 Let's open our Bibles to John chapter 8 and verse 11. And she was brought to Jesus. Now the interesting part, if you read the Bible, you always have to kind of think. Where was the man? Adultery cannot happen without two people. There was two people in bed. How come the woman was dragged out? Why the man was never brought? And some people indicate because the man was one of the people who actually brought her there. Because, I mean, where was the man? The woman is brought to Jesus, caught in the act of adultery and the man is not brought. I mean, this is complete injustice. But, and so they bring her to Jesus and Jesus is, you know, sitting there drawing some things on the sand. The Bible says, and they kept pounding on Jesus, what should we do with her? What should we do with her? Moses says, we should stone her. We got the stones. This is the woman. This is the evidence. What do you say? You know, and Jesus was in a very interesting predicament because if he goes against the law of Moses, he goes against the whole Judaism and they could go ahead stone him and her at the same time. And so, and Jesus finds a really interesting loop and he asks them if they committed any sins. And of course, people have committed sins. And so they all dropped their stones and they walk away and Jesus is left alone with the woman. Kind of awkward too. Woman who just had an affair and nobody else is there and Jesus is there. And Jesus picks himself up and in verse 11, he says the following. He asked her, was there any accusers? And she said, no one Lord and Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. I've been to, especially in Russian churches, they have this verse, go and sin no more on the door, on the exit door. A lot of Russian churches have that. I've never seen it in the American church, but in the Russian churches, they have this go and sin no more. But I've never seen a church have neither do I condemn you. I've never seen that. I think that's the part we should put in our church. Neither should I condemn you. And once people handle the first part, the last one is going to be easy. But it always seems like Jesus is saying, go and sin no more. And I always kind of thought that's exactly what Jesus is saying. You came, got saved, go, but sin no more. But it's not what Jesus said. Jesus says, neither do I condemn you. I wonder if sometimes the places that just have this part of the verse don't mention this, is because we first condemn you and then tell you to go and sin no more. But that is not how it works, because somebody say amen. Amen. I want to share with you two simple thoughts from this message. One is Jesus gives a mirror to those without mercy, because we can't be merciful without a mirror. I want you to see in this story two kinds of people. One category is the accusers, and the other category is the accused. And Jesus ministers to both kinds of people. But Jesus doesn't give mercy to the accusers. He only gives mercy to the accused. To people who are the accusers who are doing the accusing, he gives them something else. He gives them a mirror. Why? Because only Jesus can be merciful without being reminded of his past. All of us, we can't be merciful. That's why the Bible says forgive as you have been forgiven. Love as you have been loved. Why? Because God makes himself a reference to our behavior to a humankind. We cannot be kind toward people if we first have not learned of God's kindness toward us. We don't have the capacity inside of us to be nice. We don't have the capacity inside of us when somebody mistreats us not to punch them back. It's not within us, and therefore the only way we can be kind toward others is if Jesus gives us a mirror to remind us how merciful he has been, how good he has been, and how we have fallen before and he didn't throw a stone in our face and this is how Jesus healed the accusers. See the goal of Jesus is to take the stone out of every accuser and give him a mirror. Because every time, see, most of us know that the grace of God is not an excuse to sin. But the righteousness of God is not an excuse to condemn. Many people when they get better in life, when they overcome certain addiction, overcome certain sin, achieve certain goal, they feel like they have been promoted to this new job which Satan put on for hire called accusation. Accusers and the accused are part of the devil's plan. And when you lived your life being accused, lived your life being condemned, lived your life being looked down, shamed and embarrassed by people for the things you've done, what happens is there comes a moment you beat that thing that caused you to be so accused and you get elevated to something higher in the kingdom of the devil called the accuser. When you're no longer being accused, you're now privileged to do the accusing yourself, becoming the devil's right hand. But it feels good because you're now in control. It feels good because you have stones and you have targets. And Jesus helps the accusers first. He doesn't help the woman first. He helps the accusers first by taking away their stones and the way he takes them away is he offers them a mirror. He says, anybody without sin, throw the first stone. And what happened? He put a mirror in front of them. And when a person looked in the mirror, they realized, I'm not much better. And the stone dropped. And the stone dropped. And the stone dropped. Now, we don't stone people today. We don't have stones. We have words. And most of you who ever had words thrown your way, you know that it would have been better if you throw a stone in my face. Because words hurt deeper than stones. Words can kill a person. Words start wars. Wards, words, they create conflict in families. Words can make a small problem in marriage become an issue of divorce. Words can belittle a person, a shame a person, make person feel below carpet. Words, they're the stones. What they did, yes, what they did in that generation when somebody committed sin is they threw stones we do in our houses every day. When somebody comes in and makes a sin, and maybe not as bad sin as this woman where she committed adultery. But we immediately find stones. And because we've never done this, we feel like it gives us the right not to be because we're not the accused. But we become the accusers not knowing that it's not the job of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit doesn't do the accusing. Only devil does the accusing. And that is the devil's plan. He wants us to be in that position to accuse people with our words, with our stones. And you would think Jesus would pat people on the back and say, hey guys, let me give you better stones. Sometimes people feel like Jesus is in a stoning business. When somebody makes a mistake and you tell them, you share peace of your mind and you let them have it. And you feel like, and God is the God of justice. And all the God is a vengeful God. And God is a holy God. He doesn't tolerate iniquity. He cannot behold iniquity. All these scriptures come up and you feel righteous in your stoning, not realizing Jesus doesn't do stoning. What Moses did, Moses is not Jesus. Moses is not God. The view of God has to be defined by Jesus not by our tradition. By Jesus not by our feelings for vengeance and justice. The last thing we should be wanting is justice. And we all want God to be holy only when somebody is sinned against us. And when we do the sinning, oh we run for the scriptures for the mercy and the grace of God. And Jesus wants to help us to remove the stones by giving us a mirror. Anytime somebody makes a mistake around you and you're looking for stones and they're so easy to find. They're so easy to find. And you're looking for words. You're looking for the way you're gonna throw that stone. The way you're gonna say it and bring an argument and prove it. How this time and that time and that time you didn't really change. And you have this many stones. You got a bag of stones. You're walking around like you're going hiking. You got full of stones. And you come to Jesus and Jesus bless me before I stone my husband. My kids. I got stones for all of my kids Lord. Bless my stones so that they could really get it when I throw it in their face. Because your word says to discipline them. The fact that God's word says not to anger them, we miss that part. But the part that throwing stones, that is many times our deal. And you come to Jesus and you would think Jesus is going to approve. Because Jesus is the standard of holiness, righteousness. Jesus is the spotless Lamb of God. Jesus is so holy and so righteous that I mean He is God. The holiness objectified. I mean He is God. He will definitely approve the stoning. And He doesn't bless your stones. He asks you to find a mirror. Why? Because you can't be merciful without a mirror. If you ever feel like you don't have mercy towards somebody. It's not because you're a sinner. It's because you're a human. You can't be merciful. When somebody does something wrong against you. Your first response is stones. That's my response. That's your response. That's how the best of us do it. And that's where Jesus, the way Jesus changes us. He knows you don't have it in you. Like He does. See He's never done anything sinful in His life. Jesus does not need a mirror to be merciful. Mercy runs in His blood. He never committed sin that He could kind of remember in His mind how it used to be when I fell. He has no reference of sin in His past. Within Him He is love objectified. He is mercy inside to that degree. He does not need His past to be merciful. That's why He loves us. It's not because we love a ball but because He is loving. Jesus' response toward us is not based on our behavior. It's based on His character. And it's not only His response toward us. It's everyone's response toward another person. It's never really based on what someone does. It's based on who you are. So when somebody is mad at you when you're going through something difficult or when you go through your valley, when you commit mistakes and people throw stones at you. It's not because you're the worst sinner. It's because you have sinners throwing stones at sinners. People are not nice to you because you're nice. People are nice to you because they are. People are not harsh and rude to you because you are bad. It's because they are bad. People's response depends on who they are. And that's how Jesus is responding toward us. And what I love Jesus for is that He does not need a mirror to be merciful. But I do. Every single time I need a mirror to be merciful. You need a mirror to be merciful. And without this mirror, you just can't be merciful. You will be just. You will be self-righteous. Not righteous. Because if your definition of righteousness is stoning someone, how come Jesus didn't take that route and He was righteous? Most of us think because we grew up around people who were quote-unquote righteous and very judgmental, very critical, very judging, very diminishing. Like you come around them, it's like coming around embarrassment. They will embarrass you. They will shame you. Their way of helping you is to shame you. Make you feel worthless. Make you feel below zero. And you saw them and they were like the people who were respected, the righteous people. Whatever that righteousness is, it's not the kind of righteousness runs in Jesus' veins. The righteousness that runs in Jesus' veins said, I don't condemn you. Go and sin no more. The righteousness that runs in people's veins, the more righteous you are, the more merciful you will be. You can judge your righteousness, not on how many things you do or don't do and how you respond to those who do and don't do. As much as mercy you got, that's how much righteousness you have. But many of us feel like the more righteousness I have, the more judgmental I should be, the more critical I should be, the more diminishing, the more I should point my finger and tell people and give them what they deserve. That is not righteousness. It's called self-righteousness and that is not from God. And it's not going to help us and it's not going to help nobody. It's not going to restore a man. It's not going to restore children and it's not going to restore a woman. And it's not going to bring the lost people into salvation. We are surrounded with hurting people. We are surrounded with broken people. We are surrounded with people who will tell you promises and won't keep them. We are surrounded with people who will lie, people who will backbite and people who will do things to you that honestly you would wish you were not a Christian. And in those moments you will come to the Holy Spirit full of stones and cleaning, mad, and the Holy Spirit will quietly come to your heart and He said, let me take that away from you. You say, God, I can't. Justice has to be done. And He will give you a mirror. And when you look in the mirror, the stones will fall away. I've noticed in my own life to be very careful when people are going through something very, very hard and very bad in their life, especially when people sin. To be very careful to come to critical conclusions and to stone them for it. Because some people who are today in the lowest point of their life tomorrow can be used by God in a very great way. When King David was going through one of the most difficult times in his life, it was when his own son rebelled against him and took away the throne. And King David, instead of holding on to the throne and fighting back, he left. And the Bible says they walked from Jerusalem through dust under head and they wept. The city wept. David wept. His men wept because David is leaving the throne. David is walking away because his own rebellious son wants to destroy Jerusalem. And he doesn't care about the city. But David cares about the city. He's in the lowest point of his life. He walks away. He leaves the concubines behind. Absalom comes and takes those women. And the way men would say that he conquered the previous men before him is he would sleep with his women in front of people. And that's exactly what Absalom did. And so you see David walking. His men are very few. And there comes a man who has the audacity. The Bible says the men of Benjamin, the men of the Saul's house who took stones and started to throw at David and say, you blood thirsty man. Karma is quarking against you. What you did to my dad's house, God is doing it to you. And he was right because David had things go against him except David wasn't that man that he described. And he threw stones. And one of the David's men says, can I go and take his head off? This is a worthless man. And David looked at his man. He says, don't do it. Let him curse. Maybe God will see how he's treating me and will reward me for good. Not many months later. And that man that this worthless man threw rocks at became a king again. Now this man fell bad. He apologized. David forgave him, but he told Solomon strictly. He says, when you become a king, don't make his death be normal. Because when I was at my lowest, he threw stones at me. Be careful who you throw stones at when they are at their lowest because you never know who's going to be, where they're going to be tomorrow. They might be today, the person who cleans in your work and tomorrow they might be your boss. They might be today a person who literally just trying to stay alive or just trying to skip sanity, trying to just simple overcome that smoking addiction. And you may say nothing will happen out of them and they might be tomorrow's king that you're going to say, yes sir, no sir. Be careful who you throw stones at when people commit sin. Amen. When somebody is going through something, when you maybe are going through something yourself, something very challenging and people throw stones your way, can I give you a tip of advice? Don't return the stones to them. Lions never respond to the barking of a dog. Keep walking. Do what David did. He threw the stones, wiped away the dust and kept walking. And he said, God, you see the stones. Pay me back for the injustice I receive. Pay me back for all the guilt and condemnation that people throw in my face. But God, I promise before you and before me, you see my heart. I will not throw the stones back. You are my vindicator. And you will see, God will not let you stay in that time. And those people who are making fun and accusing, shaming and embarrassing will come at time. You will receive an apology because you responded correctly to the stoning of your accusers. And somebody say amen. And so we see that Jesus, when people were throwing stones, the accusers takes away the stones by giving them a mirror. And God wants us to be the people who will have a mirror so that we can be a people who can show mercy. Register that deep in your mind. When you are not merciful, it's not because you're ungodly. It's not because you're somehow demon-possessed. It's not because somehow you're just the worst, out of the worst. You're just a hater. No, you're human. You can't be merciful. You're not God. You can only be merciful because you have a mirror. You remember the story when Jesus shared a parable of a man who owned his master a large sum of money and his master forgave him. Some actually scholars say that it was billions of dollars. His master forgave him completely. And this very man, he had another guy who owed him some few hundred bucks. And the moment he was forgiven of a large sum of money of billions of dollars, now his master didn't put the conditions on his forgiveness, saying, I forgive you, but you have to forgive other people. He didn't say the conditions. He just forgave him, and that's it. And the rest of what he does with his life is his own business. Until this man who had a man who owed him few hundred bucks went and found him. And the Bible says he started to choke him physically for owning him few hundred bucks. And he said that, you know, if you're not going to pay this, I'm going to do this and this to you. And when the big king heard that, he was furious. You would think that's his own business, what he does with his own people who owed him. And he says, I forgive you billions of dollars. I didn't put you to prison. And you cannot forgive someone few hundred bucks. You lost the mirror. You found stones. And the Bible says he locked him up in prison in the chamber of torturers. Who, the guy who was forgiven, but who did not know how to show mercy. Why? He lost his mirror. He lost his mirror. I do this practically in my life. We all have people in our lives who get on our nerves. We all have people in our lives who drive us crazy. And when those people are in your life, we all have them. Some of them are in this room. Some of them are at home. Some of them are at our work. Just people at the certain points of your life drive you a little bit crazy. One thing that helps me, my mind usually, when somebody just punches my button or touches my nerves, my mind starts working at the speed I never know my mind could work. The creative juices of my thoughts are optimized. I'm sleeping already and my mind is contemplating what I'm going to do, what I'm going to say, how I'm going to respond. I'm like, if I could only read the Bible like that, I could be such a powerful pastor. I remember this particular time a few weeks ago and I'm going to sleep and I tried to not tell my wife because the moment she really tried to be nice to me and they're just going to make it worse for me. I usually try to say, everything is fine. It's like, is everything okay? I'm like, everything is just fine because I know I'm going to get out of this. I just need to get out of this cloud. And usually this is the practice that I do is that when I try to fall asleep and my mind is just jamming and I just want to do a few things that are not going to be godly I will regret. In that moment, Holy Spirit usually started the first time it was hard now it's a little bit easier. Holy Spirit reminds me that this is how I am with Him the way they are with me. It helps me quickly to snap out. This is how mistakes I make bother Him and He still loves me so deeply. And in that moment instead of being angry at them I just cry myself to sleep. I'm not going to do this again, Lord. I'm so sorry. And then you get mercy for those people because you find a mirror. And you see that when I slip up when I don't keep my promises when I cut corners with God and the funny part is that we always excuse ourselves because we judge ourselves by our intentions and other people by their behavior. And the Holy Spirit brings the fact that you don't know their intentions you have wrong assumptions about them and He puts you in your own shoes takes you and puts it in their shoes and you realize they fit you perfectly. The only difference between your shoes and theirs is just the color. Their behavior toward you is nothing different than your behavior toward God at times and then something happens you discover a mirror and you lose a stone. And your relationship with God gets better you get rid of your anger and bitterness you get closer to Jesus and actually you'll be able to love those people a little bit more. This is a practice that saved me helps me and I really want to pass it on to you when you feel angry toward somebody when you feel mistreated by somebody don't post it on Facebook and don't send them a text message first find a mirror find a way that you are like that with God I'm not talking about blaming yourself and telling yourself you're also stupid you're also sinner you're also immoral and you also deserve judgment I'm not talking about that I'm talking about finding yourself in their shoes discovering a mirror that God still is so good to me yes I excuse my weaknesses because of this and that and that but at the same time if God is still so good to me I'm sure I can find some mercy and some forgiveness toward them as well. Amen. Lesson number two from this story number one we said that is that so let's remind number one let's number one remind is that Jesus gives a mirror to those without mercy because we can't be merciful without a mirror means we can't give mercy if we're now reminded that we've been merciful number two Jesus gives mercy to those without morality because only mercy paves the way for good morals so the first category that Jesus dealt with is the accusers he gave them a mirror the second category that Jesus deals with is the accused he gives them mercy why he gives them mercy is because the only way accused people sinners liars hypocrites people who commit compromise people who lack character and integrity the only way their life can change is not by beating them or reminding them of their sin or reminding how bad their sin is but the only way their life can change is the way Jesus portrayed it here give them mercy this is a very complex theologically story the reason why is because this is probably the only time where Jesus gave somebody forgiveness without them asking this woman didn't come for repentance she was caught have you ever got caught for something and then you feel guilty asking God for forgiveness because you're like I'm sure God knows I didn't want to be forgiven because I didn't come to God I got caught it's hard to forgive people who you catch doing something bad because you know they did not mean to apologize because if they would they would tell you before they get caught and wouldn't get caught I can only imagine Jesus offering this precious gift of forgiveness and mercy to a woman knowing she probably would never come to me if she wouldn't get caught how long will this last what is her real intentions what is she gonna do with this yet Jesus stills gives that away he gives it to a woman who got caught how much more he'll give to men and women who confess if he gives mercy to a person who gets caught and doesn't even ask for it how much more he will give to those who confess and who ask him for it if blind but he may ask for mercy Jesus gave him more than mercy if a woman with the demon possessed daughter asks for mercy Jesus gave him more than mercy why because when you ask for mercy he will give you mercy he gives her mercy for this sexual sin that she commits that she gets caught in and he knows that she probably doesn't have a pure motive of even asking for it and Jesus gives her anyway when he gives her that gift of I do not condemn you he gives her the command after that gift to go and sin no more I want to register the second thought deep into your mind and this is the thought that we've mentioned you cannot go and sin no more without receiving the first gift the gift of I don't condemn you if you can put this verse one more time where Jesus says neither do I condemn you go and sin no more without receiving this gift of no condemnation you cannot go without receiving this gift of no condemnation you cannot go on if you don't have this gift of condemnation this is what's gonna happen you will go and sin more and that's what usually happens most of the time people sin more not because they didn't ask for forgiveness not because they didn't say God I'm sorry it's because when they asked for forgiveness Jesus gave them forgiveness but Jesus giving you forgiveness and you receiving this gift that he does not condemn you that he is not angry at you and that he doesn't look at you as a slut a drug addict a hypocrite or a compromising just a sinner until this clicks deep into your subconscious he does not condemn you and it's not because the sin you did is not important it's not because he can relate to you because he also had a past it's because he loves you so much and he cares for you until that sinks in you cannot move on and if you will it will be go and sin more many people think that Jesus's words for people is go and try harder it's not it's first you gotta receive this gift I don't condemn you when you ask Jesus for forgiveness mercy is not something you deserve mercy is not something you earn you don't get it because somehow when you were doing sin your intentions were right it's not because somehow when you did the bad things while you were bad you still did some good things it's just because Jesus is merciful that's all there is we always wanna add something of ourselves on the plane at least one leaf so that God could kinda say I had my efforts in it and God says if you add your leaf to it it cancels the whole deal the only way you can receive my mercy is to remove your efforts out of it they're good I applaud you I love you you're awesome that you tried but you have to receive this gift neither do I condemn you go and sin no more what holds people back to their past is condemnation what holds people back to their sins of their past is shame that's why many people won't come to church it's because they made mistakes and they feel like if I walk in everyone's gonna condemn you see that is a lie of the devil because nobody's gonna remember what you've done most people so busy about their own life and the devil tells you that condemnation so you believe in it and so that it will be a shame to hold you back to doing more things that you're not happy about more things that you feel guilty about saying one day, one day, one day today is the day you have to believe in your heart and in your mind even if every religious fanatic is gonna condemn me if Jesus is on my side I will go after Jesus and everything is gonna be alright and I will go and sin no more I will go and sin no more most of the time people's focus has been go and sin no more it's written on churches it's written on people's doors and this is what people remember when somebody commits sin and repents and usually we tell them well Jesus says he forgives you but you better go and sin no more I want you to remove that out of your radar I want you to put this first on your mind neither do I condemn you the reason they don't condemn you is because I gave them a mirror the reason why I don't condemn you is because I give you mercy this gift is so important you won't be able to reach your dreams without it this gift is not optional this is not so you can walk around being happy this is so you can walk around and sin no more this is not just so you can walk around and not be shamed this is the only way you can go and sin no more because if there would be another way Jesus would not bother to say neither do I condemn you I love the stories because when the critics left Jesus didn't leave with them when the accusers left I love the fact the Bible says Jesus was still there and when everyone left in another part that fascinates me Jesus did not pick up to get a stone and say woman nobody threw a stone at you because they don't have sin and here I come I don't have a sin I have the right to throw a stone Jesus doesn't lower himself to pick up stones he only lowers himself to pick up people he left heaven and came on earth not to pick up a stone to pick me up to pick you up if your view of Jesus is the one who would bend his back to push you lower that is not the Jesus of the Bible the Jesus of the Bible would bend his back and give it to people to whip it so he can pick you up pick me up pick that person that you say that person is not worthy of salvation and not just forgive your sin but also remind you I don't have negative nasty judgmental, condemning shaming, diminishing feelings toward you your mom may does your boss probably does your friends probably do your enemies do I there was one emperor who actually Napoleon a story goes that mother was pleading with Napoleon to spare her condemned son's life the emperor said that the crime was dreadful and justice demanded his life sir the mother not justice but mercy he doesn't deserve mercy was the answer but sir if he deserved it it wouldn't be mercy said the mother ah yes how true said Napoleon I will have mercy mercy is not something that you deserve if you could deserve it it would stop being mercy if you feel like that this message is for you if you are the person here today who may be being in sin or struggling with something it's not your cup of tea your problem is you're struggling with sinners because you got them around you and you're constantly just just mad at them you're just constantly throwing words carelessly at them and of course all of that is so you can help them change they're not changing they're afraid of you I want to take away your stones today and give you a mirror people can change because God can change them there's only one person that doesn't change it's God people can people can always be changed drunken can become sober a prostitute can become a chaste a murderer can become a deliverer people can always change a drug addict a man who will abuse other people can become a worship leader a person who will shoot up heroin can become a preacher God can always change people but God first wants to change you also remove your stones grab a mirror and find yourself in your relationship with God deepening maybe you are here today and you are that person who you feel ashamed you feel guilty you feel at the bottom of the barrel you feel like you've just been full of shame and you feel like that's how God feels because that's how people have been treating you but I want to tell you something Jesus died for your sin not just to forgive you of it but to deliver you from its power and only then you can walk without being ashamed maybe you are one of those who have been walking with Jesus but you make mistakes one of the stories that always blesses my heart is when Jesus on the last supper realized that the disciples feet were stinking and nobody bothered to watch them and Jesus got up from the supper this was a very important moment in his life because few hours from now he is going to be tried he is going to be betrayed he is going to be spit upon and the Bible says that he finds time grabs a towel and grabs a basin of water and goes and begins to wash the feet they walked after him sometimes we have this idea if I walk after Jesus my feet will never get dirty if I walk after Jesus everything is always going to be fine I will never make mistakes that is not true and Jesus still washes the feet not only of those who come to him but also to those who walk after him we all know that God loves people who are sinners but sometimes we don't know whether God loves people who are his children who still make mistakes and I want to tell you something that he does he wants to wash your feet he wants to help you you may say, Lord, you are giving an excuse for people to sin no, I am giving them a reason not to neither do I condemn you go and sin no more go and sin no more cannot be true until that neither I condemn you becomes a reality in summary if you don't have mercy you can't find morality and the first point the summary if you don't have a mirror you won't have mercy and if you don't have mercy you won't have a moral life I won't leave these things with you if you don't have a mirror you won't give mercy if you don't get mercy you won't live a moral life to live a moral life comes as a result of receiving the mercy of God and to give mercy to other people it's not because you somehow you know there are some people who are just really nice by nature really optimistic they always smile they always like on the cloud seven you're looking at those people you're like you're just optimism on steroids you're always positive you're always loving and it's not mercy is not for those mercy is for those who have a mirror because when something pinches you when something betray betrayal happens so your heart gets broken even the nicest people go monster style quickly we all go really crazy really fast and the only way they could help us to keep our sanity and to keep our righteousness is not just try to oh God help me it's saying God give me a mirror instead of my stones and God will help us can somebody say amen and we will see many people come to Jesus we will see many people who walked away from Jesus come back to Jesus we will see people being restored and we ourselves will not be a hindrance to people's salvation because of their sin we will be a help to their salvation because of God's mercy