THE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Eternal holy Father, we thank You that You have sent Your only-begotten Son into the world, not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. In His name, and for His sake, we pray that You will now send forth Your Spirit to empower the preaching of Your Word, and that by the power of Your Spirit, You will speak to us. Illumine our minds spiritually, enlighten the eyes of our hearts, give us ears to hear, and souls to believe the truth and grace of Your Word to us through Your Son Jesus Christ. Direct us in the path of Your commands, that there we will find our delight. Turn our eyes away from worthless things, and renew our lives according to Your Word, for the glory of Your name. Amen.

THE ASCRIPTION OF PRAISE

To Him who loves us, and who has freed us from our sins by His blood, to Jesus Christ, be all praise, honor, and glory. Amen!

THE SERMON

Have mercy upon me, O God,

(Psalm 51, selected verses)

"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness ... ." This is the prayer of an adulterer, the plea for mercy of a man convicted of his sin before God. This is the prayer of King David, after the prophet Nathan confronted him about his adultery with Bathsheba — an adulterous affair which ultimately led to the premeditated murder of her husband, Uriah.

Psalm 51 has become for Christians a model prayer of confession; we often say it in unison, or sing it, as our Prayer of Confession in worship. Even though King David lived one-thousand years before Jesus was born, he understood the gospel. David understood what it meant to be saved by grace through faith in a Savior who could cleanse him of his sin. He understood that what helpless, hopeless sinners need is mercy — mercy, mercy, mercy — mercy, pure and free: the undeserved mercy of the Sovereign God who is the Holy Judge, before whom no secrets are hid.

I want to begin here today, with the gospel: the gospel of undeserved mercy toward sinners who have no place to hide. I want to begin here, with the gospel: the gospel of cleansing for those whose souls are stained with sin. I want to begin here, with the gospel: the gospel of healing for broken hearts, the gospel of hope for broken spirits, the gospel of forgiveness for the guilty. I want to begin here today, with the gospel of Jesus Christ: the gospel — the good news — of great grace for great sinners.

This great gospel of great grace for great sinners is beautifully set forth for us in Holy Scripture in John 8, the account of "the woman caught in adultery" (John 8:1-11). The teachers of the law and the Pharisees (the religious authorities, the "good men" of the community) brought her to Jesus in the midst of a large crowd, and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say?"

It was a trap, a set-up by which they were trying to trick Jesus into contradicting the Law of Moses. Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger. Now, we don’t know what He wrote. What is significant, though, is that image of Jesus’ writing on the ground with His finger — bringing to mind that the Scripture says that the Ten Commandments were "written with the finger of God" (Exodus 31:18). That invisible finger of God, which inscribed the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone on Mount Sinai, was now made visible in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. The scribes and Pharisees were asking Him a trick question about the Law of God, and Jesus’ first response was a symbolic one, writing with His finger on the stony ground of Jerusalem. They did not know who they were dealing with. They did not know that they were face-to-face with the One who had written the Law of God.

It is important, very important, for us to see how Jesus Christ deals with helpless, hopeless sinners who look to Him for mercy. First of all, Jesus made no excuses for this woman. She was guilty, caught in the act, and Jesus offered her no defense. He did not dispute the fact that, under Old Testament Law, she deserved to die. And He did not object to that Law. He did not act as her defense attorney. He acted as her Savior. And He showed her, and her accusers, that the God of justice is also the God of grace for sinners who cast themselves upon His mercy.

Jesus said, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." Now, who was it there in that crowd who was "without sin"? Who was in a position to condemn her? Was there a sinless man there? Yes, there was. Jesus. He was the One "without sin," and He was the One who could have justly cast the first stone. But He didn’t, because the God of holy justice is also the God of undeserved mercy who came into the world "to seek and to save the lost, and to give His life as a ransom for many" [Luke 19:10; Matthew 20:28].

After the Pharisees and the whole crowd dropped their stones and walked away, Jesus was alone with the woman — and the woman was alone with Jesus. That’s where we find the freedom of forgiveness; that’s where we find the joy of a new life — when we find ourselves alone, face-to-face, with Jesus. Alone with Jesus: with no one to take up for us, with no one to explain our situation from another point of view. Alone with Jesus: with no excuses, no explanations, no rationalizations. That’s where we find forgiveness, mercy pure and free. All alone with Jesus: and we look into His holy, all-seeing eyes of justice, and we see His tender, loving eyes of mercy.

Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go, and sin no more," which is to say, "Go, and live a new life in my grace. I have set you free from the slavery of sin."

Jesus did not condemn that woman caught in adultery, not because He felt sorry for her in some pitiful human sense, not because He is "soft on sin," or "tolerant" of sin, and not because He thought that she needed a "second chance." Remember: sinners do not deserve mercy. Sinners deserve justice. And God is just when He judges sin. And God is gracious when He bestows mercy upon sinners. And in Jesus Christ, God, the Holy One of Israel, who wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone with His invisible finger, has come into the world in flesh and blood to bear His own holy curse upon sin under His own Law, so that His justice upon sin might be satisfied completely and His mercy upon sinners might be poured forth freely. Jesus took that woman’s condemnation upon Himself. On the cross, He died her death for her, for her sin. And she, by faith in Him, received great grace, free mercy, and a new life to live for the glory of God. Dear friends, that is the gospel of great grace for great sinners through Jesus Christ, and that is the reason that the Scripture says, "There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," and "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (Romans 8:1; 2^nd Corinthians 5:17).

Now, if there is anybody here today who needs to be forgiven, freely; if there is anybody here today who has a guilty blot upon his or her soul which needs to be washed clean; if there is anybody here today who needs mercy, mercy, mercy — mercy pure and free and undeserved — then I know, and I declare to you, a Savior who has suffered the infinite wrath of a holy God to satisfy His justice and to purchase redemption for you. If there is anybody here who needs that kind of forgiveness from this kind of Savior, I say to you: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" [John 1:29].

Is there anybody here today who needs that kind of Savior— a Savior who suffers in your stead, bears your guilt, dies your death, cleanses you of all your iniquities, and gives you a new life? I estimate that there are three-hundred to four-hundred sinners in this sanctuary right now who are desperately in need of undeserved mercy: that is, one-hundred percent of us. Is this sermon on The Seventh Commandment, "You shall not commit adultery," addressed to particular individuals? No. It is not addressed to particular individuals. Yes, it is addressed to particular individuals; it is addressed to you ... and to me.

God is good, and God’s Law is good, and God’s good Law is always for our good. In the beginning, when God created His good world, and created Man — male and female — in His own image for His own glory, He ordained and instituted the holy covenant of marriage. The covenant of marriage is the foundational building block of human society. In the beginning, God blessed the union of man and woman in the covenant of marriage, and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply" [Genesis 1:28].God created us to be sexual creatures, and He blessed the sexual union of husband and wife. But sexual union is more than a matter of physical union for the purposes of procreation; sexual union is that symbolic expression of the union of heart and soul and mind and spirit of husband and wife. This is the reason that Adam rejoiced when God brought Eve to him, and he exclaimed, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!" [Genesis 2:23]. And so the Scriptures declare that "a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).

I will develop this theme more thoroughly in the sermon for this evening, Lord willing. But for now, the point is simply to see that the marriage of man and woman is a holy bond instituted by God at the dawn of creation, and sexual union in marriage is God’s good gift to husbands and wives, for their own blessing and for the good of human society. And, therefore, the Seventh Commandment is God’s good Law to protect us and to protect and to preserve His good gift to us and to human society.

Do not be deceived by Hollywood. Adultery is no light matter. And adultery is never good and never right, and no good thing can ever come from it. Do not follow your heart, for your Creator knows your heart, and He has said, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9). And there is hardly anything so deceitful in the human heart as the illusion of illicit romance. Lust is a delusion, an erotic dream that becomes a living nightmare. Just as idolatry is spiritual adultery, so adultery is spiritual idolatry. Think of how we use the words, faithful, unfaithful, fidelity, infidelity — words we use to describe our relationship with God, words which describe our relationship to our spouse. And the reason for that is that marriage is to be a flesh and blood picture of our relationship to God (and that’s another point which I will develop more fully in tonight’s sermon, Lord willing). But the point here is: Do not be deceived by the devil and his lies, and do not be deceived by the "wisdom of this world" — adultery is sin which reaches back all the way to the beginning when God created Man, male and female, because it violates God’s holy purposes for His institution of marriage. Adultery, therefore, is the trashing of God’s good gift. Adultery is a rebellious response to God’s goodness toward us. Adultery destroys marriages, families, lives, hopes, and dreams. Adultery is finally self-destructive, for every time we violate holy vows and break covenant promises, we commit a kind of suicide of the soul, and we give ourselves over to the "father of lies," the devil, whose only purpose is to "steal and kill and destroy" your soul (John 8:44;10:10). And the Seventh Commandment applies not only to literal adultery but to every kind of sexual immorality, including fornication and sodomy and licentious attitudes and provocative innuendo. Therefore, "be vigilant, because your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour" (1^st Peter 5:8).

But we have not truly, fully kept the Seventh Commandment simply by not committing literal, physical adultery or other sexual sin. Jesus said that "out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander" [Matthew 15:19]. Adultery, then, is a matter of the heart as well as our actions. In our fallen nature, corrupted by sin, we have within us all it takes to be an adulterer. And maybe that is the reason that pornography is a billion-dollar industry, and millions of nice people vicariously violate the Law of God by watching sexually explicit movies.

As is murder, so adultery is a matter of the heart, a spiritual issue. God looks upon the heart, and the law of God judges the heart and mind of man. And whether we have ever actually committed literal adultery is not the issue, not ultimately. How can I say that? Because Jesus did. Jesus, the true Teacher of the Law, greater than Moses, declared the Law of God from the Mount, and by His Spirit, He writes His Law upon the hearts of His people, saying:

You have heard that it was said, "Do not commit adultery." But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" [Matthew 5:28].

And so now, with the words of Jesus, we see the truth of God’s indictment upon all humanity, that "there is none righteous, no not one." This adultery in the heart can occur in various ways, not only with the leering, lustful eye, but also through emotional adultery: in relationships in which appropriate boundary lines are crossed by intimacy of conversation, by sharing of secrets and feelings, by spending too much time together at work, and by becoming too much of a "good friend" to someone who is not your spouse. It is a very slippery slope. And the devil has his way of weaving his web ... especially now on the worldwide web. Now there is even such a thing as Internet adultery. Get out of the "chat room," and don’t go back.

Positively, keeping the Seventh Commandment means not only not committing adultery. It means treasuring your marriage. Husbands, it means loving your wives as Christ loved the church. Wives, it means respecting your husbands, and submitting to their leadership. It means that husbands and wives give their bodies over to one another, in purity, faithfulness, and love, meeting the healthy sexual desires of one another. It also means honoring and protecting the marriages of others, and teaching our children that their sexuality is to be consecrated to God for His glory, in submission and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the beloved Bridegroom and Savior of His people, the Church. (More on the positive keeping of the Seventh Commandment tonight, Lord willing).

But now, I want to conclude as I began: with the gospel of undeserved mercy, the gospel of great grace for great sinners, the gospel of healing and hope and new life. You cannot turn back the hands of time, (and neither can I) but you and I can turn to Jesus Christ and receive eternal forgiveness. You cannot undo what you have done, (and neither can I) but you and I can trust in what Jesus Christ has done for us and promises to do for us if we look to Him in faith and trust Him to take away the guilt of our deeds. Will you cast yourself, hopeless and helpless, upon His mercy, His mercy, pure and undeserved, with no excuse and no explanation, and simply cry out to Him, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin"? Will you receive the forgiveness that Jesus Christ freely offers to you? And will you offer yourself anew to Him, in true and faithful love, because His love for you is true and faithful? Will you turn away from your sins, and follow Him in newness of life, and, by the power of His Spirit, seek to live for His glory, because now you know that He is the great God and Savior, who delights in showing great grace to great sinners?

Now, in Christ’s name, I commend you all to God and to the word of His grace; and unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion, and power, both now and forever. Amen.