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Pastor Mike will be speaking on Drop the Rock part 2. He will be in John 8.
find your hope in Jesus Christ this morning to remember that those who are caught in the grip of sin they can find forgiveness in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Bible says I will be merciful towards their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.
Church rise up and move forward in the grace of God. Well we’re back to our text in the Gospel of John. We’ll focus more on chapter 8 today but we’re talking about this incredible topic of dropping the rock.
In each of our lives there are times that we pick up rocks and we’re ready to hurl them at those that we’re upset with but Jesus challenges us as we look into his life and his truth that we would drop that rock and the Pharisees had set up this woman and they had put it all together to where they could seduce her into a bad situation and of course she succumbed because of her flesh and now they drag her out and use her as a weapon and a tool to try to discredit Christ but Jesus shows incredible compassion and mercy and he turns the tables on the Pharisees and reminds them which one of them is perfect and which one of them is willing to cast the first stones as they think about their own sin and so I want us to get in and learn more of how God is teaching us to drop the rock in our life.
Jesus wanted to point out the double standard that these individuals these religious people were living in. The double standard in that he wanted them to reflect upon their own hypocrisy. Before you throw the rock Jesus is calling all of us to examine ourselves, to look at our own lives and recognize that every one of us deserves to be punished because every one of us is a sinner in the hands of an angry God as one famous preacher said.
Every one of us is guilty before God. And you say, well, my sin’s not adultery, and my sin’s not this, and my sin’s not that. Listen to me, friends. Jesus is telling us that while we’re looking on the outside, God is looking on the inside.
God is looking at our own hearts. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5 .28. I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. Religious people, legalistic people, are focused on the outside.
But God is focused on the heart. You see, the Pharisees said this, as long as we don’t touch, we’re okay before God. As long as we don’t do the things that are listed that we’re not allowed to do, then we’re okay.
Jesus said you missed the whole purpose of what the Old Testament was teaching, because God is saying, not only is He interested in this fact that you are to avoid these actions, but you’re to avoid those attitudes, those thoughts.
You see, it’s easy for us as even Christians to elevate our Christianity, to elevate our righteousness based upon what we do. And we say, look at me, I have not done this. I have not done that. Look at my life, how wonderful it is.
But the truth is, you are not only measured by God by what you do, but you are measured by God by what you think. And if you think in yourself, well, I haven’t thought anything really bad, Mike. My mind is so pure.
It’s so wonderful. My thoughts are always so beautiful and so righteous. Then let me ask you this. What about your motives? For God not only measures my actions and my attitudes, but He measures the motivation of why I do what I do.
You see, I want you to know this, that you can do the right thing on the outside, but on the inside, you do it for the wrong reason. And some of you may have put money into the offering plate today, and you did it as a show.
You did it so people could see you. You did it so you could be recognized, and people could think that you’re such a religious person. But God knows your heart, doesn’t He? God knows each of our hearts.
God knows what is true in our heart. And so this morning the challenge is that before you throw the rock you might want to remember that we all are guilty before God and deserve to be punished. You see Jesus wanted his these accusers of this woman to engage in self -examination of their own life.
Jesus knew that this woman was guilty of adultery but he also knew that the Pharisees were guilty of impure motives. He knew that they were guilty of setting up a trap in this woman to use her and abuse her and to shame her.
He knew that their hearts were just as bad as her heart and that they were not competent witnesses. They were not reliable witnesses. They were not ones to stand up in judgment of another. But rather, they were guilty before God.
That’s why Jesus said in verse seven, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. He took the focus off of her and her sin and put the focus on them, the Pharisees and their sins.
That’s the challenge to you this morning, is that you gotta be careful that as a Christian, you’re not out there putting your focus on everybody else’s sin. And what’s wrong with everybody else? When the truth is, your life’s a mess too.
And you got a lot of issues to deal with. And you got sin in your own heart that you need to confront in your own life. Never forget this, that each and every one of us, we are all under the justifiable wrath of God because of our sinfulness.
And I know that’s sometimes hard to swallow, but sometimes people ask me the question, I don’t understand a God who could send someone to hell. And I have to be honest with them. And I say, you know what?
The more I learn about God, I don’t understand a God. Who can send people to heaven. What amazes me and shocks me that despite my sinfulness and despite how much I fall short of the perfection and the righteousness of God, what amazes me that God forgives us and makes us qualify to be able to enter into the presence of a holy God and a righteous God in his presence in heaven.
The truth is every one of us, and throw Mike Sanders in there. Several times, we all deserve to go to hell. People say, I want what I deserve. No, you don’t. No, you don’t. What I want is grace. What I want is mercy.
What I want is compassion. The Bible says in this in Romans 5 .9, much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. We are saved from the wrath of God. Get this.
Get this. I deserve to be punished. But Jesus went to the cross and He bore the wrath of God, the punishment that Mike Sanders deserved. On that cross, He took my penalty. On that cross, He took my punishment for every evil action, for every evil…
fought for every impure motive, for everything that was done and should have been done and wasn’t done. Jesus Christ took it all on the cross for me and we should fall on our knees and we should be so humbled by it that we should be overwhelmed what Christ has done for us because the more I know his righteousness and the more I know his holiness, the more I recognize just how unholy, how unrighteous I am and how much I need a savior to wash my sins away.
You’re justified by his blood. If you wake up every day realizing that you deserve to be separated from God forever, it will motivate you to live in humility because you and I deserve nothing. We deserve nothing.
We should follow the pattern of our savior in which the scripture says being found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Our life is to be a life of humility.
It is not to be a life of the fact that I deserve this or I want this or I want my rights, but rather is Lord, I deserve to be punished for my sins. And so I thank you and I give great praise to you because on that cross, you took my punishment.
You took the wrath for my sin. You see friends, if we would spend more time examining self and less time examining others, we’ll walk in humility more and more in our life. Get this. The reason you and I are ready to throw stones, the reason we’re ready to throw rocks is because of pride.
Because of pride, because we see ourselves better. We judge others because we think we’re superior. But when you recognize and say, look at my life, look what I gotta deal with, look what the challenges I’m facing and the failures and how many times I’ve sinned against God and yet his love keeps flowing towards me and he keeps lavishing his love on me and he keeps showing me grace and kindness and mercy that I am less likely to throw rocks at others.
Pride causes me to stand in judgment of others. The second lesson that I want you to learn from this passage of scripture is that we pick up rocks too quickly. We pick up rocks too quickly. Would you look at verse eight and nine, or verse nine with me.
The Bible says they and they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last, and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst.
It’s always interesting to me that Jesus, the two reactions he had, when this woman was thrown in front of him, and the Pharisees were demanding that he make a decision. The first reaction was silence.
Did you read that in the text? It was like he didn’t even hear him. He just was silent. And I thought about how sometimes silence is the only answer to silliness. Sometimes we gotta learn, and Mike Sanders true, that maybe the best answer is no answer.
Maybe the best thing to do is that when people are ready to throw rocks, maybe it’s just best to not even respond to their foolishness. And I also note the second response of Jesus, the Bible says that he is riding into the ground, the dirt.
Scholars don’t know what he has written, but there is speculation that maybe he was riding their own sins. Maybe he was reminding them of how they had sinned against God. We don’t know, but I think that we do pick up rocks too quickly, and we’re ready to throw those rocks.
You’ve often heard it said that we’re to love the sinner, but hate the sin. But I want to throw out something new to you. How about we love the sinner and hate our own sin? How about we get to the point that in this self -examination process that we are so consumed with dealing with our own sinfulness that we don’t have time to always be throwing rocks at other people.
I want to tell you the self -righteous this morning that repulses them. They’d rather bring down other people. They’d rather find fault with everybody else but themselves. But the humble know that we are called to love sinners and we are called to hate our own sin.
We’re called to address these issues in our hearts. So let’s talk about making judgments. Because I know that some of you are thinking, well, Mike, there are times we have to address and confront sin.
And I agree as a pastor, the hardest thing for me in serving as a pastor is having to deal with problems and sin in other people’s lives. The one thing that I do not like to do is have to practice church discipline.
And through the years, it’s been a really struggle in my own heart. But yet God’s Word is so clear and God’s Word teaches that we as leaders in the church have to address problems and we have to deal with issues.
So how do you balance all that out? I think that to help us, I want you to go to Matthew chapter 7. I just want you to back up in your Bible to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7. And I want to give some guiding principles that will help you because the question is to judge or not to judge.
And I just want you to see some things that Jesus teaches us. He says in verse 1 of chapter 7, judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And with what measure you meet, it will be measured to you again.
And why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerst not the beam that is in thine own eye? And how would thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the moat out of thine eye, and behold a beam is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother’s eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet.
feet and turn again and rend you or tear you apart. So I think that there are some principles that we’ve got to remember in this text. I think that Jesus is teaching us to make sure that we are compassionate in our judgments.
Because Jesus is saying this, that the same way that you judge others, you’re going to be judged. And you want to make sure that you’re compassionate. I don’t know about you, but I want to be measured by God with compassion, grace, and mercy.
And so all of us need to remember that. Because God clearly says how you judge others is how He’s going to judge you. How’s it going? How are you going to be judged? Remember that. But he also tells us to be consistent.
Jesus teaches us to be consistent in our judgments because he says this in the text. You might want to take care of the beam that’s in your own eye. It’s easy to see everybody’s flaw. It’s easy. It’s wonderful.
You love it. You’re ready. But how many of us see our own sins? How many of you see the beam that’s in our own eye? Don’t be a hypocrite. Don’t expect things out of other people that you don’t expect out of yourself.
One of the most infuriating things for me as a leader is to see people present themselves as leaders and have expectations on people, but they themselves don’t even live up to those expectations. And I am convinced that the greatest job of a leader is to be an example.
It is to be an example that whatever you expect out of others, you yourself should live up to. Be a consistent person. And that if you are going to measure somebody by something, that you yourself are consistently practicing and living up to the standard that you have created.
The third guideline for judgment is to be cautious. Did you see that in verse 6? You know what he’s telling us? You better have some discernment because there are people who will take advantage of you.
There are people who will abuse you. There are people who will misuse information and they will misuse what you say or what you do and they will continually trample on the truth of God. So to judge or judge not, some practical things to live out.
Make sure that you don’t judge by appearances. You don’t know everything. I read a book about a man who was driving around the hillside and another car was coming the other direction and in that car direction they yelled out, Pig!
And the car driver became very offended because he thought they were yelling at him, calling him a pig. He went around the bend and there was a pig in the middle of the road and he hit it. You don’t know everything that don’t judge by appearances.
Make sure that you understand that there are times you have to leave the verdict to those who are responsible. Those who are responsible cannot always explain everything because there are legal issues, there are privacy issues, confidential issues, there are different factors that are involved that we can’t just go out there and say everything and anything, but we need to leave the verdict to those who are responsible.
You may not agree with the decision, but you have to trust that God is working in their lives and especially in the church leaders that God is working in their lives, directing them through the Spirit of God and the Word of God and that through prayer, God is guiding his leaders to make right decision.
Leave the consequences to God. Leave the consequences to God. You may wanna right every wrong in this world, but you’re not gonna be able to. You’re gonna run out of time and energy. The only time that everything will be right in this world is when Jesus sits on his throne in the millennial kingdom and he’ll rule and reign with righteousness.
Remember, as I’ve already stated, you’ll be judged by your standards. So make sure your standards line up with the Word of God and make sure that you examine yourself. Galatians 6 .1 says, brothers, if anyone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Throughout the scriptures, we’re told to examine our lives. So before you jump, before you move to make that judgment, make sure you follow those principles.
Third and final point, and I want us to go through it very quickly, but I do want you to get it this morning. The third lesson that we learned from this passage is that we need to move forward in grace.
Now Jesus said to the woman, where are your accusers? And she said, Lord, there are none. When Jesus said that he was not implying that the woman was innocent, it is very obvious that she is guilty. It is unfortunate that she was set up to be used as a pawn to prove a point to discredit Jesus, but she was still guilty of adultery.
And I want you to know that the gospel message consists of two parts, and that is forgiveness and repentance. And that God is calling all of us, no matter who we are, that when we have sinned against him, that we are called to seek his forgiveness.
But in seeking his forgiveness, we are to show repentance in our heart. And repentance doesn’t mean coming to an altar crying. It doesn’t mean come slobbering on the altar, although if you need to slobber and cry, I’m not against that, okay?
I’m all okay with that. But what repentance is mean when you walk out of those doors, your life is changed. You live differently. That you change the direction of your life. That you’re sincere in your decision.
If you want to receive the forgiveness of God, that you truly change your life, and that you truly are honest before God, and say, Lord, I have messed up, and I have truly sinned against you. And today, I am changing the direction of my life, and I am receiving your forgiveness in my life.
No doubt Jesus was on a mission. His mission is to mend broken hearts. And I don’t care how deep, how high, how wide your sin is. There is not a sin that our Savior can’t forgive this morning. Some of you look at your life and you say, man, my life is a mess, Mike.
There’s no way God could forgive me. I’m here to tell you God’s grace is greater than your sin. It super abounds like a towering mountain over your sin. It casts its great shadow of forgiveness upon your life if you will just truly repent and receive Jesus Christ as your savior.
Jesus is in the business here of restoration. As you move forward in grace, it begins by repenting and receiving God’s forgiveness, but it also continues as you restore your life. When Jesus called out those guys, every one of them dropped the rock and walked away.
Their own conscience was guilty because they knew that they had miserably failed a holy God. Jesus said, look around, where are your accusers? And he wanted her to see that. He wanted her to see that there were no accusers around and he wanted her.
to say it. It’s not like Jesus didn’t know, right? Why does Jesus ask us questions so that we know where we are at? So that we’ll say what we need to say. So we’ll reaffirm what we need to reaffirm. And she looked around and her accusers were gone.
And let me tell you what Jesus did on that day. He not only saved her soul and he washed her sins away, but Jesus restored the dignity of her life. He pulled her out of a miry clay. And he said, look, I don’t want the world to label you.
I don’t want your accusers to define you. I want you to be defined by the grace of God and the mercy of Jesus and the forgiveness of our God. Can God’s people say amen? Listen to me, the way to be restored, the way to be restored is to get up and see that you are washed in the blood of the lamb.
And to see that God has silenced all your accusers. The way to be restored is to move forward in grace. And the way to be restored is to change your life and to not let your life be labeled by the world.
But rather to find your identity in Jesus Christ this morning, to find your hope in Jesus Christ this morning, to remember that those who are caught in the grip of sin, they can find forgiveness in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Bible says I will be merciful towards their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more. Church, rise up and move forward in the grace of God. You don’t have to hold on firmly and tightly. to the traditions, the legalism, and the judgmental spirit, those rocks that so easily fill our hands.
Just let it go and drop the rock and embrace the mercy and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus is not inviting us to an easy believism. He told the woman, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.
He was calling her to not only a life of grace, but a life of change. And the true reflection of repentance is that we would bear fruits that let the Lord know that we are truly sorrowful for our sins.
Change is a way that we manifest that. And maybe there are things in your life that God is asking you to change and to let go of. And now is that moment as you ponder the truth that you’ve learned today of dropping the rock.
And I hope God will help you as you continue to strive to be more like Him. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.