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[0:01] Seeking the Lord's help, I'll direct your attention to the 23rd verse of chapter 6 of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, chapter 6 and verse 23.

[0:16] For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[0:45] These words of divine inspiration have a most solemn ring about them. And I believe that if we believe them more, they will have a far greater effect upon our lives.

[1:05] They carry here a principle of truth which is being brought to pass all the time.

[1:21] This is a statement, this opening verse, the wages of sin is death.

[1:33] It is a solemn principle of truth and enunciation of the work of God in the fallen, ruined race of humanity that God is working.

[1:48] Bring them under his holy law to his divine judgment bar, there to meet out the reward which they have duly earned of their sin, and to give them their wages.

[2:08] Never will wages be more undesirable than these. The recipients who have earned them will certainly not want to, but they will receive those solemn wages.

[2:25] And the great concourse on that day of judgment on the left hand of the throne of God will receive the most thankful wages that anyone can possibly receive.

[2:43] And that is the entire wrath of God for their sins. And the scriptures speak at length of the hideous solemnity and suffering and agony that that will entail.

[3:00] We think of the rich man in hell. We think of the rich man in Christ's power, the rich man in Lazarus, of his agony in hell, revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ.

[3:12] He had received his wages. And, dear friends, I cannot begin to fathom the awful nature of those wages in this respect that they were eternal.

[3:34] For hell is a place where there is no life, no love, no hope, no mercy, but all is condemnation, remorse.

[3:53] Where the worm dieth not and the barn is not quest. Where as the rich man said that he cursed us.

[4:07] And it is said of him, in all the solemnity of it, that he uttered his first prayer in hell. And he did indeed.

[4:17] It has been said of us, as a people, language has been spoken like this.

[4:31] You, Calvinists, if you really believe what the scriptures say, you would be more earnest in your desires and prayers for the dying of action.

[4:47] You seem to show no concern for them at all. And where do we stand in this matter? Do we really believe what we preach?

[5:00] Do we really believe that the wicked could be cast into hell? Do we really believe the awful solemnity of this eternal darkness and suffering?

[5:20] Let me come to a category that is a very solemn category mentioned in the scriptures. A class of people who sit in the sanctuaries of God all their life and come to the day when they find that they have a lamp with no oil in it.

[5:44] those who think they're right. Those who think they're on the right road.

[5:56] Those who think that because they assemble Sunday by Sunday with the wives they will end in the same place as the wives. those who think they have a religion but whose religion won't stand because it's built upon sand.

[6:16] And when the storm comes the great storm of death they will prove their house was foundationless and it will be swept away. Those who have a religion which is wood, hay and stubble.

[6:28] those whose religion is many many words but nothing of it has come from God. Nothing of it is what he has done for them. They cannot say that one portion of scripture has ever been made as sweet as honey for their taste.

[6:44] Nor can they say that one word of promise has ever been given to them. Nor can they say that the Lord has ever spoken a word to them. But they utter such strange languages as all the promises of God are mine.

[6:56] whereas I haven't got one. Where do we stand? I believe this when the fire comes we should be able to be served.

[7:07] When the hour of death comes we should have if we're going to stand we should have something that God has given us.

[7:19] We should bear the hallmark of the scripture character in our soul. we should have been served to find whether our religion is that good high gold high wood high and stuff whether it's that gold and silver whether it's something which the Lord has wrought in us and done for us in the bitter furnaces of eviction whether it's something which he has given us spoken to us done for us promised us.

[7:58] You see let me ask you this question tonight what promise have you got which God has given you?

[8:10] not what have you taken out of his word but what word of promise have you got that you complete before him that he has spoken to you in your soul to dying feet had it God the person who's here said to him today thou shalt be with me in paradise that he had the word of God he's only in Christ what do you do?

[8:48] For the Lord has spoken into your heart with divine life and power for I'm certain of this when the mighty waves come of death and the mighty storms sweep over us if we're not going to make shipwreck and be lost and come beneath this solemn category here and receive these just wages if the whole of humanity deserve let us be clear of this there is not a single mortal that has walked this earth that does not come within this category we all stand and if we are here the only ones who will escape this death will be those who are present when the Lord comes will be caught up to be within the end let us be equally clear there are two deaths that are spoken of here the first and the second death everyone who lives and passes through this time state prior to the coming of the

[9:57] Lord Jesus Christ will pass through this first death but that is not all that's spoken of here we have earned the wages when we fall in the grave but there's a second death that is spoken of here and that's eternal death when the soul is sent to hell body and soul in hell and it is a most solemn place and the word here is a word that hands the banquet the divine ring this little word is speaks as the voice of God here is his holy law broken and there is a just curse in the fifth chapter the apostle speaks of the wrath of God all that wrath who cannot enter into

[11:10] I believe that in this life the children of God know something of the wrath of God in his divine chastening and tribulation as he meets his divine chastening and blows his wrath is felt in their hearts but it is not eternal wrath for his tribulation is not eternal condemnation of what the son of you and the father takes us now the Lord of the world but let us keep our mind upon this subject the way of his sin is there it is it is to be cast out of his presence for him and it is to enter into that place which is bounded by what the Lord Jesus Christ described as that great God fit never to be cast again never ever to be cast and where a tree lies where a tree falleth there it shall lie and if we fall into hell never shall we escape from it how essential how vital that as we approach this

[12:38] Jordan of death we have our credentials clear sure certain and that we come to that river as it were with the ark of God going before us the Lord Jesus Christ and that we know our heart and not in his precious work that we know in our soul that we are numbered amongst those for whom he died upon the cross of Calvary that we have brought out in our heart by the Holy Spirit a religion which will stand in the mighty our heart for death that will keep us from sinking into hell that will deliver us from the condemnation of God's holy law and that will set us down in that great day at the right hand of

[13:50] God for those things which cannot be shaken may remain that we be found standing upon that rock Christ Jesus and that we know in the out of death that sacred peace of God that's part in understanding that we be not deceived and self-defeat but that we be found with a good hope to be ready and prepared you see I believe it requires as the 107th Psalm shows many storms here we need to be shaken well here we need many a bow to be swept away by the winds of adversity and temptation and affliction and sorrow many a rotten breath be removed that we be brought that those mighty oaks withstand the immense gale that come against us and that we be brought to learn here what it is that our hope fits upon the

[15:20] Lord Jesus Christ himself the eternal Son of God the mighty Rock of Ages he who offered himself the sacrifice to sin in his atonement he who stood in the room placed instead of the sinner and bore his load guilt of guilt by himself bearing our sins in his body on the tree and that we be brought into that living union as the vine and the branches with him who has conquered death and that we know that union and that we have it sealed in our own heart from his own lips by the dying thief has I have loved thee with an everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee we be brought into a living union with him which alone will enable us to stand in that hour let it be true of us

[16:36] I go to prepare a place for you where I am there may you be also and if I go and prepare a place for you I'll come again and receive you unto myself the Lord has promised that he'll come and receive his church himself you see I cannot emphasize sufficiently how vital it is that we be brought away from religion which is words and thoughts and ideas and activity and ourselves and our profession the one that is union and communion with the eternal son of God the one that contains the knowledge of his love and his mercy and his pardon and his strength and his voice and his hands the one that is the holy activity of faith in him one that brings us to him not only in request but in crime and groans and sorrow and gratitude and praise the one brings us to him and brings us to him and it's no mistake of his to bring us into paths but make us wrestle with him and he begged us when he when he passed that pathway knew what the wages of sin were when he wrestled with Jesus at

[18:22] Rukh Dhyabba there were the wages Esau was coming and thus they saw that was the end of the coat of blood with many of many colours with blood upon him and there was terrible sorrow to be passed through agonies of heart and soul but there was a sweet and sacred entrance into the truth in all his fullness and blessedness at the end of his days as he looked back over divine dealings God had brought him to see that it was not eternal punishment but he was here in this world he was to walk through deep sorrow as the wages of his sins but the Lord had prepared a way of escape and he said the Lord that redeemed me from all evil he gave thanks in expression to his knowledge of redemption and Job did just the same

[19:30] God brought him into a most solemn path dear friends he was a righteous man but that means nothing he was a bar sinner and he said so behold our bar and it took a a holocaust of tribulation in suffering and sorrow the body and soul and spirit to bring him to that but when it was when he was brought there and began to feel something of the wrath of God against his sin and to enter into the possession of his sins and enter into the deep conviction of his sins and he was silent for no complaint no murmuring or repining under the hand of his God and he bowed in the fullest confession and repentance and godly sorrow for sin that behold our God sin is not only sins of permission and sins of omission but it is that solemn sin which pervades us like the timber that is put into the treatment the timber is put through today and impregnated right to the very core and we're like that we're impregnated right to the very core with sin was stained and died with sin it's not only sin and transgression which we can see but it's iniquity which wells up in us heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it dear friends it has to be removed and there's only one way of doing it who can give sin god only and who will take away the solemn wages of this eternal death god only god in the first will be a son the shedding of his precious blood when he offered himself a sacrifice for sin manifestly prepared to wife is acceptable in the courts of heaven and the world by which his dear church in union with his dear son are brought safely to heaven and their sins are cast into the depths of the sea but it is a path of crucifixion of the flesh they are to be buried with Christ in baptism raised with him in the newness of life they have to walk in death feeling this and it must be so because that will destroy all work there's a religion about in the air today which is death because it is all work and we have to come to that place where the top lady came and I think many thing is him but very few have any conception of what it means in their souls nothing in my hand

[22:43] I bring a death to everything of ourselves and we have to have it done in us and the Lord knows how to do it and he sends many a bitter blow many a sharp sorrow many a divine conviction many a mirror is placed before us so that we can see ourselves in that mirror and know what we are and where we are and how we stand and what poor fallen and indescribably ruined creatures we are that leads us to the Lamb of God it leads us to Calvary it leads us to his wounded side it leads us to a desire that we might be washed we don't need more than the blood of the spring it's so efficacious the precious blood of Christ that one drop of his vital blood will take us to heaven Peter speaks of it in that very manner the blood of sprinkling the blood was sprinkled with hitha

[23:46] David knew about this blood of sprinkling in his 51st Psalm when he said what's with hitha he meant with blood and I shall be whiter than snow it was a hitha is used to sprinkle the blood and we need that precious fountain to be known in our hearts and consciences and when we know it is that peace we should be able to say then I'm clean just God I'm clean and we should be able to lay down and die all to be brought to the cross of Calvary and know the efficacious nature of his precious blood that takes sin away you see we can never know what is to have sin taken away until we know these things our things when we are made to possess our sins in divine conviction then we should know what it is to have sin removed and it's what we desire for the rising generation that they may be brought to know themselves before God as sinners it's the work of the searching it's a corrupt wound that has to be opened up they have to be shown it and they have to be brought down under the condemning hand of God and to be brought to mourn they're too light they don't know sin there's a fictancy and a lightness and too much laughter and gaiety and all dear friends what a mercy to see those who are solemnized and sober and brought down condemned none come to the good position better than those were brought into a low condition

[25:29] Psalmist David came beside the still waters and into green pastures and where are they except in the valley and there he came he also went right down into the valley of the shadow of death and order mercy when God worked in the hearts of rising generations and stamped death in their souls death upon their ambition death upon their desires desires we've seen it and watched it of life the Lord working frustrating dealing we've lived with that word for months now may well be years I will work petty word if God works in the hearts of a rising generation there'll be pillars in their day for they have good roots that's what we want to see that's what we want to pray for that's what we want to wrestle for they might have a good foundation and it's the willow by the water that is act as it were to the very roots but by the scent of water that shall live what a mercy to be stripped of a false profession what a mercy to be stripped of vain hope what a mercy to have the oil that the wise virgins had in their land one drop of that vital oil and you see the Lord deals and we're very much in our day onlookers now as we journey on and trust the Lord has taught us somewhat in the journey but we're onlookers now we watch we trust we watch lovingly affectively desiringly to see this work of the Spirit this precious precious work it's born in winter sown in winter there's going to be a winter before harvest there's going to be a dark pathway to walk out and deep sorrows and many temptations but also the Lord is in it and if there's a seed sown then there'll be a work and you know it's long been with us that the husband has long patience and so have we had to have to wait and see his work have done and accomplished and when it's done what he does he does it forever nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it he does it it's done and we want that work to die and that won't be a false perfection and that won't be a work that evaporates when the morning sun arises like the dew and vanish away that'll be a work that'll last that'll grow up that'll be seeds sown in good grain wages of sin is death but the gift of God oh you look at it the gift of God what a precious thing this is the gift of God you see those three words tell us that there are no works in salvation of our own we'll never make our children

[28:45] Christians God will do it he'll give them something he's given us to Christ thanks precious gifts not of work that any man could borrow is your religion tonight something which God has done totally outside of you is it something which he's given you can you echo the language of the dear woman who said Jesus thought me when a stranger wanted into the fold of God oh to grace how great the death daily I'm going to train the way you see the echo of scripture is that the work of God is the work of sovereign grace this extension of the arm of love and mercy of a king a sovereign absolute king king Jesus which is his work bless you bless you to your eyes for they see for he is slain here flesh and blood have not revealed this unbeat my father which is in heaven how good it is to listen as I have of late in the church assembly the assemblies of God's saints for the humble expression of those who have come to speak of what the Lord has done dear friends it's not how much they were sad why

[30:39] I can put it like this were it but the tiniest speck of gold as long as it were gold that's all we want did they say but two words if there was a holy sabre about them that's all we need when our late dear member of the HAL now long in glory dear George Dall came before the church he came at the age I think he was 84 but he said only a matter of very few words that the church gave him and he actually said this I can't say that was our faith before you but this I can say and there was a sabre I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and you know that's gold does I believe in all I have I believe that's gold it has the echo of truth about it all we need and many we heard for dear friends joining Studley recently four of the aged members of the Dester

[31:53] Holmes speaking and we knew there was a measure of as rightly so of anxiety and concern and voice and we knew that some of them felt they hadn't spoken what they would like to have spoken and yet what was the measure of the listening of the church it was there the savor of the reality of it not to great length of words and the one that was treated was the one that was shorter it's like something which is concentrated it may be very few drops but if it's concentrated and always we speak of a living reality of what God and what we wish to hear and he took this today and I've heard several young ones lately in the last year or two come forward who've been able to speak just a little but how sweet they had known the gift of God even eternal life there was life in their soul they spoke of a living experience a living knowledge of a living God they had a living hope a living faith what a remarkable thing it is when what appears to be dead like the seed we sow suddenly springs and streams what a remarkable thing if we know those who are walking in darkness and death in their souls in the days of unregeneracy and yet suddenly the Lord works and life is manifested in their hearts what a precious thing we desire to see it in the churches it's not it's not a lot of words all how many today are taken in by word it's union living union and you see it's same as in this it's union to Christ

[34:20] God dear children who feel union to Christ fulfill union to one another all they may live long and a distance from him and yet they know him and you see Peter was like that he manifested the life of God in his soul thou art the Christ he fell into blasphemy and sin but he went out and wept bitterness and manifested life Judas went out and hung himself Peter went to Galilee for those lovely words of life Lord they are knowing that I love you all to hear you I see you my dear friends I tell you here tonight there is something ahead of you to pray for it's before the the rising generation they have to be agonized over wrestled for pleaded for and we want to know what we're looking for we're looking for divine work the mighty work of majesty and glory which will bring them out of death into his marvellous life and save them from these awful ways in which they're earning fun which we all have earned that they may be the possessors of this precious gift that they may be manifest in the thanks of God that we have yet raised up in the churches those who pray

[36:07] I have sat at the church meetings of late and seen the dear younger ones brought in and then listened to their prayer oh how sacred how blessed how sweet to hear their prayers in the house of God and I watch and wait for many more who will be able their testimonies their testimonies Jesus taught me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God he to save my soul from danger and to pose this precious life oh to hear it from their lips oh may we ever have grace and may that sacred grace be given in the church of God that this blessed gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord be known in our hearts be known in the hearts of our loved ones be sacredly manifested in the church of

[37:14] God and that there be those which indeed there are as the Lord has not left us utterly who shall come one of the city and two of her family with none to pray for to Zion the stranger may be brought in and oh may we be brought to know the solemnities of this truth that is here before us this night and be brought into that holy heavenly activity of prayer to wrestle and wrestle and wrestle again the Lord appear in Zion I would close with this thought there is heavenly activity in pulpit and in pew Moses' arms were held up by Aaron and her in the day of battle the apostle Paul said brethren pray for us it is prayer in the pew which brings power in the pulpit

[38:20] I'm convinced by I can tell you this quite faithfully I can tell where the prayer is when I come to preach I go tomorrow if all as well to watch the body of my dear friend that's sacred Milroy Smith stayed in the ground many a time have I preached in that thanks to himself and his wife only two of them in that little chapel but I convinced so to many of the Lord to me a certain prayer in that chapel I felt liberty in that chapel I was blessed in that chapel it had a savour about him he was a god who prayed GOD

[39:23]  GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD PINE GOD