Seeking for the helm of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to our reading, the first epistle
general of John and chapter 2. And we'll have for our text the
very first verse, verse 1. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not, and if any man sins, We
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 1. It's very clear to us from this
text the reason why these things are written to us, that ye sin
not. But we know that this does not
mean that the aim is that we become sinless. We cannot do
that. We know from the final three
verses in the previous chapter that if we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us. And we know
also that if we say that we have not sinned, that we make him
a liar and his word is not in us. If we were to be sinless,
then there'd be no need of confession of sin, as in verse 9. No need
to even to have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the
righteous. The new birth doesn't change
a person into a sinless being, an angel as it were. We still
have an old nature, we still sin. We spoke this morning from
the ninth verse in chapter one here, and the vital need of the
power of God the power of God to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness, to turn us away from sin. It is God's work to do that. In fact, He gives us the spirit
to confess our sins. We spoke of some of the miracles
of our Lord and how great a miracle it is the forgiveness of sin. We can understand natural miracles. When the Lord told the man that
was sick of the palsy to take up his bed and walk, they could
understand that miracle. They couldn't receive that Jesus
of Nazareth was truly God and he had power on earth to forgive
sins, as he had first pronounced upon that man. But it is the
work of God, and we vitally need this, that our Lord Jesus Christ
would do for us and in us. Nevertheless, God does use means. He does use means that sin in
His people is restrained, is subdued, it does not have dominion
over us. Sin lives in us, but we are not
to live in sin. Sin we are to have as a sworn
enemy and to resist at all costs. We spoke this morning of a reminder
of what sin was and the consequences of it. And we should always realise
that It is through sin, which is the transgression of the law
of God, that death entered into the world and all of the sorrows
and the griefs in the world. And then after death, the judgment
is through sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ came and
suffered for his people's sins. It does us good to remind ourselves
and to be reminded what sin is. We're so used in our society
to call things by different names. Instead of calling the things
by the names that God calls them, as sin and evil and wickedness,
we call them by different names and take away the heinousness
and evilness of sin. Well, these things here are written
that is sin not. That is, that we do not walk
in sin, that sin is restrained, that we are kept from it. We're
given those things that warn us of its coming, where it's
likely to overtake us, and helps through things to consider so
that we're not so easy deceived by our own wicked evil heart
or deceived by Satan. We know that indeed we shall
not succeed in overcoming sin and so we have the beautiful
latter part of the text, if any man sins, We have an Advocate,
or one that shall speak on our behalf to the Father, and that
Advocate is Jesus Christ the Righteous. We are told in the
second verse that He is the propitiation for our sins, that is, His sacrifice
is a wrath-ending sacrifice. We're told also it's not just
for ours, that is the Jews, John, or those believers at that time
or in that country, but also for the sins of the whole world,
every nation, kindred, and tongue. That does not mean that the Lord
Jesus Christ has died for the sins of every man, woman, and
child. that has ever lived. No, he has
died for his people's sin. The scriptures speak of a particular
redemption, of a just weight, a just balance. When the Lord
Jesus Christ bears a person's sin in his body, it is because
he has loved them with an everlasting love, where he has put away their
sin at Calvary, then he will draw those people, those same
ones, to himself, and he will bless them in time. Not one that
the Lord has died for shall ever perish. They will be saved. They will come to a knowledge
of himself. The Lord did not die for Judas'
sin. He did not die for King Saul's. He did not die for the lost.
Christ's blood is effective. It is effective in all that he died
for, they shall live, they shall be saved. I lay down my life
for the sheen. No man is able to pluck them
out of my hand. My Father is greater than I and
no man is able to pluck them out of his hand and he links
his death, his dying with the sheep and with eternal security. I want to look then this evening
at the means or the words that are given us here to this end
that ye sin not and may be a help to us For every one of God's
children, they are beset with sins. We have a deceitful, wicked
heart. We have a tempting devil. We
have a pulling world. And oftentimes, if we're honest,
there are those sins we hug, we guard, we do not pray against
them, and sometimes feel completely overwhelmed by them. and get
in a very backslidden and a hard and cold state and condition. One of the Puritans said that
a new believer had had to be impressed upon them that they
were called to do a daily battle with the corruptions of their
own heart. And we completely mistake the
whole battle and what is at stake If we think we can just easy
coast through life and through each day without being prayerful,
watchful and mindful, how easy we can be snared and trapped
and deceived and walking away that brings such grief and sorrow
to ourselves and maybe even an outward reproach unto the Lord. So our text says, my little children,
these things write I unto you, that ye sin not, and if any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous. So I want to look firstly with
the Lord's help at the endearing way that the Lord's people are
addressed in our text, my little children. And then secondly,
the things written to keep us from walking in sin. I'm looking
to look primarily at this chapter two, But of course, remembering
that the Inspired Word of God originally was not divided up
into chapters, so it will include also chapter one, and we may
say really the whole of the book, but just for brevity, we'll confine
our thoughts mainly to this chapter. And then thirdly, the provision
in the Gospel when we sin. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. But firstly, the endearing way
God's people are addressed. He says, my little children. And in the scripture, it is a
very blessed thing to be referred to as a child of God, a most
solemn thing to be called a child of the devil, as Simon the sorcerer,
I think it was him that was called, or the one that was seeking to
turn the deputy away from the faith, he was actually called
a child of the devil. But to be called a child of God,
one that is adopted into the living family of God, or born,
born again into the family of God. The Lord deals with his
people as children and a parent in dealing with those of their
household. If they had servants, if they
had those that worked for them, they would deal with them very
differently than their children. If a servant did something wrong
and persisted in doing something wrong, they'd be told to leave
and not come back. But if a child did something
wrong, then the parent would chasten that child and correct
it, warn it, but not throw the child out. It's a great privilege of being
a child of God. We read in Hebrews 12 that the
Lord chastens every son whom he receiveth, that there is none
of his people that does not receive chastening. We all are sinners,
we all do sin, but the Lord will deal with us as children. And so this is a reminder, right
at the start, right in the middle here, he says, my little children. Now later on we refer to him,
he's speaking to them as fathers as well. The different stages,
as it were, in Christian experience, whether they be children or young
men or fathers. He writes to them in those endearing
terms as having a real relationship with Him. And if there's anything
that surely should be an incentive to us to not sin, to walk in
the ways of the Lord, is that we have a relationship with the
Lord such as this. There's no greater incentive
for a child and a help to a child to do what is right if they really
love their parents. It won't stop them from sinning,
it won't stop them from doing wrong, but It will go such a
long way if there's a real love to the parent. And so it is here. And this way the Lord addresses
through this epistle, his people, my little children. May our desire be, our prayer
be to God, that we be a child of God. that the Lord deal with
us as children, that we listen to the Word as the Word of a
loving Heavenly Father. May that be a precious thought
to us. If there's a child, there's a
Father, a Heavenly Father, Your Heavenly Father knoweth that
ye have need of these things before ye ask Him. I will pray
the Father, and He will give you another Comforter which shall
abide with you for ever. If ye, being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly
Father give good gifts or give the Holy Spirit to them that
love him. The Father himself loveth you. May we desire and pray for that
sense of a real relationship as being part of the living family
of God. of the Heavenly King, may we
have that privilege and feel to have it. Well secondly, we
have the things written to keep us from walking in sin. What are those things that are
written here? I want to look at really five
headings through this chapter. And the first is this, from verse
three to verse six. We have a walking in his commandments. We read in verse three, and hereby
we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Our Lord walked in obedience
to his Father. We read that that obedience even
extended unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore
God hath highly exalted him. One of our hymns speaks, In Christ's
obedience clothe and wash me in his blood, so shall I lift
my head with joy. amongst the sons of God, as obedient
children, not fashioning yourselves after the former lusts in your
ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, be ye holy
in all manner of conversation. And he has given us then his
word, his commandments, The Lord says, I have given them
thy word, and the world hath hated them. But for us, thy word
is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. Wherewithal shall
a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according
to thy word. And so he puts this first. the commandments of the Lord. You might say, how? How do they differ from those
commandments of Moses? They differ in the spirit of
them. Moses, the law, the Ten Commandments,
by the law is the knowledge of sin. Do this and live. Transgress in one point and you
shall be damned. Cursed is everyone that continued
not in all points of the law to do them. The commandments
of the Lord Jesus Christ embrace all of those and so much more. And that comes again into the
next point we'll bring, a new commandment. But the word that
is given is in such a different spirit. It is not done to obtain
salvation. It is done because we have obtained
salvation. It is not done to merit eternal
life. What good things shall I do that
I might inherit eternal life? It's not done in that way. is
not given in that way, is not required in that way, but it
is in this way. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all His benefits toward me? That desire to walk in that
way that is pleasing to Him, and to walk in those commandments
of which our Lord Jesus Christ perfectly walked in without spot. And so we have in verse six,
he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk
even as he walked. We cannot walk sinless, spotless
as our Lord and Saviour did, but we can follow his steps.
And the gospel sweetly provides for all the slips and falls and
sins and the imperfections that we may walk. But if we have the
spirit of the Apostle Paul, we mentioned that this morning,
the good that I would. What a blessing to have a good
that we would. We would keep the commandments
of God. We would walk in his ways. We
would walk lovingly. Dear Paul had to say, and we
will have to say as well, the good that we would, we do not,
and the evil that we would not, that we do. But there is an answer. It is because the Lord has given
us a mind to serve Him. With the flesh, we serve the
law of sin, but with the mind, the law of Christ. And it is
then as the Lord gives us that willingness and mind and love
to walk in His ways, knowing that one slip, one fall, many
slips, many falls, will not send us to hell, because it is Christ
that died. And there's taking away that
makes such a difference. Such a difference. works before salvation an abomination
to God because they are done with the thoughts of doing Christ's
work and emeriting heaven. Works afterwards, they are the
fruit of Christ's work in making a willing people. That is the
difference between Romans and James. Romans, justification
by faith alone not works. James, faith without works is
dead. I will show you my faith by my
works. And so this is sent before us
here first, to walk lovingly in the commandments of the Lord. Then we have, secondly, a new
commandment that is given. Brethren, it's another relationship
that's given here. Brethren, I write no new commandment
unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. That old commandment was always
there, the love to brethren, the love to the people of God,
but a new commandment really. We're gathering together Old
Testament and New Testament. For the people of God, they have
the whole Word of God. There's a lamp to their feet,
a line unto their path. Why is it so? It is because the
darkness is past. The true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light
and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. So the new commandment is bound
up with the light of the gospel, bound up with love. How can a
man say he loved God whom he has not seen if he does not love
his brother that he has seen? And so this is said before us
how vital it is for the people of God that they love one another
here below. We know that we have passed from
death unto life in that we love the brethren. This is said before
us in verse 14 of chapter 3. And it is a blessed token when
the Lord gives that. Being let go, we go to our own
company. Instead of loving the world,
we love the people of God. Instead of loving those that
hate the things of God, we love those that love the things of
God. And this is then what is set
before us that we Sin not. Where there's bitterness and
malice and envy and backbiting, then there is sin. It leaves
the door open for sin, but love covereth a multitude of sins,
and it stops there being that inflaming and stirring up of
sin. Soft words pacifyeth anger, angry
words stirreth up wrath. But where there is love to the
brethren, then there is a putting a stamp or damp on sin. And we are to remember that Satan,
he will always try and stir up, be a whisperer that separateth
brethren, suggesting things, could be putting up causes of
aggravation and differences and contests between brethren. You think of with the disciples
of the Lord when two of them asked, or their mother asked,
that one might sit on the right hand and one on the left on Christ's
throne in glory. The Lord said, no, it was for
them for whom it was appointed. But the other disciples, they
got very upset about that. And they stirred up in them a
hostility to those brethren, that they should have been asking
that. Then we have another time, the Lord asked them, what was
it you were speaking of by the way? And they held their peace.
Why did they? They were trying to decide who
should be the greatest. You think, what? Amongst the
disciples of the Lord, these contests. If we would then be
kept from sin, these things, right? I unto you that ye sin
not. How many sins and sorrows in
the church of God would be overcome if there was love to the brethren? One point touched on in this,
the darkness is past. I thought in meditating upon
this, all of God's children at one time have walked in darkness. But if the Lord has opened our
eyes and shown us the truth, may we always remember that,
and that be a real incentive to keep from those things that
grieve, and from sin, from transgressing the law of God, to remember the
Lord has called us not to sin, but to holiness, and we are to
walk in the light as the Lord has brought us in the light. May we think of that as we go
through another week. That is sin not. The third heading that is brought
up here is that we are not to love the world. We have in verse 15, love not
the world. neither the things that are in
the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him." How clearly we are warned
against the world. And there is a parallel passage,
it goes right back to the fall in Genesis 3. And draw your attention
to that, what is in verse 16 in John 2, 1 John 2, verse 16, we
read, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh
and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the
Father, but is of the world. And you compare that with Genesis
3, and we read what the woman saw in verse 6. This is when
Satan had said that in the day that thou eat thereof, your eyes
shall be opened, you shall be as God's known good and evil.
Then we read this, when the woman saw that the tree was good for
food. Verse 16 says, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of food. Then we have, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and the lust of the eyes. And then we
have, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, and the pride
of life. And so what John puts here is
a direct comparison in exactly what Eve was seeing as Satan
was tempting her and she was sinless at that time and she
took with his temptation. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes and the pride of life. Those three things in the
world. Those three things of which Satan
achieved first his aim and still will. Does our flesh want something? Is that what is tempting us to
sin? Do our eyes see something and
say we must have that what our eyes are seeing? Is it the pride
of life? Is it pride? Wanting this? Wanting some wisdom, some privilege,
some benefit, some blessing? But the world passeth away and
the lust thereof. that he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever. Our Lord says, know ye not that
the friendship of the world is enmity with God? And so, that ye sin not, we are to have
a very scriptural and real view of this world. The Lord said
of his people, they are not of this world, even as I am not
of this world. He prays in John 17, Father,
I pray not that thou hast take them out of the world, but that
thou hast keep them from the evil. And here's to this end. that this epistle is written
and why there is the warning concerning the world itself. Now we have a fourth, and this
is the warning against Antichrist. There's two sections I draw to
your attention The warning on Antichrist is from verse 18,
which we have again, the endearment, little children, it is the last
time as he have heard that Antichrist shall come. And he addresses
this right through to verse 27. The danger of one that should
come and oppose Christ, counter his commands, his directions,
his ways. Remember again to go right back
to the Garden of Eden. What did Satan say? Have God
said. He was anti-Christ, anti-God,
anti-the Word of God. And we always to remember this,
that Satan, that those that do not know the Lord, that this
world, They will always try to say, you can't believe that,
that's not part of the word of God, that's Paul, that's John,
that's Genesis, that's fables, and they'll pull the word of
God to pieces and try to rob the people of God of the word
of God. The Lord said, heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. And I could
not help thinking in reading of this, passage, and we have
it very much in the next epistle as well, of John the second epistle. And he says there, if many deceivers
are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh, this is a deceiver and anti-Christ. And he warns about those that
do not abide in the doctrine of Christ, and the Jehovah's
Witnesses especially. They do not abide in the doctrine
of Christ. They do not believe that He is
truly God. The Jews, they knew, they understood
very, very clearly When our Lord spoke in John 10 that God was
his father, they accused him that he was a man and he made
himself God. But here's Emmanuel, God, manifest
in the flesh. And we have at the end of this
epistle, this first epistle, those beautiful words, we know
that the Son of God has come. and hath given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that
is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God
and eternal life. It is not surprising that Satan
would always seek to attack the divinity, the Godhead of our
Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. In Philpott's day, he contended
very strongly for the eternal sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ. He saw it as the threat that
it was. Anything that takes away from
the divinity of Christ, his position, his authority, his power, the
whole salvation of a child of God is bound up with the Lord. and with him being truly God
and truly man. And so whosoever denieth the
Son, that is, denieth the Son as being the Father's Son equal
with the Father, the same hath not the Father. This is verse
23 in this second chapter. But he that acknowledgeth the
Son hath the Father also. Now bound up with this, is what
we ourselves have personally known of the things of God. Going back in the chapter, we
have what we mentioned before, they're referring in verse 12,
not only of little children, but also of fathers and of young
men and of fathers again. And in each time, He is speaking
to them of things that they have known and felt. I write unto
you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for
His namesake. I write unto you, fathers, because
you have known Him that is from the beginning. They've experienced
it. They've known it. They've walked
it. I write unto you, young men,
because you've overcome the wicked one. What, in their own strength?
No, in the power of God. They have been helped. They have
been delivered. I write unto you, little children,
because you have known the Father. You think of the man that was
born blind, and he had his eyes opened, and the scribes, the
Pharisees, they came, and they tried their hardest to take from
him that truth that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the
Son of God. They'd already agreed that if
anyone said that he was, they'd be thrown out of the synagogue.
And they did, they threw him out, and the Lord met with them.
Believest thou in the Son of God? Who is he, Lord, that I
might believe? He that speaketh to thee, is
he? And they tried so hard, but you
know that dear man, he said to them, one thing I know, for as
I was blind, now I see. He had tasted a bit of that power
of God. He had tasted. what it was to
be blessed by our Lord and to have the Lord's work in his heart.
We've spoken here about the darkness past and the light. If you and
I have had our eyes opened, if we have been blessed, we know
that that has come through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It has come because he is God
and not just a man, not created, but the eternal God, the Lamb,
Slain from the foundation of the world, the eternal God who
is our refuge and underneath of the everlasting arms. Before
Abraham was, I am, the Lord testified. How can we answer that word? How can David, by the Spirit
called him Lord, saying unto him, my Lord, sit on my right
hand until thou makest me thy footstool. The Lord, how could
David refer to his son as being Lord when he was not yet born? But David knew that his son was
the eternal Son of God yet to be made manifest in the flesh. And so the words written are
to warn us of an Antichrist, to warn us of any that would
seek to rob us of what we have handled and tasted of the power
of God through his beloved Son and the blessings that have come
to us through him. and to know that not only one,
but we are told that there are many antichrists in the world. They're going opposite to the
teaching of the Lord, opposite to His grace, opposite to His
mercy, opposite to His Godhead, seeking to undermine everything
that is set forth. These things that is sin not. The last is a word of exhortation again. Little Children in verse 28. To abide in him. Our Lord in John 15 speaks of
the vine. He says, I am the vine, ye are
the branches. Branch cannot bear fruit of itself. Except it abide in the vine,
no more can ye except ye abide in me. He says that his father is the
husbandman. Every branch that beareth fruit,
he purgeth it, that it might bring forth more fruit. And so John here, he exhorts,
abide in him. That is, abide in his word, abide
in his doctrine, abide in prayer, abide in the truth, abide receiving
the sap and life that flows from the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord
said, without me ye can do nothing. The strength, the help, the power
that we have to resist sin, to mortify sin, to walk in the ways
of the Lord, all come from the Lord, separated from Him. When we start to leave off real
prayer, start off leaving off the real meditation, reading
of the Word of God, we read, let the Word of God dwell in
you richly. Meditate upon these things. Give
thyself wholly to them. Thou shalt both save thyself
and them that hear thee. The word of God is to dwell in
us richly, and that is to abide in him, that when he shall appear
we may have confidence, not be ashamed before him at his coming.
And then if ye know that he is righteous, You know that everyone
that doeth righteousness is born of Him. You have a person that
says, I'm a child of God, but you look at their life and you
see their life is not a righteous, a godly life. But you might have
another one and they say, I trust, I am a child of God. I feel my
sin, I feel my weakness, but you look at that person's life
and you see it's a godly life. in the fear of the Lord. And
so we have a test right at the end here. In the beginning it
says that these things are right, these are not. At the end it
says this is how you shall know the people of God, those that
do righteousness, those that are walking and showing forth
by their works, as James would put it, their faith. So we have the Word then, the
things written to keep us from walking in sin. The means that God uses, his
blessing upon the Word. We need the power that the Lord
uses means. May we never turn away from the
precept the warnings, the means, especially of the Word, in restraining
the wickedness and sin of our hearts and delivering us from
walking in ways of sin. I want to just briefly then cover
now the provision in the Gospel when we sin, as certain that
we will, and very evident that we will. We are not to despair,
we are not to cast away our confidence, but we are to remember that we
have and advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Sometimes we might wonder how
it is that a defence barrister could argue the case of a person
that he considered to be guilty. Well, actually, in our land,
until it's been to court and still until the jury have made
their decision, that person is not guilty. The barrister has
no right to just decide himself that this man is guilty. But
he's to be an advocate. He's going to speak on that person's
behalf. Whether he is guilty or not,
he's going to speak for that person. Very often, those that
have had very good defence barristers, it still hasn't been good enough.
The force of evidence against them, they're brought in guilty.
They still go to prison, they're still punished and still locked
up. And what about us? Even if we
have an advocate, are we not guilty? Have we not sinned? What can He say? How can we escape
the wrath that is due to sin? We are told here about the Advocate,
what He has done. He is an Advocate with the Father,
so He is to speak to the Father concerning us. But He is called
Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is the Righteous One. He is
the Holy Spotless One. He is the One that has wrought
our righteousness. We have that in Jeremiah. This is the name wherewith He
shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. In Song of Solomon we have the
spousal, the church of God saying, I am black but comely. Tis he instead of me is seen
when I approach to God, says the hymn writer. Their righteousness is of me. So what does that advocate have
to say? He doesn't make out that that
person has not sinned. We have in the previous verses,
if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. His word
is not in us because God has said we have sinned. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. We have a beautiful
word in Psalm 80. Let thy hand be upon the man
at thy right hand, the Son of Man, whom thou hast made strong
for thyself. We have the beautiful word of
Judah. When Benjamin had been found
with a cup and he was guilty, Judah says, I will be shorty
for him. I will bear his punishment. I will stand in his place. I
became shorty. The Lord Jesus Christ not only
is advocating, but he is our surety. Not only surety, not
only is he that, but he has also already put away our sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Already payment is made. Already
satisfaction. That is what is in the word propitiation
for our sins. A wrath-ending sacrifice. He has, by his death and sufferings,
taken away the wrath of God. The proof of it is the empty
tomb. And so the provision in the Gospel
for sinners is not looking round for some way of escape, it is
declaring that escape in Christ. Even in the Old Testament, may
we remember every sinner is saved in the same way, through faith
in Christ alone and through Christ's blood shed for him. And so David
himself, when he was brought in as guilty through murder and
adultery, as soon as he said, I have sinned, Nathan says, God
hath also put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. How can he say
that? because of the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, David's Lord, David's advocate,
the one that should stand in his place and suffer in his place. And that is how the guilty can
go free, because the satisfaction is made by the advocate himself,
full satisfaction. full righteousness, the Lord
has suffered in our place. This is the gospel provision.
Under the law of God, one transgression, and it must be guilty, condemned,
banished forever. But under the gospel, when the
Lord was brought the woman that was taken in adultery, they said,
And Moses in the law commanded that such should be stoned, and
he did. But what sayeth thou? And the
Lord then said to them, He that is without sin among you, let
him first cast a stone at her. And he started writing on the
ground. What he was writing, we don't know, whether it was
the law of God. And they all went out one by
one, convinced in their own consciences, they were all guilty. The Lord
said to that woman, had no man condemned thee? No man, Lord,
neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. And there is a gospel, not go
and sin, but go and sin no more. The grace of God, the mercy of
God leads us to the very message here I write unto you that ye
sin not. And if we have had mercy, if
we know what that is, that is I would be Lord, keep me from
sin, keep me from grieving thee, keep me from grieving my own
soul. May the Lord bless this word
and may it be a power and a help to us as we go through another
week that we be kept tender in his fear. and kept from sin. Lord, add his blessing. Amen.