Verse 1 said, Jesus went unto
the Mount of Olives. Those seven simple words are
very suggestive of some things. They remind me of our Lord's
exaltation. While all the others are content
to spend the evening and the night on lower ground and in
the town of Jerusalem, the Master ascends to the mount. And though
He walked among men, He was more than a man. He was no child of
Adam. He had no sinful nature. He ascended into the mount, a
higher elevation. as he by nature is of a higher
order than the children of Adam. His exaltation. Then another
thought I see here would be his humiliation. While all the others
have houses to go to for the night, the last verse of the
previous chapter says just that. Chapter 7, verse 53, and every
man went unto his own house. But our Lord went to the Mount
of Olives. Remember He said, the birds of
the air have nests, and the foxes have holes, but the Son of Man
hath not where to lay His head. So as a, we would say, homeless
person in this world, and yet He's the Creator of it. He owns
it all. And yet in His humiliation, the
humiliation of His humanity, he resorts to the Mount of Olives. A third thought in this first
verse would be that of his destination, what this Mount of Olives speaks
of concerning why he's in this world. It's the Mount of Olives. It's the place of the olive press
where the olives were pressed and crushed to obtain that precious
olive oil. Christ our Lord was pressed,
crushed, crucified, just like the olives. And we made mention
of this on Wednesday night. We'll say this and then move
on. But there were three main purposes for that precious olive
oil. One was medicinal, to pour into
wounds and healing. And with that said, Christ is
the great physician. He's our healer. And then the
second thing this oil was used for was for cooking oil, to make
bread and to cook with. Christ our Lord is the bread
of life to us. He is our food. And then thirdly,
This precious olive oil was used for fuel, to put in the lamps,
to burn and to give light. And Christ says, of course, in
the same chapter, I am the light of the world. So every main purpose
of that olive oil in olden times finds its true picture in Christ
our Lord. So appropriately, he resorts
to this Mount of Olives for the evening. And then the fourth
thing I'd mention would be his isolation here in this place.
It was here, alone, in communion with the Father, that he'll rest
a little in body and in mind and spend time in prayer, and
he will be strengthened to face another day in this world, to
face another day in the presence of men who despise him, men who
are not just operating on their own, but men who are operating
as instruments of Satan to be as cruel and to put as much pressure
on the Son of God as they possibly can. The day that has just finished
in chapter 7, you can read that chapter and find in it that the
Jews sought to kill him. They sent officers to arrest
him. They had accused and made statements,
he's a deceiver, and they said he hath a devil. And you see,
our Lord knows it'll be the same thing tomorrow as it was this
day. So he goes to the Mount of Olives
to spend the night there. Verse two begins to tell us that early in the morning,
he came again into the temple. And all the people came unto
him, and he sat down and taught, as was the customary way of teaching,
to sit. And a great number of people
came to hear him teach. And then we read in the next
verses that some scribes and Pharisees, they bring a woman
to the Lord not because they are shocked at her conduct, nor
because they were grieved that God's law was broken, that was
not their motive at all, but their object was to use this
woman, the scripture said here, taken in adultery in the very
act, their object was to use this woman to trap the Lord Jesus. They couldn't care less about
her. or about God's law, they were anxious to discredit our
Lord before the people. And we noticed they didn't wait
for a private meeting. They dragged her right into the
midst of the crowd where Christ was teaching. They rudely interrupted
and challenged Him to deal with the situation. Now, they thought
they had trapped Him in an unsolvable dilemma. They brought the woman
guilty of what she's charged with. Her guilt is never questioned. And they say to the Lord in verse
5, Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned,
but what sayest thou? Now the Lord could have stopped
them right there and said, I thought you believed in what Moses said
in the law. If that's what he said, what
are you coming to me for?" But he didn't do that. He didn't
do that. They said, this is what Moses
said, what do you say? If they really cared what Moses
said, they wouldn't care what he said, then we hadn't done
it. But they're not there for justice
to be done. They're there to trick him, trap
him. What sayest thou? What do you say? And verse 6
tells us that they said this, they did this, that they might
have to accuse Him. This was their whole motive,
to accuse and discredit Him. Now the Old Testament law said
this on the matter, Leviticus 20 and 10, And the man that committed
adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery
with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress
shall surely be put to death." Another verse, Deuteronomy 22,
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. Now, both those verses said that
both the man and the woman were to be put to death. But here
in John 8, there's no mention of the guilty man, just the woman. So they're not
really interested in justice at all. These Pharisees aren't. They're out to condemn the Lord
Jesus, that's all. And they think that they have
presented the perfect challenge. They've come with a situation
that they believe is a no-win situation for Him. And so far
as human reason can perceive, this is the profoundest problem
that could ever confront the Lord Jesus. How that justice
on the one hand and mercy on the other hand could be harmonized
in this situation. They had really figured this
out, they thought. And they said, if he says, let
her go, then we'll accuse him of being an enemy to the law,
of disregarding the Moses law. But if he says, stone her, then
we'll ridicule the fact that he claims to be the friend of
sinners, that he claims to be merciful to people. So they're
sure they have him cornered Whichever way he goes, whatever his answer
is, they said it's bound to be wrong. There can be no right answer,
so they think. Now, we looked at the rest of
these verses on down through verse 11 on Wednesday night.
I don't know if we'll get that far this morning or not, but
how that the Lord forgave this woman, sent her on her way rejoicing. I want us, first of all, to look
at the character of these scribes and Pharisees and talk a little
bit about the subject of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. This is what
kind of people these were. I heard a preacher some weeks
ago on the radio, a man that I met over 30 years ago, And
I hadn't seen him in over 25, I guess. And he stated on the
air that he had been preaching since 79. That's 35 years ago. And in 35 years, a man ought
to learn something about God's word and about the gospel. But his sermon was about the
crown of righteousness. and how that the only people
who would receive the crown of righteousness are those who have
lived a righteous life. And he all but said, the reason
Paul said, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness is
because Paul had lived a righteous life. I really wanted to ask him, How
righteous is righteous? And the answer is, it's as righteous
as God is. And no child of Adam ever has,
will, or can live that righteous. He totally ignored the gift of
God in Christ to us that He was made sin for us, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Not in ourselves, but in Him. Romans 5, 17, for if by one man's
offense death reigned by one, and of course that one was Adam,
we know that, death still reigns in these bodies of flesh, Because
of that one man's offense, people still die every day. Much more, they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one, Jesus Christ. Nobody's interested Even our
God is not interested in a righteousness that you can perform and attain
unto, thinking that it's worth some spiritual value. You see, the righteousness God
Almighty requires is not a righteousness that you and I can accomplish
in our flesh. It is rather a bestowed righteousness. that which Christ our Lord has
accomplished in His flesh. It's a perfect righteousness.
So Paul, when he talked about that over there to Timothy, there
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, Paul is not boasting
of some visible and tangible crown he'd won. Oh, no. He is
anticipating the laying aside of this sin-cursed flesh which
is corrupted by sin, in order to enjoy forever that gift of
Christ's perfect righteousness. And in that day, we'll be like
Him. We'll be like Him. That's what
we're predestinated to. That's what He said in Romans
8, predestinated to be conformed to the image of His dear Son. Did not Isaiah said, did he not
say, we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags? And the reference there is to
a bunch of discarded, stinking leper's bandages that he's peeled
off and thrown by the side of the road. All our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. So now coming to these Pharisees, they brought this woman to Jesus
for Him to pass judgment concerning her. They did not know that He
would first deal with them. They actually felt they were
qualified and justified and worthy in themselves
to oversee this matter. Bring this sinner woman to Jesus. One great preacher said the real
evil revealed in this passage is not adultery, but self-righteousness. The real
culprits were these proud religious hypocrites, the Pharisees, not
the woman. These Pharisees were very proud
of their pretended righteousness and morality, though in reality
they were the vilest of men. They were not without guilt in
this matter. Without question, self-righteousness is the most
terrible of all sins. It is more offensive and more
abominable in the sight of God than any other crime. I say Amen. In Matthew 6, Christ our Lord
taught his disciples, Do not your alms before men,
to be seen of them. Don't sound the trumpet so that
everybody will see what great religious work you've
done and what a great Christian you are. Because he said if you
do that, you'll have the glory of men. You'll have your reward
to be praised of men. And that's what you wanted. You
didn't do it for God. You did it for yourself. And
then he went on to say, when you pray, don't do like the hypocrites
and the Pharisees do. They love to pray standing in
the synagogues and on the street corners where everybody can see
them. People walk by and say, my, my, what a great, how I admire
that person. Oh my. You said don't do what
you do for the praise of men. Get along with the Lord. Secret. In Luke chapter 20, verse 46,
the Lord Jesus told his disciples, beware of the scribes which desire
to walk in long robes and love greetings in the markets and
the highest seats in the synagogues and the chief rooms at feast
which devour widows' houses, and for a show make long prayers. The same shall receive greater
damnation." What do you mean by that? The hottest place in
hell is reserved for religious self-righteousness. Now let me give us three things
quickly and we'll go our way. Number one, self-righteousness
hates the grace of God. That's why you were able to get
a seat here this morning. Self-righteousness hates the grace of God. Cain hated it. Ishmael hated it. Esau hated
it. In Luke 15, the elder brother
hated it. These Pharisees and scribes hated
it. And a lot of self-righteous religious
folk I know hate the grace of God. Like this crowd in this text,
they are so making the grade themselves, they are qualified
and justified in stoning somebody else to death. So they think. Self-righteousness hates the
grace of God. I would not claim, you would
not claim to be totally free of any hypocrisy. We should be. But at the same time, I love
grace, free grace, the gift of God. Not what men call grace
mixed with their works, but the free grace of God. I love it
because it's this amazing grace, this unasked for. Unknown on
my part It's this amazing grace That came and saved a wretch
like me. That's why I love it. I Love
it. I Wasn't looking for the Lord
But I'm so glad he was looking for me Now I was a pretty good Sunday
school boy Like so many others I had a pretty
good reputation around the community. Of course, I was sneaky. Done
a lot of things a lot of people didn't know about. But I was
about like the rest of them. About as good as any of the rest
of them. But when the Holy Spirit of God showed up in my heart, made himself
known to me, and opened to me the awful corruption of my heart,
I understood that I was every bit as wretched as anybody else
that's ever lived. Cain really had no reason to
hate Abel, but he did. Ishmael had really no reason
to hate Isaac, but he did. Esau had really no reason to
hate Jacob. But he did. The elder brother, and you're
familiar with that story in Luke 15, he really had no reason to
hate that younger brother, but he did. Self-righteousness hates
the grace of God. Number two, self-righteousness
is at the root of all gossip slander and persecution. 1 Peter 4.8, love covers a multitude
of sin. Self-righteousness delights in
exposing it in others, but not in self. I heard a preacher long ago when
I was a young man, 40 years ago, said something I never forgot. He said, most of our criticizing
others is nothing but an undermined way of bragging on ourselves. Saying, I'm not that bad. I'm
not like that. I'm better than that. Well, it's
not our business as the children of God to carry the devil's mail. And he's got a truckload every
day to deliver. And he's just looking for mouthpieces. The Lord put it in my heart years
ago that it's not my business, it's not the business of the
Lord's people to crucify others. And I'm so thankful that there's
a few sitting here this morning that have had this same conviction
through the years. And the Lord has blessed us. We've tried to love folks in
this little congregation through all sorts of things. And I do not regret it. Now that don't mean we condone
everything that's ever happened and everything everybody's done.
No. But as the Lord's people, we've tried to love them through
it. Alcohol problems, drug problems,
marriage problems, divorce, remarriage, Couples living together not married.
Now I've told them it's wrong. I've done that. And I've encouraged
them to do the right thing and seek the Lord and stay in church. But I never tried to beat people
over the head and crucify them over it. Runaways. Children born out of wedlock. We just tried to be there and
love people and be open to people. I said all that not to brag on us, but to say
this. You would think people would
love us for that. You would think people would
come to church here and rejoice in this grace of God with us.
But no. No. Many, many, many. As soon as they sort of get past
the shame and feel good about themselves, they either quit
church or they go to one of these churches that crucify people
for being what they are. I do not understand that. I just don't understand that.
They'd rather try to fit with the self-righteous and be
somebody. But our Lord is the friend of
sinners. He hates self-righteousness.
Proverbs 30.12, there is a generation that are pure in their own eyes.
in their own eyes now, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. These Pharisees were not interested
in honoring the law of God. They were interested in honoring
themselves. They hated Christ because he exposed the evil of
their hearts. They hated his doctrine, grace
for the guilty. He told His disciples, Matthew
23, 25, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! He
told the scribes and Pharisees this, You make clean the outside
of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion
and excess. And He went on to say, For you
are like whited sepulchres. You are like a beautiful, well-maintained
cemetery. look good on the outside, beautiful,
whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but
are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. And self-righteousness is the
cause of all the malice and bitterness slander
and confusion created among the Lord's people today. Third thing,
self-righteousness is the most deadly of all sins. When a person stops being a sinner,
they stop needing Christ. I don't ever want to stop being
a sinner, do you? I want to stop sinning, but I don't want to
stop being a sinner. He came to save sinners. 1 John 1, if we say that we have
no sin, we make Him a liar. And His Word is not in us. But it will be said from pulpits
all over this country today, You need to get the sin out of
your life. That will not happen until your
toes are turned up. Sin is not just what you do,
it's what you are. It's this corrupt nature which
affects our flesh and our mind all the time. Self-righteousness rejects the
righteousness of God in Christ. Self-righteousness says, I don't
need Him. I'm doing okay on my own. Self-righteousness is really
a form of idolatry. It is to worship one's self. Christ did say to His disciples,
beware. He said this repeatedly. Beware
of the leaven. of the Pharisees. What was it? Self-righteousness. And he told his disciples in
Matthew 520, the Sermon on the Mount, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now that sounds impossible. It
would be almost impossible to exceed the Pharisees in religious
practice and diligence and good works. But Christ wasn't saying
you must do more than they're doing. That wasn't what he was
saying. He was saying the righteousness that pleases God is not by men's
doing. It's the perfect righteousness
of Christ Himself. It's a bestowed righteousness. And except you stand in His righteousness,
then all the religious works and so-called righteous living,
it's all in vain. It's all in vain. When Christ got through with
this crowd here in John 8, verse 9 says, being convicted by their
own conscience, they went out one by one, beginning at the
eldest, even unto the last. The old men, the elders, the
ones that, oh, whether elders here refers to age or position,
they were the ones that were supposed to be in the know and
they knew They knew what he was saying. And they said in their
heart, my soul, he's right. What am I doing standing here
with a rock in my hand? And the stones begin to hit the
ground and they walked away one by one. And all that's left is
Christ and the woman. What will he do? He asked her, Woman, where are
thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? Here's the situation. Deuteronomy
17.6, At the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he that
is worthy of death be put to death. But at the mouth of one
witness, he shall not be put to death. Christ said, Where are they? Hath no man condemned thee? And she said, No man, Lord. She didn't say, No man, Master. She didn't say, No man, Rabbi.
She said, no man, Lord. He's her Lord. 1 Corinthians
12, 3. No man can truly call Jesus Lord,
but by the Holy Ghost. So these Pharisees, they thought
they were bringing a woman to Jesus who was destined for death
and hell. They did not know they were being
used of Him as instruments to bring one of His elect into His
presence, chosen in Him from the foundation of the world.
That's how big He is and how little we are. Christ said to her, neither do
I condemn thee. He didn't come to condemn us.
We were already condemned. He came to save, save sinners
like you and I. And the passage concludes with
Christ saying, go and sin no more. But now notice the order of the
statements here. He did not say go and sin no
more and I'll not condemn thee. That wouldn't have been good
news. Because there's none that doeth
good and sinneth not. His not condemning her was not
on the basis that she never sin again. But he forgave her first. He said, neither do I condemn
thee first, now or never. I'll never catch thee out. Then after he said, neither will
I condemn thee, then he placed her as we all are placed under
the constraint of his love. It's then that he said, go and
sin no more. The Lord was not assigning her
the impossible task of living absolutely sinless. It would
have been good if she could. But rather, He was speaking to
that new nature in her, that desire in her heart to live clean. Not live clean in order to be
clean, but live clean out of love for Him who pronounced her
clean. And that's the order. That's
the order. We're not here this morning to
gain God's approval. I'm here to celebrate having
his approval in Christ. Bless his holy name. All right,
let's stand together. Thank you for coming.