At God’s Mercy

Introduction

[Slide 1]

I want to start off this morning’s message with somewhat of a personal and maybe confronting question. And please, you don’t have to answer me. But the question is, has anyone ever had an experience in life, where you were caught in the middle of doing you were not meant to be doing, something wrong?

[Slide 2]

In English we have this idiom, “getting caught red-handed”. And it pretty much just means catching someone or being caught in the wrong act. And maybe you’ve had one of these experiences. Getting caught gossiping about someone; being caught out in a lie; maybe getting pulled over while you know you were just speeding or had just ran a red light.

I don’t know about everyone here, but for me, these moments, these “getting caught red handed” moments, are in all honesty some of the most embarrassing moments in life. Because in that moment, I honestly don’t have anything to say for myself. I can’t hide behind a lie because whoever caught me literally saw me doing the thing I wasn’t meant to do. So really, I have to just face the fact that I was in the wrong, and if I’m being very honest, admitting wrong is something that I, and maybe all of us, feel very uncomfortable with.

But not only are these experiences embarrassing, they are more often than not consequential, meaning there are usually negative consequences as a result. A speeding ticket from driving too recklessly, loosing something valuable as a result of a lie, or maybe a broken relationship from being caught going behind another person’s back.

And of course, there are more severe examples of these situations, and we find what I think is one of the most extreme examples of this “getting caught red-handed” experience in the Gospels. I want to begin our message this morning with a story found in the Gospel of John. In John chapter 8.

Body I:

Just for context for those who may be unfamiliar with John’s Gospel. John 8 Comes in a series of escalating events in John’s narrative, where Jesus’s ministry is becoming increasingly public. But at the same time, his relationship with the established religion and the religious leaders is deteriorating just as quick. In John 5, Jesus heals a man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day, which sparks persecutions from the Pharisees. In John 6, Jesus performs the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 but follows the miracle with one of his most controversial sermons, and the chapter ends with many of his followers leaving him to join forces with those who were persecuting Jesus. And in John 7, Jesus delivers another controversial sermon at one of the biggest Jewish festivals of the year, and the narrative ends with the Pharisees, who were the religious leaders of the time, attempting to arrest him. So, John 8 continues the escalating narrative of the interactions between Jesus and the religious leaders. In John, 8 Starting at verse 1 the Bible says… John 8:1-11.

[Slide 3]

John 8:1–11 NKJV

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

[Slide 5]

You know, I cannot help but be amazed at this story in John. And whenever we read the story, of course the focus should be primarily on Jesus’s response to this situation. And there is a lot that we can talk about regarding what Jesus did to respond to this test from the religious leaders. But for me, I’m not only amazed at this story because of Jesus’s response, but also at the sheer roller-coaster of an experience this must have been for the woman. I mean getting caught in the very middle of doing something so shameful. And not only that, she is caught by the religious leaders that she looked up to. In terms of embarrassment, especially in a honour and shame culture, that’s something else.

And I sometimes cannot help but relate to the emotional experiences that this woman must have felt throughout this story. Now I haven’t ever been caught in the middle of something this extreme. And being newly married, I pray and hope that I would never even be tempted into something like this. But I think back to my past and I remember a specific experience that may have paralleled the experience of this woman.

Now I do not have the time here to share my full testimony today, maybe for another Sabbath. But just for some context. I grew up in the Adventsit church as a teenager. I was baptised at the age of 14 at the Strathfield Chinese church. But at the age 18, as many teenagers do, I decided that church was no longer for me and for 7 years, I ran very, very far from God. That decision would eventually lead me down a path of heavy drug addiction and all the things that comes with that lifestyle.

And as I think back to my departure from God and from the church, it really happened while I was in high school. I remember that I got my driver’s licence in year 12, and from then on, some of my friends and I started skipping out on class a lot, we started “jigging school”. My friends and I would just go to Parramatta Westfield and bummed around all afternoon. And we didn’t have any money at the time, well at least I didn’t. And so, we started shoplifting at some of the larger stores to kill time.

Now what initially started off as a once off thing, very quickly became a habit and before long we found ourselves stealing almost every time that we were in a shopping centre.

I remember one time; we were at a shopping centre up North. And My friend turns to me and tells me that I owed him some money, and to pay him back, he said I could just steal him a pair of sunglasses. And at this point I didn’t even hesitate, because stealing had become so normal to me. So I go into the shop, grabbed the pair that he wanted, took off the tag, put it in my pocket and walked out. As I was waiting outside to meet up with my friends, I saw in the distance a group of security guards and a shop staff walking towards me, and immediately my heart sinks. As they started talking to me, I knew that I was caught in the very act. I knew I was caught red handed, and that I had absolutely nothing to say for myself. I was in every sense at that moment, at the mercy of the security guard talking to me.

He did eventually let me go after finding out I was underage, and I wish I could say that was the last time I stole, but it would be a few more years before God brought me to my senses and turned my life around.

Now I understand that there are probably better ways to introduce myself as the new associate pastor than to start with this particular story in my history.

But I wanted to share this story, not in any way to romanticise my misbehaviour. But as I meditate on the experience of the woman in John and relating that to my own experience. Thinking back, I think what terrified me the most in that embarrassing moment, wasn’t just the consequences, getting a fine, which don’t get me wrong, it scared me, it wasn’t just getting a record, going to court, and of course the worst of it all, having my mum find out, which terrified me.

But on top of all that, one of the worst things about that moment for me, that getting caught red handed moment, was also this feeling of exposure. I felt exposed for who I was in that moment, a thieve. And that really brought a feeling of shame, guilt, and fear unlike anything else I’ve experienced up until that point. See for probably a year at that time, I somehow managed to convinced myself that stealing wasn’t so bad because the stores that we were stealing from were making millions in profit, so why did it matter.

But those lies and those narratives that I was telling myself came apart for a moment, in the moment that I was caught. And in that moment, every accusation of being a thieve and all the shame attached to that title was true and it was real to me.

A couple years ago, I remember having a conversation with a friend about this story in John 8. I was coming at it from the angle of the mercy that Christ showed, but he turns and says to me, no, the story is actually really about inequality between men and women in the ancient world.

And that definitely is true to the story, the theme of gender inequality is there because in Leviticus 20:10, the Law of Moses commanded that the man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death. So, in other words, both the man and the woman involved in the act should have been brought to Jesus for judgement.

But as I think on the story, sure there is themes of inequality. But the woman here before Jesus was guilty, and as the scripture says, taken in the very act, or in other words, she was caught red handed. Yes, the Pharisees were scheming, trying to trap Jesus, yes the Pharisees were hypocritical because they themselves were guilty of sin, yes they were unjust by not bringing the man. But one thing they didn’t have to do is to make up a story about what this woman did. Because, again, according to Scripture, she was caught in the very act.

See nothing in this story is random, it wasn’t a coincidence that they just happen to catch some woman committing adultery. The Bible says that this whole thing was a test, so the whole ordeal was planned and calculated. They knew what they wanted to tempt Jesus with, and in this case, it was to either have him disregard the law of Moses by not condemning the woman who deserved death according to Leviticus. But then if he did condemn the woman he would’ve broke the laws of Rome because Jesus does not have the authority to execute capital punishment.

So, thinking as the Pharisees, I probably would not have left it up to chance to catch someone doing something worthy of death under the Mosaic laws, and so I picture them catching someone who already had a reputation, someone whom they knew they can catch in the very act. See as with my stealing, this woman probably has built up a habit and maybe even a reputation for herself. And everyone knew exactly when and where they could catch her in the act.

And as the Pharisees laid accusations on her sins, she remains silent, because those accusations were true to her. In the same way that I stood guilty before the Macquarie centre security guard this woman knelt completely guilty before the Judge of the world.

I can only imagine what was going on in the mind of this woman caught in adultery. To be completely exposed before a man whom many are saying is the Messiah. And that means, according to first century Judaism, the people expected Jesus to re-establish the nation of Israel as a nation of righteousness, and judgement. And so how can she, an adulterer, a sinner, caught in the very act, have a place this kingdom? How can she stand before her King and before her Judge?

And honestly church, this can be a terrifying position to be in, right? To be exposed before the Judge of the world, with someone pointing out all that is true of us. But I want to make the argument this morning that like the woman before Jesus, who was completely guilty and completely at Jesus’s mercy, I want to remind us, and maybe for some of us this is the first time hearing this, that to be at God’s mercy, is the safest place that we could ever be, because as Jesus showed in action, God is by His very nature, merciful and gracious.

[Slide 6]

But here is the thing. Most of us know this truth. We know that God is merciful and gracious because it is an easy concept that we’ve heard over and over again. In fact, We sing about it, we preach about it, and by God’s grace we tell others about it. But sometimes the reality is, that when we ourselves are stuck in a cycle of sin, where we are sinning and repenting, sinning, and repenting, and believe me, we all get stuck in this sometimes - but sometimes, when we are in that cycle, we don’t often feel what we know. I don’t know about you, but for me, in those moments when I am struggling with sin, it is not always God’s mercy that I feel at the forefront of His character, but rather, His holiness, righteousness, and justice. And then Satan comes along and whispers all the things that we know to be true. And so what we often feel is, “man how can God forgive me, again.”

[Slide 7]

So, despite the knowledge of God’s mercy and grace, it is inevitable that sin brings this feeling of shame and of a fear of God, especially knowing that He sees all things. This is the very nature of sin. It is why the very first reaction of Adam and Eve was to hide from the Lord in Genesis 3, and it why we still hide from the Lord when we fall.

[Slide 8]

In the Desire of Ages, Ellen White when talking about Jesus as He was starting to feel the burden of sin upon Him in the garden of Gethsemane, says something so powerful and true to our experience. She says that “so dreadful does sin appear to Him, so great is the weight of guilt which He must bear, that He is tempted to fear it will shut Him out forever from His Father’s love”. And this is powerful, because Jesus, who knew perfectly, the Father’s love, the Father’s mercy, the Father’s grace. In the moment that he was weighed down by sin and guilt, could only see the Father’s judgement. 1 John 4:18 says that fear of the judgment, it hath torment”, and we see the torment of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, and we can only imagine the torment of the woman’s soul in John chapter 8.

So like I said, to remember God’s mercy when we ourselves are stuck in sin, even as Christians, can be very difficult. As we read, even Jesus under the weight of sin, struggled to see past the Father’s judgement.

And I feel as if God really knows that we struggle to see his Mercy in light of his Judgement. Because over and over again Scripture has to remind us that God is merciful. In fact, one of the most repeated verses in the Bible is some form of God’s proclamation of who He is; merciful, gracious, and patient. And some of you may know where those verses originate from. In Exodus 34, God reveals who He is to Moses by passing by Moses in Mount Sinai and proclaiming His name.

Body II:

But what was the lead up to that moment? We’re going to transition in to a bit of Bible study now. I hope that’s ok, we won’t take too much longer.

[Slide 9]

Now Exodus is the story of God delivering the Israelites out of slavery under Egypt. Just prior to Exodus 34, the children of Israel had just been brought out from the land of Egypt to the foot of Mount Sinai. On Mount Sinai, God proclaimed the 10 commandments to them. But, as Moses went up into the Mountain to spend more time with God, there was this delay. And Moses was absent for nearly six weeks and the people fell into idolatry by building and worshiping this golden calf.

And up in Mount Sinai, as God was relating His laws and plans for the sanctuary to Moses, all of a sudden the dialogue changes. God suddenly becomes very angry, and God tells Moses that the people had rebelled. And I find this interaction between God and Moses very fascinating.

Because you get the sense in their interaction that even Moses, whom God had used in such mighty ways and who was allowed to be so close to God. Moses himself, at this point, like the rest of us, began to struggle with the character of God.

If we turn to Exodus 32, we will read the interaction between God and Moses, starting at vs 7

Exo 32:7 And the LORD said to Moses, "Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.

Exo 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!' "

Exo 32:9 And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!

Exo 32:10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation."

Notice here, that God is coming to Moses in a posture of anger, directed at the Israelites. And he is angry to the point where he is saying that he will destroy the Israelites. And I just want to make a point here, because this often our only picture of God facing sin, right? Not only when we sin, but sometimes when we are in Moses’s position, and we see other people sin. That God is coming down on sinners with vengeance and destruction. And that may be true, but we are going to see in this story how this picture of God develops,

But for Moses, there was something in him that did not just want to settle with this outcome, because beginning at verse 11, we see Moses starting to plead with God.

Exo 32:11 Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said: "LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

Exo 32:12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, 'He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people.

Now as the story continues, we will see that this is not the only time that Moses pleads with God, but the dialogue continues throughout the rest of the story. But I find this first pleading by Moses very interesting because it is very different to Moses’s final appeal for forgiveness in chapter 34 which we will look at soon.

And it is different to chapter 34 because here, Moses does not necessarily appeal to any innate mercy in God. I don’t know if you caught that? Nowhere in these two verses do we see Moses appealing to God’s mercy or grace. But instead, he appeals to the shame that would be brought upon God’s name if the other nations found out. And this is probably a pretty good argument in Moses’ mind because remember that the ancient world was built on this honour and shame culture. And had Yahweh destroyed the Israelites, Yahweh would’ve been seen by the other nations as a malicious god, which many of the pagan gods were. And so Moses is saying that would bring shame on God’s name. So, in a sense, Moses is appealing to God’s pride and honour, as we would to an earthly king. He appeals to God’s reputation rather than who God is.

[Slide 12]

But as the story goes on and as Moses come down from Mount Sinai, Moses literally catches the Israelites in the very act. He catches them red-handed, in the middle of their festivities to this idol. Moses sees just how despicable of a sin the Israelites had committed. And in that moment, Moses realises the reality of the guilt and shame upon the Israelites. And that God, who sees all, would have been completely just in pronouncing judgement on the people then and there. So, when Moses returns to the Lord in verse 31, he says to God…

Exo 32:31 "Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold!

Exo 32:32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written."

We often see and know these verses as the great selfless intercessory prayer of Moses. Because what Moses is saying is that he is willing to forfeit eternity with God and to be removed from the Book of Life, which is what verse 32 is referring to, just so that the Israelites can remain the people of God. It is truly amazing.

But I want to dive a little bit deeper into what Moses is saying here. Because while we can get a great insight into the selfless character of Moses in verse 32, we also get an insight into his struggle over God’s character.

[Slide 14]

?Because what is Moses essentially insinuating about God’s character in this response? Because really, we can read verse 32 as this as; “Lord please be merciful, but if not – let me be merciful…Right?... IF you will forgive…BUT IF NOT…Let me”.

What we see here is that Moses knew that the sins of Israel demanded justice, because remember that just earlier the Israelites had just entered into a covenant of blood with God. And as much as Moses wanted God to forgive the Israelites, the doubt is whether God could be merciful in this covenantal demand for justice. And in that doubt, somehow, the insinuation is that he himself could be the one to show mercy, rather than Yahweh God.

But here is the thing, is it any surprise that Moses should be confused about the balance of God’s justice and mercy at this point? In his walk with God up until this point, what has he witnessed? Let’s think about this. Moses had seen God pronouncing judgment upon the quote unquote “enemies of God”, the Egyptians. The outpouring of His judgement on a nation that dared to defy God. The natural question in the current situation would be: well, would it not now be poured out upon the Israelites who also justly deserved it?

[Slide 15]

But, as the story continues, we see that Moses refuses to relinquish the idea that Yahweh is somehow different to the wrathful gods of the pagan nations. And so, the interaction between God and Moses continues. And every time that God says he would do something that is less than Moses’ idea of complete mercy and forgiveness, Moses in a way fights and presses God to be more merciful and more forgiving. And in a way we see Moses almost talking back to God about God’s judgements. Saying “no” to God’s decrees about the Israelites.

And for us Christians, the thought of talking back to God can be quite uncomfortable right? We want to be good Christians who submit to God, and not say no.

But this is one of the main points that Matthew J. Korpman brings out in his book “Saying no to God”, or rather, perhaps more fitting to the thesis of the book, saying no to a image of God that is any less than who He truly is. And this is a very powerful thought. That there are times, when we have to wrestle with God and say no to an image of Him that is not true to who he is. But here is the thing, often times during these situations where we are struggling with God’s mercy, we are not really struggling with God Himself, but with who we think He is. And so there are times when we have to say no to our picture of God that is not true to who he is. When we fall and Satan tells us that we have exhausted God’s grace.

And so, Moses continually presses for the mercy of God and each time he does, God gives what Moses asks for, and at times the scripture says the Lord relented, or in other words, God changed His mind on what He is going to do. And how do we make sense of this changing of mind, when in Malachi 3:6 we read that “for I am the Lord, I do not change…”? Ellen White says in Patriarchs and Prophets that, had God really purposed to destroy the Israelites, He would’ve done so without hesitation. But it was to test Moses that God presented Himself in this way. And this test was not only for Moses’ character but Moses’ conception of Yahweh’s character.

And honestly, if I were Moses, by the end of this interaction with God, I would be somewhat confused. Because God had presented Himself in wrath and pronounced several judgements on Israel, all of which He relents when pressed by Moses. This would be quite confusing, right? And so when Moses finally asks God in Chapter 33 verse 18 “Please, show me Your glory.” I see this as Moses being at a point where he just needs to know, “Lord who are you? And what are you like?”.

And so, we finally get to God’s own proclamation of His name. Chapter 34 verses 5 to 7.

Exo 34:5 Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

Exo 34:6 And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,

Exo 34:7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation."

A statement from God Himself, about who He truly is.

And I can just sense the relieve of Moses at this point. That the very image of God Moses had been fighting for is indeed who God is. That yes, God is just, and we can never forget that. And yes, God hates and judges sin. But Yahweh God, is first and foremost, merciful, and gracious, and patient and good.

And it is upon this confirmation of who God is that Moses finally falls down and places himself along with the children of Israel completely at God’s mercy, pleading with God, in verse 9. And please just notice the contrast from the earlier conversation. Because here, Moses surrenders, saying “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance”.

Beloved, we see in the story of Moses, what Paul says in Romans 2:5, that it is “the goodness of God that leads men to repentance”. And friends, we have a far greater confirmation of God’s goodness and mercy than even Moses upon Mount Sinai. Because while on Mount Sinai, we have this amazing proclamation of God’s mercy and grace, it is only upon mount calvary where that mercy was demonstrated and poured out in full.

Conclusion:

Because while it may be difficult to reconcile the balance of justice and mercy in God, it is upon the Cross where these seemingly juxtaposing or conflicting traits are most clearly resolved. Because if God is not at least as Merciful as He is Just, then the Cross makes absolutely no sense. But upon the cross God justly punished sin. And we have to understand that sin is serious.

And that God is moved to wrath by injustice and evil. And praise God that he does. Praise God that the righteous judge is angered by injustice, and abuse, and evil. And he will one day judge sin.

And all that righteous anger was poured out on the cross.

But what more important for us, and the good news for us is that, while God punished sin on the cross, He mercifully took that punishment upon Himself. That all of the pain that sin brings, was laid completely on Jesus, who was fully God, who was the very one who gave the commandments on Mount Sinai, who was the very one who pronounced the curses upon breaking the covenant. It was all laid on himself.

And so that it is on the cross, that all God is, is satisfied, His justice, His love, His mercy, and His power. And so it is through the Cross that we can be assured that God’s mercy is available to all who would place themselves at His mercy. And this is why church, we must come to the foot of the cross. Every morning, every time we fall into sin.

Because it is through the Cross that God is able to justly extend His mercy to someone even as myself and even to a woman caught in adultery. That God can be just and the justifier of everyone who believes in Jesus.

And so, I invite you, friends, to come to the foot of the cross, and to experience the freedom of hearing those words “neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more”.