All right, well, if you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to just reach down and grab them while you're standing there and open them up to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. We spent a while in John 7, and now I'm excited to move on into chapter 8 with you here. Today we'll be going through verses 1 through 11. So John chapter eight, verses one through 11, this is the word of the Lord. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Now early in the morning, he came again into the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to him, teacher, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act. Now Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say? This they said, testing him, that they might have something of which to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger as though he did not hear. So when they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, he who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first. And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this wonderful and glorious word, Lord, that a sinner can be brought before you in the midst of his or her sin, covered in filthiness, Lord. And you can say, neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. We thank you for your forgiving power, for your mercy and for your grace. And God, even though it convicts us, we thank you for your law and how you uphold your law at all times. and will not negotiate with your law or compromise your law. God, we thank you for this Word that has been handed down to us faithfully by our fathers. God, we pray that our eyes would be open to the truth of what your Holy Spirit is saying to us through these 11 verses. God, I pray that you would just bless my tongue that I would speak what is true and right God, that the words that I speak would be like arrows straight into the hearts of all those that hear, and that your spirit would pierce and penetrate to the depths of our very being. God, I pray that everyone that hears these words, Lord, that they would not merely hear me up here spouting my opinion, but they would hear from you. They would hear words of life, and they would be drawn to repentance and to faith. God, we just pray your blessing upon us now. In Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. Well, before we dive into the nuts and bolts of this text itself, I want to first make a note about the authenticity of this section of scripture before us. In most modern Bible translations, maybe you saw it as you were opening up your copy of God's Word today, you'll find a little explanatory note right above this passage saying that the verses we just read are not included in some of the oldest manuscripts we have. Or sometimes this passage will even be bracketed off from the rest of the text of Scripture, the translator saying that this is likely not original. to the word of God. Now, I don't want us to spend too much time today going into all the arguments for whether this passage is legitimate or not. There have been books and books written on this topic and just gallons of ink spilled over this issue. And we've already addressed similar issues to this a couple of times before, both in our Lord's Day sermons and in our Wednesday night teachings. But suffice it to say, there are many good reasons to believe that John himself wrote these verses and that God intended them to be part of the canon of scripture, much like the rest of John's gospel. Though the passage is missing, that's true, from some of the oldest Greek manuscripts that we have, there are hundreds and hundreds of Greek manuscripts that do in fact include this passage. Augustine, perhaps the most influential father of the early church, he believed, in fact, that the reason that some manuscripts during his day, which is the fifth century, he thought that the reason that some of those manuscripts were missing this passage was because wicked men had removed it intentionally out of fear that it would encourage their wives to commit adultery because there would be no punishment for them. So Augustine thought that the reason it was just not there in some of the copies that were extant at that time was because of wickedness and faithlessness among some scribes, it would seem. Now, whether he was right about why this passage is absent from some of those oldest editions of John, I don't know. But Augustine is older by far than most of the Greek manuscripts that have survived to this day. And he is much smarter than all of us. And I doubt he just made this theory up out of thin air. I don't know. Now, as we'll learn, this passage in no way, shape, or form actually condones adultery. So these fearful husbands, if in fact they existed, were not only wicked and blasphemous for tampering with God's Word, but they also clearly just did not understand the passage at all. If anyone could get from this passage, it's okay to commit adultery, then they clearly weren't reading it with new eyes. At the end of the day, I believe this passage is authentic and it should be received as the word of God, and that's how we're gonna treat it today. And that's what the church in large measure has done, regardless of what most modern additions say. Even some modern critical scholars that was researching this, D.A. Carson, for instance, he feels very strongly that this passage was not original to the text of John, but he still says, but the event probably occurred and we can still learn biblical truth from it. So even if one were to think it's not original, I think we can still learn a wonderful lesson here. And that is precisely what we'll be seeking to do today. Now, when we come to a passage like this in scripture, where there might be some doubt, whether it is in fact the very words of God, what should we first do? First, we should remember God's clear promises and trust what he has laid down for us in the Bible. The Bible says that God will preserve his word. That's a promise. The Bible says that God's word cannot be broken. says that it will stand forever. And as Psalm 12 tells us, that the words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. There's no dross in God's word. It's only the best of the best. So that's step one when we come to a passage like this. And then step two is that we should be careful of deriving any unique or novel doctrine from a debated text. Be careful to derive a doctrine from a debated text that could not be established anywhere else in Scripture. Now really, this is a good general advice for all of Bible interpretation. If you are reading a passage of Scripture and you think you've come upon some doctrine that exists nowhere else in any passage of Scripture, the problem is probably that you have interpreted something incorrectly. If there is an entire doctrine that rests solely on one verse or one passage of God's word for its footing, then that should be something we scrutinize very, very closely before accepting. God's revelation all lines up together. And while it would be absurd to say that you can prove every single point of the Christian faith from every passage of the Bible, it's true that the themes and teachings from one passage tend to echo throughout many, many others as well. The whole Bible works together. It doesn't exist in isolated pieces and chunks. Even though it's made up of 66 books written on three continents over 1,500 years in three different languages with around 40 human authors, the whole Bible speaks with one voice. and one unified message. And that message is that there is a sovereign, loving, powerful, and holy triune God who made the heavens and the earth and all of it very good. And this God is worthy of our worship and praise. And though we sinned against this God by breaking His holy law, He graciously revealed Himself to our fathers at various times and in various ways. And in these last days, He has revealed Himself to us through Jesus Christ, His Son, who is fully God and fully man. This God-man lived a perfect life of obedience to the law of God. He died for our sins on the cross. He rose again on the third day, defeating death and testifying to His righteousness. And this Jesus will save all who believe on him as Lord and Savior. And he will empower them to live lives which honor God both now and in eternity. And then one day this God will fully and completely remake the heavens and the earth. And the last enemy that will be defeated is death. all to the praise of his glorious grace. That's the message of the scriptures. That's the message of every book of the Bible. And when we're seeking to interpret individual passages of God's word, we need to make sure our interpretation of the passages lines up with the picture of the Bible as a whole. And this passage lines up so clearly with the overarching message of God's word. Here we see God's perfect standard of goodness. We see our departure from it. We see his mercy and grace, and we see his empowering us to leave our sins behind. and we see him restoring the dignity that we had lost. We see the message of the Bible so clearly screaming through each of these 11 verses. So with that in mind, let's look at this text before us today in detail. The opening of John chapter 8 is a, like I said, well-debated passage, and that also gives it the benefit of it being very well-known. It's a well-known passage of Scripture, often referred to as the woman caught in adultery. Or in fancy theological circles, theologians will call it the Pericope Adultera, which means the adultery passage. Thankfully, we're not very creative with our names. I mean, no one's gonna get confused about what you're talking about if you say the adultery passage. After the Feast of Tabernacles had concluded, everyone, John says at the end of chapter seven, everyone went back to his own home. But Jesus, he didn't. He has no place to lay his head. So he goes to the Mount of Olives. He goes there, we think, to just retire for the night, to refresh his soul and his body, to spend time communing with his father. He had just spent several days preaching in the open air at the feast, declaring the doctrine of God, offering salvation freely to all who would come to him, thirsting after righteousness. So he goes to rest. However, after just one night away from the city, he wakes up early in the morning and he heads right back into the temple to teach again. That was Christ's chief vocation the last three years of his earthly life. He was, of course, a great miracle worker. Jesus did many wonderful acts of mercy, but everything was secondary to his teaching. People are wanting him to heal them in the gospel of Mark and they're crowding about him and asking him, teacher, heal us, heal us. And he says, no, I have to go to another town to teach. That is what I came for. He came to declare the message of salvation. So he goes back to the temple and he begins preaching again. But as Jesus is preaching the word of God to all those that are gathered there at the temple, he's interrupted this time by the scribes and the Pharisees. So imagine this scene, if you will. Jesus is sitting down, opening up the truth of God to the people, and disturbance arises among the crowd. As verse 3 tells us, a group of religious elites interrupts his sermon by bringing him a woman caught in adultery. How strange must that have been? Imagine I'm up here preaching and someone just starts dragging a woman through the congregation and interrupts the sermon and says, we need to have a court case right now. She has committed a crime. It's very strange. So they set this woman in the midst, it says, all the onlookers around. And they say to Jesus, teacher, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act Now, Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say? Then John notes in verse six, this they said to him, testing him that they might have something of which to accuse him. Now, there are four things I want us to focus on as we observe the particulars of this passage. These four things are sinful motives, number one, Number two, biblical authority. Number three, proper administration of God's law. And number four, our proper response. Now, I know all those things sound kind of abstract, so they probably won't mean much to you right now, per se, but I'm telling you where we're headed so you can recognize those words when they come up again. Sinful motives, biblical authority, proper administration of God's law, and proper response. So first, let's look at these sinful motives. the sinful motives of the scribes and the Pharisees. As this disturbance just erupts during the middle of the sermon, there are two important things happening here. First, the Jews are seeking to put an adulteress on trial with Jesus serving as the judge. But second, behind and underneath this adultery issue, the Jews are seeking really to put Jesus himself on trial. John says that the scribes and Pharisees were testing Christ. They're seeking evidence by which they can accuse him. So we can see that even though there's this facade of trying to honor the law of God, they're pretending to care about God's law and uphold biblical justice and maintain the purity of God's people, it's all fake to them. Underneath all of this pretend righteousness is the sinful and proud hearts of the religious elite. Their actions might at first glance appear to be good and holy. but their motives are rotten to the core. Who else in the Gospels do we see doing something like this? Who else do we see testing our Lord in this way? It's Satan, of course, the accuser. Early on in Jesus's ministry, Satan also tries to use God's word to attempt Jesus into sinning, to catch him in something. That's very similar to what's happening here in John 8. They are using literally satanic methods covered up with a pretend righteousness, all to trap the Lord. Now we first need to ask, but how was this encounter really a test of the Lord? I mean, what's being tested here? Well, if Jesus says that this adulterous woman must indeed be executed, then the Jews could probably use that as evidence that he was seeking to usurp Roman authority. Rome did not ordinarily allow the Jews to execute their own criminals. If an execution had to happen, the Jews needed to make that case to the Romans and then hand the man over to him. Now that's not in the Bible, that's just the cultural political setting they were in. That's why in just a matter of months from when this account occurs, the Jews had to hand Jesus over to Pontius Pilate in order to have him killed. So if Jesus consents to Moses' punishment here, if he says yes, This woman needs to be killed. Then I imagine the Pharisees would probably take that and twist things to make him look really bad in front of the civil magistrate. If the Jews were running the mainstream media of the day, then the headlines would probably write something like, powerful Jewish rabbi orders Pharisees to execute woman. Treason fomented into something ridiculous like that. This would no doubt be seen as treason. Further, if Jesus affirms that this woman should be killed, then the scribes and Pharisees would probably want to point out an inconsistency they saw in Christ. And they would hope that this would take away his popularity among the common people. making him seem to contradict himself. Because remember, this is the one who eats with tax collectors and prostitutes. This isn't the one who kills them. This is merciful, kind Jesus who loves sinners. Remember how gentle Christ was with the woman at the well in John chapter four. If here he enforces this cold and exacting justice on a woman in a very similar situation to that Samaritan woman, then they might say, Jesus, you're just being inconsistent. and you're being unloving. On the other hand, if Jesus favors leniency and he does not say that this woman should be killed, then the scribes and the Pharisees would most likely accuse him of dishonoring Moses and of breaking God's law. That's their MO already. We already know he's a Sabbath breaker. Now he's breaking the seventh commandment also, thou shalt not commit adultery. And he's perverting justice. These cunning Jewish leaders think that they have come up with this perfect scenario to trap our Lord. They probably cooked this up in a little huddled room in the dark of night thinking, what's the best way? What's an airtight way we could get him where there's no possibility that he could escape this time. No matter which way he goes, they think he's gonna be arrested and we can probably get him executed this time. Though they pretend to honor the law, they're not concerned about the law at all here. They're only concerned about deceiving and trapping our Lord. These are wicked men and their motives are wicked. You can almost imagine the barely veiled smiles that must have been on their faces as they posed the question to Christ. What do you say? It's a very wicked man that smiles in the face of God's law being broken. And that's what they're doing here. We found a way to trap him. How do you think we should proceed with this adulterous Jesus? And even though they think they've got a no-win scenario completely to their surprise, Jesus stoops down and he starts writing in the dirt with his finger as if he doesn't even hear them. They were, I'm certain, confused, irritated, deflated. They didn't know what to do. That leads us to the second thing I want us to focus on this morning. The first was the sinful motives of the scribes and the Pharisees. The second thing I want to highlight is how Jesus calmly and quietly reorients them to proper biblical authority. Jesus reorients the scribes and Pharisees to think about proper biblical authority. And then we'll also end up bleeding right into our third point, they kind of go together, which is proper administration of God's law. So Jesus here does not initially dignify the evil schemes of the scribes and Pharisees, even with a spoken response. Sometimes when someone asks a question and the motives are clearly sinful, they're not really looking for an answer. They're just looking to slam you or trap you or misrepresent you. Sometimes it's just better to ignore them. Children, your parents tell you when someone speaks to you, you always respond. That's true generally. But when you become an adult, you might realize that sometimes people aren't wanting to talk to you at all. They're just wanting to trap you in their wicked schemes. And when that happens, sometimes it's just best to ignore them. Proverbs 26 four says, answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Don't step down to the level of the fool. Don't make them, don't give them the power to bring you over to their playing field. Don't cede ground to the fool. Don't step down to the level of obstinance and wickedness. Sometimes it's better just to ignore them. But then sometimes it is better to answer the fool, but not according to his folly. Sometimes it's better to answer him on your own terms and to do it with piercing truth. And that's exactly the approach that Jesus takes here. First, he acts like he doesn't even hear them. He just starts writing in the sand. This must have been very strange. A dignified Jewish rabbi has a huge crowd around him. He just stoops down and uses his finger and he's just, I don't even know what he's doing. He's maybe making shapes, signs, pictures. It could be nothing. Maybe he is writing something important. Maybe it's Bible verses. Maybe he's citing certain portions of God's law. We don't know. But clearly the scribes and Pharisees are thrown off. They don't think he's writing anything important. They're not even paying attention to it. We see here in verse seven that they continue to ask him, Jesus, hello, what do you think we should do with this woman? When they don't stop, when they're persistent, our text says that Jesus raised himself up and said to them, he who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first. And then again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. Christ pops up for just a minute. He gives the scribes and Pharisees a short, clear response. And then he goes back to writing in the sand. The Jews here thought that they had given Jesus a multiple-choice question. Jesus, what do you say we should do with this woman caught in the very act of adultery? Here are your options. A. Kill her. Or B. Don't kill her. Simple. They think they've got him trapped. Then Jesus answers option C. He was without sin among you. Let him throw a stone at her first. We might think at this point, the scribes and Pharisees would either verbally express their confusion or irritation, or they would dig in their heels and push Jesus to give a clear answer. No, no, no, Jesus, that wasn't an option. Do we kill her or do we not kill her? But what actually happens next? I wanna read again, starting at verse seven, but gonna continue on through verse nine of our text. So when they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, he who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first. And he again stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. Instead of answering back to our Lord, those who heard Christ saying were convicted in their consciences, And they went out one by one beginning with the elders. Now what's going on here? Jesus is reorienting the conversation. They want him to talk about this. He says, no, no, no, we're gonna talk about the root issue. I'm not gonna justify your particular question with the response you want. We're gonna go to the root of the matter. The root of the matter is biblical authority and the proper administration of God's law. Jesus is changing the conversation. First, we see that Christ refuses to stand in the place of a judge. This is our first note about biblical authority. Even though Jesus is the lawgiver himself, and even though he is the one who will judge the world one day, he did not come to earth the first time as a judge. Jesus goes on to say in just a few chapters that he did not come to judge the world, but to save it. And that's actually just the exact same thing he says in John 3, verse 17, which we've already been over. Jesus is saying, if you're looking for a judge, I'm not in session at the moment. I'm teaching now. I'm not judging. You need to appeal to another authority. And that authority is the written word of God. You come to me, Jesus might've said, quoting the law of Moses, but are you actually reading and submitting to that law? Let's look at it and see what it says. You say that this woman that has been caught in adultery must be stoned. All right, what else does that law say? Jesus might've implied. He wants to make sure if they're gonna carry out this act of execution, that they're really following what God's word lays out, not just pretending to. So this is, let's look at the law, see what the scribes and Pharisees might've been missing. First, both in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, God's law is crystal clear that in the case of adultery, both the man and the woman must be put to death. The man is just absent here. Did anyone catch that? Where is the man? This is the woman caught in adultery. Now tell me, how in the world can a group, it seems like this group was there, can a group of scribes and Pharisees, that's at least four adult men, how in the world can a group of adult men find a man and a woman together in the very act of adultery and only manage to catch one of them? That seems a little suspicious to me. Did they just let the man go? Or was this event all staged and the man was in on the plot with the scribes and Pharisees? Maybe he seduced or coerced this woman into committing adultery with him at the request of the rulers. Maybe it was just a predetermined scheme where the woman is no doubt very guilty, but at the same time, she's just a pawn in an elaborate game of chess in which the Pharisees are willing to sacrifice pieces left, right, and center as long as they can put that King, that's Jesus, in check. Now that's speculative, we don't know, but it's very possible that something like that happened here. Next, look at specifically what Jesus says to the scribes and Pharisees when he does finally answer them. He says, he who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone. The law did provide for the killing of adulterers. It didn't necessarily require stoning in every instance, so that's another conversation, but it did require the killing of adulterers. And when stoning was required in the old covenant law, Who was it that was to begin the act of stoning? It was the witnesses. Whoever witnessed the act, they were the ones that had to begin the execution. Jesus might've just said, you want this woman stoned, well, you better get to it because you're the ones that have to carry out the act. But make sure you remember the ones doing the stoning can't be guilty of the act themselves. If you're gonna stone someone for a crime, you can't be implicated in the crime too. Now that's not explicitly stated in those words in the old covenant laws against adultery, but it's so clear that it doesn't need to be. Why is it so clear? Because every guilty party in the act of adultery must be killed. So if you're guilty in it, you don't get to do the killing, you get to be killed. And the witnesses who are also the executioners, they are representatives of God's righteous standard of justice. So obviously they can't be implicated in the crime that's being punished. Jesus himself is very clear, in case someone missed this in the Old Testament law, he's very clear that we are to judge, but when we judge, we must judge with righteous judgment, not hypocritical judgment. For with the judgment with which we judge others, we also will be judged ourselves. He's saying, if you wanna kill someone for adultery, make sure you're not guilty of adultery. And it was Jesus himself who called the Pharisees an adulterous generation. Later on in Romans Paul will say, Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are. who judge, for in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, do you think that you will escape the judgment of God? You who say, do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? When Jesus says that the one who is without sin is the one who must cast the first stone, he does not mean that you have to be sinlessly perfect to pronounce or execute righteous judgment. In fact, that would undermine the entire law. That's not at all what Jesus is communicating here. But what he means is if you want to execute this woman for committing adultery, then you better not be guilty of adultery yourself. Either of this particular act of adultery as if they were scheming or plotting to make this happen, or perhaps even these men were lying in wait and watching the sin unfold, waiting for it to happen so they could have an accusation instead of stepping in and stopping it. Or he could just be saying, you better not be guilty of adultery in general. Like maybe the Pharisee's hands are squeaky clean of this particular incident. But if you've ever been unfaithful to your wife and you have not truly repented or faced justice yourself, then you are still in your sins and you cannot cast a stone against her. So you can see that far from overthrowing the law or softening the law, as some liberal commentators and pastors might want you to believe, Jesus is actually making sure that the scribes and the Pharisees are obeying the law. He says, you're understanding this one little piece, but have you read everything that Moses wrote? you need to properly administer the law of God. And then our last thing that I want us to focus on this morning is the proper response to Christ and his law. After Jesus writes in the sand and says, let he who is without sin be the first to throw a stone. And then he writes in the sand again. Then in verse nine, we read that those who heard it being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. I think we are all wondering, what was it that Jesus wrote in the sand? But if we needed to know, guess what? We would know. It would be included here. God apparently did not see fit that we needed to know this particular detail. I think that the first time it very well could have been nothing in particular. Like I said, Jesus could have just been drawing shapes and saying to show that I'm ignoring you because you're not worth responding to. Or it could have been portions of the law, perhaps about adultery or righteous judgment. The second time Christ stooped down, he could have written more of the same, or as one very respected tradition holds, he may actually have written out the sins of the accusers. That's what a lot of the manuscript variants say, that Jesus stooped down again to write in the sand and he wrote their sins. And then they left one by one beginning with the elders. Whatever it was though, it doesn't matter for us today. The text of scripture really doesn't make much of it here. John notes that it was not what was written in the sand that made the scribes and Pharisees leave, rather they were convicted by their conscience after they heard Christ's words. It was the hearing of his words, not the reading of his words. So there's not some secret meaning locked up in the sand that we have lost to time. They were convicted in their conscience when they heard Christ speak. Now, these were natural men, men still in the bond of iniquity. They were not born again. They were out here twisting the words of Scripture in an attempt to trap and hopefully execute the Son of God. But the Bible says they still had the witness of their conscience. Everyone has a conscience. Think of the worst person you could imagine. They have a conscience, might be seared, might be hardened, but they have a conscience. And written on that conscience, on the conscience of every single human being is the law of God. Maybe dim, maybe rudimentary in some ways, but it is there. the law of God written on everyone's heart. That's why unbelievers know that they are sinners, even if they won't admit it. They know at the end of the day, at the bottom of it all, that they are sinners and that there is a God with which they must give an account to. Now, your conscience can't lead you to Christ. It can't save you, but it can lead you to conviction. It can lead you to a knowledge that you are guilty and it can make you feel this guilt and have a desire to be freed from it. This is a great gift from God. But these Jews, even though they were being pricked in their conscience when they heard the words of Christ, we don't see them repenting here. We don't see them crying out, what must we do to be saved? Rather, we just see them slinking away in shame. Instead of seeking to be freed from their guilt, they ran away and they covered it up, leaving Jesus and the woman alone together. Now, there might still be a crowd around them. I don't think the text is super clear. Remember, all the people in the temple court had gathered to hear Jesus preach. This had all happened in the middle of a sermon. Do you really think everyone's just gonna automatically leave and think they need some privacy for this affair? But the crowd, whether they were there or not at this point, they've just faded into the background. It's like when you get married and the husband and wife are taking their vows, they have no understanding that the congregation's out there watching them, because their eyes are only for each other. The crowd is just faded into the background. It's as if that Jesus and this woman are all alone. The last time that this woman was alone with a man, with onlookers in the background, she was breaking God's law. That was when she was caught in the very act of adultery. Now she's standing here with the lawgiver himself, but she's not being condemned. He's looking at her and he's addressing her tenderly. Woman, we read in verse 10. And that was a tender form of address in that culture and in that time. Different, sounds different than it does to us today. We wouldn't just address other women in our lives as woman, not tender anymore. He says, woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? He knows the answer, of course. She said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Jesus is not papering over her sin. He's not excusing her sin. He's not acting like she didn't sin. In fact, he's affirming that she is a sinner. He tells her go and sin no more. That clearly implies that she had been sinning. And I don't think he's only referring to the general idea that, well, you're a human being and all human beings are sinners. I think Christ is implicitly saying, don't commit adultery anymore. But we still might think, okay, but Christ isn't upholding the law. He is letting an adulteress go. And as the Pharisees and scribes correctly pointed out, she must be killed. How can Jesus do that? How can he compromise with God's uncompromising word? Well, there are two big things to consider here. In order for this woman to be convicted under the law of God, remember proper administration of God's law, very important. In order for her to be convicted, she had to be charged with adultery by at least two eyewitnesses. And all the witnesses withdrew their testimony. They all left. They left the makeshift courtroom. They no longer stood in condemnation against her. So Jesus says, I just want to clarify, has no one condemned you? She says, no one, Lord. They're all gone. So there would be no clear biblical warrant to stone this woman if we're following the letter of the law. Even if she's committed adultery, if she has no accuser, she is not to be condemned. And then secondly, even though it seems she is truly guilty, we should not be surprised that Christ has chosen her for forgiveness. This is exactly in keeping with the character of Jesus. It is his prerogative to forgive whomever he wants. And he doesn't have to justify that to you or me or anyone. And when Christ forgives someone, that doesn't mean he acts like the sin didn't occur. No, that means He Himself is personally committing to paying that penalty on the cross. He's not saying, well, we're just not going to count this one against you. You're going to get a mulligan this time. Go get a redo. Don't do it again. He's saying, I forgive you. I'm going to take the punishment of an adulteress. Think of that. Just like Hosea. He's taking the punishment. His wife's the adulteress. Jesus is taking the punishment. In just six months' time, he'll die on the cross for these sins. After telling this woman that he does not condemn her, Jesus then instructs her to go and sin no more. And here is the great moral lesson for all of us. Every one of us who knows Christ as Lord and Savior is like this woman caught in adultery. We have broken the law of God, and we have been accused of this crime by the word, by our consciences, perhaps even by others. We've been caught red-handed and brought to Jesus. Children, think of how before you've been brought to your parents guilty of some sin. This has happened to all of you. And you know you're guilty. You know you've been disobedient. How do you respond in that scenario? Do you just kind of slink away? Or do you repent? Adults, now that you're grown, you might not be brought to your parents any longer for discipline, but perhaps you've been hauled before your bosses before, superior officers, teachers, policemen, pastors, judges, spouses, friends, whomever. You've been brought before someone guilty of some sin. Something that you've done wrong has been exposed. How do you respond? If you're in Christ by faith, no matter what any human authority has said to you in those moments, know that Jesus is calling down from heaven. I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more. The only proper response to that is grateful repentance. That's it. That's the only option. Grateful repentance. Now, if you're here and you can't relate at all to this, you're thinking, I've never been brought before some authority and I've never been pricked in my conscience, pray that God would convict you of your sin even right now. Let your conscience be pricked by this passage as you hear the words of Christ, the same words that these Pharisees heard. But don't be like the Pharisees. Don't slink away from your conviction. Rather admit your fault and ask for forgiveness. Who of you has broken the seventh commandment? Who of you has not been pure in heart, language, and conduct? And if you don't think you've broken that one, that's not a temptation to me, James. Try any of the other nine on for size. You will not come through that trial unscathed. Have you really always in every moment of your life honored your father and your mother? Have you always worshiped God as he has commanded? Have you coveted something of somebody else's, maybe their family or their body or their money or their house or their job? Whatever it is, you are guilty before the law. The law is given by God graciously to condemn us. But if you believe that Christ died for your sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised again on the third day, according to the scriptures, then he does not condemn you. Not because he's working against his law, but because he's fulfilling his law in your place. Jesus can free you from the harsh penalty that the law sends down, but he does then command you to go and sin no more. You're not free to go and sin as you please. You're free and empowered to go and obey the law from a pure and new heart. You're free to live a righteous life in Christ Jesus. Make no mistake, you cannot repent before coming to Christ. You have to come to him like this woman in adultery, caught in the very act, filthy, unworthy, still in your sins. But if you come to Christ in faith, believing that He's the Son of God, then you will repent. It will be a slow, imperfect, and at times painful repentance, but it will be real. Real repentance is not just a desire not to be condemned, but it is a change of heart, mind, and actions. This is different than just being pricked in your conscience. There'll be many people who get sent to hell who were pricked in their conscience, but who slunk away in shame instead of standing up and looking at Christ in the face and asking for mercy. The scribes and Pharisees, they felt bad for their sins. They even stopped one sin in the middle of it. They left off this particular crime of trying to trick Jesus and kill this woman. But did they truly repent? It seems very unlikely. True repentance is the only right response to being convicted of sin. Cry out to God for mercy and ask that he would grant grace. And then ask again and again and again. Just like every week we have confession of sin. As Martin Luther wrote, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, repent, he willed the entire lives of believers to be one of repentance. So all of us every day should pray, Lord, help me repent. When our conscience again brings us before the judgment seat of the law of God, we should look to Christ and remember the words, who can bring a charge against God's elect? There is no condemnation left for me. I'm covered by the blood of Christ. He took it all. And then we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, trusting that it is God who works within us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. We must strive with everything in us to go and sin no more. Let's pray together. God, we thank you for your grace and your mercy. We thank you for the work of the law upon us. We thank you that you upheld the law at every moment of your life. And even today, you are a great law-upholding king. But God, we thank you that you are also a law-satisfying savior. God, that for those of us who are in Christ, the law does not condemn us eternally, but it is a beautiful lamp to light the way that our feet should walk so that we might go and sin no more. Thank you that you did not leave us without a revelation of how to do this. That you didn't say, go and sin no more, but leave us guessing as to what that meant. But you've given us clarity in your word. God, thank you for your love and your grace. In Christ's name, amen.