Okay, so I want to continue in
John's Gospel and look at the first 11 verses of chapter 8
this morning. But as an opening, I want to
dispel any doubts whatsoever that people raise that these
verses actually form part of Scripture. I've written an article
in the Bulletin to explain very simply and very briefly why there
are much more deep and profound explanations of why this is in
the scripture. But, you know, you will see all
sorts of people who are given credibility as evangelicals,
as pastors who know the Lord, who say, no, it shouldn't really
be in the scriptures. And where do they get that from?
They get that from egg-headed theologians who tell us that
this isn't in the original, the oldest manuscripts. You see,
they say it's not in the oldest manuscripts. The fact is that
the oldest manuscripts, archaeologically, that are found, are not necessarily
the most reliable, as you'll see in the article. You know,
copies were made by hand. And the ones that were best used
wore out, and were, you know, new copies made and so on, and
that's the Textus Receptus that we have. This is part of Scripture.
Another reason is, it just doesn't read or fluorite. If you try
reading from verse 53 of chapter 7, and then go straight on to
verse 12 of chapter 8, missing out those 11 verses, it doesn't
read right. Then spake Jesus again unto them.
When? What's he talking about? When
every man went to his own house, then spake Jesus again. It doesn't
flow right. It doesn't read right. And the
other thing is, finally, that it teaches powerful truth that
is completely in accordance with the rest of Scripture. There
is nothing here at all that in any way contradicts the gospel
of grace revealed throughout Scripture. So let's dispel before
we start any notions that this shouldn't be here. And if you
have a version of the Bible that casts doubt on this, do you know
what I suggest you do? You get some scissors and you
cut that doubt out of the Bible you're using. And if you've got,
you know, if you want a reliable version, go to the good old King
James Version, you know, despite various terms of phrase that
we don't use today, this is reliable. You can depend upon it. So let's
think about the scene, first of all. Do you remember in chapter
7, the Pharisees and the officers, they sent officers, they'd sent
armed men to go and arrest him. Just one man preaching, go and
arrest him. And they didn't. They couldn't.
And they came back and the Pharisees said, why haven't you brought
him? What's wrong? And you know what they said?
Never man spake like this man. Nobody ever. We never heard anybody
speak like this man. There is nobody that speaks like
this man. This man is unique. Whether it's
the actual words he spoke, or the way he spoke them, or the
divine power with which they were received, they couldn't
arrest him. They were completely unable to
arrest him and take him by force. It was the end of the feast of
tabernacles, one of the three main feasts, where all males
in Israel were required to go to Jerusalem. It was the end
of the feast of booths, as you were, tabernacles, tents, where
they were to make tents and live in them for a week to remind
them of the fact that God brought them out of Egypt and kept them
providentially through the wilderness wanderings when they came out
of Egypt in the Exodus. All sorts of things went on.
And so every man went to his own house. And Jesus went to
the Mount of Olives. If that's where he stayed the
night, I don't know. It seems to suggest that. But in the morning,
early the next morning, he returns to the temple to teach. The very
place where you would have thought was the most dangerous place.
Remember, he'd had six months of keeping a low profile because
of what the Jewish leaders were planning to do to him in killing
him and removing him. But here he is, fully open. He called on whoever thirsts,
in verse 37 of chapter 7, to come to him and drink. And there'll
be that living water, spiritual water, out of his innermost being,
out of his belly. And yet, here he is. Despite
the Pharisees' opposition, there he is back again in the temple,
teaching. You know, the animosity of the
Pharisees towards Jesus, you wonder why did they hate him
so much? It says they hated him without a cause, and that's true.
There was no just cause for them to hate him. But the animosity
Its origin was satanic. It was Satan that stirred up
their animosity against the Christ of God. You see, Satan was determined,
if he could, to destroy the promised seed of the woman, promised in
Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman who would come. Following
the fall, the seed of the woman shall come to accomplish redemption
from the curse of sin and the curse of the fall. And Satan
knew he was coming, and Satan waited to try to destroy him.
And you read through the gospel accounts how at the time of his
birth, Satan prompted world authorities to set traps to try to catch
him, to try to have him killed. And it's pictured in Revelation
12 as a dragon waiting before the woman who's about to bring
forth a child. And he can't, he doesn't succeed.
And here is Christ, in defiance of all of that satanically motivated,
originated animosity, here he is, in the very center of it,
teaching, in their temple, at the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles,
there he is. What was the cause of Satan's
animosity? Was it perhaps, I've heard somebody
speculate, and I think there might be something in this, that
in the fall, when Satan was cast out of heaven, what was the issue?
It was that God was determined to elevate the people that he
loved above the angels, above their status. And perhaps that
was the motive for Satan's fall, for the fall. Well, here we are,
force of arms has failed. Christ isn't arrested. He isn't
taken out of circulation. How will they disarm Christ is
what they're wrestling with. How on earth are we going to
get him? We failed by force of arms to arrest him. Well, let's
try to impale him, was their thinking. Let's try to impale
him on the horns of a dilemma. Let's try to put him, as modern
language might put it, between a rock and a hard place. Of course,
a rock is a hard place, and another place that's a hard place is
a hard place. And it's not a comfortable place to be, is the idea. Let's
put him in an awkward position. Let's take all of the moral force
out of his ministry by trapping him into denying his teaching. What was his teaching? His teaching
was that the righteousness of God is paramount. The righteousness
and justice and holiness of God is paramount. that violation
of the law of God deserves just punishment, condemnation. How
many times did he say, they shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth?
How many times did he point to the fact that sin will be punished,
the strict justice of God? Yet at the same time, he was
a preacher of mercy and of grace. For throughout the Scriptures,
God declares himself to be a gracious God, a God of mercy and of grace,
grace to sinners, yet the law says sinners must be condemned.
So they're thinking, let's get him. He can't uphold the two
at the same time. The strict justice of God against
sin, and yet grace to sinners. How can he maintain that? So
these are the horns of a dilemma that they're trying to impale
him on. They couldn't arrest him, but let's try and trap him
here. This is how they tried to tempt him into tripping up
and totally disarming his ministry. Now, at the Feast of Tabernacles,
they had these booths, these tents that they lived in. And
these tents of the feast gave opportunity for undercover sin. And it has to be said, especially
the sin of adultery, sexual immorality. There it was, lots of secret
places scattered around Jerusalem. And during the night, when Jesus
had gone to the Mount of Olives and before he came back to the
temple, during the night, some of the Pharisees police if you like, had caught
some committing the very act. Verse 4, they say unto him, Master,
this woman was taken in adultery. In the very act, surely there
was a man taken in the very act as well, but they didn't bring
him. This was for the purpose of just trying to entrap Jesus. So they say, here she is, she's
caught in the very act. Let's see how he gets out of
this, was their idea. Will he uphold the law? Will
he uphold the righteousness of God? Will he honour the law and
say that God condemns such sin, and that she must pay the penalty
for that sin, which is to be stoned? That's what the law says. And in the process, if he says
that, of course we've got him, because he will deny his gospel,
his good news of mercy and grace to sinners. This is how they
tried to catch him. Strict justice then. In verse
5, they say it, Moses in the law commanded us that such should
be stoned. If you look back at Leviticus
chapter 20 and verse 10, And the man that commiteth adultery
with another man's wife, even he that commiteth adultery with
his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely
be put to death. And then if you look over at
Deuteronomy, just to underline it, Deuteronomy chapter, which
one is it? 22 and verse 22. If a man be
found lying with a woman married to an husband, Then they shall
both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman and the
woman. So shalt thou put away evil from Israel. See, the law
is absolutely clear. The law that God gave at Sinai
was absolutely clear that these committing sexual immorality,
adultery, were to be put to death. they were to be put to death.
You think in the society in which we live in today, gosh, that
is harsh, that sounds ever so harsh, what's it got to do with
everybody else? Isn't it a case of, as they used
to say, consenting adults, they're adults, they're not children,
they can do what they want to do, who is it that's got any
authority to tell them not? And you might think that that
sounds like a very harsh and very unfair way of dealing with
people in this situation and in this matter. But we need to
remember what marriage is. And that's why I had us read
Ephesians 5, verses 22 to 33 at the start of the service.
That's the passage that we looked at in the study last Wednesday
night, and the audio file for that is on our website on the
listen page down at the bottom. We need to remember what marriage
is. Marriage is that institution
of God, that creation institution of God. Just turn to it, Ephesians
5, 22, wives submit yourselves to your husbands, as it were.
It's a creation institution. God created them. Male and female,
created he them. You know, this totally perverse
society in which we live, with what it's doing with its ideas
of gender, it's just utterly ridiculous. How on earth they
get away with it, I do not know, other than It is satanic in origin. It is utterly satanic in origin. The politicians of this world
are powerless to do anything about it because it's of satanic
origin for his purpose. And it's to fly in the face of
God's creation and what he has done. Marriage is a creation
institution. A man and a woman. Marriage is,
as Jesus said, what about divorce? Jesus said, no, you shouldn't.
He said, well, Moses let us give a bill of divorce to our wives.
And he said, that's just because of the hardness of your hearts.
It's because of sin. But it wasn't meant to be so.
The creation of God, marriage, man and woman, was a pure and
holy thing. Why? Because it pictured, look,
verse 32, this is a great mystery. but I speak concerning Christ
and the Church. It's a great mystery, but I speak
concerning Christ and the Church. You see, Christ and the Church,
the marriage of Christ and the Church, the end of this creation,
when all this creation is drawn to an end, is the marriage supper
of the Lamb. And out of heaven John sees in
Revelation 21, he sees the new Jerusalem coming down as a bride
out of heaven prepared for her husband. There's a marriage,
read it in Revelation 19, the marriage supper of the Lamb.
It's the object of the whole of creation, it's the final redemption
of the church of God, of the people of God, of that which
was betrothed before time in electing grace. is consummated
at that marriage supper of the Lamb, when the Church is united
with her Lord and Master, with her Husband in Heaven, with her
God. Christ and the Church is what
it pictures. It's about salvation. It's about that which saves a
sinner deserving of condemnation, from the justice of the law,
from that which the law screams out to demand, the soul that
sins, it shall die. It's salvation. It's about the
fact that you or I, if we're Christ's, can have any confidence
at all that we have an eternal security an eternally secure
future in heaven with God. It's an eternal relationship.
It's a relationship that speaks of permanence. You know this
world, some particularly in rich show business circles, they seem
to swap partners as often as some people change their shirts.
But it's permanent. God's determination regarding
marriage and the marriage of His Son to His Bride, Christ
and the Church, is a permanent one. It's a sacred, holy thing. It's an unbreakable thing. And
defilement in the Commonwealth of Israel in the Old Testament,
defilement of human marriage with adultery, as it says in
Leviticus and Deuteronomy, is violating a holy picture of God's
salvation of His people. It's violation against the divine
intention of God to save his people from their sins. In Old
Testament days, in Israel, defilement of marriage with infidelity was
to do violence to the eternal union that it pictured between
Christ and His Church, and hence the harsh, strict law. That's why it was so harsh, that's
why it was so strict. If you are outside of that relationship
between Christ and His Church, you are facing eternal damnation,
eternal condemnation. Will this Jesus, think the Pharisees,
will this Jesus who says he is God's son, will he deny God's
word and God's justice? But if he agrees to her being
stoned, yes, the law says she should be stoned, she's been
caught in the act, take her and stone her. Well if he agrees
to that, says that's right, what worth is his gospel message of
mercy and grace to sinners? that God is a God of grace and
mercy. Didn't he say in Luke 19 verse
10, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which
is shining and holy? No! He said that which is lost. He came to seek and to save sinners. It's for the sick that he came.
Those that are well need no physician. He came for the sick, for sinners.
He came for them. That's his gospel message. So
how is he going to reconcile that? with his agreement that
the law of God demands that this woman be stoned. Surely, they
thought, these Pharisees, he can't wriggle out of this. What
value is forgiveness? If he says that the law of God
doesn't matter, but he's preaching forgiveness, what value is forgiveness
that is based on the violation of divine justice? How can God
continue if righteousness is not strictly upheld? God cannot
continue. God would cease to be God if
righteousness was not strictly upheld. How can God, who Habakkuk
tells us is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, how can he
just turn a blind eye to it? And at the same time? What worth
is his call to sinners to come to him? John 7, 37, what we were
looking at last week, in the last day, that great day of the
feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirsts, not
if any man is holy, not if any man is perfectly righteous, if
any man thirsts for that holiness, because he doesn't have it himself,
because he needs that holiness, if any man thirsts, let him come
to me and drink. So then, the trap is sprung. Verse 5. Now Moses in the law
commanded us that such should be stoned. Here's the trap. But
what sayest thou? What sayest thou? This they said,
tempting him, that they might have to accuse him, that they
might be able to say, you're inconsistent. How does that fit
with your gospel message? Or how does that fit with your
upholding the law and the holiness of God? and he gives them no
reply. You know the story well. He gives
them no reply. He stoops down and he writes
with his finger in the dust of the ground in the temple. He's
in the temple, this. He writes with his finger in
the dust on the temple floor. And no doubt, he wrote commandments. I feel pretty sure that must
be what he wrote in Verse 7, you know, he wrote down
and they kept on saying, come on, what are you going to tell
us? Verse 7, they continued asking him and he lifted himself up
from having written laws on the ground, in the dust of the temple.
And he said to them, looking at them, he that is without sin
among you. Okay, okay. Yes, the law says
she should be stoned. Well, which of you has no sin? Which of you is able to say,
I am without sin? He that is without sin among
you, let him first cast a stone at her. And of course, then he
bends down and he writes some more, writes some more of those
same laws. And they're seeing him write
those laws and they know that they're guilty of them. And when
they heard it, verse nine, being convicted by their own conscience,
because they knew they were sinners, condemned by these very laws
that he was writing in the dust of the ground. they went out
one by one, beginning at the oldest, who probably had most
to confess, even to the last, and Jesus was left alone, and
the woman standing in the midst. That written law shone God's
light into their darkened hearts and revealed their sin and rendered
them unqualified to cast the first stone. Because they had
sinned, therefore they were not qualified to cast a stone. It
convicted them. They were convicted in their
own conscience when they saw that law written down. They, in their coming to Him
with their arms ready and thinking that they had Him absolutely
cornered, were disarmed. He disarmed them. And in the
process, he disarmed Satan. He disarmed the strong man. That's what Jesus calls him,
the strong man. In Matthew 12, 29, he talks about the strong
man. How are you going to take possession
of the strong man's house? You must first come and bind
the strong man. Then you can take possession
of his house. Here's the strong man coming to entrap Jesus and
finds himself bound. by what the law had said to them,
and they shrank away, defeated. And there's just Jesus and the
woman left behind. No condemnation? Are they not
condemning you, he says to this woman? No Lord, they're not condemning
me. Romans 8 verse 1, there is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
Sin was clearly committed, but there was no condemnation. There
was no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. She
says, no Lord. You know, it was master elsewhere,
but no man Lord. Was she a believer at this stage?
I believe that she was. No man Lord. She's calling him
Lord. She knows who he is. She knows
he's the Lamb of God. She knows he's the sinner's substitute,
that he was about to pay the price of redemption from the
law's just curse. Whether she knew the details
of Scripture's teaching that He was the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world is another matter. But that's what He was
in eternity. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And because He's going to the
cross in time, in time when the fullness of the time was come,
God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem those that are under the law, that they might receive
the adoption of sons. In the fullness of time he was
to go to Calvary and there he was to pay the price of redemption
from the law's curse for the people that he loved with an
everlasting love. So that When the accusation of
all hell comes against sinners who are saved and justified,
the answer comes back, who shall lay anything, as Romans 8, 33
and 34 says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
Who's going to accuse you justly and for that charge to stick?
It can't be done, for Christ has died. He has paid the penalty. The law has no more penalty to
exact from those for whom Christ has paid that penalty. In Him,
in Christ, her Lord, Verse 11, no man, Lord. God's offended
justice had no more price to call for. How can one enter a
strong man's house, said Jesus, and spoil his goods? Except first
he bind the strong man. Jesus tied up Satan. symbolized
by these Pharisees, and made them so that they had no more
accusation to bring. He bound the strong man, then
he spoiled his house. And what we find here is that
as Psalm 85 and verse 10 says, mercy and truth are met together. In the gospel of grace, in the
redemption that Christ purchased, the mercy of God meets the truth
of God that sin must be punished. It meets there. That's where
those utterly incompatible opposites are reconciled. The mercy of
God to forgive sinners, and the justice of God to justly condemn
sinners because He is God who is holy, they meet together in
the gospel of redeeming grace in Christ. The righteousness
of God that must be upheld, and sin must be condemned, and the
peace of God, that peace which is obtained through the blood
of the cross of Christ, that peace which we have through the
blood of His cross, that righteousness of God, strict justice, and peace
through the blood of His cross, have kissed each other. have
kissed each other. By Christ's redeeming work, God
remains perfectly just, upholding his law, yet he's gracious and
merciful to sinners. Is that not why Romans 3 talks
about God being just He's just. Sin never ever gets swept under
the carpet. He's just and justifier of the
sinner. The one who declares the sinner
to be just. That's how. It's in this that
righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Or as Isaiah
45 tells us, He is a just God. He is a holy just God. God is
angry with the wicked every day. You know, God will punish sin. He's a just God, but what else
does Isaiah 45 say? He says he's a just God and a
savior. Divine integrity is upheld perfectly,
yet the sinner is saved and justly justified and qualified for God's
kingdom. Do you get that? I'll say it
again. Divine integrity is upheld perfectly. The sinner, who these
Pharisees wanted to stone with stones according to the law,
is justly justified because Christ is going to the cross for her.
The lamb slain from the foundation of the world is bearing her sins,
all of them, away in his blood. And she's qualified for God's
kingdom. Do you sense anything of the
glory of God's gospel when you hear these words? Do you sense,
you know... A tingle that here we're dealing
with something that is absolutely profound from heaven. Do you
know yourself to be a recipient of God's grace? Oh, the blessedness.
How many times do the Psalms speak like this? You know it.
Psalm 32, verse 2. Blessed is the man, or woman,
unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. What a blessed state.
And in whose spirit there is no guile. Blessed is the man
who is a sinner. to whom the Lord imputes not
iniquity, because the Lamb of God has taken it away. And in
whose spirit there is no guile. Here is an Israelite without
guile, said Jesus of Nathanael, wasn't it, coming to him in John,
end of John chapter one. But before we close, I want to
talk about what Jesus did in the indictment of these Pharisees. You know, they went away. Did
they just slip away with their pride in tatters? You know, they'd
come thinking that he couldn't possibly wriggle out of this
one. They've got him completely. Did they just slip away with
their pride in tatters and to try again another day? Now, there's
much more here, I believe. You see, adultery, which they
brought this woman to Him for a judgment on, adultery is violation
of marriage. And marriage, as we know from
Ephesians 5, is a picture of saving grace in Christ. And God,
in His Word, makes it plain that He is very protective of that
relationship. Spiritual adultery, spiritual
fornication, is infidelity by the bride. Those claiming to
be God's church, to her husband, Christ. You know, in the history
of Israel, again and again, they committed spiritual adultery,
spiritual fornication, and going after false gods. It is idolatry,
bringing God's greatest condemnation and punishment. Much of the law
of marriage in the Old Testament reflected the seriousness with
which God regarded spiritual infidelity. I'll give you an
example, we won't turn to it because it's quite a detailed
study in itself, but in Numbers chapter 5 and verses 11 to 31,
read about it when you go away from this service, read about
it yourself. In that chapter of the Pentateuch,
the five books of Moses, It talks about when a man suspects his
wife of adultery, of infidelity. It's a woman suspected of infidelity. It talks about the jealousy offering. And what has to happen is that
the man takes his wife to the priest at the temple, and holy
water is made bitter with the dust of the temple floor. Remember
I said where Jesus wrote, the holy water has dust from the
temple floor put in it. Holy water is made bitter with
the dust of the temple floor. And the curses of adultery are
written in a book and they're blotted, they're soaked up by
water. And then the woman, so it's in
this water, in this vessel, the curses symbolically, they're
blotted off the page, they're in this water, it's got the dust
of the temple floor, and the woman has to drink the bitter
water. And if she's guilty of adultery,
even though she denies it. If she's guilty, it says, and
this is the language used, it says that her belly will swell
and her thigh will rot. She will be cursed. You see,
it's because marriage in Israel pictured God's eternal marriage
to his people. And to defile it would surely
bring the curse that leads to eternal death. Now in the wisdom
of God, The deep things of God, there is strong symbolism here.
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, this man that they came to try
and trap, is the Christ of God. He is the Word of God. He is the Word of God. And it
says in Ephesians 5, 26 about the church, that he, Christ,
might sanctify and cleanse it, the church, his bride, with the
washing of water by the Word. He is the Word of God, the washing
of water by the Word. He came from the highest glory.
And he stooped down to the earth, didn't he? He who thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, he stooped down. He made himself of no reputation.
He humbled himself and was obedient even unto the death of the cross.
And he stooped down and wrote with his finger in the dust just
exactly as God had written on tablets of stone with his finger. Exodus 31 verse 18, you know
after Moses had broken the first tablets of stone with the ten
commandments on them, he gave him another. Two tables of testimony,
tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Jesus stooped
down and wrote with his finger. He who is God, wrote with his
finger the Word of God in the dust of the temple floor. Just
as God wrote on the wall, in Daniel chapter 5 and verse 5,
at Belshazzar's feast, when violence was being done to the vessels
from the temple in Jerusalem, God wrote on the wall at Belshazzar's
feast, many, many tekel uphasin, meaning, you've weighed in the
balances and you're found wanting, and tonight the kingdom will
be taken away from you, and it will be given to the Medes and
Persians. Jesus wrote on the floor of the temple, the law
of fidelity to God in the dust. He wrote his commandments. Did
any of those Pharisees see the connection perhaps with Numbers
5 and that dust from the temple floor making the water bitter
that the woman would have to drink to test whether she was
telling the truth about her fidelity or not to her husband? Did any
see the truth that it wasn't them self-righteously bringing
the physically adulterous woman in guilty, But what was happening
was Christ with His Word, writing in the dust with His finger,
the finger of God, was bringing them, the Pharisees, in guilty
of what? Of spiritual adultery. of spiritual
fornication, for the state of Israel at this time was a desperate
state. It had completely lost the truth
of gospel grace. There had been no prophet apart
from John the Baptist for 400 years. It had completely lost
any true sense of the presence of God with them. There they
were, going through the motions of just an external sham religion. And Jesus brought them in guilty
of that spiritual fornication, of that rot which was in them
for their hypocrisy and their lies. Satan came to entrap the
seed of the woman and disarm redeeming grace. But the wisdom
of God disarmed him and bound him. Didn't it? It bound him. Colossians 2.15, having spoiled
principalities and powers, satanic principalities and powers, he
made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. He's speaking
of Christ. He made a show of them openly. I'll close with
this. I know this, I haven't gone into
great detail about that. I'll leave you to meditate upon
it. But I think there's just such profound things here, you
know? How on earth do you think of
the cleverest human novelist storyteller that you could ever
devise? They couldn't think up anything
remotely close to this in terms of the profundity of the detail
that there is here. But what it's showing us is this.
Salvation from sin is absolutely accomplished to perfection in
what Christ has done. Can you dream up any wisdom more
wise or assurance any more confident? Assurance of salvation any more
confident? I'll close with this, Romans
chapter 11 and the last few verses. Let me just read this just to
draw a line under this message and I call on you. prayerfully
think about it. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who has known
the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?
Or who has first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto
him again? For of him and through him and
to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen.