So he's using her house for free. So glad you're here, brother. Cody will be here tomorrow. He
comes in around four. or four thirty tomorrow so he'll
be here with us saturday morning man and then sunday he's going
to preach uh... one of the messages here sunday
morning and one of the messages and sarasota on sunday night
i'm so looking forward to having him here with us we'll begin reading in verse
twenty of galatians chapter two I am crucified with Christ. Oh, union with Christ. When he
died on Calvary's cross, I died. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in
the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain." If the Lord gives us any understanding of
the gospel, we'll know the difference between law and grace. Law and
grace is the two covenants. O foolish Galatians! Some had
come into the church of Galatia and attempted to compromise this
glorious distinction that there is between law and grace, to
blur the lines between the two. They can't be blurred. They're
two distinct covenants. O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose
eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth and crucified among
you? This only would I learn of you.
Received you the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? Oh no, we received it by the
hearing of faith. Are you so foolish then, having
begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? Have you suffered so many things
in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth
to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you, Doeth he
by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as
Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness." The only way that we honor the
law of God is by looking to Christ through faith. He fulfilled the
law. He's the end of the law. God's
law is honored when God's people through faith look to Christ.
Let's pray together. Merciful Heavenly Father, we
ask that you would send your sweet and powerful Holy Spirit
to draw in our hearts the distinction clearly between law and grace. That you would cause us, Lord,
to find our hope, our rest, our salvation, our reason for rejoicing
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to fulfill all righteousness. And that we would find our strength
in Him. so that we can say with our brother
Paul, this life that we now live in the flesh, we live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved us and died for us. We ask it
in his name. Amen. Let's stand together again. If the Lord's pleased to answer
that prayer, he'll cause us to see the difference between law
and grace. And he said, where the Spirit of the Lord is, that's
what we just prayed, what we just sang. Songs are just verbalized
prayers. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove. And if he sends his Spirit, there
will be liberty. Liberty. Free from the law. Free
to love. Free to believe. Free to rejoice. Free to obey. Freedom. It only comes by grace. The story
in John chapter 8, as we've seen, all of scripture
distinguishes the difference between the two covenants. The
covenant of law and the covenant of grace. The one that genders
to bondage. the one that is after Hagar the
bondwoman who is by the grace of God through faith to be cast
out that the child of the promise might reign free in the family
of God and this story is given to us once again over and over
and over again the Lord draws the line clearly between these
two covenants Now, in John chapter eight, we have a story of some
men who were bound to the law. They had, as Paul said in Romans
chapter 10, a zeal for God, but it was without knowledge. They
were ignorant of God's righteousness and went about to establish their
own righteousness. They thought that somehow their
keeping the law or attempting to keep the law, was earning
them favor with God. All it was, was pride and self-righteousness. Verse 1 of John chapter 8. I've titled this, The Cause and
Effects of Law and Grace. The Cause and Effects of Law
and Grace. Jesus went into 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. I like that. In Matthew chapter
5 in the Sermon on the Mount the scripture says, and he sat
down. Isaiah said he doesn't go into
the streets and make his voice known. He doesn't have to cry
and seek to persuade men. He's able to just sit down completely
confident in what he is saying is the truth. I love the confidence
of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't you? I mean there's just not
a There's not an equivocation whatsoever with anything he ever
said or did. He was just completely confident
that what he was saying was the truth. And we're confident that
what we hear him say to us is the truth. The scribes and the Pharisees
brought unto him a woman taken in adultery, And when they had
set her in the midst, they said unto him, 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? O the foolishness of these men! You know people still do this.
Those that are under the law still act like these Pharisees
and scribes and they still try to put God on trial. They think
that they can stump Him. They talk about man's free will
and they talk about that that Christ died for everybody
and that God loves everybody and every time they hear the
gospel they call into question the things of God. And what did
the Lord say in Romans about that? He said, oh foolish man,
who are you? Who are you to question God? And yet men still do it. I mean,
they do it to me all the time. They're not questioning me. When
somebody attacks me over what I preach or what I've said or
what I've written, they're not attacking me. I don't take it
personal. that I fear for their souls because in fact they are
attacking God. And they're doing exactly what
these scribes and Pharisees are doing. In their pride and in
their self-righteousness they think that they can stump God? If he says, oh by the way, the
law in Deuteronomy and in Leviticus is absolutely crystal clear that
the man and the woman were to be put to death. But isn't that the way these
law mongers are? They choose those parts of the
law that are convenient for them. Religion's full of it. Oh, they
talk about homosexuality because they're not homosexuals. They'll
talk about abortion or some other plight in society because that's
something they haven't done. So they can point their finger
at another. If he says, that the law needs
to be honored and that we should put her to death then all of
these centers that have been attracted to him will be fearful
of him and uh... will be able to accuse him to
rome of inciting the people uh... exercise the death penalty which
it was not legal for a jew to do only the romans could do that
If he says that, well, that's no longer relevant, then we can
accuse him of being unfaithful to the Word of God. So we've
got him. We've got him between a rock and a hard place. We're
going to publicly humiliate him. How foolish. How foolish men
are to think that they can humiliate God. But they still do it. They still do it. They'll ask
questions, they'll think, they'll stick out their chest and they'll
be so proud of themselves and thinking that they've stumped
you with something that you can't answer. And I love the way the
Lord responds here. He's silent to them, which only
encourages their pride. His silence said to them, he
doesn't have an answer. He doesn't have an answer. And
so it made them chide him all the more. They became more bold
in their questioning of him as a result of his silence. Men
are still doing the same thing. The worst thing that God can
do to a man is be silent to him. Not respond to him. Pilate knew
what that was about. The high priest knew what that
was about. If God's ever silent to you or
to me, we're in trouble. The only hope we have is that
God would speak to us. And if he speaks, it'll not be
in response to some question that we put on him thinking that
we were going to stump him. It will be because he's put it
in our hearts to beg for mercy. Lord, whatever you say is right.
Whatever you say is true. Lord, would you speak to me? Whatever it is. Who am I, Lord,
to question you? Turn to me to that passage in Romans chapter 9. Verse 15, for he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. It's amazing to me how many people
pride themselves in believing the Bible and they don't, they've
never read that. They've never heard it. he's sovereign he'll have mercy
on whom he wants to have mercy and whom he wants he hardens
and no man can say unto him what doest thou nobody can question
what he does so then it is not of him that willeth it's not
by man's free will nor of him that runneth but of God that
showeth mercy oh wait a minute I thought he said whosoever will
isn't that what they say And they hear these declarations
of God's sovereign grace, and they think that they can stump
God by calling Him into question, putting Him on trial. For the
Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose, have
I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth? God raised up
Pharaoh. in order to destroy him. He's
gonna go on to say in this passage of scripture that Pharaoh was
nothing but a vessel fitted for destruction. God made him to
destroy him in order to show forth his glory. You say, well,
my God's not like that. I don't doubt that he isn't.
But the God who is, is that way. The God of man's imagination
may not be that way, but the God who is, is that way. This is the only God to be feared.
This is the only God to be worshipped, isn't he? It's the only God to
bow before and seek his grace, his mercy. Therefore, hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Now look
at verse 19. Thou wilt say then unto me, why
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Well, if what you're saying is true, then how can God accuse
me? If you don't believe God, it
is all your fault. If you do believe God, it's all
His grace. now that's what the scripture
teaches and the natural man says well that's a contradiction no
it's not a contradiction at all the Lord said I did not come
into the world to judge the world to condemn the world but to save
the world the world's already condemned it's already condemned
you came into this world under the law and the law stood in
judgment of you he doesn't have to do anything to condemn us
we're already condemned What we need is to be saved. Nay, but O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? You're just talking back to God
is all you're doing. Who are you, O man? Don't you
know that he's the potter and that you're the clay and that
he has the sovereign right to make out of the same lump of
clay some vessels of honor and some of dishonor? Don't you know
that? You can't say to God, why hast
thou made me thus. He's God. He's God. Oh, that the Lord would cause
us to bow to him. not to be like
these Pharisees and scribes who justified themselves, who called
God into question, but instead that we would be like this woman
caught in adultery. Truth is, whether you've committed
physical adultery or not, every one of us are guilty of spiritual
adultery. We've denied our rightful husband. We've sought after another. Like we talked about Sunday,
he's that abusive husband. The law beat you up, abuse you,
tell you how ugly you are. how unable you are to satisfy
him. And like the abusive woman you
live in this fantasy world thinking that someday I'll be able to
please him. Someday I'll be able to satisfy
him. And the harder you try the worse
it gets. That's the law. That's the law. Go back with me to our text.
The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, there's two mountains. There's
Mount Sinai and there's Mount Calvary. God gave the law. Why did he give the law? Was
it because faith wasn't working? No, he gave the law for the lawless. That's what the scripture says.
He gave the law in order to curb the outward behavior of the unbeliever. That's the whole purpose, that's
the reason we have laws in this country. Turn with me to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy. God gave the law to restrain
outward behavior. But don't think. Don't think
because the law has restrained your outward behavior that somehow
you've fulfilled its requirements. Man's looking at the outward
appearance, God's looking at the heart. And if you for a moment
think that in your heart you've satisfied the demands of the
law, then that law has only aggravated sin in you. It's only made things
worse for you. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9. Knowing this, that the
law is not made for a righteous man. The law was not made for
a righteous man. but for the lawless, the disobedient,
for the ungodly, for sinners, for unholy, and profane, for
murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for
whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for
men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there
be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine according to
the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my
trust. All, everything contrary to the
gospel of God's free grace in the love of Christ. That's the
end of the law is love. And if the Lord's been pleased
to make his love known to us, then we've got a source of grace
that goes way beyond the law. We don't need the law. You don't
need to tell a man who loves his wife that he needs to be
faithful to her. No, if he's unfaithful to her,
it just proves he doesn't love her. You know, it's just that simple,
isn't it? Go back with me to our text. The cause and the
effects of law and grace. The cause of the law was lawlessness. God gave the law in order to
restrain the behavior of the unbelieving Israelites to keep
them together in a cohesive unit as a nation in order to bring
in the Messiah, in order for Christ to come into the world
through that nation. And the only thing that was going
to restrain them was the law. and the curses of the law, the
consequences of the law, that's why God gave it. And these men thought that somehow
they were going to keep the law. In fact, the law only aggravates
the sin of the heart. You want me to do something,
tell me I can't do it. And that's the very thing I want
to do. You want your children to do something, tell them they
can't do it. And that's the very thing they're going to want to
do. That's just the nature of man. Look at verse 6. And this they said, tempting
him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped
down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard
them not." There's been a lot of speculation
as to what the Lord was writing on the ground. I know that in this passage of
scripture it is not explicitly taught as to what he was writing
on the ground. But there is a lot of evidence
implicitly for us to know what it was he was writing. But there's
only two other times that God wrote with his finger. And that
was one time that he wrote on Mount Sinai the Ten Commandments. God took his finger and wrote
on tablets of stone showing the inflexibility of his law on those
tablets of stone. The other time is found in Daniel
chapter 5 when Belshazzar the son of Nebuchadnezzar Remember,
Nebuchadnezzar's the one who God humbled and gave him faith
to believe and he said that God reigns and Nebuchadnezzar's the
one. Turn with me there to Daniel
chapter 4. Verse 34, and at the end of days,
I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and my understanding
returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and
honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation,
and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. As nothing. The prophet calls
the nations a drop in the bucket to God. A speck of dust on the
scale. Nebuchadnezzar's son, Belshazzar,
knew what Nebuchadnezzar went through and knew what he believed
and yet Belshazzar didn't believe it. And in the very next chapter,
he has a party and commands to bring in the vessels that his
father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem. And look what he
says in verse 2, Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded
to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar
had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem, that
the king and his princes and his wives and his concubines
might drink therein. And they brought the golden vessels
that were taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was
at Jerusalem. and the king, and his princes,
and his wives, and his concubines drank in them, and they drank
wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, and of brass,
and of iron, and of wood, and of stone." Men are still doing
that. They're still doing that. They're
taking the precious vessels of God, the things that declare
God's free grace in the finished work of Christ, and they're mixing
them with the worship of the gods of silver and gold, wood
and iron. Pagan gods. Well, you remember what happens
in this chapter. The handwriting is on the wall.
the finger of God writes words on the plaster of the king's
palace and the king sees it and the scripture says that his knees
began to knock together and he became weak and he called for
his soothsayers and for the Chaldeans to come and to interpret the
writing and no one could interpret it and finally his wife says
to him there's a prophet who was able to interpret dreams
for your father And his name is Daniel. And so, Belshazzar
brings Daniel in. And Daniel reminds him of what
God had taught him through his father. In this chapter 5. He said, you know these things
are true. And Daniel rehearses everything
that's recorded in chapter 4 to Belshazzar. to say to him you
haven't honored God in his sovereign grace and in his sovereign mercy
and you've mixed law and grace you've mixed law and grace and
when you brought in the vessels that were vessels of grace and
made them part of your pagan worship you were mixing law and
grace and so Daniel interprets the
writing look at verse Look at verse 26 of chapter 5. And this is the interpretation
of the thing. Meaning, God hath numbered thy
kingdom and finished it. You want to mix law and grace?
Here's what's going to happen. God numbered your days and they
are over. He has weighed you in the balance
and found you wanting. What is the balance? The balance
is the balance of law. This is the second time that
the finger of God is written. The first time was on the tablets
of stone. The second time here. And he's saying, you've been
weighed in the balance. You've been found wanting. People
that try to earn favor with God through the keeping of the law, they've been weighed in the balance.
And they've been found wanting. And your kingdom, that which
you have established, that which you have established has been
divided and your life has been taken from you and that very
night Belshazzar was taken out of the world go back with me to our text Verse six, halfway through, but
Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as
though he heard them not. And when they continued asking
him, it just emboldened them to interrogate him. Oh, we've
got him stumped now. He can't answer this question. 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. Now here's what I want to say
about law and grace. Law convicts your conscience, but it can never
convert your soul. that can never convert your soul.
Don't think that because you've been convicted by the law that
that's evidence that you're a believer. God's given all men a conscience.
These men were convicted in their conscience by whatever it was
the Lord was writing with his finger in the dirt. Thou shalt
not commit adultery is what I think he was writing. What he wrote
before was in reference to law and grace. Why wouldn't he write
the law again? And as they looked, they were
convicted in their conscience by what he had said and by what
he had written. And one by one, they began to
fade away from the oldest to the youngest. The older you get in this world,
the more you realize how far short of the law you are. These men were convicted in their
conscience. It's amazing how young people
who never had kids think they know everything about raising
children. And then once you have them, you realize there's a whole
lot more to it than what I thought. and you know from the oldest
the older you get the more you realize how well the more you know the more
you realize you don't know and uh... from the oldest to the
youngest they began to fade away why? because they were convicted
by the law but they weren't converted they weren't converted they went
away guilty they went away ashamed But they didn't go away saved. That only happened to one. The Lord said, he that is without
sin, let him cast the first stone and the one man who was without
sin, the one who had the authority to cast a stone, didn't. He didn't. Look what happens. They were convicted in their
conscience. They went out one by one, beginning at the eldest
even to the last. And Jesus was left alone and
the woman standing in the midst. And 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. Not one rock was thrown at her.
No man's condemned me. They went away ashamed. They
went away convicted in their conscience that they were guilty. And I love the Lord's next words.
Neither do I condemn thee. Neither do I. Now that's grace. That's grace. Unmerited favor. The love of
God was shed abroad in her heart in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He just forgave her. What's the cause and the effects of
the law? The cause of the law is lawlessness and the effects
of the law is self-righteousness. The cause and the effects of
grace. The cause of grace is the love of God toward his people. That's the cause of grace. He's
our hope. Turn to me to 2 Corinthians chapter
3. Verse 12, seeing then that we
have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. We don't
talk out of both sides of our mouth. We don't try to keep the
law and think that somehow that's going to earn us favor with God.
We honor the law by looking to Christ. We honor the law by looking
to Christ. Not as Moses, which put a veil
over his face. We have this hope. What is our
hope? What is our hope of righteousness
before God? It's the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ. What is our hope of redemption
before God? It's the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. What's our hope of justification
before God? It's the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What's our hope of acceptance
before God? It's the ascension of the Lord
Jesus Christ. What's the hope of our rejoicing?
It's the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our hope. He is
our hope. Our hope is not in the law. Our
hope is in Christ and His grace toward us. So we use great plainness of
speech because we have great hope. Not as Moses which put
a veil over his face that the children of Israel could not
steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. What's
abolished? The law! Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness. They couldn't see that. But their
minds were blinded, for until this day they remain at the same
veil, untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil
is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is still upon their hearts. Why? Because they're not looking to
Christ. Christ is not their hope. Their hope is in their own righteousness. Their hope is in their own accomplishments. Their hope is in their own performance.
It's not in the accomplished, finished work of Christ. They went away convicted, but they didn't go away converted. Nevertheless, Verse 16, when
it, the heart, shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken
away. When the heart looks away from
the law and looks to Christ, and finds its hope in the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, then the veil is taken away.
Then the understanding is given. Then we know that salvation is
of the Lord and we're able to receive the grace and the mercy
of God like this adulterous woman and hear the words of our Savior
saying to us, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Now turn with me quickly to Romans
chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. What is the effects of grace?
Forgiveness, faith, and faithfulness. That's the effects of grace.
forgiveness, faith, and faithfulness. Grace doesn't lead to licentious
living. Grace doesn't lead to lawlessness. Grace leads to Christ. Christ is our rule of life. The
law is not our rule of life. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is our rule of life. Look at Romans chapter 6, verse 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid! Grace doesn't give a license
to disobey God. Grace leads to faithfulness.
The Lord told this woman go and sin no more. She was done with
that adulterous lifestyle. God forbid. How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? Now you know what Romans
chapter 7 goes on to say. Paul in looking at his heart
laments the fact that he can never achieve perfection in the
heart. And he concludes, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? He
said that when I would do good, evil is ever present with me. to will is ever is there but
how to perform that which is good he says I find not in Romans
chapter 7 and he's looking at the inward man and he's realizing
that I just I can't be what I want to be as long as I'm in this
flesh one of these days the Lord's going to he's going to kill this
flesh I was talking to Bruce Crabtree the other day and he
said know the scripture speaks of
the body and the soul being redeemed that there's going to be a resurrection
and the body is going to be resurrected and Bruce said he said I'm hoping
that the Lord will give me a little bit of time to have a conversation
with my body before I die I don't want to just die right away I
want to say to my body now listen I need to prepare you for something
we're going to be separated for a little while And when I depart
from you, they're going to take you and lay you on a cold table,
and they're going to drain all the blood out of you, and they're
going to put formaldehyde in you, and they're going to stick
you in a box and put you down on the ground. And worms are
going to eat you. He said, but don't be afraid.
Because you're going to be redeemed, and we're going to be reunited. And you're not going to be anything
like the body you are now. Now that's what Paul was lamenting.
He said, you know, this old body of flesh, it's got to be put
to death in order for the redemption of the body, in order for us
to have a new body in Christ. But here he's talking about lifestyle
and behavior in chapter 6. He's saying that, yes, though
sin be ever present with me, I don't have a license to just
go out and shame the Lord with a lifestyle that would dishonor
Him. No, how can I do that? He loves me. The only power The
only way to honor the law of God is looking to Christ, and
the only power we have over sin is looking to Christ. The Lord told this woman, go
and sin no more. Those Pharisees went right back
to their old lifestyle, right back to their self-righteousness. The fact that they were so convicted
by what the Lord said about let him who is without sin, and I'm
sure the Lord wrote the seventh commandment there, shall not
commit adultery. And from what I've read in extra-biblical,
well, the Lord called that an adulterous generation. And from
what I've read in other writings, that was a common, common practice
in the first century. Everybody did it, kind of like
today. So those men just went right
back to their way of living. But this woman didn't. She experienced the love of Christ. Look at verse 14 of Romans chapter
6. You're still there in Romans chapter 6? For sin shall not
have dominion over you." Why? Because you're not under the
law. You're under grace. The only
power that you have to break sin is grace. It's the forgiving
grace of God. It's the love of Christ that
says unto you, I don't condemn you. I don't condemn you. You're free from the law. I've
satisfied the law. And I'm setting you free. Go
and sin no more. Reckon in previous verses in
this chapter. Look at verse 11. Likewise reckon
ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Reckon it to be so. Why? Because it is so. That's what Paul was saying in
Galatians. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
the life that I now live in this flesh, I live by the faith of
the Son of God who loved me and died for me. It's the only power
we have. Looking to Christ. Resting in
Christ. Believing that His death on Calvary's
cross satisfied the demands of God's holy justice that his perfect
life of righteousness satisfied God's God's demand for the law
so Paul said I might know him the power of his resurrection
the fellowship of his suffering that all to be found in him not
having my own righteousness which is of the law but that righteousness
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ Law and grace. The cause of the
law was lawlessness. The result of the law is self-righteousness
and pride and death. The cause of grace is love. And the effect of grace is love. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we Thank you for your word, and we ask that your Holy Spirit
would draw clear distinction in our
hearts between these two opposing covenants, the covenant of law,
from which we've been set free, and the covenant of grace, to
which we have been set free. We ask it in Christ's name, Amen. Let's stand together.