Put the Rock Down Please!

I don’t know about you, but I feel like our world has gone crazy!!!

The biggest thing that frustrates me is the animosity of the world toward Christianity.

I grew up in a world that was still open to Christianity, the hope and love of Jesus Christ, but in my lifetime I have witnessed the change in America from being a nation accepting of Christianity to a POST MODERN realm that has rejected Christianity. It is unfamiliar with its principles and when it sees them in action thinks of it as archaic, uneducated, judgmental and outmoded.

Thus, we see utter contempt for anything related to the Bible, and most of all we see an embrace of crazy, sinful living.

This living is not just in the world, but in the church!

This living is actually commended and embraced rather and anyone speaking out against it is considered one who condemns.

DID YOU KNOW THAT JESUS CAME TO BREAK CONDEMNATION!!!

That does not mean He desires us to embrace sin, but to embrace grace that frees us from the bondage of RULES to actually WALK in righteousness.

John 3:17 NLT

17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

Never is this more seen than in the passage found in

Turn with me this morning to

John 8:1–11 NLT

1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. 4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. 9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Here we have a passage of Scripture where we see Jesus define the attitude needed in the church toward each others and the lost!

We see a champion of WOMEN...

A call to embrace grace...

A challenge to change our choices and lifestyle!

1. Embrace the Law of Grace

In this passage we see the consideration of 3 LAWS

1. Jewish Law (OT Law) Judgment

The Pharisees and Scribes were hoping to put Jesus in a tough position, so they set up a scenario to force him into making a judgment call.

We know this by a few things.

Jesus was teaching early in the morning… the reality of a woman being caught in adultery and this group of men having discovered it would need to be played out and planned...

The man has been left behind...

IN order to present this need to Jesus - it required witnesses

Well, these religious leaders bring Jesus a woman caught in adultery — last time I checked it required 2 people for that to occur. In fact the OT law required both MAN and WOMAN be brought to punishment not just the woman...

Deuteronomy 22:22 NLT

22 “If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the woman must die. In this way, you will purge Israel of such evil.

Leviticus 20:10 NLT

10 “If a man commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the man and the woman who have committed adultery must be put to death.

OK, Scripture even places the man before the woman in the “stoning act”!

To bring this woman to Christ under Jewish law was to ask Jesus to disregard the full intent of the law by punishing just the woman.

Chances are, if this woman was a prostitute, she had been known for living under breaking the law, and was an easy target to bring before Christ.

Jesus was presenting with fulfilling their request - but breaking Jewish law while doing it…

2. Roman Law (Entitled to Sin)

The Romans had put an end to any of their “conquered lands” having the right to put people to death according to their own laws. ONLY a Roman Court could condemn to death.

Jesus was faced with the challenge of siding with Romans (very unpopular) if He did not place Jewish law first!

The Romans did not put people to death for adultery, they were not even that opposed to such an act.

In many ways, the Roman law looked the other way, or entitled people to their sinful choices...

Today, we see this as common in our world

3. Kingdom of God Law (Grace to Righteousness)

A new way of doing things was being engaged in the world. What was set down as law to prevent people from sinning had become bondage and a means to destroy, condemn and judge.

The new way of grace was being ushered in --- a means to forgiveness and restoration!!!

Forgiveness requires repentance, but grace does not usher in justice but being made whole again...

This is the law of the LOVE OF GOD — to meet justice with grace and love.

This is the law that God wants to use in our lives!!!

How many a person feels that their actions are so bad, so wrong, that God will not forgive them — and yet look at the extent Jesus went to in order to bestow GRACE toward this woman!

Christians are not perfect, but we are FORGIVEN (that is not a license to sin and ignore the choices God wants us to make), but we cannot forget that Jesus did not come to judge and condemn but to bring salvation to the lost.

Keep this in perspective when we see the great lostness of humanity around us! Will we judge a people who are in need of God’s grace??? Will we show the love of Christ to see them experience life changing grace that sets them on a new path???

The world needs our grace and forgiveness, not to see RELIGIOUS PEOPLE with stones in our hands!

I understand the proportion of sinful living in our world can be frightening and overwhelming to us (it makes us want to run and hide), but God wants us to have the same heart of Christ toward the lost as Jesus did in this story.

2. Understand Our History

Perhaps the most powerful lesson in this story is the one that we are all the same!

There is only one qualified to JUDGE any of us, and His example was to not condemn but to forgive!!

When we condemn others - we fail to remember our own history! We have somehow gotten caught up in our own good works - failing to realize it was the grace of God that has allowed us to walk in the righteousness of Christ we have embraced ourselves!!!

Jesus pauses, not once, but twice to the demand of these religious leaders. He does not write in the sand once, but twice before and after a very specific statement.

John 8:7 NLT

7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”

V.

We will never know what Christ wrote in the sand… it does not really matter

was it the specific sins of her accusers

was he clarifying the law and their abuse thereof

What does matter is that while He was writing He gave time for these accusers to exam their own histories?

Christians ARE NOT PERFECT - WE ARE FORGIVEN — which means ALL OF US HAVE SINNED!!!

Specific sins may have varying consequences on earth… but we measure the weight of our sin to sum up our importance or worthiness over others...

The reality is - SIN IS SIN!!! It is all a transgression of the laws of God and all deserves punishment — on this earth one may be greater than the other, but they are all a means to keep one out of heaven!!!

Who is to say my sin is not as bad as your sin???

Jesus states - let those without sin cast the first stone!

When we condemn others we forget the sin that once cursed our lives!!!

OH, maybe you have not committed adultery, or homosexuality, or murder, or theft, but have you gossiped, been dishonest, harbored unforgiveness, been full of PRIDE?????

If you think yourself better than another - than PRIDE may just be the downfall!

Proverbs 16:18 NLT

18 Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.

WE were ALL IN NEED OF A SAVIOR!!!

Today, our society has come to a point that we are trying to pick and choose what sin is appropriate, or when it can be appropriate...

A man is never to make an advance toward a woman, but a woman can bear her skin, we can flaunt pornography everywhere, we can embrace drugs and alcohol that diminish wise choices that contributes to those wrong advances… (reason why the puritans made everything bad to avoid the slippery slope)

We embrace homosexuality, transgenderism, etc while still recognizing that plural marriage is wrong, relations between adult and child are wrong...

We can abort a child up to and even during birth, but harming an animal is wrong - embracing a gun in self defense...

There is no rhyme or reason — it is approving of any behavior based on the mood at the moment — there are no absolutes...

WHY? Everyone has a bent on sin - we are born sinners, but we all have different weaknesses!!!

One may have a weakness toward the opposite sex, addiction, or the same sex, or toward lying or manipulation or greed ---

IT IS ALL SIN!!! It is all sin we can be free from!

In order to justify my sin, we become approving of others sins.... THIS ALSO DOES NOT WORK!!!

OR WE BECOME CONDEMNING OF SOME SIN THAT DOES NOT APPLY TO US....

Can you see where we have gone so wrong....

We all share the same history --

Romans 3:10 NLT

10 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one.

Romans 3:23 NLT

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

There it is!!!

3. Let Grace CHANGE You

Here is the difference that the laws of the Kingdom of God make possible...

GRACE can CHANGE YOU!

Yes, when we encounter the grace of God - we can go and sin no more!

Jesus did not spare the woman for her to go back to what she was doing.... but to change her life....

If we have found that GRACE TRANSFORMED US, why would we not allow others that same opportunity!

GO AND SIN NO MORE!!!

Jesus desires to forgive us and everyone who will repent of their sin...

NOT TO ABUSE SIN AND TO LIVE IN IT!!!

Romans 6:1–2 NLT

1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

When Jesus calls of the punishment of our sin, it is to set us free to live in newness of life!

Conclusion

SO, let us realize today, that God has released the law of GRACE into our lives — to not condemn of sin, but set us free through HIS FORGIVENESS

We all share the same sinful history… we all needed the same Savior

We all have been forgiven so we can walk in newness of life