We read Sacred Scripture this morning in the seventh and eighth chapters of the Gospel according to John. We begin reading at verse 37 of John 7 and read through verse 11 of John 8. Our text this morning is John 8, verses 2 through 11. And I ask that you pay special attention to John 8, verses 2 through 11, as we read the passage. We begin at verse 37 of John 7. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? hath not the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees, And they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed. Nicodemus saith unto them, He that came to Jesus by night, being one of them, doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And every man went unto his own house. Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives, 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 rode 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." We read the word of God this far. Our text is verses 2 through 11 of John 8. This passage, beloved, is authentic scripture. It is an inspired account of an event in the ministry of Jesus Christ. I emphasize that because many modern English translations of the New Testament either omit this passage, beginning with verse 53 of John 7 and running through verse 11 of John 8, that is, omit the entire passage or indicate in some way that this passage does not really belong in the Bible. This is not the only passage omitted or dismissed by many modern English translations of the New Testament. Many of them also omit the important entire last half of the last chapter of the Gospel according to Mark and other important passages in the New Testament. The reason for doing so is that this passage is not found in two Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and both of those documents were only discovered in the 1800s. The Holy Spirit testifies powerfully that this passage is part of the inspired scripture. For one thing, the passage occurs and is found in the vast majority of the manuscripts of the New Testament. This passage is found in all of the Bibles of the Reformation and is also testified to by commentaries and other writings that have come down to us from the earliest days of the post-apostolic church that indicates that those commentators and other church fathers recognized the passage as belonging to the New Testament. In addition, there is this powerful factor that if this passage is omitted, there is no proper connection between the end of John 7 and verse 12 of John 8, where John 8 would then begin. John 7 ends with a discussion in the consistory room of the consistory of the church at that time, where Jesus was not present. And chapter 8 would begin with these words, "...then spake Jesus again unto them, saying..." There's no connection. But if the passage is part of the New Testament, Chapter 7 flows naturally into chapter 8. But besides all of that, the Holy Spirit himself testifies with the words of this passage that the passage is authentic scripture, a characteristic part of the ministry of mercy of Jesus Christ. It could very well be that the reason why those two manuscripts of the New Testament omit the passage is that already early in the history of the Church, there were men in the Church who were offended by the message of this passage, as though Jesus were too gracious, too merciful, freely to forgive the sin of the adulteress, and so omitted the passage. But that would have been a grievous mistake. The passage settles great issues concerning the truth for the Church of Jesus Christ. The relationship of Moses and Christ of law and gospel, of justice and mercy. The passage sets forth before us the important relationship between justification, that is, the forgiveness of sins, and sanctification, that is, holiness of life. Jesus said to the woman, I do not condemn thee, and then he added, go and sin no more. Also, the passage is of great importance because it is intended by God to bring you personally and me personally this morning in the very same position in which that woman of long ago found herself. Condemned by the law, you must stand this morning consciously in the presence of Jesus the Judge, so that you may hear and I may hear the same words from Jesus that she heard. I do not condemn thee. Let's hear the message of our text. Jesus' pardon of the adulteress. Notice with me, from the text, the real issue in this temptation of Jesus. Second, Jesus' gracious verdict. And finally, the manifestation of the Savior of sinners. Jesus' pardon of the adulteress. The real issue in the temptation of Jesus. the gracious verdict and the manifestation of the Savior of sinners. The consistory of that day, the scribes and Pharisees of the nation of Israel were not sincere in their arrangement of this event. Their intention with bringing the woman to Jesus And with their question to Jesus, what do you say about her, was that they might tempt Jesus and by that temptation discredit his ministry and thus destroy him before all the people. So we read in verse 6, this they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. They had no concern for the woman. They had no concern for her guilt and shame. They had no concern for Moses and the law. They had no concern for the righteousness of God which had been defiled by this woman's Their only concern was to destroy Jesus. In order to do that, they used the woman to set a trap for Jesus. And they were very clever in their setting of this trap. Apparently, there was no possible way in which Jesus could avoid the trap and avoid being destroyed in that trap. There were two main jaws to that trap. One was that the law of God did condemn the woman. She was guilty of the sin with which the scribes and Pharisees charged her. She had committed adultery. She was a married woman. who had had sexual relations with another man, and she had been caught, as they say, in the very act. There were witnesses to her sin. No doubt, her very bearing as she stood before Jesus and in the midst of the people betrayed her guilt and shame. Hers was an attitude of shame and of hopelessness. Jesus acknowledged the truth of the charge against her when he said to her at the end, Go and sin no more, implying that she had sinned by transgressing the seventh commandment. The law, therefore, condemned her. It condemned her first because it is an explicit command of the law, thou shalt not commit adultery. And the law condemned her in the second place because the Old Testament punishment for adultery was death by stoning. So we read, for example, in Leviticus 20, verse 10, And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." That was one jaw of the trap. She was condemned by the law. The other jaw of the trap was the ministry of mercy of Jesus Christ. Seemingly, in contradiction of the law, Jesus was practicing a ministry of mercy to such guilty and shameful sinners as that woman was. Thus, Jesus opened up a way of salvation to sinners in Israel, including gross sinners in Israel. And that was why the common people and the notorious sinners in Israel flocked to him and made up his audience. He opened up a way of hope for them who were otherwise hopeless. That ministry of mercy The leaders in Israel recognized and that ministry of mercy they detested as contrary to their message of righteousness and salvation exclusively by obedience to the law. Now the trap is set. Moses condemns her to be stoned. Master, what do you say? There are two possible answers that Jesus can give to that question, they think, and both of them will discredit him. Suppose he contradicts the verdict of the law and denies that the woman should be stoned. Then he contradicts Moses. And contradicting Moses, he contradicts God himself. And thus he will be exposed to the people as an imposter and a false teacher. But suppose on the other hand, he expresses that he agrees with the law, that the woman stands condemned and must be stoned to death. Then he shuts up the way of merciful salvation, slams the door shut in the face of all sinners, takes his stand with the hard-hearted leaders of Israel, and there is no hope of salvation for those who transgress the law. The entire temptation, therefore, pivots on the ministry of mercy of Jesus Christ. Mercy is His compassion for sinners, gross sinners like this woman, a fellow feeling with their misery of guilt and their misery of shame. Mercy is the will to deliver from this wretchedness and misery, this guilt and shame. The mercy of Jesus Christ is then his act and deed of actually delivering from the condemnation of the law. regardless of the purpose of the leaders in Israel, regardless of their motive of tempting Jesus in order to destroy him, there is in this event a fundamental issue of salvation. That fundamental issue of salvation is the harmony of Moses and Christ, the harmony of the law and the gospel, the harmony of justice and mercy. There stands Moses with the law in his hands, especially the seventh commandment now, Thou shalt not commit adultery, And there is Moses with the stones of the law in his hand to condemn and destroy and kill every transgressor of the law. And here stands Jesus Christ with the gospel. Come unto me, all ye adulterers and adulteresses, who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I will not condemn you. I will deliver you from condemnation, and I will give to you rest and life." That's the issue. Can Moses be harmonized with Christ? How is the law to be harmonized with the gospel of mercy? And because Moses and his law are in fact the representation of God's justice, whereas Jesus Christ with the gospel is the representative of God's mercy, how is God's justice to be harmonized with God's mercy? Can they be harmonized, or does the law rule out the ministry of mercy of Jesus Christ? In the light of these truths—namely, that the leaders of Israel were tempting Jesus in this event and that the fundamental issue in the event was the harmony of Moses and Christ, must Christ's response to the question of the leaders of Israel be understood. Their question was, what sayest thou with regard to Moses' condemnation of the woman? Jesus' response was that he stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground. We'll come back to that in a few moments. But when they continued to press him with their question, what do you say? They will not let him off the hook. They intend to destroy him. He lifted up himself and said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast the stone at her. Verse 7. That response must be understood in the light of the Pharisees' wicked purpose with the woman and in the light of the fundamental issue that is at stake here. Otherwise, we make a serious mistake. By that response, the Lord is not teaching that civil government should not punish evildoers. including punishing some evildoers by executing them. What Jesus considers to be the duty of government is not to be found in our text, but in Romans 13, as in other passages. Neither does Jesus' response mean that the Church should not exercise discipline upon impenitent sinners. including, if need be, excommunication out of the church of Jesus Christ. What Jesus has to say about discipline you will find in Matthew 18 and other passages of Scripture. But by these words, he that is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her, The Lord is exposing those, perhaps even elders in the church sometimes, whose motive for discipline is a wrong motive. With regard to anyone who exercises or demands discipline with a motive other than the glory of God, the salvation of the sinner, and the preservation of the church from the spreading of sin, the Lord's words are applicable. Let him who is without sin among you first cast the stone. And then, Jesus' response must be understood as his addressing the fundamental issue in this event. The leaders of Israel took their stand exclusively upon the law for righteousness and salvation. Obedience to the law is determinative. They took their stand on the law, excluding the ministry of mercy of Jesus Christ. The Lord's response amounted to this. If you take your stand for righteousness and salvation strictly upon the law, opposing my ministry of mercy, then you yourself stand condemned by the law. After all, The seventh commandment of the law of God does not only forbid the act of adultery, actual sexual relations of a married person with someone else than his own wife or her own husband, but the seventh commandment of the law also forbids and condemns as adultery every impure thought and every unchaste sexual desire or feeling. That's adultery too. The law condemns it. The law damns everyone on the basis of unchaste thoughts and desires. In addition to that, the law does not consist only of the seventh commandment, but of ten And the law's condemnation, as we read in Galatians 3, verse 10, is, "...cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Take your stand for righteousness and salvation. strictly upon the law, make a human being's righteousness and salvation dependent upon his obedience to the law, opposing the mercy of Jesus Christ. And you and I are condemned by that law, and every human being is condemned by that law, and damn, there is righteousness and salvation for no one. Let him who is without any sin among you first cast the stone." Besides that, the purpose of the law never was to give human beings' righteousness and salvation, as though righteousness and salvation were attainable by obedience to the law. But as the Apostle will say in Galatians 3, verse 24, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. And that, don't you see, was exactly what the law did in the case of the adulterous woman. The law brought her to Jesus Christ so that she might hear from Jesus Christ the word and verdict of justification. The response of the leaders of Israel to Jesus' words was that all of them were convicted of their own sin by Jesus Christ using the testimony of the law. We read in the text that all of those leaders of Israel who had intended to be the judges of this woman filed out beginning with the oldest of them and concluding with the youngest of them. The text tells us that the reason for that was that they all were convicted by their own conscience. They were convicted by their own conscience, not only that they were sinners in general, But they were convicted by their own conscience that they were all guilty of transgressing the seventh commandment. They were all adulterers, as much as the woman was an adulteress. Even when the law does not save, it still has a convicting power, and it convicted those would-be judges in Israel of their own transgression. The case against the woman, therefore, as far as the leaders in Israel were concerned, was dismissed. The judges had departed. That's the force of Jesus' question to the woman. Woman, where are those thine accusers? Have they not condemned thee? Nevertheless, the case against the woman was not dismissed at that moment when the earthly judges left the premises. On the contrary, now the case against the woman becomes serious indeed. For as we read in the text, Jesus remained. Jesus remained alone. He wasn't convicted by the law of any transgression against the seventh commandment or against any of the other commandments. He remained, and he remained as the woman's judge. That's why things became serious for her at this point. This Jesus is the one whom God has appointed to be the judge of every human being. And when this Jesus gives a verdict of guilt, the condemnation is not only earthly death, but also eternal death in hell. Before this Jesus, every human being one day will stand to receive the verdict of Jesus Christ. And the everlasting destiny of every human being will depend upon the words that proceed from Jesus' mouth. If he says upon a sinner, I condemn you, that sinner goes away everlastingly to damnation. And if Jesus says, I do not condemn you, but I justify you, That sinner goes away into everlasting life. As John will write in the fifth chapter, the Father has committed all judgment into the hands of this Jesus. He now is the judge of the woman. Really, what earthly judges may say or not say is not that important. Jesus' verdict is the important verdict. The woman seems to have recognized that authority of Jesus. You notice in her response to Jesus when he asked whether her accusers had gone and had failed to condemn her, her response was, That's the name for God and that's the name for God's Messiah in human flesh. The leaders of Israel had referred to him merely as master or a teacher. The woman indicating true faith in this Jesus calls him Lord. Jesus' verdict was this, I do not condemn you. To grasp the importance of those words, bring to your own mind what those words mean to you this morning. For Jesus pronounces these words over you personally who believe on him with a belief that repents of transgressions against the seventh and all of the other commandments. I do not condemn you. How important are not these words for your peace and for your joy. To grasp the importance of these words, young man and young woman, boy and girl in the congregation too, just think to yourself what it will mean to you one day When you stand before Jesus, before the whole world, to be judged by Him, and He says to you, I do not condemn you. That liberated the woman from all her guilt. She had no more guilt. That freed her from all her shame. A married woman caught in the act of adultery. with another man, and that freed her from the punishment that her sin deserved, the temporal death of being crushed by the stones of Moses, but also the eternal death of being crushed by the boulders of the wrath of God." Implied by those words was the positive verdict of Jesus Christ. I declare you innocent. I declare you righteous with regard to all of the demands that the law makes upon you." This was the forgiveness of her sins. This was the precious act of justification, declaring as a verdict. the righteousness of the guilty sinner. And as the fruit of it, she may go. And that's what Jesus said to her. Go! Go free! Go free with regard to guilt and shame in the presence of God, in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and in the consciousness of your own soul. Yes. and go back to your husband, if he will have you." Oh, the mercy of Jesus Christ! What a contrast to the cruelty of the Pharisees and consistory of the Old Testament church of that day. They used her. They had no sympathy for her wretchedness and her misery. She was merely a tool to destroy the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus had pity. And what a contrast in these words between the ministry of mercy of Jesus Christ and the law The law requires righteousness, perfect righteousness. Jesus gives perfect righteousness. The law condemns guilty sinners. Jesus acquits guilty sinners. The law kills and damns. Jesus gives life. everlasting life. That justifying, forgiving verdict of Jesus Christ was a gracious verdict. It was forgiveness and life for a sinner who was not only not worthy of that forgiveness, but completely unworthy. Nothing in her. Nothing that she did explains those words of Jesus Christ. I do not condemn you. It was pure grace on the part of Jesus Christ. Who was she? What was she? An adulteress, as far as the law is concerned, and only an adulteress. There can be no doubt about it that this woman was penitent for her adultery. We know from the rest of Scripture that God does not forgive impenitent sinners. If I tried, I could make a case for the evidence of her repentance in the text, even though we don't read of it in the text. And the main evidence would be that she had nothing to say in her own defense. She didn't deny the charge. She didn't plead, oh, but the man seduced me. It was his fault. Nor did she say, as perhaps she might have said, yes, Lord, I'm guilty of adultery, but if you knew what kind of a husband I was married to, you wouldn't be harsh on me, a brute who misuses me and virtually drove me to adultery." Not a word of it. She was silent, acknowledging the truth of the charge and her worthiness to be condemned and killed for the sin. But the text doesn't speak about her repentance. And there's a reason for that. Repentance is not a ground for forgiveness. Repentance doesn't deserve the verdict of Christ, I do not condemn you. Repentance is the way to hear that verdict, the only way. But there is no basis in the sinner, not even in the sinner's repentance for the merciful verdict of Jesus Christ. It is true that Jesus added something, sin no more. The reference in the first place was to the sin of adultery. Don't go on committing adultery. Don't ever commit adultery again. Strive against adultery, even in your thoughts and desires, by guarding against what you watch and what you read and how you allow yourself to think and to feel. Sin no more. But that was added to the word, I do not condemn you. Sanctification, that's the work of Jesus Christ of making us holy so that we obey the commandments, is always connected to Jesus' act of justification, delivering us from the guilt of sin. But sanctification follows justification. It doesn't precede it. Jesus doesn't forgive because We begin to obey the commandments, but we begin to obey the commandments because Jesus has forgiven us our sins. And here's an important truth for all of us, including the young people in the congregation. We're motivated to obey the law of God. We're motivated not to yield to sexual, illicit sexual desire. by thankfulness to Jesus Christ and by love for him, because we have heard him say to us, I do not condemn thee. I declare you to be innocent and thus deliver you from death and damnation and give you life and salvation. Thus Jesus manifested himself as the Savior of sinners. He didn't back down, and he didn't back away from his ministry of mercy which was under attack. He didn't compromise that ministry of mercy. He defended it publicly, and he exercised that ministry of mercy. by freely forgiving the adulterous woman. He is the Savior, God's Savior. There is no salvation by obedience to the law. Apart from the ministry of mercy of Jesus Christ, there is no salvation for any sinner. His ministry as a ministry of mercy is the ministry that saves multitudes guilty and shameful sinners, including you and me. And thus the Lord validates the ministry of every true church that proclaims justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ, salvation by grace alone, and the mercy of Jesus Christ alone. That church is a true church. And every church that makes the law decisive for righteousness and salvation is thus exposed as a false church. It isn't carrying on and proclaiming the ministry of mercy of Jesus Christ. On the contrary, such a church is ranked with the wicked leadership of Israel in Jesus' day. And that church is condemned. That's the explanation of Jesus' strange behavior on this occasion of stooping down and writing with his finger in the earth. There are as many explanations of what Jesus was doing with that peculiar behavior as there are commentators. The truth of the matter is that if Scripture itself does not explain to us the meaning of Jesus' writing in the ground, we'll never know what he wrote or what the meaning of that writing was. But there is one passage in the Bible that speaks of this strange behavior and thus explains that strange behavior. That's in the prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 13. Jeremiah 17, verse 13, there the prophet writes, O Lord, the hope of Israel, all those who forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. who forsake the true God of Scripture shall be written in the earth. And to be written in the earth, the opposite of to have your name written in heaven, to be written in the earth is to be under God's condemnation and destruction. Those who teach righteousness and salvation by obedience to the law have fundamentally departed from the Lord, who is the God of mercy in Jesus Christ. And all of those who thus forsake the Lord by teaching that salvation depends upon the good works that the sinner performs or upon the performance of conditions are written in the earth. Their ministry is exposed and condemned. The question remains, can this ministry of mercy of Jesus Christ, upon which our salvation depends, be harmonized with Moses and the law? And if so, how are the gospel and the law to be harmonized. The mercy of God, how is that to be harmonized? With the justice of the law. Jesus did not oppose the law. How could he? That's the law of God. Jesus did not set the law aside as irrelevant and of no account. How could he? The law and its righteousness are the law and the righteousness of God himself. But the harmony is this, that Jesus will take the condemnation of the woman and all her shame upon himself. He will say, on a hill outside Jerusalem, nailed to a cross, let all the stones that ought to have fallen upon her and upon you and upon me fall upon me, so that the justice of God is satisfied in the cross Jesus Christ. That's the harmony of the ministry of mercy of Jesus Christ and the law of Moses, the cross, reared up by Jesus Christ himself on Calvary. On the basis of the cross, he said to her, I do not condemn you. And on the basis of the cross, he says that to you this morning and to me. And he will say it one day when you stand personally before him as the judge. I do not condemn you. Go. Enter into life. May that have been the case for you and me this morning by the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the law brought us to Jesus Christ, guilty, shameful, worthy of stones and death, so that you and I heard and hear this morning these words from Jesus Christ. I do not condemn you. And then you will also hear powerfully and irresistibly all your life these words also, Go and sin no more. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank Thee for the ministry of mercy of Jesus Christ. We confess ourselves, one and all, from the oldest to the youngest, to be guilty of transgression of the seventh commandment, as of all the other commandments. We have no plea grounded in ourselves, no excuse, no blame of others. Our only plea is in the mercy, the magnificent mercy of Jesus Christ. We glory in that ministry. May we preach it, believe it, and then by thy sanctifying grace and gratitude walk according to it. In Jesus' name, amen.