see that we have a new passage before us today and I want to address this. This is one of the only places in the ESA Bible where you have the 53 of chapter 7 after the 8 of chapter 8. And so I want you to notice, let's just take a moment It's easy to just kind of lull through this and not really process this, but I want you to notice the end of verse 52, they reply, going from Galilee to surgency, the non-prophet arises from Galilee, and then we come to a unique passage in the book of John. chapter 7 verse 53 through chapter 8 verse 11 and there's a more extensive footnote there that I'll be referring to in my sermon today and then we have the passage that we're looking at is these next there, they went each to his own house. Depending on whether or not this is in there, and particularly where it is, that may have a slightly different meaning. But today we're dealing with this encounter that Jesus has 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 sat down and taught them. 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. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say? This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. 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 for it. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, sin no more. This is the word of God. Can you imagine what a relief it is after the whole trial has been conducted? To hear the judge say, the verdict is not guilty, and they always have to have their little hammer there, and they have to wrap it, and that makes it official. Not guilty. You're free to go. Or imagine, perhaps a little more contemporaneously in our society today, Having had your lawyer and all the expenses of a lawyer, and now you've made your case why you, in fact, are not guilty to a jury. And then the jury goes off, and perhaps for days, deliberates. And then they come back, and with all the emotion in the room, the judge asks the juror, have you reached a decision? I want you to know that I want you to know that I want you to know that I want you to indeed a fascinating text. It raises important questions about God's law, about how believers both at that time back then and now today ought to relate to the law of God, and our desperate need for mercy in light of God's holiness. Wrestle with the fine line that Jesus walked and the scrupulous standard he set for judges who would render or execute justice. What a relief for a sinful woman to hear those amazing words from the Messiah himself, neither do I condemn you. So our first point today is the setting in text and temple. In order to understand this very brief account, I want you to notice how brief this account in fact is. It's important that we remember the context in which we're dealing. So first of all, the setting in the text. We have before us today a text, and I want to just be very transparent about this. This is one of, I would say, probably 10 to 20 different texts in the whole of the Bible, where there's a question. We don't know exactly how this text fits with the original of the Book of John. And so notice it says in the ESV again that I'm working from, the earliest manuscripts do not include this passage. So one approach to this text is to say, ah, see, people are adding to the Bible. And I want to just suggest to you that there are any number of ways that this text even Even if verses 1 and verse 53 through verse 11 were not included in John's original, then this could have been inserted by John even, or perhaps by a friend who had known this lady and had written down an account wanted to be sure that that was included. This could be edition number two of the Book of John with additional information brought to light by the Holy Spirit. There's nothing wrong in saying that, oh yeah, there was some other authentic information added. But I do want you to notice there that this passage begins with a reference to people leaving to, quote, go to their own homes. And after that, well, and then you'll see down in the footnote at the bottom of that page, some manuscripts do not include this passage. So some would jump from verse 52 over to verse 12. would add the passage here, or there's another text that adds this passage after verse 36. And so I want you to see that there's two things going on here. The first is, is where does this passage fit chronologically? Because that's actually important. And that may be why the text got moved around some. Or, It may be that this was a later edition. And so you'll notice here that other texts add this passage after chapter 21, verse 25. That is, it's like an addendum at the end of the Book of John. That's interesting. There's actually one text that even concludes this passage over in Luke 21. And again, I'm persuaded that what's going on here is this is a legitimate story, this is an eyewitness account, probably from someone who interviewed this lady, that they really wanted to add. And so the question was, where did it go? And so, verse 53 actually becomes quite important. What does it mean they went each to his own house? I'll point out back in verse 37 that it was the last great day of the feast when Jesus stood up, this was our text last week, and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. This was the end of the feast, so then verse 53 would mean then the feast was over and everyone returned to their own place in Israel. The feast was over, but Jesus stayed at Mount Olives, possibly at the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and then after the feast, he came into the temple, in which case there would have been far fewer people. And now this is not nearly as big an event. But if this passage is included after chapter 7, verse 36, go back into chapter 7, and you'll see that this would be right in the middle of the feast. And so part of what I want you to see here is I'm persuaded that this is a legitimate, authorized text Possibly written by John, possibly added with John's approval to his gospel. This is the only place we have such a text in the book of John. So I want us to be aware today that there are some who would not regard this passage as the Word of God. But I don't see anything in the text that is in any way inconsistent with all the rest of the testimony of the Bible. The second thing is that I want us to see that this is also, it's important that we recognize where this is in the temple. It says, verse 2, chapter 8, verse 2, early in the morning he came again to the temple. And so everything that's occurring here is in that great big court that is the second temple. Remember that up on the tops of the porticoes around the temple court were those wolf soldiers standing guard looking down. prepared to come down and enforce order in the temple if things got out of hand. These kinds of controversies, it turns out, historically were not that unusual in the temple. There were often those who were trying to get the people all whipped up so they could overthrow their Roman oppressors. There were those who would come and claim the ability to do miracles. There were those who were insistent on applying the law of God in a, quote, pure way in the time and place where they lived. These kinds of questions that Christians also wrestled with were nothing new even in Jesus' day. And so I want us to see that Jesus is sitting there. It says he sat down. We were talking about this in the men's class this morning. He sat down and he was teaching them. And suddenly, there's a ruckus. And then all of these men in their rich, royal robes, the scribes and the Pharisees, came pushing through. And they came up to Jesus. And they said, and they brought with them, and again, can you see this? Dragging with them this poor woman, It's enough that she's been caught in a vulture, she's been caught in sin. But now they have thrust the woman into Jesus' very presence. This ought to give us pause. Point number two is the sinner and the Sinai threat. I want us to see and I want us to remember that the punishment prescribed in the Mosaic Law, let me back up, that the Mosaic Law tells us very simply in the Seventh Commandment. What does the Seventh Commandment say? You shall not commit adultery. Okay, good. So, I just want people to know there are some EMTs here. This is for parents. in the library in the back, and he's okay. So I just want everybody to know that. That's always the sign for your website. So I want us to see and to wrestle with. Now, here we have the Messiah God. Jesus is the mediator of the covenant of grace. So it's not inappropriate for us to say that Jesus came down on Mount Sinai. gave his law to Moses. That is, the eternal Son of God came as the mediator to give to the nations the law of God. That law says, do not commit adultery. That's the summary of the moral law. But I'm going to put in two passages here. And we need to be clear about this. The punishment prescribed by the Judaic law for adultery is death. The books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy take the moral law, this is the eternal statement of what is good and evil, of what is right and wrong, the cosmic law of God, and integrates it into Israel's civil or national laws. So, in the time of Moses, when this law was given, this was the legal code. by which people's actions were judged. And so there's no doubt that this woman would have been, in some fashion, put to death. Now, these old testament laws are serious. By the way, it's one of seven laws that involve capital punishment. Murderers are put to death, as murderers are in our society today. But there are other laws that involve the death penalty. by the way, including going and seeking signs and wonders from other gods and other such things. These Old Testament laws are serious and they strike us today as draconian. But I would remind you that in the law of God, marriage and sex were taken very seriously. That the family was Now, there's no evidence that these laws were regularly enforced in Jesus' day under the Romans. In fact, we'll see later in John, this is why the Sadducees have to take Jesus to Pilate, is so that Pilate will authorize the death penalty for Jesus. So these laws were not being regularly carried out in this day. Is it me? Now, it was me in this application. We're going to get to what's going on in our text here in a moment. But I want us to start by grappling with the fact, we think we're so much more enlightened today. So today, we blink. We shrug our shoulders. corruption of marriages. But do we do the same thing with the fruit of that? With the children that come forth? I would ask if we are, in fact, more enlightened today. Our nation casually sleeps around. Marriages are demeaning. And children, the fruit of thousands. Friends, this is happening in our own state. We need to remember that what's happening here is that the Law of God is coming into contact with sinful man. And who stands before the Law of God? There is no one righteous, no not one. Caught in the act, mortified and repentant, is she standing there saying, go ahead, accuse me, I did nothing wrong, I don't know the answer. But I do want you to notice that in verse 4 it says, the woman had been caught in the act of adultery. Now if she's caught in the act of adultery, who else is? This is a fascinating text, friends, that causes us to wrestle with the nature of God's law and the application of that law, the moral law of God, through the civil laws. And here, there's one more thing we need to think through. moral law of God, which is forever binding on all human beings, and the civil law, which is the application of the moral law to a particular nation, a particular country. So the Old Testament is filled with civil laws. Now, in the time of David, I'm persuaded that those laws will be enacted. the time of Jesus, remember that Israel was now under the rule of the Romans, and we don't know all the details of how these laws were applied to Jews in the first century. Okay, so there's a lot going on in the background of or the purpose of getting something they could charge Jesus with are now using this woman as a pawn in their theological game. It is wreaking what is going on here. The blood of every godly person should boil that the holy love of God is now being manipulated. Friends, this is going on in our country today. We need to be aware when the solemn laws of our country are being used maliciously. We need to wrestle with this as it applies to us today. Now, there's one other thing I want to address here. I want you to notice in verse 6, the second half, they come in. They bring him this whole big thing. Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. In the Law of Moses, the Law of Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say? Jesus, it's now. He starts to write. It says with his finger on the rock. They continue to ask him. He stood up and so far as we know, these are the only words he said. Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." was the content of what he was writing with his finger on the ground, maybe in the dirt, maybe, I don't know, he's in the temple, so it would have probably been stone quartz, but somehow he's writing on the ground. What is he writing? Now, I don't think that what it was was critical to what was taking place here. There's no more data given there, but it's nonetheless mentioned twice, and scholars have puzzled over this. All we can do is speculate. But I want you to notice that Jesus did this, he stood up and he made his pronouncement, and then he went back to what he was doing apparently now, ignoring this whole thing. And so maybe some time passed here, like, Jesus, we asked you a question, and I gave you an answer. And now there's this kind of standoff. There's this kind of like, okay, is that what you've got for us? It's a very interesting exchange. This leads us to point number three, the statement about stones and symbolism. Jesus says, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. We need to remember that back up here, I believe is the reference in Deuteronomy, there is reference to stoning. And so the way that the penalty was enacted, could be a number of different ways, but certainly the Paul study. And so Jesus is on very firm theological ground here. He says this is a legitimate option. With these words, Jesus throws their killer question about God's law back upon them. What I want you to see here is And so verse 7 really is the key to understanding this passage. That is, those who are using the holy law of God need to be holy. Those who are pursuing the goodness of God's plan in life need to themselves be good. There can't be one standard for the man and another standard for the woman. That's obvious from this text. Oh well. boys will be boys. It's just a joke in the locker room. Oh, where did we hear that before? Friends, we need to wrestle. Paul says in Romans chapter 7, the law of God is holy and just and good. God has given a standard that ought to form our ethical practices in this life. We need to see that God has a plan for everything, including our sexuality. And it is a very narrow and disciplined plan. One man, one woman, married together with God. This woman committed adultery. She violated the covenant that she had made with God, with her husband. And now they've been caught in the act of an old tree with another man. So, Jesus says, be the first to throw a stone at her. But I want you to then notice, before that, that now there is a standard regarding those who will judge and execute that judgment. Jesus' challenge showed the accusers to be disqualified as judges. Back up in verse 6, we learn what the motivation was of these scribes and Pharisees. This they said to test them, that they might have some charge to bring against them. Their purpose was not to enforce Moses' law, but to entrap Jesus. This is already a violation of the 8th commandment. You shall not bear false witness, the 9th commandment, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. They were using this woman as a pawn to achieve their wicked scheme. And now what you notice, Jesus says, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. That's the standard. That's the challenge that Jesus brings to them. And once more, he takes them and puts them on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, from the beginning of the older ones until Jesus was left alone with the woman. Now I don't know if the crowd that he'd been teaching, if they just scattered. This is a pretty intense thing. Or if it means Jesus with the crowd was there and the woman was left alone after all the men had left. But I want you to see that their disappearance one by one implies at least that their consciences were pricked. Because they recognize that they have no standing before God to carry out the woman's execution. And so perhaps there is a sincere standard here. Perhaps it's, Jesus is like, if you're righteous, you know, implying perhaps I'm righteous, but if you're righteous, go ahead, carry out God's law. Well, what should we do? Jesus perhaps is just silent as He continues to write. Again, I don't know. I've wrestled with, was He writing the Ten Commandments? Was He writing some of these passages that I refer to here? But whatever happened, this woman winds up alone with Jesus. And it's a beautiful picture. And again, friends, I want you to see the way Jesus defended this woman by pointing out the hypocrisy of those who were using this woman. Jesus is respecting her as an image bearer of God. He comes. Notice now He stands up. Now they're all gone. He stands up. He says to the woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, no one. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn. Go, and from now on, sin no more. This leads us to the fourth and final point of testimony. And that is that the Sovereign who saves us is, or I say and, free. He is the one who frees us from sin. The Sovereign who saves us and frees us from sin. And it's really verse 11 here. It's now we see Jesus speaking to this woman. I imagine he was fairly animated in what he said back in verse 7 to all of these corrupt scribes and Pharisees. But now he's speaking to a woman who's horrified. Whose actions, sinful actions, have been exposed. No one has condemned her because they could not measure up to the standard. Jesus then says, neither do I. Friends, on one hand, I want you to see the sovereign grace of God in salvation here. I'm not saying salvation from sin. I don't know that this woman became a follower of Jesus. But he's exercising his authority as Messiah when he says, neither do I condemn you. Jesus is on the one hand affirming legitimate earthly authority to implement the law of God, but on the other hand, He's demonstrating grace to this woman. Again, not necessarily saving grace, that's not common at all. But certainly with regard to the infraction of the law, of God's law that she had committed, Jesus frees her. I want to encourage you to come back tonight and dig a little deeper into Romans chapter 7 that we read here this morning, that Kyle read for us. Because I really think that Here is a place where we're seeing now Christianity is very carefully, very precisely affirming the moral law of God. But also announcing the good news that that law is not necessarily applied to us in this life. That not everything that is sinful is illegal. and not everything that's illegal is sinful. We need to always maintain that distinction. And think about our standing here, not before men, but our standing before God. And here's God Himself in the person of Christ saying, I'm not going to condemn you. So that's the first point. Neither do I condemn you. But now, look at what Jesus says. Go on now. do not sin any longer. What's he implying? First of all, he's identifying her adulterous actions as sin. He is exhorting her to no longer sin, to stop sinning and to follow in the ways of the Holy One of Israel. This is a tremendously powerful text. I do not condemn you. I'm not bringing the eternal wrath of God upon you at this moment. This is the one who will sit in the white throne of judgment, friends. He says, I'm not going to condemn you. But he's also saying, so now go. You've learned something today, young lady. Don't do this again. Don't live in the flesh. Don't be seduced by whatever, you know, we can only speculate what the facts in this particular case are. But somehow, this woman, Lambeau, in the act of adultery, there were witnesses apparently. That's why the emphasis on the act. It's a challenging, challenging passage. And again, I'm shocked. I'm going to go on record and say I'm shocked that the scribes and Pharisees would be so bold-faced, hypocritical to bring the woman and not bring the man before Jesus. And that is an evidence of their hypocrisy. They were not interested in the law being implemented. Who do you think was the man in this situation? But what Jesus is doing is He's navigating the Law of God. These laws will be applied, finally and forever, with white-hot accuracy at the last day. Friends, remember that the reason that the Law of God is given is that sin might be shown to be sin. And the Law of God exposes It exposes our attitude to the God who created us. The God who created my body, He gets to give that body a purpose. And that purpose is not to commit adultery. That purpose is to be dedicated to God's purpose. Friends, we need to wrestle. Young people, I would encourage you. to wrestle with this text. To see that Jesus does not wink at sin. That Him who is without sin, that's a standard that none of these hypocrites could meet. Be the first to throw a stone at her. Now I think they would have gotten in trouble with those Romans who were standing staring down and down. But I think that it's also important for us to see that Jesus does not relax the Law of God. Jesus says in another place, whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever relaxes these commands and teaches others to be the same will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. If you don't have a standard of right and wrong, then everything is okay, and by the way, nothing is right. Is this not the crisis that we face today? By what standard will you live your life? Will you live your life according to God's standards which do not change? Or will you live your life based on your own feelings and opinions? Is it your opinion? Well, we all have our opinions until our own stuff that our own bodily integrity is violated, and then we cry out for justice. We appeal to something beyond opinion here, beyond feeling, something that we all know is eternal in the heavens. And that's what we need to recover. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. We the people, in order to establish justice, to ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States, there is a Sovereign who reigns in this nation and planet. He frees us from sin. He gives us the grace to walk according to His plan. Let's pray. Oh Lord, our God, how we thank You for Your Word to lead us and teach us these things. We pray that Lord, as we delve into the theological side of this tonight, Romans chapter 7, that You would help us to delight in Your Word in the inner layer. That Lord, we would not live