Life or Death - Your Choice

Introduction: The Signpost of Romans 6:23

0:00 We come again this evening to examine a specific text in the Word of God which very clearly and in a very comprehensive yet succinct way points us to the way of life and salvation. This is the twelfth such text that we have considered as part of a series that I have entitled Simple Signposts to the Celestial City. Now I announced in the morning service that this signpost would be taken from chapter 6 in the book of Romans. For our simple signpost this night is found in the words of Romans 6. Romans 6 and verse 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now using the imagery of a signpost that we have used throughout this entire series, as we approach this particular signpost tonight,

1:20 unlike other of the signposts that we have considered, where perhaps there were two lines or words combined with symbols and separated by hyphens, this signpost is different in that as we look at it from afar, we are immediately struck with the fact that instead of just one signboard upon the vertical post, there are two. Both of them have been cut in such a way that they look like the point of an arrow. And one has been nailed with the arrow pointing to the left, and the other has been nailed upon the post with the arrow pointing to the right. And as we draw closer to the signpost, we see that first of all, there are two signsposts. There are contrasting destinations to which they point. Both of these boards on the one signpost are pointing to destinations.

2:37 The one to the left, as we draw near, we see that closest to the end of the board that looks like an arrow is the word death. The other that points to the left is the word death. The one to the right, there near the point of the arrow-shaped board, is the word eternal life. This signpost has contrasting destinations to which they point.

3:12 That then raises the question, what do the words upon the signpost mean? For our text says, The wages of sin...

The Destination of Death: The Second Death

3:23 Sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. When we see this word death upon the signpost, in contrast to the words eternal life, what precisely does it mean? The word death in itself is a horrible word. And when we turn to the Scriptures, we find that it is first introduced, when God speaks to Adam in the purity and the innocence of Eden.

4:06 And he tells him, Of all of the trees of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. And as we trace the meaning of the word death from that first usage in Genesis 2 all the way through to the book of the Revelation, we see that the word death has many meanings and many usages in Holy Scripture. Sometimes it refers to the separation of the soul and the body, as James says, as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead. Sometimes it merely speaks of the cessation of animal life. When animals are said to die, that is the end of their existence. There is in the Bible a doctrine of spiritual death.

5:15 You hath He made alive who were dead. In your trespasses and sins. Jesus refers to this when He says, that he that believes on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. But this signpost with this word death upon it is not referring to any of those particular usages of the word death, but rather it is referring to that aspect of death which comes, comes at the end of a life of sin.

5:55 Now we know this from the context, for if you look at verse 21, you will notice that Paul says, What fruit had you at that time in the things whereof you are now ashamed, speaking of the patterns of their sinful life, for the end of those things, is death. The end of those things is death. So that in this particular context, when he says the wages of sin is death, when he is putting up on the signboard the contrasting destinations, this use of death is pointing to the same concept, that and awesome reality, that Paul speaks of later in chapter 8 and verse 13, where we read, If you live after the flesh, you must die. But if you by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live. The death to which this signpost is pointing,

7:20 is none other than that death which is called in Revelation 20 and verse 14, the second death, the lake of fire, that horrible place and state, which the Bible describes as hell. The place to which our Lord Jesus made reference again and again, when He spoke of Gehenna, when He said, Don't be afraid of those who kill the body, and after this have no more that they can do, but fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna, in hell, Matthew 10 and verse 28. It is that place to which our Lord makes reference when He speaks of being cast into outer darkness, into the fire, where their worm dies not, and the fire is never quenched. The place referred to in Revelation 14, 11, where John says the smoke of their torment goes up forever and forever, and they have no rest day nor night. It is this death, the horrible death of the eternal,

8:46 the irreversible separation of the soul from God forever and forever, where that soul joined to a resurrected body will suffer the conscious torments of those who are cast out from the presence of Christ into that place with the devil and his angels. So as we approach this sign post tonight, with its contrasting destinations to which it points, the first destination to which it points us is the direction of death, and it is set there that we might not choose that direction, but that by the grace of God we should flee from death in the direction of God's offer of life and salvation. Then the contrast to death in the passage is eternal life, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. Now what does the combination of these two words mean? Well, like the word death,

The Destination of Eternal Life: Consummate Glory in Heaven

10:11 eternal life is not used in as many different ways, but it does have different dimensions of significance in the word of God. For example, Jesus said, This is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17, 3. Their eternal life is described in terms of a saving knowledge of God and of His Son.

10:43 In some places it is referred to as a present possession. You know that no murderer, John says, has eternal life abiding in Him. But in the context of Romans 6, just as death points to the future, consummate, horrible reality of eternal death in the age to come, so likewise eternal life points to the glorious, blissful, indescribable blessedness of the glory of the age to come in the place called heaven. And what in the context points in that direction? Well, the very preceding verse, verse 22. But now, being made free from sin and become servants to God, that's a reference to their conversion, you are having your fruit unto sanctification, that's a description of their earthly pilgrimage, and the end eternal life.

12:02 You see, their eternal life is something that is described as that which comes at the end of a life unto sanctification. Sanctification which is begun in the experience of conversion. So that in this particular context, eternal life is the exact opposite of death. Death is that ultimate separation of the soul from God when with resurrected body, the human body and soul joined forever will be cast into outer darkness.

12:43 Into the place that is called the second death. Eternal life is nothing less than that which Jesus describes so beautifully in John 14 under the figure of the Father's house. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you.

13:06 I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again. And receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. And for the true child of God in any kind of a state of spiritual health, there's a sense in which that's all he needs to know about heaven is that Christ is there.

13:34 And he will be with Christ. And a lot of other silly questions suddenly become irrelevant to know that Christ himself will receive us into the most intimate communion with himself. Surely that is the heaven of heaven. But God does give us some marvelous little pictures.

13:58 And as I have quoted several of the horrible, gruesome, yet real pictures of what death is. Turn with me to Revelation 7. And here I want you to get the words through the eye gate as well as the ear gate. Revelation 7 beginning with verse 13.

14:24 One of the elders answering said unto me, These that are arrayed in white robes, who are they? And where did they come from? And I say unto him, My Lord, you know. And he said unto me, These are they that come out of the great tribulation.

14:45 And they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God. And they serve him day and night in his temple. And he that sits on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them.

15:07 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat. For the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life. And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. What a beautiful picture of eternal life in its consummate expression when the people of God in the immediate presence of God and of the Lamb serve him day and night in his immediate and special presence.

15:52 That's the significance of temple and tabernacle. And they do so without any of the things that cause distress and distraction here upon earth. No more hunger, no more thirst, no more discomfort. And the Lamb himself in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, and he like a good shepherd will guide them into those enjoyments that will constitute the fullness of life.

16:22 And there will be nothing to cause a tear. Every tear shall be wiped from their eyes. One other picture in Revelation chapter 21, just verses 3 and 4. After seeing the new heavens and the new earth ushered in, John in vision says, I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them and be their God.

17:05 Do you see that recurring central emphasis of the Bible doctrine of heaven? It's not a miracle. It's not a man is going to perish without to face unbroken mutual communion, and that the people are going to be kept at the mercy of the Lord for the Lord. And then verse 4, He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying for the first things are passed away.

17:46 As we look at our signpost, we know how to imagine the will for Jesus and we know that was the will We notice the contrasting destinations to which they point, for the wages of sin is death, and the first board nailed upon that vertical support points in the direction of death. It says there is a place, there is a state where words fail to describe the horrors of the damned who go there, weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, smoke of their torment ascending up forever and forever. They rest not day nor night. And if Luke 16.

18:45 Is a preview of what the eternal state will be apparently, they will be able to have some consciousness of the bliss and the glory of the redeemed for the damned soul of the rich man. It is said he saw Abraham death there on the signpost is an arrow that points to death and that word death is pregnant with all of the horrors. The original words in the Bible. Verbal descriptions which can only only be but a token of the more horrible reality which those words represent. But blessed be God. There's another board fixed with an arrow that points in another direction to another destination. Eternal life.

The Certainty of Contrasting Destinies and the Danger of False Teaching

19:43 And again words fail to capture anything of what it will be. But our Lord. as where I am, there shall my people be, and God Himself shall be with them. God Himself shall neutralize anything that would cause discomfort, distress, and grief, tears forever wiped away. So as we stand before this signpost tonight, men and women, boys and girls, teenagers, God is setting before us in this one text a truth which is set out throughout the entire Bible, and that is that every one of us is headed to death or eternal life. If the Lord Jesus delays His coming, a hundred years from now, every one of us sitting in this building will be fixed in the destiny of death or of eternal life.

20:50 Every single one of us is headed to death or eternal life. This signpost means not by remembering what a preacher said when he sought to expounce 23, but in our own what the death is. Thank God some of you will know what the eternal life is. And if you are at all able to remember anything any preacher ever said in attempting to open up any passage of any Scripture, you will have said a thousand times over like the Queen of Sheba when she saw the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. of Solomon's empire and Solomon's gold and Solomon's possessions and Solomon's Kingdom the half has not been told there are the contrasting destinations set before us on this signpost and I want to say very plainly and passionately particularly to you young people you're growing up in an age where even so-called evangelical preachers are trying to change that signpost and they have put

22:14 on the signpost that says death a parentheses that says death quote but not eternal death death but not eternal conscious punishment in the lake of fire death but not the old medieval concept of an eternal hell of conscious Parma death that is you , ultimate negation of existence and there is a resurrection in our day of the frighteningly damnable doctrine of annihilation espoused by men who for years have been known to be outspoken evangelicals but remember this has been planted by Almighty God who said situation is in purgatory which means Augustus still has cut the boards with the pointed arrows he has since eternal life and he means what he says about those contrasting destinations the Lord Jesus has forever settled the issue if there were no other texts in all of the Bible

23:42 at the end of Matthew chapter 25 and here I ask you to turn to it with me again to get it through the eye gate as well as the Ear gate our Lord Jesus has cut the boards with the pointed arrows, Notice this has been demanded that if there was no other text in the Bible as for eternalilation His Lord Jesus has cut the boards as forever settled the issue if there were no other text in all of the Bible is describing the final day of judgment and he likens his own role as a judge to that of a shepherd separating sheep from goats. He speaks to those on the right hand and those on the left. And after he has publicly disclosed the rightness of the sentence he issues, notice verse 46 of Matthew 25. And these, these to whom he said, depart from me, verse 41, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. These shall go into eternal punishment, but the righteous into. Eternal life. And he uses the same qualifying word with respect to punishment as he does with respect to life.

25:00 And if the punishment is not the punishment of a conscious soul under the wrath of God, then the life will not be the enjoyment of conscious existence in the glorious presence of God. Let God be true and every man a liar. There is the signpost with its contrasting destinations set before you. And if some of you wonder why week after week, month after month, year after year, no matter what book we're studying, no matter what subject is being treated, no matter what series, topical, series is engaged in, we don't allow you much time between sermons to forget that there is always before you the issue of heaven and hell, death and light of the pole, and horribly pathetic level of our faith and tarsal nation and joy in the anticipation of heaven. We nonetheless believe the Word of God.

Contrasting Bases: Wages of Sin vs. Free Gift of God

26:25 We believe this. And this, this signpost sets the reality before us. But then, having seen from this signpost the contrasting destinations to which it points, notice with me secondly the contrasting basis for arriving at these destinations. The contrasting basis for arriving at these destinations as we draw closer to the signpost we see that though the word death is closest to the point of the arrow and the word life, eternal life, closest to the point of the arrow to the right, we see that in smaller words but very distinct, these words, the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life. So behind the contrasting destinations, there is a contrasting basis for arriving at those destinations. The basis of the one is what you earn.

27:47 The wages of sin is death. The basis of the other is what is given as undeserved gift. The free gift of God. The free gift of God is eternal life.

28:03 You see how simple this text is? It preaches itself. Let's consider these contrasting bases for arriving at these destinations. First, the basis of the one is what you earn.

28:18 The wages of sin is death. Here, sin is likened to a great paymaster who will pay out what is earned, to all who have served him. And if you have entered and remained in the service of sin, payday will surely come someday. Do you hear me?

28:47 Payday will surely come. The wages of sin is death. The basis on which men receive death in all the horrible realities, the basis on which man receives death, in all the horrible realities, in all the horrible realities, in all the horrible realities, in all the horrible realities, and in all the horrible realities, in all the horrible realities, in all the horrible realities, of what that word signifies is that they have earned it. They will receive death as the wages for their service to sin.

The Deceptive and Certain Wages of Sin

29:21 as the wages for their service to sin. And I want you to know two very important things about these wages that sin pays. First, they are deceptive wages. They are not the wages Sin ever promises when you enter into his employment.

29:45 When you sit down to bicker with sin about what he will give you if you will serve him, sin says, I'll give you pleasure.

29:57 And he's not lying, for there is pleasure in sin for a season. Were there no pleasure in sin, there would be no hook, no bait in which to have the hook of death embedded and to entice us into sin. No, it says of Moses, he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season. But you see, his wages are deceitful, for though he promises pleasure,

30:36 for a season, he doesn't show us the fine print, that sin's pleasure for a season will bring sin's damnation for eternity.

30:51 Whatever pleasure will come to whatever faculties God has given, whether it's the pleasure of the glutton as he drools over his foods that taste so good as he likes them, swallows them down, or whether it's the pleasure of the sensualist as he gives his body to elicit sexual relations, whether it's air pleasure, that pleasure is only for a season, but the wages it pays out are for eternity. They are deceitful and deceptive wages. Sin never comes promising death, only fun, acceptance, fulfillment, pleasure, status. Remember, whatever sin promises you to get you into his service, his wages are deceitful wages. For according to our text, the wages of sin are only death, horrible, eternal death of outer darkness. They are deceptive wages, and I've already said that.

32:16 I've already alluded to this second point, but I want to make it as a specific point. They are certain wages. They are certain wages. Look at verse 16 in this same chapter. In verse 16 of Romans chapter 6, look at the certainty of the wages sin pays. Know you not that to whom you present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death? Or of obedience unto righteousness? He said, if you present yourself as the willing employee of sin, he will always pay you off, but he will pay you off with death. The wages are certain. Verse 21,

33:10 what fruit had you at that time in the things whereof you are now ashamed? The end of those things. Is death and would to God. Affirmation to abandonment and your flirtation with the world and with its people continuing, and the wages are both deceptive. Everyone in hell will be there as the way of sin. None will be in hell. Sin did not warrant their being there. So just tell yourself,

34:17 the next time sin's propositions are very real, and your appetites and your desires, and your passions are stirred, and sin presents itself with its reward of some immediate blessing.

34:39 The wages are death, and payday will come someday.

The Nature, Giver, and Sphere of God's Free Gift

34:51 Some see the contrasting destinies, death and eternal life, but the contrasting basis for arriving at these destinies, those who go into death, go on the basis of what they earn. The wages of sin is death, but the basis of the other is what is given as an undeserved gift. Look at the text. But the free gift of God is the way the 1901 renders it, which is a better rendering of the Greek word charisma.

35:42 The free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Notice three things about the basis of this gift that is given that issues in eternal life. The nature of the gift, the giver of the gift, and the sphere in which the gift is given. The nature of the gift, it's totally undeserved.

36:13 It is wholly gratuitous. It is all of grace. The very word charisma is a word that at its heart has the word charis, grace. It is all of grace.

36:30 And grace is not just getting something I haven't earned. It's getting the exact opposite of what I deserve. And so the basis on which eternal life is imparted to anyone is to be seen in that it is totally undeserved, wholly gratuitous. It is all of grace.

36:55 We see, we sang of it tonight. And that hymn was based on the text if you glanced at the top of the hymn. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works that no man should boast.

37:16 And after Paul describes what we are by nature in Ephesians 2, 1-3, he says, But God, who is rich in mercy, according to his love, and then goes on to magnify his grace, the grace that saves the likes of you and me. The basis of this gift of eternal life is to be seen in its nature, totally undeserved, than the giver, God himself. But the gift, the free gift of God. Look at the contrast.

37:53 Sin is personified into the gift of God. Sin is personified into the great paymaster. And he pays out his deceitful but certain wages of death. On the other hand, there is a totally undeserved, wholly gratuitous gift that is imparted by God himself.

38:17 And when the Apostle Paul uses the little word God, a four-letter Greek word for him, a three-letter word for us, in English. For Paul, that word does not symbolize anything you want to make him. As in the nonsense of AA and other support groups, you've got to trust in some power, whatever you want to conceive him to be. So you could conceivably go out in your backyard and call the spring flowers God, so long as you trusted in them and not in yourself to get over your problems.

38:56 What nonsense! When Paul says that the free gift of God, what God does he have in mind? Well, take the time to read the opening chapters of Romans. And there he sets forth this God as a God whose wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

39:20 He presents Him as the God who's made a world and smothered it with His fingerprints and spiked it with His insignia and says to His creatures there, you know, I've smothered my world with fingerprints. I've scrapped it. He speaks of that God judiciously giving men over to their lust and to their passions when they will not even let what nature teaches them regulate the exercise of their sexual passions. And then he speaks again and again in chapter 2 of the judgment of God, storing up wrath against the revelation of the righteous judgment. The judgment of God who will render to every evildoer tribulation and anguish. I tell you, He's not the little pansy God of modern theology. When Paul says the free gift of God, he means that great, infinite, glorious, majestic being totally, infinitely self-sufficient in Himself existing from all eternity who did not speak a world into being.

40:37 Out of the womb of nothing and put man, His crowning creature upon it because he was lonely or unfulfilled or had an itch for exploration or experimentation. In the mystery of inner Trinitarian communion, our God was totally satisfied and fulfilled with Himself and in Himself.

41:01 And that God created because He willed to create. And He made man the creature to be His subject and His vice-regent, to carry out His will upon His earth, to regulate His life by His law. And He holds him accountable to Himself in terms of that law. And He will bring him into account in the day of judgment for whether or not He has kept that law.

41:25 This is the God Paul is speaking about. And thank God the God whom he goes on to speak about in chapter 3, who has revealed His salvation in His only begotten Son. This God, who was willing to send His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, this God who was prepared to subject His own Son to the mockery, to the rejection, to the vile, blasphemous hatred of men, who was willing not only to let men put Him up upon a cruel instrument of execution, a cross, but who was willing Himself to charge His Son with the guilt of the sins of His people and in the language of Romans 8, to spare Him not, but deliver Him up for us all. That's the God of Romans 6.23. And that's the problem with not a few of you here.

42:28 You've never taken seriously for five minutes who God is and what your relationship is to Him apart from any choice of your own. And that God who could have justly and righteously consigned every one of us to eternal perdition, He gave no second chance to the devil when he fell. No second chance to the fallen angel!

42:58 He could have done the same with us. But that God, that God is the giver of this gift. And then notice the third thing about this gift.

43:13 The sphere in which the gift is given. It says the free gift of God is eternal life, not through, but in. The little Greek preposition, and in the sphere, in union with Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now again, for Paul, those were not just piling up words for the sake of impression.

43:43 He says the sphere in which this gift is given is nothing other than union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now again, for Paul, who is this Lord Jesus Christ? When you turn back to chapter 1, and he tells us that his gospel is bound up in this person, and in the uniqueness of his identity, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he promised afore through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son. His gospel concerns his son, and then, he doesn't say, and whoever you want to think Jesus to be, if you get some kind of religious meaning out of some kind of religious experience with him, that's all there is. No, no, he said, my gospel has well-defined, well-chiseled lines and angles. Here it is. It is a gospel concerning his son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh.

44:52 It concerns his son, who underwent a true and a real incarnation. It concerns his eternal son, the second person of the Godhead who took to himself in Mary's womb, true human flesh, a true human soul, and a true human body,

45:15 but who was declared, determined, manifested to be son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Notice, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Who is Jesus Christ our Lord? He tells you.

45:34 When you find Him saying in Romans 6.23, this eternal life that comes totally gratuitously from God, it is all a gift and comes from God Himself. But the only sphere of laying hold of it is in union with Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus our Lord.

45:59 Paul says, He is this unique person who is truly God and truly man, who died and who underwent a literal, physical, bodily resurrection from the dead as the ultimate validation of His identity, not only as man, but as God the Son. And then you read through and you see that He says some other things about this Jesus Christ our Lord. Look at chapter 3, verse 24. Being justified freely, by His grace, through the redemption that is where in Christ Jesus redemption is the concept of buying back with a price.

46:43 That which has been lost through forfeiture. That which has been sold to another. Redemption has the concept of buying back. You redeem something out of the pawn shop.

46:56 Here the Christ of Paul is the Christ who is the Redeemer. He is the Redeemer. He is the Redeemer. Who has redeemed sinners whom God set forth to be propitiation.

47:08 That is, He is the one who turns away the righteous wrath of God by Himself swallowing up that wrath in His death upon the cross. And you continue to read into chapter 5 and you come to the words righteousness, justification, all in conjunction with Jesus Christ. For example, verse 19 of chapter 5. As through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made or constituted righteous.

47:45 And that one is Christ Himself. Why am I saying this? For this simple reason. We live in a day when the gospel has not only suffered from its outspoken enemies, but from its supposed friends.

47:58 And what got people going around saying, I love Jesus, la, la, la, and banging on their guitars. Make your ears. And it's all something somehow or other that if you in some way or another get in some kind of contact with them by one means or another and feel good and get your act together, you're a Christian, my friends. That's no more the gospel than telling you to go out and have a double dip.

48:42 Banana split is the gospel. Your need must, it needs to confront that the only in which God has free eternal life is in Christ. Comprehensive knowledge of historic Christology, of the two natures in the one person forever, unless he has a clear conceptual grasp upon substitutionary penal satisfaction and knows the meaning of redemption and reconciliation and propitiation. Of course not. I'm not saying that because the Bible doesn't. What I'm saying is this.

49:41 If all you know of Jesus is what that poor guy that I met years ago started witnessing to him. I asked him if he were a Christian. He said, yeah, I'm a Christian. I said, well, how do you know if you're a Christian?

49:55 I believe in Christ. I said, well, what do you believe about Christ? He said, I believe he's for good. I looked at him.

50:03 I said, what? He said, I believe he's for good. I said, that's all you know and you believe, I believe he's for good. And you're a Christian.

50:12 Yes, sir. You believe in Jesus. What do you believe about? I believe he's for good.

50:16 That was the full extent of his creed. I believe he's for good. Well, the devil believes he's for good. That's why he trembled in those whom he possessed in the presence of Jesus.

50:28 Art thou come to torment us before the time? No, no. What I'm saying is the reason we've got so much pseudo-Christianity is we've got such a watered down, emasculated, distorted version of the gospel. When Paul says, in this simple, simple signpost, the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord, he is saying the state of sinners is such that nothing less than the enfleshment of God can come to our rescue.

51:10 We need someone who can come down where we are to take our place. But we need someone who comes from above with all the plenitude of the power and grace of deity to ever break our chains and ever have enough virtue in what he does in life and death to count in the court of heaven. He himself must come out of heaven if he's ever going to take anyone back to heaven. We need a Savior who is the God-man.

51:39 We need a Savior who is something more than just for good. He is so much for the good that he's prepared Father's wrath that we might be forgiven with a just pardon and a righteous forgiveness. He loves his Father's unstained righteousness too much to suggest that it should be stained even to save sinners from hell. The sphere in which the gift is given is union with the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Christ of biblical revelation.

The Choice: Wages of Sin or Free Gift of God

52:19 So the message is clear. You either take your deserved and earned wages, and death will be your portion.

52:30 And your portion forever. Or you receive the free gift of God in Jesus Christ, and eternal life will be your portion and your destiny forever. Now if these things are true, and this signpost makes it very clear that these things are true, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord, doesn't that raise a few burning questions in your mind? You say, if that's true, why in the world would people choose to go on in the way of sin knowing they're going to be paid off by the paymaster with death when God in grace is prepared to give them totally as a gift eternal life? You say, that's madness. Yes, it is. And it's one of the great inescapable proofs that the Bible doctrine of the nature of man as a sinner is true.

Reasons for Choosing Death: Pride, Hatred, and Blindness

53:42 And I want to focus in closing on a couple of areas that in particular will cause people to choose the wages of sin rather than the free gift of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The first is because of man's natural pride of heart. It is pride. Pride made the devil the devil.

54:11 And it is pride people from embracing the free gift of God in Jesus Christ. Because they know if they do, turn to 1 Corinthians 1, what will happen. We read in 1 Corinthians 1 in verse 30, But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that is, if we are in Christ. And in Christ everything pertaining to salvation is ours in him.

54:50 What's going to be the end result? Verse 31, that according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. You see, if the free gift of God is found only in Christ, and in Christ the only salvation God offers is holy, gratuitous, and free, then where is there any room for human boasting? There is none.

55:18 I will then have to say, all I brought, everything else has been all of grace. And therefore, the natively proud human heart says, no, I will not have a salvation in which every last jewel in the crown is on the head of the Savior. I want to keep at least a little 100 carat diamond in my pocket, that at least I can rub once in a while and say I did a little something. No, no, my friend, you'll go to hell rubbing your little diamond.

56:01 That's why men would rather choose to stay under a . It will be death. Then take the free gift of God, which is in Christ Jesus, because of man's natural pride of heart. Secondly, because of man's natural hatred of God.

56:25 Romans 8, 7 says, The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is one massive clenched fist in the face of God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

56:39 Man has a native hatred of God, but he knows this much. If I should ever get pardoned by that God, totally on the basis of what he's done and not on the grounds of what I do, then I will owe him a debt that can find no measure of expression. But that of becoming his loving bond slave. And that's exactly the emphasis of Romans 6, where Paul says everyone is someone's slave.

57:07 You're either the slave of God and of Christ and of righteousness, or the slave of sin and of unrighteousness and of self, but someone's slave you are. And think of it. Men would rather go on slaves to their sin and the devil and let their paymaster give them pay.

57:28 day someday and go to hell and stack arms and say oh god what a fool i've been to hate a god who is so full of love that you would send your only begotten son into the world to do for sinners like me what none other could do and then freely and repeatedly and earnestly as we saw last week passionately and sincerely offer me the gift of loving yourself what a fool i've been to have hard thoughts of you you see the moment you begin to think of god giving the free gift of eternal life in jesus christ the lord you know that to receive that gift in christ from the hand of god is to voluntarily bind yourself over to that god irrevocably to be his servant and you hate god by nature and that's why you're not a christian you hate god i don't hate god listen if you didn't hate god why don't you run to him and say oh god i take from your hand

58:50 that gift of eternal life in conjunction with your son jesus christ the lord henceforth to be a debtor to you to your grace and to christ who saved me you know you see you don't want that because you hate god even as the bible says you do and then the third reason is because of man's natural blindness to spiritual realities the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of god they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them first corinthians 2 14 second corinthians 4 4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not lest the light of the gospel of the glory of christ who is the image of god should shine upon them there's one thing the devil does never never want you kids to see and that's anything of the glory of god that shines out of the face of christ if the devil allows you to see he knows that if he were to allow you to see the glory that radiates from jesus christ it would make the world a

60:10 peer what it really is a stinking rotten cursed horrible system that's trying to drag you to hell you could go back to school tomorrow morning some of you kids not giving a hoot what your peers think about you if you caught a glimpse of the glory of christ and they call you holy joe and whatever they call those that get serious and though you might feel a little twinge of hurt you could smile and say call me what you want i've been with my savior this morning and i've seen his smile and all of your frowns can't budge me i'm spoiled for life that's what god did for this teenager don't see you're blind it's the world it smiles it's pleasures it's allurements that's all real to you that's real to you that's why you can sit under the ministry here and go out of here and it's quick because you're blind to these reality and our only hope is what paul's hope was god he says in verse six of that same chapter who

61:35 commanded the light to shine not into the darkness but it's beautiful he says god who commanded the light to shine out of the dark has shined not into but in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of christ in other words paul says we got saved when the same god who spoke into the midst of the darkness and said let there be light he didn't speak light into the darkness he spoke light out of the darkness and it's that god who this night and i pray he will do it will speak redemptive saving creative light in your heart and that the christ you've heard about a hundred times perhaps this night you said i never saw that before christ came from heaven took a

62:33 true human soul and body suffered what he did underwent the wrath of god and was raised from the dead all to put end that a hell deserving wretch like me should receive a free gift what a fool i've been hell's had any significance any meaning any purpose here lord i give myself away tis all that i can do well there's the signpost stood before it the arrow points and says death the arrow points and says eternal life the basis on which death is given wages the basis on which eternal life is given free gift of god in jesus christ what are you going to do choose death choose life a few weeks ago i read one of watts moving little children's hymns i close by reading another they were totally and watts apparently had been thinking about

63:59 at least if not this text similar texts listened to the language he puts into the mouth of the child there is beyond the sky heaven and love and holy children when they die go to that world about notice he didn't say and any infants who die he said holy children before the signpost and with a childish mind in terms of childish concepts and limitations but under the illuminating powerful regenerating work of the spirit have seen themselves to be sinners and have embraced the free gift of god in eternal life and are bringing forth fruits unto righteousness the righteousness of a little child but nonetheless bringing forth fruits unto righteousness he says and holy children when they die go to that world above there is a dreadful hell and everlasting pains where sinners must with devils dwell in darkness fire and chain and such a wretch as i escape this cursed end and may i hope when e'er i die i shall to heaven

65:25 ascend then I for grace will pray while I have life and breath lest I should be cut off today and sent to eternal death remember last week's signpost behold now is the day of salvation behold now is the acceptable time and for you who by the grace of god can sit here and pray for me and say blessed be god that I sit as one who has embraced the gift of god that gift of eternal life in union with Jesus Christ the lord surely brethren as in these times we've been concentrating on the glories of the gospel we need to say with those beggars who came upon all the spoils of the defeated assyrian army we do not well to keep us from the glory of the lord we do not well to keep us silent we do not well to keep silent

66:43 but may god give us boldness to open our mouths and to speak forth such a glorious message that there is eternal life as a free gift in Jesus Christ our lord let us pray