In his sermon, The Wages of Sin, The Gift of God, Steve Hopkins emphasizes that eternal death is the wage earned through sin, while eternal life is a gift given by God through faith in Jesus Christ. Hopkins explains that this gift is not earned or deserved, but given freely by grace out of God's love and mercy. He expresses gratitude for the sacrifices of Jesus, who bore humanity's punishment and conquered death, thus granting believers eternal life and saving them from eternal death.

Welcome back to Barnett Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the Book of Romans.

Well good afternoon. Turn with me in your Bibles to the Book of Romans please. Stand with me for the reading of the word of the Lord, Romans chapter 6 and verse 23 only, for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let's pray. Father we bless your holy name. Oh God we ask you God this morning that you would help us Lord to continue to feast on Christ the bread of heaven. Should feed us Lord through Christ and through his word. He is our meat and drink indeed and our faith looks up to him. Oh God our faith looks up to Christ who by your grace God has purged away our sins. We thank you Lord. We praise you Father that you have given eyes to see and ears to hear to your people whom you've raised from spiritual death to spiritual life. We're asking Lord for grace this morning Lord that you would speak to us God by your word and teach us by your spirit and make us more like Jesus for we ask it in his name. Amen.

So let's be seated. As we pick up with verse 23 this morning the apostle writes and I want to just go straight to it this afternoon. For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the first thing I want us to understand about this passage as we unpack what Paul is saying here is that when Paul says for the wages of sin is death he's not talking about the physical death of the body. He's talking about eternal death. He's speaking here about eternal death.

Look at the passage if the life that he's speaking about here is eternal and it is then the death that he's speaking about is also eternal. The wages of sin is eternal death. The gift of God is eternal life. You remember from previous teachings that there are three types of death. There is the death of the body. It is appointed unto every man who wants to die and after that the judgment. Psalm 12 tells us that the dust will return to the earth and the spirit to God who made it. There is a time coming when we're going to actually physically die and then there is a spiritual death. We've looked at that many times.

The spiritual death that took place at the fall when our first parents rebelled against God and sinned against God and their nature became corrupted. They died spiritually. There was a spiritual death that took place there. They were alienated from God. They lost their fellowship with God. They no longer wanted to be around God. They no longer wanted to hear God. They fled from God and in Eden that was a spiritual death. They lost their communion with God and any desire for God whatsoever and any understanding of spiritual things. They died spiritually.

And then there is the third kind of death which is called the second death in scripture to read about in Revelation 20 and verse 6 which is the lake of fire. It is eternal destruction. It is the second death and it is eternal death and it is forever death. It is death eternal, a death that lasts forever. And that's what the apostle is speaking about in the text here today. The wages of sin is eternal death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John chapter 17 defines eternal life for us. In this passage the apostle John says and this is eternal life. Don't you just love it when the scripture just says okay here is what I am talking about. Like when the scripture defines sin. What is sin? Well sin is the transgression of the law. Sin is the transgression of the law. The wages of sin is death. Well what is and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We know what sin is. We know what kind of death we are talking about. What does it mean to have eternal life? What is eternal life?

John chapter 17 and verse 3 defines eternal life for us. This is eternal life. That they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. That they might know thee the only true God. To possess eternal life is to know the only true God. To be in relationship to God through faith in God's son Jesus Christ who is God the Son. And 1 John 5 11 tells us that it is God who gives eternal life and that this life is in his son. John 14 6 you remember Jesus said in John 14 6 he said I am the way the truth and the life. He is talking about life eternal. He is life eternal. In him is life eternal. In John chapter 11 verse 25 Jesus says I am the resurrection and the life. He is eternal life and eternal life is only in him.

Eternal death is eternal destruction as I just said. It's the eternal destruction of the body and soul under the wrath of God forever in hell. Revelation 21 8 as I said a moment ago refers to it as the second death. This is the place where unbelievers will as it says have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. It is an eternal death that takes place. It never ends. There's no exit sign on the doorpost of hell. There's no escape. It is final. It is eternal death. It lasts forever.

I've said this many times in my street preaching. When a person is cast into that place of eternal torment they will suffer under the wrath of God for their sin in this place of eternal death forever and ever and ever but once they have suffered for a billion years it will only be the first five minutes in hell. That's how bad it is. That's how final that it is. The character named Christian in Pilgrim's Progress fled from the city of destruction crying life, life, eternal life. How many remember that? Life, life, eternal life. He's got his fingers in his ears at least in the children's video. He's got his fingers stopping. He doesn't want to hear what anybody else has to say. I don't want to hear what anyone else has to say. Life, life, eternal life. He's headed for the celestial city by way of the cross. Even his wife and children, everybody's laughing at him. Everyone in the city thinks he's lost his mind even his own wife and children but in reality it's they who lost their minds and everything else. They lost everything for the wages of sin is death eternal.

The issues, think about it, the issues of temporal life and death are pretty serious. If you go and talk to people they're going to tell you that the issues of temporal life and death are very, very important. They're very serious issues that have to be considered but they're nothing. The issues of temporal life and death are nothing compared to the issue of eternal death and eternal life. When this world in which we live in comes to an end, every person in this meeting house today along with every person who's ever lived or will live will enter an eternity of death or life. They will enter into eternal death or eternal life and actually eternal life of course begins now for those who believe on Christ. There are only two eternal destinations, death and life. Death eternal, life eternal.

Many will tell you that they believe in a life that goes on forever. A lot of people will tell you that. They'll agree, yeah I believe in a life that goes on forever but they won't admit or acknowledge that there is a death that goes on forever, eternal death. But the scripture teaches that there is. God assures us that there is. But the unbeliever lives in a world of self-deception. He's both in self-deception and he's being deceived. He's deceived in and of himself and he's being deceived. He believes the word of Satan but not the word of God. You know the devil's been telling the same lie from the beginning. The Bible says in John 8, 44, the devil was a liar from the beginning and he keeps telling the same lie over and over again. The same one that he advanced at the beginning. You shall not surely die. You shall not surely die.

And of course we've gone over that before many times. Adam and Eve did die. Adam died at the age of 930 but he died the day he ate of the fruit just like God said he would. If you eat of the fruit of this tree you will die and the day you eat thereof you will die. How did he die? He died spiritually on that day. That's that spiritual death, that separation from God, lost his communion with God. But the devil continues to tell the same lie, you shall not surely die. There's no second death. You don't have to worry about that. There's no eternal death. He's still saying the same lie.

But God warns men in his word that as surely as eternal life is a reality so is eternal death. So is eternal death. And the apostle tells us in our text this afternoon that the one comes as a result of wages earned. So look at your text. It is a result of wages earned. It is wages earned. And the other is the result of a gift that's given. It's grace. Eternal life is a grace from God that is given. Wages and gifts are not alike. How many know that wages and gifts are not alike? Even the little children here can understand. Wages and gifts are not alike, right? Wages are earned, gifts are,Remember what the apostle Paul had just told us. He says, look, I'm talking to you in terms that you can understand, slavery and bondage and all this because I want you to understand, well, the willing slaves of sin, people who are in bondage to sin, living in bondage to sin, who die in their sins will one day get their paycheck. Gifts are given, wages are earned. Gifts are not payment, but wages are. And wages are deserved. If I give you a gift, I'm not paying you for something you've earned and thus deserve, but if I pay you your wages, I am. Again, wages are compensation. Wages are compensation, wages are deserved.

Gifts are not compensation for work. They're neither earned nor deserved. The gift of God is eternal life. It's not earned, it's not deserved. It doesn't come that way. A gift is not given because it is rightfully yours, but wages are. Person is paid what he has earned for his work. If you work for me, I pay you and what I pay you is what you rightfully have coming to you. Always brings to mind when I think of that, the Charlie Brown Christmas, I only want what I've got coming to me, the little girl says. I only want what I have coming to me. All I want is what I deserve. Ooh, I don't. Do you? No. No. The wages of sin is death and we're all centers. We've all violated God's law. The payment is just. The wages of sin is death and the payment is just and the payment is eternal.

But the gift of God is eternal life, which no man could ever marry and no man has ever deserved, but which is given freely by grace to all who believe in Jesus. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. How is it the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord? It's the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord because Jesus, his righteousness, all those who believe on him, his righteousness is imputed to them the moment that they believe and the moment they believe they're clothed in his perfect righteousness. The wrath of God has been satisfied by God's son and they're not going to suffer the wrath of God in hell, which is the second death for all eternity. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A note in my Bible commentary reads, sin pays its slaves the wages they have earned, namely death. Remember, this is the context. This isn't the context where Paul is talking about debts. This isn't the debt passage. He's not talking about debts here. He's talking about wages that are earned. The wages that we earned, that we earned, that we deserved, Jesus suffered for in our place and we'll get to that more in just a moment. Sin pays its slaves the wages that they've earned, namely death. On the other hand, God graciously bestows on those who trust in Christ a gift they could never earn, eternal life. Sin pays its slaves the wages they have earned, namely death, whereas God graciously bestows on those who trust in Christ a gift they could never earn, eternal life. John MacArthur comments on this passage, eternal death is the paycheck. Eternal death is the paycheck for every person's slavery to sin. And eternal life is the free gift that God gives undeserving sinners who believe in his son. Amen?

The grace of life eternal is a gift given to those who deserve death. We who earn death aren't given it. We're given the grace of life through Jesus Christ, through his person and through his work and his work, his righteousness is imputed to all those who believe. Think on it. We earned wrath, but he bore the wrath we deserved. We earned it and then he bears it. We earned it, we deserve it, but he bore the wrath that we deserved. We merited death, but he dies in our place. We merited death, but he died in our place. Remember the hymn, well might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in when Christ the mighty maker died for man, the creature of sin.

Wow. He who never sinned stood in the place of sinners and took our sins on himself and bore the full measure of the righteous wrath and indignation of God. We deserve to bear for all eternity in hell. On the streets I say that many times, Jesus was treated on the cross as we deserve to be treated. And we are treated as though we had never sinned, just like he has never sinned on account of his righteousness imputed to us. He who never sinned stood in the place of sinners and took our sins on himself and bore the full measure of the righteous wrath and indignation of God. We deserve to bear for all eternity in hell.

Oh, dearest Jesus, the hymn we sing, what law has thou broken? None. He never sinned. That such a sharp sentence on these should be spoken. Why? Of what great crime has thou to make confession? None. What dark transgression? Zero. None. Whence come these sorrows on our account because of our sin? Whence this mortal anguish? It is my sins for which thou, Lord, must languish. Yea, all the wrath, the woe thou dost inherit. This I do merit, that is the benefit of. The hymn writer saying I merited eternal wrath but instead I inherited eternal life. What I merited Jesus inherited on the cross and what he merited I was given as a gift. Understand that? How gracious and merciful is our God. We obtained death by sin, our sin. He obtained life for us by his death. Man's work failed, Christ's availed, the old hymn says. By his death he conquered death and obtained life for us.

Earlier we sung it in the hymn. I wrote this down just as we were singing the words. It said, death of death and hell's destruction. Jesus Christ is the death of death. John Owen has a book called The Death of Death and the Death of Christ. Great book to read. The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Jesus is the death of death. In death he swallowed up death in victory. He is hell's destruction for everyone who believes on his name. He is the destruction of the second death. Hell. He is life everlasting. By his death, by the death of Christ, he conquered death and obtained life for us.

On that bloody cross 2,000 years ago at the place of the skull, Golgotha, also called Calvary, death eternal was swallowed up in victory. Think about it. For all those whose trust is in Jesus Christ. For every person who will ever and has ever put their trust in Jesus. One of the hymns I was looking at last night said, prostrate lying, suffering dying, on the cross a sacrifice, victory gaining, life obtaining. He obtained life for us, eternal life for us. The wages we deserved as slaves of sin was death eternal. But by the death of God's son, he obtained life everlasting for us in the presence of God.

No wonder we read in Revelation, the 24 elders fall down. They fall down prostrate before him and they cast their crowns at his feet. And no wonder we also will praise him in like fashion for all eternity who believe on his name. Praise God. Our Lord Jesus is not still in the grave. Amen. We know that what he did is accepted of God. And we know because he is risen from the dead. Praise God. Our Lord Jesus is risen from the dead. No longer has dominion over him. And it only had dominion over him for a short period of time because our sin was imputed to him. Death no longer has dominion over him. Neither does death have dominion over those who are in him. Because he was raised, we who are in union with him by faith shall also be raised.

He who came to save us, he who bled and died, now is crowned with glory at his father's side. Never more to suffer, never more to die. Jesus, King of glory, has gone up on high. And brothers and sisters, he's coming again. He was crucified for our sins. He died for our sins. He suffered and bled and died for our sins. And he rose again on the third day. And he ascended to heaven and he's at the right hand of the glory of God on high, of the power of God on high. And he's coming again in the heavens one day with great power and glory to judge the heavens and the earth. And everyone will be in one place or another after that happens, either in a state of eternal death or eternal life.

We need to be thanking God that Christ is coming again. He is coming again one day to take us unto himself. And when he does, we will behold the face of our Lord forever in his unveiled glory. And we'll be praising him and we'll be thanking him for all eternity. We'll be praising him and thanking him that though the wages of sin is death, that his gift, the gift of God to his people is eternal life through Jesus Christ, his son.

I'll close with just this word, have you put your trust in Christ and Christ alone for your salvation? Have you trusted in Jesus and Jesus alone for your salvation? Trust him now and live forever. Amen.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you that whosoever believes in your son, as we,On the name of him who lived for us and died for us and rose again for us the third day and has ascended to your right hand and is interceding for us even now, every moment of every day.

Thank you God for saving your people from death eternal and giving us life eternal through Jesus Christ your son, for we ask it in his holy name. Amen.