We'll take your Bibles and turn
with me to John chapter 8. John chapter 8, looking at the
verses we read this morning, verse 3 through 11. John chapter 8, verses 3 through
11. I've titled this message this
morning, Christ Stooped Way Down. Christ Stooped Way Down. I'm going to give you the setting
of this passage before we enter into it. In the previous chapter,
the Lord Jesus Christ stood up at the last day of the feast.
He stood up at the last day of this feast and He said, if any
man believe on Me, if any man believe on Me, he shall be saved. I read the text, the title, the
comment. He said, He that believeth on
me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. We know this is the prophecy
of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the coming of the Spirit of God,
that He would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, in that all that
believed would have the Spirit of God. And this, no doubt, caused
a great division among the people. Some of the people said, hey,
that's the prophet that Moses spoke of. Other people said,
no, that's the Christ. That's the One that should come.
And others said, no, that can't be Him. That can't be Him. He
came out of Nazareth. There's no way that He's a prophet
of God. There's no way He's the Christ.
He caused great division among the people for that statement.
Is this not what the Lord promised to do when He came into this
world? John, in Matthew 10, verse 34, He says, Think not, I am
come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. And this is not a physical sword. But this is rather a sort of
division of the gospel which separates true believers from
false professors. The gospel which separates saints
from the wicked. The gospel which separates the
chosen vessels of mercy from the vessels of wrath. The gospel
separates the lost from the saved. This gospel divides. It separates. Jesus said, if any man does not
love Me above all, he is not worthy of Me. In other words, if a man does not
love Me above his job, above his family, and even above himself,
he is not worthy of Christ. In another place He says, he
cannot be My disciple. Cannot. Cannot. Be my disciple unless he loves
me above everything. That's divisive, isn't it? Doesn't
that separate? Absolutely. It separates those
who are pretenders from those who possess faith in Christ.
Lord Jesus had caused a great division in this place because
of His gospel. Because when a gospel comes to
a lost sinner, something changes about that man. Something changes
where he once had no interest in the things of God. Now he
has all the interest in the world in the things of God. What happened?
The gospel happened. Christ happened. The Spirit of
God came on that man. And something changed about him.
And now then that he has changed, the world is set against him.
The world is set against him. He is separated from the world.
Now, this always causes religious folk to rise up against Christ. Every time the gospel is preached,
it causes the natural man to rise up against the gospel. They had a little religious conference
after this happened. After this great division of
the Lord Jesus Christ, they had a convention. They had a great
big Southern Baptist convention. Self-righteous religious folk
got together and they said, hey, what happened? We were supposed
to take him. Why didn't you take him like we told you to? They
said, oh, never a man spake like this man. He said, you guys speak,
but you guys don't speak like this guy. This guy separates. This guy, he speaks with one
that has authority. And they were upset about this.
And so they patted themselves on the back and they said, well,
we're religious folk, we're good folk. And these people that believe
on Christ, these people that believe that gospel, they're
cursed and they don't know the law. These men prided themselves on
their self-righteousness and their so-called sinlessness while
they condemned others. Well, that's what religion does.
So the next day, they devised a scheme to snare the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this is the scheme that we
are going to read about. They had a scheme, they had a
plan in order to entrap the Lord Jesus Christ and to discredit
Him among the people. But in doing so, they were just
fulfilling the will of God to give us another picture. They
didn't know what they were doing. But my friends, they were moved
to do this so that we would have this picture of the Gospel before
us today. So that we can rejoice in it
and we can see a reflection of ourselves. We can see a reflection
of the world. And we can see a reflection of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ in what Christ did here. So there
are three things this morning that I want us to look at. I
want us to look at in this passage of Scripture. I want us to look
first of all at the sinner brought. The sinner brought. Second of
all, I want to look at the ones that brought her. And third,
I want us to look at the response of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
sinner brought. Those that brought her and Christ's
response to it. First of all, the sinner brought.
Look at this in John chapter 8 and verse 3. These guys are
mad. They've set a trap and here they
are fixing to spring it on him. He's out there teaching and preaching
and all of a sudden he gets interrupted. And they throw this woman in
the midst of him. And they said the scribes and
Pharisees brought to him a woman taken in adultery. And when they
had set her in the midst, they said unto him, I imagine that was a bunch of
sarcasm, Master. This woman was taken in adultery
in the very act. In the very act. This woman was
taken in the very act of adultery. Not before she committed adultery,
not after she had committed adultery, but in the very act of adultery. Now, we don't know this woman,
who she is. We don't know her status. We don't know whether
she was betrothed or whether she was married or whether she
was a harlot. I have no idea who this woman
is. We more than likely know that
she might have been betrothed or engaged to someone at that
time because stoning was meant for a woman that was betrothed
or a high priestess daughter. Those are the only two instances
of adultery with stoning as the death. Everything else was strangulation. But regardless, it really makes
no difference who this woman is. The point that was being
made is this woman was guilty. That's the important thing. The
important thing is to see is this woman was guilty. There was no way out for her.
There was no speculation about this. There was no guesswork
that needed to be done. There was nothing that needed
to be done. She was guilty. Period. No high-priced lawyer could get
her out of this one. She was caught in the very act. There was no way of escape for
her. See her. There was no way of
escape for her. She was guilty. Well, my friend, this woman in
the history that we just read, may very well represent every
one of God's elect." This woman who was taken in adultery
in the very act, cast into the midst of all of those people,
guilty, represents all of God's elect. Pastor, you mean that
this adulteress represents God's children? Yes. All those that
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ here are pictured as this woman
taken in adultery. You see, we all come into this
world as this woman following after the lust of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of our mind, and are by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But one day, God opened our eyes
and we saw that we were caught in the very act of sin. By His
providence, we were made aware of our guilt. See, this woman
didn't know it yet, but her shame that she was experiencing was
providential. Not for her damnation, but for
her good. And that's what it is with God's
people. We are caught in the very act and our shamefulness
is for our good. It's for our good. This woman
was was digged out of a pit. And she was dragged into the
midst of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it is with us who by His
grace are open to when our ears are open to hear the word that
says, the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. Have you
heard that? Not with your ears, have you heard that with your
soul? God's people have. And when we heard it, we felt
like this woman dragged in the midst of the people and guilty
as charged. Guilty. We stood before the justice
bar of God. My friends, picture it. View
it. See the woman. See her stripped. See her naked in the midst of
a throng of people. And she was guilty. Her spirit gone. No kick, no pride left. Stripped and naked and exposed
for all to see. No plea but guilty. This is the
case of every one of God's elect. A man must come to be made aware
of his guilt before God, his hopeless and helpless case. Is
there any here that I can identify with this woman? Can you identify
with this woman this morning? Can you look into her eyes and
see your own? Can you look into her soul and
see your own guilt before God? Is there any can identify and
recognize themselves in her sin and shame? Has anyone been brought
before God so undone, so vile, and so guilty? I know all those
that are called by His grace can look into the mirror of this
Word and see themselves. You see, my friend, I see myself
here. I do. I see myself as guilty. A guilty sinner before God. No hope. No way out. Well, preacher,
do you think it's good to keep reminding us of our sin? You
think it's good to keep doing that? I know I hear you talk
about sin so much. You know, it's just so down.
You're such a downer. Why do you speak about that so
much? Because God says it's good. God
says it's good to remember our sin? Yes, God says it's good.
Go to Isaiah. I was looking at this as a text,
but I thought it would be good for you to look at. Isaiah 51.
Real quickly. Isaiah chapter 51 and verse 1. God says this,
hearken unto Me. He says it three times in that
chapter. Listen to Me. Listen to Me, God says. God says,
you that follow after righteousness. Who's that? Those who are in
Christ, our righteousness. You that seek the Lord. Those
that are saved and given grace to seek God. What does God tell
us as Christians to do? Look into the rock. whence you
were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you are digged." The same pit of sin, the same
rock of the hardness of this woman's heart is the same pit
and the same rock of hardness that God took us from. Did He
not take us from the same lump? To make vessels of honor out
of us? Yeah. There's no difference between
you and me and every other one saved by God's grace. No difference.
No difference! We were taken from the pit of
depravity and the rock of fallen humanity. Can you identify then
with this woman? God said it's good for us to
recognize where we came from. It's good. It's good to see where
we came from. So number two, the ones that
brought her. We see the woman. We see her
sinfulness. We see her guilt. Now then, let's
look at the people who brought her. These that took her from
the very act of adultery." I want us to notice this. They did not
care about the justice of God. They had no concern. They had
no concern for the law of God. Nor were they willing to be taught
by Jesus Christ. Look at this in verse 6 of our
text. He says, "...and they said, tempting
Him that they might have to accuse Him." No doubt, many times they tried
to accuse the Lord, didn't they? They tried to trip Him up. They
accused Him one time and said, He's the friend of publicans
and sinners. In Luke chapter 5, verse 29,
they asked the disciples, said, Hey, why does your Master eat
with publicans and sinners? Why didn't He come eat with us
righteous folk? Why didn't He come here with those good people?
Why is He with those wretched, vile people? I don't understand
why your Master would hang around with those people if He's a prophet
of God. Jesus said, I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That's why I'm hanging
around sinners. Sinners need repentance, not
righteous folk. And one time in Matthew, he said
this to them, he said, Verily I say unto you, that publicans
and harlots will go into the kingdom before you. Ooh, don't
you know that hit them hard? Don't you know that stuck them
so deep to think that a harlot would go into the kingdom of
God before them? Ooh, that infuriated them and
made them angry. It roused up their feathers. These self-righteous men trusted
in their own righteousness and merit before God and rejected
the doctrine of Jesus Christ, which is salvation by grace through
faith, not by law. So they tried to trip him up.
How'd they do that? By putting a wedge between law and mercy.
You see, they couldn't reconcile how it is that God would be just
and then yet show mercy to unrighteous folk. And so they threw that
at Him. They threw this message of law
and mercy that He had been preaching. In other words, they set this
woman in front of Him who is a guilty in idolatry. And we
know she's guilty because in Leviticus it tells us that all
that are guilty of idolatry are worthy of death. The law is clear. You see, they tried to trip him
up before with their traditions, and he said, your traditions
aren't the issue. Your traditions make void the
law. Your traditions are worthless. So they didn't bring the traditions
this time. They've learned. So they went
ahead and they brought the law, strict to the letter, and they
put it before him. Clear. The law is clear. But
if they were seeking justice, if they were so hot for justice,
where's the man? If they were so zealous to be
just about this law, they just brought the woman. Where's the
man? You see, the law says both the woman and the man would be
killed. For some reason, he must have just got away. I don't know.
But we know that they're not there for justice. They tried
to trip him up, and I'm going to show you how they did it.
And this is very smart. I mean, in earthly standards,
when I looked at the complexity of this argument that they had,
I realized without reading the Scriptures, I couldn't answer
this question. I couldn't answer it. You couldn't answer it. The complexity of this argument.
You see, if Jesus Christ sided with them, two things would have
happened. If He said, kill her, she deserves to die, and He sided
with them, they would have to accuse Him, first of all, with
the Roman government. You see, the Roman government
had taken away the Jews' right for capital punishment. That's
why they had to take Jesus to Pilate, because they couldn't
crucify Him themselves. They couldn't kill Him themselves.
It was against the law. And so, if Jesus commanded the
death of this woman, the Roman government, He would have accused
them for the Roman government and the Romans would have taken
Him away. Second of all, if He sided with
them, they would have accused Him of of contradicting himself. Remember,
he said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
You see, he was a friend of publicans and sinners. How could he justify
killing this woman with what he said before? You see, they
had him that way too. Now then, they had him the other
way if he would have sided against them. If he would have said,
no, let her go, then they would have said, ah, this guy, he doesn't
recognize the law of Moses. Because they did bring the strict
law to him, didn't they? They would have said, this man
is void, he's not the Christ, he's not the prophet because
he went against the law and he's a sinner and a traitor. This
was a trap, my friends, it was a tough one. Could you think
of a way out of it without reading what Jesus wrote? What Jesus
said? I couldn't think of a way. There's no other way out of this.
Yes, He's condemned. No, He's condemned. He has no
way to answer emphatically yes or no. How could He answer and not be
blameable? How could He be just? and still justify this ungodly
sinner?" Isn't that the question? Isn't that the question that
they pose to Him? It is. Is this not the question
that concerns every person this morning? Hear me, every one of
you have this question before you this morning. How can God
be just and justify you? I told you, we're the woman.
We're the sinful woman. We're the guilty party. How then
can God be just and still let us go free? How is that possible? How can we escape death? That's
a question that's to every one of you this morning. How do you pose to answer that
question? How do I pose to answer that question? Well, let's look at the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ and see His answer, because this
is the best answer. His response, let's look at this
in verse 6. They said unto Him, tempting
Him that they might have to accuse Him. Here's His response. But Jesus stooped down and with
His finger wrote on the ground. It doesn't seem like a response,
does it? It is. It's a great response. It's a
great response. Why did he do this? Was he thinking
about it? Did he have to worry? Was he
concerned about answering that question? No, he was answering
it. He was answering it by stooping
down and writing with his finger. How is this a response? He wrote
on the ground, no doubt, means something in relation
to this answer that he was being asked to this question. I believe
it signifies the first time God stooped down to write with His
finger. You know where that's at? Exodus 31, verse 18. The
Scripture says, "...and he gave unto Moses, when he had made
an end of communicating with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables
of testimony, tables of stone..." Here it is. "...written with
the finger of God." Written with the finger of God.
The first stooping of the Lord Jesus Christ has reference to
the law. when God stooped down so low
to convey His law to men." Imagine the pride and arrogancy
of these men to approach a legal question concerning the law to
the one that wrote it. Imagine the arrogancy of these
men to come before the God of the universe and demand of Him
an answer to His own law. So he stooped down, showing them
that he was the one that wrote the law. He was the one that
wrote the law. The law was to testify of him,
but they rather saw it as a means of salvation. But this was not
the purpose of the law. What's the purpose of the law?
What is the reason for the law? Why did God give it? If salvation
is not to come by the law, then what is the purpose of the law?
Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 and verse 19. Here's the purpose of the law.
You want to know it? This is it. Here's the reason. Now we know that what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law.
Here's the purpose, that in order that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. There's the purpose
of the law. The purpose of the law is to
make men guilty. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. By stooping down the first time,
the Lord signified by writing the law, which was meant only
to stop our mouths and to shut us up, to our own righteousness. That's what the law is for. That's
the purpose. Did you notice this when he stooped
down and they kept asking him? He answered. He answered. The law is mine. I wrote it.
And it's to shut your mouth. That's what it's for. And yet
they kept on pressing, pressing, pressing as though they thought
they had Him. They didn't have Him. They didn't have Him. They pressed Him so, and then
when they pressed Him for an answer, He finally stood up and
spoke. And my friends, when He stood
up and spoke, the earth melted at His voice. Their religion, Their hope, their
self-righteousness melted away as wax before His Word. What
was His Word? You that are without sin, you
throw the first one. Is there anyone here that could
have thrown that stone? Don't look at me. I couldn't. No. Not one of us could. And when
He said that, His Word went forth in power. And all of their self-righteousness
and arrogancy and pride melted away at the sight of the Law. The Law shut their mouths. It shut their mouths. You see,
the law of God is right, isn't it? It's good. It's holy. It's
just. There's nothing wrong with the
law. The law manifests God's perfections. You see, this woman, as well
as all humanity, are condemned by the law. The law does nothing
but condemn. I can't imagine anybody wanting
to try to obey it. I can't imagine anybody nailing
it up on their door and looking at it, because all I see is guilt,
guilt, guilt, guilt, every time I look at it. You see, the Word of God, the
Law of God is what I like to call the great leveler of men.
No matter how high you think you are in your status, no matter
how low degree of a man you are, the law levels all men and it
says all men are guilty, guilty before God. That's what the law
does. It pronounces your guilt and
it does nothing to help you. Was there any stipulation for
this woman? Was there any out in the law? No, the law said
die. The law said die. And Jesus,
when He stood up and spoke, what He did is He opened their eyes
to see there was no difference between them and that woman.
There was no difference. There's no difference. We have all broken the law of
God and equally deserve death. But praise God, His answer didn't
stop there. The Scripture says in verse 8,
and again, he stooped down and wrote in the ground, this means
something as well. This means something as well.
Again, he answers by his actions and he stooped down the first
time to proclaim the justice of God's demands, not just on
this guilty woman, but on them all. The second time he stooped
down, it means that he stooped down in grace and mercy. It signifies His great condescension
and humiliation so that He might justify the ungodly. How far did Jesus stoop down
to become a man? You see, our answer to that depends
upon our knowledge of Christ and our knowledge of men, right? Depends on how high you think
God is and how low you think man is. If you think man's pretty
good, then he didn't stoop down too far. You don't think much of God,
he didn't stoop down too pretty far. But my friend, if you see
God for who He is and how high He is, and you see man for how
low he is, then you will see the great condescension God came
down to take upon Himself the form of a slave. Great condescension. And by his
great condescension, he honored God's law in all of its perfections. He stooped way down in his love
and obedience to sew together a robe of righteousness to cover
our nakedness and our shame. You know, that woman laying there
in front of him, naked and stripped in front of all of those people,
you know, I imagine that she wanted something to cover herself. Well, this is what Christ stooped
down for. He stooped down to sew together a robe of righteousness
so that we can have something to cover ourselves, to cover
our nakedness and our shame before God. He stooped way down so that
He might bring the objects of His love to Himself. Just as
this woman needed to cover her shame, we need His righteousness
to cover our nakedness. But we not only needed a cover
for our shame, we needed payment. And yet Jesus Christ not only
stooped so far down to become a man, He stooped even further
than that when He took upon Himself our sin. How far did He have to come down
to get you? How low did He have to come to
dig you out of the pit? He stooped way down for me. Way down for me. He paid my debt
that I owed to God. He stooped down so low, not only
to provide my righteousness, but to pay my ransom price. And
he being the great high priest offered himself as our ransom
and he stooped down with his fingers and he dipped them in
his own blood and he sprinkled them on the mercy seat so that
we might have atonement before God. That's how far he stooped
down. His humiliation, he gave us life
and faith and he calls by this gospel whomsoever he wills. In verse 9, he said, they had
been convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one. I'll tell you what, some of you
will go out from this place having heard my words, and you'll go
out the same way these men went out. Convicted by their own conscience. You see, Paul says, for godly
sorrow worketh repentance, but to salvation, not to be repented
of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. My friends, a man who has never
heard the law of God still understands it's wrong to steal and lie and
murder. Why? How does somebody who has
never heard the Word of God or the Law of God know it's wrong?
How do they know that? Because the Law of God is written
on their hearts, that conscience. The conscience of man pricks
him when he does evil. It hurts. And these men, they
were pricked in their conscience. And some of you may be pricked
in your conscience. Some of you will go away from
here and you'll say, yeah, I'm guilty. And then 10 minutes later,
it'll be gone. It won't worry you anymore. A
week later, a month later, a year later, it'll go away and you'll
feel just like you did before, because we can always sear our
conscience, can't we? Every time that conscience pops
up, we take a hot iron of our will and we sear it. We just
go on in our pride. Some of you will walk out that
way this morning. You see, I can make you feel guilty. I can make
you feel emotionally guilty. But my friends, that will do
your soul absolutely no good whatsoever. Because that kind
of sorrow works death. It doesn't give life. Remember Agrippa? He said, almost
thou persuadest me to be a Christian. My friend, almost is lost. Almost
is only a work of your conscience, and you will slowly fade one
by one by one. I believe in Jesus, some say, but they have more
pressing things to do. Oh, I love Jesus. But, you know, I've got things
that need to be done. I can take him or leave him.
I can worship him or not. My friend, you've just been touched
by your conscience and you feel guilty whether you go to church
or you don't. You just feel, well, I need to go to church
because I feel guilty. That's your conscience. That's
not godly sorrow. Godly sorrow worketh repentance. Repentance. Any man can give you guilt. These
men saw their sin, but our conscience is so corrupt, and it will cause
you to go away from Christ. I'll tell you this, if any man
has any place else to go from Christ, he'll go there. If there's
anything else that is more important than Christ, they will go. Conscience will drive you from
one religion to the next. Well, that was good. I've got
everything I need out of that. Let me just move on to this other
thing over here. Conscience will drive you all the way around. These religious men felt guilt,
but they returned to their religion. What about this woman? Where
did she go? Where could she go? She had no place else to go. Jesus said of His disciples,
He said, Will you go away also? And they said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. To whom shall we go? Is there any greater place for
a guilty sinner than to be before Christ. Can you think of another
place you'd rather be? I can't think of another place
I'd rather be than to be right here around my Lord Jesus Christ,
worshiping Him. I can't think of another place,
because that's the only place I find comfort and peace and
joy and rest. That's it. At Christ's feet. She needed mercy. And those that
need mercy need Christ. And we say, take the world, but
give me Christ. I must have Him. When Jesus lifted up Himself,
He saw none but this woman standing here. Notice, He lifted up Himself.
This speaks of His victory. This speaks of the victory of
Jesus Christ who had lifted Himself up, and now He is seated on the
right hand of God, and He has all power given unto Him in heaven
and in earth, and He moves all things according to the counsel
of His own will, and He is working everything to save His people. That's what He's doing. This Jesus who stooped down so
low is no longer stooped, my friends. He lifted Himself up
and He is above us all. He is above us all. He is exalted
as God, blessed forever high and lifted up on the throne and
all power is His. Do you stand in need like this
woman this morning? Do you? Do you need mercy? Then I tell you, look to Jesus
Christ and bow down before Him. Bow down. Worship at His feet. And lastly, his response was
to this woman, he not only stooped to show their guilt, he not only
stooped to give us salvation, but he also speaks great words
of comfort to those who have bowed down as guilty sinners
before him. Listen to this. Where are those thine accusers?
Church? Redeemed? Elect? Called? Saved? Ransomed? Where are your
accusers this morning? Where are those that accuse your
soul of sin and guilt? Where are they? Where are they? She said, No man, Lord, neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. More glorious
and gracious words have never been spoken to a sinner. Dear believer in Christ, praise
God, for there is right now, right now, right now, no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. That's pretty good for somebody
who's guilty. That's good for somebody who
needs mercy. That's good. There is no condemnation. We are free from all condemnation. Not by overlooking the law and
not by technicalities. You know, that gripes me more
than anything else in the world. Somebody gets off technically,
you know, a piece of paper wasn't filed and they get off technically. My friends, we didn't get off
technically. We didn't get off by overlooking the law. When
the law looks at us in its strict justice, it no longer demands
our curse. It demands our freedom. It demands
your freedom. God's law demands your freedom. Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus has bled and there is remission. Cursed by the law and bruised
by the fall, Christ has redeemed us once for all. Now go, Jesus says to us who
believe, go and sin no more. You see, my friend, this is not
a commandment of law, but a condition of mercy, a condition of love. When Jesus
says, go and sin no more, is that not what you desire to do? I don't want sin anymore. Go and sin no more. You see, it's not a law, but
rather one of love, for Christ's love constraineth us, Paul says. We who believe and are free from
the law, we are constrained by the love of Christ We long for righteousness who
once loved sin. We long for holiness who once
despised it. We sang it just a moment ago,
trusting only in Thy merit would I seek Thy face, heal my wounded,
broken spirit and save me by Thy grace. Thou the spring of
all my comfort, more than life to me. Whom have
I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Is this
not our prayer this morning? Do not pass me by. I pray this is our hearts. Let us take our place and see
our guilt before Christ, and He will have mercy. He will
have mercy. I pray you don't go out of here
the same way you came in. Many of you will, and my heart
aches for you to never know a Savior I pray for you. And let us rejoice
who know Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed.