Well, how do we get tricked into sinning? Tricked into sinning? Yes, that's the question on the table today, and the answer is found in Romans chapter 6, verses 22 to 23, as we will hear in a sermon clip from Pastor John two decades ago. This clip was sent in to us by Gabriela, a listener to the podcast who lives in Sweden.

She writes this, that quote, "The following sermon clip has been very helpful for me in understanding the nature of sin and the true freedom we have in Christ. Living as a Christian in probably the most secular country in the world, the concept of being a slave in a culture that seems free and independent is very controversial.

This sermon gave me the tools I needed to reach some unbelievers in my life." End quote. Incredible. Well, here's a clip from Pastor John's sermon back in the year 2000, sent to us by Gabriela in Sweden. Here's the clip. Nobody sins out of duty. You only sin because the master makes it look so appealing, so pleasant to do his bidding and to keep his will and do his commands.

So when we obey sin, it feels free. It doesn't feel like earning wages. My guess is if you're here in this room right now and you're outside Christ, you're not a believer and you're hearing me say that belonging to the slave master's sin is like earning wages. You're saying to yourself, "It doesn't feel like that to me.

Feels free. I'm doing what I want to do and it feels good when I do it. That doesn't feel like going to work." So why does Paul call it wages? If sin rules over his slaves like that, why does he call it wages? Two reasons. One, wages deplete life.

They do for you. That's why you want to get paid, right? You don't put in 40, 50, 60 hours a week and say, "No cost to me. I didn't lose anything." You want your money and you ought to get your money because you were depleted. Time was taken away from you.

Energy was taken away from you. Thought was taken away from you. Life was taken away from what might have been doing other things and you invested it in that employer's cause and now you want some restoration of the depletion called wages and that's the way sin is. And he's got it all concealed.

He's got it all concealed. It's like a Dracula who develops a magic potion which he gives to his victims so that every time they give a pint of blood, they get a high. And so he comes and says, "Let me have your blood. You'll get a high." And they will.

And when they get the high, they say, "See, it feels good. I'm not earning wages here. I'm not being depleted here. I'm receiving a high." And all the while, your life is being drained away. The wages of sin is death. You get depleted. It's death now, little by little.

Can't feel it. If he keeps you deceived and in the end, all you get is the end of your life from sin. He never pays anything like restoration. He's a deceiver. So the first reason why he calls it wages is that it's like wages. Sin - every time you sin, you lose.

Every time you sin, you are depleted. You're drawn out. And it goes and it goes. And in the end, it will all go. And there will be left one drop of blood in you. And your high will end and never come again. The other reason is because when you obey sin, you get exactly what you deserve, like wages.

Death will be like wages. It's a strange way to describe death. Wages, benefits, benefits, insurance and retirement and whatever else, major medical. The benefits, what are they? Death. That's your benefits in relationship with this master. They're all summed up in one word, death. And you deserve them. He's a cruel master and a deceiver.

And oh, how we should hate him. Do you hate him? Or do you love him? Has he tricked you into loving him? Loving him. Jesus came into the world and says, "And men love darkness rather than light." They loved him. Do you love your master? Your liar, your deceiver, your depleter, your non-pay-upper who's got you enslaved?

Do you love him? Or do you love God and hate him and fight him like this chapter says you're supposed to do? Let's go to the last third contrasting pair. Death versus eternal life. The wages of sin is death. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So the ultimate summary of the wage here of sin that he pays is death. And the ultimate summary of the gift here that God gives and doesn't pay is eternal life. And if the life is eternal in contrast with death, the death must be conceived of as eternal as well.

And we could go to numerous texts in Paul to show that that is in fact the case. And right here, oh how the parallel breaks down between slave master sin and slave master God. Because sin, slave master sin has absolutely no say and no hand in the giving of the gift of life by master God.

But God has total say and a sovereign hand in the paying of the wages of death from master sin. There's no parallel here. What you find when you think it through is, "Ah, he's a pretender. He's not a slave master after all. There's only one slave master in the universe and that's God.

There's only one owner and that's God. There's only one sovereign and that's God. There's only one giver and that's God. And this rascal has been pretending to the throne of my life ever since the beginning and tricked and tricked and drained and drained. And he can't even pay at the end the wages of death.

Sin doesn't pay the wages of death. It's a trick. He doesn't pay them. God pays them. It's like a pimp and a prostitute. Hell is the wage of sin the way venereal disease and prison time is the wage from a pimp in the prostitute. He didn't pay it. He's gone.

He's just gone. He tricks. He lures. He cheats. He devises. He distorts. And when he's done, the prostitute's got the disease. The prostitute comes before the court and goes to jail. He's gone. He's gone. Sin is a liar. He even lies about his lies. He even lies about his wages.

He can't even produce the bads, let alone the goods. Oh how we should hate him. Oh how free you should want to be right now from this slave master's clutches on your life so that you're not a dupe and a lackey day in and day out like most people seem to be.

Hate him. Hate him. Hate sin with all your might as the master of your life. When he tempts you and lures you and promises you and makes all his demands look pleasant to you, throw it back in his face with the Word of God. Get free with the mirror of the Word.

Show yourself and what you were created for and what he's trying to make you think you're for. Hmm, powerful. That clip was shared with us by Gabriela, a listener from Sweden. Thank you, Gabriela. And the clip is from John Piper's sermon on December 17th, 2000, titled "The Free Gift of God is Eternal Life." You can find it right now at DesiringGod.org.

Well we asked a few years back and just recently restarted to ask you for your favorite sermon clips and you have responded really well. So thank you. Keep them coming. Give me the title of the sermon and the timestamps of when the audio of the clip that you like begins and ends.

And if you wish, tell me why it's impacted you. Give me your name and the closest city to you. Anything that I can share online with our community and email me at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. That's our email address, AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. Put the word "clip" in the subject line, please. I'd appreciate it.

And maybe we can share it here on the podcast. Well next up on the docket, when do I know if God is correcting me? Sometimes God disciplines us to confront our sin and to get us to repent and change course. That's certainly true. But according to Scripture, at other times God sends suffering into our lives not for correction but simply to teach us how to endure patiently.

So how do we know when he's correcting us and when he's building endurance in us? It's a great question and what would you expect from the APJ audience really? But just great questions like this one. It's up next time. I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Friday.

God bless. Bye. 1