Psalm 122, a Song of Degrees
of David. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand
within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city
that is compact together. Whither the tribes go up, the
tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give
thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of
judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem, that they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls and
prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and my companions'
sake, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord
our God, I will seek thy good. The testimonies of Israel are
the Ten Commandments and the glory of our Savior and his risen. The first words he said to his
people when he met them was, peace, peace. His peace he gives to his people.
Jerusalem is a city that's compacted together. You might recall that
that holy city that comes out of heaven from Jerusalem is a
compacted together city and all of the Lord's people stand within
thy gates as verse two says. And it's builded as a city, it's
not built by man, it's builded as a city by God and we are here
by the grace of God to worship the one who is the great builder
of this church. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you for gathering us together again. We thank you
for the provision of this building and we thank you, Heavenly Father,
that your house is a place where you reign and rule and a place
where you reveal yourself to your people. And our Father,
we thank you that over these many years that you have led
us and caused us to meet together, you have revealed yourself in
the glory and the person and the finished work. of your dear
and precious son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we come to
you again as your children. not with anything of our own
to plead, but we come pleading his merits and his righteousness.
We come expecting that he will do the things that he has promised
to do, that he will meet with us, that he will be our teacher
and our guide. The blessed Holy Spirit might
come and take the things of the Lord Jesus and reveal them unto
us. Our Heavenly Father, these gatherings
we have on earth mirror the gatherings in heaven and in a remarkable
way mirror the gathering of your people all together when we meet
the Lord Jesus Christ in that glorious resurrection day. We
will be with him forever because we will be like him. made to
be like him in resurrection glory. Oh, our Father, help us to judge
the things of this world are right, and help us, Heavenly
Father, by your grace and mercy to love our brothers and sisters.
We do pray for the preaching of your gospel of peace in this
place, in this land of ours, and throughout this world. Bless
your servants, Heavenly Father. and bless us today for Christ's
sake. Amen. We're going to sing hymn
number two. Can't help but be delighted in
those words that Paul said which are in this hymn, aren't they?
He says, I'm not ashamed For I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. We entrust our eternal souls
into the hands of our glorious Redeemer. Let's sing. I know not by God's wondrous
grace to thee he hath made known, nor by unworthy Christ in love
redeemed before his own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not how this saving faith
to me did impart, nor how believing in his word brought peace within
my heart. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him of yesterday. I know now how the Spirit moves,
convincing that of sin. Revealing Jesus through the Word,
creating faith in Him. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him again. I know not what of good or ill
may be reserved for me. Of weary ways or golden days
before his face I see. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I committed
unto Him against that day. I know not when my Lord may come
at night or new day fair, nor if I walk the vale with him or
meet him in But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I committed
unto him against that day. Brian's going to come and read,
so if you turn in your scriptures, John's Gospel. I'm pleased that he's doing this
because we're looking at John chapter 8 this morning about
that woman who was caught in adultery and Graeme is going
to, Lord willing, help us see the context of all this. So thanks
Graeme. I'm going to start back at chapter
5 and just take some verses from there right through to our passage
in chapter 8. In chapter 5, verse 5, And a certain man was there which
had an infirmity thirty and eight years. But when Jesus saw him
lie, He knew that he had been now a long time in that case.
He said unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man
answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled,
to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another
steppeth down before me. And Jesus said unto him, Rise,
take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made
whole and took up his bed and walked. And on the same day was
the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto
him, that was cured. It is the Sabbath day. It is
not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. We'll go over to John 6 and read
from verse 35. I'm only taking some verses rather
than covering the whole chapters, but we're looking at trying to
context this as to the reaction of the Pharisees, the religious
leaders, and those that didn't believe to what Jesus was doing,
and especially that last few verses on that miracle that occurred
on the Sabbath. Verse 35 of chapter 6, And Jesus
said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me
shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that ye also
have seen me and believe not. This is referring to the Jews
around him. And verse 37, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Go down to 43. And Jesus therefore
answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him
up at the last day. Now we'll go over to chapter
7, and we'll start reading from verse 14, chapter 7. And now about the midst of the
feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews
marveled, saying, he knoweth this man's letters,
how knoweth this man's this man letters, having never learned.
And Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but
his that sent me. If any man will do his will,
he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak
of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give
you the law? And yet none of you keepeth the
law. Why go ye about to kill me? So
the people answered and said, Thou hast a devil, who goeth
about to kill you? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. Moses therefore
gave unto you circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of
the fathers. And ye on the Sabbath day circumcise
a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receives
circumcision, that law of Moses should not be broken, i.e., Are
ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on
the sabbath day? That's referring back to the
healed man in chapter 5. Judge not according to the appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. And now we'll pick up from verse
37 and we'll read through to verse 12 of chapter 8. In the
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried,
saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He
that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spake of he
of the spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.
For the Holy Ghost was not yet given. because that Jesus was
not yet glorified. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying, said of a truth, this is the
prophet. Others said, this is the Christ.
But some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the
scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and out
of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division
among the people because of him. and some of them would have taken
him, but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to
the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said unto them, Why
have ye not brought him? The officers answered, Never.
Man spake like this man. Then answered them of the Pharisees,
Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of
the Pharisees believed on him. But this people who knoweth not
the law are cursed. Nicodemus said unto them, he
that came to Jesus by night being one of them, Doth our law judge
any man before it hear him and know what he doeth? And they
answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search
and look. For out of Galilee arises no
prophet, and every man went unto his own house. Jesus went unto
the Mount of Olives, and early in the morning he came again
into the temple. And all the people came unto
him and sat down and taught them. And he sat down and taught them.
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken
in 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. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should
be stoned, but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him
that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and
with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them
not. And when they continued asking
him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again
he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard
it, being convicted of their own conscience, went out one
by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus
was left alone, and the woman was standing in the midst. When
Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said
unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned
thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus
said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more. Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Thank you, Graham. We're going
to sing again number 68, the very back of your hymn books.
Tell me the old, old story. of things unseen above, of Jesus
and his glory, of Jesus and his love. Tell me the story simply
as to a little child, for I am weak and weary and helpless and
defiled. the old, old story of unseen
things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love. Tell me the story simply as to
a little child, for I am mean and weary and helpless and defiled. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. Tell me the story slowly, and
I may take it in. That wonderful redemption God's
readily foreseen. Tell me the story of men, for
I forget so soon. The early dew of morning has
passed away at noon. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. Tell me the story softly with
earnest tones and praise. Remember I'm the sinner whom
Jesus came to save. Tell me the story always, if
you would really be. In any time of trouble, I'll
come for her to me. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. Yes, and when the world's glory
is dawning on my soul, Tell me the old, old story. Christ Jesus makes me whole. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. Lovely, okay. Well, thanks for
reading all that, Graeme. If you turn in your scriptures
with me to John chapter eight, we have spent this last two weeks
looking at these beautiful pictures of the Lord bringing his bride
to himself. And this is one of the ones that's
glorious, I don't really like. raising any issues or controversy,
but you'll find in most of the modern Bibles, they cast doubt
on this text. Well, the Lord has left it there
for us. All the ones that cast doubt
on it being the text of Scripture, cast no doubt on it being a true
story. And I think there's a glorious
lesson in it. I think all of the Lord's dealings with his
people, and particularly throughout Scripture, all of the Lord's
dealings with women, With women in travail you can think of them
from the very almost beginning in Genesis. Sarah was one who
was without a child and thus Rebecca and Rachel and Hannah.
And throughout the scriptures you have pictures again and again
of women in trouble in this world, women in shame, women in those
days in condemnation because they couldn't have children to
look down upon. These pictures of women are pictures
of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They're pictures
of the church of God. They're pictures of the Lord
drawing his bride to himself. They give us the character of
the bride as she comes, but most of all they give us the character,
the wonderful character of our Lord Jesus Christ. I love what Ephesians 3, Paul
prays in Ephesians 3. I just love these words. Nothing
in our flesh causes us to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's only revealed spiritually to his people. And Paul prayed
for that, didn't he, in Ephesians 3. He says that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love
of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with
all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us. Now unto him be glory in
the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. You see, the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ is a gospel that's very big. It reaches to
unimaginable dimensions, as Bob Paul says. It reaches to the
very hearts of people. The religion of man is all about
doing, isn't it? It's all about us getting ourselves
prepared in some way and getting ourselves ready and making ourselves
right to be in the presence of God. The religion of man is just
an empty vessel. There is nothing in it, Jeremiah.
In chapter 2 verse 3 of Jeremiah compared the religion of men
and to the religion of God. He says you have forsaken in
verse 13. He says my people, Jeremiah the
weeping prophet, my people have committed two evils, two evils. They have forsaken me. And I
love what he describes himself as. They've forsaken God, the
fountain of living waters, and have hewed out, hewed them out
cisterns. A cistern is a great big underground
well. A cistern that they have hewed
out for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. In this passage that we're looking
at in John chapter eight, the Lord Jesus Christ describes himself
There's that fountain of living waters, and he says, out of the
belly of those. If you're thirsty, come to him.
If you're thirsty, come to him. If you're thirsty, come to him. Any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink. One of the glorious ways that
our Lord Jesus Christ draws people to himself is that he puts them
in circumstances in this world where they have no other place
to go. And the chords of love that draw the Lord Jesus to this
world and the chords of love that then draw the Lord Jesus
Christ bride to himself are chords of everlasting love. He loved
this woman from the foundation of the world. He loved her intimately. He loved her infinitely. And so many of us in religion
will look around, so many people in religion, and us in our flesh
do it all the time. We stand and we look in judgement
of people. And how often do you do it when
you say that that person has sinned themselves to a place
which is beyond the grace and mercy of our God? See, this lady's
life was forfeit. She was ready by the law of God
to be stoned to death and sent to hell, and she knew it. and she knew it. The gospel of
man's religion, the religion that man creates and especially
the religion that man creates with a God who is a puny and
weak God and tries and fails, tries with his love and it fails,
tries with his death and it fails, tries with the spirit to save. That puny God doesn't reach to
the depths of real sin. Our great, our broad and long
and deep and high gospel reaches to the very depths of real sinners. There's real hope for real sinners. Let's ask the Lord to help us
as we look through these verses. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you would cause your words to be spirit and life to us, that
we might find ourselves thirsty and we might find the invitation
of the Lord Jesus Christ to thirsty sinners a delight to our souls. Our Father, glorify your Son,
that we might find our rest and our peace in the wonder of his
finished work and the depths of his love for sinners like
us. We pray in his name and for his glory. Amen. Let's begin
in John chapter 7. It says at the end of John chapter
7, every man went. They all went to their own homes.
Where did he go? He went to the Mount of Olives. It's remarkable to ponder, isn't
it? The Lord Jesus Christ had no home in those three and a
half years in this world. He had no home. They had a home
to go to. He had no home to go to. Verse two, and early in the
morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came
unto him, and he sat down and taught him. The Lord's bravery
in the midst, he had a death sentence on his head, didn't
he? He was a marked man. They were there plotting his
murder and his death. again and again and again and
he comes into the temple he comes early in the morning he is the
day spring on high it's a picture isn't it he says in verse 12
he's the light of the world the light of the world came into
that temple he's the day spring and when his light comes the
darkness is dispelled he came into the temple he came to his
father's house he came to the place where the promise was that
God would reveal himself, he'd make his name known. He'd make
his name known in holiness, he'd make his name known in grace
and mercy. He came to his people and he
came to this place. And what was this place under
his description? He says it was nothing other
than a den of thieves. The religion of men makes the
thing of God, the things of God and the precious things of God,
nothing to be a place of thieves. It was a place of blessing and
a place where people came to meet with the Lord Jesus Christ,
as we read in Psalm 22, to meet him in judgment, to meet him
in grace and mercy, and to go away from that place with his
words of peace proclaimed over the true believers. He came. He always comes, doesn't he?
The first thing we have to note in every act of salvation is
the Lord Jesus Christ does the coming. He always does the coming.
We mightn't see it as such, but he comes. The wonderful thing
is, and what happens, and all the people came unto him, and
he sat down and taught them. He was repulsive to the religious
crowd. He was repulsive to the self-righteous
religious people. What had offended them? What
had offended these other people? He says, you don't keep the law. John 17, 7, 19. You don't keep,
that's what offends them all the time. They think that they
keep the law and they think that by their law keeping they have
some worth and some right. And God is put under some obligation
to them. You don't keep the law, is what
he said to them, and it offended them so deeply. He came. This group of people
came. I love what Isaiah 8 describes
him. He says, for as much as this
people refuses the waters of Shiloh that go gently. The Lord Jesus Christ is extraordinarily
gentle. You check it out and make note
of it throughout the scriptures. When sinners come to him, he
is the most extraordinary, gentle, and gracious, and merciful savior. And when people come in their
self-righteousness, come in their judgment of him, they come to
judge, and they come to accuse, and they go away no better off. See one group of people came
to learn. They came and he sat down and he taught them. And this other group came there,
as we'll see, they came to judge and accuse. What a picture it is of the darkness
of men. That men, in the best of religion
that the world had on offer, had nothing in their hearts but
hatred toward God. That was the best religion had
ever achieved, wasn't it? You would surely think, wouldn't
you, that religious exercises and piety and Bible reading and
going to a Bible college and being on a mission organisation
and travelling over land and sea would make you more pious
and make you more right with God, and you'd bring them back.
And the Lord Jesus says, you've made them twice the child of
hell that they were beforehand. See, in religion, in religion
without Christ, in religion that's unhumbled by being in the presence
of God who is holy, religion that makes you zealous, religion
that makes you living clean, religion that gives you a moral
obedience, you think, to the law, does nothing but darken
people. Without Christ, what a darkness,
what a terrible darkness. The Lord Jesus said to these
people in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, if the light that's
in them, the light that's in these Pharisees and these scribes,
if the light that is in them is darkness, how deep the darkness. Verse three, here we have this
picture. There's the Lord Jesus sitting
in the midst of a crowd of people who've come to learn. He's there
as the sun rises. He's there as the light of the
world. And in the midst, the scribes and the Pharisees brought
unto him a woman taken in adultery. And they sat her, and they had
sat her in the midst. What an extraordinary scene.
What an extraordinary picture we have. There's the Lord Jesus
Christ meeting with his people and teaching and preaching to
them. And he preached the kingdom of God. He always preached the
kingdom of God. He preached himself. He preached the Lord Jesus Christ
and him crucified. The message of the gospel hasn't
changed. Abel knew the message of the
gospel when he came to church. And there, these scribes and
Pharisees, these people that in the previous chapter we hear
had plotted his murder, they bring this woman. There they
were, just imagine the scene, this crowd parts as these men
in their religious robes and all of the righteousness. You
see, there's nothing like the righteousness you can get when
you've found a sinner. And you can display a sinner
before yourself and before others of your religious ilk. There's
nothing like that, is there? They were dressed in all their
finery and the crowd parts, the crowd parts from these people
who were so highly esteemed. And there are these scribes and
those Pharisees and they're dragging this poor woman. And no doubt
they made sure that when they dragged her in there, when they
dragged her in there, they made her as openly seen to be a sinner
as they possibly could. They had caught her in the act
of adultery. There was no man there. The Jews
had a court to take these matters to. They had no law that says
they had to bring her to the Lord Jesus Christ. They came. with hatred in their hearts. The Lord Jesus describes them
in the next chapter as children of the devil. They come from
beneath and they come here testing the Lord of glory. And here we have a glorious meeting
of darkness and light. So what do they accuse her of?
They say, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the
very act. They call him Master, which means
teacher. It's the exact same word that
Judas used in the upper room in that last night when the Lord
said, one of you is going to betray me. One of you is going
to betray me. And Judas says, Master, is it
I? All the other 11 said, Lord.
They gave him the honour of his title. Master, this woman is taken in
adultery. How humiliated she must have
felt. How humiliated. She was entrapped. She was just merchandise in the
eyes of these men. They planned this whole exercise
to entrap the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, you don't keep the law.
You've never kept a single one of God's laws. You've disobeyed
God in every way. You dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you've broken every single law of God. They said to him,
we'll show you what the law means. And they planned this. They planned
this exercise to entrap the Lord Jesus Christ. They openly broke
the law of Moses in order to use the law of Moses to trap
them. The law says you bring both of them there. You bring
both of them there. They arranged just the darkness
and the depth of religion without Christ. They arranged a capital
offence against this lady to convict the Lord and to embarrass
and accuse the Lord. That's natural man's religion. That's religion without grace. That's religion without being
humble before God. See, the Pharisees are always
concerned about others keeping the law. They're always quick.
You can always find a Pharisee. They're always quick to find
the sin in someone else. They're always good at it. They're
always very quick to applaud the righteousness that they see
in other men. And they, as I said earlier,
in the light of other men's sins, they shine in their self-righteousness. This woman was caught in the
very act of adultery. Let's not for one moment, as
the Lord says to this woman, he says, at the end of this,
you said you go and sin no more. Let's not for one moment diminish
the horrible evil of the sin of adultery and the sin of fornication.
Let's not diminish it. We live in a world of broken
families, hurt and damaged people and the damage, the tentacles
of the damage go out wide and wide. Marriage is a covenant
that God made before the fall. It's precious and the breaking
of it, the breaking of that covenant is damaging to men and society. And no doubt as I talk about
that some of you are feeling guilty and some of you are feeling
self-righteous because you've never done it. What does the
Lord Jesus Christ say about you, about me? He says in the Sermon
on the Mount in Matthew 5 Verse 28, he says, but I say unto you,
verse 27, and you have heard it said by them of old time,
thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you that whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with
her already in his heart. This is a crime of which we are
all guilty before God. We've committed that crime, looking
down your nose at other people for the sins that you see in
them. If you don't see them in yourself,
if you don't see in the sins of others around you, if you
don't see your sin on display, you are nothing but an utter
hypocrite. God sees your heart. He knows
you've broken every single one of his laws. Every single last
one of them. James says it's a package. You've
broken one, you've broken the lot. You've broken the ninth commandment,
you've borne false witness. You've lied, if you think you
haven't. This poor humiliated woman. There's a great lesson. There's
a great lesson in this at the very beginning and I want us
to remember it. All of God's children, all of
God's children feel deep guilt and deep conviction over their
sins. What did David say in Psalm 51?
You can go home and read it. He says, against thee and thee
only have I sinned. He'd murdered Uriah. He had murdered
his child that was in Bathsheba's womb and he brought destruction
upon his nation. And he says, against you and
you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. The children of God feel guilt. and feel deep the hurts of their
sins in a way that the children of this world never feel. But
the great lesson here is please, please, please don't let your
sin turn you from Christ. It's the one qualification you
need. for coming into his presence.
He came into the world to save sinners. The very thing that
turns people away from coming to Christ so often and turns
these people away is the conviction of their sins. Come to him as
a sinner. He knows that you're a sinner.
You sinned in your father, Adam. You sinned in everything you've
done in this world. You are sinning right now. If God held us accountable
before for what we are doing here right now, he would send
us all to hell. Sin is falling short of the glory
of God. We only have one place of refuge
and God in his providence will bring us there. There's one place,
there's one rock to hide and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's one place, there's one place of safety, there's one
place of refuge. She was brought by a providential
hand of God into the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the
law commanded us that such should be sown, but what sayest thou? You can read it in Deuteronomy.
And in Leviticus 20 verse 10 and many other places in the
scriptures, the punishment for adultery was sin. Both of them
were to be taken outside the camp and to be stoned to death.
Which is another reason, another way they were trying to entrap
the Lord Jesus Christ. If he said take her outside the
camp and be stoned, and the Jews didn't have the right of capital
punishment, then he would have been breaking Roman law. They
had him trapped in every possible way. Don't think they hadn't
gone home after their offense in the previous chapter and figured
all this out. and organised a particular woman who was vulnerable in some
particular way and organised probably one of their own number
or a compatriot of them to go with her. How did they catch
them in the very act? They were there watching. Dear
oh dear, the wickedness of men. The other lesson that comes immediately
and early in this is that these people knew their scriptures
off by heart. And they knew what they meant. And it is possible
to use the scriptures and be very correct in your use of the
scriptures and be wrong in your heart before God. These people,
says the Lord Jesus Christ, they honour me with their lips. and
their hearts are far from me. So here we have this dilemma,
the Lord Jesus Christ, they brought her to have her murdered as it
were, they brought her to him so that he would be embarrassed
and possibly murdered by the Romans and at least be shown,
at least to be shown as someone who claims mercy but doesn't
give mercy, at least to be shown as someone who says he honors
the law of God and doesn't honor the law of God. They had him
trapped, as it were. So that's the great question,
isn't it? That's the great question that the gospel answers. It's
the great question that's answered by the Lord Jesus Christ and
him crucified. How can God honour and magnify
and keep his holy law and at the same time forgive an openly
guilty, vile sinner? How can a man be just with God
when all he has done? He sinned in his father Adam,
he came forth from his mother's womb, speak he lies and he sins
in everything he does in this world. How can someone like that
be just with God? How can an openly confessed and
confessing sinner find peace with God? To live in the very
presence of holiness. That holiness which Habakkuk
said is too pure ice and behold iniquity. How can you be in the presence
of he who with a consuming fire and is a consuming fire must
burn up all sin? How can God, how can God be just? How can he be righteous and just
and holy and true and justify an ungodly open sinner? And how can God love his children
and yet treat their sin with the justice that his character
demands? How can God be gracious? in forgiving me in all he does
and still be righteous, perfectly righteous. How can he maintain
the glory of his holy character and forgive a sinner? So they
came, verse six, they came tempting him that they might have to accuse
him. They came tempting him. That word accuse him, it means
that they kept on accusing him. That's all they'd ever done since
he came forth and declared at the very beginning of his public
ministry, this temple is mine. I've come to my father's house
and you have made it into a den of thieves. They come accusing
him. Isn't it extraordinary? Isn't
it extraordinary? The pride of men on display when
they think that they can do battle with one who knows their very
hearts. They can tempt omniscience. They
can bring down to their level omnipotence. They thought they
had trapped him. the friend of publicans and sinners.
They thought they had him, trapped him. You can't let her go and
be the Messiah who promises to magnify the law and make it honorable.
You can't let her go and have any respect for the law. Where's
your respect for holiness and obedience and faithfulness? If
you say, Stoner, where's your mercy? Where's all this grace? He's now in this remarkable place.
There's the Lord Jesus Christ, this lady before him, all of
those Pharisees salivating at the chance that they could embarrass
him before those people that were listening to him. They could
embarrass him in church as it were, embarrass him in the very
courts of his temple. We've got to remember that our
sovereign God works all these events and he worked this event
that we hear Meeting together in our hall in June 2020 might
once again see the gospel of God's sovereign free grace displayed
that we might now receive the joy and peace of believing. We
might now see how God can fulfil these remarkable things to be
the just God and a saviour. So this woman represents the
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in every age. This woman represents
us. See, we're never above this woman
in our coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. We never rise, raise
ourselves up by our obedience and our worthiness, that somehow
we can come into his presence saying, look at these things
I've got in my hands. You can read what happens to
those people in Matthew 7, 21 to 23. We're never above this
woman and we never grow beyond her need at this time. May God
teach us, may this Holy Spirit teach us the simple essential
lessons. How does he respond? It's a glorious
response from our Saviour. He stooped down and with his
finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. He
stooped down, didn't say a word. What was he writing is the question
that people have been wondering and no doubt you have been wondering,
I've been wondering. There are two things that we know. When
God writes, he writes and it's written forever. The second thing
we know is that when he wrote, he wrote something that they
could read. And he wrote something which spoke directly to each
single one of them individually. So he wrote, they could read
it. This is the handwriting of God. Only three times in all
the scriptures do we have God writing. It's the only time in
all of the Lord Jesus ministry we have him doing writing. You might recall that when those
tables of stone were written in Exodus 31, 18, they were written
by the finger of God. God himself wrote on those tables
and he wrote on those tables on both sides. There was no room
to write anymore and those tables of stone were kept in that ark.
The only possible way those were honoured was by the one that
was represented above them in that mercy seat, in that place
where God meets with sinners. The second time God writes in
the scriptures is that writing on the wall in Daniel chapter
five. Daniel chapter five, we might
just turn there for a second. It's a lovely passage of scripture
and it's extraordinarily instructive for us. We might start in chapter five,
verse 22. You might know the story, Belshazzar
was the grandson, it seems, of Nebuchadnezzar. So Belshazzar
was a man raised in a palace who had the most extraordinary
privileges. He had his grandfather. Tell
him again and again and again the story of what it is like
to be humble before God. That God, who is absolutely sovereign
and rules over all things, he spent seven years with claws
like a bird eating grass like a beast in the field. And here's
Belshazzar and it's good to think about what's happening just outside
the walls of this city. Outside of the walls of this
city while Belshazzar is having this feast is a king called Darius
and all of his army and this particular knight This particular
night, this city is going to fall and he's going to be put
to death. The pride of man knows no bounds, brothers and sisters.
The darkness of men knows no bounds. Daniel 5.22. And Daniel
comes to him. They have the writing on the
wall, and all the others come, and they can't read it, and they
can't understand it. They can't decipher it. And the queen says,
there is a man in this palace called Daniel. Daniel had been
there for maybe 60 or 70 years at this time. He'd had Daniel's
testimony, Belshazzar, of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says,
O thou his son, speaking of Nebuchadnezzar, O Belshazzar, thou hast not humbled
thine heart, though thou knewest all this, but thou hast lifted
up thyself against the Lord of heaven, and they have brought
the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords
and thy wives and thy concubines. have drunk wine in them, and
thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold and brass and
iron and wood and stone. It's exactly what's happening
in this world today, isn't it? It's exactly what's happening
in this world today. Which see not, nor hear nor know,
but the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all
thy ways, thou hast not glorified. Then the part of the hand Sent
from him, this writing was written, and this is the writing which
was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Ufsaron. And this is the interpretation
of the thing, Mene. God has numbered thy kingdom
and finished it. Tekel, thou art weighed in the
balances and found wanting. Perez, you might wonder why it's
not Ufacin. Perez is just the plural of Ufacin. Thy kingdom is divided and given
to the Medes and the Persian. Then commanded Belshazzar and
they closed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold about
his neck and made a proclamation concerning him that he should
be the third ruler of the kingdom. That night, Belshazzar, the king
of the Chaldeans was slain. To go back to our journey through
the Book of Acts, we are in Paul's imprisonment in Caesarea just
five years away from the rebellion of the Jews against Rome. We are less than 10 years away
from the complete and utter destruction of the city of Jerusalem, and
a million people died in that city. And those proud religious
Pharisees, these ones that are here now, were there accusing
Paul and doing exactly the same things. The writing is on the
wall. God has written. He's written
destruction over this world and all of its religion. And religious
men are no better off than belches are in their blindness and the
hardness of their hearts. He wrote, so when they continued,
when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said
unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first
cast a stone at her. Who's without sin? We're very
good at casting stones, aren't we? We're very good at casting
stones. If you're without sin, you cast
the first stone. See, the law says the witness.
The witness is the one to be the first one to cast the stone.
The Lord Jesus Christ is just taking the law back to them.
You say you've caught her. You say she's worthy of adultery.
You pick up the stone there. As I said, there's no excusing
this woman's sin, and there is no excusing the hypocrisy that's
in the hearts of men. See, these religious people,
the religious Pharisees, are representatives of us in our
flesh, brothers and sisters. It's always judging. and it's
always wrong in its judgment. What does Paul say in Romans
2? Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that
judgest. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the
same thing. Again and again in the New Testament
we read that if you are a law keeper of any sort whatsoever,
you are just nothing but a hypocrite. They continued asking him, they
were pestering him and he was ignoring them as it were. Verse
eight, and he stooped down, again he stooped down and he wrote
on the ground. Maybe he wrote, thou shalt not
commit adultery. Maybe he wrote names and dates. We're not gonna get any assistance
by speculation. All we know is in verse nine
what happens. Verse nine, they which heard
it, being convicted in their own conscience, went out one
by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last, and Jesus
was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." They are summoned by the Lord
Jesus Christ. to judge themselves rather than
judge the woman. But this is a sad, sad, sad event,
isn't it? You see, does the exposing of
your sin, the depths of your sin, the horribleness of your
sin, does the exposing of your sin lead you away from Christ
or lead you to him? Does God in mercy at the exposing
of your sin draw you into the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Or does it send you back to darkness? See, it's possible to be deeply
convicted like these people are, to be deeply convicted and publicly
convicted as it were, and have nothing going on in your heart.
See, a guilty conscience never leads anyone to Christ. God leads
his people to Christ. He draws them with a hand of
sovereign grace. See, they walked away from the
saviour. They walked away from the only
one that could deal with the sin that they just had acknowledged
that they had in their hearts. Self-righteous people don't like
being around Christ and his people. What did these people do when
they went away? They went away to find another way to plot and
another way to scheme, another way to put him to shame, another
way to bring him into disrepute. You see, there is a conviction
of sin that just causes people to be angry against God and to
turn away from him, run away from him. That's what happened
when Stephen was stoned, isn't it? What caused a great offence
for Stephen? He'd given them their history.
And what a cause when Paul was there and all those others, they
had their stones and had dragged him outside of the city. He says
to them in Acts 7, 53, who have received the law by the disposition
of angels. You people have had the most
remarkable privileges of any people on this earth. You've
had the law, you've had angels give you the law, and you have
not kept it. And what's the response? When they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart and they gnashed their teeth on him.
All they had was murder in their heart. What happens when the
Holy Spirit comes and brings conviction? You know the story
from Acts chapter 2, the glorious declaration of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God has made this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both
Lord and Christ. What do we do? We've murdered
the Messiah. We have his blood on our hands,
and he stands before us as our judge. Verse 37, and they heard
this, they were pricked in their heart. It literally means they
were pricked in their heart. That's what it is to have a circumcised
heart. And what did they do? They said
unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do? What must we do to be saved? Peter already told them, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You'll only
call when you're thirsty, when you're hungry and you have no
other place to go. See they had somewhere else to
go. And no doubt they went back to that place and they bandaged
themselves up and told themselves how righteous they were and how
he was a deceiver and how ignorant those people. You know what he
said about those people. He said these people that don't know
the law, these people listening to him, the ones that don't know
the law in John chapter 7, he says they're under a curse. They
don't know the law. Little did they know. what God
says about those who can look to their righteousness and look
to their legalism and look to their works in any way at all. What does Galatians say? Galatians
3, he says in 3 verse 10, For as many are as of the works
of the law are under the curse. They were cursing this crowd
that they were supposed to be caring for. They had the responsibility
before God to tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ and the
Messiah, to show them how God could be gracious. They're under
a curse. Anyone who's of the works of
the law, if you could look to something in your life that causes
you to have some merit or put God under some obligation to
you, you're under the law. and you're under the curse, that's
the works of the law. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. You have to do them and you're still cursed. But that
no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident.
The just shall live by faith. That was their law. Their law
said the just shall live by faith. And the law is not a faith. But
the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for
it is written, curse it is everyone that hangeth on a tree. But the
blessing of Abraham. the Holy Spirit, and the faith
that he brings. See, when God creates a broken
and contrite heart, there's a wounding into the heart. There's a circumcision
of the heart. And that heart says, I've sinned.
I've sinned against a gracious and merciful God who is my creator. As Daniel said to Belshazzar,
his life is in your hands. He has your life. Don't play
games with him, he has your life. I've sinned against holiness,
I've sinned against goodness, and I've sinned against righteousness.
And Jesus was left alone, I love what it says, isn't it? The woman
standing in the midst. And Jesus was left alone, and
the woman standing in the midst. That's what the work of God,
what the Holy Spirit is, isn't it? To leave you personally and
individually in the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just
him, a sinner together with a savior. What a glorious, glorious picture. And when Jesus, verse 10, had
lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, see he had eyes
just for her. He sovereignly had drawn, he's
God. He rules over all these events.
He'd drawn her to himself. They planned wickedness and evil,
and he'd planned salvation. He'd lifted up himself and saw
none but the woman. He said unto her, woman, where
are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? Hath no man condemned thee? Where are thine accusers? What an extraordinary list of
accusers we have. The one that most righteously
accuses us is God himself. See, God must deal with the very
character of God before he can deal with sinners. God must appease the very righteousness
and the character of justice of God. He must save you from
himself before he can save you from all of your other enemies.
What enemies we have. Satan is called the accuser of
the brethren. The Lord Jesus said that these
men were the children of the devil. They are the accusers
of the brethren. When Satan accuses you, my brothers
and sisters, does he ever have to lie? He never has to lie, does he? Does he have any problem finding
fault in you? I know he doesn't have any problem
finding fault in me. What is the accusation of Satan
based on? It's based on a broken law of
God, isn't it? So when he comes to accuse you,
he says, this is the law of God. This is what righteousness looks
like, and where are you? This is what holiness looks like,
and where are you? What's happened with that law?
That law, our Lord Jesus Christ, honoured that law with absolute
perfection and he honoured that law in his obedience to it in
such a way that God says it's holy and righteous and just and
he's magnified the holiness of that law. He's honoured that
law and he's honoured that law in the breaking of it in all
of his people because that's why he was put to death. The
law said the wages of sin is death, the soul that sins it
must die. I love what Colossians says,
and you being dead, this woman was a dead woman, 2 verse 13,
and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, he hath quickened together with him, he's made you alive
together with him, having forgiven all of your trespasses. And what's he done? He's not
only forgiven in verse 14, it's remarkable, he says he's blotted
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against it, against
us, that was contrary to us. And he took it out of the way.
It was if it was all written, all of your sins and the law
of God that you're broken was written on a great big whiteboard
That taking it out of the way is erased, so there's nothing
left there but perfect holiness and perfect righteousness. None but the woman. Who's accusing
you? Who are thine accusers? Other
men will accuse you. Religious hypocrites will accuse
you. other believers might accuse
you. No wonder Paul says, forgive
one another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Your conscience will accuse you. And how frequently our consciences
plunge us into despair in some ways for our sins of omission
and sins of commission. What do you do, brothers and
sisters? Are you drawn by that to the
Lord Jesus Christ and you look to him yet again and you say,
he's taken it all away. I love what Hebrews 9.14 says,
he has purged our consciences. He's purged them, he's cleaned
them. If you are a child of God, I take you to task that the greatest
sin that you have in this world now is the sin of unbelief. The greatest trial you have in
this world is the sin of unbelief. God says he's put them away.
God said he laid all of the sins of all of his people on the Lord
Jesus Christ and he's put them away forever. That sin, that
sin, this sin that we see here openly was laid on the Lord Jesus
Christ and he bore that sin in this short time, he bore it on
his own body and he bore it to Calvary and that's why he was
put to death. We have guilty consciences and
then the sight of the Lord Jesus Christ bleeding and dying and
the sight of the Lord Jesus Christ being raised to glory takes away
that guilty conscience. A beautiful picture, what glorious
words she hears from our Savior. Neither do I condemn thee. There's no man to condemn you
in the presence of God, and neither do I condemn thee. When he says
that, is he basing it on truth? Is he bracing it on being the
light of the world and seeing everything, on justice, on the
law being holy and good? Is he basing it on the evidence?
Has he weighed her in the balance and he's found her to have a
perfect stone, is what Belshazzar didn't have, a perfect weight
before God. She has no accusers, including
himself. No accusers. So that's why the
gospel. That's why the gospel is good
news only to sinners. They have no place else to go. The righteous have no need of
a doctor. It's the sinners that need a
saviour. The sinners need to be saved, as Romans 3 says, justified
freely by his grace. Declared to have absolutely no
sin by the Lord without any cause. That freely means without any
cause. The cause of our salvation is not in us. The cause of our
salvation is in him, or all of the cause is in him. Salvation
is of the Lord, it's not a cooperative activity between us and him,
where we polish ourselves up somehow and cause him then, seeing
us polished, to do something for us. We're cleansed by his
blood. Not his blood plus anything we
do. God says when I see the blood. He says when I see the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll pass over you. With his righteousness,
robed in his righteousness, we're as fit to enter heaven as he
is. And that's exactly what he did
on that resurrection day when he rose and he went to glory
and he took all of his people there with him. Gospel is good news. Where are
thine accusers? Paul takes up the charge, doesn't
he? And makes it a universal charge in Romans 8.33. He says,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. He does all the justifying. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ. He says, where
are thine accusers? I don't condemn you. It is Christ
that died, rather that was risen again is even at the right hand
of God who maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? That is his
written, for thy sake we are killed. All day long we are accounted
as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors. Who was the conqueror that morning?
That Sanhedrin came there, dragging this poor woman to embarrass
her, to have her put to death. Who were the conquerors? She
went away with those glorious words of the Saviour, I don't
condemn you. I don't condemn you. Therefore, says our God, there
is Now, Romans 8, verse 1, there is now, right now, June the 14th,
2020, there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. This is the light of the world,
shining in the midst of darkness, a horrible darkness. May the
Lord bless his words to our heart. We're going to sing again, and
then we're going to have the Lord's Supper. So we're rejoicing
over the thought that Noah is with us for the first time. Let's
sing hymn number eight together. At least, like a river, attendeth
my way. When sorrows I see billows roll, whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It
is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should offend, though
trials should come, let this blessed assurance control. Christ hath regarded my helpless
estate, and hath shed his own blood. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Oh, the bliss of this glorious
thought. My sin not in part, but the whole. It's nailed to the cross, and
I Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
oh my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. ? And, Lord, face the day ? ? When
my faith shall be sighed ? ? The clouds be rolled back as a scroll
? ? The trump shall resound ? ? And the Lord shall descend, even
so ? It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Well, our brother in Christ,
Noah, was baptised while we were in lockdown. And this is the
first opportunity we have to come back and share the Lord's
Supper together. So I want to just contemplate
the wonder of what it is for us to be united to the Lord Jesus
Christ and for us, what baptism pictures Baptism pictures this
glorious submersion in the Lord Jesus Christ where we disappear
from sight. We disappear from sight to this
world. And then we're raised again.
Raised again to declare and to show the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Raised again to show that the
sins, all of God's people that were put on the Lord Jesus Christ
have been put away forever. and that we've risen to newness
of life. God has taken the old and put
it to death. And yet, sadly, as we know, Adam
Flesch lives on. But in reality, it's been put
to death in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a glorious picture of
the resurrection of the Lord in this story that we've just
looked. You might recall that the Lord Jesus Christ stooped.
He stooped twice. He wrote twice and he rose twice. He stooped, he stooped when he
came down to this world as a man and lived amongst us. with all
the infirmities of our flesh and without sin and he lived
before God in perfect holiness and righteousness and with love
to his father and love to his fellow man. He lived before men, revealing
and declaring the glory of the character of God. And he reveals
the glory and the character of God most clearly in the way he
brings sinners to himself and he saves them. He stooped down,
he stooped down again, didn't he, when he went to Calvary's
tree, lower than any man on this earth had ever been. He stooped
down to the lowest hell bearing all of the sins of all of God's
people and all of the wrath of the holy Lord God, all of the
wrath of a holy and broken law fell upon him. The fire of God's
wrath came from heaven and the sacrifice consumed the fire until
God cries out, It is finished. It is finished. See in baptism we are declaring
just a simple faith that this Lord Jesus Christ is my life. This Lord Jesus Christ is my
death. This Lord Jesus Christ is my
obedience before God. This Lord Jesus Christ is my
resurrected Saviour. This Lord Jesus Christ is Lord
of my life. This lady that we've been looking
at, would she have been needed to have been told again and again,
thou shalt not commit adultery. Love. Love constrains and compels
the child of God, not a bunch of rules and regulations made
by men. Baptism pictures gloriously what
the Lord Jesus Christ had done. It's a glorious picture, a living
picture of the gospel. It's a picture of what God does
in the hearts of people because when Noah was baptised, 10 or
15 minutes later, no one would have ever known and we take this
cup and we take this blood and this broken bread and they are
representative of our Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was
gonna read those verses from 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23. He says, for I have received
of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. that the Lord Jesus
on the same night, that same night in which he was betrayed,
took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said,
take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in
remembrance of me. And after the same manner, he
also took the cup. when he gets up saying, this
cup is the new testament, the new covenant, the eternal covenant
in my blood. This do ye, as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me. And now it's a remembrance celebration
for God's children, isn't it? We remember him. Why do we have
to remember him? Because we forget him all the time. Why do we need
to hear the gospel all the time? Because we forget it all the
time. We do it in remembrance of him. For as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death
until he comes. We show a glorious death. We
show a victorious death. We show a death that didn't try
and put away sins. We show a death that really put
away sins. We show a death in which the Lord Jesus Christ was
perfectly united to all of his people. And we really were crucified
when he was crucified in the eyes of God. And our flesh deserved,
had in it all of the justice of God poured out upon it in
our Saviour. See, baptism is glorious, isn't
it? Because we're hidden from this world. And Colossians says
that we're hidden in Christ, in God. That means that when
God sees us, what does he see? All he sees in his people is
the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ said
to that lady, I don't condemn you either. What a glorious statement. There is no condemnation. All
that is left between a saved sinner and their God is love
and mercy and grace. The Lord Jesus Christ stooped
to Calvary's tree and he lifted up himself. He lifted up himself
twice. He says, I lay down my life. I lay down my life that I might
take it up again. When he says, neither do I condemn
you, he's standing on resurrection ground. There is now no condemnation. We drink this and we drink it
with you and we drink it together, celebrating our Lord. And we wait. We wait for our
God to be merciful to sinners. We wait for him to do a work
in the hearts of his people. Noah's waited for a long time. It's worth waiting. I love those
words, Simon loves them, out of Micah chapter seven. Therefore,
I will look unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my
salvation. My God will hear me. Rejoice
not against me, mine enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of
the Lord because I have sinned against him until he pleads my
cause and execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth into
the light. That's what happens in baptism,
isn't it? He will bring me forth into the light. And I shall behold
his righteousness. The only righteousness that we
have is the righteousness of this Saviour. Let's pray. Heavenly
Father, we pray that you might grant us the grace to look away
from ourselves and look to your dear and precious Son. that we
might be granted the grace, Heavenly Father, to honour Him in this
world by simply trusting, simply believing, simply relying on
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We pray, Heavenly
Father, that you might put us in remembrance of Him again and
again remembrance of the glory of who he was, the remembrance
of the great work that he came to do, remembrance of the extraordinary
union he had with his people, remembrance of what it was for
him to bear our sins in his own body on the tree, the remembrance
of what it cost him, Heavenly Father, to bear those sins away
that they don't exist in your sight any longer. O our Father,
grant us the grace to simply trust Him and have, as you promised,
the joy and peace of believing. We pray in Jesus' name, our Father,
for His glory. Bless us for His sake. Amen.