In this Christmas Eve sermon, Pastor Babij examines the Apostle Paul’s teaching on salvation in Romans 6:23. Pastor Babij explains how a person may take only one of two courses in this world. These courses feature 1.) Two different masters: Sin or God, 2.) Two different conditions in which to live: wage earning or gift receiving, and 3.) Two different destinations: eternal death or eternal life.
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okay I appreciate that very much acquire did a great job let’s give my hand again I appreciate the work they did to sing those songs with such skill now this this this evening I like to share a message with you the verses that I’m going to use are on the back of your bulletin I’d like you to just look at them as and follow with me as I just share with you about salvation is a gift and if you notice on that your bulletin the highlighted verse is Romans chapter 6 verse 23 for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord now you know today people are really not looking for truth they’re looking for cute in fact I was reading I like reading greeting cards and I was reading some Christmas cards and one of them I picked up Christmas card I picked up it was was pretty revealing it was a little girl it was about a little girl in the little girl it gives the reason why she loves Jesus and this is what it said on the card it said on Jesus birthday I get gifts on geez and the day Jesus died I get the gift of chocolates and so that’s what she concluded and now she’s not too far often in a very well she did get the sense that I get gifts from God and even though she kind of misinterpreted her conclusions were wrong but nonetheless salvation is a gift everyone who has heard this particular passage of Scripture is immediately confronted with the gospel of Jesus Christ the argument leading up to this verse started really in Romans chapter 6 and verse number 20 listed on in the bulletin it says and when you were slaves of sin you were freed in regard to righteousness have you ever did you ever think of yourself as being a slave to send you thought you were free but really you’re not free in fact if you go back one verse the Apostle Paul begins to give reasons for paying attention to the exhortation to gives in Romans chapter 6 and verse number 19 it says I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh for just as you present it your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness resulting in further lawlessness so now present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification and of course then it leads into verse 23 for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord so verse 23 sums up the by emphasizing the end to which two types of life lead accordingly those who are listening understand that we are confronted with two courses a person may take in this world a soul will either yield to sin serve it and earn its wages or a soul will yield to God receive his gift and live those are the only two courses that a person could possibly take in this world this is sure from the passage that no soul can escape from sin sin has been inherited it has been passed down to us from Adam but if assault a soul knows if a soul who knows the gospel cannot escape from sin it is equally true that a soul cannot escape from the gift which is placed at their disposal in the gospel in other words God has placed at the disposal of really every soul the gift of eternal life a person may ultimately escape from sin or grace but not from both a person can escape from sin by yielding to grace meaning God’s free gift or that person can put himself outside the operation of grace by yielding continuing to yield to sin see there there are no other options either a person lives in one realm or they live in the other realm so say sin is the poison and its antidote is God’s grace there is no other antidote only the grace of God can neutralize the poison of sin and its effects so if grace does not neutralize the poison of sin and its effects it will remain potent and deadly now Webster’s dictionary defines antidote as a remedy to counteract a poison or anything that works against an evil or an unwanted condition in this case the evil is sin and the only thing that can work against is its potency is grace and grace is God giving you something you do not deserve neither can you earn it that is the freeness of the gift that God gives so there are only two possibilities facing every individual who comes into this world and there are only two either your house is built on the sand or on a rock either you pass through the wide gate or the narrow gate either you take the broad road or the narrow road either you are in darkness or you are in light either you have taken your own way or have followed God’s Way either you are depending on your own righteousness or God’s righteousness in each case you cannot have both there are no shades in the spiritual realm there is only black and white but today it’s kind of a warning in Scripture whatever Road you are on in the end will inevitably bring you to any an entirely different destination and please don’t believe that all roads lead to heaven don’t believe that all religions lead to the right conclusion they do not there is only one so to understand further what I mean let me examine at least two sets of three terms each right here in our passage the first set is of the word wages sin and then death and then the second set is the word gift God and eternal life also if you take notice that these three terms stand over against each other wage stands over against gift since tans over against God and death stands over against eternal life there are like two opposites so every human being is confronted with two entirely different masters they could serve in this world two entirely different conditions they can live in in this world and then two entirely different destinations they may end up at when they leave this world so in a sense this is why Jesus came into the world so we can get an understanding of what is the gospel and what am I to do with it and where do I stand before God those are all very important questions but the first one I’d like to look at is there’s two entirely entirely different masters that you could serve you can either serve sin or you can serve God and if you look at at verse our verse verse in Romans 6 23 it says for the wages of sin is death and then of course the free gift of God is eternal life so the word sin many people think of sin only as committing very evil crimes or making a mistake or to sin is far more than just making a few mistakes or being slightly less than perfect sin is actually open rebellion against God’s laws and god’s authority as the divine king of the universe and as the God who created every one of us were responsible to him so sin is really anything we do that displeases God or is a transgression of his law sin is a master to be obeyed now if we think of that and we think of now the word God the question is who is the master we serve again I would like to stress that there are only two possibilities either sin or else it is God every person in the world at this moment is either a slave to their own sin or they are a slave to God now remembers sin is a taskmaster God is a good master so either one that you’re under you will be a slave of that particular thing or person so every person in the world at this moment is either slave of sin or a slave of God so you my friend are this day either serving sin or God so the ultimate question here is whom are you serving who is your master today I’m not asking how good you are or how moral you are or how much you give to good and noble causes I am NOT I am acting nor am I asking how good and nice people say you are no the real significant questions are who is your master to whom are you a slave for whom are you living your life that is the question a person may be nice and they may be good in the eyes of men and they may be noble and yet still be in slavery to sin and Satan in fact right there in under our main verse there in Romans chapter 6 and verse 16 it says do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone has slaves for obedience you are slaves of the one whom you obey and then notice what it says either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness so so two of those things have two different end results based on who the purse thing is serving so remember whatever the person is or does if that person does not do all the glory of God that person would be a slave to sin so sin here is a willful choosing of what is wrong a willful choosing of what is not God’s Way so this is the first thing to ask yourself today whom are you submitting yourself as a slave are you submitting yourself to sin or are you submitting yourself to God so you’re going to have either one master being sinned or your master being God himself that leads me to the next thing there’s two entirely different conditions to live in based on that and of course again we see in our passage in verse 23 it says for the wages of sin is death and the free gift of God is eternal life so we look at the word now wages what our wages well wages are payments they’re compensations that or earnings a person when they work has a right to his wages wages are the equivalent of work if a person works an eight-hour shift at a hamburger joint for a wage of eight thousand fifty cents an hour then at the end of their shift their wages would be around sixty five dollars and twenty cents that’s gross before everybody else puts their hand in your pocket takes it all away alright so his wages are said to be the equivalent of the work performed so he or she has earned them they don’t that person doesn’t need to thank anybody for giving them their wages they’ve earned it they worked for those things and they they made money because they worked to provide the wages so if wages are payments for work sin is the work that earns the payment so if a person has as their master sin then they earn wages for living in this condition however they have no choice in determining the wages it has already been set but what besides the wages for a person who’s master is sin well according to the Word of God it is the law it’s the law of God that determines the wage the law is the record it’s the recorded Word of God to Moses on Mount Sinai we of course refer to it as the Ten Commandments but the Ten Commandments remember they were never meant to be kept in the sense no one really can keep the Ten Commandments uh actually the Ten Commandments were designed by God to reveal sin in fact it says right in Romans 5 20 on your in your bulletin the law came in so that the transgender transgression or the sin would increase but where sin increased grace abounded all the more so in other words that law actually trying to keep the law actually exposes your heart to show you you can’t keep it and it magnifies our sin it shows us we cannot meet God standard another thing about the law is the law curses those who try to become right by it in fact in Romans 4 15 it says for the law brings about wrath but where there is no law there is no violation so see the Bible tells us the sting of death is sin but the power of sin is the law see the law then decides that the wages be paid to the person who has been a slave of sin and what are the wages according to our text it says the wages of sin is death see that is the wage that’s the payment that comes from someone living in the condition of sin and the Bible even says in James to 10 for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point has been become guilty of all of it so if a person commits just one sin in their lifetime in God’s eyes because the law is they they are guilty as if they have broken every one of God’s laws and if we went through the whole Ten Commandments and we looked at them we would have to realize that we have broken them and therefore because we’ve broken them there were responsible for its judgment its judgment is upon us and so that is important so if we choose sin as our master the law then determines the wages the earnings the compensation and of course Roman 623 the wages of sin is death now thinking of that the next word is very important if I left you there that would be a terrible message but in Scripture the Bible uses the word it’s contrasted against the word gift see gift in fact it says here the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life see gift here is an expression of divine grace emphasised by the word free gift it’s that the emphasis here is on the freedom of the gift so what then is a free gift well a free gift is something you cannot it cannot be earned that which no man can claim as his right that which cannot be bought you can’t offer got anything for this it’s free and that which cannot be worked for you cannot work forward it or it wouldn’t it would be a wage and not a gift so see grace is that which God is that very thing that God does for mankind through His Son Jesus Christ of course a gift which mankind cannot earn does not discern a desert does not deserve it and could never merit it it is solely the result of God’s goodness and God’s grace that grace is unmerited favor it’s kindness shown to someone who does not deserve any kindness at all and someone who was a sinner really doesn’t deserve any kindness because they’d broken God’s law they said to God no I’m not going to do it your way i’m gonna do it my way and so they have become they have been disobedient we all been disobedient in that way so see it is a free gift of God to people who are utterly undeserving of it now you watch olympic games on TV and have observed a marathon race the best runner the best runners in the world compete in the race they condition hard for years just for an opportunity to represent their country in the Olympics and yet only one runner would come away with the gold medal the runner cannot have earned the gold medal without years of hard work and training but you know in a very real way in our society we are all so conditioned we’re conditioned to believe that we cannot get something for nothing right we’re conditioned that way so we think of spiritual things in the same way and we apply the same logic see if I’m going to live with God in heaven forever I will have to be the best person I can be in this life so when I stand before God I can hand him my gold medal of achievement and certainly he will let me into heaven so you were conditioned to think that way but the Bible has something to say about attempting to reach heaven this way it says this in actually the Old Testament wisdom book of proverbs chapter 14 verse 12 it says there’s a way that seems right to a man but its end as the way of death and so man tries to achieve heaven through religion through good works through morality through philosophy through self-righteousness see working your way to heaven seems right but God says it leads to death the book of Romans in chapter 5 it says so that in verse number 21 on in the bulletin so that as sin reigned in death even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord so the conditions in which a person has been living determines the end to which each lead in other words their destination if you have been living with sin as your master you will end up in one place and if you have been living having received God’s free gift you will end up in another place both places are eternal and the reason why there are eternals because we’re created in the image of God and because we’re created in the image of God we can our soul cannot die our body goes to the grave but our soul cannot die so it has to occupy an eternal place once we leave this world so there’s only two places the Bible tells us can occupy it the soul can occupy either one place where the other so again this leads me to the last point and it’s this there are two entirely different destinations a person can arrive at they can either arrive at eternal death or they can arrive at eternal life for again the passage the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life see eternal death is something we have to really consider because it’s not doesn’t just mean physical death it means when you move out of this world and you die and your body goes to the grave your soul goes somewhere because it cannot die and so there is an eternal death that can happen to the soul so you send pays its wages in full and the wages paid to a person who has been a slave of sin is death see this passage is not merely referring to physical death we will all face but it actually is referring to eternal separation and torment of all sinners the torment that all sinners will face upon death in hell so see hell is really the proper punishment for people’s sins if they live in that sin and then they die in that sin the only thing God could do is judge them for their sins because they have no other judge take their place so this refers to the second death in Scripture this is the final and irreversible separation from God and from the face of God and from the life of God it means eternally outside of God’s life with all the consequences the consequent misery and suffering that go with it so in other words bringing it all together Jesus Christ frequently spoke of hell Matt affecting spoke of hell more than he spoke of heaven in Scripture and warned people of the danger of going there in fact scripture clearly tells us of the reality of hell and what it is like it’s the Lord Himself who said in Matthew 13 the angel shall come forth in verse 49 and take out the wicked from among the righteous and will cast them into the furnace of fire and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth so you see part of the Christmas message is the message of also where to what to avoid see hell is a furnace Bible says of an unquenchable fire it’s a place of everlasting punishment where its victims are tormented in both their bodies and minds in accord with their sins and their sinful nature’s hell is a place where God’s wrath is revealed as a terrifying consuming fire and men live with an unfulfilled lust and unfulfilled desires and torment forever and ever it’s difficult to even imagine what eternal punishment will be like two men and women are often sick and with painful diseases on this on the earth where the duration of such conditions can seem like an eternity but they will end someday but in hell the Word of God tells us that men will be burned with fire continually in punishment for their sins with no rest day or night for ever and ever this is the lot of all people that is what cinders urn for sinning but see the point of scripture is you don’t have to go there the tragedy of all of this is not only the reality of Hell as a punishment for our sins but the fact that we are helpless to do anything about it see the Word of God says in Ephesians 2 1 we were we are dead in trespasses and sins we are not sick we’re not even on the brink of death we are dead in our sins the Bible says for the Apostle Paul to say that we are dead in our sins is to say that we are totally unable to pull ourselves out of them to this rebellion to God’s laws and authority is inescapable for all men that is why it is also impossible for anyone to work their way toward reconciliation with God see the Word of God again tells us in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 894 by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves here and here it is again it is a gift of God not a result of works and then it says so so no one should boast if we’re going to boast let’s boast in the Lord not on what we’ve done because we haven’t done anything except rebelled against God so how can you being a slave to sin set yourself free how can you being dead give yourself life you can’t but I know someone who can help you I know someone who can help you and his name is Jesus Christ and that’s what it says in our text it says for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord so eternal life is put up against eternal death eternal life is God’s gift it’s free it cannot be earned and the term eternal means unending this is what eternal life means sharing and enjoying the life of God for all eternity without the slightest suspicion of an a mixture of sin and evil see this is what the real message of Christmas is all about that we have eternal life the moment we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior so it’s all about Jesus in Christ Jesus our Lord the life of man means the existence of man as he ought to exist in union with God and consequently in holiness and purity and health and happiness see man as God intended him to be his man enjoying life enjoying God enjoying no one where they’re going to go when they pass from this life man as sin makes him is man abiding in death abiding in a hopelessness abiding in I don’t know what’s going to happen to me I don’t have the answers to the 64 trillion dollar question I don’t know what’s going to take place the Bible clears that up you can know that if you died before you died from this world where you can you’re going to go you can know that not based on anything you could ever have done but based on what Jesus Christ has already done and believing in his final work see Jesus purpose and coming into the world is summed up nicely in the scripture for the Son of man has come to seek and save that which is lost how did he accomplish his mission in the person of Jesus Christ God literally became a man and lived a perfect life of righteousness in obedience to his own laws and on behalf of his children he died in their place the Word of God says of Jesus that he committed no sin nor was any deceit found in his mouth so having perfectly obeyed the law and fulfilled all the righteousness and justice of god price then willingly died for sinners and then paid the price for their sin that they should have paid see so when you believe in Jesus Christ alone and take his free gift then you receive eternal life so as we have seen sin against God’s law brings death as the punishment both physical death and spiritual death when Jesus died he endured the wrath and the anger and the punishment of God for sins he died as the sacrifice for sins satisfying the requirements of divine justice and took upon himself the punishment due for sins in fact first Peter chapter 3 verse 18 says where God also died for sins once for all the just for the unjust in order that he might bring us to God so is there any hope for those who have their master as sin yes Christ not Christ and the church not Christ and good works not Christ and sincerity not Christ and giving up your sins not Christ and trying real hard not Christ in Baptism not Christ in chasing not Christ and morality not Christ and a good family or some other thing we can add to the list it’s Christ period it’s Jesus Christ alone that saves us anything else would be works would be trying to earn wages and the wages of sin is death that’s where it leads but the free gift of God is eternal life that’s where that leads so if you blew myself a sinner with nothing in your hand do receive Jesus Christ alone and believe he died and rose for you the Bible says eternal life is not the purchase of human merit but is the free gift of the love of God so do you see this gift of eternal life that God offers is too precious to be bought it’s too full of God to be made by man so will you come today if you have never received Jesus Christ will you come and receive is this divine life as a gift in Christ Jesus see that’s what you need to ask do you have eternal life have you received Jesus Christ as your own Lord and Savior because many people are trying to work their way to heaven and you just can’t do it because God’s offered you something free what you need to do though is take it and believe in Christ alone for eternal life believe in him in fact if you notice the last two verses on your bulletin notice what it says there it says but thanks be to God verse 16 and 17 of Roman six that through though you were slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness you see there a person can become free from sin and become a slave to what righteousness but that’s the righteousness of God God being a good master and then in verse 22 the last verse but now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification being a set apart to god that’s the word scientific asian and the outcome eternal life isn’t that what your outcome you want your outcome to be eternal life to know for sure that if you die today you would go to be with the Lord for all eternity so I see you gotta stop trying to offer a price and earn life instead you need to come and receive life as a free gift from God as he intended see this is the real message of the season it’s Jesus coming into the world to do something to take care of something we could have never taken care of so where do you stand tonight that’s my question do you know where you’re really going are you sure about that and have your come to the place where you turn from sin bin your master to say Lord I want you to be my master I want I want to ask you for the free you have to eternal life I want the free gift of eternal life and I want to go on to live for you with all my heart mind soul and all my strength see when you do that then you get this you will get the understanding from Scripture that this passage of Scripture will be become alive to you and you can know for sure without a doubt that because of what Christ has done you can have eternal life right now let’s pray so Lord this this evening as we celebrate you coming into the world I pray Lord that if there’s someone here this evening who doesn’t know you as their Lord and Savior that they would come and confess you today with their mouth and believe in their their heart that you raised Uwe raised from the dead and Lord we know that when a sincere sinner comes to believe in you as their Lord and Savior in turn from their sin you will no wise cast out a heart that really desires the gift because that’s why you came and I thank you Lord that you came for that reason so I pray Lord those who do know you I pray though this season we can again rejoice because you provided everything for us and that Lord it would cause us to be filled with gratitude and Thanksgiving to know that God put his heart upon me he opened my eyes to understand the gospel and he even granted me faith and repentance to believe the truth and then to go on and live for him I thank you for those who have already believed in you continue to bless their lives continue to be alive in their life I pray continue to give them an excitement of being a believer in a Christian and I just pray Lord that those who have not trusted you would come and believe in you even tonight as their Lord and Savior and I pray this in your name Amen