Romans chapter 6. We'll be looking at verses 19
through 23 this morning. And the title of the message
is, Wages or Gifts? Wages or Gift? Not gifts, gift. Singular. The apostle says here
in verse 19, He said, I speak after the manner of men because
of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye have yielded your members,
servants, to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even
so now yield your members, servants, to righteousness unto holiness. The Apostle Paul here in verse
19 explains why he uses metaphors. He uses metaphors, especially
this metaphor of a servant and a master, of a slave and a master. This was common knowledge in
this day, in the day the Apostle wrote. There were slaves and
there were masters. This was a truth that people
could grasp a hold of. It was something that was real
to them in their lives. And so the apostle says, I use
this metaphor because of the weakness of your flesh. Our Lord Jesus Christ said to
Nicodemus in John chapter 3, He said, If I tell you of earthly
things and you believe not, how shall I tell you of heavenly
things? You see that this is always God's
method to use metaphors, to use things that we know, that we
can understand in order to describe spiritual things. If He didn't
use these things, we could not understand because of the weakness
of our flesh. But praise God that He does use
these metaphors, these things that we can grasp, these things
that we can explain, to explain heavenly things, spiritual things. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says,
I didn't come in the wisdom of men. I didn't preach to you after
the earthly wisdom of man, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. And in 2 Corinthians he tells
them that he preached to them with plainness of speech. This is always the desire of
every preacher of the gospel, to preach to you simply. To simply preach to you the message
as plainly as we possibly can and in order to do this we use
these things that scripture has given us these earthly metaphors I read this before I became a
pastor and I thought this would be good and it's always been
in the back of my mind every time I prepare a message that
if I can get the child to understand, then I've got the most educated.
Isn't that right? If I can get the child to understand
my speech, then I can definitely get the most educated when I
preach the gospel. And this is my purpose every
time I preach, is to preach with such plainness that everyone
understands. Now the Apostle says to all who
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who have been conquered by the
Holy Spirit of God and set free from sin. He said, you became
the servants of righteousness. He's using the metaphor of servant,
of slave. A slave owes everything to his
master. And you see, we were the slaves
of sin. We were the servants of sin. When we had only one nature,
the nature we were born with, we were enslaved to that nature. We were enslaved to sin, but
now, you who believe, you understand this. This is plainness of speech
to you. But now, you have been freed
from the dominion and rule of the old nature by the indwelling
of a new nature, a new heart. This is the new birth. This is
a work of God the Holy Spirit that comes through the preaching
of the gospel. He applies the preaching of the
gospel and He creates in us a new heart. And that new heart is
a conquering heart. It overrules the old man. And now Paul encourages us who
have been conquered, he says, as you once yielded yourselves
servants, yielded your members. And what is he saying about members?
He's talking about your eyes, your hands, your ears, your feet. your members of your body you
yielded them once only to sin only to self but now that you
have been conquered he said even so now yield your members as
servants of righteousness as servants of righteousness now
if you'll notice He's saying that you were the servants of
sin, but now you're the servants of righteousness. He's not saying
for righteousness. We're not yielding our members
to obtain righteousness. Our master has obtained our righteousness
for us, imputed it to us, gave it to us in a new nature, so
we're not using these members to obtain righteousness. That's
what the works religion is doing. That's what the world is doing.
They're trying to obtain right. We already have righteousness.
Now then that you have it, use these members as servants of
righteousness. That's what he's exhorting us
to. Believer in Christ, seeing now that you have been set free
from the guilt and dominion of sin, use your members as servants
to God, seeking to do that which is well-pleasing to your Master. Yield your eyes, your eyes that
once only served lust. He said, now yield them to serve
God. Use your eyes to read the Word
of God. to read the Word of Christ. Implore
your ears to hear the Word of Christ. Yield your lips to sing
the praise of Christ. Yield your hands to work so that
you may give to the ministry. People think they work for a
living. Not believers. We work for the
ministry. That's what we do. All of the
things that we do are for the service of God, the service of
His ministry, and the need of saints. And he says, yield your
feet to bring you swiftly to worship God. Believer, let us be servants
who wait on the bidding of our God. Wait on the bidding of our
Master. And yet we do these things not
as unwilling servants. I'll tell you, I know this, that
we either have children or we were children. We understand
what it is to be unwilling servants, don't we? Our parents demanded
of us, and we just said, oh, man. We didn't want to. We were unwilling. That's not
how we serve Christ, is it? We serve Christ willingly. We
serve Christ joyfully. We serve Christ as cheerful servants. In Psalm 100, verse 2, it says,
Serve the Lord, how? With gladness. With gladness. Come before His presence. How? With singing. With singing. Paul says in Romans 12, he said,
I beseech you. Therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, because of the mercies of God, consider, believer, the
mercies of God upon you. Consider what God has done for
you. And in considering His great
work, His great person, His great love and His great grace, He
said, I beseech you when you consider these things, present
your bodies as a living sacrifice. a living sacrifice. Believers,
we're not to wait until we're dead to serve God. That's foolishness. We don't think that way. We are
under our master now. We're not waiting to serve God.
Serve God now. How? With joy, because of His
mercy. And He said, this is just your
reasonable service. Isn't it just reasonable? When
you consider what Christ has done for you, is it not reasonable
that you give everything for Him? That's just reasonable.
To a believer, it's reasonable. Behold, now the Apostle gives
us again the good reason. Look at this, in verse 20. He
said, this is a reason why you should serve God in your members. He said four. When you were servants
of sin, you were free from righteousness. He gives us a good reason why
we should serve God with our members. He said, four, when you were serving your members,
using your members as unrighteousness, You were servants of sin. You
were free from righteousness. Remember, believer, the time
that you were free from righteousness. That you were empty of righteousness. That you had no righteousness. That you could not change. And you would not change. You
would not turn from your sin. How plain and clear is this,
that all men are born without righteousness? Is that not clear
when He says you are free from righteousness? That means you
are free from all goodness. Self-righteousness. You are absolutely
and completely full of sin. Man in the unregenerate state
has no righteousness, neither does he desire to be righteous.
I didn't say he doesn't desire to be self-righteous. Man desires
to be self-righteous. He desires to have the praise
of men. That's what man desires as far
as righteousness, but he does not desire the righteousness
of God. He's free from it. Remember, believer, that this
was our condition. Don't forget this was our condition. When we were enslaved to sin,
But now, believer, what was the fruit of that sin? What was the fruit, the results
of our yielding our members to unrighteousness? What was the
evidence? You remember the fruits of that?
All of that labor that we put into ourselves and our sin, what
did that yield? Paul asked that question. He
says it, and it says, What fruit had you in those things whereof
you are now ashamed? What was the fruit of all that?
Wickedness. When we walked after the course
of this world, after the lust of our flesh, after the prince
of the power of the air, what was the result of our wicked
deeds? The apostle is not denying here that the fruit of sin is
pleasurable. He's not denying that sin's not
pleasurable. We found that to be so. Sin is
a pleasure to the flesh. Sin was for a moment a pleasure
to the flesh, but it never ends that way, did it? It never gave
what it promised. Sin promised pleasure. It gave pleasure only for a moment,
and then what? The result was always dissatisfaction. It was always dissatisfaction. The taste of sin is always sweet,
but the end of sin is always bitter. I remember this this morning
as I was reading this again. One man said that sin is short-term
pleasure, long-term destruction. That's just so. See, in a short-term
pleasure, it's there for a moment, and then the pleasure's gone,
and what comes next? The fruit. The fruit. In Proverbs 4, 19, it says, The
way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. The lost man walks in darkness,
and he does not see or understand why he's not satisfied. I don't
get it. I have all the riches, I have
all the pleasure, and I'm just not satisfied. They're walking
in darkness. Remember, believer, we walked
in darkness. And we didn't understand why
this sin didn't give us what we thought it would. Sin only promises contentment,
but it only delivers sorrow, pain, and death. Death! Believer, remember the fruit
of our yielding ourselves as servants of sin. What did that
profit us? Nothing. It didn't profit us
anything but pain. But now, because you have your
eyes opened, you've been made to see, now that you've been
made free from sin, is it not just reasonable not to yield
your members as servants of sin? That's just reasonable. We didn't
have any good fruit in that then, we're not going to have it now. Praise God that He's opened our
eyes, and now we are free We were free from righteousness,
now we've been made righteous by the blood of Christ. Those
things we once had pleasure in, now we are ashamed. Isn't that
a word today that's not popular? Shame. Shame. Men don't blush anymore, do they? They're not ashamed. I'll tell
you this, when God saves a person, we are ashamed of what we were.
He makes us ashamed of what we were. In verse 22, he says, But now,
being made free from sin, you become the servants of God. You
have fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. Paul says, Now you have fruit
unto holiness. The fruit of our works produce
what? Death. Only death. But the fruit of Jesus' works,
obedience, and death on the cross yielded the fruit of righteousness. Of righteousness. Believer, you
and I have been made righteous. Made righteous. I tell you, if
you have to make something righteous, that means it wasn't righteous
to begin with. We were made righteous because
Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us. He was not sin, but He had to
be made sin for us. And we had to be made the righteousness
of God in Him. This is what He's done. And is
it not our reasonable service then that this fruit, if this
fruit is in you, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, is
that not reasonable that this fruit will evidence itself? When you plant an orange tree,
you'd expect oranges. You'd expect oranges. You would
be dissatisfied if you got something else. What else is this righteousness
that's planted in us going to do but yield righteousness? That's what it's going to do.
It's going to produce righteousness by the grace of God. These graces
that God has given us, they're going to be manifest in us. And the end of this evidence,
the end of this fruit, faith, love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance,
all the gifts of the Spirit of God that are in us, they'll be
produced through us. And the end of this will be eternal
life. And so Paul concludes this in
verse 23, he said, For the wages of sin is death. But the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here in
this last verse, the apostle confronts all men again with
the only two religions there are. Listen to me. Don't be so confused by all of
the names of religion. I read an article the other day
just so confusing. Man, he had to include all of
these cults and all of these things and he would explain why
this cult was bad or why this doctrine was bad or this. There's
only two religions, friends. Don't be so confused. There's
only works and grace. As the apostle puts it here,
there's only wages and the gift. Works and grace. Wages. Is this hard to understand? Wages. The wages here speak of merit
or works. If you are employed, if you have
a job, it is because you and an employer have agreed upon
a salary. He's expected you to do a work. And at the end of your work,
You go in, you put in your 40 hours that week, and you do an
acceptable job. You then expect what? Wages! Wages! You expect what He promised. And He, if He is just, He'll
give you the agreed upon wage. Your salary for all your effort. This is how men view spiritual
things. This is how men, by nature, see
religion. They make a covenant with their
God. They say to their God, God, I'll
do such and such, and then, at the end of my labor, you'll give
me heaven. You'll give me heaven for all
of my sacrifice. You'll give me a just reward
for my labor. But this is the mind of the depraved
heart. That's like if I went over, I
saw this morning at McDonald's, they had all positions open. Now what if I just went in there
and put on a hat and started working? Now, I didn't go to
the boss. I didn't get hired. I didn't
make a contract with the man. I just went in there and started
working, flipping burgers, and then at the end of the week,
I expect a paycheck. And he said, wait a second. I didn't agree
on that. Yet this is how men view God.
They say, well, I'm just going to make a covenant with God on
my own, and I'll just say, well, God, I'm going to do my best.
I'm going to do my works and do all this sacrificing for you,
and I'm just going to... And then you're going to give
me an acceptable wage. at the end you're just gonna
have to receive me. Well, that's foolishness. That's foolishness. They've not
read God's covenant of works, have they? They've not understood
what God demanded of them. You see, if you are to be accepted
of God by works, then you must be perfect. Perfect. This is the covenant
of works. That you love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind,
with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Men suppose that they can do this covenant
Do you suppose that your desires and your best efforts will do?
Do you suppose God will accept your best deeds of obedience
to His law, your best efforts? I tell you by the authority of
God, no. God will not accept you unless
you are perfect. I tell you by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh, listen to me, no flesh, I don't care who
you are or who you think you are, No flesh shall be justified
in His sight. For by the deeds of the law,
for by the law is the knowledge of sin. How is it that you know
sin? It's by the law. The law condemns
you. And that's all the law can do
is condemn you. God says, The soul that sinneth,
it shall surely die. What does all your best efforts
of religion deserve then? What does all your work deserve? What has God promised you as
a wage? The wages of sin is death. And I tell you, God will give
you exactly what you deserve. He is just and He is right, and
if that's what you bring to God, He'll give you a just wage. Hail! That's what you deserve, and
that's what He'll give you. Over in Isaiah chapter 28, the
Lord talks about these people. He said, you made a covenant
with death and with hell. And you said, surely these things
won't pass over me. Surely this matter of hell won't
come to me. Now you must be talking about
somebody else because I'm doing pretty good. God says to them
that I will disannul your covenant with death and hell. I'll disannul
it. And He said, Hell will pass over
you day after day after day after day, and it'll never end. We all, by nature, have sinned. And if you are trusting in your
works, in your goodness, in your religious deeds, you will receive
a just recompense of reward, which is Hell. But there is another
religion. I am so thankful for this true
religion. It is the religion of grace.
It is here depicted by the gift of God. Grace is the gift of
God. of God. Salvation is the gift
of God that is to eternal life. This is the message of God that
salvation is by His free and sovereign grace without works. Notice He doesn't say the wages
of sin is death and the wages of your works is everlasting
life. No, He doesn't say wages again.
He says gift, free gift. Behold, you and I have sinned
and deserved only death. But God, before the world was
made, purposed to save a people and gave them to His Son. Gave
them to His Son that He would take charge over them. That He
would be responsible for them. And the Son agreed. The Son said
to the Father, I will be responsible for Your people. And these elect
were no different in themselves. They were of no worth to God.
They were of no value to God. They couldn't add anything to
Him. But were by nature as all the rest sinners, and yet God
set His love on them. This is a gift of God. God freely gave them to the charge
of His Son and Jesus who loved them, loved them to the end. Therefore, unknown to us. This
was all unknown to us. We didn't know anything about
this gift. We were still trying to merit, weren't we? We were
still trying to earn. Jesus, as the God-man, honored
the law of God and obtained for the elect a perfect righteousness
that we could have never done ourselves. Jesus, in grace, gave
His life for the sheep, not for the goats. Jesus told those Pharisees,
He said, You believe not because you are not of My sheep. And
I'll tell you, if you never receive this gift, it is because you're
not Him. If you continue in your unbelief, it is because you are
not His sheep. We only knew of sin. We only
knew sin. And we only deserve the wrath
of God. But praise God for the sinless
Son of God who suffered in our stead. Oh, this grace of God! In that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died. And in due time, this gift was
already purposed. This gift was already purchased. It was already wrapped up in
the Word of God. And we had no idea of it until
when? Until the gift was given by the
Spirit. And when this gift was given,
When was it given? It was given when we were exposed
to have no right to it. When we were exposed to that
our wages of what we thought righteousness was death. It was
then the gift of God was given. Not like men suppose. Men suppose
that everybody's doing all right and the gift of God is there
if you want it. You just take it and some people look at it
and say, ah, that's a pretty good gift, but I don't know.
No, that's not how we received it, is it? We received it as
a starving man would a gift of bread. We wouldn't take that bread if
we were starving and say, well, is this a sourdough now? Because
I'm not really into wheat bread right now. Is this a special
kind? No! We were starving! We had
to have it! And the gift of God came, and
we received it. We received it by faith. which
was not of ourselves, but by the grace of God. And we were
saved by the grace of God on purpose. Isn't that what we say?
That salvation, if it's of God, it's on purpose? We were saved
on purpose. This gift was specifically given
to us. And it's our gift. God gave it
to us. Paul says, So then it is not
of him that willeth or him that runneth, but God that showeth
mercy. The gift of God, then, is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Now there are some who will try to
mix these two things, wages and gift. Some people will try to
mix these things, and these two things cannot be mixed. It cannot
be of works and grace. It is either salvation is by
works or by grace. It cannot be of both. To mix
these things is of no avail. That is to make grace works. You see why there's only two
religions? Because it's either one or the other. It can't be
both. Therefore, we who believe on Jesus Christ, who have been
conquered, have you been conquered? I've been conquered. I've been
conquered and I've been set free. And this was amazing grace that
did this. It was a grace that I could not
earn. And God gave it to me. And therefore,
believer, is it not reasonable that we submit all of ourselves
to his service? Salvation's by grace. You deserved
hell, but you've been given eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Now then, take these members
and use them in service to your master. May God encourage us
to do this. God give us strength and may
we give Him the praise and glory for it.