Kind of a humorous note. Tom was coming here last week
to preach, and I asked him to do both Bible study and the morning
message. And he said, would you like for
me to just pick up where you left off? I said, yes, I would.
And I told him what it was, and he said, I'll just pick a song. See, really that's a true man
because Paul spoke of men who desired to be teachers of the
law. The Lord is dealing with the
law here. Men who desire to be teachers
of the law. Anyone who would like to deal
with this doesn't. Here I do it. They don't understand
it. Evidently doesn't feel guilty.
That's all the law can do. is make you feel guilty. That's
what it's designed to be. Our Lord is magnifying His own
law. He's the one that wrote it. He's
the lawgiver. He's the one of whom Jacob prophesied
that would come from Judah, the lawgiver. And He is magnifying
His own law. He made it honorable. The Lord
kept every jot and tittle of the law. Not to show us how,
but to do it for us. But the Lord is showing every
sinner the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and He's doing it by
the law. That's what the law does. God,
who looks on the heart, says we are guilty of murder if we
are angry without a cause. God knows that were the opportunity
presented to us, we would kill somebody. without a cause, without
just cause, does it? He knows that. He knows us. God
says we are guilty of adultery just for looking and lusting
upon the opposite sex, does it? Now, who is not guilty? Go with
me to Romans 3. Guilt is a good thing. It's the
conscience working. It's the law of God written on
the heart. If there's no guilt, the conscience
has been seared. The conscience is not working. The law has been silenced in
a person's heart. Guilt is good, but only if it's
finally removed. You don't think the Lord is going
to deal with His disciples on the law and leave them there,
do you? Nah, He can. He came to save
sinners. And the first thing He does,
though, is to show us we're sinners. He got to do that, because He
didn't come to call the righteous. Now, the Lord raised up a man
like Paul, who was Saul of Tarsus. He was once a Pharisee, a doctor
of the law. He knew the law well. That is,
the letter of the law. And the Lord used Paul to write
more of God's Word than any other man. And Paul knew the law, at
least the letter of it, he thought. Look at Romans 3, verse 9. He had been dealing with the
Gentiles, the irreligious world. And then he was dealing with
the Jews in chapter 2 who were religious. Gentiles who didn't
care about God's law. They didn't care about it. Didn't
pay any attention to it. And the Jews who did, who thought
they kept that law. And thought they were holy men
because of that. And then Paul says in verse 9,
are we better than they, that is, we Jews, better than the
Gentiles? No, in no wise. We've before proved both Jews
and Gentiles are all under sin. That is, under the bondage of
it. Sinners. As it is written, there
is none righteous. No, not one. In verse 12, there
is none that doeth good. No, not one. And then down in
verse 19, look at that. He says, We know that what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law. That's every human being born
under God's law, under its demands, under its curse. Read on. It says to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. Someone says, well, I haven't
done that. I haven't committed adultery. I haven't killed anybody.
Yes, you have. Before God, you have. That's
what he said. Everybody is guilty. And it is really a blessing to
know that, the Holy Spirit. One old writer one time said
this. And I remember a man visiting here who was a preacher. who
was a preacher, not someone we know well, but I remember him
coming here, and I quoted this old Puritan, what he said, and
I remember the man's eyes going up like that. But there was an
old writer who said, he wrote a hymn is what it was, I think
it was Joseph Hart. He said, a sinner is a sacred
thing, the Holy Ghost hath made him so. Anyway, he looked up like, what
do you mean? Meaning, that if God makes a
person to know their guilt and their sin, the Holy Spirit shall
know that. It's a good thing. Because only
sinners fly to Christ. And this is the purpose of the
law. The law is a schoolmaster. To do what? To bring us to Christ. To show us exceeding sinfulness
of sin. Look at verse 19. Verse 20. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in His sight, for by the law is the
knowledge of sin. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. But now, oh, you've got to read
on, don't you? The righteousness of God without
the law, that is, without us keeping the law, is manifest.
It's made clear. It's witnessed by the law. And the prophet. The righteousness
of God which is by faith of, or faithfulness of, Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all, that is, imputed, charged to all. that
believe there's no difference, you're a gentile, doesn't matter,
black or white, young or old. What would lose that in? So to
preach God's law as our Lord is doing, it should be used lawfully. Paul said things like this, he
said, you have the desire to be under the law, don't you hear
it? You don't hear it. Paul said, I didn't hear it.
He said concerning one time in Philippians 3, he said, I was
alive without the law. Go to Romans 7, Romans 7, go
over there. He said, alive without the law
once, but when the commandment came, when the Lord showed me,
I died. It killed me. It slew me. He
said, I used to be blameless. That is, I thought I was. Paul
was an unmarried man. Paul was a eunuch. He had made himself so. And I'm
sure he was quite proud of that. I'm sure he was quite proud of that. But he said, I wouldn't have
known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. He
may have read the commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery.
And then you go down to the seventh commandment, I believe it is,
says, thou shalt not covet. And he said, hmm, exclude me. Read on. 7 of Romans 7, he said,
Is the law sin? God forbid. I had not known sin
by the law. I had not known lust, except
the law had said thou shalt not covet. Sin took occasion by the
commandment. Oh, it wrought in me all manner
of compulsions. In other words, when God showed
me my heart, then I realized I'm guilty of breaking every
single law. Verse 8, without the law, sin
was dead. See, that's all the law can do,
is make you feel guilty. Tell me, when you're riding along
in your car, and there's a police car behind you, how does that
make you feel? Just the other day, I was riding
along, and I was doing under the speaker. And my car was,
everything on it was up to date. It's not now. Stan will remind
me right away. My inspection stickers out. He
always reminds me. Everything was up to date. I
don't have a criminal record. I was in my car. I was doing
the speed limit. I was a law-abiding citizen.
But I still felt uneasy. You? You? Any of you? That's
all the law can do, if you understand it right. Look down in verse
12. The law is holy, the commandment
is holy, and it's just as good. But verse 13 says, but sin, sin,
that it might appear sin. Sin, verse 13, that it might
appear sin working death in me, that is, I'm a dead sinner, by
that which is good. That's the law. That sin by the
commandment might become exceeding sinful. See, only if we know
what wretched, in the eyes of God, what wretched, vile, we
say this all the time, don't we? It's not just doctrine. Only
sinners need Christ. And what it took to put away
our sin was Christ dying a horrible death on Calvary. You don't know
what God thinks about sin until you see Christ dying on the cross.
No amount of us turning over a new leaf or trying to be good
boys and girls. God said, well, that's okay.
No, He had to put His Son on the cross. Sin has to be paid
for. Hell is a real thing. Our Lord
spoke about it more than anyone. Men and women don't understand
that. But God gives His people some understanding of that. The
exceeding sinfulness of sin, and what God thinks about it,
and what God's going to do about it, and what it takes to put
it away. That's what He said, that law makes me see the exceeding
sinfulness of my sin. In verse 14, He said, look at
this, Romans 7, we know the law is spiritual. That means God
looks on the heart. We can keep it outwardly or think
we have, we're still guilty. And then Paul says, the law is
spiritual, but I'm flesh. I'm carnal. That's what carnal
means. I'm flesh. I am sold unto sin." And he went
on, and you who are sinners love Romans 7, don't you? You love
it because he says, the things that I would, I don't do. The
things that I don't, that's what I do. I find in my entirety,
a law warrior in my memory bringing me into captivity. Oh, wretched
man that I am! Who shall deliver me? Oh! You need a deliverer, don't you?
You can't do it. Thought you were blameless, Paul.
Oh, I'm to blame. I'm to be blamed for it all.
I'm guilty as charged. There is therefore now no conscience.
So he wrote Romans 8. There is therefore now, right
now, to that repentant sinner. Like that old writer says, as
soon as the guilt is acknowledged, it's removed. The payment is
removed. There is therefore no condemnation
of them that have cried." Turn to John 8. John chapter 8. We
cannot talk about this thing of adultery without bringing
up this story. Oh my. John chapter 8. You see, by the laws of knowledge
of sin, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, our Lord is magnifying
the law. That's what He's doing here. He's not condoning He's not leaving
us in sin. He's not excusing it. He's showing
us we're here. All of us. But He came to put
away that sin. And our Lord said things like
this. He said, out of the heart are
the issues of life. Didn't He? He said, out of the
heart proceed evil thoughts such as adultery and so on and so
forth. out of the heart. So this is
what he's dealing with. And the law, if preached rightly,
if heard rightly, will only make us feel guilty. That's why Brother
Tom didn't want to deal with it. He feels guilty. He doesn't
want to deal with something that you're guilty of, but it must
be dealt with. It must be. And if used rightly,
if the law is preached rightly, Paul told young Timothy, a preacher,
the law is good if it's used lawfully. If it's preached rightly,
it will make people run to Jesus Christ. Like Paul said, I want
to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is
of the law. I don't want to be judged in
that day on what I did. I want to be judged on what He
did. I want to be found in Him. Might have been my own rights.
I said, I had that one. I was like my brother in ignorance.
Oh my, it's filthy rights. Won't stand up. And you know, the Lord is speaking
to His disciples who were faced with these Pharisees and these
scribes, as we are, legal, law-keeping fellows. And he constantly warned
his disciples about this fellow. John 8, he's dealing with them,
and look at this story. The Lord went to the Mount of
Olives early in the morning, sat down. Scribes and Pharisees,
verse 3, brought up a woman in, taken in a belt. They set her
in the midst. Now, if I'm not careful, I'd
love to dwell here. Who brought this woman? Those Pharisees, his law keepers.
Oh, no, he's the Lord. All that the Father giveth, shall
come. 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. And it does say that. I can't
tell you how many things the law says you should be killed
for. Many. What sayest thou?" they said.
They came to the lawgiver himself, the only one that could reverse
the charges. Of this they said, tempting him
that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stood down and
with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them
not. I love that. He appeared to ignore them. The Lord doesn't answer all the
arguments of men. He doesn't have to. And when
they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto
them, Oh, what wisdom came out of his mouth, and what a sword. He said, He that is without sin
among you, let him first catch the stone at her. And he stooped
down, stooped down to that center, and began to write on the ground
again. It says, They which heard being
convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning
at the eldest. The Lord was writing on the ground.
What was he writing? We don't know, do we? Maybe he
was writing laws that they weren't aware of. They thought they'd
kept them, but laws they weren't aware of, and it struck them. Maybe he was writing names and
dates that only the guilty party knew. That they didn't think
anyone else knew, but the Lord did. Thou, Lord, seest me. And
he's writing names and dates and places and times. And it says, beginning at the
oldest. You know, the oldest sinner ought
to be the guiltiest. The oldest sinner ought to feel
the guiltiest. And if feeling the guiltiest,
the oldest ought to be the most forgiving. Shouldn't it? The oldest one ought to be the
most merciful. The oldest one ought to be the most humble.
Look how long I've lived in sin and guilt and the Lord's forgiven
me. The oldest ought to be an advocate
for the guilty. The oldest one should have said,
don't hold her guilty. We're all guilty. Shouldn't it? Oh, but I love this. It said,
verse 9, that they all went out from the oldest to the last,
and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst.
Standing. Psalm 130, one of my favorite
psalms, says, If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who
shall stand? All those Pharisees were standing
around, pointing their finger at her. The Lord was stooped
down. to that center of his feet, and
the Lord began to mark iniquities, and they all ran. And when it
was all over, there was one left standing. She was standing in him. Standing
in him. The only one left standing, because
the Lord blotted out her sin. But now wait. Stop. Look what
he says to her. And John 8, look what he says
to her. Woman, he lifted up his eyes, saw none, but the woman
said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no
man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. Who is
he that condemned her? Christ died. No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither
do I condemn thee. Sweeter words could never be
heard by sin. There is therefore now what he
said. Go and sin no more. Don't do it again. Didn't. Don't do it again. Did she sin
again? Of course, she's a sinner. But did she go back and live
in that particular lifestyle? No. Like the woman at the well. I know she went home and told
that fella, pack your bags. Either marry me or pack your
bags. Can't let her. As I said, the Lord is not condoning
or excusing or allowing any sin. He hates it. And the consequences of it are
terrible. The pain, the suffering that
it causes can be great. And if unrepented of and unforgiven
and continued in will lead to death and hell. That's how bad it is. Our Lord
said to her, go and sin no more. And I quoted to you Psalm 130. There is forgiveness with thee.
If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who shall stand?
But there is forgiveness with thee. All manner of sin shall
be forgiven me, but that thou mayest be feared. That's the
reason that article is such a good one in our bulletin. Fear. The Lord puts His fear
in them, makes a man afraid of sin, the consequences of it. Makes a man afraid to look anywhere
but Christ, because He is a sinner. Makes a man fear departing from
the Lord. And we will, if He doesn't hold
us up. That thou mayest be feared. And
the Lord tells this woman, and He tells us, do you see what
you've brought on yourself? Do you see what you've brought
on your family? Do you see what this has done? Do you see what
could have happened to you? Do you see what could have happened
had not I done something, had not I interviewed you? Right
now, you'd have been stuck in there. And it's your fault. So the Lord doesn't pass over
sin by you. The Lord doesn't condone it or
excuse it. And He'll make us feel the guilt of it, but He
doesn't leave us. Now look at verse 29 and 30.
He says, "...if thy right eye..." and I've got to try to deal with
all of this. "...if thy right eye offend thee,
pluck it out and cast it from thee." It's profitable that He's
talking about unchaste looks. To look with lust, if your eye
offend thee, or unchaste touches, if your right hand offend thee,
cut it off, cast it from thee. It is profitable for thee that
one of thy members should perish, not that your whole body be cast
into hell. Now, these verses have been terribly
misunderstood by many. Those that don't know the gospel
will do that with all of God's work. And there have been actual instances
of people in the past, actually. That's horrible. You think the
Lord is telling us to maim our bodies? No. Not at all. There have been actual instances
of that happening. What he's saying is, and this
is the best I can do with this, and the best that I could find
from any writers. James said that, here's what
James said, that every man is tempted when he's drawn away
of his own lust. It's within us all. The propensity
to do anything is there. Anything. And it ain't over yet. So, he said, every man is tempted
when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed, and then when
lusts have conceived, it brings forth sin, the actual committal.
And sin, when it's finished, brings forth death. That's how
serious it is. And our Lord said, it's better...
Alright, here's what He said. Sin is so terrible, the end result
of it. It's left unrepented of and unforgiven
and unchecked. Sin is so terrible, if the only
way to get rid of it was to cut your hand off and pluck your
eye out, you better do it. It's such a terrible thing that
if it took drastic means to get rid of it, if that's the only
way you could get rid of it, you better do it. That's what
the Lord said. But here's the thing. The Lord's
not telling us that, because if you cut off your right hand,
you've still got a left, don't you? If you pluck out your right
eye, you've still got a left eye. Besides, sin's in the heart. There's some cattle, horse
people, people with dogs, you know. Maybe it's too graphic. You take a stallion or a male
dog, and if he's left that way for very long, and then you castrate
it, neuter it, okay? It hasn't left the system. No,
he's still going to act that way. Right, Kelly? Right, Mac? Oh, yeah. Those propensities
are there. They're still there. That won't take care of the problem.
Because it's in here. It's in here. The Lord's not
saying that you can do anything with your body and be done with
sin. He's not saying that. But He's
saying that, thank God, that's not the way sin is put away or
mortified. Now, He's talking about mortifying
our members. Alright? How is sin mortified in our members? This body of death. How is it
mortified in our memories, huh? Cutting a hand off? No. Two ways,
alright? Number one, is to look to Christ
and Him crucified. Only by seeing what Christ went
through because of that sin. It will make you say, Why would
I do that when they put my Lord on the cross? He didn't commit,
I did, and He's paying for it. Oh, why would I? Oh, how could
I sin against goodness like that? Love like that? Mercy like that?
And then Paul wrote this, if you through the Spirit mortify
your members, through the Spirit, It is therefore now no condemnation
of them that are in Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit." That is, follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
If you, through the Spirit, do mortify the members, how's that? Well, He's given us means. He's
given us prayer. Prayer. We can't do anything.
We can't do anything. We can't put away, we can't resist
one temptation. But He's given us, He said, I'm
a very present help in time of trouble, which is when? Every
day! Help! He says, begin each day
this way. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one. For it's your kingdom, and I'm
yours. Lord, help me. That's the only way to mortify
the man. Only one. Only one. Holy Spirit. Watch
and pray, he said, that you enter not into temptation. That's how. Alright, look at the next one.
Maybe you were hoping I wouldn't get to this. I don't want to
deal with any of this. But we must. Verse 31. It hath
been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her
a writing of divorcement. I say unto you that whosoever
shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication,
causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her
that is divorced, committeth adultery." Divorce only because
of continued unfaithfulness is unlawful, and if a person marries
again, or marries that one divorced, they are guilty. Guilty of adultery. Now, as we read in Romans 7,
Scripture says, God's law is holy, it's just, it's good. Our Lord dealt with them. Divorced.
And he said, Moses, because of the hardness of your heart, gave
you that life. But God didn't allow it. He said,
what God has joined a son together, let no man put a son. God didn't
allow it. He said, because of the hardness
of your heart. Back then, men were so cruel, and even now,
but back then especially, were so cruel to women to keep them
from being utterly, utterly abused. He allowed divorce. That's what
the Lord said, because of the hardness of your heart. But the
Lord said, it's not so. It should not be so. And society, look around us.
You see what society, because men have rejected God's law,
because they have no concern whatsoever about what God said.
The law, their consciences are seared. Who cares? Marriage means
nothing, doesn't it? Divorce is rampant. And adultery
and fornication is the rule. It's not the exception. It's
the rule. And nobody feels Too bad they're bad. You see how the law is good?
It is good. The Lord wrote it. God's people are convicted by
it. But you say, but I'm guilty. And one time I counted them here
and there's quite a few divorced people. Well, what about the
guilty? Well, we've already said that. There is forgiveness within.
All manner of sin shall be forgiven. David, aren't you thankful that
the Lord puts in His Word nearly every sin that could be committed? Wrote the story of His people
committing those sins. To their embarrassment, to their
shame, to their guilt, yet to our comfort. David was guilty
of first adultery. He sat on his roof, looked with
lust. He said, go get her. Lust conceived. Brought forth
sin. Then he committed murder. Both. How bad can it be? How bad can it be? And a man had to come to him,
a prophet, Nathan, had to come to him, because they could live
nine or ten months or more not giving a thought, trying to cover
it up. And a prophet came to him and told that story, remember? of a man who did something bad,
and David in self-righteousness said, that fellow needs to pay.
And the prophet said, Thou art the man. And if we'll hear the
law right, if we'll hear God's Word right, every person in here
will hear the Word of God say to us, point its finger at our
hearts and say, Thou art the man. And then you'll cling to Psalm
51. And then you'll be so thankful
for Psalm 38, Psalm 51, Psalm 32. It says, Blessed is the man
whom thou imputest not, charges not sin, whose sins are covered. Because Nathan said to David,
thou art the man, he's... They sinned against God, against
Him and Him only. And here's the first thing out
of Nathan's mouth after that. God's put away your sin. But boy, his sin sure caused
him grief, didn't it? And a lot of people. A lot of
people. According to the purpose of God,
they worked together for his good and God's glory, didn't
it? There is forgiveness. Go and sin no more. I'm guilty. You're guilty. We're all guilty,
aren't we? Oh, thank God for the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But don't. John wrote this, John. John said, little children, these
things I write unto you that you sin not. Don't do them. The consequences are terrible. And it can amend sin, no matter
what it is. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ our God. Good news for sinners.