This book of Romans is something
else. The apostle Paul talks greatly about who God is, but
then he talks very plainly about what we are. He talks about us. You don't like people to talk
about you, do you? Unless you're saying something
good. He's not saying something good. But he's talking about
us. Romans chapter 3. Verse 10. As it is written. There is none righteous. No,
not one. Not even one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about, by nature, all Adam's race. It said in verse nine, prove
both Jews and Gentiles, everybody. He's talking about us. Verse
13, apart from the grace of God, apart from the spirit of God,
their throat is an open separate. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips. Asp means serpents, snakes. Everything you've got to say
is like the poisonous venom of a rattlesnake unless it be prompted by The Spirit of God, whose mouth is full of cursing,
bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. And the way of peace they have
not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Paul is describing humanity in
general without God. By nature, that's what we all
are. And to deny that prevents anyone
from getting any further with the Lord. You've got to be honest
with the Lord that if he left you alone, You'd
be worse off than you are. You're not going to get any better
on your own. You're going to get worse. We don't want him to leave us
alone. But now in chapter six, I just want to read one verse
for our text verse this morning, we're going to talk about some
very simple things. In the message this morning,
the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. The last verse of
chapter 6, verse 23, Paul says, For the
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. I want us to look at that verse,
very beautiful verse, very plain, instructive, and precious to
the Lord's people. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Now look at it. It speaks of
two things. One earned and one unearned. First, the wages of sin. We've
earned that. And secondly, the gift of God. We haven't earned that. You can't
earn a gift. When you do, it ceases to be
a gift. It becomes wages. You've earned
it. So there's the wages of sin,
which we've all earned, and there's the gift of God, which none of
us have earned. What is the wages? What is the
gift? Well, this verse tells us. The wages of sin which we've
earned is death. That's why we're all dying physically.
Is because we were born dead spiritually. We were born in
sin. But the gift of God is eternal
life. Dying physically is not the end. We live on. The gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now back it up to the
first part of the verse, the wages of sin is death. When God told Adam in Genesis
chapter two and verse 17, in the day that thou eatest of the
forbidden tree, forbidden fruit, thou shalt surely die. He didn't tell him if you eat,
he knew he would. But he said in the day that thou
eatest, thou shalt surely die. And of course, the meaning is
not physical. Adam didn't die physically then,
he lived 900 something years. He began to die physically. At
that moment, his body, like ours, began to break down. And physical
death was sure to come and did. But that very day, God said,
in the day that you eat, you will surely die. So he's talking
about a spiritual death. He died at that moment. the moment
he disobeyed God. Now, I have a question. I have
a question you may have never thought about. At that time,
when God said to Adam, in the day that thou eatest, thou shalt
surely die, what did Adam know about dying? Nothing. Nobody had ever died. At the mention of death, you
and I are, we automatically have certain mental images. We think
of hospitals and doctors and medicine and a funeral home and
cemetery. When the Lord told Adam this,
there was none of those things in existence. So he wasn't talking
about physical. What then did he mean when he
spoke to Adam of death? Well, he meant the same thing
you and I ought to think about. Not physical death, but separation
from God. Spiritual death, dead to the
life of God. No desire for God. If you want
to deny that, just look around. Physical death is God's blessing
that we don't have to live forever in these corrupt bodies and for
many suffering bodies. But real death is separation
from God. That's why Christ could say to
his own, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. He didn't mean you're not going
to die physically, you are. But he meant you'll never be
separated from God. So. That's what death is, separation
from God. It's not that something happens
when we die physically. It happened for the entire race.
when Adam sinned, cut off, separated from God. Yes, he sinned personally, Adam
did, but he also sinned representatively. We are his offspring. It's Adam's polluted blood that
runs in our veins. And in that sense, we are Adam. People have asked me many times,
why did God Charge us with what Adam did because we're just like
Adam. We are Adam, reproduced. It would be no different if it
were you back there and him up here with the rest of us. We're
all the same. We all sprang from that one federal
head. We all voted with Adam to do
exactly what he did. You say, well, I wouldn't have.
Oh yes, you did. You did. His blood's in your
veins. Sinful blood. So because of sin, the death
imposed was not just physical, some 900 years later, but it
was spiritual. God said to him in the day that
thou eatest, the very day, Adam died spiritually and was separated
from God. And you know the story. He ran
from God, not to Him. Made Him some fig leaf aprons
to cover their nakedness, hid behind the trees of the garden.
And such has been the case from then till now. That by nature,
we run from God, not to Him. People don't run to God. People
don't run to the Lord Jesus Christ. You might talk people into coming
to church. I try it all the time. You might even talk some folk
into being interested in getting involved in religion. But I promise you that neither
I nor you nor any other preacher can talk anybody into coming
to Christ. He has to do that. He has to
do that. He has to work in the heart. And he has to change the heart,
convict you of sin, and bring you to repentance. Matter of
fact, Christ said in John 6, 44, no man can come unto me. He didn't just say they won't come.
He said, they can't come. No man can come unto me, except
the father which hath sent me draw him. So spiritual death,
the wages of sin is separation from God with no heart for God,
dead to the life of God. And when I say separated from
God and spiritual dead, we're not necessarily talking
about the most low down people you know. We're talking about folks just
like you and just like me. Folks with a good family, a good home, a good job, reasonably
good health, people we would say have a good life. These same good people as we all will grow old and die. And it makes you wonder, and
we have to ask the question, is there not something more to
it than this? Some of you this morning don't
really know that there is, but I'm telling you there is. There
is the gift of God. And apart from this gift of God,
we all live our days physically alive, spiritually dead, and
then die physically, separated from God forever. But I'm glad there's more to
it. There is the gift of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
as the latter part of this verse says. Now, maybe you're here
today and you don't really know much about him. People don't
talk about him in public, you know. You didn't know that. But we need to talk about him
because he is the only hope that any of us have. People hope in some very foolish
things. Preachers hear it all. If you
try to talk to people about the Lord, you'll hear it all. People put it all on themselves. Say things like, well, I haven't
been such a bad person. Hell's full of not such bad persons. Well, I'm just hoping my good
will outweigh my bad. So what? That sounds pretty good in men's
eyes, but I continue to emphasize this, that God's standard is
sinless perfection. How do you measure up to God's
standard? Sinless perfection. I'll tell
you, you don't measure up. And then people say, well, I'm,
I'm, I'm going to get my life straightened out. I've been told
that many times. I'm going to, I'm going to turn
over a new leaf. I'm going to, I'm going to really
say no, no, we're out of options. We've struck out. You're helpless
and you're hopeless without Christ, the gift of God. Well, who is
he? What did he do? We don't have time to argue with
anybody that don't believe this book about who he is and what
he did. Most of us around this part of
the country know that this is the wholly inspired, inerrant
word of God. We're not going to argue about
that. It don't just contain the word of God. It is the word of
God. It is what God has to say to
this world. Is it all God knows? No. Is it
what he wants us to know? Yes. So we don't debate over
God's word. We don't debate over the fact
that this word teaches that Jesus Christ is God. come down in a body of flesh.
Matthew 1.23, Thou shalt call His name Immanuel, which being
interpreted is God with us. So God came down. And John 1.14
says He was made flesh. He became man without ceasing
to be God. I can't figure that out. I can't
explain that. That's just all I can say about it. He became
man without ceasing to be God. He laid aside his glory and walked
in this world like anybody else. He laid aside his glory, but
he never laid aside his deity. He's still God. And then we read in the New Testament,
the book of Galatians, that he didn't just appear as a man. He could have. But Galatians
4.4 says that he was made of a woman. That don't mean he was created
in her womb. He was never created. He's God
eternal. But he was made of a woman. He was made a body. In Mary's
womb. To be our Savior, he had to experience
Everything that any one of his people experience He knew what it was to be yet
unborn in a mother's womb and He knew 2,000 years ago and
he was in his mother's womb That in our generation millions would
be slaughtered while yet in their mother's womb We're talking about the one who
knows all about all. And he came to experience all
that you and I ever experienced made of a woman. Then he was
made that same verse Galatians four, four made under the law. What law, what does that mean?
What law? Well, there are many aspects of the law of God, but
the final analysis. There is but one law, Deuteronomy
6, 5, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart
and with all thy soul and with all thy might. That's the law. Everything else, every other
aspect of the law just flows out from that. Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thine heart And with all our soul and
with all our might, I haven't done that. You haven't done that, but Christ did. He walked this earth sinless. And he could truthfully say,
as he did in John 8, 29, I do always those things that please
my father. I can't say that. He did. When he was baptized of John
the Baptist, the heavens opened and a voice
spake and said, this is my beloved son. in whom I am well pleased."
He hadn't done anything wrong. That was when he was baptized,
at the very beginning of his earthly ministry. And then he
started preaching. And people started picking and
complaining and threatening and trying to kill him. And then later, toward the end
of his earthly ministry, Matthew 17 at the Mount of Transfiguration,
again the heavens opened. Same voice, same words. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. He still hadn't done anything
wrong. He kept the law. He loved God. The father was pleased. Now,
when was the father not pleased in him? And when was the father
not pleased with him? I'll tell you when, when he represented
someone other than himself. He could not die for his own
sin. He had none. He couldn't die, period. For
death is the wages of sin. He didn't have any sin. Couldn't
die. But when He took our sin upon
Him, 2 Corinthians 5.21, probably the most profound verse in the
New Testament. Everybody ought to mark this
and quote it daily to yourself. 2 Corinthians 5.21, for He, God the Father, hath made Him, God the Son, to be sin for us, we who believe
on Him. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. Why? that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. In other words, that we might
be made what God requires. In this flesh, we're not made
what God requires. Oh, no. That's why this has got
to die and rot. But in Christ, there's a new
creation in here. We are made the righteous of
God. We're made what God requires in Christ. Isn't that what we're
interested in? To be made what God requires?
Well, we are in his son. First Peter 3.18, for Christ
also hath suffered for sin. The just, that's him. For the
unjust, that's us. That he might bring us to God. Not that he might possibly bring
us to God, if you'd do your part. No, no, no, no. He died that
he might bring us to God. Did he suffer? Yes. Did he bring
us to God? Yes. Ephesians 1, 6. wherein he hath
made us accepted in the blood." Not made us acceptable. You'll never be acceptable to
God in yourself. You'll never quit enough bad
and start enough good to make God smile. Oh, no. Don't go that
way. Don't go that way. Trust Christ,
for it's in Him that we're made acceptable. Colossians 121, and you that
were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Wicked works is not necessarily
what we'd call wicked out in the world. There's a whole lot
of religious wicked works. What's wicked about it? Thinking
you can come to God some way other than through his son. Thinking
that God could ever smile on the likes of you, apart from
seeing you in his son. That's wicked. That's wicked
as it comes. And you that were sometime alienated, enemies, God's enemies in your
mind by wicked works, that is you, you know, and you are sure
God has to be mad at you. And if He looked at you and you,
He would have to. But here's what Christ has done.
Yet now hath He, the Lord Jesus Christ, reconciled in the body
of His flesh through death. I'm reading Colossians 1. Through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. You can quit trying to impress
God. His son already has. Thanks be to God, Paul said in
Corinthians, which giveth us the victory. through our Lord
Jesus Christ. We're not fighting for victory
this morning. We're fighting out from victory.
It's ours in Christ. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against what he's doing. Oh, my little group of people
like this meeting in a place like this on a regular basis. You got a preacher so dumb, get
up here and slaughter the king's English. Maybe we're not always
politically correct, but in here, there's something going on. The
God of eternity has paid me a visit and has moved into my heart and
has changed my life. How blessed we are, how grateful
we are. how unworthy we are, how incapable we are, representing him as we should,
but oh, how good he's been. And he's promised me this, no
matter what happens, I will never leave thee, not for safety. The best friend you've ever had
in this world will stay with you. Until. Until what? I don't know. Your dearest friend. Your spouse. Your parents. Your children. The ones you love and they love
you and you can always count on will never, never, Leave you
nor forsake you until, until there are things that happen.
Death is one of them. There are things happen that ruin relationships in this
world. But we're talking about one that
promised I will never, no, never, no, never forsake. And he didn't put an if in there.
He didn't say, if you... No. He just said, I won't. I'll be with you. Do you believe that? You say,
well, sometimes I feel like the Lord, I just feel like the Lord
is not with me. Join the club. He didn't say
you'd always feel like it, but he said he would always be You'd
always be here. I want to ask you this morning, if we planned, and we are in
a sense planning, to meet again exactly like this one year from now, February 25th, 2019, Probably someone and maybe several
of us, maybe me, wouldn't be here. None of us have the promise of
tomorrow. We always look around and think,
well, it's somebody else, you know, so-and-so might not be
around, you know, they're not doing well. Be the neighbor down
the road or somebody else across the community. But one day, I
don't know what day, it's going to be me. It's going to be you. And my question this morning
is, where is your hope anchored? I'll tell you this, you cannot
afford to meet God. with what you are, how you've
lived, what you've done, hadn't done, or can do. You must look
to Christ. We were all way past making it
our own when we were born. Conceived in sin, David said. Shaping iniquity. Come forth
from my mother's womb, speaking lies. So you talk like that. You must've
been a bad dude. You are too. We must look to Christ. Don't,
don't go to counting up your good points. You don't really
have that many. Christ didn't die for good people
anyway. He died for sinners. And if you
can put yourself in this category, sinner, then there's hope for you. There's hope for you. But people
want to deny it. I'm not a bad person. There's
no hope there. Well, at least I'm not like so-and-so.
There's no hope there. Can you bring yourself to confess
you're a sinner? The old tax collector in Luke
18, publican they called him. He was the IRS man. Everybody
agrees he ought to go to hell. Tax collector. But his prayer to God was this,
be merciful to me, a sinner. And the Bible said that he went
back to his house justified. And that's the gospel hope this
morning. We've all earned the wages of sin. And God sure hadn't done wrong.
If he puts us in hell, we've earned it. It's what we all deserve, but
don't miss the gift. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Are you interested? Are you interested
in that? I am. I am. Amen. Bless his Holy name. All right,
let's stand together.