FROM THE PULPIT
Gateway to Heaven Church.org
THE WAGES OF SIN
As I gaze out of my window, I see glorious sunshine. Apart
from the buzzing of the a/c unit, it is quiet and peaceful. There is no sounds
of raindrops, or thunder, no flashes of lightening. There are no sounds of gun fire, mortar fire
or bombs exploding; it is as they say, all quiet on the home front.
The calendar on my laptop says Sunday August 17, 2014 and I
think to myself, I can hardly believe it. I can hardly believe it was not just
yesterday when we were singing Noel, and it was December 2013; but even more incredulous
is that my vacation time from June 6, is all spend and tomorrow, August 18 I
will return to my labor; that my long vacation has turned into a short
vacation; it is over.
Hanging on the wall of my bedroom in front of me is a
picture; a picture of my wife Elsa and me that we took just 1 year before she
passed. It was on a Sunday morning just
like this when we went on a love boat ride, promising to do it again, neither
of us knowing in the faintest way, what the future had in store for us. That
was seven years ago and again, it seems like yesterday.
So I ask myself, where did the time go, or rather where has
it gone? When we ride a car, a train, a bus, a plane, we can hear the noisesome
revving of the engine, and feel the movement of motion. But old father time is noiseless and
motionless. It does not give us any warning or sign of its going or coming, no
signal of its passing; it just flows inexorably on. We go to bed it is here; and we wake up it is
gone. Such is the nature of time. But
where is it going?
Thinking of tomorrow, I know where I am going or rather
where I plan to go; to work; and why work? Well because I hope to receive
wages. Yes I do lots of charitable work;
but tomorrow, I do expect to receive some wages for the work I am going to do,
which brings me, howbeit a long way round, to the point I was leading up to all
along; that during our life’s journey we are all engaged in another kind of
work. The fact is we are all tenants on Almighty God’s creation, and as such,
we are called upon to work for the Landlord, the Creator of it all; and
eventually we will receive our reward, our wages.
Unlike the work we do for a living, this work we do for our
dying. The work that determines our
wages after death. The work we do for God, good works or the works we do for
Satan, sinful works. And it is this work that determines the kind of wages we
receive; the type of reward we receive. We can do good works and get the reward
of eternal life with Christ, or do evil, that is to say sinful works, and
receive the reward of eternal death and hell; and so it is written, “The wages
of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord.” (Rom. 6:23)
Were it not for clocks, and watches, and calendars, and
other time keeping devices, time would just keep rolling on unawares and many
of us would have no idea what time it is, what day or week or month or year it
is; but we have the means of keeping track of time; and we see how quickly the
years pass. We see the sunrise each morning and we see the sun set every
evening; so apart from time keeping/measuring devices we know that time is
marching on; so consciously or unconsciously, we know that time is carrying us
forward to that time that moment when we will be called upon to give an account
of our lives, and to receive our wages according to we have done good or done
evil; for at that time, whether we like them or not, we will receive our wages.
