Jesus forgives an adulteress woman

Now let's turn to John chapter 8. I have been enjoying this woman and just how the Lord Jesus dealt with her very graciously. We're going to take time just to read the story and then we'll make a number of comments. John, the gospel of John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, then comes John, John chapter 8, and we'll start at verse number 2. An average day in the life of the Lord Jesus.

Here's what we read. John 8 verse 2, and early in the morning he came again into the temple and all the people came on to him and he sat down and taught them. And the scribes and pharisees, now those are the religious people that hated the Lord Jesus.

They were always trying to trap him. 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. So they're quoting the Old Testament. 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 a fairly aggressive verb, just a constant thundering questions at 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 when they which heard it, so you'll notice that we've got the writing and the hearing brought together here. And they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, maybe the oldest, even onto the last or the youngest. 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. Now that's just one word in Greek. No man, Lord.

All she said was two words and this woman got saved. My dear, that's beautiful. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee.

Go and sin no more. Now we'll look to the Lord to give help with the thoughts that we have upon our minds. So I read that very carefully, quietly, trying a little bit to emphasize certain points.

But actually what I have been enjoying from it is this. It starts out very chaotic. It starts out very noisy, just almost numbing.

These men, these religious people, all they saw was a woman that they could try to use to catch the Lord Jesus. You know what the Lord Jesus saw? He saw a sinner that he loved. In the midst of all that accusations, in the midst of all that noise, you know what I love? I love how the story starts out so noisy, so out of control it seems, and it ends so quiet and just the Lord and the woman are left alone.

That's what God wants for you, friend. God would love to get you alone, just alone. If you're ever going to be in heaven, you have to be alone with the Lord Jesus.

You go through this Bible, people don't get saved in groups. Individually, the Spirit of God, the Lord Jesus, dealing with each sinner. Very unique.

We just heard from three of our brethren, from different backgrounds, different ways in which God speaks. What I love about the story is this. April the 4th, I was sitting in a meeting.

I woke up that morning and didn't realize that that was my birthday. And I was in the meeting and all of a sudden I happened to look at my watch. April the 4th.

Huh, 36 years ago, I got saved. I got alone with God. My mind went back to that communication closet where I was splicing with a telephone company on the fifth floor of that building.

You want to know something that's so beautiful about it? It was the first time that I was actually honest with God and myself. Everything got so quiet. And I remember, just like this woman, it wasn't a whole lot of words that I said to God, but I remember just the conviction of sin that had been ongoing for a number of days.

I remember the battle, trying to figure it out and talk to this person and talk to my father and try to analyze it and read this track and just try to go over this verse and tried so hard to believe it. I did what this woman did. And I remember the split second.

I just, I didn't even look upward. I just remember I put my head down. I went, God is right.

The Bible says I'm a sinner going to hell. Boom. Christ Jesus died for you.

It was so simple. It was brother of revelation. Clear as crystal.

Friend, do you have that? Do you have a time like this woman? There is a before and after in this woman's life. This woman started the evening, no regard for God's law. I don't care what God says about marriage.

Hey, I'm the God of my life. I will do what I want. I will live the way I want.

I don't care about that husband of mine. If I want to go out and have an affair, I will go out and have an affair. She never thought that within hours, she would land at the feet of the Lord Jesus.

It's amazing what God can use in a person's life. Many times he uses death to speak to people. Many times he'll use sickness to speak to people.

Sometimes he'll use sin. It convicts you. That was me.

I remember the morning I came home from the girlfriend's place. I remember the sight that sort of shocked me when I walked in the door and there was my father, a fairly short man, but he had an awful big Bible. And as soon as I came into the house, you know what he said to me? Scott, can I show you a verse from the Bible? Of course, at that time, you're just like, I just want to go to bed.

Whatever, dad, whatever. And he just spun the Bible around in his hand and he pointed to a verse and he says, Scott, the Bible says that fornication is sin. Wow.

And I just went, yeah, whatever. And I turned around and as soon as I turned around, it was just like someone smacked me with a two by four. You know, the thought that went through my head, what if the Bible's right? I didn't expect that.

No. What God should have done is he should have got my father to show me a verse. You're going to hell.

And that's just what I'm going to do to you. Oh, dear friend, God is so, so gracious the way he deals with us. Here's this woman.

What this woman deserves is correct, according to the Old Testament. This woman is taken right in the very act. And these men probably had the stones right in their hands and they were just ready to soon as the Lord said, that's right, do it.

Boom. They would have done it. Do you notice how graciously the Lord dealt with the men first before he deals with the woman? You know what I can tell you, friend, not saved.

There is a God that loves you. He doesn't want to embarrass you. No, I believe that's one reason why in the Bible we don't read about altar calls.

Give your heart to Jesus, put your hand up, all that sort of stuff. God wants to get you alone. It's a private matter.

It's your sin against him. That's what he was waiting for. Now he's got to deal with all of these people that are just, they're just screaming for this woman's blood.

You'll notice in the chapter, it's amazing the things that appear twice. You read about this woman at the start of the story, they put her in the midst. Then you come to the end of the story and you read, she's in the midst.

Now for those people that love to study the Bible, go home and look at the grammar of those two words. There's a change that's made and the significance of the change is this, that woman never moved. Do you know what it shows me? She realized she was guilty.

Quiet. You can just see her with the head down, probably just expecting the stones to hit her at any moment. In the middle of all these men shouting, yeah, what do you say, what do you, they just kept pelting them with questions.

All of a sudden the Lord, he just, can you just get it? He just down. You'd almost think, man, Lord, you're going to lose control of this thing. Don't, don't, don't, don't stoop down to the ground while these men are just at the verge of, of throwing rocks.

Listen, that wasn't a chaotic scene. The Lord Jesus was in complete control. He knew what he was doing.

You go back into the old Testament. You know, another thing that happens in this story, the Lord Jesus stoops twice and the Lord Jesus writes twice. What do you think you read back in the old Testament? How many times did God write the law on tables of stone twice? See, dear friend, here's what you got to realize.

Jesus Christ is not some just mere religious figure. Jesus Christ is God. That's who you got to deal with.

It's not preachers that can save you. No, it's God. Your sin is against God.

It doesn't matter to me what secular society does. I come back to this word and the very same finger that way back thousands of years in the old Testament wrote on tables of stone, God's holy standard. Now the Lord Jesus is writing on the ground and all of a sudden he just stands up.

He can almost see him. He he's in control. He's taking his time like I would have been panicked.

Oh, what about these rocks? No, you just see him. Whoever is without sin, go ahead, cast the first stone. He goes again out of sight.

You think, oh my land, here comes the stones. Here's what I want you to get. I read the sentence there in English, number of words.

Do you know how many words it is in Greek? 15 words. I'm going to preach up here for about 25 minutes. I'm going to use a whole bunch of words.

My brother Shad is going to follow me and he's going to preach for another 25 minutes and he's going to lose a whole bunch of words. I wish I had the authority and the power to just use 15 words and it stabbed every one of them. While he's down on the ground for the second time and here's this dear woman with her, she's just frozen.

All these accusations are just, they were, all of a sudden they stopped. And the men that were so taken up with her sin, oh what a wicked woman. All of a sudden now they're reflecting inward.

15 words. Oh friend, there's power in the word of God. Am I speaking to someone and you would like to be saved? When was the last time you read the Bible? Oh that's when you start to get serious with God.

And all of a sudden you can just see from the oldest right down to the youngest. All of a sudden the stone that was like this. I wonder what the woman thought.

And all of a sudden you can almost, and this is my mind, I can almost see they dropped the stone and the oldest starts to walk away. Why? We read it. Their conscience.

Convicted. Who's in control here? The word of God. Obviously there's something connected with what was written on the ground.

Then you've got the spoken word of God. It's wonderful to see you here tonight friend. Wonderful to place yourself if you want to be saved under the gospel preaching.

I find out from 1 Corinthians that gospel preaching like this is God's chosen method to save. We're just men. That's all we are.

And unbeknown to us, God can use the audible voice. And there's so, it happens so many times. You go to the back to shake a person's hand and they will say something like, those things you said tonight, how did you know about me? I don't know about you.

But the Lord Jesus does. Want to be saved? Take advantage of gospel wherever it is. Want to be saved? Read the Bible.

Get alone with God. And here's this woman, and I don't know whether she starts to realize what's happening here. All of a sudden the oldest goes, the second oldest goes, it just, she was left alone.

What's the first thing you would have done? You're all alone with the Lord Jesus. All your accusers are gone. What's the first thing you would have done? You know what I'm glad she didn't do? Lord Jesus, I would just like to clarify some of those comments.

They weren't right. Who's going to be there to say she's wrong? That shows me this woman was genuinely repentant. Not only were the men convicted by the 15 words and what was written on the ground, she was convicted as well.

Isn't that beautiful? She doesn't defend herself. Have you ever gotten to that point, friend? When God says you're a sinner, that's just what you are. No defense.

No defense. And the Lord Jesus just looks at her. Very gracious.

He didn't say, you wicked sinner. No. Woman.

Where, has no man condemned you? You know what that woman understood right there? This man, Jesus, is more than a man. She understood from what was written. She understood from what was spoken.

Where are your accusers? Have no man condemned thee? All she did was say two words. No. Lord.

No man. But Lord, you can. That's it.

That's where the woman got saved. See, friend, listen. Always remember, if you're here tonight with a desire to be saved, okay, and you're trying to figure it out, you're trying to come at it from this side, this side, this side, this side, you've listened to our three brethren, and you thought, okay, I could probably fit myself into that story.

Your problem is you haven't repented yet. You're still fighting against God. You're not willing to agree with God.

Hasn't gripped you yet. Would you be willing to do that tonight? Just honest. I go back to the moment that I got saved.

I just, it was so much struggle to get up to that split-second moment where I just, in my brain, I just, I can't get it. I'm just a sinner going to hell. Christ died for you.

Does anybody want to be saved? Do you realize that you could go out of this building saved on the road to heaven? It's not a hold up with God. No, no, no. He wanted to save this woman.

He wanted to hear. He wanted to see the repentance. He wanted to see the genuineness of it.

And he saw it and got rid of all of those people. I think it's one of the greatest things. My brother, Murray, this afternoon, I preached a lot with him and I agree a hundred percent, and I can vouch for his words.

That man taught me, Scott, don't speak longer than five minutes with sinners. Encourage them to get their Bible. Encourage them to go on their knees and just speak to their God.

What do we learn from our third brother telling us his testimony? He didn't need a preacher in the bedroom with him. No. He didn't need a pastor in the bedroom with him.

No. Spirit of God is here. You got the Word of God and you got the Lord Jesus who wants to save you.

I trust as the meeting continues that there might be somebody who just, in the midst, in the midst, no defense of self, only the Lord can judge me. Thank you.