Eloved friends, welcome to the ministry of God's Holy Word and our continuation of that glorious subject, the glory of the cross. Tis our earnest prayer that God, the Holy Spirit, will feel home to many hearts the amazing results of the Savior's work which he accomplished by and through his death upon the cross. He provided forgiveness to remove the guilt of sin. He provided justification to remove the condemnation of sin. He provided redemption to deliver us from the bondage of sin. He provided reconciliation to restore us from the alienation of sin. How many things our sins have caused us to experience, but how wonderful that the work of Christ upon the cross has met all that we needed to bring us to God. We consider another blessing today as the result of the cross and our Savior's death. For little as we may realize it, our sins, they exposed us to great dangers, from which we needed to be rescued. Christ upon the cross, by his own death, has obtained salvation for us, for the opposite thought of salvation is peril or danger. But salvation through the cross of Christ, it means we can be saved from the dangers which we may face because of sins. First, let us consider briefly but thoroughly the wages of sin. In Romans chapter six in verse twenty three, The opening sentence declares, For the wages of sin is death. Now what does this actually mean? First of all, let us understand the meaning of death in the light of God's word. For in the Scriptures we need to understand its meaning. And there is a misconceived interpretation often and usually thought by many. But death in the Scripture never has the suggestion of cessation that is ceasing to exist. But it means separation. Let me repeat this. Separation is the scriptural meaning of death, not cessation according to the Word of God. But let us repeat the words. The wages. The inevitable reward or the penalty of sin is death. Therefore every one of us have earned, and we deserve these wages. But second, let us consider how the Scripture presents the thought of death and its meaning, and we can see it in a three-fold way, which we would now explain. First of all, commonly known to all of us, there is physical death. We mention this first, for we are more familiar with this. But what happens at physical death? Is it not the separation of the spirit and the soul, the immaterial part of mankind from his or her body? That immaterial part of all human beings is the actual real personality who lives in the body which God has made for our earthly habitation. But one phase of sin's penalty is physical death. For it is very clear from the word of God, death is passed upon all men, in that all have sinned. Briefly and concisely, physical death is one phase of sin's penalty. And it is the time when physical life ceases in the body, and the separation of the spirit and soul takes place. But second, There is another aspect of death that needs to be understood from the Scripture, and it could be called spiritual death. But let us clearly understand it and verify its significance from God's precious word. We quote in Ephesians chapter two, verse one, what Paul wrote to the believers at Ephesus, and he stated these words, You hath God quickened or made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now this describes the past condition of all who are saved, that before they were saved they were spiritually dead, meaning in heart and life they were separated from God morally and spiritually. Now let me illustrate this. From the story of Adam and Eve, where you find it recorded in the book of Genesis in the garden long ago, You remember that God said, in regard to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. But when you continue reading the book of Genesis, we find that Adam lived to be nine hundred and thirty years before he died physically. That was quite a long time afterward. But when he sinned, both he and Eve, they died spiritually. immediately. For did they not seek to hide from God when he came into the garden to fellowship with them in the cool of the day? Did not God ask, Adam, where art thou? Was there not a separation from God, all because of their sin? This was spiritual death. This was a spiritual and moral separation. which is true of every man, every woman, every boy, and every girl, who are still in their sins and away from God. Your sins and iniquities have separated you and your God wrote the prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel long ago. Isaiah fifty-nine in verse one. Yes, spiritual death is real. It is the result of our sins. We are separated from God by it. Now the third phase, an aspect of sins wages, is much more solemn. This is eternal. This is the final separation forever and ever of the unsaved when they shall be banished into everlasting punishment. Now let me read the word of God. Revelation chapter twenty-one in verse eight, whereby the Holy Spirit of the Apostle John has written, but the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, all liars shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And this is called the second death in contrast to what we know to be the physical death at the end of our lives. But yet may God help us to realize the solemnity of the eternal character of this death. It is everlasting. The Bible in no wise teaches what sometimes is called the doctrine of annihilation. meaning we cease to exist. Revelation chapter fourteen in verse eleven declares, Regarding the unsaved in that place of eternal woe, and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever. In Revelation chapter nineteen verse twenty, you have the first two occupants of the lake of fire. They are named in that verse. the beast and the false prophet. So wicked in their character they are, without ever going through the process of physical death, they are immediately cast alive. By our blessed Lord it is returned to the earth below. They are cast alive into a lake of fire, we read, burning with brimstone. And if you will read on into Revelation chapter twenty, and in verse ten, you will find that they are still there even after one thousand years of millennial reign upon the earth during the reign of the Lord Jesus has transpired. And we read that they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. My beloved with all solemnity and seriousness, What a terrible and eternal judgment will be the portion of all the unsaved. My beloved, we ask, will you not focus your heart and your mind if you are unsaved upon this final sentence of death? Oh, my beloved friend, ask yourself the question, where can I find salvation, deliverance from such a penalty, which I have fully earned? And I say humbly but earnestly, and confess it genuinely. Not one of us deserves to be rescued from what we have earned, the wages of sin. But, oh, I want you to listen in our closing moments regarding this terrible death. There will be the eternal separation from God for the lost. Listen to the precious, the priceless, the incomparable words of love. and of grace. They came from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ when he came into this world, saying, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Note that word, my beloved friend, in our text. Perish the connotation of this word in the original language. means that place of everlasting destruction where there is no end to the penalty of our sins were we to go there. It is the final result of sins' wages. Oh, my beloved friend, if never you have, we plead with you to come to the Savior, for he said, Whosoever believeth on him should not perish, and that word whosoever That means you. That means me. That means anyone else. If we believe upon him, we shall not perish. So, beloved, shall we not realize? There are dangers. The wages of sin is death. There is physical death. There is a spiritual death which is ours by nature before we are saved, or if we are still unsaved. But solemn? is the greatest of all judgments, and penalty, the lake of fire, the second death. But, beloved, this is where the glory of the cross comes in. Christ has died to save us from eternal hell. Blessed Father in the precious and the worthy name of the Lord Jesus, sanctify to the glory of our Saviour. The blessing of every saint, and the salvation of every sinner. Thy word in Jesus' name. Amen.