That was a request, and I'm glad
it was. Turn with me, if you would, now
to Romans 6. Romans 6, and let's read verse
23 together. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Everything that needs to be said
is said in that one verse. It really is. It says, for the
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Years ago, a man opened his message
from this verse. with these comments and I want
to give them to you because they are a clear summary of what's
being said here. Here's the conclusion of the
whole matter. He said, if I die in my sin, then my condemnation is a condition
that I deserved. It's something I have earned.
It's something that is owed to me. The wages of sin is death. He said, but if I live eternally,
if I end up receiving eternal life, if I'm admitted into the
presence of God, then that is something that has been freely
given to me. It is the free gift of God. I
have not earned it. It is not owed to me. The gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What that means is death in and
because of sin. Condemnation. Separation from
God. All of that is the result of
a willing, deliberate effort on my part. Death, death, death is the result
of a willing, deliberate effort, a willing, on purpose, deliberate
effort on my part. He said, but life, Life in Christ,
regeneration, union with Him, is the result of a willing, deliberate
effort on God's part. If death comes, that originated
with me. But if life comes, that originated
with God. He just decided to give a gift. an unspeakable gift, a gift that
cost Him everything. It was completely free to us,
His people, all of His chosen people, but it cost Him everything.
He had to give everything in order to give this gift to us.
He had to give His life in order to give us life. He had to lay
down His life in order to give that very life to us. So it was
a willing, conscious effort on His part. Therefore, it all boils
down to this. He said, if I go to hell, it's
my fault. But if I go to heaven, it's God's
fault. That's a pretty good summary,
isn't it? That's what verse 23 means when it says, for the wages
of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. I want to divide this message
into three parts. From these three parts, I'd like
for us to see the reality of what we have done, and the reality
of what Christ has done. And this is gonna be the theme
of each part. This is the title of this message.
Once and done. All right, that's the theme of
all of it. Once and done. Here's the first
part. Verse 23 says, for the wages
of sin is death. Go with me, if you would, to
Genesis chapter 1. Genesis 1 verse 1 says, In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth. Verse 26 says, And God said, Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in
His own image, in the image of God created He Him. Male and
female created He them. And God blessed them, and God
said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth. Verse 29, And God said, Behold,
I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face
of all the earth, And every tree in the which is the fruit of
a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat. Verse 31,
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was
very good. Chapter 2, verse 7 says, And
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living
soul. And the Lord God planted a garden
eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed,
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that
is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life
also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of
good and evil. Verse 16, And the Lord God commanded
the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou
shalt surely die. Chapter three, verse six. And
when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it
was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes
of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked,
and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons."
Verse 17, And unto Adam God said, Because thou hast hearkened unto
the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, Cursed is
the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it
wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return. Verse 23. Therefore the Lord
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from
whence he was taken. So he drove out the man and he
placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming
sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of
life. We just witnessed once and done. That's what we just witnessed.
Once and done. By one man committing one sin,
the entire world became ruined. Once and done. That's an amazing
thing to see, isn't it? It's not that that one sin opened
the door to ruin. You know, that began the snowball,
the domino effect. It's not that that one sin started
man down the path toward sin, toward ruin. Man died in that very moment. I mean, he died. That old saying, wrong on the
fall, wrong on it all. Oh, that's the truth. What happened
when Adam sinned against God? He died. I mean he died. Ruined. Man was severed from
God in that moment. Cast out. Totally cast out. There was no three strikes and
you're out. It was once and done. Relatively speaking, think about
how small that sin was. Relatively speaking to sin and
sins. Think about how small that was.
God did not say Adam in the day that you commit murder. He didn't say Adam in the day
that you lie to me. He didn't say Adam in the day
that you hate this wife that I've given you. in the day that
you abuse her and mistreat her. He didn't say any of that. He
said, Adam, in the day that you eat this piece of fruit, you're
gonna die. If you eat this one piece of
fruit, you're gonna die. Disobeying me in eating a piece
of fruit that I've commanded you not to eat, that is sin against
me. And the wages for that sin against
me is certain physical, spiritual, eternal death. Eve said, Adam,
here's that piece of fruit that God told us not to eat. Adam
said, let me have it. It was one bite. Once and done. Alright, let's go to part 2.
Turn with me to Psalm 51. Psalm 51 verse 1 says, Have mercy upon me. Oh God, according to thy loving
kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest.
Verse five says, behold, I was shapen in iniquity. And in sin
did my mother conceive me." David said, I was shaped, I was formed
in the belly in iniquity. I was conceived in sin, conceived
in it. Job said, who can bring a clean
thing out of an unclean? Not one. He said, man drinks
iniquity like water. all men and women. We come forth
from the womb that way. Look with me at Psalm 58. Verse 3 says, the wicked are estranged, that
means strangers, from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born speaking lies. Is there anyone here who could
honestly say that he or she has never told a lie? We've been doing that since we
were children. From the moment that we learned
to talk, we had the ability and we had the instinct naturally
in us to lie. Look with me at Psalm 139. Psalm
139, verse one. Oh Lord, thou hast searched me
and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting
and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. David said, you know my thoughts. How many times does it say in
the scripture, and Jesus knowing their thoughts? How many times
does it say that? Reading their minds. Reading
their minds. seeing the motive and the intent
of their heart. What does our Lord see in our
minds? Does it just crush you to think
that he sees our thoughts? You know, if we thought that
another human being saw and knew some of the thoughts that go
through our mind, you know, we'd be mortified. He sees our thoughts. He sees all of our thoughts. His all-seeing eye sees every
thought that passes through. Well, you talk about, you talk
about pierce the heart. Oh, no. Are we proud of what He sees?
All right, He sees our thoughts. He sees what's in this heart
right here. Are we proud of what He sees? Where am I going with all this?
Turn with me to Psalm 24. Psalm 24 verse 3 says, Who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy
place? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor
sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. What that means is once and done. It takes perfectly clean hands. It takes a totally pure heart
It takes never lifting up our soul one time to vanity. Never one time swearing deceitfully. That's what it takes to stand
in the holy place with God Almighty. And all of us have ruined that
for ourselves. All of us have defiled our hands.
All of us have defiled our hearts and defiled our souls through
our own vanity and our own deceit. And this is the reality that
we all need to face. It's once and done. That's the reality. It doesn't
matter how great the sin is or how small the sin is. With God,
it's once and done. People hear about Adam's fall
condemning all of mankind. And the natural response of the
flesh is, that's not fair. That's the natural response of
the flesh, that's not fair. Why should I be condemned for
something Adam did? That's not right, that's not
fair. Everybody deserves their own chance. That's what man says, I want
my own chance before God. Well, here's the fact of the
matter. Every soul in this room had his or her own chance before
God. And we sinned just like Adam
did. We had our own chance. And God
dealt with us based on our own action. The moment that first sin rebelled
against him, the moment that first sin issued from us, it
was once and done. Once and done. Man gets religion. Think about this. Man gets religion
thinking he can start over. That's why man gets religion.
He thinks that if he will decide to straighten up his act, God
will give him a do-over. God doesn't do do-overs. It's once and done. Adam laying hold of the fruit
of the knowledge of good and evil. All right, that fruit was
called the knowledge of good and evil. That represents man
trying to lay hold of the law to redeem himself before God.
That's what the law is, the knowledge of good and evil. But God has
said it's never gonna redeem you. It's too late. You've already
committed the sin and it's once and done. Alright, here comes
the gospel. Go back to Romans 6. Verse 23, For the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. because God's people that He
dearly loved, He loved His people, because they could not redeem
themselves, because they were lost and ruined with nothing
to pay, nothing to offer, because there was no hope for them after
that first sin issued from them. Christ said, I will go down to
them where they are, in their hopelessness, in their ruined
state, and I will remove their sin from them. I mean totally
remove it from them. From the last sin that they'll
ever commit all the way back to the first sin that they ever
committed. I will remove all of them. I will make it so that
sin never touched them. Never touched them. Grace is
amazing. Paul said, this is a mystery.
The gospel is a mystery. Christ said, I'm going to give
them clean hands. I'm not just going to wash their
hands and give them a do-over. I'm going to give them clean
hands. And I'm going to give them a
pure heart. One that has never lifted up its soul to vanity,
nor sworn deceitfully. A spotless soul. I will redeem
them from ruin by laying all of their ruin on me. I'll bear
their judgment. I'll pay their wages. I'll die
for the sin they committed. I will separate myself from God
my Father. I will cast myself out of His
presence. I'll suffer all the wages that'll
ever be owed to Him. And that's exactly what Christ
did. And it was once and done. Look right here in Romans 6 at
verse 9. Knowing that Christ being raised
from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over
him, for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that
he liveth, he liveth unto God once. Look with me at Hebrews
chapter 7. Hebrews 7 verse 25 says, Wherefore,
he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
For such an high priest became us. That is literally, I know
I say this a lot, but that's one of my favorite lines in the
scripture. That's my hope. You talk about,
you want to know how clean are the hands He gave us? How pure
is the heart He gave us? Verse 26 says, such an high priest,
Christ our high priest, became us. Therefore we became Him. A total trading of places. Such an high priest became us
who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens. Who needeth not daily as those
high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then
for the people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself." One time. Look at Hebrews 9 verse 11. It says, but Christ being come
and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not
of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. His sin offering was
so powerful It was so effectual. It was so sufficiently complete. It was once and done. That means it's over. That means
it's finished. It's done. Verse 24 right here
says, For Christ is not entered into the holy place made with
hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet
that he should offer himself often as the high priest entereth
into the holy place every year with the blood of others. For
then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world,
but now once. in the end of the world hath
He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And
as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,
so was Christ once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto
them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without
sin unto salvation. Why will He appear the second
time? What is He coming back for? Us. Us. The many that He bore the
sin for. He's coming back to gather to
Himself every soul that He accomplished eternal life for. That freedom
from sin. He's coming back the second time
to appear unto them that look for Him. Those that are looking
to Him. Those whose only hope is in this
free gift that He's given to them. To all those that are looking
for Him. Him. To all those who see Him
to be the gift. To all those that see Him to
be eternal life. To all those He's going to appear
the second time without sin. without sin unto salvation. It is gone. It is done. It is done. It was once, but
now it's done. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our
Lord. We're about to sing free from
the law. Oh, happy condition. The Lord
Jesus has bled and there is remission. Cursed by the law and bruised
by the fall, but Christ has redeemed us once for all. Once for all, oh sinner, receive
it. Once for all, oh brother, believe
it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ has redeemed us once for
all of our sin. All of his elect. and all of
our sin, they are all put away, it's done. It's done. All right,
let's stand and sing that.