Father, how we thank You that the Lord Jesus Christ is all of this and even more. And we love to sing of Him and set our hearts upon Him. We love to be near Him. And though He is perfect in His holiness, and though He has been given all authority in heaven and earth, to judge, to rule. Though we are sinful and imperfect and hearts still carry much that is evil and rebellious, we do not fear to come to you because of the Lord Jesus. We do not fear because he came to earth and walked in our world, walked in a body just like ours. He knows what it is to be weak. He knows the weariness of sleepless nights. He knows what it is to feel sickness and fever. He knows what it is to be exposed to cold, to hunger, to all that we have ever experienced. And yet, even in those very real human experiences, He always did Your will, always accomplished the purpose that was before Him. And so he is not like any of the rest of us to that extent, but a glorious hero, the champion of our salvation. And we seek you, Heavenly Father, by Jesus Christ. We set our hearts upon him this day and ask that you would guide us and care for us that You would strengthen us in our hearts and souls because we need it. Spirit of God, I pray that You would quiet the hearts that are restless, the minds that are scattered with many cares and concerns. Bring them under Your sweet control that they might see and hear and feel the power of Your truth I pray for those who are struggling with sin that today would be a day of liberty, a day of true and lasting victory. And I ask, Spirit of God, that you would subdue our hearts, winning that victory, winning it with grace and truth. Let there be none here today who think that your word is simply calling them to a higher level of ethical, moral behavior. Let none here think that you are simply saying, I want you to be better than you are, to do better than you do. but rather you are calling us to a transformed life and that transformation is something that you begin inside and work to the surface of our lives. So let none here be content with a surface or temporary moral change, but rather may we seek a lasting change in the heart that issues in a lifestyle that is very different. So let the power of Your truth work in us and let the power of Your love be known and experienced now we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Open your Bibles with me to John 8. John 8. That's page 894 if you are using a pew Bible. John 8. We continue in our series a look at who we are as a church. Trying to answer the question, who are we? And we began by surveying Ephesians, looking at God the Father specifically, noting that we are a God-blessed people. He, by virtue of what He is and what He has done, creates the identity of His people. We are God-blessed. Then we traced the second person of the Trinity deep into the book of Ephesians, noting that we are a Christ-centered people and spent a fair amount of time looking in particular at Christ, the cornerstone. He is that permanently fixed piece of the church by whom all other measurements are taken, by whom all other standards are established. The structure of the church is founded, centered on Him alone. And then we spent some time last Sunday evening looking at the Spirit. So we're not only a God-blessed, Christ-centered people, but we are a Spirit-empowered people. And we look particularly at His mighty strengthening that He works in us, the seal of God Himself upon our lives. There are many more things that we could explore concerning God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit when it comes to our identity, but we'll leave those for now. But I'm impressed as I read through the Scriptures that this God who is mightily at work, and Ephesians develops the theme of His grace very fully in one of our most favorite verses in all of Scripture is found in Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9, by grace you are saved through faith in that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, because then we would boast about what we had done. You have a God of grace. who is doing a work of grace to create a people of grace, that's us, who themselves then establish a culture of grace. And I want to explore that idea of a culture of grace with you this morning. Jesus, as John states in his very opening words of this gospel, you're not there, you're in chapter 8, but if you were to go back to chapter 1, you would see him refer to Jesus Christ as the Word. And one of the big points in John 1 is that the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. Now, who are the us? Well, John was a Jewish man. Is he speaking just to the Jewish people? No, he's speaking far beyond just the nation of Israel or the culture that he was a part of, but he's speaking to all the nations. God becomes flesh, makes His dwelling among us. Who are the us? Well, to put it in terms that Paul uses in Ephesians 2, the us could be described this way. Paul says, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." That's a pretty grim description of us, isn't it? Dead people. We give the physical appearance of having life, but the reality is he's talking in spiritual terms. Living out your life, living according to the passions of your flesh, the desires that you really can't control. You may keep them in check at some points, but the bottom line is you are a slave to those passions. Walking according to the course of this world. What does that mean? According to the cultural current of this age. What is the spirit of this age? You see it all around you. It's posted in electronic fashion. It's displayed through our television programming entertainment. It's on Wall Street. It's in print. It's all around you. And it is not a culture that really values virtue and beauty and holiness and grace as our Lord does. children of wrath. That is a generation like like a generation of children who've been born and brought into this world. So we were actually a generation of those who were already under God's judgment and wrath. Why? Because we're sinners from the inside out. But now, if you listen to John's opening words in in chapter one and again, I know you're not there. But John says, the word became flesh, made his dwelling among us, children of wrath. And we have seen his glory. What is the glory of the son of God? We have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the father. Listen to this. Full of grace and truth. You would not expect that God would come into the world, take upon Him our own flesh and blood, make His dwelling among us and be full of grace and truth for children of wrath. You would expect the God of glory who created all that is to come in wrath, in judgment, in justice, and He would have absolutely had the right to do that. But what Jesus displayed was grace and truth. And then John goes on to say, and from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. One wave of grace following another. Most people that I've talked to about this really do love to stand on the coast and look at the waves continually come in. Now, some of you would say, I hate the beach. It's hot, sandy. OK, well, get over yourself. But think about the beauty and power that is there. And if you actually were human, you would enjoy sitting there. I mean, how can you not stand on the beach and just be amazed at the power that's there? Wave after wave. You can't stop those waves. Sometimes they settle down. Sometimes they're just barely a ripple. And then other times they are massive. And we even put up warning flags and signals and tell our children and spouses, don't go in. You will die. Yeah, you might. What John is describing, though, ought to create that kind of image. Enough is fullness we receive, just wave after wave of grace. Why is this so astonishing to John? Because he knows he's part of the us that Paul describes. Children of wrath, by nature sinners, those who are dead in their trespasses and sins. But then he goes on to say something else that's very helpful for us. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Now, he is not positioning Moses against Christ. What he is actually doing at this outset, at the outset of his gospel, is laying down one of the points of conflict that you will see developed all through this gospel. And we're going to explore a little bit of that conflict. Because there were two cultures that collided in John's day. They are the cultures that have collided since the fall of mankind back in the Garden of Eden. They are the cultures that collide today. One culture takes even the law of God, a good thing, a holy thing, but because it eviscerates the law of Christ, It becomes something that God never intended. And you see this all throughout the gospel. It is a law-based, self-righteous culture, but it is Christ-less. Then you see the culture of grace that actually understands and operates within the boundaries of law, but does not use the law as a weapon against people, but rather weds grace and truth together so that people experience something they never fathomed was possible. And the amazing thing to me is that the word becomes flesh, the incarnation. That's the doctrinal term we put on that, the incarnation. But I want you to think along three particular lines, particularly you who know the Lord Jesus Christ, because our call is identical to Christ's. And I want you to marvel at what he is able to do. First, he dwells among the us. That is, he establishes his personal presence in the world. And we know that we're called to do this, so we better pay attention to how Jesus does it. And at the same time He is establishing His presence in the world, He maintains His personal holiness. So he maintains the kind of walk that he should, though he is in the world, he's not of it. He doesn't become swallowed by the cultural current around him. And then here's the third thing that John tells us he does at the end of verse 18 in John 1. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side, He, that is Christ, has made Him known to us. Literally, He exegetes Him. He preaches the Father. But He does it through His life. And that's exactly what we're called to do. So if the Lord, who is our champion of salvation, can go before us and accomplish something, and then turn around and commission us at the end of His days, then we too can be in the world, yet not of it, but powerfully exegeting the Father to the world. Teaching, preaching, proclaiming. Now go to chapter 8 with me. You know, the chapter numbers and individual verses are not inspired, okay? And I'm going to give you a little clue here. I'm sure there were great reasons for numbering the chapters and verses as they did here, but chapter 8 probably would be better begun at verse 2, because if you go back and read through chapter 7, you'll see that there's this big hubbub and the Pharisees are having this this meeting of sorts, and Nicodemus stands up in the middle of it, he's one of them, asks a question, they're really angry with him. Then verse 53, they went each to their own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And I think that closes out that last day. Chapter 7 is dealing with one particular day. A new day dawns. So really, A2 begins with a new day. Early in the morning, He came again to the temple. All the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst. They said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now, in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say? This, they said, to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go. And from now on, sin no more. This is initially a brutal collision of two cultures. And it turns by the end of that brief account, but you see a number of characters who step onto the stage. It is a stage where God will play out something very important even for folks like us in our generation. And I want you to note four different characters who are prominently displayed here. The first is Christ himself. And he arrives to this location, the temple. Some suspect that he was actually teaching in the court of women. Not that it was an area limited to women, but it was the place in the temple complex that the women could come into. They could go no further. There were restrictions in the temple. And I know, ladies, that is offensive to you, and aren't you glad that in the Gospel there is no longer Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female? Aren't you glad that you don't have a special area of worship here in this complex? And maybe that's where Jesus began to teach. Somewhere He is in the temple complex. The last thing that He had said the night before is recorded back in John 7. Look at verse 37. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now, John will go on to explain that Jesus was actually teaching about the Holy Spirit. But I can't help but think that there were many people who left that teaching session with the Lord the night before who were very thirsty, very intrigued. And you can read through John 7 and find other accounts saying no one ever taught or spoke like this man before. So I'm sure that the people were eager to gather with him as early as possible. So Jesus comes anticipating that there will be great enthusiasm. It's early in the morning. Christ is the first and great character of the story. The second would be the crowd. It's hard to know how many people came, but it is on the heels of this feast of booths or feast of tabernacles where thousands of people would have been in Jerusalem. So it's possible this was an immense crowd. 850 or 60 some here this morning in this room right now. So just picture at least this many gathered around in this area. Jesus is teaching and now interrupting him come the third set of characters. They are the ones that I will call the condemning ones. And do you know what is interesting? They are scribes and Pharisees specifically, but if you go back just a couple of chapters, the real animosity and conflict with Christ has been brewing for days and weeks now. It goes back to a particular incident that John records in chapter 5 where he healed a lame man on the Sabbath. Now picture this, picture this. Jesus heals this man who has been lame for years and years and says to him, after he miraculously put strength back into his body, Hey, take up your bedroll and go home. Well, the Pharisees, who are strict interpreters of the law, believe that the commandment of God, one of the Big Ten, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. They have so studied and applied that to the point now that they have laws in place saying you can't do this. You can't carry your bedroll on the Sabbath. Why? It's work. So they're irritated with the man who's been healed, not rejoicing with him over the fact that for after many years of this horrible debilitation, he can walk and now begin to function again in society as a productive individual. They're not concerned about that. They're concerned about the law. You're working. Then they're ticked off at Jesus because he actually healed the guy and encouraged him to do work on the Sabbath, carrying his bedroll. I speak of it in such a way where the ludicrous nature of that is evident to all of us. But you know something? If you're part of that kind of Christ-less, law-based, self-righteous morality, you have to take stuff like that very seriously. And as you read chapters 5, 6, and 7 and just begin to note some characteristics of that particular culture that they represent, there are five things that I've noted and they're in the notes. You'll have to go back and study it more carefully, but I want you to just consider this with me because this is what informs and even inflames the condemning ones who come in. It is a culture, first of all, of fear. And you can see that all through. The people fear these leaders, so they don't speak openly. John 7 records in a place that the people mutter, keep their voices down, because you don't want to upset these leaders. You know what? The leaders themselves are afraid of what the people think. They want to arrest Jesus earlier, but they're afraid of what the crowd thinks. They're afraid of one another, afraid of their own opinions and thoughts. You can read all the way to chapter 9, and when Jesus heals another man, the man born blind from birth, the parents themselves are called in to testify. Is this your son? They don't want to open their mouths because they're afraid. I mean, fear just grips this culture. There's a second thing that you will find as you read through it, and that is it is a culture that continually ridicules. There's contempt for one another. They hold one another and everybody else in contempt. It's a culture of conflict. There's always division. There's division over who Jesus is. There's division over opinions. What should we do? How should we handle it? It's just a divided culture. You'll also see hatred. It's just full of hatred and animosity. They hate Jesus because of what He does. They hate the people He's healed because they're walking witnesses to His power. It doesn't fit inside their box. It makes them mad. And it produces condemnation. Now, that condemnation flows out of their sense of moral superiority. And, you know, in this kind of a culture, you've always got to be climbing up the ladder, and to get up the ladder of this kind of culture means you step on people. And any time you can establish yourself as superior to another person, you're going to do it. So that means we're quick to point out the faults and flaws of others. Why? Because it takes the attention off of me. I don't want to be the guy in the spotlight. It's vicious, it's ugly. And this, this is the culture of this crowd of condemning ones. So they interrupt. and bring in all of their fear and ridicule and conflict and hatred and moral superiority and condemnation, and they dump it right on the ground in front of Christ and use this woman. And she's the fourth character. I call her the condemned. Do you know, while all of this has been brewing between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes, somewhere in the dark hours of the night before, this woman succumbed to the fires of her own sinful lust. We have no idea how long those fires had been burning or smoldering perhaps for a few days or weeks or even years. The Scriptures teach us nothing of those details, but we do know the Scriptures teach us the process of sin like this. James recorded it in chapter 1, verses 14 and 15. Listen to these words. Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire than desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death." One of the things that bothers us as we read this story is, where's the guy? Doesn't it? Doesn't it trouble you? It troubles me. Where's the guy? Because they say, caught in the very act. Well, it takes two to send him this way. Where's the guy? Maybe he was quick enough to just bolt out the window or door, ran before they could lay hands on him. I don't know. But here she is. And what even just eight, ten hours before seemed like an experience that would offer pleasure satisfaction. Maybe bring something to her heart that was missing in her own marriage because the term that's used here indicates she, to commit adultery as described here, indicates very strongly she's a married woman. So you begin to ask questions like, what kind of marriage did she have? Was she broken through the disappointment of marriage to a bad man? Just an absent man, maybe a good man, just worked all the time so he was never around. Do you weigh on a business trip? Maybe they had a great marriage and just in the course of the feast during that week, just moving and being with thousands of people celebrating this great thing in the spirit of this festival, meets a guy and with no forethought ends up here. Those are the kinds of questions that begin to arise in our hearts as we think about this, but what is clear is that her uncontrolled lust. Has now caught her. And John's gospel reads with a kind of abruptness and cold simplicity, caught in adultery. And placed in the midst. And whatever illusions of romance or fulfillment or meaningful relationships she may have had have been absolutely obliterated because it's not just the disappointment now of the sin that will not last, but now she is hauled in front of a large crowd and tossed on the ground. This public humiliation is the price of a fleeting moment of pleasure. It's tense, isn't it? The real conflict centers on the question of these rulers, these leaders. When they ask Jesus, so what do you say? What do you say in response to the law of Moses? Moses commanded us to stone such women. And you know what? They are correct. That is not a misinterpretation of the law. They're absolutely right. Back in Leviticus, Moses had written, if a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulterer shall surely be put to death. One of the things that so grips my heart as I read this is that as you continue through the story, John notes in verse 6, this they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. It's not really about the woman committing adultery. And this may be one of the most egregious displays of their moral superiority. Remember, this is the group that if you go back to chapter 7, you find out that they are plotting to kill Jesus. They're going to break one of the Big Ten Commandments themselves. They don't have just cause, and Nicodemus even points that out to them. At the end of chapter 7, he raises the question, hey, doesn't our law say that you can't condemn a guy before you've tried him? That's a very loose paraphrase. Oh, and they leap on him. They pound him back, basically saying, hey, read your Bible, moron. That's a very loose paraphrase, but go read it. The spirit of that is there. So these men who are already angry enough that they hold murder in their heart, want to murder Jesus, don't care if they have to bypass the law, do something with this woman that ought to make every one of our hearts just wither in their moral superiority. Can I use this term? I want it to be graphic and I want you to feel the force because this is what this kind of self-righteous, law-based, Christ-less culture produces. They prostitute her sin to get to Jesus. This they said to test him. They test him as if laying a trap. And then they say, what do you say? Well, what can he say? In their minds, he has one of two options. Enforce the law, which will create all kinds of problems with the people. Ignore the law. which creates all kinds of problems with us. Are you going to ignore it, Jesus, or are you going to enforce it? They think they've got Him. But notice the resolution. It is the resolution that always astonishes a culture of self-righteous, law-based morality. It is the resolution that flows out of grace and truth. Jesus bends down. Why is he bending? Is he going to pick up a stone? Is he going to be the first to throw it? Oh no, he's not picking up anything. He's writing. He's writing in the dirt. What is he writing? John doesn't tell us. It's speculation. I have no personal opinion there. I'm content to just leave it all alone. But he wrote with his finger on the ground. And then John knows they continue to ask him, what do you say? What do you say? What do you say? What will you say? What will you say? I've got a pack of dogs yelping. And for a time, He writes in the dirt and then stands and says, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And he uses a term, without sin. You and I are familiar with, we often talk about sin being a missing of the mark, right? And that's what sin is. It's a missing God's mark, God's standard of righteousness. And God says, be perfect as I am perfect. So he puts the bar very high. Couldn't put it any higher. Got to be perfect. And now Jesus directs their attention to God's standard. Which of you is without sin? Which of you has always hit the mark, kept the law perfectly, never broke any of it? And again, there is silence. And in that period, I'd love to know how long it was. A few seconds? Did minutes tick away? I don't think there was any much muttering, if there was any at all, going on. Silence must have been powerful. Let him, let me rephrase it a little bit, let him who has never come short of God's standard be the first to throw a stone at her. Isn't it interesting? He's not arguing about what Moses said. He's not arguing that this woman deserves to die. But he refuses to let them prostitute her sin for such a wicked purpose. The point is not to minimize adultery. The point is not to minimize the murder that's in their heart. The point is to get them to face personally their own sin. They hold her in, standing in moral superiority over her. We caught her in the very act. Moses says she deserves to die. They're right on all those counts, but what Jesus wants them to do is to cease standing in moral superiority over this woman and stand next to her in solidarity. Beloved, the reality is every one of us, because of our sin, every single one of us deserves to die. The wages of sin is death. Does this woman deserve to be under a pile of stones? Absolutely. Do these Pharisees deserve to be under a pile of stones? Yes. Does the crowd deserve to be under a pile of stones for their sin? Yes. Do you and I deserve to be under a pile of stones at this very moment for our sins? Yes. And once more, he bent down and wrote on the ground." Such a poignant moment. Jesus is doing far more than rebuking them for their legalism. He is calling them to confession. This is part of the power of grace and truth. But rather than confessing their sin and their need of whatever he has, they start walking away, one by one, oldest to the youngest. Isn't that interesting? Maybe it's because the older you are, the more sense of your sin you have. I was glad to repent of my sin when I was a kid, but now I look back on 44 years of really shameful stuff. So maybe it's because the older ones are saying, oh wow. And they all walk out one by one. As I read this, I'm going to tell you the tension that arose in my heart. The first response is to kind of gloat. Yeah, way to get them, Jesus. And then I'm thinking, you stinking Pharisee. He just got you. And then the real question for each of us, are you going to get in their line and walk away from Jesus? Are you going to stay put and get down in the dirt with the woman that ten seconds before you were ready to stone, you'd already condemned her and say, I'm not without sin either. Some of you, when confronted in your sin, keep walking away. Keep making excuses. Keep deflecting the attention. Well, I'm not as bad as so-and-so. We're not talking about so-and-so. Well, I've never committed adultery. Okay, maybe not, but let's talk about what you have done. Well, that's none of your business. And even now, at this very moment, as the Spirit of God exposes your heart, and you feel it, don't you? Because you're coming face to face with the truth again that you are lost in your sin. And you've put a good veneer of self-righteousness up. You can talk religious talk all day long and keep deflecting attention, but the reality is it's a facade. Just like these religious rulers had nothing to defend against what Jesus said. You've got nothing. So you're going to walk away again today? Or are you going to stand before the Lord of glory and let His grace and truth go to work on you? My friend, will you stop your self-righteous moralizing? You can always find someone on planet Earth who's worse than you. But that's not going to do any good when one day you stand before the Lord of heaven as your judge And you do business just with Him. Now look at what Jesus does. Go to verse 10. He bends down. Older to younger, they walk away. And when they're gone, Jesus is left alone with the woman standing before Him. Jesus stood up and said to her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? Here's the first thing that grace and truth begin to do. Grace rescues us from self-righteous accusation. And I'm splitting a bit of a hair here. Is this woman guilty of adultery? Well, yeah. And does the law say she ought to be stoned? Yes, it does. But the way these guys went about it was absolutely inappropriate. It was self-righteous accusation. And now, grace and truth have moved all that away. And when you come to Jesus, you need never fear that a pack of dogs, as it were, is going to be out there yelping and yiping about you and what you used to be. Oh, they may be out there, but Jesus clears them out. He's not interested in self-righteous accusations that come against you. Here's the second thing that happens. In response, He says very simply, No one, Lord. No one here is to condemn. And wow, watch this. Neither do I condemn you. Grace clears us from the legitimate charges of condemnation. It's grace. Jesus uses the same terminology that we encounter through the New Testament where the gospel is unfolded and sinners are called to repent and believe because there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Paul said in Romans 8, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death. Listen to this, for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. The law doesn't have the power to save you. Your obedience to the law doesn't have the ability to save you. Your flesh weakens the law so that all it can ever do is condemn you and kill you. Now, how did he do it? Paul goes on and says, by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So God did what you could never do. God did it by sending Jesus, who himself kept the law perfectly. and then went to the cross and died a sinner's death. There was nothing in him that deserved that death. There was everything in us that called for that death. And Jesus exchanged places and judgment and condemnation and wrath with us. Oh, and as part of that exchange, we get all of his righteousness. You get Jesus' perfect record. That's why the scriptures can say there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Ah, really? And if you're this woman standing there, and Jesus doesn't preach that particular message to her, but the reason Jesus could forgive her is that he would go to the cross and die for her shortly. The reason God forgives you for Christ's sake is that Jesus died on the cross to pay for all of your sins. That's it. So grace clears us from the legitimate charges of condemnation. Now look at the third thing that happens here. This is the only culture in which true righteousness and sanctification flourishes. Did you catch what Jesus says to her after this? Neither do I condemn you. If he had stopped right there, some would be tempted to think that he's going soft on sin. He's minimizing the problem with adultery. But He's not, is He? Not at all. No. He says, go, and from now on, sin no more. And it has the force of a command. You must not go back to that bed where you were a couple of hours before. Grace is very serious about holiness. It's very serious about personal righteousness. It's very serious about progress and sanctification. It's very serious. This is going to confuse some of you, but hang with me. Grace is very serious about obedience to God's law. It just doesn't try to eviscerate the law of Christ and impose it on people to say your life is all about the law, the law, the law, the law, the law, obey the law, believe the law, read the law, study the law, learn the law, the law. No, it says Christ is your life. Christ's death is the substitute saving death. Christ's life of righteousness is now your life of righteousness. And as you seek to live in gratitude for what he has done and as you continue to walk in this world and through this lifetime, by the way, the law helps you understand the heart of your God. Go keep it. I submit to you that grace brings more authority and power to the individual life, producing lasting holiness than the law ever could. Apart from Christ, the law becomes nothing more than a culture of condemnation and killing. But when grace and truth come to rest in a people, It radically alters that culture. I'll say more about this tonight, but beloved, if many of us are honest, we would have to say that our homes, and sometimes our church, and sometimes even the broader subculture of which we are a part, looks a lot more like a fearful, critical, ridiculing, condemnatory atmosphere than a culture of grace and truth. But I also know that the vast majority of you, the vast majority of you love the gospel of Christ, love the Christ of grace and truth and are really seeking to make strides so that your homes and this church and even the subculture that we will consequently affect would be a place, a culture of grace and truth. and what's powerful to me, and I want you to meditate on this through the afternoon before you come back. And by the way, when you come back tonight, the Lord's table will be prepared for you. If there was ever a physical demonstration of grace and truth, it is that table. So come with your hearts prepared, eager to enjoy what Jesus prepares for us. But I want you to think through the afternoon, Lord, reveal to me how my life or my family or my business dealings or even my ministry at church is tending toward a self-righteous, Christless, law-based culture. And I want to repent of that and be done with it. But then open to me my understanding more fully and richly so that I can be part of creating a culture of grace and truth. A God of grace has done a work of grace to create a people of grace who dwell in a culture of grace. And when this kind of grace and truth rules and reigns, There's a kind of holiness, joy, satisfaction, peace that begins to permeate the place. May God give us that kind of church. Father in heaven, we delight in Jesus. We're in awe of Him. And many of us are just like the Pharisees in that we actually hope that with reference to us, He would ignore the law, but He can't do it. Our sin calls for our own execution. And yet, very often, when it comes to those who have offended us, we're like the Pharisees. We want them to enforce the law. And some of us, in the context of marriage or even church, have hauled other people in, not because we were seeking reconciliation, but because we were seeking vengeance. And we really wanted you, as the Lord of glory, to just put them to death because their sin is so grievous and they've offended us deeply. Oh, Lord God, purge from our hearts that kind of wickedness I praise you for those who have humbled themselves and stood in solidarity with this woman taken in adultery and who have called out for mercy and received your forgiveness, who even today seek to walk humbly with you. Oh, Lord, God, encourage their hearts and bless them for Christ's sake and for those who in this hour resist the call and conviction of the Spirit of Christ. Oh, let them stop their walking away. And may they come to Him and say, O Lord Jesus, I've made a mess of things and I know I deserve to die because of my sin, but have mercy upon me. And may they experience the power and joy and liberation of hearing Him say to them, as He said to this woman, neither do I condemn you. Now in all of us, Father, because of grace received May You inspire us to holy and righteous living. And may we go from this place rejoicing, delighting in all that You have done for us and sinning no more. These things we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Will you stand with me, please? Thank you for your patience. It has been a longer message this morning. there's a little bit of time to enjoy a cup of coffee, a word of encouragement, some fellowship as you go to Sunday school classes. If you're a guest with us today, we'd love to have you stay for the next hour from 11 until 12. Our church splits up and meets in different Sunday school classes and the host who brought you can tell you or if you came alone, go by one of the welcome centers or stop at one of the reception areas in the lobby, let our folks introduce themselves and then direct you to a class that might be of help and usefulness for you. I'm going to be here at the front of the sanctuary for a little bit. If I can speak with you, if you want someone to pray with you or questions about the message, I'd be delighted to speak with you right down here. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. Good morning.