Romans 6:23 | The Bitterness of Sin, The Sweetness of Christ

Good morning, hope everyone's doing well this morning.

It's good to see everybody here.

Please open your Bibles to the book of Romans.

We'll be reading Romans 6, verse 23 this morning.

Romans 6, 23.

Now before we read this text this morning, I want us to really think about what it's saying.

I'm sure all of us could recite this text from memory, a lot of us in Sunday school when we were

younger probably had to memorize this verse at some point, and we've probably seen it on

posters and T -shirts and all those things, and it's even part of what's called the Roman's

Road of Evangelism.

But let's look at this text this morning not in light of the things we think we know.

Let's not act like we're experts or these amazing theologians that already

know what this text is saying.

I don't want us to hear this text and our minds just kind of go numb and our eyes

glaze over because we know it.

Let's hear what God's word has to say.

It's important for us to understand that this isn't just an evangelistic tool.

Romans 6, 23 is often used as an evangelistic tool, but don't forget,

Paul is writing to the believers that room, and God is saying this to you as well, Christian.

So Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul penned these words to Christians, and

God says this to you, and he has preserved them for you as well.

So as we read this text, I really want us to think of the words that are being said, and there

are two very important terms I want us to look at this morning that are being used, and those are the words

sin and death.

So what is sin?

What are some of the definitions that are used for sin?

Some of the definitions that are often used would be an offense or to miss.

Sin is to miss the way, path, or goal.

Our Baptist catechism says sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of

the law of God.

So let's keep that in our minds.

Now the other term I want us to look soberly at is the word death.

So death is not theoretical.

It's not conceptual.

It's literal.

It's literal.

Death is something that God decrees in light of the sinfulness of man.

Now let's read our text, Romans 6, 23.

See the words for what they are, and forget that we're all the perfect theologians.

We think we are, and that know the text very well.

So let's read Romans 6, 23.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life

in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you so much for this opportunity to be able to teach your word this morning.

I thank you for the freedom that we have to gather this morning to sit under your word and to fellowship with one another,

and to give your son glory.

I pray that you loosen my tongue, Father, relieve any nerves that I might have, and give us the ears to hear what your spirit

has to say to the church, in your name, amen.

So what does sin taste like?

Have you ever thought about that?

What does sin taste like?

How do you answer that question?

What does sin taste like?

Is it bitter?

Or is it sweet?

Or is it just bland and tasteless?

What has been your response to the taste of sin?

Now how you answer that question will reveal something very important about yourself.

Because if we're honest, we've had various different responses to sin, right?

There are times when sin touches our lips and we wince at its taste, and we

find that it is quite bitter.

There are times when we get the taste of sin and it goes unnoticed.

It's bland to our taste buds.

It doesn't cause us to recoil in disgust.

We, at times, don't even realize that we've engaged in sin.

And there are other times that we partake in sin and we just side with our flesh as we find it tastes

sweet to us in that moment.

So let's not think for a second what we are talking about.

I'm not simply calling you to the concept or doctrine of sin, but the reality of

it.

Sin is a gross and disgusting evil, the root of all pain and destruction

in this life.

It is the opposition of God in all his ways.

Sin is when we embrace evil and deny what is good, where

we choose wickedness over righteousness.

That which is sinful is the greatest foe that you will face in this life.

Sin will only steal from you, destroy you, and kill you.

And in fact, none of you in this room can deny that you have tasted the fruit of sin.

You have all tasted this reckless evil, this senseless embrace of

wickedness.

So again, I'll ask, friends, what does sin taste like?

Is it bitter, is it sweet, or is it bland?

Maybe the truth is that for many of you, you aren't sure how to respond to the

question because your answer has been quite inconsistent.

You may in this moment know how to answer this question, but what I'm asking you this morning

is not scholastic in nature.

My question is personal in nature.

How does your daily life answer that question?

How would your daily life display your response to sin?

Do you recoil when sin touches your lips?

Do you wince when it brushes up against you?

Do you find that you're often apathetic towards the nature of your sin?

Do you find that at times days go by without a single thought about your actions?

Does your daily life reveal that at times sin is not bitter to you,

but at times it's sweet?

Do you find at times you side with the flesh and can be found going to sin with the hopes

of satisfaction?

Church, my fear is that we are a people who hear much about our sin,

about our sin that we contend to forget about its terrible nature.

My fear is that we are used to hearing about our sin and forget how awful it is against

God, that we will forget that sin kills, that sin is

offensive to God, and that sin is something that God truly hates.

So just because you might hear about your sin week after week, it doesn't make your sin less

sinful.

Your sin, whether it's pointed at in a sermon or just by reading God's word, does not

change the nature of what it is.

Whether or not it remains hidden from the eyes of men or even hidden to yourself, it does not

change the nature of what sin is.

If it's a new sin or one that you are familiar with, it does not decrease in its

sinfulness.

And just because it has become common and familiar to you does not mean that it has become common

to God.

Far too often are we ones that sit in these sermons and hear the law speak in a whisper when it should be like a

thundercloud to our souls.

So has sin become too common to us?

In reality, there is only one true answer to the question I ask you this morning.

There's only one true answer.

What does sin taste like?

Sin should taste like death.

Sin should only taste like death.

It is indeed bitter, but it is bitter because all that sin can assure you of

is death.

It is bitter because from sin comes death.

And sin should always taste like death because the fruit it produces only promises

death.

The scriptures are incredibly clear in this.

Genesis 2, 17 says, "'But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil "'you shall not eat, for in the day

that you eat of it, "'you shall surely die.'".

Ezekiel 18, 4, "'The soul who sins shall die.'".

James 1 tells us that sin brings forth death.

Romans 6, 16 says that obeying sin leads to death.

And as well, Romans 6, 21 also tells us that the fruit of sin always ends in

death.

Sin is death, brothers and sisters.

Sin is death.

Listen, Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat the fruit for good reason.

God's warning against sin was to protect them from death.

And it's the same reason God has issued these warnings throughout scripture.

His commands are not punitive in nature, but rather they are with the intent of doing

good to us.

Our fallen nature causes us to be senseless and foolish.

And in our text this morning, the apostle Paul is showing us what sin produces.

Sin not only produces death, but it guarantees it.

For the wages of sin is death.

Now we need to answer an important question.

What is the death that sin leads to?

What does Paul mean when he says the wages of sin is death?

We know first and foremost from the Genesis account that the death that

comes is definitely physical in nature.

It is certainly clear that in the day that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, their physical bodies were destined to

decay and die.

Yet at the heart of sin's consequence being death, it is death in the eternal

sense.

Death is not to cease to exist.

Death is to forever exist outside of the pleasure of God.

Death is to forever exist, to forever experience the displeasure of God.

Death is to forever feel the outpouring of God's judgment against us.

So when Paul says that the wages of sin is death, he's saying that

to partake in sin is to invite your own destruction.

The subjects of this death will not only be bereaved of all that is good, they will also be

overwhelmed with all that is terrible.

Just as the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, how great the punishment must

be to be deprived of his love and his enjoyments.

Those that see this death will be entirely stripped of every bit of protection and blessing

of God and instead visited with every proof of wrath and indignation.

We've heard this text many times, and I fear that we have lightly considered the weight

of these words.

To sin is to participate in the most dangerous deed known to man.

Do we believe that?

There are many activities in this life that you can take part of that will surely put you in death

and some that might even guarantee it.

But there's only one act, one action that can guarantee an

eternal death in the biblical sense, and that is to sin.

There is indeed a semblance of death that we experience in this life on account of sin, but the

physical and temporal aspects of death only set the trajectory for

eternity.

Physical life ends, but an eternity continues on.

The death that comes is the beginning of God's judgment.

It is the torment that ensues where the worm does not die and the fire is never quenched, according to Mark

9, 48.

This is the flavor of sin.

It should taste bitterly of death and hell.

Its aroma should give off a stench that is offensive and repulsive.

Friends, this is the true taste of sin.

It is death.

And listen closely, church.

Sin should taste like death to you.

Sin should taste like death because those are the wages that it demands.

Do you realize that every sin you commit makes a demand?

Do you realize that every sin you commit makes a demand?

Every single sin speaks loudly into the ears of God.

No sin is but a whisper.

No sin is understated in the eyes of God.

Every sin you commit speaks.

It makes demands, and this is why Paul uses the language of wages.

This phrase from Paul is like in the soldier receiving his pay.

It signifies the idea of rations.

It means the payment which soldiers receive for their deeds.

Yet instead of food, money, clothing, or land, the wage of sin is death.

Your sin demands that your debt be paid to you.

Your sin is a voice that speaks loudly before the throne of God.

And it cries out, pay me my wages.

Pay me my wages.

Sin demands wages.

Your sin demands that it be paid its wages.

Our deeds of sin cry out for God to pay us what we are owed.

Church, many times we have put sin to our lips and have been ignorant or callous to

the fact that to partake in sin is no different than extending our hand out

to God and demanding that he place his cup of wrath in your hand, poured in full measure

for you to drink down for eternity.

Do you see the insanity?

Do you see the insanity of sin?

Do you see the bitter fruit that sin bears?

How it should taste so bitter on our lips.

But what grieves me so terribly is how we can be so unmoved and calloused to this

reality, how terrible it is that our sin is such a common thing.

We all alike could sit here in a room and agree that every day we sin more

than we can account for.

Has it become too common?

We lack a true sensitivity to sin.

What we call sensitive is still callous in the eyes of God.

It's not our senses that have failed.

I mean, we're sensitive to all sorts of things, right?

If a meal is bland, we know it right away.

We won't tolerate eating it.

You can hardly tolerate eating it.

You'll send the plate back or just complain.

If a bed is uncomfortable, you'll toss and turn all night without rest.

We are incredibly sensitive to our own deeds.

Yet what is most shocking is at times we can put our lips to that which is sin and

feel very little.

We can behold that which is the fruit of sin and be somewhat unaffected.

How is it possible that we can be unmoved by the essence of death,

seemingly unfazed by the presence of this hellish behavior, this hellish evil?

At times it's like we're fish in water, not realizing we're wet.

How can we be so unmoved by something that is so awful in its nature and its effects?

Sin is so bitter in its nature.

And as we said, to sin is to depart from God.

All good things in this life come from God.

You enjoy countless good things in this life that would never have come to you unless God opened his hand

and gave it to you.

But to sin is to depart from that goodness.

It is to look into the face of true joy and scoff at it.

It is to behold the giver of true pleasure and turn to the deeds of the flesh that only

delivers loss, death, and destruction.

Look at our world.

All the division, confusion, war, disease, and bloodshed, this is the fruit of

sin.

This is what produces sin, or sin produces.

Look at many of your own families.

All of the anger, envy, jealousy, enmity, and lack of love, this is the fruit of

sin.

Look all around to the people that you know.

All the bodily suffering, illnesses, addictions, infirmities, this is the fruit

of sin.

Consider yourself, believer, the doubt you experience, the unbelief,

the pain, the fear, the anxiety, the depression, this is the fruit of sin.

Indeed, whatever is dark and dreary, distressing and painful, disturbing and terrible,

all of it can be traced back to sin.

Every sigh from burdened souls, every groan of pain, every cry of sorrow, every

bit of violence and hatred are all fruits of sin.

Every war, every genocide, every murder, every crime,

the fruit of sin.

The agonies experienced on earth and the horrors endured in hell, all of it taste of death,

and all of it is the fruit of sin.

So how bitter the taste of sin should be.

We could all share story after story of heart -wrenching accounts on the bitterness of sin

and how we have seen it in this life.

And friends, how is it we know sin to be a bitter fruit and yet we are so

foolish to believe that time after time, maybe this time, it will be sweet.

What sort of fools are we to seek life by putting our lips to death?

This is where the folly of sin culminates.

We bear a wretched old foe that has no sense for what is good or right.

We still bear an evil member that wages war against our souls and against our good

God.

Our flesh speaks lies to us and invites death.

It is a voice that calls out to you saying, taste and see that sin is good.

And oh, my friends, you hear that call and though you might fight

against it, don't you find that you still give in to its temptations?

When sin is giving you a taste of your own self -glory, do you recoil and wince at its taste

as you ought?

How long do you entertain that flavor until you realize it tastes of

death?

When sin has given you a taste of vain pleasure, did you spit it out at once or

did you partake further?

The voice of your flesh may be crying, taste and see that sin is good,

but it is truly saying, come and see, come and taste sin and die.

It is death, my friends, and what should grieve us all is how often we smell the aroma of

sin and it does not cause us to recoil and be repulsed.

We all at one time have looked at Adam and Eve and felt as though they should have seen it coming.

They should have seen the temptation of the devil coming.

They should have known better than to listen to that serpent.

They should have smelled the aroma of death slithering up upon them, but we're

no different.

We too have entertained the aroma of sin and considered how maybe this time,

maybe this time it will produce the satisfaction we crave.

How often do we so often fall foolishly into the same traps over and over?

Do you not see the danger at your doorstep?

Do you not see the danger that sin brings to your doorstep?

You would never open your door to a murderer.

You would never leave your wallet lying around for a thief.

You would never leave your child next to a bloodthirsty lion.

We have enough sense to keep ourselves from doing such things, yet with sin, we open up ourselves

to its dangers time and time again, like dogs returning to their vomit, ignoring the

hazardous things that cause us to vomit in the first place.

We return to it again.

Christian, for you, Christ is the sweetest joy you know of,

yet why do you still go to sin as though it can give you the joy that Christ can offer?

Does sin ever increase your faith?

Does sin ever increase your joy?

Why does sin ever give you what Christ has promised?

Sin is surely deadly to any man and every man.

Have you found much profit in it?

What has been the fruit of sin for you?

Has it given what you thought it promised?

Have you tasted it, expecting life, and found that yet again, it is in fact death?

Has sin ever brought you any real benefit or real relief?

You know that it has not.

Rather, it has stolen from you, robbed you, broken you.

So why do you go further into sin?

Have you not learned enough already of the deadly nature of its evil?

And why do you keep going into places that can only make good of the promises of death?

What is the most shocking thing to me is that at times, we seem to look after

so many things in our lives, but leave little attentions to our souls.

We live in a culture where everything we do is driven by self -preservation, ensuring that

we feel no discomfort, protecting our earthly interests, guarding our

livelihoods, our entertainment, our pleasure, while seemingly

leaving our souls unguarded.

We have sense to feed our stomachs three times a day.

Why not our souls?

Leaving ourselves with no weapons to fight, our minds filled with nonsense, and our hearts

shriveled up.

My fear is that we look at all of what sin is, and we don't see

its deadly nature.

The temptation of sin, it should be the rattle of a rattlesnake that

warns us to beware of its danger.

The threat of sin should be the thunder rolls that caution before the lightning.

The inkling of sin should sound alarms in our minds and warning bells in our minds to the bitter taste

of sin.

Yet with all that should be apparent and obvious regarding sin, we still partake.

We have put our lips to sin without counting the cost, and seemingly

ignoring the wage that sin demands.

We have at times put our lips to sin and actually liked the taste of death.

That's how sick our flesh is.

Our flesh likes the taste of death.

Far too often we have handed over our control over the flesh, and foolishly we have in turn

demanded that we be paid its wages.

We have demanded that God judge our deeds and pay us what we are owed.

What a checkered history we have, we have with sin.

One of our greatest flaws has been our inability to see sin as it truly, is our

inability to see sin to be as truly sinful as it is.

We don't see it to be as bitter as it is, and instead invited such horrible results.

The wages of sin is death.

We are the guilty party, we're no victims.

We're the ones who harbor the assassins of our souls.

We are the ones who drank the poison of sin that guarantees death.

We have demanded a wage be paid to us beyond calculation.

This is why scripture says that death has a sting.

The sting of death is not simply found in the body dying, the sting of death is in the soul dying with

unforgiven sin.

The sting of death is found in the wages that will be paid to sinners.

So, church, who among us could stand under the weight

of wages that our sin demands?

Who could even bear to look upon the nature of these deadly wages?

Who could bear to face the judge of the living and the dead, knowing that you fully deserve

is hell indescribable?

Who could bear to taste the death that we deserve?

Who, you ask?

The same God that we have all transgressed.

The same God who we have all sinned against can bear to taste death.

He is the one who is willing to take death on and misery for us.

Do you not see him in the garden of Gethsemane?

Do you not see him as he is faced with the reality of the wages that you have demanded?

He prays, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Yet not my will, yours be done.

Now an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him, and being in agony, he was praying fervently, and his

sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground.

The reality of our demanded wages was so dreadful that it had the Son of

God grieved to the point of death.

The grief that Christ experienced was not terror because of unknown terrors to face, but

rather the opposite.

So very well did Christ know what the wages of sin were.

He is the same God that declared the one that sins must die, and he knew

exactly what death would entail.

Numerous times did he warn the people of his day of the terrors that were to come.

Three times in one discourse, Jesus repeated an awful declaration of the nature

of sin's wage.

He said, the wage of sin promises you will reside in a place where the worm does not die and the fire

will never be quenched, a place of intense wrath and vengeance from God.

Numerous times did he warn people of the wrath to come.

He knew all too well what death meant.

He is the one who warned, do not fear the ones who kill the body, but are unable to kill

the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.

He knew it so well, and that is why he recoiled at the sight of it.

That is why he said, if you are willing, if it is possible that this cup pass from

me.

He looked into that cup of wrath and he knew what it would do to him.

He knew that it would be death in the truest and fullest sense.

In all the gospels was there, never was there a time we see the son of God in this way.

He faced things that would shake us to our core, things that would cause us to cry out in

terror.

He is the one who did not fear the disease of the leper, the one who

slept while a raging sea tossed the ship to and fro, the one who faced a

whole legion of demons, the one who stood before the devil himself and rebuked him three times,

the one who was grieved to the point of death as he prayed for the cup to pass from

him.

Never before has Christ prayed in such a way.

Never before did he display such grief in any other instance.

This one was grieved to the point of death as he stared the reality of death in its

face.

And the face that all who die will see is God as their judge.

If you've ever wondered what death tasted like, the Garden of Gethsemane shows us

the beginnings of what death tasted like.

Bitter beyond belief.

Christ recoiled at the sight of it.

Christ spoke to his disciples and said to them, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.

Remain here and keep watch.

And he went a little beyond them and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible the hour might

pass from him.

And he was saying, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.

Remove this cup from me.

Yet not what I will, but you will.

Again, he would go before the Father saying the same words.

So if you ever wondered what death tasted like, travel to the Garden of Gethsemane, to

Golgotha, the place of the skull.

See him as he suffers under the wrath of men, brutalized, mocked, and tortured.

For while the physical sufferings were great, the cup that Christ prayed to be

removed from him was that which the Father would give to him.

It is here that the bitterness of sin and death is displayed for all mankind to see.

The one whom the Father said, this is my son, in whom I am well pleased, was now the one who

hung on a cursed tree as he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Church, like all of us alike, has made a demand for wages in the courtroom

of God.

The voice of our sin has spoken loudly before the throne of God saying, pay me my

wages.

Pay me my wages.

For all who partake in sin are given the cup of God's wrath to drink for all

eternity.

But with joyful news I have to remind you of this morning.

You have a God and a Savior in heaven who has seen every demand you have made,

every sin that cried out for the wages you deserve.

You have a Savior who saw you every time you put death to your lips and he would not let you drink

that poison.

And feel it sting.

You may have felt the pain and loss that can be experienced in this life, but divine love

stood before the Father and was willing to take the cup of wrath out of the hands of sinners

like us.

Oh friends, what sweet grace comes to find people like us.

We have time after time taken part in sin and earned for ourselves the cup of God's

wrath for us to drink, yet there is grace available for sinners

in Christ.

You have a Savior that sees you hold that cup of wrath fully and completely yours to drink.

And he calls out to you to give him your wages.

So hear the words of the gospel this morning.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life

in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do you see what is pitted here?

Wages, gift.

Wages we have earned, a gift he gives.

You have worked and earned your wages.

But praise God that Christ has worked too.

Not on his behalf, but for you.

You worked, we worked and earned our wages.

Our great Savior worked to earn for us, to earn for you and give you

his perfect righteousness.

You worked and earned the wages of sin and eternal death, and he was unwilling that you should suffer

the wages of your sin.

He would not let you suffer the sting of death, which is to perish with unforgiven sin.

This is why the writer of Hebrews proclaims the truth that you can rejoice in this morning, that by

the grace of God, Christ tasted death for you.

Christ tasted death for you.

In your place and for your sake, he took upon himself your sin that

you may become righteousness of God.

And yes, my friends, there is a victory cry for us who sat in darkness.

There is a beam of light that shines into our darkened prisons with the hope of the gospel.

There is a song that rings out for all sinners to hear and find hope in.

When Christ Jesus breathed his last, when he offered up his soul to death and cried out,

it is finished.

The melody of 1 Corinthians 15 began its first note.

Though Christ laid in the ground for three days, we know that he defeated our greatest foe.

Death has lost its stranglehold on us.

Death has lost its grip.

When Christ rose from the dead, he proved by the grace of God, he had tasted

death for us all.

And from this wondrous work of God in Christ, the song of 1 Corinthians 15, verse

54 and 55, ran out saying, death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?

Brothers and sisters, Paul could pen such words to the Corinthians church

and all the church of God because Christ bore the full sting of death for all who would come

to him and believe.

Death no longer has a sting because Christ was stung with the wages of our sins.

So friends, I call you this morning to repent and I call you to repent of how you have sinned

against your God.

Repent of the ways in which you partake in sin.

Repent of the ways in which you have viewed sin lightly.

Turn to God and believe that he has made a way for you to receive the gift of eternal life.

And it is through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Rejoice that he has cared for your very soul by paying your wage and giving you a gift

in return.

Romans 6 .23 does not say, for the wages of sin is death, but the wages of your

righteous works is eternal life.

Romans 6 .23 does not say, the wages of sin is death, but the wages of your victories over sin

is eternal life.

So there are only two components here, a wage and a gift.

And you'll only ever earn one thing, and that is death.

And righteousness will only come by one way, a gift.

Rejoice that life is available through different means than that which we have earned.

When a sinner is lost, he has earned it.

Yet when a sinner is saved, it is because it is a gift given to him by God.

We often think too lightly of sin, and in turn, we think too lightly of our Savior.

But it is the one who has stood before their God, convicted and condemned, with

their hands and feet shackled, that weeps for joy when they are pardoned of it.

It was Thomas Watson who once said, until sin is better, Christ will not be sweet.

The more we behold the gospel, the more we see just how bitter sin is and how

sweet Christ is.

The more that we receive the gift, or the grace that is given to us, the more that we will see that

truth.

It is not a work that we come and do.

It is not a work that we come and do, but a work that we come and behold.

The more we behold the gospel, the more we will see just how bitter sin is and how

sweet the sound of saving grace is.

So church, look to the garden of Gethsemane and follow your Savior until he cries out, it is

finished.

There you will see the bitterness of sin and the sweetness of Christ.

That though the wages of your sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus

Christ, our Lord.

Let's pray.

Father, we are so grateful for your son, for the work that he has done.

Father, we were just objects of justice, deserving of wrath.

But you, your son, has taken that cup of wrath that was ours to fully drink

and took it and drank it himself.

We are so thankful for this mercy, for this undeserving grace, Father.

We rejoice this morning for your son.

We love you.

Draw us closer to you, Father, in your name.

Amen.