INTRO.- There is good news and there is bad news.
ILL.- Good news/bad news. An old man visits his doctor and after thorough examination the doctor tells him: "I have good news and bad news, what would you like to hear first?"
Patient: "Well, give me the bad news first." Doctor: "You have cancer, I estimate that you have about two years left."
Patient: "OH NO! That's awful! In two years my life will be over! What kind of good news could you probably tell me, after this???" Doctor: "You also have Alzheimer's. In about three months you are going to forget everything I told you."
God be true and every man a liar. The good news is that God is true. He is always true. His word is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and no man comes to the Father except through Him. And Jesus always told the truth.
Matthew 6:5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.”
Jesus told the truth about prayer. Of course, He told the truth about everything. It is true that some people like to pray just so other people can hear them pray. And that’s the only reward they’ll receive. Whereas others pray quietly and often in seclusion and God knows they are sincere and will reward them for being honest and sincere.
Matthew 11:11 “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
Now, how could this be true since John of Baptizer was a true and humble prophet of God? The idea is that those in the kingdom of heaven were greater than John who was alive at that time and those in the kingdom of heaven are greater than any human person on earth no matter how great he or she is!
How great is the greatness of heaven over earth? No pain. No sorrow. No crying. No death. A new body like the glorious body of Jesus. We shall be greater in heaven than the greatest person on earth no matter how great or spiritual they are. JESUS TOLD THE TRUTH! It’s no wonder we should be looking forward to heaven!
I have often said at the funeral of those who have gone on to be with the Lord that they are better off than we who are left behind! And it’s true because Jesus said so!
2 Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
Scripture is the word of truth. You can take the words of scripture to the bank and bet your life on them!
The good news is that God is true and everything He said in His Word is true, but the bad news is that every man is a liar. We’ve all lied about something and this makes us all sinners. We’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God. God is true, pure, right and holy, but man is a liar, a sinner, a scoundrel. If we could see ourselves with the eyes we’d understand this truth.
PROP.- God is true, right and holy but we humans are not.
1- The bad news - we’re all under sin
2- The good news - righteousness comes through Jesus
I. THE BAD NEWS - WE’RE ALL UNDER SIN
9 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
The bad news is all bad! There is nothing good about it.
It’s like that one lady who wasn’t willing to confess her faith in Christ, and confess that she was sinner before she was baptized. Her preacher asked her repeat a prayer, “Lord, I’m confess that I’m no good sinner and I need to be forgiven...”
She was silent. Finally, her preacher asked her, “Don’t you want to be forgiven by God?” She said, “yes, but I’m not bad sinner. I’m a good sinner...”
He said, “Lady, there is no such thing as a good sinner!” And it’s true. No matter how good a person thinks he or she is, we’re really not good down deep in our heart of hearts. We’re all no good sinners whether we want to admit it or not. But we must admit if we want to be forgiven and go to heaven.
It’s like the difference between the self righteous Pharisee and the tax collector found in Luke 18:9-14 9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Basically, these two men represent an awful lot of people in our world. Those who view themselves as being pretty good Joes and those who are broken over their sinfulness. And only those who are willing to admit they are sinners and need God’s mercy will be justified by God. We have to go down before we can ever go up. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
ILL.- Ray Stedman, author and longtime pastor of the Pennisula Bible Church in Palo Alto, CA who passed away in 1992 wrote, “The clearest statement on original sin I have ever read comes from a report of the Minnesota Crime Commission. In studying humanity the commission came to this frightening and factual conclusion:
“Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it—his bottle, his mother’s attention, his playmate’s toy, his uncle’s watch. Deny him these wants, and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness, which would be murderous, were he not so helpless. He is dirty. He has no morals, no knowledge, no skills. This means that all children, not just certain children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in the self-centered world of his fancy, given free reign to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.”
That’s powerful! And the sad, sinful story is that every man is a sinner and doomed until God intervenes.
As much as we don’t like to admit it, we’re sinners and unless we admit it, humble ourselves and turn to the Lord for mercy and forgiveness, we’re in deep trouble! And the bad news is that many people don’t want to admit it and submit to God’s will!
Crooner, Frank Sinatra, sang, “I did it my way,” or so are many other people to their own demise and destruction! As C. S. Lewis said: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it.
II. THE GOOD NEWS - RIGHTEOUSNESS COMES THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
This is a good ending for those who accept God’s will and plan for their lives.
ILL.- A tribal chief once came to David Livingstone with this request. He said: “Please give me some medicine to change my heart; it’s so proud, uneasy, and oftentimes angry.”
He had seen what the missionary had done for those who were sick in body and had mistakenly concluded that medication would do the same thing for his soul. Livingstone then tried to explain that the Lord Jesus alone could bring about the needed transformation in his life. But the man refused to listen, saying, “No, no, I want medicine!”
Isn’t it nice when medicine really works? Like blood pressure medication, cholesterol medications, etc. Many medications have benefited all mankind, but we have the best medicine of all. It’s the best in the world! It’s medicine that will cure the soul of its greatest ill and that’s sin!
The good news is that by faith in Jesus Christ we can become right with God and righteous.
ILL.- Don DeWelt once a gospel tract that read: “Good news! Someone died and left you a fortune.” Yes, He did. Jesus died and paid our way to heaven. WHAT A FORTUNE!
ILL.- Someone wrote these words: What The Law Cannot Do. “Some people will be shocked by the assertion that there are some things the law cannot do. The law can only reveal sin, but it is powerless to save from sin. It can show us our weakness, but it cannot provide strength. It can only condemn, but cannot justify. The law commands, but does not enable; the law slays, but grace alone can make alive. Grace disposes and gives the needed power. Law is outward; grace is inward.”
The problem is our society and with many religions is that they maintain you get nothing without doing something, which is a matter of law. People just cannot get it in their heads that we can be justified by faith in Christ and that our good deeds have nothing to do with it.
Ephesians 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
While it is true that should live a life of doing good things, these things do not save us. We do them because we are saved by His grace. We are motivated by His gracious salvation.
But if we were saved by the good deeds that we do, we’d be patting ourselves on our backs or patting the backs of one another instead of praising the God who saves us in Jesus Christ! When people have the mentality that they have to work in order to get to heaven then they get the credit and not God!
What We Have In Christ
A love that can never be fathomed;
A life that can never die;
A righteousness that can never be tarnished;
A peace that can never be understood;
A rest that can never be disturbed;
A joy that can never be diminished;
A hope that can never be disappointed;
A glory that can never be clouded;
A light that can never be darkened;
A happiness that can never be interrupted;
A strength that can never be enfeebled;
A purity that can never be defiled;
A beauty that can never be marred;
A wisdom that can never be baffled;
Resources that can never be exhausted;
And Heaven that can never be ended.
22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
That’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God!
CONCLUSION------------
There is much bad news in our world and mainly because of Satan and sin, but we must never be overcome by the bad news.
We must walk in the light as He is in the light and the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all sin! (I John 1:7) That’s the good news that outweighs all other news, good and bad!
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO, shepherd111@hotmail.com
