Captured By The Compassion Of Christ

CAPTURED BY THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST

Text: John 8: 11

Intro: The passage of scripture being dealt with today is a glowing illustration of the grace and compassion of Christ for sinners. It may seem a total contradiction to say that Christ had contempt for sin, while having compassion on the sinner, but it is true nonetheless. Most of us, including this preacher, find it hard to correlate those two seemingly incongruent thoughts. One would think that if Jesus viewed sin with contempt, He would also view one guilty of sin, with equal contempt. But from all that we know of the life of Christ, He, in fact, hated sin and loved sinners.

One might quickly pass off this idea by saying, “Well, that was easy for Jesus. After all, He was God in the flesh.” That may be true. But let us not forget that we are partakers of His nature (II Pet.1: 4), and we are expected to emulate His nature in our daily lives. The apostle Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ…” (Phil.1: 21). This is not possible in our own human flesh. But, again, Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil.4: 13).

Today, as we look at the compassion of Christ, let us examine our hearts to see if our compassion toward others is what it should be. But let us also rejoice in the truth of God’s Word, which says, “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities” (Ps.103: 10).

Theme: A beautiful demonstration of Christ’s compassion is seen in…

I. THE PUBLIC ACCUSATION

A. A Woman Had Been Caught.

John 8: 1 “Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

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.

3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.”

NOTE: [1] Let me be quick to say that these scribes and Pharisees weren’t out for justice. They were out to kill Jesus. They were willing to use any means necessary to trip Jesus up; even if it meant the public humiliation of this poor woman.

[2] However, as ruthless as these religious leaders were, their claims about this woman were true. She had been apprehended in the “very act” of adultery (v.4). There was no question that she had broken the seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Ex.20: 14).

[3] Please take note of the fact that even though this passage reveals the great compassion of Christ, you will never find even one incident where He minimizes this woman’s sin. Today’s society tends to minimize all sin, but especially sexual sin. Fornication and adultery seem to be in vogue these days. These sins are no longer spoken of shamefully, but are snickered at, and boasted about. God has not changed His mind about these sins. His Word tells us, “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Heb.13: 4).

[4] According to Dr. Howard Marcuse, a philosopher of the radical left, “…no society can survive a disintegration of its moral standards.”(1) The interesting thing about what Marcuse said is not only that it is true, but also that he advocated this as a means of causing America’s collapse. All one must do is look at how our nation has changed its view of sexual sin to know how close it is to collapsing from within. What used to be spoken of blushingly is now spoken of boastfully and brazenly. Again, hear what the Scriptures have to say:

Ps.9: 17 “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”

Prov.14: 34 “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”

[5] Concerning sins of promiscuity, Dr. Jerry Vines has said, “Rome was wrecked because of laxness concerning this sin, and America cannot survive a collapse of its moral standards.”(2) Let the world mock and call the Christian view of moral purity puritanical if it will. But God’s Word speaks plainly:

Gal.6: 7 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

8a For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption…”

[6] It is said of Russia’s Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:

In his 1983 acceptance speech for the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn] recalled the words he heard as a child, when his elders sought to explain the ruinous upheavals in Russia: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” He added, “If I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, here too I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: ‘men have forgotten God.’”(3)