He Stooped to Conquer

I have a message for you today
from a controversial passage of scripture, and I hope that
gets your attention. But there's been a whole lot
of controversy over this passage found in God's Word in John 8,
verses 3 through 11. Will you take your Bibles, please,
and open them with me to John 8, verses 3 through 11? Now,
some of the most well-known preachers of the past have refused to preach
a sermon from these verses. That's right, they've literally
refused to preach from these verses, fearing that it would
encourage immorality. John 8, 3-11. This is true. There are some theologians and
early Puritans who have even denied that this scripture was
in the early manuscripts, that these verses were even in the
Greek New Testament. They claim that these verses
were added in later years. That's how much they, how much
they, how strongly they feel about these verses. And then
some of the early churches omitted this passage of scripture from
their Bibles. They just cut it out. They, when
they translated the Bible, they left it out entirely, fearing
that it would encourage adultery, fearing that it would offend
people outside the church or outside the faith. and fearing
that it would cause weaker brethren and sisters to stumble. And so
they just left it entirely out of their Bible. There's been
a lot of controversy on this scripture, but I think, and many
other writers believe, that it's the most beautiful, it's the
most beautiful example of God's mercy to be found in God's Word. That it is a clear illustration
of our Lord's grace to the guilty and mercy for the miserable.
I want you to listen to it, and if you have your Bible there,
read it with me. John chapter 8, verse 3 through 11. Now listen carefully while I
read God's word. And the scribes and the Pharisees
brought unto him a woman, taken in adultery. And when they had
set her in the midst, that is, in the circle, they said to him,
Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act,
or before two or three witnesses, as required by Moses' law. Now,
Moses, in the law, commanded us that such people should be
stoned. But what do you say? Now, this
they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him.
In other words, they knew this. If he sided with the law of and
had this woman stoned, then the people, he would lose favor in
the eyes of the people because he'd been called a friend of
sinners. He'd been called the one who was gracious to sinners,
the friend of publicans and harlots. And they knew that if he said,
all right, stone her, then he'd lose favor with the people. They
also knew that if he said, you can't stone her, then he was
taking sides against Moses' law. They thought they had him. They
thought they'd trapped him. They'd been looking for this
opportunity for a long time. They brought him a woman, caught
in the act of adultery, and they quoted Moses' law to him. They
had the witnesses with them, and they quoted Moses' law. They
said, now this is what the law said. A woman or a man caught
in the act of adultery by two or three witnesses was to be
stoned immediately. Now, that's what Moses said.
What do you say? But Jesus stooped down. and with
his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking
him, he lifted up himself and he said to them, He that is without
sin, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped
down and wrote on the ground, And they which heard it, being
convicted by their own consciences, went out one by one, beginning
at the eldest, even unto the least. Jesus was left alone,
and the woman in the mess. When Jesus had lifted up himself,
and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, Woman, where
are thine accusers? Doth no man accuse thee? Doth
no man condemn thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And
he said to her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Why would anyone object to that
scripture? That's mercy. That's why our
Lord came into this world to save sinners. He said that himself. He said, I've come to seek and
to save the lost. But the well, the righteous,
they don't need a physician, they don't need a savior. It's
the sick who need a doctor. It's the sinner that needs the
Redeemer. This scripture to me offers encouragement
to any sinner to flee to Christ for mercy. Our Lord is plenteous
in mercy. He delights to show mercy. He
delights to forgive. This scripture to me is instructive. very instructive to those who
would learn the gospel, who would forsake the ship of good works
and the sinking ship of ceremonialism and find the rock to build his
hope upon, the rock of salvation and of mercy and the gospel.
This scripture to me is strong in its condemnation of self-righteousness,
and the whole Bible condemns self-righteousness. It condemns
any person who leans upon his own righteousness and morality
and good works for all his sin and comes short of God's glory.
And this is strong in its condemnation of that type of thing, resting
on our own righteousness and merit, which in God's sight is
filthy rags. And then the scripture is a picture
of Christ's redemptive work. Now let me speak to your heart.
Why don't you lay down that veneer of religion, that false veneer
of hypocrisy, and won't you lay bare your heart before the Spirit
of God, and say, Lord, wound me, and break me, and humble
me, and make me contrite at thy feet, and do for me what you
did for that proud Pharisee Saul of Tarsus, and do for me what
you did for those men in the early days. Bring me to know
the Savior's love as you brought this woman. Well, first of all,
in verse 4, This woman was taken in adultery, caught, caught in
the very act by two or more witnesses. According to the law of Moses,
she was guilty. No question about her guilt.
No question about it. And they brought her and threw
her down in front of Christ, who was at that time teaching
in the temple. And a crowd gathered, and here
she was down there on her knees, hands and knees on the ground.
And these fellows all standing around her, she'd been, they
said, caught in the very act. But now you listen to me. Every
one of us, without exception, I don't care who you are. Every
one of us, without exception, ought to be able to identify
with this woman. We ought to be able to identify
with her and be cast down ourselves in the circle of accusers. Satan
is the accuser of the breadwinner. The law is the accuser. of all
sinners. The justice and righteousness
and wrath of God is the accuser of all sinners. For if we have
not been caught in the act, at least every one of us have been
caught in the thought of sin, that's right, in the thought
of sin. Our Lord teaches this, and you need to hear this, you
need to learn this. If you've ever learned anything,
you need to learn this, because you'll never be saved until you're
lost. You'll never find mercy until you have the misery of
sin revealed to you. You'll never be found until you
are in the wilderness of sin, having no way out but his mercy.
One day the Lord gave food to his disciples and they began
to eat it, and the Pharisees were offended because they had
this ritual. It was part of their ceremonial
law of always washing their hands carefully before they ate. And
they were offended because the disciples didn't wash their hands
before they ate. And the Lord Jesus said this,
it's not that which goeth into the mouth that defiles a man,
it's that which comes out of the heart. And the disciples
came to him later and they said, what did you mean by that? And
this is what he said in Matthew 15, verse 17. It's not that which
goeth into the mouth that defileth a man, that corrupteth a man,
It's that which comes from his heart. For out of the heart proceeds
evil thoughts. Oh, that's where they come from.
Out of the heart proceeds murders. You don't have to kill a person
to be a murderer. All you've got to do is hate
him. The thought is always born in the heart before the deed
is committed by the hand. And God does not look on the
outward countenance. He looks on the heart. There
may be a man in prison today who killed a person. You say
he's a guilty murderer. Well, you're a guilty murderer
too in the eyes of God. You thought it. You planned it. You desired it. You wanted it. You just didn't carry it out.
Man looks on the outward countenance and he punishes for outward sins. God looks on the heart. And our
Lord said, Out of the heart proceeds adultery and fornication and
thefts and false witnesses and blasphemy and lies. These are
the things that defile a man. That's the reason he called the
Pharisees whited sepulchers. You know what a sepulcher is?
It's a grave. And he said, On the outside you appear beautiful
to men, the veneer of religion, of piety, of righteousness, of
good of so-called outward beauty, but on the inside, he said, you're
full of dead men's bones, you're full of all manner of uncleanness
and corruption. Cleanse first that which is within,
that the outside might be clean. That's where sin is, it's in
the heart. We don't have hand trouble, we got heart trouble.
That's our problem. And you're guilty. God's caught
you in the thought, in the imagination, and that, to God, is the act.
Listen to me, let's read on. Again, our Lord says this, now
here's what he's teaching. It's not just actions that are
wrong, it's attitude. It's not just manners, it's motive. It's not just outward deeds that
God condemns, it's inward thought. And then Matthew 5.21, our Lord
said, you have heard it said by them of old time, thou shalt
not kill, but I say unto you, whosoever is angry, Whosoever
is filled with hatred is in danger not only of judgment, but of
hellfire. You don't have to murder to be
a murderer. You don't have to kill to be
a criminal in God's sight. All you've got to do is love
someone less than in a perfect manner. All there has to be in
your heart is the presence of hatred, or malice, or envy, or
jealousy, or any of these things. And God says you're guilty. To
offend in one point of the law, is to be guilty of the whole
lot. The thought of foolishness is sin. This woman was caught
in the act of sin, and God's caught you in the act of sin
many, many, many times. And then our Lord said in Matthew
5.27, You have heard it said by them of old times, Thou shalt
not commit adultery, but I say unto you, to lust in your heart
is to be guilty already of adultery. This world is filled. All men
are liars, the scripture says. All men and women are blasphemers.
All men and women are thieves, and murderers, and adulterers,
and fornicators, the whole world. We ought to identify with this
dear soul who was caught in the act. Even though you have not
been exposed, God has seen your heart, and he sees in your heart
everything that these witnesses saw here, and more, and more. And then in Matthew 5.43, he
said, You have heard it said by them of old times, I shall
love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy, but I say unto you, love
your enemy. Bless them that curse you, pray
for them which despitefully use you, and do good to them. Oh,
my friend, this is God's commandment. These are God's laws. And what
we have done is we've taken the holy matchless law of God like
the Pharisees of old and we whittled it down and brought it down and
stripped it of its power and stripped it of its edge and made
it refer only to these outward acts that men and women see.
And we think because they can't see our hearts and cannot see
our imagination and cannot see our dreams and cannot see our
thoughts that we're not defiled. We are defiled, we're defiled
in our hearts and in our souls and in our consciences. God looked
down from heaven and saw that every imagination of man's heart
was evil continually. That's where it all starts. I'll
tell you what holds most sinners back, it's reputation It's like
an old lion that's in a zoo. He's got the bars around him,
you know. You've got bars around you. You've got the bars of reputation,
and the bars of community approval, and the bars of marriage, and
the bars of religion, and the bars of fear, and the bars of
all these other things. If all those were removed, and
you were turned loose, and not restrained by all these things
that restrain you, you'd be right down there in the dust where
she is. That's so. And if you deny it, you're in
worse shape than that person there that caught in the act.
All right, secondly, verse 5. Now, the Pharisees are standing
around there at the rocks in their hands, and here she lay
on the ground. And Christ was, our Lord was stooping down. And
these Pharisees said, Moses in the law, Moses in the law, commanded
that she be stoned. That's what the law said. And
my friend, that's true. No way around that. And nothing the
law can do but condemn. That's the reason Paul wrote
in Galatians 3.10, you, you that would be under the law, don't
you hear the law? Don't you hear what the law says? You talk about
salvation by law and by works, don't you hear what it requires?
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written
in the law to do them. No sir, the law, the law can
do nothing but condemn. The law can do nothing but pronounce
guilt. The law can do nothing but punish
the guilty. That's what the law was given
for, to reveal sin. What the law saith, it saith
to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world become guilty before God. And my friends, whether
we're caught in the act or caught in the thought or caught in the
imagination, we're guilty. And the scripture says, God will
in no wise clear the guilty. Scripture says the soul that
sinneth it shall surely, surely, surely die. That's so. No use
to plead for mercy. The law offers no mercy. No use
to plead for grace. The law has no grace to give.
No use to promise to do better. No grace in the law. No use to
offer excuses and blame everybody else. The law has no leniency.
That's what these men say. They brought me to Christ and
they threw me on the ground. and they stood around with the
rocks in their hands and they said the law says he's guilty
and the law says stone him. Now what do you say? What do
you say? Oh listen, it says our Lord stooped
down. Our Lord stooped down. I see
a beautiful picture here The Pharisees all standing around
there, you know, in their piety, in their holier-than-thou attitude,
in their offended righteousness, with the stones in their hands,
getting ready to shed the blood of this dear woman, getting ready
to drive the life out of her body with the rocks of their
indignation, and our Lord acted like he didn't even hear them.
And he stooped down. And he stooped down. He stooped
down, kneeled down right beside that woman. Our Lord didn't step
around here with that crowd and pick up a rock with them and
take his place with them and be identified with them. I see
people doing that all the time. If a brother be overtaken in
a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. But
do we see that? No, sir. You let a person be
overtaken in a fall, and everybody, practically everybody, takes
their place in the circle of condemnation, in the circle of
indignation, in the circle of self-righteousness. And they
begin to stone him with their words, and stone him with their
criticism, and stone him with their gossip, and stone him with
their slander. That's not our Lord. He stooped
down beside her. right down beside her. What does
that say to you, preacher? It says this, it shows me his
love for sinners. It shows me where the love of
God is. It's not in that circle of self-righteous religious leaders,
his love is upon that sinner. That's what it says in Ephesians
2, 4, and 5, God commended his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's what it tells
me in Romans 5, 8, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great
love, wherewith he loved us, Christ died for us. The ungodly.
Christ died for us. Sinners. Christ died for us. Enemies. That's why when our
Lord stooped down beside this dear woman, caught in the act
of sin, it tells me he loved sinners. If he loved her, why
wouldn't he love me and you? Double-died sinners. He says,
come let us reason together, though your sins be a scarlet.
Red like crimson, I'll make them white as snow. It tells me this
too, it shows his identification with sinners. He identified himself
with her. He stooped down there where she
was. He came down where she was. He
condescended. That's like an angel becoming
a maggot. That's like a glorious cherubim becoming a worm. The Lord of glory, the spotless,
sinless Son of God took on himself human flesh. He was identified
with me. He took on himself the likeness
of sinful flesh. He who was rich became poor,
emptied himself. He who knew no sin was made sin. He who wrote the law was condemned
by the law that he had written. He identified himself with the
transgressors. He was numbered with the transgressors.
And then in verse 7, these people wouldn't stop. He was writing
something on the ground. I don't know what he wrote. You
know what I think he wrote? This is just what I think. I
think he was writing some names and some dates and things that
would remind these men around here of their own sins. But he
was writing on the ground. And they continued, they continued
this harassment. What are you going to do about
it? Then he stood up, and he looked them in the eye, and he
delivered a message to every man, woman, boy, and girl in
this world. He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone. Now there you have it, my friends.
Step forward. Be your own judge. Scripture
says if you judge yourself, you wouldn't be judged. You have
the Savior's permission. If you're without sin, step over
there and start stoning the guilty. If you're without sin, the law
still says obey and live. If you've obeyed, you'll live.
That's right, Christ gives you permission. But I'm telling you
this, if you'll judge yourself right here, you won't be brought
to the judgment. Now these men turned and walked
off, one at a time, from the eldest to the youngest. When
he got through charging them, you that are without sin, throw
the first stone. And he stooped down again, started
writing, and they began to disappear. first and walked off, and then
another one, and then another one, they began to walk off,
each one of them, till finally, finally, it says the Lord lifted
himself. I love that. This to me is a
beautiful gospel message. Here's a sinner, in the dust,
guilty, caught in the act. Thank God they brought her to
the right person, they brought her to the Lord. They didn't
take her to the baptismal pool, they brought her to the Lord.
They didn't take her to the front of the church at the morning's
bench. They brought her to the Lord. They didn't know what they
were doing, but they brought her to the Savior. And our Lord
stooped right down there with her. And then our Lord lifted
himself. That's right. He first stooped
in identification, identified with the guilty. He stooped in
temptation. He was tried at all points as
we are. That's right. He's able to succor
them that are tempted because he was tempted, yet without sin. He stooped in substitution. He
had our sins laid on him, and he, like the scapegoat of old,
was led out into the wilderness to disappear and take our sins
with him. But he arose. That's right, he
arose from the grave. And when he arose from the grave,
he looked at us, and he says the same thing he said to that
woman. When he stood up and looked around, there was no one there
but Christ and the woman. And he said to her, Woman, where
are your accusers? Does no man condemn thee? Where
is Satan, sinner? Christ has broken his power,
and crushed his head, and defeated the prince of this world, and
judged him once and for all, and he can lay no charge to God's
elect. Where are your accusers? The law. Certainly the law can
condemn thee. No, it can't, because Christ
has kept the law. He has satisfied the law. He
has in every jot and tittle obeyed and honored God's law, and the
law has slipped away in the darkness. And I'm no longer under the law,
but under my Lord's grace and mercy. Where are thine accusers? Where is the wrath of God? It's
been satisfied. Where is the justice of God?
It's been satisfied. Where is the penalty for sin?
Paul said there's therefore now no condemnation to them who are
in Christ. There's no judgment. Who can
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who is he that condemns?
And he said, Woman, where are your accusers? Doth no man condemn
thee? And she said, No man, Lord. He
said, Here's the assurance. The voice of Christ, neither
do I. Go and sin no more. Lay aside
this way of life. Put it aside. Walk in newness
of life. Go and sin no more. There was an old man that lived
in the mountains. He lived alone. And all he had
to while away his lonely hours was an old violin, an old second-rate
violin. And at night after he finished
his supper, he'd sit in front of the fire and he'd play that
old violin. He'd play a Home Sweet Home and
America and songs like that, you know. And one night it was
raining hard and the wind was blowing. It was storming. He
heard a knock at the door and he went to the door. And there
stood a stranger, his collar turned up, water streaming from
his face. And the stranger said, Friend,
I've got no place to go and I'm lost. Could I stay the night
with you?" The old man, glad to have company, invited him
in and fed him something, and then they sat in front of the
fire, and the old man looked at the stranger, and he said,
would you, would you like to hear me play my violin? And the
man said, I surely would. So he got that old second-rate
violin out, and he started playing, squeaking and squawking, home
sweet home, and America, and whatever he knew, you know, and
the stranger sat there a while, then the stranger said, could
I try it? And the old man took that old
Violin handed to the stranger, and the stranger tightened the
strings and tightened the bow, and then he began to play. And
you could hear the angels sing. You could hear the rippling water
flowing over the rock. You could hear the hummingbird.
You could hear the laughter of a child. You could hear the sob
of a broken heart. And that old man sat there dumbfounded
with his mouth open. The man who was playing that
violin was the number one violinist in the entire state who was visiting
in that home. It wasn't the violin. that made
that music, it was the hand of the master. And I'll tell you
this, when the master meets the sinner, the grace and love and
joy and peace and patience and long-suffering that comes out
of that sinner, it's not coming from the sinner, it's coming
from the hand of the master. Has he touched your life? He's
good, the sinner. Look to him. Trust in him. Now
this message, along with last week's message, is on a cassette
tape. two messages on the same tape.
What is it to know Christ? And he stooped to conquer. If
you'd like to have them, write to me. The address will be given
to you by the announcer. The cost is three dollars for
both messages. We'd be glad to send them to
you. Till next week, Henry Mahan bidding you a very pleasant good
day.

He Stooped to Conquer

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He Stooped to Conquer

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