I want to speak tonight from
John chapter 8, a passage that is well known by all, and I don't
expect to say anything new, and you better be glad. We don't have a new message.
But I want us to see here tonight the experience of every believer,
the sovereign grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor,
wretched, miserable, guilty, hell-deserving sinners. This grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ first can be seen in the last verse of chapter 7 where
it says, And every man went into his own house. Verse 1 says,
Jesus went into the mound of olives. Do you see the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ? He who was rich was poor that
you through his poverty may be made rich. The eternal son of
God, creator of all things, God, the only true living God, God
manifest in the flesh when he came into this world, didn't
have where to lay his head. And the reason being is we forfeited
everything. When we fell on our father Adam,
we forfeited every benefit, every blessing from God. Curses upon
everyone by that fall. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Oh, what precious name, Jesus. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. What a blessed
name, our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope I don't need these notes.
And early in the morning, he came again to the temple and
all the people came to him and he sat down and taught him. This
is just introduction. But the Lord Jesus Christ taught
his people all how we need to be taught of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact is, if he doesn't teach
us, no man is no God. It is written, they shall all
be taught of God. Everyone that is taught of God
and hears him comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. But if we're not
taught of him, if the Holy Spirit doesn't bless his word, It doesn't
matter how clear a man may speak or preach the message, if the
Lord, the Holy Spirit, doesn't bless this word and cause a man
to see who he is in the light of the glory of Jesus Christ
and what he has done, who he is and what he has done, then
this will be of no avail. But he taught the people. And
as he was teaching the people there in the temple, The scribes
and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery.
And when they set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master,
this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now, I thought
I put this in order, so I'm going to try to make it in order. This woman was taken in the very
act, and this woman represents the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. This woman is every one of us who, by the grace of God,
are saved from our sins. Every one of us, by nature, are
spiritual fornicators. All men, by nature, are spiritual
fornicators. What does that mean? All men,
by nature, go after a god of their imagination, give themselves
over to a false god. Man doesn't know God, man cannot
know God, and man's going about to establish his own God and
follows his own thoughts and imaginations. You know, man knows
there's a God, but man is not honest. The most honest thing
a man can say is, I know there's a God, but I don't know Him. That's the most honest thing
a man can say. But you know what people say?
I know there's a God, and I think He's like this. The moment a
man says, I think, he's going after his own way. He's fabricated a God like unto
himself, and he's joined himself to that God, and he's a spiritual
fornicator. But now listen, if I start speaking
Spanish, y'all forgive me. God's children. who were given
to the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity are His bride, are His spouse. He is the husband and we are
His bride. When God the Father chose a people
in eternity and gave us His people to the Lord Jesus Christ, we
were a spouse to Him. And when we fell in our father
Adam, we like all men gone astray, seeking after false gods, but
we, his people, are spiritual adulterers. Spiritual adulterers. We have joined ourselves also
to false gods. And this woman, the scripture
tells us, and I say it's a picture of the sovereign grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ in bringing his church unto himself and to
knowledge of himself, for this reason. It says she was taken
in the very act, but both of them were not brought before
him. Have you ever wondered why the man was not brought before
the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you ever wondered? If you're
reading the commentaries, people say all kinds of things. I believe
it's this picture of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone
in this world is a sinner, but only The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is brought to acknowledge that they are sinners. Only the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ is brought to conviction that
I have sinned. You can convince men, and I can
convince men, that they've sinned. False preachers
and false religionists, they try to use those tactics. They say, well, you've lied,
haven't you? And the law says thou shalt not lie. Well, therefore,
you're a sinner. You agree with that? And they
say, well, I guess I am. I'm a sinner. That's not conviction
of sin. The Lord said that when the Holy
Spirit comes, he will convince men of sin because they have
not believed on me. You have not trusted me. We can only know God in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. All other gods are false gods. All other gods are fabrications
of man's imagination. And when a man is convinced of
his sin, he's convinced in the preaching of the gospel that
Jesus Christ is God. That there's no other God and
that I have not bowed to him. I have been committing spiritual
adultery. And that is using the law of
God lawfully. That shuts my mouth. That shuts
a man's mouth before he is condemned. Condemned by the law. Guilty.
Has nothing to say. These religious Pharisees, these
Jews, they brought this woman and put her in the midst, right
there in front of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a beautiful picture. They brought this sinner to the
judge of all the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ said, the
Father judges no man. Chapter 5, verse 22, the Father
judges no man. He's committed all judgment to
the Son. The Lord Jesus Christ is the judge of all earth and
he will do right. But the law can only condemn. These men brought the woman before
the Lord Jesus Christ and said, the law says this woman needs
to be stoned, killed. But what do you say? Now, their
motive, it says here in the scripture that what they said, they said
trying to tempt the Lord. That is to say, they didn't believe
he was God. They wanted to discredit him
before the people because he was very accessible. The Lord
Jesus Christ was a friend of sinners. He's a friend of sinners. No one that was a sinner ever
was afraid to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. You know
who felt uncomfortable in the midst of the Lord Jesus Christ?
The Pharisees. The Pharisees did because he
exposed their hypocrisy. He exposed their religion as
all false false falsehood. Hypocrisy and sin. But they brought
this woman that was caught in adultery and set her in the midst. And they said unto him, Master,
the woman was taken into adultery in the very act. That is a very
good picture of what the gospel does when it arrests his people. I looked up that song, Hail Sovereign
Love, that once began the scheme to rescue fallen men. And it's
in here somewhere. But one of the lines says, Thus
the eternal counsel ran, almighty love, arrest that man. Almighty
love, arrest that man. You and I were going in our own
way and God one day arrested us. Arrested us with the preaching
of the gospel and brought us to understand that all our righteousness
are filthy rags. All we are is sin. We're convinced of sin. He says,
now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned,
but what sayest thou? Oh boy, you could ask that question
to eternity and never find an answer. How can God be just and
justify the ungodly? Go out and look at the stars,
all you hear is the crickets. Cricket, cricket, no, no, no
answer. There's no answer. Only God found
the way. God found the way whereby he
may be just and merciful. They thought we've got him against
the corner if he says, let her go. Well, we've got him because
he said, think not that I've come to destroy the law and the
prophets. I didn't come to destroy. I came
to fulfill. Now that has to be done in order
for any man to be saved any man to be just justified and stand
before God. God's law has to be he's the
judge of all worth and he must do right. But they thought they
had the Lord, as you will, with his back against the wall. How
silly for man to think that they could stomp the wisdom of God.
God has found in his wisdom a way, the way, Jesus Christ, whereby
he may be just and the justifier of the ungodly. Now, I want us
to notice there that this woman, all during this transaction,
this woman did nothing. This woman did nothing. This
woman stood there guilty, condemned, with her mouth shut. You'll know when someone is being
convicted by the Holy Spirit, they'll stop blabbing. They'll
stop making excuses. This woman was Quiet. She was
guilty. She didn't say a thing. But the
Lord Jesus Christ did something. A lot is written about what he
might have written. He stooped to the ground. The
Lord Jesus Christ. This said they tempted 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. We're not told what he wrote
on the ground. But we know this, that for any
sinner to be justified before God, two things have to be sure. First of all, God's law has to
be honored. God's law has to be honored.
Perhaps he wrote, we read other times when he wrote the law of
God with the finger of God, he wrote the Ten Commandments. His
law has to be honored. The Lord Jesus Christ, in representing
His church and saving His people, He came into this world to do
that. When He said in the volume of
the book that is written of Me, I come to do Thy will, O God,
He's talking about establishing righteousness as a man here on
earth. That means that as a man, believed
God and he always did that which pleased the Father. The Father
said of him, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. But he wrote on the ground as
though he heard them not. This is the first thing that
must be in the salvation of His people. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, think not that I've come to destroy the law and the prophets.
I came to fulfill. I came to do everything and He
obeyed in every jot and every tittle. This is the righteousness. This is the righteousness of
God. This is the only righteousness and this is the righteousness
that is your righteousness if you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the righteousness that
God accepts. It's the righteousness that he's
provided and it's the righteousness that he accepts. Well, it says
here in the text that so they continued asking him and he lifted
himself and said unto them, he that is without sin among you,
let him cast the first stone. stoned her, and again he stooped
down and rode on the ground." I see here almighty power, almighty
power of God. These men were chomping at the
bit. They were quick at the trigger. They would have cast that stone
just, they lifted up stones many times to cast them at the Lord
Jesus Christ and they were not able to. Why? Because His hour
had not yet come. His hour had not yet come. power
of God to restrain these men. When the Lord Jesus Christ stooped
down and wrote on the ground, He said, he that he viewed without
sin let him cast the first stone. He's the only one that could
cast a stone. All these men were with sin. Everybody's a sinner.
But the Lord Jesus Christ stooped down and wrote on the ground. And again, we're not told what
He wrote on the ground, but we know this. The Scriptures clearly
teach us that in order for God to receive us in His presence,
in order for God to save a sinner, sin must be put away. The payment
for sin must be done. And the Lord Jesus Christ, when
He came into the world, He came not only to establish righteousness,
to live that holy, perfect life before God the Father, He came
to give His life a ransom for His people. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to give or shed His precious blood to put away the sins of
His people. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ stooped
again. We read in 2 Philippians, 2nd
Philippians chapter 2, well that is 2nd Philippians. Philippians,
I said that the other day, so what book is that? It's Philippians
chapter 2. What book is 2nd Philippians? And verse 5, you know the Apostle
Paul is talking here to the Philippians, let this mind be in you, which
also in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ humbled
himself, humbled himself. But he said, let this mind be
in you, the church, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being
in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. This is the first, if you will, if this is the first humiliation
of the eternal Son of God. The eternal Son of God, the creator
of all things, God blessed over all, came into this world and
was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. How could I illustrate
that? You see that maggot? You see
that maggot wiggling around with that rotten corpse? What is that? Does that just
give you all kinds of good feelings and good thoughts? It's revolting,
isn't it? You see that? You got it in your
mind? What if I were to say to you, how would you like to go take
the place of that maggot? You say, oh boy, that would be
a great condescension. That would be a great humiliation
for me to take the place of that maggot on that rotten corpse.
And yet, if you could do that, if I could do that, that would
not begin to compare to the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
creator of all things, who came into this world and was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh. It's not a big jump for you to
be made like a maggot, because after all, we're both creatures.
were both creatures. But the Lord Jesus Christ, He's
the creator of all things. He is God. And He humbled Himself
and became flesh. Anybody that doesn't know the
Lord Jesus Christ as God does not know God. Anybody that does
not know the Lord Jesus Christ as the true and living God, equal
with God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, these
three are one, does not know God. And that Jesus they believe
in cannot save them. The Lord Jesus Christ humbled
himself and became flesh. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the word
was made flesh. He became true man. Now, the
purpose for that is that he may. Honor God as a man, man, the
law was given to man and man must honor God's law. Man must honor God's law. Well,
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and honored God's
holy law. What a great, great humiliation. But that must be. That must be
for you to enter into the presence of God in order for God to save
you from your sin. You must be in his presence accepted. You have to have a righteousness,
the righteousness of God. That's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, not only that, you must
have your sins removed from you, sins taken away. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, when he was made flesh, when he was made flesh
in the time appointed, the hour, when his hour came. The Lord
Jesus Christ was made sin for us. The one who knew no sin was
made sin for us. And when he was made sin, God's
wrath fell on him. God's justice demanded death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. And he died. Now, the only hope
for you and I is that when he died, I died. Remember I said
that we were given to Christ, united to Christ in eternity.
We were his spouse. He's the bride and we're the
spouse. When he died, I died. I died. That is the, he humbled
himself. I was reading in Philippians,
it said, let this mind be in you which also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God. He is God. But he made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant, And he was made in
the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. This was the father's commandment
that he lay down his life for his people. He said, no man takes
my life from me. I lay it down. I have the power
to lay it down. I have the power to take it up
again. This commandment have I received from my father. You
know, I've preached through this in several occasions, and I've
always just, you read something, you find something new every
time. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he stooped, he went down
lower than the woman. I've always read this, and for
some reason or other, I've seen the woman cast at the feet of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But it says here, So they continued
asking him, he lifted up himself and said to them, he that is
without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. And again,
he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard
it being convicted in their own conscience, went out one by one,
beginning at the eldest and even the last. And Jesus was left
alone and the woman standing in the midst. The woman was standing. The Lord Jesus Christ went down
low, low. He humbled himself. He said,
I am no man, I'm a worm, I'm a worm. What condescension, what
humiliation. Well, talking about how that God saves
sinners, how does God save sinners? He saves sinners by his doing,
by who he is, And by what he did, he represented this woman
before her accusers. And notice they went out one
by one. And he was left standing alone. And he was left alone and the
woman standing in the midst. Oh, that's good. That's a good
place to be. No one in the middle. No one in the middle but the
Lord Jesus Christ and his church. We need to learn to do that.
Get out of the way. When someone is being troubled,
when the Lord Jesus Christ is dealing with his people and we
get to understand that we're sinners and we're hell-deserving
sinners and if we're saved, it's only by the mercy of God And
it's hard, it hurts. And people try to come over and
start comforting people. Get out of the way. Get out of
the way. If the Holy Spirit's doing that,
he's not going to leave the work halfway done. Right? If the Holy Spirit is doing it,
he's not going to leave the work halfway done. He that begun a
work in you, he's going to perfect it to the day of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So we need to learn how to get
out of the way. He was left alone and the woman standing in the
midst. Well, when Jesus had lifted up
himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman,
where are those unaccusers? The Lord Jesus Christ, he stood
up. He stood up after all the accusers
were gone. After all the accusers were gone,
he stood up. You know, the scripture says he was delivered for our
offenses and he was raised again for our justification. When the
Lord Jesus Christ took our sins and his own body on the tree,
he died. He died and he was buried. And
he was buried and he took our sins away. When he arose on the
third day, God gives testimony to everybody. God witnesses to
everybody that, number one, He is who He said He is. He is God. They asked Him one day, they
said, Are you the Christ? He said, I told you so. I told you so. I am. I am. I am. I am. They took up stone. They knew what He was saying.
I am Jehovah. They knew what He was saying.
God justified Him. God raised him from the dead.
He took our sins on his own body on the tree. He went to the grave
and having satisfied God's justice, God has satisfied the justice
of God's holy law against that sin, that law that we broke,
God raised him from the dead. Why? Because he received payment
in full. The Lord Jesus Christ died for
the sins of his people. How many sins? All the sins of
his people. All their sins. This is the good
news. This is the word that comforts
God's people. Comfort you, comfort you, my
people. Tell them that they received double for all their sins. Their
sins are pardoned. I'm paraphrasing all this because
it's coming out in Spanish. They went out and left the Lord
Jesus Christ standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted
up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman,
where are those non-accusers? And she said, He said, 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. What a wonderful What a wonderful
sovereign grace of God that saves sinners. You see, in the beginning,
it's sovereign grace. God is sovereign. The man was
not brought. He has mercy on whom he will
have mercy. He's not trying to save everybody.
He's not trying to save everybody. He saves his people from their
sins. What sovereign grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that He
would save this woman, save the church from their sins. How? By the doing and dying of the
Lord Jesus Christ. This woman did nothing. She was
able to see what the Lord did for her. She was able to see
what the Lord did for her. And when the Lord finished doing
what He did for her, there was nobody that could accuse her.
Who shall lay anything? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God? It's God that justifies. Christ
died. Yea, he has risen again. He's
seated at the right hand. And right now there's no condemnation,
no judgment, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Why? Because he suffered. He died. He satisfied God's holy
law. And he said, this no man condemn
you. What grace. What grace, what sovereign grace,
God save his church who are guilty of spiritual adultery and leaves
the rest of the world who think, they think God loves them, don't
they? They say, well, God loves me. God must love me. And people
are hardened in their sin because God doesn't split them with a
lightning bolt right then and there. This man might have thought,
well, I got away with it. Did he get away with it? No. No, he didn't get away with it.
Judgment comes. There's a day appointed when
all men are going to stand before God. The only hope is that we
be in Christ Jesus, that he represent us as he represented this woman
before the holy law of God. He came to fulfill that law.
He came to pay the penalty for that woman, his church, and he
established righteousness and he paid for her sins. He paid
for her sins and he says, now this is the, what a wonderful
word of grace that he says, are there any that condemn you? Can
you imagine? Can you imagine the song of that one? She said,
free from the law, happy condition. Jesus says, bled and there's
remission. Happy condition, I'm free. The Lord Jesus Christ saved
her from the condemnation of the law, she was condemned. The
Lord Jesus Christ saved her from the penalty. She was about to
be stoned. She knew she was a dead woman.
Dead men walking. And number three, the Lord Jesus
Christ saved her from the power of sin. He said, neither do I
condemn you. Go and sin no more. God's people,
those who are created in Christ Jesus, that new nature, does
not sin. Before we're regenerated, before
the Lord Jesus Christ gives us a new nature, all we have is
that old nature. And that old nature makes false
gods, bows to them. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
creates a new creature, we know who our Lord is. That man doesn't
sin. That man doesn't sin. That new
creature cannot sin. That cannot sin. Go and sin no
more. Neither do I condemn you. What a wonderful, wonderful sovereign
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how he saves sinners. In the
experience of God's people, we are arrested. We're arrested
in the preaching of the gospel when we see that we have been
committing a spiritual adultery. We do not know God. We have not
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have not bowed to him. We've
not submitted to him, and we're guilty. We're guilt of death. Our mouth has stopped. But bless
God in the gospel, we also hear the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We hear that he came into the world and he established righteousness. He honored God. That's our only
righteousness before God. We don't speak of our own. We
don't have any righteousness but the righteousness of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He established righteousness
and then he went to the cross and paid for our sins. And now
he is risen. He's risen, and he says, I don't
condemn you. I don't condemn you. Don't go
and sin. God's people don't. God's people,
that old nature, don't misunderstand me, that old nature, the only
thing it does is sin. It never stops sinning. But the new man,
the one created in Christ Jesus, does not sin. We're saved from
the power of sin. May the Lord bless this word.