before you're there. John Chapter
8, I've been led back to this passage many times. I've been,
as you know, working through Nehemiah and the Feast of Tabernacles
is the great celebration in Nehemiah and then we've been working through
the Song of Solomon and as I've said many times, every time we
meet in the New Testament with the Lord dealing with a woman,
and particularly women in travail of some sort, women in desperate
circumstances, we actually have again presented before us a picture
of the Church. And before I begin I think it's
good to explain to you that this is a passage of scripture which
in most of the modern translations of the Bible is sort of underlined
and says that this is not in the ancient Greek. ancient text,
but it's in a whole bunch of other ancient texts. And there's
a fellow called Tatian who wrote Harmonies of the Gospels in 160
A.D., and he has this passage in John's Gospel, in Stephen's
ancient Greek manuscripts. There was 16 of them in Bezos. He had 17 manuscripts except
one. and Eusebius says it's in the
Gospel according to the Hebrews. We want to come to this Word
trusting that it is a Word from God. And we also trust the fact
that God in His providence has preserved this Word and kept
it alive and kept it as important and powerful in the lives of
His people. And the other thing is that we
also know from our studies of scriptures that something that's
true is actually true from Genesis to Revelation, and the principles
outlined in these things are there throughout the scriptures. But it's a beautiful picture
and no one doubts the authenticity of this picture. these words
and this story, this particular event. They might just place
it in different places, but it's a beautiful picture. And it's
a beautiful picture which is so relevant to us and so particularly
relevant to anyone who stands where I do and others of you
know. And the one thing that we long
for, the one thing that we long for ourselves and the one thing
that we long for in other people is that they would be brought
to the feet of the Lord Jesus. They would come to Him as they
really are. They would meet with Him as He
really is. They would know Him and in knowing
Him they would know that He is the One who came not to call
the righteous but sinners to repentance. And this is just
one of those many beautiful passages of Scripture where we actually
see the Lord Jesus in his providential, sovereign love and care, bringing
one member of his bride, one that he loved in eternity, one
that he went to the cross for, one that now resides with him
in heaven, one that will be with him in the new creation, to bring
her to himself. and his ways of bringing his
people to himself are many and varied, but the principles are
always the same. Let's just read and we'll look
briefly at this amazing story. In John 7.53 the Sanhedrin broke
up and every man went unto his own house, but Jesus The Lord
Jesus went to the mountain, Mount of Olives. It was, in a sense,
his favourite place on this earth. Over the hill was Bethany where
Mary and Martha were. But this was the place that he
took himself to again and again. So common were his visits there
that when Judas was leading the band of soldiers he didn't have
to go searching around Jerusalem. He just went to this place, this
garden, in that place, the Mount of Olives. It was his habitual
conduct. And also He was a person of prayer. They went to their houses and
he went to the place of his rest, to be with his father. to talk
and commune with this Father. He was principally a man of prayer. He was a man of prayer, and then
because he was a man of prayer, he was a man of action. Verse 2, Early in the morning
he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto
him, and he sat down, and taught them." So he comes to that house,
the house that bore his father's name. He comes there and the
people come and he sits down and he takes a position of authority,
and he takes a position of authority meaning to be there for some
time. He sits and the crowds gather
and he taught them. Then in verse 3, The story begins
in earnest, and the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a
woman taken in adultery, and they set her in the midst. So here, just picture this scene. In the temple courts, crowds
of people around, the Feast of Tabernacles has just finished. There's a crowd of people, and
this woman is brought. She was caught in adultery that
very night, no doubt dressed to show her shame, exposed, guilty,
deserving of death, and she was brought into the middle of them. She was there for all to see
her, and for all to see the Lord's reaction to her. They mock him, in a sense, in
verse 4, by calling him master. In the previous chapter, chapter
7, they are calling him a deceiver. Now they call him master, which
means teacher. You who say you know the law
of Moses, here we are. Now Moses in the law, verse 5,
commanded us. that such should be stoned, but
what sayest thou? You see, if you turn back in
your Bibles to chapter 7, you'll see that in verse 19, he said
to them, did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps
the law. Then he says to them, why do
you go about to kill me? Murder was their intention, not
just the stoning of this woman, but the murder of the Lord Jesus. Now Moses commanded, Moses in
the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest
thou? They said this, tempting him. The word is testing him. It's extraordinary, isn't it?
There is God. the Creator and the Sustainer
of this universe, the One who had revealed Himself as the Messiah,
the Son of God. And here are these men. Such
is the brazenness of man outside of the Garden that we will come
into the presence of God and we will put Him to the test,
how common it is today. One of the things that's shocking
is the brazenness of the accusations against God that are made by
sinners. They tested him, that they might
accuse him. And here we have these men in
their great wisdom. They had gone home, but not all
of them had gone home. They had gone home together to
plot. They had gone home together to
scheme away. a way of testing the Lord Jesus,
a way of accusing Him, and all the time He knew exactly what
was happening. He was there when they arranged
this act of adultery. He was there when they arranged
their subterfuge. He knew what they were thinking
as they plotted against Him. And in their minds they thought,
well if he forgives the woman, then the accusation is that he
has dishonoured the law of Moses. And if he commanded her to be
stoned, they could go to the Romans and say, this man has
taken upon himself the right of execution. They could accuse
him of hypocrisy. This is the one who received
publicans and harlots. and said that these publicans
and harlots would enter the kingdom of God before these scribes and
pharisees. If he was harsh, he wouldn't
be seen to be the Messiah who was meek and having salvation. that he would have to do one
of two things. They trapped him as they thought
they had with the coin and Caesar's image on it. They thought that
he would have to relinquish justice or he would have to refuse mercy. How clever they must have been.
This mob dragging this poor woman into this court not just to accuse
her, but to accuse him. But in their wickedness, they
actually brought the great dilemma of all humanity before this crowd. How can God, how can God show
mercy? How can God be gracious? How can God show love? to a sinner like me, a sinner
like you. How can he do all of that and
be just and be holy and be true? How can God both be just and
the justifier of the ungodly? How can a man, how can a man
or woman be right, be just with God? that they, with their hearts
set upon evil, they just exposed this problem with the purpose
that they would cause the Lord Jesus to stumble in such a way
that either they could have him accused or they could have his
reputation destroyed in this very temple court. As I said, it's a commentary
on this great verse, isn't it? I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. There are so many lessons in
this, isn't it? What was going on in the hearts
of these men to think that they could bring this accusation and
bring this situation to the Lord Jesus in such a way that they
could demean Him. It's always the same, isn't it?
It happens in our lives and sadly we not only are the victims of
it, we are the perpetrators of it. What is it but our seeing,
our self-righteousness that rises up? and is the accuser and leads
us to accuse others and leads us to be accused. See, the real evil in this story
is not the evil of adultery, as wicked and horrible and destructive
as adultery is. The real evil that's exposed
here is self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. It is such a damaging thing. We were infected with it in the
garden and only a meeting with God, only an exposure to the
real Gospel has any hope of healing us. It is a blinding disease. It causes men to judge others
by standards that they believe that they have achieved. It's
dangerous and blinding because often their fleshly judgments
as they are with regard to this woman, they are correct. And it's dangerous and blinding
because it makes us feel right. You know how you feel. What evil
is in us that we actually feel good when we have the opportunity
to look down and criticize another fallen sinner? It's ever-present
with us. is blinding and ever-present. As someone once said, ever since
man lost the righteousness that he had in the garden, he spent
the rest of his days trying to pretend that he has some righteousness,
and some righteousness that he's grown. It is the real evil, it
is blinding, it is ever-present, and sadly it is growing. Luke 12 says, Beware of the leaven
of the scribes and the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. What hypocrisy was involved in
this? Where was the man? They caught
the woman in the act of adultery. but they didn't bring a man.
And we'll see as the Lord Jesus exposes these people, the hypocrisy
goes much, much deeper in their own hearts. But also this sin
of self-righteousness is made much, much worse by religion
and religious activities. Look how judgmental these men
have become. When some believed on him in
chapter 7 verse 47, the Pharisees declared that they are a deceived
people. And then they talk about themselves,
have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on him? And
then their accusation against these people there. This people,
but this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. They can look down not just on
a few, or on this one woman, or on the Lord Jesus. They can
look down on a crowd and declare that they are cursed. It is,
as no doubt some of you are aware, it is the hardest sin that you
will ever have to deal with. It is the toughest sin that I
will ever have to deal with. Because all the other sins we
do, the sins that are so open, are seen easily by us and seen
easily by others. It's very easy to give up the
big external sins of adultery and theft and those public sins. But the sins of our hearts, the
sins that lurk within us, are far, far more dangerous and deadly. And because it is such a wicked
thing, it brings the greatest wrath from God. The Lord says in Luke, you can
turn there in your Bibles, in Luke chapter 20, verses 46 and
47, the Lord describes the end result. of those who are left. He says, Beware of the scribes
which desire to walk in long roads and love greetings in the
marketplace and the high seats in the synagogue and the chief
rooms at the feast. Look what their efforts have
earned them. Look at the rewards that they
deserve, which devour widows' houses and for a show make long
prayers. the same shall receive greater
damnation." You see, at the heart of it, of course, when someone
is being accused, is someone who is saying, I haven't sinned
that sin. I am without sin. 1 John 1.10
says, if we say that we have not sinned, when? if we say that
we have not sinned with Adam in the garden, if we say that
we have not sinned from the time we came forth from our mother's
womb, if we say that we have not sinned through all the days
of our lives, if we say that we have not sinned in all of
our righteous deeds, if we say we have not sinned It was horrifying
to hear someone that we esteem greatly to say a couple of years
ago that he has times in his life where he has no sin. And we said, well, is that positionally
in the Lord Jesus you have no sin? No, he said personally,
there are times in my life where I am without sin. Read on, 1
John 1.10. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him, God, a liar, and His Word is not in us. Self-righteousness. Self-righteousness
is a great, great, great deal. Self-righteousness, as we'll
see as we go through this, is only exposed by the revelation
of the Lord Jesus. It's only when the Lord Jesus
meets His people, until He has met them, all the world would
have said what righteous men these are. What zealous men these
are. What wonderful Bible colleges
they run in Jerusalem. What wonderful mission organisations. You can read about their activities
in Matthew 23. They'll even get their mint and
their spices and divide off a tenth and make sure that they're paying
tithes on such little things. And they're doing the big things
as well is what they're saying. If we say we have not sinned,
It's only exposed. The other thing these verses
show us is the Lord Jesus was a man sent of God to perfectly
honour the law that he has written. There are only two times in the
scriptures, aren't there, where God himself writes. He writes
on the tablets of stone that Moses took and kept as a memorial
in the Ark of the Covenant. And here the Lord Jesus wrote
with his finger on the ground. See the law of God, the law of
God demands perfection or punishment. Absolute, holy, perfection, 100%
of the time, or punishment. It has no flexibility. We know
about the laws of gravity. If you jump off the building
over there and land on the concrete, the law of gravity says that
you're going to get hurt. The laws of God are like the
laws of nature. They are inflexible. There are
no exceptions, no excuses, no extenuating circumstances. There's no room for pardon and
there's no grounds for amnesty. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die." And the law of God demanded that this woman should die. You
can read about it in Leviticus 20.10 and in Deuteronomy 22.22
and 24. Sin is an infinite evil and wherever sin is found, it
must be punished. The Lord Jesus is confronted with real sin. Real sin. And his law demands
that it must be dealt with. But here in this remarkable story,
we have the beautiful picture of the gospel of God's free and
sovereign forgiveness. You see, sin cannot be forgiven
until God's broken law is silenced. See, for this woman, she couldn't
be forgiven until the law of God had been dealt with. Her accusers had to be silenced. He came not to condemn. Condemnation
was already there. He came not to condemn, but to
save. But he can only save by fulfilling
the law perfectly, by justice being satisfied perfectly. How can the Lord Jesus fulfil
the law, yet save this guilty, openly adulterous woman? Let's look at verses 6-8. The
Lord Jesus stooped down. He was originally sitting. These men, as a mob, have disturbed
His teaching, and He has stood. And as it were, As they brought
their accusations against him, he just bent over and he wrote
with his finger on the ground as though he heard them not. He seemingly ignored these men. He knew what they had done. He
knew why they had done it. And then he quotes them who know
the law so well. He quotes them, Deuteronomy 17,
70. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put
him to death. And he says, he that is without
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. We could spend ages speculating
about what the Lord Jesus wrote. And all of our speculations would
just lead to more speculations. And God the Holy Spirit puts
a veil over something. He does it with a purpose. and he'll show us one day. But
until then, we just have to know the impact. The impact of these
words was really deeply convicting to the consciences of these men.
His word spoken and his word written. These legalistic hypocrites
were overcome by legal conviction. This mob came with boldness,
but they left shamed. They came by stealth and deceit,
and they end up leaving by stealth, one by one. He had shown them
themselves in his words and his writing. And they left, they
scalped away before he showed them to the world. And it began with the eldest. It is interesting, isn't it?
are convicted in their own consciences, went out one by one, beginning
with the eldest. I wonder why the eldest went
first? The eldest went first, I suggest,
because the eldest knew. how much sin he really had. When the Lord Jesus meets with
people, we old sinners know that not only have we done the gross
things that you young people might dream of, but we've done
the secret and nasty ones. And we've got a cupboard full
of it, just lurking there. And the Lord Jesus, by His words
and by His challenge to these people to pick up these stones,
had brought deep conviction upon them. It is extraordinary to
read the background history of Israel at the time. We think
we live in wicked and adulterous times. So common was adultery
in those days that they said that if everyone was stoned that
should be stoned, there would be no stones left in Israel. Adultery was so common that they
thought that it was almost impossible to find someone amongst these
legalistic hypocrites who wasn't guilty of the same crime. Just extraordinary. We think
these days are worse. There were no good old days. There were none. And here she is left. by the Lord Jesus, speaking a
word and writing a word, left with no accusers. The law now
had no claim upon her. It's a great picture of that
great sin-attaining sacrifice that in that great event the
Lord Jesus has forever silenced the claims of the law against
us. What a great position for this
woman to be in. The same position where we will
find the greatest comfort. Are we guilty? Are we guilty
of sin? Absolutely yes. Are we condemned? In Christ Jesus there is no condemnation,
guilty but not condemned. There is therefore now, right
now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the
law of sin. and death, for what the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us. who walked not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. The law could not condemn her,
and Christ would not condemn her. It's remarkable, isn't it? Not only is our sin gone, but
the things that bring you the accusations and expose sin are
taken away. Sin is gone completely, perfectly,
never to be remembered, never to be brought up against us.
Not only is the sin gone, but the law is gone. Let's read these
beautiful words from Colossians chapter 2. you are complete in
Him which is the head of all principality and power. In Him
you are also circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ. Buried with Him in baptism wherein
you also are risen with Him through faith in the operation of God
who raised Him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins,
in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has quickened together
with Him, having forgiven you all your trespasses." Not only
has He taken the trespassers out of the road, but in verse
14, He's blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us. He's blothered it out, he's erased
it. Imagine a whiteboard and there's
the law written, and it says, John Newell, sinner, sinner,
sinner, sinner, sinner. And God has erased that law that's
against you. The law can no longer condemn
us. He's blothered it out, which
was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it
to the cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers. He
made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. He dealt with sin. He dealt with
the law. He dealt with Satan. He dealt with our sinful flesh. The safest place is where this
woman is, face to face with the Lord Jesus, at His feet. A great sinner with a great need,
a great need of great forgiveness. What a remarkable Saviour. He was left alone. the woman
standing in the midst. There she was, still with his
crowd around, when he had lifted up himself and saw none but the
woman. He had eyes for none but the
woman. Woman, where are thine accusers? Has no man condemned thee? She
says, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Condemn thee, go and sin no more. He doesn't say go and sin no
more and I will not condemn you. He says, I will not condemn you,
go and sin no more. He's not saying and not expecting
that she won't be a sinner for the rest of her days. His plea
to her is to live a life of faith, trust that sin-attaining work
that he was just about to accomplish. Before we finish, let's just
look at the workings of God's providence. She was just a pawn
in the schemes of these deceitful and wicked men. They cared nothing
about her shame. They cared nothing even about
her life. Her death mattered nothing to
them, as long as they could justify themselves and accuse him and
save face before the one who had exposed them. They took the
hypocrite's way. They love to talk about other
people's sins so that theirs will not be seen. They love to
draw other people in, like this mob they gathered together. They
love to draw other people in to what they're involved in. They love to expose others' sins
so that they can protect their own righteousness, their own
self-righteousness. These men followed their own
wicked paths. And what was the result of it?
Their wickedness caused them to bring this lost sheep of the
Lord Jesus, to bring her to Him. to expose her shame, to humble
her. The Lord even used her sin to
bring her to Him. She was made just to stand there
before Him. She had no defence. She offered
none. Her guilt had silenced her. There is a repentance that needs
to be repented of, but there is a godly repentance, and what
a lovely picture this is of it. These accusers left the presence
of the Lord. They were convicted of their
hypocrisy and their shame. They just had a legal conviction
that terrorised them. Hers was a gospel conviction,
broken and silent, contrite. Just she in the hands of her
Saviour. She didn't ask for anything,
she waited upon Him and she didn't leave His presence. And she answered
His question with reverence. They had mockingly called Him
Master, Teacher. He asks, where are thine accusers? No man. Lord, she calls her. And then she has those wonderful
words from the Lord Jesus. Neither do I condemn you. What a great word from our God
who knows us well. Just briefly before we finish,
just some lessons. Whatever the circumstances or by whomsoever,
however exposing, sad or grievous, anything that happens in our
lives should be something that brings us face to face with the
Lord Jesus. It is good for us. to have our
flesh shamed. It is good for us to know that
we are nothing but sin. Anything that brings us to the
feet of the Lord Jesus, just as we are. Nothing in my hands
I bring, simply to the cross I cling. All those things are
good for us. It is good for us in every circumstance,
in every trying circumstance, in every humbling circumstance,
to ask ourselves, what is the Lord saying to me in this? He is speaking. He's working
all things for my good and for your good and for our good together. What's God saying to me? What's this mean in terms of
my relationship with Him? Come to Him with nothing but
our sin. Come to Him hiding nothing, not
in some public way, just privately be honest with God. And when we are surrounded by
accusers, like this woman, like this picture of the bride, We
go to Him. Isn't it remarkable in the Gospels
that the Lord Jesus, when His accusers come and accuse Him
because of the sins that they see in His people, He never once
expects them to say a word in their defence. He is our defence. We'll wait for Him to bring these
things to pass. And He will reveal all things.
when the law of Moses is brought against us, we go to Him. We leave the accusers and their
accusations in the only court that matters, the courts of heaven. If we take them there, we'll
never have to go to another court of men. She doesn't say a word
about her accusers. His word to her is sufficient. They left a sad, sad group of
men. They had been convicted by his
words and by his actions. They had been convicted. What
a tragedy. They were more caring of the
world's thoughts than their soul's salvation. What grace it is to
be like that woman, to have a wound that's opened, to have a wound
that's searched out, to have a wound that's healed by those
words of the Lord Jesus. It's always a folly to run away
from Him. We run to His arms. And finally,
may God cause us to fear self-righteousness as much as we fear hell. And may God remind us of the
wonders of the gospel. Sin perfectly, completely dealt
with. Righteousness fit for heaven. Granted as a gift. A gift to us by our saviour. What a saviour. Let's pray. Our
Father in Heaven, we thank you that the Gospel exposes the hearts
of all men, and we pray, Heavenly Father, that you'd work in our
hearts, that we would lay our hearts open before you, that
we would be caused by you to deal honestly with ourselves,
we'd be caused by you, Heavenly Father, to be people who are
made by the circumstance of this world and around us and in us,
Heavenly Father, to fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus, who is both
the author and the finisher, the perfecter of faith. Heavenly Father, we thank You
that all You ever require of us, You have given us in Your
Son. And protect us, Heavenly Father,
from the self-righteousness that lurks within us. Protect us most
of all from the pharisee that lives inside of us rather than
the ones out in the world, Heavenly Father. And we thank You and
praise You that You will deal with the problems and the accusations
You have dealt with them, and you will deal with them. Help
us in all things, Heavenly Father, just to be left at your feet,
looking to you in your providence, in your mercy, in your grace,
in your love, to do the things that you have always done for
your people, our Father. We pray that you'd grow faith
in us and cause us to be lights that shine in this world, Heavenly
Father, as we just lift up the glory of your dear Saviour before
this sick and sinful and dying world. We thank you again for
redeeming love, for amazing grace, our Father. We pray in Jesus'
name. Amen.