Now let's go back to John chapter
8. We hear the gospel preached.
Sometimes we tend to think, is the preacher preaching to me? And really the better question
is, is what the pastor preaching true according to God's Word? Is what he's saying true according
to the Word of God? Is he preaching in love to me? Because he wants me to hear what
God's Word says? And then I ought to ask myself,
if I'm offended at that, why am I offended? If it's God's
Word, if it's preached in love, if it's preached to show me Christ,
turn me from my sin and myself, why would I be offended? Well, I'm preaching tonight for
selfish reasons. I found this passage when I was
preparing last week, Psalm 55. You remember how we saw David
going up the Mount of Olives and his bare feet and his enemies
after him and right there at that Garden of Gethsemane. When
our text begins here in John 8 and says Jesus went unto the
Mount of Olives, that's where He went. He went to the Garden
of Gethsemane. He didn't have a place to lay
His head. He didn't go home like the rest of them did. He went
to the Garden of Gethsemane, prayed to His Father, prayed
for those that He was ministering to. And then the next morning
early He came back and He sat down just off the porch of the
temple and he sat there and people gathered around him and he started
preaching and teaching them the gospel. And when I say I'm preaching
this for selfish reasons, I mean this. You and I who God has saved
are one. We're one in Christ. And I love
my brethren with whom I am one. And so I want you to hear the
gospel. I want you to hear and see Christ
so that you'll follow Him. I want you to know what to do
if you're publicly accused of sin. That's what our text deals
with. I've been accused several times
since I've been here. I want you to see what to do
if you're accused publicly of sin. And then I want you to know
why we ought never to play the Pharisee and to publicly accuse
one another. It's so sad when believers have
a disagreement and start publicly slinging mud at one another.
You may have a very valid reason. That may be a great sinner. And
you may be able to sling a whole lot more mud at them than they
at you. But I guarantee you this, when
it's all said and done, you're both going to be covered in mud.
And that's never becoming. That's just never becoming to
the gospel. It causes division, it causes
trouble in the church, brings reproach on Christ. We just have
multitude of reasons to be merciful to each other and to be as kind as we can. So yes, I'm
preaching this for selfish reasons. Now my subject is none to condemn
and here's my main point. By Christ's precious blood, by
His precious blood, There's no condemnation to them who are
in Christ Jesus, who are led by the Spirit of God. No condemnation. And for that reason, knowing
our great sin, knowing the great forgiveness we've been shown,
we want to be forgiving. We want to be merciful. A graceless
man has not tasted grace. A merciless man is not tasted
mercy. Peter said, Wherefore, laying
aside all malice and all guile and envy and evil speakings,
as a tender little newborn babe, let us desire the sincere milk
of the word, that we may grow thereby. So we're redeemed, we have no
condemnation, and we want to deal with each other as redeemed
sinners who Christ has forgiven. Now I want to see this in three
ways. First, we'll look at the scribes
and Pharisees, see what we can learn from them. And secondly,
we'll look at this woman, see what we can learn from her. And
at last, we'll learn from our Master. Now first of all, let's
learn from the scribes and the Pharisees. It says there, verse
2, early in the morning, our Lord came again to the temple
and all the people came unto him and he sat down and he 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, this woman was taken in adultery in the
very act. Now get this scene, he's not
on the porch of the temple because later we're going to see he writes
in the dirt. So he's off the porch out in the courtyard of
the temple. And he sat down, that's how they
did it then, they would stand up to read, sit down to teach.
So he sat down and he has all these people around him and he's
preaching and teaching them the gospel. And all of a sudden there's
an interruption. And the scribes and the Pharisees
are parting the people, and they're working their way up through
the people, and they come all the way up to the front where
the Lord Jesus is, and all the while they've got this woman
in their grip, and they're bringing her up there, and they stand
her right there in front of everybody, and they say, Master, this woman
right here has been caught in adultery in the very act. I picture her clutching a bed
sheet, trying to cover herself, embarrassed, crying. And there she is standing in
front of all these people with her sin exposed. And the scribes
and Pharisees sat her there and they asked this question. They
said verse 4, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the
very act. Now Moses in the law commanded
us that such should be stoned. What sayest thou? Now this is
what all law mongers do. This is what all Pharisees do.
They set the law over against Christ. as if they're at odds. They set the law against Christ
and they choose the law over Christ and they defend the law
over Christ. That's what they always do. I've
heard this happen for years and years and years. But condemning
this woman with the law, they condemn themselves. By condemning
her with the law, Unbeknownst to them, they were condemning
themselves. Now believer, you and I have
accused others. You've done it, I've done it.
And we hate that Pharisee that's in our flesh. He's self-righteous
and there's a religious self-righteous Pharisee with every one of us.
And we hate him. We hate him. So I want us to
understand how we condemn ourselves if we condemn others. One, as
Brother Rob just read, the fulfillment of the law is love to our brother. It's love. But if I expose another's
sin, and if I accuse them with the law, that's hatred. That's
not love. If this is my motive, like these
Pharisees, is to just get somebody or to get at. They were trying to get at Christ
is who they were trying to get at. But if that's my motive,
brethren, that's hatred. That's not love. Love, scripture
says, covers a multitude of sins. Covers. Hatred stirreth up strife. So they condemned themselves
by this. And number two, they broke the
law because the law stated that the man and the woman must be
stoned. And they didn't bring the man.
They only brought the woman. And you see, by nature, we can't
understand the spiritual depths of the law. And if we try to
condemn somebody with the law, just like they did, we're going
to break the law by that very act of condemning somebody else.
We're breaking the law. Three, if we break one law, we're
guilty of the whole law. To them, they saw this woman
caught in adultery and she was so much worse than they were.
That's what they're saying by condemning her. She's way worse
than we are. We've never done that. But you see, what they couldn't
see is all the sins of their heart Those sins of our heart,
brethren, are as open before God as the sins people commit
in the act that you see with your eyes. They're as open to
God, every single thought is open to God. So to condemn somebody
else, I'm condemning myself because it's hypocrisy. It's hypocrisy. And then four, we commit spiritual
adultery because we're choosing our old husband, the law, rather
than our new husband, Christ. When we take a fellow believer
to law, we're choosing the old husband, the law. Romans 6 says,
that old husband has died and we've died to him, so we're free
to be married to another. but rejecting Christ for the
law or accusing with the law, I'm rejecting Christ for that
old husband. Condemning myself. And fifthly,
if we accuse with the law rather than show mercy, we're saying
to God that we want judgment rather than mercy. We're saying
to God, this is how I want to be judged. I want judgment rather
than mercy. We saw a few weeks ago, the Lord
said, with the same judgment that you judge, that's how God's
going to judge you. Now go over to Romans chapter
2. Let me just show you all of this right here in Romans 2.
And let's read beginning in verse 1. Therefore, thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself. He's saying, if you condemn another,
exposing their sins and condemning them before men, you are condemning
your own self. For thou that judgest, doest
the same things. I'm sure those Pharisees would
have said, we've never committed adultery. They were. They were
committing adultery right then. Playing the harlot against the
Lord Jesus Christ for that old husband. Look at this, but we're
sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against
them which commit such thing. God is true and His judgment
is true and He knows all the sinful thoughts as well as the
deeds. And thinkest thou this, O man,
that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that
thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the
riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance? We're never
turned from our sin by the whip of the law. Never. Never! Why then when we see a brother
or sister sin, why then do we speak harshly and condemn them
and rail on them for their sin? That's not going to turn them
from their sin. What do we need? We need love. We need love. We need to hear
about the longsuffering and goodness of God in Christ Jesus toward
guilty sinners such as we are. And we need to hear that preached
in love to us. When you're accused, brethren,
try not to rail back. It's so hard to not rail back
on somebody when they're railing on you and accusing you. We've
failed at this. I've failed at this. But try
not to do that. Try not to do that. Be long-suffering,
reminding one another of God's long-suffering, of God's goodness
to us. That's how we're led to repentance.
Verse 5, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest
up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation
of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every
man according to his deeds." If I go on condemning, even after
hearing this, I'm showing I have a hard heart, an impenitent heart,
a heart that's never repented. And all I'm doing is treasuring
up. I'm just hoarding up. I'm just
saving up wrath against the day of wrath when I stand before
God in judgment. Against myself. Listen to this. To them who by patient continuance
in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, our
Lord is going to give eternal life. But unto them that are
contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness,
exposing sin and condemning sin in others, He'll give indignation
and wrath and tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man
that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile, but
glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good. to those that stay on Christ,
to those who show mercy because of the mercy they've been shown,
to those who forgive because the forgiveness Christ has shown
them, to those who love their brethren, to the Jew first and also to
the Gentile. There's no respect of persons
with God. Now here's what I want you to get first from this text.
The greatest sin here The greatest sin in our text was not the sin
of adultery. Oh, she committed adultery. That's
a great, great sin and she was guilty of it. But that's not
the greatest sin that's being manifest in this text. The great
sin being spoken of here is pride and self-righteousness. And that's
all we're exhibiting if we accuse one for whom Christ died and
condemn them for their sins. That's what we're proving. Anger,
wrath, envy, murder, adultery, robbery, lust, they're all sins. They're all sins. But they can
be overcome by the grace of God because they are easily identified. Pride and self-righteousness
is deceiving. We'll be in pride and self-righteousness
beguiled by the devil and never know that's our problem. Be convinced
in our heart somebody else is the problem. And self-righteousness is easily
hidden. Do you know that self-righteousness
is worse even than the sin of sodomy? There are sins that are
greater sins than other sins. Now that doesn't make you and
I excuse our sin and say, well that's just a little white lie.
No, all sin is sin. Meet God with sin without Christ
and we'll be condemned. It's all sin. Listen to what
the Lord said to Capernaum. It was full of self-righteous
religious men. He said, you're exalted unto
heaven. Pride and self-righteousness
has exalted you to heaven. You shall be brought down to
hell. But I say unto you, it shall
be more tolerable. More tolerable. for the land
of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. What's that saying? That's saying self-righteousness
and pride is worse even than sodomy. There's no rewards in
heaven because we're all given the same righteousness of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And so none's better than another.
We're all made righteous in Christ. But I'm convinced, brethren,
there are degrees of hell. You look at a prison, not everybody
in that prison is serving the same sentence. Because some committed
worse crimes than others. They're all in prison. Don't
get me wrong. But they're not all on death
row. So, I'm guilty and you're guilty
of this. We're not trying to say anybody's
guilty of this and somebody else is not. We're all guilty of this.
We're all the Pharisee. but only Christ's free forgiveness
will subdue that proud man in us. Only hearing this gospel
is going to subdue that proud man in us and strengthen our
inner man so that Christ by His grace turns us to Him away from
ourselves. That's what we all need. Now
secondly, let's learn from the woman. First of all, she was
guilty and she knew it. Look here in verse 4, it says
she was taken in adultery in the very act. In the very act. You know, before a sinner will
flee to Christ, before a sinner will flee to Christ, the Spirit
of God must convince us of our sin. The Spirit of God must convince
us that we are guilty. because we have sinned and broken
God's law. You won't flee to Christ until
you really, truly know in your heart that you are a sinner and
nothing but a sinner. And the Spirit of God never lets
a believer forget that either. When we need to be brought down,
the Spirit of God will remind us that we're no good in our
flesh. God knows the heart. Brother
Henry said, we've been caught in the thought. We've been caught
in the thought. Two, the law condemned her to
death and she knew it. Look here at verse five. Now
Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But
what sayest thou? Don't you know she was hanging
on every word that Christ was going to speak? She wanted to
hear how that question was going to be answered. That's how you
are when the law has come in power and the Spirit of God has
made you to see the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. And you're that one. When God
makes you know that in your heart, you'll know then, I'm guilty.
The law calls for my death. And I'm going to have to die.
You see, before we're going to need a Redeemer, we have to be
made to know we're under the curse and condemnation of God. We've not only sinned against
God, we're under the condemnation of God, the curse. And we're
going to have to be made to see this before we'll need Christ
who redeemed His people from the curse of the law by being
made a curse for us. So then we'll never come to Christ.
But now don't miss this either. This is the third thing and this
is vitally important. She opened not her mouth to defend
herself. She sat here through all this
silent. Didn't say a word. When we're
dead in sins, or if it's a believer who's overcome by sinful flesh,
Now the spirit doesn't do this. The new man doesn't do this.
But if it's a believer overcome by our flesh, temporarily, when
we're accused, we will defend ourselves and we will exalt ourselves,
accusing right back. That's exactly what we do. That's
the flesh. That's the flesh. I've been guilty
of it and you've been guilty of it. But if we're gods, Listen,
if we're gods, eventually the Spirit of God is going to convict
us and shut our mouth. He did that the very first hour
He made us to see our sin. He came to us and made us hear
the law of God and He shut our mouths in guilt. That's the purpose
of the law. We know that what things soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. And again, brethren, you know
that God never stops doing this to us when we need it. God gives us grace to shut our
mouth and wait on our Redeemer to defend us. We don't usually
respond that way at first. He's going to let you see what
a sinner you still are and we respond in a way we ought not
to. Mean, rebelling, angry, But He's going to come. If we're
His, He's going to come and He's going to subdue that old flesh
and He's going to make us to shut our mouth and wait on God.
Paul, as I said, spoke of himself a lot in the scripture. In fact,
the Lord told the Gadarene, go and tell what good things the
Lord has done for you. He told him to go, make yourself
the subject of the message, and tell them how Christ saved you,
a rotten, ruined sinner. He told him to do that. So I'm
going to speak of what the Lord's done for me just a minute. Since
I've been here, Your pastor, I've been your pastor, I've been
accused quite a few times. The first time, I hadn't even
gotten moved here yet. I've been up here, you know,
about two years preaching and a fellow, he befriended me, he
started writing and corresponding by email and asking me some questions
about a problem he was having, but all in the world he was doing.
was trying to build a case against me. That's all he was doing.
That's all he was doing. And finally, he accused me to
my brethren. But you know what happened? I
didn't have to open my mouth. My brethren defended me. The Lord defended me. He used my brethren to defend
me. And I didn't have to open my
mouth and say a word. And they told this man, they
said, we've been waiting for the gospel to be here, the Lord's
put the gospel here, now you're welcome to sit here if you can
do it in peace, you're welcome to be here. But if not, you're
free to go. And he left. He left. And that's happened many times
since then, but in every case, the Lord has used my brethren
to defend me. Every time. Every time. So what I'm saying to you is,
brethren, when that happens to you, when you're accused, and
when you're condemned and judged by somebody, wait silently on
the Lord to defend you. That's what he did for this poor
woman. Now lastly, let's see Christ and learn from Christ.
Number five, They said, Now Moses in the law commanded us that
such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? And this they said,
tempting him that they might have to accuse him. Now they
thought that Lord Jesus would never be able to solve this dilemma. They thought they had him. He
will not be able to solve this dilemma. They said to themselves,
if He upholds the justice of the law and commands us to stone
her, then He won't show her mercy like He said that's what He came
to do. He said He came to show mercy to sinners. And if He tells
us to stone her, then He's not showing her mercy and His disciples
are going to know He's a false prophet. But if He shows her mercy, then
he will not uphold the law's justice. And then we can say
he's against the law and he himself is guilty. Either way, his disciples
will see he's a false prophet. Well, that wasn't a dilemma for
our substitute. The very reason that he came
was to make justice and mercy meet in harmony. That's why he
came. You notice here Christ stooped
two times and He arose two times. In that, we have the Gospel.
First of all, Christ stooped down. When He came down and took
flesh, took this dust that we are, and He wrote, He became
the author and finisher of our faith in human flesh right here. Look at verse 6. When they said
this, but Jesus stooped down, and with his finger rode on the
ground, as though he heard them not. In Christ stooping down,
we're reminded that the Son of God made that great stoop down
from heaven to earth, and took our flesh, which is earthy. And He walked this earth, and
He asked them now, He's thinking of asking them, He that is without
sin among you. He was the only one there who
was without sin. He's the only one that's ever
walked among us who was without sin. And so He was qualified
to take the place of His people. So then our substitute lifted
up Himself on the cross. Verse 7, 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. Now we don't know what Christ
wrote on the ground. Some say He might have wrote
their names and dates by their names when they actually committed
adultery. He knew it. He knew it. Others say He wrote, where is
the man? Because they broke the law. They
just brought the woman. They didn't bring the man. Whatever He wrote, when Christ
said, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast
a stone at her. Verse 9 says, they which heard
were convicted by their own conscience. And we went out one by one beginning
at the oldest even to the last. Christ was the only one among
them without sin. The only one that walked this
earth without sin. And so Christ took the sins of
his people and was made a curse for us. That means every stone
of justice that his adulterous people deserved fell on our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why I believe that Christ
was standing between this woman and her accusers when He said
that. When He stood back up, she was
standing. When He stood back up, I'm convinced
He was standing between her and them. And what He was saying
was, cast your stones at her by casting them at me in her
place. I know that's what He did on
the cross. I don't have to speculate about that's what He did on the
cross. I know He did. And so when all the stones of
justice fell on Him, He satisfied divine justice by stooping to
the grave in death. And so we see verse 8, and again
He stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard,
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. By living and dying
for His people, Christ silenced the law from accusing His people. He silenced our accusers, brethren,
just like He silenced her accusers. He silenced our accusers. Now
there's only Christ left alone and the woman, His church. Because this is what Christ did
for us. Christ and the law are not at odds. Christ and the law
are not at odds. Christ gave the law the righteousness
it demanded. And His people did the same in
Him. And the law has nothing to say to that righteous God-man,
nor does it have anything to say to those He made righteous. Because the law wasn't made for
a righteous man. If you haven't broke the law,
but have fulfilled it and have no sin, the law won't say a thing
to you. And that's how all His people
are. So Christ stooped down and He
took our flesh, and then Christ lifted Himself up on the cross,
and then He stooped to the grave in death, and then He lifted
Himself up again. He lifted Himself up to the right
hand of God for the purpose of revealing to His people what
He's done for them. And so we read 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. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. You put yourself in this woman's
shoes. If you've ever been convicted of your sin and brought to Christ,
then you know what this was like. Here's this woman standing there
in the midst guilty of adultery. She knows it. Everybody knows
it. The law is going to demand her death. She knows that. And
there Christ is asked this question and Christ stands up and silences
her accusers and turned around to her and said, neither do I
condemn thee. How do you think that made this
woman feel toward the Lord Jesus Christ? What does free forgiveness make
a believer do? Christ said, go and sin no more. Does that mean she never sinned
again? Oh, she sinned plenty again. This woman was a sinner
in her flesh just like you are. But Christ brings His child out
of darkness into His light. He brings us out of the world
into His church. He brings us from having our
worldly hellish companions and brings us amongst His princes
and His kings and gives us unity with our brethren. The Lord's
grace brings us to Christ's feet where we sit to hear Him preach
the gospel. I called Brother, well, Brother
Dunn called me last night right as I was studying this and I
said, do you think that Mary Magdalene is the woman that was
caught in adultery? He said, no, I don't believe
so. He said, but I do believe Mary Magdalene was the woman
that, that's Lazarus' sister. She's the one that sat at Christ's
feet. And she's the one that brought that alabaster box of
ointment into the house of the Pharisee. So, even though that's
not the same woman, this is the result of what grace does. Where
was she? He cast seven devils out of Mary
Magdalene. Where was she after that? She's
seated at Christ's feet, hanging on every word He said. She saw what great sins she had
been forgiven, and because the greater the sins that are forgiven,
the greater the love. And so she loved Christ. and
devoted herself to him. Go to Luke 7. I may go a little
longer, but I want you to see this. Luke 7. It says there, you know the story,
but let me read it to you. Luke 7.39, now when the Pharisees
which had bidden him saw it, he's in the house, he's sitting
there in the Pharisees' house and in comes this harlot, it's
Mary Magdalene, and in she comes, breaks open this alabaster box
of ointment and pours it on him to anoint him for his burial.
Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within
himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have
known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him,
for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto
him, Simon, I have some what to say unto thee. He saith, Master,
say on. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence, the other
50. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which
of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose
that he to whom he forgave most. He said unto him, thou hast rightly
judged. And he turned to the woman and
he said, Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house
and thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she has washed my
feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou
gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath
not ceased to kiss my feet. My head withal thou didst not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For,
he's saying, because of the fact that her many sins are forgiven,
she loved much. Because her many sins were forgiven,
she loved much. He says, but to whom little is
forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, thy sins
are forgiven. What if a brother in Christ goes
to accuse one for whom Christ died? Well, his apostles began
to accuse her too. Look down at Mark 14 verse 4.
They began to accuse her too. What happens if a brother falls
into the sin of condemning another brother? Look here, Mark 14,
4. There were some that had indignation within themselves. You notice
the Pharisee and the Apostles, they didn't say anything out
loud. They just were thinking this in their heart. He knows
the heart. And they said, why was this waste
of the ointment made? Listen to that. You mean something
done to Christ is a waste? They were saying this was a waste
to anoint His feet. For it might have been sold for
more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor. You know
what that means, brethren? They made a penny a day. They
made a pence a day back then. This woman spent over 300 pence. That's a year's wages. to buy
this ointment and pour it out on Christ. That's devotion. But they said this could have
been given to the poor and another scripture says Judas led this
and it says, and he didn't care about the poor, he just said
it because he was a thief and held the bag. But his other apostles,
instead of following Christ, they followed Judas in this.
That's us, isn't it? Somebody starts accusing the
brother, and instead of standing with Christ and not condemning,
we're so prone to fall right in there with them. And that's
what they did. And they murmured against her.
Verse 6, And Jesus said, Let her alone. When you're accused
brethren, this is why you can keep your mouth shut. This woman
didn't speak either. Let her alone. Why trouble ye
her? Listen, she hath wrought a good
work on me. Christ never said that to anybody
else. She wrought a good work on me.
For you have the poor with you always, and whensoever you will,
you may do them good. But me you have not always. She
hath done what she could. That's all God calls His people
to do. You see somebody make some great
sacrifice in giving something to the Lord, and you don't have
the ability to do what they did. He don't call you to do what
somebody else did. Just do what you can. Do what
you can. Do what you have the ability
to do. She's come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever
this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this
also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of
her. And here we are speaking of her
right now. Right now. Brethren, we've all been guilty
of playing the Pharisee. If Christ paid our sin debt and
delivered us from the law and has forgiven us, then let us
go and sin no more. Let us begin today living for
Christ like never before. Do you wish you could go back
and live your life over since you believed the Lord? I wouldn't
change anything because I know everything that happened brought
me to where I am right now. But I have so many regrets about
how I've not honored Christ as I ought to, not loved as I ought
to, not been merciful as I ought to. I can't go back, but I can
start today living in honor to Him like never before. That's
what I want to do. Now you're going to see me sin,
you're going to see me stumble and fall, and you're going to
say, well he's not doing what he said he was going to do. I
believe you're going to stumble and fall some too. It doesn't
mean you don't have a heart that wants to and tries to. And let's stop accusing and start
showing mercy and love for Christ's sake. Isn't that what He calls
us to do? Those two things. Believe on
Christ. look to Him, live for Him, follow
Him, believe on Christ, and love one another. I pray God will bless that. Amen.