What Happened to Sin?
June 7, 2015 Morning Service
Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK
Rick Boyne
Message Point: We must not sugar-coat sin, but call it for what it is.
Focus Passage: John 8:2-11
Supplemental Passage: What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? (Romans 6:1)
Introduction: The prayer as delivered on January 23, 1996 by Pastor Joe Wright to the Kansas House of Representatives:
Heavenly Father, we come before You today to ask Your forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. Lord, we know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we've done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.
We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it moral pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbors' possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our fore-fathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us oh God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state. Grant them Your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the Living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
This, of course, caused quite a controversy and some even got up and walked out. Yet it is the boldness of this pastor to call sin, sin, that brought national attention to the situation. Paul Harvey even used it on one of his radio programs.
I. Accusation (vs 6)
a. The Pharisees weren’t concerned about the Law of Moses or that the woman had been caught in adultery. They accused her in order to accuse Jesus.
b. Their traditions had already made void the Law of Moses. They never put to death except in cases of repetitive sin without remorse.
c. There was no way Jesus could win by answering their question. If He told them to stone her, they would have gone to the Roman governor and accused Him of ordering executions; or they would have charged Him with hypocrisy for he often received and dined with the likes of her; if He told them to let her go, they would have accused Him of disregarding the Law of Moses.
II. Cogitation (vs 6-9)
a. Jesus’ answer got them to thinking.
b. Jesus stooped down to write in the earth. We don’t know what it was, but here is speculation:
i. Perhaps He was writing down their sins
ii. Perhaps He was writing down their names
1. O LORD, the Hope of Israel, all who abandon you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in dust, because they abandon the LORD, the fountain of life-giving water. (Jeremiah 17:13 GW)
c. The Pharisees looked at what Jesus was writing and thought about what He said. It touched their hearts and they left.
d. The woman was afraid she was going to be stoned, because Jesus didn’t tell them to drop their stones. She was thinking about her life and her sins.
III. Declaration (vs 10-11)
a. The woman said there was no one to condemn her.
b. Jesus told her that He wasn’t going to condemn her either. Had he done so would have left no opportunity for her to ever be saved.
c. This was not excusing her sin; He addressed it by saying “Go and sin no more.”
Application/Invitation: We must not excuse sin, especially in our own lives. Non-Christians are very fond of Matthew 7:1 often misquoted as “judge not, lest ye be judged.” The motive for that is that they don’t want their sins and evil deeds to be brought to light. So, like Satan, they take Scripture out of context and use it against Christians. Actually, the point is certainly NOT to actually judge a person, for that alone belongs to God. However, we must not balk at calling sin, sin. To call gambling gaming; abortion a choice; homosexuality an alternative lifestyle; divorce irreconcilable differences; gossip a prayer request; is to go soft on sin. God isn’t going to go soft on sin. We must be like a “bridge out” sign. We don’t stop people from driving down the road past the sign and into the ravine, but we better be out there telling them the consequences of their actions. In this upside down world were wrong has become right and truth has become hate, we must continue to be diligent in truth, but with LOVE AND GRACE! “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23
