The message I bring today is
truly a message of good news. It's something exciting to share
with others, and it's certainly exciting to talk about. Sometimes
when a person comes to you to deliver some news, you'll often
hear the conversation go a little something like this. Okay, I've
got some good news, and I have some bad news. Which do you want
to hear first? I personally always opt to hear
the bad news first. Then I want to hear the good
news. So today I'm going to deliver what some would call bad news.
Then I'll follow up with good news. A man by nature will not, he
cannot hear the good news until he has heard the bad news. A
person will not be interested in the good news until he knows
the extent of the bad news. He will not be interested in
the good news until he knows how God punishes sin. And after
a man has heard and God delivers the good news, he will no longer
fear the bad news. So here comes the bad news. And
when I deliver this bad news to you, I'm directing this to
non-believers. To those who have never heard
of a holy and just God, this bad news is to those who don't
rest in Christ alone as their substitute, who accomplished
the work of salvation at the cross of Calvary. A believer
will know the cure to this bad news. They know the remedy. They know the true Christ and
rest in him alone as their only hope of salvation and justification
before this holy God. I'm going to read a passage from
Romans 3, verses 10 through 23. And this is an indictment, a
verdict of guilty of all men by nature, all mankind born of
Adam, but at the same time, it reveals the cure. Starting in
verse 10, Romans 3. As it is written, there is none
righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know what things soever
the law saith. It saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by
the law is the knowledge of sin, but now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. For there
is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. To the non-believer, that should
be and would be bad news if they did not see and believe the cure. It starts out by saying there
is none righteous, no, not one. There is not one person, based
on their works, based on themselves, based on anything in them or
by them, who are considered to be righteous before God. That's
what it says. Then it says, therefore by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. Based on our efforts, we can
never be justified before God. If you're listening this today,
consider this, you're being put on notice. I'm telling you that
if you are not depending on Christ, on him alone for your salvation,
If you are not trusting in the imputed righteousness of Christ
alone, then you're in trouble. That is some really bad news
for those not resting on Christ alone. If you would turn over
to Romans 6, 23. It says, for the wages of sin
is death. That's how that starts out. That's
more bad news. The penalty of sin is death.
In God's word, right here in scripture, it says that death
will come upon those who sin. And we are all sinners, not only
by practice, but by Adam's original sin being imputed and charged
to our account. We need someone who is able to
stand in our place as a substitute, a surety, for that sin debt that
all of us own. The penalty for this sin is death. Either you're gonna have to pay
it or someone else is gonna have to pay it for you. Now I'm about
to go through several points here that I think will be helpful for everybody to deal with the
bad news for non-believers. This is for those not resting
in Christ alone. The first one is this. There
is an eternal holy God that we cannot satisfy. we cannot satisfy. By nature, none of us are able
to please this God. There is no way that we can please
this holy God. The scripture says it in Romans
8.8. It says, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please
God. It also says in Romans 8.23,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This
is what God said to Israel when he gave the Ten Commandments
on Mount Sinai. The people were all out there
in the thunder and the lightning and the smoke. The glory of God
filled the mountains. And God said to the people, don't
come near the mountain. Stay away. You can't please this
God, not on your own. No man was allowed to go beyond
the veil and into the most holy in the tabernacle in the wilderness.
Man had to stay out. Only the high priest was allowed
in once a year, and even then, he couldn't go in without a blood
sacrifice. So there's a holy, almighty,
and eternal God that no man can please without a mediator, or
someone who stands between God and man. That is some bad news
for the non-believer. Next, there's a holy law that
we cannot keep. Paul wrote this in Galatians
4, verse 21. He said, tell me ye that desire
to be under the law, do you not hear the law? The law of God
requires what no man born of Adam can produce. The holy law
of God requires absolute, unchangeable, perfect obedience to his law.
And that from birth to death, from the cradle to the grave,
This law, God's law, demands what we don't have. It demands
what we can't produce. It demands a holy birth, and
it demands a holy love, a sinless heart, and it condemns even a
thought that's not in perfection. That's more bad news. All the
way through the Bible, we see the words righteous and righteousness.
These are very powerful and meaningful words. There's a righteousness
and a holiness that is required that we can't produce. Paul says
it in Romans 10 verse 3, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Christ said to his disciples in Matthew 5 20, For I say unto you that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven. You have to have a righteousness
far better and far greater than the best righteousness that any
man can produce. Here in Matthew, Christ is talking
about the most religious people, the most zealous religionists
of their time. You have to be better than them
at keeping the law. And he said it, I believe, because
he knew it was impossible to achieve it. There's a righteousness
required, and this is the very holiness of God himself. It's
God's righteousness, which is the absolute requirement. Now,
God cannot compromise his law. He cannot accept anything less
than 100% perfection. In order to be accepted, in order
to please God, it has to be in accordance with His standard,
no exceptions. And it says it right there in
Matthew 5, verse 48. Christ says, be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
So that's the rule. And under that rule, God's rule,
Nothing good you've ever done, and we could do nothing, nothing
will be accepted. The reason is because it's not
perfect. Here's some more bad news. God
requires a love that I cannot give. There's a lot of talk about
love out there. I hear it all the time. We hear
people talk about love, and I'll tell you this, the love that
God requires, nobody knows anything about. There is no man, no woman,
no boy, no girl that has at all the love that God requires. They
don't need, we don't, not even a piece of it. This love requires
loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. This
love requires you to love your neighbor as you love yourself. This love requires you to love
your enemies He told his disciples in Matthew 5, verse 44, to love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute
you. Some people sit there and think,
are you telling me I have to tolerate them? I can do that. Anybody can do that. But the
answer is no. You have to love them. You have
to lay down your life for your enemies. That's the kind of love
that is required. That's bad news because God will
not accept anything less and we cannot produce that kind of
love. Here's some more bad news. There is a sin that we cannot
get rid of. Everyone born of Adam is a sinner. And we, on our own merits and
efforts, cannot put away sin. We can't get rid of sin no matter
what we do. Repentance won't put away sin.
We can be sorry all we want to. We can confess our sins. That
won't work. Baptism won't put away sin. Walking
a church aisle won't put away sin. Joining a church or a congregation
won't put away sin. A profession of faith won't put
away sin. It's bad news because God must,
and he will, punish sin. I know I've already read this
back in Romans 6.23, but I'll read it again. The wages of sin
is death. So enough of the bad news. Let's
get to some good news. See, that's what the gospel is
all about. And that's like I said in the beginning, that's what
it means, the good news. I want to tell you about someone who
took care of the bad news. This is someone who has already
done something about the predicament that we've been born into and
we now live. Eternal death is certain without
Christ as our substitute. In first Timothy, Chapter 1,
verse 15, it says, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Christ
came into this world and took upon himself human flesh to do
for us something that we could not do for ourselves. He came
to do for us what is required by God's law. He came to do for
us what is demanded by God's law. He came to save his sheep
from their sins. In Romans 5.19 it says, for as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. The first part
of that scripture has some bad news. Because of Adam's sin,
We are sinners. Sin is in our nature. And like
it says back in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. But the second part has some
good news. Because of Christ's perfect obedience
unto death, we are made righteous based on his work alone. Let's take some of the things
that I went through on the bad news and just kind of put it
all together. First, I talked about there's a God that I cannot
please. Romans 8.8 says, so then they
that are in the flesh cannot please God. But Christ pleased
him. I'm talking about Christ, my
representative, my substitute and surety for that sin debt
that I owe. He became a man born of a woman. Everything he did, everything
he said, completely pleased God the Father. That's some good
news. Next, there's a law that we cannot keep, but Christ kept
the law perfectly. In Galatians 4, verses 4 and
5, it says, But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent
forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. All that the law required, all
that the law demanded, Christ fulfilled it. He is the righteousness
of God. That's some good news. Then,
there's a righteousness that we cannot produce. but Christ
produced it. His righteousness and his obedience
were perfect. In Romans 10.4 it says, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. In
2 Corinthians 5.21 it says, for he hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. And in Romans 1, 16, it says,
for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. That's some good news. Christ
said that we're to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul,
and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself. We're even
told to love our enemies, And remember, we're not told to just
tolerate them. We're commanded to love them.
And we can't do that. It's not possible. This is a
law that we can't keep, but Christ did. He has a love that none
of us could ever produce. He has a perfect love. He loves
so perfectly that he said to his disciples in John chapter
13 and verse 34, A new commandment I give unto
you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you
also love one another. He is saying here that he is
that perfect standard of love. You love like I love, is what
he's saying. That is perfect love. And not
only did Christ love his sheep perfectly, he also loved God
the Father perfectly. And he loved his own disciples.
In John 13, one, it says, now before the feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart
out of this world and to the father, having loved his own,
which were in the world, he loved them until the end. And Paul
wrote this in Philippians two, verses five through eight. Let
this mind be in you. which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon
him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. His love
is perfect, everlasting, infinite, unchanging, and infallible. That
is some good news. Next, we cannot get rid of sin. Sin is mixed with everything
we do. It's in our nature. Now, how can sin be put away?
The sacrifices made in the Old Testament couldn't put away sin. The Bible says that in Hebrews
chapter 10 and verse 4. It says, for it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Baptism
can't take away sins. Repentance can't take away sin.
Our best efforts to be good cannot take away sin. Joining a church
or making a profession of faith won't put away sin. After saying
all that, some out there will ask, well, how can you put away
sin if none of those things work? And I'm going to tell you how
we can put away sin, how it's done. Here it is in Hebrews 9,
verse 26. For them must he, Christ, often
have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now Once in
the end of the world hath he, Christ, appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. It says in Hebrews 1 verse 3,
who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of
his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. In 1 John 1, verse 7, it says,
but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, cleanseth us from all sin. To wash away sin, it takes
the blood of Christ and the death of Christ. That's how it's done. It takes the sacrifice of the
son of God That is how sin is canceled. No other way in the
world can wash sin away. Now here's the bad news. We're all sinners, and anything
less than perfection requires death. Scripture says it in Psalm
711, that God is angry with the wicked every day. It also says
in Scripture that God will not clear the guilty. And one of
the most descriptive and eye-opening scriptures to me, personally,
is in Ezekiel 18, 20, where it says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Have you heard the bad news?
If you've ever heard the bad news, you'll be glad to hear
that Romans 6, 23 says, the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. In closing, Bad news to the believer
would mean that Christ did not accomplish his work. Bad news
would say he did not finish the job. Bad news would be that salvation
is completely left up to the sinner. Bad news would be that
the sinner must be perfect. Bad news would mean that we have
to keep the law 100% in every way. It would be bad news because
it is an impossibility If Christ was not the perfect substitute,
then I'd be worried. Good news is when someone tells
you something and you can take it to the bank. You can count
on it. Christ said he came to save his
sheep that the father gave him, and that's just what he did.
Look at what Christ says in John 10, verses 27 through 29. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me,
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand." Now that's some really good news.