I'm glad everyone could be here.
It's good to see you all and it's really good to have our
visiting brother, pastor, Darwin Pruitt from Arkansas. I'm going
to bring the first message, but Darwin has agreed to stay with
us and bring the second message. And so I'm looking forward to
being able to hear him preach and thank you for for visiting
with us and for coming. I appreciate it, brother. And
so thanks for being here. All right, we'll get started. I might go a little bit over
the time, but I pray that you'll indulge me in that. So. Take your Bibles and turn to
John chapter 8. John 8, and I want to look at
verses 1 through 11. The message today shows Christ
as the believer's faithful advocate, the one who defends his people. And he does this by silencing
our accusers, and he casts them down, destroys their purpose
in destroying us, and he delivers his accused in grace. In grace. We see in this text a woman who
is taken in adultery and she's a type of the church. She's guilty
according to her breaking of the law. And she's got to die
according to the strict justice of the law. But we see that she's
delivered from the penalty of her crimes. And our Lord does
this for His church in mercy and in grace. We also see some
men here that hated Christ. They despised the gospel of grace
that He preached. And they thought they had put
Him in a fix. They thought they had given Him
an unsolvable problem, one that would ensnare Him and enable
them to destroy Him. And they figured he can't possibly
honor the law while being gracious to this sinful woman. And that's
really the question that we have before us. How is it that God
can both honor the law and be, well, how can God be gracious
when the law demands strict justice? How can God be gracious when
the law demands strict justice? That's the question. How then
can man be justified with God? Because if God cannot be gracious,
then you and I, sons and daughters of Adam, have a problem. Because that leaves only works.
And that means we have to be perfect. perfectly righteous
in everything, and the reality is we're all sinners, guilty
of breaking God's law, and we all come short of the glory of
God. So, here these self-righteous
men, however, were used as a means by our sovereign God, not only
in leading this sinner, who needed the grace of God provided in
Jesus Christ, but he uses this to bless his church, who surely
must see themselves here, pictured in this guilty, sinful woman,
who sinned against her God, and needs grace and mercy, needs
deliverance, needs forgiveness, because she's gonna die, otherwise,
under the penalty of the law. But we know, according to the
mystery of the gospel, which is revealed to us in the Lord
Jesus Christ, the law has been silenced. The law has been silenced
through the death of Christ, in whom we also died, in whom
we are delivered from the penalty of sin and now are raised unto
newness of life in Christ and he's given us his spirit whereby
we walk in faith, looking to him, trusting him for all our
righteousness, believing the word of God concerning his son. And so we're justified now by
the blood of Christ and walk in faith being constrained by
the love of Christ. That's how we walk now. I titled
this message, The Believer's Accuser Silenced. The believer's
accuser silenced. And we're going to begin looking
at the sting that these men set. They were setting Christ up.
They were trying to entrap him, so let's look at what they tried
to do to ensnare our Lord. John 8, let's look at verses
1 and 2. Jesus went unto the Mount of
Olives. That was the night before where
he stayed the night. And early in the morning he came
again into the temple. And all the people came unto
him, and he sat down and taught them. All right, this brings
us now to the setup. Verse three, the scribes and
Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery, and when they
had set her in the midst, they put her right there in the middle
of where Christ was teaching the people who were gathered
around him to hear him speak and teach. They wanted to put
her and all her guilt and shame right there in the midst of the
people but what they really were looking to do was put Christ
on trial and they wanted everyone to hear him. They wanted everyone
to know what was going on here with this woman in this trial
here. But remember these men They had
been unsuccessful the day before. They tried to take Christ. They
sent officers to take Christ and they wouldn't take him because
never any man spake like this man. And so they departed not
taking Christ. And so this is what they cooked
up to entrap the Lord. Let's look at verse four now.
They say unto a master, this woman was taken in adultery in
the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded
us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou? This they
said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. They know what the law says.
The law tells them what's to be done, and yet they bring this
woman to Christ and ask him, well, what do you say? What do
you say? Let me give you a little background
on this law because it will help. If she's to be stoned, it signifies
that she's not fully married yet. This means that she's an
engaged woman. She's engaged to be married,
and because she committed adultery, she's to be stoned. That's how
that particular sin was to be dealt with. In Deuteronomy 22,
verse 23 and 24, it states, if a damsel, that is a virgin, be
betrothed unto a husband, And a man find her in the city and
lie with her, meaning that she's complying with the man. She's
willing to do this. Then ye shall bring them both,
the man and the woman, both out unto the gate of that city, and
ye shall stone them with stones that they die. Well, we can already
see that these men had no regard for the honor of the law. This was a setup. They didn't
even care to bring the man that was with her. They caught her
in the very act, so they had the man there as well, but they
did not bring him. And these men, they knew exactly
what they were doing. They knew exactly what they were
doing, and they were doing this because they despised the gracious
words that our Lord and Savior spoke to the people. They despised his words. Look
there in John 7, verse 37 and 38. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirsts,
any man, if he thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. He that
believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. He spoke so graciously to the
people. No wonder they wanted to hear
him. They wanted to hear the gracious words that he spoke. But that would anger the religious
establishment. They were upset that here's this
man, and he's coming to speak these gracious words, and he
gets to say all these nice things, and here we are having to uphold
the law before the people. And he's putting this burden
on us, and it angered them, because they also felt like he wasn't
honoring the law. It was going against them and
what they taught the people. And he would say these truths,
these blessed truths, and it was an insult to the religious
establishment. It was an insult to the Pharisees
and the scribes and the Sadducees and the doctors and the lawyers,
because they held themselves up in high esteem before the
people. And this man came and spoke graciously to sinners. the sinners. He said in another
place, verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots
go into the kingdom of God before you. Matthew 21, 31. These sinners
are entering the kingdom of God before you self-righteous holy
men. Before you guys who are out there
baunting yourselves and putting yourselves up as the standard
before all the people. Yet these publicans and sinners
and harlots go into the kingdom before you. So they figured,
let's see him show mercy to this harlot now. Let's see him in
this moment, what's he going to do? Because we've got him
in a bind. We've got him in a fix. And then what are the people
going to think about all those gracious words that he said to
those sinners, for publicans and harlots to enter the kingdom? And what this account really
demonstrates to us, the Church of God, what we see is that our
Savior is a faithful advocate. He's a faithful advocate who
stands in the gap between sinners and holy God. Sinners who have
nothing to bring to holy God and need grace and mercy and
it's it's our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who stands in that
gap between the people and holy God We're told by John if any
man sin And we sin. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 1 John 2, 1. And
as our advocate, he's faithfully interceding for us to the Father,
meaning he pleads our case. He defends us. He protects us
and delivers us from condemnation. So Christ, our advocate, what
he does is he silences the accuser. He silences the accuser of the
brethren and he drives the accuser away, cast down, while the people
of God are lifted up in rejoicing and joy and gladness, worshiping
and thanking their God for the mercy and grace that he's provided
so wisely in his son. because Christ is the wisdom
of God and Christ is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation
of the world. Revelation 13 8. And so these
men were coming in a spirit. It was the spirit of the accuser. They came in the spirit of the
accuser, not simply to destroy this woman, but they really were
intent on destroying Christ. They wanted to destroy Christ,
the hope of sinners, and that's really what the accuser, the
accuser, the devil, what he's really looking to get out of
this. He wants to destroy the hope
that our God has provided for his people. in His redemption
for the people through His Son, Jesus Christ. That's what this
whole Word of God, this whole book, Old Testament and New,
it's declaring to us the redemption of God for His sinful people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the enemy was coming to destroy
that. He was coming to undo that very
work because he wanted to hang on to the valuable possessions
that he had in his house. He didn't want a mightier, a
stronger one coming and taking away from him those valuable
souls which he thought he had firmly in control under his thumb. But Christ, He is mightier than
all our foes. There's none that can stand against
Him, and He shows that here. None can stand against Him. Luke
11, 21 and 22. Luke 11, 21 and 22. And you can put a little marker there
if you have an extra piece of paper. There'll be one other
verse in that area that we'll look at. Luke 11 21 and 22 we read there
that when a strong man armed What is this strong man armed
with? He's armed with the law. He has
a knowledge of the law and of the scriptures. He understands
sin and death, and he knows this flesh is corrupted. It's corrupted. We're vile. We're sinners. We're
corrupted. We're deserving of death. We're
deserving of eternal hell. or deserving of eternal damnation. And the devil, the strong man,
he's well aware of that. That's what he's armed with.
When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in
peace or kept under his control and can't get out from under
his control. But when a stronger than he shall
come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor
wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. We can't deliver
ourselves, but Christ can. And he took that armor wherein
the accuser of the brethren was trusting in to destroy the work
of God and to keep control of his valuable possessions. Christ
came in and stripped him of that armor and took it all away, silencing
the law against the people of God. Because our Savior is Lord
of lords and King of kings, and none can stand against him. And
while salvation for us by our own hand is impossible for us,
our Lord tells us, it's impossible with you, but not with God. For
with God, all things are possible. So the law here cannot save this
woman. The law cannot spare this sinner. The law can show no mercy. No grace, no forgiveness, no
patience. It's severe even unto death by
stoning. The law is severe and the point
for you and me is to is to show us, do not look to the law to
save you. Do not look to the law for any
part of your salvation. In justification or sanctification,
everything must be provided for us in grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so, don't look to the law
because it cannot save you, it cannot spare you from judgment
to come. And if you come to God, In the
law, with your own works, you're going to meet God in a terrible
way on the day of judgment, because you're going to come to God with
your filthy works, all naked and exposed before the holy eye
of God, and you'll be weighed and found wanting and guilty
of eternal death. You'll perish in your sins. So
the law, why was the law given then? Well, the law was given
to show us our sin, to show us our need of salvation by God,
that we might cry out to Him and say, Lord, how then can I,
a sinful man, a sinful woman, be justified with holy God? because that's why the law was
given. I read it a few times recently, but I'll read it again.
Romans 3, verses 19 and 20. Now we know that what things
soever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. Our Lord, our wise God, gave
the law to show us our sin, to show us our corruption, to show
us our need, that we would hear his word, that we would look
to him for salvation and not to the works of our own hands,
this flesh here. Because the law cannot spare,
it is not lenient, it will not be kind, it will not be merciful. It's death by the law. The soul
that sinneth, it shall die. Ezekiel 18, 4. So this brings
us now to the deliverance by our Lord and Savior. Before this
woman can receive forgiveness, and that's true of any sinner,
before any sinner can receive mercy and forgiveness, the law
has to be dealt with. It has to be silenced. And this
is the picture that our Lord is showing us here in this passage. So these accusers, they brought
this woman to Christ, and it says that they might have to
accuse him. And let's pick up in verse six
here. The second half of verse 6, John 8, verse 6, But Jesus
stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though
he heard them not. So when they continued asking
him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again
he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard
it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one
by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus
was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. Now, to
be honest, none of us knows exactly what Christ wrote on the ground. There's some ideas that people
have based on some old manuscripts and such about what he may have
written on the ground. One of those thoughts that men
have is that he wrote the sins of those men that were her accusers. And I would imagine it would
have been a miracle that he would have probably written one thing,
and it would have been graciously apparent to each one their own
sin in what he wrote there. Others say, well, I noticed that
he wrote with the finger of God, and that reminds me of the law.
Perhaps he was writing the law, the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Maybe he was writing that there. on on on the ground because it
goes back to exodus thirty one eighteen where we're told that
moses was given two tables of stone which were written on with
the law by the finger of of god there it says it there a third
one comes from the text look at the end of verse six there
again but jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on
the ground as though he heard them Now, you'll notice it's
in italics. And typically, when the translators
put something in italics like that in the King James Version,
it's to let us know that they were adding some words to help
us. But these actually do come from
some manuscripts, just a fewer number of manuscripts, so that
it may be the case that this really was in the original text
as though he heard them not. And the idea there is he's putting
them off. He wasn't searching for something
to say, trying to give himself some time to figure out what
he's going to say to these men. He's tired of the railing accusations
of the evil one. Because he's Christ. He's the
Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. It's already dealt
with. The sin's dealt with. And he's
soon to go to the cross for his people to put away their sin. It's all going to be dealt with.
And there's nothing that the accuser has against the brethren. And so he's just putting them
off. But there's a little more going on to this. Go to Revelation
12. Revelation 12, verses 10 and
11. Revelation 12, verses 10 and
11. And I heard a loud voice saying
in heaven, now has come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom
of our God, and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of
our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day
and night. And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and
they loved not their lives unto death. They had no problem dying
now, because death and sin had no more power over them. They
were saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says the accuser
has been cast down, just thrown down, flopped down on the ground
like a champion throws a man down. And Christ, our champion,
threw down the accuser, and he had nothing more to say. He was
defeated by our Lord. And that brings us to the fourth Whatever our Lord did, whatever
he wrote down on the ground with his finger, it seems to have
played some part in these men being silenced and sent away,
sent away from accusing the brethren. It was done in a manner in which
they were cast down, and they were silenced and sent away,
having nothing more to say to this woman. And I can't help
but see how what our Lord was doing with the finger, with his
finger there, He was casting these men down. He was casting
these men down with the finger of God. I told you to, if you
think of it, put a marker in Luke 11, because I just want
to show you Luke 11, verse 20. Our Lord is showing that the
argument that these men had, it was overthrown. It was overthrown. They were silenced. They were
put out. And Luke 11.20 says, but I, if
I, with the finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom
of God is come upon you. If I, with the finger of God,
cast out devils, the kingdom of God is come upon you. Christ is the stronger man, and
he has spoiled our enemy. He's spoiled the strong man's
house. His armor is taken away. The law is silenced. Our Savior
dealt with the law in his death. He fulfilled all righteousness
for His people, and we fulfilled all righteousness in our Savior. And we died in Him, dying to
the law, so that the law has nothing more to say to the people
of God. And so that armor that that strong
man trusted in has been taken apart and stripped from that
man, from that strong man. And our Savior went into the
house and took the treasure out dividing the spoils, dividing
his inheritance with his people, whom he came to save. And he
dealt with everything we needed dealing with. Our Lord and Savior
dealt with it. And these accusers kept trying
to come and put Christ down, and he kept showing them the
kingdom of God has come upon you. This is the work of God. If I, by the Spirit of God, do
cast out devils, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. And
that's what our Savior is doing. By His glory, by His Spirit,
by His power, He's destroyed and defeated our enemy and silenced
him. And so our Lord cast down the
enemy and established His people in grace. in grace, that God
may be gracious to us. Christ our Savior went to the
cross, and there he died as our substitute. There he reconciled
us with his own blood to holy God, that we are now, we that
believe on him, we that are in Christ, are reconciled to holy
God. Turn over to Romans 6. I want
to show you a few things that I believe will comfort your hearts
and encourage you when the accuser comes. Romans 6, and we'll pick up in
verse 6 and 7. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with Christ. that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he
that is dead is freed from sin. Meaning that armor which the
enemy trusted in to use against us and to accuse us has already
been removed by Christ. That armor, that law that comes
against you has already been removed by Christ. So go to Romans
8 now. Romans 8 verses 1 through 4. There is therefore now in Christ
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. which is upon those yet in the
body of sin. For what the law could not do,
the law of Moses, in that it was weak through the flesh, and
being used by the accuser to harass and trouble the people,
God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin condemned sin in the flesh, silencing that law of
sin and death. delivering us from the body of
sin, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in
us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." So our
Savior has wrought salvation in his people. He's worked this
salvation. He's obtained eternal redemption
and righteousness for his people. We're delivered now from the
condemnation which is still upon them that are in the body of
sin. The body of sin, which is more
than just this flesh. It's the whole working of it. It's the whole, everything. It's everyone that is only has
their part in Adam. and born of His corrupt seed,
they're subject to the law. They're subject to work of perfect
righteousness, which we cannot do. And they're corrupt and defiled
and therefore condemned because they believe not on Him whom
the Father sent. They have no life in them. And
so we need to be delivered. And Christ delivers us from that
body of sin, whereby we're in the body of Christ. And we receive
his inheritance. Those who are yet in Adam, they're
subject to the inheritance of those in the body of sin. But
we in Adam, or rather, we in Christ, are delivered from condemnation. Now, there's another scripture.
Turn over to Hebrews 2. I think it'll help shed some
light on what I'm saying here. Hebrews 2 and go to verse 14
and 15. For as much them as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, Christ also himself likewise
took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, he took his armor
from him, and deliver them who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage. They're yet laboring in the body
of sin, in bondage, that is previous to Christ, We would take the
law and we would take religion and good works and use these
things as tools to try and make ourselves righteous. We tried
to fix the problems that we had made and we tried to right the
wrongs and work a righteousness for ourselves to mitigate or
silence our screaming conscience or silence our guilt and to put
away the punishment and the guilt of sin. And so we were in bondage
because we couldn't ever rid ourselves of the guilt and the
shame of our own nakedness and our sin that we had committed. And what the Lord tells us is
when we were using the law and righteousness in that way, that
wasn't righteousness, but unrighteousness. Because God has provided righteousness
in the Son. And to look to anything else
but Christ is to despise that grace of God revealed in His
Son to redeem His people. And to think ourselves more wise
and able to deliver ourselves from the corruption of sin. And so we were in bondage to
sin. We were laboring under fear and
the judgment of wrath to come. But Christ delivered us from
all that having obtained eternal redemption for us and forgiveness
of sins, taking us out of that body of sin, destroying that
so that we have no part in it. We don't look to the law. We
don't look to good works. We don't look to religion to
save us. We look to Christ and we have
nothing more to do with that body of sin. It has no dominion,
no reign. nothing to say to us, including
the law of Moses, which is upon them yet in the body of sin.
We're not under that anymore. We're righteous in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so that's what's being pictured
here in this passage when we see Christ delivering this woman
from these men and justifying this is the Christ sent of God. The kingdom of God has come upon
you. in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lord and Savior and
that's what's being demonstrated here at a high level and I'm
just filling in the details here based on the mystery of the gospel
of God revealed in Christ which he's given to his church to his
people that we might know and rejoice in him who's merciful
and gracious and provided everything for us and our advocate who silences
the accuser so that the accuser is cast down and has nothing
more to say to you, nothing more, that you may rejoice and be glad
and comforted in your Savior. So back in John 8, verse 9 again,
and they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience,
went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the
last, Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. What we see there is there's
no more accusers left. There's none to accuse her. There's
none to bear witness against her, and there needed to be a
witness against her in order to condemn her. And so the law
is silenced without a witness. And it pictures what our Savior
accomplished on the cross. Because even if someone dares
to come against the people of God, they got nothing. They got
nothing, because we have no sin. We have no sin before God. It's
all been put away, covered by the blood of Christ. John 8 verses
10 and 11. When Jesus had lifted up himself
and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are
those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? And
she said, No, man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. You know,
I just saw a picture there of our Savior's burial after the
cross. When he, by the finger of God,
cast down the enemy, he was laid in the grave. And here it says
he lifted himself up. When he was raised from the dead,
he looks around and he shows you where are your accusers? They're all gone. They're put
away. The enemy is silenced. Rejoice. And he says, there's
none there. And he says, neither do I condemn
you. Go in peace. Go and sin no more. You're forgiven.
You're forgiven. And so what a picture that we
see of ourselves here in the church, the church here in this
woman that was taken into adultery against her betrothed husband.
We've committed so many awful, vile, filthy, wretched sins against
our beloved betrothed husband who loves us, and came, and yet,
even when we were enmity against our God, he came in faithfulness
and in love and mercy and laid down his life. First, but not
before fulfilling all righteousness for us, and we in him, and laid
down his life to put away our sin by the death of himself.
And so, Brethren, in Christ, this is how we see that God is
both just and justifier of them which believeth in Jesus. Our
Savior fulfilled everything for us. Now look at Romans 8, 831.
Romans 8, 31 and 34. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. And so we're justified by Christ. The law is silenced and the accuser
is cast down. We have liberty in Christ, eternal
life in him. Now before I close, I just want
to say a word on this last part in verse 11, John 8, 11. Jesus
said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. know that our Savior freely forgave
this woman, just like we understand in the gospel. We're freely forgiven. And then he says, go and sin
no more, meaning the forgiveness is not predicated on our not
sinning anymore. If that was true, she'd be hopeless,
and so would we. We'd have no hope then. What
our Lord is declaring there is we're born of the Spirit. We're
born in Christ. We walk by faith. He's given
us his Holy Spirit, whereby we are made alive in him. We hear
his voice. We see his light. We rejoice
in him. And we walk by faith. It's not
that there's no more sin in this flesh. This flesh is still corrupt.
It's still vile. But we're not looking to the
law for our righteousness. We're trusting our Savior, who's
all our salvation, walking by faith in Him. Don't look back
to the law. Don't look back to the body of
sin, which has been destroyed and you've been delivered from.
There's no mercy there. There's no forgiveness there.
We've obtained perfect righteousness and forgiveness in the Son, Jesus
Christ. Believe Him, because He alone
delivers His people. And the accuser is now silenced.
So what Paul teaches us, what he
declares to us is that we're constrained now, not by fear
and worry, threats and whippings of the law, we're constrained
by love. The love of our God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 5,
14. I know I'm going a little long, but I think it's sweet.
I think it's sweet. 2 Corinthians 5, pick up in verse
14 with me, and we'll work our way down to 17. For the love
of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died
for all, then we're all dead. And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth
know we no man after the flesh, yea though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. And he's
not saying, well there were some of us that saw Jesus Christ when
he was here in the flesh and now we don't see him that way.
He's saying we don't know him according to the works of the
flesh. There was a time when we confessed
his name, when we declared that we were believers, but we went
back to the law and we labored in religion and works and all
kinds of things in utter confusion and darkness. That was knowing
Christ after the flesh. And he's saying, we don't know
Christ after the flesh anymore. We know him by the spirit. We
know him by his grace and mercy. He's filled us with his spirit,
with love, and joy, and the Holy Ghost. And we worship him. We
walk after him in the spirit, not after those things of the
flesh, which are dead works religion. Therefore, he says, if any man
be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Those were the old things. They're
done away in Christ. Believe him. Trust him. walking
him by faith, calling out upon him, looking to him. He's a loving, faithful husband
who gave his life for you, his bride. And he's returning again
to take us to himself, just as he's promised, because he's redeemed
us, and he's gonna pick up that which he's redeemed. So I pray
the Lord bless that word to your hearts. Amen. Let's close in prayer, and then
we're gonna take 15 minutes and then we'll come back, so about
10 after the hour. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy and grace, freely, abundantly provided for
us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for our faithful
advocate who silences the accuser, puts him to shame, casts him
down so he has nothing to say. And you've delivered us, Lord,
from those filthy works that could not save that body of sin
that's been destroyed in you. Lord, we thank you that we have
full, free, abundant pardon in the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep us
ever looking to you, walking by faith, knowing you not after
the flesh, but by the spirit, alive in Christ our Savior. Lord, bless your people. Bless
their hearts. We pray that you bless our pastor
coming up next to speak to us. Lord, bless the message, bless
the hearts of your people. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.