John 8:1-11 (Teaching)

[0:00] Morning. Good morning. Good morning. To be back in the Gospel of John this morning, we wrapped up last week, John chapter 7, bringing us naturally to John chapter 8.

[0:17] And I told y'all last week there's some debate surrounding this account that Good Lord's help will cover this morning, this debate of this woman, or the account of this woman that's brought to Jesus in the very act of adultery.

[0:36] And the debate is, and I covered it very briefly last week, is whether it even belongs in Scripture or not. There are those that say it does not.

[0:48] There are those like me that say it absolutely does. But the debate is that the older manuscripts don't have this account in them.

[1:00] Some of the manuscripts actually have this account in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke chapter 21, right after verse 38, some of the really old manuscripts do.

[1:12] Some of them have them at the very end of the Gospel of John, or had this account at the very end of the Gospel of John. It's almost like John finished his Gospel and said that, you know, if everything was written down and the believer did that the books of the world would not be able to contain it, oh, and by the way, this happened too.

[1:32] And I don't, I can't explain all these things to you, but I can tell you that here in John chapter 8, actually the debate begins in John chapter 7 and verse 53, and it goes through John 8 and 11, saying that those particular verses, and this particular account is not found in the oldest of manuscripts.

[1:57] And there's people that say, in fact, I've got a commentary at the house that I don't use very often, but I do remember reading this in a commentary on the Gospel of John. It says that this account should not be treated as the rest of Scripture is.

[2:12] It shouldn't be treated as inspired as the rest of the Scripture is. I don't see why not. I mean, it completely, it corroborates the character of Jesus, and it verifies the fact that Jesus came to seek and to say that was, which was lost.

[2:33] And not only that, but it also fits in this narrative that we began in John chapter 2, and really John chapter 3, but John chapter 2, Jesus knows what's in everyone's heart.

[2:47] And it says he didn't need anybody to explain man to him, for he knew what was in the heart of man. In John chapter 3, we see Jesus having a one-on-one with Nicodemus. John chapter 4, we see him having a one-on-one with the woman at the well.

[3:01] John chapter 5, we see Jesus with the man at the pool of Bethesda. And this here, while these people brought, while the Pharisees brought this woman to Jesus, really and truly, this was a one-on-one encounter between this woman and Jesus Christ.

[3:18] Yes, there were others around, but Christ was addressing her. Granted, he was addressing those that were around her to begin with, but those that were around her left the scene. So it turns into a one-on-one encounter again.

[3:30] So it fits the narrative very well. Where this page may have been floating through, you know, a few centuries when the, before the Scripture was canonized and even after the fact, you know, that's neither here nor there.

[3:47] It fits very well because if you go from John 7 and verse 52, they answered and said unto him, art thou also of Galilee, search and look, for out of Galilee arises no prophet. Then you skip to John chapter 8 and verse 12, then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have life.

[4:07] There's all kinds of questions that arise there. If you skip from 752 to 812, the question, one question would be, then spake Jesus again unto them. Under who?

[4:19] Because in verse 52 it says, they answered and said unto him, they were spaking, spaking to Nicodemus at this point in 752, art thou also of Galilee? It's almost like Jesus just kind of popped in on the scene and said, hey guys, no by the way, and it doesn't fit, but if you fit this account in between 752 and 812, it flows very smoothly and it flows very naturally.

[4:47] So I'm not of the camp that says this does not belong in Scripture. And I believe it's placed here where it's at and I believe it is the inspired word of God.

[4:59] So all that being said, we're going to begin at John chapter 7 and verse 53, where we ended last week, says, and every man went unto his own house.

[5:11] John 8 and verse 1, Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives, and while we can read this verse, verse 1 and John chapter 8, and then not really grab our attention, it really should because of the way chapter 7 ends.

[5:25] Every man went to his own house, but Jesus retired to the Mount of Olives. He went to the Mount of Olives, and this speaks of several different things. One, symbolically, it would speak of the exaltation of Jesus Christ.

[5:42] Every man went to his own house, but Jesus went up to the highest point that he could there in Jerusalem. But it also speaks of the condescension of Jesus Christ. We know that the Scripture says in the Gospels, Jesus said it himself, the foxes have holds, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.

[6:02] Every man went to his own house, but Jesus didn't have a house to go to. While he rolled this earth, while he was here in his ministry, he didn't quote unquote own a house, such as you and I would consider owning a house.

[6:19] He was made poor that you and I could be made rich, and he was basically homeless while he was here. He depended upon friends, he depended upon disciples, he depended upon other people while he was here, and it's not because he had to, but that's the humiliation, the condescension that Jesus Christ experienced coming from heaven, coming from the throne, down here to sinful man.

[6:48] So this one little line here, Jesus went under the Mount of Olives, it speaks volumes about those things, that every man could go to his own house, every man but Jesus, because Jesus had no house to go to.

[7:04] Jesus went under the Mount of Olives, and early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came under him, and he sat down and talked to him.

[7:15] So early in the morning, this goes very well with what we see when I read just a little while ago in verse 12 where Jesus says, I am the lot of the world.

[7:26] What happens in the early morning hours? That's when the sun rises, that's when the daybreak is. So in the early morning hours, Christ goes to the temple, but he didn't just go there to worship, he didn't just go there to be seen, he didn't just go there, period.

[7:46] He went there for a purpose. It says in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came under him, and he sat down and talked to him. Jesus went to teach these people, it says that he sat down, and he talked to them, but all the people came to him.

[8:04] Now this is one of those situations where y'all have heard me say over and over in the Scripture, all means all, but it means all within the context that it is given in. This isn't all the people of planet Earth.

[8:17] It isn't even all the people of Jerusalem. This would have been all the people that were in the temple that day that had come there for basically the same purpose that Jesus had to worship God, but Jesus had also gone for another reason.

[8:31] He didn't want to teach these people, but it says all the people came to Jesus Christ. Here in verse 2, it says, and he talked to them. Verse 3, 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.

[8:52] Now Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayeth thou? This they said tempting him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down with his finger, wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

[9:07] 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.

[9:19] So what do we have here? We have these Pharisees. It says in the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery, and when they had set her in the midst, they said unto him, Master, now they refer to Jesus as Master.

[9:33] Remember, he had gone to the temple in verse 2, and he had gone there to teach. All the people gathered around him, Jesus sat down and began to teach the people. First of all, this was a rude gesture by these scribes and these Pharisees.

[9:48] You didn't interrupt a rabbi while he was teaching. It was very taboo to do so. It was a bad idea to do so.

[9:59] But they interrupted his teaching and said unto a Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses and the law commanded us, that such should be stones.

[10:12] What say us now? And the scripture makes it very plain that this wasn't because the Pharisees and the scribes were so offended because someone had broken the law of God.

[10:26] They weren't offended that a woman was taken in the act, or was called in the act of adultery. Not to mention the law also talks about the man that would have been involved in such a case.

[10:38] You read about these things in Leviticus 17, Leviticus 19, Deuteronomy 20, Deuteronomy 22. You read about the act of adultery and who is to be stoned for it and so on.

[10:56] But you read about all these things, but the man was nowhere present. We don't know, and the scripture doesn't make it plain, we don't know if it was possibly one of these scribes or Pharisees. We don't know who the man was.

[11:08] The man was not brought. They just brought the woman before Jesus Christ. And they thought that they were going to get him in an unsolvable dilemma with this.

[11:20] What was the dilemma? The dilemma is that Jesus Christ had been talking about grace. Jesus Christ had been showing grace. Jesus Christ had also said, though, I mean, at the end, those of you that were here for the Sermon on the Mount, we just finished wrapping up a couple of Wednesdays ago.

[11:41] At the very end of chapter 5, he says, I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill. He came to fulfill the law. So the dilemma here was this woman has broken the law, but you've been teaching about grace and you've been showing grace and all these things.

[11:59] So the dilemma was, is he going to show grace to this woman? Because that would slot the law. That would slot what God had plainly spoken in the Old Testament scriptures. Or is he going to condemn her, which would throw his grace out the window?

[12:15] And they really thought that they had crossed cornered here to where he couldn't get out. He says, now Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned.

[12:28] What sayest thou? What say you about this, Jesus? This they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him, that they might have reason to accuse him.

[12:39] And I said, in their minds, either way that he answered their question, either way that he went, they would be able to accuse him before all these people that he was teaching here in the temple.

[12:53] So they've done this 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. And folks, I've heard sermons preached about what Jesus wrote on the ground here.

[13:06] The Bible does not tell us what Jesus wrote on the ground. It simply tells us that he stooped down and he wrote with his finger on the ground. I've got my personal opinions and my ideas of what Jesus could have written.

[13:22] I'm not even going to share those with you. I'll let you go off and come up with your own ideas about that. But the Bible does not tell us. It doesn't convey to us, not when I ought to, what Jesus wrote.

[13:35] But the main thing about this is what we have there in italics in verse six, as though he heard them not. Jesus is pretty much ignoring these scribes and Pharisees.

[13:48] He heard them. It says as though he heard them not though here at the end of verse six and verse seven. So when they continued asking him, and this shows the perseverance of evil.

[14:03] It shows the perseverance of sinful people. It shows the perseverance of those that want to discredit God and those that want to discredit the Bible and those that want to contend with the Bible.

[14:15] And they are there. They chase after it and they continually do so. And I kind of get tickled sometimes because, like these people are claimed to be atheists, people are claimed that there is no God.

[14:31] And yet they let God, they let, a lot of times scripture itself consumed their entire lives. They say, I don't believe in God. I don't believe in the Bible.

[14:42] I don't believe in this and I don't believe in that. But yet that's all they talk about is God. And, but when I said, that's just me and I do get tickled at that. But it says so when they continued asking, they'd already asked him once, Moses give us a commandment.

[14:58] And this commandment came from God. It was a law that God put into place. And it is, it's in the Old Testament, that someone that was called an adultery and granted in the Old Testament, it specifies a woman that was called an adultery.

[15:12] But it also brings up the man. The woman and the man should be brought to the gates of the city and they should be stoned according to the scriptures. If they were called in the act of adultery.

[15:25] But they'd already asked him once, it says, when they continued asking him. Jesus was down there scribbling, whatever he was scribbling in the dirt, basically ignoring them.

[15:37] 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 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 in the woman standing in the midst.

[15:58] I skipped verse eight and didn't have it. That's all right, we're going to go back to verse seven anyway. So when they continued asking, or verse eight, and he's verse seven, I'm sorry.

[16:09] 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. So, you know, we should all be somewhat familiar with this account of Jesus Christ.

[16:26] He raises up and he says, any of you standing here without sin, and there's people that think that he was talking about the specific sin of adultery and so on, but Jesus here in the scripture just says, he that is among you without sin, let him first cast a stone at her.

[16:45] So with these words, Christ has solved the dilemma, but we really don't see the solving of it until we get to the end of this passage of scripture.

[16:57] He's solved it with this word. When Christ stooped down and was ignoring them, I can't help but wonder if he wasn't amazed that these sinful men had brought a sinful woman to the only person that was available, the only person that was able to do anything about her sin.

[17:25] And I can't help but wonder the amazement of Christ. Now, this me saying that doesn't mean Christ didn't know that it was going to happen.

[17:36] Christ is God, is he not? Christ was God manifesting the flesh. But not only that, but they were telling Jesus Christ how to uphold the law.

[17:51] And Jesus, I can't help but wonder if Jesus didn't think, I'm the very one that wrote that law. I'm the very one that give that law. How dare you sinful man?

[18:03] I don't care how religious you are or how uppity you think that you are, what kind of credentials you have. How dare you sinful man tell me how to uphold my own law.

[18:18] I can't help but wonder some of the things that may have went through Christ's mind when all this was going on. But really, folks, and that applies to us as well.

[18:31] And I find in my personal life, the more often I hear people quote scripture to condemn other people, the filthier that person's heart probably is.

[18:47] And the more sin that they probably have. Folks, we are to use scripture, and we have to use scripture. I mean, the Bible says, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

[18:59] And that doesn't just mean saving faith. That was written to the church at Rome when Paul wrote that. It was written to believers in Jesus Christ. So faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

[19:12] That faith is going to continue to come to us even as believers by hearing the word of God. So here in this circumstance, though, these folks are telling the very one that gave the law, the very one that etched the law into the tables.

[19:30] If you all remember in the account in Exodus, the first time the tables were given, Moses come down the mountain, he saw everything that was going on, and the tables of the law were dashed against the earth, and they broke.

[19:45] He had to go back up into the mountain. The second time around, God himself etched the law with his finger. So Christ was being told here by men that he had given that law to, how to uphold that law.

[20:02] Not only men, but sinful men and wicked men that were trying to use the law to exploit this woman's sin that had been brought before Jesus Christ and before all these people, they were exploiting her sin and using the law.

[20:16] They could have cared less about breaking the law because they were law breakers themselves and they were doing so in this very instance here because they hadn't followed the law to a T. The man was nowhere to be found.

[20:28] So Jesus turns the law back around on them. Jesus shines the light of the law into their own hearts. When he makes that statement, he who is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her.

[20:45] Verse 8 again, and again he stooped down and rode on the ground, and they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, when out one by one began at the eldest, even to the last.

[20:57] Now this beginning at the eldest, even to the last are several theories out there as to why that was. And the one that seems most plausible to me is because the eldest would have had more years on this earth, therefore he would have had more sin to be ashamed of.

[21:17] Basically now, whether that's actually the case or not, I don't know. But regardless, it says that from the eldest unto the last, and Jesus was left alone in the woman standing in the midst.

[21:29] 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.

[21:41] So after these men had left off one by one from the eldest to the youngest, it says that Jesus lifted up himself and saw none but the woman.

[21:53] He said unto her woman, where are those thine accusers? And no man condemned thee. Let's just go ahead and finish it off. She said no man, Lord, and Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee, go, and sin no more.

[22:08] So when Jesus lifted up himself, all of her accusers had left. And folks, people will say, and it's contenders of the Bible that will say this, that Jesus did not uphold the law here.

[22:22] Folks, the law was upheld perfectly in this account. It was upheld perfectly. How so? Because the law commanded that the woman be stoned. The law also required that the accusers, the ones that had indicted the woman originally, that they be the first ones to throw stones at her.

[22:46] And Jesus had done shine the light of the law right back at the accusers. They had left one by one. Without accusers, the law was powerless. It was powerless against this woman.

[22:58] When God put the law into place, He put stipulations in that law. And what Jesus said about a woman or a man being stoned for adultery or for anything else in the Bible, what God said about that and what He said about the accusers, being the first ones to cast the stones, those that are bringing the indictment against the people, all of that is the law of God.

[23:25] If there were no accusers, there could be no execution of the judgment of this woman. So that's the significance here when He says, woman, where are those down accusers?

[23:41] hath no man condemned thee. Folks, when they brought this woman in, every man that was there, we don't have an account of how many of them were, but every man that was there was saying, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery.

[23:56] Moses says she should be stoned. What say you, Jesus? They had condemned her. They had used the law to condemn her.

[24:07] But she said, no man, Lord, there was nobody present. And therefore, the execution of that law, the execution of this woman, really, it couldn't be carried out because also part of the law of God was those accusers had to take part.

[24:24] She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. So where are thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee, no man, my Lord.

[24:38] And people will ask the question, was this woman saved at this point in her life? I personally think that she was. I wasn't there. I'm not Jesus.

[24:51] I couldn't tell you for certain, but she refers to him as Lord. And if you contrast that with what these Pharisees and scribes refer to him as his master, that was actually more a mocking term coming from them a few verses previous to this, but she refers to him as Lord.

[25:09] She said, no man, Lord, and Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. This had to have been music to this woman's ears.

[25:22] This was grace. I mean, this is a wonderful, beautiful, perfect picture of the grace of God. This was a sinner that was brought before Christ.

[25:36] And there was no getting out of her sin. There was no talking her way out of this sin. She'd been caught in the very act. Her accuser had brought her there. Folks, we have an accuser ourselves.

[25:48] We're told in the book of Revelation that Satan, our adversary, he's accusing the brethren daily. He accuses us. And in accusing us, he is accusing God.

[26:01] And God allows these things to happen. God allows us to happen. He allowed it in the book of Job. He allows it in Revelation. And although any plastic is gonna come within the Scriptures.

[26:15] But at all it's all done and it's all allowed for the glory of Almighty God. This was a woman, a sinner, a blatant sinner that had been brought condemned by the law that Almighty God had given, God Himself had given this law, Jesus crossED Himself, had given this law, she should be stone.

[26:37] a condemned sinner brought before Christ and when she left his presence, she left his presence un-condemned. Un-condemned. And that's how it is with us. That's how it is all throughout the New Testament times. We come before Christ as a sinner. The Holy Spirit shows us that we're a sinner, but He shows us there's a Savior in Jesus Christ. There's a Savior that gave His life. There's a Savior that shed His blood that you could be washed clean and you could be made pure and you could be made righteous. Folks, I'm telling you, if we try to stand before God on our own or in ourselves, we stand no chance. We're hopeless and we will be condemned and we will be consumed with the wrath and the fury and the very glory of Almighty God. But if we are there in Jesus Christ and we are there in His righteousness and we are there in His holiness and in His sanctification, if we're there in those things, there's no condemnation that can come to us. There's no condemnation for us. It's just like that wonderful line in Romans 8, 1, there's therefore now no condemnation to them that are in

[27:49] Christ Jesus. If I'm in Christ Jesus, there's no condemnation. And this is the most amazing part of this entire account, was this woman was brought before Christ and Christ was the only one there qualified. He was the only one there that was truly able to cast a stone at her because he said, he who is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her. He was the only one truly qualified that could have cast a stone. But instead of casting a stone, he showed grace and that's all this was for the the law condemned her to die. But grace was practiced here and it was showed here and it was portrayed here and conveyed here by Jesus Christ and it was imparted to this woman as guilty as she was. And folks, if you're sitting here saved this morning, you were brought before Christ at some point a guilty sinner, a guilty sinner that the law had condemned. Why? Because we had broken those laws that God says demands justice. God says the breaking of His law demands justice and it deserves His righteous judgment. It deserves His fury and it deserves His wrath. But how could Jesus have done this for this woman the same way that he could have eaten with publicans and sinners, the same way that he could go to Zacchaeus's house, the same way that he does for every one of us that had broken his law, whether it was back 2000 years ago when all this was going on here or whether it's right now in 2023. It's the same way. I think God that he's the friend of publicans and sinners.

[29:35] I think God that that he's not afraid to commune with them. He doesn't take part in their sin. Yeah, never did he take part in their sin. But he's not afraid to go to them no more than he was afraid to touch a leper and to heal him. He's Christ. I mean, we read a few months ago, I guess, when we first started the Gospel of John that the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And this is a perfect picture of that grace. This woman deserved death just as you and I deserve death. She deserved the punishment of the law just as you and I do. But she was shown grace. She said, no man, Lord, and Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn the go and send no more notice the order of the last words of Jesus in this particular account here. Neither do I condemn the go and send no more. He didn't say go and send no more and I will not condemn you.

[30:38] If that had been the case, we'd all be sitting here lost and on our way to hell. There'd be no hope for any of us if that were the case. Go and send no more and there'll be no condemnation come to you. No, it was neither do I condemn the go and send no more. And you all have heard me say and I've taught it and I've preached it that it don't matter how hard we might try at some course or at some point throughout the course of a day, you and I are going to sin. You and I are going to have a wrong thought. We're going to have a wrong action. We're going to have wrong words.

[31:14] Something wrong and something sinful is going to be done within our bodies. I mean, our very flesh is cursed. Our very flesh is evil. Everything about us is evil. Everything about us is sinful.

[31:31] It is impossible for a human being to go throughout the course of a day without sinning. And that's why I love the order of these words. Neither do I condemn the go and send no more. Now, there was a specific sin that she was brought before Jesus and being accused of or that she was being accused of when she was brought before Jesus and that sin was a sin of adultery. Now that I believe Jesus was specifying to her, neither do I condemn thee. I've rescued you from this. Don't go back to it.

[32:06] And I don't believe that the woman ever did. We don't have a count of that in the Scripture, but she experienced the grace of God and the grace of Jesus Christ. She experienced mercy that she didn't deserve. Just as you and I experienced mercy that we don't deserve when we become children of God, but neither do I condemn the go and send no more. That brings us to the end of that account, and I won't go any further than that today. Anybody got any questions or any comments on any of that?

[32:37] God bless you. I appreciate your attention.