of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me say first of all that
I'm thankful for you. I'm thankful for every kindness
that you have shown and continue to show to Betty and myself. I pray for you. I pray the Lord's blessings upon you. And I invite you this morning
to turn with me to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. I call this a picture of justification. And I'll read those first verses, verses 1 through 11. Jesus went unto the Mount of
Olives. And early in the morning, he
came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him,
and he sat down and taught them. 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 that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou? This they said, tempting 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. So when they continued asking
him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, he that is 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. When Jesus had
lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her,
Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned
thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus
said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. and sin no more. As we read through the Gospel
of John, all the miracles, all the circumstances,
and all the confrontations here in the Gospel of John They're
meant to show three things, basically. First of all is our condition
as sinners. There are all kinds of pictures,
the lame and the haught and the blind and this woman and many
other situations that show us something of our condition spiritually
as sinners. But also, secondly, they show
Christ and His ability to save, His ability to heal, His ability
to raise up and deliver. And then thirdly, they show grace as it meets our condition. And grace as it assures that
God gets all the glory. The Lord Jesus Christ in our
text demonstrates how he is the wisdom of God. He is the wisdom of God. And we find as we do Old and New Testament that adultery
is sin. It was under the law It is in
this gospel dispensation. It is simply, plainly, no matter
what the temperature in our day is, it is sin. But this woman is more than that. Because she is a picture of us. as spiritual adulterers. You see, that's what idolatry
is. It's spiritual adultery. And we are all, by nature, idolaters. We, by nature, would make ourselves
our own god, We would by nature be deceived to believe on a false
god, and so it can be said of all men in Adam, by nature, by
birth, as was said by God of Israel. He said they've all gone
a-whoring after other gods. and ready to accuse were these
Pharisees. And the Lord Jesus is confronted
here by the scribes and the Pharisees with what they believe is a dilemma
that will make him look bad before everyone present. And they take the Law of Moses,
they take the Holy Scriptures, and they try to use them against
the One who gave it for their own evil purposes. And that's the same way it is
in our day, and has been in every age since the fall. Paul described it like this,
he said they rest or twist the scriptures to their own destruction. And they bring this woman supposedly
taken in the very act of adultery and they set her before Christ. Verse 3 it says, They 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 that such should be stoned. Moses said that we ought to take
this woman out and stone her for what she's done. And they
were just like most, they had part right. Actually, those involved
in that act of adultery were both to have been taken out and
stoned. But then they turn, quoting and
using Moses, and they ask, what sayest thou? I've learned something over the
years. And that is most of the time,
not all the time, but most of the time when someone has asked
me a question or asked my opinion in a matter of scripture, most
of the time they're really intending on telling me something. They're
really most of the time want to tell me what their opinion
is. And so these men say unto our
Lord, what sayest thou? But they are not really interested
in what He said. Because they think that they
have trapped Him. They think they have boxed Him
into a corner. And if he says, let her go, then
he will show himself against the law. And if he says to them, stone
her, he will not be a friend of sinners like he said he was. He will not show mercy as he
said he would. And the truth is, this is the
dilemma of all the ages. He's faced here, they set before
him the dilemma of all time. the dilemma that man has never
been able to answer of himself. And that is how can God be just
and act righteously against the guilty and at the same time show
mercy? Now you can ask a lot of questions. As Brother Scott Richardson used
to say, there's a whole lot of questions not worth asking. And
there's a whole lot of questions not worth answering. But this
is the question of questions. This is one that has to be answered
if there is ever any hope. Because you and I, regardless
of what we claim to be, we are before God as sinners just like
this woman. And the law is the law. And justice is justice. And that was exactly the question
that Job asked. He said, how can man, man that's
born of woman, man that drinks iniquity like water, how can he be just with God? How can God show mercy to us
and act in a way of righteousness? But if you notice, the first
thing that Jesus did was, He didn't really immediately react
to what they said. It does not even appear that
He showed any emotion toward what they thought they had trapped
Him in. And so, in verse 6, it says,
Though they said what they said to tempt Him, that they might
have to accuse him of, but it says he simply stooped down and
with his finger rode on the ground as though he heard them not. He just simply rode on the ground
and he acted as if he hadn't heard one word that they said. He stooped down and with his
finger rode on the ground. And sometime, someway maybe,
it was a reminder to them that it was a finger, this very finger
really, that had written the law of God. It was the finger of God that
had written this law given to Moses whereby they seek to stone
this woman And here he is, God manifest in the flesh. In Exodus it says, that he gave
unto Moses, when he had made an end of commuting with him
upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone
written with the finger of God. Same finger of God. Same finger. And by this he showed
approval of the law. Why? Because the law is holy.
The law is good. And he ratified that law and
he showed himself as the law giver. Exodus again, written by the
finger of God. Christ said, I came not to destroy
the law, but to fulfill it. And he does not lower the standard
of God. You see, that's the way that
man always comes up with, in one way or another, to find mercy
and to find grace from God, this is what we'll do. We'll lower
the standard of God. We'll reduce God to being less
than holy. We'll reduce God to being less
than absolutely just. We'll just open the door wide
enough that we can go in or low enough that we can do this, that
or the other. That's what man always wants
to do by nature and it always winds up with this, God being
less than he really is and man being more than he really is. That's always the way. And in
their blindness, they did not grasp what he was doing. And
like Belshazzar, they were just like Belshazzar who did not understand
what was written on the wall by the same finger. You remember
the vision that Belshazzar had? It says there were a hand appeared
and wrote on that wall, same hand, same finger, the finger
of God, and it simply said this, Daniel interpreting it, it said
this, Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. Did you know that's all the law
can say to you and me? That's all the law can ever say
to sinners such as we are. And that is that we are weighed
in the balances of God's law, in the balances of divine justice,
we're weighed in the balances accurately and truly by God,
and we're found wanting, lacking. We're called workers of iniquity. You know what iniquity is? It
is inequity. It is not being equal to what
God requires and what God commands. All we can ever work is iniquity. We're weighed in the balances
and found wanting. But yet they are willing to bring
this woman before Christ. They're willing to use her as
this example. They're willing to take her and
stone her should he say such and there in the blindness over
their own sin and being those that he described in this way
in another place that they trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others. There they are. And that is what
self-righteousness always produces. That's the way these, such as
the Pharisees, always are. They are so proud of what they
are in themselves, they trust in themselves that they are themselves
righteous. What's the effect of that? They
despise others. They find fault in others, they
accuse others, they point out others. They say, look how good
I am and look how bad they are. That's all that self-righteousness
produces. That's all that works-oriented
religion comes up with. That's why there has been so
much meanness and so much violence and so many things that have
taken place over the course of history in the name of Christianity
because it's performed by those who trust in themselves that
they are righteous and they despise others. I'll tell you this. When I found
out where righteousness is, I quit looking for it in anybody else.
When I read what the scriptures say, that there is none righteous,
no not one, that means you, but first of all, it means me. None righteous, none good, none
that seeketh after God. and we can wear religion as some
kind of a covering and a garment, and we can flaunt our own goodness
and look down our nose at others, it's going to be the same. We're like these Pharisees. And
so they press him farther. Here they are in the face of
perfect sinlessness. Here they are in him who is absolutely
perfect. And they're still acting like
they're better not only than this woman, but better than him. Is that blindness? Is that deception? Is that self-deception? And so, in verse 7, it says that
they continued asking Him. And when He lifted up Himself,
He said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him
first cast a stone at her. He turned that bright, brilliant,
exposing, condemning law that they have come under the banner
of. He turns that light that exposes,
which is all it can do is expose sin, He turns it on them. That's all the law can do. Expose,
condemn, demand justice and wrath against sin, all sin. As a matter of fact, the apostle
tells us that if we offend in one point, we're guilty of all. We're guilty of all. It isn't if I am 99 and 99 100
percent perfect, I have to be perfect. 100% perfect. And that'll never be. Not in myself. Not in what I
do. Not in what you do. And so he
goes on and he tells them, if you're without sin, any sin, you go ahead and cast the first
stone. What if that were to take place today here? All you had to do, all you had
to do to be on the side of the law was to say, I've never offended
in one point. Just one point. But if you've offended in one
point, and I'm not just talking about the Ten Commandments either.
If we have in any way failed to, in every point, in every
act, in every thought, in every word, in every motive, be an
absolutely pure, then all the law can say to us
is guilty. That's what Paul tells us in
Romans. He says that God has brought all of us, whether we
be Jew or Gentile, together and in and of ourselves, we're guilty. Guilty. That's why when somebody
asks me, what's your position under the law or on the law,
I always tell them this, guilty. In myself, that's all I can ever
be is guilty. But know what Christ did next.
In verse 8 it says, And again he stooped down and wrote on
the ground. Again he stooped down and wrote
on the ground. And I believe there is a great
significance in this. Because not only has God, by
the finger of God, written and given that law, He has also by
that same finger written and given us something else. But
He is showing in this something else that they have no understanding
of. You would think sometimes that
all the law, I mean rather that all that God has ever given was
the Ten Commandments. And people say the most stupid
things. They say, well, I want to live by the golden rule. No,
you're going to die by the golden rule. You'd think that that was all
that God had ever given us. But here is a picture of that
second writing, and that second writing, that second writing
on the ground, I believe is a gospel picture. What happened to the first tablets
of the law? Well, I'll tell you exactly what
happened. And to those that say that God
would not have given us a law if he had not believed and if
we could not in some way keep it, when he gave that law there
on Mount Sinai to Moses, the people were at the very bottom
of that mountain violating that law as it was given. Doesn't mean we have any ability
to. But anyway, Moses came down off that mount. And you know,
a strange thing had happened according to Aaron. And that was that the people
somehow had taken all their golden jewelry and everything like that
and they just cast it all in a melting pot and lo and behold,
out comes a golden calf. No. They had made a golden calf. And they were worshipping that
golden calf. They were dancing around it,
making all kinds of noise. And when Moses saw that, he took
those tablets of stone and he threw them at that golden calf,
destroying it and at the same time breaking those tablets. Well, that's it, isn't it? No. Because the Lord called Moses
up again and commanded him to make a second set. We read this
in Deuteronomy. It says, At that time the Lord
said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first,
and come up unto me into the mount, Do you notice he didn't say,
I guess I'll have to change them a little bit. I guess I'll have to kind of
lower the standard a little bit. I guess I'll just kind of have
to lower the bar a little bit so everybody can hop across it. No, he wrote the same thing on
the second tablet system. The second writing required the
same thing, demanded the same thing, but there was one exception. He said to Moses, I'll write
on the tables the words that were in the first tables, which
thou breakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. Thou shalt put these tablets
of stone in the ark." In Exodus 40, it says, And he took and
put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark,
and put the mercy seat above the ark. And this second writing, Christ showed again what God
had pictured in all this. The law, when put in the Ark
of the Covenant, was covered by the blood-sprinkled mercy
seat. In other words, between the thrice-holy
God, who said He would dwell between the cherubims, over the
mercy seat, between the thrice holy unchangeable God and those
tablets there in the Ark of the Covenant was that golden lid, the mercy seat, the propitiatory,
where that propitiation of blood of that God-appointed sacrifice
was taken by the priest and sprinkled on that. So that when God looked down
in our way of speaking, He didn't see that broken law. He saw the blood. When that judgment, you remember,
passed throughout all of Egypt, and the firstborn in every household
of man and beast was destroyed that night, God said, now you
Hebrews take the blood of this Passover lamb, and you paint
it on the lintels and doorposts, and when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you. You see, salvation begins with
God. It continues with God. It is
accomplished by God. It is for God. He said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. You say, well, he didn't
kill anybody in their household. Oh, yes, he did. He killed a
substitute. He killed that God-appointed
substitute, and all of this was simply a picture of Christ Jesus
and Him crucified. This is the way God would save
those who were condemned by the broken law to death. The shed
blood of an innocent and God-appointed substitute and sacrifice would
stand between the law and their condemnation. And here was the one that these pictures foreshadows.
And he's writing again the second time on the ground. Do you know
anything about that second writing? I'll tell you this, a long, long
time, a long, long time before I ever heard about that second
writing from God, I heard about that first. And I heard the principle
of it being stated by my own parents from the time I was a
small child. You say, what do you mean? I
mean that law said, do good and live. Do good and you won't be
condemned. They phrased it something like
this, don't you want to go to heaven? I was stupid then, I'm stupid
now, but I wasn't so stupid that I didn't want to go to heaven. Don't you want to go to heaven?
You better be a good boy. You better be a good boy. My friends, when we tell our
children stupid stuff like that, damning stuff like that, we've
not done them good. There's this second writing. It was a long time. I sat down
in the pews as a child in religion in Sunday school classes, had
so many pens that they ran down my lapel. I looked like Omar
Gaddafi. Nobody told me about that second
writing. Nobody told me the ground on
which God can be just and justify a sinner. And I was such a good
boy, I guess, that everybody thought maybe I ought to preach.
So I started that. Pastored a church. But I couldn't have answered
this question for you if my life depended on it. Because I didn't
know, just like we none know by nature, how it is that God
could take us as we're pictured in this woman, how he could show
mercy to us and yet still be true to his law and justice.
I didn't know that. And all the time, I had this
Bible, and in this Bible, there in Romans 1, here's the Apostle
Paul, and he's saying something like this, never entered into
my mind. He said, I'm not ashamed of the
Gospel. I'm ready to preach the Gospel
to Jew or to Gentile, all are in the same state. I'm not ashamed
of the Gospel, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. The righteousness of God? Yeah. How God can forgive a sinner
and at the same time do right in doing it. And here was the one that these
things foreshadowed, Christ the Savior of sinners, the righteousness
of God, the wisdom of God, the one in whom God can honor His
law and yet show mercy to the guilty. But these guys won't
have Him. They will not come to Him. They
will not believe on Him. Why? Because they got something
they think is better than Him. You know what they say about
our opinions? I have my own opinion, which
I highly respect. Well, that's just a reflection
of this. We have our own righteousness, we think, which we highly respect. No. And so verse 9 says, and they
which heard it. Now, wait a minute. Doesn't it
say he was just riding on the ground? He was, but they heard something.
In their conscience they heard something. And when they heard
it, being convicted by their own conscience, they went out
one by one, beginning at the eldest, even into the last, and
Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. They left. They forgot their
task. Why? Because they were condemned
in their conscience. And that's all God's law can
do for us. Condemn us. But that is not Holy Spirit conviction. They were not convicted in the
sense that all are that God saves. And somebody can just ask the
question. I know it comes into our mind.
How do you know that? How do you know that it was not
the Holy Spirit that was convicting them and showing them their need
of Christ? I know this because they turned
and left the only hope of a sinner. If the Holy Spirit was convicted,
it says He takes the things of Christ and shows them to us. But they just turned and walked
away. No, they were just convicted
in their conscience. And they left the only hope for
a sinner. They left the only one and the
only way that God can be just and justify. They left the only
righteousness. And He's left alone with the
woman now. You know, that's where it all
takes place. is between God and the sinner. God's going to get you to Himself. He's going to shut up everyone
that He saves to nothing but Him. He's going to close the
ears of men and women to all this religious dribble that's
being shouted in every ear in our day. He's going to bring
us to an end of ourselves and to all hopelessness in every
one and everything but Himself, and He is going to say something
to us. He asked her, Woman, where are
your accusers? Where are those thine accusers?
Any man condemn you now? Do they have any right? Did they
ever have any right to condemn you or anything else? If all
they can do is condemn you, they have not helped you any. She says, No man, Lord. And listen to His words to this
sinner, verse 11. And Jesus said unto her, neither
do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. Now if he is God in the flesh,
if he is the perfect one, if he is as described the just, How can he say that to this adulteress? How could he speak peace to her? How could he dare say, you are
not condemned? Because he was on his way to
be condemned in her place. He was on the way to be condemned
and to die under the hand of divine justice for her sin. He was on his way to bear her
sin in its entirety in his own body on the tree. And he pronounced
her. Just like the gospel pronounces
all who believe on him now as justified. What does he say to
her? Neither do I condemn thee. What is the opposite of condemnation? It's justification. To be condemned is to be pronounced
guilty. To be justified is to be pronounced
by God, not guilty. He said, I don't condemn you. And that's as clear as what Paul
writes in Romans 8 and verse 1. when he says, by the Spirit of
God, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus. Did you hear that? Is that really
true? Is that really wonderful? There is, therefore, in the light
of what Christ accomplished on that cross by himself, purging
our sins, dying in our place, there is therefore now no condemnation. That's why I
say this is a picture of justification. He looked at her and he said,
neither do I condemn you. Paul said again, that as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. through His glorious person and
work and by no other way. And so he writes in Romans 3,
being or having been justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now I dare say, that if Christ walked in this
building this morning and he walked over to you, pointed
his finger in your face and said, I don't condemn you, you'd say, I'm saved. I'm safe. But if he did that, It would be no more true than
when he says it to his people in the gospel. That's what the
gospel says. That's what the message of free
justification says. God, because he has condemned
sin in Christ, does not condemn me. No condemnation. I don't have
to wait. And if you notice, notice this,
He doesn't say, go and sin no more and you won't be condemned. We try that all our lives. No,
He says, I don't condemn you, now go and
sin no more. Let me ask you this, do you think
she did sin again? I'm sure she did. Even justified sinners in this
flesh, they're still sinners in themselves. They still fail, they still sin,
but they're not condemned if they be in Christ. John said, My little children, these things I write unto you,
that ye sin not. That's always what we're commanded. But, and if any man sins, or
when any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous. And she's now brought from condemnation
of the law to constraint by love. longer walks in this world before
God for promise of reward or for threat of punishment, but
because He in His free grace and mercy through the death of
Christ has saved her from all her sins, therefore she serves
Him now out of love. And this is the true gospel wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed. This is what Christ says to his
people in the gospel, I do not condemn you, go and sin no more. Have we heard that? We used to sing a little chorus. And if this woman, who doesn't
have any name, I believe primarily just so you and I will know that
this is applicable to all Christ's saints. But if she were here
this morning, I believe she could sing this chorus. But we sang
this chorus, Have you heard what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away, away. Your sins are pardoned and you
are free. They're all taken away. They're
all taken away, away. They're all taken away, away. My sins are all taken away. My sins are all taken away. If we here as sinners, If He gives us a hearing ear
and a believing heart, if we hear that gospel in the
ear of our heart, by the ear of faith, we'll hear just exactly
that. Neither do I condemn you. Go
and sin no more. God speak that to the heart of
your people this morning. And never let it be the sound
that we delight above all others to hear. Because amazingly, we are such
people. We need to hear that spoken to
us over and again, again and again. May the Lord bless His word to
you all.