THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH
By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23) – St. Paul
The Bible is replete with warnings of the devastating results of rebellion and disobedience. And the grim statistics confirm the Scriptures!
Playing fast and loose is dangerous business! It pays huge dividends in psychological scars, social stigma and alienation from God! There is a high cost to low living.
And St. Paul warned that “in the last days, perilous times shall come.” (2 Tim. 3:1). The word perilous speaks of a dangerous violent society and we see it all around us today!
We have lived through the era of Nazism and Communism. Now we see the hundreds of thousands of Christians being kidnapped, brutalized, imprisoned, raped and killed by the inhumane Islamic butchers in the Middle East and Africa!
CANADA NOT IMMUNE TO VIOLENCE!
Violent gangs and other criminals steal, rape and kill at will across the world. Canada is not immune to violent crime, human smuggling, drug trafficking and alcohol abuse.
The United States is being invaded by the vicious M13 gang from Latin America who brutally rape, steal and murder young people. The Trump Administration had drastically reduced the human flow at their southern border with Mexican Government support, but the out-to-lunch, inept Biden Administration are aiding and abetting criminal cartels who are stocking U.S. cities with fentanyl that is killing great numbers of American youth.
Sometime ago, Belgium was experiencing traumatic times as authorities there have discovered a string of child sex killings as the pedophiles are on the loose, as well as killings of prostitutes and transvestites. Marijuana, cocaine and crystal methedone addiction is rampant among young people and a lot of older people are regular users as well. Sinners prostitute themselves and other sinners kill prostitutes.
Bible says: “The wages of sin is death! For years before the division of Sudan in 2010, the hateful Muslim Regime in Khartoum had killed an estimated 1 ½ million black Christians in that country and engaged in selling black Christian women and girls as sex objects and slaves for $US 15 each!
Sinners kill and enslave! And the carnage and killing of refugees in Zaire, Burundi and Rwanda took the lives of many thousands of people. Evil lurks everywhere and only the Gospel of Jesus Christ is able to heal the hurts and make a difference in this world of sin and hate!
Our society is rife with child abuse, sexual immorality, perversion, vicious muggings, brutal beatings, torturous disfigurement, a growing drug culture, death dealing AIDS and cold-blooded murder! Cruising homosexuals, lusty prostitutes and loose living promiscuous high rollers are in a high risk category to get hurt badly!
LIFE IN THE FAST LANE!
Life in the fast lane of sodomy, drugs, loose sex and gambling is paying dividends in trauma, suicide and death. A beautiful 19-year-old girl was found dead with a bullet in her head on a Sunday morning in a hotel room in Toronto a number of years ago! She was a prostitute!
Her close friends - also hookers - believe the killing could have been a dispute over drugs, settling a score by a ripped-off customer or a message to her pimp. Her family told the sad story of a good girl gone bad! Just eighteen months earlier, she had left home to make a lot of money in prostitution. She wound up dead!
More than a dozen hookers have been murdered in Toronto’s downtown area in the past several decades. Among those investigated is the killing of a girl from Calgary who was found strangled near the Ontario stock yards. Hooking is dangerous business involving vicious pimps, weird sicko clients and AIDS infected bisexuals!
About fifty years ago, a 16-year-old Vancouver prostitute was diagnosed as having AIDS, Canada’s first hooker to contract the deadly disease! When Donna and I were in Uganda in 1994, we visited villages where the only people living there were little children and old people. Nearly all the others had died from AIDS.
President Museveni of Uganda declared homosexual behavior criminal and that stopped the epidemic. In some African countries, 90% of the prostitutes were infected with HIV and more than 50% with full blown AIDS! The major carriers were soldiers and truck drivers who spread the disease. The constant threat of being infected with syphilis, gonorrhea or genital herpes is also always present.
And now there is chlamydia, the sexually transmitted disease (STD) with the fastest rising incidence, with 3 to 4 million new cases each year in the USA. Physicians now know of at least 25 diseases that are spread by sexual contact, whose affects can include sterility, cancer, chronic pain, problem pregnancies, abnormal children and even death! Women especially bear the brunt of many of these diseases and even pass them on to their children since some go undetected for years!
Male prostitutes who service homosexuals are very vulnerable and invite a horrendous death by the formerly called ‘gay plague’! Homosexual lovers of AIDS victim Rock Hudson battled over his $50 million will for years! His secret boyfriend, Mark Christian sought compensation in the millions of dollars, because he did not know Rock Hudson had the AIDS virus when they sodomized together!
But there is freedom from “this hell that is homosexuality” says Torjus Fjågesund of Oslo, Norway who was introduced to sodomy while in the army. He writes, “Homosexuality is a complete and total perversion. It was not meant for a human being. It is the work of unclean spirits, yes and the devil himself. I was told that it was right for me, but it turned out to be a living hell. It’s like being raped continually by the devil. The next morning after receiving special prayer by people of God, I wakened - a new man - I was 110% man.”
ALCOHOL ADDICTON ALMOST AS BAD!
Alcohol addiction is almost as bad, in the end! It’s the civilized way to live, but an awful way to die! Sclerosis of the liver, heart disease, bleeding ulcers, high blood pressure, D.T.’s and blackouts are some of its spin-offs! My advice to social drinkers is, “Stop now - because if you keep on hitting the bottle, you surely will be sorry”!
Many years ago, I was confronted by a very drunk lady on the streets of Ålesund in Norway while walking to my hotel, after a service at a downtown church! She came waltzing out of a bar right into my path. Immediately I said, “I am a pastor, may I help you”?
When she saw my clerical collar she said, “Oh you’re one of those! I am not looking for a prayer meeting, I’m looking for a party”! I replied, “But I can help you”! She broke into tears, saying that she had been an airline stewardess with SAS and was married to a fine, well-to-do man. She was living in a beautiful home, but alcohol had gotten a hold on her.
Yes, she wanted help as she was very unhappy, she stated. Two years after retiring, her social drinking had progressed steadily into alcoholism. And her marriage was suffering! Then suddenly, she changed her mind and darted across the street through the traffic, to a waiting taxi.
THERE IS HOPE HOWEVER!
The same verse in the Bible that states, “The wages of sin is death” declares, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. He gives us the power to change when we read the Bible, appropriate God’s promises for ourselves and pray in faith, believing! And remember, my friend, God is merciful and compassionate as well as all-powerful to deliver!
The Bible says, “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”. (John 3:16) And Jesus welcomes us all with this kind invitation: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. (Matt. 11:28). Amen.
