Come near to me (Grace and guilt)

Source: Moore Theological College

Contributed by: Kivengere, Festo
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 wo-‘ (J; .Ni()

Author: Festo Kivengere

Place:
Date:
Event:
Theme: Come Near to Me (Grace and Guilt)
Text: Joh 8:1 ff.
Comment: Taken from Tape 53

Index:
p. 1 Poor in grace

p. 2 Devil is the accuser

P. 4 Not condemned
p. 6 Devil!s Oppression
p. 7 Strong Redeemer
p. 8 Advocate - Jesus Christ
p. 10 Grace for all

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 tA.14. 1 t
Tape 3 Message: Come Near Unto Me.

We should always speak about the Lord J esus with an involvement. You can

never speak about the Holy Spirit and get away with it, and therefore that is why

we always prepare because it is in his graciousness that you receive it that we

don't get away with it at-all, and William and I can thank his very much that •we are

not getting away at all with it, and I hope that none here come here and unfortun-

ately get away with it, we hope that you leave it in his hands, whatever it is.

..If there is anything that we as Christians suffer from iss being, dry and poor iin 4z, ,

grace. Yes, in such a way that. sometimes when the gospel is preached you feel as

if there is a stone in your heart, that is not saintliness, brethren. Saints are

always touched and melted by the gospel. Put them wherever you want, speak about

the gospel and it is _just like a perfume which goes through and through the oul.

This is because he is the son of God, there is nothing that melts the heart

than to see Jesus in hiFi r;rr!ciousnr.ss. Last night as we were reading from the gospel

in the Old '-'estament, we saw in that son of Jacob, Joseph, grace, drawing his guilty

brethren r nd making than .' feel terribly ashamed, making as if the whole world was
going to open its mouth and swallow them up and yet find the qualities of grace in

Joseph as he "Come near unto me, I am Joseph your brother.'

Of course, none but Jesus can say that, none but the •Lord -JesUs can speak to a

guilty conscience peace, and there is peace where he speaks beacause he doesn't•

speak empty words, a preacher may give you wonderful sermon and perfect doctrine but

not the Lord. Jesus, he speakd through the Holy Spirit and perfect sacrifice, and when

he speaks the Holy Spirit takes and draws aside the curtains and you see what the son

of God accomplished for your guilty conscience. There is a song in song, there is

music, there is forgivene8s, there is reconciliation. There is a lifting of the burden

where we would have been chewing some very good failing.

May we concentrate only on him, for I believe that it is him that you and I need.

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 2.

Indeed, I do not deny that there are many things you need, you may think you

need gifts, you may think you need power_in prayer perhaps you need a deeper

knowledge of the scriptures, all those things I don't deny, you need them,

but brother you need him above anything else.

Pray for yourself, that the spirit of God is going to bring him in

fullness into that heart of yours. Perhaps you are a tired saint, perhaps

you are a worker rather feeling disappointed in yourself, and as you look back

thirty, forty, and fifty years you see nothing , but bits and pieces of blank-

ness and failure, and you don't know what to do. Sometimes you remorse and

wish that those years would come back, they can't come back, theyare gone.

. • Ilat are you going-to do about it? The devil comes and accuses you , and

shows vlyu how you failed here, and how you failed there, how you failed in.duty$

how you didn't love as you ought to love, how you didn't preach . as yor_ought

to preach.. Yes, he tells me these things day by day. After speaking he comes

back and says, 'You didn't;give the whole truth did you?' AS if he knew the

truth, Does he know the truth? lie just comes to condemn me, then I look

back and I find nothing, if it were not that when I see the empty world,

when I see the failure, the stumbling about and the wobbling about, do you

know what we do?

Then grace comes and covers those blanks, then I look back and I don't

see anything I've done, I see Jesus. Saint Paul says, "We see Jesus."

Do you? As you look into the past do you see Jesus? As you look into

your converts you'll be, terribly disappointed, but I see Jesus.

I'd like to read to you just a few words of encouragement tonight. I

don't know what you situation is like, I don't know what you've • messed about

with. I'm not even interested because I know there is one who knows about it,

and he's the one' you•need to know. You know about it, and he knows about it,

thank God.

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 John 8 will be the basis of our themes tonight*

John 8:Lont4-tards. This is a very sad case. A person brought to Jesus

Christ. Sometimes you feel as if you wouldn't like to read that. And he

was sitting there teaching, and these callous, unfeeling, dry as bones, Ph-

arisees, so called religious dry bones, and they took this poor object.

Unfeelingly, they took her all the way and they brought this broken-hearted

one and ushered her into the court of the temple. Absolutely unconcerned, not

even touched, no pity, no compassion, except a legallistic, dry approach as

if they had completely exhausted thier humanity.

'ILkThank God, we read here, and they put her case before him. Oh, how sweet.

They put her case befOre hiM and they said to the Lord Jesus Christ, very

unconcernedly, that this girl had committed a crime. They told him the whole

story without any convictions and any burdens, no love at all, and as you read

.thier words they are full of dryness and condemnation. And they said to

"What is your sentence?"

I love two things about it. 'owl God was embarrassed. The Lord Jesus as

he looked, turned hib eyes from the spectacle of mercy, and he turned round in

utter embarrassment. I want to think that love has its embarrassments. On .

this particular occassion you see love embarrassed. He looked down and wrote
on the ground. be never looked at her. They) ore all staring hard with un-

feeling, waiting to condemnation, they thought they were veryreligious,

very well disciplined, they gave the impression that they hated sin', they

didn't like sin. Sin is never hated except through the light of Calvary.
They didn't hate sin. They were callous, unfeeling, unrealistic, act-

ually living in sin, the*ere worse than this poor woman as far as grace was
concerned. The master turned and wrote some words on the ground, I don't know

what he wrote there, and he turned-round - again and said some words that •

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 i-I

embarrassed their' all. As it were, he turned away from the woman and he said
to those who had brought her and asked them, "If there is anyone among you

who has never committed such a sin lift your hand and stone her first."

They were all guilty, and they went one by one. Jesus was left alone

with that woman standing before him. Two extremes standing together in a

room. Purest purity standing against the darkest, the.most guilty, the most

downcast, the most guilty, most ashamed person. The holiest looking upon the

filthiest, and both came together, and there stood the Lord Jesus.

Quickly, he turned to her and very graciously, I think this was the most

difficult moment for her. Others might have sold n. lot of words to - abUse her

or t o convict her, to condemn or despise her, but they would never make her

feel convicted as when she was there, - when she was left with•the Lord Jesus in

that room. Here was pure eye, too holy to behold sin, actually looking at sin.

Here was the innocent, the holy. one and in his presence stood a sinner, but

she was the object of grace, she stood there, a ilewish woman, guilty by law,
condemned by Moses, ashamed of herself, an object of mercy. There could. never'

have been . a better place for her than where she was that day.

And the Lord raised himself up,and said to her, "Woman, where are your

accusers? Where are they? Has no man condemned you?" And she replied,

"No_ one Lord." And he said, "I do not condemn thee either. Go and sin no

more."

What an object of mercy Go.home and sin no more. You could almost see

her go. She hasn i t said a thing except, "No one Lord." That's all. No

pleading, no excuses, and she heard those wonderful words from the mouth of

the Lord J esus, "Go home and sin no more." Meet her along the road and I'm

sure she would have been the best singer of hymn number 127, 'Amazing grace,

oh how sweet the sound.' Wasn't it a sweet sound that moment?

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 "Go home lady, I am not condemning thee. I didn't come to condemn but to

save." I think as she went along the road, Amazing Grace, oh how sweet it was.

She was probably smiling with tears in her eyes because she got what she never

expected. She was expecting to be stoned to death instead she was told to go

home. Yes, perhaps there is one who is guilty, perhaps there is one who is

feeling condemned by the devil, perhaps there is one whom the devil has been

nagging saying, 'You're no good, you're no good. Look at your faults, look

at your failure, look at you jealousies, look how critical you are, look how

bad you are, as it were he has been printing 'Bad, bad, bad,' all over you.

That's exactly what you are, he's not telling lies. All he is doing is

exaggerating. Actually he's speaking-the truth, he's not accusing you of

what you are not. He knows you are like that that is why he is accusing

you.

The devil is clever, he'll never tell lies about us, when he says you

are jealous he means it, he sees you when you are jealousy but he makes ter -

rific exaggerations. He says it is impossible, you case is out of control

you have gone beyond the line. He is a lier. Let us encourage you tonight.

You stand an object of mercy. This woman, if she goes home everything she

says is about how she met him and how she was pronounced free. JJ o you know

that that is a wonderful God? How many people today in America need that God?

How many people walk the streets, the paths, the roads, and in the nooks they

stand alone, some • leaningagainst houses tears running down thier cheeks

With consciences almost broken down. 'What do they need? They need this

gracious message, the gospel. They need this gospel of J esus Christ. Oh, how

sweet the songs, when a soul condemned by sin, guilty and ashamed of itself,

when they hear those words go home, because I took it all for you.

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 Jeremiah chapter 50:33. Jeremiah was a prophet who prophesied in diff-

icult times and he had a rough go for that matter, and he writes to God's

people. 'T

Thus saYs.the Lord God of Hosts, 'the children. of 'Israel and the children

of judah were oppresSed together.

Oh, that word, that terrible English word 'oppressed', Oh how the devil
enjoys sitting on a pedestal and oppresses the consciences of God's people.

Even when the gospel is being preached all that a person hears is nothing but -

accusations, The Spirit comes and says 'yes that is your sin,' and the devil

starts there. He accuses you a hundred times more. Oppressed together is

the right word to use. Homes oppressed together, husbands and wives oppressed •

together, church goers oppressed together, elders oppressed together, pastors

oppressed together, , children and parents oppressed together. Workers for

God oppressed together.

This oppression comes from within. And he said, 'All that • tOok them cap-

tive held them fast. They refused to let. plem go«'- They determinedly refused,

they tenaciously held on and refused to let them go, and this causes a

struggle, do you know that struggle? When you struggle to let yoUrself loose

from the habit and it refuses to go, it hangs on, it tenaciously holds on

and many young Christians have given up the battle, thinking that they can't

do it, it hangs , on„ they repent but it comes back and holds on, and they say,

'oh yes. these wonderful) experienced Christians who go to the pulpit and say

victory,. victory, 1 wish they could come down from the pulpit and tell me

exactly what they mean, because - .have tried and tried and failed.'
These wonderful C hristians, they don't understand and. it is true * 14any

holding the Scriptures don't understand. You take a text from the scriptures

and it just goes by you. without leaving a message. You give the impression

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that you:just press the button and you WOnder up into the air. It's not all

that easy, we are struggling in problems. We have a nagging devil. following

• ,
us around. We are realistic men and women.

l et the prophet says, 'they hold on, they refuse to let us go until..

Verse thirty four, let us look at that. If were to leave the battle there

it would-be a completely hopeless battle, you would simply stri*Land fail,

strive again. and fail until you try to make yourself believe it, and that is

not what we are meant to live.- W e are not meant to live the sort.of make-your-
self believe it life. If it is like that then the cross of 'Jesus Christ has

no meaning for me. No, we are meant to live a realistic life, a life made •

possible not through my knowledge, not through what I am, not through what

I can be, but made possible through the miracle of the finished work of

Jesus C hrist at Calvary for me.

Vern e---3'4t-o-- ThAai- redeemer is strong. The Lord of hosts is his name.

He shall thoroughly plead thier cause, that he may give rest to the land, and

disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

Put it on John 8 and see him standing, this strong redeemer, pleading.
the case of this poor woman thoroughly from A--Z, and give the rest to the land
of the•conscience of that woman and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon, -they

all went out one by one, made uncomfortable, but the lady's land of conscience

was madeaat rest. •

He has, at a place called Calvary my redeemer went.. He took my case into

his gracious hands. Oh, what a pleader. Follow him in Gethsemane and as he

sweat that terrible blood, drinking the dirty cup of my transgressions and its

judgement. He nearly wrung his heart so that he was bleeding sweat. Ask him,

"Lord Jesus what are you doing here alone in the garden? Why perspirations of
blood?" And the answer will be, "I am thoroughly pleading her cause. I have

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 8.

taken on a difficult case. .A case beyond remedy, angels cannot look into it

as they shudder, so I have taken it upon myself to plead her case."

Follow him on, see him bound with his arms behind him. He looks guilty

doesn't he, see his bruised face he looks very guilty, in fact there is nothing

to desire him says. prophet Isaiah. There is no beauty, he has Iosthis beauty,

he doesn't look - like the fairest Lord j esus all the fairness seem to have gone.

.Why does he look like this?

I_ am thoroughly pleading his case. A difficult case. Then he goes all the •

way, not half-way. I love the way it is put here, 'He has thoroughly pleaded

thier cause.' Hot half but thoroughly, every corner, every point, when he

takes a sinners case he doeSn't leave any corners unpleaded for. Nothinii is'

.left, its guilt, its condemnation, its cause, all the points. And as you see

him standing before Pilate pleading.nothing„ and Pilate asks him queStions

and he nevers answers. He couln't answer, what would he answer? • Guilty, yes

indeed.

In Cor 5:20 it says, 'God was literally in Christ j esus taking upon him-
self the sins.• Nhat a God. What a pleader. V1 hat an advocate. Can't you

drop your case into his hands? No matter what it is, those old habits, 'those.

lingering guilty consciences. Can't you drop them into those wonderful hands?

Guilty Peter, that evening when the cock crowed he turned and Jesus

looked at Peter, and the look preached a sermon. And. Peter saw in the eyes

of Deus what he couldn't explain except by weeping. That hard stout fisher7

man. You could spend all your life trying to make Peter weep and you would

never succeed. A rough sailor, never will you get a tear from Peter's eye,

but the look of JaEus did-it, and later on when he was elderly, in his first

letter, chapter 2, verse-24, he says that when he was accused and.abused he

wasn't frightened. M ewaS innocent, guileless, guiltless, he stood . there a

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spectacle. He pleaded my case.

Peter says, 'He himself in his 4.ton body bore the burdens of my sin and

took them to Calvary.' Do you know where Peter learnt that lesson? At Calvary

that evening, Peter saw that in the body of his dear Lord' Jesus, he, had

actually carried the burdens, the guilt, the shame in his body, and he took•it

to C alvary and he pleaded Peter's case thoroughly. That is why'Peter preached

sermon on Pentecost. Grace had prevailed. It is a wonderful thing to see

hiM pleading. It is a wonderful thing to see him at Calvary taking your case

pleading it thoroughly through and through. It doesn't matter how much youare

guilty, if only you can take whatever. it is however sticky it is, the sin or

the habit, take it to J esus Christ, hand it over to him and let him plead it

thoroughly for you.

Just take your hands of it and simply say to the Lord Jesus, 'Here I am,

I an guilty, I am a defeated C hristian, habit has overcome me, I try to loVe

others but-I can't. I hate them. Oh, Lord Jesus take it up.' And he will

thoroughly tonight, as he stands before his father, presenting not your right-,

aousness becdUse when he pleads for me he doesn't- say, what a wonderful chap

Festo iso He never does that, he simply tells me I am guilty from A-Z, and

then he says, 'Give it to me.' ti e then takes it up, and what I can never

produce he produces, What I.can never do he does, and what it. beyond me is

within his reach, and tonight I'd like to say,,praise the Lord for -that-gospel.

It is for you, it is for me, it is for your home. Do you know grace?

Grace is O'esus. Do you. know what makes a man rejoice? Not the standard

of righteousness which you have reached, all your righteousness is just filthy

rags. You can't rejoice in . that. V+hat makes a saint rejoice is the finished.

Work of Jesus Christ for him.' What is a gospel? That makes a testimony sweet?

Not what you put into it but what J esus did for you and for me.-

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 10.

•
What refreshes a minister of the gospel? Not what he produces in his

sermons but what J esus does for that poor minister. What helps a church like

this to rejoice? Not because it is full of wonderful saints who never commit

a sin. Where are you going to get them? These wonderful people who lead

consistent Christian lives from A-Z. "here are they? Are they in this church?

It would be a wonderful church. Sometimes I don't think it would be wonderful,

I doubt that it could.be. You would all • be angels, you would not be men, but -

I think you are mend Women here not angels. You are in need of the touch

Of J esus pleading for you tonight.

• You have got things . which make you uncomfortable at times. "hat do you do

about them? You need to see the Lord Jesus pleading, covering, knitting,
forgiving,..then you turn around and say,"Amazing grace, oh how sweet.;

You are not only to sgy this when you believed twenty-five years ago,

that is a long story. That is too old a story to give your heart any rejoicing,

and tonight remember that and praise God for that wonderful beginning, the day

. which fixed my choice on my Saviour and Lord. We are told not to forget it. In

fact I don't think you'can forget it, unless you forget yourself, but that is-

not enough'.
It is immediate grace in the circumstances of-your life. - It is to see

Jesus Christ sufficient for you today, for the sin which interrupted your com-

munion, which broke your fellowship. It is that wonderful Jesus you need -tonight.
It is grace. It was grace for that woman, it is grace for arid it is grace for

me. Perhaps you are saying to yourself that it was very good for that poor

lady, are'we any better brethren? Don't you know that your thoughts have de-
throned your taster, have wounded him? For every sin that you have committed!

- and for every new sin you commit fresh wounds are inflicted on our Lord, and

there.is nothing which can meet , it except the blood of the . beloved Son of. God.

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 The perfect, the precious, the all sufficient blood of the Lord Jesus, and

he has nothing to present to your father except that he finished your case.

- That was his final cry at Calvary, as he looked at the guilty world and as he

looked at the dieing people beside him and around him, and guilty rthter.tiown

beluW he was somewhere in the corner, and he said, It is finished Peter, it

is finished thou. dieing thief, your case is through you can go home and re-

JOice.
T hat is what he said to me twenty one years ago, but let me tell you the
sweetest of all and that is whE:Lt he has been telling me day by day in my little •

home, and I can't tell you It is a gospel whenever I hear that whisper,:rIt

is finishedo r 'That conflict between you and your wife this morning, it is

finished, because I atoned for it.' ! That misunderstanding between you and

your brother, • it is finished now, as you look at me at Calvary you see me

there with your .case on-my shoulder, you see me say to my father, yes •he is

guilty poor chap, but I _took up the case for him. Forgive him, and it is doneol

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