Who Will Be First Off The Mark? What Hypocrite Will Throw The First Stone? Part 2 Series

WHO WILL BE FIRST OFF THE MARK? WHAT HYPOCRITE WILL THROW THE FIRST STONE? PART 2

SERIES - THE CHARACTERS OF JOHN’S GOSPEL

THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY – John 8 v 1-11 PART 2

[The account of the woman taken in adultery continues. This is Part 2 of the message.]

Earlier, I said that adultery and homosexuality were related. Why is that? The answer lies in the affront of the sin, that is, what are those two sinning against? They sin against the same truth, the same standard. In Genesis, God brought the woman to the man to become one flesh in marriage right back at the beginning. The Lord affirmed that in this most important passage Matthew 19:4-6 He answered and said, “Have you not read, that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh?’ Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

Do you know why God instituted marriage between a man and a woman and placed it on such a high plane? It is because human marriage is the antitype of the greatest marriage in the universe, and that is the union between Christ and His Church. Christ is the Bridegroom who comes for His Church and leads her to the marriage supper of the Lamb. That great, eternal union of Jesus Christ with His blood-bought Bride is the basis of all marriage, and is the reason why adultery and homosexuality are so obnoxious. Both of these sins smack against the truth of Christ and His Church, the union that was pre-ordained in eternity past, long before the creation of the universe. Adultery adulterates the purity of the Church and homosexuality is a mutant distortion of it. In my mind, homosexuality is the greater of the two evils, but that is just my feeling, not something I put as a truth, possibly because it disfigures the marriage union more than adultery. The really great evil though is homosexual “marriage”, so called, because it is thoroughly perverted, and evil in concept.

Before we come back to the woman in our passage today, I want to remind you of something very critical. Adultery, homosexuality, murder even, or any sin that exists and springs from the old nature, can become the stumbling block for any Christian. “O,” you might say, “I would never commit those bad sins! How dare you even suggest that!” Well, okay, but let us talk about pride. What about that proud look and hard heart? Have you been guilty of that sin of judging others? Never forget the greatest and first sin in all creation was pride – “I will ascend into heaven. I will overthrow God”. Christians are not immune from failure. We see that in Abraham who had to bend the truth about Sarah; and in David who committed adultery and murder; and in Peter who denied knowing the very Lord who was the core of his life; Judah who went down to the prostitute. Every one of us is capable of being caught out in a moment. However all three of those men mentioned continued on in loving God and serving Him, and were greatly blessed; even Judah in his own way. Isn’t our Lord wonderful who knows our very frame, and all the weaknesses and failures we have. The greater the sin, the greater God’s grace is to us when we are truly repentant.

There is an important area I want to touch on. What do we say concerning a Christian person who gets caught up in some terrible sin. Well, to their shame, some of the saints turn on them in judgement and separation, and gossip about them and ostracise them. We are the Lord’s flock and are supposed to be following the Shepherd. What if one sheep falls off the pathway into the bramble thorns? What do you expect the remainder of the sheep to do? Do you think they will try delivering belly kicks to the caught up sheep? Of course not, but some Christians do that to others. I want to speak to anyone who has fallen in the way, and has been caught up by the devil, or the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eyes or the pride that is in this life. I don’t know any sin that does not fit into those categories. The one thing that differentiates Christians from the unsaved, is that we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, and one of his ministries is to convict of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement. He did that when He first brought you to Christ, and He does that when you sin, whether in your eyes, that sin be small or great. However, in God’s eyes, sin is sin, and all sin is wickedness, and it breaks the fellowship with God, but the conviction of the Holy Spirit is there to bring you back to God in repentance. See what David prayed in Psalm 51 – “Against you, you only, have I sinned.” That is where we begin. It is called confession, and confession leads to forgiveness.