Bad News....

I will begin today a short, 2 part blog about the ugliness of sin (bad news) and the grace of salvation through the atoning death of Christ (good news). If you come to church this Sunday, you will hear these 2 blogs preached together in the sermon.

Has anyone ever approached you and informed you of this, "I have good news and bad news...which one do you want to hear first"? If you are like me, I want to hear the bad news first, so that the good news will be more tolerable. If I were to approach you with this statement, and only told you of the good news, then how could you truly appreciate if if you don't know the bad news? OR, if I told you the bad news...then would you have any reason to rejoice without hearing the good news? I heard this joke one time in my life that has stuck with me for a short while (you can give a grace laugh, I don't mind).

A guy walks into the doctor's office and is given the results of his recent exam. The doctor says, "I have good news and bad news for you. The bad news is that you will not be alive next month...the good news is that you will have a disease named after you!"

That probably isn't good news at all. My friend, I have good news for you...but first I must tell you of the bad news. Before I give you some Scripture, I must tell you of a conversation I had today with a lady who called the church office. Through her tears, she explained to me the situation (the pastor and other ministers were gone...she was stuck with me). She recently committed adultery, lied about it, and woke up today as a guilty sinner in need of forgiveness from God and her husband. For 25 minutes, I spoke to her about the depravity of man and the need for grace. We dove into passages such as 2 Samuel 11-13, Psalm 51, John 4, Ephesians 2, and others. Please pray for her as she now tries to seek the Spirit's power in bringing her broken family back together.

Why would this be such a big deal? Why wouldn't she be able to wake up and decide on her own that she needed another lover? The reason why countless stories such as this come up in lens of hurt, pain, and evil...is the nature of sin! We have this nature in us. Take a moment with me and look at the history of sin:

"but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." - Genesis 2:17

"When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate." - Genesis 3:6

The result..... the bad news...

"Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings." - Genesis 3:7

"For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not" - Romans 7:18

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned" - Romans 5:12

"For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away." - Isaiah 64:6

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 6:23

"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." - John 3:36

Please come Sunday to hear more about the bad news. We are all guilty sinners (James 2:10). Anytime we want to do our word and not follow His perfect Word, we sin. our parents (Adam and Eve) wanted to find good in their own willful decision to find pleasure in something contrary to God's law, His Word. The result is what spreads daily. The result is why I get phone calls like I got today. The result is why I'm embarrassed to look at some of my student's facebook pages. The result is why dads in my church don't lead, moms don't nurture, and their children rebel. The result of sin can range from poor teaching in the class rooms to secret, habitual sins that will one day split the entire family. The result is self righteousness and philosophies that are centered around the self.

We have bad news. We have offended the Holy God, the great I AM, that gave us the gift of our heart beating in our chest. We need a remedy... we need good news.

May we be faithful to the Scriptures and tell others first about the bad news, for without it, how will they rejoice in the good news?