May 26, 2024

00:00:01:01 – 00:00:26:27
Yeah. If y’all just do me a favor this morning and set real steel right now, you’re doing this. I was up there at the back PNC last evening. Yesterday evening? moving some bulls and the famous puppy. the sequence of events went like this. He was running up the alley, and he started running back. I tried to shut the gate and he hit the gate.

00:00:26:27 – 00:00:45:22
The gate hit me, and I hit the ground as best I remember. And it was like, I don’t know where I’m at. I did finally make a call, I think, to Rick first. And I was in, in Gator and I couldn’t find my glasses and, didn’t know what planet I was on for a few minutes. But, yeah.

00:00:45:22 – 00:01:07:05
Little guy. Show me, went to AutoZone, bought me some superglue and superglued it up. And, when I walked in there, my glasses wrote a gas, said, man, did you get in a fight with something? I said, yeah, gate. And it warned, but I’m I’m I’m not going to preach long today. I hope I can, keep my word to Bill.

00:01:07:05 – 00:01:29:25
I’m glad he’s saying long as I just just sing a little longer today, because I’m. I’m having a little trouble getting my chickens. You know, y’all chickens ever got scattered. All right, all right, man, feel a little scattered right now. So take your Bible and go to Romans chapter five for a minute. And I’m going to share with you a few verses and then a story that I heard this week.

00:01:29:28 – 00:01:52:29
I actually heard it years ago, but, I was reminded of it this week, and it just fit. I was sitting there listening to Bill as he was singing, and you may not know this, but like, he doesn’t share with me what he’s going to sing about. I just know it’s going to be good. I mean, he’s singing some of my very favorite songs this morning, and they’re just powerful.

00:01:53:02 – 00:02:27:04
And I loved appreciate it. But some of the songs he was singing dealt with grace. And I don’t know if you caught that. I did, because all week that’s what the Lord was telling me. Then I was going to preach on. And that’s what I want to share with you a little bit about this morning is Grace. You and I may often take Grace for granted, and the reason I say that is because we often don’t understand what real grace is, and we don’t understand the value of that grace.

00:02:27:09 – 00:02:46:02
We don’t understand the cost of that grace. By the way, he didn’t cost us anything, but it cost him everything. And and we may not understand the meaning of grace. So I’m going to share a few thoughts about that this morning with you. But I want you to look at Romans chapter five, and the whole book of Romans is like one of the best books in the Bible.

00:02:46:02 – 00:03:08:24
Now, if I was preaching for Matthew, I’d probably say that about Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. I kind of like all the books in the Bible, but, I really love Romans. And as a matter of fact, if you are a new believer and you’ve never, studied the book of Romans, you really should. If you you want to get into a Bible study, you want to read your Bible and study through a particular book of the Bible.

00:03:08:26 – 00:03:36:26
Romans is a really good one to study. It just begins good. It ends good. It’s pretty simple to understand, but it’s very deep and profound and rich in what God has to say for the Christian. And so when you look at Romans chapter five, Paul or Paul who wrote Romans, by the way, he has gone through Romans one, chapter one, and he’s talking about the fact that, all people have sinned against God.

00:03:36:29 – 00:04:08:05
The whole world is guilty of sin. When you get to Romans chapter two, he talks about the Jewish people are also guilty of sin and have sinned. Term you get to chapter three. He talks about that for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And yet there’s none righteous, no not one. When you come to chapter five, he he begins chapter five by talking about the goodness, the grace of God, and our faith in Him and He through his blood justifying us.

00:04:08:08 – 00:04:30:29
But look at verse eight, Romans five, verse eight. He says, But God commended or demonstrated his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners. If you mark some in your Bible marked it for me this morning, I’m just underline that. Do something with that verse while we were still sinners. Or the word literally means where we were still sinning.

00:04:31:02 – 00:04:59:16
It says that Christ died for us much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Now that’s not where we’re going to stop, but I’m going to stop explaining that for just a second. I want you to notice what he asked you to underline. That was because I want you to.

00:04:59:22 – 00:05:22:24
I want everybody in this room, everybody listening to me. I want you to grasp something this morning. Really good. I hear people so often as a preacher, and I’ve been doing this a long time, witnessing to people sharing Christ with others. Did. So last night I was I was in town eating, and I struck up a conversation with a guy, and we were talking and and he told me he wasn’t a believer.

00:05:22:27 – 00:05:49:10
And you all know me. I love those kind of people. I’m like, oh, I love that. Let’s talk. I got I got something I want to share with you. And that that always excites me when I have that opportunity. But here’s what I want you to get. So many people think that when they come to Christ or they’re getting ready to come to Christ, or they’re thinking about making a decision to come to Christ, I hear this so often.

00:05:49:10 – 00:06:19:00
Well, I’m just not ready yet because I got to clean some things up in my life. And then I hear this from people who have really messed up in their life. They’ve really sinned against God. They know what their life has just been riddled and wracked with sin and failure because of that sin. And they will look at me and say, well, I just don’t know if God could forgive me of that or if his grace would be good enough to cover that.

00:06:19:02 – 00:06:44:04
And I want to take him to that verse right there. That verse tells me that God commended his love toward us while we were still sinning, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In other words, you need to understand he already paid the price for your sin before you ever did it. Do you understand that? Some people say, well, I got saved, and I mean, I’ve had this struggle in my life now.

00:06:44:04 – 00:07:06:18
I’m now I’m, you know, I’m a Christian, but I’m going through this season of my life where I’m struggling and I’m failing and I’m sinning and, and I may just do something sometimes so bad that God’s grace isn’t going to cover me. Let me just ask you to think about sin for me. Do you realize that Jesus died on the cross roughly 2000 years ago?

00:07:06:21 – 00:07:22:21
How many of you in here are 2000 years old? How many of you were here when he did that? I wouldn’t, matter of fact, none of us were we. Many, many, many generations past that. But yet when he went to the cross, he took your sin, my sin, because he was God. And he looked through time and eternity.

00:07:22:28 – 00:07:49:02
And I want you to remember a couple of things. Number one, you’ll never surprise God by your sin. You will never surprise God by your failure. You’re never going to do anything that’s going to cause him to to realize or to say, oh, I made a mistake loving that person. He has loved you from the beginning. He loved you before he put you in your mother’s womb.

00:07:49:04 – 00:08:16:28
And the Bible tells us that. And so when I think of grace, I have to think it was God’s grace that saved me. It was God’s grace that chose me. It was God’s grace that’ll keep me. It’s God’s grace that has covered me, that has justified me, that has made me right in the eyes of God. But here’s the problem.

00:08:17:00 – 00:08:36:14
Sometimes we take that grace for granted. You say, well, if I believe what you believe, just all my sins have already been paid for. It’s already been dealt with at the cross. It’s already an issue covered by the blood. Then. Then I’ll just go live any way I want to. Well, let me let me help you with that, Paul.

00:08:36:14 – 00:09:04:13
Paul knew there would be a some of us believers that would not think that way. And he gives us some more instruction. Skip over for a minute. And I told you, I’m not going to preach long. I wish I could spend time in the whole text, but I’m not. But look at verse 18, Romans five, verse 18. He says, therefore, as through one man’s offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation even so through one.

00:09:04:14 – 00:09:27:06
Let me tell you what he’s saying right here. In the previous verses, he was talking about that sin entered into this world by one man, and that man’s name was Adam. If you wonder why you have a struggle with sin, you need to know it runs in your blood. If you are a member of the human race. And by the way, there are no other races.

00:09:27:06 – 00:09:52:10
All right? There may be different ethnicities, but don’t buy the liberal lie that there’s different races. That’s a cockamamie. A bunch of I won’t even go there. But you you hear that? There is one race, the human race. And it’s not racist to say that the same God that made me made you, no matter what color of skin you got, no matter where you came from on this planet, you bleed red just like I do.

00:09:52:12 – 00:10:23:26
And the same blood that was shed for you was shed for me. Amen. So. But how does sin come? Sin came by Adam. And so he’s saying here in this verse, verse 18, he’s saying through one man defense, one man’s sin. Condemnation came on the world. We quote John 316, one of my favorite verses in the Bible. But we often leave out verse 17, where the Bible says that God didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world because the world was already condemned, were condemned by sin.

00:10:24:02 – 00:10:50:16
So you need to understand grace doesn’t condemn, but rather grace has come to save. That was through Christ. So he says, the man’s righteous act, man’s righteous act. The free gift came to all men, resulting in the justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners. In other words, by by Adam’s sin we were all made sinners.

00:10:50:18 – 00:11:15:16
You know, you’ve heard the old adage, which came first? Chicken or the egg? Well, you hear this? am I a sinner because I sin, or do I sin because I was born in sin? And the answer is both. You were born into sin, David said, I in my mother’s womb I was conceived in sin. And so you and I have sinful.

00:11:15:16 – 00:11:36:02
The blood of Adam run into it. That’s why you need a blood transfusion. That’s why it’s the blood of Jesus. It saves you and that blood transfusion gives you life. So he’s saying by. By Adam’s disobedience, by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners. In other words, everybody was made a sinner. So also by one man’s obedience. That was Jesus.

00:11:36:05 – 00:12:17:10
He was obedient to the cross, to the father, to go to the cross. Remember he said so also by one man, so obedient many will be made righteous. Look at verse 20. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. What does he mean by the law entered? That the offense may abound? Whenever you think of the law, you’ve heard me say this often when I read the Ten Commandments and it’s just ten of 613 in the Old Testament, I don’t get warm, fuzzy feelings, do you?

00:12:17:12 – 00:12:37:07
When I read them, I mean, it’s like, reading them. It’s like depressing, depressing, more depressing, more depressing. This is getting really depressing. But, I get to the end of them. I’m like, man, I am a guilty dude. I’m in trouble. But that was the reason for the law to show us our sin. How would I know?

00:12:37:12 – 00:13:03:06
How would I know when I’m driving up the road here and I didn’t? There wasn’t a speed limit sign posting a speed limit, which is the law. How would I know if I’m breaking the law? If I didn’t know what the speed limit road was? God. God gave us the law. The law cannot ever, ever save you. But the law shows you and I that we have transgressed and sinned against God.

00:13:03:08 – 00:13:30:09
But so the Bible says, so the law entered, that the offense might abound. But look at the next verse. This is what I like. But where sin abounded, how many of you know we live in a sinful world? How many? You know you were born into a sinful race, the human race? How many of you know we live in a sin cursed world and your family is a sin cursed family until they come to Jesus.

00:13:30:12 – 00:13:59:10
So? So you understand that we live where sin abounds. But look what he says. That grace abounded much more. I may live in a sin curse ruling. You do as well, man. My life may have been riddled and racked by sin and destroyed by sin, until I believed on the name of the Lord Jesus and was saved. And his grace, his blood, washed away.

00:13:59:10 – 00:14:24:02
My sin. He dealt with all my sin at the cross. Did I deserve it? Nope. Did I earn it? Nope. Is there any way I could have bought it? Nope. Is there anything I can do to stay in good graces with God? So many people, they live their life thinking, well, I want to stay in good graces or good favor with God.

00:14:24:02 – 00:14:52:21
I want to, I want to, in the end, make sure my good outweighs my bad. And the problem with that is you’re caught up in religion and that’s that’s you’re never going to be free. You are already free because of the grace of God. You’ve already your sins have already been dealt with, he says. So verse 21, so that as seed reigned in death, even so, grace might reign through righteousness of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

00:14:52:28 – 00:15:19:21
Look with me. The next two verses in chapter six, chapter six, verse one. He says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? I wish I could go in and read the whole rest of that. Chapter two. If you have time today, go read Romans chapter six.

00:15:19:21 – 00:15:42:10
The whole chapter is powerful. It’s awesome. But here’s what I want to leave you with. When Paul is dealing with Grace, he’s saying, you’ve got to understand. Because of God’s grace, your sin was dealt with. You are no longer a slave to sin. You’re no longer in bondage to sin. You’ve been set free that we sing that song.

00:15:42:10 – 00:16:11:02
Amazing Grace and my chains are gone. That’s that. Songs about it. What it means is, is because of God’s grace. I’m now free. But so many times we can abuse that grace. We can take that grace for granted. As a matter of fact, I want to warn you not to not to abuse God’s grace. You say, is that possible for us Christians?

00:16:11:02 – 00:16:31:10
Yes. And when I illustrate with this, and I’m done, no more points. Kind of like a fat man crawling to a barbed wire fence. One more point. When I got no more points, just hanging with me. Y’all get that in a minute. I heard the story years ago when I was in similar, and I was reminded of it again this week, and it just caught my attention.

00:16:31:10 – 00:16:54:28
It was a college professor name, R.C. Sproul. He’s a great theologian, great Bible teacher. He’s gone on to heaven now. But he was talking about in his first year of teaching at a seminary, he was given the task to teach. I think it was like, you know, the Old Testament to new freshmen students. And so he had 20, 250 freshmen students taking this course.

00:16:55:01 – 00:17:13:09
And so at the beginning of the college year, and some of you young guys here, I know there may have a few that’s been to college and some on their way, but when you go to college, it’s kind of different than high school. I went to high school like, you know, you had to turn in your work. And it was this when college, you pay them the money, they don’t give a hootenanny.

00:17:13:09 – 00:17:36:07
If you turn it in or not, they don’t got pay. You got to keep up your old stuff. You got a high school now. And so I just this this professor, he has 250 students. He tells them, he says, look, in order to pass my class on September 30th, October 30th, November 30th, you going to have these term papers that have to be turned in?

00:17:36:09 – 00:17:56:25
He goes, and it’s pretty simple. If you do the work, you pass. If you don’t, you fail. He said it unless you’re dying or you had an immediate your mama or your daddy died, you better be in class on those days turning in that paper. So he says. So the first one, September 30th, comes along and 250 students.

00:17:56:25 – 00:18:16:21
And he said about 25 of them walked in that day, and 25 of them were just crying like, oh, professor, we’re so sorry. We didn’t. We were just learning this college thing. We didn’t get it all together. We didn’t schedule our time. Right. And and he said, what is your any way that you could give us a few more days?

00:18:16:21 – 00:18:42:13
And he said, well, I tell you what do I understand? You guys just end a high school your first freshman year in college. I’ll help you. You got three days. And so those 25 students did their work. And within three days. And what he did was he demonstrated grace to them. By October 30th, the next papers due. And he said that day as to 250 students come into the classroom.

00:18:42:15 – 00:19:04:12
He said there was about 75 of them that didn’t have their paper. And they began to cry all, oh, professor, is there any way you could play? We just didn’t get it. We were busy. We had some other things we had to do. And, all these 75 were just crying. And he said, look, I told y’all last time that you had to have them, and I gave you some grace.

00:19:04:12 – 00:19:31:27
And now now there’s more of. Yeah. He goes, I’ll do it. You got three days, he said. But by the time we do the next term paper, don’t any of you not show up? And you have your paper do it? Well, sure enough, on that November 30th, he walked into class, 250 students file in. He said this time only 100 of them had their paper, 150 did not.

00:19:31:29 – 00:19:51:25
And he said, you would have thought it was a criminal code. And he said some of them and just, oh, hey, pervert. Hey, hey, I almost got my paper done, but I’ll get it to you in a few days. Just really presuming that he was going to let things slide again. And he said, wait a minute, guys. He goes the first, first paper, 25 of you did.

00:19:51:25 – 00:20:16:11
I showed a little grace. The next time 75 of you and I told you, don’t let this have now over half the class 150 of you do not have your paper. He goes. I start calling out names. He opens his book, says Johnson, you got your paper now f so you got your note f and you get to the other person, and there’s other guy here who.

00:20:16:11 – 00:20:37:24
Wait a minute, professor. That’s not fair. That’s not fair. And he turned around and he found the student who did do. Who said that? You said, that’s not fair. He said, yeah. He goes, when we did the first one, didn’t you? Did not give you. You were one the first 25. You said, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And I gave you a passing grade.

00:20:37:27 – 00:20:57:06
And then the next one you were one of the 75. Yeah. There he goes. So you want fair. You want justice in the whole class. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said so f and he said, I’m going to go back and I’m going to change your other two that I gave you a passing grade because you want justice.

00:20:57:06 – 00:21:30:17
I’m going to give you an F. Oh. He says, is there anybody else here who wants justice. C there’s a difference in justice and grace. Justice is if we got what we deserved, it would be one hell. That’s what it be. But grace, grace now something you can buy. It’s not something you can earn. It’s not even something you can keep.

00:21:30:20 – 00:21:58:20
Grace is totally, freely given by God. Yeah. Let me, let me let me close it. Like this. The first time those students walked in, I made this observation. And they did that. They were amazed by his grace. Those first 25. Wow. He he showed us grace. I mean, the next time they came in the 75 now they just assumed grace.

00:21:58:22 – 00:22:30:23
But the next month, when 150 of them didn’t, they not only had bypassed amazing grace and assuming grace, but now they felt like it was their inalienable right to have grace. And that’s what Paul’s talking about in this passage. Don’t do your sin more because you know there’s grace. No no no no no, because of grace. Don’t ever get past the amazing part of it.

00:22:30:25 – 00:22:58:11
Don’t ever get to the place that you presume upon it. Don’t ever get to the place you take it for granted, but rather live in it every day. And if you live in grace, in God’s grace, guess what? You’re able to give to others? Grace. Grace, let’s bow our heads and pray. Oh, Bill, would you come up one more time, brother?

00:22:58:12 – 00:23:10:02
Just, I’m to have you close this out.

00:23:10:04 – 00:23:50:24
Before we leave today, before we go, if you’re here and you’ve never trusted Jesus as your savior, and you’ve never you’ve never got to that place yet to receive grace. And what’s so amazing about the grace of God is that verse I read to you in Romans five, verse eight. The God commended his love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

00:23:50:26 – 00:24:30:00
You never clean up your life good enough to come to Jesus. You can’t. You can’t. You’ll never get it all together enough to come to Jesus. You come to Jesus just like you are. Brokenness, baggage. Mess. Addictions, whatever. Whatever it is in your life, you just come with all of it to it. How much you realize you can’t change yourself.

00:24:30:03 – 00:24:57:29
I had to figure that out at some place in my life. I can’t change myself. Only Jesus can change me. It’s here. Right now. The Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart. And he’s saying to you what that preacher saying is true. And you’re feeling something right now because of the Holy Spirit. And it’s the Holy Spirit revealing the love of God to you and for you.

00:24:58:02 – 00:25:23:21
Yes. And all your brokenness and all your mess and all your failures. That’s what’s so amazing about God’s grace is he receives you just like you are. Now. Here’s the good news he’s going to leave you the way you are. He will change you. He will clean you up. He will rearrange your life. And it’ll be a beautiful thing when he does.

00:25:23:24 – 00:25:42:20
But what you have to do is be willing to trust him. Trust him? Would you come to him? So heads are bowed as you close for just a second. I want to ask you to do this. If you if you are here today and you say, Jeff, I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ve ever received the grace of God.

00:25:42:21 – 00:25:56:06
I don’t know if I was saved. I don’t know if I have that sin an eternity thing settled. I want to give you that chance before we leave here.

00:25:56:08 – 00:26:30:20
My first question to you is, and I don’t think I have to convince you that you’re a sinner. You got that figured in our own conscience will condemn the sinners. But here’s the question. Do you believe that Jesus was God’s son? And do you believe that he died on the cross, shed his blood for your sin? In other words, do you believe that he took your place?

00:26:30:23 – 00:26:51:03
Because if we, you and I, had got justice, it would have been us on that cross. But instead he took our place. He died in our place. He shed his blood so that we might live.

00:26:51:05 – 00:27:00:26
Have you ever came to the place that you thought that through the. Here’s important part.

00:27:00:28 – 00:27:30:15
Do you trust trusting enough right now to say Jesus, I know I’m a sinner. If I got justice, if I got what I deserve, it would be good. But I believe with all my heart that you gave your life for me. And that you saved me.

00:27:30:17 – 00:27:59:04
And you, humble grab your heart would be this Jesus. I believe you died for me. I believe you rose from the grave right now. I ask you to forgive me. Change me, save. Simple prayer like that. It just takes faith. Trusting him. If you prayed that prayer with me today, before you leave, I want you to come to me.

00:27:59:04 – 00:28:15:05
My friend Cody, sitting right over here. I’m going to ask him. He’s going to be standing at the front. Quinn is going to be here a few. Dennis would be up here to be several people appear to front. Melissa, would you come to attend? And there’s going to be several people appeared to some people that I love. I trust they’re there also.

00:28:15:05 – 00:28:26:02
They know Jesus and they’ll pray with you. But I want you to come by and tell them, tell me, share that with those. Share your decision for Jesus.

00:28:26:05 – 00:28:36:09
That you made a decision to receive him, to receive his grace, to receive his forgiveness and receive eternal life.

00:28:36:11 – 00:29:06:13
And to Christian charity. Let’s not presume upon grace. Let’s never take it for granted. Let us live our life never getting over the part that were amazed by God’s grace. Father. Thank you. We love you, Holy spirit, move here even after our closed Lord, I’m going to walk off this platform. But Lord, I just pray you continue work.

00:29:06:15 – 00:29:28:05
You speak to hearts all over this. Being someone who has a need. Today, I pray you come and receive prayer. Someone needs healing. Someone needs deliverance. Somebody needs salvation. Somebody just needs some somebody to help with a burden that they’re carrying. Lord, let them come today and let them find that help that we know only comes in your Holy Spirit.

00:29:28:08 – 00:29:48:09
We love you today. We thank you for all that you, and thank you for letting us be in your presence today. In Jesus name, Amen. Well, thank you all for being here. I look around the room and I’m pretty sure we’ve got some some business with us and we’re so excited. Visitors, thank you for worshiping with us.

00:29:48:12 – 00:30:12:00
If you’re just watching on Facebook, we appreciate you tuning into doing that. I hope you’ll share this message with somebody that, you know, share, if nothing, let them hear Bill sing that some awesome stuff. So, matter of fact, when you leave church and you’ve been here, go to the Wise County Cowboy Church Facebook page and share today’s sermon.

00:30:12:00 – 00:30:34:11
Share it with somebody. That’s an easy way. That’s an awesome way to get the gospel out to somebody else. Because the more we share it, the more people hear it. And, we just pray they’ll they’ll believe the gospel and come to know Jesus. I’ll be sure and get a bulletin before you leave today. a lot of upcoming events, but bull riding at 230 this afternoon.

00:30:34:13 – 00:30:56:19
God bless you. We love you. We don’t pass an offering plate. We have a milk can in the back. If you want to give to the Lord. There’s a QR code on the back of your bulletin you want to give online like that? You’re welcome to do that. Thank you for being here. God bless you. Have a great rest of your weekend and come Monday, it’s fun to be with family, fun to be with friends, fun to have barbecues.

00:30:56:19 – 00:31:18:20
But remember, that’s a freedom we enjoy because men and women have laid down their lives for our freedom. And I know there’s a number of people here today that have served in the military and in combat, and I know you lost friends and loved ones and, I know that pain probably still lives with you today, but men like me and all over this building are free.

00:31:18:23 – 00:31:43:10
Every breath I’ve ever dropped, my life has been free as an American. And that’s because somebody gave their life for that freedom. And I’m so grateful for that. And, if we have any Gold Star families here or Gold Star families watching, we love them. We love you, appreciate you, and pray this time, this day, it’ll be something very special as we remember those who have fallen and gave the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

00:31:43:14 – 00:31:49:07
God bless you all. Have a good day. We’ll see you at the bull riding or see you next Sunday.