The Gift of God // The Gift of Eternal Life // Romans 6:23 // Pastor Josh Evans

We all know this verse. You guys can quote this verse. We use this verse when we're sharing the Gospel with people. The Romans wrote some of those things that we have used in the church to tell people about the good news of salvation.

Verse number 23 of Romans 6 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let's pray together. Father, God, you are so good to us. And Lord, we're here today because of your grace, because of your goodness, because of your kindness to us. And Lord, we are so thankful for that. And as we approach, you know, Christmas and this whole season is about you, Father.

And I know it's easy to get wrapped up into gifts and lights and all the fun things that we do around this time of year. And those things are all good, but Father, they're not the main thing. God, I pray, Lord, that all of us would reflect, would reflect upon Jesus and what you sending your only begotten son to be born for us so that he could eventually die for us and take away the sins that we have in our life. God, I pray that you would just help us today speak to our hearts. Lord, give us a deeper understanding of your love for us and give us a deeper understanding of the meaning of what Jesus coming to be born means to each one of us. And if there's somebody in here that does not know today that they have eternal life, God, that they're in here today and maybe they're trusting in all of the wrong things and trusting in their good deeds and their works and in their career or in their family or in these different church attendance, whatever. Father, I pray that today be the day where they'd stop trusting in those things and start trusting in the only one that can give them eternal life that's found in Jesus.

We love you today for it's in your name we pray and all God's people said, amen and amen. The gift of eternal life. Now, when we think of eternal life and you probably don't dwell on eternal life very often, but the word eternal is something that if you think about it, it's hard for us to understand. It's hard for us to wrap our brains around things that are eternal. One of the attributes of the God that we serve is that He is eternal. And here's what that means is when we say that God is eternal, that means that the God that we serve, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, God has always been. Now, that's difficult for us to understand the fact that God did not have a beginning, right? God did not have a beginning. And that's why it's difficult for us to understand this is because for us, everything around us is temporal. Everything around us is temporary. Everything that you enjoy, all the things around us, they have beginnings, you know, all the devices that we have, they have end dates, your cars, your computers, your phones, you know, all of these different things, everything that we're surrounded with, they all have beginnings and ends.

And when you think about even life itself, we all have a beginning. Raise your hand if you have a birthday in here, okay? Not today, but just raise your hand if you have a birthday, okay? If the person next to you didn't raise their hand, I'd probably be moving seats, okay?

That'd be a little weird if they did not have one. Everybody in here has a birthday, right? Because every single person in this place has a beginning. But God is eternal. He has no beginning. And let me tell you this, He has no end.

He's not going to have an end. So here we see that Paul is writing to the church at Rome, and he's writing this, and he says that he has given us the gift of God. He says this, the gift of God is eternal life. It is eternal life. When you think of eternal life, what comes to mind?

I'm sure that for you this might come to mind forever, right? When you think of, hey, I have eternal life, you're probably thinking, you know, I'm going to live forever, and that's true, and that is good news. Or possibly when we think about eternal life, you think about heaven, right?

You think about the hope that you have in Jesus, and the fact that you have eternal life, that means that you have hope beyond this life, beyond the grave. And for many of you who have maybe even lost a loved one, that gives you comfort in knowing that you have eternal life, that one day you will be reunited with the loved ones that have gone on before. But what we learn in scripture is we have been given the gift, through Jesus, we've been given this gift of eternal life. We know this, and it's not just found in Romans chapter 6, it's found throughout scripture. John 3 16, you know, it says, whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. In 1 John chapter 5, verse number 11, God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his son. Here's what I want you to understand today, and I want to give you some things from Romans chapter 6 about eternal life, and for the few moments that we have, I want to look at eternal life.

But here's what's interesting about it. When we think of eternal life, we think of, we think of, you know, we're going to live forever, and that is true, and that is true. But here's the thing, every one of us are going to live forever, but where you live is a decision that each of us have to make. So I want you to understand, yes, we have eternal life and in salvation and the gospel, and it is good news. That's why the gospel means good news is because we do have eternal life, and we have a home in heaven, but I'll tell you this, every person on the face of the earth will live forever. Everyone will, but where that is, is up to the decision that they make with the gift that is freely offered to them. And here in Romans chapter 6, there's three things I want you to see about eternal life.

First, I want you to see this is the penalty for not accepting the gift of eternal life. Now the Apostle Paul and in the book of Romans, and if you are in our adult Bible study on Wednesday or have been for the last year and a half or so, we did a whole series verse by verse through the book of, through the book of Romans. And the book of Romans is one of the, if not the deepest or theologically rich books in all of scripture. And there is a ton to unpack in the book of Romans. In fact, here in Romans chapter 6, there's a lot even to unpack. Paul really asks two very important questions here in the book of Romans. He starts it out in verse number one of Romans chapter 6.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? In other words, he's saying if grace abounds and is grace more than our sin, can we, does it matter how we live? In other words, for Christians because we've been saved, does it matter how we live? Can we just do whatever we want just knowing that grace is always greater than our sin?

So what does it matter if I go out and I ruin or mess up the life that I have? Well, he follows that question in verse number one up with another question in verse number 15. And he says, what then shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? And here's the point, Paul is really answering here in chapter six, he's answering those questions about as Christians, can we continue in sin knowing that grace is going to abound and knowing that we are not under the law anymore? Have you ever been asked that at some point like, hey, you're a Christian, you know, you're not under the law.

So you can just go out and do whatever you want. You can sin as much as you want. And it does not matter. Well, that's the question that was happening in the church at Rome. That was the question that that the Apostle Paul is trying to wrestle with.

And then in verse number 16, all the way through verse number 23, we have the answer to the question that Paul was trying to answer for the church at Rome. And here's what he's saying. And I'm not going to read it all for you.

But here's what he's saying is he saying that? No. And in fact, that's what God forbid means.

Certainly not. Of course, you shouldn't just continue to go on sinning. And here's why is that the moment that you trust in Jesus now walk with me through this, the moment that you trust in Jesus, the moment that you stop trusting in yourself for salvation, stop trusting in yourself to be accepted by a holy, righteous God, and you start trusting in the only one that was righteous Jesus Christ.

When you do that, here's what happens. Before Jesus, Paul saying that you were a slave to sin. In other words, he's saying that before you trusted in Jesus, you're a servant of sin. In other words, whatever your master, which is sin wants you to do, that's what you do. That's what you do. And so in chapter six, he says, should we continue in sin?

Absolutely not. And here's why is because before Jesus, you were a slave to that. Your master was sin. But now when you trust in Jesus, you have a new master. You have a new master. You have a new owner.

You have a new owner. So at one time, yes, all you could do was please your master, which was sin. Now, because of Jesus, you have a new master, the father, and now we are supposed to please him with everything that we do in life. And he says, when we have a new master, we've been given the gift of eternal life. But he says here that there's a penalty for those who choose to not accept Jesus as their savior and make him the master of their life. He says, if you want to continue in sin, and you want to continue allowing your master to be sin, then here's what's going to happen in you.

He mentions three different things, actually. Verse number 19, he says, the first penalty for those who want to stay enslaved to sin, what you're going to find here, he says in verse number 19, I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh, for as ye have yielded your members, your members, servants to uncleanness. You see, the first thing, the first penalty is this, that we find that for those who choose to stay enslaved to sin and not accept the free gift that is offered to us, the first thing you're going to find about your life, the first penalty is uncleanness. And here's what he says. He says, our members will be unclean. You say, what does that mean? What does it mean, my members? Like, what are my members?

Here's what your members can be, is your members can be your ears, your lips, your eyes, your hands, your mind, your feet, your heart, all of these different things, they're all members. And what he says here is, because he's trying to answer that overbearing question here in chapter number six, shall we continue in sin? Does it matter how we live? If grace is always going to be greater than my sin, does it matter? Can I just go out and do whatever I want and not worry about it because I'm not under the law and I'm under grace, so does it matter?

And he says, of course it matters, is because now that you have a new master, you should want something different. But if you choose, if you choose not to accept the free gift that is freely offered to you in Jesus Christ, he says that what's going to happen to all your members? They can only work uncleanness. That everything about your ears, your lips, your eyes, your hands, your mind, all of the members that you have, it's just unclean.

That's the only thing that they can do is work uncleanness. But then he continues in verse number 19 and he says, your members, they're just servants to uncleanness. And then also your members are servants to iniquity unto iniquity. Iniquity unto iniquity.

The point is that when your master is sin, the only thing you can do is begin to work the works of sin because of the master of your life. If you think of, of being a servant or being a slave, right? You, what do you have to do? You do whatever the person above you says, right? Or think about this, you know, if you're an employee somewhere, right? Even though you might not like it, you need to do whatever the person above you tells you to do, right? That's being a good employee, but you are a servant of that, that person.

They are your master. And so you are going to work the works of the person over, over you. And here's the point, the penalty for not accepting the free gift that is freely offered to everybody, to the whole world.

Here's what happens is our members can only work uncleanness. Our members can only work the work of iniquity because that is who's mastering our life. But then in verse number 23, we see the third penalty for allowing your master for not accepting the gift of eternal life is this. The third penalty is death.

He says for the wages of sin, in other words, you got, you know, your master is sin before Jesus. If you choose to stay in that and not accept the free gift of eternal life that's freely offered to you, the end result of that is death, is death, is death. Now you say all of us die.

True. All of us physically die. Here on this earth, last time I checked, the death rate is 100% at this point, right? We're all going to die, right?

Every single, every single one of us are going to die. But here's the thing, death, what he's talking about here is not just physical death to your body. He says for the wages of sin, if you allow wages of sin, if you allow sin to continue to remain as your master and refuse to accept the free gift freely offered to you, the end of that is death.

And here's what that means. Eternal separation. Eternal separation from the God who came to rescue you. Eternal separation from the God who came to rescue you, right? Here's what death is described in scripture. Luke chapter 16, verse number 24 and Revelation chapter 20. Here's what that death looks like for those who are enslaved in sin and refuse to accept the free gift of eternal life.

The end result of that is death. And here's how that's described in those two passages. A lake of fire experience. That's the end result of those who refuse to accept the gift that is offered to you. Matthew chapter 8 describes it this way, that it's a place of outer darkness. Darkness. And then it's also mentioned that in the midst of darkness, in the midst of fire, there is weeping and sorrow that is happening there in this place of death for those who refuse to accept the free gift that is freely offered to every single one of us. But the worst part about all of that isn't the fire. It's not the weeping. It's not the sorrow. It's not the darkness. You want to know what the worst part about that death experience?

It's eternal separation from God. That's the point. And so what I want you to understand, you say, wow, this is not an encouraging Christmas message, what I expected, right? Well, try studying for it.

I'm like, man, this is tough. But here's what I want you to know. The gift of eternal life is freely offered to every single one of us. So like everything, what I just described, the wage, the earning of sin is death, eternal separation from God, the lake of fire, weeping, sorrow, darkness. All of that is the end result of refusing to accept the free gift offered to us. But that doesn't have to be the end.

And here's why. The gift of eternal life is found, what we find here in verse number 23, this gift that is freely offered to all of us, it's found very simply through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, he's given us a way out. Aren't you thankful that the end result of your life doesn't end with, for the wages of sin is death? Aren't you thankful that there's more to the story? Aren't you thankful that in the midst of your sin, in the midst of you being in bondage, and we learned that from our cantata. Remember, if you were here last weekend during our Christmas production that we had, you know, the acting, everything was just, it really was this, it was Roman chapter 6, right? Is that we saw in the story someone who was in bondage, in slavery, to sin, right?

That was the, that was the point of the story. The only way that you can break free of that is found through Jesus. So, so I want you to know that there's good news. If you, if you kind of came in here, and I don't know everybody in here, and perhaps you just slipped in here, and you're brand new here today, and you don't know Jesus as your Savior, let me tell you this, that that eternal separation that we talked about, that doesn't have to be the end for you. It does not have to be the end for you. There's good news, and that's the Gospel, and the good news in the Gospel is that in the midst of your sin, in the midst of your distance from God, in the midst of your brokenness, God sent his only begotten Son. That's why we celebrate Christmas. He sent his only begotten Son, Jesus, to be born.

Why? So that he could eventually die, and it's through trusting in what he has done on the cross for you, you have been offered the gift of eternal life. But you see, it's only found through Jesus, is what we find here in verse number 23. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In 1 John chapter 5, we find that eternal life, this life, is in his, in his Son. You see, the wage of sin is death, but in the midst of that, in the midst of what we deserved, which was death, I love how Ephesians 2 puts it, and Paul writing to the church at Ephesus, in the midst of how wicked and broken we are, and the fact that all we could do was work, we were children of wrath, we could only do disobedience to God, all these things because we were enslaved to sin. Verse number 4, everything changes in the midst of that, but God, who is rich in mercy, loved us and gave his only begotten Son for us. In other words, what Jesus did for you, all of the shame that you caused, guess what, he carried it. All of the sin that you've committed, and even the sin that you're going to commit, he paid the price for it. All the brokenness that you are, all the wickedness that you are, he died for it.

You see, what Jesus did is he took the wage of what you deserved, he took the debt that what you deserved and could never pay, and here's what he did, he paid it in full. You see, that's the message of the gospel. So you say, oh man, that's great news, it is good news, what do I have to do to get it? Let me remind you, the work's already been done. That's the good news of the gospel is that the work is done, he's done all the work.

You say, what are we supposed to do? Here's what all you have to do is believe and receive the gift. You see, it's a free gift, right? All you have to do is believe and receive it, and you can have the gift of eternal life. The third thing I want to mention is this, the gift of eternal life, it changes your life in the present.

It changes your life in the present. So when we see eternal life, we see the alternative to the gift of eternal life, and that's uncleanness, that's working the works of iniquity, that's death, eternal separation from God. And in the midst of that, what we all deserve was that he's offered this free gift to anyone who can receive it, but it's only found through believing and receiving the gift through Jesus Christ. But then here's what's interesting, when we think of eternal life, we always think of the future, right?

We think of what is to come. It's something like, man, I can't wait to experience this good news of eternal life. And what we find in scripture is actually for those who are in Christ, for those who have trusted Jesus as Savior, here's the good news about it, you can experience eternal life now. You get to experience the meaning of eternal life now.

It's not just something that we have to look forward to, it's something that we can experience right here now. And that's what he says here in verse number 21 through 22. He says this, verse number 21 of Romans 6, what fruit had ye then in those things? Whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death, right? But now being made free from sin, aren't you thankful for that, and become servants now to God. In other words, what Paul's saying, and we're not going to dive so deep into Romans chapter 6, but he's talking about that journey that when you trust Christ, you move from being enslaved to sin to now you're enslaved to God, okay? And so that's what he's talking now, you've become servants. Now God is your master.

Here's what happens. Ye have your fruit unto holiness. You have your fruit unto holiness.

And so here's what I want you to understand is here's what he's saying. You can experience the eternal life life that he's offering you, this new life, you can experience it now. It's not just a life that we look forward to. It's not just a life that happens after you physically die here on this earth. No, for the Christian, this is a life that is freely offered to all of us at the moment that we trust Jesus as Savior.

In other words, it's not something that we have to look forward to, it's something that you can experience right here and right now. And he mentions that in the phrase fruit unto holiness. Here's what he's saying, the gospel that gave you eternal life for the future, it should change you in the present. You see the gospel that you trusted in, that gave you eternal life for the future, it should change you in the present. And that's what he's saying here is now because your master has changed. You're not enslaved to sin, you're not a servant to sin anymore. So now you're enslaved and a servant to God. And when you're a servant to God, what you find is you're going to have fruit unto holiness. You say what in the world does that mean?

What does that mean for me? Well, I think it's easy to look at it from the fruit of the Spirit. What he's saying is that your fruit, you will live a fruitful life. Galatians chapter 5 talks about the fruit of the Spirit. It's love, right? It's joy, it's peace, it's long suffering, it's gentleness, it's goodness, it's faith, it's meekness, it's temperance.

All of those things. And here's what he's saying, is saying we were all born in this world enslaved to sin, our master was sin. We were in bondage, slavery to sin. But now this free gift is offered that can break us free from that bondage to where now this free gift, if we trust in Jesus as our savior and find it through him, now we have a brand new master. God the Father is now our master.

And when he is your master, we can have fruit now unto holiness. In other words, don't tell me that you can't have victory over some sin in your life. Don't tell me that you can't be love. Don't tell me that you can't find joy.

Don't tell me that you can't experience peace. Don't tell me that you can't be, and this one's speaking to me, don't tell me that you can't be patient. Any of you struggle with patience? Okay, I'm right there.

I'm just so impatient about everything. Or how about gentleness? Goodness? Faith? Meekness? Temperance? You see, all of those things.

I know it's easy for us just to say, man, I struggle with this one. Yeah, but guess what? The good news of the gospel is now because we have a new master, we are now enslaved and in bondage to the Father and not to the sin that we've committed, and sin as our master, we can now have fruit unto holiness. All of those things can be true of your life. They can be true of my life as a follower of Christ. These things should characterize us now.

What does the outside world think of you? What does the outside world think of Union Grove Baptist Church? For us, it should be, we should be characterized by the fruit of the Spirit. Those should be the things that when people drive by here at Union Grove Road, this is the things, those things that I just listed from Galatians 5, those should be the things that characterize us. But too often, we talk to people outside the church and they find a way different experience.

Why is that? Because we are, it's almost like some of us, we want to go back to our old master. And what Paul's saying is, shall we continue in sin? No. He's saying, why on earth you're free? You're free. Jesus dying for you. He freed you from all of that sin. Why on earth would you ever go back to it?

Why on earth would you ever run back to that? You're eternally free from it and you can live like it today. You see, that's the gift of eternal life. And let me say this, it's offered to all of us.

And notice this, I love this. It's a, you know, it says the wages of sin is death. When you think of wage, it's an earning, right? You earn it. You earn death. Let me tell you this, that eternal life, it's not something that you earn. Eternal life, it's not something that you can buy. Eternal life, it's not something that you can achieve. The best news for you about eternal life is this, it's a gift and it's freely offered to all of us. But it is a gift.

It doesn't matter how you live. You know, this Christmas season, many of you parents, you're going to give your kids gifts. And if you look past on the last year, they don't deserve them. They don't deserve them.

Right? My kids, man, they don't. They sometimes, you know, do things and I'm thinking in the back of my mind, I mean, when I get real upset with them, you know, I'll say something drastic like, you're not getting any Christmas gifts this year. I know I don't mean that.

They know I don't mean that. Christmas morning, we're going to act like all of our kids are just righteous little angels, aren't we? And by Christmas, you know, evening time, you're going to want to take all those gifts back.

Right? And here's the thing, gifts are not something that we give around this time of year to people that only deserve it. We give them to our kids because it's a gift, even though they might not deserve it. Well, what I want you to understand, the gift of eternal life, it's gift to you, not because you deserve anything. In fact, the beauty of it is it's given to you when you were undeserving of it. And in the midst of that, when you don't deserve anything good, God has gifted you eternal life. And let me tell you this, eternal life, in verse number 22, it says that now, because you've been enslaved now to God, you can have fruit unto holiness.

And you can have fruit unto holiness. And your end, for those who are now enslaved to God, our end is everlasting life. Everlasting life. Listen, that's better than anything you could even dream of it being. You ever dream of what that's going to be like? You ever wonder, you know, we sing about it, what a day that will be. And here's the thing, no matter what comes to mind when you dream of what everlasting life is going to be like, here's what I can tell you. It'll be better than anything that your mind could ever dream of.

And that is what we have. That's the gift that's been freely offered to you. And if you came in here today and you're like, man, I don't know if I've ever accepted that gift. I don't know if I've ever trusted in Christ as my Savior. Here's some good news, some assuring news for you.

You don't have to leave here. When I was a teenager, I struggled with doubt a lot. So I was like, you know, I got saved when I was young. I trusted Christ when I was five years old. Many of you know my testimony since I shared a lot. And so one of the things was, you know, I'd hear all these preachers at these different at these different conferences and rallies I'd go to. They would say, man, when I got saved, my whole life changed. I went from a drunk to fully sober, and I was once a drug addict, and now I'm not. And I'm sitting over here in all those, you know, youth conferences and stuff, and I'm doubting.

I'm like, man, there ain't much. I mean, I was disobedient to my parents. I still am. Like, there's no way I'm saved, right?

And I struggled. And so I'd lay on my bed, and every night, you know, I would just be like, God, I don't know if I'm saved. I don't know if I've trusted Jesus as my Savior, and I just don't know. And so I would just say, hey, God, if I didn't mean it last time, God, here, save me now.

You know, it's kind of one of those things. Here's the good news. It's found in 1 John 5. Here's what it says, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. If you're in here today and you say, man, that's where I'm at, doubting.

I stress out at night because I'm not sure. The good news of the Gospel is that God didn't leave us here to doubt. He left you here and gave you a promise and a gift to where you can know. You can know. You can be assured of it. You can be confident of it. We can know today that we have eternal life. So if you're in here today and you're like, man, I'm doubting.

I'm not sure. Or you know without a shadow of a doubt you've never accepted and received the free gift freely offered to you. I want to invite you here in a moment.

Hey, come. It's the greatest news and it's the greatest gift that you could ever experience in your life. And the end of it all is everlasting life with the one who rescued you from the bondage of your sin.

Do you have and have you received the gift of eternal life? Would you bow your heads with me? Let's do this. Let's all stand.

Nobody looking around. It's just us in here, but the gift of eternal life. What an amazing thing.

And here's the thing. As we have an invitation time, this is a response time. If you're in here today and you say, pastor, I've never trusted in Jesus as my savior.

I've never accepted and received the free gift that's freely offered to me. In a moment I'm going to pray and that would be a great opportunity. We got pastors down front that would love to show you from scripture how you can know, like 1st John 5 says, you can know that you have eternal life.

But for some of us in here, we get so busy around the Christmas time that we're so focused on lights and so focused on all these different gifts and Christmas movies and all these different things. Some of us need to really reflect upon the good news found in the gospel that in Jesus, him coming to be born, here's the good news. He's gifted you eternal life.

You have everlasting life. And not only has that changed your future, it's changed your life now. Yeah, we can celebrate the good news of the future, which is awesome. And I can't wait. And it's better than anything we could ever dream of, but it's changed us now.

It's changed us now. That's something we should rejoice in. Maybe some of you need to, it's been a long time since you've actually prayed and got on your knees and thanked God and praised God for the gift that his son has given you. Eternal life.

I'm going to pray. And then if God spoke to you about any of those things, or you need to pray with a pastor or talk to somebody, this would be an opportunity for you to come. Father, blessing this invitation time, God, I'm so thankful for the gift of eternal life, the gift that we have in your son, Jesus. I pray that all of us would be a thankful, grateful church as we look at the gift of eternal life, for it's in your name we pray. Hey, listen, if God speaks to you about anything you come, maybe you need to come to an altar and thank God for the gift that he's given you.

The gift of eternal life, when you were undeserving of it, fully enslaved to your sin. Maybe you need to thank him for it. Maybe you need to praise him for it. Maybe some of you in here today, you're kind of one of those that now you have a new master, but you're running back to your old master. You're finding yourself in some of those sins that he died for.

And you're finding yourself going back to those things. Listen, the apostle Paul did the same thing. So don't feel terrible for it, but hey, come get it right. Come get it right. Or maybe you're in here today and you say, pastor, I know I've never received the gift. You can leave here today knowing without a shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life.