So, today I invite you to turn to John chapter 8, John chapter 8. And as you're turning there, you'll notice here in your Bibles that, at least if you have the Bible that I have, it says the earliest manuscripts do not include 753 through 8, 11. I'm sure all of you have something bracketed like that. And it was, I gave serious reflection and reading to this this week. It doesn't fit here. The reality is, is that if you read from verse 52 and skip what is bracketed and pick up at 12, you have continuity of thought. You don't have it with this here in this particular section. So it's caused a lot of challenges. You know, what do we do with this? Some of the best and earliest manuscripts don't have it. And I think it's clear, at least in terms of its internal witness here and testimony, internally and externally, that this is not what we call Johannine. This is not from John. And I think that's important to say. This was included in other places. You found it included in different places, such as Luke. In fact, it's most consistent with the language of Luke. but as you go on and study it's interesting to listen to the scholars on this this has not been judged or taken out in all the printings of scripture it's been left in it's historicity and veracity Metzger, one of the great scholars on the subject even says it has the earmark of historical veracity F.F. Bruce said these 12 verses constitute in fact a fragment of authentic gospel material not originally included in the four gospels D.A. Carson says here there's little reason for doubting that this account did not belong in the canonical books, consistent with the structure and vocabulary of Luke. And from a historical perspective, it was quoted a lot in the early church, present in manuscripts from the 4th century. Metzger also makes a note that asceticism would have never made or accepted a text like this. Papias from the first century, the bishop of Heropolis, quotes from it. Augustine used it heavily in his teaching. It's the Manichaeans. It has all the earmarks of being apostolic, orthodox, historically accurate, theologically accurate, as you're going to see. And so I believe what we have here is an inspired text inserted into an inspired text. That's my position. Some of the scholars here may not agree, but I have other scholars to throw at them. So they can debate that. All they want to debate, I really don't care at this point. I believe this is given for the benefit of the church. And as a communion Sunday and a communion meditation, I think it's incredibly helpful. And I think you'll see that this morning. So we are going to consider John 7.53 through 8.11. And I will read those verses. They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. early in the morning, he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do you say? This they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. As they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go and follow now on sin. From now on, sin no more. And there will end the reading. And I should say, in addition to what I just said, what a comfort that we have a confidence that we have the Word of God given to us in these inspired texts and that at times copyists had challenges, just like any copyist, but we can be confident that we have the Word of God and there's only a few texts like this that bring it into question and we have a lot of testimony from the history of the church. So in that confidence today, I'm preaching a message about no condemnation. It's taken right out of Romans chapter 8 that I read today, that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What a glorious statement and something that I think we need a lot of help to appreciate and something that we need a lot of help to understand for this is a great struggle for us because of sin. Our consciences, and we'll see in this passage that issue is raised, but our consciences are often troubled because of sin. Our consciences, when we do the things that we're shamed to do, and by the way, anyone is here, I I remember going initially into the ministry years ago, and one of my mentor pastors said, Pastor, he said, Chris, he says, don't ever be surprised by the sins of your people. You could do the very same things. The worst expressions of sin that we see in society, you could do, and you could do it as a Christian. This is a reality. This is how deceptive sin is. This is how powerful sin is. And we have a passage here today that is incredibly balanced, if you will, in dealing with, consistent with everything Jesus did, in dealing with sin and calling people to repentance. And what a beautiful passage then to think about as we come to the table. You'll notice in verse 3 that we read, the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. in the very act. Moses in the law commanded us to stone such a woman. What do you say? Where are you on this issue? What ought we to do with her? So this is consistent, especially with Luke, that you'd have this catching of a trap, you'd have this challenge that is given to Jesus, And then, of course, usually around the law or the Torah, some issue with the Torah, and then Jesus would deal with it in his great wisdom. But I want you to just imagine the scene here for a moment as we consider it this morning. Jesus is in the temple. The multitudes are around him. He's sitting and teaching, as was the custom of the day. And here come the scribes and the Pharisees, the powerful, we know, religious leaders of the day, have come to Jesus, and classic, they want to get him. it reads here, they literally set her in the middle of them. What an awful scene. You have a grand circle that has formed, and in the middle, Jesus, right in front of them, has set before him this woman who has been caught in the act of adultery. The Pharisees have handcuffed her. The Pharisees have grabbed her. They have arrested her. And they have brought her with this great claim, we caught her in the act. The accusation is somewhat suspicious, isn't it? Somewhat suspicious. In rabbinic tradition, you'll notice here, it was nearly impossible to really have ever occurred because almost no one really got the death penalty for it because you had to catch the person in the act. So they have said, we got her. We got her. The law demanded that there be two or three first-hand witnesses who had actually first-hand observed the act occurring. So they're saying, we caught her, we got her. Now what? It's an interesting moment here in the ministry of Jesus. It was a rare thing. But what's suspicious is that she's alone. What's interesting is that she's alone. Adultery takes two. If this adulterous act was committed and witnessed by two or three first-hand witnesses, where's the man? Where's the man? It would seem grossly inconsistent here to do this to this woman and not bring the man when the law actually demanded that both be brought forward. Another interesting thing that has an earmark of, you might say, veracity of the legitimacy of this text. How in the world did they have two or three firsthand witnesses who saw the act, and then they only bring the woman in front? It's such an interesting moment to study and reflect upon. We get a sense of the conspiracy in verse 6. They said this, testing him, that they might have something with which they could accuse him. This was their great opportunity. It's one of the greatest setups, really, in the New Testament against Jesus. The whole thing seems premeditated and set up with one purpose. it is actually to condemn not so much the woman, but to condemn Jesus for his ministry and for his message. The thing that's heartbreaking here is just how little care there is for this woman. How little care there is for Jesus. She's being used. Her life meant absolutely nothing to them. Shouldn't it be that there would be some kind of care to help somebody who is in sin And all she is, is the object of scorn with the goal of condemning Jesus himself. So that's what they're interested in doing. And they say, they make the great claim, we're first-hand witnesses. We caught her. Moses said that she should be stoned. What do you say? We want to know. Mosaic law was very clear in Leviticus 20, verse 10. If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. That's quite a moment, isn't it? Both of them. Now, most likely this would have been done by means of stoning. Deuteronomy 22, 23 is probably more on target in light of this circumstance, which reads, If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out of the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones. The young woman, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he humbled his neighbor's wife, so you shall put away the evil from among you. So what you most likely have here is a woman, albeit consenting, guilty as she was, she was, as women were used and abused in this society, seduced, betrayed, scorned, and used as an object, and now she stands alone in the middle of the temple and is brought to Jesus to find out what this great rabbi is going to say about her destiny. What a terrible scene. What a scene, really, that takes a moment to ponder and think about. Moses says, kill her. What do you say? Moses says she's done. And here we come to the heart of it. If Jesus really does, if he rejects the Mosaic law and he condemns, they can finally get him as a breaker of Moses, as a despiser of the law of God. But they know too that Roman law would not just allow the Jews to go on and stone somebody. They were handcuffed with regard to this. So here's the trap. he would then stand, if he said it, they could use it to get him against and to go against Rome, civil law. The larger trap here is the conundrum of the law itself that I think is important to say. One of the reasons I love the passage is because it's not new to the Bible. This is not new to the Bible. This very scenario was presented to God years ago. This is not made up, in fact, an important figure was placed right in front and center before God, who had committed the very same act, David and Bathsheba. Same thing. The same thing had happened. He was caught in an act of adultery. He was caught, and so was Bathsheba. And the sins he had committed here with the law of Moses, the amazing thing to think about with regard to the law of Moses is, in this case, where did it provide an avenue for forgiveness? The law made no provision for David, in this case, to be forgiven of that sin. What he did with then murdering Uriah, and then setting up the situation in lust, and going after Bathsheba, then putting Uriah on the front line, and doing this was all punishable by death. And the law of Moses, none of the sacrifices he could bring, what would render forgiveness? He was to be stoned. The death penalty was before David. Now, did the Pharisees ever consider the gospel? That's the question. Had the Pharisees ever considered it? Because David wasn't stoned. How did David escape? And you'll remember the story when Nathan came and told the story of the man who had one little ewe lamb and some rich man came and stole that lamb and took that lamb. And you remember what happened? It infuriated David. Furious was David. Who would do such a thing? Who would do such a thing? You. I've always been amazing to me. The great King David couldn't even see that he was in adultery. Really shows how powerful the sin is, doesn't it? Really shows how powerful it can grip the human heart and take somebody away. They didn't even see it. Imagine the thought, we are forcing Jesus to rightly apply the law. Let's see him get out of this one. Who calls people to come to him and he sits with tax collectors and sinners. Has he really listened to the law? Has he really dealt with the law? Let's put the guilty in front of him. Which, by the way, there was other scenes throughout the Old Testament of the same thing with Zachariah the priest when Satan came to accuse him with all of his filthy garments on. So the question really does get to the heart of the Christian gospel here. That's why it's such an important thing to consider. It really does. This issue gets to the heart of the Christian gospel. Can God justify the wicked? Does God justify the wicked? How can he do it? Really, how can he do it? And what a scenario, what a case could we put before him that would be the worst sins of society that we could put up and put somebody right in front of the Lord in his tribunal? How could God ever, holy, pure, just, righteous, good God, how could he ever let that go? Does he? It's really a great problem here. Then I think of that question, can God justify the ungodly in the last minutes of life? I often think of the workers in the vineyard. Remember that story, boys and girls? Workers in the vineyard, some were in early working their whole time in the kingdom and they had always been in the house and they didn't really know the owner of the vineyard. But then there were some who came in at the last minute and the owner of the vineyard gave them the same, same gift. Remember how mad the first ones were? It's this moment here. How can Jesus do this? We know what you claim to be. We know what you're saying. How can you justify the ungodly adulterous when you know what the law says? And this is the conundrum. Adultery, when you read about the consequences of it, one of the worst sins. It's totally destructive to the family. It's the most selfish thing to do. Many of you will be tempted with it in the course of your lifetime. Read of the consequences. If you don't think it's playing with fire, look at what happened to David. Look at all that he lost and look at all that he suffered. and the pain that you cause to others for a lie, for a lie. The irony is the Pharisees committed it all the time. The Pharisees committed it all the time. There was a reason Jesus gave extensive teaching on this commandment in the Sermon on the Mount. He was going right after the jugular saying, I know what you guys are doing. You just didn't get caught. By the world. From their standpoint, Jesus has claimed too much. He has claimed forgiveness of sins. He has claimed to be compassionate. He's eaten with tax collectors and sinners. But the law commands death. What does Jesus do? Stoops down. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger as though he did not hear. It's quite a moment here. that it says that in verse 6. He bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. I have no idea what he wrote. I don't think it's wise to speculate. But I know this, there's only one other time as far as I know that the finger of God was used and it was to write the law. And what an interesting moment. Exodus 3, 31. And when he had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone. Who gave it? Jesus. Written with the finger of God. Am I so off to say that the finger of God is here then communicating that he's the lawgiver? It's my feeling that when he did this, he was communicating very clearly to them that he was the one who had given the law on Sinai. And the law was given for one great purpose. This is what Paul has been saying in the book of Romans, and this is what Paul says in the New Testament all the time. The law was added in the book of Galatians for transgressions because nobody saw the sinfulness of sins. The law has made it very clear that everyone's guilty, that no one can meet the standard. Everyone's missed the mark. Every one of you has something going on in your lives, even if you see it or not, that has by far missed the mark. Verse 7 comes the jolting statement. So when they had continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. That's just really a brilliant response. It's just really a brilliant response. Deuteronomy 17. The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death. And afterwards, the hands of all the people, so you shall put the evil away from among you. Look, if you believe you're without sin, I want you to go ahead, you know the law, and grab the stone. Because the law says you should do it. are you without sin? It's a Romans 2 moment is what you have to understand. It's Romans 2 which says, you who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? Jesus is reading the heart. Jesus is seeing their life. Jesus is looking at the accusers. Now, I of course have to qualify at a moment like this when you're preaching a passage like this because the Bible calls us always to make righteous judgments, to fall into the modern error that nobody can ever make a judgment, and when we hear that statement, don't judge me, that is some of the worst response. If anyone ever came to you and had the love to come to point out sin in your life, and did it properly, and came and said, you know, I'm seeing something, if you pull this, you are in complete darkness, and get angry. That is not what's going on here. That's love. And that's the voice to receive. And that's the kind of thing we should do for one another if we love them instead of letting people go on in sin, that grace may abound. The context here is the worst kind of hypocrisy on the pages of Scripture. He knows they're trying to catch him in a trap. And when he sees their whole life, that's the issue here. He sees their whole life. He sees what they're doing. And he knows their hearts are full of wickedness that they refuse to see themselves. You want to play with the law? The attitude behind this is that of the older prodigal. You remember, I've always been in the house. That younger prodigal ran off. How dare you put your cloak on him? How dare you? Think about the scenario. Have any of you had a brother or sister, maybe a parent, living in a moral, perverse life, done something terrible? If Jesus forgives and gave the same inheritance to them as he gives to you, how would you feel? See the conundrum of this. See the weight of this text. Have you sinned? Have you sinned? And I believe it's the crucial point of the text. Immediately he exposes their hypocrisy with the law. And in verse 7 calls all of them to see what they're refusing to see of themselves. He takes his finger and he says, I could write down everything that you've done against the law. Here's the crucial point to the sermon. Cast the stone. And then in verse 8, and again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. What did he write a second time? I have no idea. But might it be the Lord merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and compassion, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty. Huh. Who's the guilty? He has abundantly forgiven. He has forgiven your sins. but if in hypocrisy we refuse to have our own sin dealt with what a terrible thing to erase the sins of others you see the mercy of God is held out to those who come to him the mercy of God is held out to those who come to him for life and probably the most chilling verse of the passage really in verse 9 is in those who when they heard it went away one by one beginning with the older ones and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. They had heard his teaching there had been a circle around him but now that the law giver, the law giver is standing here now they are forced to make a decision. Will they join the woman in the middle of the square in the circle? Or will they walk away? What a great moment to talk about gospel response. What a great moment to think about real response to Jesus as he reads the law to us and confesses. And maybe we have people in our families who've done bad things. And listen, especially with the sin of adultery, it's just destructive. David, Nathan, you're the man, David. You're the man. and David said, I've sinned. I've sinned against the Lord. The most surprising thing happens here. What would we expect? We read that they're here convicted in conscience, really, as they're wrestling with this, but then Jesus raises himself up and sees no one but the woman standing right in front of him. Woman, where are these accusers? Where are these accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? No one, Lord. I couldn't help but to think of Romans 8 in this context. How much this so fits the scripture. Who can bring a charge against God's elect? Really. Who can bring a charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies. Who is he to condemn? It's Christ who died. And furthermore, is also risen, who's even at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us. And this is why I was so convinced by it, the testimony of it. The Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. And that's the heart of this passage. The irony is, they set her up in the best possible place she could be. That's the irony of the text. They brought her and put her in the best possible place. They put her before, as John said, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Let me ask a sincere question today, a question that I think is all important in light of this passage. There's too many people in the Gospels playing fast and loose with Jesus. There's too many people who are just thinking of it as a game and have not come to him for life. And it leads me to ask, it leads all of us to ask, has our sin been dealt with? Has our sin been dealt with? What is your status before God right now? Have you been justified by faith? Have you come to him? What does your life really show? Notice here, Jesus is quick to call her to repentance. This was not just cheap grace. Jesus was not an antinomian. Jesus concludes with something very powerful. Anyone condemned you? No. I'm not condemning you. Go and sin no more. Turn from that. Turn from it. Leave it. Run away from it. Jesus doesn't condone her action at all. Jesus doesn't give her place to continue in it. He clearly recognized she was guilty as an adulteress, but the command he gives to those who've truly been washed, redeemed, and justified and sanctified is to now walk in the newness of life. And we need his grace and strength to do that. We need his help to do that. This is the whole perspective of Christianity. This is the whole perspective of life. Likewise, you reckon yourselves indeed dead to sin now, but alive to God in Christ. That's what I've done, says Jesus, in coming to die to give you liberation and freedom. To no longer be mastered by these things. And when you sin, when you struggle, which you all will, you get up and you come back to the throne of grace. That's what this is about. That's why we're here today. He's going to set a table in front of you. He has spread a table in front of you to declare this. This table is not for the Pharisees. You understand that? This table is not for those who self-righteously think they're doing great and don't need a savior. This table's for the adulterous. This table's for the sinners. This table's for the broken. This table's for messed up people whom God is in the business of changing their lives. Isn't that wonderful? That's what the Christian gospel's all about. And that's what the beauty of this text is saying to us. The Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Are you one of those that has been saved? If you've believed the gospel, look to Christ and trust it in him. Come, partake today. This is for you. It's an announcement to you that I do not condemn you, says the Lord. Let's pray to him today. Heavenly Father, thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your word to us. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you for a testimony here that is so consistent with everything in Scripture. It's clearly apostolic. To receive that apostolic tradition is important. So we ask, Lord, that we would come with believing hearts today. And that any of us who have played with sin, struggled with it, which we all do. Right now, we repent. We take it seriously in our life. Give us the grace to change. Most of all, O Lord, let us hear these beautiful words that when we put our trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is there to condemn? It is God who justifies the wicked of which we are. Thank you for your steadfast love. And thank you for the gospel of grace. In Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen.