is when law meets grace. When law meets grace. Now as I have exhorted you to
do, I shall do this evening and ask you to back up just a little
bit into chapter 7. Chapter 7 of John's Gospel, and
you'll see in a moment why. Verse 45, that symbol right after
the 45 is paragraph, change of subject or circumstances or something
else, but that denotes a paragraph. Verse 45 says, came the officers to the chief
priests and Sadducees, and the Sadducees and chief priests and
Pharisees said to them, why have you not brought him? They had
instructed these officers to arrest Jesus Christ and bring
him in. And they wanted to know why these
officers had not arrested him, the priests and Pharisees and
religious leaders. And the officers answered, never
man spake like this man. Never man spake like this man. They were awed and smitten by
his words. Then the Pharisees answered them
and said, Are you also deceived as he deceived you?" This is an interesting comment
here. They tried to prove he was a
deceiver because they hadn't believed on him. They said, Have
any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed
on him? But this people who knoweth not
the law, these are untaught, unlearned people, are cursed
that follow him. Ignorant people. They're not
taught like we Pharisees and Sadducees and rulers. But Nicodemus,
who was one of them, you remember Nicodemus came to our Lord by
night. He was a ruler of the Jews. And the Lord Jesus Christ caused
Nicodemus a lot of problems, inward problems. He secretly believed Christ,
but he didn't commit or confess Him, commit to Him or confess
Him for fear of being cast out by the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin. And he continued to walk with
these men, but he said to them, This is he that came to Jesus
by night. John, the writer, wants to carefully
identify this is Nicodemus that you know about. But he's one
of them. You know, John didn't say he's
one of us. If he'd been one of us, he'd have been with us and
not with them. You wonder about Nicodemus' position. Well, here
it is right now. I don't know what happened later,
but here, he was one of them. But nevertheless, he defended.
Our Master, he said, verse 51, Doth our Lord judge any man before
it hear him, and know what he doeth? And that infuriated these
men, his companions, comrades, Pharisees. And they answered
and said to Nicodemus, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look. Study the Scriptures. For out of Galilee arises no
prophet." And watch this statement here,
"...and every man went into his own house." Every man departed
from that conflict. They stood around arguing about
who Christ is, about this man Jesus of Nazareth. And every
man in this gathering went to his own house. He went to his
family, to his chores and duties, his business, his worldly interests.
He took time out for a while to argue religion, and then back
to the things which generally occupied their time. They went to their house. Verse
1 of chapter 8 said, Our Lord went to the Mount of Olives. Our Lord went to the Mount of
Olives to pray. He went there to seek the face
of His Father. He went there to meditate on
the work the Father had given Him to do. He went there to pray
for strength and grace and help to accomplish for us deliverance
from the kingdom of darkness. They stood around and argued
and quarreled debated, and then they went to their own house,
back to their own duties and chores. Thank God, from the earliest
days, our Lord was consumed with one thing. When Joseph and Mary departed
from Jerusalem and left him there when he was twelve years of age,
from the earliest earliest time of his life, he was dedicated
to this one thing. And they came back and found
him in the temple, discussing some things with the
leaders of the temple. And they said to him, you caused us much anguish and
fear. And he said to them, do you not
know that I must be about my father's business? And that's
what he was about from the time he came to this world, his father's
business. And thank God he was, because
that was to redeem you and me. And this is a picture that just
impressed me. I've been in so many of these
religious arguments in days gone by, of how these religious leaders
and others were gathered to debate religion, doctrines. And they always used the Scriptures,
like these fellows said here in verse 52, search, look, out
of Galilee comes no prophet. And they all, after the argument
was over, they all went to their houses to go on about their business.
And thank God our Lord went to the place of prayer to take care
of his business. His father's business. I must
be about my father's business. That's what he was about. And
then verse 2, early in the morning, early in the morning, he came
again to the temple. And all the people that were
there already early in the morning, they flocked about him, gathered
about him. Republicans and Senators and
whomever, they flocked about him. And he sat down and taught
them. That's the way they taught back
then. They stood up to read and sat down to teach. And he sat
down to teach these people. I thought as I read that, well,
what did he teach them? Wouldn't you? What would you
give? to have been in that congregation.
People gathered about. They weren't in an auditorium
like this. They weren't, I don't believe,
even inside the temple itself with its Holy of Holies and so
forth because it said later on in this chapter, he stooped down
and wrote on the ground. So evidently they were out in
the courtyard. And when these people saw him,
they began to gather around him, and he probably sat down on some
steps or something there in the courtyard, and he taught them. Well, I look back here at Matthew
chapter 5. Turn back here a moment. What
did our Lord teach? Well, here in Matthew chapter
5 and 6 and 7, you have our Lord's sermon. Sermon on the Mount,
verse 2, said, he opened his mouth and taught them, blessed
are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's
not the poor materially, that's the poor in spirit. As Arthur
Pink said, they spiritually have nothing, know nothing, and can
do nothing. And Christ is all in all to them. And blessed are
they that mourn, mourn over their sins and their inability, and
they'll be comforted by Christ. Blessed are those whom God has
broken, broken heart, contrite spirit, they shall inherit the
earth. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
His righteousness is holding them. Look at verse 17. He said,
Think not that I am come to destroy the law of the prophets, I have
come to fulfill. Christ didn't come to destroy
the law, He came to fulfill it for you and me. And then over
here in verse 21, He said, you've heard it said by them of old
times, thou shalt not kill. Whosoever shall kill shall be
in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of
the judgment. What He's saying here and through
these next few verses is, the law applies not just to outward
action, but inward thoughts. Thou shalt not kill, that's what
the law said, and these Pharisees interpreted that as actually
taking a life. But Christ said, I say, to hate
someone is to be guilty of murder. To think, see, the law reaches
to the heart, not just to the deeds. And then down here in
verse 44, or verse 43, you've heard that it has been said,
love your neighbor. But I say unto you, love your
enemies. Bless them that curse you. Love and hate, you know,
can't dwell in the same heart. The love of God's in our heart.
We didn't hate people. We looked at them and say, as
one man said, there except for the grace of God go I. Baxter, I believe, said that.
Talking about a certain drunk or licentious person, he said,
there except for the grace of God go I. How can I hate him?
When God found me in the same kind of pit, it changed my heart.
And then Christ in chapter 6 told them, don't do your alms before
men to be seen of them. Do it in secret before your father.
Don't pray to be heard of men. Pray to be heard of God. That's
what He taught them. In the next page here, He says
in verse 33 of chapter 6, seek ye first the kingdom of God,
His righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God, that's Christ's kingdom, and His righteousness. He is
not yours, His, and all these things will be added to you. Down here in verse 13 of chapter
7, enter ye in at the straight gate, wide as the gate and broad
as the way that leadeth to destruction. Many there be which go in thereof,
because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth
to life, and few there be that find it." And beware of false
preachers. In verse 24, he says, "...whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I'll lock unto
him the wise man which built his house on a rock." You're
familiar with that. That's our Lord teaching. Read
those three chapters. He sat here and these people
gathered about him. He taught them the Word of God,
the promises of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God. In
John 3, he taught Nicodemus, he must be born again. In John
3, 14, he taught him how Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness. So must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. That's Christ's teaching. I am the bread of life. Look
back here in John 7 a moment. John 7, verse 37. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, if any man thirsts, let
him come to me and drink. Come to me. He that believeth
on me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. That's what he taught them. They gathered there to hear him.
But here comes these religious fellows, now in verse 3. These
fellows, they knew he was there on the
temple grounds. They knew he was there teaching
the people. They had sought ways, they had sought ways to discredit
him with the people. They'd sought ways to prove that
he was a false prophet, that he was against Moses and the
law, that he'd come to destroy the law. He said, I came not
to destroy it. That's what they tried to tell the people. So
it says here in verse 3, And these scribes and Pharisees brought
unto him a woman taken in adultery, and they set her in the midst. They came, here's our Lord sitting
here teaching the people the Word of God, things of God. And
here came these fellows with this woman, dragging her by the
arm. They found a woman taken in the
act of adultery, and they said to him, Master, they addressed
him in a respectful way to cover their evil designs. This was,
like David said in the Psalms, they speak peacefully with their
lips, but there's war in their heart. Master! They said, this woman was taken
in adultery in the very act. Now, Moses, in the law, commanded
us that such should be stoned. What do you say? Now here's an
interesting thing that I notice that I don't hear many people
bring out. Let's see what Moses said about
this over in two scriptures, Leviticus chapter 20. They found
this woman in adultery, they said in the very act. And they
had several witnesses, in the mouth of two or three witnesses.
These Pharisees do everything, you know, according to the law. But their hypocrisy shines here. Now listen to Leviticus 20, verse
10, and see if you notice what's missing. And the man that committeth
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." Now, Deuteronomy, here this is
again in Deuteronomy. This is the law they're quoting.
They said, Moses in the law commanded us to stone her. And listen to
Deuteronomy 22. Deuteronomy 22, verse 22, I believe
it is, 22. In Deuteronomy 22, verse 22,
if a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband,
then they shall both of them die. Both the man that lay with
the woman and the woman, so shalt I put away evil from Israel.
What's missing here? The man's missing. It's probably
one of them. or one of their friends. And
they weren't doing what Moses commanded. If they were doing
what Moses commanded, it would have brought bull-toppings. That's
the law. But people who stress law usually
break the law. That's what Paul said, they that
command you to obey the law, they don't keep the law. And
here they brought this woman. And said, Moses commanded that
she should be stoned. Now listen to this. The law is
just and holy. And the law offers no mercy.
No second chance. The law knows nothing about mercy.
The law knows nothing about a second chance. The law is holy and just
and good. And the law condemns and the
law curses. Guilty, says the law. The law
says this woman's guilty. The law says this woman and the
man are to be stoned. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. But their concern was not the
law. That's not what they're taking
up with you. Their concern was one thing, to discredit Him in
the eyes of these people. To discredit the Master and prove
Him to be no prophet. To prove Him to be against Moses.
Now they thought they had Him. Here they stand, our Lord is
sitting there teaching the Word to the people. They bring Him
a woman found in the very act of adultery. They know they have Him, and
they quote the law to Him. The law says stoner, and that's
exactly what it says. Now then, they realize one of
two things. If He agrees with them, If our
Lord says, yes, that's what the law says, she should be stoned,
and gives them permission to stone her, those people that
came there to listen to him will realize he's just another one
of them, another Pharisee. Because they saw in him some
hope. They saw in his words some hope
and mercy and grace and tenderness. And that's why the publicans
and sinners and people with guilt came to hear him, because their
message didn't offer any hope. The Lord didn't offer any hope.
The Pharisees' message offered them no hope, no salvation, no
mercy, no grace. But they came to him because
his message reached their hearts. If he agrees, if he says yes,
that's what the law says. Take her and stone her, let her
live. They said he's just like they
are. But, if he says turn her loose, they got him there. If he says to them, let her go
without punishment, without doing what the law says,
finding her guilty and punishing her with death, if he lets her
go, they're going to say, we told you he's against Moses.
He came to destroy the law. So it's the age-old question. How can God punish her and turn
her loose? How can God, how can this Jesus,
who's God's wonderful counselor. How can he be just and justified? Well, I'll tell you, we're dealing
with a master here. We're listening to the master.
Listen to his wisdom. Oh, to be like him. Verse 6,
this they said, in other words, they said, now Moses, read verse
5 again, now Moses in the law commanded us that such should
be stolen to keep the evil out of Israel." What do you say? What do you say? I wouldn't,
Jim, I wouldn't have known what to say, would you? I wouldn't
have known what to say. This they said, tempting him,
testing him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped
down. and with his finger wrote on
the ground as though he heard them not. You know, I could stop
right here and spend the rest of the hour. Here's where mercy
begins. Here's hope for the hopeless.
Jesus stooped down. He got down on his knees on the
ground. He who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation, took on him
the form of a servant, became obedient. Made himself of no
reputation, the Word was made flesh. The rich, he who was rich became
poor. He who knew no sin was made sin. He whose name was Wonderful stooped
down. He came down that we might come
up. He stooped down and became one
of us that we might be lifted and rise to glory. That's not all. He stooped down
and with His finger begin to write on the ground. You know,
I can't say this is... I can't say that only three times
did God write with His finger, but as far as I know in the Bible,
it is said that God wrote with His finger. Three times. With the finger of God. Let's
see where they are. First in Deuteronomy, chapter
9. God wrote with His finger in
Deuteronomy 9. Chapter 9, verse 10. Moses said
in Deuteronomy 9, verse 10, And the Lord delivered unto me two
tables of stone, written with the finger of God. And on those tables were written
according to all the words which the Lord spake with you in the
mountain out of the mist of the fire in the day of the assembly. It came to pass at the end of
forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me two tables of stone,
tables of the covenant, written with the finger of God. God wrote
the law with His own finger. That's what Scripture says. He
wrote the law. This law right here that they're
using. This law right here that's meeting
Christ in His grace. This law right here that's upon
that woman and upon you and me. What the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world become guilty before God." That's the law.
And God wrote it with his own pen. And then the second time
that I find God writing with his fingers in the book of Daniel,
there was a fellow called Belshazzar that had broken that law. He had taken the the vessels
from the temple, the vessels sanctified for God's use, and
given them to his concubines and captains and generals to
drink wine and praise the gods of gold. Daniel 5 verse 4, and
they drank wine and praised the gods of gold, of silver, of brass,
of iron, of wood, of stone, out of the vessels from the temple. And in that same hour came forth
fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick
upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the
king saw the part of the hand that wrote. And you know what
it said, don't you? How it weighed in the balances
and found wanting. You sinned and come short of
the glory of God. That's the finger of God. He
wrote the law. And then he wrote the condemnation.
And this night, your kingdom will be required of you, and
your soul judgment. Now, as far as I can tell, I
don't know, but here's the third time. And thank God for this
time. Our Lord, in John chapter 8,
verse 6, he stooped and with his finger wrote on the ground,
this is the writing of grace and mercy. This is the writing
of the Redeemer. This is the writing of Jehovah,
God my Savior. He's writing here. Nobody knows
what he wrote. I've heard a lot of speculation.
I'm not even going to try to deal in that. I don't know what
he wrote. But I do know this. I know the
one writing, and I know he came not to condemn but to save. He
was already condemned. He doesn't need to write. You're
waiting to balance it. We know it. He doesn't need to
write you a found warning. We know it. He doesn't need to
write your soul is going to be required of you. We know it.
I don't know what he wrote. But I do know this. Look at the
next verse. So when they continued asking
him, what do you say? Moses says, killer. Moses says,
stoner. Moses said, annihilator. What
do you say? They kept asking that. What do
you say? Come on. He never answered. Until here. And when they continued asking
him, he lifted up himself and said to them, He that is without sin among
you, let him go ahead. and cast a stone at him. Wouldn't
you love to have seen those eyes when he looked at them? He didn't deny the justice of
the law. He didn't say the law didn't
mean that. It does mean that. He didn't
deny the justice of the law. He didn't deny the holiness of
the law. He didn't deny the accuracy. He didn't deny that at all. And
he didn't justify the woman. He didn't say, well, you ought
to feel sorry for her. No, he didn't. He didn't. Here's what he said. He said,
all of you stand condemned before the law, and instead of throwing
them, you ought to be down there with her waiting to get hit.
That's exactly what he said. He reminds all of them, Pharisees,
Sadducees, and people, that they all stood condemned before that
law they were slinging about so carelessly. And all of them should be stoned.
And He gives them commission. He says, go ahead, he that's
without sin, be your own judge. You have my permission to bring
forth your righteousness and your holiness and show it to
us." And then throw the first stone. They thought they had him on
the spot in front of those people. He put them on the spot in front
of the people. Laid it back on their shoulders. Go ahead. If you're without sin,
if you're a perfect stoner, go ahead, bring forth your holiness
and your righteousness and your perfection, and condemn her,
and judge her, and execute her." And verse 8, and again, he stooped
down and rolled on the ground. Ah, I'll tell you the wisdom
of my master. You know, even that in itself,
if I were a stranger and wandered in here tonight, and I just heard
those first eight verses read, I'd be compelled to hear from
that man again. Wouldn't you? Oh, the wisdom.
Oh, the grace of our Lord. All right, verse 9, and 8. which
heard it, being convicted. Being convicted. I believe there
are two things that convict us. One is His Word. That's what
convicted them, His Word. And secondly, their consciences.
That's right. When they heard it, there's the
Word. Being convicted by their conscience. Conviction is a heart matter.
Conviction is a result of Him speaking to us. He said when the Spirit of Truth
has come, He will convict. The Spirit of Truth will convict
with the Word. Bring your friends to hear the
Word. Bring your children to hear the Word. Bring your neighbors
to hear the Word. It's the Word that convinces
men of sin. It's the Word that reveals Christ.
All this sitting around arguing and trying to answer questions
and telling people what they ought to do, they're not going
to do what they ought to do. Nobody is. But I'll tell you the Word is
sharper than a two-edged sword. It pierces between the joint
and the marrow. And convicted by their own conscience,
they went out. One by one, beginning at the
oldest, even to the youngest. They all departed. Our Lord was
still stooped down there. He didn't have to look up. He
knew what was going on. He didn't have to look up. Known
unto God all His works from the beginning. And He just stayed
down there writing. his finger in the sand. And then our Lord was left alone,
stooped down there, and the woman was standing. In the midst of
what? In the midst of all those people.
You could have heard a pin drop, I'll bet you. She stood there and he stooped
there. And they encircling him, waited. When Jesus had lifted up himself,
you know, someone told me that's the gospel. He
stooped. He came down. He wrote on the
ground. God spoke to us by His Son. His
Word, the gospel, was spoken to us. And then he lifted himself out
of the tomb by his own power, just like he lifted himself from
being stooped there. He raised himself. No man takes
my life from me. I lay it down, I'll take it up.
And he arose. And then watch this. Watch this
right here. He stood and looked about, verse
10, and he saw no one but the woman. All the religionists were
gone. The Pharisees were gone. The
debaters were gone. The accusers were gone. The condemners
were gone. Nobody there but the woman. Of
course, the crowd was around, but there... The actors in this drama were
the Pharisees, the accusers, our Lord, and the guilty. And
he said to her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? that no man condemn thee. Where are your accusers? Has
no one enough holiness to condemn you? Could no man take up, take
upon himself to execute the just sentence of God's law? No man?
Is there no one in this whole world free from sin who can condemn
this guilty person and stoner? Is there no one? That's exactly
right. No one. There's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understand it. They're all gone astray. There's no man condemned even.
And she said, listen, verse 11, no man. Lord, Lord, I love that. The title she gave him is the
same word the Pharisees used up here in verse 4, Master. But
she didn't use it like they did. They used it in disrespect. She used it like the publican
in the temple, Lord, be merciful to me. She used it like the thief
on the cross, Lord, remember me. She used it like the leper
who met him when he came down from the mountain, Lord, if you
will, you can make me whole. Where are your accusers? Doth
no man condemn thee? No man, Lord. No man. Well, he said unto her,
neither do I condemn thee. He didn't come to condemn. He
came to save. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. And when the law meets grace,
grace overcomes. Where sin did abound, grace did
much more. Neither did I. He didn't say
she wasn't guilty. He said He didn't condemn her. He came to save her and deliver
her from condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. Now listen to what He said in
closing. Go and sin no more. Was our Lord assigning this woman
the impossible task of living without sin? Of course not. He's speaking
here of the way of life that she was pursuing. He's speaking here of the situation
in which she was involved. He's speaking here of the friends
and companions with which she shared this walk through the
world. She was speaking of the direction.
He was speaking of the direction she was going, and he said, this
got to be changed. Go and set no more. Does no man condemn thee? Where
are your accusers? Satan's our accuser, and he's
defeated. The law's our accuser, and it's
satisfied. Judgment is our accuser, and
he met that. Where are our accusers? If we
have him, no man. Who is he that condemns? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather He's risen again,
who has ascended to the right hand of God, whoever liveth to
make intercession for us. May God bless this prophet and
rejoice in him. I'm going to Sunday morning,
I'm going to pick up there, I was studying this today and brought
this message tonight through verse 11, and then I'll pick
up Sunday morning at 12 and hear what he says as he goes on. Then
he spake unto them. See that next verse? Then spake
Jesus again unto them.