In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of the law court background in relation to the preaching of the word of God. He explains that in a law court, there is a sequence of events, including the accusation, trial, judgment, and sentence. If the verdict is guilty, the sentence is condemnation. However, if the verdict is not guilty, there is no sentence. The speaker then delves into the idea of the root and the fruit, emphasizing that it is through Jesus Christ that we are saved from the root of sin. He concludes by highlighting the hope and expectation of the glory of God that believers can rejoice in.

Friends who are Anglicans, and I was myself an Anglican for a long time, I remember an Anglican friend of mine used to tell a story about a lady who arrived at one of their meetings, and she was absolutely full of the Lord. She came into the back with an enormous tambourine, and praised the Lord, and the man who met her at the door said, shhh. And she said, I'm just so full of what God has done for me, says, shhh. And she said, I can't be quiet to say that, he's so wonderful for me, and I'm just filled with the love of God, I've got religion, he said, well you certainly didn't get it here madam. Laughter How do we approach God then? Well we approach him boldly. Not because we're good, or because we've become experienced, or because we know all the truth. But because to approach him in any other way would be to dishonour what he has done for us. If you come any other way, other than with boldness, you're really casting doubt upon what God has done for you, so we come with boldness, because of what God has done for us. And this morning I was sharing from Romans chapter 4, and saying that in many ways this is a sort of a foundation for the gospel in all its fullness. And I was reminded of a verse in John's first letter, when in our authorised version it begins with the words if we confess. Maybe you know that when Tyndale translated the Bible in the 17th century, he didn't use the word confess, he used the word acknowledge. And to have changed it to confess, is actually to have robbed us of an amazing truth. What was said was this, is if we acknowledge, if you acknowledge your sin, he is faithful and just to forgive you your sin, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. That's the promise. The thing is that acknowledge implies that someone has already said something. And the Greek word behind this also implies that someone has said something. Because the Greek word is homologia, which actually means to say the same thing as. So apparently if I say the same thing about myself as God says, that's all that God requires of me. He just requires that I agree with him, that I acknowledge what he says about me, and that's it. That's the end of my input into that whole verse. If we confess our sins, end of my responsibility. From then on, in its entirety, it's God's responsibility. And God is able to do that because he is just and faithful. Because that is at the right hand of the Father, an advocate that is the one who is the propitiation for our sin. The one who has paid the price to remove the anger so that there can be reconciliation with God. And the reason I've said that again tonight is because although I'm anxious or eager at least to get into this next part of Romans, I don't really want to take another step until we really are absolutely convinced that our acceptance with God is not based upon any kind of contribution that I can make. It's not based on my effort, my energy, my good intentions, my prayers. It's not based on any of those things. It's based entirely upon what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for me. That's what it's based on. Now if you're agreed with that, we can move on. Otherwise, it really is disastrous to move on. I'm not kidding. It is disastrous. If you try to move on before that really is understood, grasped, until it's become the bedrock of your understanding of your relationship with God, you will inevitably come to the place where you are tested and tried as to whether you really are fit to be here. Or whether God has done that, or whether God does love me, or whether... a whole list of things. But if you know that the whole criteria is what Jesus Christ has done, then you can count. That last chorus that we sang, I'm accepted, do we have it there? The background to this whole idea that's running through what Paul is saying in Romans, is it's a law court background. And in a law court you've got a certain sequence of events. You've got, for example, the accusation. Then there is the trial. And then after the trial there is the judgment. And then there is the sentence. Now if the sentence is guilty, sorry, if the judgment is guilty, the sentence is what the Bible refers to as condemnation. It's really the passing of the sentence. Now if you think about the logic of that, you'll understand that if there is not a guilty verdict, the process ends at that point. It doesn't go on to the passing of the sentence. There is no sentence to pass if the verdict is not guilty. So it is literally true that there is no condemnation for we who are in Christ Jesus. It's not a question of how you feel. Like we said this morning, the law court is not interested in how you feel. And this word guilt is not a word to do with our emotions. It's a legal term. It has to do whether you did it or whether you didn't do it. Again, the law court is not interested in how you feel. It wants to know what you did. Now the reason I'm saying this is because I've almost given up trying to encourage Christians not to use words like condemnation. Because they'll say I was really feeling condemned. What you're telling me is you don't understand what the Bible is actually saying. Because condemnation is not a feeling. Condemnation is the passing of the sentence by the judge. And if you're in Christ, there is no passing of the sentence by the judge. So consequently there is no condemnation. Now don't say you're condemned by the devil, because he has no power to utter the pronouncement. He can accuse you, but he can't condemn you. He never was given that power. What is happening is that you're in the midst of some kind of temptation. I'm not saying that you haven't sinned. I'm not saying that you don't need to confess something to God. I am saying that it isn't condemnation and it isn't a guilty feeling. It's something else. Someone asked me this morning and they said, well, does it mean then that our relationship with God is never in any sense impaired by our sin? Let me illustrate it like this. Quite some years ago now, I used to live in a big house, which was the centre for the fellowship that I was part of in Birmingham. And right at the top of this three-storey house, I had a study. Down at the bottom in the kitchen was Margaret's domain where she ruled. That might be perfectly scriptural for a wife to rule. Did you know that? Good. And that's where she ruled. And one of the early means of communication was this very simple communication system that we had. We buzzed a buzzer and you could talk up this sort of thing. And on this particular occasion, I was up there doing what I was supposed to be doing, which was praying and preparing and getting myself ready for whatever the responsibilities were later on in the day. And this buzzer went on the intercom and it was Margaret. She wanted to know whether today was the day that the grocery man came or the vegetables or something like that. And I was really quite miffed at this. I thought, well, this is disgraceful. Doesn't she know I'm up here doing important things? I mean, she should be coping with that down there in the kitchen where things aren't really that important. So I said, you know, I have got other things to do up here. And she said, oh, that's fine, she said. So she put the phone down. I thought, that's it, that's settled. I can now pray. Of course, I couldn't pray at all. My conscience smoked me. I couldn't get anywhere at all. So I went downstairs. So my wife was absolutely oblivious of the way I was feeling upstairs. Nothing had gone wrong at all with her relationship with me. What had gone wrong was the conscience of my relationship with her. If any man sin, we have an advocate of the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. It does not alter your relationship with God. It will alter your consciousness of your relationship with God. And as a consequence, you need to confess your sin when God puts his finger on it. When he has come, he will convince, the scripture says, of sin. Let him do it. Don't you try and do it. Let him do it. Don't go digging around in the past and try to find what's the matter with you. It's God's responsibility to tell you what's the matter with you. Let him do it. He will leave all kinds of things that aren't of any importance as far as he is concerned. And he'll put his finger on certain things that you didn't think were at all important, but were the things that need to be done. So God has done something which guarantees our relationship with him, as long as, of course, we don't actively turn our back on him and become an apostate. That would put us into a different kind of league of sins. But we can be bold in our relationship, we can live our lives in confidence, believing that God takes this whole issue much more seriously than we could ever take it. And it's his interest for what he wants to do in my life, to make any sin plain to me. So as soon as I know what it is, I can confess my sin. And I become conscious of the cleansing. And immediately it's two-way flow again, it's two-way traffic. But the point is that there's nothing wrong with his relationship with me, even though I felt I had marred it. Do you understand that? We have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous one, he is, not he will be, he is the propitiation. He is already the price that has been paid to deal with that particular sin and make sure that you have acceptance of God. So, if we're happy with that, we can move on. Because it goes on to say this in Romans chapter 5. Thank you. It's getting warm here. Go home with us sometime, my wife will wonder where I've been. Chapter 5. Therefore... Now that tells you immediately, doesn't it, that something has gone before this. That's telling you that what is coming now is based upon what's gone before. That's why I said you can't start with Romans chapter 5. You've got to go back. Dennis Clark always used to say that whenever you come across a therefore, you should always examine what it's there for. You should always go behind it and say, what is this next statement being based on? Well, it's being based on this fact that our acceptance of God is guaranteed by what Jesus Christ has availed for us. Absolutely guaranteed. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Not, at this point, notice, the peace of God. Not a sense of well-being, but peace with God. Because there was war between me and God. But what has happened on the cross is God has dealt with something that has brought in peace. So we now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then it says this, by whom also. This little word also is really so important for us to notice. Because it's the plus. It's telling us that whatever has been said in Romans chapter 4, all the benefits, all the blessings of justification by faith that we touched on this morning, all those are there and more. There's all that and also this. Can you see how simple this language is? Everything that is true for Abraham, all of Abraham's experience, all of David's experience, and it's not just those two of course, there's a whole bunch of Bible characters. If you go into Hebrews chapter 11, you'll discover people who were before Abraham, who also had faith with God. And the Holy Spirit bore witness to them, that they would accept Him as God. Without faith it's impossible to please Him. It wasn't just these two men, it was people who hear the word of God, who respond to it, who rely on Him, who put their confidence in Him. These are justified by faith. But then it says this, by whom also we have access. So, as well as all that they have, we have access. That really means an open door of some kind. And whether you're going to go through it, is another matter. But you have access. You have an open door to go through. There's a wonderful little verse in Revelation, that many people don't understand the roots of. It's when it speaks of the Lord Jesus, and it says, describes Him in this, and it says that He is the one who has the keys of David. Now you can look this up, you didn't look it up now, but you can remember this reference. If you look up Isaiah 22 and verse 22, that's why I can remember. Isaiah 22, 22. You'll discover that there was a man who had a title. And his title was that he was the one who had the keys of David. And if you read it, you'll discover that he was the royal treasurer. In other words, he was the one who had access to all the riches, all the wealth. But it was under his hand. It was under his authority, and no one could get to it without him. Now, in this new covenant, Jesus is the one who has the keys of David. He is the one who has access to the royal treasure. He's the one who has access to all the abundance of what God has for us. And it says, He's set before us an open door. He's opened it. Did I tell you this? I think I've probably told you most of my stories by now. But there's a lovely story, it's one of my favourites. This story is about a Swiss girl. She was just a young girl. And she used to work in the home of the local Catholic priest. And she was what they would have called a Protestant. She had her own personal faith with the Lord, but was constantly being told by the Catholic priest that she had to be part of the Roman church. She had to be in Peter's bath, otherwise she wasn't going to be saved and all the rest of it. And he would go on and he'd say, well, Peter was given the keys of the kingdom, unless you come under Peter's successor, you can't have access to the keys of the kingdom, you can't get into the blessing of God. And this went on and on and on and on. She weirded a little bit with this, until she came to a certain point. And he said, look, the Roman church has the keys of the kingdom. And she said, look, Jesus says, here's the door. And here's the door, and he's open. I don't care who's got the keys. Now, it's an old story, but there's a great truth in it. We're not dependent on anything other than Him. And He is the one who has the keys of the kingdom, and He has set before you an open door. And no man, and no devil, and no sin, and nothing that you've ever done, and nothing that you can ever do, will ever close it. Nothing will ever close it. We have access, by faith, into this grace wherein we stand. Many years ago, it was this part of Scripture that began to open my eyes to something that I'd never really seen before. I read it like this. We also have access, by faith, into this grace wherein we stand. And I was thinking, well, what is Paul talking about here? What is the Spirit of God saying here? And I was reminded that chapter 5, of course, is built upon the foundation of chapter 4. And in chapter 4, you find what Abraham had. What shall we say that Abraham found? What was Abraham's experience? Well, we know what Abraham's experience was, and if you've not understood it yet, it was grace. It was grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. But it wasn't this grace in which we stand. It was that grace in which he stood. There's a different grace. Now you say, well, isn't that stretchy? No, it's not. If you, we won't do it now, you can turn to Peter's letter. And Peter says that those Old Testament saints used to inquire and try to understand their own prophecies. And used to say, well, what's the significance of this? And it was revealed to them that it wasn't to them, but it was to us. To whom this grace should count. There were things that God had in his heart. Things that God had prepared that could not be until other things had happened. Could not be until other things had happened. Do you remember how the Lord Jesus said on one occasion, He said, I've come to cast fire upon the earth. I want to do it, but I'm straitened, I'm restrained until something else is accomplished. I have a baptism to be baptised with. This whole truth is captured in the symbolism of the book of Revelation. It's captured very, very wonderfully. In the book of Revelation, John has this vision. And he sees, first of all, the throne. And he sees that there's someone who sits upon it. If you remember John's own context, he was living at a time in the church when things had become very dark already. Where things were going into wrong directions. Where there was a lot of apostasy and people were abandoning their faith. If he looked at his own life, all the fixed points of his life had gone. He obviously had close links with folks in Jerusalem. You can get that from the Gospels. But by the time that John wrote the book of Revelation, Jerusalem hardly existed. It had been destroyed in AD 70. The temple that he had had a certain kind of access to, he was known to the family of the high priests. It had gone. The high priestly family had gone. His nation had gone. In fact, his fellow apostles had gone. He was what someone used to call, he was the last swallow of the summer. He was the last one, John. All his fixed points had gone. As he looked at the world in which he lived, it must have looked as though everything was descending into chaos. And God gave him this revelation that there is a throne. Even when it looks like chaos, in the heavens there is a throne. And it's occupied. God has not abdicated and never will. You may not understand what's happening, but there is a throne in the heavens. And there's someone who sits upon it. It's not random, it's not arbitrary, it's not out of control. There's one who sits upon the throne. And this is what John sees. And he sees, and then there's a sort of a series of tableau in which God opens truth to him. And he sees that on the throne, the one who is there has in his hand a scroll. And the scroll is sealed. It's a very full scroll. It's written on the inside and on the outside. It's seals of seven seals. And it's almost as though this is the title deed of man's history and man's destiny. And then he discovers there's weeping. Because there's no one worthy to take this and open it. It seems as though God's purpose for man and God's desire was not going to be fulfilled. And there's much weeping. And John weeps too. And one of the elders comes to him and says, don't weep anymore. Come, I want to show you the lion of the tribe of Judah. And John looks at this throne, where so far all he's seen is someone sitting upon it. And then as he looks, he discovers that in the throne itself there's a lamb standing, as though it had been slain. He sees right in the centre of the throne of the universe, right in the heart of the control, he sees a lamb that has passed through death and is now standing. What he's seeing is that right in the centre of all control you've got this symbol of the truth that Jesus was speaking when he said, all power is given to me. In heaven and earth. This is John seeing this symbol. And he sees that here's the lamb upon the throne. And from then on in the book of Revelation, in one or two different places, you'll discover that the throne is referred to not just as the throne of God, but it's referred to as the throne of God and of the lamb. There was a point in time in which heaven's throne became not just the throne of God, but the throne of God and of the lamb. I don't know whether how well we understand, I don't suppose any of us understand it very well at all, what was accomplished upon the cross. It wasn't just of personal value for you and me. It affected the whole creation. It affected the whole cosmos. It infected and affected heaven itself. In, I think it's Ezekiel. Ezekiel speaks about the fall of Satan. And one of the things he says of Satan is he says, you have defiled your sanctuaries. You have defiled your holy places. In the book of Hebrews, it tells us that although the blood of animals was sufficient for the outward cleansing of things upon the earth, in the heavens itself, it required blood of a different order to cleanse. I don't understand this, but somehow what happened on the cross cleansed the heavenly places as well. It cleansed the sanctuaries that Satan had defiled. It took place at a point in time on our world. This very scientist here, they wonder what I'm saying now, but I believe that this world is the center of the universe. Not physically. Spiritually. If I understand the scripture, this world is the center of the universe. There are things that have happened here that have affected heaven itself. God's righteous requirement is satisfied. He turned his faith away as Christ bore the sin of the whole world, but now embraces him and all those for whom he died. Things have happened in the heaven as well as upon the earth. So he talks here about this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. When I was talking this morning, I began way back in Romans chapter 3 with a verse that says this. There is no difference for all of sin and falling short of the glory of God. The tragedy that John witnessed in heaven was that humankind, the whole human race, had not only sinned, but it had fallen short of the glory of God. It could now never realize God's hopes and expectations for it. It could never be what God wanted it to be. It's tragedy. But here in Romans chapter 5 you've got this. He says, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The thing that was lost and tragic in Romans chapter 3 is now a glorious hope and expectation. And Bible hope isn't like human hope which is kind of a vague expectation. We hope that number 17 will arrive in the next half hour. That's not what the Bible means by hope. The Bible means by hope, it's the certainty that it's beyond your reach. Grace is never beyond your reach. Grace is always now, always available and always within your reach. Always. Always. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation works patient endurance. And patient endurance, character. And character, hope. And hope does not make a shame. That's to say, you don't have to blush about this hope. You don't have to feel embarrassed about this hope. It's not a vague hope. It's not a bright idea. Hope makes not a shame because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has given to us. I don't think I'm good enough at maths to be able to kind of do this properly, but can you cast your mind back into those dim and dark days of algebra? I once, I'm not kidding you now, I once had a maths master who said, said it publicly, he said you should not use the word unique until you've tried to teach Bailey algebra for at least two terms, is what he said. So, algebra hasn't been my greatest strength either. But if you kind of think of an equation, and here is our equation. Our equation really is chapter four, that's your first, your first kind of thing in the equation. And it plus all these much more things, all these other things, and this brings us into the abundance of what God has had. Now, if you kind of, if you work on that, if you actually change it around and say you start off with the abundance of all God's blessings, and then put a minus, and then as the minus make all these features that you've got in Romans chapter five, you actually end up with Romans chapter four, which is what the saints like Abraham had. What they had is everything that you've got, minus everything you're going to read about in Romans chapter five. So it would be interesting to read what we, see what we discover in Romans chapter five, which was not part of their experience, but is part of this grace wherein we stand. Is part of this new heaven. And this is what he says. It all apparently, it all stems from this point of the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And you can see the imagery of it. It's the Holy Spirit being poured out. And I told you that the throne of God became the throne of God and of the Lamb. If you get right to the end chapters of the book of Revelation, you'll discover something very wonderful, and that is that out of the throne of God and of the Lamb there comes forth a great river. It did not come out of the throne of God. It came out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. It did not flow until there was a Lamb upon the throne. It did not flow until the Lamb had passed through death and stood in resurrection power of the center of all power and authority. That's when it began to flow. That's what Peter is telling us in Acts chapter two. When they said, what does this mean? What is taking place? Peter said, what's taking place is this. Your wicked hands have taken and crucified him, although it was all part of God's plan. But God has raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. And he has poured forth this, which you now see and hear. When the throne of God became the throne of God and of the Lamb, the river began to flow. It did not flow until it became the throne of God and of the Lamb. Can you understand the symbolism of all this? It did not flow until he passed through death. Abraham had many of the blessings of Christ's death. He had forgiveness. He had sins sent away. He had sins covered. He had sins not accounted. I have no doubt he had a deep consciousness that God had accepted him and forgiven him. But if I understand the Scripture rightly, there was no pouring into his heart of the Holy Spirit. That was a unique blessing of this grace in which we stand. It's what makes this covenant, this grace, different to any other covenant and any other grace that you find spoken of in the Scripture. It's Jesus said it. He said, you know him, for he has been with you, but he shall be in you. It's that difference. It's God on the inside. It's God coming in all the power of his Spirit. You know how Jesus spoke of these things when he was in the temple. And he spoke and he said, those that believe on him, as the Scripture has said, out of their innermost beings, out of their bowels, out of their innards shall flow rivers of living water. And this he spoke of the Spirit who was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. But when Jesus was glorified, when the Lamb was in the throne, then the river begins to flow. And it's here. You begin to see the evidence in this in Romans chapter 5. And then he says this, he reminds us again in verse 6. We mustn't lose our foundation. He says, when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. You know, he justifies the ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly. And then he's got this little phrase here and he says, scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet, peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. I've just kept a promise to myself that I made probably 30 years ago. I've only just got round to reading The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I've read most of Dickens' other stuff. But somehow I just couldn't get into The Tale of Two Cities. And of course it's a fascinating story. And its culmination is of a man who gives his life and he says that this is the greatest thing that he can do. But he gives his life for a good man. He gives his life for a righteous man. And the Bible says, well a man might have a love like that if possible. He says here, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his love to us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Not when we were good men, not when we were trying, when we were ungodly. When there was absolutely nothing in us to attract God's love and favour except that everything that God has made God continues to love. God demonstrates his own love. Maybe you've got that if you've got a more modern version. God's own unique love. This isn't human love multiplied by a million. This is God's own unique love. Which was demonstrated, in fact is demonstrated. You notice the tenses here. God commends his love for us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. And then you come to the first one of these in verse 9. Much more then. And I said this morning that in Romans chapter 5 you've got five of these much mores. Because this gospel of Romans chapter 5 is much more than what you've got in Romans chapter 4. It's everything you've got in Romans chapter 4 and this also. So here's the much more. He's one of them. Much more than being there justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him. I was having a conversation today about this word saved and it's a word that every time the Bible uses it you really need to look at the context in which it uses it to understand what it means. Sometimes it's in the past. We have been saved. Sometimes it's in the present. We are being saved. Sometimes it's in the future. We will be saved. Sometimes it's talking about it's interesting that this morning someone said could we have a testimony of salvation? And Mary stood up and she gave you a testimony of salvation. Did you hear it? She didn't start off 40 years ago when I was a whatever she was 40 years ago or it wasn't that might have been what you expect when someone says give me a testimony of salvation and immediately think well when I was 16 and the Billy Graham meeting but you did hear a testimony of salvation. You heard a testimony of current present day salvation. God saving her in her thinking about the way in which she lives her life. This is salvation. It's present tense and it's future as well. So it's much more having been justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his death by his life. In Romans chapter 4 it's talking about sins. It's talking about the things that we have done in which our will has come into conflict with the will of God. In Romans chapter 5 you begin to discover it's not talking about sins. It's beginning to talk about something else. Not the fruit but the root. And it's his life that will save us from the root. Because we're going to discover something in Romans chapter 5 that as far as I know you will never see as clearly as this anywhere else in any other part of the Bible or in any other book in the whole of the world's library. He says this not only so but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have received the reconciliation shouldn't really be the word of comment. Then he says this in verse 12 he begins to explain what he's talking about and he says wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and he's begun now to speak of something which human beings will never discover by their own research or examination. It can only come by revelation. It doesn't come because men have worked it out or calculated it. It becomes because God has revealed it to them and is revealing this that something happened in the history of the human race at a point in time at one moment something happened which has had continuing consequences right up to our present day. It began in Adam but it continues right the way through to us now. Sin he says entered and death by sin. It's one of these places where the Bible as so often is clinically precise. It doesn't say sin began with Adam's disobedience. It says sin entered through Adam's disobedience. Sin, I'm sure I've said this before sin is much older than the human race. What Adam did was open a door and through the door something that was already in existence came in to take its place in the human condition. In fact this word entered here is exactly the same word that's used in another place that you'll be much more familiar with in the book of Revelation. In the book of Revelation Jesus says this to individuals at a church at Laodicea. He says behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door I will come in. I will enter. I will come in to him and will suck with him and he with me. That's Jesus saying I know he's referring to a church and not to an individual but he is referring to an individual hearing the voice of his knocking if any man, if any individual hears. He says this is what you're to do. If you hear me knocking you are to open the door and I will come in and I will suck with you and you with me. That's to say I will come in and we will commune together. We call our fellowship meal communion don't we? We will, it won't be just it won't just be a blessing or an experience or an event. It will become a whole pattern of life. I will come in and will suck with you and you with me. I'll come in and I'll become part of your family, part of your home. It's the exact same word that's used here when it says sin entered. Let me express it like this and I'm doing it to shock you to make you think it is as though what happened in the Garden of Eden was this that Adam heard a voice which said behold I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door I will come in and will suck with you. But it wasn't the voice of Jesus. It was the voice of another spirit. The rebel. The angel that had rebelled against God's will. The one who had said I will, I will, I will. I'll put my throne alongside the throne of God. That's really pretty much all the Bible tells us about the origin of sin. But it tells us of the time when sin entered the human race. So what happened to human beings is not just that they committed a single sin but Adam's sin opened up the whole human race and something entered into us which made us different to what God had originally created us to be. I don't know if any of you have been watching the things about the Holocaust that are on the TV at the present time at the time when they are remembering these things. It's this. There is something in the human nature. I've used Jesus' words. There is something in which comes to kill and slay and destroy. There is something cruel and destructive. There is something of a vandal inside human beings that make them behave in a way that animals never behave. People sometimes accuse people of behaving like animals. Animals never behave in the way that people behave. Man's cruelty to man is almost unbelievable. And it comes from this. Mostly it's under restraint. Mostly you never see it in its full expression. God holds it back. I think there is only one place ever when God took his hand off and released it. And then you see it in all its horror when the human race murders God. You see it in all its horror. It's this thing that says I will not have somebody else telling me what to do. I will not have this king to rule over me. It's either crown him or crucify him. I will not crown him. I will remove him. That's what happens. That spirit of disobedience that spirit of rebellion is by first birth in every single one of us. From that all other sin springs. For the sins that is atonement in Old Testament terms and forgiveness and a refusal to record them that is justification but sin needs to be dealt with in quite a different way. Sin cannot be forgiven. Sin cannot be remitted. Sin cannot be atoned for. I'm not talking about your sins. I'm talking about sin. I'm talking about the root. I'm talking about the dynamic of this thing which really is nothing less than the life of Satan itself that is infested and plagued the human race. That has to be dealt with in quite a different way. And it's all here in this passage. It goes on and it says I'll read it. For as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. And it's not just talking about death which is physical death. What God said to Adam was in the day that you eat of it you will die. Now it looks as though it was another 950 odd years before the undertaker got a hold of Adam's body. But in fact it tells us for sure what God threatened. In the day he ate of it he died. He died in his ability to be what God had wanted him to be. He died in his relationship with God. He died in his relationship with his wife with Adam's fall. And every single part of it is still affected in some measure on the physical level. Nevertheless he says death we're not talking about human death only but death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Then it says this at the end of verse 14 that Adam is the figure of him that was to come. It's telling us that Adam although he was a real life character although he did certain things that we have the historical account of here it's more than this Adam was a figure that's to say he was a type or a pattern of something. But he wasn't a pattern of something that was like him he was a pattern of something that was very very different to him. What it's saying is this Adam was the federal head of a race. He was the beginning of a whole kind of characteristic of human beings. Have you ever been to these ancestral homes and things and you walk down the staircase and you can see this nose which has gone through ten generations of the dukes of whatever they are. This kind of family characteristic has gone well a family characteristic has come down all the generations from Adam. And you can see the characteristics in every member of the human race. And it's this thing that is to kill and slay and destroy. But in being that Adam is actually also a picture of another starting point for the human race. And all those who descend from the second starting point will have the characteristics of the one who is the second starting point. So in the way that our sin with a capital S is hereditary so another kind of nature becomes our hereditary experience that comes when we have a new beginning which is in Jesus Christ. Many years ago not so many minutes ago but many years ago many years ago I was I was looking at a dictionary because I wanted to look at a particular word and the word for regeneration in Greek is palingenesis palindrome is again or something again and genesis is a new beginning. I thought well I wonder if there are any English words that have this kind of word palin in it that I could use as an illustration. And I got my Oxford compliance whatever it was and there was this word palingenesis an English word palingenesis. Now I know what it means to the biologists who use it but it was the dictionary that blessed me because the dictionary said something like this it is an exact reproduction of ancestral characteristics. And there was this whoop that went up in the study. Just a dictionary definition. An exact reproduction of ancestral characteristics. That's what Adam bequeathed to us. That's what came down in our spiritual genes. But God has another plan in this grace in which we stand which is regeneration. You get a whole new lot of spiritual genes with different characteristics in them. And the characteristics are nothing less than the life of Jesus himself. This is breathtaking. This isn't just mercy and forgiveness and grace. This is grace not just as a general attitude of God towards the human race but this is God this is grace as enabling power that makes an entirely different way of life possible. That makes it possible to live as he lived and to be as he was. I'm no gardener but I know that if you sow carrot seeds you get carrots. You don't get something which has carrot tendencies or something which is on its way to becoming a carrot if it's really encouraged. You from a carrot you get carrots. And the scripture tells me that part of the reasons for which Christ died upon the cross was that in doing so a seed was falling into the ground and dying. That it might bring forth not something which vaguely resembled it but something which was exactly the same in its nature. This is regeneration. This is the much more of the gospel that's made possible by a receiving of the Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit coming onto the inside and transforming a man or a woman making them new so that living waters flow from the innards. This isn't a bolt-on blessing. This is a built-in thing. It isn't something that kind of percolates from the outside and slowly gets to the inside. This is something which begins on the inside. A brand new beginning on the inside. A brand new root. A brand new character. And as we cooperate with God scatters its life through every part to use the word of Wesley. And makes God's life real in every part of our experience. Let me see if there's anything else I should just catch up. Let's just, I won't pick all of these up much more than you can do that. And he says this in verse 17 For by one man's offence death reigned. You see death isn't just an absence of life. It's become something with a character itself. In fact death too in this sense. You can almost spell it with a capital letter for the first, that D. This is Satan himself. This is that that brings death. That has the power of death. And sin is the same. So you've got this reign of sin and death. And it isn't something you do. It's something that reigns over you. Something which has you in its control. Something which speaks its will into your life and determines the way in which you live. That's as it was. But it goes on and it says this. I'll read from verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience many were constituted sinners. That's what it says literally. So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. So we're not talking about righteousness being reckoned to people now. We're not talking about people being made righteous. If you want the theological distinction we're not talking about imputed righteousness. We're now talking about imparted righteousness. In Romans chapter 4 you've got imputed righteousness. In Romans chapter 5 you've got this grace in which we stand. You've got imparted righteousness. It goes on to speak about justification of life. In verse 18. I love this phrase. This is just an illustration. You know that printers use the term justify. And that they use it when everything is all leveled up and straightened up and everything is all tidy in the way it should be. But what the Spirit of God comes to do is not just to tidy up the accounts in imputation. He comes to straighten up the life. There is justification of life. The life itself is brought into conformity with the will of God. Moreover the law answered that of the offence might abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound. That as sin has reigned to death even so might grace reign. You can't have two kings on this throne. You can't have two kings on this throne. It's either sin that reigns or it's grace that reigns. Let me give you one last thing and then I will stop. We've only got one instance in the Scripture where the Lord Jesus actually uses the word regeneration. And it's in Matthew chapter 19. How's this then for a little definition of regeneration for you? It's better than the Oxford comprised teaching with this one. It's in Matthew chapter 19 and Jesus has spoken about the blessings of following him and Peter in verse 27 answers and says Behold we have forsaken all and followed you what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said to him Verily I say to you that you who have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory I want to give you just the simplest possible definition of regeneration. It's when the Son of Man sits in the throne of his glory in you. When it's not sin that reigns it's not death that reigns it's Jesus that reigns. This is why Paul says if any man is in Christ he becomes a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold all things are become new. It doesn't mean there's no room for growth. It doesn't mean there isn't more. There's always more in God. But it does mean a radical change of the whole basis of our being that makes it possible for us to be what God has intended us to be. I don't know where you are in that little pilgrimage of your own. One thing I want to say I want to dip very briefly back into Romans chapter 4 and say this in case you missed it the first time that your acceptance of God is not dependent upon you having received the Holy Spirit. Your acceptance of God is dependent upon what Jesus Christ did upon the cross. But he did that in order to bless you with his Spirit. He became a curse for us says Paul to the Galatians. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith. He took away all the barriers, all the obstacles so that the Spirit could flow in and make real all these things that are in the heart of God. I'd like us to sing a hymn together. This hymn used to be almost like the national anthem of the fellowships. And while you're finding it I'll read part of it to you. Sorry, it's 74. 74 My God, I am Thine. What a comfort divine! What a blessing to know that my Jesus is mine in the heavenly land. Thrice happy I am my heart at death dance at the sound of Thy name. True pleasures abound in the rapture of sound and whoever has found it has paradise found. My Jesus to know and feel His blood flow His life everlasting to His heaven below. My cup runs o'er. I have comfort and power. I have pardon. What can a poor sinner have more? He can have a new heart. So as never to start from thy path He may be in the world as thou art. Let's sing it, 75. Let's sing it, 75.