E02: There Is One Gospel - The Bad News First

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learn from God's Word together. If you would like more

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pastors, please visit us at keylifefellow-ship.com.

Raise the mount. I am fixed up on it, Mount of

God's redeeming love. It speaks of Mount Calvary for

Jesus Christ, boy, the wrath of God in the place of wretched

sinners such as I as we open our Bibles today.

I don't turn your eyes to Mount Calvary just yet, but I invite

you to turn to Exodus 20 as we turn our eyes to another mount,

Mount Sinai, as we continue to look at our series that we began

last week entitled The Bad or the Gut.

There is one gospel. We look at the message today,

the bad news first. We learned last week what the

gospel is, not what it isn't. It isn't earned by our.

Works. It's by grace alone, through

faith alone in Christ alone. The gospel isn't ecumenical

tolerance where we just all get along for the sake of getting

along. The gospel isn't evolving in

nature at all. It is the same gospel that the

Lord Jesus Christ preached, that was passed through his apostles,

that was passed down through the ages, that if you're in Christ,

you believe nothing has changed and nothing will ever change.

It is the eternal message of hope found in the clear gospel

according to Scripture. Then we close with the fact that

the gospel isn't easily accepted.

In fact, many people have spent lots of time and lots of effort.

I'm trying to repackage and reorchestrate the gospel so that

it's more accepted. It's easier to swallow, it's

more palatable to the taste of sinful man.

We briefly spoke last week about the gospel being good news.

I spoke of a term in the Greek, the UN galleon, which means good

tidings or good message. But as with every ounce of good

news that we receive in life, there must be some bad news that

makes the good news good. Because without the bad news,

there would be no need for good news.

And so before we continue looking at the good news of the

gospel and how glorious a message this is as revealed in

Christ, and through Christ and through what he's done for us at

the cross of Calvary, we go back to Mount Sinai some 1500 years

before Christ. We turn our attention to the bad

news. We turn our attention to God's

law He is going to give to Moses, to the people of Israel.

Well, journey back to the second book of the Bible.

We'll discover the bad news so that we can truly appreciate the

good news. Am I saying that the law of God

is bad? Absolutely not.

We know that the law of God is not bad because the psalmist

says in Psalm 19 verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect,

Psalms 19:7

refreshing the soul. Paul declares in Romans Chapter

Romans 7:12

7 verse 12. So then the law is holy and the

commandment is holy, righteous and good.

He's saying that God's law, His commands are holy, righteous and

good. So I'm not telling you that the

law is bad. Law is good and perfect and holy

because it came from the very mouth of God, inscribed on the

tablets by the very finger of God.

What I am saying to you is this man in his sinful condition.

Upon hearing the law, we'll see that.

Know the law be good and perfect and right.

The law brings bad news to sinful man.

Paul says this in Romans 7. Did that which is good then

become death to me? He says by no means in verse 13,

but in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced

death in me through what was good, so that through the

commandments sin might be utterly sinful.

Paul still on holding, adhering to the idea that the law is

good, but the good law bought. Brought bad news, and that bad

news is that Paul was a Sinner. As we look at the law today as

given on Mount Sinai, we're going to see that the law is the

bad news, the center. It's bad news again, not because

in and of itself it's bad, because I have already

established the fact that is good.

It's bad because of what it reveals to us.

So in our lesson today, we're going to explore the law, namely

the moral law, what we know as the 10 commandments, the

Decalogue. And this is the bad news first.

It is the bad news that makes the good news good.

Exodus chapter 20, verse one, in a passage that I hope you are

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

all familiar with, it says and God spoke all these words.

Who spoke them? I want to establish that right

off the bat. These are not.

Kirk Hall's words, I would never put this type of standard on me

because I know I can't meet this.

He says. I am the Lord your God who

brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

He's reminding you, remember who I am.

I'm the one who's delivered you. You shall have no other gods

before me. You should not make for yourself

an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on on the

earth beneath or in the waters below.

You should not bow down to them or worship them.

For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the

children for the sin of their fathers to the third and 4th

generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to 1000

generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Verse 7 says You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your

God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his

name. He says in verse 8, remember the

Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do

all your work. But the 7th day is a Sabbath to

the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work,

neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or

maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.

Verse 11 says, For in six days the Lord made the heavens and

the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the

7th day. Therefore the Lord blessed the

Sabbath day and made it holy. What a gracious God to allow us

rest from our work. He says in verse 12, Honor your

father and your mother so that you may live long in the land

the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder, you shall

not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give

false testimony against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his

manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that

belongs to your neighbor. Verse 18 says When the people

saw the Thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw

the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear.

They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, speak to us

yourself, and we will listen, but do not have God speak to us

or we will die. Let's pray together.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for your word.

Lord, as we have read through Your Word already and these few

verses, we have seen that we fall way short of what Your

expectations in Your perfect standards say that we are to be.

And Lord, we know that is bad news.

God, I pray today that You would use this bad news to show all of

the sinners here today the error of our ways and our need for

dependency upon Jesus Christ, the only One who can rescue us

from the penalty of sin in the wrath of God, which we deserve.

And I pray for the soul who does not know Christ today, who might

be trying to somehow approach you by their own efforts.

Show them, Lord, that they cannot, that they cannot keep

your law and its entirety. It is impossible for sin sinful

man to do anything other than to sin.

God, I pray today that in Christ they would be restored and

reconciled and cleansed of all of their sin and made right with

you through Christ. Use this time to teach us.

Use this time to fashion us and to mold us into who you desire

for us to be. We pray all these things in the

mighty name of Jesus, Amen. As we come to Mount Sinai this

morning, we come to some very, very bad news.

And that is what the law really does.

I want to make this clear. You do not to take the 10

commandments and say I have to live by these 10 commandments so

that I can gain eternal life. You're in a, in a heap of

trouble because just a moment ago, as you were going through

those commands, what did you realize?

I've broken that one, and I've broken that one.

And you were checking off the boxes in your minds, confirming

in your own mind, in your own heart, that you are a Sinner, A

transgressor. So we begin with the bad news of

the law. The bad news of the law reveals

some things to us, and we're going to talk about three of

those things today. And very important things, the

first thing that I want you to see in those first 17 verses

where we get the 10 commandments or what I have already referred

to as the Decalogue in those first 17 commandments.

We see God reveal His holy and His moral standard, that which

He requires of all men and all women.

We see He breaks it down for us in two parts, the first part

being our relationship to God. We see that in the 1st 4

commands that He gives to His people and then the second part

is our relationship to man. We see that in the last 6

commands. God is not lenient in any way on

any of these instructions. That he's giving these commands.

These are not suggestions. They're not words of wisdom.

They are the very word of God to sinful man.

He is in these 10 commandments summarizing the 613 commandments

that will make up the entirety of the law.

And in this summary we see bad news.

We see bad news because God has not changed His mind regarding

His holy standard, as we briefly mentioned last week.

And I told you that we would come back and we would examine

this. God's standard is perfection and

nothing less than that. Jesus Himself commands it.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 48. Be perfect therefore, as your

Matthew 5:48

heavenly Father is perfect. It is here in the Decalogue that

the Father reveals His perfection and His expected

perfection of mankind. He requires it.

And so we see the bad news of the law reveals this first, the

standard of a holy God. This is God's holy standard.

God in these 10 commands. Shows that he requires some

things. Please pay close attention to

this. First, He requires perfection in

our devotion toward God. I told you that the first part

of the 10 commandments was about our relationship to God.

And he does not accept anything less than perfection in our

relationship to God, that is perfection in our worship.

What would perfection look like as defined by God?

As he's obviously, clearly proclaimed to us?

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make any idols for yourselves out of anything.

Because he's a jealous God, he says, Don't use my name in vain

and remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

What? What would this look like if we

were perfect? And, and I do this because we're

not perfect. I do this so that you can see

just how imperfect we really are.

But what if it looked perfect? What?

Would it portray well your life would portray that you place

nothing or no one above God in any circumstance or any

situation? That's a very scary thing to

think of, I know, because immediately we say what I have

done that, or I am doing that, or I am very prone to that.

That's what it would look like, placing nothing or no one before

God, just as He said not to do. How about this?

It would be the fact that none of us have anything in our lives

that has ever become an idol, an idol that receives our worship.

Now, I know in our day, many of you, you're not going to go out,

you're not going to take a piece of wood and you're not going to

carve some inanimate object to bow down to.

This is the digital age. You're simply going to carry it

around in your hand constantly and you're going to be

constantly controlled by it and you're going to give your time

constantly to it and it's going to consume you.

So let's just make idolatry very simple today so that we can

understand it. Idolatry is the worship of

whatever it is that consumes you.

It has consumed you. Some of you, that's your job.

Some of you, that's your family, some of you that's your success.

God says in his law that he will have no other gods before

himself, but if. We were to keep it perfectly.

That's what we look like. It would also look like never

mishandling or misusing the Lord's name.

I know what many of you do. You immediately jump to curse

words in your mind, right? Where we take a curse word and

we combine it with the name of God.

And let me just tell you this that is using God's name in

vain. But can I also tell you this?

That's not the extent of it. It's oh so much more than that.

It is you making a vow unto the Lord that you have no intention

of keeping. Did you hear me, Church?

A vow that you make unto the Lord that you have no intention

of keeping or any capability of keeping.

Right, Lord, I'm going to serve you all of my day.

Hey, why don't you just try today before you make a vow so

big that you're unable to keep it?

If we were to keep the law perfectly, everything that we

said in regard to God would come to pass, and we would live and

die. By that our word would mean

something. Why?

Because we bear the very name of God.

We carry him around with us. All of the.

Time. What about this within the

modern charismatic movement, these so-called prophets, I'll

go ahead and call them false prophets who say God told them

to say this, which God never told them to say that at all.

It's the creation of their own sinful imagination.

They're using God's name in vain.

And so if we were to keep his law perfectly, we would never do

this. We'd also never forsake a day of

rest so that we can worship, so that we can rest.

We can get into all kind of semantics.

About the Sabbath, I make a distinction between the Old

Testament Sabbath and New Testament Lord's Day.

Does that mean that I don't believe that man ought to have a

day of rest? No, you Saturday to rest.

Rest and you can worship on that same day.

And then Sunday we joined together after a day of rest and

worship. Oh, how it would be if we took a

day of rest and worship. And then we joined together.

And on the Lord's Day we celebrated the King of Kings and

Lord of Lords who died for our sins, making it possible that we

can even fellowship with Almighty God.

You wouldn't be so tired in church, would you?

So God in the Decalogue. Requires perfection in our

devotion to God. That's what it would look like.

Now, I know what you're saying. My life looks nothing like that.

From time to time I find myself looking opposite of that, and

rightfully so. You do and I do.

But not only is there perfection in our devotion toward God that

we see revealed by God's standard in law, He also expects

perfection in our duties toward a man.

I told you that the last 6 commands had to do with our

relationship to man what He tells us to honor our Father and

our mother. Now let me just ask you this.

Question Has anyone kept that command perfectly?

Has anyone here never disobeyed your parents, never dishonored

your parents? Well, we know that the consensus

is yeah, we all have. At some point in time, we did

something that our parents told us not to do.

Revealing what? That you're imperfect.

But if we were perfect, then we could meet the standard on our

own. We would honor our mother and

father in every situation, every request that they ever had of

us. Perfection in our duties also

our duties toward man also includes this.

Never taking the life of another, he says.

Thou shalt not. Murder.

Very quickly, most of us say, you know what?

I have never taken an innocent life.

Let me just give you some clarity here.

When we talk about murder, we're not talking about defending

yourself. We're not talking about.

War, where we're defending our country.

We're talking about the taking of innocent lives in any way,

shape or form, not valuing the fact that those people were

created in the image of God. Whether that be the actual act

of murder, as we see in Genesis where Cain takes the life of

Abel, we see all around us in today's time.

If you, if you haven't, just read an article about Chicago,

you'll see it very quickly. You don't even have to go to

Chicago. Just read the news about

Houston. You'll find that people take

innocent lives. You say, yeah, they're

murderers. Yeah, so are those who abort

babies. We approve the abortion of

babies, and we want to argue whether a baby is an innocent

life. Of course a baby is an innocent

life, but yet we have people who think that it's OK to do that.

And if we were perfect in our duties toward men, we would

never take an innocent life. And then some of you say, well,

I've never murdered anyone and I've never had an abortion.

So I'm pretty clear and I'm pretty clean, except Jesus

taught on this issue. You know what he taught.

But if you harbor anger and unforgiveness in your heart

towards someone, you've already murdered them in your heart.

He gets to the root of the problem, right?

Cain and Abel and their problems didn't start when When Cain

decided to take Abel's life, it started in his.

Heart. That's why God approached Cain

and he said Cain sins crouching at the door, seeking to devour

you. You have a sin problem, Cain,

and if you don't keep that in check, you're going to do

something foolish. And he did.

It's that same heart that we have when we think that we have

a right after being given so much mercy and so much

forgiveness from God to actually withhold mercy and forgiveness

from others. And if we were perfect in our

duty toward men, we'd never do. That he goes on and he talks

about not committing adultery. And some of you would wrongly in

yourself, righteous pride, poke your chest out and say, I've

been faithful to my wife. I've been faithful to my

husband. Before you do that so quickly,

let me explain it to you like this.

That screen that you're hiding from everyone that you're

watching pornographic images on, That is adultery every time you

lust after someone else. And for you to sit back and to

think that we don't have a problem with that in our world

when it is a multi billion dollar industry, you have

another thing coming. He said, well, Kurt, do you

really think that pornography is adultery?

Yes, because Jesus defines it as so when he says if we look after

a woman and we lust after her, we have committed adultery in

our hearts. Again, we get to the heart of

the issue. We're imperfect.

We can't meet God's standard. Not his standard toward God

himself, not His standard towards other men.

How about this? Thou shalt not steal anything.

That includes that pack of hubba Bubba that I lifted off a stop

and go back when I was seven years old.

It includes the taxes. That you steal from the federal

government? Not as funny as Hubba Bubba, I

know, but still thievery the same.

How about the gifts that you steal from God?

Oh really? Now the hush breaks over the

crowd. Is that not what Malachi said?

How do you rob God? Because you withhold your tithes

and your offerings, your gifts unto the Lord.

You're not being a cheerful giver, as the New Testament

commands us to do. Therefore you're stealing, and

you're stealing from God. How about bearing false witness?

This includes all kinds of lies, right?

False witnessing against someone else so that they would be

incriminated, but also false testimony from your lips.

That's a lie. However you want to define it,

this includes all embellishments and all exaggerations.

I know it's deer season, even for the deer hunters and the

fishermen or the golfers, when no one's looking and you doctor

that scorecard or you kick the ball out of the rough and you

don't count it as another stroke.

Lying is lying, isn't it? He goes on.

He says don't covet, don't look at somebody else's possessions.

And not be content with what God has blessed you with and and

then in your greed long for what they have instead of what God

has given you. You know, ladies, what I'm

talking about when you walk through someone's house and

they've had a bigger Hobby Lobby budget than you do.

Or they have that couch that you have lusted after for years and

you desire to have. Or that home and for whatever

reason God and His sovereignty has not blessed you with.

Instead of rejoicing that He's blessed them, what you do is you

covet what they have and you're unsatisfied with what God has

provided for you. Yes, men, that includes your

buddy's boat and his firearms. God makes it clear.

His wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his company, his

success. So if we were to be perfect in

our duties toward man, that's what he would look like.

We would honor our mother and father.

We would never take life of another, never withhold

forgiveness, stay in our anger toward them.

We would never commit adultery by lusting after someone.

Never steal, never lie, never come it.

But the bad news is this, The bad news is this, the fact that

we don't measure up to that standard, do we?

We break His laws and there therefore we confirm that we are

by nature transgressors and objects of God's wrath.

And this is revealed to us through God's law.

This is the purpose of His commands, to show you, Here's

what you really are. Here's what God desires of you,

perfection and your devotion toward Him and your duties

toward other men. But here's what you are.

You fail miserably in both. You say, well, Kirk, that's

harsh. I told you this is bad news.

This is bad news. This is horrible news, but it

does confirm some things for us. It confirms for us what

Ecclesiastes 720 says. It says there is not a righteous

man on earth who does what is right and never sins.

Not even this pastor who stands before you.

We are all sinfully depraved to the very fiber of our being.

Romans 512 says this. Therefore, just a sin entered

the world through one man, to death through sin.

And in this way death came to all men.

Because what? All sinned?

Not some of us. Not a large majority of us.

All of us. When we go to Mount Sinai and we

see the law in the 1st 17 verses there in Exodus 20, it confirms

some things to us. I am not perfect in my devotion

toward God. I am not perfect in my duties

toward man. I am a transgressor.

I am sinfully depraved. I miss the mark of God's.

Standard. I already told you what his

standard was. Romans 323 says, for all have

sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

What is the glory of God, the perfection of God, His standard.

And we missed that mark because we.

All. Are sinners.

Psalm 14 verse 2 says this. The Lord looks down from heaven

Psalms 14:2

on the sons of men to see Is there any who understand, any

who seek God. Three says all have turned

aside. They have together become

corrupt. There is no one who does good,

not even 1. So we're any of you who are

sitting here this morning thinking, well, I'm pretty good.

No, you're not. That's the bad news of Mount

Sinai. That's the bad news of the wall.

None of us are good. I know what we say in modern

church culture these days, right?

I came to church so that I could feel good.

Isn't that what people want to do?

I can tell you this, every time I come to church I feel good.

And you know why I feel good? Because I've seen the truth of

the bad news and I knew that I am in desperate trouble.

I've seen that truth and it has caused me to cry out for a

perfection that is beyond me. To trust in Jesus Christ, the

perfect 1 and in trusting in Him, then I feel good.

I feel good about him. I still feel the same about me.

I can tell you this me in and of myself.

You write this down, put it on your notes right now.

Kirk Hall is a scoundrel. If you want to quote me in

saying that, you feel free to do that.

How do I know I'm a scoundrel? Because the perfect law of God,

out of his perfect mouth, written by his perfect finger,

says Kirk Hall is a transgressor.

He's incapable of keeping God's perfect standard.

James tells us this in James chapter 2, verse 10.

James 2:10

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one

point is guilty of breaking all of it.

What does that mean for me? Well, if I've only broken one of

the 10 commandments, guess what? I've broken every single one of

them. I'm not just a transgressor.

I'm not just a Sinner. I am the worst of transgressors

and I am the worst of sinners because I have violated the

entirety of God's standard of perfection as revealed in His

law. I know it's foreign to the

American church where we're preaching to standing in the

pulpit and lying to you and telling you that you're good

enough and you're smart enough and people like you.

We're not. We're sinners in need of God's

grace because we have violated Him by our lives and the very

nature of our being. It is His law that makes us

aware of this and places us under a curse.

This is the bad news. Galatians 310.

It says all. Who rely on observing the law

are under a curse, for it is written.

Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything

written in the book of the Law. What is he saying?

If you can't keep it all, then you're not keeping any of it

confirming that you were under a curse.

That describes me, and that describes each of you.

The bad news of the law reveals the standard of a holy God.

That's bad news for the unredeemed Sinner, isn't it?

That's bad news for the imperfect man like myself, for

the man like you or the woman like you.

The law is bad news because we have no righteousness of our own

to claim. God hasn't changed his mind.

He still requires perfect righteousness.

So we see the first element of bad news that the law reveals

the standard of a holy God. Secondly, the bad news of the

law reveals the shameful guilt of man.

Verse 18 See their response. See what actually transpires

here. It says during the first part of

18 when the people saw the Thunder and lightning and heard

the. Trumpet, and saw the mountain

and smoke. They trembled with fear.

What? Is going on here well upon

hearing. The law of God, sinful man

trembled in fear because the law revealed their shameful guilt.

Just as a moment ago as we read the 10 commandments and you had

to admit in your mind, I'm guilty of breaking this one, I'm

guilty of breaking that one. And then when you heard that God

said, if you've broken one, you've broken them all, you had

to say I am a guilty. Sinner.

And with the guilt of sin comes the weight of shame, doesn't it?

God in His law projected to the Israelites, He's projecting to

us from that same law today His sinless glory and the shameful

guilt of mankind. Their guilt brought them to a

place of trembling and fear before an Almighty and holy God.

Don't miss that in the text. They saw the power and the

authority of God, and they trembled with fear.

Their guilt brought them to this place.

Much like Isaiah and Isaiah chapter 6 verse 5, Isaiah

Isaiah 6:5

ushered into the presence of God.

It says that he fell as a dead man before God's throne.

And here's what he says. Woe to me, I cried.

I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips,

and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have

seen the king, the Lord Almighty Isaiah, coming into the presence

of God in a vision, God allowing him to.

See, this falls as a dead man in his shameful guilt.

What did he turn to immediately? The fact that he is shamefully

guilty. I'm a man of unclean lips.

Among the people of unclean lips.

We are all sinners, shamefully guilty before a holy God, the

law. Brings us to that place where we

really see how shamefully guilty we are, causing us to fear even

coming into the presence of God. Because it confirms some things

to us, doesn't it? Two things that we'll speak of

today 1 is this. It confirms to us that by nature

man dismisses God's authority. When they saw the Thunder and

the lightning and, and they witnessed the heard the sound of

the trumpet and they witnessed the smoke coming from the

mountain, they knew that they were dealing with Almighty God

and His sovereign authority. And upon hearing the law, they

were fearful of this God because they knew that they had spent

their life rebelling against His sovereign position.

Isn't that true of us? Prior to Christ, we spent our

entire lives rebelling against the authority of a sovereign God

in His Word. Here we see the Israelites

confirming the same that they had spent their life rebelling

against God's position, just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden,

when they ignored His word and did whatever they wanted to do

in spite of what God had already commanded they.

Refused to take his word. Seriously.

Don't we live in a culture who refuses to take the word of God

seriously? We confirm that we're just like

Adam and Eve, who's there in Genesis chapter 2 receives this

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

from the Lord in verse 15. The Lord God took the man, put

him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it, and

the Lord God commanded the man. You are free to eat from any

tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will

surely die. God said you can eat of anything

that you want in this garden that I've given you, except for

the tree right here, the tree of now of the knowledge of good and

evil. Do not eat fruit from there or

you will die. And what did they do?

They rebelled against His authority.

They dismissed it. We have an account of it in

Scripture. I'll read it for you there in

Genesis chapter 3 verse one, it says now the serpent was more

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, Did God really say you must not eat

from any tree in the garden? Did God really say, yeah, that's

how He approached her, It isn't really His word.

Why don't you just go ahead and dismiss that?

Because He didn't really say that, though she knew He did

because she confirms that. The woman said to the servant,

we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say

you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of

the garden and you must not touch it or you will die.

She knew exactly what God had told them to do.

What does Satan say verse 4? You will not, surely.

Die. Isn't that what he's still doing

today? Telling people no, God didn't

mean that in his word. Don't listen to that.

That's outdated. That's foolish.

That's ancient knowledge, he said.

You will not. Surely die, the serpent said to

the woman, For God knows that when you.

Eat of it your. Eyes will be open and you will

be like God, knowing good and evil.

And when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for

food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining

wisdom, she took some of it and ate.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

We're going to see it unfold right here.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he

ate it. And then the eyes of both of

them were opened, and they realized that they were naked.

So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for

themselves. Shame and guilt.

Watch what transpires next. Excuse me, it says.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God.

As he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they

hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

It sounds a lot like the Israelites.

Upon hearing the law of God, they trembled with fear because

they knew that they had dismissed God's authority.

Not only had they dismissed God's authority by disobeying

His word, they also disobey His commands.

They knew it. All he had to do was tell them,

here's my standard of perfection.

Here's what you are to do. And as we read it a moment ago,

we realized quickly that's not what we do in and of ourselves.

Many people want to argue all of the time, but the Bible is not

the word of God, but only the word of man.

There is no way that man would put these 10 commands upon

himself. He's come from a perfect God,

and he means every single one of them.

But what we do by our nature, apart from Jesus Christ, is we

disobey God's command. Why?

Because we're bound by sin. Sinful man naturally disobeys

God's. Commands We're not sinners

because we sin. We sin because we are sinners,

inheriting that very nature from our first parents, Adam and Eve.

And so this disobedience of sinful man reveals the extent of

our shameful guilt, doesn't it? We can go back to the first born

of Adam and Eve, Cain. He proved that sin came through

Adam and it came upon all men, because it is Cain who murdered

his brother the next generation. After Adam we can go just three

chapters after this in Genesis chapter 6, just prior to the

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

flood. This is the Lord's analysis of

the earth. He says in Genesis 65, the Lord

saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the

earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of

the human heart. What did he say?

Not the human mind, the thoughts of the human heart, the depths

and the core of your being. Your soul was perverted by sin.

He said the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all of

the time. We stand before God as confirmed

by His law and our shameful guilt.

Those who dismiss God's authority, Those who blatantly

disobey God's command, sinful man because He is sinful in his

being, continues to disobey God and His Word even today.

The apostle Paul said this in Romans chapter 3 verse 10.

Romans 3:10

There is none righteous, no, not 1-11 says there is no one who

understands, no one who seeks God. 12 says all have turned

away, they have together become worthless.

There is no one who does good, not even 1.

Why do I say this? Why do I bring such bad news?

Because until we see the bad news, the good news of the

gospel will never be as good as it should be to us.

The bad news of the law reveals the shameful guilt of man.

The law reveals our utter sinfulness and our utter

disobedience, Romans 320 says. Therefore no one will be

declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.

Rather, through the law we become conscious of sin, and

when we become conscious of sin, the right reaction is shame and

guilt, because we have dismissed and dishonored God's authority

and we have disobeyed His commands.

Takes my mind back to the pilgrims progress where we see

Christian, the main character of that storyline.

As he's travelling on the narrow way to the Celestial City, just

like Evangelist told him to do, he comes in contact with a man

by the name of Mr. Worldly Wise Man.

And what does Mr. Worldly Wise Man do?

Mr. Worley, wise man, quickly diverts Christian off of the

narrow path of grace that points to the cross of Calvary, and he

sends him down another path where he's told that he'll find

someone there. And the city of morality named

Mr. Legality, he sends him down the path of the law.

He sends him to Mount Sinai. And what happens there?

As he approaches Mount Sinai, he's already carrying the weight

and the burden of his sin on his back.

But as he approaches Mount Sinai, you know what?

That weight becomes ever increasingly more.

Why? Because when we look at the law,

what it shows us is that we are completely weighted down by sin,

and we are in need of someone to take that sin off of our back

and to relieve us. And when we look at the law,

what does it do? It brings forth shame and guilt

as it is designed to do. Because all of us in this room

today stand before a holy God, guilty as charged.

The law brings us to that place. It's sad that the modern church

movement says don't preach the law because people will feel

guilty or ashamed of what they have done.

And they should, because it is in my guilt and my shame as the

law was preached, that I realized that I am a Sinner and

I am in need of a Savior. And I saw how sweet that savior

truly is, because I saw how shameful and guilty I truly AM.

So the law brings us to a place of shame and guilt.

That's the bad news. We don't like it, It's

uncomfortable, but we can't deny it.

And just because we don't like something and just because we we

we don't like the fact that it makes us uncomfortable, doesn't

mean we have the right to deny it.

It's here. It's in the word of God, Exodus.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

Chapter 20, you just read it with me.

It's got standard and we are shamefully guilty, falling short

of his standard by dismissing his authority and disobeying his

commands. So the bad news of the law

reveals the shameful guilt of man.

It reveals the standard of a holy God.

And thirdly, the bad news of the law reveals the standing of man

before God. Look at the second part of 18

and 19 here. It says this upon hearing the

law, after Thunder and lightning rang out and a trumpet sounded,

says they stayed at a distance. Well, that's the bad news of the

law, isn't it? It keeps us at a distance from

God because we know we can't approach Him.

They stayed at a distance. Watched their reaction and said

to Moses, speak to us yourself, and we will listen, but do not

have God, do not have Yahweh speak to us or we will die.

They understood some things that we don't understand in the

American church anymore. That sin brings death.

The law revealed to them. They're clear standing and

they're clear position as sinful men before a holy and Almighty

God. And upon hearing the law, they

knew that they were separated from God and that they deserved

judgment in the form of death and death eternally.

The law is what revealed. This to them, the same Decalogue

that we read a moment ago, those 10 commandments that people are

trying to take out of the school rooms and out of the

courthouses, because when we read them, it makes us feel

shameful and guilty. It should and it shouldn't make

you understand that you stand before a holy God.

Not in good news, but in bad news.

You can't approach them. Why?

Because our standing according to the law is this write it down

alienation from God. They distanced themselves

because they knew they were alienated from God, that he was

holy and he was set apart, and they were nothing of the sort.

They were the exact opposite of that.

They understood alienation from God, that unredeemed filthy

sinners cannot approach God because they are unclean to Him.

Exodus 3320. It says what he said, You cannot

see my face, for no one may see my face and live.

Even Moses himself was shielded from seeing the face of God.

Why? Because we can't see his face

and live, sin separates us from communion with God.

We are alienated from him. Isaiah. 59 Two Watch this.

But your iniquities have separated you from God.

Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not

hear. The Israelites understanding

this, they stayed at a distance and said, Moses, please, we'll

listen to you, but don't let God speak to us again or we'll die.

Why? Because God spoke the law to

them, revealing to them they're standing before holy God that

they are truly alienated and separated from God and His

Holiness, that they are truly enemies of God in their sin.

Just as Colossians chapter 1 tells us in verse 21, once you

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

were alienated from God and we're enemies in your minds.

Because of your evil behavior, I know that's not what people are

selling you today. They are selling you garbage

like God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

They're selling you garbage like we're all just children of God

on a journey to find Him in our own way.

No, we're not. The law says that we are all

condemned to sinners and we stand before a holy God and we

cannot commune with them because we are enemies of God because of

our sin. Stop believing the lies that the

world is throwing at you that do not come from the word of God.

There's bad news in this. The bad news is that we're

alienated from God. And look at their instinctive

reasoning. We got to have a mediator,

Moses. We'll talk to you, you talk to

God, you relate message. But don't let us hear God again,

or we'll die. And here we have Moses as a go

between a mediator serving as the mediator of the old covenant

of the law, giving us a picture and a type of Jesus Christ

himself, John 1 and John's gospel verse 17, he gives us

clarity on this. He says for the law was given

through Moses. He's the mediator of the law.

We see it here at Mount Sinai and grace and truth came through

Jesus Christ. We, we are looking for a greater

mediator here. He's a mediator of the law.

Moses, he delivered the bad news.

And there's a bad news that makes the good news is so good.

There is a greater mediator, the great high priest, the Lord

Jesus Christ. And here are the Israelites

instinctively looking for a mediator.

We have to find one. And we must find one when I am

thankful that when we weren't even looking.

The Lord Jesus Christ comes and He finds us and He mediates on

our behalf grace and truth because we are condemned and

alienated from God according to the law.

We see mediators all throughout Scripture, don't we?

We see Moses serving as a mediator.

How about the entire priesthood of Israel, mediators between God

and the sins of mankind? How about the prophets who

served as mediators, receiving a message from the Lord and then

projecting that message out so that the people could hear the

word of the Lord? Then again, of course, Jesus who

serves as a mediator of the new covenant of grace for those who

believe and trust in Him, just as Hebrews 9 verse 15 tells us.

Hebrews 9:15

It says for this reason Christ is the mediator of a new

covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised

eternal inheritance now that he has died as a ransom to set them

free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Paul says to Timothy in first Timothy chapter 2 verse 5.

1 Timothy 2:5

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men.

The man Jesus Christ or the Mediator.

Moses did not point us to God in the sense that Jesus pointed us

to the Father. He pointed us to the fact that

we have violated God's command and we are alienated from Him

and His Holiness. Moses brought the bad news of

the law. It's Jesus, Jesus alone, who

brings the good news of the Gospel.

If we're not for that good news, all of us would be forbidden to

commune, to communicate, to approach the glory and the

majesty of a holy and perfect God.

The bad news of the law reveals the standing of man before God,

that there is alienation from God.

But we also see this not only a sinful man standing, alienation

from God, it's awareness of deserved judgment.

That's why they're afraid. And what was the judgment that

they knew of? We will die.

Is that not the same judgment that came upon Adam and fell

upon all mankind? Is that not what Scripture says

when in Romans 623 it says for the wages of sin is what death?

It's death. They knew we are transgressors,

therefore we deserve to die, and to die twice, not just in this

life, but to die a second, an eternal death in the lake of

fire. Scripture proclaims Ezekiel 18,

Ezekiel 18:4

verse 4. It says this, For every living

soul belongs to me, the Father, as well as the Son.

Both the light belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who

will die. You've ever sinned?

Have you ever transgressed against the Lord's commands?

Guess what? Death is certain unto you, and

death eternal. And so transgressors become

aware of their deserved judgment.

Do not have God speak to us, or we will die.

Why? Because filth and

unrighteousness collide with God's holiness and there must be

justice. And man understands and he is

aware of the fact by looking at the law that he is deserving of

the judgment and the wrath of God.

Trans transgressors stand before God as condemned sinners.

John 3 verse 18 makes that very clear.

John 3:18

I know you usually just read 16 as a standalone verse.

Read it all. Read all the way to 18.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not

believe stands condemned already because he is not believed in

the name of God's one and only Son.

He says if you don't trust in Christ, you have no other hope

then the judgment that comes because you are a law breaker,

you are a Sinner, you are a transgressor.

And transgressors who are aware of their deserved judgment, they

need to fear God's wrath. They need to fear God's wrath.

I know in in a society where we don't paint God any longer as a

God of wrath, let me just tell you it's still a God of wrath.

There are many heretics who preach a heresy.

That says the God of the Old Testament was a more wrathful

and a more vengeful, a more angry God than the God of the

New Testament. Somehow we got a new God

somewhere along the way. That is blatant heresy.

The God who gave. Us his perfect law through

Moses. He is the same God who gives us

his perfect grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must talk about His wrath and discussing the bad news.

Why? Because we as human beings apart

from Jesus Christ have nothing to look forward to the fearful

expectation and fiery judgment and wrath of God.

Romans 25 says this. But because of your stubbornness

and your unrepentant heart, you were storing up wrath against

yourself for the day of God's wrath when His righteous

judgment will be revealed. All of you who are not in Christ

today, let me just tell you this.

Every time you break His perfect law, you're storing up more

wrath for yourself on the day of judgment, because it is on that

day where He will take His law, and that book will be opened up

and your life will be judged alongside of that.

And you will be found standing before a holy God, guilty as

charged, still alienated from God, and deserving of judgment

and wrath and judgment and wrath in hell.

Hebrews 10/13 says this is a dreadful thing to fall into the

hands of the living God, the law proclaims.

That we are guilty sinners, alienated from God because of

His perfect standard, His perfect law, and we are

deserving of judgment, and we ought to be afraid of that.

We ought to be dreadfully afraid of falling into the hands of the

living God. Many people don't understand

this. The bad news for sinful man is

not hell. No, hell is a reality.

The bad news for sinful man is God himself.

Did you catch that? He's not the teddy bear in the

sky that you've created him into being.

He's a God of wrath and he is a God of justice and he is a God

of judgement and he is a God of indignation towards sin, and he

cannot just turn a blind eye to it and ignore it as if it's not

happening. He will judge.

Sinful, unrepentant mankind, He will eternally exercise his

wrath upon them, fear him, tremble before him.

It is a dreadful thing to fall into his hands.

That's what's happening here with the Israelites.

They've heard the law. They stayed at a distance.

Moses, you can speak to us for yourself, and we'll listen to

you. But don't let God speak to us

again, and we'll die. Why?

Because when He speaks, He speaks truth, and when He speaks

truth to the Sinner, they stand condemned by His truth.

So the bad news of the Law reveals our standing before God

as sinners. Isn't this bad news makes us

aware that we're alienated from our Creator and we're deserving

of His holy wrath and judgment. I told you this was bad news.

The bad news of the law reveals the standard of a holy God, the

shameful guilt of man, the standing of man before this holy

God who gave the law. What's the diagnosis here,

Pastor? We're just going to dismiss and

we have to go home and know that we're condemned.

No, I told you the bad news makes the good news.

Oh, so sweet. Here's your diagnosis.

Watch this. We can't meet God's perfect

standard on our own. We're sinfully depraved and

we're all condemned, guilty by the law.

And God spoke the law and it is good and it is perfect and

everything that he says is right.

And when God says I'm a transgressor, that is exactly

what this man is for. Alienated from God, observing of

his wrath and his punishment and justice, He will exercise in the

lake of fire for all unrepentant, unbelieving center.

So we have the. Diagnosis.

What's the prognosis? The law gives us the diagnosis.

That's what we've been looking at this morning.

That's why it's bad news. But if you were to receive a

call today from your doctor, he says you have bad news.

And that bad news is that you have cancer.

What do you want next? You know, the diagnosis, you

want the prognosis. What does this mean?

Well, it's not that big a deal. It can be treated and you'll

live a long and healthy. Life woohoo or stage 4 and

you've only got two months to live so you better prepare.

And so we look at the prognosis. And here's the thing.

I'm. Going to give you 2 scenarios.

I'm going to give you prognosis #1 Are you ready?

Continuing your sin and your rebellion toward God, And you

will face the just judgement and wrath of God that will come upon

all unbelieving, unrepentant sinners.

Hebrews 927 says it's appointed unto man wants to die.

And after this the judgement you will face God.

And if you face God on your own merit, you will fall extremely

short of His standard, and you will face God, and you will face

God and His wrath, and in His indignation and in His justice

prognosis #2 is this. And perhaps today God would

graciously open your eyes to see the truth, to see the bad news

for what it really is. It's reality.

Most of the time people don't want the bad news and they don't

want the bad news because they don't want reality.

Here's the reality. The law is bad news.

But but perhaps today God would graciously open your eyes to the

truth that you are a Sinner. How would he do that?

By exposing you to the law, to the fact that you have violated

and transgressed against God, that you are a Sinner,

condemned, and it's confirmed by the Word of God, and that you

need a Savior and that Savior's Jesus Christ.

The great high Priest and mediator of a new covenant,

covenant of grace and truth. He's the only one who can save

you from the bad news that you deserve judgment and hell.

He's the only one who can save you from the bad news and to

make you righteous before a holy God.

I told you at the beginning, the bad news is that here's God's

standard. We don't meet God's standard.

How can we ever meet that standard?

That's prognosis too. Pay attention to this.

It's a theological term, and I know what people are saying

today. Don't teach your people

theological terms, just teach them practical terms.

Practical terms keep you stupid in your understanding of God.

I must be theological here because this is a supernatural

exchange that I must talk about how high and how mighty God is

in this exchange. It's a theological term called

double imputation, indicating that there are two imputations

that occur in this transaction #1 our sin is fully imputed to

Christ. This is the first part of this

transaction. That means this Jesus, though

sinless in every aspect of his life and thoughts, He receives

upon himself every transgression that I ever committed, every

time I coveted, every time I stole, every time I had a

lustful thought, every time I did a sinful deed.

The penalty of that was placed upon the back of Jesus Christ at

a heel called Calvary 2000 years ago, where He bore the weight

and the wrath of the sin of all those who will trust in Him.

Isaiah says it like this in Isaiah 53 verse 5, But he was

Isaiah 53:5

pierced for our transgressions. Watch this he Christ.

Was pierced for Kirk's transgressions, but he was

crushed for Kirk's iniquity. The punishment meant that

brought peace upon Kirk, was upon Christ and by his wounds.

Kirk is healed. We all, like sheep, have gone

astray. Each of us has turned to his own

way, and the Lord has laid on him Christ, the iniquity of us

all, all who will believe and trust in him.

That's the first part of double amputation.

God placed our sins on Jesus, and Jesus suffered and bore the

wrath of God in our place as a substitutionary atonement.

The second part of double double imputation is this.

And this doesn't seem right, and this doesn't seem fair.

I love when people say, well, that doesn't seem fair.

Neither does this. Christ's righteousness has been

imputed to us who believe and trust in Him.

What are you saying? Clearly, Pastor, I am saying

that my wickedness was charged to the account of Christ and His

righteousness, The fact that He met the perfect standard of the

law to the T. Was then imputed to me, and He

imputed that righteousness to me, and now I stand before God,

meeting His. Holy standard as described and

proclaimed in the law. How does second Corinthians

describe this? Just like this Second

2 Corinthians 5:21

Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21. God made him who had no sin to

be sinned for us. My sin was imputed to Christ.

The second part of that verse says this.

So that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

His righteousness then imputed to me church, that is grace,

that is the gospel. That is the good news, that

double imputation. It allows us to be counted as

righteous before God. It pays the required penalty of

sin, which is death. It's all paid for by the

sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

He died the death that we owed, and He gives to us the

perfection that we need, that we may stand before a holy God, not

in fear, but in fellowship and perfect communion, that we may

boldly come before His throne of grace.

Paul says it like this in Romans chapter 3, and I'm done, verse

Romans 3 · chapter mention

20. He says, therefore no one will

be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.

Rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

I pray today that you have become conscious of sin, but now

a righteousness from God apart from the law has been made to

made known, to which the Law and the prophets testify.

This righteousness comes from God through faith in Jesus

Christ. To all who believe, there is no

difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of

God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption

that came by Christ Jesus. 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 says He did it to demonstrate His justice at this present time

so as to be just. And the one who justifies those

who have faith in Christ. He is just and He is a

justifier. What do I mean by that?

Those. Who remain in the bad news of

the law, thinking that they are somehow going to please God by

doing things that they are uncapable of doing.

They will receive the just wrath and judgment of God that they

deserve. But it also says that He's the

justifier of those who have faith in Jesus, those who have

trusted in Jesus. You will not face the wrath and

the indignation of God because he has poured out his grace and

his mercy and his forgiveness into your life through the Lord

Jesus Christ. And you by faith have accessed

that forgiveness, that eternal life, that double amputation

that I spoke of a minute ago. So please know this

righteousness is credited, not earned, and it's by faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ and not by any works or efforts and trying to

keep the law, because the bad news of the law declares we

can't keep his law. But the good news of the gospel

is this. Jesus died to pay the penalty

that we owed, and He has given unto those who believe and trust

in Him the righteousness that the Father requires.

The bad news is we're all sinners deserving of God's wrath

and judgment. We're deserving of eternal

death. We missed the mark.

And the good news is that Jesus is that sinless Savior who

offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice on behalf of all those

who will trust in Him. My prayer is this for you, that

you trust in Him. Let's pray together.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you so much that in Christ

we don't get what we deserve, but in Christ He bore what we

deserve, and we receive His goodness and His perfection and

His righteousness imputed to our account so that we can stand

before holy God. Not condemned by the law.

That's the bad news. But as recipients of grace, sons

and daughters of the Most High, purchased by the precious blood

of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ.

God, I pray for those who have not yet surrendered their life

to Christ. Lord, I pray that it be today

that they have heard the bad news of the law, that you have

opened their eyes to see that they are sinners and they are in

need of a Savior, and you have provided that Savior for them,

that today by your grace, they would surrender to Christ and be

saved. We'll give you all the glory for

it in Jesus name, Amen. Would you stand to your feet

now? His heads are bowed and his eyes

are closed. You're here this morning, you

say, Kirk? I am a transdresser, and the bad

news of the law has placed me in a position to know that I am

condemned and I deserve death and judgment.

But I also heard the part about how God will give me mercy and

grace if I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and

Savior. You're here today.

Oh, you were given 2 prognosis. 1.

Keep doing what you're doing and stay in your state of

condemnation. Face the eternal wrath of God.

Two run to Jesus Christ in desperation today, calling on

His name, knowing that for whosoever shall call upon the

name of the Lord, they shall be saved.

You're here today and you say, pastor, that's me.

I need Jesus to save me from my sin and the wrath that is to

come upon me. Who would be honest by the

raising of your hand and say that's me?

I want to know how I can surrender my life to Jesus

Christ today. Raise it high where I can see

you, where I can pray for you. Anyone here like this?

Thank you ma'am. You keep that up so I can see

you. Anyone else says that's me, I

need Jesus to save me. Ma'am, I'm going to ask you to

do something brave right now as these other folks are praying

for you. If one of you ladies wouldn't

meet her, right down there you come right now, you come down

that aisle, they're going to take the word of God.

They're going to show you what it means to truly know Jesus as

your Lord and Savior. Have the burden of sin lifted

off of your back. Rest of you, I make a dangerous

assumption that you were all Christians.

I pray that you would search your heart, you would work out

your own salvation with fear and trembling to see if that's a

trustworthy assumption. I pray today that you see the

Word of God clearly. What you have truly been rescued

from, what you truly deserve, yet what Jesus has saved you

from, that you would praise Him for that.

If you need prayer, there's folks to my left and to my right

to pray with you, to pray for you as we prepare to approach

the Lord's Table and observance of the Lord's Supper this

morning. I also pray during this time

that you would begin to examine yourselves so that when we take

the Lord's Supper in just a moment, that you partake in a

manner that is worthy according to the commands that God gave to

the apostle Paul in first Corinthians Chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

You need prayer. There's folks to my right and my

left to pray for you. Pray with you.

May we yield to the Holy Spirit now.

You've been listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry

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teaching from God's Word.