Free to Forgive and Set Free (John 7:53-8:11 Jeff Kliewer)

Church Announcements and Upcoming Ministry Events

Cornerstone Church, I know that there's quite a few people that'll come in and get their seats, but we are gonna get started. We are thankful that you are here. Just wanna remind you again that if you are new here or you're visiting with us, we would love to be able to know that you're here visiting us.

We'd love you to fill out a form on our website called contact .cornerstonesj .org. That is a great place for us to get to know you, for us to be able to reach out to you. If you need anything, you can reach out to us.

Plus on that contact .cornerstonesj .org page, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter. It's really important that we connect as a group. And so if you ever feel that you're not getting the right communication from us, please let us know.

Let me know. I will allow you to get into our church center app, which has all kinds of announcements and things going on. Here's things that you can sign up for and small group information, all the Bible studies and things that are happening.

So love to be able to share that with you if you need it. Ah, now you can hear me. I'm loud enough, aren't I?

Man.

All right, so if you didn't hear that, you just rewind later. I won't repeat myself. So John's got a couple more announcements for us.

It's awesome to be here in fellowship with my brothers and sisters. I'm gonna embarrass Michael Stockland one more time. I did this during first service. How many people like this new look with the vests?

The nation of Israel had come out of Egypt and God through his sovereignty had redeemed them. Pharaoh's heart was hardened, but eventually he let them go and then only to have his heart hardened again and sent his chariots and soldiers.

Just as an aside, I was in the Navy and at one time I made a transit from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, which you have to go through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. And one night on watch, I said, guys, I need you to know that we just passed over Pharaoh's chariots.

I don't know where, but it's kind of interesting to think about. There were a size, anyway, I digress. The nation is in the wilderness now and God is gonna give them instructions and guidance of what he would want from them.

Now, we as believers, those who have bowed the knee and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, we have his Holy Spirit to guide us, but he gives us his word. Almost, these are things that I would, wouldn't it be nice to have this list of what it is God expects from you?

Well, I'm gonna say that this is a good start. Now, this was written to the nation of Israel, but I think we can take the words for ourselves, but I'll read it as it's written. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you?

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to answer that for ourselves? But, and here they are, fear the Lord your God, walk in his ways, love him, and serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

And we are his children and our directions are to have your life devoted to him. And our directions are to surrender to the sovereign God, to love him and to serve him. We have some announcements, there's some exciting things happening.

I'm gonna start out with about an hour and a half, Jeff, about how long will it be? Till the end of service. Couple hours. There will be a planning session. We are going to be having a combined VBS, Vacation Bible School for the young children here on our property.

This summer, we'll be working together with The Rock. And so there'll be a kickoff planning meeting after second service, if you're all interested, join in with that session. Later today, we are going to have the men's fellowship that's been an annual event that's been going on for a long time.

If we meet now at the Stockland House, a time of fellowship and food, and there's a football game, I believe this afternoon.

Okay.

Okay, and so three o 'clock at the Stockland House. There is a family that attended our church for a long time. In fact, Dave served and worked at our church for a long time. His wife, Laura, has passed away.

She is home with the Lord. And so later today, there is a memorial service. And so I know some of our folks will be attending there. With that going on and with the men having an opportunity for male fellowship, which is an important thing, we are not going to do the prayer meeting tonight, but please remain in prayer for us and for all here at the church.

Starting next week, and for three weeks, we will have a starting point class. If you are new to the church, you would like to know more about our church. If you're thinking about membership at our church, it's a three-week class.

We talk about our statement of faith. What do we believe? We talk about what is an evangelical free church, so you'll have an understanding of that. And we talk about what is Cornerstone, what are our ministries.

If you're at all interested, just come. It's gonna be during second service in one of the classrooms for three weeks. If you're interested, you want more information, ask myself, Pastor Jeff, one of the elders.

We'd be glad to share that with you. In the middle of February, on the 18th, that's a Saturday. It's only about three weeks away. We're gonna have a work day. If you could put that on your calendar. It'll be time, indoor work, things like spackling and painting.

So if you like to paint, we look forward to seeing you here. In the week after that, on the 21st, I believe they're Tuesdays, the Bittles are going to relaunch a class that they've held a few times now, and it has a great impact to married couples.

Marriage Matters is the name of the group. It will be on Tuesdays, and it will be for three weeks. There's a limited number of people in the group at any one session. If you are at all interested, again, you can contact the Bittles directly, myself, Pastor Jeff, one of the elders, to get your name on the list for the Marriage Matters class.

Highly, highly recommended. The Women's Tea is coming up in the first Saturday of March, and the women are doing their planning for that already. I encourage you women to be considering that. And as a promo, gentlemen, we get to be part of it.

The women will be sitting, this room will be set up as a really nice tea house, so we serve the hot water and coffee and stuff like that. Food will be on the sides for the women to take care of for themselves.

But gentlemen, we get to serve the women during that day. The Men's Retreat is coming up in April, so be in prayer, be in fellowship. Remember, our normal things like the Women's Studies, the Men's Studies, the Small Group Studies are all going on.

Prayer for Surrender to God and the Needs of the Church

Let's turn to prayer. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Lord, I pray this morning that we be led to surrender to the sovereignty of God. The world's pushed in many, many directions. We pray, Lord, our surrender to the sovereignty of God, that we would profess Him as Lord, that we would be bold to profess Him as Lord in a dark world.

Father, we confess our sins. We know it's only by the blood of the Lamb, your Son, that we can even come before you. Father, we seek the power of your Holy Spirit that dwells within us, teaches us to deny the lures of this world and to grow in our relationship with the one and only true God.

We pray, Lord, that we learn and grow to become your willing servants, serving you with all our heart and all our soul. Father, we pray for those in need. We pray for the rich family. We rejoice that Laura is home with the Lord, but we know that there is loss.

With others that have lost and those who are suffering in sickness, we continue in prayer. This morning, Lord, we pray for the power of your gospel proclaimed today to reach into our hearts. We pray, Lord, that your word reaches us, conforms us into you, that your Holy Spirit would prepare and speak through Pastor Jeff and to prepare our hearts to hear.

And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Psalm 113 and Praise to Yahweh

Let's stand together.

A risen king who did lie to bring him praise And to your hearts to sing to the Lord The shifting shadows of the earth He will lift our eyes to the arms of the Christ

We're gonna do a responsive reading from Psalm 113. I'm gonna say the first part and then you're gonna follow me with the bold italicized part on the screen. And it says, praise Yah. Praise, O slaves of Yahweh.

Praise the name of Yahweh. May the name, from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of Yahweh is to be praised. Who is like Yahweh our God? The one who sits on high, who raises the poor from the dust and lifts high the needy from the ash heap.

He makes the barren woman of the house sit as a glad mother of children. Praise Yah. Psalm 113 begins and ends with that phrase, praise Yah. The first part of the phrase reiterates praising Yahweh several times.

The psalmist can't explain it, but he's joyful and excited about praising Yahweh. The second part asks the question, who is like Yahweh our God? The answer is no one is like our God. God is both high and comes down to see his people.

He is in heaven and on earth. He lifts the needy and the poor, and he makes the barren woman a mother of children. There is only one appropriate response, and that is praise Yah. Let's sing together that song.

Who is like our God?

Creation, maker of heaven and earth.

He is the one and the only true God. Let's continue to sing to him.

Gracious heavenly father, as we open your word this morning, we pray that your grace would abound to us. Lord, for the forgiveness of sin, that we would be aware of our sin and aware of your forgiveness.

And also Lord, going forward from this place, that you would give us grace to go and to sin no more. Help us to walk in a manner that is worthy of the high calling, worthy of the gospel. So give us grace this morning, and we thank you for grace this morning.

The Law of God as Mirror, Restraint, and Guide

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. There are at least three uses of the law of God. It is a mirror, a restraint, and a guide. The law of God, the law of Moses, is a mirror which shows us what we're really like.

In the morning, maybe when you were getting ready to come to church, you looked in the mirror. Hopefully you did, and guys, if you had something caught in your beard, you kind of brushed that out of there.

The mirror shows you what you look like on the outside, but the law of God shows you what you look like on the inside. Amen, Phil? We say that a lot when we're evangelizing. The mirror shows you what you're like.

A second use of the law is to restrain evil. Because there is a law and there are punishments attached to the law, it restrains the wickedness of men. Because God says, thou shalt not murder, and prescribes the death penalty in Genesis 9, 6, for murder, it restrains people who otherwise might raise their hand to kill another.

It is a restraint upon evil. And thirdly, it is a guide. Remember what Psalm 119 talks about. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path. It teaches us, there is general equity in every word of the Old Testament, which teaches us how we ought to live and what we should do, it directs us.

So the law is a mirror, a restraint, and a guide. Mirror, restraint, and guide. Now, here's the problem. It's not the law. The law is perfect and righteous and good. The problem is that we all are sinners who are unable to keep the law.

So at every point, the law becomes an insurmountable impasse. It is a mountain we cannot climb. It is a stone wall that we break ourselves against. So the mirror not only exposes the gross and disgusting sins of the worst things that people do, it also penetrates deep and shows us our hypocrisy, it shows us our hidden attitudes of the heart, it shows us that all of us are guilty before God, and none keeps the law.

As a restraint, the difficulty is, it is put in the hands of sinners to judge other sinners. So it's very difficult for man to judge the sins of others when every person who would wield that sword is themself guilty of crimes against God.

And then lastly, as a guide, it is pure light, it is direction to our feet, but it doesn't give us the power to actually do it. The law tells us what to do, but it doesn't inwardly empower us to keep the law.

So the problem is not in the mirror, or in the restraint, or in the guide. The problem is in the sons and daughters of Adam. The law is good, but we cannot keep it. Now consider the laws of man, because not all obey the law of God, and mankind creates their own laws.

In the nation of Iran, recently, a woman was arrested for adultery, and they were about to stone her to death, but the international outcry against Iran for this caused them to stop, and now they did not.

However, under their law, under their Sharia law, if a woman even has her hair uncovered, she likewise is guilty. According to this arbitrary man-made system of Islamic Sharia law, this woman, whose name was Masa Amini, visited Tehran, and she was not wearing the hijab, or however you say that.

The morality police caught her, and the morality police brought her back to the station to teach her the customs and the law of Iran. But sadly, Masa Amini never made it out of custody, because for whatever reason, the law turned harsh against her and beat her to death.

And there have been great protests in Iran against this injustice. Our White House said that this injustice is unforgivable, but is it? In fact, as you look at American culture, what sins are considered unforgivable, and which others are winked at and allowable?

Certainly, any kind of hatred in the heart is considered unforgivable, especially racism, but the killing of unborn life is considered allowable. What is the arbitrary standard of the United States system of law?

Some things are unforgivable, but others are allowed. Forgiveness is offered arbitrarily because the unjust nature is the injustice, and it is the problem. Think for a moment about what just recently happened.

Did you guys see on TV the news reporting of what happened earlier this month where a man who was fleeing from the law, perhaps committed a crime of some sort and resisted arrest, was beaten to death by the police.

The man was not an innocent man, none are. He died under the long arm of the law, but it seems that the long arm of the law itself used excessive force in killing this man rather than subduing and arresting.

So the police were not innocent either, these particular officers. But then consider the protests, and which of the protesters who consider this injustice unforgivable have not have themselves lifted hands in rage and in anger and in violence against others, perhaps pummeling people to the point of death or near to it.

Or if not that, how many of them have used their words to pummel another person? And where does that leave us this morning? The law would slay each of us if we think anything better of ourselves then, but for the grace of God, there go I.

You see, the law of God raises a problem for sinners. The law of God is an unbreakable wall. It is written on stone tablets, and every person who runs against that is broken by the law. It's unyielding.

It cannot be broken. And so justice, which is an attribute of God, it is eternal with Him as an eternal attribute, justice must be satisfied, and God must have wrath for sin. So here is the problem for sinners.

Justice denies forgiveness. There cannot be forgiveness, there cannot be mercy if there is to be justice. The two are mutually exclusive, and this is a difficult problem, one addressed in John chapter eight.

The Textual Question of John 7:53–8:11

Let's turn there. The Pharisees who bring the woman caught in adultery think that the problem can never be solved, and what Jesus does here is absolutely beautiful. And amazing in bringing justice and mercy together as only He could do.

No one else in the history of the world could solve this riddle. No one else could cross the impasse. It is impossible with man, but not impossible with God. With God, all things are possible, and Jesus is God.

He alone will solve this problem. Now, we're about to read John eight, first paragraph. But before I read the first word of the first paragraph, notice that there are brackets in the ESV or any translation of the Bible other than the King James Version.

What is the meaning of these brackets from John 7 .53 to John 8 .11? The earliest manuscripts do not include John 7 .53 to 8 .11. I don't know if you ever noticed that in your Bible as you were reading, but that seems somewhat troubling, doesn't it?

In fact, the earliest manuscript that does include this section of Scripture that we have, mark that, that we have, the earliest codex is Codex Baize, and it dates to around the year 400. That's still extant, we still have that, and it includes this passage.

But earlier than Codex Baize are P52, P66, and P75. The P stands for papyrus, and the earliest of all extant manuscripts is P52, the John Ryland text. It dates to about 115 AD, which is very near to the writing of the Book of John.

It is a small fragment of the Book of John, but it's only about 2 1⁄2 by 3 1⁄2 inches. So it has a part of John 18 on one side and another part of John 18 on the other side, the interaction with Pilate, so it is of no use to us in determining whether this is original, okay?

Now, P66 and P75, both are around the year 200 AD, and neither of these manuscripts have this section. That's what your Bible is referring to. It wasn't found. As those were uncovered, we found a hole there.

Now, there are later manuscripts of Luke and of John that have this section attached to the end of those Gospels, interestingly. So it's floating around somewhere, and it seems like a slam-dunk case against this section to say this was not original to John, but the plot thickens.

The earliest manuscripts that we have do not have this. However, there are very early references to manuscripts that had it. Follow that? They're not still around today, but Eusebius cited Papias, who in the early 100s, in the 2nd century, very early, he being a disciple of John, referred to the story of the woman who was accused before Jesus, a reference to this story.

Didymus the Blind was a preacher on one side of the Mediterranean, the African side, and he preached about this in the year 350, earlier than the first appearance of it in our textual record. Ambrose preached on it in 375 AD, noting that some have taken offense to this passage.

So there was some dispute even then. But I find most notable is the church scholar, Jerome. Jerome, at the time when he was leading, was the only scholar in the church who actually knew Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

And Jerome considered it part of the original text, based on what he said were many textual extant manuscripts that did include John VIII. So I told you, the plot thickens. In fact, it was Jerome who wrote the Latin Vulgate, which became a big part of the basis of the King James Version.

Jerome himself was much nearer to the issue than we are in the year 2023. Many more manuscripts were available to him, so I think his judgment certainly carries great weight. In fact, he was commissioned to translate the Vulgate in 382.

And he did include this as part of the Bible. Augustine, the great scholar from Hippo, he likewise agreed with Jerome that yes, this was original. So it's not a slam dunk case, even though the earliest manuscripts that we have don't include it.

Pastor John Gleeson, a Baptist from Scotland, wrote this to sum it up. "'When someone tells you "'that the oldest manuscripts are best, "'remember Didymus the Blind and Ambrose "'on opposite sides of the Mediterranean, "'all preaching on the woman taken in adultery.

"'There were an innumerable multitude of oldest manuscripts "'that were used, copied, preached from, "'and have since perished. "'The voice of those perished manuscripts "'comes down to us in later manuscripts, "'but that doesn't mean that that voice "'wasn't speaking in the early days.'".

So where does that leave us this morning? Actually, we're on very solid ground. Because whereas you have some textual variances especially John 8, 1 John 5, 7, the ending of the Book of Mark, these few examples where there's some dispute about whether it's actually from the Bible, that leaves the 99-point-something percent solidly established.

And here's the great news. The theology of John 8 is perfectly consistent with everything else that was written. In fact, when Jesus will say at the end, "'Go and sin no more,' he just said that a few chapters earlier in John chapter five to the man that he healed at the Pool of Bethesda, telling him, "'Go and sin no more, "'lest something worse would happen to you.'".

In other words, there's nothing troubling about the doctrine here. It's the same theology that's taught. And even those who reject it, like D .A. Carson and Bruce Metzger and the great textual critics, all of them also say there's no doubt that it actually happened.

They're just not convinced it was written by John as part of the gospel. So we have no doubt, even those who disagree with it, have no doubt that it happened and that these events are real, but there is some dispute whether it ought to be in the text.

So what do I do as a preacher? I have to either preach it or not preach it. Skip it or go through it.

I'm gonna preach it.

I'm gonna preach it, brother. So let's do it. You need to know that, though, because at some point, your faith will be attacked on some textual variant and someone will say, well, you can't even trust it.

Well, this actually solidifies our faith when you dig in to see how much is verified. So I wouldn't use it in a debate to prove a point over some fine point of doctrine, but for the preaching of the word, I do believe that this is God's word to be preached.

Amen? Amen.

All right, all that just to start preaching.

Let's go.

Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery

So it says in John 8, verses one and two, they went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. First thing to say there is there is a contrast between Jesus and everybody else. They all have a home to go to, but Jesus' foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

He was here to tabernacle among us. The word became flesh, tabernacled among us. We have seen his glory. Glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1, 14, he's tabernacling here, but he's not of this world.

He comes from a different world, and he's different and distinct. Notice in verse one, but Jesus. But Jesus indicates he's not like us. Here we are, the sons and daughters of Adam, all sinners, all having wandered his own way like sheep.

But there he is, the Lamb of God, and he's different. He's not worldly, he's not tainted, he's not stained. He's Jesus, and he spends the night in prayer at the Mount of Olives with no place to lay his head, but on a stone like Jacob.

So already we're seeing the contrast. Now we see the test in verses two to 6a. 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 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. "'What do you say?'. "'This,' they said, to test him, "'that they might have some charge to bring against him.'". Turn with me to the law of Moses, back to Leviticus chapter 20, verse 10.

Leviticus chapter 20, verse 10 is the law, not only of Moses, but of God, written by God himself and unbreakable. It says this, listen, "'If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, "'both the adulterer and the adulteress "'shall be put to death.'".

And now turn to Deuteronomy. It's repeated in the repeating of the law, the second law, Deutero, second, Nomi law. Deuteronomy chapter 22, verse 22, reiterated here, Deuteronomy 22, 22. "'If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, "'both of them shall die, "'the man who lay with the woman and the woman, "'so you shall purge the evil from Israel.'".

So going back now to John chapter eight, the law commanded us to stone such women. What do you say? The first thing that anybody reading this story, and certainly the people who were there at the time, should have noticed is the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees who brought this woman, but here's the big question, where's the man?

The law said that both of them shall die, and surely in this act of adultery, in which they say they caught her, it takes two to tango. Where is the man? It's an evidence here that their concern was not with the law of Moses, and I preached on this weeks ago.

The Pharisees and the scribes, they were not overly committed to the law. They were lawless. They would often go beyond what was written and write laws of their own regarding the Sabbath, but they likewise were adulterers at heart, and possibly themselves practicing adultery.

They loved to put on a show of outward religion, praying on the street corners, wearing phylacteries on their head, looking the part to the public, but in private, they were as wicked or more wicked than anybody else.

They have this woman here. In order to trap Jesus, they don't care about her or the man or anybody else. They're out to get Jesus. That's what the text tells us in 6a. Now, here's the question, though.

Why is this even a test? Why is this hard for the prophet Jesus? I mean, isn't it obviously true that the woman should be put to death? Didn't we just read it in Leviticus and Deuteronomy? So why is this hard, and why did they think that he would be trapped by this?

Why is it a test? Can't he just say, okay, stoner? Wash his hands, just be done with it. He's still honoring the law of Moses. Well, the issue here is what Jesus has been claiming. He has offered to forgive anyone, to cleanse them of any sin, to grant a washing of regeneration by the Spirit.

You need to understand that they look at Jesus as an antinomian, someone who is against anti, nomos, the law. They think he's giving people a license to sin because all he's telling them is come to me and you'll be forgiven.

Notice he's been in Jerusalem twice. The first in John is the healing of the man at Bethesda, and the second is this Feast of Tabernacles. Flip back a couple pages to John 5, verses 21 to 24, and this is the claim that they're testing.

John 5, 21 to 24. They heard him say this, and it made him mad. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. He claimed freedom to give life to anybody he wants.

It's the freedom of the wind. He can give life to the adulteress and the murderer and the liar and the thief and whoever it is. The woman of Samaria who had five husbands and the one she was with at the time was not her husband, he gave her life.

Drink the living water. Look at verse 22. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son. That all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Look at verse 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment. He's forgiven. He's passed from death to life. You see, the claim that Jesus was making is the authority to forgive sin.

The claim to renew and wash and to cleanse. Again in chapter seven, just the day before, he makes the bold claim in verse 38. John 7, 38. Whoever believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

To eat is to believe, to drink is to believe, and the promise is if you do, he'll wash you, he'll forgive you and cleanse you. And so they bring a woman to test Jesus. Will he forgive her? He claims to have the authority to do it.

Or will he be a law keeper? And the two seem diametrically opposed. There's no way out for him. If he forgives her, he's not just. Can't really stone her because the Romans don't allow it. They don't have capital punishment under the thumb of Rome.

So he's completely stuck, or so they think. They've got him. And then we turn to chapter eight, verse six, the second half of the verse, how unflappable Jesus is. Who's in control? They're all in a tizzy.

They're all angry. They're demanding that he answer, that he says something. And on his time, what does he do? He bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And at his good pleasure, he stood back up and said, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.

And just like that, once more, he bent down and wrote on the ground. First question that comes to mind, what was he writing? And if anybody here claims that you know definitively, I don't trust you. Because nobody knows that.

I mean, we could guess, based on the context, maybe he's writing the sins of all the people who are there accusing. Or maybe he's writing the law that they're bringing against him. And that's where I would lean.

Just a couple things about the finger of God. Because the Bible clearly says he wrote with his finger. In Psalm 8, the scripture has told us, when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained.

God's finger represents his authority, his power. He creates by his finger, his ability to do whatever he wants. And he made the world by his finger. When he drove the Egyptians into the sea and delivered his people, and all the plagues of Egypt, those were done by the finger of God.

Because the magician said to Pharaoh, Exodus 8, 19, this is the finger of God. When Jesus cast out demons and exercised his authority to exorcise demons, he says, but if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

It's the authority of God in that finger. Probably the most remarkable image of the finger of God that some of you are probably thinking of right now is Daniel chapter five. And the hand that appeared, and the king could see nothing else but this hand writing on the wall.

Daniel 5, 5 says, suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged. What's up with that? The fingers of a man's hand and began writing opposite the lamp stand of the plaster on the wall of the king's palace.

And the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing. And these fingers are just writing, mene, mene, tekel farsin. Wade, Wade found wanting. It is the finger of God himself writing judgment on the king.

Perhaps it was the finger of Jesus pre-incarnate. And that's the amount that that king was allowed to see. The finger of God is his power and authority. And he writes his law and he writes his judgment and his judgment is true and cannot be thwarted.

And that king dropped dead the very day that the hand wrote what it wrote. You can't miss the finger of God in the giving of the 10 commandments. What command did this woman break? The seventh commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery.

And so I think this has reference to that. Because when the 10 commandments were given, Exodus 31, 18, it says, when he finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written by the finger of God.

Jesus's finger in the sand has reference, I think, to Exodus 31, 18. And the power and authority of God and his judgment, him giving the authoritative judgment of God. And so he writes, perhaps he writes the law.

Thou shalt not commit adultery. He knows it because he wrote it. It was his finger that fashioned it in the stone tablet. Notice then what happens. Let him who is without sin among you be the first among you to throw a stone at her.

Now, if we skirt over that, we just pay attention to the moral use of the law. How did Jesus just wield the law? As a mirror, because he told them, if you're without sin, go ahead and throw the stone.

And each person suddenly, and I think this is the supernatural power of God, because he is God, he brings conviction to their hearts by the spirit, and they feel guilty, and they begin to walk away. But notice that the civil law, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, was still in force.

Did Jesus violate that law, or did he actually say, go ahead and stone her? Look carefully. Let him who is without sin, so he uses the conviction of the spirit to drive the guilty away, while still saying, this is amazing, be the first to throw a stone at her.

Now, in the law, the one who discovered them and captured them was to be the first to throw the stone. He's the witness, and the two or three others that were required would also throw stones, and then also all of Israel would come behind that testimony and pile stones on the adulterer.

Jesus did not violate that law. Look at the next verse. This is incredible. It says, but when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, probably because they had a longer list of sins.

The longer you live, you're just piling on to the number of sins you've committed, and I think there's a wisdom that comes with age, when you really start to see that you really can't judge anybody else, because think of what you've done as well.

The older ones walk away, but notice this. Who's left alone?

One.