Stone In The Hand, Judgment Versus Grace

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 They say that the Word of God is outdated.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.