Now you might remember that last
week I was trying to define as clearly as possible, what is
the gospel? Because I'd heard a sermon preached
locally attempting to define that and I felt making a complete
mess of it, completely missing the point. And I thought, well
it needs to be stated clearly, what is the gospel? And I used
the text 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9. which tells us that God has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
own works, but according to his purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Profound, profound. What I want to do this week is
show you an example of someone who God saved. by his purpose
and grace in Christ Jesus, saved and called with a holy calling.
It's a good example. The scripture is full of it.
We could have chosen Old Testament examples, but I've chosen a New
Testament example. And the New Testament example
I've chosen was again prompted by preaching or teaching from
the same person, which stated that the passage of scripture
that I want you to turn to, which is John chapter 8 and the first
11 verses, He stated, teaching his people, that this is not
really in the scripture, that this isn't inspired by the Holy
Spirit, that these are just the words of men that have been added
later. And the reason for that is, he said, if you look at all
of the earliest and, I quote, most reliable translations or
texts from which the scriptures are translated, in all the oldest
and most reliable ones, this passage doesn't occur. that's
using the wisdom of the scholars and the theologians of this world's
religion and not the truth of God. There's a thing which is
called the textus receptus, the received text. Those texts which
are archaeologically the oldest doesn't necessarily mean that
they're scripturally correct. You could imagine scribes copying
And there were some copies where bits just got missed out. And
they just threw them to one side. And archaeologically they happened
to have been found and been preserved. But the ones that were in regular
use, and wearing out through use, what do you do with your
clothes when they wear out? Do you archaeologically preserve
them? No, you get rid of them, don't you? And buy new ones,
because they've worn out. And so the Textus Receptus, the real
scriptural reliable text, was the one that was in use. So oldest
that we have doesn't necessarily mean most accurate. I'm telling
you, this passage is inspired scripture, whatever anybody else
might tell you. Isn't it a sign of the times
we're living in? That men who are supposed to
be claiming to speak in the name of God, the gospel of his grace,
are so easy to listen to and to follow what mere worldly religious
so-called scholars tell them, and just swallow it hook, line,
and sinker without questioning. This is why we use the King James
Version of the Scriptures. I know it's old-fashioned language,
I know it would be good if we could have it in a more modern
version, which is more the vernacular of the day, but you can't rely
on them, none of them, you cannot rely on them. There are scriptural,
there are errors, because the motives of the people that do
those so-called translations are not anywhere near the caliber
of the men that did this translation in the 1600s. They're nowhere
near, they're not in the same league. These men knew the gospel
of grace and they translated the scriptures accordingly. So
let's have a look at this. This is scripture, this is the
truth, and it's an example of how God saves and calls with
a holy calling. This is an example of God saving
one that we, in our natural state, in our natural prejudices, would
judge unworthy. She's an immoral woman. She's
been caught in a totally compromised position. She's, as they say,
caught in the very act, you know, absolutely red-handed as they
say, you know, guilty, no question about it, the witnesses are there,
they've seen, there she is, she's caught in the act of adultery.
She's She's committing fornication with a man who is not her husband. She's committing adultery, and
they've caught her. And we would line up with them in our natural
flesh and say, she's unworthy of salvation. Doesn't God say,
God saves the nice people, doesn't he? You know, the ones that we
judge to be nice and respectable and with a good background. and
from the right circles. They've been to the right schools
and they've got the right social... They're the ones that God ought
to save. He ought not to save nasty people. We don't want him
saving immoral women like this one. What's he think he's doing?
If we'd been there, we'd be saying, no, no, you've got this right.
Look, look, look, she's a sinner. She's a sinner. Look at her.
She's not worthy of salvation. Don't we realize that all are
unworthy in themselves, all. The scripture says there is none
righteous. God look down from heaven, there
is none righteous. Oh well we're not too bad. No,
not one, not one. None righteous, no not one. And
here is God, our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is God in human flesh. Here is God who became man. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem those who are under the law. And here he is,
growing as a man in human flesh, yet without sin, tempted in all
points as we are, yet without sin. Here he is, the one. You
know, You know, people, they talk about
the God myth. Dawkins talks about the God myth.
The modern way of thinking is that, of course, anything to
do with God is just a myth that we've finally thrown off. Oh,
let's have a great rejoice and celebration that we no longer
are dominated by these silly, superstitious, medieval thoughts
of anyone called God. And yet their God is the force
of the laws of science and the laws of the universe and the
processes of evolution. But they don't realize the force
that they say caused all of that, the Big Bang. is not inanimate,
is not impersonal, but is God who declares himself in the Scriptures.
And God who declares himself in the Scriptures is holy and
cannot abide sin. And God who is holy by his very
nature doesn't punish sin and exact retribution out of sheer
vindictiveness. He does it because that's his
nature. And if you don't like it, tough. This is the universe
we live in. This is the God with whom we
have to do. The one who is holy and cannot abide sin. And all
sin must have his condemnation. And the Holy Spirit brings his
people to know that they're a sinner. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. And here's a woman who is a prime
example of a sinner. What is sin? Sin is transgression
of the law. There was a law, the seventh
commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery. And here's a woman
caught in the very act, there she is, in the frame, completely
guilty. No question about witnesses,
two or three, oh, they had plenty of witnesses. No question about,
was she saying anything to excuse herself? No, she knew, caught
red-handed, absolutely. Plum guilty. And here is God
in human flesh. Look at verse 11. This is my
text. Look at verse 11. Jesus said to her, where are
those that accuse you? Does no one accuse you? And she
said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said to her, This is
my text. Neither do I condemn thee. Go
and sin no more. Neither do I... Here is God,
in flesh, telling a sinful woman that he doesn't condemn her.
Did you hear that? Here is God, who by nature must
punish sin. If he stops punishing sin, if
he stops exacting a penalty for sin, he ceases to be God. Cannot
be. It cannot be. He cannot be. And yet here is God in human
flesh, telling a sinful woman, deserving of condemnation, that
he doesn't condemn her. How can he do that? You say,
oh well he's God, he can do anything. You see, when Jesus said to some
of the people he healed, go on your way, son, your sins are
forgiven you, and they said, he's speaking blasphemies. Only
God can forgive sins. But do you know, not even God
can forgive sins in the sense that they meant it. Not even
God can. God cannot forgive sin without
doing violence to his justice. hear me? God cannot forgive sin
without doing violence to his justice unless somebody else
satisfies that justice. Unless somebody else pays the
penalty of that justice to make people right with God. So it's
the question, how should a man be just with God? by God just
saying, oh, it doesn't matter, doesn't matter, we'll condone
that, you can go, don't worry, the law's not as strong as it
used to be, we're not as vicious and strict as we used to be,
you can go, yeah, it's alright, I'll let you off. That's what
people think that God does. He doesn't. He cannot. This is
what he does, he justifies in the person of his son. He satisfies
his strict law in the person of his son. It's only by the
salvation that God himself has accomplished in his son that
Jesus the man is able to say to this sinful woman, neither
do I condemn you, neither do I condemn you. You stand there
condemned, but I don't condemn you. And that's what salvation
is all about. That's what the Bible means when
it talks about salvation. Let me give you some of the background
of this account. I know it's reasonably familiar,
but it was the eighth day of the feast of tabernacles. It
was that last day, verse 37 of chapter 7. The last day, the
great day of the feast. And the feast of tabernacles
was the feast of tents, the feast of booths, where they made little
tents in Jerusalem. And what they were doing was
remembering the wilderness wanderings from Egypt. The 40 years when
they wandered in the wilderness, and they lived in tents and booths. And this was one of the feasts
that all of the males of Israel had to try to go up to Jerusalem
to attend. And here it was, the Feast of
the Tabernacles. The brothers of Jesus, the other sons of Mary,
his mother, and Joseph, the earthly father, they went up to Jerusalem
to the feast because it was what was required. And he'd gone up
there and then he's teaching in the temple. And the Pharisees
are disputing intensely about him. And more and more troubled
by him. That he's upsetting their cozy
arrangement. And he's got to be got rid of.
And, you know, there's all sorts of disputes. There's the dispute
with Nicodemus. Nicodemus was the one who came
to Jesus by night in John chapter 3 and was trying to find out
the truth. You know, there's a lot of evidence
that Nicodemus was actually among the saved of the Lord. You see
him, he was involved with the burial of Jesus with Joseph of
Arimathea. And he's disputing with them
saying, does our law condemn somebody before we've heard what
he says when they're all wanting to go out and get him and kill
him? And at the end of their disputes they all went, verse
53 of chapter 7, every man went to his own house. They couldn't
agree so off they went in different ways. But I imagine on that last
day of the feast, on that last night of the feast, there would
be a party atmosphere. You know when we had the Olympics
in London two years ago? And it was, what, two and a half
weeks of sporting, wasn't it? And then come the last night,
oh, there's a great party atmosphere, isn't there? You know, there's
great celebrations going on and everybody's pushing the boat.
Can you imagine, like this year, it wasn't us, it was Germany. Marguerite will remember. It
was Germany that won the World Cup again this year, and England
didn't. But can you imagine if England
had won the World Cup, what a party atmosphere there would have been
in this country, in the streets. Well, feast of tabernacles, last
day, party atmosphere, there were these booths, these tents,
there would be revelry going on, no doubt there would be all
sorts of excess. They were people, they weren't
2,000, you know, years ago, ancient people who were not like, they
were just like us. just like us. You know, you think what
people would do now, they'd be just like us, and they would
be having their parties, and they'd be drinking, and they'd
be in the tents, and no doubt there was opportunity for immorality.
And this woman committed adultery in one of those tents, and who
knows, maybe the Pharisees staged the whole event, and set her
up, and tricked her. Perhaps one of their number,
they said, oh it'll be alright, we'll let you off, we'll exonerate
you according to the law, but you need to go and entrap this
woman so that we've got some means of tricking this man, Jesus
of Nazareth. You know, we don't read anything
of the man. You know the saying, it takes
two to tango. Well, it took two to commit adultery.
Where was the man? He was never brought, was he?
Perhaps he was one of the number of the group of Pharisees and
he'd been used as the decoy to trick and entice and seduce. The evil intentions of men are
used by God to accomplish his purposes. As Peter said to the
crowd on the day of Pentecost, He said, you took the Lord of
glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you, by wicked hands, you
laid hold of him, and with evil injustice, you crucified the
one who was innocent. But God intended it for eternal
good for his people. It was all according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. So Jesus comes and he's
teaching in the temple. And there in verse two, early
in the morning he came again to the temple and all the people
came to him and he sat down and he taught them. What did he teach
them? You ask religion in this country,
around the world, Christian religion so-called, what would Jesus have
been teaching them? You listen to the sermons, the
excuses for sermons you get on the radio for service broadcast
on a Sunday morning if you ever listen to it. and you get nothing
of the truth. You get nothing. You just get
moral platitudes, homilies. You don't get the gospel. Jesus
taught them the gospel. What was the gospel? The gospel
of substitutionary atonement. The gospel of redemption, which
purchases propitiation, the turning away of anger, the satisfaction
of the law, that those who are sinners in the slave market condemned
might go free because redemption's price has been paid. You could
go to a slave market and out of pure compassion and grace
if you had the money you could by your sovereign choice pick
out a slave and go I will pay redemption's price for that person
and you could free them. What do you want me to do? Nothing.
You go free. Go free. I've freed you. I've paid redemption.
And this is what Jesus Christ did. This is the gospel. It's
not a gospel of social justice. People talk about we must have
justice. They don't know what they're
talking about. If they're crying out for justice before the law
of God, the only thing the scripture says is that they will get justice
one day. They will get justice. It's appointed
to man to die once and then the judgment. And then God will exact
justice. He wasn't talking about political
reform and how to overthrow the Romans and how to put a good
government in place. And as much as we should get
interested and involved in the politics of our nation, we shouldn't
let it overcome us. And so he wasn't talking about
political reform. He was talking about this, what
it says in John 5, 39, you search the scriptures because you think
that in them you have eternal life. That's right, you do. They
are they, the Scriptures are they that speak of me. The purpose
of the Scriptures is to speak of God justifying the people
of His choice in the person of His Son. It's talking about God
remaining just, absolutely perfectly, truly, holy and just in every
respect, hating sin and in no way clearing the guilty, and
yet at the same time Justifying his people by virtue of what
he did in his son what he did to his son and while he's teaching
them There's an interruption Look in verse 3 the scribes and
the Pharisees brought unto him a woman Taken in adultery and
they put her in the mitching imagine this thrown into the
midst He's teaching a crowd of people and they come along with
this woman They throw her into the midst right in front and
they say look I this woman was taken in adultery in the very
act we caught her we caught her Moses said that we should stone
her to death and that's absolutely right Leviticus 20 verse 10 if
you look it up it says quite clearly that adultery is under
the mosaic dispensation adultery was a crime that was punishable
by death and they say that's awfully harsh it was a picture
It was, marriage was a picture. You know, in Ephesians 5, when
he talks about marriage, husbands love your wives, wives obey your
husbands in all things, da-da-da-da. When he talks, he says, I'm not
really talking about marriage, I'm talking about Christ and
his church. Christ and his church. The sin
of adultery is such a violation of that which is the picture
of how Christ is with his church, this is why there's such a severe
penalty under the Mosaic law for it. And so it was absolutely
true. But why do they come to him?
Because they want justice to be done under the law of Moses?
No, because they want to entrap the Lord Jesus Christ. They want
to trap him. They want to put him in a position
where he has a choice. If he says, let her go, they
could say, well look, you're no teacher, you're flouting the
law of Moses. The law of Moses, Leviticus 20
verse 10 says, she should be stoned. And if he says, stone
her to death, they can say, what about all the Old Testament?
If you are the Messiah, when Messiah comes, he's going to
be gracious, he's going to be forgiving, he's going to be compassionate,
he's going to comfort the people. You see, they thought they put
him in a place he couldn't get out of, like a game of chess.
You know, if any of you play chess and you get to that point
where you know that you've got the winning position. Because
your opponent, if he goes that way, you've got him in check.
And if he goes that way, you've got him. And so, you've got the
winning. They must have thought that they
were in that position. They've given him a situation, and they
want a response, and they think, ha ha! He can only respond two
ways, and whichever way he goes, we've got him. We can tell him
he's either flouting the law, or he's not a compassionate Messiah.
He knew their hearts. He knew their evil intentions.
He also knew this woman. Didn't he? Do you think it was
a surprise to our Lord Jesus Christ? when this woman was thrown
into the midst of them. That's the reason he was there,
teaching in the temple that morning. He knew what they would do. He
knew that she would be brought. Why? Because he knew this woman. When did he get introduced to
this woman? In eternity. Romans 8, 29. Whom he foreknew. He knew her
in electing grace before the beginning of time. What does
the text say that we looked at last week? God has saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but
according to His purpose and grace. When did He give us that?
Which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That's
when? In eternity. out of sovereign
grace? I don't like sovereign grace,
it's not fair." That's your problem. The scriptures declare it. And
the God of grace is a God of grace. The God of grace says,
I will be gracious to whom I will. Moses asked God, show me your
glory. Show me the true essence of who
you are. And do you know what God replied
to him? This is the true essence, I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. So therefore it is not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who shows
mercy. He gave them power to become
the sons of God who were born, not of the flesh, nor of blood,
nor of human connections, nor of this will, nor of that will,
but of the will of God. That's why they were born. That's
how they were born. He knew this woman. And in verse
11, he tells this woman that he doesn't condemn her. This,
our Lord Jesus Christ tells this woman he doesn't condemn her.
What is he saying? Is he saying like we would say,
or the world today would say, that he condones her adultery
and every other sin? Isn't that what, you know, the
modern thing is, oh we're all as bad as one another so let's
not be harsh and cruel to one another, and condones it? No, rather, that he has no cause
to condemn her. That's what he's saying to her,
neither do I condemn you because I've got no cause to condemn
you. Why has he got no cause to condemn her? Why? When the
law is clear, and the sin was clear, and the witnesses were
clear, why has he got no cause to condemn her? Because in eternal
reckoning he himself had removed the cause of her condemnation. You know what the scripture in
Revelation 13, 8 calls our Lord Jesus Christ? The lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. The lamb slain for his sheep
before the foundation of the world. He had to come in time
as a man to do it in flesh, but in the reckoning of God in the
in the realm of eternity it was done from the foundation of the
world she was one of the sheep the father had given the son
before the beginning of time which he gave us in Christ Jesus
before the world began chosen in him before the foundation
of the world it couldn't be clearer could it here in this woman this
woman that we would condemn we wouldn't want anything to do
with her we wouldn't want her as one of our neighbors we wouldn't
want our children associating with her and her kids no no Here
was one of those of whom he must lose none. This is the will of
my father. He says, no man can come to me
unless my father draw him. But whosoever comes, I will in
no wise cast out. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that of all that he has given me in eternity past,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day in
glory. Here was one, here was one. saved. Here is an example of
salvation. Here was one of whom the Old
Testament says she was blessed. Psalm 65 verse 4, blessed is
the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee,
that he may dwell in thy courts. we shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." She was one
of those blessed of the Lord, blessed to be chosen and called. She was undoubtedly guilty of
adultery, and the law was clear. You notice it doesn't say that
she said anything until Jesus spoke to her. She stood silent. Isn't that what the law does
in condemning sinners? It says in Romans 3.19, Whatsoever
things the law says, it says to those who are under the law.
Why? That every mouth may be stopped. You know, here's the
accusation of the law. What have you got to say for
yourself? Nothing. Nothing. No excuse. I was reminded
of a story I told you some time ago that I heard of an old slave
ship where all the slaves are rowing and the prince has the
authority from time to time to go and set one of the slaves
free. And so he goes and he goes round
the ship and he talks to each one of them and they all say,
this is most unjust that I'm here. I haven't done anything
like they say and this is a terrible wicked thing and you really ought
to let me go. Every one of them apart from one man And he said
to him, what about you? Why are you here? He said, I
fully deserve to be here. I know what I am. I'm guilty
of my crimes. I'm guilty of... I'm getting
exactly what I deserved. I did those things. And the prince
said to him, do you know something? He said, I think it's awfully
unjust. He said, I can only let one person
go. And he said, all of these good people here who shouldn't
really be here, I can't let them all go, I can only let one go.
So he said, just so that they don't have to put up with somebody
as bad as you, I'm going to let you go. So he let go the man
who knew he was a sinner. Isn't that a lovely picture?
of what God does in saving sinners. She stood silent, every mouth
stopped, convicted, repentant. She knew she was deserving of
death. For as the scripture says, Romans
3 24, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All
his people who he chose in Christ before the foundation of the
world have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Of course,
we saw there was no mention of the man that was involved in
this. the Pharisees with all of their
scheming, they couldn't do what they really wanted to do, which
was to have this woman stoned to death. They couldn't do it
because they were under Roman law and the Romans wouldn't let
them. That's why Jesus was crucified, a Roman death, rather than the
death of stoning. And with the Pharisees, as opposed
to this woman who stood there silent, we have self-righteousness
on display. You know, God hates all sin,
and all sin must be punished. But above all sin, He hates self-righteousness. God hates self-righteousness. What did he say in Mark 2, 17
and various other places? He didn't come to call the righteous,
by which he meant the self-righteous. He didn't come to call the righteous,
but sinners, to repentance. It's not the well that go to
the doctor, it's those that are sick. He didn't come to call
those that think they're well. Here we have with the Pharisees
self-righteousness. Beware of legalistic religions. Self-righteousness. There's no
more damning condition. It's said at least twice in the
scripture, especially Matthew 7 in the Sermon on the Mount.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we do all
these things for you in your name? And he will say, depart
from me. I never knew you. How will he
save? this guilty woman. How will he
save her from her sins? Not just from this situation,
but from judgment, just condemnation. He must remain just as God, but
at the same time, he must silence the law which is crying out for
her condemnation. He must satisfy justice so that
everything is balanced and happy and contented. He must satisfy
justice which is offended But at the same time if he's to save
her he must declare her justified. Romans 3.24, being justified
freely by his grace. How? Through the redemption.
the payment of a purchase price that is in Christ Jesus, who
has paid the purchase price of the guilt of the sin with his
own precious blood. So that, verse 26 of the same
chapter, he can be just as God. He remains absolutely strictly. Every sin ever committed receives
the just penalty of the law of God, of the character of God.
Every one. But you either bear it yourself
in a lost eternity, or you look to Christ who has borne it for
you in his own body on the cross. Just and justifier. It says that
as they put him in this dilemma tempting him, verse 6, but Jesus
stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground, and it says
in italics helping the understanding, as though he heard them not.
You know, how are you going to answer? He just stoops down and
he writes with his finger in the dust of the ground. What
did he write? What did he write? Perhaps, we
don't know, he doesn't say, but we can speculate, perhaps he
wrote some of the commandments. You know it says in Exodus 20
that God wrote the commandments with the finger of God on the
tablets of stone on Mount Sinai. It says God wrote them with his
own finger. And here is God in human flesh
with his finger, the finger of the man. Maybe it was the commandments
that he was writing there. And the commandments there as
the Pharisees saw it, you know, perhaps they were like that rich
young ruler who thought he kept all of them. But somehow it convicted
them. I don't know, maybe that. Perhaps
he who knows all things wrote the name of the adulterous man
that was involved. And it became clear that he knew
that it was one of their number that had entrapped her. And one
of their number was just as guilty before that same law, and just
as worthy of the death of stoning, because he wrote the name of
the guy. Perhaps one of their number. Maybe, you know, I know
it's speculation, but it's reasonable speculation. And he revealed
their scheming hypocrisy. Perhaps, and I like this one
the best, perhaps what he wrote was the essence of the gospel.
Perhaps what he wrote was reminding them that all of their Old Testament
sacrifices, and worship patterns, and the lambs, and the bulls,
and the goats, and the blood, and all of that, what was it
speaking of? It was speaking of an acceptable sacrifice in
the place of sinners. That they all gathered there
knowing they were sinners, and there were two goats, and one
was killed, and its blood shed as the redemption price, and
the other one, the priest laid his hands on the head of the
scapegoat. and chased it away. Where have my sins gone? Why
do I not stand condemned? Why does God look for the sins
of Israel and Judah and Phinon? Because the scapegoat has taken
them away into the wilderness of his forgetfulness. I wonder
if it was something like that that he wrote. I don't know what.
He wrote maybe the essence of the gospel. The typical substitutes
of the temple worship that they were all into, pointing to the
Messiah. He would bear others' punishment
so that they could go free. And seeing this, they all left,
from the oldest to the youngest, one by one. Were there any Pharisees
left to condemn her? Were there any left? No, not
one. Look, it says, when they heard
it, verse 9, being convicted by their own conscience, they
went out one by one, beginning at the oldest, even to the last.
And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
Romans 8, 33 and 34. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? He says to the woman, woman,
where are those that condemn you? Where are those that bring
charges against you? They've all gone. As the scripture
says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's Christ, it's God that justifies. Who is He that condemns? Who
is He that brings a just condemnation? It is Christ that died. Yea,
rather See, it wasn't just that he died, he's risen again, proving
that the death that he died paid the penalty for the sins that
he was paying redemption's price for. He's risen again, who is
even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. Nobody was able to bring a charge
or condemn, nobody. And Satan isn't able to bring
a charge or condemnation against the people of God, the elect
of God, for whom Christ has lived and died and poured out his lifeblood,
bearing their sins in his own body on the tree. He being made
sin for us that we might be made, his people might be made the
righteousness of God and therefore justified in him. Romans 8, 1-4,
there is therefore now No condemnation, neither do I condemn thee. 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 hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. What He has done, and the Spirit
He has given me, He's satisfied justice. He's made me free from
the law of sin and death, which would condemn me. For what the
law could not do, obey this and you shall live, that's what the
law says. Do this and live, but we couldn't do it. Why not? Because
it was weak through the flesh. The flesh wasn't strong enough.
God has done. The law couldn't do it. Works
religion couldn't do it, but God has done. Sending his own
son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin He condemned
that sin of his people in the flesh by being made sin for his
people. That the righteousness of the
law, the righteous requirement of the law, do we make the law
void through faith, asks Paul in chapter 3 of Romans? God forbid. Yea, rather, we establish the
law by faith. The righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit. Christ has removed the condemnation
for his people. So, he says, neither do I condemn
you. Go and sin no more." And what
he means by that is not live a life of sinless perfection
because we know in the flesh if we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. What he means is
In the new man of the Spirit of God, sin shall not have dominion
over you. You're saved from its dominance,
saved to the uttermost. So where does that leave you?
There's a woman, an example of one An example of one whom God
has saved and called with a holy calling. Not according to her
works. She was utterly disqualified
according to her works. Saved and called, not according
to her works, but according to his purpose and grace which he
gave her in Christ Jesus before the world began. Where does it
leave you? Guilty before God's person and
justice? Condemned? Yes, justly so. Every mouth stopped? Knowing
that when I die, I go from this realm into eternity, and then
comes the judgment, when everything that I am, as an offense to the
holy, just God of the universe, must be condemned. And what does
the gospel say? Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Look to Him alone. As the Israelites
bitten by the serpents were to look to that brass serpent on
a pole. Look to Christ in faith. Look unto me, says God, all ye
ends of the earth. look unto me and be ye saved
for I am God and there is no other and a couple of verses
later he says that he is a just God because he never ceases to
be God but he's a savior because in Christ we can rejoice that
guilt and condemnation is removed that's salvation and here's an
example in scripture real scripture being no doubt true scripture
of a woman who was saved in exactly the way the gospel says Amen.