At the end of John chapter 7,
when the Feast of Tabernacles was over, we are told that every
man went to his own house. But the Son of Man had not where
to lay his head. So we read in chapter 8, verse
1, that Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives. How our Savior loved
to go to the Mount of Olives. He's found there frequently praying
in the garden. We read of him going to the Garden
of Gethsemane in the last evening he was upon this earth and the
great struggles there, but he often was found praying in the
Garden of Gethsemane in the Mount of Olives. David, you'll remember,
went barefoot with a heavy heart to the Mount of Olives in his
own time of sorrow as a great type and representative of our
Lord Jesus. But our Lord and Savior went
to the Garden of Gethsemane to spend time in prayer with his
father, to spend time alone before his God. And I can imagine, I
can only imagine, He must have gone there as he did so often
because he was determined for the joy set before him, the joy
of saving our souls. He was determined to suffer all
the wrath of God in our room and in our stead. And he went
to the Mount of Olives in anticipation of that day when soon he must
come to the Mount of Olives and begin to take the bitter dregs
of the justice and wrath of God as he anticipated being made
sin for us. Soon his heart would break within
him upon the mount in the garden. He would sweat drops of blood
falling to the ground because of the struggle that he would
face with the prince of darkness on that dark night. The Garden
of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, must have been sacred ground
to him, hallowed by his own precious blood, hallowed by that which
transpired there, and it certainly ought to be looked upon in our
memory as sacred ground to us. I don't mean by that that we
should make it some kind of a holy spot on the earth. I mean by
that it should be sacred in our memories, in our minds, as we
meditate upon the sufferings of our Redeemer in our stead.
Read on. John chapter 8, verse 1. 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. Our Lord's time seemed
to be divided in just two ways. He prayed at night and preached
in the day. He spent his life praying and
preaching, preaching and praying. He was devoted as the servant
of God to the proclamation of the gospel. And yet he recognized
as a man, he must also spend his time before God in prayer. There was no preaching. Listen
to me now. There was no preaching, even
by the incarnate God, our Savior, without prayer. No preaching. even by the God-man without preparation. Preparation made in his own heart
before God Almighty in prayer. Oh God, raise up such preachers. Give your church preachers after
your own heart who will devote themselves to prayer and study
and preaching. as they did in Acts chapter 6
when they ordained the first deacons in the church. They did
so that the apostles might give themselves to the Word of God
and to prayer. So let God's servants devote
themselves, addict themselves to study and prayer and preaching. Now let's get to our text, verse
3. And the scribes and Pharisees
brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. Now, if you want to read what
men say about this passage, if you want to waste your time,
just pick up most any commentary, any Bible study book, or any
study reference Bible, and they will tell you that John chapter
8, verses 1 through 11 were really not part of the inspired volume.
But these things were added by men over time. It's just a story
that men concocted. It didn't really happen, and
this really wasn't part of inspiration. John's gospel really ought to
pick up in verse 12 of chapter 8 as the next thing from the
last verse of chapter 7. You don't want me to tell you
exactly what I think about that. I know why. I know why. People can't stand the doctrine
that's taught here. They're horrified by the doctrine
that's taught here. Utterly horrified. Several years
ago, a young man gave me a message. I won't call it a message, a
sermon. I won't call it a sermon. It was a religious talk on self-righteousness. My fellow was supposed to believe
grace. He was preaching from John chapter 8, verses 1 through
11, the story of the adulterous woman. And the man literally
spent an hour convincing folks that our Lord was not here promoting
adultery. That's all he said. The Lord
was not here excusing adultery. Whoever thought he was. Nobody
except religious fools who can't imagine that free forgiveness
promotes godliness. Religious fools imagine that
free grace promotes ungodliness. That free grace can't be trusted
and can't be preached. That free grace has got to be
hedged about, lest men make you some kind of an excuse for evil.
What nonsense. John chapter 8, verse 3. 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. In the very act. We pulled this
gal out of bed. And she's taken in adultery in the
very act. Now, Moses in the law commanded us, as if they were
interested in what Moses had to say. Moses in the law commanded
us that such should be stoned But we're nice fellas, we really
don't want to kill her. What do you say? What do you
suggest we do with this woman? This they said, tempting him,
that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and
with his finger rode on the ground as though he heard the notch. 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, heard what he said or heard what he wrote, I don't know.
They which heard it, being convinced or convicted by their own consciences,
not by the Spirit of God, not by the grace of God, but by their
own consciences, 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. Go and sin no more. In verse 10, we read when Jesus
had lifted up himself, he saw none but the woman. None but
the woman. None but the woman had his attention.
He saw none but the woman. He cared for none but the woman. He had come to the temple that
day to say, none but the woman. That's my subject. None but the
woman. None but the woman. Who was this
woman? What kind of person was she?
What did the Lord Jesus do for her? Are there any like this
woman here today? Do you suppose that the Lord
Jesus might visit his house here this morning to save one like
this woman in our midst this hour? Might there be one here
in our midst like this woman upon whom the Son of God has
fixed his heart from eternity for whom the time of love has
come? Wouldn't that be wonderful? While our Lord Jesus was at the
Feast of Tabernacles teaching in the seventh chapter of John,
he infuriated the scribes and Pharisees. They were infuriated
by his doctrine, infuriated by his doctrine. Free grace just
infuriates religious men. It just infuriates them. They
can't stand it. All the time he was there, the
scribes and Pharisees were trying to figure out a way that they
could take him and arrest him and rush him off and have him
killed. But they were afraid of the opinion of the people.
You see, religious hucksters, religious fakes, religious charlatans
always hide what they're doing from public view. They don't
want people to... These fellows didn't want anybody
to think that they were opposed to the Lord Jesus. They didn't
want anybody to think that they would actually take this man
and secretly put him to death. But that's what they were working
at. Well, when they couldn't find a way to arrest him, they
couldn't find any excuse for taking him before the courts
and having him stolen to death, they came on a plan. They came
on a plan. While everybody's at the Feast
of Tabernacles, they got one of them, one of them to seduce
an unsuspecting woman. A woman who had nothing to do
with their plots, nothing to do with their schemes. She's
just a loose gal, you know. She's just one of those that
you could meet her on the streets and take her to your tent that
night. And they seduce this woman. Here
they are now pretending to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, dwelling
in booze. Dwelling in booze. At Jerusalem. And they go and say, now listen,
We found a way to get him. We found a way to get him. One
of us will seduce a woman tonight. And the others of us will be
standing around the tent. And at just the right time, when
we can walk into the tent and say, well, hello, Joe! And catch you in the very act.
Then we'll take her to the master. We'll take her to this one these
folks follow. They call the Christ. This one
who has come and preaches mercy and does works of mercy on the
Sabbath day. And we'll shake her in front of him before the
whole crowd in the temple tomorrow. And we'll say now, Moses commands
us to kill her. But you teach us to be merciful.
What do you say? And if he says kill her, then
everybody will know he's been fake. And if he says, let her
go, then we can tell everybody he's breaking the law and he
speaks against Moses. And we know that this is pretty
much an accurate picture because they took the woman in adultery,
took her in the very act, but they didn't bring the man. They
didn't bring the man. Where's he? He's probably standing
among them. The law certainly required the
soul that sinneth it shall die. The law certainly required that
anyone taking an adultery must be put to death, not just the
woman though, the woman and the man. You can read it for yourself
in the book of Leviticus. You can read it in the book of
Deuteronomy. Well, what's to be done then? What is this story
all about? These Pharisees and their utter
wretched vile conduct hit upon the great question of the ages. You see, with devilish insight,
these self-righteous men understood that there's something about
this relationship between God and men that creates difficulty. How can God, who is love, show
mercy to sinners and yet be just? How can God's law be strictly
maintained and never violated and yet the law of God pronounce
a man just who is himself a sinner? How can God be just and yet justify
the ungodly? That's a question that must be
answered if your conscience is to be satisfied. That's a question
that must be answered if you're to have peace before God. How
can God in glory, on the basis of righteousness, justice, and
truth, forgive me of my sin? How can it happen? Until you
can find how that God can, in justice, put away your sin, you're
going to struggle with unbelief all your life long. Until you
can understand how God can in strict justice declare you innocent,
righteous, holy, not guilty. I'm talking about you and me.
Until you can understand that, you will never lay down at night
with peace. Whatever peace you have will
be a fake. It'll be a facade. It'll flee you in time of trouble.
But if you can find out how it is that God Almighty really can,
without violating his own character, without violating his own law,
without violating his own justice, he really can forgive your sin. What do you mean, forgive it? I mean, put it away. What do
you mean, forgive it? I mean, make it no longer exist. What do you mean, forgive it?
I mean, I mean, wash it away completely, blot it out of the
record book so that it's no longer there until you find that out. you'll have no peace. Now let's
look at this story we've read in John chapter 8 and learn what
the Spirit of God teaches us. The first thing that's obvious
here is the terrible evil of self-righteousness. How God hates self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. The real evil in this passage
is not adultery, but self-righteousness. The real culprits here are these
proud self-righteous religious hypocrites, these Pharisees,
not the woman taking an adultery. These very proud men pretended
that their righteousness was a righteousness of God, that
their righteousness was a moral uprightness that men could only
have if they were truly followers of God. They were not without
guilt. These self-righteous Pharisees
came with nothing but cruelty in their hearts. with nothing
but self-interest, pretending to be interested in God and his
glory and his truth. Self-righteousness is the most
terrible of all sins. So, Brother Dunn, you couldn't,
you can't say that one sin is worse than another. I reckon
you can. Our Lord did. Our Lord did. One sin deserves greater punishment
than another. You can't say that. Our Lord
did. I'll show you just a little bit. Murder is a terrible crime. I would hate to stand before
God with somebody's blood on my hands, but I'd rather stand
before God with your blood dripping from my fingers than meet God
in judgment in self-righteousness. Adultery is a terrible offense.
a terrible offense, a doctrine, fornication, immorality, indecency
in our day is promoted by everybody. I'm here to tell you it is a
horrible crime against humanity and against God. A horrible crime. What was to consenting adults,
consenting my eyeball to foolish people full of lust who will
not bridle themselves or calm themselves or restrain themselves
from any evil, from any evil. Man steal another man's wife
or woman steal another man's husband won't restrain themselves
from any evil in this world if they could just get by with it.
Adult is a horrible crime, but it pales to nothing compared
with self-righteousness before God. Understand that? There's
no new sin. Ever since man became sinful,
he's professed to be righteous and pretended to be. As soon
as Adam saw he was naked, he made some fig leaves. Man is
self-righteous, and that self-righteousness is the most difficult sin you'll
ever deal with. Anger and wrath, envy and murder,
hatred, lust, those things can be overcome because they're easily
identified. But pride and self-righteousness,
oh, how easily it's covered. Self-righteousness flourishes
and grows best amongst devoutly religious people. Amongst the
religious, it's watered by prayer and it's fertilized by religious
activity and cultivated by religious profession. And it is made to
grow by religious ceremony. Turn to Matthew chapter six.
Let me show you. Matthew six. You and I are not free from this. Thank God free by the blood of
Christ, free by the grace of God, but self-righteousness,
oh, how it plagues us. Be honest, my brother. Don't
pretend what's not so. Most of our public prayer is
self-righteous. Most of it. If it weren't, we
wouldn't be guarded about what we speak. We get up here to pray. When
I stand up here to try to lead you in prayer, I don't think I ever do without
a conscious remembrance of what I heard one of the Mexican pastors
say in Mexico one time, called on him to pray, and Brother Walter
repeated what he had said. He said, Lord, Forgive me for
what I'm about to say. Forgive me for what I'm about
to say. Our prayers are so full of self-righteousness, so full
of thought about ourselves, concerned about how David Peterson is going
to think about me if I say this in prayer, or think about me
if I fail to. Just as soon as I sat down there
just a little while ago, I thought, John, you asked folks to pray
for Ed, our Ed's family, and you asked folks to pray for the
conference, and you asked folks to pray for the meeting in Pikeville,
and you didn't mention any of them. What would people think
about that? You didn't really think that.
That's exactly what I thought. Most of our public prayer, self-righteous. We're too concerned about what
other people think, and too little concerned about what God thinks. We're too concerned about impressing
each other and too little concerned about honoring God. Most of our
religious works, most of our what folks call assurance, most
of our moral decency, all of our hurt feelings, nothing but
self-righteousness. Look at Matthew chapter six. I keep saying this, nobody pays
any attention to me. Maybe when I'm 80, somebody will pay attention. The whole religious world's concerned
about showing people that you're Christians. I mean, Larry Brown,
we want so bad for other folks to think good of us, don't we?
We want folks to look at us and say, man, Larry, he's a devoted
fellow. Look at him. He goes to church three times
a week. He doesn't let anything keep him from church. He's nice. Boy, he dresses right. He talks
right. He's a good man. And we love
it. We love it. And the churches
and preachers say, now you be sure you show folks this, that
Jesus show in you. Be sure people see what fine
Christians you are. Do you know that's the one thing
Bill Raleigh, our Lord, told us not to do? He didn't tell
us not to do much. I know churches tell you don't
drink any wine. He didn't say that. Churches say you don't smoke
any tobacco. He didn't say that. Churches say you don't eat any
pork meat. He didn't say that. The one thing he told us don't
do, don't show folks your religion. It's not for show. It's not for
show. Matthew chapter six, verse one.
Take heed that you do not your arms before men to be seen of
them. He didn't say don't do your arms.
He didn't say don't be charitable. He said, just don't do it and
show folks about it. Otherwise, you have no reward of your father,
which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine
alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory
of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. But when thou doest thine alms,
let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine
alms may be in secret, and thy father, which seeth in secret
himself, shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, Thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray, standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that
they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet. And when thou has shut thy door,
pray to thy father which is in secret. Now, I have actually
been in homes where I've had fellas point me to a door and
say to me, now that's my prayer closet. You may as well set it on Main
Street. That's not what our Lord's talking about. He's not saying
that you need to have yourself a prayer closet, go in there
and shut the door so that your family will know you're at prayer.
That's not what he's saying. He is saying pray privately. Make your heart cry to God, a
matter between you and God. Even when you pray publicly,
pray yourself to God. Shut out the world. Shut out
all other thought, all other concern. Shut your door behind
you. And when you pray to your father
in secret, thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward
thee openly. But when you pray, use not vain
repetitions as the heathen do. Hail Mary. God is with thee. I hope he's with us. Use not
vain repetitions. Don't get your prayer book and
read your prayers from somebody else. Don't just repeat sentences. Don't just keep saying the same
thing to God. God forgive me for the evil.
For they think that they should be heard for their much-speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto
them? For your father knoweth what
things you have need of before you ask him. Look at verse 18.
Moreover when ye fast, Be not as the hypocrites are of a sad
countenance. I heard a fellow on television
the other night on one of the news programs, I forgot what
you were, O'Reilly or something, the only ones I watch, and the
fellow was on it, he said, I was fasting. I thought to myself,
no, you weren't. No, you weren't. I was fasting,
below it. If you're fasting, you don't
tell anybody. If fasting, nobody knows about you and God. Nobody.
What does our Lord say? He said they disfigure their
faces that they may appear to men to fast. That is to say they, I've been fasting. That's the
reason I'm so weak. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. Whoopee, he's been fasting. But
thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, wash thy face, that
thou appear not to men to fast, but unto thy father, which is
in secret. And thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward
thee openly. Turn to Luke chapter 20. This is what I'm telling you. The deepest pit and the hottest
fires of hell are reserved for self-righteousness. Luke 20,
verse 46. 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 the feast
which devour widows' houses and for a show make long prayers
the same shall receive the greater damnation. Self-righteousness hates the
grace of God. And it's at the root of all gossip,
slander, and persecution. Love covers iniquity. Is that what a wise man said?
Love covers it. Self-righteousness publishes
it. We've taken this woman. We've taken her in the very act. what you're going to do. Here's
the second thing. Here we see the utter severity
of God's holy law. The law of God is unbending,
unrelenting, uncompromising in its strict justice. In Luke 20
and in Deuteronomy 22, in both passages, we're given instruction
by the law with regard to adultery. Take the man and the woman, bring
them to the people, and before the mouth of two or three witnesses,
kill them both. Stone them to death. Stone them
to death. No other things be considered.
No other things be considered. The law of God is perfectly clear
and utterly severe. There are no exceptions, no excuses,
no extenuating circumstances to be considered. No room for
pardon, no room for mercy, no room for amnesty on any grounds. You catch them, you kill them.
That's all there is to it. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The law of God does not consider
a person's age, only his guilt. Doesn't take into consideration
his ability or his lack of ability, only his guilt. The law never
thinks about his environment. Oh, the poor boy. He was raised
on the south side of Winston-Salem. He never had a fighting chance.
Law doesn't consider that just guilt. That's all. The law doesn't
think about his environment. The law doesn't think about his
education or his lack of education. The law doesn't consider who
his parents were, what influences he had in life. Just one thing,
guilt or innocence. Nothing else. The law is concerned
about nothing else. One breach of God's holy law,
one transgression, one act of sin is ground enough for punishment. Any lack of conformity to the
revealed will of God, to the law of God in thought, word,
or deed demands damnation. And not only is that true, your
conscience knows it so. You're fully aware of it. You
were born with a consciousness of God that you cannot escape,
no matter how hard you suppress it. Everybody on this earth knows
what I'm saying. So the soul that sinneth, it
shall die. The law cannot allow for leniency. The law cannot allow for pardon. The law cannot allow for mercy. If it does, you have chaos as
a result. You want proof? Go downtown tomorrow and sit
in the courthouse for a little while and see the result of law
that's bending, of law that excuses, of law that finds some grounds
in a person's age or experience or environment or education. We can't do this to him. Look
at the poor boy. No, he wouldn't have killed that
fella if it hadn't been for his mom and daddy. No way. And the
law being utterly despised breeds chaos in society. Now, we know
that what things, whoever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them
who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all
the world may become guilty before God. Here's the third thing. We see here in this picture in
John 8, a marvelous display of the fact
that sin cannot be forgiven until justice is satisfied. The law
requires that the woman be stoned to death and the man as well.
But there was one thing else required. One thing else required. There's got to be two witnesses. At least two. One won't do it.
At least two. At least two witnesses. Well,
there's more than that here. There's a whole parcel of scribes
and Pharisees. I mean, they got the whole band
of the Sanhedrin here. There's 70 men at least standing
around here witnessing what the Lord Jesus did. Accusing this
woman, accusing her. They're eyewitnesses. They said,
we caught her in the very act. We caught her in the very act.
Well, somebody's got to do something with those eyewitnesses. And the Lord did. He put her
accusers away. I mean, he just, he fixed it
so there were no eyewitnesses. There's no one to accuse her,
no one to condemn her. Before this woman could be forgiven,
the law had to be silenced. Before she could find forgiveness
from God the Son, the law had to be silenced. Our Lord silenced
this woman's accusers, we're told in verses six through nine,
look at it. They said, tempting him that
they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and with
his finger wrote on the ground. What did he write? I don't know.
I don't know. I got a hunch. I got a hunch. I got a hunch
he wrote names and places. I just got a hunch. He wrote some names and places.
But he wrote them just for those fellows to see. He didn't answer
to anybody. He just, Don Fortner, 1999. Bob Dove, 2010. Names and places. Names and places.
Watch this. He wrote on the ground and acted
like he didn't hear them, as though he heard them not. So
when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said
to 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. I suspect he continued the list. And they
which heard it, heard him say, let him that's without sin cast
the first stone. They which heard what he wrote on the ground,
they're probably both the same. He just continues listing names
and places. And said, now, you who don't have any sin, go ahead
and throw some rocks at her. And he stoops down and starts
writing again. And they heard it. They heard
it. They which heard it, being convicted
by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning with
the oldest man in the crowd, even to the last. And Jesus was
left alone, and the woman, standing in the midst. That's all they
wanted, Billy. He wanted them gone, and the
woman, that's all he wanted. He wasn't interested in anything
else except this woman. The Lord ignored them, and then
he cast the light of judgment upon these men, exposing their
guilt. Whatever it was that he wrote,
it seized these hypocrites with a legal conviction they couldn't
escape. Not spirit conviction, there's a difference. They just
were seized with a sense that he knew their guilt. That's all. He knew their guilt. How often have you, I'll talk
to you young folks, old men will never acknowledge it. How often
have you been doing something that you shouldn't have done?
You knew you shouldn't have done it. and you found out your brother
or your sister knew. Now you're terrified. The only
reason you're terrified is not because you did it. That's not
the problem. You're terrified because you're
scared to death, sooner or later, that brother or sister is going
to tell on you. You're scared to death. You're terrified. Not
because you're sorry you did it, just terrified. That's the
picture here. So, too, Our Lord Jesus silenced
this woman's accusers, making them to know that he knew their
guilt. And one day, by his one all-sufficient,
sin-atoning sacrifice at Calvary, the Son of God silenced the claims
of divine justice against our souls. I mean he took the commandment
that said Don Fortner shall surely die. He took the commandment,
the handwriting of the ordinances that was against us. It wasn't
books that he did with it. He nailed it to his tree and
took it out of the way. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus freely forgave
this guilty woman. She was guilty, but not condemned. And now she stands before him
not guilty. How can you say that? The Lord
said, where are your accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? No
man accused thee? She said, Lord, there's not anybody
here. to charge me with sin. No man,
Lord. No man. Neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. No man to
charge her with sin. The fact is, before God can do
anything for the sinner, he had to do something for himself.
He had to put away sin. He had to satisfy his own justice. He had to meet the demands of
his own law. And now that the demands of the law had been met
by our substitute, the law of God demands the release of God's
people. The law demands. The law, David
Coburn, is as insistent of your salvation as God's mercy is,
because the law has been satisfied. The law says, let him go. Christ
Jesus, my discharge procured, the whole of wrath divine endured,
the law's tremendous curse he bore, justice could never ask
for more, payment God cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding
surety's hand and then demand the price from me for whom Christ
died at Calvary. I hope you can hear what I'm
telling you. Oh, may God cause you to hear
it. There's no Condemnation for any believing sinner. Believe
on the Son of God now and go home justified. Believe on the
Son of God now and go your way no longer condemned. No condemnation
now, none tomorrow, none forever. No condemnation for present sin,
none for past sin, none for future sin. This pardon, this forgiveness
is absolutely free. Our Lord Jesus says, neither
do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. If he had said, go and
sin no more, and I'll not condemn you, that'd be a different story.
But he said, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. Who shall condemn to endless
flames the chosen people of our God, since in the book of life
our names are written clear in Jesus' blood. He for the sins
of his elect has full, complete atonement made, and justice never
can expect that the same debt should twice be paid. As guilty
sinners, worthy of eternal damnation, we worship and praise the Son
of God, for free forgiveness, absolute forgiveness. We also
have here a display of God's free and sovereign
grace. Oh, how God wondrously works
in this world. William Cowper wrote that great
hymn, God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. He
plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm, deep
in unfathomable minds of never failing skill. He treasures up
his bright designs and works his sovereign will. Well, Brother
Don, where do you see that in this passage? These scribes and
Pharisees, They did exactly what they wanted
to do. They were acting in utter malice
against the son of God. They had no regard for this woman.
They had no regard for God's law. They had no regard for Moses. They had no regard for righteousness.
They were only concerned about their position and their power,
that's all. And they come here and they want
this woman dead. They brought her to the Lord
Jesus to have her stoned to death. How was it she got there? She
wasn't seeking the Lord. There's no indication that she
had one thought for her soul until the Lord Jesus pushed these
fellows out of her life. No indication that she had any
concern for herself at all. Maybe some of you have been brought
here like that. Just for some reason, somehow or another, somebody
talked you into coming to church one more time. And God got a
hold of you. These Pharisees were instruments in the hands
of God who brought this woman, the object of everlasting love,
in vile base hatred for God and the object of His love. God used
them to bring her to the arms of the Savior. God Almighty uses everything
in this world exactly as He intended from eternity for the saving
of Israel. He takes these Pharisees and
brings the woman to the Savior at the appointed time of love
and she went home justified, forgiven, clean. No accusers. No condemnation. Free. Pardoned. Accepted. Rejoicing. All righteous before God because
Christ said to her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no
more. Brother Don, you reckon The Lord might save somebody
like me. I reckon he might. I reckon he might. I reckon he
might. I've told you this story many
times, but a man who left home when he was just a young man
back in the Depression era, folks went hoboing around the country.
And he left home when he was just a boy, just a teenager.
And he hadn't seen or heard or written to his parents in a long
time. And finally he got to missing the home place, missing his mom
and his dad. He wrote his mom a letter. He
said, he said, I'm going to be on the train. Takes his bed around
the front of the house, such and such a day. And I'd like
to come home. I'd like to come home. I know
I don't deserve it, but I'd like to come home. I'm sorry for what
I've done. If I'm welcome. If I'm welcome,
just take one of Daddy's handkerchiefs and clip it to the clothesline,
and I'll know to get off the train. If not, I understand. I won't stop." So the day came,
and he hopped the freighter, and he's coming home. I can imagine
the anticipation, the fear, the excitement and the trepidation. looked out to see if there was
a handkerchief hanging on the clothesline, and he looked up
and there was handkerchiefs and sheets and underwear and boxer
shorts and pillowcases, every white thing in the house, just
waving in the wind. Mama said, come home, son, please
do. Please do. Oh, God help you. The Son of
God says to needy sinners, come to me. And him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. Amen.