If you will, let us open our
Bibles tonight to John chapter 8. Many men are of the opinion that
the first verse might better have been connected with chapter
7. If you look back where we are
told, and every man went unto his own house, the Lord Jesus
Christ did not have his own house, did he? The Son of Man hath not
where to lay his head. Every man went unto his own house. Jesus went unto the Mount of
Olives. We know that on some occasions
at least, I'm not sure if this is one of them, that the Lord
passed that night or the night in prayer. He passed the night
in prayer. But let's read on now in chapter
8 beginning with verse 2. 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. And 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. 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 wrote on the ground as though he heard them
not. 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, 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. 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. I want us to look at this passage
tonight in the light of two other scriptures. The first scripture
is found in Psalm 76 and verse 10, which tells us, Surely the
wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shall
thou restrain. I want us to look at this passage
of Scripture in the light of that statement. Surely the wrath
of man shall praise thee. And also in the light of this
Scripture, Titus chapter 2 and verse 11, where the Apostle Paul
said, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared
unto all men. man's wrath and God's grace,
or God's grace and man's wrath. I see both of these two things
in this passage and I trust that we all will look at it and be
able to see these two things and see how it is that our God
is so great, so infinite in power, in majesty, in wisdom, in every
way that he is able to use the wrath of man to bring glory and
honor to himself. He certainly did that in the
crucifixion of our Savior. Men, by wicked hands, did exactly
what they wanted to do, and yet they did exactly what God had
determined before the foundation of the world. God's end was the
salvation of His elect. The end of those men, of course,
was to silence, to rid themselves of our Savior. Two different
motives, two different ends all together. And yet the wrath of
man praises, is used of God to praise Him. And then surely we
see that the grace of God brings salvation. That's the only way. Let me just say this before I
go any further. That's the only way any of us
here tonight or anyone else will ever be saved, and that is by
the grace of God. There is no other way, for by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. For the grace of God that bring
us salvation. So first, let's see the wrath
of man praising God. What motivated What was the motive
that these scribes and Pharisees had to bring this woman into
the midst of the temple where the Lord Jesus Christ was teaching
this day? Verse 3 tells us, and the scribes
and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set him in
the midst, what was it? Think about this. What was it
that motivated them to bring this woman? It was the wrath
of man. We might ask these questions.
Was it their concern for God's honor? Is that what motivated,
is that what prompted them to bring this woman taken in the
act of adultery and set her in the midst of the Lord Jesus Christ
where he was teaching? Was it their concern for God's
honor? She was guilty of sinning against
God and was it their love and concern for God's honor? Was it so great that it motivated
them to bring her to Him? Was it their zeal that they had
for the law of God? Was that what motivated them?
Certainly she was guilty of breaking the law of God. The seventh commandment
says, thou shalt not commit adultery. So I asked tonight, what was
it that motivated them to bring this woman and sent her before
the Lord Jesus Christ. Was it any of those things that
I've mentioned? God's honor? Were they concerned
about that? The law of God? Were they concerned
about that? The glory of God? Were they concerned
about that? Not in the least. Not in the
least. We all know that their motive
was malice. That is, wrath. They were filled
with wrath. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. Bringing this woman had nothing
to do with their love and zeal for God's honor, but it had everything
to do with their hatred and their wrath. Now verse 6 tells us,
This they said, tempting him. We see in this, this they said,
tempting him. that they hoped to ensnare him. They laid a trap, if you please.
They thought they laid a trap in which they would take the
Lord Jesus Christ, tempting him. They were so sure, just like
those Sadducees that asked our Lord the question about whose
wife shall the woman be in the resurrection, seeing she's had
seven husbands. They just knew they had a question
that the Lord could not answer. And the same is true here. In
bringing this woman out of wrath, they just knew there was three
possible things that he could do, as far as they thought, and
any one of them would give them the ability to accuse him. First of all, would he answer
in such a way as to break the law? Would he answer in such
a way as just dismissing her sin? Because the law was clear,
thou shalt not commit adultery. She was taken in the very act.
Will he set aside God's law? If He does, then we'll have that
with which to accuse Him. You know, it's strange that from
this passage of Scripture down through the years, men have charged
the Lord Jesus Christ with doing this very thing. It's strange. That down through the years,
men have taken this passage of Scripture, and they have said
that the Lord evidently thought very lightly of this sin of adultery. And yet, no one in all the Bible,
of all the men in the Bible, no one ever spoke more strongly
against adultery than He did. When He said in the Sermon on
the Mount, Whosoever shall look upon a woman, to lust after her
is guilty of adultery. No one ever spoke stronger against
adultery than he did. And think about this, in that
same passage there in Matthew 5, he told those to whom he was
speaking, think not that I am come to destroy the law. That's
not the purpose of my coming. Think not that I am come to destroy
the law, and the prophets, but to fulfill, not to destroy, but
to fulfill. So they thought if he just dismisses
this, that's the way people think, isn't it? That God can just say,
well, forget about it. You've sinned, you're guilty,
just forget about it. That cannot be. That cannot be. Why? Because God is holy. because God is just. A second thought they may have
had that if he doesn't do that, if he tells us to go ahead and
stone her, then he would be guilty of breaking the civil law. As
I understand it, the nation of Israel at this time, they did
not have the power to execute a capital punishment that was
taken away from them by the Romans. You remember when they took the
Lord Jesus to Pilate, that's one of the things that they said,
that they needed Pilate to give the order for his death. That would have made him a judge.
The Lord Jesus Christ did not come into this world to be a
judge. You know, a man tried to get
him to do that. If you look back in Luke chapter
12, just a moment, in another matter, a man tried to get him
to act the part of a judge. Luke chapter 12, verse 13, we
read, And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak
to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, man, who
made me a judge or a divider over you? The Lord Jesus Christ
did not come in His first coming to be a judge. Now, when He comes
again, the Scripture is very clear that He will be the judge. At His second coming, He said
this in John chapter 5, that all judgment has been committed
unto Him as the Son. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should
honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. They
tried to get him to act as a judge and to break the civil law, the
Roman law under which they lived. When you think about this, these
men were not told how many there were, but every one of them,
and you too, Every one of them and everyone here in this building
one day will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ as the judge. The scripture says, for we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. No one's going
to escape that judgment. No one's going to escape death.
It's appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. These men who attempted to get
the Lord Jesus Christ to act as a judge so they would entrap
Him. Every one of them, as well as
you and I, we all will stand before Him one day as our judge. And a third thing that maybe
they thought, well, this will reveal Him for what He really
is. This will show Him to be what
He really is. You know, He's got this reputation.
And they accused him of this. This man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. Now this will show what kind
of man he really is. He's not going to receive this
woman. He's not going to manifest mercy and grace in dealing with
her. So any one of these ways they
thought They thought they had him backed into a corner, if
you please, entrapped. No matter which way he answered,
they would have something with which to accuse him. Either he
breaks the law of God, the law of wrong, or he shows that he
really isn't a person who receives sinners. We sang that hymn just
a little while ago. Christ receiveth sinful men,
even me with all my sins. Thank God. Well, I see man's
wrath praising Him. Don't you? Man's wrath praising
God because His wisdom is manifested. Now remember, He is God. He's
not just a man. He's the God-man. And as God,
He has infinite wisdom. That night He stilled the the
billows and the sea and the winds. His disciples said, What manner
of man is this? What manner of man is this that
even the winds obey His voice? We know what manner of man He
is, don't we? He's the God-man. And all the
attributes of God, God has infinitely. And as God has infinite wisdom,
so the Lord Jesus Christ answers in such a way that manifests
His wisdom and the wrath of man which brought this woman before
Him is cause to praise God. He answered in a very simple
way. He that is without sin among
you, let him cast the first stone. With this one statement, this
one statement, he answered what the wrath of man thought was
impossible, that they had put him into an impossible situation. But as our text says, surely
the wrath of man shall praise thee. That's useless. It's useless to speculate as
to what he wrote on the ground. I'm sure all of us have heard
sermons and I may even be guilty of preaching some of them. Suggesting what he might have
written on the ground. But that's useless. I just remind
ourselves of this. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong unto
us and our children. If it was needful or necessary
for us to know what he wrote on the ground, I'm sure God would
have told us. Aren't you? I'm sure we have
a complete revelation, all that we need in the Word of God. It is revealed that all of the
men who brought this woman, no matter how many there were, that
all of them were convicted by their own conscience. And it
is, I think, worthy to know, we're not told they were convicted
by the Holy Spirit. Remember, our Lord said, when
He has come, He shall convince the world of judgment and of
wrath to come. when He has come. But these men,
we are told, were all convicted by their own conscience. They went out one by one, beginning
with the oldest. I thought it was interesting
that J.C. Rowe made this comment on this
particular point. He said, Preachers and parents,
you've got a friend. the conscience. Use it. Use it. Man does have a conscience. Now, don't fall for that lie
that conscience be your guide, because your conscience may guide
you into hell. But men do have a conscience.
Our children do have consciences. Use it. It's your friend. But the conscience is not the
conviction of the Holy Spirit. I know I want to quote that verse
correctly. Let me see if I can find it.
When He is come, I know it's in John 14 or 16. One of you. Verse 8, 16a. 16a, thank you
Austin. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. I had two of those,
but I wanted to get that right. When He is come, that is the
Comforter, God the Holy Spirit, when He is come, And that's the
reason the Apostle John tells us in 1 John that we have the
witness in ourself. When God the Holy Spirit convinces
a man of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, He doesn't say
that we have assurance. We have the witness within ourselves. and the Holy Spirit witnesses
to us. A person who is convinced by
God the Holy Spirit of sin, you'll never convince him or her that
they're not sinners. Not once the Holy Spirit has
convinced that person that they are sinners. You'll never convince
them that they're not sinners. And you will never convince them
that the righteousness which they need, they cannot provide. And you will never convince them
that there is not a judgment to come. But these men were not
convinced by the Holy Spirit. They were convinced by their
own conscience. I also see man's wrath praising
God as it was used, their wrath was used to bring this woman,
this sinner, into the very presence of Christ. What better place? What better place could any sinner
be than to be in the presence of Christ where He is teaching
and preaching the gospel? Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. Here's this woman. Now it wasn't
their intention, but what they accomplished was to bring this
woman into the very presence of the Savior. Into the very
presence of Him who is the gospel. This is the reason He came, isn't
it? He said in Luke 19 and verse
10, The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is
lost. Now, let's move on. Let's see
the grace of God bringing salvation. This woman was saved from being
stoned. Now keep that in mind. This woman
was saved from being stoned. That was what they wanted to
do. That's what the law of Moses remedied adultery. That was a charge. That was a
punishment, rather. The charge was the sin of adultery. And you notice she didn't deny
that she was guilty. She doesn't deny the charge. And no one is ever saved by denying
that they are sinners. This is where it begins, isn't
it? This is where it all begins in the heart of a sinner is recognizing,
knowing that yes, I have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. Why did God create man? For his
glory. For his glory. God's glory. Not
for man's glory. God created man for his glory
and yet because we have sinned we all come short of the glory
of God. No one's ever saved by denying
that they are guilty of sin. And this woman was not saved
from stoning by the fact that she was not alone in her sin. There had to be another party
involved here, though they don't bring him. But you've heard people
say, Well, I tell you what, if I go to hell, I'm going to have
a lot of company. Now, I don't know what comfort
that gives anyone. But some people seem to find
some comfort in that. This woman, she doesn't deny
that she was not alone in this. Or she doesn't say, rather, that
she was alone in this sin. But she was not saved from stoning. Because society had been 1,500
years since God gave the law at Mount Sinai. And you know,
society changes over time, just like she doesn't say, well now,
in this day, adultery isn't considered to be a sin. We live in a day
like that, don't we? We sure do. No doubt about it. For the majority of people, adultery
is not a sin. to young people if they want
to get married, well let's just live together. Let's just live
together and check this out before we commit. And you know statistics
are that people who do that, the majority end in divorce. Doesn't make any difference what
the statistics are. God said thou shall not commit
adultery. And time does, society does change,
but God doesn't change. And sin doesn't change. So what
we can say is this. This woman was saved from stoning
when there was no one to condemn her. No one. She was saved from being
stoned when there was no one to condemn her. Where is thine
accusers? Hath no man accused it? No man. You know, if a person's going
to be tried, let's say for stealing or something like that, and he
shows up down at the courthouse and he's got his defense attorney
and he's sitting over here and this table over here where the
prosecuting attorney usually sits, it's empty, it's vacant. What is the judge going to do?
Is he going to go on with the case? No, of course not. There's
no one to accuse the person. This woman was saved from stoning. I'm emphasizing this fact that
it was stoning that she was saved from. We know that. And she was
saved from stoning because there was no one there to condemn her. They'd all gone. They had all
left. We may see the grace of God that
brings salvation to sinners operating in a similar fashion. No sinner,
no sinner is ever saved by denying that he is a sinner. No sinner
is ever saved by saying, well, there's many like me. Sinners
cannot be saved until there is none to condemn them. There are two things that condemn
every sinner. Sin. And God's law curses us. Now, no sinner can ever be saved
until these two things, that is, sin and the curse of the
law, are dealt with. One cannot be saved. Let me try
my best to remind all of us of this. I know we know it, but
let's just remind ourselves again tonight. If there's one sin, if there's one sin left to condemn
you, to condemn me, we'll never be saved. Never. What a picture, right? of the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've always thought when I read
Leviticus chapter 16 on that great day of atonement, such
a beautiful picture and type of the work of our Savior. But
when that priest came back out of the Holy of Holies and laid
his hands upon the live goat, it just seems to me like The
emphasis is that every sin, every iniquity, every transgression
can't leave any out is confessed upon the head of that live goat. This is what God commanded. The
priest shall confess over him all, A-L-L, all the iniquities
of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all
their sins. I think he's making a point,
don't you? Every sin, every transgression,
every iniquity must be dealt with, must be taken away. And
that's what is pictured when that live goat then is led out
into no man's land, never to be seen again. Never to be seen
again. The Lord Jesus Christ, the grace
of God that brings salvation, He took the sins of His people.
Not most of them, every one of them. Every one of them. And
if He didn't, then we cannot be saved. If there's one left
to accuse us, we can't be saved. But He took all the sins of His
people. and bore them in his own body
on the tree. Not one was left, and one cannot be saved if the
law of God still curses us. We know the scripture said, Cursed
is everyone. That's the law. Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things that are written in the law for
to do them. It's amazing how people Think,
well, I'll just memorize the Ten Commandments. I'll just get
a plaque and put them on the wall. That's good, maybe. But
you can know the Ten Commandments. You can see them every day. But
the law curses everyone who disobeys that law. And as long as that
law curses a person, that person cannot be saved. The Apostle Paul said, for you
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace of God bring us
salvation. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that you, through his poverty, might be made rich. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation caused the sins of each and every one of his people
to be laid upon the Lamb of God and to be carried away. The grace
of God that bringeth salvation caused him to be made a curse
for us that the law can no longer curse us. Remember, as long as there's
one sin, Long as the law can continue to curse us, there is
no salvation, until every one of this woman's accusers were
gone. The same is true in this matter
of salvation. This is what the Apostle Paul
meant in Romans chapter eight, when he said, who shall lay anything,
any sin, who shall lay anything, any sin, to the charge of God's
elect. Who's going to do that? It is
God that justified, and we know He justifies on the basis of
the sins being imputed to His Son and his son's righteousness
imputed unto us, those that believe. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us. How do we know, how do
we know that he carried all of our sins away that he answered
God for all of our sins because he came out of the grave. He
was justified. He was justified from the charge
our sins upon him. He was declared innocent. We might ask ourselves this question. I might ask all of us this question
tonight. Is that your name? Is it? And our Lord said, my sheep hear
my voice. When you hear that word sinner,
does your ear perk up? He's talking to me. He's addressed
me. Sinner, where are those thine
accusers? And every child of God, every
believer here tonight is able to say, just like this woman,
they're all gone. Woman, where's thine accusers?
Sinner, where are thy sins? They're gone. They're gone. And so the Lord says unto those
who believe, like he said unto this woman, Neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. Go and sin no more. This calls
for repentance, doesn't it? A change of mind, change of heart,
change of practice, change of life. If any man be in Christ,
he's a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Well, I pray that God would bless
this message to all of us here tonight. And once again, we are
able to see how that our great God is so great, so infinite
in every way, that even man in all of his fury, all of his wrath,
God's able to cause it to glorify him. And the grace of God brings
salvation. Grace is unmerited favor. If
we depend upon anything that we are doing or we've done or
we're going to do, that's not grace. Grace is unmerited favor. God saves us for Christ's sake
and for his sake alone. Let's sing a hymn.