Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to John chapter 8? I got to be careful where I walk this morning Mike Gallow Carried away with these baptisms. I think there's some baptists in that boy You I'll tell you from the story. It has nothing to do with the sermon Years ago, we had a guy. He now lives up in Carried North Carolina named Dudley Dabs. He came to our church and he studied to be a deacon and was about to be ordained But he hadn't had his children baptized since came from Baptist background so the morning came. He brought all three of his children there and I Kind of walked up to the baptism font and was waxing elegant when I noticed that there was not a drop of water in that thing So I and I figured well, I'll just reach around and get the glass Well, I drank all the water in my glass. I mean there was no water within two blocks So I went ahead and I did the baptism and afterwards Well, I was doing a Dudley kept going like this and
Afterwards he's I of course I got some people after the service together to stay and we did it again because you have to do it with water by an ordained minister in the in the name of the Trinity So and afterwards Dudley said to the session, you know, I thought these Presbyterians dry cleaned them
There's a two Baptist down there losing it right now This is a This story in the in the beginning of the gospel of John in chapter 8 is really one of the most tender I think stories and all of the Bible certainly I think it's the most tender one in the gospel of John the problem is It's not a very reliable one And I'm don't want to pop your bubble so bear with me a minute Most historians and commentators and Bible scholars believe that this is not a authentic story in the sense of being Inspired by the Holy Spirit and given to one of the Apostle So if you have for example the NIV you'll notice a little footnote that says the most reliable early manuscripts emit John 7.53 to Chapter 8 verse 11 If you have the new English Bible it says this passage which in in the most widely received editions of the New Testament is printed in the text of John 7.53 to 8.11 has no fixed place as a witness in the canon and Some of the Scriptures do not contain it at all if you're One of our Roman Catholic friends and you brought your Jerusalem Bible today It will say the author of this passage is not John the oldest manuscripts do not include it or place at elsewhere The style is that of the synoptic so if you have a new American standard the English standard version It's in brackets now. Why is that the case? Well there are five reasons very quickly number one Obviously as these commentators say the ancient manuscripts the old Greek and Syriac and Coptic and Gothic manuscripts the oldest ones we have as collections none of them include this Nor do the old Latin or old Armenian versions it in fact this this story doesn't begin to appear in The Bible till around the 10th century around the 900s Not only that, but it has a hard time finding a place in the gospels in Different manuscripts a newer manuscripts. It's placed here or after John chapter 7 verse 36 or after John chapter 7 verse 44 Some manuscripts put it at the end of John and some of them even and Luke chapter 21 verse 38 they put it in a completely different gospel at the end of Jesus Christ all of it discourse and the teaching about the end times One scholar said the diversity of the placement confirms the inauthenticity of these verses In short, it has a hard time finding a place where it's comfortable in the gospels The language and style really is more like that of Luke than it is of John no church father Comments upon this text all the early church fathers when they write their commentaries on John or preach on John They go from chapter 7 verse 52 right over to chapter 8 verse 12, which we'll see this morning is the regular a Narrative flow of that story and it is the united voice of the Protestant and the evangelical and the Catholic and the Orthodox church that this is not an Authentic story however that does mean it's not true What that means probably is that this story was not inspired by the Holy Spirit and given to John or Luke or Matthew or Mark But it was a story that was an oral tradition It was a story that the early church people knew about and they talked about and they passed it on orally by tradition Generation after generation after generation and still one commentator said someone in the middle age He said this is just too good a story to leave out and so they inserted it into the text where they thought it was It would best fit So you say what does that do to the preacher? Well it puts him between Iraq and a hard place Because he wants to preach to you inspired scripture, and I can't really tell you honestly that this is inspired scripture and so You don't have to take this story as an authentic Affortative story like you do what comes before it and what comes after it however I Think it is a story and this is the witness of the church as well for two thousand years, but it really happened And even though it wasn't Inspired by the Holy Spirit to be in our text it is a story that fits well within the life and the mode of operation of our Lord Jesus Christ And there are many stories like this especially in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke So I think it is an authentic story Even though it's not an inspired one and I would rather err as a preacher on the conservative side and rather than dismiss this story and move on And have to answer a hundred emails why I did that I'd rather just take it as a true story and look at what it has to say because it has a great lesson for us now This story probably did not occur at this time in the life of Jesus Christ in the last six months of his life when he was at the Feast of tabernacles because if you read it, it kind of interrupts the flow of the story But it obviously did take place at another time when Jesus Christ was as an itinerant rabbi teaching in the synagogues and teaching in the temple and he he had this event happen and through oral tradition through the the Passing down to the story Generation after generation I am for one thankful that it's found its way into our Bibles at least as background information It has some things to teach us In fact, there are three things I think that this little story teaches us it teaches us about About the law of God. It's a message about the law of God because that's the issue at stake here Would Jesus follow the law of the Old Testament or not? It also is a message That was written in the dust the mysterious story of Jesus Christ squatting down in twice writing in the dust that affected people profoundly and It's a story that has a message for the heart So that's what I want to look at a message about the law a message in the dust and a message to your heart and mind Let's look at that first point that this is a message about the law beginning in John chapter 7 verse 53 They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives early in the morning He came again to the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst They said to him teacher this woman has been caught in the act of adultery now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman So what do you say? This they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him Jesus at some time probably during one of these great holy days a Passover or or Hanukkah or the feast of Pentecostor sometime he arrives and camps out in the mount of Olives where he always did And in the day as he went into the temple to celebrate the sacrifices and prayers at feast and worship he would teach And on this particular instance the scribes and the Pharisees the conservative party of Judaism bring a woman Who have been caught? They said in the act of adultery and they placed this woman in front of him now Either this was according to Deuteronomy and Leviticus a woman who was married to someone and was unfaithful to that man Or a woman who was betrayed or engaged to someone and was unfaithful to Irvianse Or it could be also someone who Had some kind of incestuous or illicit contact with someone else and all of those were constituted as adults All three and in Deuteronomy 22 and Leviticus 20 these people were sentenced to death by stoning so they say Rabbi or teacher this woman has been caught in the act of adultery now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman So what do you say? Now let me tell you one thing here folks These legalists were not really concerned about the law Because they weren't following the law If they had been following the law They would have brought both the man and the woman Cut in note because that's what Leviticus 20 and Deuteronomy 20 said That the man and the woman caught in this adultery should be put to death They only brought one person All these men brought the woman isn't that convenient Secondly, they did not do it the right way They didn't go to the Sanhedrin What are they asking a rabbi To do about stoning someone that was the prerogative of the priestly high court and Only through Rome In other words if the Sanhedrin had found the woman guilty according to Roman law at this time They had no authority to put anyone to death remember that's why they went to Pontius Pilate For permission to put Jesus to death because John says they had no authority to do this They would have had to go to a the Roman governor to see this woman put to death which of course is a Roman he would not have done So they came not to follow the law but John says they came interested only in tricking Jesus look at verse six This they said to test him that they might have some charge during against him What charge well? First of all if he said no Let this woman go then he would defy the law of Moses and all the people that thought he was a holy man would no longer have confidence in his his belief in the Old Testament the Bible if He said stoner Then his mercy of love and grace and compassion would be undermined and the great evangelist would lose his hearing of the people and if He condemned the moment to death and the crowned stoner than the Roman governor would have held Jesus responsible for violating state law and would have killed Jesus Christ For taking capital punishment in his own hands, which I believe is what they really wanted But Jesus is not stupid He sees through their rules, but he says nothing See what the scribes and Pharisees missed about the law was the heart of the law Listen to Leviticus You shall not hate your brother in your heart You shall reason frankly with your neighbor Lest you incur sin because of him You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people But you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I Am the Lord your God Later on Jesus would say You shall love the Lord God with all your heart Soul, mind and strength and then quoting Leviticus 19 that I just read and you shall love your neighbor as yourself Upon these two commandments rest all of the law and the prophets In fact, we're told by brother James the brother of Jesus Christ in James chapter two If you really fulfilled the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbors yourself. You were doing well But if you show partiality You bring only the woman and not the man If you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors You men who probably have visited this woman before For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of the law For he who says do not commit adultery also says do not murder Exactly what they wanted to do this woman If you do not commit adultery, but do murder you have become a transgressor of the law So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law themselves and this the law of liberty For judgment is without mercy for those who show no mercy mercy Triumphs over judgment. Could it be that when James wrote that chapter it was this story this fairy story he had in mind Self-righteous people Only taking half of the law Cutting around the supreme authority civilly and their own ecclesiastical courts in order to murder a woman So they could trick Jesus Christ Jesus knows that the foundation of the law of God is love If you love me God says you will keep my commandments. You shall love your neighbor as yourself Paul wrote in Romans. Oh No man anything except to love each other For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law For the commandments you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal You shall not covet and any other commandment are all summed up in this phrase You shall love your neighbor as yourself Love does no wrong to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law Jesus saw exactly what they were doing they were taking this woman caught in some embarrassing situation And despite her legal rights Her rights as a daughter of Moses to a fair trial Despite her embarrassment and shame they were using her To embarrass and to compromise Jesus Christ That's as far from love as you can get And Jesus saw through it and so this message about the law Becomes a message in the sand Verse six Jesus spent down and wrote with his finger on the ground And as they continued to ask him He stood up and said to them Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground Jesus says nothing at first He just squats down like this and begins to write in the dust What was he writing we know now Why was he writing we can only guess But whatever he wrote in that dust Convicted these people in fact It was his writing in the dust That drew their minds to Jeremiah Chapter 17 would you turn there please to Jeremiah Chapter 17 now remember What did we learn last week? Well, Jesus said if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me And I will give him the Holy Spirit who will cause from his innermost spring Waters of living water to spring out Jesus was offering them the living water of the Holy Spirit problem There are two things that keep that living water from coming out Graving the Holy Spirit when you act in an unkind and ungracious manner with your brothers and sisters in the Lord And quenching the Holy Spirit when you resist and defy the word of God we talked it length about that last Sunday These men were doing exactly those two things They were grieving the Spirit in the way they were treating their sister of Israel and they were quenching the Holy Spirit because they were Manipulating his law and rather than follow its convictions and its commission. They were circumventing it They were doing exactly what kept them from receiving the living water And so Jesus Christ bends down and he writes in the sand in the dust Now look at Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick Who can understand it I the Lord searched the heart and test the mind To give every man according to his ways According to the fruits of his deeds Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch So is he who gets riches but not by justice In the midst of his days he will leave him and at his end he will be a fool Now listen carefully A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the peace of our sanctuary O Lord the hope of Israel All who forsake you shall be put to shame listen Those who turn away from you shall be written in the dust for they have forsaken the Lord the fountain of living water That's what Jesus Christ was writing in the dust those who forsake the Lord Will be written in the dust and they will not receive the fountain of living water When he wrote that and when he wrote that verse or not When he stooped down to writing the dust these experts in the Old Testament scribes who copied Old Testament scriptures and were the legal experts and the Pharisees The theologians of the conservative Old Testament party To their mind came these words Those who turn away from you shall be written in the dust For they have forsaken the Lord the fountain of living water That is exactly what Jesus said to just minutes beforehand Come to me all you who are thirsty and I will give you this living water Provided you do not grieve the Holy Spirit and the way you treat each other And quench the Holy Spirit and the way you resist his word in your conscience and that's what these men were doing That is always the case brothers Harsh Angry judgmental unforgiving people can never truly receive the gift of the Holy Spirit They can never have this living water Until their hearts are broken and they stop grieving him in the way they treat other people And people who are hypocritical And sensorious and judgmental who have a seared conscience that's hard as Brits Can never receive the living water the Holy Spirit because they're quenching the Spirit Until that conscience and softened and they're broken and they come to God openly When Jesus spent down and wrote in the sand these experts of the law Saw exactly what Jesus was saying the heart is deceitful Above all things and desperately sick Who can understand it? They have forsaken the Lord the fountain of living water Their lives shall be written in the dust
That message from the law to the dust now penetrates the heart Verse nine But when they heard it they went away one by one begin with the older ones And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him Jesus stood up and said to her woman Where are they? Has no one condemned you She said no one Lord Jesus said Neither do I condemn you Go and from now on Send no more Notice that verse nine says but when they heard it heard what Well they heard what he said in verse seven let him who was without Sin Among you Be the first To throw this donut her now what does Jesus mean Does he mean you have to be sinless to judge no Does he mean if you've ever lusted in your heart Have you ever had any sexual impurity in your soul that you can't judge an adulterous no he didn't say that What Jesus does he applies the law The very law that they were bringing before him Jesus now applies Don't turn there but listen As Moses instructs us and Leviticus and Deuteronomy about three different sins worthy of death first blast for me He says And let all who heard him blaspheme Lay their hands on his head and then let all the congregation stone him to death Let him who heard the blasphemer blaspheme Lay their hands on him and put him to death idolatry And your hand shall be first against him to put him to death and afterward the hand of all the people who The one in the story of Deuteronomy 13 who was invited by the idolatry To participate in false religion your hand shall be first against him to put him to death you who actually saw him Invite you and practice idolatry Deuteronomy 17 on the evidence of two witnesses or three The one who is to die shall be put to death A person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness The hand of the witness shall be first against him To put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the people so he shall purge the evil from your midst Jesus said here's the rules boys The only people who can start the stoning are people one Who saw the adulterer who were eyewitnesses to it? eyewitnesses to the blasphemy eyewitness to the idolatry eyewitnesses to the adultery and not just one but two or more Two or three eyewitnesses then you be the first to throw the stone And then the rest of us including me will join in And when they heard that They all went away Because there was no eyewitness None of them had seen it And perhaps some of them perhaps had even engaged in the same sort of conduct perhaps With the same immoral woman Notice the text When they heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones What an interesting comment Beginning with the microses of the church Why would because of two reasons They knew the law better than the younger ones And their consciences were harder It's young people whose consciences are soft It's the older you get that the conscience becomes hard and yet Pointing to Jeremiah 17 To the message in the dust about their Heart that they cannot understand and their souls without this living water Convicted these older leaders of the church And beginning with the older ones They all went away The a Carson said they came to shame Jesus But now they left a shame to themselves Because they had come with a heart to do evil Not to pursue good They came to judge A fellow believer A fellow Jew of Israel And not to help that person be restored to grace They came to kill Jesus came to give life and to give it abundantly They hated that woman Simply because of what they'd heard about her Jesus loved her before the foundation of the world As he saw everything in her soul And then John says this is what makes this story so powerful And Jesus was left alone with the woman Standing before him And you can see it in your mind The rabbi from Nazareth Standing there like this, the woman Of shame Headbound and trembling before him You know folks That's the best place a sinner can be With Jesus alone And he asked her woman A term of respect It's like ma'am Where are these people She said they're not here He said well then there's no one to condemn you Neither will I I was not an eyewitness I have not come to shame To kill I want you to go now You do what you know is right Do not commit this adultery anymore
J. Wilbur Chapin Captures the heart of this story with his little hymn our great savior Jesus what a friend for sinners Jesus lover of my soul Friends may fail me, foes assail me He my savior makes me whole Hallelujah, what a savior, hallelujah, what a friend Saving, helping, keeping, loving He is with me To the end Jesus said I do not condemn you Why? Turn over to John chapter three and look at verse 16 again for God So love the world That he gave his only son That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life for 17 for God did not send the son Into the world to condemn the world But in order that the world might be safe to him Whoever believes in him is not condemned But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God It is implied then That this woman repented of her sins and believed in Christ And God through Christ forgave her JC Raul says in this story are two key lessons The power of the conscience under the word of God And the true nature of repentance Regardless of how self-righteous and hardened in their souls they were the word of God Jeremiah penetrated into their conscience and brought them not To violence and death But to their own conviction that they were the breakers of the law even more than this woman My friends never discount the power of your conscience When informed by the word of God in particular And also the nature of true repentance Jesus does not say well, I don't condemn you See you later. No, no, no, he says go and sin no more The true mark of repentance is that I turn from my sin to Christ And to Christ alone And there it is in this story this woman standing before Jesus alone Attender conscience now Bade in the blood of Jesus Christ and refreshed by the living waters The irony is she receives the well of life in his soul and they do not And true repentance willing to forsake the sin that has been the pattern of our life perhaps And to follow Jesus Christ Let me ask you the question. It's obvious the question begs itself Do you see yourself in this story Does Jeremiah Speak to your conscience in mind The heart is deceitful above all things And desperately sick who can understand it I the Lord I Jesus Christ Search the heart and test the mind To give every person According to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds For those who turn away from the Lord Shall be written in the dust For they have forsaken the Savior The fountain of living water There are three people in this room who scare me Not because they will do me harm But because of the harm they do to themselves The first is the intellectual Christian Whose only interest in hearing the word of God preached Is to see if they got it right or not There are the ones who always want to ask me about the references Where did you find that quote? Are you sure that's what the Hebrew means and and they seemed Content to shield their conscience by layers of right answers and theological constructions So that through that the Holy Spirit has a difficult time penetrating the second person is on the other end of the scale They believe that the eleventh commandment is you shall not hurt my feelings They are feelings driven They're always talking about why there's no joy in the worship service because there's no joy in their life Their marriages are in trouble their families are wrecked they've got all these secret sins And they have layered their conscience With layers of music and and goosebumps and feelings and existential experiences So that it can't get through all that to get to the conscience and the third Maybe the most endangered species that is the one who was always quick to censor and judge They'll judge you by how you vote and how you educate your kids and whether you look good or not They have layered their conscience with one band and another band after another band of right performance of looking good So that as long as you look like you're doing the right thing and you believe the right thing and you educate your kids the right way But the right man and woman office the Holy Spirit can never get to the heart But I'm here to tell you those defenses will not work When you're with Jesus Christ alone I know I know what I'm talking about on August 14th of 1976 On some hot August night in Memphis, Tennessee I happened to me in my apartment and Jesus came in that place and it was just Jesus and me And it was awfully uncomfortable at first He had been working on me for 18 months How there was this this Self-righteous exterior of this Catholic boy this ex-seminarian this well-dressed and polite young man that inside was all kinds of Filth She's pure Undefiled filth while that was happening my dear mother was in Columbus why I'm praying for me because she knew that something spiritually was wrong with her old son And Jesus broke through all that There were tears that flowed Tears of living water as the old came out and the spirit came in and all of the sudden What had been an uncomfortable experience at first It became to be in any of a new life I was no longer afraid to be with Jesus Christ alone Few weeks later I worked on a big factory and I was in labor relations so I argued with the UAW all the time And this one guy named Ralph came up to me. He was a good guy professed to be a Christian He was an African-American and he was a steward for the union And he wanted me to do something to grant a grievance to make a payment And I refused because I didn't think it was legitimate And so he said you know the reason you didn't do that is your racist And it made me man and before I could think I cursed that man to his face in front of about 10 other people Now this is the guy who just two months earlier the whole factory knew had been born again And I called him a foul name And some other stuff He turned around and walked off The other people lower their head and went away and I went back to my office And guess who was waiting for me in the office Alone And he said you know you have to go apologize and I'm not going to apologize that man. He called me a racist He said well If you're going to follow me You're going to go down to where he is now in the foundry And you're going to ask us forgiveness You send in front of a group of people You will ask his forgiveness in front of a group of people And I said Lord this isn't going to work And he said I will go with you So I did I was too young then to know better And I went down and I walked into the lunchroom There must have been 50 guys in this lunchroom When I walked in you could hurt my aunt's knees that got so quiet He'd already told the story So I walked up to where he was at the table and I said Ralph I want to talk to you and he said I don't have anything to say to you I said no you don't But I have something I have to say to you and I said I want to ask your forgiveness For cursing at you a few minutes ago because that was wrong And I'm supposed to be a Christian now I'm supposed to set a good witness and I didn't and I I just came to ask you to forgive me And also would you pray for me that God would clean up my mouth
That poor man didn't know what to say Now you could hear a worm sneeze And he said I will forgive you and he stuck out his hand and we shook hands But there was a guy over in the corner His name was William Lee Billy Lee known as Wild Bill The man came from another planet He had been married three times He was an alcoholic and he beat every one of his wife into divorce court physically And he was watching me And one walked out he said well there goes the preacher Well bound a month later I was walking through the foundry and I heard somebody say preacher preacher Bill worked on this big crane in the foundry that took scrap metal and dumped it into these big ovens to melt And he got down I figured oh Jesus I don't want to talk to Bill today Game of said preacher look at me do I look different I said no bill you look the same He said I've been born again I said yeah he said I went to church land Sunday Holy spirit knocked me on my butt he said And he said you know I've been two weeks without drinking and I need touch my wife except the teller I love her I said well Bill that's when he said you know you know when I started thinking about that Because when I saw you ask forgiveness of old Ralph and I said now that's What a Christian looks like And the Holy Spirit said to me Billy boy You got to start with your wife
Jesus Christ Went up in that crate and alone with William Lee And when he got out William Lee was a new creature in Christ No need for you To be afraid To take your sins to Jesus Christ
He's your friend He's coming someday to judge but that's a long way off He's come now not to judge and condemn but to forgive And you are safe alone With Jesus Christ amen Father we want to thank you for Dealing with us alone not in front of groups of people Not in ways that shame us into correct behavior Not through legal systems and religious traditions and angry self-righteous people You deal with us alone Out of tenderness and respect and concern for us And as when we're not around other people and we're just in front of you may could be for you That your eyes look into our souls and tell us that you know everything about us But you love us still There are some of us this morning Who have layered our conscience with so many things that We're trying to make it difficult for you to get through and yet By your spirit you can penetrate those layers of Confusion and And of excuse Layers of protection and place in our souls This river of living water By the Holy Spirit I thank you for Grace to me and to William Lee to Ralph to other people I thank you for the way you Loved and saved this little woman in the story As we look into the dust around us we see our life written by your finger Written by the hand of God and we find Alongside our life in the dust the word grace And the promise of forgiveness Give us a Holy Spirit the gift of repentance this morning that we would turn away from our sins Give us faith enough to trust Jesus Christ and open up our hearts Then O spirit of the living God flood us With living waters of forgiveness wash us clean make us new And give us this joy and expressible and full of glory As we are alone with Jesus Christ And he brings us out of darkness and into light and out of death and into life Through his own blood given for us And we will praise you for this forever In Jesus name Amen