We did have good meetings down
in Spring Lake. Our flight got canceled Sunday
night, so we flew out. I found one seat left on a flight
out Monday. And so I went down Monday and
we met, I mean, yeah, Monday, and then we met Tuesday night
and Wednesday night. and I came back this morning.
We had really good services and they said, tell you thank you
for sending me there and they send their greetings and tell
you all you're welcome to come see them. So, let's look here
now at Romans 6. Let me make a statement before
I read my passage. Eternal life is a gift from God
through and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Eternal life is a gift. It's a gift of God. It's in Christ. It's through Christ. It's impossible
to read the scriptures without seeing that and acknowledging
that salvation is a gift. Eternal life is a gift. Look
here at Romans 6 verse 23. The wages of sin is death. You have to work in sin to die. And that's the wage of sin is
death. But here's the opposite, the most opposite that you can
get to that. The gift, the gift, freely given,
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let's look now at 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5, verse 11. It says, this is the record.
1 John 5, 11. This is the record. This is the gospel right here.
That God hath given to us eternal life. He's writing to believers
and He's a believer. And He's saying to those believers,
including Himself, God hath given to us eternal life. He's given
it to us. And this life is in His Son.
He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. Eternal life is a gift of God
through Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ. Now we all understand
gift giving. We understand what it is to give
a gift. Not too long ago we all gathered
with our families and we gave gifts and we received gifts. So we understand what it is to
give and receive gifts. That's something we get our head
around easy. So what I want to do tonight is I want to show
you that God's gift of eternal life is much like our gift giving. And therefore we ought to be
able to enter into how God gives eternal life in Jesus Christ. Now, I don't know, two or three
months ago I preached a message out of Ephesians and my introduction
was about this. It was the points that I'm about
to give you from my outline was my introduction. And I'm going
to take those points and I'm going to use them now for my
outline here tonight and expound on them a little bit. Turn to
John 17. First of all, when we give a
gift We give it to whomsoever we will. We give the gift to
whoever we will give it to. We choose who gets our gift,
right? We give our gift to who we will. Well, likewise, God
gives the gift of eternal life to whomsoever God will. Look
here in John 17, 1. These words spake Jesus, and
lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is
come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
also may glorify thee. As thou... Now watch this. As
thou hast given him power over all flesh, That he should give
eternal life. That he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. He said, I'm here to give
eternal life to as many as you have given to me. Not to everybody,
to as many as God gave to his son. Look down at verse 9. I
pray for them, he says. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Verse
24. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world. God gives eternal life
to those that God chose to give it to. He said to as many as
thou hast given me. Men are offended at God's right
to give eternal life to whom He will. They're offended that
God chooses whomsoever He will and gives life to whom He will.
And yet, when we give a gift, that's exactly what we do. We
give a gift to whom we will. And God's not obligated to give
eternal life to everyone. That's what men act like they're
entitled to salvation, and that God should give every man a chance. That's what men say. They ought
to give every man a chance. Well, salvation's not by chance.
And God's not giving men chance, even when the men he saves, he's
not giving them a chance to be saved. He's saving them. But man is sinful, so God's not
obligated to give man anything. You know, you're not obligated
just because you give a gift to one person, that doesn't obligate
you to give that gift to everybody. Does it? No. God can give salvation
to whom He will. It's a miracle of grace that
God would give eternal life to anybody. The scripture says,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's
no merit in us that would cause God to give us anything. If God
passed by the whole human race, He would be just to do it. But
God chose to save some people from among sinners and to give
them eternal life. Sinners are offended at God's
sovereign election because, number one, it declares that men are
sinners. It declares men are sinners.
It declares men don't deserve anything. God can justly pass
by a man and he's just to do it because that sinner deserves
nothing. That offends men. But that's the truth. That's
the truth. Men are not entitled to anything
from God. Nothing whatsoever. And number
two, it makes the gift of salvation to be by God's choice rather
than by man's choice. And that offends men. But they
have to be offended because this is how God gives. Turn over to
Romans chapter 9. Let's just suppose for a moment
that you gave somebody a gift. that somebody you love and some
stranger comes along and they begin to say that you're unjust
because you didn't give that gift to everybody. What would
you say to that? Wouldn't you think that person
was absurd? Wouldn't you think that was an
absurd accusation to charge you with being unjust because you
gave a gift to somebody you chose to give it to? and didn't give
it to everybody? Well, look here. This is what
men have no right to question God. Look here, Romans 9, 14.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he said to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy.
Even the Scripture says unto Pharaoh, even for this cause,
for this purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my
power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. He didn't have mercy on Pharaoh. He passed Pharaoh
by. He says, verse 18, Therefore
hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will
he hardens. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why
does he yet find fault? How can he find fault with me
then? Listen to the answer. Nay, but, O man, who are you
to reply against God? Isn't that what you would say
if somebody came to you after you gave a gift to whoever you
chose to give it to, and some stranger walked up to you and
said, You're not just because you're giving that gift, not
giving that gift to everybody. Wouldn't you say, Who are you
to reply against me? Well, that's what God says of
sinners. Nay, O man, who are you to reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Has not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor? Can God not do with His own what
He will? Sure He can. So just like us, brethren, God
gives eternal life to whom He chooses. Just like we give our
gifts to whom we choose. Here's the second thing. When we give a gift, we purchase
that gift ourselves. We purchase it ourselves. That's
what God does. When He gives this gift of eternal
life, He purchases this gift Himself. The purchase price for
eternal life is eternal death. That's the price that has to
be paid. Eternal life costs eternal death. When you're saving a sinner,
that's the price that's got to be paid. The wages of sin is
death. Justice demands that that wage
be paid in full. It's got to be paid. The death
we owe to divine justice is an eternal death. The debt that
men will be paying when they go to hell, they will never pay
in full. They will suffer eternally. Because
they cannot satisfy that debt that they owe to justice. They
can't satisfy it. It's an eternal death. Hell is
described this way. It's described as the worm that
dieth not. A worm that just never dies.
It's just gnawing constantly. It's called the fire that is
not quenched. It's called in Isaiah 33, 14
everlasting burning. It's called in Matthew 25 everlasting
punishment. It's called in Revelation 14,
it says they have no rest day or night. And then in verse 20
it says, but shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. And then 2 Thessalonians 1.9
says, who shall be punished? They shall be punished with an
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and
from the glory of His power. That means the destruction is
coming from Him and from His power, but it means also that
it's going to come from Him removing His presence and removing His
power. Now brethren, God's own Son,
Christ Jesus, came to this earth to willingly pay that eternal
death, that price that was owed to purchase the gift of eternal
life for His people. God gave His own Son to come
and God's own Son laid down His life to pay that price to redeem,
to pay the ransom, to redeem His people from sin and justice
and eternal death. Those horrible things that I
just described to you, that's what Christ bore on the cross. Everlasting burnings, fire that's
unquenchable, the worm that never dies, being separated from the
presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. That's
what Christ bore. First of all, this one who knew
no sin had to be made sin for us in order for God to justly
pour out this upon him. And then, when he was made sin
for us, he suffered separation from the presence of God. Separation
from the power of his glory. That's what happened to Adam
in the garden after Adam transgressed God's law. How did Adam, how
was he made sin in his own body? God took his presence from him.
And he took the glory of his power from him. He didn't take
it completely from Him. He did in the sense that He was
totally depraved and dead, but He didn't take it from Him in
the sense that He still held Him up. He still is our life
and in whom we move and live and have our being. But for Christ
Jesus, God removed His presence from Him. How that could transpire,
I don't know. How God could forsake God, I
don't know. I don't know, but He did. And
Christ bore it. Christ bore it in His body. I
don't even know what that would do to our bodies, physical bodies. And who knows what it would do
to ourselves. I do know what it would do to the physical body.
You see it every time we lay a man in a casket. And then from
then on, it deteriorates. That's what happens when God
removes His presence from an earthly body. That happened to
Christ on the cross. That's why that centurion looked
at him and said, we didn't do this. God's doing this. And he thought God was smiting
him for his own sin, but it was for the sin of his people that
he was bearing that. That eternal death, that worm
that never dies, and in his soul, his soul suffering that you can't
see, that you don't know about, that no man can enter into. He
cried out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And that
was faith, brethren. That was faith in Him to cry
that out. Because while He's suffering
that justice, while God's treating Him like the worst enemy that
ever walked the face of this earth, Christ is faithfully crying
out, My God, My God. Owning Him to be My God. Owning
our sins to be His sins and owning God to be His God. and to put away our sins required
that Christ Jesus shed His blood unto death in perfect faithful
fidelity to the Father. In Leviticus 17, when the Lord
was given the Old Covenant and He gave those types and He gave
those lambs to be slaughtered on the Day of Atonement and their
blood to be poured out, He said this, the life of the flesh is
in the blood. That's where your life is, is
in the blood, in your blood. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. I've given it, the blood, to you upon the altar to make
an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that maketh
an atonement for the soul. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sins. Feed the church of God, Paul
said, which God hath purchased with His own blood. Men balk
at that. Men can't handle that. God purchased His church with
His own blood. God bleed. If you look at Calvary
there, you see God bleeding. That's exactly right. God purchased
His church with His own blood. Now that law of God has a positive
side and has a negative side. The positive side, all the commandments
of God, 600 and something commandments, have got to be fulfilled actively,
perfectly in faith. And then there's a negative side.
The person who's broken one of those commandments has broken
all of those commandments and they must pay the penalty of
the law, divine justice, eternal death. And on that cross, there
you have Christ Jesus bearing the sin of His people, bearing
the justice of God, satisfying, fulfilling that negative side
of that law for His people. And at the same time, you have
Christ fulfilling the positive side of that law for His people,
faithfully loving, trusting His Father, loving His Father, and
laying down His life for His brethren. And if I told the brethren
down there in Spring Lake this week, you know, if a man wants
to brag about his law keeping, that's what he's got to do. All it takes is to be forsaken
of God and to be forsaken of all your brethren, and to suffer
it faithfully without an ill feeling in your heart, and to
bear it unto total eternal death while all hell gnashes upon you,
because you believe God and love your brethren. Want to brag about
that? Want to go around bragging about,
oh, how much I believe God and how much I love my neighbors
myself. When's the last time their house
burnt down and you went over and threw your keys to them and
said, take mine? Huh? Christ said, you want life? Take mine. That's what He said.
You want somebody to suffer the worm that never dies? Take me. Let these go free. That's loving
your brethren. That's believing God. Trusting
all the while that when the justice is satisfied, God's going to
raise him from the dead to His right hand. That's why Christ
Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believes. And only to everyone that believes.
Now because He's man, He could suffer that. And because He's
God, He could satisfy the eternal death. He satisfied it. He paid
it in full. He paid the purchase price with
His own blood. He purchased eternal life for
His people. And He not only purchased life
for His people, He purchased His people. He bought them. They're His. And that's why eternal
life is a gift, because the ransom price has been paid to ransom
our soul from hell. Job said, then he is gracious
unto that child and he says, deliver him from going down to
the pit, I found a ransom. God says, deliver Eric Lutter
from going down to the pit, I'm satisfied, I've been paid the
ransom in full. And he said that long before
you ever knew anything about it. And me too. It's because
Christ accomplished putting an end to sin and because He accomplished
making His people righteous that we preach that He successfully
did that. That He did it for a particular
people. We preach it and we emphasize it because He successfully accomplished
that. I want Him to have the glory
of successfully accomplishing that. Justice is satisfied. God will not cast any one of
those for whom He died into hell again because that would be pouring
out justice two times and that wouldn't be justice. And God
won't do that. He didn't die for all men or
all men would be saved. He didn't die for all men, for
men who perish in hell. He wasn't dying for men who were
already in hell. And to say He died for all men,
you've got to include them. No. He died for His people and
He didn't try to save them, He saved them. Now because Christ
purchased this gift, look at Romans 8, because Christ purchased
this gift successfully, paid in full, God shall freely give
all the benefits of this gift to His people. He's going to
give this gift to His people and everything that's included
in it. Look here, Romans 8, 32. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, all God's elect, how shall he
not with him also freely give us all things? He's going to
give us everything Christ purchased for us freely. Aren't the gifts
you give to your friends and loved ones, aren't they free
to them? Why are they free to them? Because you bought them.
And His gift is free to us because He bought it. He bought it. So,
you purchase a gift, you give to those you love. And God purchases
the gift that He gives to those He loves. Now lastly, we give
the gift that we've purchased to the one for whom we purchased
it. We choose who we'll purchase it for, we go purchase it, and
then we give the gift to the one we purchased it for. God
does the very same thing. God does the same thing. You
don't purchase a gift. You don't go out and purchase
a gift and say, I'm going to buy this gift for everybody.
And I'm going to put it here under the tree and I just hope
somebody will come and claim it. No. You purchase a gift for an individual
and then you give that gift to that individual. And that is
exactly what God does. Now, there is a difference. When
we give a gift to somebody that we've purchased a gift for, they
usually have the ability to receive it. But the ones that God purchased
this gift for do not even have the ability to receive this gift. God has to give them that. He
has to give them life. He has to give them faith. He
has to give them repentance. He has to make his people willing
to receive this free gift that God's purchased just for them.
Isn't that amazing? That tells you how bad our sin
is that God has to give us all this to even make us receive
this free gift. God shall give each one life
by regenerating us. That'll be a gift. And he shouts,
Christ said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. Christ will see all of his elect born the first time,
and then he will see all of his elect born again. I was reminded
of that illustration. I gave it to you quite a while
ago, but you know, there was a lady I know. I know of her. that she was in Japan when we
dropped the bomb in Japan. And God spared her life for a
reason. Because that woman could not
die. Because she would give birth
to an elect child of God. And that elect child of God had
to be born the first time. And she was. And then God brought
the gospel to that child in her darkness and gave her life and
faith to believe Christ and saved her by his grace. And that woman
is Pastor David Edmondson's wife, Teresa Edmondson. Every one of
them shall be born the first time, and they shall be born
a second time. Because except you be born of
water and of the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Justification in eternal life is only through faith in Christ.
The Scripture says, without faith it's impossible to please Him.
For he that cometh to God must believe that He is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him. We're kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Christ never saved one sinner into eternal glory without
first giving them spiritual life and faith in Christ. Not one. Not one. He's sovereign to do
what pleases Him. He's God. Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man, except you drink the blood, that means except
you believe on Christ, you have no life in you. Therefore God
shall give each one faith to believe on Christ. Ephesians
2 verse 8 says, For by grace are you saved. Now we can all
agree on that. We're saved by grace. through
faith. Everybody that's saved is saved
by grace through faith. And that is not of ourselves. It is the gift, the gift of God. He gives it, the gift of God. Christ was raised that he, his
own self, might have the very glory of giving each one of his
blood-bought children repentance. Acts 5.31 says, Him hath God
exalted with His right hand to be a prince and a savior for
to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin. I want
Him to have that glory, don't you? He's the one that gives
it. He bought it and God said, Here,
you bought the gift, you go give it to Him. And so He has the
glory of giving it to us. He gives us repentance and faith
and life and everything we need to receive it. We'll look more
at that come Sunday. And then when He's made us willing
in the day of His power, given us all these things, then through
faith in Christ, we receive this gift that God's given us. He
said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me, and I give unto them eternal life. But that's what's got to
happen. They've got to hear My voice,
He said. And I have to know them, and I have to give them faith
to follow Me, and then I give them eternal life. That's so. That's what happens. And no man
will pluck them out of my hand. They won't perish and no man
will pluck them out of my hand. He even gives us sovereign protection
all our days so that none will be able to pluck us from His
hand. Every good and every perfect gift comes down from above from
the Father of lights with whom is no variable in this neither
shadow of turning. He promised from before the foundation of
the world to give these gifts to each of His elect children
and He does not change. He will give it to them. Every
one of them. Every one of them. Let's go home
thinking about this. When we give a gift, you know
what we do? We get really excited about our
gift and we go and tell folks about it. Go tell folks about
what was given to us. What would you think of someone
who received a gift from you, which you paid a great sum to
purchase, which you gave to them freely, who then went about telling
everybody that they earned that gift? I deserve that gift. She should have bought that gift
for me. I deserved it. Or if they went about and said,
I can't believe she gave that gift to me and didn't give it
to everybody else. She's so sorry. That's not what God's people
do. God's people glorify Him. Listen to this. We go and tell
people about it. Being enriched in everything
to all bountifulness which causeth through us, thanksgiving to God. And then we go around and it
says, Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known
His deeds among the people. And that's what unbeliever, everybody
here that's paying to have this gospel preached is doing it so
they can make known to you the deeds of our God. what He's done. And we pray He'll give you this
gift. And then when He gives us this gift, we have, often
when somebody gives us a gift, we have abundance to give to
others then. And that's what He says in 2
Corinthians 9, He said He makes all grace abound towards you
so that you have all fullness and you may be able to give with
abundance. And that's what He does for us.
He keeps doing that and it causes more thanksgiving to God. And
then when we think of all these gifts, everything He's done,
this is where we come to. This is why I preach this one
person all the time. Because that gift that God's
given us is in Christ His Son. His unspeakable gift. Thanks
be unto God for His unspeakable gift. And there's one more gift
He's going to give us. real soon. He's going to give
us the victory over the grave and over death. And this is what
we're going to sing when He does it. Thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He gave us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the record God
hath given to us eternal life. This life is in His Son. He that
hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. Amen.