PRAYER
Father, open my eyes to see Your Word.
Open my ears to hear.
Open my mind to understand.
And open my heart so I may receive Your Word today.
AMEN
Today I want to talk to you about judging others, forgiveness, and grace.
As we talk about these things, I want to make the Word of God alive and active in your life.
So many times I hear people say this about the Bible, “It’s not relative to my life.” They say that the Word of God is outdated. They say that the word of God doesn’t speak to them.
Today, I hope to show you that it is just as relevant today as it ever has been.
There are three Scriptures that I want to share with you today; two of them are kind of a pre message to the message.
The first is in Romans 1. It is the most vivid picture of depravity in history if mankind. It is not a pleasant picture, but it is real.
READ Romans 1:21-32
Paul wrote this in the 1st Century, it was his thesis on the history of sinful man. It always astounds me sometimes how some things never change.
1
Until Jesus returns for his church, sin will always be a part of this world.
I don’t care who you are or what you do; we will always have to deal with the temptation to sin in one way or another.
That is something that is real.
Now I want you to look at 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
READ 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
You are probably wondering where I am going with this.
These are some very relevant words for any time throughout history. They are relevant for today.
We understand what Paul has written in this portion of Scripture, but sometimes we miss the personal touch that the he uses here in this Scripture.
Listen again to verse 11, (READ SLOWLY)
“And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
(Pause)
And such were some of you. (Go slowly with love)
If the things that I have just read characterized your life in days past or in years past would you simply stand with me now?
Thank you, you may be seated.
The Bible is relevant. This is something that speaks to people today. The reason it speaks to us is because, these are not the sins of Corinth, these are not just the sins of California; these are the sins that people all around the world commit every day. People just like you and me.
It is easy for us when we come to a passage like this one to sit back smugly in our seats in pride, thinking that we are better than the sinner and that would never happen to us, my friends, this should not be, this should not happen.
If you are sitting here in self righteousness then may I suggest to you to put down the stones.
In John 8:3-11 we find the account of a woman who was caught in adultery and was about to be killed by her peers for her sin.
It is a story that plays out far too often in our world today. I am not talking about the fact that she was caught in adultery but rather the fact of how the people reacted towards the woman who made a mistake and committed a sin.
READ John 8:3-11
Whenever I read this Scripture, the first thing that usually comes to my mind is, “where is the man who was also committing adultery?” It takes two to tango!
In the Bible days, the law dealt more severely with the women who broke the law than it did with the men who broke the law.
It was a capital offense for the woman to have sexual relations with a man other than her groom. She deserved death. It was no big deal back then for the man. And please understand that I don’t think that is right. Both should have been punished.
This event that John is sharing happened during the Feast of Tabernacles. This was the seventh and final Feast of the Lord. It occurs five days after the Day of Atonement on the fifteenth of Tishri.
It was not uncommon for there to be acts of immorality committed during this particular feast. One of those acts was caught and they grabbed the woman who was involved and brought her to this new teacher named Jesus of Nazareth.
Have you ever seen the movie Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts? Gibson’s character sees conspiracies everywhere.
I look at this situation and I think that maybe this was a set up. I think that maybe this woman was trapped into committing adultery so they could try to get Jesus to mess up in his assessment of the situation.
I have no proof, just an over active imagination.
We all know that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were always trying to catch Jesus in his words so they could get rid of him.
If Jesus would have answered, “Stone the woman,” He would have been in violation of the Roman law which did not allow the Israelites to carry out capital punishment.
If Jesus would have answered, “Do not stone the woman,” He would have been guilty of violating the Law of Moses.
He was in a no win situation. They were trying to get Jesus to mess up.
This whole event is so very characteristic of Jesus’ life. He is compassionate, protective, and not willing to stumble.
Jesus is a friend to sinners and yet never allows the sins of others to cause Him to stumble. Nor did He allow the acts of the accusers to cause Him to sin.
Instead, Jesus challenges the crowd to examine their own lives. To look at the sin that is within each of them. This is something that is not easy to do.
Imagine the awkwardness of the silence after Jesus is questioned about what to do with this woman.
He kneels down and begins to write on the ground. And then after a few moments, He stands up, looks at the people and says this short little phrase, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to cast the first stone.”
Have you ever wondered what Jesus wrote on the ground?
There are four theories as to what Jesus wrote on the ground that day.
The first is that Jesus wrote down the sins of the people who were standing there with stones in hand.
The second is that Jesus wrote out the Ten Commandments.
The third is that Jesus wrote a special message to the Pharisees.
The fourth is that Jesus wrote the phrase, “If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to cast the first stone.”
Whatever it was that Jesus wrote, along with His statement, it made an impact of the people who were standing there ready to stone this woman.
One by one, oldest to youngest, those people started dropping their stones and walking away.
The stones in their hands began to grow heavy with the knowledge of their own sins.
They began to drop the stones as they began to realize that they were not perfect.
No one was able to throw a stone. No one was able to condemn this woman.
Think about this, Jesus was the only one who was present this day who could have thrown the first stone at this woman, but instead, He commanded her go and leave her life of sin.
What kind of message would it have sent if Jesus would have thrown a stone? How could that have helped Jesus in His goal of bringing people into the Kingdom of God?
Or, what if someone in that crowd was unable to see their sin or was unwilling to acknowledge their sin? What would have happened?
That person would have thrown a stone. What would have happened next?
Everyone would have started throwing their stones and that woman would have died.
Once someone starts throwing stones everyone else starts to follow because for most people it is easier to follow the crowd then to do the right thing.
We see it happen all the time today. People follow the crowds and usually it doesn’t matter if they are right or wrong, they follow.
We live in a world where people throw stones at others every day.
They hurl insults, they toss prejudice, and they throw judgment without any thought about the stone they are throwing or the sin in our own life we are ignoring.
And make no mistake in understanding that the stones we throw leave wounds and injure and even kill the hearts of souls of the very people we need to love and bring to Christ.
Jesus warned us not to do such things in Matthew 7.
He said, 1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Matthew 7:1-3
Please don’t misunderstand me, this woman was guilty and according to the Law she deserved death.
But as Jesus knelt back down and began to write in the dirt again, those people who wanted to stone her to death dropped their stones and walked away until it was just Jesus and the woman standing there.
The only one who could throw a stone, in mercy and in grace looked at this woman and said to her, Go now, and leave your life of sin.”
The message of Jesus is clear; the only person that can throw a stone at a sinner is a person who has no sin in their life.
The appropriate action for us as children of God is to treat others with the same compassion and love that Christ showed. We need to provide hope and help so that others will travel down the road of repentance.
In order for us to do this, we must first recognize our own sin. It is a simple fact that we are not perfect, we all fall from time to time.
When we fall we need to turn to God and ask Him to forgive us.
Will He forgive us? Every time. And He will help us to not return to that sin if we let Him.
If we want to see the church grow and if we want to see more and more people come to know Christ as their Savior, then we are going to have to put the stones down and treat people the way Jesus treated people.
We are going to have to allow God to judge. That is one of the things He does. Our job is to tell others about Jesus and to show them love.
I am not saying that we are suppose to agree with their sin, we are not suppose to accept their sin, we are not suppose to join them in their sin, but we are suppose to love those who fall short of the glory of God.
Who of us here is without sin? I don’t say that to bum you out, I say it because it is a truth we need to understand. It is not a truth to condemn us but rather it is a truth to wake us up.
“And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Corinthians 6:11
Judgment versus Grace.
Let us choose grace and allow the Father to judge. He will judge right.
Let’s turn from our own sins and seek righteousness.
Let’s put down the stones and let’s live our lives like Jesus.
CLOSE
