Worshipping with you. And I hope
the Lord will enable us to do that tonight. Worship Him. If
you would, open your Bibles to John chapter 8. The title of the message is,
He Stooped to Save. Now, many people do not think
that this passage of Scripture should be in the Bible. They
think it excuses sin, gives some sort of encouragement to commit
adultery. The Puritans would not preach from this passage
of Scripture for that reason. Charles Spurgeon never preached
from this passage of Scripture. 60 some odd volumes, he never
preached from this passage. I don't know if he agreed with
the Puritans or not, but I found that surprising. But I've looked
and looked and looked at these first 11 verses of John 8. I
do not find any encouragement for a person to sin for reading
this passage. What I find when I read this
passage is a reason for me to flee to Christ, to be the savior
for my sin. And I hope here in a few minutes
when we get done, you will too. This passage of God's word is
an illustration of the gospel. It's going to tell us how God
can forgive sin, not condemn the sinner, and yet still condemn
sin. That's probably why Satan has
caused men to put this passage under such attack, because it's
such a clear declaration of the gospel. And if it's under such
attack from Satan, we ought to pay close attention to it, because
the gospel must be here. So verse 1 of John chapter 8,
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Now this thought really begins
in verse 53 of John 7. And every man went to his own
house, and Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives. Every man went
to his own house, but our Lord didn't have a home to go to.
He owns the universe and had no place to lay his head as a
man on this earth. He went to the Mount of Olives
and spent the night outdoors, probably in prayer, and this
right from the beginning shows such a stark contrast between
God and man. Yet our Lord still taught men. They thought nothing of him,
but he still taught men. He was always about his father's
business, and I'm thankful that he was. Verse two, early in the
morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came
unto him, and he sat down and taught them. Now here our Lord
is sitting before this crowd. That's the way they did in that
day. The one who was teaching sat before the crowd. He's teaching
them the scriptures. I thought how wonderful that
must have been. To be there in that crowd listening
to the incarnate word teach the written word. It had to be such
a blessing. There's one in every crowd. Here
there's some in every crowd. The Pharisees had to come and
ruin it. But the Lord is going to use
their sinful actions to give us an illustration of how God
saves sinners. Verse 3. And the scribes and
Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they
set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman
was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law
commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him
that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and
with his finger rode on the ground as though he heard them not.
Now, this woman has committed a great sin. There's no denying
that. Adultery is a great sin. It's such a betrayal of your
spouse to commit adultery. But worse yet, Adultery is a
sin against God because it violates the picture of Christ's union
with his bride. Our Lord is the faithful husband,
ever faithful husband of his bride. And when someone commits
adultery, it violates this picture of the union with Christ and
his bride. So she's guilty. She can't deny it. She's caught
red handed. And it is kind of creepy, don't
you think? how they caught her red-handed.
I mean, you know, they had to be like a peeping Tom or spying
on her. And the other thing I wondered
is this, where's the man? They brought the woman alone.
She didn't commit this sin alone. Where's the man? I mean, I kind
of figure he's part of the setup. He got her to commit this sin.
They're setting her up. But be that as it may, you know,
whatever, however it is that they caught her, she is guilty.
Now, You and I will never get a blessing from this passage
of scripture until we understand this woman is us. She's guilty,
but we have to understand everyone in this room is just as guilty
as she is. Now, I'll show you that Matthew
27, or Matthew 5, excuse me, Matthew 5, verse 27. We are just
as guilty as this poor woman. You have heard that it was said
by them of old time, thou should not commit adultery. But I say
unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her
hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. There's no denying it. Every
one of us is just as guilty as this woman of this particular
sin of adultery. She deserved to die. And so do
we. The point is, So do we. That's the only way we're going
to get a blessing from this is to understand we deserve to be
put to death too. We've even committed spiritual
adultery against God when we worshiped idols. Now I don't
care where it was that God found you. God found you worshiping
idols. You can worship the idol of your
imagination sitting right in this pew. That's where God found
me, worshiping an idol. That's where he finds all of
us. We've committed spiritual adultery against God. So we're
as guilty as this woman, aren't we? We are this woman. Are you interested now in how
the Lord's gonna deal with her? Let's see how he deals with her. Now you can just imagine the
sick, twisted glee of these Pharisees. They probably set this woman
up to commit this sin so they could catch her in the act. And
they did it all for this purpose, so they could trap the Lord.
And if she ends up getting stoned to death, she's just collateral
damage. She really doesn't matter to
them. What matters to them is trapping the Lord. And they thought
they had a master plan. I mean, they thought they had
him. Well, how foolish were they to
try to match wits with wisdom himself? Now, the law does clearly
say they're right. The law says she should be put
to death. And the way they see it is if
the Lord says, you're right, stone her. Then they're going
to say, What about this you've been talking about, be merciful? What about this, you being the
friend of publicans and sinners? I thought you said your father
didn't send you into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through you might be saved. Sounds like you're talking
out both sides of your mouth, if you say stoner. But if our
Lord says, let her go, then they'll say, what about the law? We knew
it. You don't care anything about
God's holiness and God's law. They thought they had him because
they couldn't think of an answer, of a way to get out of their
trap. And while all this is going on, here's this poor woman. She's
totally humiliated. She's been caught red-handed.
She's publicly exposed. They probably drug her here and
threw her out in front of this crowd of people in some state
of undress. And she knows she should be put
to death in a very painful manner in short order. She's full of
fear and shame. You ever been there? Full of
fear and shame, knowing what your sins deserve? I hope so. Now, the Pharisees are right.
All the law can say to us is death. All the law can say is
they've broken the law, put them to death. But that's all God
can say. You see, these Pharisees didn't
know it, but they brought this guilty woman to the best place
they ever could have brought her. They brought a guilty sinner
to the feet of the Savior. But our Lord acted like He didn't
hear them. He just stooped down and wrote
on the ground with His finger. His body language was telling
them their question did not deserve a response. He wasn't going to
dignify them with the response. And He's writing on the ground.
Now, no one knows what the Lord wrote. But there's speculation
that he must have written or he could have written the law.
Because the first time it's recorded in scripture that God wrote with
his finger, God wrote the law on those tables of stone. He
wrote the Ten Commandments. And it very well could be that
the Lord wrote, thou shalt not commit adultery. You shall not
commit adultery. It very well could be he said
that. To show the Pharisees this, what the law says, it says to
you, What the law says, it says to me. It says to you. It doesn't say it to others.
It says to me, thou shalt not commit adultery. The law says
what it says to me, so that I'll be shut up to Christ. The law
says what it says to you, so you'll be shut up to Christ.
And the gospel says the same thing. What the gospel says,
it says to you. You repent. You believe, you
come to the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. What
the gospel says, it says to you. It doesn't say it to your neighbor,
it says it to you. But the Pharisees, maybe they
didn't read what he was writing at first. You know, they didn't
like being ignored. They weren't used to being ignored.
And they probably thought the Lord was stumped. He's trying
to buy some time to find a way out of their trap. So verse 7,
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." Our Lord lifted up Himself. He lifted
up Himself as God. He lifted up Himself as the Judge. I love this image of our Lord
there riding on the ground and He lifted up Himself like Judah's
lion rousing up Himself. And He told them, Which of you,
whosoever of you is not guilty of this particular sin, not just
any sin, this sin, let him cast the first stone. Now I'm sure
our Lord knew all these men were guilty of adultery. Adultery
was very common in that day and that could be what our Lord meant
when he called the Pharisees an adulterous generation. They're
all guilty of this very same sin. Self-righteous people have
never changed from 2,000 years ago till today, they're guilty
of this very same sin and they're wanting to stone her for it.
That's self-righteous people. Our Lord said, whoever's innocent,
let him cast the first stone. And he stooped and wrote on the
ground with his finger again. See that in verse 8? And again
he stooped down and wrote on the ground. What did he write? No one knows. But our Lord must
have written something that made all these men feel guilty. He
exposed their guilt in some way because they all left. Maybe
He exposed their guilt by writing names and dates to show He knew
when they committed those sins, that very same sin. And they
all left. And that would fit because another
time, a second time, I can think of that God wrote with His finger
in Daniel chapter 5. King Belshazzar was throwing
a big party and they were drinking wine from the golden vessels
they'd taken from the temple. And a man's hand appeared out
of thin air and wrote on the wall, thou art weighed into balance
and found wanting. Maybe our Lord wrote something
like that to expose their guilt. Well, now their guilt's exposed. Well, what's their reaction?
Look at verse nine. 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. The guilty conscience
of the Pharisees made them leave the Savior. A guilty conscience
really doesn't do us much good, does it? Their guilty conscience
made them leave the Savior. It made them ask the Savior for
mercy, They didn't ask him for forgiveness. They left. Because
self-righteousness never likes to be in the presence of righteousness
himself. Never. But what about the guilty
sinner? Her guilt's exposed too. What
about her? She stayed put. She stayed there right in the
dust at the feet of the Savior. And now, she's in the best place
she ever could be. A guilty sinner. alone with the
Savior. They all left her alone. In verse
10, when Jesus had lifted up Himself, He saw none but the
woman and said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers?
Hath no man condemned thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And
Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin
no more. Now you notice our Lord's wisdom
here. He didn't condone her sin, but He didn't condemn her either,
did He? Now how's that possible? How can he not condone her sin
and yet not condemn her? Can you imagine the joy that
this woman felt? You mean I'm not condemned? The
joy, the utter joy that she felt. And I don't know if she wondered
it or not, but maybe she did. How can the Lord do this? How
can He not condemn me and still be holy? How can He not condemn
me and still be God? Because God in His wisdom has
found the ransom. God has provided the way that
will enable Him to be just and justifier. And that way is seen
in the two stoops of our Lord here. You see, before the Lord
Jesus could be glorified, He must stoop and humble Himself.
Not just once. He must stoop twice. Now remember,
this woman's us. You and I are guilty of this
exact same sin. And let's not just pick this
one out. We're guilty of every sin. You can't pick one we're
not guilty. We're guilty of every sin. Now what's to be done with you
and me? If God shows mercy and says, let him go, God's justice
and God's holiness are going to say, wait a minute. What about
us? You can't violate us. And if
God is strict justice, sends us to hell, God's mercy and God's
grace will say, wait a minute. What about us? You can't violate
us. Well, is there a way? God's mercy
and God's justice. Can they meet together in harmony?
Can God's grace and God's righteousness, can they meet together in peace?
Not by Adam's race they can't, because we're guilty. We have
no way to clear ourselves. All the law can say to you and
me is put them to death. They're guilty. But thank God
that's not all he can say. God in his wisdom has found a
way to honor both his justice and his love. God in His wisdom
has found a way to honor both His grace and His righteousness,
both His mercy and His holy hatred of sin. And that way is in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see that in these two
stoops. Now the first time our Lord stooped, He stooped down
on the ground beside this guilty woman. And you know that had
to feel good to her. It had to. Now she wasn't so
alone, was she? Our Lord stooped to be beside
her. And that stoop is a picture of when God's Son stooped to
become a man so that He could be the representative of sinful
men. Our Lord left the glory of heaven and He took upon Him
flesh. He took on Him a body of flesh,
of bones and blood. and He took on Him a human nature.
He became what we are. What a stoop! He became what
we are, yet without sin. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us with all the limitations of our flesh. Our Lord grew tired. He grew hungry and thirsty. He
had emotions like we do. He couldn't work a miracle to
help His flesh. When he was hungry, he couldn't just create food
for himself. When he was thirsty, he couldn't
create water. He had to ask a sinful Samaritan woman to give him a
drink of water. He couldn't do that for himself because you
and I can't do that for ourselves. He had the same limitations that
we have so that he could be our representative. Now, that's a
stoop. But our Lord didn't stoop just
to become a man. I mean, that's low enough, isn't
it? He went so far as to stoop to be a poor, homeless man. That's why he went to the Mount
of Olives. He didn't have a home of his own. He had no place to
lay his head. He stooped to become the lowest,
a poor, homeless man. What a stoop. How far down did
our Savior stoop to become what we are, where we are? We can't
comprehend the distance. But I'm telling you, that's good
news. Now we're not so alone. Now we're not left without hope
because he stooped to become what we are. And then our Lord
stooped a second time. The second time our Lord stooped,
he stooped to show his eternal love for this poor, guilty woman. He got down there right with
her. Like he's saying, let all the condemnation that she deserves
fall on me. You boys can cast the first stone
if you want to, but if you throw a stone at her, you're going
to have to throw one at me. Let all the condemnation she
deserves fall on me." And my friend, that is how God saves
sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ stooped
to become a man, a man just like we are, yet without sin. He stooped to keep the law. He stooped to produce a perfect
righteousness. that He freely imputes to His
people to make them righteous. You remember the first time God
wrote with His finger? He wrote the Ten Commandments,
didn't He? He gave them to Moses and then He'd take them to the
people. Moses carried them down the mountain. How did Moses find
Israel? In idolatry. Worshipping that
golden calf. And in anger, Moses threw those
tables down and broke, broke them in pieces. A little while
later, God called Moses up the mountain again, and he wrote
those Ten Commandments with his finger again on second tables
of stone. But those stone tablets were
not left in Moses' hand for safekeeping. God said, Moses, you put them
in the Ark, put them in the Ark of the Covenant, where they'll
be kept safe. Cover them with the mercy seat. That's a picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ keeping the law as a representative of
his people and covering the broken law with his shed blood, the
propitiation. Now, our Lord Jesus was the only
perfect man to ever live. He had no sin. He knew no sin.
He wasn't even acquainted with sin. So he had no reason to die,
did he? He had no sin. But he stooped
a second time. The Holy Son of God stooped to
be made sin for his people. Even though He was perfect, He
stooped to be made a sacrifice for the sin of His people. And
when He did, His flesh was tortured and put to death by men, and
His soul was tortured and punished by His Father. And it must be
so, because God's holy, God spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all. God's holy law could not Let
Christ go when He stooped to be made sin for His people. Now,
how far down, how far did our Savior stoop to be made sin? It boggles our little pea brain.
We just cannot imagine how far down He stooped. He stooped to
suffer everything His people deserve. Everything. If our Lord
did write something like, Thou art weighed into balance and
found wanting, now that applied to Him. Because He took the sin
of His people to Himself. He was made guilty. He took our
place. What a stoop. But our Lord didn't
stay stooped. He lifted up Himself. The Lord
Jesus Christ died for sin, but He didn't stay dead. he lifted
up himself. He raised himself from the grave.
So that now, when Christ forgives sin, he forgives sin on resurrection
ground. I'm sure this woman didn't realize
it yet, but our Lord forgave her sin on resurrection ground. Now remember, we're her. So if
the Lord forgives our sin, he's gonna forgive our sin on resurrection
ground, same way he did her. Our Lord did not condemn this
woman. He doesn't condemn the rest of His elect for this reason. There's no sin to condemn. There's
no sin to condemn if Christ died for our sin. If He died for our
sin and rose again, there is no sin to condemn. There's no
sin to condemn because Christ already died. Justice is already
satisfied. Justice will never demand two
deaths for one sin. Well, if Christ was made to be
sin and He died in my place, justice will never demand that
I die because justice is satisfied with the death of my substitute. Our Lord did not condemn this
woman because shortly He will stand condemned for her. And
in the mind and purpose of God, that transaction was already
done. God already looked on this woman as justified in the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus because He bore the condemnation
away. Our Lord is doing more than pardoning
her sin in the way that we use the term pardon. He's not overlooking
her sin. What He's saying is, she's not
guilty. because there's no sin to condemn. Christ, our substitute, was made
to be guilty of all the sin of His people and He suffered the
full penalty of the broken law. He suffered under the hand of
His Father. It was the Father that put Him
to death. And the Father satisfied. The death of Christ satisfied
the last demand of God's holy justice. So now the law cannot
touch anyone for whom Christ died because he stood condemned
for us. Christ paid the debt in full.
So the law cannot touch anyone for whom Christ died. But more
than that, the law has no desire to touch anyone for whom Christ
died because the law is satisfied. The death of Christ put away
the sin of his people. So the law just has no interest
in you. Now, when we say the law can't
touch you, that almost makes it sound like, well, the law
wants to get a hold of you, but it can't because you're shielded
by Christ. No, that's not it. Salvation
in Christ is so complete, the law has no desire to touch you
because the death of Christ satisfied God's law. You see, Christ didn't
just overlook the sin of this woman. He said there's no sin
to overlook. And he does the same thing for
every sinner he saves. God never overlooks our sin. I'm glad, I'm thankful God never
overlooks our sin. He takes that sin away so that
there's no condemnation. That's how God can act in grace
and truth through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
the only way that you and I will ever love that is if we're born
again. A guilty conscience will make
us run away from Christ. We'll run away in shame. We'll
not run to Him. Only the new man who's born in
the new birth will run to Christ for salvation. And the only reason
our Lord would tell this woman, go and sin no more, is she's
born again. The Lord didn't leave her under
the law. She already proved that wasn't doing any good. So He
put her under His grace. He put her under His love. The
new man is a son or a daughter who's constrained by the love
of Christ. Not fear. We're constrained by
love. And she won't sin again in this
sense. She's born again. And that new
man born in her cannot sin. Because she's been born of the
perfect sinless seed, the Word of God. Now look in Jeremiah
chapter 31. There's one other time I can
think of that God wrote with His finger. He wrote the tables
of the law. He wrote on the wall, thou art
weighed into balance and found wanting. And God wrote again
on the heart of His people. Jeremiah 31 verse 31. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant
I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the
hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant
they break, although I was in husband unto them, saith the
Lord, but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I'll put my law
in their inward parts, and I'll write it in their hearts, and
I'll be their God, and they should be my people. And they shall
teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
know the Lord, for they'll all know me. For the least of them
and to the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. God's going
to write it on the hearts of His people, the new hearts that
He causes to be born in the new birth. And one last thing I see
from this text that makes a sinner like me flee to Christ. I hope
it will you too. You notice in this story, this
woman didn't do a blessed thing. Christ did all the saving. The only thing this poor woman
contributed to this situation was her sin. Christ did all the
saving. She didn't have to contribute
one thing. And if God saves you or me, He's
going to do the exact same thing. We'll never contribute anything
to our salvation. Ever. Christ will do all the
saving. And that gives a guilty sinner
like me reason to run to Christ. To keep running to Him. He did
all. the saving. Now the question
is, are you as guilty as this adulterous woman? I hope so. I hope you are. Because if you
know that you're as guilty as this adulterous woman, you'll
know you have no hope but the Lord Jesus Christ and your run
to him. I pray the Lord will make it
so. That was a blessing, Frank. Thank
you. What a gospel we have. What a gospel. Let's pray together.