Adutery

Truth is right here in this book, it's called the Bible. The answers to all of life's questions are found in the Word of God. So this morning I want to look here at John chapter 8. We actually did not go down through the end here of John chapter 7, but as I thought about John 7 here at the end and considered a message for this week, I went over these verses and I realized that I have looked at those verses already here at the end of John chapter 7 as we talked earlier in John 7 about Jesus being from Nazareth and out of Galilee arises no prophet and all of this talk and we've addressed these verses already.

So I'd like to jump ahead here to John chapter 8 and starting in verse number 1. There's some things that we can learn from, as Eli said here, this woman who is taken in adultery and some of the responses that are given here to this woman. I'd like to talk about that here this morning. Now sometimes in the Bible the Lord makes it easy for the preacher because He gives you a nice outline.

And here in this story is a beautiful, simple outline. And so I'd like to read the passage and then we'll look at three things that we can learn from this story of this woman who is taken in adultery in the very act. And so let's read down through the passage first today and starting in verse number 1 of John chapter 8. Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives.

Now let's keep this in mind that the last message we talked about, He stood and He cried the last day of the Feast, the Feast of Tabernacles. And so this is probably the next day, the next morning. And most of you know when you have family reunions or big gatherings, people like to hang around and linger.

Many have been traveling a long way to come to the Feast of Tabernacles. So it's the next morning. Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives.

People are still in the area, many people. In verse 2 it says, And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came unto Him, and He sat down, and He taught them. And so He's teaching again in the temple.

And I like the idea that He's there early in the morning. Praise God He gets up early. He's at His work early in the morning.

Verse 3 says, And the scribes and the 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 Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting Him that they might have to accuse Him.

They wanted to accuse Him to the Romans. You see, the Jews were under the Roman rule, and the Jews could not stone according to their law. That's why Jesus was not stoned, He was crucified.

Crucifixion was the Romans' way to put people to death. And so they wanted to have something to take to the Romans, and accused Jesus of stoning or encouraging those things. And so they tried to tempt Him.

Verse 6, But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not. So when they continued asking Him, He lifted up Himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let Him first cast a stone at her. And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

And they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. You know, as I meditated upon this this week, if you could, if the Lord would say, okay, I'm going to give you 15 minutes, and I'm going to take you back to a certain event in the New Testament in my life, what event would you choose? Some of you would probably say, I'd like to be there at the grave.

You know, when Lazarus comes out in his grave clothes, or these great miracles. I think I'd like to be here. I'd like to watch these people and their reaction, these men who come, and this woman is standing, and all the accusations, and Jesus says, you know, you fellows, why don't you who are without sin first cast a stone? And how these fellows, oldest to the youngest, begin to walk off.

It's been an interesting place to be. Well, 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? And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee.

Go, and sin no more. All right, let's learn some lessons from this story. But before we do, let's acknowledge the Lord and pray.

Heavenly Father, we acknowledge that we need your help. I acknowledge I need your help. And Lord, we want to honor your word and lift it up here this morning before your people.

We acknowledge this is a truth, and that there's so many things in the Word of God. Even as Paul said, it's unsearchable. The ways of it are past finding out, and throughout eternity, Lord, I trust we'll be learning and knowing more about you and your wisdom and your heart.

But Lord, I pray today that we could understand the wisdom of God and know the human heart and see ourselves, and Lord, would you teach us and would you bless us? Open our understanding that we might understand the things that are given to us here. So we pray your blessing upon us, Lord. Help us in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, this passage here is broken down into three simple sections. Verses 1-4 talks about the sin, the sin of adultery.

And these men bringing this woman who is involved in sin. Then verses 5-9, it talks about the law and the law's response to the sin. So we have the sin in verse 1-4, and then the law's response in verse 5-9.

And then verse 10-11 gives us grace's response, grace's response to sin. So I'd like to look at those three simple sections here this morning and teach you about the sin, the law's response to the sin, and then grace's response to sin. So let's start off here with the sin of adultery, the sin of adultery.

By the way, I just want to remind you again this morning that adultery is a sin. You hardly ever hear anymore about adulterers and adulteresses, but adultery is a sin. It's not an affair.

It's not living together. It's called adultery. And the Bible calls adultery a sin.

It's one of the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not commit adultery. And in the Old Testament, the law required that the adulterer was to be stoned.

Leviticus 20 verse 10 says this, And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. Which makes me wonder, where is the guy in this situation? You know, they brought this woman. Takes two to tango.

Where is the man? Well, usually in many of these societies, especially all over our world, the women are usually taken advantage of because they're under authority. So somehow there's no man. Maybe the man's in the crowd here, one of the accusers.

But the woman is brought. Well, adultery. Adultery with stone.

Adultery is a very serious offense. But there are many different forms of adultery in the Bible. And just to mention some of them, adultery is, there's four forms that I see in the Bible of adultery.

The first one is the obvious one. Sexual immorality outside of a marriage covenant. And so a man is married to a woman.

Either of those two having romantic relationships outside of that covenant is called adultery. The Bible also calls divorce and remarriage adultery. Mark chapter 10.

If a man puts away his wife and marries another, he commits adultery. And if a woman puts away her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. Another form of adultery is what Jesus said is lust.

It's mentioned here this morning. If a man looks upon a woman and lusts after her, Jesus said he has committed adultery. Adultery in many different forms.

But there's another interesting adulterous sin. And that's found in James. Turn with me to James 4 if you could.

And we'll see another adultery here that doesn't get a lot of attention. James chapter 4 starting in verse number 1. These are the four sins of adultery mentioned in the Bible. James chapter 4 says this.

Verse 1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts at war and your members? You lust and have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight in war, yet you have not because you ask not.

You ask and receive not because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your own lusts. You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And so spiritually speaking, there is an adultery that is an immoral relationship.

By the way, you and I are supposed to be espoused to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are committed to our husband. And so as we, his virgin, we set our hearts upon the things of the world, as Micaiah was saying, and we fall in love with this present world and the things of the world, we are committing a spiritual adultery.

We are setting our hearts upon another lover. And so since the Bible says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength, soul, and mind, when we turn our hearts away from that and begin to love the things of this present world, the riches of this world, and the pleasures of this world, and all the things that are temporal, we commit spiritual adultery. The Bible here talks about fighting and warring and back and forth and all the things that come about when people begin to fight and tug and wrestle with each other.

All these things are adulterous because they are the spirit of the world. And so the Bible says in verse 4 that whoever therefore is a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And so you have many different forms of adultery.

And so we're looking here at this woman who committed adultery. And by the way, adultery is a very serious sin. And it was stoned in the Old Testament.

And murder was stoned in the Old Testament. I understand homosexuality was stoned in the Old Testament. If you stole someone's pen, it wasn't stoned in the Old Testament.

There are certain things that are heavier, weightier matters, and certain things that are lesser matters. And so we ought to avoid adultery. Adultery with another man's wife.

We ought to avoid lusting in our hearts after another. We ought to avoid divorce and remarriage. And we ought to avoid committing adultery against our spouse, our husband, the Lord Jesus, by setting our affections on the things of this world.

The Bible says to love not the world, right? Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You cannot love God and you cannot love the world.

It's like you cannot love flowers and love weeds at the same time. So, adultery. Well, here's this woman.

She's taken in adultery. I'd like to talk to you about, back in John 8, let's go back there, the response of the law towards this woman. And here's where we can learn some lessons about the response that the law gives to this woman.

And notice here in verse number 3 what happens. The Bible tells us, The scribes and the 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 Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? Now the law does two things. And it's given to us here. What does the law do with regards to sin? The law does two things.

The law exposes the sin. They brought this woman to Jesus. They exposed this woman was taken in adultery in the very act.

And the law also calls for judgment upon the woman. And so the law exposes sin, and the law calls for judgment upon the woman. Let's look at those two here real brief.

First of all, the law exposes sin. Romans 7, 7 says this. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? By the way, I don't want you to get the impression this morning that the law is bad.

The law is good. The law is not bad. The law should expose sin.

The law should judge sin. And we're going to see here in just a minute. The law is good, but the law couldn't help this woman.

The law is good. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid, nay or no, if I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

I had not known adultery, unless the law had said, Thou shalt not commit adultery. And so the law is good, because the law shows you what sin is and exposes sin in your heart. The law also brings judgment.

It exposes and brings judgment. And that's what these Pharisees were doing. They were exposing the woman.

She's committed adultery. And they said this woman ought to be judged. She ought to be stoned.

The law is like a searchlight in the heart of men exposing sin. That is a good thing. The law is good.

If a man use it lawfully, it is a good thing. Well, the second thing the law does is judges, or it condemns this woman as a sinner. Verse 5 says, Now Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? And so the law commanded judgment.

This woman needs to pay for her sin. The law requires punishment. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Now with that in mind, if the law exposes sin and the law brings judgment upon sin, how many of you want to be under the law? I get no takers here. No takers. And I think you're wise by not being a taker.

You sinned, you die. That's all the law can do. Expose you for being a sinner and pronounce judgment upon you and execute judgment.

And so there is no hope in the law. I mean, put yourself in this woman's place. These men have drug her down to the temple, stood her in public, shared with Jesus and the crowd that she's just committed adultery in the very act and we should stone her.

Now if you're in her situation, is there any hope in that? There's no hope. I mean, she's done. Her sin is going to bring death and probably she's going to spend an eternity in hell.

She is done. And that's what the law does. The law exposes and the law judges.

And Paul said this to those in the church at Galatia. Let me read to you what he said here. Galatians 4.19, for those of you who take notes.

My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me you that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? He's talking to the Galatians who want to go back to the law and they say, you people who want to be under the law, don't you hear what the law is saying? Sin, exposed, and judgment. Do you hear? And in the very same book, Paul writes this, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

So think about that one. Cursed is everyone here today who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. How many of you are going to be cursed if that's the case? We're all going to be cursed.

And so we're in a sense like a bunch of muddy people standing up trying to throw mud at each other. What makes the difference? We're all cursed. We're all underneath the law.

And the law is going to judge us. So we've all sinned. And the law condemns all of us to guilt and death.

And so the law offers no hope for you. There is no hope. Romans 3.19, one of my favorites.

Now we know that whatever 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. So all the law can do is show you your sin and condemn you as guilty. And so the law brings a hopelessness.

That's why many people who live under religious systems that are law-based, they are oftentimes very hopeless people. They have no hope. They're so depressed and discouraged because what hope is there? These commandments are condemning me and I find no way around it.

I'm going to go to hell. And so it leaves people hopeless. And if you look at this story, the law shows no mercy.

There is no mercy for this woman as she's standing there. The law shows no pity. As a matter of fact, these men come and say this woman was taken in adultery in the very act.

There's no pity. The law simply exposes her and condemns her. You sinned, you go to hell.

You sinned, you're getting stoned. Well, I'd like you to look here at what Jesus says to these individuals regarding the law in verse 7. Now the Lord knows the nature of human beings and so He makes a wise statement here. And I think there's a lot we can learn from His statement with regards to these who want to stone her.

By the way, does anybody know what Jesus wrote on the ground? I've heard different ideas. There's no man to stick to. Maybe He's writing the name of a man that was on the ground.

Who would do that? That's what I think. I'd like to see your name there being written out. You know, I've been back and forth.

I don't have a real simple answer, but I know this, that the only way to interpret the Bible is to use the Bible itself because the Bible has to interpret itself. And the only other time that I know in my mind where God used His finger is when He wrote the Ten Commandments. With a finger of God, the Bible says He wrote on those two tablets His commandments.

And I wonder sometimes that maybe the Lord was simply writing out the law before them and showing them that while they're trying to condemn this woman, this law actually condemns you. Because the last time He wrote with His finger was He wrote those commandments in the tables of stone. Well, maybe it possibly could be that.

I'm not sure about what it is, but I'd like to look here at how Jesus responds to the law and those who want to promote it. 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 notice here that Jesus doesn't eliminate the stoning.

He says stone? Yes, that's what the law says. Well, let's go ahead and do it. We don't want to violate the law.

Let's go ahead and we'll do a stoning, but we have a requirement. You have to be without sin in order to be able to judge sinners. And so anyone here who has no sin, you be the first to do the judging.

And so He upholds the stoning, yet He's asking for someone worthy to stone who has never sinned. Now, how many of you know who's the only one worthy to stone here? Who is the only one that's never sinned? That's right. The Lord Himself who came and lived in a human body and lived without sin, He Himself is the only one who is able to be a judge in this situation.

And so He's asking them, are you all qualified to throw the first stone at this woman? So He doesn't deny the fact that she should be stoned. He's just wanting to know who's qualified to stone. Well, there's something else He's pointing out here.

If you guys want to stone, realize that all sinners should be stoned and that would include all of you. So when you condemn this woman, realize that those stones should come right back at you and you should also be stoned. Paul said it in Romans 2. He said this very thing, Therefore, thou art an inexcusable old man whosoever thou art that judges, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.

I mean, when sinners try to judge sinners, you condemn yourself as a sinner. Someone has said it this way, when you point your finger at someone, how many come back at you? Three. You point one and three come back at you.

The problem here is that the law is condemning on everyone. And so the only one who can judge is those or the one who is without sin. And that is the Lord Jesus.

James 4 talks about this. There is only one lawgiver who can judge and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at John 8.7. And verse 8, So, when they continued asking, 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. Now here's what the Lord does here, and this is a good thing for us when you think about trying to help people understand their own condition. Jesus turned the attention back on them.

Notice their focus was this woman, this woman, this woman committed adultery in the very act. This woman. And what does the Lord do? He says, well, let's do this.

Let's consider your own self. Let's stop at the woman for a minute and let's say this. You that are without sin yourself, you first cast a stone.

Look at yourself for a while to see if you have any faults. And you know what happened? He said, look at yourself and see what you are struggling with. And the Bible says they started walking off one by one.

You know, they started with the oldest. Some of you who are older here. You know why it was the oldest? Because he's had more time to live in sin and he's got more issues probably.

He's got a whole life of sin. And so as they looked within themselves, they began to have a guilty conscience. It says they were convicted by their own conscience and they went out one by one.

Human nature, you think about this, human nature in its fallen state tends to reflect the spotlight away from themselves and get the spotlight on someone else. Look at this woman! Look at this woman! She's a sinful woman! And Jesus says, look at yourself. Oh.

And they no longer want to condemn the woman. Because they're now asked to look at themselves. Human nature in our fallen state tends to reflect the spotlight away or deflect the spotlight away from ourselves to someone else.

Here is human nature, the very beginning. I've shared this with you before. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned, guess what happened? They hid.

And God came and shined the spotlight on their life. Adam, what have you done? Oh, he's guilty. This woman! Shine the spotlight over here on her! She's the problem! So the spotlight goes to the woman.

They're behind trees like that over there. And he says, it's the serpent! Shine the spotlight on the serpent! You see, none of them wanted the spotlight on them. And that's what happens when people are guilty.

They deflect the spotlight to other people. And so the Lord is bringing the spotlight on these men. As long as the spotlight is on this woman and her failures, we can all gang up.

But as soon as the Lord says, why don't you bring the spotlight? Let's bring the spotlight on you. They all of a sudden begin to withdraw and say, no, no, no, no. And they walk off.

Oftentimes, in our human nature, we hide our guilt by directing the attention away from me to others. How many of you agree with that? We hide our own guilt by directing the attention. These men were guilty.

But as long as you look at the woman and pointed out the woman's fault, they felt fine. It's just when Jesus in His wisdom said, well, let's look at the spotlight at you for a little bit. Oh, no, no, no.

They left. And so that's human nature. How many of you like people looking at you? How many of you like to stand up here and have about 30 people around and all their eyes looking at you? I remember when I was preaching up at Ephrata a number of years ago, 4,000 or 5,000 people in this huge auditorium, two eyes on each of them, about 10,000 eyes.

I was up there in the front. They were all looking at me. It's an awful feeling.

Everybody looking at you. Nobody likes that. Nobody likes to have people looking at you.

Everybody likes to direct the attention away from yourself. Let's look at this person. Let's look at this family.

Let's look at everybody else. Just don't look at me. And that was what was in these men.

And so they were deflecting the spotlight. But Jesus was wise. He said, no, let's take a look at you too.

Let's look inside your heart. Now, here's something that's beautiful, I think, and you'll find this throughout the Bible. The psalmist David was one.

David's heart was a holy heart. He was a holy man. You know what David said? Search me, O God, and know my way.

See if there be any wicked way in me. You know, someone whose heart is in the right place, they say, God, I want to know. Search me.

You look through me. See if there be any secret wickedness in me. I open up my heart, and when my brothers and sisters have something that they want to share with me, praise God.

I want to know my faults. That's a good spirit, isn't it? Search me, O God, and know my heart. See if there be any wicked way in me.

But oftentimes, when we're not in a good place, we want to deflect it onto somebody else. You've heard this Negro spiritual. Not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, O Lord.

Right? Standing in the need of prayer. So Jesus asked them to look inside of their own heart. And when they did, they no longer condemned the woman.

You know, all criticism and condemnation would stop if we would see ourselves as God sees us. And so looking inward here, caused or cured the problem for the Pharisees, at least temporarily. They no longer wanted to stir Him.

And you know, I thought about church life, and here's a lesson for us in the church. You know, we can take... I'll use this analogy. We can take... We need to bring some application here.

You can take families or individuals in a church, and when those families are looking at everybody else's issues, and they're criticizing and pointing out all of these problems, you're going to end up with some fruit of that. And the fruit of that is going to be strife. It's going to be evil speaking.

It's going to be division. When everyone is looking elsewhere, but here's something beautiful, and I would recommend it for us as a congregation, is that everyone focus on their own issues. Everyone look, and you're going to find there's a beautiful spirit that comes out of that.

Everyone look and keep your focus on it's me, it's me, it's me, oh Lord. Amen? Do you know what this kind of a situation brings? It brings unity, humility, You know, these men were humbled, weren't they? They were humbled. Humility, it brings peace, and something else it brings is when people focus on themselves, they come to church, and you know what they do? They confess their own problems.

Confess their own needs, because that's where their focus is. Lord, my brother, Brother Chris, God has shown me this week I have this need, I just want to confess it. And so you have a church where people are confessing their needs.

That's a beautiful spirit right there. Humility and confession. And so Jesus in His wisdom, He focused them back to themselves, and that caused them to lay down their stones and no longer to condemn.

And so the law, when you think about the law, how the law responds to sin, and the law exposes it, and the law condemns it. And I'm going to show you something up here on the board. I'm all for the law, and I'm all for judgment.

That's what the law does. I'm sorry, I'm all for exposing and judging. But you know, as you look at that, that doesn't offer us much hope, does it? Exposing our sin and judging it.

But there's this thing called grace, and we're going to look at that now, right in here. By the way, God is going to judge sin. He is going to judge it.

God is not going to excuse it, but He has put in here something called a day of grace. And you and I are living in that day of grace. As a matter of fact, we're getting down here close to the end.

But we're living in this day of grace, and Jesus is going to exemplify what happens in this grace situation. How do you respond to sin? With grace. Well, let's look here at verse number 10, and look at how Jesus responds to this woman.

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? And she said, Hath no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither, here's the statement, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.

Now here's the Lord's response to this woman. It's right in here. No condemnation.

Or you could say it, mercy, and then help. I'm going to show you this in a minute. Help to obey.

This is what grace is right here. No condemnation and help to obey. Actually, when Jesus said, I don't condemn you, He was looking to the cross.

He was going to die for her. And when He said, Go and sin no more, He was also looking to the cross because He is going to, through His work on the cross, send her the Holy Spirit of God, which will enable her to live in obedience to His principles. So grace offers two things.

It offers mercy, and it offers obedience or the help to obey. Go and sin no more is what He said to her. And that is a prophetic statement.

The Holy Ghost will come to make that possible. You and I, by the grace of God, should be able to go and sin no more. The Bible says in 1 John, these things write unto you that you sin not.

So that's not out of the possibility of going and living a life that is without sin. And so the law is good. The law exposes and the law is going to bring judgment.

But grace is right here in the middle. God is offering man grace today. Now let's look at these two things.

This mercy and this help to obey. First of all, mercy. Jesus says, I do not condemn you.

How many of you would feel some hope if you heard that statement? Ah, there's some relief there. I do not condemn you. Now that's a different statement than what the Pharisees were trying to promote, the law.

That which condemned her. Romans 8 verse 1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation.

So God is not here. The Bible says the Lord has not come to condemn men's lives. He came to save men's lives.

It's not the Lord's desire during this period here to condemn and destroy men. His desire is to save men. So there's no judgment for those who are under grace.

There's no condemnation for those who are under grace. But judgment will come. I don't want you to get the idea that judgment is not going to be meted out.

It will be meted out. The Bible says the Lord comes in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction. But the Lord has given us this period of grace.

And He's opened the door for hope. And the ability to receive mercy and help for obedience. So grace offers mercy.

It offers forgiveness for those sins against the law. Those sins that were condemning us. Colossians 2 verse 13, And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him having forgiven you all trespasses? That's a beautiful sentence there.

Having forgiven you all trespasses. Now I love this, but Jesus is standing there. You picture Him there.

He's standing there and He's able to say to this woman, I don't condemn you. And the only way He can say that is He knows within six months He's going to be on the cross and die and be condemned for her. Truth of the matter, He could have just said, Woman, I'm not going to condemn you.

Let me step out here in the middle and let these men stone me. Right? Let them stone me. You sinned.

I'm going to take the punishment. Let them stone me. And you could have had a situation where they just stoned Jesus.

He died for this woman's sin. So when He says, I'm not going to condemn you, He is looking to the cross. As a matter of fact, Jesus died on the cross for that lady's adultery.

And He knew He was going to do it. He was looking to the cross. I don't condemn you.

So God is not willing to condemn anybody, especially those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. So let me say this, if God doesn't condemn you, should I condemn you? If God doesn't condemn you? I love this here in Romans 8. Paul is writing to the Romans.

He asks this question, If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. I mean if the judge of all the earth says I don't condemn you, who can condemn you? Right? So you ought not to be too discouraged when people condemn you and do those things because listen, if the God of the earth doesn't, a human being shouldn't bother you. And so God is offering mercy.

And if you're under the law here today, if you're still under the law, and you've not found mercy through the death and the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to get under grace. I mean anybody with common sense knows they don't want to be under the law. The only reason why people remain under the law is because they're blind.

They're living in darkness. They don't understand. If you understood that the law is going to expose you and condemn you to death and eternity without God, you would do something about it.

Would you not? And so God is offering mercy. And no condemnation. But something else He's offering here is help.

He says, I don't condemn you lady. Go and sin no more. Now that lady is probably saying, I can't do that.

I'm a harlot. I can't do that. But He says, go and sin no more.

Now not only does this grace give you mercy and forgive you, but it also is going to help this lady to actually live an obedient life. Now it's going to be possible for this woman to go and sin no more by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen? Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

That's what grace will do. And so in this age of grace, God is desiring obedience from the heart. Go and sin no more.

And we ought not to downplay that. Go and sin no more. If you walk under this grace that God has given you after He has given you no condemnation and forgiveness and given you His Spirit, walk in the Spirit.

You say, I just don't seem to be able to do that. Well, maybe that surrender thing is going to be a good thing for you. Accept the corn of wheat fallen to the ground and die and abideth alone.

You're going to have to die. And so grace, unfortunately many people are communicating this, but grace does not give you a license to sin. The Bible talks about in Jude 3-4 that those false prophets were teaching that because God is gracious and He says, dude, I don't condemn you, that you can just go out woman and live in adultery and do whatever you want and God will forgive you.

That's half the message. We believe in a full Gospel. So He also says to her after, I don't condemn you, go and sin no more.

Paul said it this way, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? What's the next two words? God forbid. What kind of a message is that? And so there is grace to help you live obediently. And let me just throw this out here because I don't want anybody to be misunderstood.

I believe in the big things. I believe in the weightier matters of the law, but I don't want to excuse the smaller things. You know, the Bible talks about things that are more important and some things that are less important, but you notice there's a word in there that's in both.

Important. And so just because we talk a lot and the Bible talks about love and faith and mercy and all these things, let's not forget about modesty and head coverings and all these things that may be lesser, but are important matters. And so when the Bible says God gives you grace to work out His will and His good pleasure, that includes the greater and the lesser.

Amen? I don't want to be a part of these that Jesus said whoever encourages you not to obey the least of His commandments is not worthy of the Kingdom of God. I want to encourage you to obey all of His commandments. Well, let me ask you to look at another passage here.

This will be the last one I'll ask you to look at. Titus. Go to Titus.

And we'll read here. I think someone read this verse a few weeks ago. Titus 2. And verse 11.

Talking about the grace of God. To some of you this is a very familiar passage. It says in verse 11, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation.

That's the kind of grace we want. There is a grace that doesn't bring salvation. But the true grace of God brings salvation.

It hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Now does that answer the question? Anybody who has experienced the grace of God and has truly found no condemnation, their sins have been forgiven, that same grace that washed you from your sins is also going to give you the strength to live and overcome your sins. And so that's the grace of God that we ought to teach.

That you deny ungodliness and worldly desires. That we should live soberly. That's serious.

Righteously. Godly. In this present world.

Verse 13. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Now notice verse 14.

Who gave Himself for us that, and here's the first part, He might redeem us from all iniquity, that's the mercy and forgiveness, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, a special people, who are zealous of good works. That's the life. So both of these are here.

And then I am given this encouragement and anybody else who speaks, verse 15, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no man despise thee. So if someone despises me today, I say let no man despise me. I'm supposed to speak these things with all authority.

This is the true grace of God that brings salvation. This grace of God is a grace that brings mercy, but it also is a grace that teaches you and gives you the ability to live righteously and godly in this present world. A people who are peculiar people, zealous of good works.

And so when this woman sinned, the law wanted to expose and the law wants to judge. And by the way, the law will expose and the law will judge. These are not bad things.

But Jesus said, I got something I'm going to throw in here, and that is mercy and help to obey. And that's what grace is. Mercy and help.

And that's how you and I need to respond. We need to expose sin. We don't condemn.

And we seek to help people to obey. And you say, what if they don't? Right here is what happens. Judgment.

They that don't hear the Gospel, judgment. Judgment is coming. But God has given us an opportunity here in this time of grace to respond to His mercy, to respond to His salvation that He offered us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and to receive no condemnation.

I don't condemn you from the Lord Jesus. Now go and sin no more and I'm going to help you to do it. Now I want to close here and spend a little bit of time with this last thought because I think it's important for us as individual Christians to understand how to function here.

Listen here. This is what I share with you. If you look at this story here in John 8, the law was going to cost that woman her life.

In other words, if you let the law be the law, that woman was dead. The law was going to cost the woman her life. Grace cost the Lord His life.

Grace cost the Lord His life. The woman, if she was under the law, it was going to cost her her life. But if she came under grace, it was going to cost the Lord His life.

And you know, there's something that we need to learn from that as Christians. The Bible says that Jesus laid down His life for us and we ought to what? Lay down our lives one for another. In other words, just like Jesus saw this woman and He said, I don't want the law to take your life.

I'll give My life for you. In the very same way, we ought to treat one another just like Christ did. I don't want the law to condemn you.

I am going to give My life to show mercy and help to you. I'm going to show you grace and try to bring your life to a place of mercy and obedience. You know, in the church, when someone sins, we can say what the law says.

You pay. Woman, you pay. Or we can say what the Lord says.

I'll pay. I'll pay. How can I pay? I can't go to a cross.

Well, you can follow the example of the Lord and you can lose your life for your brother and sister. I'll pay by praying for you. I'll pay by forbearing and being long-suffering.

I'll pay by suffering wrongfully for you. I'll pay by interceding for you. I will lay down My life for you.

That's what grace does. Amen? There's many places in the Bible where Paul expressed this. He said, I will therefore gladly spend and be spent for you.

So the more I love you, the less I be loved. Hereby perceive we the love of God because He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Christ laid down His life to give us grace.

We lay down our lives for each other to show the grace of God. And so when you think about the law and you think about grace, grace is costly. Grace costs Jesus His life.

Now, if the Lord wanted to let the law, it wouldn't have cost Him anything. It would have cost the woman. Kill her.

She's sinned. She's going to die. But the Lord says, no, I want grace and I'm going to step into place here and I'm going to take the cost for this woman.

And that's the way we ought to be one with another. Instead of saying, you pay, you ought to have a heart, Lord, let me pay. Let me pay for my brother.

Let me stay up and pray all night for my brother. Let me fast for my brother. Let me suffer for my brother wrongfully.

Let me pay. When you get some of the spirit of grace flowing in a congregation like that, that's going to be a good thing. Father, that's what I need.

Right there. Amen. We're all grateful.

Could you all pray for me? Sure. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for the grace of God in each one of our lives, Lord.

We don't want to point a finger at anybody here. We just want to acknowledge that, Lord, we have great need to lay down our lives one for another and to suffer one for another and to truly love one another. And Lord, we want to pray for our brother here, Brother David.

I don't know what's going on in his heart, Lord, but I know you do. And I pray that you'll hear the desires of his heart even as the psalmist said, Lord, search me, O God, and know my heart. Lord, You know our hearts.

See if there's any wicked way in us. Heavenly Father, I pray that the grace of God would abound upon my brother David. And Lord, that the Scriptures here would be made flesh in his own life.

Bless him, Lord. Cause Your face to shine upon him. Anybody else want to pray for Brother David? Lord, we thank You, Lord, that nothing is impossible to You.

That we have faith in You. That we can hold on to You. That we can hold on to You.

We praise You. We praise You, Lord, that You're able to do this. We thank You, Lord, that You're able to do this.

We thank You, Lord, We thank You, Lord, that You're able to do this. that You're able to do this. We thank You, Lord, that You're able to do this.

We thank You, Lord, that You're able to do this. That they may come all the grace unto You. Why don't we all do this here? Let's just go to our knees and let's do what Jesus did for each one of us.

Search me, O God. And know my heart. You know, it's not my brother, it's not my sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

May you just go to your knees Let's just spend some time quietly praying. If anyone wants to make any confession, feel free to do so as we pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that the spirit of grace would come upon each one of us.

Lord, that our hearts could truly be broken and that we would look upon this woman with grace and be able to say from our heart, I don't condemn you. Go and sin no more. That spirit would rest upon each one of us.

Lord, we pray your blessing upon the word of the Lord has come to each one of our hearts. We need help. Give us grace, Lord.

Pray for your mercy upon us. Now bring forth good fruit in these words we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right. Let's sing, Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart. Number 252 in our songbook, Search Me, O God.

Let's sing as a prayer to the Lord from our own heart. Search me, O God, and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.

See if there be some wicked way in me. Cleanse me from every sin and set me free. I praise thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin.

Fulfill thy word and make me pure within. Fill me with fire where one can make it holy. Fill my heart, Lord, and take all that is mine.

Maybe your report card is not very good. If we go to James 5.13, is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any in burying? Let him say.