I plead for your prayers concerning
the message today. I don't know, I've written this
about three or four times. It's a passage we're so familiar
with and when you get to one of these, you just assume often that people
know things already and I don't want to do that. I want this
to fall as fresh and as new on your hearts as the dew in the
morning on the tender herb. But this, again, is the work
of the Spirit. This is not my ability, not within
my scope and job description. I'm not here to make this fall
on your hearts. That's not my job. I'm here to
simply declare it as plainly as it is written. expound it
to you, and I have great confidence that God will do His work. I
have great confidence. I have no confidence in me, but
I definitely have confidence in Him to do His work, which
is, upon your hearts who believe, it is to be gracious. That is
His work. That's His purpose for you. And
I pray that that would be so this morning. Pray for those
who are without pastors today, those who are still languishing
without men to preach the gospel to them. I'm thankful that God
has given us this place and given us this opportunity that we've
had to preach the gospel here for many years, and very thankful
for that, but pray for these without pastors. Remember Eric
and Angela in your prayers. Remember them as he continues
to heal. I think he's, last report I got,
he was doing better. It just takes time, and I think
that they have some MRIs coming up and things like that, or CAT
scans and things. So pray for them as those things
come up within the next weeks. Cheryl's not feeling well. Pray
for her. And Sherry, is she in the nursery? OK. Here we go.
Pray for Sherry. Pray for Sherry. Pray God give us grace in this. When do you all go to? First week of December. OK. Pray
for them. Travel back to Philadelphia, is it? And pray for the doctors. Give them wisdom that they might
help you and your children. Any other requests need to be
mentioned? I'm not. Oh, Chuck and Patty are traveling, so pray
for them. As they travel to Oregon, I believe, see that his nephew,
is that right? playing football, but pray for
them as they travel. I know I'm missing somebody and
someone, but Jill, pray for her and your family. Let's go to
God in prayer. Most gracious Heavenly Father, Father, I do beg your mercies
upon us this morning. I pray that you would send your
spirit, that you would open my lips and
heart. Pour in what you desire to pour
out to your people. Open their hearts. Take the things and the cares
of this life which are fleeting, which have so little value in light of eternity. Please, by your Spirit, reveal
Christ. Testify to the hearts and minds
of all who hear, that salvation is by thy grace through Jesus
Christ our Lord. I do pray that, Father, you would
this day convince men of sin, of righteousness and judgment,
that you would this day turn their eyes upon Jesus and find
all their need fulfilled. All righteousness and peace and
joy and atonement and everlasting life is found in Him. Make that
known to them. Open their hearts if you would
be gracious. O Father for your people, we
are so often calloused. Our hearts grow fat thick, O that you would pull away the
flesh, so that we might receive the things of the Spirit." I beg you to do these things. Forgive us our sins. Bless those
that are sick. Please heal. Please be gracious. Our brothers and sisters who
are not able to be here, please, give them the grace and power
and strength to return. Help us to be thankful when they
do. I pray this in Jesus' name and
for His sake. Amen. Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. Our text will
be found in verse 23. I've entitled this message, Wages
and the Gift. Wages and the Gift. The scripture says,
For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now the Apostle through
chapters 1 through 5 has been gearing to this one thing, justification
by faith and that by grace. Salvation is completely, absolutely,
100% by the grace of God. And he answers the objections
of the legalist. The legalist will always come
in and say, well, if salvation is by grace, if it is without
the merit or help or ability of man to save himself or to
help God in saving him, then you are advocating for open sin. He answers this objection not
once, but twice. In verse 1, He said, What shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? And then in verse 15, He says,
What then? Shall we sin because we are not
under the law, but under grace? He answers his objection twice.
What's the answer of you? You that believe. It's the same
as him. God forbid. In no way are we advocating for
sin. And this is the reason why. Because
we are dead to it. We are dead to it. And then he
explains how we are dead to sin. We are dead to sin even as Christ
is. Look at verse 10. He said, For
in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth,
he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves,
listen, to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God. So how are you dead to sin? In
the same way He is. He was punished under the condemnation
of our sins. Even so were we punished in Him. And so as He died to sin once,
how many times He died to it? Once! Even so, Paul says, I like
this word, reckoned, it means impute, and when we talk about
imputation, we're not talking about charging something to be
so that isn't. That's not what it is. Reckoned
doesn't mean, he says, charge it to be true because it is.
You are dead to sin. Now how? You are dead to sin
because you're dead when Christ died. You are alive under God
even as He's alive under God. And now by the power of God,
through the grace of God, we've been given a new nature that
is totally averse to sin. Totally, because it is created
after God in true holiness. This new nature that God gives
us, John says this about the new nature, he says it cannot
sin. John 3, it tells us this in 1
John chapter 3, and I'm trying to skip ahead of this introduction
here because I want to get to the text. In 1 John chapter 3
it tells us that whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin."
That's amazing, isn't it? Whosoever is born of God, he
is so dead to sin that he cannot commit sin. And Paul says, you need to reckon
this to be true, because it is true. You're dead to sin. alive unto God. That new man
is a living man, isn't he? He's alive, he's been quickened
from the dead. And so what is then the desire
of the new man? Is it not righteousness? When
you hear exhortations, let not sin reign in your mortal body,
is that not the desire of the new man? YIELD YOURSELVES MEMBERS! YIELD YOUR MEMBERS UNDER RIGHTEOUSNESS! Is that not the desire of the
new man? Of course it is. Yet we know
this in the believer. The believer confesses this greatly
that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Oh wretched man that I am. You see the struggle then of
the believer against sin. The believer in no way desires
to live as he lived before. See that's a straw man they build
up. Why? Because they want to earn their
salvation. But we know this by the power
and grace of God that we could never earn our salvation. That
our salvation, the reason I am dead to sin and become a servant
of God and righteousness, is by the grace of God. It is only
by the grace of God. And now, look at your text. I
breezed through that. And listen, I want to encourage
anyone. I know that some of you are not
able to come on Wednesdays. hear the messages. Go back and
listen and catch up to these things because these are all
a chain and it ties each link to the next. And I want you to
get all of it. Get all of it you can. And so,
we know this, that salvation is by grace. You that are saved
by grace, you know it doesn't lead to sin. Matter of fact,
the message of God's love and mercy is the only thing that
constrains Isn't it? It's the only thing. Law doesn't
constrain me. The only thing that constrains
me is the love of God in Jesus Christ. And so now in verse 23,
seeing that he had to answer the objections to the legalist,
he is now going to make a distinction, a very clear distinction between
those who desire to earn their salvation by works and those
who are saved by the free grace of God through Jesus Christ.
Listen to what he says, For the wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And I've told you this many times,
and I say it with all the boldness I can. There are only
two religions in the world. Only two. It just doesn't matter
what you put on the door. The core of these two religions
are the same regardless of what denomination you claim to be
under. There's only religion of works and grace. Salvation
of works or salvation by grace. There is no mixture between the
two. You are either saved by what
you do or you are saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. There are no other religions. Everything else is smoke and
mirrors. That's it. comes down to the core of it,
two religions, works and grace. The religion of works is the
religion of wages. But the religion of grace is
a religion of free gift, a free gift. These two religions can
never be mixed. I want you to see this. Go to
Romans chapter. This is plainly written in the Word of God. And
again, I'm not going to debate fools, okay? I don't have time
or the inclination to debate people concerning this. This
is so. There's no mixture of works and grace. None whatsoever.
God's people work, and they do good works, but it has nothing
to do with their salvation whatsoever. Nothing. It does not contribute
one thing to their salvation. Look what Paul says in Romans
11 in verse 6. He's talking about the election
of grace, which is the root of salvation. Isn't election the
root of it? Isn't that the origin of it? He's talking about the origin.
He's talking about the whole thing. Listen. He says this in
verse 6, if by grace it is no more work. You got that? If salvation is by grace, and
that's what he's been advocating now in that place, 11 chapters. He's advocating salvation is
by grace. Salvation is by grace. And now
he says this, if it's by grace, that totally excludes what? Works. Otherwise, grace don't mean grace. But, if it is of works, it is
no more what? Grace. Otherwise, work don't
mean work. So it was by the grace of God
and not work. Or it's by the work of man, it's
not by the grace of God. These two religions cannot coexist. It is either work, wage, or merit,
or it is by the free unmerited favor of God without works, it
cannot be of both. And any religion that combines
both, I don't care who they are, any religion that combines both
is works. It just doesn't matter. There's no difference between
the Baptist and the Muslim. Why? They're both trying to earn
their way. If they're by works, they're
both works. It doesn't matter. Now let us see these two opposing
Gospels. two distinctly opposite Gospels
with two distinctly opposite results. First of all, wages, works, yield
death. Grace yields life. First of all, the wages of sin.
What is a wage? Is it not a reward for work? Everybody goes to work and you
get paid a wage. We understand that. If you don't
work, that's not true in this country, you can not work and
get paid, but you have to work to fill out the paperwork anyway. Natural man religion is always
salvation by merit and work, listen to this very carefully,
in some measure. Some have big amounts of work
that you have to do and some have very little. But it doesn't
matter if it's very little or it's a lot. Paul says if it is
work in any measure, it's not grace. And so they differ in the amount
of work how much you have to do. They
differ in the scope of the work, what you have to do. They differ
in the duration of the work. It might be a one-time thing.
It might be multiple things over a period of years. And it might
be different in its design. Some may say it's for your justification. Some may say it's for your sanctification. Some may say it's for your atonement. Some people say, well, I believe
that you're justified by grace, but this sanctification thing,
that's a cooperative effort. What have you done? You went
from grace to works, and it's no more grace. It's work. So the design of it is different.
But the common factor is this, something must be done by you
to merit that. Something must be done either
to earn it, salvation, or listen, to keep it. I was saved by grace,
but in order to keep this thing, what have you done? You went
from grace to works. And it's no more grace. It's work. It's
wages. Wages. Thus by work men earn in some
measure the favor of God, that he by his work, by his obtaining
some measure of righteousness before God, some measure of holiness. Now every religion that claims
to be Christians confesses salvation by grace. Now have you ever met
a Catholic that says salvation is not by grace? They all say
it. Why? Because the scriptures are
so plain on this. It says, for you are saved by
grace. They can't deny that. So it is
right there. What they have to do is have to change the definition
of grace. And the minute you do, what do
you make it work? So religions call itself Christian.
They believe the righteousness and blood of Jesus Christ has
some merit for salvation, something to do with it. I mean, they do
believe that it was necessary for him to die. They believe
it was necessary for him to live a righteous life. It was necessary
for him to rise from the dead. They all believe that. They believe it has something
to do with Christ. Yet they in some measure must
by their own works. I'm going to give you an illustration
of this. Free will. Free will is a works religion.
It doesn't matter what you think about it. It's works. God did something, and in order
for that something to be effectual to you, you have to do something.
That's works. Well, it is as small a thing
as accepting something to be true. That's all they want you
to do. You just need to accept it to be true, and then it'll
be effectual to you. It went from grace to works. Others are like baptism. Well,
you've got to believe that's one thing, yes, but then you've
got to be baptized. Well, that's number two things. That religion requires two things. Then you've got a religion that
says, no, you've got to accept Jesus, then you've got to be
baptized or sprinkled or something, and then you've got to eat a
cracker and drink some wine, and then you've got to have penance,
constant penance. See how wide it gets? It starts
to get more and more. Why? Enough is never enough.
That's what religion has proven over the years. They start out
as just a one sliver of one thing, and by 10-15 years, it's multiple
things. Why? Because enough is never
enough. They say, well man, you know,
I believe salvation is by grace, but you've got to go to church. To make this effectual, I've
got to go to church. No. No. I go to church because it
is effectual. I love the worship of God because
it is effectual. Giving money, humanitarian efforts, doing good for other people somehow
gives me favor with God. What is that? Works. Works. They believe by their good works
they are earning some part of their salvation, that God sees
their good works and will reward them accordingly. Now, let me say this. God is
absolutely just. Now you pay attention. If you
have ever done anything in your life that's righteous, and what
I mean by this is whatever you've done, you've done it with You've
loved God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your being, and your neighbor as yourself. You have done that
in that one work. If you've ever done one work
like that, God will justly reward that work. There's no doubt about
it. The problem is you've never done anything like that. That's the trouble. Paul said,
if salvation should be by the law, then yeah, that was the
perfect law. God gave a law and if salvation
should come by law, it would have come by that law. What was
the problem? It's not the law. You're the problem. I'm the problem. We have never done anything but
one thing. Sin. That's all you've ever done. In Ezekiel 33, God says, A righteous
man is righteous until he sins. Isn't that so? A righteous man, if he does righteous,
he's righteous. Until when? Until he sins. Then
he's no longer righteous. Imagine if you lived all your
life in perfect obedience to God and committed one sin. You're
what? A sinner. Your righteousness no longer
counts! So if you did that one work in perfect righteousness,
you know what? The moment you sinned after that, it just gets
discredited. It's gone. You can look that up, Ezekiel
33, 13. The truth is we've never done anything
without sin. Todd made it very clear in that
double negative statement. He said you cannot not sin. You cannot not see it. Why? Because the scriptures declare
that to be so, and I don't care what men think about it. If you
deny this, you're a fool and ignorant. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There's none that understandeth. You don't even know what righteousness
looks like. You've got an idea of what righteousness looks like,
but really you don't know. You've never seen it. Have you
ever seen righteousness? No, because you've never done
righteousness. You don't understand how righteous
God is. You don't know that. You're just
guessing. That's what religion does. They
guess what God wants and they try to do it. They don't even
know. There's none that seeketh after God. You don't even seek
after righteousness. What you're seeking after is
an excuse to sin. That's why we try to either accuse
or excuse one another. Don't we? Because all we know
is sin. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Listen to what Isaiah said. I like this. Only time
in all of Scripture righteousness is pluralized. You know that? He says, in Isaiah 64 and verse
6, he says, we are all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses, everything you count as righteous,
he says, is a menstrual cloth, a tampon. Even our most sincere religious
acts are full of sin. And what does the apostle plainly
tell us that wage is? Death. The reward for our best efforts
and most sincere religious deeds is death. That's the reward of
it. Is there anyone who thinks to
merit salvation by works? Do you believe the blood and
righteousness of Jesus Christ only made salvation possible? And somehow you have to finish
it? That God somehow looked down
the portals of time and saw what you would do. And then determined to save you
based on what you would do. Is that not works? If that ain't
a work, I don't know what is. That's works. Is there anyone, professors,
to be saved by grace? who professes to be justified
by Jesus Christ, atoned by the blood of Jesus Christ, called
by the power and grace of God the Holy Spirit, and then somehow
needs to sanctify themselves before God. God began this holy
thing in me, but I have to actually make it better. The Galatian church did that. They added one thing to Christ. They believed in salvation by
grace. Nobody in the church of Galatia denied election. Not
one ounce of that is found in Galatian Paul arguing the matter
of election. He doesn't argue it because they
believed it. They did not deny the death of
Jesus Christ in his atoning work. What were they doing? They said,
well, we were saved by grace, but we have to live and sanctify
ourselves by the law. And they added one thing, circumcision.
That's it. They did not try to add, they
didn't say nothing about the moral law. Circumcision. Look in Galatians
chapter 5 and look at Paul's conclusion of adding one thing,
one thing to the work of Christ. Again, if it is of grace, it
is no more of what? Work. And the day you add the
work, it's no more grace. That's what Paul is saying in
Galatians chapter 5. Look at verse 3. I testify again. Scriptures are very clear. When he says something one time,
isn't that really sufficient? Paul said, look, I'm going to
say it twice. I testify again to every man that is circumcised. He is a
debtor to the whole law. You got that? You had one work. You're a debtor to the whole
law. And what is Christ to you? What is Christ to you that add
one thing? Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever you are. It just don't matter. I don't care how long you've
been in the pew. I don't care how long you've professed faith
in God's grace. It doesn't matter. The day, the
day you move from grace to works, Christ will profit you nothing. Whosoever you are that is justified
by the law, you are fallen from grace. In other words, you've moved
from the gospel of grace. You don't believe it. You don't
believe it. Don't waste your breath. If you're justified by Christ,
If you are redeemed by Christ and you are sanctified by cooperative
effort, you have fallen from grace. I don't care how much
you claim grace, you've moved. Now your sanctification is dependent
upon you. To seek to merit the acceptance
of God on any other grounds than the grace of God through Jesus
Christ is to seek righteousness by wages, holiness by wages. And this is what Paul calls ignorance. In chapter 10, he says, I bear
my brethren record. I bear it to record. They have
a zeal. Nobody was more zealous in trying to sanctify themselves
than the Pharisees. Nobody, you and I, the greatest
reformed theologian in the world would fail in comparison to a
Pharisee. But what they have in common,
they both were trying to sanctify themselves. And Paul says, but they have
an ignorance, they are ignorant of the righteousness of God.
How do you know if you're ignorant of the righteousness of God?
Because I'm telling you what, when I talk about the righteousness
of God, I still am out of my depth. It's so more righteous
than I ever thought it was or ever could think it is. But how
do you know if you're ignorant of the righteousness of God?
Because they're going about to establish their own righteousness. If you are going about to establish
your own righteousness, you're ignorant. You don't have any
clue what the righteousness of God is. But we do. It's in a person. The righteousness of God is Jesus
Christ. He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. And what are the wages of works?
Death. He said the wages of sin. I just
told you, everything you do is mixed with sin. And what is the
wages? If you are trusting in that,
what are the wages? Go to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. Terrence,
we need to invest in a slower clock. Okay? This stuff goes too fast. I can't get through. Matthew
chapter 25. In Matthew chapter 25, I want
you to get this scene here in verse 31. His Son of Man shall
come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him. Then shall
He sit upon His throne in His glory. And before him shall be
gathered all nations, and he shall separate the one from the
other, as the shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. And
he shall set his sheep on his right hand, and his goats on
his left hand. Get the picture. Who are those
on his right hand? Those are saved by grace. These
are the ones who we're going to get to in just a minute. They're
saved by grace. Who are the ones on the left? These are the ones
who are trying to be saved by their works. We're going to see
that in just a minute. They're going to testify to that
truth. And I like this. When Jesus divides
everyone in that day, the sheep are on His right hand. Now, from the sheep's perspective, we're on the left. Oh boy! From our view, it seems like
we're not going to make it. Then the goats over here, they're
on His left hand, but looking from the goat's perspective,
they're on His right. We're a shoe-in. Those poor people over there
on that left side. But we know this, just the opposite
of how it appears. Those people on His left hand.
When Jesus pronounces to the goats, they are surprised. Look at verse, uh... Verse 41,
He said, Then he shall say unto them on his left hand, Depart
from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels. I was in hunger, and you gave
me no meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a
stranger, and you took me not in. Naked, and you clothed me.
Sick, and in prison, and you visited me not. And then they
shall answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee in hunger, or
thirst, or stranger, and naked, or sick, and in prison, and did
not minister unto you? When did we not do that? We always
did that. You're a liar. That's what they
said. We did everything like that.
What were they trusting in? They were trusting in the words. Then he shall answer them saying,
in verse Then he shall, verse 45, he shall answer them, saying,
Verily I say unto you, insomuch as you did it not to one of the
least of these, you did it not to me. And these shall go away
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life. These people were surprised.
They were surprised. Why was they sent into hell?
That's what they deserved. The wages of sin is what? Death! In Matthew 7, verse 22,
He says, Many shall say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have
we not preached in your name? There's a lot of works of religion
full of people today. Full of people today. Their churches
are brimming over with people. And they say, look, obviously
we're on the right hand of Jesus Christ. When actually they're
on the left. They believe they're on the right, and they justify
it by saying, look at all these people. That's how we know God's
with us. We preached in your name. I'm
going to trust in that. Have we not cast out devils?
Oh man, miracles. Have we not done miracles? Have
we not done many wonderful works? And what will Jesus say to them?
I will then profess unto them. They professed something. They
professed that they did all these things for me. Well, I'm going
to profess something. Depart from me. Listen to what
you're preaching and what your miracles and what your wonderful
works are. You that work iniquity, I never
knew you. You know, I think they're going
to be surprised. And yet the word of God is plain,
isn't it? The wages, the reward of works,
that's what wages are. The reward of works, and what
are all your works? Sin is death. And then they're
surprised when they get there. Don't be surprised. If you are
trusting in your works, don't be surprised. Secondly, the gift
of God. Now, the gift of God is distinctly
different from a wage. It's the opposite, isn't it?
It's the opposite of a wage. I thought of the illustration.
If you agreed to work for a person for 40 hours a week, And at the
end of that time, you come and your boss comes and he's got
this present for you. It's a nice package, wrapped
up. You give your employees a package
and it's wrapped up and they open it up, all surprised, ready
for a gift. And you know what they get? They
get exactly what you agreed to. Is that a gift? Just because
you put a bow on it doesn't mean it's a gift. They earn that. So in order for it to be a gift,
it must be something unearned. Now, if you were ill, and you
didn't work 40 hours a week, and your boss came to you and
gave you the money, that would be what? That's a gift, isn't
it? You didn't earn it. You didn't
merit it. That's what a gift means. It means to be given something
that you didn't earn. So in order for it to be a gift,
it is a necessity it must be freely given. This is what God
says about salvation and eternal life. Eternal life is a free
gift. It is a free gift. And listen, this means this,
that to whomsoever God gives eternal life, He gives it to
whomsoever He will. If this is not true, then it's
a works. If God saw something you would
do, or something that you've done, and then gives you this
gift, it's not a gift, it's a wage. But what does God say? Listen
to this. Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord. Now who does salvation belong to? Who does it belong
to? It belongs to God. Psalm 103 and
verse Psalm 3 and verse 8, salvation belongeth unto God. It's His. Eternal life is His and He gives
it to whomsoever will. Go to Romans chapter 9. We see
this in the illustration of Jacob and Esau, don't we? Two children
in the same womb with the same father and the same mother. It says in verse 11, for the
children not yet being born, neither having done good or evil.
that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, and
not of works, but of him that calleth. It is said to her, The
elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated." When did God love Jacob and hate
Esau? Before they had done any good
or evil. The gift was determined to be
given to Jacob and not Esau. Why? God's gift. Jacob did not earn this gift
over Esau with no difference Except this God purpose to give
it to Jacob He says that well shall we say
that is there unrighteous with God is God unfair is God unjust
God forbid He said to Moses. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion
so then this is the conclusion It is not of him that willeth
nor him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy Verse 18, Therefore he hath mercy
on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. So
you see who gets the gift. He gives the gift to whomsoever
he will. Why? It is a free gift. It belongs
to him and he can give it to whomsoever he will. He can withhold
it from whomsoever he will. This is the glory of the gospel
is that God did purpose to give it to some. None of us deserve
it. We all had our wages in sin.
We all deserve death. But God purposed to give this
free gift to an elect people. And I know he will give this
to whomsoever he will, and whom he will he hardeneth. Because
life is his to give. I know this gift is given to
the elect even because That's who Christ came to save. Look
at this. 2 Timothy. Look at 2 Timothy. Look at chapter 1. In verse 9, he said, who, this
is God's, he's talking about God, he said, God hath saved
us and called us. Which is first? He saved us first,
right? The gift was already packaged. It was already done. He saved
us. And then He what? He called us
to know it with a holy, effectual calling. Listen, not according
to our works. Isn't that what a gift is? Not
according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus. Listen, before the world
began. This gift was belonged to us,
was given to us in Christ before the world began. And the means of this gift, what
is the means of this gift? How can He give you eternal life? How can He give you eternal life
when all we deserved was death? Listen, Paul in our text qualifies
this as to how. Look at our text. The gift of
God is eternal life, listen, through, this is how, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. This gift of eternal life was
never to be merited by its objects, but rather by a representative. eternal life was to be merited
totally outside of the objects of grace. Totally outside of
us. Devoid of us. We had nothing
to do with any of it. What did you have to do with
your election? Nothing. What did you have to do with
God putting you in Christ and making Him your surety? Nothing.
When He came into this world, what part did you have in His
obedience? Nothing. In His death, what did
you do in that work of His death to atone for your sins? Nothing.
When the Spirit of God came to you and quickened you to life
and faith, what did you have to do with that? Nothing. You
earned none of that. And yet he determined to give
it to you, and Jesus Christ was the only way he could justly
give it to you. Religion has no problem whatsoever
with pitting the love of God against the justice of God. They
totally ignore the justice of God, and they say, oh, God is
love, God is love. And I don't like to hear talk about God's
justice. Well, I need to. Because if God's justice is not
satisfied, his love is in contradiction then with his justice. How can
God be just and justify the ungodly? That's the question that needs
to be asked, that isn't asked. Well, the answer is simple. Through
Jesus Christ our Lord. That's how the gift was earned. in this matter of eternal life,
cannot be given to sinners. Don't you know that? The wage
of sin is death. You sinned, what's your wage?
Death. God cannot give eternal life
to sinners except justice first be satisfied. This is the whole
gospel. The whole gospel is the person
and work of Christ. That is the sum of this gift. It is in a
person. And so God, in love for His elect,
sent His Son to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. And that is what? To pay the
wage. He paid the wage. He died in
our stead. And so then the gift itself is
the person of Christ. Consider this gift is free to
you. You that believe it's free. It is glorious, it's free. No requirements from you. This
is glorious. I think of old Pilgrim when he
came to the cross and that big old burden rolled off his back.
That's what you should see when you come to the cross. You should
see the burden gone. It's not me. It's not of me. He did it all. He did it all.
It's all done. It's liberating to you. I am dead to sin and alive unto
God and nothing can change that. Nothing can change that. Not
one thing in this world can change that. Because I didn't have anything
to do with it. It's a gift. This was a gift of love. For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. See, who's the gift? This gift
that was free to you was not free to Him. This gift is free to you, but
it was by no means free to Him. He bore our sin in His own body
on the tree. And having satisfied by His one
offering, He perfected us forever. You see the gift? You see the
gift? He hath perfected us forever. He did. What then do I do when
I add my work to His? To add one thing to His is to
count His blood what the scripture says a common thing. I thought of old Uzzah, remember
him? He was a priest. He was a priest
of God and David did sin against God, putting that Ark of the
Covenant on a cart. God said don't carry it that
way, it's not how you carry it. And he did it anyway. Remember when that cart stumbled?
That priest, Uzzah, he put his hand to the ark trying to steady
it. You know that he sincerely wanted
to honor God. I don't doubt his sincerity,
do you? He did not want the ark of God to fall in the mud. And
he put his hand, and all he did was try to hold it up. You know
what God did to him? He killed him. Why? He put his
hand to the work. I don't care how sincere you
are. Listen to me. You put your hand to His work,
God will kill you. God will kill you. But seeing this as a free gift
that God has done for us, not one person that God intends to
give this gift will not receive it. This is good news. The church is always full. The
church is always full. It's always full to the brim,
and there will never be one who is missing. You're the one who's missing.
When God intended to give you this gift, you had no idea He
was going to give it to you. You had no idea what it cost
Him to get it. You didn't want it, you didn't desire it, you
couldn't earn it, and He came to you! How many people were around you
when He came to you? How many people were listening
to the same message you were listening to, and He came to
you? Why? It's a gift. Jesus said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Is that not clear? Who's going
to come to Christ? Everyone he desires to give this
gift to, they're going to get it. And they'll gladly receive it.
Why? He's going to give them a heart
too. He'll give them a mind too. And this is the heart and mind
of everyone who receives this gift. First of all, listen. We do not seek a reward for our
righteousness. Everyone who receives this gift
understands this. I deserve nothing but hell. That's what we who receive this
gift understand. We understand that we are sinners. Therefore, how do we come to
Him? How do you receive this gift? You gotta have nothing. Oh, everyone that's thirsty. I read this this morning. Being
thirsty is an involuntary thing. Nobody wants to be thirsty. It's
an involuntary action. And if you're really thirsty,
it's a reaction. You have to have water or you
will die. That's how we come. We come thirsting
for life. And without it, we would die.
If I were to give him anything as a reward for my work, he would
give me hell. I come with nothing. That's how
he says to come. Come! Buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which satisfies not? Isn't that what sin does? It
doesn't satisfy, does it? Why do you spend your money?
Why do you spend your precious hours of this fleeting life pursuing
things that really have no value whatsoever? Incline your ear
unto Me and live. Live! Why, that's a gift of God,
eternal life. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake
his way. What's the way the wicked works?
Forsake that! Turn from that! We do. We don't
want any part of that. I only want grace. Why? Because the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And what did you find when
you came empty? You that sought this gift with
no wages of your own. No works of your own. What did
you find? I found mercy. I found mercy. You know why? Because God is merciful. That's who he is. Merciful. To
who? Those who need mercy. Do works,
religion, need mercy? Is that what they're asking?
That's not what they're asking. They want to wage. They'll get
it. Death. When we come to Christ, we come
with nothing. What do we get? Everything. Everything. You get righteousness. You get
acceptance with God. You get peace with God, forgiveness
of sins, constant, perpetual cleansing of all of our sins
as a free gift. Now that you received that gift,
what do you have to do to maintain this gift? Nothing! It's all
part of the gift. Isn't eternal life everlasting? Do I not have eternal life right
now? If I have it now, I'm going to
have it 15 minutes from now. I'm going to have it 15 years
from now. I'm gonna have it until there is no more time. Why? It's
everlasting life. It's eternal life. It never ends.
That's the gift. That's the gift. It's never-ending
mercy. So this morning I ask, do you
need mercy? Are there any sinners that need
mercy? Do you know the wages of your
sin is death? I'm telling you the gift of God
is eternal life. Listen, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So how should you have this?
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. How does anybody get it? Through
Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the gift. In Him is all the benefits of
the gift. And if you have Him, you have
life. John says, if you have the Son
of God, you have life. He that hath not the Son of God
shall not see life. How will you be accepted with
God? Wages or by gift? Wages? I only want to be found before
God in Christ. That's it. Not having mine own
righteousness which is of the law. I don't want any part of
that. I need Him to justify me. I need
Him to sanctify me. I need Him to redeem me. I need
Him to keep me. And that's all part of the gift.
Jesus told us, He said to His sheep, I give unto them eternal
life. Result, they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. Is that not security? Now then, ask yourself, which
are you saved by? I pray God save you by his grace.
Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Father dismiss us with your own
blessings and mercies and kindness. Father pour upon our hearts the
oil of thy spirit. we may rejoice in the gift of
grace. Never let us be tempted to return
to our works or look to ourselves, but looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. I pray this in his name. Very well.