No Adultery

[0:00] Well, take your Bibles and turn there to Genesis chapter 2 and verse 18. We're going to read again a passage in the Old Testament and then a passage in the New Testament.

[0:15] And we begin with Genesis chapter 2, verse 18. And we'll read through verse 25 and then move on to the book of Matthew.

[0:26] But Genesis 2, chapter 2, verse 18. The Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.

[0:39] Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. And he brought them to the man to see what he would name them. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

[0:54] And so the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air, and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam, no suitable helper was found.

[1:04] So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. And while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.

[1:16] Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. And the man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

[1:30] She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. And for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

[1:42] The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. And then turn to Matthew chapter 5, and we'll be reading verses 27 through 32.

[1:58] You've heard that it was said, do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

[2:12] If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

[2:24] And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

[2:37] It has been said, anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress.

[2:52] And anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery. Let's hear the preaching of God's word. Well, it's just two words in the Hebrew, the seventh commandment, no adultery.

[3:09] And with those two words, our Lord erects a wall of protection around marriage. Marriage. And so right away we see that the seventh commandment teaches us that your marriage matters to God.

[3:23] In fact, it matters to God perhaps even more than you realize. He's concerned about what is going on in your marriage for several reasons.

[3:34] Marriage is God's good gift to a man and a woman in which he seeks to enrich both of them. It's the most basic building block of society.

[3:46] He instituted it at the very beginning in the Garden of Eden with the first man and the first woman. And so faithful marriages are the backbone to any community, any church, any nation.

[4:02] Marriage is the relationship in which children are to be brought into the world. And trained up in the ways of God. And our God seeks a godly offspring through marriage.

[4:18] And most importantly, marriage is the earthly relationship that is meant to reflect and to portray the spiritual relationship between Jesus Christ and his church.

[4:30] As the husband selflessly loves his wife, just like Christ loves the church. And as the wife sweetly submits to her husband, as the church does to Christ.

[4:44] Your marriage then is to be a stage on which God is glorified. And that's to be a high priority to every husband and wife here.

[4:57] So marriage is important to God. And to protect this very valuable gift, God has put up this fence around it saying, no adultery.

[5:11] He's out to protect marriage because adultery violates the marriage covenant in which you promise to forsake all others and to faithfully keep yourself for him, for her.

[5:26] Adultery breaks that exclusive bond of marriage, which is just for two. And no one else has any business there. But adultery brings a third party into the walled garden that has no business being there.

[5:44] So such unfaithfulness works toward the destruction of marriage. So the seventh commandment is about marriage, his protection of it.

[5:55] But the seventh commandment is also clearly about sex, which is another precious gift of God. Just as I can say to you on the authority of this command that God cares about your marriage, I can say that God cares about what you do sexually as well.

[6:14] He did not go silent on this subject matter as the whole of Scripture is full of his will concerning it. In love, he seeks our best.

[6:26] And so he speaks most plainly about this topic in his holy word. It needs to be said that sexuality is God's idea. His pure mind thought it up and then created mankind, male and female.

[6:44] He brought the first woman, Eve, to the first man, Adam, and charged them to cleave to one another in the one flesh union of marriage and called upon them to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth with offspring.

[7:04] And having done that, the living God stepped back and, as it were, surveyed what he had just done. And as he looked at everything, he concludes, it is very good.

[7:19] It's all very good. We need to start there with this matter of sexuality. It is God's good idea. It is not something dirty. It is not the devil's invention.

[7:30] It is not something less than spiritual. But having said that, we know as well that good things can become bad things when they're not in their right places.

[7:43] So, for instance, fire is good in the fireplace. Ever think about that word, fireplace? It's saying in this place, fire is good.

[7:56] This is the place for fire. But when it sparks out onto your sofa, that's not a good place for fire. Fire belongs in the fireplace.

[8:11] And so it is with sex. God not only invented it, he also set the boundaries and determined the specific place for it to be enjoyed by men and women.

[8:23] And according to God, it was designed for one place. And when kept in its right place, it is wonderfully good. But when it's out of its right place, it is very, very bad.

[8:39] And the one place for which God designed sex is marriage. We read of it. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh.

[8:56] Where's the place for the one flesh union of man and woman within the secure, exclusive commitment of marriage? There and nowhere else where one man and one woman have been joined together in the covenant promise to be faithful to each other for the rest of their lives.

[9:18] There and there alone is the place for this precious expression of love. So Hebrews 13, 4 says marriage should be honored by all.

[9:29] Don't think little of it. Don't think be mean it. It's God's good gift. Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure. That's the place for it.

[9:41] So our first point this morning is just that. Sex is for marriage. And there it is to be kept holy. There it is spiritual. There it is pure.

[9:52] There it is good. And everything else is out of bounds then, isn't it? It's forbidden. It's a perversion of God's good gift.

[10:05] Now, adultery is one of those perversions. It's forbidden sex where one or more are married, but not to each other. Fornication is another biblical word that is a broader word that includes adultery and other forms of sexual immorality.

[10:23] And even those that are not between married people. But both adultery and fornication are forbidden because they're outside of the place for sex, which is the covenant of marriage alone.

[10:40] So our lawmaker, he he erects this this wall of the seventh commandment around this private garden.

[10:50] Why? Is he just a killjoy? Is he out to diminish our joy? No, he's out to promote our joy. He's out to protect these precious gifts of marriage and sex and to protect it from all that would cheapen and destroy it.

[11:10] So that's the first point. Our second point this morning is that you and I, we need this commandment. Again, God wastes no words in his book.

[11:20] If it's here, it's because we need it to be here. And we need it for two reasons at least. We could list many more, I'm sure. But we need it, first of all, because we live in a wicked and adulterous generation.

[11:35] And that's nothing new, I hope you know. I don't mean to say that, oh my, we have such a perversion today that has never been known on earth.

[11:46] There's only reruns with perversion. There's never anything new. It's just reruns. And if you've read your Bible, you know that.

[11:58] There's nothing today that wasn't there before. But it is a wicked and adulterous generation. That's the way that the Lord Jesus describes this whole present age until he comes back.

[12:10] It is a wicked and an adulterous generation. So sexual immorality has long been a huge problem throughout the history of mankind. And we're not surprised to find it included in the ten-point summary of God's moral law, therefore.

[12:26] This is a big one. And so it makes it into the summary. The last several months has seen one form of sexual perversion exposed to the great embarrassment of many prominent men.

[12:38] And it is sexual abuse, unwanted sexual advances. And we have seen that what was done in secret is now being shouted from the rooftops, as Jesus foretold.

[12:55] And that's just a little taste of the day of judgment, when what has been hidden will be brought out into the open. But I'm struck by the sheer hypocrisy of the matter, seen in the way that many have been so quick to pounce and denounce this one perversion, even while condoning their own forms of sexual perversity.

[13:19] Hollywood is hardly the paragon of moral virtue. And yet we see them coming out with such a loud voice against one form, while they justify and condone their own adultery and fornication, because after all, it is consensual.

[13:38] It's agreeable to both parties. I just want to stand in the present milieu and say the seventh commandment does not say you shall not commit adultery, unless, of course, it is consensual.

[13:51] Doesn't say that, does it? To agree to commit adultery gets no one off the hook. It's just consensual adultery. And it only means that both are guilty of breaking the seventh commandment.

[14:04] So we read in Matthew 14 how that King Herod had married his brother's wife, Herodias. It was consensual. They were both for it. And John the Baptist pointed his finger at the king and he said, it's not right for you to have her.

[14:23] Consensual or not, it's not right for you to have her. The consent needed to make sex lawful is God's consent.

[14:34] And he has said, no adultery, period. King Herod didn't like being under someone else's law and just reminding him of that law would cost John his head.

[14:45] This is the world we live in. In which men would like to say to God, don't tell me what to do with my body.

[14:56] But he does, in fact, tell us what to do with our bodies, doesn't he? A leadership class in one of our universities was discussing this question.

[15:10] If you had to downsize the ten commandments, which ones would you remove? The question itself is quite revealing, isn't it? And I'm sure there's no surprise when the majority said they would remove the seventh commandment.

[15:25] And when asked why, well, because it's outdated. Nobody obeys it anymore. So why even have it? And I hear Psalm 2, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.

[15:42] Let's get rid of some of these old-fashioned commands of God and his king. Nobody obeys it anyway.

[15:54] Well, that's not quite true, but you do get the drift, don't you? There is some truth to that. About half of high school teenagers do not wait until marriage.

[16:06] 65% of American singles live together before getting married. And somewhere, it's kind of hard to know the truthfulness of some of these statistics, but somewhere between 50% and 66% of men have committed adultery sometime in their lives.

[16:22] And women are not far behind. And the stats on sexually transmitted diseases simply back up those figures in hard data with 42% of American adults living with some form of diagnosed sexually transmitted infection.

[16:41] People are voting by their actions. We'd like to downsize the Ten Commandments and not have anyone tell us what to do with our bodies.

[16:53] And so sexual immorality is normalized in the sex ed classes in the schools. It's glamorized in the movies. It's joked about in sitcoms. And it's celebrated in pop music.

[17:05] And this permissive attitude of the world toward this holy gift of God, it's the atmosphere we live in. It's the air we breathe.

[17:15] I mean, you can't completely quarantine yourself from this air. And that in itself makes it dangerous to moral purity.

[17:26] So somebody burns the popcorn in your kitchen. And you may be on the other end of the house, but it stinks. And you smell it.

[17:37] And it's strong. And maybe the fire alarm's beeping. And you open the windows and the doors and turn on the fans. And finally, the smell is gone.

[17:50] It's back to normal. Or so it seems. We don't smell it anymore. But then somebody comes home, and they have one step into the house.

[18:03] And what's their question? Who burnt the popcorn? The reality is that we just got used to the smell, to where it didn't bother us anymore. And I say as we live and move and have our being in the midst of a world that is so perverted and full and right up front in your face with all this sexual perversion, it is a dangerous thing for moral purity.

[18:28] And it greatly ups the difficulty of making our way through this world without soiling our garments, without just not noticing and not reacting so strongly against what once used to make us blush just to hear it.

[18:53] The Lord Jesus knows where we live. He lived in the same wicked and adulterous generation. And it was there that he retained his sexual purity for 33 years.

[19:05] So that's one reason that I say we need this command, because there's such perversion all around us. Secondly, on top of the tempting culture outside us are the powerful lusts within us.

[19:20] We saw this in regard to the sixth commandment. Jesus said, out of the heart in Matthew 15, 19, out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, and the next two are adultery, sexual immorality.

[19:39] Jesus is teaching that our greatest problem in this area of moral defilement is not out there. It's not what's showing on TV. It's not what our friends are talking about.

[19:50] It's not what the culture is plastering up in front of our eyes. That's not the biggest problem we have. The greatest problem with moral purity that we have is in here, because out of the heart comes adultery, and out of the heart comes sexual immorality.

[20:05] James says, each man is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed.

[20:18] The reason he's dragged away and enticed is because he has an evil desire within for the bait that the world swings at him from outside. So out of the heart proceeds adultery.

[20:32] You put this heart into a tempting culture and you've got an explosive situation to be sure. A heart that is not yet perfected, that in the best of us still has evil desires, and put it into a world where it's like Vanity Fair paraded before us.

[20:54] There is a great potential for sin. It's like trying to carry an open box of dynamite through a burning house. How do we get through this house?

[21:06] How do we avoid the sparks? How do we get out of this life with our garments unsoiled?

[21:18] I say we are the ones who need to hear the seventh commandment, and we need some awfully powerful defenses to fight off such a bombardment of temptation. We need a new heart to start with.

[21:29] We need God, the Holy Spirit, living in to fight that battle with us and for us. And we need the truth that exposes the world's lies and shows us the hook underneath the bait that the world's dangling before us.

[21:46] The truth of God's word that Jesus says will set us free from any sin. We can't totally escape breathing the polluted fumes.

[22:01] And so we need days like this to come together to the word of God. And it's like an oxygen chamber.

[22:12] And we come and we and we deeply breathe in the oxygen, the pure oxygen of the truth. Oh, we've come from that polluted air out there.

[22:26] Oh, we've come into this atmosphere of holiness. And we need to just deeply breathe it into our soul so that we've got some air in our lungs when we go back out into this perverse and adulterous generation.

[22:43] So we need it. We need the word of God telling us no adultery, no fornication.

[22:55] Third, the seriousness of the sin of adultery. And I want to show you that by the descriptions that God gives us about it, of it, and also his determination to punish it.

[23:10] You see, when the culture is belittling and condoning sin, we need to be armed with God's view of adultery and all sex outside of marriage. And it becomes a weapon of righteousness in the right hand to fight off these sexual temptations.

[23:28] So how does God describe adultery? We know how our culture describes it and how they laugh and poke fun and joke about it.

[23:39] But how does God describe it? Remember Joseph's response to Mrs. Potiphar's bold advances? How could I do such a wicked thing?

[23:52] A wicked thing. We don't think rightly about sexual immorality unless we think what a wicked thing it is.

[24:03] How it opposes a holy God whose command it is and whose good gift it is. Job 31, 11 calls adultery a shameful thing. We've lost the shame in our country toward this shameful thing.

[24:22] And Jeremiah 29, 23 calls it an outrageous thing. Not the words that the culture would choose. Wicked, shameful, outrageous.

[24:34] Breathe it in, folks. Take it in. Let it fill your heart and mind with this pure atmosphere of God's truth. That's his view towards this sin.

[24:46] But then God has gone on record about his determination to punish this sin. And this, too, is written to help us. So breathe it in as I read you these words.

[24:57] Deuteronomy 22, 22. If a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

[25:11] Do you see God's attitude toward that sin in his law to Israel? Does that sound harsh to our ears?

[25:23] Could that be because we are out of touch with what God sees this sin to be?

[25:34] What he thinks of it? Oh, but that's the Old Testament. New Testament's more full of grace. Have you read it? Did you listen to what Pastor Jason read from Matthew 20 or Matthew 5 from our gracious Lord Jesus?

[25:50] He says that the impenitent adulterer is destined to have his whole body go into hell for this sin. He said it twice. There's a hell for this sin.

[26:03] Revelation 21, 8. This revelation, this book of revelation of Jesus Christ says that the sexually immoral will have their place. Fire has its place.

[26:14] Sex has its place. And the sexually immoral have their place in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. And no less than three times the Jesus Apostle Paul tells of the miserable end of the sexually immoral.

[26:32] He says in that list of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5 that the acts of the sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, orgies, and the like.

[26:44] And I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul finds that believers in the Christian churches at Galatia need to be reminded that there's no heaven for impenitent, sexually immoral people.

[27:05] And then to the believers in that church in Corinth which was a grossly immoral city. Paul does not lower the bar for them. Do you not know, 1 Corinthians 6, 9, that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?

[27:19] Do not be deceived. Evidently, they were being deceived. Could it be that many Christians today are deceived? Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, or homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanders, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

[27:42] Ephesians 5, for of this you can be sure. Not much you can be sure of in this world, but here's something you can be sure of. No immoral, impure, or greedy person, such a man as an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

[27:57] Don't let anyone deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, don't be partners with them. And so we see that God is determined to punish this sin.

[28:16] Breathe it in. You may not like the pure air, but breathe it in. It's the pure word of God. Hebrews 13, for marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

[28:39] The delights of immorality are for a moment, its torments last forever. And it is the sheer kindness of our judge to tell us this before we show up in judgment.

[28:53] Isn't it? Isn't it his kindness? It was his kindness and putting the fence up around marriage and sex. No adultery. And now it's his kindness that he's written it down and he tells us what it really is and how he's determined to punish it.

[29:09] And his warnings are meant to save us from endless misery. Thank you, kind shepherd of heaven. Fourth, let's come then to Jesus' own application of the seventh commandment.

[29:23] The Lord Jesus is in that Sermon on the Mount and he's setting forth the laws of his kingdom and he comes to the seventh commandment. You've heard that it was said, do not commit adultery.

[29:34] And perhaps some got nervous about what nobody else knew was going on in their sexual lives, but for the most part the crowd was casual and comfortable at this point because most of them understood the seventh commandment to condemn nothing more than the outward act of adultery.

[29:50] And they hadn't done that. So, they're good with the seventh commandment. That's what enabled that rich young ruler to say to Jesus after he quoted the last six commandments, all these I have kept from my youth up.

[30:05] That's what enabled the Pharisees to look down their noses at adulterers because in their eyes they hadn't committed the act. And so Jesus in his parable of the two men who went into the temple to pray, says the Pharisees stood up and prayed about himself, God, I thank you I'm not like other men, robbers, evildoers, adulterers.

[30:28] And even so, many today would consider themselves clean of breaking the seventh commandment. Never been to bed with anyone other than my spouse.

[30:39] Jesus says that's all very well. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

[30:52] Now that was a bombshell that day. And things got immediately quiet on the mountainside where Jesus was preaching. Nobody had interpreted for them like that the seventh commandment.

[31:08] lust. And here comes his words with authority. Already just with the look of lust already committed adultery with her in your heart.

[31:24] So according to Jesus the seventh commandment is broken yes by the physical act number one but secondly by lustful looks. Just as hating is murder in the heart so lusting is adultery in the heart.

[31:40] This sin too has its roots in the heart and that's where Jesus goes after it. He puts his finger upon the inward lusting that leads to the outward act. And so he would condemn all that feeds into and leads to the outward act of adultery.

[31:58] The lustful look as well as the secret rendezvous. Peter condemns those having eyes full of adultery. Full of lustful desires for that one that is forbidden.

[32:12] Fantasizing thoughts perhaps fueled by pornography perhaps fueled by romance novels by certain music and movies we can vicariously act out our lust through these characters and according to Jesus it's adultery committed in the heart and leaves the seventh commandment broken.

[32:32] So the teachers were teaching and the people were thinking that as long as I don't commit the act I'm safe and sound and Jesus says I tell you no just looking with lust will condemn you to hell unless you repent and forsake your sin.

[32:47] Thomas Watson says you know a man can die from internal bleeding can't he? And so he may also be damned for internal lusting.

[33:03] What's Jesus doing? Here's the compassionate son of God to whom hell is no figment of the imagination. Jesus knows better than any other human being on earth what hell is.

[33:17] And seeing that and seeing precious lives made in the image of God moves him to warn us to warn us about this sin to urgently call us to radical repentance if your right eye causes you to sin gouge it out throw it away it's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell he's saying this sin will take you to hell if you don't forsake it so deal radically with whatever inflames your lust if it's your eye your hand he's not saying literally amputate he's saying cut out of your life whatever causes you to sin whatever inflames your lust breathe it in it's the pure words of Jesus Christ get serious with this sin of sexual lust with your eyes your ears your mind your hands don't go to hell that's what the loving Jesus is saying but Jesus exposes another common way the seventh commandment was being broken in his day and it's no less in ours and it immediately follows in the verses the seventh commandment is broken by unbiblical divorce and remarriage in verse 31

[34:34] Jesus says it has been said anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce now they interpreted that to mean if you get tired of your wife and want to trade her in for another if you want to weigh out of your marriage problem marriage just be sure you got the papers the certificate that's all you need you're good to go no problem but I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife except for marital unfaithfulness and that's a word that means physical intimacy with someone else causes her to become an adulteress and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery can you be serious Jesus they asked him in Matthew 19 I tell you the truth that anyone who divorces his wife except for marital unfaithfulness physical intimacy with someone outside the marriage covenant anyone who divorces his wife except for marital unfaithfulness and marries another woman commits adultery so what did they do they had turned divorce with its certificate into an easy way out of marriage the great escape how convenient you want someone younger better looking little kinder more money less health problems true soul mate no problem all you got to do is sign some papers no need to carry on a secret affair on the side no just just divorce the one you've got and marry the one you want and when you do

[36:13] Jesus says you will have committed adultery you will have broken the seventh commandment no matter what your divorce court papers say nobody's counting this as adultery today that is nobody but Jesus the judge and his true disciples our easy laws on divorce and remarriage are little more than legalized lust and that's what Jesus is going after it's just another way the fence around marriage is being torn down and marriage destroyed our marriage is better for destroying the fence our families healthier is true love doing better well here's this seventh commandment then a precious fence to protect something that's precious to God that he wants us to know the preciousness of let us not then be carried along by the popular currents and ideas we've breathed in

[37:17] God's truth on the matter so different than the world's view around us now live it out now go to the glory of God and to the joy of your own being live it out and if this command forbids that which destroys the intimacy of the marriage bond then it also requires the opposite that you actively pursue that which strengthens your marriage you were to avoid all that would intrude on your marriage you are now to do the opposite and to see to it that you are strengthening your marriage a neglected marriage relationship is a road paved to adultery that's what Jesus is teaching us you've got to deal with the preciousness of marriage by giving yourself to it to what strengthens it and guarding yourself against everything that would destroy it what are you doing brother sister to strengthen your marriage a happy growing relationship will not have husbands and wives running off with another perhaps somebody else needs to go and live this truth out by setting a new watch over your eyes you've grown careless you don't you're not as careful anymore he

[38:40] Jesus called to repent radical surgery guard your heart out of the heart comes adultery and sexual immorality are there lust stirring materials that you need to amputate out of your life how could I live without this thing it's not all evil Jesus says better to be without it for the rest of your life and to enter into heaven than to have it your whole life and go to hell that's that's his help to you brother that's his help to you sister that's his help to this pastor there's more motivations to live the Christian life than just the response of grace to God's love and grace that ought to be enough but sometimes it is just the reality that there is a hell for those that don't repent for this sin and that will get me moving and doing things when I otherwise would be sluggish and cold and unmoved and young people keep yourselves pure for your marriage partner you missing out yes you are you're missing out on sexually transmitted diseases emotional scars that carry over into marriage guilty conscience the judgment of

[40:05] God you're missing out but live God live God's way and you'll find it's the best way the best way to your great joy and to his glory and delight and whoever you are don't fight this battle alone don't fight without the Lord as your savior you need his mercy!

[40:25] to forgive! you and his grace to help you even as he spoke these words he was on his way to Calvary's cross he had come for this where he would lose more than a right hand and a right eye but would lay down his whole body as a sacrifice for sinners for adulterers and fornicators and all kinds of sexually immoral people he says that he did not come to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved and so he's here on a mission of mercy and grace even for those guilty of these sins that he has laid out before us in such withering fashion but you see no one will seek his mercy and grace who are not convicted of their need of him and so in love he takes his commands and he presses it home to our hearts until it pinches and it hurts and it convicts us and we see

[41:32] I am the sinner it's his love it's his love warning us how it's going to be when he comes the second time to condemn an unbelieving world to judge the immoral when the secrets of our heart will be uncovered and brought into the open and every mouth will be stopped silence before God's broken laws and then it will be too late to seek mercy so in love the Lord is using his law to shut our mouths here and now while mercy is yet to be found commenting on that verse of the martin lloyd jones said a christian what is a christian a christian is a man whose mouth has been shut what did he mean well a christian is is someone where god has already held the court in his heart and he's already set his law before them and convicted them as guilty law breakers who deserve his wrath and condemnation that court has convened in his heart left him guilty before a holy god and so his mouth is shut no excuses no rationalizations no no no justification silent with nothing good to say for himself why is jesus pressing us to that point because it's only the person whose mouth has been shut who will then open it condemning himself agreeing with god in the matter confessing himself the sinner and pleading for mercy alone god be merciful to me a sinner for jesus sake you'll never cry for that if your mouth is not first shut and silenced against any self righteousness that would think that you're good to go with the seventh commandment have you had your mouth shut let his law search and try you then throw yourself upon his promised mercy we never get beyond the need of that in this life brothers and sisters!

[43:53] throwing ourselves upon mercy the mercy of God and Jesus Christ it's what makes us treasure the Lord Jesus and his free grace it's what makes us fight with new resolve the battle against the flesh it's what makes us more than conquerors through him who loved us so because God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble this is the grace that met that immoral Samaritan woman who had five husbands and was living with another not her husband this is the grace that those sexually immoral Corinthians had received of whom Paul could say such were some of you were some of you but you were washed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God as he grew!

[44:42] older and more feeble John Newton says I have forgotten a lot great sinner and Jesus is a great savior that's what he's bringing us to confess every time we come and breathe the fresh air of God's law his standard of righteousness we see we are great sinners but we see our law giver laid open on calvary receiving what we deserved and we must say but he is a great savior in fact he's a greater savior than we sinners for where our sins abounded grace super abounds goes far beyond so sinner friend welcome to this savior brothers and sisters go and live as one who's just been pardoned from the second death penalty the death penalty of the second death all because of that grace of the

[45:43] Lord Jesus Christ let's turn to number 702 and make that our response to him you can do have dealings with God right where you're at in your seat tell him what you are and plead for his mercy to forgive and for his grace to help you stand in the evil day number 702 wonderful grace of Jesus let's sing stand with me as we sing let's pray together our father in heaven thank you for your word thank you that it is true and pure and that it comes into our hearts and minds like light and shines on our darkness comes like fire and burns up our dross come and cleanse us forgive us that we ever thought we were anything but rotten sinners in need of a great savior thank you that your law keeps bringing us back to those two great realities thank you that we don't need to leave under the conviction of a guilty conscience but in the blood of Jesus we can be washed whiter than snow thank you for the power of your blood

[46:57] Lord Jesus to cleanse from every sin to set us free and so we pray you would do that for some lost sinner this morning do it for each one of us who are here continue to be setting us free from ourselves our inward evil desires and bringing us into the liberty that glorious freedom of walking in the light with you who are light so glorify yourself in us keep us from falling we are weak we're poor and needy and how blessed we are that you are El Shaddai strong for us we would go in your might in Jesus name amen