Turn back to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. I had so many titles jump out at
me as I was reading this. One of them is caught in the
very act of adultery. Now what? Another one was no
condemnation. And another one, When Law Meets
Grace. You pick the title. You pick the title, Donna, whenever
you have to put this up. Whatever hits you strongest.
But what a story. What a story we have before us. It is a story of law and grace.
When they come together, what's going to happen? What's going
to happen? The Lord knew what was going
to happen. I know what the Pharisees wanted to happen, but she didn't
expect what happened. He didn't expect that. She was
expecting a stoning. This was her execution day. This
was her execution day. She knew it. She knew the law.
She knew the law said that when she was called in adultery that
she was to be stoned to death. And that's what she expected.
That's not what she got, but that's what she expected. You
see, one condemns. The law condemns, but grace sets
free. Beautiful story. In verse 1, Jesus went unto the
Mount of Olives. In the closing verses of chapter
7, at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles, everyone went to
their own house. But the Lord Jesus didn't have
a house to go to. He had no place to lay his head. He didn't own
a house. What's one of the first things
we want to strive to do? Own a house. There's nothing
wrong with owning a house, but he didn't own one. He who made
everything owned nothing. All he owned was the robe he
wore and the sandals on his feet. That's all he owned. He couldn't
say, that house is my house, that land is my land. As God
he could, but now as man, he didn't own anything. He didn't
own a refrigerator or pantry. He actually depended on his Heavenly
Father to provide his food day by day. He had no store. He had no storehouse. He actually depended on his Heavenly
Father to provide day by day what he needed. Perfect faith. That's perfect faith. But instead, he went to the Mount
of Olives This is said to be about less than two miles from
Jerusalem. He went there because he had no place of his own, but
he also went there, listen, he went there to pray. He often
went to the Mount of Olives to pray. He always spoke to God before
he spoke to men. One example that is to me, as
a preacher, pastor, to speak often with God before I speak
to you two things our Lord always did
he always prayed he'd pray all night and he then he would preach he
would pray and preach pray and preach and early in the morning
it says there in verse 2 early in the morning he came again
into the temple probably before anybody else was there he came
to the temple and all the people came unto him They came to him
to be taught. They came to him to listen to
what he had to say. Well, I wish he'd teach us this
morning. I want him to be my teacher this morning. They came to him, and he sat
down. They didn't stand then. They
would read standing. They'd read the Word of God standing.
Then they would sit down and teach. And he sat down, and they
gathered around him. I just can only imagine what
it would have been like to have sat there and listened to him. And he sat down and he taught
them. He was ever the teacher. He was ever teaching. And our
Lord was not one to waste time early in the morning. He was
not one to sleep in, even on a Saturday. He never slept late and he never
was late. He was always on time. He was
always on that scheduled time that was scheduled before the
world began. He was right to the second, where
he ought to be doing what he ought to do, teaching as he ought
to teach. He was always there. He said
in one place, I must work while it's day, the night cometh when
no man can work. And so he said, I must be about
my father's business in another place. And in verse three, and
the scribes and Pharisees, there they are again, flies at a picnic.
Scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had sent her in
the midst, put her at his feet. You know, our Lord, he went to
the Mount of Olives to pray and then come back and teach. But
I bet these guys were up all night trying to figure out how
are we going to trap him? How are we going to get him?
Well, the only way, you know, one of them says, well, the only
way we're going to get him is by the law. We're going to have
to get him to break the law. And so they, I tell you what,
Satan and his cohorts never rest. Always trying to figure out how
to trip up God's people, trip up here, the son of God. You
see, they failed to arrest him in chapter seven, the day before,
they had failed to arrest him. They said to the officers, where
is he? Why haven't you brought him?
They said, never a man spake like this man. Never a man spake
with such power. And so they failed at that. They
try another way. They try to trap him with the
law. You see, law versus grace. Law versus grace. This was their
attitude. We're going to trap him here. Who's going to win in this law
versus grace? You see, if he uses the law on
her, he's going to lose that lawless crowd back over there
in verse 49. You see back over in chapter
7 in verse 49, it said, but these people who knoweth not the law
are cursed. These people who are following him, they don't
know the law. They're a bunch of nobodies.
They don't know anything. They're a bunch of lawless people.
So if he lets her go, he'll lose that crowd. But if he condemns
her, or if he lets her go, he's going to break the law. He's
going to break the law. But if he condemns her, he's
going to lose that crowd that's been following him. or how sinister Satan is, and
men. And they saying to him, boy,
can you just hear that? Master, master, this woman was taken in adultery
in the very act. Master, they're trying to disguise
their evil intent by calling him master. You know, the Lord
knows, he knows the heart. He knows when you and I say Lord,
that we mean Lord, and if we don't mean Lord, we're just being
religious or have a sinister motive. They said unto him, Master, this
woman was taken in adultery in the very act, which what they're
saying is we've got witnesses. You see, in Deuteronomy, it said
you had to have two or three witnesses. When they say we caught
her in the very act, they're saying we have witnesses to this
woman's adultery. We can charge her legally. We
can stone her legally here. Now, what do you say? You see,
Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But
what sayest thou? We want to hear what you have
to say. And you know they're speaking loud enough for everybody
there to hear. They think they got him on the spot. But here,
now listen, here is a great example of taking scripture out of context. You probably, and I miss it at
times, and I've missed it before. Now, Moses in the law commanded
us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? The law
doesn't say that. You know that? You know what
the law says in Leviticus 20.10? And the man that commits adultery
with another man's wife, even he that commits adultery with
his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Where's the man at? Who's breaking the law now? Who's
breaking the law? They didn't bring the man they
caught her in the very act. She was in the house with him
It was probably one of their buddies They may have even set
it up knowing those birds But that man's missing listen Deuteronomy
22 22 if a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband
Then they shall both of them die Both the man that lay with
the woman and the woman's so shalt thou put away evil from
Israel The law commanded that both man and woman found in adultery
be put to death. They're not only lawbreakers
here, but they're showing respect of persons. They let the man
go. Someone said this, and I agree
with it. Most of the time, those who are the law keepers are the
guiltiest of breaking the law. The Pharisees were. They were
the guiltiest of breaking the law. And most of the time, the
law keepers are the one guiltiest of breaking it. But what says
thou? What do you have to say about
this? We'd like to hear it. We would like to hear what you
have to say about this law and this woman here. I mean, they're
probably, I mean, they're almost giddy. I can just say they're
almost giddy. They think they got him. They're
going to embarrass him right there in front of the crowd. Here's their sinister motive
in verse six. And they said, tempting him that
they might have to accuse him, tempting him. They didn't care
about the law. They didn't care about the law
at all. They didn't care about that woman.
There's only one, there's only one in that crowd that cares
about God's law to the very jot and till. And there's only one
in that crowd that cares about that woman. It's the same one. It's the law giver. It's his
law. It's his law. He gave the law. And this they said, tempting
him that they might have to accuse him. And when they said that,
they're just waiting for this answer. And he stoops down. He gets down on his knees with
this woman. He gets down on her level. Did
not God come into this world and get down on our level? Did
he not do that? God did that. And here he is,
God in human flesh, this adulterous woman caught in the very act,
got witnesses. And he stooped down. My, my,
my, what an act of grace. What an act of mercy. This woman's
guilty, she's trembling, she's scared, she knows this is execution
day for her. They're gonna stone her, and
you know when they stoned them, they would stone them not until
they're dead, but they would bash their brains out. They literally
would bash their brains out, make sure they're dead. And they
was gonna bash their brains, they wanted to see this. He stooped down and with his
finger rode on the ground as though he heard them not.
They tried to trap the Lord in a dilemma. How foolish to try
and trap and defy the Almighty. They thought they had him in
a trap. And our Lord's reaction to them was this, he stooped
down. Notice how his attention, this
jumped out at me. When they brought this adulterous
woman, caught in the very act, threw her down at his feet, his
attention, his heart went to the sinner and ignored the accusers. His heart went to that woman.
He was drawn down to her. He got down on her level. And he ignored those devils. He ignored them. He came to save
sinners. That's what he came for. He didn't
come to argue with a bunch of hypocrites. He didn't come to
straighten out a bunch of hypocrites. He came to save sinners, and
there's one of them at his feet. She would have never came there
by herself. But the law brought her there.
Listen, I'm going to make something out of this in a minute. Our
Lord came to save sinners. He did not ignore the law. They
said, what does Moses and the law say? He wasn't ignoring the
law. He was ignoring them. There's
a difference. There's a difference. He was
ignoring them. He kept the law. Our Lord kept
the law, even to the point of taking her guilt and dying for
it. He doesn't ignore the law. All the sins that I've ever committed,
ever will commit, he died for them. That thought I had, he
died for. That I shouldn't have had, he
died for. You see, he's not gonna ignore the law, he's not gonna
settle aside, he's gonna fulfill it. The law says she's gotta
die. Now either she's gonna die, or he's gonna die. One or the
other. The substitute's gonna die, or
she's gonna die for her sins. Either you and I are going to
die for our sins, or Jesus Christ died for them. It's one or the
other. And notice here the work of the
law. The work of the law, first of all, it brought her. Paul said in Galatians that the
law was our schoolmaster to what? Bring us to Christ. The Law was
used to bring her to the feet of the Master. The Law was used
to bring her to the feet of the Lawgiver. Then when she was brought, it
condemned her. The Law says, stone her. The
Law didn't say, forgive her. The Law of God does not say,
forgive you. The law of God does not say have
mercy on you. The law of God demands justice.
It demands my death and your death. If all I ever did was
tell one little lie, the law demands my death. That's how
strict God's law is. And I'm glad it is. It's not
a corrupt law. It's a holy law. The law brought her. It condemned
her. Listen, there's got to be condemnation,
or we don't need Christ. There's got to be condemnation
before salvation, or we don't need Him. She's at His feet,
condemned. She's condemned. But what those
Pharisees don't realize, that He's the Lawgiver, He's the God
who gave the Law. And He's not going to suspend
it. He's going to fulfill it. In a few weeks, he's going to
die in her stead. He's going to die for her adultery. You see, the law condemns the
guilty, it doesn't set them free. But now it says here, and with
his finger, he wrote on the ground. Three times in the word of God,
the finger of God wrote. The finger of God, Exodus 31,
18. And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing
with him, upon Mount Sinai two tables of testimony, tables of
stone, written with the finger of God. On those two tables of
stone, God's finger wrote the law. And then another time in
Daniel, remember Belshazzar, God wrote on the wall, I can't remember the other one,
but it means that you have been weighed into balance and are
found wanting. The hand appeared and it wrote
on the wall and he shook and trembled because he saw the hand
writing on the wall. And then the third time God wrote
with his finger is right here in the dust, in the dust. When Christ wrote
on the ground with his finger, what he wrote, we don't know,
I don't know what he wrote. But whatever he wrote, it had
its effect. Because the Word of God will not return void.
It will not return void. And I've read speculations of
what he wrote, but whatever he wrote, I know this, was truth. It was truth. But you know what
I suspect he might have wrote? Because those Pharisees, you
know, they're down there looking like this. You know, he starts that writing
on the ground. And they're looking. He probably wrote, where's the
man? And they read that, and they go, oh. It sucks when you get caught
in your own trap. They tried to trap him, and they
got caught in it. Where's the man? If the law is going to be
filled, you've got to bring the other party here, or the law
is not going to be fulfilled. You can't just kill the one. It's got to be both. And you
all have witnesses. You said you have witnesses. I don't know what he wrote, but
I wouldn't doubt that he didn't write, where's that man at? And doing so, if he did wrote
that, it convicted them of breaking the law. But you notice here also how
the written word and the living word always go together in the
saving of a sinner. Here's the living word, God in
human flesh. What's he doing? He's writing
on the ground for them to read. The living word and the written
word always go together when God saves a sinner. Always. So when they continued asking
him in verse 7 and 8, so when they continued asking him, they
pressed him for an answer. You know, self-righteousness
is always demanding. It's just demanding. He lifted
up himself. I can just, in my mind, I can
just see him rising up like the God he is. He rose to the occasion. And he said to them, and they
didn't expect this. They was expecting him to kind
of stumble and fumble over his words. He that is without sin
among you cast the first stone at her. And again, he stooped down. He went back down with her. He's
dealing with her. You see, his whole attention's
on her. It's on the sinner who's in need of mercy. Anybody in
need of mercy? Oh, his attention's on you. He
stooped down and he rode on the ground again. wrote on the ground
again. You know, the first time may
have been words of condemnation. Second time, words of mercy.
Come to me and drink. Isn't that what he said over
here in chapter 7? If any man thirsts, let him come to me. I bet the second time had to
do with him. Him and mercy. He that is without sin among
you, let him first cast a stone at her. He that's perfect. That's
what he's saying. He that's perfect. Over here's
a pile of stones. Here's a pile of stone. He that's
perfect, come over here and get the first one and start it. Let's
get this thing started. Whichever one of you has no sin,
and I think whatever you wrote on that ground, it convicted
those Pharisees or they would have grabbed the first stone.
They would have grabbed the first stone, but what he wrote stopped
them. I think it stopped them. And our Lord is not saying here
that this woman's done no wrong, and he's not setting aside the
law, but he's saying here, everyone deserves to be stoned. Everyone deserves to be stoned.
Everyone deserves death. all his sin that comes short
of the glory of God. Now, you that have no sin, take
the first stone and throw it. You throw it. And again, in verse nine, and
they which heard it, they which heard it, You know, the scripture says,
His word does not return void. It had its effect. Because, you
remember what they said? Never a man speak like this man.
And when he just said that, it just was like, they were convicted. Listen, hear what this says.
And they which heard, heard. He made sure they heard it. Being
convicted by their own conscience, that's not the same as Holy Spirit
conviction. You see, the law is written on the heart. You
know you're doing something wrong without anybody telling you.
If you steal something, you know, you can take a two-year-old.
My dog, whenever he, now the law is not written on his heart,
but he knows whenever I don't like something and he gets in
trouble, he cows down. But the law's written on every
person's heart when they come into this world. And you know,
you know, to being convicted by your own conscience that you're
wrong. And they knew being convicted by their own conscience, because
the law's written on their conscience. They knew, they knew they were
wrong. Those Pharisees knew they left
that man out. And when he stooped back down, he stooped back down
to deal with those sinners. They thought, there's an opportunity
to get out of here. He caught us. And so to keep
from being embarrassed, they slipped out. They slipped out. Yeah, they slipped out. And when Jesus, verse 10, when
Jesus had lifted up himself, it's the second time. He's dealing
with this sinner. He stoops down. She don't know
who he is. I tell you what, that second time he stood up, he stood
up as her Lord and she knew it. She knew it. And when Jesus had
lifted him up himself, when he lifted up himself in all his
glory, made himself known to her and saw none but the woman,
he lifted himself up and no one there but him and her. He said
her woman. Where are those nine accusers? Where are they at? She was expecting him to condemn
her because she knew she was caught red-handed. He says, where
are your accusers? They have witnesses. Where are
the witnesses? Where are they? Hath no man condemned
thee, the ones that brought you? Have they not condemned you? You see, listen, the law required
witnesses, and the law brought her, and the law condemned her. But when the Lord stood up and
everybody's gone, there's nobody there to condemn her. Nobody there to condemn her. I've told you this story before,
I'm gonna tell it again, because there's people listening that
I know haven't heard it. But my pastor Henry, when he
was a young man, He went through a stop sign, drove through a
stop sign, hit a car broadside. Bam. Police came, rode him up. He had a court date. Well, he
went to court. He was guilty. He ran the stop
sign. T-boned that person. He went
to court. And then he said the judge was
calling all these different cases. And then they finally called
his. Nobody's left in the court. And they called him. And the
judge asked him, he said, what are you here for? Because they
were sitting there, him and his dad sitting there by themselves.
Everybody else is gone. What are you here for? He told him.
He said, well, I have nothing on the books. There's not a thing
here on the books. There's no police officer here,
no witnesses, nobody here to accuse you. And he said, you
can go. You can go. Where are your accusers? There
are none. There's none. All those, the
law that brought her. Those Pharisees that brought
her. All gone. They're all gone. No man, Lord, he said, neither
do I condemn thee. Neither do I. I'm the, I'm the,
I'm the last, the buck stops here. You see the buck stops
with him. And he says, I don't condemn
you. And there's none greater than God. And if God does not
condemn me, I'm not condemned. And I have no accusers in Christ.
He satisfied all of them. He put, he silenced all my accusers. See, they came to silence him,
but he silenced them. No man, Lord, neither do I condemn
thee. That's the greatest news you
could ever have. Lord, say unto my soul, I am
thy salvation. Say to me, neither do I condemn
thee. Because my conscience sure does.
And I have broken the law and I'm guilty. Go and sin no more. You say,
ooh, that's an impossible task. He's not telling her to go and
never sin again. That's impossible. He's saying,
go and don't live after the manner that you've been living. You live, you now live a new
life. Don't we have a new life to live?
It's a godly life. It's a godly life. It's a godly
walk. We walk after our Father. We
walk in the spirit of holiness, righteousness, and we sin. Oh,
we sin. And we're aware of it. But we're
not condemned anymore. Neither do I condemn thee. You
go and you don't live in adultery no more. I imagine she was an
adulteress for a good while, her and that guy. He says, I
don't condemn you. And you don't live like that
no more. You don't live like that no more. The love of Christ
constrains us because he has forgiven us all our sins, all
our sins, even that one, whatever that one is, even that one. Go and sin no more. Isn't that
a beautiful story? When law meets grace, grace sets us free. Whom the
Son sets free is free indeed. And He sets us free because He
died. He was punished and died for
every sin that we are forgiven of, which is all of them. All of them. Isn't that amazing? That's an amazing story.