For a scripture reading this
morning, turn with me to John chapter 8. These verses will
serve as my text for this morning's message. John chapter 8, we'll
read the first 11 verses. 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, 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, 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, he 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. Go, and sin no more. If you will, I'd like for you
to turn back with me in your Bibles to John chapter 8. in these verses is a most unusual
yet instructive account of a sinner being brought to Christ. Sinners
are brought to Christ. Sometimes God will work in his
providence to bring them, sometimes he'll work in a conscience to
bring them, and sometimes he'll bring them with another person.
But he always brings them. And I'm always interested in
the history of sinners being brought to Christ, aren't you?
I'm interested because I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm interested because Christ
is the only way to life eternal. And I'm interested because I've
learned something about my inability, Satan's power to deceive, and
the condition of this ungodly world in which we live. These 11 verses are about a young
lady and a man, neither of whose names are mentioned in the account.
And the scribes and the Pharisees, self-righteous hypocrites under
the guise of being the servants of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Savior of sinners. Now the context was that of the
Savior declaring salvation and eternal life in Him by faith
according to the Word of God. This is what He taught. This
is what He was teaching that morning. And this preaching was
contrary to what religious men believed and taught. They sent
a committee of men to arrest him, but they returned empty-handed. If you read John chapter 7, you
can read the account. They sent him out. The Sanhedrin,
the most powerful committee in the Jewish nation, was sent out
to get this man. They didn't tell him to pretty
please go ask him if he'd come. They sent him out to get him.
Go get him and bring him in here. And then they come back empty-handed. And when asked why they didn't
bring him, they said, never a man spake like this man. Boy, when he spoke, things happened. He wasn't sly and crafty. like the people we know. He was plain and simple to be
understood and what he said had an effect. Never a man spake
like this man. This man spoke and commanded
the winds and the waves to be still and the winds and the waves
obeyed his voice. He told demon-possessed men,
he told those demons to come out of them, and they came out
of them. Never a man spake like this man. Never. His words were clear and powerful.
He had an insight into the Word of God that was unequaled. And
he knew the thoughts and intents of the hearts of those that he
was talking to. I used to accuse Henry Mahan
years ago. I was still going to an Armenian
church, but I'd heard about him and had gone there and began
to go there all the time. And I come home and tell my brother-in-law,
I said, I think he's been sitting outside our church down here
listening to what we say. He could quote us word for word. And then I found out later on
that's just religious language. This is how they all talk. Organized religion would not
accept Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ of God because they would
not set aside their own ignorance of God and his purpose of grace
to save chosen sinners through the person and work of his Son.
They tied all of this to the law and to you. If you're going to be righteous
before God, you're going to have to be righteous. That's how they
believed. And the only way you can be righteous
is to obey that law. They were so convinced that Jesus
was an imposter, and so concerned with defending their creeds,
that they hatched out a plan, and then another plan, and then
another plan, and they tried to expose him as an imposter.
And they come up with all sorts of ungodly ways to do it. But, and here's what I want you
to see, none of these things hindered the Lord from accomplishing
His purpose of grace. It didn't even slow Him up. Our God, the God of the Bible,
the living God, is God. He's not a God, He's God. I am God, and beside me there
is none other. I am God. And as God, he works
among sinful men and devils as if they had no power at all. Paul said in Ephesians 1.11,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him that worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. And it's the will of God to save
a people for the glory of His great name through the person
and work of His Son. Now there's five things that
I want us to focus on in these eleven verses. I want us to see
the sinner chosen of God. Chosen of God. I want you to
see the situation arranged by God. I want us to see especially the
Savior who is God. And then I want us to see the
dismissal. It's like suddenly he turned
and he said, now you can go. And shooshed them away. They
all left. They all left. And a surprise
ending. Might not surprise us, but it
did her, and it did me when I first experienced it. So let's first
look at the city. Every person in this account
was a sinner except Christ. They were all sinners. They were
one of them. But there was only one chosen of God. Men in general despise the election
of God. They tell me it lowers or limits
the power of God. But my friend, salvation's of
the Lord. He's under no obligation to save
anybody. Whatever limitations he has,
he's limited himself to it. And he's done so for a purpose. Salvation is the result of the
will of God, not some entitlement of man. Did you know religion
says that man is entitled to these things? that he somehow deserves these
things. But God has no, he's got no alternative. If this man wants to be saved,
he has to save it. That's how religion looks at
it. And that's why they find comfort in it. Christ didn't
come down from heaven because he owed something to the creature.
He came down from heaven to do his Father's will. It would do us well to find out
what the will of God is that He came to do, and He tells us.
I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent
me, and this is the Father's will that hath sent me, that
of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing. That's
the Father's will. He has a people. He's going to
save them for the glory of His name, and He's sent His Son to
accomplish I heard a preacher say one time, God's only obligated
to call you one time. Oh, he ain't obligated to call
you at all. And there's thousands whom he
doesn't call, perhaps millions. They've never even heard of God.
They don't even know who God is, except in their conscience. Whatever obligations God has,
he's so obligated himself to do according to the good pleasure
of his will. He predestinated us, he says,
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. He made known unto us the mystery
of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed
in himself. And even his son said, I came
down not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And Paul in teaching these things over in Hebrews chapter 10 said,
In the volume of the book it's written of me, I come to do thy
will, O God. By which will? He has sanctified
us through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for
all. Think about that. The only reason you and I still
have a being is the sovereign eternal will of God to save sinners
for the glory of His name. There were three types of sinners
there that day. There was a man whose name is
not mentioned, who was not arrested, was not exposed or inflicted
with any sort of visible punishment. He was a sinner who thought he
got off free. Been there and done that. Thought
I got away, Scott. This world is full of such men
and women who are guilty of vile transgressions but appear to
be unaffected by judgment and justice of any kind. David said
he was angry about it. He looked at these rich men and
they were getting away with murder. They were getting away with everything.
You've been there. You've lived. You're not hiding
in a corner somewhere. You know what I'm saying. There
are people in this generation just like that. They're wealthy. Contacts, they've got hookups
and they get off the hook. David said of such men, they
have no bands in their death. Their strength is firm. They're
not in trouble like other men. Neither are they plagued like
other men. And they say to themselves, how
does God And is their knowledge in the
Most High? That is, is there knowledge of
such things? And it pained David until he
went into the sanctuary, until the Lord opened his heart to
understand their end. No sin is going to go unpunished.
The soul that sinneth shall surely die. Because men are made aware
of your sin, it doesn't constitute some blindness on the part of
God. You get away with something here. It doesn't mean God was
blind to it. There has and will be a just
recompense for every transgression and disobedience. You can read
Hebrews chapter 1. The second type of sinner present
here is the worst of all. religious sinners, self-righteous
hypocrites, ungodly men pretending to be the servants of God. They
arrested and convicted other sinners under the guise of being
saints of God. Our Lord said to these men, it'd
be easier on them in Sodom and Gomorrah than it's going to be
on you in the judgment. There are no degrees in glory,
but there are in hell. There are in hell. And then thirdly,
there was this woman. When the scribes and Pharisees
brought her to Christ, her crimes was fully exposed. She didn't
get away with anything. They said, Master, this woman
was taken in adultery in the very act. She was a practicing
sinner. But let me tell you something,
every sinner brought to Christ is a practicing sinner. And even those who yet believe
are practicing sinners. If a man say he hath no sin,
he's a liar, and he's made God a liar. And the man who was with her,
who thought he escaped his crime, probably wrote it off to a bad
marriage, or an unfortunate circumstance, or too much wine, or who knows
what people that do such things write these things off to. Very
seasoned scribes justified their sins, thinking they were doing
God a service. But the woman had no excuse.
She had no defense. And when sinners are brought
to Christ, Their mouths have been stopped. How do I know if
God has truly convicted a man and brought him before him? How
do I know that? Because he shuts up. He ain't
got nothing to say. He's not arguing about free will
anymore. He's not arguing about his good
mother or his good grandmother or any kind of goodness in himself.
He's not saying them things anymore. God shut his mouth. He's guilty. She was guilty. She didn't have
anything to say. Her mouth been stopped and they
stand there guilty before God. And I see in my mind's eye a
woman clinging to a few rags. She was taken into very active
adultery. They didn't let her go in a room
somewhere and dress. They grabbed her up and she grabbed
whatever she could grab to cover herself up with. And here she
sits. Spiritually, that's how we all
appear before Him, naked, no covering. And I know from personal
experience and from the Word of God that she knew she was
guilty and deserving of whatever judgment she would receive. And
I wonder this morning, has the Spirit of God ever arrested any
of you? Huh? Has He ever arrested you
like that? Ah, exposed you. Boy, I tell
you, when God exposes yourself to yourself, you think everybody
in the world can see it. Huh? You just open that shit. I mean, there it is. Here I am.
You ever taken you into very act? You ever shown to you that
you're a practicing sinner, not a sinner in word, but one in
deed? Well, this is the sinner. That's
the sinner. Can I take my place with this
sinner? Well, I tell you, I want to look at every case where the
Lord saves a sinner and see if I can take my place with that
sinner. Because those are the sinners that God saves. The sinner
who knows he's a sinner, that's who God saves. And then here's
the situation. She's brought and set in the
midst. She stands before the holy bar of God, fully exposed. No excuses, no defense. Nobody's
on her side. She stands there alone, guilty. The holy law of God, being defined
by these lawyers, demands a violent death for her crimes. They wouldn't
go easy on her. She was to be stoned. Stoned. Nobody there manifested any love
for her or any suggestion of mercy or grace. Now here's the
situation. She'd been placed into the hands
of Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, to do with as he saw fit. Now is that not how God saves
a sinner? In his providence, under the
preaching of the gospel, he brings them and sets them before and
says, here he is, what will you do? What will you do with him? Because all the rest of it is
just paper mache, isn't it? All the rest of it is just nothing.
It's what is he going to do? Because he's the only one who
can do it. Can you take your place in this
here? She's in his hands 100% she didn't open her mouth. She sat there silent waiting
to see what the Lord was going to do with her. Knowing full
well she deserved whatever she got. She was guilty. These ungodly men who brought
her there had no concern for the soul, this whole Situation
was something they cooked up to expose Christ as an imposter,
yet the God of all grace had used their sinful actions to
bring a chosen sinner to Christ. Don't you just love it? And then thirdly, I want us above
everything else to see the Savior. This one before whom she stands, is one before whom all men shall
one day stand. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ. God hath appointed a day, He
said, in the which He'll judge this world in righteousness by
that man whom He hath ordained. And there was only one hope for
that sinner that day. The scribes and Pharisees had
rested their case. Only one voice yet to be heard. You ever been there? Sitting there silent before God,
knowing that there's one more voice. What's he gonna say? Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, I never knew you. Or be thou cleansed. What's he
gonna say? He has the last word. He has the last word. If he pardons
the woman, He goes contrary, they said, to the law and justice
of God. If he condemns a woman, he goes
contrary to his message of mercy and good. Over in Proverbs 17
and verse 15, it says, he that justifieth the wicked, and he
that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to
the Lord. In Isaiah 45, 21, he said, there
is no God else beside me. I'm a just God and Savior. A just God and Savior. I'm not going to overlook sin.
Sin, the soul that sinneth shall surely die. He's either going
to die of himself and stand before me and be sentenced to the second
death, or he's going to die in my son, his substitute. But he's going to die. Sin has
to be faithful. God cannot justify the wicked. It's contrary to his character
and he cannot condemn the righteous because that's contrary to his
character. What will this man who's claimed to be the son of
God do with this poor sinner? And I hope you'll hear me this
morning because this is the situation of every chosen sinner brought
to stand before the Son of God. Romans 3.23, he said, All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now watch this, verse 24. Being
justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. How are they justified? Freely
by His grace through the accomplished redemption of Christ. by way
of a sovereign appointed substitute, by one ordained of God to be
a representative man through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Where's it at? It's in Him. You
ain't going to find it in the law, you're going to find it
in Him. The law only points you to Him. And it's in Him by divine intervention,
it's in Him by divine appointment, it's in Him by an eternal covenant
union. It's in Him. How can a poor sinner
be justified before God? 2 Corinthians 5.21. For God hath made Him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Our Savior declares in the gospel
His righteousness for the remission of sins. He declares by Jesus
of Nazareth that He's both just and justifier of all them that
believe on Christ. Nowhere in example do I see this
more clearly than this woman. Here she stands. And then I see a dismissal. All
these hypocritical men waiting to condemn the Son of God were
dismissed by the one they sought to condemn. They'd done what
God arranged for them to do. They brought this poor sinner
to Christ. And those who arrogantly waited
for his self-conviction, they thought themselves to be
the center of attention. The very plan to expose him were
dismissed by the Lord and he never said a word. All he did
was stoop down and ride in the dirt as though he didn't even
hear them. He just acted like they wasn't
even there. The only one who was there that
concerned him was the woman. Just the woman. He used them. Yes, he did. He uses everybody
in this world. You might not realize it, but he uses law to
constrain you from being as evil as you could be. He uses weather
to provide you with crops, causes his rain to fall on the just
and the unjust. He uses everything in this world,
including sinners, for the welfare of his saints. He ignored them and all that
they represented, but they persisted, so He stood up and said, He that
is without sin among you. You want to talk about righteousness?
You want to talk about law righteousness? There's the rocks, there's the
woman, the man with no sin, pick it up and mash her brains in. Huh? You going to reach down
and get that rock? Mmm, one by one. One by one,
they heard what he said. Only God can make us hear where
it counts in here. Only he can make us do that.
They heard what he said. And one by one, having heard
what he said, convicted in their conscience, walked away. They
walked away. And of this they could do. politely dismissed her accusers,
sent the Sanhedrin packing, pressing their own unworthiness upon their
consciences, and convicting them each one from the eldest to the
least. And then lastly, I want us to
see and rejoice in this surprise ending. Having ignored them and
dismissed them, He's writing now in the stand. He's stooped
over. He's just writing in the dirt. I don't know what he wrote. But he stands up. He stands up. He stood up again and saw none
but the woman. You'll never know what that means
until God sees you alone. He looks at nobody else but you. He's not dealing with his elect
in general. He's not dealing with the population
or saints gone by or future saints. He's dealing with you. One on
one. And he don't see anybody else.
He just sees you. Why? Because you've given to
him. Because he died for you. Because
he intercedes for you in glory. He just sees you. Oh my soul, Jesus stood up again
and saw none but the woman. And I don't know how to communicate
this, but when Christ receives a chosen sinner, He brings that
sinner to stand alone with Him. There may be a multitude involved
in the bringing. There may be a crowd gathered
to see the outcome. But that chosen sinner will stand
before him alone. And then he says to her, what's
he going to say? Because he gets the last word. Woman? Doesn't call her by name,
just woman. Where are thine accusers? I don't know if she really realized
that they left. I don't know. I remember my own
conviction. I remember trying to deal with myself and
trying to deal with him as who he is and all of these things. And I don't remember much about
who else was involved. I just don't remember. But those
are the things expressed on my heart. And there might be a multitude
involved in the bringing, and a crowd gathered to see the outcome.
But that chosen sinner is going to stand before Him alone. And
then He says to her, where are thine accusers? You know, when a sinner is brought
to Christ, it seems like everything is an evidence of a sin. Everything. You can't go, well, I remember
this one time. No, even that's a sin. You don't
remember anything. The law accuses him. Preachers
accuse him. Society accuses him. But when
he shut up to the Savior, he hears what almost is unbelievable. He said, where are thine accusers?
Does no man accuse you? She said, no man, Lord. Here's the first words out of
this woman's mouth. Lord. Lord. I'd be willing to bet everything
I've got that the day before she didn't call him Lord. He's
just Jesus. But he's Lord now. He's Lord
now. Where are thine accusers? Here's
what Paul says in Romans 8. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Anybody out there? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies it. Who is he that condemns? Christ
died. Where are thine accusers? Does
no man accuse you? No man, Lord. Oh, listen to this. Neither do I. Neither do I. Now you go and sin no more. Sin no more. How's that possible? By faith. By faith in Him. I'm sinless. by faith in Him. I'll struggle against sin. I
have no desire to sin. I don't want to sin. But I'm a sinner, and I'm going
to sin. But I have an advocate, Jesus
Christ the righteous. The last thing that poor sinner
ever expected Jesus of Nazareth to say that she was not condemned. Through the substitutionary work
of Christ and by his own word, she was justified. And oh, to
hear the Son of God say to us, sinner, doth no man condemn thee,
neither do I. He was her way. Now you go and
watch and sin no more. Sin no more. Oh may the Lord
help us to understand and rejoice in that message.