Testiomony, Joel Frazier

Quickly turn with me to Romans 6 and 23 please. Romans chapter 6 and verse 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now like everyone so far tonight, I too was raised under the sound of the gospel and my parents I knew from my earliest age cared about my soul. They prayed for me and they read the Bible with us every day and it was an important thing, the gospel in our home. In March of 1988 on a Sunday night I went into a gospel meeting at Blue River where I was raised and I went into that meeting and I thought it was important tonight for someone to stand before you with a little warning.

I haven't heard it yet tonight, I'm gonna mention it. I went into that gospel meeting thinking I was okay for heaven, but I want to tell you what I was depending on that night was just a light little experience and I would tell you what was wrong with the experience I had. It had absolutely nothing to do with the work of Christ.

Nothing. It was feelings in myself. So I want to mention that tonight to you.

If there's anyone in this meeting tonight and you think you're on your way to heaven, but you have never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone is your Savior, you need to be saved because Christ is salvation and without Him there is no salvation. Just a word of warning. I came into that meeting thinking perhaps I was ready for heaven, but as Brother Otto Stenichka preached the gospel as he often did in those years at Blue River, as he spoke, he wasn't a gospel preacher who traveled around.

He was a gospel preacher that faithfully proclaimed the gospel in the local assembly on a Sunday night. And as he spoke, it was impressed on my mind how the Lord Jesus Christ is the very center of the message of the gospel. And why at ten years old that had never hit me like it did that night, I don't know why.

But that night I realized that I was not depending on the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. I was not depending on His work and His finished work on the cross for my righteousness with God. And that night it was put upon my heart very clearly, Joel, you are not headed for heaven.

You are headed for eternal punishment for your sins. And the only thing keeping you out of the punishment of God right now is that little thread called life and God holds it. I want to tell you, if you've never been to that place in your life, when you realize that your destination is the wrath of God because of sin, I hope there's a day when you come to that point in your life because it is absolutely necessary.

They that are whole need not a physician. No one is ever going to understand their need of salvation if they do not understand that they have a problem with God. That night I found out I had a problem with God.

I had sinned. I was a sinner and I was headed for the punishment of God for my sins. I want to tell you, I was concerned.

I was worried. Sitting in the fourth row from the front, I was surrounded by family. I was surrounded by relatives, cousins.

But I want to tell you that night in the gospel meeting, it was just me in my mind and I realized I needed to be saved and that I was going to be punished for my sins and that is what I deserved. But in just a moment of time, as we've already heard tonight, God by the Holy Spirit revealed to me this simple truth that when the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, He had suffered there for my sins. He had died on that cross and He had taken care of the problem of my sins for me.

So I would never have to be punished. I would never have to go to hell. I would never have to go to the flake of fire because the Lord Jesus had taken the punishment for me.

This verse teaches us very clearly tonight, the wages of sin is death. There is a consequence for sin. There is a consequence for your sin and if you are never forgiven of your sin, you will be under the wrath of God.

Not because God is a vindictive God. Not because God is a hateful God. But you will have to be under the wrath of God because God is a righteous God and He must punish sin.

But first and foremost tonight I want to remind you, God offers you a gift. That's not what He wants for you. He wants you to have the gift of salvation tonight.

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God that God gave to me by His grace and gave to everyone here tonight that's saved, who have rested on the Lord Jesus Christ, they enjoy that gift from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He purchased it at the cross. He offers it to whosoever and He offers it to anyone in this meeting tonight who doesn't have it.

It is a gift. You will never pay for the salvation of God. You must receive it as a gift because the price was paid many, many hundreds of years ago.

Thousands of years ago now, the price was paid. Do not come to salvation. Do not come with a desire for righteousness with God.

With any belief at all, you're going to contribute to it because you cannot. The work is done and what He offers you tonight is a gift and you too can know the peace of God. You can know too the forgiveness of your sins.

You too can know that when this life is over, you're going to be in heaven. Not because of ourselves, but because of the work of Christ and the assurance of God's own eternal, infallible word. What are you resting on tonight?