Mercy and Grace: The Woman Caught in Adultery

"Mercy and Grace: The Woman Caught in Adultery – Evening Service"

I bring you greetings in the name of our Lord. It's been our blessing to be in your midst, to worship with you, fellowship together with those of like minds, blessed part of the remnant. I invite you to turn in your New Testaments to John chapter 8. It was my goal today to highlight three personalities from the Gospel of John. We look first at Nicodemus, probably a very brilliant man, but lost, and then the Samaritan woman, despised by most of her neighbors, also lost, and now tonight another woman. John chapter 8, verses 1 through 11.

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 wrote 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.

Let's pray. Our Father, we thank thee for thyself. We thank thee that thou hast led skilled people to write beautiful Christian music, which encourages our hearts, lifts our spirits. We thank thee for what we've heard today. And now, Lord, as we turn to the Bible, we ask thy help, Lord. We pray that the Spirit of God again would be our teacher and that we could carry away from this service tonight valuable truths that would help us, comfort us, exhort us, and edify us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

For those who have a Bible based on the Westcott and Hort tradition, as you read this passage, they would be searching frantically. Where is he reading from? Because it's not there, unless it would be found in the lower part of the page of the apparatus. But the Westcott and Hort folks don't have this precious message. There's nothing quite like this story in any other gospel. I'm sorry, I forgot to turn this on. Oh, I did turn it on. Oh, I didn't see you over there.

This passage indicates the deplorable condition of Israel at this point in their history. Chapter one showed Israel ignorant of the forerunner, John the Baptist, and blind to his presence. Chapter two showed the joyless state of the nation and the desecration of the Father's house. And in chapter three, we see a prominent member of the Sanhedrin needing the new birth. Of course, that was Nicodemus. Chapter four revealed the callous indifference of the Lord towards, not of the Lord, but of the Jews toward their Gentile neighbors. That's concerning the woman of Samaria. Chapter five showed God's people represented as blind, halt, and withered. Chapter six revealed Israel is hungry, but with no appetite for the bread of life. Chapter seven, the Jewish leaders sent officers to arrest him, and they came back empty handed. Never man speak like this man. Chapter eight, Israel is represented as an unfruitful wife.

The Feast of Tabernacles was now over. If you recall from this morning, the Jews had seven festivals that they observed, three of which were called pilgrim festivals, mandatory attendance. That was Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. And the Feast of Tabernacles was now completing its observance there in the city. And now the Lord is ministering to the pilgrims who remained behind. Our Lord Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. He spent a lot of time in and around the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is made out of primarily Sinomanian limestone to the east of Jerusalem, about 200 feet above the city. Our Lord descended that mountain to enter Jerusalem beginning the last week of his life. Two days before his crucifixion, he gave what we call the Olivet Discourse for telling the destruction of Jerusalem and of the world. It's also found in the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The traditional place of the Garden of Gethsemane was on the western slope of the Mount of Olives. And after the resurrection, he ascended from the Mount of Olives back to heaven, Acts chapter one, verse nine. And our Lord's second coming will be personal and visible. And he'll come to the Mount of Olives, according to Revelation 17 and Zechariah 14 4. In fact, as one of the battles of Armageddon will take place, the satanic forces are fighting the people of God and people are being slaughtered. And all of a sudden, here comes the Lord. And he descends upon the Mount of Olives and it splits in two from north to south. So rather exciting events still to take place in history. So the Mount of Olives figures prominently in our Lord's life and ministry.

He went into the Mount of Olives, as I said, and this was a part of his humiliation, because he had no home, as we said this morning. He spent the night in the open air, which he did more than once. We never hear of him spending a night in the city of Jerusalem. And verse two tells us that he came again into the temple. He began his day by seeking the blessing and the face of Almighty God. Proverbs 8 17 says, they that seek me early shall find me. And all the people came unto him to the court of the Gentiles. The Temple Mount was very, very large. It could hold up to 75 to 80,000 people. That's how large it is. The court of the Gentiles is the outer court. There's four courts in the court on the Mount. The court of the Gentiles was the outer court. It was the only place the Gentiles could come. And so that's where the Lord taught because many of his listeners were Gentiles. And there would be a low fence going all the way around, kind of a semicircular way, with strategic signs on top of the fence every so often in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin saying these words. Any Gentile that crosses this barrier will be responsible for their death, which will quickly follow. That's quite a no trespassing sign. Next came the court of Israel. Excuse me, I got this in the wrong order. Next came the court of the women. Remember the poor widow who threw in her mites? That's where this was, the court of the women. That's where the poor box was, where she threw in those mites. Then thirdly the court of Israel, that's the court of the men, only men allowed. And then finally the court of the priests, that would be the place of the altar. So it was a very large place, an open place, and a lot of people coming and going on the Temple Mount. So he begins his day by seeking the face of God, and all the people came unto him. A lot of people left over from the Feast of Tabernacles were still in town, all with no distinction. The people listened to teachers of religion. He was now a famous teacher, so many were attracted to him. He sat down, that's what the teachers of that day did, they sat down when they taught. This was part of his condescension, that's his willingness for us to know the truth.

Now beginning in verse three, going on through the first part of verse six, we see these religious, we ought to have someone play some minor music, minor key music, sinister things are happening now in the background. These religious rulers show up. Verse three were introduced to the scribes and the Pharisees. This is the only time that the scribes are mentioned in the Gospel of John. They had failed in their attempt to arrest him back in chapter seven and verse 45, so they try another plan. They're trying to impale him on what we would call the horns of a dilemma, so that no matter what he would say or do, he would be guilty. That's how devious minded they were. Now in verse three, here's their plans were being worked out. They brought a woman taken in adultery. This reveals to you how these leaders were crude and rude and brutal and gross and as the Lord is teaching the crowds, if you can imagine this large crowd within earshot of our Lord, in the back of the crowd in the outer perimeter, all of a sudden there's a commotion going on back there and people are turning around. They stop listening. What's going on back there at the edge of the crowd? And this great commotion breaks out and here comes these long-robed men dragging this fighting, kicking, screaming woman. She's disheveled. Her clothes are in disarray. She's defiant and says, let me go. Let go of me. They manhandle her right to the front of the crowd, right in the midst, right in front of the Lord Jesus. Now if you can imagine this poor woman, she's in the state of mortified shock after her secret tryst with her lover was so cruelly interrupted. As I'm sure pastor would attest, not every service will proceed without interruption and that was certainly true here. So the scribes and the Pharisees said, master, this woman was taken in adultery. Now first of all we need to know that a warning was first required before action was taken in a case like this. So this again has the outer attraction of evidence of being in a trap. Why wasn't the man brought also? I mean that's pretty obvious here because Jesus is the only one that was brought. And women caught in adultery were not normally brought to the Lord but this act says something about the course brutality of these men. And they use this woman as what you and I would call an expendable pawn. They're publicly humiliating her for their own purposes, their own designs to get at the Lord Jesus. So the crowd would have no respect for her humiliation, her mortified shock of all these things that are happening to her. So if you can imagine your mind's eye, there's a large multitude listening to the Lord and so this wasn't taking place in a corner somewhere. So people are craning their necks to see her, they're leering at this poor woman. She's just, that adds to her mortification.

Now in 1 John chapter 4, excuse me, chapter 1 in verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. What would the Lord see? What would the world see if suddenly the covers were pulled off of our life and our secrets were revealed publicly? In fact the Lord could do that anytime he chose if he wanted. He could pull back the covers and shine the light of day on our wicked sin anytime he chooses. I already quoted to you this morning that passage from Solomon, Ecclesiastes, there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not, that were just means righteous, righteous people sin. So here she is being embarrassed, humiliated, and now normally this is the seventh commandments being violated here, this now should not commit adultery. And you can imagine with the teeming crowds in that city, things like this would have actually happened with regularity. So it's surely possible with all these large groups of people that, and some historians say as many as two million, I find that hard to believe but that's what they claim.

Now Moses, verse 5, Moses commanded such to be stoned. So they bring up two key Old Testament texts. Leviticus 20 and verse 10, and the man that comitteth adultery with another man's wife, even he that comitteth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulterer shall surely be put to death. And the second text would be found in Deuteronomy chapter 22, verses 22 through 24, if a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman and the woman, so shall thou put away evil from Israel. So the Old Testament law did in fact require stoning to death. Now verse 5, these religious leaders, but what sayest thou? So look at their trap. If you say stone her, then how can you say you're here to seek and save that which is lost? You'd be no friend of sinners if you say to stoner. If you let her go, you're compromising with sin and violating God's thrice holy law. Now the Pharisees were especially hostile because the Lord had said previously, publicans and harlots would enter the kingdom of God before the Pharisees. Ooh, they had never forgot that one, Matthew 21 verse 31. But this they said, verse 6, tempting him. And entrapment was one of their favorite weapons. Should we pay taxes to Caesar? Well, give to God what's God's and to Caesar what's Caesar's. What's the greatest commandment? Lord, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself. And then the Sadducees arrived and they gave this ridiculous story of this woman who married one brother. And according to Levirate law, since her husband died, her first husband, she had to marry his next oldest brother. And if they had a child that would be reckoned to the dead husband. Well, the story they gave, this convoluted story, she did this seven times because he had seven brothers all told. So in heaven in the resurrection, because they didn't leave the resurrection. Whose husband she had, because she had all seven. And then he explained, well, in heaven, there's no such thing as marriage. They're like the angels in heaven. So over and over again, he just shut their mouths. They couldn't get the better of him. So if the Lord were lenient in this case, he would alienate the legalists. If he ordered the death penalty, he would alienate those who were opposed to the death penalty. And there were those in that day that were alienated by that. These men could care less for this woman or for her sin. They weren't mortified or shocked by her conduct. They were not grieved at the law of God being broken. They were using her to take advantage of her to exploit this woman to further their designs against the Lord Jesus. They were cold-blooded, surfeited, jaded men using the guilt of their captive to get at Christ.

Well, let's see what the Lord does beginning the last part of verse six, dealing with these religious leaders. But Jesus did an unusual thing. He stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground. Now look at the symbolism of this act. Our Lord refuses to answer your questions. Their hypocritical question, as it were, deserves no answer. In essence, he's dismissing the case. Now, this is an important question. When did the Lord previously write with his finger? When he wrote the Ten Commandments, Exodus 31, 18. The stone table of the law came from the ground. And you remind me of the law I came to fulfill. He wrote the seventh commandment. Now, the first table of law was broken by Moses as he came down from the mountains. All the wickedness taking place in the camp. He was so enraged, he broke the table of law. But then the second table of law, he wrote that one, too. So our Lord refuses to join the accusers of this woman.

I'm sure you would agree that there's more written about Jesus Christ than any other man in human history. And yet, as far as I know, no one knows what he wrote on the ground. Unless you do, pastor. I've asked a lot of men with gray hair that they don't know what he wrote on the ground. We just don't know for certain what he wrote.

So when they continued asking him, verse seven, they mistook his silence. He's embarrassed. He doesn't know what to say. We've got him. This time it's working. We've got him this time. We've got him cornered. Nail him to the wall. Now, notice the tenacity and the persistency of these evildoers. And then our Lord, verse seven, raises up, said, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And I wish we could have had the opportunity of being there to observe this and hear this, because all of a sudden this raucous, loud crowd jeering at the Lord, it starts to decrease and diminish. And there's a silence, uncharacteristic silence, that fell on all these accusers and the crowd around them.

Now, notice that the Lord Jesus didn't condemn the woman. He didn't condone the woman. But what did he do? He sent each and every one of those men to his own private mind, heart, and conscience. That's what he did. In other words, I declined to judge. You know the law. It requires an innocent executioner. Do you qualify? So he leaves that pregnant question hanging in the air and turns on the questioners. Search your own hearts. What has your history been? What about your secret sins, as much as to say, what does the Lord see in your life? He's referring to Deuteronomy 17, seven. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people, so shall thou put evil away from among you. And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground, as if to say, I've given my sentence, now what are you going to do about this? And out of disgust and dislike for them and their tactics, he wouldn't in any way approve of their evil machinations, their ungodly wickedness.

Now think about what we've just covered. The first table of the law, as I said, was broken by Moses. The second was written and put under the mercy seat. That's crucial. Exodus 40, 20, and he took and put the testimony into the ark and the staves in the ark and put the mercy seat above upon the ark. That is how he could save those who were condemned. The law wasn't set aside. The law was established. The shed blood of an innocent substitute would come between the law and the one that it condemned. So God's magnanimous mercy prevented wholesale slaughter. Now verse nine, being convicted by their own conscience, they went out one by one, beginning at the eldest. These men had thought, finally, we've got him. He can't get out of this one. Instead, it's holy, pure, white of the law was turned on them. Romans 2 22, thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? And when the Lord turns the searing, searching white light of the law on our hearts, our moral and spiritual wretchedness is really revealed in a transparent way and our mouths are shut with shame. Now petty, ordinary sin probably wouldn't produce this kind of an effect. If they ate too many sardines their previous week, that's probably not the problem. But breaking the seventh commandment brings with it a sense of shame and mortification. This is a deed of shame done in darkness usually, done in secret, and the perpetrator dreads the light of discovery. And suddenly, they didn't expect this. In a startling way, these men were taken out of the stone throwing business. And if you were looking at that crowd, you could probably see a whole bunch of stones that, you know, a couple of them are probably throwing the stone up and down. Suddenly it's gone into their pocket. Now it's no longer in view.

Now what did he write? Well, since no one could tell me, I went to my library, consulted some of the old preachers of history. And here's some of their possible suggestions. An old Pharisee had a girlfriend in Rome that no one knew about. And suddenly he saw her name written on the ground. A scribe liked to make business trips to Ephesus where much sin could be practiced in secret where no one would know him. And suddenly he saw a familiar address. A religious teacher had gotten a girl pregnant and no one knew. And suddenly he saw her name written. And we suddenly hear these kinds of statements from the crowd. You just barely hear them. I forgot. I'm late for an appointment. You take over. I've got a migraine. I've got to go. Jacob, we've got him now. Jacob? Where's Jacob? I'm having chest pains. Psalm 90 verse 8. Thou has set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. And may I say, my friends, secret sin on earth is open scandal in the third heaven. Could this be how something, how it's going to be at the judgment of our God, where we will be speechless as our record is displayed in a public way? He was fallen and wicked as man has become. He still has a conscience. Now that conscience might be calloused and seared and wounded, but it still operates. And our conscience has a sense of right and wrong. It is power to accuse, to prick, to witness, to trouble, to shame, to convict. One can be profoundly troubled by one's conscience and the Holy Spirit and still reject Christ. That's all hard hearts can become. These men refuse to throw themselves at the Savior's feet and say something like this, I'm more guilty than that woman. So they left and rejected Christ even though they were smitten with shame and their troubled conscience for their own lawless behavior.

Now notice Christ had not denied the law, nor had he condoned the woman's sin. And then notice this phrase, beginning at the eldest. The older one gets, the one that one realizes the virulent plague of our heart, the weakness of our flesh, the scandalous history of our past. The older ones have a greater number of sins in their memory. The younger ones are not always sensible and conscious of that. They're more foolish. It takes a lot for them to see how wicked they are. And as it ends up here, Jesus was left alone, it says, with the woman standing. All the religious rulers had fled under the weight and the onslaught of their conscience. Now here's the Lord Jesus with this woman, and if there is anything left there over the crowd, they're not saying anything, they're hushed, wondering, diminished crowd. You could have heard a shekel drop.

Now he deals with the woman, beginning at verse 10. Where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? We're not told in the text how long this pause was. It could have been several minutes. All the accusers were gone, and may I say it this way, they were conspicuous in their absence, leaving only the curious and silent diminished crowd watching from the sidelines. And here she was, a condemned, accused adulterous, but, important but, she was still at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, as he receives a gracious word from him. And deliverance came because she stayed in the role and the posture of condemnation. Her head was hanging in hopelessness at the feet of Christ. Good place to be. Now Lord's question of her was not only for her, but any of the remaining crowd around that could hear his voice. Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.

Now you're here as experienced Christians for the most part, and if the Lord gives you the privilege of helping some cast down sinner, may I suggest that you handle them gently. They're already broken. Mercy and grace are so absolute and free that even though she's condemned, she's suddenly changed. Now the Lord doesn't ask, are you guilty? Nor does he excuse her. She is guilty, but she's clear of punishment. Now the Lord knew she was repentant. Now how does he know that she was repentant? Because remember chapter 2 and verse 24 and 25, he knew what was in man. So he knew her heart. She didn't run like a deer when her accusers left. She didn't seize that opportunity. She stayed right there in front of the Lord. He didn't accuse her. He didn't rail on her, nor did he excuse her behavior. He implied she was guilty, but she was free of judgment and punishment. Neither do I condemn thee. And if you're a Bible student, here's the unspoken truth. I will die in your place. Go and sin no more. Go and sin no more.

And these are still his orders to those who are saved by grace. This illustrates the nature of true repentance. What's that? Forsaking sin. Feeling, talking, professing, wishing, meaning, hoping, resolving is all worthless in God's sight. Until a person ceases to do evil in turn from their sin, they're unrepentant. It's not just less pornography this week than last. It's not just less adultery this week than last. Sin no more, no matter what kind. John the Baptist, that hirsute man from the wilderness, bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance. So if you take the place of the guilty, condemned sinner and outcast, you will be received. Are you as guilty as this woman? Luke 15, are you as lost as the sheep, the silver, the sun? There are wicked individuals who can quote the scripture to further their own evil designs, and this is an uncomfortable truth. But Bible coders are not always lovers of God and his word. Those who quote scripture to condemn others might be the guiltiest of all.

And here's a profound and monumental moral problem. This is kind of a spiritual Gordian knot. How can justice and mercy be harmonized? Righteousness demands punishment of transgression and the transgressor. Holiness burns against evil, can't endure evil. So how can mercy operate when the sword of justice bars her way? How can grace flow without offending holiness? My friends, our only hope is mercy. Our salvation is only possible by grace. God has found a way for his banished one to be restored. And here in this very precious story, a guilty sinner left his presence uncondemned. She received mercy, but not at the expense of justice. Romans 1 17, this is why the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. And this illustration of this incident from John 1 17, the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. His grace never conflicts with his law and upholds its authority. These scribes and Pharisees were representative of Israel as a nation, an evil and adulterous generation, blinded by their own self-righteousness. The Lord wasn't easy on sin. He had to die for our sin. Forgiveness is free, but it's not cheap. He came at a tremendous, inconceivable cost to the Lord of glory. There are some who conceal or hide their own sin by their zeal and condemning others. Here they were applying the law to the woman and not to themselves. The law was given to reveal sin. Romans 3 10, we must be condemned by the law before we can be cleansed by God's grace. And no one has ever been saved without first being indicted by the law. There has to be conviction before conversion. One is not lost because they lie, cheat, steal, they're immoral, they're involved in pornography, etc. One does those things because they're lost and they're not trusting in Christ. I'm glad for the fact, the truth, our Lord came to save the most wretched sinner. And the question for all of us after reading this very dramatic story is, would we cast ourself at his feet for mercy?

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this very dramatic story and the precious truth that it teaches our hearts, our minds, our souls of the mercy and grace of God. How we thank you that there are a loving Lord willing to forgive a penitent sinner Lord, forgive us all, even for our secret sins. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.