John chapter 8. Now the scribes
and the Pharisees, these are those who were the natural sons
of Abraham, the natural descendants of Abraham, who had the oracles
of God, who had the temple, who had the sacrifices, who were
among the priesthood, who had all the traditions passed down
to them and everything set up, everything in order, everything
in line. And along comes this man who
said he's the son of God. And they knew, every one of them
knew, that behind that curtain in the Holiest of Holies, there
was no ark there and there hadn't been an ark there since that
temple was built. And everything they was doing
was a sham and a show and a put on bunch of hypocrisy. And they
wanted everything they could do to make this one, find something
about the Lord Jesus Christ to where they could accuse him before
the people and make him out to be a fraud. And in the minds of these men,
they had found it. They thought they had found something
that would put him in a big dilemma. They thought, the very best religious
minds thought this. They brought this woman caught
in adultery in the very act. They bring him in and they set
him in the midst where the Lord's teaching in the temple. And they
say to him, verse 3, And the scribes and Pharisees brought
unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in
the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken
in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded
us. Who commanded Moses? The one they're talking to. Now hear what they said. 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. Now the best they could figure
out, the best they could come up with was this. If he does not stone this woman,
and does not command us to stone this woman, If this man is against
the law of God, he's not holy and he's not just, and we got
him. If he says show her mercy, if
he says show her mercy, I'm sorry, I got that. If he
shows her mercy, he's not just. And if He tells us to stone her,
He's not merciful. And they thought they had Him.
Do you know how God can be just and be merciful? Do you know
how God can be just, that is, exact the full penalty of His
law upon a sinner and yet show that sinner mercy and still be
just? How can He exact full justice
upon a person and still be merciful? And how can He be merciful and
still be just? The answer is, in the One to
whom they're speaking, Christ Jesus the Lord, His own Son. By Him coming and living and
dying, He satisfied His own justice. for everyone for whom He died,
and He's just to show them mercy. In fact, His justice is demanding
of it. They have to be shown mercy.
Because He's just, and He's right, and He'll do what's right. Well,
the first thing we're going to see here is the worst kind of
sin there is, and it's self-righteousness. self-righteousness. These men
appear outwardly to be concerned about the honor of God. They appear to be concerned about
the law of God. And they're saying it through
their condemnation of this woman who's caught in the act of adultery. And they are committing the worst
kind of adultery of all. You see, they're full of malice
and guile and hypocrisy. Everything they're doing is actually
hatred for God and hatred for man. It's the breaking of the
entire law of God. It's completely, totally opposite
of who God is. It is everything that is diametrically
opposed to holy God, what these fellows are doing. That's why
Apostle Paul had such an issue with those who came into the
church at Galatia saying it was a necessity for these brethren
to keep the law. Because it would result in a
complete and total hatred of God and hatred of one another.
They would bite and devour one another in the cutting of one
another and trying to make one another a holy thing. And all
the while go further and further and further and further away
from God. The Lord said, beware of the
leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees. You know, we can look
at this and we can see this is absolute and total ignorance. When we look at these men walking
up to, we can see here in this word, We believe this is Christ,
this is God standing here talking, that these men are talking to.
And we can see in this, as believers, we see the utter folly of what
these men are doing. We see the utter folly of them
trying to come to Him in this pretense that they're really
trying to honor Him and really trying to do that which is right
according to the law of God. We see how foolish and how full
of hypocrisy it is, don't we? He knows their heart. He knows
everything about them. Well, do we see how foolish,
you see how foolish it would be for a sinner to try to approach
God, to try to make himself something before God, to be accepted of
God by something he's done in his flesh, by something he's
abstained from, or by something that he's committed himself to,
and now say that he'll be accepted of God. You see the foolishness
and the hypocrisy of that? God knows what these men's hearts
are. He knows our heart. I tell you,
if we've been given a heart of If we've been given a new heart
by God, so that we know something of our sin and something of our
rebellion, you know what I'm really glad of? I'm glad God
knows my heart. I really am. Because He knows what He's made, and
He knows what He's put there, and He knows what He's created,
even when I don't When I think I can't possibly be his, he knows. And I'm glad he knows. I'm glad
he knows. I'm glad he knows. So Peter,
this is what Peter, wherefore laying aside malice, and guile,
and hypocrisy, and envies, and evil speakings, as newborn babes
desire the sincere milk of the Lord. You see how opposite to
a baby it is what these fellows are doing. This is just, this
is just hateful. Malice, guile. And if any man,
as brethren, if any man be overtaken in a fault, You that are spiritual. You've been born in the Spirit
of God. You know what you are. You know
what you are. If any of our brethren are overtaken
in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore them. How were we restored
when Christ came to us? How are we restored continually
when Christ enters in? How are the stale shelves stopped? with the riches of His grace
and His mercy and His kindness and His long-suffering and His
goodness, what He's done for us. That's how we restore one
another. And we do it in the spirit of
meekness, considering ourselves, considering what we are. Because
no sooner have we started trying to correct somebody else than
we're in need of correction. I almost, you know this, you
know this, how many times have you, somebody's heard the truth,
the gospel, heard it, heard the gospel, and somebody said, now you folks think you're the
only ones that know the gospel. Don't judge now, don't be cast
in a stone. I've never heard anybody say
that against the gospel, having heard the truth of the gospel,
who was not doing exactly what they're saying. They're judging
and casting a stone. That's exactly what these men
were doing. In fact, if you read a few chapters
over, they end up cast in stone. at Him. That's what they're doing
in their heart right here. That's self-righteousness. Paul makes a blanket statement
in Romans chapter 2. Let me read this to you. Romans
chapter 2, and this is so. This is so. You can bank on this.
You can bank on this. Romans chapter 1, Therefore thou
art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges. For wherein
thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judges,
doest the same things. Do the same things. What's Paul
saying? He's saying, In my flesh dwells
no good thing, and in your flesh dwells no good thing. That's
so. We're on level ground in our
flesh. It's sin. Sin. All right. Here's the next thing I want
you to see. Let me hurry along here. Next thing. I want you
to see the demands of the law of God. Verse 5. They said, Now Moses in the law
commanded us that such should be stoned. Now, Moses did command
that such should be stoned. The law gives no leniency. It gives no
excuse. It gives no mercy. Period. The law is without grace. The law is without mercy. The
law says flatly, across the board, the soul that sinneth, it shall
die. it shall die. Now, we know about
earthly judges. Earthly judges can be bought.
Earthly judges can be bribed. Earthly judges can be persuaded
to give leniency for this or that. The best that we have is
not the judgment of God. The best we have as men is not
the same judgment as God. Period. God will by no means
clear the guilty at all. At all. Now, let me show you
what the law says. Romans 3. Romans 3. You brethren sitting here know
this. I want everybody sitting here
to know this. Listen to this now. Romans 3
19. Now we know that what thing so
ever the law sayeth. It saith to them who are under
the law..." You know who's under the law?
Everybody who's still in Adam. You're either in Adam or you're
in Christ. Everybody that's in Christ have
been in Christ from before the world began. They've been accepted
in the Beloved, and He's redeemed them, and He's made them righteous,
and He comes and He manifests it to them. Those of you sitting
here that don't believe on Him, who are yet in Adam, in your
flesh, in your experience of things, you're under the law.
Here's what the law says. The law says to them that are
under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. for all, verse 23, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now I want you
to see something. Go over to Leviticus 20 and look
at what the law actually says. This tells us something about
how we judge of things. How we judge of things. The Lord
told them here a little later, He said, you judge after the
flesh. The law is spiritual. We're carnal. sold under sin. We're born of the Spirit of God,
we don't even hear what this law says. We think, oh, if I
don't steal, and I don't commit adultery, and I go to church
every Sunday, and I'll be righteous. We don't hear the law is spiritual,
and the law says we're guilty. But here's how we interpret the
Word of God, all the Word of God. We interpret it in a way
that's going to bring, by nature, by flair, we interpret it in
a way that's going to bring God down and it's going to bring
us up. We interpret it in a way that's
going to make God just good old lenient grandfather that just
looked the other way and let us slide on in. This is how we
interpret it right here. Look, they came and they brought
this woman and they set them right in the midst and they said,
we caught this woman in the very act and the law says such should
be stoned. Is that what the law says? It
did say she should be put to death, but that's not all it
said. Look at Leviticus 20 verse 10. The man that committeth adultery
with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with
his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put
to death. Both of them. Both of them. Look at over Deuteronomy 22. If a man be found lying with
a woman, married to a husband, even they shall both of them
die, both the man that lay with the woman and the woman. So shalt
thou put away evil from Israel." Evil's got to be put away, and
all that's going to be put away is through death. What God's
law says. But both of them. If a damsel
that is a virgin be betrothed unto her husband, and a man find
her in the city and lie with her, then ye shall bring them
both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them
with stones that they die. Both of them. The damsel because
she cried not being in the city, and the man because he humbled
his neighbor's wife, so thou shalt put evil away from among
you. They didn't bring but the woman,
that's all they brought. So they weren't as smart as they
thought they were, just in the bare sense of the law. Not much
less knowing, but this is a lesson to us brethren, that we don't,
we can't even know the spirituality of the law. That God's looking
at the heart. He said, you know, if you thought
about stealing, you've stolen. If you become angry, you've committed
murder. If you look, It's adultery. The law is spiritual. Now let's see the fulfillment
of it. So first of all, we see here these fellows. Now, the
fulfillment of the law. Now these men are religious impostors. Completely impostors. But they're
saying of her, they're saying of her, what the law of God says
concerning her, concerning her guilt. She was supposed to be
put to death. That's what the law said. Verse
6, John 8, 6, This they said, tempting him, that they might
have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, with
his finger wrought on the ground, as though he heard them not.
So when they continued asking him, they keep wanting to know. They want the law to be enforced.
The law, the law, the law, the law. He lifted up himself and said
unto them, He that's without sin among you, let him first
cast a stone at her. He didn't just say, where's the
man? He went a step further. He said,
every one of you sitting here is guilty. I know your heart. That's what he said. I know every
one of you. You don't even have to bring the man. I'm just, let's just talk about
who is here. That's what he's saying. Let's
just talk about who's standing here. Everyone here is as guilty
as her, he's saying. Now watch this. And he said without,
he that's 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 by 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."
Now the scripture doesn't tell us what he wrote on the ground.
And we, you know, we could say what we think he wrote on the
ground. It's going to be speculation at best. I'm not even going to
speculate about that. I don't know what he wrote on
the ground. Some say he wrote some things that had to do with
the law, such as that. The law says that the one that
executes the sentence has to be free from the same crime. He's got to be free from the
same crime. That is just outwardly speaking. Now spiritually it
tells us something. Who's the only one that can really
do the judging? The only one that's without sin
is God. He's God. The only one without
sin standing there in the midst of them was Christ himself. He's
the only one that could do any judging whatsoever and be right. So that's what he says. But look
now, when he says, He that's without sin among you, let him
first cast a stone at her. Verse 9 says, They were all convicted
in their conscience. And they went out one by one.
These men fell under legal conviction. They knew they were bested. They knew what he said they were,
and in their conscience they became guilty. Will that make
a sinner fall at Christ's feet and ask Him for mercy? They went
away from Him. They turned around and went away
from Him. Try to come to God in the law. Try to make a man
holy with the law. Try to constrain a man with the
law. Try to work with the law in the
midst of God's people. And I'll tell you what will happen
every time. You will every time bring them under a legal conviction
and every time drive them right away from Christ. Right away
from Christ. What does it take when we find
out that we're sin and we're guilty? What does it take to
bring us to Christ? It takes His mercy. It takes
His forgiveness. It takes His grace. That, combined
with what we are, will bring us to Him. That'll bring us to
Him, not away from Him. All right? We have a beautiful...
We don't know what He wrote, but we got a beautiful picture
here in what He did. First thing he did was he stooped
down and he wrote with his finger on the ground. He took flesh and he came down into earth and
he wrote. God is the Word. Everything that was written in
the Law and the Prophets was written at the hands of men through
His Spirit as He moved men to write. And everything that was
written was written of Him. And the Word was made flesh and
came down to where we were. And as it were, in every single
thing He did in sinless perfection on this earth, He in flesh, with
the finger of His flesh, fulfilled everything that was written. He fulfilled everything in the
prophets and He fulfilled all the law of God. He said, lo I
come in the volume of the book it is written of me. Think not that I've come to destroy
the law of the prophets. He said, I didn't come to destroy
them. He wrote them. He wrote them. And He said, not
only did I write them, I came to fulfill them. I came to fulfill
them. He came in human flesh and made
this great stoop and roped. He fulfilled everything that
was written of him. Look at the second thing he does
here. Verse 7 says, So when they continued asking him, he lifted
up himself. You know how he drove all this
woman's accusers away? You know how he silenced all
this woman's accusers? He lifted up himself. He said,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him
might have eternal life. And no man takes my life from
me, He said. He said, I lay it down of myself. He lifted Himself up on that
cross. Wicked hands put Him there. Wicked
hands nailed Him there. Wicked hands did everything they
did to Him and are inexcusable for what we did to Him. But He
put Himself there. Everything that happened, He
was doing Himself. You know why He was doing it?
Because the law of God has got to be fulfilled. The woman, his
bride, was an adulterer. She was guilty. And her sin had
to be put away. And all the accuser, that old
serpent, all he could do was say, she's guilty, she's guilty,
she's guilty. But even worse than him, the
justice of God, the law of God said, she's guilty, she's guilty,
she's guilty. And Christ came, stooped down,
and lifted Himself up and silenced every one of the accusers for those for whom He died. He
silenced them. He satisfied the whole law of
God. He satisfied His justice. He satisfied righteousness. He
fulfilled all righteousness in precept and in penalty. He willingly,
just as Brother Jaime said, was made sin for his people and he
bore the wrath of God in their place, that they might be made
the righteousness of God in him. So that God's justice is honored.
His justice is satisfied. And it's been satisfied in a
just and honorable way. So that he stands now having
fulfilled the law and having bruised the serpent's head. And
when the serpent tries to come to his bride and say, I caught
him in the act. I caught him in the very act.
He's guilty. Your law says he's guilty. The
Lord says what he said of Joshua. I rebuke thee, Satan. Don't you
know this is a brand plucked out of the fire? Get away from
him. Get away from her. He ever liveth
to make intercession for his people. Even when we were dead
in trespasses and sins, even when we didn't know it, He was
the One bringing the corn and the oil and the wine and sitting
at our door. He was the One providing for
us. He was the One doing all things for us that He might bring
us to Himself to behold what He's done for us. We didn't know
it though, did we? We were dead. We were just like
these Pharisees. We were either accusing or excusing
one another using the very Word of God to do it. So whether man
knows God where they are whether man has a Bible or don't have
a Bible where he did you ever heard anything about? About truth
or hate whether he hasn't ever man thinks he's gonna be alright
And he's a little bit better than the next fellow If he's
not quite as good as he ought to be at least he's not bad as
that fella and that ought to count for something That don't
count for anything Well, they've got to find out. They've got
to know it, don't they? Verse 8. And again He stooped down
and wrote on the ground. This is the fourth thing. Divine
forgiveness. He stooped down and wrote on
the ground again. And they which heard, that's
when they're convicted by their conscience. And they went out
one by one, beginning at the eldest, even to the last. And
Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. You know what the Lord promises
for all those He's redeemed? This shall be the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith
the Lord, I'll put my law in their inward parts, and I'll
write it in their hearts. And I'll be their God, and they'll
be my people. And I'll forgive their iniquity,
and I'll remember their sin no more. He came to where we were. He raised Himself up on the cross.
And through the Spirit of God, He comes to where we are. And
he enters in, and he quickens by the Word, and he writes his
Word in the inward parts, and he says, I fulfilled it all.
Your sin and your iniquity I remember no more. He said unto this woman,
Woman, where are those thine accusers? Have no man condemned
thee? Verse 11, she said, No man, Lord. Forgiveness won't make us depart
from Him under legal conviction. Forgiveness will make us own
Him as our Lord. She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus
said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Well, you can't tell somebody
that. That will make them just want to sin all they want to. Don't you sin all you want to?
I sin way more than I want to. I don't want to sin as much as
I do sin. You know what makes me not want
to? He says, no man can condemn you and neither do I condemn
you. And He says, now go and sin no
more. And you know what that makes
me want to do? That makes me want to go and sin no more. That's exactly right. There is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
to them who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For
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, through my flesh, God
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin
hath condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of God
might be fulfilled in us. who aren't any longer walking
after the law or after our flesh, after the enmity of our mind,
trying to bring ourselves up to God so fat and full and sassy
that our butts are about to pop. Now we're just sinners who've
been saved by His mercy, and we want to go and sin no more.
That's what grace does. Law don't do that. Legal binding
and yoke don't do that. Forgiveness does. David, thou
art the man. Let the Lord forgive you. Oh,
Lord, light out my transgression. Forgive me. Oh, Lord, forgive
me. I've sinned against you and you
only. You know what did that? Forgiveness. Forgiveness. So, what do we say
about that? Well, some of you are going to
go away from here this morning, maybe a little bit under legal
conviction. that you're going to go away
like the Pharisees did, self-righteous and thinking, well, I don't need
him. But some of you, some of you
are going to see yourself in this adulterous woman and know
that in yourself and in myself, we're entirely guilty. but for his great love's sake,
for his holy glory, he said, no man can condemn you and I
don't condemn you because my son bore the condemnation for
you. And you're going to go from here
Saying, oh, I don't want to sin anymore. I don't want to sin
anymore. I have forgiveness with God.
How could I sin against a God like that? If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So if He's forgiven you all your
sin, if you truly believe Him, go and sin no more. Amen.