The Gift of Grace

All right, well, it's good to see you all here, welcome to the Baptist Tabernacle. We're excited to be in service here this evening. Trust you had a good week thus far. And let's all stand. We're going to get started by singing page number two hundred and thirty four. I know who I believe. Let's sing it out together on the first, second and the fourth.

I know why God's wondrous grace to me.

He has me. No. I unworthy Christ in love, me

take me for

his own, but I know I am really bad and I am persuaded that he is

able to keep that which to committed to him

against that. I know don't know the same thing. Or I'll be leaving in his

work for

me, smooth and my course, but I know the line I believe in

and I am persuaded

that he is able to keep

that which I've committed unto him

against that. I know, not on my own, it may come at night on New Day. Or if I the Balwyn and. But I know. I believe and

I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that.

Hey, man, good singing. All right, let's go to Law and order prayer. Ask his blessing. Our time together here tonight, The Heavenly Father. We thank you for the day that you've given to us. Thank you for all the folks that are here tonight. God, I pray that should be with each one that is here this evening and bless them, uh, for their faithfulness, because those that are watching on live stream, you will continue to watch over and protect them. I'll be with those that are hurting tonight and our church family. You bring comfort and peace to their homes, our Lord, and that you and help us all to lift up will lift one another up in prayer as we go through these prayer requests later on in the service. In Jesus name last, these things. Amen. Thank you. May be seated. A couple of announcements for you. Some things coming up. First, this this coming Saturday, our teenagers are going to be going on a hiking trip at the Redbud Valley Nature Preserve, they're going to leave the church at nine forty five and be back around twelve thirty. I believe all they need to bring is a water bottle with water in it. OK, so make sure you get that part in there, April twenty, first, we're going to be having another one of our missionaries, one of our veteran missionaries. Back with us, brother Walter Clark and his family missionaries to Germany. They're going to be giving a report here in the Wednesday night service. And so make plans to be there for that. I just had some really great missionary testimonies this year already and looking forward to hearing some more updates April. Twenty third, we have a senior adult activity. Senior adults will be headed to the Shepherds Cross Sheep Farm that'll last from 10 a.m. through lunchtime. There's Only Cost is a five dollar donation, which is recommended to the farm. And this will be this activity will take the place of the normally scheduled retreaded meeting, which would have been on April 30th. So April. Twenty third senior adults heading to the sheep farm, May 8th. We're going to have our mother daughter brunch. This will be at 10 o'clock in the morning right here at the church. And my wife and some of the other ladies, I've been working hard on this activity and it's a great time for our ladies and always enjoy, um, be able to hear the good reports of all of you ladies getting together and having such a great time. So please make plans to be there for that. Of course, there'll be giveaways and things to take home. Great food. You're not going to want to miss that. And then May 15th, we'll have another scene activity, the teen kayaking trip. And this is, I mean, a little bit more of an involved teen activity. The cost is twenty five dollars per person. It's all day long from seven thirty to five o'clock. And there will be a meeting with Brother Matt Sunday, April twenty fifth after the morning service for any teens and their parents who want to go on that trip. So make plans to be there for that. If you have any questions, you can see Brother Matt and he'll be able to give you some more information. And then all my all of the deacons and trustees, we're going to have a meeting this Sunday. It's a little bit different. We're going to have it at the end after the service. And so we'll meet immediately after the service. And we're going to be doing a video interview with a potential youth pastor. And so if you are a deacon or a trustee, if you can make plans on sticking around after the service for that, um, brother, his name's Clarence Nettles, and we've been talking to him. Ah, I've been talking to him for several weeks, a couple of months now, actually. And then we had a video interview with just the staff earlier this week and it went really well. And so I'm excited to introduce him to our officers and give them a chance to ask some questions, get to know him a little bit better. And then if that goes well, then we'll look to have he and his wife, uh, come down here to Oklahoma and visit us that way. All of you will get to meet him. He'll get to see our church, meet the teenagers and just see if God would continue to open doors for that. So please be in prayer for that, will you? OK, good. It's a big deal and we will make sure we make the right hire when it comes to someone, they'll be working with our teenagers. And I know you'll be praying for that with us. All right. Those are all my announcements. And if you don't mind standing, we'll see a couple of more songs tonight. And we're going to sing his robes for mine. We've seen the first, second and the fourth words be up on the screen is Rosewarne Mine, a

wonderful exchange and my second Christ suffered God's rage and his righteousness. I'm justified in Christ. I live for in my place he died.

I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost for sake.

And God estranged from God. But by such love, my life is not my own. My praise, my own shall be for Christ.

How many guys are still kind of unsure about that song? All right, let's go back and sing that first verse again and we'll go to the last verse. We'll sing the first verse again and not you've been refreshed. Hopefully be able to sing it out a little bit louder this time. Ready is what's on mind.

Oh, wonderful exchange.

I suffered God's rage and his righteousness unjustified and crisi

Limbaugh in my place. I think

Tristán and. Jesus was sick and got estranged from God.

One guy says, life, my life is not my own.

My phrase final shall be for Christ alone on the last year, plus or minus such anguish and no surprise to me

was condemned as the small. Yes, though

I kurstin love to. I still be embraced

and welcomed home. I cling to Christ and marvel at

the ghost Jesus forsaken, all estranged

from God but my. My life is not my.

I praise my shall be for Christ the Lord.

I mean, we're getting one last song here. Uh. Tonight. Knockaert. All right, here's what you guys know, the song was nice and loud, here we go. He is Lord. His.

He is risen from

the dead and he is. Every shout out, every tongue

confess that Jesus Christ

is Lord in his lord, his.

He has risen from the dead

and he is. Every nation counts, every tongue

confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

and we have our men come forward at this time as we prepare to receive our Tizen offerings here tonight. And trust that God will bless you as your faithful to give and support the ministry here at the Baptist Tabernacle. And the. Hmm. As they make their way up, we'll go ahead and ask God's blessing on the offering tonight. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity we have to give back to you as you have blessed us. Lord, I pray that each one of us would honor you with the gifts that we bring, Lord, whatever, whenever we bring them, Lord, that they would be, uh, a gift that is, uh, representative of the many blessings that you have given to each one of us. But you continue to help our church to use these funds, uh, uh, in a good manner that we would continue to see our ability to minister both here in the Collinsville area and around the world, increase in Jesus name as these things. Amen. Thank you. May be seated. But. Her willingness to play for us here and they're not leaving, they're going to help with the time. Military. We think bad things about. We've got a minute to go

to help take care of people coming in here. Uh. Uh. Can you hear me?

Sounds better now. All right, yeah, there you go. All right, Brother McKay, if you would, hit the lights, appear on the platforms, would be easier for folks to see. Take your Bibles if you have them in turn to the Book of Romans Romans chapter. Number five is where we're going to be tonight. Romans chapter number five. As you're turning there, you should have received are you sure picked up a hand out there was sitting there next to the bulletins on the welcome desk, you did not get one of those handouts. If you would slip your hand up, Brother Carol will come around. Maybe we can get another guy to help him pass those out and. I really, really, really, really want you to get the message tonight, so we're going to go for the trifecta of learning styles. I'm going to speak and if you are an audio learner, you'll pick up on what I'm saying. We're going to have our slides. And so if you're a visual learner, they'll be up there. But for some of you, it takes muscle memory and kinesthetic learning is your style of learning. And so if that is the case for you, I've got a diagram that you are going to fill out as we go so that hopefully everyone can latch on to the truth. And the lesson here tonight, we are still in our series, Grace through the Bible. Grace, of course, is our theme for the year. We have received grace, so we then show grace to others. And so tonight, the title of the message is The Gift of Grace, The Gift of Grace Romans. Chapter five is What will be if you're there, go ahead and stand with me in honor of reading God's word. If you're physically able to do so, we're going to be reading in verse number 12, read down the verse number 17. Romans Chapter five. Verse number 12. Bible says this, Wherefore is my one man sin entered into the world, death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned for until the law sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Who is the figure of him that was to come. But now as the offense. So also is the free gift for if through the offense of one may be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many and not as it was by one, that sin. So is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation. But the free gift is of many offenses and a justification for it. By one man's offense. Death reigned by one much more day, which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Let's pray, Lord. Please help us. Now, as we look into your word, you give me the words that you have me to say of the folks that are here to listen and to hear their lives. Thoughts in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Thank you. May be seated. Tonight, we want to look at this issue of grace in relation to the offer of salvation, which God has made to all men. Now it's very important for you to follow along with me and let me know that you're following along so that we don't get bogged down. You don't want to get bogged down. I don't want to get bogged down. We want to get out of here in good time, right? Yes. OK, good. All right. Now, there are some people out there. Godly people, well-meaning people who believe that only certain humans are given the opportunity to receive the gift of salvation, they believe that God for some reason elected or chose some humans to get saved and others to be damned. Some of this is attributed to verses such as Ephesians one for which Brother Maciel throw out there for us, which says this Courteney's have chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Can you see how somebody might take this verse and say, you see, God chose certain ones to be saved, which means he must have chosen others not to be saved? There are, of course, many other verses that they'll try to use to support this this idea. But tonight, we want to look at a passage in Romans that I believe very clearly lays out the indisputable fact that God has provided the means or means for all men to be safe. God is not willing that. Any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, God's grace, I believe, is available to everybody. The first thing we see in our passage tonight is that with Adam as its head. All of humanity is. Sinners are sinners, is sinners. That's not right, but in number 12, if you look there, we'll see that with Adam as their head. All humans are under sin. Adam's actions in the garden allowed sin to enter into the world of our number 12 says wherefore us by one man sin entered in the world and death by sin. Romans Romans tells us that the wages of sin is death. So it stands to reason that if Adam's actions permitted the entrance of sin into the world of humanity, that death would naturally follow. From that day forward, after Adam partook of the fruit which God had commanded him not to partake of, all humanity existed under the penalty of death. We all die because we all have sinned. OK, now how do we know what sin is? How do we know what sin is? Well, according to former 13, the Bible says that the law was given to humanity so that we would know what sin was many times in the New Testament. It talks about this, how the the law was our school master. The law made it apparent what sin was and when it was present in our lives, we could go and we could look at the law and say, well, this doesn't match up with what God has said he expects. And so this must be sin. And verse number 13, Paul brings up an issue, though, that of course, the law wasn't given until the days of Moses, which was several thousand years after the days of Adam. So from Adam to Moses, there was no written law. How could men be held responsible for something that hadn't been written? Well, Paul deals with this, and I think it's very interesting. He says in verse 13 that sin is not imputed when there is no law. But right before that, he says, for until the law sin was in the world. Cinemas in the world, but sin can't be imputed if there is no law. So what happened? How can you break a rule that hasn't been given yet? Have you ever met someone who like was the cause of certain rules? I mean, there's always that one kid in class who has like rules in the school rule book that are named after him. I mean, I could start telling you about some rules that that happened at Heartland Baptist Bible College after some guys in our class did some things that they shouldn't have done, like all of a sudden, for some reason, we weren't allowed to climb up on the roof. For some reason, we weren't allowed to bring bowling balls and drop them off the roof. For some reason, we weren't allowed to crawl into the heat ducts that were built into the foundation of the dorm, I don't know why. Just I mean, just made all these rules. And, you know, when we did it, there was no rule. And then all of a sudden there's this rule. But anyways, does does the lack of the law mean that anyone who lived before the law was free from the guilt of sin? Have you lived before the law, were you free from the guilt of sin? Oh, no. No, and Paul says in verse number 14, nevertheless, even though there was no law, death reigned from Adam to Moses. Is he even without the presence of the written law, since consequences were still applicable? How could this be? Well, Paul says that even though the people of this time had not committed the same sin is Adam, they were still responsible for sins, presence in the world. We are all born. Sinner's why, because of Adam. And so even before you as a toddler, tell your mom, know for the first time, even before you push the kid in the nursery for the first time, even before you steal something that isn't yours for the first time, you are a sinner because you are under Adam, you see. And Adam, all men must die. Go to the next slide there for me, Brother Makhaya, here's what I want you to do tonight. We're going to work on this diagram that I hope will illustrate for you some of the truths connected to this passage. Here you see, of course, Adam's name and I've given you a box to write that down. If you need a pen, there's some of the two front of you. Oh. So because of Adam being the first man, the, you could say, the head of the human race, everyone that came after Adam, if you could go the next person, they're all men when they're born. All humanity, I probably should say, fall under Adam's headship from the time that they enter into this world. Now, what that means is we all inherit a sin, sinful nature. We all inherit the guilt of humanity's sin. And because of that guilt hit the next slide there for me, all of us are doomed and born under the penalty of death. The wages of sin is death is appointed and to man. Wants to die, OK, so death is a part of being a human, but it wasn't intended to be a part of being a human until Adam said. Adam sinned, sin enters into the world because of sin, death has passed upon all men. Why, for that all have sinned. OK, so sin is in the world because of Adam. Death is in the world because of sin. And all men die because all men are sinners now. God, in his wonderful mercy, has countered the effects of Adam's sin, and we begin to see this in verse number 15, Bible says, but not as the offense. So also is the free gift for if through the offensive one, many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many. You see, God has made provisions for a gift that deals with the fallout from Adam. Now, perhaps you're getting ahead of me in your mind and you're thinking, you know. Well, yeah, I mean, for the area we just had Easter. Obviously, Jesus is that gift. Jesus is the provision whereby our sins can be forgiven. His death, burial and resurrection that makes up the gospel. And through the gospel, we can have forgiveness of sins. Well, you're absolutely right in identifying the gift, and that's great. The problem that we have to answer tonight and to the point of disagreement is this question of who is that gift for the gift of Jesus Christ, the gift of the gospel, the gift of grace. Who did God intend to share that gift with? Is it, as some would say, only for the elect or is it truly for whosoever will believe? Whosoever is what I believe and what I hope to prove that to you, the answer is in verse 15, but we're going to need to employ some basic grammar skills in order to really understand this. Now, please don't be concerned. We're not going to talk about really deep stuff or just subjects, verbs and direct objects. No indirect objects, no maybe a few prepositions, no conjunct conjunctions. We're not going to get into cases or any of that. OK, so this is a part of an AR 15. You can see it right there in your Bible. Or you can look up here at the screen now and we need some help. Who can identify the verb or the verb phrase in this phrase? What's the action? B and then dead, B, dead, OK, now who is being dead? The mini, that's right, the mini. OK, so the mini be dead through the offensive one. That's that's a prepositional phrase. So but what we're looking for is many be dead. Now, the many are the ones who are doing the dying. Is it possible that we've already learned who the many are? Who are the ones that are under the penalty of death? Centers, which would be. All men, anyone under Adam, yeah, throw that back up there. All right, so the many all men who are born under Adam, that's everybody except for Jesus, they are born under the penalty of death. All right. Now, I want you to look at the next race. All right, after many of you that much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many. Now, that's kind of a long phrase there. But this has I believe I believe we call it a compound subject maybe to two parts of the subject. What are those two parts? Yes, you're cheating, you've got the answers right in front of you. Yes, we have grace and we have gifts. So it's the grace of God and the gift by grace. So grace and gift are the subjects. What is the subject doing? It's a bounding. Grace hath abounded, the gift has abounded. What's the object of the sentence, who is the grace and who is the gift abounding to? The many. OK, so I don't know. OK, this is not making much sense to me. The many are identified as the ones who are under the penalty of death, which is who. Everyone, all men, and yet this versus telling us that the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is salvation, which comes through Jesus Christ has abounded, has been shown, has been presented to the many, not the elect, not the chosen, the many. All right. I believe, brother, how are we going back to that diagram? So they're back up. All right, so Adam, you got everyone that was born under Adam, but here comes God. God's got a plan for how to address or deal with the fallout from Adam. And so Jesus Christ comes on the scene and Jesus Christ offers this gift, the gift of righteousness. Head to that next slide. Their brother, Mechai, the gift of righteousness by grace hath abounded to. All men. The gift of grace. Is available to anyone. That is in Adam, it is shown to the many who are condemned to die in at all. Right now let's just hang out here for a second. So this is the end, right? I mean, this is pretty good. Seven thirty, we're done. Would that be nice? Careful how you respond. I've very fragile feelings. I mean, the gift of righteousness by grace has been is bounded to all men, so all men therefore must be saved. Hey, we should be universalists. OK, you look confused, really, no, we're not supposed to be universalis, it was a joke, sarcasm. You should have easily laughed that one off. Like saying to your wife, I don't even know what a universalized is. Everybody gets saved in the end and that kind of stuff. OK, no, no, we're not done. We're not done, you see? God's grace. Does not move all of humanity into Christ, just boom, he showed his grace to us, now we're all all of a sudden transported from under Adam in Christ. That's not the way it works. What this means is that the offering of the gift is available to anyone. Is everyone in the world saved? Will everyone in the world get saved now and so the offering of the gift does not release us from Adam's condemnation, it simply makes it available to us. It is available to anyone that is under the penalty of death because of sin. Jesus has made the gospel available to anyone that wants to receive. And it's that word received that is key in the next verse that we're going to consider, look at version Summer 17 with me, if you would. Verse 16 is important. Paul is drawing different contrasting statements between Jesus and Adam, and in summer 16, he makes another point that we're not going to spend time looking at tonight, if you want to read more about it. Obviously you can. But I want you to listen more 17, because it says here four or by one man's offense, death range by one, much more. They which what? Receive abundance of grace and have the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. All right, go and go. The next slide there, Brother Mikhail. OK, yes, God comes in with an abundant gift of his grace, offers it to the many who are condemned to die and Adam head to the next one. Here's the thing, we must do something with the gift that God has offered to us. OK, now go back to verse number 17 Brotherman. OK, you already got that up there. You'll see that when it comes to Adam's gift or if we want to call it that, Adam's contribution to humanity is set forth by one man's offense. Death reigned by one. There's no qualifier on those affected by the rain of death. Adam sinned and slow death passed upon all men. If you're born, that's it, you're under condemnation. OK. There is a qualifier, however, when it comes to those who would be part of what it calls the rain in life. God has offered this gift. And offered to all men. And if a gift is offered, you really only have one or two responses that you can can take directions, you can go with your response to a gift being offered to you. And if you've been out so many people, you've probably seen this before. Some guy he thinks is cute. So he says at the door, hey, look, man, you see my truck, you see my truck parked out there by the street. I want to give it to you and I give you my truck. Here's the keys you should take. Just take. And usually, you know, like, uh. They don't know what to do. So, you know, come on, take it, take it know, they say, OK, I'll reach out and I'll take his keys or say I'm going to take your truck. Is he really only two things you can do and a gift is offered to you as you can either reject it? Or you can receive it. Reject the receipt if you reject God's gift, the gift of grace. Then you are choosing to remain in Adam. But if you receive it. You are removed from Adam and you are placed into Christ, you were placed in Christ. This is a very common phrase that you should start to notice in your Bible reading. If you're going through any of Paul's letters in the New Testament, you will see over and over and over again in Christ, in Christ, they that are in Christ. And this is partly where it comes from. It has to do with Christ as your head. You are identifying with Jesus. We talked about our new identity as Christians, I believe it was last week. In order to receive God's gift of grace, a person need only admit that they are a sinner and believe that Jesus can forgive them because of his death on the cross, but because. Back to that diagram. All right, all men under Adam Death rings, Christ shows that gift of righteousness by grace to humanity through his death, burial and resurrection. Now, here's where the next step comes in. You can either reject and stay in Adam or you can receive it and be transported, moved from one category to the other to where you are in Christ to have you on there for that one. Nope, guess not. All right, so you're in crisis now. To be brought into Christ, as I said, a person needs only to acknowledge that they stand in need of God's grace. Basically it's acknowledging I am under Adam, I am a sinner. I'm a sinner. I mean, how many of you can admit that tonight? A lot of us can admit that freely. What kind of sins have you done? Oh, nobody wants to bring that one up, OK, next, brother Bermagui. I'm a sinner. Jesus died for my sins. He has offered that gift of grace to me. Next. Because of his offer of forgiveness, I can be saved. That word saved is difficult these days, people have a whole lot of different meanings for that word. You ask somebody on the street, hey, are you saved? They might not know exactly what you're talking about. Um, you know, somebody says, well, I I prayed a prayer. Well, I I did some things, I went forward at church service. Be careful before we sell, well, then you're saved. Be careful with that. But we'll get to that next one up there. For those who receive God's gift of salvation, that's forgiveness, they admit they're a sinner, they receive what Jesus Christ did on the cross to forgive them of their sins, then they are moved into Christ from Adam. And as the Bible says, they are changed from death to life. And what does it say at the universe? Number 17, it says those that receive the abundance of grace, the gift of righteousness, they shall reign in life. Not because of anything they've done, but because of Jesus Christ. Now we can go back to a verse like Effusions one four with better understanding. You see, it says, according to see Chozen us in him, who's here? Jesus. It chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be wholly without blame before him in love. The election does not do away with belief. Election is God's response to believe. Elects to save those that are in Christ. God has already chosen to receive into his family any one that receives God's gift of grace.

Are you following me?

There's no debating it. He has already elected to do so, if you will, receive the gift that he paid for, that he offered to you, that he presents to you, if you just receive it, then he's already chosen that he will bring you into his family. He will adopt you in his family. But that word predestined. Well, you can see it in effusions, one for. Says he has chosen them before the foundation of the world that we should be wholly and without blame before him in love. If he's predestined them to be conformed to the image of of his son, those that receive God's gift of grace, it isn't predestined anyone for heaven and others for hell. Did predestined, what he did elect is those that would respond to his offer of salvation, they would be conformed to the image of his son. Now I see some eyes glaze over, and so we'll get to the. The end here. Why does any of this matter? Well. This matters because it's important for us to recognize the preeminence of the work of Christ. Probably not anybody in here, I would assume. Which had to be careful and you shouldn't assume, but I would guess that probably not a single person here thinks that they had anything to do with their salvation. I mean, you know, Jesus purchased it, Jesus is the one who did all the work you simply believed received and even the faith that you had to to get saved was a gift. OK, we'll get to Effusions two eight nine later on in the series. But Jesus is the the focal point of your salvation. It's not you. Why, then, is it help me? That after our salvation. We believe and we even preach that it's all about you now. Jesus saved you, but if you're going to go anywhere in your Christian life, you better buckle down. You better get serious to root out all the bad stuff in your life, clean up yourself. If Jesus is central to our salvation, don't you think he's central to our sanctification? I believe that. As part of what we were talking about with this new identity is allowing Jesus to change us. So we have to recognize the preeminent preeminence of his work, if it wasn't for Christ offering us the gift, we would never have any chance, any opportunity to move from death to life. Right. OK, so that's one reason why I believe this is important. Number two, I believe it's important for us to remember what Jesus saved us from. Rain in life, you go down to verse number twenty one, we were going to go down version of twenty one, but it just would have been too long because that verse from twenty one and look where it says that as soon as the rain and death even so might grace rain through righteousness unto temporary life. Oh, sorry, yes, eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. Eternal life, we are moved from death to life. Now, you know, I'm not just talking about physical death, don't you? I mean, it's good for us to be reminded what awaited us if Christ hadn't saved us from our sins, if Jesus hadn't come live, that perfect life died, was buried and rose again on the third day as we just celebrated. What would our what would have would have. What would our future have looked like? You pass away. You wake up. And you're in punishment and judgment for the rest of eternity, and there's nothing you can do for yourself. What a sad, sorry state to be in. You know that there are people choosing to remain in that condition. Like a like a on a highway where it says road closed, road closed, turn around, you turn now. Stop, don't go any farther than you see a bridge out and you're like, oh, it's OK, really. I mean, there are there are people in this world who have never heard the name of Jesus. But there are people in this world who have heard about the gospel over and over and over and like a street sign that flew by time after time after time, they've ignored it and they say, no, I'm rejecting the gift. I know it's a gift and we already paid for it. Like to be with my friends in hell, I guess you ever heard someone say that? Maybe one of these days I going go back on to preach that that message we did on Easter a couple of years ago about what the lake of fire is like. I mean, talks about brimstone. Sulfur, when it burns, it burns a black flame. It doesn't produce light. It's kind of got like a weird bluish tint to it, but it doesn't light up a room. You got a lake of fire and there's not going to be any parties, there's not going to be any conversations with any friends. It's just going to be continual following following. The best thing you might run into is a demon. It's good for us to remember what Jesus saved us from. When we think about that and we think about our our loved ones and our friends people, we come into contact with our neighbors, the people in our community when we think about what Jesus has saved us from. It's important for us to look at these things because they should motivate us to point people to the gospel who we know are still under Adam. We need to be reminded of the seriousness of this. The seriousness of the eternal city of the soul and the eternal destination of a soul and the fact that God is offering this gift to them now so that they can miss out on all of that. But their window to accept it is short. And could be over at any moment. All right. You're going to happen to me, I'm young. Young people die every day. We don't know how long we have, we don't know how long our friends have our family members, we don't know how long they have. We're so busy with all the business of life running here, and they're going, going, going, we're so busy, busy, busy. We can't stop. Try to share the gospel with someone. Try to have one more conversation with this person that you've talked to before. Can we talk about it again? Can we discuss this? I know we've discussed it before, but. Why won't you listen? Why won't you hear what I'm trying to say? The people who know it's true but still won't accept it as the one that baffles me, how many preachers do you have to hear to tell a story about this one guy who's a wallflower? When I get older, I'll get saved. People that know it's true, but still won't receive God's gift. It's important for us to. To see these things, because there are those out there, a growing number. We believe that God chooses some. For heaven and some for hell. We don't know why his God, so I guess he can do what he wants to, just some people are destined to go to hell. God doesn't work that way. God chooses to save those that are in Christ, those that receive God's gift of salvation. Where did that gift come from? Jesus. It's interesting, there's there's some cyclical reasoning here are not cyclical or is cyclical events. Adam sinned. So sin enters the world because in order to the world, death in the world is death in order to the world and sin is entered into the world and every person is born thereafter, is a sinner and will die. But then you come over here. Jesus. Offers the gift of righteousness to all men, they receive that gift of grace. And they can be transferred. Death to life. So they can then try and share that gift of God with others. So that they can receive God's gift of grace and be transferred from death to life. That's why we're not taken to heaven as soon as we get saved. Because there are still people out there who need to hear about the gift, can you save them now? You can't save them, but you can introduce them to the one who can. I hope you'll take this diagram, I hope you'll read this chapter even again tonight when you go home. It really is a big help. When it comes to people who try to tell you different things about salvation and how it happens and all that stuff, a lot of times these these people, well-meaning people will refer back to a name of a theologian. They'll refer back to a a style of doctrine or theology, and they'll just go off the points of that doctrine. And if you could respond to them and say, you know what, that that's great, that you have these things memorized, but look at what the Bible says. And that's what really matters what you're saying, it really doesn't matter what they're with, what they're saying. And so because I think I'll just stick with the Bible. The Bible is where we get our theology from, not some creed that somebody came up with hundreds of years ago. Right, we say we're Baptist, that the Bible is our final authority. That's what that means, knowing the Bible well enough to take somebody to a passage like this and say, no, no, no, no, this is how salvation happens. It's important for us to be able to do that. It's important for us to grow and deepen our faith so that we don't just know the right words to say, but we know why we say them. And so I know this was not maybe as easy of a sermon as normal, I felt like it was important for us to spend time in Romans Chapter five tonight dealing with this issue of the gift of grace. And I hope it's been a help to you.

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