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MP3 Audio Romans 6:23 - The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. James 4:14 states, Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Luke 13:1-5 reveals all are equally guilty before God, There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Salvation is the most important word ever uttered and yet how meaningless it is to the masses that are absorbed with the thought of food and raiment and pleasure, during their brief stay on this earth. Salvation: the greatest blessing that can possibly come to a human soul, and without which it would be better never to have been born, and yet the most neglected thing in the world today. Salvation: the blessed gift of God, paid for by His darling Son, and yet that which conceited men think they can earn with their own puny hands. What is salvation? Salvation means soundness and safety. The opposite of a saved state is to be unsound and to be in peril. There is the double thought of sickness and danger in sin. Sin is both a disease and a crime. Sin as a disease has to do with our nature, it is a state of being. As a crime it has to do with our position or standing before God as a transgressor of His law. Salvation is deliverance from the curse of God’s law and deliverance from a sinful nature. The story of how sin came into the world The message begins with the story of creation. Eccl. 7:29, Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. God created man perfect, without any sin at all, without any corruption in his body. God created the entire universe in six literal 24-hour days and when He was finished, He looked upon His creation and pronounced it "very good." (Gen. 1:31) In the perfect condition of creation, there was no death, because there was no sin. Adam and his wife and all their descendants would have lived eternally on the earth God created. Sin entered the world when Adam followed the desires of his wife instead of following the clear commands of God. The serpent, in the first case of demon possession, deceived the woman into believing her and her husband would be as gods, knowing good and evil. Adam was not deceived, but fully understood that he was rebelling against God. Adam’s disobedience brought sin and death into the world. Adam lived 930 years, but he died, and so death has passed upon all men because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Gen. 5:3 states that Adam begat a son in his own likeness, in his own image, and not after the likeness and image of God. This passage is clear proof that sin has passed upon all men for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Rom. 3:23. An Attempt At Reconciliation When Adam and his wife had eaten of the forbidden fruit, they knew they were naked (Gen. 3:7) so they sewed fig leaves together in an attempt to hide their nakedness from God and themselves. The fig leaves didn’t hide their nakedness from God (or themselves), so when God came walking in the cool of the day, Adam and his wife hid themselves from God among the trees of the Garden. Making aprons out of fig leaves shows that Adam and his wife were trying to work their way into the good graces of God. This won’t work because it is impossible for a person to be saved by their own good works. A fig leaf is very small. It would take many delicate stitches to make a small apron from these leaves. And the apron wouldn’t last very long because the leaves would soon wither away. It would be a continuous job to make aprons out of fig leaves, and it is a continuous job to try to work your way into heaven. God settled the issue of salvation when He came to Adam and his wife while they were hiding from Him. This is the story of our salvation as well. Christ sends His Holy Spirit to seek for His people when they are hiding from God. In the Garden of Eden, we see the great grace of God. He didn’t have to come to Adam and his wife. He didn’t have to kill the animal and make coats of skins to cover their nakedness. Grace is receiving what you do not deserve, while mercy is not receiving what you do deserve. Adam and his wife were guilty, weren’t they? They were guilty of the grossest sin of all - the sin of disobedience. And they had become sinners. They were condemned by God, the eternal judge. Every person since Adam is a sinner by natural birth, not because they sin. Since Adam every person that sins reveals they are a sinner by the sins they commit. Adam was the only person who had a choice about whether or not he would sin and be a sinner. Everybody else is a sinner by natural birth; they have no choice. What must I do to receive forgiveness that I am a sinner, to receive forgiveness of sins, to be saved? Repent: Romans 3:23, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You must recognize you are a sinner because of the sins you have committed. If salvation were a matter of asking God to forgive you of all the sins you have committed, every person would give it a try. The problem is: you don’t always know when you sin. And if one sin is missed, or forgotten, you are cast into eternal hell.
In salvation, Christ forgives you are both your sinful nature and the sins you commit on a daily basis. You can not repent of all your sins; because you cannot remember all of your sins, but you repenting of the sins you know, you also ask God to forgive you of the sins you don’t know and of your sinful nature. Repentance means, "to have another mind toward". In other words, you will see yourself as God sees you, a sinner, and accept His evaluation of yourself as a sinner worthy of eternal condemnation. You accept God’s condemnation of yourself that you deserve to spend eternity separated from God and in terrible agony because of your exceedingly great wickedness before God. Repentance doesn't necessarily mean a lot of weeping and wailing, although there is a Godly sorrow for sins. Look what the Bible states about sin in Romans 3:10. There is none righteous, no, not one. Verse 22 and 23 of this chapter further state, For there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. You will not be saved until you realize and admit to God that your sins declare you to be a sinner, and because you are a sinner, you are commended to eternal death in hell. Romans 6:23 states, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. James 1:15 emphasizes, Sin … bringeth forth death. Believe: Romans 10:10, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. What should you believe? In Acts 16:31, the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas: What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. II Corinthians 5:21 states, He hath made him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin: that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. I Peter 2:24 enlarges upon this thought by declaring, Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. To believe and receive forgiveness of sins is more than mentally admitting the facts about sin and the cross of Calvary. Believing unto salvation involves a personal knowledge of internal wickedness before God, an abhorrence of self because of that wickedness, and an internal, spiritual turning from that wickedness. Believing also involves a personal knowledge that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. It is a fact that Jesus died for many people, but believing that He died that I might have life, in spite of my personal wickedness, is salvation. John 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. It is very easy to see that believing is the work of God in the heart of the unbeliever, and it is also the work of the lost person to believe in Christ for their eternal salvation. Salvation is more than praying, more than walking a church aisle, more than confessing with the tongue, but when those things are done in the heart by the power of God, moving in that individual, that is salvation. Luke 18:9-14 gives the record of two men to prayed to God. Only one of those men were saved – the one who repented and believed in Christ, the one who had no outward acts to bring to Christ. Salvation is not in external actions, but internally believing that Jesus Christ died that we might have life in him. Salvation involves taking Jesus at His Word. Salvation involves believing what Jesus says about you being a lost sinner and that you deserve to spend your eternity in the everlasting flames of hell. Salvation involves believing that Jesus died on the cross for you personally, and that when you die, He will receive you into the everlasting glory of heaven. |