Turning in our Bible to Romans
the 6th chapter, and just one verse, as we have announced,
verse 23 of Romans 6. The wages of sin, that's what
I've earned. That's what's coming to me. That's
what I deserve. The wages of sin is death. Death,
eternal separation, condemnation from God Almighty, separation
from Him, That's what I've earned, that's what I've deserved. The
wages of sin is death. But look at this little word
here, B-U-T. That is a big word in scripture. When you look at everything that
God describes that we are in Ephesians chapter 2, without
God, without hope, without Christ, by nature children of wrath,
even as others." And then he says, "...but God, who is rich
in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead and in sin, and hath quickened us together with Christ Jesus."
But God. But the gift of God. Oh, the
gift of God. Here's the gift that keeps on
giving. Here's a gift that's an everlasting gift from the
hand of the everlasting God that has everlasting consequences. The gift of God is life, eternal
life, through, by, because of, the merit, sacrifice, person,
work, and blood of Jesus Christ who is our Lord. He is Lord. Now, the title of
this message, Bad News and Good News. Oftentimes, we hear someone
come to us and they will say something like, well, we've got
some news for you. We want you to hear some news.
And oftentimes they say, well, you know, I have some bad news
and I have some good news. Which do you want to hear first?
And oftentimes we might say, well, Give us the bad news first,
and then we might more appreciate the good news. Well, this is
also true concerning the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There is some terrible bad, it's
true, it's true news, but there is some terrible bad news that
God's servants are determined to declare. And the bad news
goes like this, the wages of sin, is death. The wages of sin
is death. The bad news goes like this.
In Adam, all died. All sinned in that representative
head, Adam. And when he fell, we fell in
him. That's the bad news. The bad
news goes this way. When sin is finished, it brings
death to this body. The bad news goes this way. The soul that sinneth it shall
surely die. But in the preaching of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is not only bad news, and I would
be neglectful to withhold the bad news, because we must know
the extent of the fall, and man's ruin, and man's sin, and what
we are. But in the preaching of the gospel,
there is also most glorious good news, good tidings of great joy. That's what I bring unto you.
For in this city there is born, given of God, a Savior, who is
the Savior of his body. Call his name Jesus, he shall
save his people from their sin. This is good news. I tell you
who it's good news to. To those who know something about
the bad news. To those who know something of
their sin, their guilt, the infirmity, the flesh. To those who know
something of sin, the remedy Oh, that's good news. If you
were stricken vile with cancer. and on your deathbed, and knowing
that unless somebody intercede for you, unless something takes
place, you are bound to be terminal and die, and yet someone comes
along with a sure remedy, a sure cure that has had a track record
in the past of complete remission of your disease, and they came
in your room and told you about You remember the doctor walked
in one day and he said, I've got some bad news for you. What
is it? You're going to die. But then
here a week or so later, someone comes up with some kind of remedy. And this has happened. I've seen
this happen. Good news. There's a cure. Now, you wouldn't
be interested in the cure, would you? Unless you had that disease. I tell you, if you were stricken
with that disease, you sure would. What'd you say? Huh? Tell me
again? There's a cure for my problem?
Oh yes! You'd be most interested, wouldn't
you? This is what the Gospel is. It's good news to those who
were sinners. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that the Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. Sinners! That's the good news. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which is lost. Sinners! This is a faithful saying. This is a faithful... He said,
I didn't come to call The righteous, they don't need a remedy. I came
to call sinners unto repentance. Until Almighty God has convinced
you in your heart, I mean personally, in your heart, we can talk about
all the theological ramifications of depravity and sin, but until
God has convinced you in your heart of what you are, not what
you've done, but what you are, Until Almighty God convinces
and convicts you in your heart of your sin, you won't have any
real lasting interest in the good news of salvation upon the
merit of Christ, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice alone. But when
He does, you'll no longer fear the bad news. There is no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus, and you will be most eager Most
eager to hear of that good news. Tell me the good news in Christ
Jesus. Christ crucified is all the remedy
for our ruin. When you come to understand something
of sin, I tell you, you'll have a greater, greater, greater appreciation
for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. When you understand something
of the extent of our ruin, you'll have a greater and fuller appreciation
for our Redeemer. the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that
your experience? You who know and believe this
gospel of God's grace in Christ Jesus. And growing in grace is
seeing more and more and more of our vileness and our wretchedness,
but as we grow downwardly seeing something of the extent of our
ruin, we grow in a higher, greater esteem and appreciation of Him
who loved us and washed us from our sin in His own blood. and
we sing to Him be all the honor and glory both now and forever."
Now, here's the first point. And this message has two points,
two parts. The first part is the bad news.
Five things concerning the bad news. Here's number one. There
is a most holy, sovereign God that no sinner can please. That no sinner can please. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Turn just a page or two over,
Romans chapter 8. There is a most holy sovereign
God that no man can approach unto because God is holy. Look what it says right here,
no man can please God. Romans 8 verse 7, because the
carnal mind is enmity, that deep-rooted, deep-seated hatred against God.
It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it
be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot, cannot please
God." Cannot, cannot. Now we see this illustrated all
through the Scripture. On that day of atonement, on
that day when the priest went into the Holy of Holies, It says
in Leviticus 16 that on that particular day, when that priest
took that designated blood, And that body was offered on the
altar, and they took that blood within the holy place, the Holy
of Holies, and took that blood and sprinkled it on the mercy
seat. It says that on that particular day, there was to be no other
man in that whole tabernacle, signifying that the only way
to approach God was by the designated priest with that designated blood
and sacrifice. And that's the whole picture
of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that can please
God, and we'll get to that in a moment. Secondly, there is
a most holy law that no sinner can honor, fulfill, or satisfy. The law demands absolute perfection
in word, deed, thought, and motive perfectly. And no sinner, no
sinner, can satisfy the demands of that holy law. Turn to Galatians
chapter 3, and look at this. You know what the law of God
says? The law of God says, do. Do. And to offend in any point,
at any time, is to be guilty of all the law of God. The law
of God says this. Galatians chapter 4, look at
this verse. Verse 21, tell me. Tell me this.
You that desire to be under the law, do you hear what it says? Do you understand what it says,
what it demands? What does it demand? Turn back
to Galatians chapter 3. Verse 10, For as many as are
under the works of the law are under its curse. For as many
as are under the works of the law are under its curse, for
it is written, Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. I talked
to my daughter last night on the phone. And she works in a
federal prison as a dietician. And she meets lots of people
and there are a lot of doctors and a lot of staff people that
she works with, a large facility. And one of her co-workers was
telling her that he has found the right religion. And she said,
oh, really, what is it? Judaism. Judaism is the way. Under the law is the way. And
she wisely said, well, Do you keep the law?" And he says, well,
no, about 80% of it. And my daughter said, it's either
all or you're damned. You can't meet the demands of
God's holy law. That's bad news. That's bad news. It says over here, turn back
to the book of Romans, in Romans chapter 3, It says, the law says,
let every mouth be stopped, Romans 3, 19, and all the world become
guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. I get amused at those people
who put those signs in their yard, the Ten Commandments. You know what they're saying?
They're saying they're under the curse. They're under the judgment of
God. If you think you're keeping those ten, what about the 690
other precepts of the law? How do you get on them? You see,
if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Why did he come? If we can keep the law, if we
can satisfy the law, no need for Christ to come. So there
is a most holy sovereign God that no sinner can please. Secondly,
there is a most holy law that no sinner can honor and fulfill
and satisfy. We can't meet the demand of God's
law. He set the bar too high that it might condemn us and
convict us and drive us to Christ. Thirdly, there is a righteousness
that God demands There is a righteousness that
God demands which no sinner can produce. No sinner can produce,
except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. Our Lord said, you're not even
going to begin to enter into the kingdom of God. It says,
it must be perfect, the law says, it must be perfect to be accepted. And the best I have is filthy
rags, that man in his best state is vanity, The Scripture says,
you're familiar with it, in Romans 3, there's none righteous, no,
not one. There's none. There's none that understand.
There's none that seek after God. We've all gone out of the
way. There is none righteous, no,
not one. And we can't muster up, produce
a righteousness. And yet this crazy religious
world, being ignorant of God, ignorant of the righteousness
of God in the Gospels, going about to establish a righteousness
of their own. Now you know it's so. We see
it on every hand. There is a righteousness that
God demands of which no sinner, no sinner can produce. Fourthly,
there is that terrible guilt, load and condemnation of sin
that no sinner can put away. No sinner can put away. No amount
of deeds, no amount of abstaining, No amount of religious efforts,
works, deeds can put away sin. Not repentance. Repentance can't
make atonement for sin. One of our men of the church,
his father passed away, and he wanted me to conduct part of
the funeral up our way. I don't know if they do this
here, but up our way they have a three-day funeral. I've never
figured this out, but anyhow they do. But I was invited one
of the nights to bring a message. And this brother in the church
told me, said, now when you come, he said, you know what I want
you to do. I want you to tell the gospel as clearly and plainly
as I can. Some of the other preachers that
were there who had the second and third day, some of them were
of the works flavor, man-based, works-based, man-centered religion,
false religion. And when I was preaching from
Ephesians chapter 1, talking about the redemption we have
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I made this statement that your
repentance never put away sin, the old man sitting on the front
row just almost fell out of his chair. Now that's a true story. He thought his repentance put
away his sin. You know what? True repentance
acknowledges the truth of Christ who put away sin. And that's
a whole lot of difference. Repentance acknowledges the truth.
Repentance doesn't put away sin. Faith doesn't put away sin. Faith
acknowledges Christ who did make atonement for sin. You see, there's
that terrible load and guilt of sin that no Sinner can put
away no amount of deed, effort, sacrifice on the part of any
sinner can put away sin. By the deeds of the law, no flesh
shall be justified, not one time. The blood of bulls and goats
on Jewish altars that flowed for hundreds and thousands of
years, you think of all the blood and the sacrifice, never made
atonement for one sin, not the first one. It pictured substitution,
pointed to the Lamb, the coming of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus,
who did put away sin. But that didn't put away sin,
not at all. Fifthly, there is a holy, righteous
judgment to come in which no unjustified sinner shall escape. There is that holy God with whom
we have to do. We have to do. And God has appointed
a day in which He will judge this world in righteousness by
the Lord Jesus and that gospel of God's saving grace. Well,
there's the bad news. There's the bad news. To neglect
to preach it would be the height of willful disobedience. And
I try as I can to be obedient to my Lord who sent me to tell
you the truth, the bad news, And the good news, Paul said,
woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. And that's telling
the truth of who God is, who Christ is. We're sinners in the
truth of salvation by God's grace alone. God's grace alone. You can clean up the outward,
but our Lord said the problem is a little bit deeper. Reformation
is not salvation. You clean up the outside, the
cup and the platter, and you can look like a white encephalicure.
But underneath that and inside that white encephalicure is dead
man's bone. Salvation is a heart work. God
must do a work of grace in the heart. Well, here's the good
news. Here's the good news. And the
good news is, as it says in the text there, the wages of sin
is death, but, but, but, The gift of God. The gift of God
is eternal life, salvation, pardon, full and free and eternal through
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. Here's
the first point. And it's just the opposite of
those five points in the first part of the message. The Lord
Jesus Christ, as the appointed High Priest, designated sin of
God, He's our mediator, our advocate of the covenant. He always did
those things pleasing to God. Always. Our Lord spoke from heaven,
said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Turn to John chapter 8. John
chapter 8. He always did those things pleasing
to the Father. And you know what? What pleases
Him, pleases me. I'm so pleased with the Lord
Jesus Christ that He rendered unto God perfect obedience for
me, that He did everything that was pleasing unto God. All He
did in word, deed, and thought, the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in His hand. Turn to John 8, 29. He that sent
me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone,
for I do always those things that please There never was a time when he
said, I must be about my father's business. He was always doing
that pleasing unto the Father. And that which he did as the
God-man mediator, he did as a representative man for his covenant people. That's the good news of the gospel.
Secondly the Lord Jesus Christ fully completely honored and
satisfied the holy law of God all that the holy law of God
demanded in Precept and in penalty the Lord Jesus Christ honored
every aspect of it It says in Isaiah 42, 21, He had highly
exalted the law. He had magnified the law of God
and exalted the law of God. He didn't just meet the bare
standard. He went beyond and above that standard and magnified
God in every aspect of that holy law. He said, I didn't come to
destroy it. I came to honor the law. Now,
here's the good news. Turn back to Galatians 3 again.
Galatians 3. Galatians 3 verse 13 says, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. Oh, He delivered us from the
curse of that law. The curse of the law took its
full exact penalty, spent itself on Jesus Christ, and because
it did, there's no condemnation left for those who are in. Christ Jesus. All He did, all
He said, most pleasing unto God. That's the good news. The good
news. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. Bad news. So by the obedience
of another, shall many be made righteous. No wonder Paul said,
O that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness which is of the law. But that was just through
the faithfulness of Christ. Completely honored the law of
God. in his life, he did love God perfectly. Every motive was
a pure motive. Everything he did, he did to
the glory of God. I've never done anything to the
glory of God. Come on now. There's always been
a little element of self in there somewhere. Let me be right honest
about it. I was somewhere preaching one
time and staying with a young brother and he asked me, he said,
have you ever done anything to the glory of God? I said, no. No, but my Lord did. Every motive of His was pure. Every motive of His was exact.
He did love God perfectly. Every motive was right and true. He did love His neighbor so that
He laid down His life for His friend. He did honor and magnify
God. In His life and in His death,
He satisfied the penalty of that law. The penalty of that law
is death. He died in my place, in my room,
in my estate, took my judgment, my guilt, and set me free. Thirdly,
the Lord Jesus Christ brought in, for all whom He represented,
everlasting righteousness. And everlasting righteousness.
It says this in Daniel chapter 9, that He brought in an everlasting
righteousness. Daniel 9.24. Turn to Romans 4. Blessed is
that man to whom God... You've noticed this verse before,
I'm sure. Romans 4, 6, even David also described the blessedness
of the man to whom God would impute righteousness without
your deeds. That's good news. Saying, blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven. Blessed is that man
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
will not, cannot, Charge sin. Oh, that's good news. That is
good news. God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He did bring in everlasting righteousness. Look at Romans 10. Romans 10. Christ has made to me wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Romans 10. These old Jews, and they're just
just like the most religious lost folks in our day. No different. Verse 2 of Romans 10, I bear
them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. They're ignorant. They're ignorant. Oh, don't tell
people they're ignorant. Well, God says they are. A man's
ignorant who's going about to establish his own righteousness,
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. Ignorant of his holy character,
ignorant of what God demands, his law demands. Therefore they
are going about to establish the righteousness of their own,
and they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness," now notice
this, "...the righteousness of God." That's from Him. By Christ's sacrifice, by Christ's
obedience, Christ to the end of the law, the goal, the fulfillment,
the consummation of the law for righteousness to everyone who
believes Him and looks to Him. The Lord brought in a full Righteousness,
everlasting righteousness is freely imputed to all who believe.
Fourthly, the Lord Jesus Christ put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. The bad news is we can't put
away sin. The good news is the Lord Jesus
Christ did put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Find Hebrews
chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. Notice this,
Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews 1. Verse 3, "...who being
in the brightness of His glory," that is the Lord Jesus, brightness
of God's glory, the express image of His person as God manifest
in the flesh, "...upholding all things by the word of His power,
when He by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on high." What did He sit down for? Work's
done! It's already done! God put His stamp of approval
on His work. It's complete and finished to
the delight and satisfaction of God's law and justice. Raised
Him from the dead, send Him to glory, and seated on the right
hand of God. A place of love, power, affection,
approval. The Lord Jesus Christ did put
away sin. How completely did He put away
sin? Turn over to Hebrews 10. Sin's
most difficult to put away. I can't deal with it. I can't
handle it. It's against God. But I tell you, what God provides,
God will accept. And that sacrifice He provided
is full and complete and total. And that's the only sacrifice
for sin that He will accept, is that one that He provided
in Christ Jesus. How complete and how full is
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ? Look what it says right
here in Hebrews 10 verse 17, And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Verse 14, For by one offering
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He appeared
once in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. Complete atonement. Complete
atonement. And eternal atonement. He obtained
for us eternal redemption with His own blood. God said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. You know the blood atonement
of Jesus Christ? Now listen to me. You know, most
folks don't know this. The blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ
is unto the Lord. It's not offered toward men.
It's offered to God. It's a satisfaction unto God. That's why it's not up for exception
or rejection. It's offered unto God. God said,
this is enough. My lamb, my sacrifice. He did put away sin. And by His
grace, I bow and believe and love Christ, my Redeemer. Fifthly,
the Lord Jesus Christ took my sin and taking my sin, taking
my sin to Himself. The Lord Jesus taking my sin,
behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, His
covenant people in this world, the Lord Jesus Christ, because
He took my sin, taking my place in his own body on the tree.
He took my judgment. He took the wrath of God that
extinguished itself. He drank the cup of God's wrath
completely and totally and spent all of God's wrath and justice
was spent on Christ. And there's no judgment left
for those who are in Christ Jesus. There's no condemnation to those
who are in Christ. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? Have you ever read that? Turn
over to Romans chapter 8 again. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? He that spared. If God be for
us, who can be against us? Romans 8.31. He that spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things? Who can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is He that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea rather is risen again, who is even at
the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Now,
who can separate us? See how this chapter starts in
verse 1? No condemnation. You see how it ends? No separation. No separation from this love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Now, turn to Romans 6, 23. One more time. I want you to
notice something very carefully here. The gift of God is eternal
life. That's good news. But never leave
this off. Never leave this off through,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Don't ever leave that off. Let
me show you a couple of places here. Romans 3, 24. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 3, verse 24. Being justified
freely by His grace. freely by His grace. Remember
what we read? Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Romans 5.1. Romans 5.1. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through, through our Lord Jesus
Christ. God's justice cannot twice demand
that my bleeding share at His hand and then again at mine.
That makes Him unjust. The only way God can be a just
God and Savior is through Jesus Christ our Lord. One old songwriter
said this, and I'll let you go. Upon a life I did not live, upon
a death I did not die. Another's life, another's death,
I rest my hope eternally. Did you get that? Upon a life,
I did not live. Upon a death, I did not die.
Another's life, another's death. I rest my hope eternally. That's
substitution. Pastor Mahan used to say, learn
the gospel. You can learn these two words
and the implication and truth of it. Substitution, satisfaction. The substitute may complete satisfaction. That's good news. Good news.