If we can find our seats, we'll
go ahead and get started. th th th Thank you, Michael. That was
a blessing. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and start
the second hour with a hymn in the back of your bulletin. We're
going to sing it to the doxology. The back of your bulletin, if
you could all please stand. Give thanks to God, He reigns
above Great is His grace, His name is love His mercy men of
old have known Revealed in Jesus Christ, His Son Let all the people
of the Lord The wonders of His grace record How great His works,
how kind His ways Let every tongue pronounce His praise And when
redeemed from sin and hell, With all the ransom throng I dwell,
My grateful song shall ever be, The Lord has been so good to
me. May be seated. Greg asked me to fill in there,
and this time I said, Greg, that's just too much me for one time,
because you need to get somebody. But it was late, so I'm going
to go ahead and read what I was. Turn with me, please, to Romans
chapter 10. Romans chapter 10, and we will
start at verse 13. In Ephesians, the Lord says,
He tells us, By grace ye are saved through faith. That and out of yourself. The
faith is a gift from God. But he tells us that grace is
what saved us. Who's all grace? All grace is
found where? In Christ. Christ is who saved
us. And the instrument to take us
to Christ is faith. I want us to read here, how do
we grow that faith? And we see in verse 13, Paul writes, for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall
they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, that's the
gospel of God's grace in Christ, and bring glad tidings of good
things. But they've not obeyed the gospel,
for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith, that's what we're
here to do this morning. Faith cometh by hearing. and
hearing by the Word of God. In Israel, remember, they sounded
the horn, and that was the call to worship. That's what we're
going to do this morning. The horn of Christ is being blown,
and He's calling His people to worship, that we may grow our
faith by the hearing of the preaching of His Gospel. I want us to be
clear about one thing, though, that in religion, Faith is what
they believe saves them. Faith doesn't save you. The object
of our faith is what saves me. That's Christ. In religion, they
like to, you know, it's been a while, but you know, oh, I
wish I had the faith of brother so-and-so. I wish I had the faith
of this one. It's not the depth or strength
of your faith that saves you. It's the object of your faith.
You can have the strongest faith in the world, and if your object
is wrong, no salvation. And you can have the weakest
faith in the world, but if it's on the right object, the Lord
Jesus Christ, you'll be in glory just as much as Abraham and the
rest. It's not the strength of our
faith, it's the object of our faith. And that's what we've
come this morning, pleading with God. Lord, grow our faith. Grow our faith. Give our brother,
Brother Robert, to declare. And we're so thankful, Brother
Robert, for you, for bringing you here to declare Christ to
us. We are. And wherever his people
gather, we're thankful that God has sent a preacher. There are preachers just... Greg
will be the first to tell you, there are sinners just like us,
but we're thankful God chose out men to preach His gospel. And I pray He'll bless the services
this morning. Please join me as we try to pray. Lord, we've gathered this morning, confessing that our minds are
easily distracted and our hearts are far from Thee so often. Lord, that You would cause us
to turn to You this very morning that you would bless our brother
Robert and give him your words that, Lord, that he would declare
you to us faithfully. Oh, Lord, we ask your blessing
upon him. Comfort and encourage him. Speak
through him. And as your people, Lord, oh,
that you would feed us Christ. And we pray that you would grow
our faith. and that any faith outside of
you that you would crush it. Crush any thoughts we may have
of anything we can do to save ourselves or to keep ourselves. And Lord, we plead with you for
the souls of those who would not believe your report. Lord,
you alone are able to save them. We plead with you for those who
hear us this morning, Lord, Surely there is those that need Christ
and they don't even know it. Our families, our loved ones,
oh God, be merciful. We know you're able to save.
We pray that you might be willing and that all glory, all glory,
Lord, would go to you. We ask that Christ take this
prayer and he would make it acceptable to you, God the Father, amen. Would you turn to number 452?
You could remain seated for this hymn. Number 452, My Savior's
Love, 452. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful,
And my song shall ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful,
Is my Savior's love for me! For me it was in the garden,
He prayed, not my will, but Thine. He had no tears for his own grief,
But sweat drops of blood for mine. How marvelous, how wonderful,
And my song shall ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful,
Is my Savior's love for me! in pity angels beheld him and
came from the world of light to comfort him in the sorrows
he bore for my soul that night. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone. How marvelous! How wonderful and my song shall
ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me! When with a ransoming glory His
face I at last shall see, T'will be my joy through the ages to
sing of His love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful,
And my song shall ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful,
Is my Savior's love for me! Good morning. I'm sure I've told you this before,
but about 40 years ago, we went to church in Texas and
R.J. Coos was good about letting the
young men preach. He gave everybody an opportunity
that was willing to preach. And there was one man there that
was different in a way from the rest of us. But we'd all sit
out there in a congregation and we'd judge you while you preached
and we'd critique you afterwards. You know how younger men are.
He didn't believe in preparing a message. He believed in getting
up in the pulpit and being led by the Spirit. He liked being
a preacher, I guess, because a preacher always gets the biggest
piece of fried chicken. He would come in the church and
sit down, everybody else milling around, shaking hands, talking
to each other. He'd sit there and read his Bible. Well, he
got up to preach. And he said, I am the vine and
you are the branches. And he stood there a minute and
he said, I've lost my train of thought. And he sat down. And I thought, that's just what
you had coming, boy. You don't study. You don't do
nothing. I've worried for 40 years that
I'm going to get up here and I'm going to lose my train of
thought and this might be the day. I know that sounds silly,
but that's how things stick in your mind. We're going to be
speaking this morning from John chapter 8. John chapter 8. Father, we come before You this
morning, Father, wanting to glorify Christ, Father, wanting to preach
a Gospel message, wanting to give comfort, Father, to those
that need comfort, giving truth and encouragement to those that
need that, we'd ask, Father, You'd give us the grace, Father,
to do it. Be with those that are not here,
Father, as they've made a long trip and they have a long way
to come home. Watch over them. Bless Greg as
he brings his message this morning. Thank You, Father, for ordering
our lives that we are all here together today and blessing us,
Father, with salvation. Watch over us, Father. Cause
us to love one another, to love Christ, and to serve You with
a willing heart. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen. The Pharisees have sent soldiers
to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ, and it didn't work out. The soldiers
came back and they asked Him, what happened? Why aren't you
bringing Him back? He said, never man spake like this man. The Lord Jesus Christ left heaven
and came down here to die on a cross for His children. to
pay the ransom for our sins, to do things that I could never
do, do things that I didn't want to do. He came down here for
that, and He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. They despised Him, they rejected
Him, they spit on Him, and they crucified Him. Start about verse
48 of chapter 7. Have any of the rulers or of
the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not
the law are cursed. That's the very people they're
supposed to be teaching the law. That's the very people that come
up there every time the doors are open to hear them speak.
That's the very people that need to be taught that the Messiah
is coming. That help is on the way. That
Christ will come. And yet, they didn't do it. And
when He did come, they rejected Him. And they said, the people
that believe in this man are accursed. Nicodemus saith unto
them, he that came to Jesus by night being one of them. Doth
our law judge any man before it hear him and know what he
doeth?" And there's your answer. Judaism is a religion of works. And any works religion will reject
Christ. They will reject the fact that
God is sovereign, that He has the right to choose and to save
whoever He wants to, and He'll place all of the glory on man. And the Jewish people at this
time and today are no different. It's a freewill works religion. They answered and said unto him,
Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, for out of Galilee
ariseth no prophet. That's an outright lie. Jonah. The one that the Lord Jesus Christ
said, a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
but there shall no sign be given it, save for the sign of Jonah
the prophet. For as he was three days and
three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the
Son of Man be three days and three nights in the belly of
the earth. Jonah the son of Amatea was from Gath-Heper, which is
in Galilee." They knew that. They knew that, but they didn't
want to admit it because Jonah took the Gospel to the Gentiles. This is the kind of people that
the Lord Jesus Christ went out every day and was confronted
by them. And it never slowed him down. It never stopped Him from preaching.
It never stopped Him from doing whatsoever would please His Father
in heaven. It never once stopped Him from
doing what needed to be done on our behalf. And every man went into his own
house. Jesus went unto the Mount of
Olives. The Lord of creation The ruler
of the whole universe has no place of his own. The Lord said
that the birds of the air have nests, the foxes of the field
have holes to live in, but the Son of Man hath not where to
lay His head. He that was rich became poor
for our sakes. No place to stay. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
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.
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto Him a woman taken
in adultery. And when they had set her in
the midst, they say unto Him, Master, Teacher, We've got a
problem here, Master. We don't know what to do about
this. If they were the keepers of the law, they'd have never
slowed down. They'd have hustled this woman
right on by the temple and out to the gate of the city, and
they would have killed her. They came here to find fault
with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the man that ate with
sinners and publicans. This is a man that didn't even
consult them about anything. This is the Son of God that came
down here to save sinners. And they could not understand
it. They could not abide it. They
could not live with it. They brought this woman to the
Lord Jesus Christ to have somewhat to accuse Him by. Now Moses saith
in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what
sayest thou?" That's not what Moses said. In the first place,
God said it and Moses wrote it down. And in the second place,
adulterers were to be killed. They were usually strangled.
The only adulterers and adulteresses that were stoned was a woman
who was engaged to be married, or a married woman, or the daughter
of a priest. They're not interested in keeping
the law. They don't care. Remember Judah. Whenever Judah went by his daughter-in-law
beside the roadside and thought she was in harlot, and Judah
went into her and she became pregnant, and they told him,
Thy daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and she is
with child by whoredoms." He said, "...bring her out, and
let her be burnt." So Moses didn't command them to stone every adulterer,
and if he did, where's the man? You're supposed to stone them
both to death. This is very evidently something that they've come up
with to try to belittle the Lord Jesus Christ. But what sayest
thou? This they said, tempting Him
that they might have to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and
with His finger rode on the ground. 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. The last
time I preached on John chapter 8, I spent at least an hour. On the evils of adultery. on the fact that it destroyed
families, it's hard on society, and all these things. For the
whole hour, that's what I preached on, I wasted their time and mine. Because I'm going to tell you
right straight out, there is no gospel when you preach against
the sins of society. I could preach four hours on
adultery and never once mention the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's not what this is about. We're going to mention sin because
this is about sin. But you know what? Most of us
here, Most of us here have come to terms with the fact that even
after God called us, even after we're a new creation in Christ
Jesus, we're still a sinner. Most of us have come to terms
with that fact. But there's still enough of the
old man in me to look around and decide that your sin's worse
than mine. I might tell a lie occasionally,
sometimes. I've been known to do that. But
at least I ain't never committed adultery. You see what I'm saying? Sin is sin. It's no worse. You break one,
you break them all. And when God opens your eyes
to the fact that the worst sin in the whole world belongs to
Me, it's here. I know how I am. I don't know
how you are. I know you're children of God,
but I've got to be the worst one in here. I believe that with
all of my heart. And because I've got the log
in my eye, I have no right to judge the little dust mold in
your eye. Once we get over the idea that
there are degrees of sin, that yours is worse than mine, then
we'll stop judging other people. This is not about adultery. This is about something that
happened before the world ever began. This is about the eternal,
everlasting, unending love of God for a woman who committed
adultery. That's the part that's important.
The sin part is not important. The sin part is something that's
with us every day until we die. But because it is, we'll spend
a few minutes talking about sin in the life of a believer and
so forth. And as you grow in grace, how
you can handle it. How you do live with your own
sin. 1 Timothy 1 and verse 9 tells us,
speaking about God the Father, that He has saved us and called
us. with an holy calling, saved first,
and then called, then called, who hath saved us and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. Nothing we have to do is the
Gospel. Nothing I have ever done in my
life, nothing I'm doing right now, nothing I'll do tomorrow
has anything to do with the Gospel. The Gospels are not what we do,
it's not about what we do, it's about what Christ has done. And when God saves us, and then
calls us, that's the new birth. And when it happens, and we look
around with born-again eyes, and we're given a born-again
heart, and a born-again mind to know what I've done all my
life, what's in me right now, when I've been given the born-again
knowledge that I cannot do anything to save myself, that Christ is
the only hope. Christ is the only answer. When
God puts me in that position, I will say with Job, I have heard
of thee, Lord, by the hearing of the ear. But now mine eyes
seeth thee, and I hate myself. We'll say with Isaiah, woe is
me. Woe is me, for I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips." We will know who we are and we'll turn to Christ. He will be the only hope presented
to us. Nobody was ever saved by a 12-step
program that took you from being nothing to being something. Only
by the blood of Jesus Christ does salvation come. No other
way. And you're born again, eyes will
see this. And you'll know, and you'll confess
with your mouth, Lord Jesus, and you'll believe in your heart
that God has raised Him from the dead. For with the mouth,
confession is made unto salvation, and with the heart, we believe
unto righteousness. We will turn to Christ with every
desire that God puts in our heart. We will be ready to be saved. God will turn us and we will
be turned. And we'll know. There'll be such
a relief. We'll know that we're free at
last. Free at last, we're free from
the law of sin and death. Christ hath made us free. Praise
God Almighty, we are free! And we'll turn to the Scriptures.
And we'll start reading in Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1. What's
the first verse? in Matthew that will give a child
of God hope. The first thing you're going
to read after you go through the genealogy, which whenever
God calls you, we don't know anything. The genealogy wears
us out. We just read it and wonder why
it's there. The first verse that's going to thrill my heart and
let my soul reach out to God for knowledge and understanding
is this, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto
thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is
of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, because he shall save
his people from their sin, and I am one of them. How can anything
go wrong? I have the promise of God that
He's going to save His people from their sin. I have that promise. That's the first promise in the
New Testament that we can get a hold of and hang on to because
if I love God, it's because He loved me first. So I know I'm
a child of God. But then, The dust settles. You go back
to work in the world. You have an argument with your
wife or your husband or whatever. The kids misbehave. You're back
in the world. You're back in the world. And
you see in your own heart that the things you don't want to
do, you always wind up doing them. And the things that you
want to do, you never seem to have enough grace and enough
time to do them. And you'll cry out with awe,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? And you will thank God through
Jesus Christ because you've been delivered. We don't know anything
when God calls us. We're just as ignorant as the
day we were born. When God saves you and calls
you, you're as much saved as you'll ever be. You're as much
sanctified as you will ever be. You're as much justified as you
will ever be. The only thing between you and
glorification is death. You'll be as much a Christian
the minute God calls you as you'll ever be, but you still won't
have no knowledge. Knowledge progresses. We're babes
in Christ. We are babes in Christ. We don't
want to live on milk the rest of our lives. So again, we turn
to the Scripture to find out how can this be? How is it that
me, that I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus, But I got the same
thoughts I had before God called me. I have the same desires I
had before God called me. It's either I'm not saved or
it's something else. Turn to the Scriptures! And when we do, we'll find this
out. That in this life, there are
two births. There's a natural birth. We are
shapen in iniquity and in sin that our mother conceived us,
Psalm 51. I went astray from the womb speaking
lies, Psalm 58. 1 Corinthians tells us that the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because
they are foolishness to him. Neither can he discern them because
they are spiritually discerned. Romans chapter 8 tells us that
the carnal mind, the mind that I was born with, the natural
mind, is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. That's our natural birth. That's
every man's natural, every woman's natural coming into this life
is the natural birth. But there's a new birth. That's the
second birth. John chapter 3 and verse 3. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. If you know anything about the
Kingdom of God, if you have any hope in Christ, if you have any
faith in Christ, if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, it's because you've been born again. Born again. And with these born-again
eyes, and your born-again understanding, You realize that there's not
much difference before God called me and afterward. The difference
is here, and here, and here. I'm still in the flesh. I'm still
in the flesh and as long as I am alive, I will be a sinner. You wonder why it would be that
way. I don't know and I'm not going to worry about it. They
say, well, God couldn't do anything to make you not sin. Don't ever
kid yourself. God created angels that couldn't
sin. God does whatever God wants to
do. And it pleased God to call us
out of a life of sin and shame and regret and leave us in this
body. Probably because we have to continually,
every day, every day, every day, every minute, go to Christ for
help. Every day, there are two births
and there are two deaths. The natural man will die a natural
death. It will happen to all of us.
To the believer, it's a blessing. I always think about Brian. Brian
went on to meet the Lord. He was ready. He was ready. Some believers are more ready
than others, but as a general rule, God gets you ready to go. It is a blessing. The believer
should be able to say, bear my longing soul to Him. who bled
and died for me, whose blood has cleansed me from all sin
and gives me victory. Oh, come, angel band, come and
around me stand. Oh, bury me away on your snow-white
wings to my eternal home. It's the end of travail. It's the end of doubt. It's the
end of worry. It's the end of pain. It's the
beginning of an eternity with Christ. That's what death is
to a believer. But there's a second death. Revelation
20 and verse 12. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God. We'll be spared that, because
we'll be with Christ. And the books were opened. And
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the
dead were judged out of those things written in the books.
Every man according to his works. And the sea gave up the dead
that was in it. And death and hell delivered
up the dead that were in them. And they were judged every man
according to his works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And everyone whosoever was not
found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of
fire. Two births. Two deaths. And in between were sinners. We depend on God for everything. For everything. Now like I told
you, this is not about adultery. It's not even really about sin. This woman standing there in
front of all these people, you think about this woman, whoever
she was. She's only that far away from
death. Apparently, they wanted to make
an example out of her. Because at that time, adultery
was the ruling sin of the Jewish people. Everybody did it. But they're going to kill her.
She's standing there before everybody. You ain't going to hide this
any longer. Everybody knows about her. Even
if she doesn't get killed, her life's never going to be the
same. Never going to be the same. It's really about her and the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it's about. Now,
before we leave the part about sin and go on to the eternal
part, if God truly convinces you that
you're a sinner, me, I shouldn't say you, I should say me. If God has truly convinced me
that I'm a sinner, It's going to stop me from judging other
people. I've got enough to worry about
my own sin. I don't care what anybody else
does. None of them could be any worse
than I am. It will bring you to the knowledge
that the very fact we can stand here in this building, shake
hands, hug one another, say we love you and everything, that
is a miracle. It really is. Because none of
us come into this world able to do that. We come into this
world filled with hatred for each other, lust toward each
other, like a bunch of little wild animals running across the
earth destroying everything we touch. Only Christ can change
that. Only Christ can have a situation
where we're all here and we all love each other. We all come
from different backgrounds, different places. We have Christ in common. That itself is a gift of God. Now, verse 10. 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? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Now, I can only remember two times
when the Lord Jesus Christ saved someone who were minutes away
from death. He has called people back from
the dead, that's true. But He has only twice, that I
can think of, called someone that is sure to
die. No, Greg gave me a little thing. It's an electronic concordance. He said, this is old and slow,
Robert. I'm going to give it to you.
I always work out of just a regular concordance. It's not so slow.
I clicked in this, trying to look for the two times. It showed
it was gone before I even knew what it was doing. But there
are only two times in the Scriptures where we see two people that
are going to die, and God called this lady as one. She's only
a little way from getting stoned to death. She has no hope. No future. Can't help herself. Nobody else wants to help her.
She is totally helpless. She's poor and she's needy. She's at the end of her rope
and she's just barely hanging on. The other one was the thief
on the cross. He's already on the cross. And
no one in the history of Rome ever came down alive from a Roman
cross. He's going to die. No way out
of it. No way out of it. He looks across
at the Lord Jesus Christ and said what? Lord, remember me
when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. This lady said, no man, Lord. That's the thing that both of
them had in common. Turn to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12, beginning in verse 1. Now concerning
spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Paul is
talking about spiritual gifts, right here. He's talking about
a gift from God. That's what he's talking about.
You know that you were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb
idols, even as you were led. Verse 3, Wherefore, I give you
to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth
Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord,
but by the Holy Ghost. To say that Jesus is Lord is
a gift from God. And both of them had that in
common. Both of them did. The thief on
the cross said, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into the
kingdom. This woman said, no man, Lord. They've both been born again
by the Holy Spirit. They both look on Jesus Christ
as their only hope out of a hopeless situation. Both of them do. Now here is the most beautiful
part of this whole part of Scripture. The Lord Jesus
Christ was a stranger to this woman. He was a stranger to the
thief on the cross. But this woman was absolutely
no stranger to the Lord Jesus Christ. He has known this woman
before time ever began. Before the first man walked through
the Garden of Eden, the Lord Jesus Christ loved this woman
with an everlasting love. Ephesians 1. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. in love having predestinated
us, me, you, having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ unto Himself according to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of
His grace." When Christ accepted this woman, she went into union
with Christ. Definitely. I went into union
with Christ. Every believer did. Every believer
went into union with Christ when He accepted us. This woman was
crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, she lived. Yet
not her, but Christ lived in her, and the life she has now
leading, she lives by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
her and gave Himself for her. We were all buried with Christ. Ephesians 2 and verse 4, But
God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sin, even when she was dead in
sin, He hath raised us up together with Christ, and made us to sit
together in heavenly places. She is no stranger to Christ. Christ knew before He ever said,
let there be light, that He would die for this woman's sin because
she belonged to Him. The thief on the cross belonged
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. You, if you're a child of God,
if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and you believe
in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you're a part
of Christ. It doesn't get any better than
that, I'm telling you. We are all children of God in
union with Christ. Can you imagine the Lord Jesus
Christ looking at this woman and knowing she was His? None of the rest of this is important. The adultery is not important.
What He wrote on the ground with His fingers is not important.
Nothing is important except that the Lord Jesus Christ loved this
woman before the foundation of the world, and He would die to
atone for her sin. That's the important part. That's where the Gospel is. That's
it. Now, there are certain Bible
expositors that I used to think knew everything. that believe
that when the Lord Jesus Christ told her that neither do I condemn
thee, that He's talking about a legal matter. It's okay, lady. Get up and go on home. I'm not
your judge. But I want to tell you right
now, when the Lord of glory says, neither do I condemn thee, then
you're not going to be condemned by anyone Romans 8.33 tells us that, "...who is he
that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, and is even at the right hand
of God, and maketh intercession for us. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. When
Christ told her, neither do I condemn thee." That's the end of the
condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit." This is the most amazing thing. You see what Christ has done. You see how great Christ is. The love of Christ. And then
we see ourselves, we haven't done anything. The hardest thing
for a child of God to do is to stand still and wait on God. It wasn't hard for this lady. She couldn't go anywhere. This
is amazing. And we'll hear the same thing.
One of these days, I'll hear the Lord Jesus Christ say, Robert
Horton, neither do I condemn thee. We will all hear that. When the angels bear us to the
throne of grace, that's it. We'll understand everything
I've talked about this morning. We'll understand it all then. I want to close with one thing
about sin. Actually, two things. Number
one is this. Sin is bad. but it's forgivable. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stains. There has never been a sin committed
that could not be covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. Not
one. That's the first thing to know about sin. Sin is forgivable. The second thing to know about
sin is this. It's something that only happens
in time. That's strange to think about,
but it's true. There will come a day when time
is no more and there won't be any sin. The Lord Himself 1 Thessalonians
4.16 The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. And we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the air to meet the Lord,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort ye
one another with these words, There will come a day when there's
no sin. Sin occurs only in time. And that's it. But it is forgivable. And then the Lord told her, go
and sin no more. A lot of people have a problem
with that. It's because they don't read the Scriptures. We're
admonished all through the Scriptures not to sin. Flee fornication. For every sin that a man committeth
without the body, but he that committeth fornication standeth
against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have
of God? We are not our own. We are bought with a price. I
belong to Christ. Flee fornication. Watch out for
the devil because he walks around like a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour. There's nothing unusual when
the Lord told her, go and sin no more. Because we're admonished
through the entire Scriptures not to do it. We're going to
do it, but He tells us not to. The Lord Jesus Christ was never
taken unawares. They say, oh, he stooped down
and wrote on the ground because he needed a minute to think.
Don't you ever believe that. Don't you ever believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ had to stop and think, this is the Lord of
glory. Never lose sight of God as you
look at the man Jesus Christ, and never lose sight of the man
as you look at Jesus Christ as God. Never, ever try to give
him a reason for anything he does. Everything he did, he did
for me, and he did for you. Everything. And he did everything
well. Father, we thank You, Father,
for doing the things for us, Father, that we could never do,
for predestinating us unto the adoption of children, Father,
even though we are ungrateful children, for giving us the privilege
to stand before You, holy and without blame, in Christ. We
ask, Father, that You'd give us a sense of appreciation for
what You've done, Father. You'd cause us to be thankful
He causes us to turn unto You for help and grace to help in
time of need. We ask these things, Father,
in Jesus' name, Amen. That was the gospel. I was thinking
what Paul said, this is a faithful saying, and worthy, more precious
than gold, of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, and he saved every last one of them,
for who I am chief. What a blessed morning. I'd like
to close out a cappella number 10 in your Silver, Grace Himmels. Number 10, if you could all please
stand. There is a Redeemer, Jesus Christ,
God's Son, precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One. Thank you, O our Father, for
giving us your Son, and making sure the work for sinners was
completely done. Jesus Christ, Redeemer, name
above all names, precious Lamb of God, Messiah, hope for sinners
slain. Thank you, O our Father, for
giving us your Son, and making sure the work for sinners was
completely done. When He rose to heaven, to His
throne on high, He sat down, His work was finished, chosen
ones He can't deny. Thank you, O our Father, for
giving us your Son, and making sure the work for sinners was
completely done. When we stand in glory, we will
see His face. There we'll worship Christ forever
in that holy place. Thank you, O our Father, for
giving us your Son, and making sure the work for sinners was
completely done. Thank you very much.