Understanding Humanity in Light of God's Grace

This morning as we come to a time of prayer I'm gonna ask Debbie to come on up in just a minute and normally sometimes I have you come and join me at the altar but today I just want us to open our hearts up and really pray for those that are on our list. You have it there in your worship folder. You would see that it's there. There's many needs in our congregation, many needs throughout the nation. I want you to be an attitude of prayer and again pray for Don and Carol. I asked Carol this morning if there was anything that we could pray for her and her words were continue to pray for Don. He is tired. Pray for the doctors as they're running more tests. Pray for her as she comes back today and probably is not wanting to do that but has to do that to take care of some business needs and so pray that that she would have wisdom and strength and I know you've been praying for them continue to pray for them but pray for our church. Pray that God would continue to lead us and all that we do father that it would be for his glory not for ours. So would you just join Debbie as she comes to lead us in this time of prayer. If you would please come on. Father we come to you as a group of people that believe in you and that love you. We know you're a gracious God. We know you're a loving God. We know you're all sufficient for our needs. So father we come and we lift up worship to you and we pray that it puts a smile on your face and we pray that you give us an additional dose of the Holy Spirit to come and be with us. Lord may we be mindful of what brother Keith wants to share with us. May be a vessel for your word. May we internalize it in our minds and our hearts and then go out and further your kingdom. So father with this I just lift us up to you to glorify your name. Thank you for your son and it's in his name we pray. Amen. Thank you Debbie. I'm so grateful you're here this morning. I must confess that I made a mistake this week. I know that's hard for y'all to believe that I would never make a mistake right. My weekly or daily Bible study this week has been in the book of Acts. So when I started working on this sermon for some reason I was in the book of Romans but put the book of Acts as my lesson. It's not from Acts chapter 5 today so if you've already got your Bibles there would you just cross out the word Acts and put the the word Romans chapter 5 and I please forgive me but that is all on me. I sent it to to Shirley earlier this week and I didn't catch it till last night that I had put the wrong text on there. So we're gonna be in the book of Romans today and we're we're talking about today understanding humanity. Since we are humanity most of us understand humanity right. We understand who we are we understand that we're flesh and blood we also understand that we're soul that we have a soul that we have a body we have a mind and that's who we are. We don't have to teach a philosophy 101 course this morning right. We know that we live in this world that we're part of it but we don't have to be of it. Okay that's some words I shared last Wednesday night. So today we're going to talk about understanding humanity and and some of the things that we have to deal with as believers. Now I am going to read to you the what the Baptist faith and message they don't call it humanity they just have a section that they call man and by the way if if you're looking for the Baptist faith and message you can find it at at Southern Baptist Convention the sbc.net and you can they have a link there that will lead you to it or you can just do a search on Baptist faith and message the year 2000. 2000 was the last update if you if you studied Southern Baptist history you know that our our Baptist faith and message have changed over the years we've added some things taken some things away that would relate to where we are in our theology during that time of our lives. So the last update was the year 2000 that's the one that I'm reading from Baptist faith and message. So let me just read that right quick. Man is the special creation of God made in his own image. He created the male and female as the crowning work of his creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God's creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin and to the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherited nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore as soon as they are capable of moral action they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into the whole his holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident that God created man in his own image and that Christ died for man. Therefore every person of every race possesses full dignity is worthy of respect and Christian love. Now that's a lot of words a lot of theology a lot of lot of stuff that that we need to break down but we're not going to break the Baptist faith and message down. We're going to look at God's Word this morning and we're going to talk about who we are in the light of God and there's three quick points that I want to give to you this morning. We're going to be in Romans chapter 5 we're going to read verses 12 through verse 21 but we're not going to read it all right up the front I'm going to make my point read the text and we're going to discuss the text as we go through it. Before I do that I want to give a quick summary before we get into the text about the book of Romans. The first three chapters was really written to those who were unbelievers those who did not know Christ those who needed to come to know Christ. The rest of the book is geared toward us as church as understanding who God is and who we are in the light of his grace and what faith is required of us. In chapter 4 Paul writes about Abraham and how that Abraham was made justified he was made righteous by his faith and I would contend with you this morning that the faith that Abraham had is the same faith that is required of you and me today. We must have our faith in the God of the universe the God who created us the God who made us in his own image. Not only that but he was continued in that faith as he was obedient to what God told him to do and that as a result God blessed the nation and it became an instrument of his will to propagate the gospel throughout the nations and throughout the world and God kept his promise. So as it comes to chapter 5 it says therefore in that verse 1 and I preached this on the very first night that I came to be with you after after your pastor passed away on that Wednesday night some of you will remember that I came and I spoke from Romans chapter 5 verse 1 through 8 and I'm not going to re-preach that passage of scripture but I want us to go over it real quickly because it ties in with the rest of the text. It says therefore because of Abraham and his faith okay we have been just like Abraham we have been justified by faith through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God not only so but we rejoice in his suffering because suffering produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope and hope does not disappoint us because God has filled our hearts with his love through the power of the Holy Spirit. You see just at the right time while we were powerless God died for the own ungodly very rarely will one die for a righteous man though some might die for a good man but God demonstrated his love for us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us and that is where I want to begin as we talk about that passage of scripture defines who we are and as we look at Paul kind of breaks it on down a little bit more in verse 12 and we'll get to that in just a moment let's pray Father bless this time together as we look at this passage of scripture lead us, guide us, direct us in all that we do and all of God's people said amen. First of all if we're going to understand humanity it means that we understand that one act of sin brought death one act of sin brought death that's your first fill in the blank we don't have a PowerPoint I'm going to point and it's going to be powerful ok it was brought on when Adam and Eve sinned it brought into our world it brought into our life death let's talk about that just for a moment verse 12 through 17 let's read that follow along in your Bibles if you will I'm reading from the English Standard Version 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 but sin is not counted where there is no law yet death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those who sinning was not like the transgression of Adam who was a type of the one who was to come let me stop there when we talk about the type we talk about the first Adam we talk about God's original plan God designed man in his image he he designed man so that we could reveal his glory so that we could show the world who God is he designed man in a perfect communication relationship with God Almighty and that's what he desired more than anything else but the first Adam as we've already read he sinned he created distance between him God he created a problem he broke the relationship with God the Father God the Creator verse 15 then but the second Adam let me before I get to that the second Adam then is Jesus Christ again he is perfect he will always be perfect he is the second and we call him the second Adam sometimes because he's the one that came to take care of that sin problem now so now let's read verse 15 but the free gift is not like the trespass for if many died through one man's trespass much more have the grace of God and the free gift 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 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 the life through the one man Jesus Christ God Almighty now truth is there is a lot of theology in those verses and the truth is if we were to break that down we could spend literally months just talking about all the text let me just simplify just for a few moments if you if you allow me to do that first of all Adam sin because of that separation it brought with it death and mortality it came to the realization that this human flesh would not live forever that is not what God intended God intended for man to live and a close personal relationship for eternity but man caused that separation God broke the relationship and man broke the relationship with God excuse me man broke the relationship with God because of that sin now what does that mean for you and me truth of it is the Bible tells us we're all sinners we have all sin we've been born into a world of sin what does that mean let's talk about this way when was the first time you understood that you were not going to live forever forever, when you understood that mortality had a time where it just stops. This is not a fun subject to talk about, but for me, I remember as a kid, I was already knew Christ, I'd already accepted Christ, I was 12 years old, I accepted Christ when I was 11. But at 12 years old, reality hit me pretty hard, and it's probably like that with you, it could be at several different ages, but somewhere along the way, some kind of tragedy enters into your life and you realize, because of death, there is a finality to this human body. And for me, it was my grandfather. But not only that, that same year, just a month prior to my grandfather's passing away, President John F. Kennedy had been shot and had been killed. Now for a young 12-year-old, that had an impact on my life, it had an impact on our history of the United States. It impacted our country. But I began to realize that life, as we know it, that I'm not going to live forever, and I began to worry about my own mortality, that someday, this body will die. I loved being with my grandfather. When I would go to see him, he would always take me to Enville, Oklahoma, to the closest gas station that we could find. And he always had some business to do in Enville, I'm not sure what it was, it might have been just to take his grandson, because when we would go, we would walk in and he says, do you want a grape soda? I never drank grape soda any other place, I'd wait until I'd go to Oklahoma to have a grape soda with my grandpa. And it would be one of those old machines where you slid the bottle through, you know, and then when you put the money in, you were able to pull that thing up through there and it slid up. If you didn't put the money in, you couldn't, I always tried to pull it up, you know. But if you put the money in, you pulled it up. And I drank that grape soda and I would think it was the best grape soda in the world, because my grandfather bought that for me. When he died, that stopped. I missed that. And I began to ask important questions in my life, when am I going to die? Well, obviously, I haven't yet. I'm still here, right? But I'm going to someday, and you are too. And lest we get caught up in the air with Jesus Christ and he returns, but I'm going to tell you, even when that happens, you're not going to have the same body, you're going to have a different body. Yeah, amen. And so, while it hurts and while it's crying and it's emotional, and I want to be honest with you this morning, I don't understand untimely deaths. I just don't. I don't understand, I don't always understand God's purpose at that time, why someone that is young might die or pass away. I don't understand that. I seek God's wisdom, I seek God's understanding, I just know that it's appointed unto a man once to die. We're all going to pass that way. We're not going to get outside of that, and because of Adam's sin, death was brought in to our lives. When was the first time you understood that you were a sinner, separated from God? It was way before I accepted Christ as my personal Savior at 11. It's about when I was five years old, if I remember my age, but I remember the sin. I specifically remember the sin. I was over at the next door neighbor's house, they had some older boys there, and one of the boys' name was Dewey. Don't name your kid Dewey anymore, right? Dewey, if I apologize if your name's Dewey. But Dewey was a friend of mine, and he had some neat toys in his house. He had some of those little army figurines, you know what I'm talking about, right? We got some for our grandkids at our house. I didn't have any at my house until I took one of them home to my house. I put it in my pocket, I walked out the door, I went into my living room, I sat down, and I started playing with that little toy figure. My mother said, Keith, where did you get that? Oh, Dewey gave it to me. Boy, I'm sitting on all levels now, aren't I? Not only have I stoled, I have lied, I have broke two of the Ten Commandments, and then not only that, I broke the third one because I dishonored my mother. I was a sinner. Now my mother was the righteous judge at that particular moment. Keith, you take that right back over and give it to Dewey. But mother, she knew that I had stole it, she knew that I took it without permission, and I did. I went back, I apologized, and I gave it, and I came back and got the right-handed judgment at a particular place. We're all sinners. Because of that sin that came into the world, we cannot get outside of it. We have all committed sin. Understanding humanity means we understand that we are sinners and that sin brings finality and death. But the good news is we don't have to stop there. Understanding humanity means that we understand that one act of righteousness brought new life. There's the second PowerPoint. It brought new life. Let's look at verse 18 and 19. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. Everybody say all. All men. For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the man will be made righteous. All are made righteous through Jesus Christ who come to know Him as the real and personal Savior. You know, this is where we get into some great terminology theologically. Romans 6.14 just across the way there says, for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. This is good news, folks. My daddy, and I may have shared this with you if I have, please forgive me, but it's worth sharing again. My dad used to quote John 5.24, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life. Aren't you glad we don't have to worry about death but that God wants us to have life? God restores the perfect relationship that He desires through His Son, Jesus Christ. That is why we remember what Christ did for us. He came that we might have the hope, the glory of God within our soul. Those who lived in Abraham's day and prior and Moses and the kings and the prophets looked forward to that day and by faith they trusted that God had a plan, that God desired for them to live eternally with Him. They looked forward to Jesus and now we look forward, we look back to what Jesus did but we look forward to His coming again so that someday we no longer have to live in this sinful world. We no longer have to worry about death. We can live in life with Christ for eternity. How did I understand that? How did I first understand that I needed that relationship with God? Well the truth of it is it's also when my grandfather died. You see I know because my grandfather professed it, he confessed it. He was a sinner saved by grace and I fully expect to see grandma and granddad in glory someday and I knew that there was more than, you see I was a born again believer when my grandfather died. Yes I cried, yes I missed my grandfather, yes I missed the grape soda but that's not the point. I'm going to get to walk on the streets of gold with him someday and see him again. I have eternal life. Oh you're not excited enough, everybody say amen please. That is good stuff. How do we get that? Second thing, humanity means we understand that it brought on death when Adam sinned. We understand that through Jesus Christ we have new life and the third thing, grace wins every time. Now if you listen to K-Love, K-Love, not K-Love, K-Love, K-Love, if you listen to K-Love you hear this Matthew West song called Grace Wins Every Time. Oh I just want to sing that song every time I hear it. It's just a good song and at the middle of that song it says for the prodigal son, grace wins. For the woman at the well, grace wins. Let me tell you, for me and you folks, grace wins every time because God through his mercy and through his love for us and by the way we're going to talk about compassion and love next week. You need to be here but because of his grace and because of his love he has given us this opportunity to live life forever. Look at verse 20 and 21. Now the law came in to increase the trespass but where sin increased, oh praise God, grace abounded all the more so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace is an amazing gift that God gives us. We don't deserve it, we'll never earn it but he gives it to us as a gift through his son Jesus Christ. Therefore we have been justified by faith in Jesus Christ through whom we've gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand and you'll never stand outside of it if you know Jesus Christ as your real and personal savior. It will be within you forever, for eternity, you'll walk on those streets with him. It's an amazing gift and God still desires for man to live in that relationship with him through that gift of grace. For by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, lest any man shall boast. I understood grace when I was 11 years old. God gave me the gift of eternal life and I am so grateful for that gift. I'm going to have another PowerPoint illustration over here. This is my pointer. This is going to be powerful, okay? In your notes you have three circles. This is not new. Some of you may have already seen this already but if you haven't I want to share with you that this is a way that you can share your faith on a napkin or somewhere else. I had this really nice PowerPoint because as you will see now, my wife will attest to, my writing is atrocious, okay? But hopefully I'll be able to write well enough that you can see this. First of all, in this first circle you need to write God's plan. God made us, as I've already said this morning, He designed us so that we could have a relationship with Him. His plan was that we would have a perfect relationship with us and that it would last for an eternity. But something happened, Adam sinned. And because of that, death came into the world. I lost my, lost it. Am I still there? I want you to hear this. I want to bring this one up. Okay, that better? Sin came into the world because of Adam's sin and therefore we are all sinners. The Bible says we've all sinned. sin and come short of the glory of God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And we have a broken relationship with God. If you don't know that this morning, I would encourage you to come to know Jesus Christ as your real and personal Savior. We would invite you to come and let us pray with you. I can't save you. It would be the Holy Spirit convicting you at this point saying, I'm lost. I'm separated from God. I need to be close to God. And you need to move from brokenness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We would invite you to come to Christ this morning. For some of you, you're battling humanity. You're battling sin. And you need to understand that God's grace lives in you. And you have a story to share. Why would we keep this story a secret? This is not a secret society place. We come here to worship God. We leave this place to be missionaries for God. To go and tell a world who desperately needs to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. If God is speaking to you this morning, why would you not respond? Whatever He's telling you to do, be obedient and do it. Father, thank you. Thank you for sending your Son to save us. Father, I know that we've all dealt with tragedy in our life and we don't understand it. And we go to Romans 8, 28 a lot, Lord. Because you say that all things works to the good for those who are called, who love you. Who are called according to your purpose. We don't always understand those purposes, Father, at the moment. But in time we understand that you want to use us in spite of our brokenness, in spite of our sinful lives. You desire to love us, to care for us, to use us, to fulfill your work, your purpose in life. To tell the world about Jesus. Now, Father, as we come to a time of invitation, help us to respond accordingly. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you stand with me as we have this time of invitation. There'll be folks here waiting on you. We would love to visit with you and talk with you as you feel led. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. It's 434. Go with me, I still will follow. Though none go with me, I still will follow. Though none go with me, I still will follow. No turning back, no turning back. I'm so glad that you came today. May God bless you. Just a reminder that we do have church council and a business meeting this evening. I look forward to seeing you. May God use you and bless you in powerful ways. Also this evening, there's choir practice at 730. 358, share his love. The love of God is broader than earth's vast expanse. It is deeper and wider than the sea. Love reaches out to all to bring about good life. For God so loved the world, his only son he gave. Share his love by telling what the Lord has done for you. Share his love by sharing of your faith. And show the world that Jesus Christ is real to you. Every moment, every day.