Penalty

Tonight we'll be doing lesson number seven, which is Penalty. Last week we talked about man's guilt, and that man's guilt was the desert of punishment or the desert of penalty. So what we're going to do tonight is kind of do a deep dive into penalty. What is its nature? What does it mean? And what are its implications to humanity? So let's start with Bible point number one.

Penalty is the necessary — that's the first blank. What does necessary mean?

Essential. Essential.

Required. Yes. Penalty is the necessary reaction of the holiness of God against sin.

God must deal with sin. He must punish it. It's the necessary reaction of the holiness of God.

Penalty is that pain or loss inflicted by the lawgiver — that's the second blank — lawgiver, on those who are in violation of His law. God must enact penalty on those who are in violation of His law, whether it's directly or indirectly. We'll be discussing that in points two and three.

Sin is intrinsically ill-deserving — that's the third blank. Ill-deserving. What we mean by that is sin must be punished because it's punishable. It's an abhorrence. It's an evil thing. We can't allow evil to exist. We cannot allow evil to go unchecked. And so it's intrinsically ill-deserving.

God never punishes the innocent. Those who are punished are guilty. They are sinners and that sin is ill-deserving. Penalty is always deserved by the transgressor.

Penalty is thus the exercise of God's perfect justice — the fourth blank.

God's justice is perfect, and it's always the exercise of His perfect justice. In this world, we do not have perfect justice. We can all point to different abominations, so to speak — things that go unpunished or things that are punished wrongly. You may recall last year there was a lady in Britain, a devout Christian, who went across the street — not in front of it, not blocking access — but across the street from an abortion clinic, and she stood silently praying and the police arrested her.

Just for praying in public. She wasn't protesting or anything else. Finally this year, England's Commonwealth actually awarded her a judgment because they acknowledged that they had wrongly arrested her. They had wrongly penalized her. We see that happen. Sometimes the guilty go off scot-free. Sometimes the innocent are punished. But not in God's penalty. When He punishes, it's always deserved. Look at Psalm 9:16.

"The Lord is known by the judgment He executes." God is a just judge. He is a righteous judge. There is no unrighteousness in Him. No one can say I've been unfairly treated, I've been unjustly punished by God. So look over on the back.

Look at Ezekiel 36:16-19. We're going to look at a second part of this chapter in just a little bit when we get to point four. But let me read this part here.

"Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds." Isn't that the very essence of sin? Doing your own ways and your own deeds. "To me, their way was like the uncleanliness of a woman in her customary impurity." He's saying, yeah, they were unclean, defiled. "Therefore, I poured out my fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, for their idols with which they had defiled it." Was Israel innocent?

No, they had shed blood. They had defiled the land with idolatry. Verse 19: "So I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed throughout the countries. I judged them according to their ways and their deeds." Their ways and their deeds were evil.

And punishment is the necessary reaction of holiness against evil, against sin. Okay? Look at Romans 1:32. Speaking of those who have a hard heart towards God and who reject God, it says, "Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death." These are folks who know that God is their judge. And they know that what they are doing is deserving of death. It says, "Not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them." That rebellion is undeterred. They know they deserve death. They know they deserve penalty, but they do it anyway. And they approve of those who join them in the rebellion against God. Flip back over on the front.

The application is this. Does God ever mistakenly punish the innocent?

Does He?

Never.

Exactly. He's perfect. He knows us intimately. There's nothing that's hid from His eyes. You know, every now and then we'll read true stories, and it happens where there's a man who's on death row or he's been in jail for 30 years. And then they're able to do some DNA sequencing that they didn't have available at that time, and they found out that they actually had an innocent man in jail. Well, God never makes that mistake, right? All those who are punished are deserving of that punishment. Bible point number two.

Natural — that's the first blank. Natural consequences of transgressions are part of the penalty of sin.

When we sin, there are natural consequences to that. That's part of the penalty of sin. Toby and I grew up in Texas and in our hometown, everywhere you go, you don't have to drive more than 10 minutes and you see a cow pasture with cows out there. You know, they're everywhere. You go to church, you pass by cows. You go to school, go to the mall, you're going to pass by cows, right? And when you're young and dumb, there are challenges to a young man's bravery of hopping the fence and going and seeing if you can slap the cattle on the backside and get back over the fence and live to tell, right? There are stories where that does not go very well, right?

There are natural consequences to sin. The old saying — you mess with the bull and what do you do? You get the horns, right? A more modern equivalent to that is, you play stupid games and you win stupid prizes, right? There's a natural backlash against our sin, natural consequences to that. Sensual sins are punished in the deterioration and corruption of the body.

Do not some sins actually corrupt our body?

Do they not?

I know a man who now is a born-again Christian. He's turned his life around, but at what cost? As a young man, God had blessed him with a beautiful wife, then a beautiful daughter,

but he struggled with alcohol.

She kept thinking he'll get better, but he got worse.

After he was one of these men who was an angry drunk, and after the abuse, she left him. So he lost his wife and lost his daughter.

That spiraled him even further downward. He started drinking more heavily. He ended up wrapping his car around a tree one night, coming home in a terrible accident. He was in a hospital for almost a year between the hospital and the rehab facility. When he came out, he was in a wheelchair and disabled. He now lives with one of his family members, a sister who helps take care of him. He's not able to provide for himself anymore. He's suffering the natural consequences of his sin, right? His liver is shot on top of that. He has anything that could have been busted up in that crash — whatever was ruptured was busted up. Now, it did turn him to the Lord. Finally he repented and he has great faith. And he reads the Bible and he prays. So praise God for that. But look at the cost of sin, right? It has a toll on our bodies, right? It has a toll on our physicality. Mental and spiritual sins deteriorate and corrupt the soul.

That's the third blank — soul. Just as sin can corrupt the body, cannot sin corrupt our soul?

Have you ever met someone who's consumed by anger?

Or consumed by bitterness and unforgiveness? What it does to them, right? It twists your soul, right? You can carry a chip on your shoulder and have that hatred in your heart and it twists you, right? Those are what we call the natural consequences of sin.

In this way, sin is self-detecting and self-tormenting. Tormenting is the fourth blank.

Sin has a way of punishing you, right? It's self-detecting because it becomes evident to all in your life.

Think of the man who lost his wife and child and then lost his health. The whole community knew that, right? It becomes self-detecting and self-tormenting. He lives in regret for those wasted years of his life, right?

That's what sin does. So it's not something to trifle with, because the penalty takes place in this life through natural consequences.

I know a family up where I live in Mount Dora — goes to church, godly family. They had an 18-year-old daughter who got some pills from one of her friends. It was laced with fentanyl. She took one, just one, in her bedroom and she never woke up, right? Crushed their family.

The consequences of sin are real, right? It's not to be trifled with. Look at Psalm 9:16.

"The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands."

We're snared by the work of our own hands. Our sin, again, is self-detecting and self-tormenting. Flip over on the back.

Look at Proverbs 5:22.

"His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin."

This entrapment, this catching up, is part of the punishment, part of the natural consequences of our sin, right? You can be bound by your sins. Application is this. Describe some natural consequences of sin — that's the blank. What are some natural consequences of sin that you can observe? Maybe from reading the headlines or maybe your own self, families, or the community. Hannah?

You can lose your job. Yes, there have been many people — maybe they've embezzled or maybe they have committed a crime — and you end up losing your job.

Broken marriages. Exactly right.

For children to suffer for the sins of the father and mother, it happens sometimes, right? What are other natural consequences? Grief. Suicide.

Sin can lead to other sins.

When you wound others, right? Isn't that part of the consequence? Because our sin doesn't just punish us. It ends up punishing those that we love the most, right? It can drive a wedge between us and others and engender bitterness. Exactly. As Christians, we've said things that run through our mind from 10, 20, 30 years ago. It's like, "I wish I hadn't said that." But you can't take them back, right?

Let me give you another example from Scripture. You don't have to turn there, but I'd like to read it to you. This is an example of the natural consequence of sin.

Proverbs 6:27: "Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned?" Can you play with sin?

No. It says, "Can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared? So is he who goes into his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her shall not be innocent. People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving. Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold. He may have to give up all the substance of his house. Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul. Wounds and dishonor will he get, and his reproach will not be wiped away, for jealousy is a husband's fury. Therefore, he will not spare in the day of vengeance, and he will accept no recompense, nor will he be appeased, though you give him many gifts."

Penalty is self-detecting. It's self-punishing. It's part of the natural consequences of our sin.

Bible point number three. Natural consequences are only partly expressive of sin's penalty. In other words, the natural consequences of sin are only part of the penalty of sin. Okay? God is immanent in this world, and His laws that hold this world together — this natural action and reaction — those are just His habits, right? He's behind all that, even though you don't think of it that way. But God is not just immanent; He's transcendent, right? And He's above and beyond this world, supervising everything, judging all things. All judgment has been committed to the Son, has it not?

The greater part of penalty is the personal — that's the first point — the personal reaction of God against sin. It's not just these what would seem to be natural causes. It's the personal reaction of God against sin.

I mentioned going out and slapping the backside of a bull. That might be dangerous, but you know what's far more dangerous?

Running into a landowner when you're trespassing on his property.

There in Texas, they don't take that lightly. They might think you're a cattle rustler. They might think you're up to no good. And they might bury your body somewhere it'll never be found, or feed you to the hogs, turn you into compost — that stuff happens, right? I would much rather face an angry bull than an angry landowner any day.

The greater part of penalty is the personal reaction of God against sin. Penalty is not just a mere consequence of law, but it is to fall into the hands — that's the second blank — the hands of the lawgiver. You don't want to fall into the hands of an angry God.

Penalty is a personal expression of the holy wrath — that's the third blank — wrath of God.

No penalty is more dreadful than being abhorred by God — God is the fourth blank. Let me reread that. Penalty is not just a mere consequence of law, but it's to fall into the hands of the lawgiver. Penalty is a personal expression of the holy wrath of God. No penalty is more dreadful than being abhorred by God.

To understand the divine feeling against sin, we can look to Scripture, can we not?

Can we not see that in Christ's upbraiding of those who were trafficking in the temple — buying and selling, right? He flipped over the tables and made whips and chased them out. That's not a gentle and meek God, right? It's an angry God who's angry at those who would pervert the house of God.

We see God's holy wrath in the denunciation of the Pharisees, right? Those who would lay heavy burdens on others but not lift a finger to alleviate those burdens.

We see God's feeling towards sin.

And His weeping over Jerusalem, right? He sent the prophets and they didn't listen to them. And He cries over them because He's done everything He could to show them grace and mercy, and yet they were obstinate and they were unwilling, right?

We see God's feeling towards sin in His agony in Gethsemane, do we not?

Because He went to the cross for our sins, right?

He, the lawgiver, became the sacrifice, right?

So that gives us a little bit of a feeling, or an understanding, of the way that God views sin.

We often are very flippant about sin. "God will forgive me. It's okay. I'm not as bad as Shawn is, you know? No, I look pretty good compared to that. So I'm all right, you know?" We compare ourselves to others. But that's not the way we should look at sin at all. We should try to see sin as God sees it.

Probably one of the best ways to help picture that is to think of someone innocent — maybe an elderly person who can't take care of themselves or a young infant who can't take care of themselves — and think of someone who would do them wrong, someone who would take advantage of them or harm them.

And that will give you a little bit of a taste of the wrath of God against sin. The one who is harmless, the one who's a spotless lamb of God — when we sin, we tread and trample His blood underneath our feet, right?

Look at the Bible verse for number three. Jeremiah 44:4, God says, "Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate." He's pleading with man not to transgress, not to take on idols, not to rebel against Him. A God who pleads with you not to take sin lightly. Flip over on the back.

Jeremiah 44:5-6, and then verse 11, says, "But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods." Despite being sent prophets, they continued to engage in idolatry. Verse 6: "So my fury and my anger was poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. And they are wasted and desolate as it is this day. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I will set my face against you for catastrophe and for the cutting off of all Judah.'"

And in the Jewish depiction of God, the most glorious thing is to see His face, to see His smile — right? — called the beatific vision, to see God's gracious love, for Him to look in your eyes. And don't we do the same when you're a child? Think back to when you're a child — just a glance at your mom and dad's eyes, to see their approval, to see their love — that would lift your soul, right? And we all want to see that from God. But here He says, "I will set my face against you for catastrophe and for the cutting off of all Judah." That's a scary thing, to be an object of God's abhorrence. Hebrews 10:30-31: "For we know Him who said, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God."

So that's the chief part of penalty — it's a personal reaction of God against sin. The application is this: do you take sin — that's the blank — as seriously as God does?

It's a rhetorical question.

None of us do, right?

Look to the cross, right?

Because in the cross, not only do we see the greatest revelation of the love of God, but we also see the greatest revelation of the wrath of God in the cross, right?

That He would spare not His own Son.

Bible point number four: penalty is neither essentially reformative nor preventative. Let me explain that and unpack that real quick. It's neither reformative nor preventative. We often sometimes talk — at least in our worldly system of justice — about sin being punished, or a criminal being punished, as hope for reformation. Hope that they can be changed and become better by that punishment. But that's not the prime reason for punishment, okay?

If it was for you to be reformed — if that was the reason behind it, for you to turn around and do better — what about the hardened sinner who continues to sin and he never gets better, and he continues to do worse and worse sins? Because what does the Bible say? We read just a couple weeks ago that the ungodly spiral downward, right? Then would it be just to punish them? If the punishment isn't reforming them, logically, you would have to punish them less to be just, if that was the reason behind punishment — to reform someone. That's not the reason. Nor is it preventative. Nor is it meant as a deterrent. It can be a deterrent secondarily, but that's not the prime reason for punishment — to act as a deterrent. Sometimes maybe you've heard someone say, "Well, they were punished, so they made an example of them, so no one would ever do that again," right? Well, then are they really being punished for their own sins, or are they being punished for society's good, right? That's an unjust punishment, right? You should be punished only for your own sins, right? Not for another's.

Penalty is neither essentially reformative nor preventative. Penalty is primarily the vindication of the character of the lawgiver.

It is there to uphold the character of God. When we say vindication — if you look that up in the dictionary, what that word means is to prove right, to prove just. It's to show that God is innocent. He's the one that's wronged by sin, not man, right? So penalty is primarily the vindication of the very character of God. God must always vindicate Himself or He ceases to be holy.

Penalty is vindicative, not vindictive — that's the first point. Vindictive is different from vindicative. Vindicative means to be proved innocent, to be proved right, to be shown just. But what does vindictive mean?

To act out of revenge. Yes, malice — to get your pound of flesh, right? That's not what punishment's about. It's not vindictive, but it's vindicative. The wrath of God is calm — that's the second blank.

Man's wrath — we fly off the handle, right? When you think of someone who's enraged, you think of someone who raises their voice and throws things and just goes berserk. God's wrath is calm and judicial, devoid of all passion and caprice. Caprice means not to be flippant. Allah is a capricious god — he may take you one day, he may kick you out the next day.

Depends on how he feels at that particular moment. Not our God, right? Our God is altogether just, altogether holy. Well, and He is angry — He's angry with the wicked every day. What's scary is that He's always fullness of wrath against sin, and all of His attributes are infinite. So His wrath is infinite. His wrath is omnipotent. His wrath is omnipresent.

That's scary.

It expresses His eternal and unchangeable holiness — that's the third blank.

It's an expression of His holiness. Without penalty, there would be no government, and God would not be God. Penalty will vindicate God's character, though not always in our time — the fourth blank is time. We often are impatient. And when we see the wicked running amok, when we see the oppressors taking advantage of folks, we just want to squash them like a bug right then, right there, right?

But vindication takes place in God's time. Sometimes it may be for a reason that that apparent injustice — what appears to be unjust to us — is happening, that we are not privy to, right? Maybe it's for His glory. Maybe He's going to rescue that person in a mighty way. Or maybe that person is being chastised, actually, and we're not aware of it. Maybe great redemption is going to come about. We can't always understand God's ways and times, but His perfect justice will be done. Okay? He's not slack concerning His promises. Look at Ezekiel 28:22.

"Thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I am against you, O Sidon. I will be glorified in your midst. They shall know that I am the Lord when I execute judgments in her and am hallowed in her.'" He's saying that His actual judgments against Sidon are an expression of His holiness,

that He will be hallowed. He'll be exalted. He'll be lifted up in His judgment of evil. Do we not praise a good judge, right? "Wow, that's a good judge. He's not like the other judges who lets the rapists go free and who lets the murderers walk. That's a good judge. He throws the book at them, right? He declares justice and he does it rightly." That's who our God is, and it brings Him glory to execute justice. Flip up on the back.

It's the second part of Ezekiel 36, verses 20 through 23. Speaking of Israel, when He sent them into captivity, when He sent them into dispersion: "When they came to the nations wherever they went, they profaned My holy name." They didn't learn from their punishment. "When they said of them, 'These are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of His land.'" People mocked them. "But I am concerned for My holy name, which the house of Israel has profaned among the nations wherever they went." Israel may not have been concerned about the name of God, but God is. And His holiness is the upholding of His name, is it not?

"Therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: 'I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My great name — I'll set it apart, I'll make it holy — which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord,' says the Lord, 'when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.'" And He goes on to prophesy that He's going to take their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. He's going to put His Spirit in them, and they're going to be transformed, right? And they will bring God praise. But it would take their entire nature being changed, right? It's only in Christ that we can do that.

Flip back over on the front.

The application for number four.

When you punish — if you exact discipline as a parent, as a grandparent, or as a boss at work — do you punish to get even, or to promote godliness? The first blank is even, or to promote godliness.

It's easy as parents to get frustrated with our children, especially when they get a little bit older and they get to be teenagers and they get to be sassy sometimes.

They may say something really ugly and hurtful towards you. And as a parent, sometimes flesh will want to lash right back out at them, right? Get even.

No. We are to hope to promote godliness, right, when we punish, because that's how God's punishment works, right? It's the vindication of His character. We want to see godly character instilled in our children, right? So we tread lightly and with grace. Bible point number five: punishment is essentially different from chastisement.

We often throw those words together as if they're the same, right? Punishment, chastisement. No, they're essentially different. Whereas chastisement proceeds from love — that's the first blank —

punishment proceeds not from love, but from justice.

God's justice is offended by sin.

Martin Luther said this: "God has two rods — one of mercy and goodness, and another of anger and fury." That first rod is chastisement.

That second rod is penalty.

The Bible tells us in Psalm 89:14 that the foundation of God's throne — it's built or established on righteousness and judgment, okay? Righteousness and justice are the very foundation of the throne. What is righteousness? But it's God's rewarding and blessing of the good, right?

But what is justice? It's His execution of penalty on nonconformity to His holy perfection, right? He must punish sin. It's a necessary thing. Look at Hebrews 12:5-6. "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him, for whom the Lord" — what? — "loves He chastens." Love is the motivation for chastening, right? Justice is the motivation for penalty.

"And He scourges every son whom He receives." It hurts. It may feel like penalty, but the motivation is different, right?

Chastisement proceeds from the very love of God, whereas penalty comes from an altogether different place. It comes from His justice, okay? Flip over on the back.

Psalm 2:12: "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him." What would you rather do — trust God or be His adversary? (Laughter) Hebrews 12:29: "For our God is a consuming fire."

Flip back over on the front. The application is this, and I want you to think about this. Is there any condemnation — that's the blank — any condemnation for the believer? Is there any condemnation for the believer?

No. What Bible verse would you tell me for that, Ken? (Laughter) How about Romans 8:1? Anyone know that one?

"There's therefore a little condemnation for those who are in Christ." Is that what you said?

There's some condemnation? What? No condemnation. On the cross, Christ paid and made all penal satisfaction to the Father for His children.

There is no penalty for the Christian from God's hands. No penalty at all. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. God is not treating you with justice, because if He did, you would have it bad, right? Because we're all sinners. He treats you out of love as His adopted child. So while it may smack you on the rear side like it's being punished as if coming from a matter of justice, it's not. Chastisement is based in God's love, because Christ has paid the price. When He says, "It is finished" — it is finished. Some Christians go through life with this understanding that God is out to get them. It's like, "If I don't confess every little sin, and I don't confess it enough, and I don't feel that forgiveness enough, then God's going to exact penalty on me. He's going to get me."

That's not the love of God, right? Yes, indeed, He will chasten you, but He's chastening His own — those whom He loves, right? Bible point number six: physical — that's the first blank — physical death is part of the penalty of sin. It's part of the penalty of sin. Remember, "In the day you eat it, you shall surely" — what? — "die." We read last week, "The soul that sins shall" — what? — "die."

Physical death is a separation of the soul — that's the second blank — from the body.

Our soul and our body were never meant to be separated, right? God created us — remember — in two parts: both body and soul, an immaterial part and a material part.

Physical death is a separation of the soul from the body. It includes all those temporal evils and physical sufferings which result from disturbing the original harmony between body and soul. In other words, physical death is not just when we do physically die and our body is separated from our soul, but we are all dying right now, are we not?

Do we not all have various ailments? Some of us more than others, right?

Arthritis, migraine headaches — there are so many of them that I know are way worse than that, that many of you have today. But part of the decaying of our body is due to the physical part of the penalty, which is death, right? When we have sickness, ultimately, we can blame no one but ourselves, right? Because part of original sin means that we participate in Adam and Eve's rebellion, and then we are deserving of death, right? So our bodies decay. We're over the hill and sliding down fast.

Genesis 3:19: "Look what happened after the fall. 'In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.'" It doesn't sound very good, does it? It means you're going to sweat, you're going to toil till the day you die.

We often talk about the golden years of retirement, right? One day maybe we can retire and we can sit out on the beach and watch the ocean go by. How often does that really ever happen, right? Our bodies don't allow us to do it; maybe we don't have the resources for that.

Things happen. There have been many people who worked their entire life for retirement, and they retire, and the next day they drop dead, or they get a cancer diagnosis, and they never can enjoy that, right?

"For out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

So this original harmony of the body and soul is disrupted by sin, and it's the working out of death within us. We are dying as we live. Flip over on the back.

Psalm 90:7-9 is a psalm of Moses — the only psalm that we know Moses wrote — and it talks about their wandering in the wilderness. And what was that generation condemned to do but to die in the wilderness? To walk around in this dusty, barren land without going into the promised land, right? Look what Moses says: "For we have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. For all our days have passed away in Your wrath. We finish our years like a sigh."

So part of the penalty of sin is physical death. Application is this: is the Christian free from physical death? The first blank is free, the second blank is death. Is the Christian free from physical death?

No. Unless Christ comes, or unless we're translated like Enoch and Elijah, we're going to die, right? It's the only way out of this world. The Christian is not free from physical death, but we do have a wondrous, glorious hope of the resurrection, right? That last trumpet sound — our bodies are going to rise from the dead and be reunited with our souls, and all things are going to be made new, right? So we have that glorious hope of the resurrection. Death is not the end for us.

Bible point number seven: spiritual death — that's the first blank — spiritual death is the chief part of the penalty of sin.

It's the main part, even more so than physical death. Physical death can be awful; pain can be excruciating. But far worse is spiritual death. It is a separation of the soul from God. The third blank is soul, or the second blank is soul, the third blank is God. Just as physical death is the separation of the body and the soul,

spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. God is the one who gives us life, right? He's the one who gives us breath. He's the one who gives us abundant life. If we didn't have God, we'd have nothing, right?

It is the absence — that's the fourth blank — the absence of that which constitutes the true life of the soul, the presence and favor of God. You can be wracked with pain physically.

You can be in a very bad way, but knowing that God loves you, that His favor is upon you, that He sees you as His own son — "This is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased" — that will sustain you in even the most dire of circumstances, right? To have the favor of God. Well, spiritual death is separation from that. It's the absence of the presence and the favor of God. This death includes pain of conscience, loss of peace, and sorrow of spirit, which results from disturbing the normal relationship between the soul and God.

Think about Adam and Eve, right? As soon as they sinned, they felt shame.

They realized they were naked and they hid from God, right? They sewed fig leaves to make a covering for themselves. That's what separation from God does, right? It separates from all that's good and all that's gracious and all that's loving. Apart from God, there is no reason to live. So what is physical life and wealth and health, if you have not God? You have nothing.

Flip over on the back.

Ephesians 2:1 says, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins." Well, is that speaking of spiritual death or physical death? "You were dead." Is he talking about people who were dead and God reanimated physically?

We are naturally dead because of what Adam and Eve did, right? And our participation in that means we're separated from God. And as Christians, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. The "you" He made alive, right? Isn't that what Ephesians tells us? He quickened us by His grace.

John 5:24-25, the Lord Jesus says, "Most assuredly I say to you, that he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." God's words are life, right? They quicken us. "Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." That's the glory of the gospel. When we take the gospel, we see the greatest miracle, and that's the dead coming to life — the spiritually dead being awakened to the glorious presence of God, to know God's favor where they had only known His wrath, to know life where they had only known death.

Flip back over on the front. Now, Matthew 8:22. Jesus says to a man He had called, and the man says, "Well, let me first go and bury my father." He was making an excuse. Jesus says, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." He's talking about the spiritually dead burying their own physically dead, right? He's telling them, apart from Me there's only death; with Me is life. The application is this. How can a dead man find eternal life?

How can a dead man find eternal life? Where can we turn to find life? Hannah?

The Bible, right? The gospel. What would be a verse — if you had only one verse to share with someone that would talk about having eternal life — what verse would you use, Hannah?

John 3:16 is a great one. Excellent.

Bible point number eight.

Eternal death may be regarded as the culmination and completion of spiritual death.

Now, we're going to talk about this in detail when we get to eschatology, when we talk about eternal punishment in hell. But here we're just going to go over it briefly in concept. Eternal death is simply the culmination. It's the completion of spiritual death. It is the eternal separation of man from God's gracious presence, and the eternal manifestation of God's holy wrath. The first blank is eternal. The second blank is separation. The third blank is wrath. It's the eternal separation — forever separated from God's gracious presence — and always joined to His wrathful presence. That is the second death. That is eternal death.

This death is only escaped — that's the fourth blank — only escaped by union with Christ. It is only when we're united to the very life of this world, to Christ, who is the light of the world, who is the way, the truth, and the life — we're united to Him through faith — that we can escape the spiritual death, this eternal death.

Look what Jesus says in Matthew 10:28: "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Who is able? Who's the "Him" that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell?

God. Exactly right. God is the judge of this world, not the devil. Sometimes people think of the devil with his pitchfork, ruling over hell, maniacally laughing. He's in the pit, right? He will be judged by Christ. Christ is the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Flip over on the back.

Matthew 25:41: "Then He will say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'"

Look at 1 Corinthians 15:22, speaking of our union with Christ: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made" — what? — "alive." Then lastly, John 5:28-29 here on the back. Jesus says, "Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation."

The application is this. Should a Christian fear death and eternity? The first blank is death. The second blank is eternity. Should a Christian fear death and eternity?

No, right? No. No.

I heard R.C. Sproul — you probably heard him, remember, before he died — he was asked about death. He says, "I don't fear death, but I do fear dying." In other words, he realized that the dying part could indeed very well be painful, and that's a natural thing. But he doesn't actually fear the death part, because for the Christian, when we pass from this world — to be absent from the body is to be what? Present. Present with the Lord, right? That is our entrance into glory at that point. Then our faith will be made sight, right? Now we walk by faith — we walk sight unseen — but there we'll be able to see Him as He is. What a glorious day that will be. So for the Christian, because there is no condemnation, there is no penalty anymore for the Christian, death is actually a pathway to blessing, right? Because that's the day when we will be with all the saints and with Christ our Savior.