Sunday Sermon: The Free Gift of God (Romans 6:20-23)

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:15

You are listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

00:23

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an

00:29

Old Testament book on Thursday and our Q &A on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series.

00:36

Here is Pastor Gabe. As we have already said in our congregational reading today, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our

00:49

Lord. And that's the passage we come to today. If you would please stand as we, in honor of the word of the

00:56

King, hear from Romans chapter 6, verses 20 through 23. The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Rome, hear the word of the

01:05

Lord. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

01:16

But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?

01:24

For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

01:42

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

01:54

Lord. You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to this passage today, we hear both elements in a common presentation of the gospel.

02:11

We hear of our sin and what we were deserving of as a result of that sin.

02:20

And yet we hear the good news of Jesus Christ, who though we deserved sin, he gave his life as an atoning sacrifice, so that all who believe in him will not perish under the judgment of God that we all deserve.

02:40

But we have in Christ Jesus eternal life. As we've reflected upon in previous weeks, there's an already and a not yet to that statement.

02:53

We are already in eternal life. And not yet.

03:01

For we continue in these bodies to be sanctified as we walk in the righteousness of Christ that we have been clothed in, looking forward to that day that we will step beyond that veil and be in the place of God dwelling with you forever in the eternity that you have promised by Christ's death and resurrection for us.

03:25

And so may that be something that we continue to reflect upon as we come to these words today.

03:32

And so in love with the promise that we've received in Christ Jesus that we cannot help but to obey

03:39

God and even desire to share the love of God with someone else.

03:45

It is in Jesus' name that we pray and all God's people said, amen. It's in John chapter 9 that we read the story of a blind man who was blind from birth.

03:57

And you know this account that when the disciples come across him, the disciples say, well, who is it that sinned here?

04:04

Was it this man or was it his parents that he would be born blind? And Jesus answered, it was not this man who sinned or his parents, but that the work of God might be displayed in him.

04:22

And Jesus said, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day for night is coming when no one can work.

04:31

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva.

04:41

Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent.

04:47

So he went and washed and came back seeing.

04:53

Now as the account goes, the Pharisees are, are just perplexed at this.

05:01

And this man is talking about how Jesus is the one who would cured him and given him his sight. And that just makes the

05:07

Pharisees incensed all the more. Are you, are you going to be exalting this man now who has given you sight?

05:13

And the blind man's response to the Pharisees is basically this. This is the

05:18

Gabe summary of this story. But his response to them is, look, all

05:24

I know is this. I was blind and now I can see.

05:32

And you can hate the man who did this to me, but this man went rejoicing.

05:38

And Jesus said to him that he was saved. Once was blind and now can see, as we sing in the old hymn,

05:48

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now

05:55

I'm found, was blind, but now I see. And in Christ Jesus, we who were once dead have been made alive.

06:06

We who were once slaves have been set free. We who were once blind now can see.

06:14

And we've been reading of that as we've been going through Romans chapter six, of which we get to the end and hear this wonderful gospel verse that for those of you who've been

06:25

Christians for a long time, probably learned a long time ago and have memorized and have repeated that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our

06:35

Lord. And today we read of that free gift in the passage that we are looking at today.

06:43

Now you might have noticed as we were reading through this, that Paul takes more words to say in verses 21 to 22, what he says very shortly in verse 23.

06:54

So he lays these things out and then he just summarizes it in this very quick statement. But what we read of, first of all, in verses 20 and 21, we read about our former state of slavery to sin.

07:07

And then in verse 22, reading of our present state of freedom in God. And more than this, even the eternal life that we receive once we get to the end of this journey of sanctification that we are on.

07:22

And then again, Paul summarizes the statement itself by saying it again in verse 23. The free gift of God, of eternal life that we have in Christ Jesus.

07:32

So let's look at it a verse at a time as we go through this. Beginning in verse 20 where we read of our former state of slavery to sin.

07:42

This is something that Paul has been on about as we've been here in chapter 6. In verse 20 he says, for when you were slaves of sin, we've been slaves to sin and therefore slaves to unrighteousness.

07:55

And the contrast that Paul has set forth here in chapter 6 is now that we've been set free from sin, we are to be slaves of righteousness.

08:04

But coming back to that reminder of our slavery to sin, he says, when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

08:17

And that is a really haunting thought when you stop and think about it.

08:24

For all of our arguments that we have over free will, it's like if Paul were in on that conversation, we're going back and forth, do we have free will, do we not have free will?

08:35

And Paul steps in and goes, well, when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to you didn't have any righteousness.

08:43

Is that really the free will that you want to be arguing for?

08:52

Before you became a Christian, you were enslaved to your sin. Did you have free will in a manner of speaking?

09:01

Yes. You had a will free from righteousness. You could not have been righteous if you wanted to be and you didn't want to be.

09:15

It is a doctrine of the Word of God that man is totally depraved and unable to choose

09:21

God or his righteousness unless he acts upon the heart first.

09:31

That doctrine of total depravity, of course, you know to be one of the doctrines of grace that are commonly called

09:37

Calvinism. If there's anyone who needs a brief explainer,

09:44

Calvinism is the short word that we use for those five doctrines traditionally summarized in the acrostic

09:49

TULIP, which stands for total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints.

10:01

And as we also call them, the doctrines of grace. Very simply, understanding what the

10:06

Bible teaches about the sovereignty of God in salvation. Now I made a statement to you last week in which

10:14

I said, another Christian might be in agreement with almost every biblical argument that we make until we mention the word

10:23

Calvinism. And then once you say that, suddenly the demeanor changes. Oh, you're one of those.

10:32

Amen, Brother Mike. You're a Calvinist. And it's like their flesh shuts down their brain from listening to anything that you would say the

10:43

Bible says from that point on. And it's for that reason, because of their human limitations, as Paul would say, as we looked in the previous section,

10:53

I try to use the label as seldom as possible. I would not use it at all if I can help it, in fact.

11:00

And I've said before to those who would be a little timid about my Calvinism, I'll say to them, the only

11:07

C word you will hear me call myself is a Christian. Charles Spurgeon was a well -known

11:14

Calvinist. At one point, he was probably the most recognized Calvinist on the planet. Yet I hear non -Calvinists, in fact, even anti -Calvinists, quote him all the time.

11:24

I was listening to a local preacher from right here in Casa Grande on the radio not long ago, another pastor in our community who's definitely not a

11:33

Calvinist. And yet I heard him quote Spurgeon favorably in his sermon. It was

11:38

Spurgeon who famously said, Calvinism is the gospel and nothing else. And he also said,

11:46

I am never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist. But despite his enthusiasm for Calvinism, he also said this, quote, there is no living soul who holds more firmly to the doctrines of grace than I do.

12:00

And if any man asks me whether I am ashamed to be called a Calvinist, I answer that I wish to be called nothing but a

12:08

Christian. But if you ask me if I hold the doctrinal views which were held by John Calvin that we commonly call the doctrines of grace,

12:18

I reply that I do in the main hold them and rejoice to uphold them.

12:27

He went on to offer this clarification. That doctrine which is called Calvinism did not spring from John Calvin.

12:35

We believe that it sprang from the great founder of all truth. We use the term then not because we impute any extraordinary importance to Calvin's having taught these doctrines.

12:49

We would be just as willing to call them by any other name if we could find one which would be better understood and which on the whole would be as consistent with fact, unquote.

13:03

And I wish we could find another name for it. And I've tried to in fact avoid it for years.

13:10

My critics were calling me a Calvinist before I was ever even calling myself one. I would rather not attach a man's name to that glorious truth which springs from the

13:20

Bible. But the critics of Calvinism will absolutely never let it go. So for better or for worse, we're stuck with the label.

13:29

When you ask someone who dislikes Calvinism what they don't like about it, the doctrine that they're most likely to run to first is limited atonement.

13:42

Just the title of that doctrine alone will make their blood pressure rise. They absolutely refuse to believe that God limited the atonement of the cross of Christ to only those whom

13:52

God had predestined for salvation before the foundation of the world. Now I have said that I don't care for the name of the doctrine myself.

14:00

Just like the label Calvinism, it tends to be more of a hindrance to what you're communicating than a help.

14:06

R .C. Sproul also didn't care for it. He chose to call it particular atonement or particular redemption rather than limited atonement.

14:14

John Piper said of the label that it's actually the critics of limited atonement who limit the atonement.

14:20

They limit the atonement to a possibility of salvation rather than understanding that when

14:27

Jesus died on the cross, he actually saved people. But it has been my experience that limited atonement is not the doctrine of grace that people tend to hate the most.

14:39

It might be the one that they go to first when it comes to criticizing Calvinism, but the doctrine they really hate is the doctrine of total depravity.

14:51

I would say nine conversations out of ten that I've ever had with someone who's critical of Calvinism. That's where we end up in our debate, in our conversation.

15:00

I just recently had a conversation with a pastor named Evan who preaches at a Christian church, meaning that he is of a church that came out of the

15:08

Stone Campbell movement of the 1800s. See, somehow they managed to avoid getting called Stone Campbellists and they got to be called the

15:16

Christian church. But we got stuck with Calvinists. Anyway, I digress. So going on.

15:24

He said the idea that unbelievers commit sin by doing good things is one of the more toxic teachings of Calvinism.

15:35

And I simply pointed to him what the Bible says, Romans 14, 23, whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

15:44

And Isaiah 64, 6, we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

15:56

Evan replied, in context, Romans 14, 23 is about violating your conscience.

16:02

It isn't a blanket condemnation of all actions outside the faith. Paul even affirms that Gentiles who did not have the law followed the law whereby not sinning.

16:13

And he was referring to a statement that we read back in Romans 2, 14 to 15, which says, for when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

16:26

They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Now I pointed out to Evan that though that's

16:33

Paul's argument here, it was not that the

16:39

Gentiles who keep the law were not sinners. He just got done showing in chapter 1 that they're all under condemnation.

16:50

The point here is simply to say that the law is written on every man's heart so that even unbelievers know there is a right and there is a wrong.

16:59

It doesn't mean they do right. It just means they know that there is a right and a wrong.

17:05

Paul was by no means making the argument that unbelievers do good. For he says in the next chapter that no one does good, not even one, chapter 3, verse 12.

17:15

And in Romans 8, 7 through 8, which we'll get to later, he says, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

17:27

Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please

17:33

God. And that tends to be my experience arguing with people who hate

17:40

Calvinism. They seldom go to the text. If they refer to it at all, it's often loose and generalized.

17:48

They won't actually deal with what the text says. So much as they try to say that we're the ones who are extra biblical, they hardly ever get to the

17:56

Bible. Now maybe they'll quote John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. Or they'll say, whosoever believes, and they get mad when

18:03

I go, amen, brother. But to Evan's credit, he did actually quote the text in his next argument.

18:13

He referenced Romans 5, 12, which says, where there is no law, there is no transgression.

18:19

Again, he's trying to say they were still doing right even though they didn't have the law.

18:25

And I said, look at the next verse. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.

18:37

Sin was indeed in the world, meaning that people sinned without the law. But sin was not counted in the sense that the charge for breaking the law as given to Moses was not imposed upon people who didn't have it.

18:49

No one outside of Israel was being put to death for gathering on the Sabbath. That doesn't mean that they were out there doing good and not sinning against God.

19:00

Evan said that just because the Bible says that none are righteous and none can please

19:06

God, that does not mean that even good deeds are sinful. But I never said good deeds are sinful.

19:12

I said that it's not possible for a sinful person to be good. There's a significant difference there.

19:19

Yes, an unbeliever can do good things for other people. They can do deeds that we might call good.

19:26

You probably have unbelieving friends in your life of whom you would say, he's a good man or she's a lovely person, but that doesn't make them good.

19:37

The standard is not what we call good. The standard is what

19:44

God calls good. Even Jesus himself said, no one is good but God alone.

19:53

Mark 10, 18. They can do all the deeds in the world that we might call good deeds, but it does not make them good.

20:02

A person who does good without God is self -righteous.

20:09

And that is, by its nature, sin. The heartbreaking thing about Evan is that he is a preacher of the

20:21

Word and he refused to see what the Bible says about how sinful and depraved mankind really is.

20:30

He considered it a toxic teaching was the phrase that he used. He's got to take that up with God.

20:42

His excuse for his ignorance was, well, that's just Calvinism. Now may we not be so proud either in our doctrines to think that we know better.

20:55

For the only way we even know the truth is because it is the Spirit of God that revealed it to us.

21:01

I mean, this is Paul's confrontation with the Corinthians at the very beginning of that first letter of 1

21:08

Corinthians chapters 1 and 2. You who are boasting in yourselves and who you follow and what you believe, it was never you who came into this realization.

21:20

Chapter 1 verse 30, it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and peace.

21:30

And then in chapter 2 verse 14, the natural man cannot understand the things of God for they are spiritually discerned.

21:39

And it is by the Holy Spirit of God that has been given to us that we may understand these spiritual things.

21:45

And then Paul at the beginning of chapter 3 says, but I couldn't talk to you about these things because you're so immature.

21:52

You're still thinking of your flesh and not thinking with the mind of God. Same confrontation that God made with Peter, that Jesus made with Peter.

22:00

Get behind me Satan, for you are not thinking with the mind of God, but with the mind of a man.

22:07

And so may it be humble of us to come before God and say,

22:14

God, show me your truth according to your word. Paul had previously said here in chapter 6,

22:22

I'm speaking to you in such ways in these human terms because of your natural limitations.

22:27

So we have doctrines, we have names for certain doctrines because of our natural limitations.

22:34

Calvinism is called Calvinism because how else would we understand and summarize those doctrines in a neat and concise fashion that we may study them and know what the

22:46

Bible says about them, except for categorizing them in a certain way and giving a label to those doctrines.

22:51

We do this with all kinds of doctrines. And the reason why is because of our natural limitations. What does

23:00

Paul say here? And helping us to see it, despite our human limitations.

23:09

He says when you were slaves to sin, you were free in regard to righteousness, meaning that before you became a

23:16

Christian, you were not at all under the influence of righteousness. In our human limitations, we simply do not understand just how wicked a sinner we really were and just how great and holy a

23:36

God He is. And have you noticed that as you're growing in your sanctification, that gap is getting wider and wider?

23:46

You are going further and further in this direction of, I'm so bad.

23:56

But as you're going in that direction, you're looking the other way and seeing God is just greater and bigger and holier than you ever thought before.

24:05

And the more you're growing as a Christian, it feels like that gap is getting wider and wider. I am so wicked.

24:12

He is so good. But the awesome thing is, as that gap gets wider and wider, the cross gets bigger and bigger to bridge that gap.

24:21

And you're looking at the cross of Christ going, how great God is, how loving and merciful, how gracious through Jesus Christ that he gave his son to die for me so that I can get from here to here by his grace.

24:41

We were once entirely devoted to sin and even our best and brightest deeds were unto our own glory and not

24:49

God's. You know, the richest Americans are actually very charitable people.

24:57

No matter what you think about the elite or the superstars, they give a lot of money to charity.

25:04

Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, even entertainers like Taylor Swift, LeBron James, Steven Spielberg.

25:12

You take any one of these wealthy persons and that one person has given more money to charity, even to feed the hungry and help the poor, than all of us in this room will ever give combined.

25:24

Even one person. The wealthy will be praised by the world for their charitable deeds.

25:33

But you know what that looks like to God? Nothing. And if my saying that offends you, do you know why?

25:45

It's because you want your righteous deeds to be inherently worth more than they really are.

25:52

When the Bible says, they're filthy rags. We are weak in our flesh to recognize just how righteous

26:02

God is and how unrighteous we are. As we heard back in Romans 3, together we have become worthless.

26:11

I love how that word together is in there. You didn't just do that on your own. We all became worthless together.

26:21

But it is God who makes us worthy. We have been made worthy only by faith in Jesus Christ who takes off our filthy rags and clothes us in his righteousness.

26:36

My friends, it is the only way to be good before God. We understand the exclusivity by which

26:46

Jesus claimed in John 14 .6. I am the way.

26:53

I'm not one of the ways. I am the truth. I'm not one of the truths.

27:00

You have your own truth, but I'm this truth. I am the life.

27:06

No one gets to the Father but by me. And as Spurgeon has said, there are millions of ways to hell, but only one way to God.

27:22

I once put that on a billboard outside my church. The church that I was pastor of in Kansas had one of those,

27:29

I mean, super tacky church billboards that you're used to seeing whenever. But I would put,

27:35

I would, yes, amen. I would be as gospel oriented as I could in as few characters as I had.

27:42

But I would put things on that billboard that I hope would make people think as they were passing by.

27:48

And one time I summarized that statement from Spurgeon and put it on the board. There are millions of ways to hell, but one way to God.

27:54

I got a call from somebody complaining about that sign from a pastor's wife.

28:03

And she said, do you realize how many people you are turning off with your sign? And I said, well,

28:11

I know one for sure. And she tried to say she had some unbelieving friends that were just so disappointed in that sign.

28:23

And I said to her, did you tell them, turn from your sin to Christ or you're going to hell?

28:32

You know what her response was? Oh, you're a Calvinist. Yeah. This is, this is gospel basics 101.

28:44

Forget whatever ism you want to attach to it. It's what the Bible says. And even if you want to run to your

28:52

Arminian free will for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes would not perish, but have eternal life.

28:59

That's exactly what you should have shared with your friend. But instead you're rebuking the person who said it, how resistant we are to the truth because of the weakness and the limitations of our flesh, how humble it is to come before God and say,

29:21

God, get, get me out of the way. Less of me and more of you or to repeat with John, I must decrease so that he must increase.

29:38

I've said to you before, when it comes to the Holy Spirit that has been given to us, we have more

29:43

Holy Spirit than we will ever get. God's presence is dwelling within us.

29:49

As we'll read in Romans chapter eight, the same power that raised Christ from the dead is the power that dwells in us.

29:56

You're talking the power that raised a man from the grave to alive again is the power that dwells in us.

30:03

You don't get more of that. We have all of the spirit that we will ever get, but that walk of sanctification is less and less of me so that it will look like more and more of him.

30:18

And this is that sanctification that is being done in us even by the Holy Spirit of God that leads to its end as we have in verse 22, eternal life.

30:30

We were a slave of sin and as a slave of sin, we were free of righteousness.

30:37

Look at verse 21. But what fruit were you getting at that time? What fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?

30:46

For the end of those things is death. Now I've been talking about how even the good things we do are as filthy rags before a holy

30:52

God. But let's be realistic. You weren't accruing some great list of good things before you became a

30:58

Christian. You were a sinner and your devotion was to sin. You did things that now as a

31:04

Christian you're ashamed of. But that shame has been covered by the righteousness of Christ.

31:12

Oftentimes when it comes to this word fruit, Scripture uses fruit as a good thing. The most notable example is the fruit of the

31:20

Spirit in Galatians chapter 5 is contrasted with the works of the flesh. And there in Galatians 5,

31:26

Paul doesn't say the good fruit of the Spirit and the rotten fruit of the flesh. He just simply says, the fruit of the

31:31

Spirit is this. The works of the flesh are this. But ever so often, fruit can be in reference to something bad as well.

31:39

Jesus said that you will know false teachers by their fruit. But He also specifies there the difference between good fruit and bad fruit.

31:49

And you'll also notice that in that passage there in Matthew chapter 7, He talks about how on the day of judgment, people will try to justify themselves by their good deeds.

32:03

Matthew 7, 21, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my

32:09

Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

32:27

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

32:38

It is important that we know Christ. It is even more important that He knows us and has placed

32:45

His affection on us. And we know that God has predestined us from before the foundation of the world when you believe in Jesus Christ.

32:56

I have had that question asked of me so many times, especially when we get into conversations about Calvinism or predestination or anything like this, somebody will say to me, how do

33:05

I know that I am elect? The answer? Believe in the

33:11

Lord Jesus Christ. And that's how you know you're elect. It is not for us to know the things that God has decreed from before the foundation of the world to its end.

33:23

As said in Ecclesiastes, He has put eternity in the hearts of men, but they cannot fathom what

33:29

He has done from beginning to the end. We don't get to know the decree.

33:35

We simply know that He has promised, He has said, and if we believe,

33:41

He will do. And praise be to God for the mercy and grace that He shows us in Christ.

33:51

I've spent all this time on verses 21 and 22, or verses 20 and 21 rather.

33:57

Verse 22 says, but now that you have been set free from sin, now we have the contrast.

34:03

You've been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. The fruit that you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

34:14

We were slaves to sin, free from righteousness. And as I said earlier, that's haunting. That's a terrifying thought.

34:23

And where we're at now, looking back on that, it's like I was unaware of just how near death and destruction

34:29

I really was. I was a slave to sin, I was free from righteousness.

34:36

I had nothing that I could have stood before God and declared of myself on that day of judgment.

34:43

But now that you've been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit that you get, and we have a contrast between two different kinds of fruit, right?

34:56

What kind of fruit were you getting when you were a slave of sin? Not good fruit. What kind of fruit are you getting now that you've become slaves of God?

35:08

It's fruit that leads to sanctification, being made holy, being made righteous, and its end, eternal life.

35:21

We have eternal life at the other end of this process of sanctification that we are on.

35:29

So even while we are being sanctified, good stuff being built up in us, bad stuff being broken away, and as we are being sanctified, no matter how painful or a struggle this walk of sanctification might be, our eyes are always fixed on the end goal.

35:47

It's kind of like when you're running the race, man, my muscles are burning, but I see the goal and I know what's on the other end of that finish line.

35:56

And so it is for us that are running the race. We're keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith.

36:04

I don't know if you've seen this meme or this GIF that's online. There's this guy that's trying to walk up an escalator, and he's trying to go backwards up the escalator so that he can't make any progress.

36:18

He stumbles and falls down, and as he's even trying to get up because the escalator is going the other direction, he's just tumbling and rolling.

36:25

And a friend of mine, a pastor friend of mine up in New Hampshire posted that picture, and he goes, this is sanctification right here.

36:33

We're walking backwards up this escalator. We stumble and fall. It just feels like we tumble and tumble.

36:40

It hurts. It's a struggle. Nobody ever said sanctification was easy.

36:48

But again, we keep our eyes focused on the goal, what we will become, what God has promised us in Christ Jesus.

36:55

Its end is eternal life. We've spent this much time talking about what

37:01

Paul lays out in verses 20 to 22. He summarizes all of this in a shorter statement in verse 23.

37:08

So look with me at 23 as we summarize everything that we've considered here so far this morning. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

37:19

Lord. Again, famous gospel verse, probably memorized it a long time ago.

37:25

But the emphasis we put on that is often death versus eternal life. Like we'll even say it that way.

37:33

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

37:41

Lord. But there's another contrast that happens before death and eternal life. For the wages, but the gift.

37:55

Wages is what you earn. Wages is what you deserve.

38:02

Wages is what you get from your work. And remember, Paul has just said here, you had no good works to save you.

38:13

So what did you get from the work that you did? Death.

38:19

That's what you had earned. As R .C. Sproul was expositing this verse, he talked about how much wages would have really registered with Paul's audience.

38:33

Because the rich and the elite did not have wages. They owned property.

38:39

So they didn't make a salary. Like even when we talk about the rich in our world today, you're looking at the capitalist system in which we live.

38:46

So that even those who are rich, they worked hard to get those riches. But in the

38:51

Roman system at this particular time, in that culture and in that day, people had land. They had property.

38:56

They possessed stuff. So the one who owned and the one who had did not get a wage.

39:04

The one who earned the wages were the people who worked for him. And so that even this lower class of people that are right there in that church that are listening to this gospel message being preached, they hear wages.

39:18

They're like, that's what I need every day to live. That's what I need in order to get by.

39:24

And you're telling me the wages that I get don't lead me to live. They lead to my death.

39:34

What have I earned for what I've done? The judgment of God. But the free gift you didn't earn, you don't deserve, you cannot merit.

39:52

And God, by His grace, just gives it to you. The free gift of God is eternal life.

40:11

You deserve judgment. You deserve separation from God. You deserve to perish and burn for all eternity.

40:22

But you have received this free gift of God. Eternal life in Christ our

40:28

Lord, who died for us, taking our sin upon Himself. That double imputation doctrine that we talked about.

40:37

Our sins imputed to Christ. His righteousness imputed to us.

40:43

So when God looks at us, He does not see the object of His wrath. He sees the object of His love and His mercy.

40:52

By His grace. That is the free gift of God.

41:01

Eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So now let's make some quick applications as we wrap this up.

41:11

There are three things that I want you to remember. And you're going to recognize this is a familiar song.

41:19

Whenever we talk about these things, whenever we come to the end of the sermon, I'm going to tell you, remember that sin has consequences.

41:28

Remember the grace of God that you don't deserve but has been given to you. And remember to walk in righteousness that we've been clothed in and we have been given.

41:41

Remember that sin has consequences. Don't forget that even though we're Christians, sin puts us at odds with God.

41:48

Just like when you have sinned against someone you love, it puts a strain on your relationship, doesn't it?

41:56

So it is between us and God. Now God is not going to let us go. He's not going to love us less.

42:02

He disciplines us as sons and daughters, as it says in Hebrews 12. But discipline's never much fun when you get it, is it?

42:09

Did you love the relationship you had with your parents when they were disciplining you? Wasn't it much better to be obedient instead of being grounded?

42:19

Right, Zeej? Yeah, okay. One of my kids is in here. I was like, oh, there's Annie over there.

42:25

All right. Aside from that are the natural consequences that are the result of sin.

42:33

Even if no one finds out about it, there's still consequences. Save yourself the guilt, the trouble, the drama.

42:42

Draw near to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Pursue those things that make alive and not sin, which leads to death.

42:52

John Owen said the following, quote, Sin is an evil which is in the world and in us, which we cannot be rid of until we are taken out of the world.

43:02

Therefore, it is our duty to always be watching, always be praying that we not be led into temptation by it, unquote.

43:15

So remember that, that sin has consequences. But secondly, remember God's grace. Yes, we need to remember that sin is bad, so we don't do it.

43:24

But it's also in remembering what we deserve for our sin that we remember just how good

43:29

God is. We've been given an extraordinary gift, a free gift of God that we did not earn and we don't deserve.

43:42

And yet he gives it to us anyway. Remember that grace of God every single day.

43:49

And John saying in 1 John 2, 1, My little children, I tell you these things so that you don't sin.

43:55

But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

44:00

He is there speaking favorably on our behalf before God. And so also remember that instruction in 1

44:10

John 1, 9. That if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

44:22

Remember God's grace. And then thirdly, so that we would remember to walk in righteousness.

44:31

And as I said to you before, what compels us to obedience is not duty.

44:39

It's not our duty to be obedient that makes us go, well, I'm going to obey today. What motivates us is

44:47

God's love. It is his love for us because of this wonderful gift of grace that we have received.

44:56

We want to walk in his righteousness. It is our joy to do such things.

45:03

And the things that God calls us to are never too heavy, too burdensome for us.

45:10

Because the weight of sin has been lifted. I am free to do righteousness all day long.

45:18

Are you familiar with the hymn, Trust and Obey? In 1886 in Brockton, Massachusetts, Dwight L.

45:26

Moody was conducting a series of evangelistic meetings. American composer Daniel B.

45:32

Towner, who had a doctorate in music, was present at these meetings when a young man stood up and shared his testimony.

45:40

How he was once a sinner, but now by faith in Jesus Christ he had been set free.

45:48

And he was asked, free to do what? And the unnamed young man said,

45:57

I'm not quite sure. But I'm going to trust and I'm going to obey.

46:05

And inspired by that answer, Daniel Towner shared the experience with a Presbyterian minister named

46:11

John Sammis. And together they wrote this famous hymn. Which we're going to sing together.

46:18

Not yet. But hear the lyrics. When we walk with the

46:25

Lord in the light of His word, what a glory

46:30

He sheds on our way. Let us do His good will.

46:37

He abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey.

46:43

Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share, but our toil

46:49

He doth richly repay. Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross, but is blessed if we trust and obey.

46:59

But we never can prove the delights of His love until all on the altar we lay.

47:08

For the favor He shows and the joy He bestows are for them who trust and obey.

47:16

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet or we'll walk by His side in the way.

47:24

What He says, we will do. Where He sends, we'll go to.

47:32

Never fear. Only trust and obey. Trust and obey.

47:41

For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

47:53

I once was dead, but now I'm alive. I once could not walk, but now

48:04

I run. I once was a slave, but now

48:11

I'm free. I once was blind, but now

48:18

I see. I once was a sinner deserving of death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

48:33

Lord. You've been listening to the preaching of Pastor Gabriel Hughes, a presentation of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

52:08

For more information about our church, visit our website at ProvidenceCasagrande .com.

52:14

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, thanking you for listening. Join us again