We're going to be talking this morning about some bad news. Anybody want to hear some bad news this morning? Most of the time we shy away from bad news, but this is bad news that you should be thankful to hear. In fact, many here can attest that they have been thankful to hear. That may sound odd to you, but it's a reality that often we're thankful for bad news. I'll give you an illustration. Brother Ron and I were traveling back, you know, we went to Kansas City, and I was driving on the way back, came through St. Louis, and we were talking, kind of in deep conversation, and we just veered right off towards Chicago. Well, I saw the sign that said, Chicago is touching such and such a mile, that was bad news. But I'm glad I thought, so we could turn around. I'm glad I thought before it was too late. Brother Danny's not thankful to hear about his disease. It was hard to hear about that, but he's thankful he did hear about it so they could start to treat it. So you see what I mean? Hearing the news isn't fun, but in the end, you're thankful for it. When something's wrong, you need to know about it. But here's really the worst news that has ever come upon mankind. That's the news that we are sinners. The reality of sin. This is a harsh reality of what we are by nature. And I can say that if you're without the Lord today, this is a terrible truth about where you're headed right now and how hopeless you are to do anything about it. That's bad news. I pray you hear it this morning. Now sometimes when we see some news that we don't like to hear, we want to shut it out. We want to stop our ears. We want to distract ourselves and ignore it and go the other way and hope it goes away. When I'm spending too much money in a month or I feel like our family has it, I just don't want to check the bank account. Sometimes we don't. But you need to. Believers, can you remember the first time you heard the news? You really heard it. Not just had a preacher stand up and talk about it, but it hit home to you personally. I'm a sinner. And here is my sin in light of God's glory, His righteousness. It's a heartbreaking thing. It's a fearful thing. But do you lament it today? That you heard it? Oh, we rejoice that God reveals it to us. Because as we see the bad news, our understanding, too, as believers, has been awakened to the most wonderful news. But you must see the bad first. To see what we're talking about this morning, I pray, as we go through this portion of Scripture and look at the reality of sin, a terrible truth that we must see. Let's talk about, first of all, who we are. What are we? Well, you can kind of see there in your bulletin, in the Scripture that is there, I left some blanks. Usually my blanks are pretty obvious anyway. But you have to see pretty clearly who we are. As you look through that first point, you see that one word running straight down there in all the points. It says, sinners. That's what we are. What does that mean though? Now people have different views of what it means to sin. Sometimes people view this as just a tiny little mistake or they see all these different levels of sin. Things we can maybe make up for with our good words or our words or our point to somebody else that is worse than us. We need to really see what it means to say that we're sinners. What does that mean in light of God's glory in our relationship with Him? That's what really matters, not what other people think. First thing I want you to see is that we're sinners by imputation. Now, we talked about this a little bit a couple weeks ago on Sunday night, so this might be fresh in your minds if you were there the night that we took the Lord's Supper. We talked a little bit about what it means to be sinners by imputation. But this is a strange thought to most of the world today. Most of the world thinks that once you begin to sin, that makes you a sinner. The reality is you are a sinner and that's why you sin. That's the truth. How far does our sin go back? Does it go back to the earliest sin that we can remember? Does it go back to our birth? Does it go back to even to our parents? It goes all the way back to Adam. It goes even far beyond you and anything that you can remember. Here is Adam, our common ancestor. Let's read these scriptures from Romans chapter 5. Verse 12 says, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Verse 18 of that passage says, Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Verse 19, for by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. That one man is clearly talking about Adam and that disobedience that he's talking about is his transgression there in the Garden of Eden. And what that's saying is that his sin has something to do with you. I'm going through this with my boys. We're going through this in our devotion. Starting back through Genesis and looking at some of the stories there. And of course, I'm trying to talk to him about the Lord, even as I do it. But we got to the Garden of Eden and we're reading about Adam and Eve's sin. And one of my boys looked at me and said, that's sad. We talked about them being cast out of the garden. We talked about the curse of death. And I said, yes, it is. But it's not just sad for them. It's sad for us. Adam was my representative. He was my federal head. He represented me. And when he sent in the garden, I fell with him. It wasn't just the fall of one man and one woman there in the garden. That was the fall of all people in the senate. Romans chapter 5 clearly teaches that. We can kind of give an illustration of this with our officials of our country. If Congress and President, the President of our nation, declare war with another country, you know what? You're at war with that other country. They are your official. They represent you. They stand in your stead and make decisions in the place of our country. Well, Adam was our federal head. And when he sinned, what did that do? That brought him into a spiritual death immediately. He was in opposition to God. He could not approach God and have perfect fellowship with God because God is holy and can have nothing to do with a sinful creature. But he represented me when his opposition to God became mine, when he sinned. That's the reality that the scriptures are teaching us here. We bear his curse. We bear his sin. That sin has been placed to our account long before we were ever born. That just gives us a picture of how hopeless we are as sinners. We are sinners by imputation. But then secondly, we're sinners by nature. Genesis 5 verse 3 tells us that Adam lived 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness after his image. Now, often we read a verse like that and we think, well, he looked like Adam. And often children do look like their parents. But I can just say more than that, and as I began to study that verse, that certainly what came out of this is that this was talking about spiritual likeness. In his sin, this child was born, and it had that sin nature. And that's been the same for every one of Adam's children. And that goes all the way down to us, all these thousands of years later. We're sinners, like he was. By nature, we're sinners. We come into this world disposed to sin. I'll give you an example of what it means to have a nature. And I know I've probably used this illustration before, but has anybody ever turned on a TV and you're watching a nature show? Actually, Nature is the name of a show I like to watch with my children often. And we like to watch animals attacking each other and eating each other. It's a lot of fun. But my wife won't watch. But anybody ever turn on a show an animal show, and it's showing the nature of them. These animals out there in their natural habitat, acting in a natural way, and you see a zebra chase down a lion and eat it. The wife raises her hand. I've never seen that. That would be bizarre to watch. That would be interesting, but you won't see it. Why? Well, there's two reasons. Zebras do not have the strength, first of all, to chase down a lion and to eat it. They don't have the ability to do that. But secondly, if for some reason there was a super strong zebra that had the ability to do that, it doesn't like lion meat. It likes rats. What does that have to do with what we're talking about? Well, I think this brings out in our sin nature, first of all, we don't have the power to do what's right. We have a sin nature and we aren't able to erase our sins and we aren't able to please God. We're opposed to God and there's nothing we can do that is pleasing to him as we have fallen in our sins. But secondly, we have no desire to do it. We don't want to. If we had the ability to earn salvation, which the scriptures do not teach, we would never seek to really earn it. With a real heart for God's glory, we would never love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, body and spirit. We have a sin nature. Jeremiah 13. And this is kind of a text that stuck in my mind that led to this message. It says in verse 23, Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. It can't happen. That's what that's talking about. We come into this world wanting to live for ourselves. We want to reign over our own lives. We want to go our own way. We want to steal God's glory. I learned this as a father that children start sinning right away. And we did not come into this world and say, Daddy, what might I do to make you happy? How can I make your job easier? I want to do something for you today. Or what might I do to glorify God? Daddy, can you help me do that? No, you know what she said? She said, wah! And she did that a lot louder than I can do with a microphone. And what she's really saying is, give me milk, take care of my niece, me, me, me, me, me. And she can talk a little bit and it's kind of the same message. He's a sweetie, but that's the reality. That's sin nature. We come into this world with a selfish desire and have left to our own strength. That's where we're going to continue. We're centered by imputation and we're centered by nature. But then thirdly, we're centers by choice. You know, all these things like some kind of like some excuses maybe to you this morning. Let's put all the blame on Adam. Hey, it's Adam's disease, not mine. Don't blame me for that. He's the one that fell in the garden, and I just... I just got this sin imputed to me, and I had to take on this nature I didn't want, and... Who's gonna say that on the Day of Judgment? Nobody. Nobody's pointing the finger at Adam. Nobody's pointing the finger at their society that was around them, or somebody else that influenced them, or their parents didn't do enough for them. Nobody's gonna say it's somebody else's fault. Now, maybe they say that now, but they won't say it in the day of judgment before the Lord. Verse 19 of Romans chapter 3 tells us this. Now we know that whatsoever the things the law say, that's God's law. That's His truth. That's His perfect standard of righteousness. It says to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. The law reveals our sins. And it reveals that we're sinners by choice. God has revealed his truth, particularly to us. Now, there is condemnation to somebody who was born out in a jungle and God gave them a conscience and a recognition that there is a greater creator and they still live for themselves. There is condemnation for that individual. But how much more us who have the word of God in our hands, who have his truth. who have His law, who have His standard put before us, and His righteousness revealed, and the hope of salvation revealed in this book. And yet, we go our own way from the heart. Nobody, nobody is a sinner forced into it. We go that way of our own free will from the depths of our heart. In Romans chapter 14 verse 1 lays this out. It says, The fool has said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. That's pretty clear. God looks down from heaven and what does he see? He sees people willfully going their own way. Choosing to do wrong from their heart. They hate the truth and they want to go their own way. Maybe they're not outwardly blaspheming God like we see with the scribes and Pharisees, but inwardly they're saying, me, me, me, me, me. It's my glory. It's my way. It's my desires. And they hear the truth. Jesus Told these scribes and Pharisees, these learned men there in Israel, in John chapter 5, you will not come to me that you might have life. Search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. And they were tested by me and you will not come to me. They had heard the scriptures in a way. They studied them. They knew them. They knew better than everybody else, at least up here, but their heart was their own and they would not come to Christ. Many people sit under the preaching of the gospel and it's the same spirit. their sinner. And they hear the Word proclaimed and the reality of their sin in light of God's Word is put before them and they stop up their ears and they turn away from the truth because they want that sin. They don't want to bow to the Lord. They want to go their own way. And they continue down that path of sin. Sin is our own. James 1 verse 14 says, Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust. and enticed. We are sinners, and it's not anybody else's fault but ourselves. Yes, Adam fell in the garden. Yes, we have this sin nature, but you know what? We sin from the heart. That's what we are. It's bad news! It's a horrible reality, but you need to see that this is what we are. This is what we all are by nature. As we come into this world, we come into this world sinners. I don't want to think of my children that way, but that is what they are. And I know that's what I was. In my sense, just as bad, we think about what we are. What about where we are headed? Where are we going in this and where is this in taking us? What is this in doing to us? First of all, it brings destruction in this life. You know, often we like to think of sin, and this is probably the common view of sin, is that it just occurs at various moments within our lives. We can think of some really bad moments where we would maybe identify that as sin. But the rest of our life is pretty good. Maybe the path of our life does this, just a few little dips along the way as we're pretty good people. Scriptures teach the reality that from birth on, sin dominates. Romans chapter 5 says sin reigns until death. Here's the reality is that sin has the steering wheel to your life and it's foot on the pedal. You're not in control of how your sin is carried. Your worldly lusts are carrying you. Your worldly desires are carrying you along. And you may think you're free. A lot of people who reject the gospel and people who reject God say, I'm free of the controls of religion. I'm free of the controls of all this society. I go my own way and I do my own thing. But you really are under the control of sin. You're anything but free. You're in bondage. That's what sin does to our life. It puts us in bondage. Notice how Jesus describes these scribes and Pharisees and their sins. And this isn't just them though, this is all men by nature. He says in John 8, verse 44, Ye are of your father the devil. And the lust of your father, ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and a bode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh of the lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is the liar and the father of it. You say, now that's just the really bad individuals, like these scribes and Pharisees. Well, Ephesians 2. And this is talking to believers, talking about what they were before. Says in verse 2, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that's the devil, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. That's all men. You think about the characteristics of the devil. You study the scriptures. What do you see? The devil wants to exalt himself as God. The devil wants God's glory. The devil wants God's power. And he does everything to distort the will of God because he wants to be God. Well, what's at the heart of sin? It's that same spirit. I want to be God of man. I want to go my way. I want to live my way. Sin destroys your life. It leads to destruction. It causes you to waste your desires and waste your time and waste your energy and waste your focus on things that will soon pass away. It's destructive not just in the future, it's destructive today. Even now, it's affecting you. Destruction in this life, but then of course we deal with destruction in eternity. Romans teaches us the wages of sin is death. And there's several ways we can look at that term. First of all, the person that is without Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior is already dead. You're spiritually dead. You're dead in your trespasses and sins, the scriptures teach. That means that you don't have a relationship with God today, that you aren't walking according to his purpose. You aren't living for him. You're living for you and you're without peace with him through Jesus Christ. You're opposed to him. So you don't really know what life is about without Christ. But then there is physical death. This is something all of us will one day know something about if the Lord didn't come back first. This is the price. To judge thou shalt return was the curse put on Adam. And we read through the genealogy of Adam, and maybe they lived a long time, but it isn't. And he died. And it's been happening ever since. We've returned to death. People talk about their loved ones that are hurting and suffering, and maybe some that are passing away or have passed away, and they say, why is this happening? Well, death is the wages of sin. All sin. That's the price. We die physically in this life, but then there's eternal death. And this is what we're thinking about here, of all the most terrible. Revelation 20 verse 14 gives us a picture of the Day of Judgment. It says, In death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Whosoever was not found to be one of God's people through Jesus Christ is cast. into this place we turn from death. What's the lake of fire like? Well, we don't like to think about it. And I honestly can't give you a great description. Fortunately, I have not been there. But I believe it's real. People don't like to think it's real. In fact, I was reading an article that says 59% of people believe in hell, while 74% of people believe in heaven. It's a lot more popular to believe in heaven. 15% of people, I guess, think everybody goes to heaven. A lot of people don't like it. In fact, one of the pastors of the largest churches in our nation has written a book about how there is no hell and people love it. And his church is growing and he's getting lots of attention because people don't like hell. Let me read to you, though, what Jesus says. I think the clearest picture we get of judgment after this life comes from the words of our Savior himself. He gives a lesson. hear about Lazarus and the rich man. Many of you are familiar with that. Here is Lazarus, the beggar. He loved the Lord. He was one of God's people, a prophet and a coming Messiah. And he died in his poverty, but he was taken up into Abraham's bosom. Wonderful place. But here is the rich man who lived for himself and died in his sins. And he's cast into torment. Verse 23 of Luke chapter 16. We read, And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. And Abraham said, Son, remember thou, that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great goal fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence." Jesus does not teach this as a parable. There's nothing in that passage of Scripture that says that Jesus told the parable saying, no, Jesus says, there was a man named Lazarus and a rich man. I think it's a very real picture. That there is a very real place of torment, that there is a very real place of suffering, and it doesn't look very pleasant here, does it? The point from Scripture is that it's real. Sin brings an eternal price. The words of Christ are this, no man can come unto the Father, but by me. If you die without Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you have not come to peace with God through Jesus Christ, that's the direction you're headed. That's the destination that you're facing. And we can maybe ignore it for a while and hide from it for a while, but the reality is that's the path you're on in your sins. It's a terrible reality. It's bad news to see we are sinners. It's horrible to see the wages of death that it leads to, but then Thirdly, and maybe I think this is worst of all, consider what we can do about it. What are we going to do? Well, first of all, you can offer sacrifices. What sacrifices, though, can we offer? What is it that's going to take care of these sins? Israel had a bunch of sacrifices they offered. Who knows the number of bulls and goats and sheep that they offered over the years. It was a very bloody religious ritual that they had. But all these animals were offered at the command of God. Did that pay for their sins? Hebrews 10 verse 4 says, For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. All this was pointing forward to something else. It didn't pay for sins. Their religious ritual that they went through. And at the time of Christ, you can see the scribes and the Pharisees and a great number of the people were clinging to this religion of words and saying, I go through the process and I cope the line and I do all that I can for the peace of God. Surely these sacrifices are enough. Jesus reveals, no, it's not about what you do. Religion today has confessions and prayers and baptisms and a system of works. And you look at all the religions out there, you start to study it. I went to this conference with Brother Ron. It was on false gospels. You know what false gospels were about? False gospels were about a sacrifice that you can do. And they were false. They weren't scriptural. They're teaching people Jesus and or just you. Do this, do that. But the reality is when we offer sacrifices, they pay for nothing. We can offer sacrifices, but they don't pay for a thing. They can't change a thing. Well, then we can cry out words. What are words going to do? We like to think they can do a lot. We like to think they can have some influence. If we can add some feeling from emotion, maybe we can show God how much we love Him. We can show God how sorry we are. I remember growing up, that was my specialty. It was words. A lot of people when their mother says your dad is going to give it to you when you get home, people get scared. I thought, well that's good. Because I couldn't talk my mom out of stuff. Dad hopefully won't watch this video. When my dad would spank me, I would well up the tears in my eyes and say, Dad, I'm sorry. I know it was wrong. I feel so bad. Can we pray about it together? And he was moved. I got his weakness. Tell me about it when it comes to my children. We think our words can do that, though, with God. He looks on the heart. He looks beyond tears. He looks beyond what somebody's saying. He looks at your heart. He sees what you really are. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7, verse 21, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. A lot of people are going to be going, Lord! Oh, Lord! You are my Lord! I owe you! In the end, He says, I have done all the worst that I can. I have done all the good things that I have accomplished. I am so sorry for my sins. Then shall I say unto them, Depart from me ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. That's the picture Jesus gives. Words do not pay for sin. The wages of sin is death, not words, not sacrifices, not works. Your words erase nothing. You can attempt to hide. That sounds like a pretty foolish idea, but you know what? A lot of people try it. We get a picture of the last day in Revelation chapter six, verse 15 and the kings of the earth. And every bondman and every free man hid themselves in the den, in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath has come and who shall be able to stand? You say, now that's kind of silly. Here comes the wrath of the Lamb and you think you're going to hide under a rock from him. But you know, a lot of people out there today, you're hiding. You're hiding behind worldly distractions. Maybe you'll feel some guilt here this morning if you're without the Lord and you won't like to hear this news, but you're going to go click on the TV and watch your ballgame or whatever and you're going to be comforted because it distracts you. People hide behind their foolish beliefs. Despite what the scriptures say. They're not going to open them. They don't like to look into the mirror of the law because they're not going to look at it. But they're going to look at their own words and say, God, I thank you that I'm not as other men are, even as a republican. I can appease my fears if I just keep thinking about how good I am. And how bad other people are. And I make my standard the standard of men. People hide behind humanistic ideas that there is no God. We invent evolution. That's a foolish hiding place from God. I came from an amoeba, and I just evolved, and I'm getting better and better, and there is no God, it's just wrong. Stop hiding. When you're hiding, you're hiding from the God that sees all. You can't hide from the face of the land. Here's the reality of this point. What can we do about our sins? We are sinners! Is the reality that we are centered in destroying our lives and it's leading us on this course of destruction? What are we going to do about it? You can do nothing. Rich man comes up and asks Jesus, what can I do to gain eternal life? He just says, look at the wall. Perfectly though, that's what that means. With man it is impossible, Jesus says. We can do nothing. You say, what is the point of this? message. I could have preached about heaven this morning and it just would have sounded a whole lot nicer, huh? Talk about a mansion in heaven or talk about something more uplifting than sin. Why deal with sin? Why touch on it? I've heard mega church pastors say, I don't like to talk about sin. And that helps their TV ratings. That helps fill their auditorium. I don't want to talk about sin. It's negative. People don't want to hear it. People need to hear it. There's a good reason to talk about the bad news because it's true. Because it's a reality. I believe what the Bible says. We need to quit looking at what we want and look at what God says. And this is what it says about sin. That it is real. It involves all of us and there's nothing we can do about it. We need to see the reality of this bad news so that we might see the need of mercy. You need to realize you need mercy. You don't need to figure out how to be better at religion. You don't need to have more works to overcome your sins. You don't need to think about something else you need to do. You need to realize I need mercy. That's where the sinner needs to come to. No man ever finds salvation without realizing he needs salvation. I don't see that in the scriptures. I don't see ever a case where a man dies cursing God for treading in his own righteousness, and he awakes in heaven and finds out he's one of the elect. When God works in the heart of a sinner, he sees, I'm a sinner, and I can't do anything about it. I am a terrible sinner, and we're on our face before. When God works in our heart, we don't begin by dancing in the aisle. We begin on our face when he's at work. We get a picture of that here in this publican and his testimony that he has. Here is the Pharisee full of pride and says, God, I thank you that I am not as other men are, even as this publican. But here is the man on his face, would not so much as lift up his eyes into heaven, but smote upon his breath, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's a heart in which God's at work. They hear the truth. It is bad. They see the reality and it is terrible. It's more terrible than they ever could have imagined. But they realize they need mercy. I remember when the Lord started working in my heart when I was young. I was just six years old. So there's not a whole lot I remember, but this I remember very clearly. My dad had been talking to me about the Lord. My dad had been talking to me about the reality of sin. And over and over and over in my mind came this verse that I had memorized when I was a little boy. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Couldn't get that out of my head. And it struck home. I'm evil and he's beholding it. I'm standing against him and he's watching me and I couldn't sleep. I couldn't relax. I couldn't relax. I had no peace. That verse kept coming into my mind again and again and again. The reality that I was a sinner before God. The bad news hit home. When God works in the heart, you can't ignore it. You can't hide from it. You can't push it to the back of your mind. You have no peace with your sins. You have no peace with your own ways. All you can do is to cry out for mercy because you realize that's your only hope. So that we might see our need of mercy, but then so we might see the source of mercy. The man who refuses to see his sin, who's hiding, says, God, I thank you that I'm not as other men are, even as this publican. Somebody, he finds a false hope. He's hiding under the rocks. But the man down on his knees, as we see the testimony of the public, and that it has come to a full realization of his sin in light of God and has laid hold of God's truth and says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's somebody who who finds mercy. That's somebody who finds hope. He realized the salvation is of the Lord. Yes, we're hopeless. We can't do anything. What can you do about it? Nothing. But what can God do? He can do something. And He has. Read these verses. We read Ephesians chapter 2 that talked about us walking according to the course of this world, according to the power of the prince of the air. The spirit that works in the children of disobedience. We were deserving of God's wrath. But then you come to Ephesians 2.4 and it says, but God. It doesn't say, but you figured it out. It says, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, have quickened us or brought us to life together with Christ, for by grace you are saved and have raised us up and made us together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Romans chapter 5 says, For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And we realize when God's working, that's us. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet, peradventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 2 Corinthians 5 21, For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. My dad, when I couldn't sleep, he would talk to me. I came to him, and I talked to him, and I said, Dad, I need to be saved. And Dad said, you need to look to Christ. You need to believe in Him and what He's done. That Jesus has come, and He has died on the cross for sinners like you, son. And He's paid the price, and He's risen again at a time that that price was paid. And you know what I said? I said, that's too easy. Surely my sin requires something more than that. But as God kept working in my heart, I realized, no, anything that I can do is way too hard. It's impossible. This is the only way. But this is the way. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We're without anything to offer, but He has perfect righteousness. He was worthy to pay the penalty for His people. And all of Scripture points us to Him. This book says you are a sinner. There is nothing you can do. You are dying in your trespasses and sins. Look to Christ and what He has done. Trust in Him. Cry out for mercy, but don't trust your words. Cry out for mercy. Hope in Christ and what He has done in God's grace in sending His Son for us. In Him is mercy and forgiveness and salvation found. Totals of gravity. That's the subject we're talking about this morning. It's bad news, but when you see totals of gravity and God works in your heart and reveals His gospel, we see total grace in light of totals of gravity. And what a wonderful thing it is. You realize, no, I can't do anything, but He has done it all in sending His Son. Oh, so that we might see our need of mercy, so that we might see the source of mercy. But thirdly, we need to see this so we might never forget the blessing of mercy. This, I say to believers here this morning, we shouldn't forget we're sinners. We should never get the idea, you know what, I'm saved. I'm just not going to worry about it anymore and go live the way that I want. Well, that's not the heart of the Christian. The heart of a Christian realizes what God has done. And he never forgets the reality of what his sin is. And it's all of God's grace that he was saved. And it's all of God's grace in his future that he might be kept from falling in this wickedness. And he's clinging to his Lord. We need to never forget our depravity and his grace in light of it, lest we become lifted up in pride or tacked down in depression. You go one inch of the road, one ditch of the road, either way. when you lose sight of this truth. We need to remember what God has done for us. 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 says, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. What a blessing it is. Bad news we heard. Bad news that God pressed upon our hearts that we are a sinner. But believer, can you rejoice in it today? Because as you see your poverty, as you realize you were poor, you deserved the wages of death, you're rich now in Christ. How that encourages us every day. It fills our heart with joy every single day. Strengthen us to trust in our God no matter where He leads. And keep us clinging to Him every step of the way. We can't forget the bad news, but the good news in light of it. Oh, have you heard, really heard, really laid hold of the reality of your sin? Oh, but the grace of God in light of it, I pray it's not that you might even this morning see this terrible truth and the wonderful hope of the gospel. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your mercies to us that our believers here today, they can truly pray our Heavenly Father. Oh, you've saved us by your grace. You've quickened us when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Jesus Christ has come for us, bearing our sins upon the cross, blotting out all the condemnation of the law that was against us, burying that sin in full and rising again for our justification. We thank you so much for your love to us. May we not forget what we were. May we not forget our daily need of you as we still struggle with the desires of the flesh. Father, our hearts go out for the unbelievers that are in our midst that you would work in hearts today. Some perhaps sitting with a stony heart that have heard this gospel multiple times. have heard the reality, have held the Bible in their hands, maybe spent much time reading it, and yet they still hide, cling to the things of this world, flee the truth. Oh, that they might come to Christ, your son, that they might have life this morning, that they might be brought to their knees with the realization of what they are and the hope that comes only in your son. Oh, Lord, work my words can't do it, but I pray you would melt the heart of stone. and burden us that are believers for the needs of those around us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.