There's a word that seems to
always grab my attention, and I would say the attention of
most every man or woman who hears it. Whenever it's heard on a
television ad or it's seen on a store sign, It gets attention
of the hearer or reader. And that word is free. Free. We like that word. We like it because it means without
charge. It doesn't cost us anything. Now, it's a common thing nowadays
to hear statements like, well, you know, there's really nothing
that's free. And I suppose as far as the world and the things
of the world are concerned, that's a correct statement. I know a man who has a business
and the name of the business is Tan Staffel. I thought, what
a weird name for a business. T-A-N-S-T-A-A-F-L. And I did business with this
gentleman for many years. He was a supplier of mine. And
finally, one day, years had passed. My curiosity was killing me,
and we had a little time, and we're talking on the phone. And
I asked him, I said, how did you come up with that name? And
he chuckled, and he said, I'm asked that question quite often.
Do you know why he named his business that? Tan Staffle. There
ain't no such thing as a free lunch. That's exactly right. That's
what he named it. And I knew exactly what he meant.
Seems like there's a catch or a condition every time that that
word free is used. Buy one, get one free. That usually means we're going
to charge you double for the first one. Buy this or that and we're going
to throw something else in free. That usually means we've already
added the cost into the price. Or how about, for the same price,
we're going to throw in two of these slicer-dicers, or whatever
it is. The only thing is, you just pay
shipping and handling on the one, which is usually more than
the cost of the item. It's that fine print, isn't it? Free. Free. And even in religion, my dear
friends, men say that salvation is free. But you have to add something
of your own to it, they say. Well, then it's not free, is
it? If you have to add, earn, or
deserve, then it's not free. I know it's free. But men will
tell you that it's free and then say, you've got to add something
to it. God's Word is clear that we're
all sinners and we deserve death and we deserve condemnation.
The Scriptures clearly claim the wages of sin is death. Death is what sinners deserve.
Condemnation is what we've earned for our work. Now you think about it for a
moment. We work to earn wages and the wages of our work we
deserve. How many of you, though you may
love your job, how many of you get up day after day and go to
your job because you just love it? No, you go for your wages. You go because you want your
just recompense. We work to earn wages, and the
wages of our work we deserve. But with God, the wages of our
works, our works of righteousness, sinfulness, selfishness, is death. That's what you deserve. You
read God's book, that's what it says. The wages of sin is
death. Romans 6.23. But there is a but
in that verse. Don't you love that little three
letter word when you see it in the scriptures? It says but. The gift of God. Go ahead and
turn there, Romans 6.23. We're going to take our text
from that chapter anyway. Look at it for yourself, Romans
6.23. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Now let me ask you something
else. What does a gift cost? If it's truly a gift, then it's
free, is it not? There's nothing freer than a
gift. There's nothing freer than free
if it's truly free. Look at verse 17 of Romans 6. But God bethinked that we were
the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered you. You and I, dear friends,
were born servants of sin. Sin is not what we do. Sin is what we are. We sin because
we're sinners. We sin because we're sinners. Sin is absolutely, and you think
about this, I did for a while. Sin is really the only thing
that truly is ours and not of God. Everything else we enjoy
in this life is a gift of God. Everything but our sin. That's
something we can definitely call our own, isn't it? Well, men will tell you, they'll
tell you, well, you're not that bad. Now you're not that bad. You have a free will, you have
a sense of what's right. Now use that free will, use that
sense of what's right and decide today to choose Jesus. I heard that all my life. I heard
it so much that I didn't want nothing to do with that Jesus. He was trying, but couldn't. He was willing, but I wouldn't
let him. The decision was up to me. Won't
you let Jesus have his way? That ain't much of Jesus, is
it? That ain't much of God. Let God have his way. Let go,
let God. They ain't talking about the
God of this Bible. They're not talking about the God of the
universe. The God who spoke these worlds
into existence. The God that breathed the breath
of life into a piece of dirt and He became a man. And the
same God that breathes life into the nostrils of dead dog sinners. This is God. This is God. There's never been a bigger lie
told. You cannot come that you might have life. That's what
Christ said in John 6, verse 44. He said, No man can come
to Me, and then He used that word, except. That's another
but, isn't it? But, no man can come to Me except,
but, unless, what? The Father which has sent Me
dry. Salvation is of the Lord. I did the sinning. He did the
saving. I have a friend that believes
that he's bound for heaven because he endeavors to do, and I quote,
the right thing. His motto is just do the right
thing. That's all you can do. You can just do the right thing.
But it's impossible for us to do the right thing. Keep your place here. Turn back
just a few pages to Romans 3. Look at verse 10. Do the right
thing. Romans 3.10. As it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. How am I going to do
the right thing? There is no righteousness in
me. Nothing right about me. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. How can something that's unprofitable
do the right thing? There's none that doeth good. Do the right thing? There's none
that doeth good. No, not one. I love how Paul
continues to reiterate this. He said, there's none righteous.
Not a one. Search your heart. Don't raise
your hand and say you're righteous. There's not a one. He said, they're
all gone out of the way. He said, there's none that doeth
good. Now hold it. Not a one. How then can I do the right thing? There's none righteous, not a
one. There's none that understands God in their own condition. You
ask a normal guy on the street and you say, are you a sinner?
He goes, well, I'm a sinner, but I'm not all that bad. Oh,
you better read this book. Altogether unprofitable. Man in his best state altogether. There's none that seeketh after
God, not a one. God looked down from heaven and
He saw that the imagination of man was only evil continually. You think God destroyed the world
in the day of Noah just because He wanted somebody to build a
boat? No sirree, it was a wicked and evil generation and God said,
I've had enough! But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. What made Noah differ from those
that drowned? God's grace. Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And you've heard me say this
often. And I'm not against bumper stickers, and I'm not going to
climb up on a soapbox, but I see these stickers that say, smile,
God loves you. Can you imagine seeing that on
the back of that ark as the water swallowed you up? Smile, God
loves you. I'm drowning. What kind of love
is this? And Noah would have drowned,
too, if he hadn't found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Okay, back to Romans 6, look
at verse 18. Being then what? Made free. free from sin, you became the
servants of righteousness. How is a man or a woman made
a servant of righteousness? It answers it right here. Look
at it good now. Being made free from sin. How were you made free from sin?
Write it down. Read it over and over again in
your Bible. It's found in 2 Corinthians 5.21.
It says, for he hath made him to be sin for us. Who knew no sin? Didn't even
know sin. That we might what? Be made the righteousness of
God in him. Does it say anything in there
about the exchange of money? Does it say anything in there
about earning or deserving anything? Absolutely not. It's by the sovereign,
free grace of God in Christ. Christ was made to be what you
are. that you might be made to be
what He was. And what was He? He was all that
God... He possessed everything that
God required. He was perfectly righteous and
holy. To be reconciled to God now,
we've got to be perfect. Perfect. The scriptures teach us that
if we offend the law in one little area, we're guilty of the whole
law. And the law was never given for us to keep. It was given
to show us our inability of keeping it. We're all sinners. There's
none that doeth good. That ought to have been our first
clue that the law wasn't given to keep, because there's none
that doeth good. That's what God requires, perfect
righteousness. Verse 19, I speak after the manner
of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye have
yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity,
unto iniquity. That's a good description of
us, just from one thing to another, ain't it? Iniquity unto iniquity,
even so now yield your members, servants, to righteousness unto
holiness." Paul says here, he says, I need to speak to you
in familiar human terms because spiritual truth is possible for
you to understand. He said, there's none that understand
it. He said, you cannot see spiritual
things unless God Almighty gives you eyes to see, ears to hear,
and hearts to believe. You can't even see it. That's what Christ told Nicodemus.
You can't even see the kingdom of God, much less enter into
it until you're born again, until God does a work in your heart. And dear friends, whether we
admit it or not, in the past we cheerfully gave our minds
and our hearts and our tongues and our hands to do evil. Now you don't have to raise your
hand and say, I did. But you search your own heart.
You search your own heart. And now, by God's grace, we cheerfully
yield them to God and to holiness. Oh, have I attained? Have I reached
perfection? Absolutely not. And I want this
side of glory. But this one thing I do, I forget
those things that are behind me. Forget them. I can't change
them. And chances are I do them all
over again because of what I am. But I press on. I press on. to the mark of the high calling
that's in Christ Jesus, my Lord. Verse 20, For when we were the
servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. When we were
the servants of sin, we were free. And that word means void
in this text. It means void and without any
righteousness that we could call our own. But verse 21 says, And
what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death." The wages of sin is death. We had no use. I didn't. I had no use or interest in the
righteousness of God. My motto was, if it feels good,
do it. What benefit, Paul asked, did
our evil and sin bring us? Can you think of any? Can you
think of any from your past? Did any of your evil and sin
bring you anything? No. The only fruit of wages that
come from sin is death, condemnation. Verse 22, but now being what? Made free from sin, and become
servants of God. Ye have your fruit unto holiness,
and the end now is everlasting life. What a difference grace
has made. What a difference. See, now we're
made free from Free from sin, we've become servants
of God. Our fruit, our wages, and our
holiness now in the end, what do they bring forth? What does
it say? Everlasting life. Everlasting
life. I wonder what men would pay for
a life without ends. Well, if they're to have it,
they can pay nothing. It's not for sale. It's free. It's free. Free from sin. Oh, cherish that
thought, dear believer. Sin no more has dominion over
us. Look back at verse 14. That's
what it says. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for ye are not under the law, but you're under what? Grace. Where does grace come
from? God. Oh, the grace of God. Under grace. Do you know why
we call it free grace? Not a hard question, is it? It's
free! We call it free grace because
it's free grace. It's free. Look at verse 23,
we read it, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life through, never forget that, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Now if you continue in sin, dear
friend, you will die, and you'll die spiritually, and you'll die
forever. But God has a gift. And that gift is eternal life. That gift of eternal life is
not anything that you do, but trusting, bowing, and obeying
Jesus Christ the Lord. And you can't even do that unless
God does work in you. God causes us to take sides with
Him against ourselves. There was a time when somebody
said, well, you know, brother, you're just a sinner. Well, we'd
have been fighting. And one day a preacher stood
before me and he said, you're a sinner and you deserve death.
And I went, that's right. I am. Who made thee to differ from
another? What do you have that you didn't
receive? And if you received it, why do
you glory in it? It's a free gift. We call it
free sovereign grace. Because it was given to us by
a sovereign God. He didn't have to. He could have
passed us by. Would have been no less God.
Would have been no less holy. And would have definitely been
no less right had He passed us by. But God calls us a sinner
like He did old Fannie Crosby. He said, pass me not, O gentle
Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on
others Thou art calling, please, please don't pass me by. Don't
pass me by. Yes, God has a gift, that gift
is eternal life, and that gift is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. Listen,
salvation is the Lord. We're saved by whom? There's
redemption in a person. And that is Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And as I said, that gift cannot
be earned, it can't be bought, and it's definitely not deserved.
It's free to you. Do you need it? Do you need it? Do you desire
it? All the fitness that God requires
is that you what? Feel your need of Him. That's all God requires. Do you
need Him? Do you desire Him? Do you want Him? Paul wrote in Galatians 5 verse
1, he said, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free. And be not entangled again with
the Yolk of bondage. I'm going to tell you something,
friends. Works religion is bondage. You know why? Because you can't
ever do enough. You can't ever do enough. You know another reason? It makes you feel good about
you. That's what I did for the Lord. You've got to come to Him. You've got to come to Him. John the Baptist said it best,
didn't he? He said, he must increase, I must decrease. And only God
can do that in the heart of a sinner. Who's made us free? Christ has
made us free. And then verse 24 says, being
justified, how? Freely! By His grace. through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Man, that's full of gospel there,
isn't it? There's only one way to be justified.
Do you know that way? It's freely. Justified freely. Am I starting to sound like a
broken record? I hope so. It's freely given one way. How's
that? By His grace. By His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Redemption. Do you know what
that word means? It means deliverance. But it means more than that.
It means deliverance by payment or ransom. Well, I thought you
just said that it was free, Pastor. It's free to you. It's free to you. Look back at
Isaiah chapter 55 with me. You've got to see this. Isaiah
chapter 55 and verse 1. I thought you said it was free. Isaiah 55 verse 1. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. You know what that word waters
there means? Washing. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat. What? How can I buy if I don't
have any money? I can tell you real quick, somebody
else paid it for you. That's how. That's how you come
and buy and eat. Somebody else paid the bill.
Somebody else paid the debt. Come buy wine, which that word
wine there speaks of the blood of Christ. And milk, that word
means abundance. And come and buy these things,
how? Without money and without price. There's a washing, dear friends,
it's free. That washing is by the blood
of Christ, which is represented by the wine. And we have the
milk of God's Word, which is Christ and the abundance that
we have in Him. Without money. Without money. Come to Jesus now and buy. How do you buy something without
money? You can't unless someone else pays for it for you. Are you thirsty? That's the real
question. Are you thirsty? Come ye to the water of life.
Christ said, the water that I give, you'll never thirst again. Not
about to spill mine. Are you hungry? Come ye and buy
and eat and be filled. Ephesians 3.19 says, And to know
the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be what? Filled with all the fullness
of God. Christ is the fullness of God. Buy wine and milk without money
and without price. You don't need money. Eternal
life is free in the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me ask you, how
can a helpless beggar that has nothing buy without money? Because it's without price to
mercy beggars. It's free. The problem is it's
hard to find mercy beggars. Because men want to have something
to do with their salvation. Salvation is free. Just give
your heart to Jesus. That's not free. I'm giving something. Giving my heart? He don't want
that wicked, wretched thing. Matter of fact, salvation is
Him taking out that heart and putting in a new one. David said,
creating me a new heart. Now let me tell you something,
friends. It's free to you, but it costs God His Son. It costs Christ His life. And to add anything to the work
of Christ is to say that Christ is nothing. Galatians 5 teaches
that quite plainly. He said, Behold, I, Paul, say
unto you, that if you be circumcised, if you are bound and determined
to do something according to the works of the law, like circumcision,
he said, Christ shall profit you nothing. You know why? Because
you're trying to add. You're trying to pay. It's free. You pay. You can't get it that way. He
said, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised
that he's debtor to do the whole law. If you're going to do that,
you better do all the rest of it. And it says, Christ is become
of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you're falling from grace. You're so far away from
grace that you can't even see it. Now friends, it's either
by grace or it's by works. And you can't work your way. You can't do it. It's free. If you're trying to buy or work
your way to God, then you've fallen from grace. You've fallen
from grace. As believers, Christ is the only
profitable thing that we have. Christ will profit you nothing
if you endeavor to do it the other way. Lay down your works. Lay them down. Throw them down.
Throw away your self-righteousness. Stop working and start believing. Start trusting in the One who
did for you what you could not do for yourself. I'll tell you what, if you'll
throw it down, start believing and trusting Him and Him alone,
Christ will profit you everything. Everything. Do you know what
the name of Jesus means? It means Jehovah is salvation. Do you know what the name Christ
means? It means the Anointed One. You put those two together,
Jesus Christ, it means Jehovah is salvation, the Anointed One. Isn't that good? He is salvation. Christ is salvation. That pretty
much says it all. Now let me ask you one last question
and I'll wrap this up. What did you or I do to deserve
this marvelous free gift from Jehovah, our salvation, the anointed
one? And before you answer, let me
tell you something. It's a trick question. It's a trick question. I used to hate it when teachers
would give you trick questions. So let me ask you again in case
you missed it. What did you or I do to deserve
this marvelous free gift? Well, that's just a contradiction
in the question, isn't it? Nothing. We didn't do or deserve
nothing. Nothing. It's not anything that
we can do or anything that we deserve. It's a free gift. Free, free, free. Grace means
unmerited favor. It cannot be merited. What is
unmerited favor? It's favor unmerited. Wow, I'm
just being really profound this morning. Let me tell you something, it's
profound in the design of God. But if God gives you ears to
hear and eyes to see, it's so simple. The simplicity of
Christ. All that means is that if you're
going to be saved, it has to be Christ that saved you. You're
going to have to bow to that. You have to bow to that. There's
absolutely nothing in man to attract the love of God to him.
The love of God to man existed before there ever was a man.
That's right. He loved his chosen people before
any of them ever been created. I tell you what, it's not my
works of righteousness that I've done, because I haven't done
any. Before the foundation of the
world, before the world was ever made, God freely gave us all
things in Christ. God set His heart upon His beloved
and He ordained them unto eternal life. That's what Acts says,
as many as were ordained to eternal life, what believed. What does Ephesians 1 verse 4
say? It says, According as He hath chosen us and Him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. He chose us in Christ. He purposed
in sovereign love that we would be holy and without blame before
Him. How? In love. The love of Christ. God loves
us only when we're found in His Son. There's no other place.
Okay, one last scripture and I promise I'm done. John chapter
16. I want you to see this and I'll wrap it up. We're going
to take of the Lord's table. John chapter 16. Look at verse 27. Now listen to this, this is amazing. Read it slow. For the Father
himself loveth you, because ye have loved me. Why does the Father love a sinner?
Because the sinner loves his son. And you've believed that
I came out from God. God only loves sinners, dear
friends, that love His Son. That's it. That's true. There's
no love of God outside of Christ. You can bet your bottom dollar
that His love for you and your love for Christ is free. Hosea 14, verse 4 says, I will
heal their backsliding. And I will love them freely. Freely. Freely. And that verse also says, For
mine anger is turned away from Him. In Psalm 711 it says, The
Lord. God who is angry with the wicked
every day in Hosea 14 verse 4 says, my anger turned away from me. Why? free gift of God in Christ. Now you tell me that's not good
news. If you're a sinner, it's good news. If you're a wretched,
undeserving, worthless, no-count sinner, you've never heard any
better news than that. That's the gospel, my friends.
That's the gospel. Okay, if the men that serve in
the Lord's table will come forward.