1: And the infomercial, even the commercials.
Speaker 1: You probably have bought a can of Flex Seal and you may have used it in your life.
Speaker 1: Let me know if it works.
Speaker 1: Any as seen on TV product?
Speaker 1: What is the motto?
Speaker 1: What is the cry of every infomercial?
Speaker 1: Of every one of these commercials?
Speaker 1: The cry is this but wait, there's more.
Speaker 1: Infomercial.
Speaker 1: Of every one of these commercials, the cry is this but wait, there's more, but wait, there's more.
Speaker 1: If you thought we were just sending you one of these for $19.95, we're actually going to send you a second.
Speaker 1: If you thought you were only getting a small can of Flex Seal, have I got news for you it's an extra large, but wait, there's more.
Speaker 1: What I love about verse 21,.
Speaker 1: We didn't need this text to get any better.
Speaker 1: It's already better than we could ever imagine.
Speaker 1: It's as if Paul says but wait, there's more.
Speaker 1: That not only in this life have you moved from death to life, not only in this present time has the curse of Adam's fall been replaced and overwhelmed by the victory of the obedience in Christ.
Speaker 1: But wait, there's more.
Speaker 1: Because this righteousness leads to eternal life.
Speaker 1: And not only is there more, there is eternally more in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: That the one who has been raised with Christ has been raised both now and for eternity, and so your future is secure.
Speaker 1: That where Adam's sin gave you a future of hopelessness and death, christ's grace has given you a future.
Speaker 1: That where Christ Jesus is, you will be also for all eternity.
Speaker 1: You are a sinner who sins.
Speaker 1: You have a Savior who saves, but your Savior can save better than you can sin.
Speaker 1: John Newton carried slaves from the coast of Africa to the coast of North America.
Speaker 1: John Newton would proclaim himself and maybe we'd agree the chief of sinners, the one who had been a part of much evil.
Speaker 1: And yet he would say I am a great sinner, but I have a great Savior.
Speaker 1: But in fact that is not all that John Newton would say, because John Newton was a writer, a preacher, a teacher and at one point the former slave trader even wrote a hymn that through the years has caught a little bit of popularity.
Speaker 1: John Newton wrote these words amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
Speaker 1: I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
Speaker 1: T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.
Speaker 1: How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed the former slave trader could understand what it means to be a wretch, what it means to be lost.
Speaker 1: But the slave of Christ Jesus, the one who has been turned upside down by the blessed work of Christ, knows what it is to be found to now see, knows what it is to have life in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: And Amazing Grace may be the greatest hymn of all time, the most popular hymn of all time, a hymn that people know that haven't even walked through the doors of the church, was not written by the absolute, best and brightest, the most noble, the most significant.
Speaker 1: It was written by a great sinner who knew a great Savior.
Speaker 1: That's what the grace of Christ can do, that's what the free gift of Christ can do, that, while Adam's sin brought death and destruction to all men.
Speaker 1: So Christ Jesus' life brings life to all who would believe.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be reminded of that today.
Speaker 1: To the believer in the room who knows well the grace of Christ Jesus, I pray that you would be reminded once again just how good he is.
Speaker 1: And to the one who does not know him, I pray today would be your John Newton moment, where you say I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
Speaker 1: If that's you, I'd love to introduce Jesus to you right down here.
Speaker 1: I'd love to talk to you about our relationship with him.
Speaker 1: If you want to come join this church family, if you have any decision to make, if I can pray with you about anything, please come.
Speaker 1: As we respond, I'll be right down front.
Speaker 1: Let's pray together.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, I thank you for the gospel.
Speaker 1: I thank you for your amazing grace that, though we were lost, we are found.
Speaker 1: Though we were blind, we now see.
Speaker 1: Though we didn't deserve it and could not earn it, thanks to the work of Christ it can be ours.
Speaker 1: And so, lord, if there are any decisions in this room even now, maybe one who wants to come from death into life this morning.
Speaker 1: I pray that you would do it by your spirit In Christ's name amen.