Turning with me again in the Word of God to the book of Romans, but not to the chapter 5 that we read in part from, but rather dropping right down to the end of chapter 6, Romans chapter 6 and verse 23. Very familiar text in the Bible. And one that you no doubt, as I have done recently, will have seen it on the back of some of the Translink buses, Romans 6 and 23. Maybe in a queue of traffic, and there you are, bus parked in front of you, stopped in front of you. And the text is there on display, for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And again, here's the same emphasis that we mentioned earlier. This gift of God that is eternal life, where do I get it? Do I work for it? Do I earn it? Do I deserve it? No, no, no. The final words in our English Bible here in Romans 8, 23, it is, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, nobody else, only Him. Let's, with the Word of God open before us, we're taking the theme, What Lies Ahead. Let's bow together in prayer. Heavenly Father, again, we look to Thy Word, we pray that thou will take up the Word, it's Thy Spirit has authored it. He well knows how to apply it. And so we pray that as we do what we can and fulfill the responsibility that is a heavy one that we have. But Lord, we know it's Thou doest the work. And so we are reliant entirely on Thy strength. And we pray that thou will done thine own word and apply it onto the hearts and minds of all who hear, those who are present. Those who may be tuned in tonight may tune in later over the internet, catch up on Facebook or somewhere else, sermon audio. But Lord, don't let the word return to thee void. As thou was promised, it would not. in Jesus' name, and to thy great glory we pray. Amen. The return of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, that we know will happen, will signal a day of mixed rewards. In an earlier chapter in the same book, Romans chapter 2 and the verse 6, Paul is looking to that second coming. of the Savior. And he refers to the day when the Lord will render to every man according to his deeds. And so he goes on to assure those who have trusted in Christ and toiled in His name that for the godly rewards will be Verse 7, verse 10 as well, in Romans 2, to them who by patient continuance and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life, glory, honor, and peace. And the reward seemed to come cascading down. To those who were godly, not because they're brilliant by themselves, because they are utterly sinful by themselves. But God's grace has reached them, His blood has cleansed them, His power has kept them, and because of what He has done with them, they have become godly through Christ. Rewards will be rich. There was a military gentleman, and he once said to an excellent old minister in the north of Scotland, and the old minister was becoming rather infirm at this time, and pretty much bedridden. Why, he said, if I had power over the pension list, I would actually put you on half-paying, rather than just a pension for your long and your faithful services to crown and country. And the old man said, Ah, my friend, your master may put you off with half pay, but my master, Jesus Christ, will not serve me so meanly. He will give me full pay. Through grace, I expect a full reward." And the minister certainly expected that. The military man, he was converted, and he would have expected that as well too. And so it will be for every saved person on the day of judgment, when Christ returns, a full reward will be given to those who have worked and striven in His name. But if we're unsaved then, what will happen then? What will we receive then? Well, for the ungodly, The rewards will not be rich, but ruinous. And so I tell you to look at Romans 2 again in verse 8 and 9 this time because that's the proof of it. And so we have the word but. There's a change coming from reward of a rich variety. We now come to a different kind of reward, but unto them that are contentious, do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness. What'll happen to them? What's their reward? Not one you'd want, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil. That's how it will be. We've all heard the legendary story about the Australian boomerang. bit of a missile. We're told it'll be thrown out by the hand, trace out singular lines and curves, and eventually it will fall at the feet of the one who has thrown it. Not sure it works exactly like that at all, but you know the concept, you know the picture, and the Bible represents sin as that kind of a boomerang operating in the same course of it, going off out into this curious arc into space, but it turns again upon its author and with tenfold force strikes the guilty soul that launched it. In other words, as the Bible tells us, Old Testament, be sure your sin will find you out. It will go around in that orbit and it will catch you out at the end. Another Old Testament text is Ezekiel chapter 18 and the verse 4, the soul that sinneth, here's the reward, it shall die. Galatians 6 verse 7 and 8, Paul is preaching then and through the proclamation of the truth he's telling us, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. And then it's further emphasized in one of the final books in the Bible, the book of James, chapter 1, verse 15, where James writes, then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. There is a payday for our sins. And in Romans 6 into verse 23, we have a similar voice. Sin here, it's not some soft, harmless, cuddly toy that you go to bed at night with and it warms you and you embrace it. It is that lethal weapon that has murderous consequences at its heart, for the wages of sin is So, we have a solemn text here, and we have a very serious warning that is going out, and we're asking the question, what lies ahead? If when Jesus comes, or if when I die, I am still unconverted, what lies ahead for me? The kind of subject most people want to sidestep and avoid. And we're thinking, first of all, about the sinner and his person. The sinner and his person, deceived, they are the children of God. Is it because, again, and we stress the point once more, is it because they are better than anybody else? No, it is not. Is it because in their lives they have sinned less than anybody else? No, it is not. Is it because they have worked for God in religious circles better than anybody else? No, it is not. Well, what has happened? How have they become saved? They have come to an end of themselves. They have realized my goodness is not good enough. There only is one truly good, that is God. We can never be like Him. They have rejected the false doctrine of good works. But many people think that'll be what will swing open the door of heaven to me, grant me admittance. I will just say, I have been a good person, you know that God. Nobody ever got into heaven on the basis of their good works. Nobody ever shall. The Bible tells us that from Genesis right through to Revelation, it has one united voice in this. So, they have come to an end of themselves, these people who have become sieved. They have rejected the doctrine of false works and are saying, I know I cannot worked myself to heaven, I could never be good enough, and so they've got the hottest incinerator that they could find, and they've thrown in all their good works into that. Goodbye, good works, you can't save me." Well, what have they done then? Instead of resting on themselves and their own performances, they have leaned entirely not partially, but entirely, their whole wait for time and eternity on the sacrifice of Christ, Offer and Calvary for the salvation of their souls. And with the Holy Spirit dwelling now within them, they can love and they can worship and they can serve the Lord because their lives have changed. They are saved by the grace of God. But the sinner, who is he? Who is she? One preacher, and some people think this is very blunt, has said, they're under the deception of the devil. They're the sleeves of the devil. Better to be blunt, better to be clean, better to be straight to the point than beat about the bush when such eternal issues are at stake here. Better to say what the Bible says than dance around. as many people sadly do today, and try to be as polite as they possibly can, and ultimately end up saying nothing. But that which is actually damnable. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman used to tell of a preacher who often spoke on the subject of sin. And he didn't mince his words, he called it that abominable thing that God hates. One of his congregation was rather unsettled by that, and came up to him, took him aside, and tried to persuade him. Stop using that ugly word, sin. It makes my toes curl when I hear you using that. And he said, we wish you would not speak so plainly about sin. Our young people, hearing you, will be more likely to indulge in it, call it something else. Maybe inhibition, mistake, a fault. an error, but don't call it sin." So that preacher went to his medical cupboard, and he pulled out a small bottle. This bottle, he says, contains strychnine, has a red label on it, marked poison. Would you suggest I change my label and put on it wintergreen? which, for the like of me who didn't know exactly what that was, I think I'm maybe too young to understand. During the American Revolution, so that makes us all too young to understand, wintergreen leaves were used for tea, which was very scarce, and it was looked upon as a medicine. And so his point was, When I know it to be sin, when I know it to be so destructive, when I know it will break up hearts and homes and families, do you want me to say, it's a light thing, it's a trivial thing, don't worry about it, let's downgrade the name here? Just as it's best to plainly define sin, so it is best to properly describe the sinner's person as he appears in the eyes, not of men because that doesn't count, in the eyes of an infinitely holy and almighty God. Why hide the facts? Why say anything other than the truth? For the Bible, and it never errs, never contradicts itself, it confirms that without the grace of God, I am a sinner and a servant of the devil. That's what it tells me I am. Take John 8 in verse 44, for example. Christ said to those who did refuse to abide in his rule, ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. Paul tells us in a quite extended set of verses beginning of Ephesians chapter 2. What we are like before the grace and the mercy of God reaches us and Christ saves us. Here's what we are prior to that. And you hath he quickened. Ah yes, now, but that's by the power of Christ. What were we before then who were dead, spiritually dead, in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that's the devil, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation, our conduct, in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." What is Paul essentially saying there? Before salvation, we would have been alive to sin, but dead to Christ, and dead to salvation. How to get the next bout of pleasure was what concerned us, not how can I love God and show His love to others? And then in 2 Corinthians 4 and in verse 4 and 2 Timothy 2 and in verse 26, and we must preach from Scripture all the time, I have no other proof book than this. In whom the God of this world, again the devil, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them, and be read in Timothy, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who were taken captive by him at his will." Writing in The Journey and Its End, an evangelical author, recorded the great interest that he'd taken on one occasion as to how a certain nocturnal moth was caught by a London entomologist. Fancy name for being a person who studies insects. And he read the story, the gentleman made a special journey to freshwater. to get some specimens of a species said to be found in no other part of the British Isles except the South Downs near the Needles. Here's what he did. Shortly after sunset, he proceeded along the top of the cliff, armed with a pot of syrup and a brush. And wherever he came to a thistle, he just daubed it slightly with the syrup on that brush and walked on. About midnight, he returned along the same path, this time with a lantern. And as he went from thistle to thistle, his innocent victims were found clustering around the serp." Easy prey. He had his specimens, all that he wanted. And what a picture that is of how the devil deals with mankind. concocts some seemingly attractive sins. He dresses them in gaudy and bright and loud clothes, covers them in syrup if you want. Then he presents them and he parades them and he heartily and heavily advertises them before our eyes and our minds. And before we realize what has happened, he has got us where he wants us. A prisoner, a poor captive, and now a slave to his devices. He's clever. He's full of cunning, there's no doubt about that. He's not reduced to one way of assailing and attacking our soul. He has many, many options. It was said of Eucrates in ancient days, Eucrates has more tricks than one. So no trap will easily catch him. We can say that about the devil. He's a thousand ways to deceive. He can transform himself into whatever shape or kind, whatever. In fact, the Bible talks about him being transformed into something akin to an angel of light, full of cruelty, as well as cunning, the most vicious master. We read in Scripture about a man whose name was Legion. And we see in the way Legion was treated and abused by the devil, demons had entered into him, the kind of a master the devil really is when he doesn't care about consequence and he doesn't care about who's looking or what people are going to think. He destroyed that man, though Christ delivered him. And can't we see it in every side today, men and women, Legion-like? And the devil has gained complete mastery over them, driven on by drink, snared by gambling, being ruined by drugs, or by debauchery, or by uncleanness, ruining their reputation, taking down their health, breaking up their relationships, estranging their children, alienating their friends, ultimately stealing their souls. And while you may be saying tonight, but you're not describing me, I know people like the ones you are describing, but it's not me. I haven't gone as bad as that. I haven't sunken to the same severe levels of outward sin as multitudes. In fact, I look upon myself as quite moral and upright and a good standing in society I have, and I'm walking down the squeaky clean side of the broad road, if I'm on the broad road at all, and you will deplore the excesses that sin has brought others into, and you'll be sitting back tut-tut-tutting about what they're doing. But the very fact that you are, as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5, 15, living not unto God, because you're not getting up in the morning and thinking, Lord, let me show my love for you today. You're thinking, how do I help myself today? How do I live for myself and not for the Savior? You're still tied up with all the things of the world and only this world, not anything to do with the world to come. You've made no preparation for that at all. And so you're in the same family. as the drunkard, the gambler, the swearer, the drug addict, the thief, the murderer, the immoral person. Now, I realize that is difficult to take, but it's God's verdict on us. And no matter how much I protest, it's God's verdict that will hold and count. on this day of judgment. So, the sinner in this person, then we have the sinner in his position. Due to a sin, due to a slavery to his father and master the devil, what is his real position? Most people don't realize it, but the curse of God rests upon them. Nicodemus was one of the most religious men in his day. He taught others how to be religious. in the Jews' religion. But he knew there's something lacking in my life. And so he sought out a nighttime interview with the Lord Jesus, and he came to him. We're told the story in John chapter 3. And what does our Lord say to him? Nicodemus, you're a great lad. You're such an example in the community, just a pillar here in society. You're such a large character within the church, and everybody is looking up to you. He didn't say that. He said, Nicodemus, He that believeth in Christ is not condemned, but he that believeth not in Christ is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. That's verse 18. In verse 36 of John 3, he reinforces this message. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth in him. In other words, his reward is going to be ruined. That's what he told Nicodemus. That's the future for you, right now, the way you are. Even with all of your good works, even with all of your religion, that's where you're headed for. Notice our Lord doesn't say, the person who does not believe in him is going to be condemned sometime in the future. He doesn't say the wrath of God will suddenly fall upon him on some day to come. Although that, of course, is true. But rather, he says, Nicodemus, you're sitting here in this interview with me, and you know something, Nicodemus, you are condemned already. The wrath of God abides on you right now. I was in the Tower of London. Had I lived in a different generation, they probably would have kept me there. But there last week, And you could see the writings of people who had been there in dire days, around the walls, inscriptions there. And just like somebody in the Tower of London in olden times, and the death penalty is in place, whether just or unjust, but they're lying there in the coldness of the tower, and they're already condemned, they're just waiting now to hear the bell go. And when the bell of execution tolls, they know the jailer's going to come, swing open the gate, having unlocked it, going to take me out of my cell and bring me down where I'll either be hung or beheaded. Condemned, even in the cell. already condemned. Condemned right up until the point when the execution will happen. And God is saying through His Word, Nicodemus and all of us, the wrath of God is hovering over you at this moment. That's what He's telling us. God's wrath was upon you when you laid down to sleep last night and dug your head into the pillow. This wrath was upon you when you rose up from your bed this morning and breathed by His breath another day. God's wrath has been upon you right through this day. God's wrath is upon you now, even as you sit here. The psalmist said in Psalm 7, verse 11, God is angry with the wicked every day. Psalm 5 and 5, they hate us all workers of iniquity. Verse 6, the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. And our sins, they are provoking him to his face. Effectively, we might as well have a placard on our forehead. saying, Lord, we know in your Word, you've said, Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. Look, I'm sinning and I haven't died. We dare you. We dare your justice. Charles Wesley had it right when he said, I have long withstood His grace, long provoked Him to His face, wouldn't hearken to His calls, grieved Him by a thousand folds. And he wasn't exaggerating at all here. We all have heard the story about Jonathan Edwards, and many times we, whether we're saved or unsaved, we're still pretty chilled by it. And I mean the chill of fear. rather than that of being casual. He was mightily used of God during the Great Awakening in the 1850s in America. He said while he was preaching and his manuscript was right before his face, he was virtually blind. God is a great deal more angry with many of you that are now in this congregation, who it may be, are at your ease than he is with many of those who are now in hell. How did he work that out? Because many of those in that time, many of those who today are writhing in the bitterest anguish in hell, never had a half, not even a fraction of the opportunities and the advantages and the blessings that we have enjoyed. Edwards also said very graphically, Natural men hang over the pit of hell, as it were, by a thread that has a moth continually gnawing it. They know not when it will snap and twin and let them drop. This is a miserable, anxious, pitiable condition to be in, and I hope you know that's exactly where you are. And if you realize it, then, by God's grace, you can run from it. So the condemnation of God rests upon us. The comforts of God are restrained from the unconverted person. You'll hear the hymn, and you maybe love it. What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry, everything to Him in prayer. But if you're cut off from Him and not saved by Him, then you can't take all those things to Him in prayer and expect that He is going to answer you. What about when trial comes, who do you look to? What about when tragedy hits, who do you go to? To be without Christ in the middle of life's disasters is a disaster. You don't know the comfort, you don't feel the warmth, you don't experience the strength that God through Christ gives. And do you know what else? Not only are supports gone, but one day striving, God speaking to you will end. He could be speaking now, and I pray that He is, but I'm told in Genesis 6 and 3, my spirit shall not always strive with man. I'm told even more grippingly in Hosea 4 and 17, where there could be no dispute as to what the text primarily means. Ephraim is joined to idols. He loves his sin. He doesn't want to give up his iniquity. He is wedded to it. And God says at a certain point, that's it. Let him alone." And that's a judgment of God in itself. In Proverbs 1, the verse 24 to 28, we have another warning because God says, I have called and ye refused. I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded. You have said it not, all my counsel would none of my reproof. I will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you." And then he says, then shall they call upon me. But I will not answer. They shall seek me early, yeah, right then. But they shall not find me. There is a line by us on scene that crosses every path, the hidden boundary between God's mercy and God's wrath. To pass the limit is to die, to die as if by stealth. It does not quench the beaming eye or peel the glow of health. The conscience may be still at ease. The spirit, light and gay, that which is pleasing may still please and care be rolled away. He thinks, he feels that all is well and every fear is calmed. He lives, he dies, and wakes in hell, not only doomed, but damned. Sin pays terrible wages, does it not? The sinner and his person and his position and his prospect What is he to look forward to? You know, when all the brightness and the buzz and the glitter and the sparkle has gone out of the things of this life. When earth's attractions we eventually see, well, they never were what they were always cranked up to be. The actual thing never lived up to the advertising of it. And the things of earth become more hollow than ever before. And from your heart, the cry of lamentations four and one goes out, how has the gold become dim? How has the fine gold changed what used to capture my attention? It doesn't have much of a pull on me now. What are your prospects? We will all die. It is appointed unto men once to die, That's God's calendar written by Him. Hebrews 9.27 can't be changed by us. Twist and turn as we may, evade the issue as we do, try to escape from it as we will, sidestep and stall about it as undoubtedly we will try. We can't change the fact that we have an appointment with death. I have a much lesser appointment at the end of June. I need a tooth out. My dentist has referred me to someone else because he says, because of the depth of the roots, I'd prefer not to touch it. So you'll go to someone who's a bit of a specialist on that. I want to go on holiday before then. I want to forget all about the tooth. But I know, no matter what I do, when I come back, the appointment is still there. I have to go. Get the thing out. And as soon as he or she dies, they grasp him and carry him away to the bottomless pit. It's not where we want to go. The wages of sin is death. And the death that Romans 6 and 23 is talking about, it's not just merely a natural death where we take our last breath. It's not just a natural death where we take our last breath. It's not just a natural death where we take our last breath. It's not just a natural death where we take our last breath. arrive in the mortuary, are carried out in a coffin. But after that great and terrible and dreadful day of judgment, that death includes being cast into the lake of fire, into utter darkness where the darkness is felt and there's weeping and gnashing of teeth into the bottomless pit where there's that worm that dieth not. And the fire does not quench when we remember, I was in that gospel meeting that night, and that preacher told me just as it was, about me, and about my soul, and my need of salvation, how dreadful to spend all of eternity thinking. I never listened. I closed my ears. I said another time, death. And after that damnation, what a horrible, horrifying place. Reading the words of Spurgeon pretty much breaks my heart, but he's so accurate. He said, it is the hell of hell. What is hell about? It is the hell of hell, that everything there lasts forever. Don't they tell us here time helps to take away the edge of our grief? Not everybody is convinced by that, of course. Here, time wears away our griefs, blunts the keen edge of our sorrow. But there, time never mitigates the woe. Hell, in fact, he says, grows more hellish as eternity marches on with its mighty pieces. The abyss becomes more dense and firing. The sufferers grew more ghastly and wretched as years. If there be such sad variety in that fixed state rule, there're everlasting rounds. I don't want you to end up there. That would break my heart. If there was any hope of respite, If people in hell, even after thousands of years, millions of years, let's extend it, millions of years, if there was a little carrot that was a faint chance of being let out and set free, it might lessen the dread of it, but there is no hope. None. Forever and forever and forever. Our Lord talked about heaven in terms of everlasting life, and He talked in hell in terms there of everlasting punishment. Same duration, life and damnation, eternity. Have you ever stopped, sat down, and thought about what it would be? Now, this is way beyond the depth of any imagination, but what it would be. to be in hell for all eternity, for this is the wages of sin." Think about that tonight. Think long. Think hard. Think seriously. And run to Christ, for He alone – that's been our emphasis tonight – He alone is the only Savior of sinners, for you and for me. Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon. Pardon for you and for me.