The scribes and the Pharisees had brought a woman to Jesus who had been taken in adultery and set her in the midst. They wanted to be sure the charge would not be considered hear-say, so they told the Lord they had caught her in the very act. They reminded Jesus that Moses had said that such should be stoned, “But what sayest Thou of her?” Now they did not bring this woman to Jesus to uphold the law of Moses, they brought her to put down Christ.

Actually Moses said more than the quotation they used. In Deuteronomy twenty two Moses said, “If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.” The Pharisees had forgotten something in this matter. They brought the woman, but where was the man?

For one thing he may have run away before the arrest was made. Another reason might have been he may have been a very important man, who had a lot of clout, and they were afraid to involve him, or it may have been for the same reason today when the woman is usually blamed in such matters. The lawyers for the defense of the assailant will ask the victim how she was dressed. Was she according to the Hollywood style showing her belly button? In which case the jury will usually find the victim guilty.

This question put Jesus, so they thought, in an awkward position. If He said, “Stone her”, He would be in trouble with the Romans for taking the law into His own hands. If He said, “Let her go”, he would be in trouble with the Jews for going against Moses.

Now you have heard the reading of the scripture, now here are several observations about this event. First, Jesus seems to ignore the charge of the Pharisees.

HE IGNORED THE CHARGE

Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. He seems to ignore the charge made against the woman and also the arrogance and self righteousness of the Pharisees. He may seem to ignore a great many of the injustices today. It appears that Jesus is ignoring Nine Eleven. He seems to ignore hurricanes such as Katrina, same-sex marriages; is He also ignoring the millions of babies slain by abortion? He seems to ignore the drug traffic, the burning of church buildings in many parts of the world, the sexual abuse of children, the removal of prayer from the school system, and a thousand other travesties, but the day will come when He will rise up in judgment. He will not ignore the transgressions of sinners forever.

So when they continued asking, “What sayest Thou of her? What sayest of her? What sayest Thou of her? What sayest Thou of her? He lifted up Himself, and said unto them, ’He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.’” And again, He stooped down and wrote on the ground.  Consider now that He stooped down and wrote for the second time.

HE WROTE IN THE GROUND TWICE

He not only stooped and wrote with His finger on the ground once, but He stooped and wrote with His finger on the ground twice. This was not the first time that the Lord Jesus had written with His finger. At the farewell address of Moses he reminded the Israelites that the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God. When Moses received the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God he threw them down and broke all Ten Commandments at the same time because of the debacle of the golden calf. During his farewell address he reminded Israel that God made another set of the Ten Commandments. Jesus wrote with His finger twice when He gave the Ten Commandments and He wrote with His finger twice in this event with the woman taken in adultery. He wrote twice when He gave us His Word. First He wrote the Old Testament and then He wrote the New Testament.

I don’t know who wrote these lines but they tell it like it was, “He wrote on the ground-when the Pharisees came-Accusing the woman-With wild words of blame-No sign did He give-No wisdom profound-As He wrote on the ground-He stooped as He wrote-And His eyes mild that shone-With love for the sinner-As He stooped all alone-Not one man remained-In the silence that smote-He stooped as He wrote.”

Next we see when He rose up the first time he gave an unexpected answer.

THE UNEXPECTED ANSWER

They thought He could only give two answers. He could say, “Stone her or not stone her.” His answer was completely unexpected.

When the Lord rises up in judgment on that great day, there may be a great many unexpected answers. And like these Pharisees there will be no comeback, no argument. His judgment will be final. There will be some unexpected answers on such questions as, “What must I do to be saved? What are the scriptural officers of the church? What is the correct mode of baptism? What is the purpose of baptism? Is the Lord’s Day the proper day to observe the Lord’s Supper? Should the Lord’s Supper be observed every Lord’s Day? Is the Bible the inspired Word of God?” His answers may be unexpected; whatever the answer given as the Lord Jesus rises up in judgment will be final, no questions will be asked and no rebuttal given.

And they when they heard it went out one by one from the eldest to the youngest. On that day when Jesus rises up in judgment there will be no walking away as the Pharisees did. The unexpected answer was, “No condemnation.”

NO CONDEMNATION

Jesus lifted up Himself the second time and said unto her, “Woman where are they? Did no man accuse thee? She said, no man Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way: from henceforth sin no more.”

Now it must not be overlooked that Jesus did not condone what she had done. He did not say, “Now what you did is not all that bad, so don’t worry about it.” He told her, “Don’t do it any more.” He did not say, “Go and sin no more and I will not condemn you.” He said, “Neither do I condemn you go and sin no more.” Three chapters before this in the story of the healing of the man who was crippled for thirty-eight years, Jesus told him, “Sin no more lest a worse thing happen to thee.” In both cases repentance from the sin was demanded. Paul instructs us in Romans six, “Let not sin reign in your mortal body.” In Christ we always have another chance. Don’t let the Devil reign; don’t let him have his way. There is a comforting word given by Paul when he said in Romans eight, “There is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” Another word of comfort in Second Timothy one when Paul reminds us, “I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”

Someone has written these inspiring lines, “How I wish that there was some wonderful place, Called the land of beginning again; Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches, And all our poor selfish griefs; Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door; And never put on again.” Ladies and Gentlemen, in Christ there is such a place where we can begin all over again. In Jesus we do have another chance, “Neither do I condemn thee, Go thy way and sin no more.”

Think of the irony of this situation. These scribes and Pharisees did this woman the biggest favor they could ever do for anybody. They brought a woman who was a great sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ for condemnation and she was forgiven instead. I wonder if she ever wrote the Pharisees a thank you note for the great blessing they had conferred on her. WOW!

Consider who the real judge is, not only in her situation but in ours as well. The Lord did not say that she should not be stoned. He merely pointed out that the ones doing the stoning should not be guilty of sin. There is only One who can judge our eternal destiny. That One is Jesus. So consider next the real Judge.

THE REAL AND ONLY JUDGE

Paul said on Mars Hill, “God had appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all the world in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” Only Christ can judge in righteousness by virtue of His death, burial and resurrection.  

The only one who can pass final judgment on the human race is the One who lived on this planet and never sinned.

Jesus said in John five, “All judgment hath been given unto the Son that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father.” Not only did Jesus say that all judgment was given to Him and no one else, He even gives us the time and place where He will do the judging. He said in John twelve, “He that rejecteth Me and receiveth not My saying hath one that judgeth him. The word which I spake unto him the same shall judge him at the last day.”

Paul instructs us in First Corinthians four, “Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come.” It is not for us to say this person is going to Hell or Heaven. The Lord will make that call on the judgment Day and not even He will make it until the last day. Jesus wrote on the ground. It should be noted that He is still writing today.

HE IS STILL WRITING TODAY

Actually the scripture does indicate that the Lord is writing today. According to Jeremiah seventeen verse one, we know  that He does write down sins with His finger. However Jeremiah says He uses an iron pen with a diamond point and writes them on the tables of the heart. But in addition to that Jeremiah says in verse thirteen that God is writing the names of those that depart from Him in the dust. Jeremiah says, “They that depart from Me I will write in the earth.” This may be a hint that Jesus wrote the name of each accuser in the dust that day. Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return. What an absurd situation, men who are made of dust debating with the eternal Son of God.

Then we must also note that He writes down sins in the books. In Revelation twenty we read that on the Judgment Day the books will be opened and every one shall be judged according to the things written in the books. Twice in Revelation Jesus refers to the names written in the Book of Life, “And if any was not found written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the lake of fire”; and again in reference to the saved He said, “Only they whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” The song says, “Lord I care not for riches neither silver or gold–I would make sure of heaven I would enter the fold-In the book of Thy kingdom with its page white and fair-Tell me Jesus my Saviour is my name written there?” Jesus wrote with His finger on the ground; however, the best of all is we do know of something He certainly did write.

WE KNOW WHAT HE WROTE

My guess is that people are more concerned about the unknown message He wrote with His finger on the ground than they are with what we know He wrote through the inspired writers in the Word of God. If those words He wrote in the dust could have been preserved and found by the archeologist today, that document would be priceless. The whole world would wait with baited breath to hear what He wrote. What did He write? What did He write? What did He write?

We can be sure of one thing about that message He wrote on the ground with His finger; that message on the ground would not contain any information about our salvation that we do not already have in the New Testament. Peter tell us in his second epistle, “His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness the knowledge of Him that called us by His own glory and virtue.” John reminds us, “These things are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life in His name.” Paul reminds us in Second Timothy, “All scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete thoroughly furnished unto every good work.” In Galatians, “I make known unto you the gospel as was preached by me that it is not after men, neither did I receive it from men, nor was I taught it, but it came to me by revelation of Jesus Christ.” Then this warning of Paul, “If any man preach  any other gospel unto you than that which ye have received let him be accursed”; not only did he say that once, but he repeated it in Galatians chapter one.

Every bit of information we need to have about salvation and Heaven and how to get there is contained in the New Testament.

Some may trample what He wrote under foot like the multitudes trampled under foot what He wrote that day while others may use a more popular device and say what He says is all a matter of interpretation. However, whatever method you take to circumvent the Word of God, you will once again come face to face with that Bible you never read. Ignore the Bible, pay no attention to it, don't read it, throw it into the fire, but remember Jesus has said, “The word which I spake unto them the same word shall judge them at the last day.” You will come face to face with that Bible you ignore on that day.

I have not been subpoenaed to sit on the throne of judgment, but I have been subpoenaed to sit in the chair of the witness and testify as to what the Word of God says.

As to the terms of pardon, here is my testimony, I have read in the second chapter of the Book of Acts where Peter told of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and told the inquiring thousands in Acts 2:38, “Repent, ye be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” I read the words of Jesus according to Mark, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.” I leave those words as they are without comment. You will face those words again at the Day of Judgment.

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT

Ladies and Gentlemen, here is a sobering thought; after the second writing Jesus lifted up Himself and saw none but the woman. Here is a great sinner standing alone face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ, just the two of them. The day will come when every mortal will be in the same situation. Face to face with Jesus on the Day of Judgment. While all the dead shall be raised let no one think you will be lost in the assembly of the billions who have lived. Everyday we watch the news program of television. Forty million people may be watching the same news anchor as he announces the news, but it seems that you are the only one he is speaking to at that time as you sit in your living room. In a similar way it is not the billions who will stand in judgment. It will be just you and the Son of Man. 

But there is a big difference in this woman and us; she was standing before Jesus the Savior. When we stand before Him it will be as Jesus the Judge.

According to Job thirty-one verse fourteen, “What shall we do when God rises up in judgment? When He punishes how shall I answer Him?” The issues are eternal and there will be no appeal. No appeal can be made to insanity as is usually made in earthly courts even though millions may feel they must have been crazy to live a lifetime on earth and have no time for matters of eternity. The Book of Job asks, “How shall I answer Him?” Guilty or not guilty how do you plead? On that day the big question for everyone will be, “When I stand before Him by and by, Will He be bearing all my sins or shall I?”