And this is Leslie Curran saying hello and welcome in the Savior's name to our Gospel Broadcast. I'm glad you're joining us today, and here to let the Bible speak is the Reverend John Greer. Thank you, Mr. Curran.

It is my pleasure to be back again with God's Word, and I pray that on this program the Lord will give that help that we need and that your heart will be touched as we come once more to consider his truth. Today I bring your attention to the Gospel of John and the 8th chapter, and in verse 11 we have these marvelous words spoken by Jesus Christ. Neither do I condemn thee.

These words are spoken by the Lord in relation to an incident that took place when he was teaching in the temple in Jerusalem. While he was teaching he was interrupted by the scribes and Pharisees who brought to him a woman who had been guilty of adultery. We have no idea what the Lord had been teaching before he was interrupted by the Pharisees, but it is undoubtedly true that in his handling of the incident concerning the adulterous woman, the Lord presented in a most graphic fashion tremendous and heart-gripping truths, truths concerning the Gospel.

Those truths basically had to do with the law of God and the law's relationship to the Gospel. It was the issue of the law that the Pharisees raised concerning this woman with respect to her adultery, the fact that she'd been caught in the very act of adultery. But the purpose of the Pharisees in bringing the woman to Christ and in questioning the Lord about her in the light of the law was to try to have grounds for accusing him.

In verse 6 we read this they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. The snare that they laid for the Lord was very subtle. Had he said that the woman should have been released, they would have accused him of undermining the law that said that the adulterer or the adulteress must die.

On the other hand, if he had said that she should have been stoned, they would have ridiculed the fact that he had declared repeatedly that he had said he had come to save that which was lost. Therefore the Pharisees were sure that they had the Lord in a real dilemma, a dilemma that was impossible for him to resolve. The problem that was presented to Christ by his enemies was in essence that of harmonizing justice with mercy.

The law of God demands punishment because it is a reflection of God's own holiness and God's holiness does not allow that which is defiled to enter its presence. The sinner's only hope then is the mercy of God. But how can mercy be exercised when the sword of righteous justice stands in the way? How can sinners be fully pardoned without violating the law that their eternal punishment? This has been the age-long dilemma of fallen humanity and it still is.

Indeed, it is the dilemma in which every unsaved person is found at this moment. God's holy law condemns you utterly. Everywhere the Bible reveals that all of the law's righteous demands must be met.

It requires a perfect obedience and it demands a full payment for its violation. And that payment is everlasting punishment under divine wrath. Nothing less will do because sin is the transgression of God's law, a law of infinite purity requiring infinite punishment.

However, the Bible reveals as it does here that the Lord has mercy on sinners. His words to this woman were, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. How wonderful to know that there is mercy and pardon with Christ.

The gospel presents a full free forgiveness to the guilty, a complete deliverance from the penalty and the condemnation of the law, but only because the law has been upheld, vindicated, and satisfied. And that is the message of the gospel. It is the message that will save you from your sin and from the just wrath of a sin hitting and a holy God.

And it is the message that is presented to us in this text and in the passage where it is found. To put it precisely in the verses here in John chapter eight, the Lord makes a revelation of the glorious gospel plan whereby this woman received mercy, but not at the expense of truth. When we study this event carefully, it will be seen that when the Lord was accosted by the scribes and Pharisees and was urged by them to give his verdict and the case presented to him, he acted and he spoke in such a way as to give a great revelation of many aspects of the law of God.

With the result that he turned the tables on his enemies and scattered them, bringing deliverance to this woman. What did he reveal about the law? Well, first of all, he revealed the source of the law. In verse six, we find that the Lord leaned down, stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.

Now, why did he do this? Well, keep in mind that this was no superfluous action on the Lord's part. He was not playing for time. It was not that he had no answer for the Pharisees.

Instead, his action was a means of revealing a great fact concerning the law. And that is that the

“The sermon from John 8:1–11 explains how the encounter between Jesus and the woman caught in adultery reveals the perfect harmony of God's justice and mercy. While God's holy law rightly condemns every sinner and demands punishment, Jesus demonstrates that forgiveness is possible because He Himself would fully satisfy the law through His sacrificial death. By exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, affirming the holiness and authority of God's law, and extending mercy to the guilty woman with the words, "Neither do I condemn thee," Christ shows that salvation is not achieved by ignoring God's law but by fulfilling its demands. The message calls every sinner to trust in Jesus Christ, who alone satisfied divine justice so that God's mercy can be freely offered to all who believe.”

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law, as far as it's being written as concerned, was written with the finger of God. We find that in Exodus 31 verse 18.

Now, when the Pharisees quote from the law of Moses and the Lord then performs his action with writing his finger, with his finger on the ground, he was revealing that he as God had written that law. He was therefore indicating that since it was his law, he had come to uphold it. He would not allow it to be twisted and misapplied, nor would he allow it to be undermined.

It must always be kept in mind that sinners are saved not by the law being set aside, but by the law being fully honored and satisfied by Jesus Christ. And he who satisfies the law is the one who is the giver of the law. And therefore, when he wrote on the ground, he revealed the source of the law.

Therefore, the law is authority. The law is above man, and man is judged by it, not the law by man. The law is also marked by dignity.

It is the law of the Almighty. It's the royal law, as James calls it. And therefore, to ignore the law, to despise or disobey the law, is to incur the wrath of the king, the one who gave that law.

He also revealed the stipulation of the law. In verse 7, he said, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And there the Lord was quoting from Deuteronomy 17 and the verse 7. The law required that those who brought accusation against someone were to be first in inflicting the penalty, but only if they themselves were not guilty of the same crime.

And therefore, Christ was revealing that the penalty of the law can only be inflicted by someone who is without sin. That is the stipulation of the law. So behind the law, behind the Ten Commandments, is the sinless, holy purity of the lawgiver himself.

Since it comes from such a holy author, it is flawless. It is without blemish. It's a reflection of the Lord himself, because he and he alone is infinitely holy.

How impure sinners are in his sight, and therefore how subject they are to all the terrible force that lies behind that law. The stipulation of the law, that only a sinless person is able to inflict its penalty, means that Christ is qualified to do so because he is without sin and he meets this requirement. And therefore, think today of meeting the sinless, holy Christ of God, standing before him, giving an account of your sin, giving a full confession before the Lord one day at the judgment bar of all your sin, all your uncleanness, all your moral impurity, all of the transgressions of which you are guilty.

And then see here also the scrutiny of the law, because in verse 9 we are told, they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And there we are shown that when the Lord brought the law to bear upon this situation, the Pharisees were convicted in their own conscience, and they all slunk away, realizing that they were not fit to stand in the blinding light of Christ and in the real searchlight of the purity of his own law. Here's a powerful example of how the law of God uncovers the wickedness of the human heart.

In coming to Christ with this woman, they haughtily acted and they were working in such a way as if to say that they were blameless. And yet whenever the Lord brought the law to bear upon them, its scrutiny exposed their sin, and they felt their guilt, and they felt their uncleanness. And right there we are given a picture of the day of judgment, when the pure blinding light of God's holy law will search sinners through and through.

But then there's the satisfaction of the law, because the law demanded death for adultery, and this woman therefore deserved to die. And yet we find here that the law said to her, the Lord said to her, neither do I condemn thee. Now, how do we account for this? Well, notice that the Lord wrote on the ground the second time, and thereby he was demonstrating that the law which had been written the first time with the finger of God, and it was broken after Israel's sin, was then rewritten, written again, once more in two tables of stone, and was put into the ark of the covenant beneath the mercy seat.

And on the day of atonement, that mercy seat was sprinkled with the blood of the atonement, the blood of the slain sacrifice. And in all of that, the Lord was pointing these men to the fact that while the law demands punishment, that punishment has been borne by the substitute, even our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Christ is the one who shed his blood to satisfy the demands of a holy law, which means that God is able to save sinners, justify sinners, and yet his law is not violated.

His law has been upheld and satisfied by Christ, and therefore Christ is able to save the most wicked sinner, because the law has been satisfied. Here is justice. Here is mercy harmonized.

And you may be saved this day if you will trust in Christ, the one who has given perfect satisfaction to God's law.