So thankful for that. The Lord. Only safe centers. This is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus
came into the world. To save centers, that's what
he came to do. And the hope that we have is that he saves every
one of them. Every single one of them. We're going to be in John chapter
8, the first hour this morning. We were meeting in the men's
study before the service and Michael Etheridge came walking
in and I thought, well, I saw you last Sunday. You were here
last Sunday. I don't know, it's been a year and a half maybe
or something since you all left, Michael and Diane. It just seems
like yesterday. So good to see you. We love you. And so happy that you're here. Michael and Diane, very, very
much part of our family for many, many years from, well, from before
we started back at the Reformed Church. Deanna was admitted in the hospital
yesterday, so she will not be here today. Hope you'll plan
on staying anyway for lunch. We'll enjoy our time together.
She asked me to express to you her regrets for not being here. But her hemoglobin is very low. And it seems that perhaps she
might have some internal bleeding. They're trying to figure out
what it is. We'll probably do a transfusion today. And then
if it is internal bleeding, I'm thinking she might have to have
surgery. So she's in the Altamont Hospital. And if she's just weak,
otherwise she's able to talk if you want to call her or visit
with her. Let's ask the Lord to bless us
this morning. Our Heavenly Father, we do need
you to speak to our hearts today. Lord, we are dependent when we
gather together for worship, for you to bless this hour with
your Holy Spirit. We thank you that you've given
us your word. We thank you for the miracle of faith that causes
us to rejoice in believing every word that you've spoken. Lord,
truly, your word is the word of life. And we're reminded of
what the Lord Jesus said when he said, The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Lord, that has
not changed. The only way that we can hear
your voice is by your Holy Spirit. And oh, how we need life. We need your life. Lord, we pray
that you would bless us with Christ, who is our life. We pray for Deanna, ask Lord
that you would continue to give comfort and peace and hope to
her heart as she waits on thee. Lord, we pray for those that
are ministering to her and we ask Lord that you would use them
as instruments of healing and that you would give the doctors
the knowledge they need to diagnose and treat her. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. John chapter eight. We have the
story of the Pharisees hypocritically, very hypocritically bringing
the woman who was caught in adultery before the Lord. and thinking
that they could trap him in a dilemma that he would not be able to
answer. How foolish these men were. They were blind guides. The scripture called, well, Lord
Jesus called them blind guides. They were darkened to the truth,
and here they were before the very light of the world. thinking that they could stump
him and that they could put him in a place where they'd be able
to discount him altogether. But they were shooting themselves. Because this is the story where
the Lord told them, he that is without sin, let him cast the
first stone. And beginning with the elder
all the way down to the youngest, they shamefully, with heads bowed,
were forced to walk away. This story ends with the Lord
Jesus saying to this woman in verse 11, when she said, in response
to his question, where art thou accusers? Are there not anyone
left here to condemn thee? And she said, no one, Lord. And
he responded to her by saying, neither do I condemn thee. Go
and sin no more. Now we're going to look at these
verses in some detail. But what comfort this story is
to sinners. to have the Lord Jesus say to
them, neither do I condemn thee. Neither do I condemn thee. Go
and sin no more. And we'll conclude. this message
in the next 30 minutes or so by dealing with that last statement
that our Lord said, what does it mean for us? Go and sin no
more. But I want us to begin at the
beginning and contrast verse one of chapter eight And you
know the chapter divisions and the verse numbering was put there
in order for us to be able to find the scriptures by the translators. These chapter
divisions are man-made. When John wrote, he didn't have
a break between the last part of chapter seven and the first
part of chapter eight. And the contrast is stark. When
we read in chapter seven at verse 53, every man went onto his own
house. Everybody departed and went their
own way. Jesus went onto the Mount of
Olives. The Mount of Olives how significant
this mountain is. Olives themselves are a picture
of all throughout scripture. The olive tree is a picture of
the church. The wild olive branch that's
grafted into the olive tree of Israel, that's us. We have here
a picture of the Lord Jesus separating himself, not going to a house
by himself, but meeting with his people. And more importantly,
we have a picture of the Lord Jesus meeting with his heavenly
father in prayer. And I think it's important for
us to know that when the Lord prayed, he didn't pray like we pray in that
He had to pray to be forgiven. He had to pray, Father, if it
be thy will. He did pray that once in the
Garden of Gethsemane, which here on the Mount of Olives. But when
we look at our Lord's prayer in John chapter 17, he prayed
in a way that you and I have never been able to pray. He went
before his heavenly father and he told his heavenly father,
I will, I will. There's several of those in John
chapter 17, where the Lord Jesus is praying for his church. And I think that's the significance
of him showing a difference between every man going to his own house
and the Lord Jesus going to the Mount of Olives. He's going to
that place where he can intercede on behalf of his people. When
I say the Lord Jesus didn't pray like we prayed, he prays always
for his church. He didn't pray for himself. And he doesn't pray for the world. He said, I pray not for the world.
I pray for them which thou hast given me out of the world. We're
reminded of the difference between what happened to Peter and what
happened to Judas. on that fateful night when our
Lord was arrested and subsequently crucified. When he said to Peter,
Peter before the cock crows, you're going to deny me three
times, but be of good cheer. I have prayed for you. I have
prayed for you. And the only reason that Peter
did not do what Judas did, And the only reason that you and
I do not do what the world would do is because the Lord Jesus
has interceded for us. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, who prays for us. We cannot find comfort in our
salvation based on the frequency and the sincerity of our own
prayers. James put it like this, the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And we know who that righteous
man is. We do pray. Oh, the Lord brings us to the
end of ourselves. That's what prayer is. Prayer
is having nowhere else to go but to him. We say, well, there's
nothing left to do now but pray. The only time we really pray
is when there's nothing left to do. But the Lord Jesus is the one
whose prayers are effectual always. When we pray, we have to pray,
Lord, if it be thy will. And the Lord Jesus prayed, Father,
I will. I will. Here he goes to the Mount
of Olives. Where do we see the significance
of the olive early in the scriptures? Well, when Noah's ark rested
on Mount Ararat and he sent the raven out, and the raven was
able to feed on the carcasses of dead animals and did not return,
but the dove came back to the ark, with an olive branch, with
an olive branch. Now that ark is Christ, that
dove is the Holy Spirit, and that olive branch is a picture
of our peace with God. And it's a picture of the victory
that we have in Christ Jesus all throughout the scriptures.
And so the Lord resorting to the Mount of Olives brings together
for us all the significance of of what God has revealed in his
word concerning Christ and his work of redemption and the peace
that we have with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and in
the sacrifice. And what do we do? We're so,
just like the people in verse 53, every man went to his own
house. Every man went to his own house. But here we are this
morning. Here we are this morning, and
every man has left his own house, and every man has come to the
Mount of Olives in hopes of meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ, in
hopes of hearing his voice. I prayed for you. Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. Neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. I mentioned that verse in James,
the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
And I didn't know this until preparing for this message, but
I looked up those words, effectual, fervent, And I thought there
would be long Greek words translating the effectual fervent. But in
fact, it's one simple word. It's the word ergon. And the
translators took this word ergon, which we use in the English language
ergonomic. It means work, work. That's what the word ergon means.
It means work. And we've heard men say, well, You know, you have to do more
than pray. You have to work. And there's some things that
we are responsible for doing and ought to do. But men will discount the labor
involved in prayer because, in fact, they've never done it. You hear someone talking about
prayer as if it's just something that's insignificant compared
to working, and they know nothing about prayer. Child of God, you
know, you know that sincere prayer is the hardest thing that you've
ever done. It's the hardest thing you've ever done. It's work.
You're battling against your flesh. the distractions of your
mind, you're battling against this world, you're battling,
you're seeking to enter into the presence of God through prayer
and there is no work. Other work can be performed in
the strength of our own flesh, in the strength of our own will,
in the strength of our own determination and commitment. Work, a prayer
is a work that requires the Holy Spirit. The effectual, fervent
prayer, the ergon of prayer of the righteous man availeth much. No one labored in prayer more
than the Lord Jesus. How oftentimes we find him separating himself from the crowd,
even from the disciples, and being alone with his heavenly
Father. We find our hope in prayer and
that the Lord taught us how to pray. The Lord teach us to pray,
teach us to pray. And he does, he teaches us to
pray, but oh, we have so much to learn concerning prayer, don't
we? And here's our hope. The Lord
Jesus did the work of prayer perfectly. He goes to the Mount
of Olives and he's here. He promised to meet with us when
we leave our homes and come together at the Mount of Olives. We are,
I hope right now, in a spirit of prayer. Lord, speak to me. Lord, forgive me. Lord, comfort
me. Lord, reveal yourself to me.
And we have the hope of knowing. that the Lord Jesus has prayed.
Be of good cheer, I have prayed for you. I have prayed for you. Even in our Lord's parting prayer, after he cried, for our benefit,
it is finished. It is finished, everything that
God requires for the putting away of your sin and for the
salvation of my people, I accomplished it. It's finished. And then he
said this, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. Who of us can pray like that? When we depart this world, Lord,
receive my spirit. Lord, be pleased for Christ's
sake. Be pleased for Christ's sake
to receive me into thy presence. But we can never command God. Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. He's the only man that could
ever die like that. That's why I say when the Lord
Jesus prayed to his father, He prayed in many, many ways, a
lot different than we do. But here's our hope. Here's our
hope. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, who always prays perfect
prayers and always prays for his people. There's my hope. There's my hope. Every man goes
to his own house, but the Lord Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. He went to the Mount of Olives. How long was he awake in the
Mount of Olives that night? I don't know, perhaps all night.
Perhaps he caught a little bit of sleep, but early the next
morning, look at verse two, early the next morning, he came again
into the temple and all the people came unto him and he sat down
and taught them. Now, right now, one man standing and
everybody else is sitting. But in the Bible, for the teacher
to sit is a picture of their authority. We find even when
the Lord Jesus was 12 years old and Mary and Joseph lost him
in Jerusalem and they finally found him after three days Mary
tries to rebuke him and he says to her, did you not know that
I must be about my father's business? What was his father's business?
He was seating among the doctors and they were moved by his understanding. As a 12 year old boy, he was
able to take the position of sitting in Moses' seat. and teach the doctors of Israel
the truth of God. What a picture of our Lord's
authority. He comes to the temple, again,
just says this is the Mount of Olives, this too is his holy
temple. And he sits down, and he gives
his people ears to hear, And the people gather unto him, and
they are taught by him. They are taught by him. No one knows more clearly than
me of the importance of you hearing something other than my voice. God uses the audible voice of
a preacher. But if that's all you hear, you
haven't been taught of God. No, if the Lord uses what we
hear and what we see in his word and makes them effectual to our
hearts, that's a voice that'll never go away. That's a sound. It will be sweet to our souls
and to our hearts and comfort us in our times of loneliness
and trouble. And we will discover what I read
Robert Hawker wrote recently. He didn't write it recently,
but I discovered it recently. I think I put it in our bulletin,
maybe today, when he said, never are we less alone than when we
are alone. Never are we less alone than
when we are alone. That's his voice. And how merciful he is to remove
us and separate us and put into our lives things that cause us
to say, Lord, I've got to hear from you. Lord, I'm alone. I look to my right and to my
left. I look to myself. I have no understanding. I have
no man to help me. Lord, speak to me. Speak to me. That's what we have a picture
of here. When our Lord began his public
ministry in Nazareth and he went into the synagogue and he read
from Isaiah chapter 61, the scripture says that he stood and opened
the scrolls as was his custom and he read Isaiah 61. And then
the Bible says that he sat down and all eyes were upon him because they knew that when he
sat down, he was taking to himself a position of authority. And
they were about to hear from him what that verse of scripture
that he just read meant. And they wondered at the gracious
words that proceeded out of his mouth. He spoke to them with
authority until they finally understood
what it was he was saying to them. And then they carried him
outside the city and tried to murder him. And he departed from
their midst. But the point here is that when
the Lord Jesus sits down, He's sitting at the seat of Moses.
The Pharisees were offended by much of what the Lord Jesus said
because it robbed them of the hope of their salvation. And
it gave to him all the glory. Men don't wanna hear that. They
still don't wanna hear that. And what did they say? What did
they say? Who gave you the authority? You're
taking a seat of authority? You're teaching as if you have
authority? The police came back from arresting
him, and they said, never a man spake like this man. He spake
as one having authority, not as the scribes and the Pharisees. We could not contend against
his words. He spake as a man having authority.
This is the setting, and this is where we are right now. We often resort to our own houses,
and then the Lord brings us into his holy temple, knowing that
he has been to the Mount of Olives, knowing that he has interceded
for us, knowing that he is our advocate with the Father. He is our hope and our comfort. And it's his voice, it's his
voice that we are here to hear. In Psalm 2, why do the heathen rage? Why do the kings of earth say
to God, we'll break his bands asunder? The Lord shall laugh
at them, he shall hold them in derision. And this is what he
said, I have set my king, I set him down upon my holy hill. Sit thou here at my right hand
until I make all thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord Jesus
Christ reigns sovereign. And he seated And he's not threatened
by man's unbelief. He's not threatened by man's
threats. He sits as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and his people
rejoice. They rejoice to hear his voice. Lord, speak to me. Speak to me. And I'm reminded that even in
a court of law, even in a court of law, After everything is said
and done, the judge doesn't stand to announce his verdict. He doesn't stand. He sits. The defendant stands in fear and in hope of what that
judge is about to say. But that judge sits right there
where he's at. Well, that's the same. truth
when it comes to the courts of heaven. Our God is seated in
the gavel of his justice falls. Might we rejoice with trembling? Might we fear him and rejoice
in him all at the same time? Kiss the sun, kiss the sun, lest
he be angry. and you perish in the way. Don't know if we're gonna get
through this whole story, but let's look at verse three. The
scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taking an adultery. And when they had set her in
the midst, they said unto him, master, this woman was taken
in adultery in the very act. Someone said, well, where was
the man? The man obviously was one of them. This wasn't just
coincidental. This woman was set up. They timed
this thing perfectly. Here's the hypocrisy of it all.
They didn't just happen to find this woman in the very act of
adultery and bring her before the Lord Jesus in order to try
to catch him in a trap. This was a setup. They didn't
care about the man. They didn't care about the woman.
They didn't care about the law. All they wanted to do was justify
themselves and to put Christ in a place where the people would
listen to them instead of him. Moses, in the law, commanded
us that she should be stoned. What sayest thou? I'll put you
in a dilemma. If he says, stone her, and the
people will will not follow him anymore in fear that his wrath
and justice, the law clearly stated that she was to be stoned,
the Mosaic law. The first thing I see in this
is that hypocrisy will often quote scripture in order to justify
itself. How oftentimes you've seen it
with your religious friends and family members. We see it in
the religious world. Yeah, I hear what you're saying,
but God so loves the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him, and
they will interpret that one verse out of all of its context
in John 3, and in everything else that the scripture teaches, that God's love is universal
for all men, that he wants all men to be saved, and ultimately
it's up to man's free will to decide what he's going to do
with the offer of salvation that God makes to all men. That is
so contrary to everything that the Bible teaches. But how oftentimes
we hear where they'll take the passage in Peter and say, well,
God wills for all men to be saved, none to perish. And they ignore
the word usward in all that the Lord is saying about the coming
of Christ and how he's not going to allow any of his people to
perish before they're all going to be saved. You see what I'm
saying? Men will take the Bible and they will quote scripture in order to try to to justify
themselves, to justify their own self-righteousness. What is it that the Lord Jesus
still offends men over? What is the offense of the cross?
It robs man of his righteousness. It puts Christ on the throne
of glory And it makes us completely dependent upon him, not having
anything to obligate God in any way. It declares us to be sinful,
sinful. Religious self-righteousness
is the most repugnant sin of all, even among men, is it not? Even among men. We can sort of
excuse an irreligious person when we see really bad behavior
and say, well, they're just being what they are by nature. But
when a hypocrite, when a When a religious person
pretends themselves to be righteous, is that not the most repugnant
sin of all? Now, let's make that personal.
Let's make that personal. What is it that you're most offended
by in yourself? You know, we've often been reminded
The moral law of God is written on every man's heart. And you
don't need the Holy Spirit to convict you of doing something
that's contrary to the moral law of God. You have a conscience
for that. And all men have a conscience
for that. All men know the difference between right and wrong. Well, unbelievers can sear their
conscience with a hot iron so that it loses all of its feeling
and they can convince themselves that what they're doing is wrong.
I mean, what they're doing is right. But that takes a while. You got to lie to yourself for
a while before you can come to that point. What a terrible place
that is to lose your conscience. But what is it that we need the
Holy Spirit for? The Comforter will come and he
will convict you of your sin because you believe not on me. It's my unbelief. It's my
self-righteousness. It's the best thing that I've
ever done. It's not the bad stuff that I'm
ashamed of. It's the best thing that I've
ever done is filthy rags before God. You won't come to that conclusion
without the Spirit of God. Believe that your best thing
about you is sinful in the sight of God Almighty. You've got to
be standing in his presence to come to that conclusion. And
that's a work of grace. The Lord would stand us in his
presence and we would come to the conclusion that Brother Job
came to, behold, behold, I am vile. I can't justify myself
before God anymore. My self-righteousness. Additionally, these men were
not just self-righteous men trying to justify themselves. These,
in fact, were the mouthpieces of Satan himself, who thought
that he was going to be able to bruise the heel of the seed
of the woman, not knowing that the seed of the woman was about
to crush his head. What a glorious reversal here
we have. These self-righteous men thinking
that they had trapped Christ only to be announcing their own
judgment. Now here's the real dilemma. Here's the real message of this
story. How are you going to be faithful
to God's justice and maintaining the law of God and show mercy
toward this sinner at the same time? How are you gonna do that? Now the world would say, well
let's just lower the standard a little bit and let's look at
our attempts to keep the law until we come to some sort of
happy medium. Let's find some common ground.
Let's see what we can do to do our best and let's see what God
can do to lower, but that's man trying to figure out some place
to be saved. The truth is that God's justice
is eternally high and he cannot lower it. He cannot lower it. And every sin must be punished. Every sin must be punished. And
so how is it that justice can be served and mercy can be harmonized
with it? How can a holy God who must punish
sin satisfy divine justice and at the same time be merciful
to sinners? They didn't know the answer to
that. How could mercy and truth meet together? How could righteousness
and peace ever kiss each other? How could God be justify and
justify sinners at the same time? How can it be? Only God, only God can answer
that. When the sinless son of God,
the sinless son of God, the one who's holy, harmless, undefiled
and separate from sinners in every way, bore in his body all
the sins of all of God's elect." Now this is, you think about
the question we're trying to answer. This is the reason why
particular redemption, effectual atonement, this is why Christ
could not have died for everybody. This is why he had to be bearing
every sin of every one of God's elect at Calvary's cross. Because this is the only way
this question can be answered. Justice is now served. The full fury of God's wrath
has been poured out on all sin. And God made him who knew no
sin to be made sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. And we have the righteousness
of God seated at the right hand of God. He's in his holy temple. He sat down on his throne of
glory. and he presents himself to his
heavenly father for all of our righteousness. Yes, the dilemma that they presented
could not be solved by man. Men try to solve it, but only
to their own destruction. The cross is the only way that
God can be just and justify sinners at the same time. And so we preach
Christ and Him crucified. Now, there's so much more to
this story, but I promised you before I began that I would answer
this morning the question that the Lord Jesus leaves us
with in verse 11, so let's move to verse 11. No man, Lord, and
Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin
no more. Now, I've heard different interpretations
of this. There are actually people who
believe that the Lord was commanding her to go and live a sinlessly
perfect life. and that that is God's requirement
for you and me, that we would live above sin and neither in
thought nor in deed nor in word ever commit another sin. No honest
child of God could ever believe that's what the Lord meant. The other interpretation I've
heard, which I do not believe is true either, is that the Lord's
speaking of our position in Christ, that he's sending us out into
the world saying that you are now without sin and you shall
live in Christ a sinless life. I don't believe that's what the
Lord's saying here. I believe the simple meaning of what the
Lord's saying is what he's saying to me and you. You don't have
to live this way. I have forgiven you. The greatest inducement that
you have to not do this is to know that you're loved and that
you're forgiven. You don't have to be under the
bondage Sin does not have to reign in your mortal body. You're never gonna be without
it. And yes, you are perfect in Christ, but I don't believe
that's what the Lord's saying here. I believe the Lord's saying
to us exactly what he says in Romans chapter six. Turn with
me there. Look at verse 11. Likewise, Reckon
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal bodies. That means it's not Yeah, it's
every part of my mortal body. Paul said, in me, that is in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Everything about me is sinful.
That doesn't mean that the passions of the flesh have to be in control
of my life. That's what they were for this
woman. So when the Lord's just saying,
you don't have to live that way. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. You don't have to obey the passions
of your flesh. You don't have to be driven by
your desires. Neither yield ye your members,
that's the members of our body, as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourself unto God as those that are alive
from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you. for you're
not under the law, you're under grace. This woman had just experienced
the glories of grace and the forgiveness of sin spoken to
her by the Son of God. The strength of sin is the law. If we think that we're gonna
live above sin by trying to live by the law, the law's only gonna
aggravate our sin. The law doesn't restrain sin.
It aggravates it. In the heart, makes us self-righteous. That was the problem with these
Pharisees. They were self-righteous, thinking that they were living
by the law. I thank thee, Lord, that I'm not like other men. I believe the Lord was saying
to her exactly what he's saying to us, brethren. I love you. I've forgiven you. You don't
have to be under the dominion of the passions of your flesh. Offer the members of your bodies
as instruments of righteousness, as service unto God. Oh, I'll
make you so happy. Yeah, there's pleasure in sin
for a season, but in the end, at least the death, it always
kills something. Not talking about just eternal
death. This sort of behavior that this woman was engaged in,
it's gonna bring the death of a marriage, it's gonna bring
the death of a relationship, the death of your conscience,
it's gonna be, and gone as a pattern of life, it's
gonna be the death of your soul. You don't have to live like this. I believe that's what the Lord's
saying to her, and I believe that's what the Lord's saying
to us. Go and sin no more. Amen? All right, let's take a
break.