The Wages of Sin
In Deuteronomy 30:19 God warns the people through Moses “I call heaven and earth
to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and
cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live”. Galatians 6:7-
8 says it this way “be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows,
that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap
corruption, but he that sows, that shall he also reap”. You will hear many people
saying that they are the way they are because they inherited it from their parents. I
know that you have heard of the generational curse. It is true that what your parents
do, the child can also do, because they form the same habits; but the choice is up to
you. Joshua and Caleb is a good example of this, even though there parents and all
of Israel wouldn’t go into the promise land, there believed God and went in. The Bible
in Deuteronomy 5:9 is often read without verse 10. “you shall not bow down yourself
to them, nor serve them for I the Lord Yahweh your God , visiting the iniquity to the
third and fourth generation of them that hate Me. And showing mercy to thousands
of them that love Me and keep My commandments”. We see this in II Kings 21;19-22
and 22;1-2 Amon did evil as his father Manasseh did, then you read that Josiah
reigned and although his father Amon did evil, he did that which was right in the sight
of the Lord Yahweh.
Romans 6:23 “for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord”. Man is redeemed from sin to a new life in Christ. The wages
of sin is the direction that sin draws you into (James 1:14-15) “every man is tempted,
when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it
brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death”. The Bible teaches
that we are more than physical creatures, we are also spiritual beings. For man
therefore, physical death does not mean the end of existence but the end of life as
we know it and the transition to another dimension in which our conscious existence
continues. The Bible speaks of death in a threefold way; physical, spiritual and
eternal. Death itself is both the physical and spiritual sense. In the Genesis account
of the fall, both physical and spiritual death come as a result of sin (Romans 5:17-21)
“for if by one man’s (Adam) offence death reigned by one; much more they which
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One,
Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation, even so by the righteousness of One the free gift come upon all men
to justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so
by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered,
that the offence might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound. That as sin has reigned to death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ”.
Because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), all
people were spiritually dead-separated from God who is the source of spiritual life.
Jesus said in John 10:10 “the thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to
destroy, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more
abundantly”. Sin makes a person hate the light and despise the truth, it causes one
to break God’s laws and to become insensitive, to holy things. Everyone who has not
been redeemed by Christ is spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-3, Colossians 2:13).
Everything you do and say, is either drawing you to life or to death (Proverbs 11:19)
“as righteousness tends to life, so he that pursues evil pursues it to his own death”;
(Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25) “there is a way which seems right to a man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death”. Wisdom says “for whoso finds me finds life, and shall
obtain favor of the Lord Yahweh. But he that sins against me, wrongs his own soul,
all they that hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:35-36). Colossians 3:17 warns us “and
whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God and the Father by Him”. Remember Proverbs 18:21 “death and life
are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof”.
Every day we make choices, let us strive to do what God would have us to do. We
know the will of God, because it is the Word of God.
Sermon by: Harriet Bond
Date: December 29, 2006