Drop Your Rock
This is not your ordinary 4th of July freedom sermon. In John 8, we're going to look at Verses 1-11. "Now early in the morning." The Greek meaning there means "very early in the morning." "Now early in the morning Jesus came into the temple." He did not come into the holy place or the Holy of Holies. Only the Priests and the High Priest could go in there. Although He was worthy to go in there, He didn't go in there because of their traditions.
When it says "He went into the temple," it means He went into this outer court, this general area, where the general populace could come together. Rabbis taught in this temple area, and this is where He went early in the morning. "And all the people came to Him, and He sat down." Rabbis normally taught in a seated position. "He sat down and began to teach them."
Verse 3: "Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him." The scribes and Pharisees were two different sects or groups of Judaism. Judaism was the religion of the Jews, and the scribes were the ones that wrote the Old Testament; and they were meticulous, making sure they made no errors in the writing. So they spent all their time writing the Old Testament Scriptures, and they were experts in the law. The Pharisees were another sect or group of Judaism who believed in the resurrection. They could be spotted in any crowd. They loved to pray long prayers. They loved to be seen, and they loved to be bragged about. So, "The scribes and the Pharisees bring to Jesus a woman."
If you go to Israel and go to the western wall, which is the only remaining part of anything that connects to the temple, you'll find that the wall divides the women and the men. So to bring a woman into this temple area in front of these men was forbidden. The scribes and Pharisees grab a woman who was caught in adultery.
Do you know what I have found out after 41 years of pastoring? I found out that, when you mention adultery in the church environment today, the church gives this reaction. It means nothing. We've got people sitting in the church pews saying "hallelujah" while committing adultery, but in those days, and those days haven't changed because God hasn't changed, it's sin. In Deuteronomy 22:22, it says they were punished by death.
"Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery, and when they had set her in the midst." Verse 4: "They said to Jesus, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.'" I've got some questions. How did they know it was going on right then, and, if she was caught in the very act, there had to be somebody else there? Deuteronomy 22:22 says that when someone is caught in adultery both of them are to be stoned, but someone got loose here. The woman got caught, but if they were committing adultery, there had to be a man involved. The man got off scott-free, so they may have set her up. I wonder where the guy is? Tell your neighbor DROP THE ROCK.
Now here they go and throw up Moses and the law. Verse 5: "Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned, but what do You say?" People come to me all the time trying to figure out how I feel about such and such. It really doesn't matter what I think about such and such. What matters is what God says about such and such. So they dropped a big name, and said, "Moses said that these should be stoned."
Now if I had been Jesus, I would have said, "Bring that guy over here too. Go get Harry Duck. We'll kill Harry Duck first," but Harry Duck is not there. Verse 6 says, "This they said, testing Jesus, that they might have something of which to accuse Him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger."
This is interesting to me. They threw up Moses' name and the commandments, and if you read Exodus 31:18, you will find out that God actually gave Moses those commandments, those laws, but He wrote them with His finger. Here you have the law written with the finger of God, which tells us what not to do. "Thou shalt not." "Thou shalt not." Is that correct? But in John we have Jesus kneeling down and writing on the ground with His finger, and I believe telling them what they had done. In both instances, it was the finger of God.
"But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear them." Verse 7: "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.'" Verse 8: "And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground." Verse 9: "Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience." The Holy Spirit smote them. They were convicted in their souls.
"Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one." Please note how they left. They didn't leave as a group. They left one by one, and please note how the procession was. It was from the oldest to the youngest. "And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." Verse 10: "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?'" Verse 11: "She said, 'No one, Lord,' and Jesus said to her, 'Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.'"
Isn't it amazing in Verse 11 that we see mercy speaking? There is a divine declaration of forgiveness right there, but along side that you also see a mandate: "Sin no more." Hand in hand with mercy are God's mandates.
There are three things we want to look at. (1) We want to look at these scheming leaders. They're scheming, religious church leaders. (2) We want to look at a sinful lady. It's clear. She's a sinner. (3) We want to look at a sympathetic Lord.
When you look at these scheming church leaders, you will see that they have a plan. We're looking at John 8, but Jesus' ministry is closing. He has been ministering now for probably about two years, and He only ministered for three years, from the age of 30-33. Then He was crucified; yet, He is still ministering today through His church. AMEN? Jesus is nearing the end of His ministry, and these Pharisees want to somehow some way stop His ministry. It's expanding. It says, "All the people came into the temple to hear Him teach."
They know they're going to lose their jobs. Job security is slipping through their fingers, so they have to come up with a new plan. Let me tell you something, church. They were not concerned about this woman. They were not worried about her sin. They were not worried about her soul. They were not coming into church with a redemptive attitude. These guys had a plan, and their plan was to use the law to trap Jesus. They were out for blood, but not the blood of the woman.
If Jesus had agreed with Moses and said they should stone her, they would have done it right there, and He would have been arrested, because the Romans were the only ones that could carry out capital punishment. If He would have said, "No," they would have risen up and said He was against Moses and hope the crowds would leave Him. They were trying to trap Him. The devil tries to trap us. Churches try to put us in traps. Oh, you can't fellowship with them! They speak in tongues. You can't go over there. They raise their hands. We can't get involved with those people. They're premillennial. They don't baptize like we baptize.
Do you know that church history tells us that churches have fought as to whether to baptize forward or backward? Do you know that churches split because they can't agree whether to drink out of one communion cup or from many communion cups? They were out to trap Jesus.
It's interesting to me that they came to this temple carrying rocks. Let me tell you something. Jerusalem is full of rocks. Carolyn Cavender, who was in our first service, went with us to Israel, and I asked her how many rocks she brought back from Israel. She brought back 25 pounds of rocks. Israel is full of rocks, but not the temple. This was God's area. It was clean. It was spotless. They didn't come into the temple then pick up rocks. They brought rocks with them.
In the beginning of Chapter 8, we see a group of people with rocks. Look at the last two verses of Chapter 8. I saw something I had never seen before. In Verse 58, Jesus hollers out, "Before Abraham was, I AM." This same crowd that brought rocks in the first verses of Chapter 8, pick up rocks again to stone Jesus. Do you see it? This entire chapter is all about rocks. Tell your neighbor DROP YOUR ROCK.
Their plan was to trap Jesus. Their plan had nothing to do with this woman. Their attitude was godless, their hearts were hardened, and they had no concern about this precious lady at all. They were there to trap Jesus. They were there to get rid of Jesus, and Jesus simply refused to play their game.
When you get around certain people, they will try and sweep you up into a mob mentality in order to accomplish their agenda, and so many innocent people get caught up in scheming people. Preachers get voted out of churches, because two or three church bosses want their way. So they begin to scheme and plan, and people get caught up in their schemes and plans. Don't play their games.
Jesus ignored them, and now they have a problem. They bring in this woman, throw her down, and you know she is probably scantily clothed because they caught her in the very act. How could they bring someone like that into the temple area? How low can you go? You have never seen wickedness until you have seen church folk fight. I've pastored for 41 years, and I've seen some wicked people in church, with their religious garb on.
See, you can't stump God. This is not Double Jeopardy. You can't stump God. They bring this woman in there and throw her down half-clothed and say, "Moses said we have to stone her. What do you think about it?" Jesus ignores them. He turns His back on them. There are people that will come along your pathway, and I know you want to be a Christian, but what you have to do with some people is IGNORE THEM! I can't get caught up in every little scheme people try to put on me. Everybody has their own little agenda, but Jesus ignored them. He wasn't going to plan their game.
Now Jesus exposes them. He's not just playing tic-tac-toe on the ground. He is down there writing something with His finger. I know the finger of God was writing on the ground, but let's suppose He was listing everybody's name from the oldest to the youngest. When He stood up and said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone," what He literally said was, "Let him who has not committed THIS sin throw the first rock."
The finger of God broke up a party one time. Nebuchadnezzar was having a party over in the Old Testament, and God's finger came in and wrote on the wall and said, "You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting." Let's suppose God's finger starts writing on that screen, and He writes your name down, and all the time you have committed adultery.
Let's talk. You can commit adultery with more than just your body. You can do it with your head, and you can do it with your heart. Let's look holy, men! God wants us to look holy, but I'm here to tell you that men have a battle with the flesh. Please, I'm not trying to be worldly to you, but men are turned on and excited when they look at females.
The other day I was preaching, and a woman was sitting on the front row with a mini-skirt on. Don't come into this church and sit on the front row with a little mini-skirt on. As a matter of fact, if you're going to come up front to praise the Lord, make sure you're clothed. Let me tell you why. You say, well, you men ought to. Let me tell you that men are turned on by what they see, and men have enough to battle. You think you're above that. You had better be careful that you don't fall flat on your face. Men aren't as strong as they act like they are. Men are weak, and we can get caught in the flesh just like that, and it's everywhere.
My belief is that Jesus was writing their names down, one at a time, and He was listing. He stood up and said, "You who are without sin, fire away." Then He goes back down and starts writing again. He ignored them, He exposed them, and then He spoke to them. Then they're under conviction.
I can't put people under conviction. That's God's job. God spoke, now their souls have been smitten with the spirit of God, and they start dropping their rocks. The shouting has stopped, and the only sound you can hear is the dropping of the rocks and the shuffling of their sandals as they slip quietly away. Now the only thing left is the sinful lady. She can't plead innocent. She can't plead disease.
I get so tired of hearing people say, "Well, it's really not sin. I've got a disease. I got it from my grandpa." He's been dead 30 years. Go ahead and blame it on him. We blame poverty on the government. We say alcoholism is a disease, and then with church folk, everything is a generational curse. I believe in generational curses, but somewhere along the trail you need to smite your breast and say, "I am a sinner."
This woman is guilty. She committed adultery. She was caught. Jesus does not condone the fact that she committed adultery, and she has not uttered one word in her defense, because it's a fact. Wouldn't it be something if this Bible said "All of us have sinned?" Tell your neighbor DROP YOUR ROCK.
You have to be so careful in church because, a few days after you have been saved, something happens to you. You just think you have the right to pick up rocks and throw them anywhere you want to. You throw them at the Preacher, and sometimes rightfully so, but I heard a long time ago that folk that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Be careful, because the weapon you use on somebody else just might kill them. Jesus said it would. He said, "They that live by the sword will die by the sword."
Look at the shame. I can't even imagine the shame she felt. She was thrown down in front of thousands of people, many knew who she was, and now they all know who she is. I've had people come to me in the 41 years I've pastored, and I'm amazed at the stupidity of church folk. I had a man come into my office one time and name a lady in our church, and he said he thought I should call her name out in church and expose the fact that she was committing adultery. He said, "If you're a real man of God and believe what you say you believe, you'll do it." I said, "I'm not going to do it." Let me tell you something. What if I got mixed up and instead of naming her, I said, "All you adulterers stand up," and half the church stands up? Tell your neighbor to DROP THE ROCK.
When you deal with heartless, godless, wicked people who put on garbs of religion and become rock throwers. This chapter starts out with them wanting to stone this woman, but they really wanted to stone Jesus; because the end of this chapter tells me who they were really after, and I believe if you throw rocks at men and women, you will eventually throw rocks at Jesus. Where did you get that? "If you do it to the least, you will do it to Me."
She is humiliated, humbled, and broken, and her sentence is death. I can't comprehend these religious guys. Can you imagine, how can I say this in church, going into a room, and this couple. Did they go in like this [eyes covered]? Come on, church! How did they do it? They caught them in the very act. They drag her out, but Harry Duck escapes. They drag her through the streets, and the temple has huge steps to get up into it. They drag her up all those steps. She knew from the time they grabbed her until she was thrown down at the feet of Jesus that her sentence was death. The leader said so, and the law said so. The letter of the law kills, but the spirit gives life.
One day along life's highway you and I will stumble, we'll have a down time, and you had better be around people that won't put you down but will pick you up. The church ought not be a bunch of people that love to stone each other. Now, I'm not saying you overlook sin. I preach against sin. God hates sin, but I'm here to tell you that this woman has the sentence of death on her. Guess what? "The wages of sin is death." We all have the sentence of death over us, "But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus." Thank you, Jesus!
We've got scheming leaders, a sinful lady, and a sympathetic Lord. Jesus is doing this writing with His finger. I wonder if His finger got dirty? Some people think His robe never got dirty, His hair never got messed up, and He never got dirt underneath His fingernails. I think His hand got dirty. It's a sight what His hand had to go through to save my soul.
The Bible says that when the last rock was dropped and the last shuffling of sandals had faded into the distance, Jesus stood up and the first thing He did was face her. She was a sinner facing God. Do you know that you will stand before God one day? Let me tell you something. We will all face God by ourselves. That's serious. If that doesn't put a trembling in your heart, there is something wrong with you. It's a fearful thing facing God.
Here is a woman that knows she is guilty, and Jesus Christ is looking right at her. A sinner facing the friend of sinners! Did you hear what I said? This is what the Pharisees always got onto Him about. "He's a friend of sinners." If He wasn't a friend of sinners, He would have let me go. If He wasn't a friend of sinners, He wouldn't have come after me. Brother, it's not the righteous that need a Savior. It's the unrighteous.
We get down the road so far, and we become judges and forget about the mercy seat. We get on the judgment seat and throw rocks at everything we don't understand. Oh God, help us! He's a friend of sinners. He tells this woman, "Neither do I condemn you." He says, "Where are your accusers?" She says, "I don't have any. They're all gone." There is only one there that can throw a rock, there is only one there than can condemn her, and His name is Jesus. He is the only one that has no sin on Him, and He says, "Neither do I condemn you."
This bothers me. Where does He get off mocking God's judgment? Where is the justice of God? How could He mock the justice of God when He tells this woman caught in adultery, "Neither do I condemn you." Do you mean to tell me that a man who has raped his daughter or molested his son could come to this altar today and God would forgive him? Do you mean to tell me God would forgive a murderer, that God would forgive a rapist? Do you mean to tell me God would forgive someone that had committed adultery with someone else's husband? Do you mean that He would wipe the slate clean? It's a mockery to God's justice.
There are two reasons why Jesus Christ can say that, because there is always a price to pay for sin. It's the law, and it's death. Jesus Christ could tell this woman, "Neither do I condemn you," because He was willing [Can you get this in your spirit?] to pay the penalty for her sin at the cross. You think you just get saved. No, no. A price has to be paid.
Say you owed a debt of $10,000, went before a judge, and are about to go to jail. Then all of a sudden, someone comes along and says, "I'll pay his debt." Well, you have just been redeemed. You should have gone to jail, but here is someone who didn't commit the crime but paid for your crime. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He paid the price for our salvation. Sin had to be paid for. Sin had to be punished. God's justice demands it.
I'm not talking about a church. I'm not talking about a Preacher. I said Jesus paid the price. He didn't deserve to die. We deserve to die. The reason He told her, "Neither do I condemn you," was because He was willing to pay the price for her sin.
Reason number 2 why it's not a mockery but a fact. Because He paid the price, suffered and died, and shed His blood, God the Father gave Jesus the authority to forgive anyone that would believe in Him and accept Him. There are conditions. You say, well, what did SHE do? Well, it's a little tiny word. She said, "Lord."
We've been taught that if you have a 5-mile long prayer; step 1, step 2, step 3 that leads to step 4; but the Bible is so simple that you may not have time to go through step 1, step 2, step 3, step 4. Maybe you need something quick, and the Bible says in Romans 10:13, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord." I don't think she knew His name. I just think she knew something was going on. I think she just knew to call that man up there "Lord."
How could He tell a woman caught in adultery, "Your slate is clean?" Oh, and He said one more thing. "Go and sin no more." Would to God that we all could say with a clear heart that we haven't had to go back and ask for forgiveness for the same thing over again. I wouldn't want to ask you to raise your hand, but I would be willing to say there have been 1-2 of us who had to go back more than once about the same thing.
Psychologists tell us that the thing we're usually against the most is our biggest problem. That could be true, but I know one thing. I've seen people get so hot under the collar at someone else's sin that, later down the road, we found out they were riding the same horse. They were committing the same thing, but they wanted to attack, they wanted to hurl that boulder. Jesus was able to forgive her, because God became flesh and was tempted in all points just like me but without sin. He understands the battle.
Please DROP YOUR ROCK. It will destroy you. Resentment, jealousy, anger. There is so much anger in people that, if you hit the right button, they will go into a rage. You need to DROP YOUR ROCK and fall at the feet of Jesus.