Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 You are here on a very, very good day. This is a message that I, like I said earlier, I've been looking forward to bringing to you, uh, ever since we started the, who is Jesus series. Now, like I mentioned before, uh, the story of Jesus' life, um, is, is one that our culture, our society has gotten a little confused around, uh, through the time, since his life, death and burial and resurrection, because of that, there's a lot of different ideas of who Jesus is. So you get the WWJD bracelet and it's pretty much a free for all right, what would Jesus do? Well, you know, whatever you think he would do, that's what he would do. Doesn't necessarily work like that. Jesus has been given to us, like we talked about last week as God's representation of God himself on the earth, so that we could see this huge, huge God in human flesh, he would teach us about God. He would show us what God would do. And if you're interested in finding out what Jesus was like, just crack open the gospels. It's all right there. You don't need to wonder what would Jesus do you already know? Because he already has did it. And he's shared
Speaker 2 00:01:20 It with us in his word.
Speaker 1 00:01:22 When we go through this series, I'm anxious to get to this one, because it is about forgiveness. There's a story I'm going to pick out to kind of get us on the same page. And like I said, you you've actually heard this opening illustration before, but it's too good
Speaker 3 00:01:39 To let go.
Speaker 1 00:01:42 Our first time at the great Wolf lodge was when Abigail was just a baby. Abigail is now our oldest, but she was just a baby at the time. And we went to the great Wolf lodge. And I don't know if you've ever been there or not, but this is when they first invented at the, in this, uh, Wisconsin area, this huge bucket, you know, the bucket I'm talking about this bucket is full of gallons and gallons of water. And it hangs, it hangs way up in the sky, near the roof of this huge room. And in this indoor water park at the great Wolf lodge, you'll look up and see this huge bucket filling over time with just little drip drips of water and over time, little drips, it's just this constant flow. And over time as the bucket fills, you'll hear it. Ding, ding, ding, ding, and the bucket is then tipped over and all of those gallons of water pour down onto the ground.
Speaker 1 00:02:38 Now, if you're brave enough, you can take it upon yourself to stand right under that big bucket of water. And if you could take it, if you're a big strong person and you can take it, you could stand there while that bucket pours over you. And it literally, it looks terrifying. I looked at it the first time that I saw it and I thought, yeah, I could do that in big strong guy. But Abigail was to the point where she was kind of interested in it as well. But I knew if that bucket fell over on hers, throw to the other side of the room. So I took Abigail in my arms and she's she and I are standing there and you're just freezing. You're just standing there freezing, waiting. You know, you're waiting and you hear the ding, dang, dang. And you're thinking to herself, it's common, man.
Speaker 1 00:03:24 You don't dare look up cause that'll crack your spine, right? So you just stand there and you're just standing there waiting for this big bucket, pour over you. And then all of a sudden the thing turns over and you feel this huge weight of water bash on the top of you. And it just drench. You think our baptisms here, we drench people. It's nothing compared to what that bucket does. Is it at the great Wolf lodge? Well, we should do a baptism there. That would be a good dredging. I held on to Abigail. And when that bucket came over, I knew it was going to be powerful, but I had no idea how much it almost knocked me to my knees. I held Abigail on. So tightly trying to protect her from it. And after we were done, she said, daddy, let's do it again.
Speaker 1 00:04:05 And I'm going, nah, this is good. I'm good to go. God's Grace Church is just like that bucket. We live our lives, no matter how old we are, no matter how young we are, we are poured upon by God's grace on a regular basis, to the extent where it's so heavy at times that we don't even realize how much grace we're receiving. We receive it. Drip, drip, drip, maybe sometimes, maybe a flow sometimes. But ultimately, if you were to add it all up church, the way that God pours out his grace on us to bring us through what we're, what we're going through to give us hope. Like the song we just sang. If even, even when we're struggling with personal sins, we know that there's an advocate with the father and his name is Jesus Christ. We have constant access to God's presence. We have his hand of blessing in our lives.
Speaker 1 00:05:04 We have the church that he has blessed us with. There are so many blessings that God pours out on us on a regular basis. Sometimes we don't even realize we're getting it until the bucket pours out and we'd get a big, all people have this in common, but not all people acknowledge it. Some are being torn down by life so much that they don't even see the blessings any longer. Some have been abused by others out of no fault of their own. And they're just wondering when the blessings are coming, when the, where the grace is at all, some just choose to stay in broken places because they've been hurt so much. They choose to reject the fact that that bucket is there and available this past week, somebody tried to steal my identity. They were on the phone and I was on the phone with them.
Speaker 1 00:05:54 And they were very slick at what they did. And I don't usually fall for this. I'm kind of a savvy individual. I don't click on my emails and stuff like that, but this one looked so legit and I talked to him for a while. And the whole time I'm not re I'm a little suspicious. Uh, I'm not superstitious. I'm just a little stitious. And so I was kind of worrying about what this deal was, but I, I went along with it because he seemed extremely legit. There seemed to be something wrong with my account. And he was walking me through it. And then we came through the right, the right channels and everything. And by the end of it, he started asking some questions that I knew he was, I knew he was what he, wasn't what he said. He was. And I said, listen, I got to tell you, this sounds a lot like a scam. I think you're trying to scam me.
Speaker 2 00:06:39 And he immediately hung up the phone.
Speaker 1 00:06:42 So thank God I didn't, I didn't get my identity stolen. That's a pain I've heard and knock on wood. I started like, what should I have done in that circumstance? And I got to tell you, like, there's a hole right after you hang up the phone right after you realized you got, uh, you know, you got, you got gypped. You, you, you, you played the fool. You think yourself of all the things you should have said to him, I'm thinking to myself, oh, I should have said this. Oh, I should've said that. And then the Lord got ahold of my heart and you know what I should have said, I should have said, I should have immediately started praying for this individual on the phone. I should have said, Lord Jesus. I don't know what happened in this man's life to bring him to the place where he needs to steal other people's money so that he feels like he's like, he's doing something helpful for himself. I don't know what lie he's bought into. I don't know. Who's brought him to this place. I don't know what, what justification that he's had, but let him realize all the grace that he has missed from your hand and realize that he has begun to believe to brought him, bring him to this place. I guarantee he would have hung up by that point, but I thought I should have prayed for him right there on the phone.
Speaker 1 00:07:49 There is a truth about life that we have all experienced the grace of God. It does not matter where you've been. Now. You may have not. You may have only allowed yourself to feel the drips, but God waits to pour grace over us. And one way that he waits to pour grace over us is found in John chapter eight. This is a story that I want to go with over with you today. It's found in John chapter eight, starting in verse one, you're probably familiar with this passage of scripture. And if you're not, it's a great one. Here's how it starts. Jesus went to the Mount of olives early in the morning. He came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and taught them. This is not just another day for Jesus. Just another day of ministry. He's gathering a following by this point.
Speaker 1 00:08:36 It's only John chapter eight. It's kind of early in his ministry, but he's gathering a following because everybody wants to hang out with him and see the magic tricks. It's pretty cool. You know, you, don't got social media, you don't get TV, you don't have all of those things. So you want to go see something entertaining. Jesus, he's always healing. The leper here. Casnocha demon there. It's kind of, and if you're lucky might feed you some fish and some loaves from just this little boy's lunch. You never know what you're going to get when you hang out with Jesus. So he's gathering this following. And not only that, but his teaching is pretty cool too, because he's always taken on the big guys. And that's always good to see. You want to see the big guys taken in the chin. So once in a while, Jesus is teaching. And he'll say, and look at those people over there, that your leaders, you know, and he'll talk about them and you're gone stick it to him. He was entertaining. So he was gathering
Speaker 2 00:09:27 A crowd, verse three
Speaker 1 00:09:29 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 the Sanhedrin, you should know these guys, their only job was to guard the sanctity of the temple. They had to make sure that no sin gets in may where the sin beliefs, if you would, they would, they would go sometimes way out of their way to make sure that there's no sin in people's lives. When they enter into the temple to worship, it's a sin free zone. So once in a while, if they knew you had a sin in your heart, once an or in your life, once in a while, they'd even set you up, they didn't even set you up. So that sin comes out. It can't be, it can't be dissuaded. I mean, you can't can't, you know, you've caught them red-handed so they would set people up to catch them. Red-handed and this sounds like a setup. I might even guess at the man with her might have been a plant because there's no man, this in the scripture, there's only the woman either way. There was a well drilled hole in the well-placed wall so that people could get caught doing
Speaker 3 00:10:48 Adultery. So
Speaker 1 00:10:50 What did they do with this poor lady? They immediately snatch her up, caught in the act. How embarrassing would that be caught? They drag her out of where she's at and they throw her
Speaker 2 00:11:04 In Jesus at Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:11:07 Do you ever get caught in the act? If you get caught doing something, you knew you shouldn't be doing that. You get that, that just feeling of hotness that just rises and your ears get hot. And you're probably thinking yourself, Craig, how do you know that feeling caught in the act? When you get caught in the act, it's enough to deal with the embarrassment, but then to have somebody snatch you away, bring you into a public area where there are a multitude of people gathered, throw you into the dirt and say, we caught you committing adultery. How would that make you feel? No eyes only judging gazes from people who know they are better than you. Her sin was on display. She was alone. Nobody would stand with her. Her family by this point has probably forsaken her. They probably known this has gone on for a while. They're not going to stand with her. I mean, she is literally
Speaker 2 00:12:02 By herself exposed.
Speaker 1 00:12:08 Some might even be tempted to say, if you were tempted to stand with her, Hey, listen. Yeah, that girl, I warned her. I told her years ago that her decisions were going to lead her to this place. I told her she was making bad. I bad decisions. I, I went to her. I offered her help, but she didn't want my help. And now look at her. She's going to get what she deserves. Vile truth is these proud men use this broken woman not to get her life clean, but to trap Jesus. So who sin was great. Verse five. Now law, the men said to Moses or the men said to Jesus, Moses commanded us to stone, such a woman. What do you say? It's a double whammy. It's a double setup. They set up the girl. Now they got, they got her the at Jesus' feet. And now they're going to set Jesus up because Jesus has said several things and he's got a contradict.
Speaker 3 00:13:08 One of them,
Speaker 1 00:13:11 They said, Moses tells us we got to stone. This woman, what do you say? Are you going to go against Moses? Are you going to go against the scripture? Jesus, you have that much authority. You're going to start rewriting. God's word you who always says, have you not read? Or it is written as it is written. Yeah, this is what's written. This woman should be stoned. What are you going to do? They trap. They're trying to trap them these weasels. And if Jesus says, you know what, I'm going to forfeit all of my whole teaching. And I'm going to go against Moses because I love this woman. And new people are, you're just snakes anyway. And I'm going to go with this woman because I have said blessed are those who are persecuted. Bless it are those. I have said, come to me, all you who labor and heavy Laden, I will give you rest. And I got it. I got a hold up. That part of my ministry. You see, they got Jesus. He's either going to contradict Moses or he's going to contradict himself.
Speaker 2 00:14:08 Saw they think they got them.
Speaker 1 00:14:11 This is, as you read through this story, it doesn't leap off the page like this. But when you dig in, you understand these guys have Jesus in a, in a tough, tough spot. What is Jesus going to do? Verse six. They said this to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him. So what does Jesus do? Church? He just bends down on the ground and writes in the dirt up to now these, these temple leaders have been trying to charge Jesus with all kinds of stuff. They don't believe he's a Messiah. So they're trying to charge him with all kinds. They ask them questions about taxes and marriage and heaven. They've asked him all these different questions, just trying to trap him. Maybe he's not as smart as he thinks he is. Maybe he's going to contradict himself. They're trying to trap him. And so at this point they said, okay, this has to do with the very word of God. This one, he can't go against the law because if he does he's dis does, uh, uh, disqualified. But he can't go with the law or
Speaker 2 00:15:18 Else he'll lose his followers. And it is a nail biter
Speaker 1 00:15:22 And the woman's life hangs in the balance. So what does Jesus do? He just bends down and writes on the ground. What do you think he wrote on the ground? We're not told what he wrote on the ground. You want it? You want to know what I hope he wrote on the ground. This is what I, and this is why you, you, you probably think of yourself. Craig doesn't seem like much of a pastor. And I'm going to tell you something to agree with you on this. Cause what I think Jesus should have wrote on the ground is all of the sins of the people who were standing around him
Speaker 2 00:15:55 To start writing them down. I'm in ground.
Speaker 1 00:16:00 Isn't that awful? Don't I have a vindictive spirit, verse seven, 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
Speaker 2 00:16:13 Her. And then once more he bent
Speaker 1 00:16:15 And wrote on the ground. Do you know what I hope he wrote down this time? All of their names beside the sins that he wrote on the ground, I am a horrible individual. I know, but that's where my mind goes with this story, whatever he wrote, it was enough of that. It was enough for those proud, proud men to drop the stones and walk away verse nine. But when they heard it, they went away. One by one, beginning with the older
Speaker 2 00:16:43 Ones and Jesus was left alone with a woman standing before him. And this woman's day changes,
Speaker 1 00:16:53 Whatever decisions she has made up to this point have been bad decisions, questionable decisions, decisions she thought she may not have had a choice in to lead her to this place where she is lying exposed in front of the crowd in her sin. But her day is about to change for eternity. Like the thief on the cross this day, that should have been the end, turns out to be the best day ever. Verse 10, Jesus stood up and said to her woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you. She said,
Speaker 2 00:17:30 No one Lord. And Jesus says, oh,
Speaker 1 00:17:32 You got to say this church. Will you say it with me? Because at home, when you say this with me, this is really good. Jesus said,
Speaker 3 00:17:38 Here we go. Neither do I condemn you go. And from now on sin, no more.
Speaker 1 00:17:48 How would you like Jesus to look you in the eyeball and say,
Speaker 2 00:17:53 I do not condemn you.
Speaker 1 00:17:57 I don't know about you, but even the thoughts that I had for that guy, just trying to steal my identity and things I should have said to him on the phone before I went to the prayer option, I'm reminded to myself how fallen I am. And it's good to be reminded that I serve a savior. It looks me in the eyeball and says,
Speaker 2 00:18:14 I don't condemn you for that.
Speaker 1 00:18:17 God's grace works like that in our worst moments, we see what we've missed for so long. This woman's day turns out to be the worst day of her life. And now the best
Speaker 2 00:18:29 Day of her life,
Speaker 1 00:18:32 You know, something that happened to the thief on the cross. He got crucified by Jesus. Because if that man hadn't been crucified by beside Jesus, he would go eternity into a word first place. And then across. And this woman, the best day of her, the worst day of her life has now turned into the best of her life. She gets to look at God
Speaker 2 00:18:53 And hear his words. I do not condemn you.
Speaker 1 00:18:59 Jesus help this woman to realize freedom for herself. Notice how he says it. He looks at her and he says, where are your accusers? He doesn't say he doesn't try and make her feel better about herself. He doesn't look at her and say, you've been a victim. These men were mean to you. And, and you've been a victim here and you should feel okay. Now you're the one that's oppressed. These men were mean to you. He doesn't do any of that. He doesn't even acknowledge that she didn't do the sin. He doesn't pretend anything. That's not true. Instead, what he gets her to see is he gets her to lift up her head and look around
Speaker 2 00:19:39 Her and say, look, where are the accusers that brought you here? And she said, there's no one here anymore. The rocks are on the ground. And Jesus says, neither do I accuse you now go and sin no more. How is it possible that this woman was free? She didn't change in that moment, right? She's she's an adult. Her, she literally is an adult daughter.
Speaker 1 00:20:08 The accusers didn't change. They just went to another location. The setting didn't change. There's still all these people around listening and watching the what's going on. This public humiliation. What is the factor that has changed? Where Jesus can say to this woman, there is no one to accuse you. The only thing that has changed as this woman has become, I'm aware of the presence that she standing in. She's standing in the presence of God, her awareness of what has happened, brings the change in her life. You see, God knows who we are. Romans three 11. It says no one understands. No one seeks after God all have turned aside. They have altogether become worthless. No one does good. How many people do good church? Not even one.
Speaker 1 00:20:56 This woman's simply came to the same conclusion as everybody who comes to the conclusion. Everyone comes to. When they come to Jesus Christ, we have all sinned and we've all fallen short of God, his glory, every one of us, God gave us the 10 commandments. Not so that we could try and follow them, but so that we can look at them and say, oh man, I missed out on, oh, I missed out on, oh boy, I missed out on that port. Did I miss out on that one? We're supposed to be looking at the 10 commands. We're supposed to see the we're supposed to see who Jesus is and say to ourselves. I can never match up to that. That is why the laws given it's a task master the Bible calls it because it's meant to show us where we fall short. It's meant to reveal to
Speaker 2 00:21:40 Us. There is no one good, not even one.
Speaker 1 00:21:46 When we accept Jesus, offer forgiveness, God does not. He does not ignore our sin. He chooses not to see it. God, doesn't forget about our sin. I know he forgives and he forgets. But what we mean by forget is he chooses not to hold it against us any longer. God can't forget anything. You think elephants have a good memory. God can't forget anything. What it means is when God forgives us, he chooses never to hold it against us. Ever. God shows not to condemn her. Jesus chose not to condemn her. This woman was caught red-handed she is an adult. Or he can't look at her and say, yeah, they, you just got a bad. This is a, just a bad day for you. I've met people who are crippled by guilt. They feel like their past has been so tainted that God could never use them. Never loved them. Certainly never forgive them. They feel like they're permanently crippled by sin. If you're in that boat, I want to give you just one verse because there's all kinds of them in the Bible. And you need to grab a hold of these verses. Here's one of the best ones. So I'm one of three 11 as high as the heavens are above
Speaker 2 00:23:00 The earth. So great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so far, does he remove our transgressions from us?
Speaker 1 00:23:12 You know why he doesn't throw them as far as the north is from the south. Because if you travel north enough, you'll eventually start heading south. But if you go east enough, you never start going west. When God throws his, our sins, as far as the east is from the west, it means they cannot be found. Again. The reason the woman was free to go is because Jesus chose to let her go chose. Not to remember her sins any longer in Hebrews eight 12, it says I will be merciful toward their iniquities. I will remember their sins, no more church. If you are a child of God, if you know Jesus Christ as your savior, you will appear before God someday and forget the big screen TV that plays all of your sins before all of your neighbors and friends around you. So they could see who you really were when you won the earth.
Speaker 1 00:24:00 That's bull Larky. That's not true. How can somebody play a movie? If they forgotten about all your sins? When you get to heaven, you're going to, you're going to stand before God. You're gonna say God, I know I blew it here. And I know I did this there. And I, and I just, I was such a bad person. And God will say, I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. You are my child. You are sinless. You are, you're not sin, but you are perfect because you are cloaked in the blood of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 00:24:34 I choose not to remember your sins any longer. Wouldn't it be great to have Jesus look in your eye and say, I do not condemn you, but here's the problem.
Speaker 1 00:24:50 Ages of sin is what the wages of sin is. Death that cannot be changed. It is in God's word. It is a truth. The wages of sin is death. So church, somebody has to die. Somebody has to pay the bill. If I go to a restaurant and I take 20 of my good friends, which would be hard for me, but I'll find 20, give me enough time. So I'd take 20 of my friends. We do appetizers all around. We order, we order the most expensive stuff in the restaurant. I mean, everything is like, it's like, it's party time. I want to impress everybody, give everybody a good night out. And of course we got to finish with bread pudding for dessert. Cause that's the best, right? So we have all of this food we finish up and then the bill comes and I look at the bill and I realized, holy smokes, this is a lot of money.
Speaker 1 00:25:43 But then I look across the restaurant and I see another friend of mine that I forgot to invite. And that friend is sitting with at another table. And I think to myself, that guy, yeah, he's a friend of mine. He owns the restaurant. So I take my bill over to my friend and I say, listen, 20 of my friends and myself, not you, but the rest of us, we just had a great time tonight. And this is my bill. It's a lot of money. I don't think I can bet. And he goes, don't worry, Craig, I'll take care of it. Oh God. Oh, you're so next time. It's 21 and you're, you're invited. All right. And I just feel so good. Let me ask you a question. Was
Speaker 3 00:26:16 The bill paid? Yeah. Did I pay the bill? Oh, he did.
Speaker 1 00:26:25 He may look at me and say, Craig, I own the restaurant, but the money's coming out of his pocket some way. Somehow somebody has to pay the bill. I can walk away and say, Hey. Cause I knew the owner of the restaurant. I got a free meal. Nope. Somebody has to pay the bill. Jesus could forgive that lady of her sin. He could say to her, neither do I condemn you, but she's got a bill to pay. Someone's gotta pay that bill.
Speaker 3 00:26:55 She has committed
Speaker 1 00:26:56 Adultery. She has sinned against God. She has, she has been, become a rebel against, against God. And somebody has to pay her bill. And you know who paid her bill?
Speaker 3 00:27:06 Jesus did he? You simply put her, her sins
Speaker 2 00:27:11 On the cross that he was about to bear. God shows his love for us in Romans five eight. It says in that
Speaker 1 00:27:19 While we were still sinners, do you know what that actually says in the Greek while we were still sinning,
Speaker 2 00:27:26 God died for us. Christ died for us.
Speaker 1 00:27:31 The major flaw in the illustration of me paying that restaurant as bill is simply this, I can't
Speaker 2 00:27:35 Afford the dinner. No matter how much I try to
Speaker 3 00:27:38 Only Jesus
Speaker 2 00:27:40 Can pay the bill for sin.
Speaker 3 00:27:43 No one can pay the bill that they rack up against a holy God. And Jesus
Speaker 1 00:27:48 Does not give a free pass in order to ignore sin, Jesus has to pay the bill
Speaker 2 00:27:53 And he doesn't give us a free pass either. That's why, when we read the story of the adulterous here, we must finish the story. Jesus says, I don't condemn you either now. Go and sin no more. See, he didn't ignore the sin. He didn't pretend he didn't see it. He didn't, he didn't try and make her feel like a victim. And you know, it's
Speaker 1 00:28:16 Not as bad as you think it is. He simply looked at her and said, you know
Speaker 3 00:28:19 Who you are. I know who you are. I'll pay your bill, accept it and go and send no more. He didn't even say the accusers were wrong. Did you notice that he didn't look at the girl and say, you know, these guys,
Speaker 2 00:28:36 They were wrong to do what they did. Never did. That. She was a sinner. She was guilty. And she had to face that reality. Just
Speaker 1 00:28:44 Like the guys holding stones had to face the reality. Let him who is without sin cast. The first stone. You know what that's me? Everybody has to acknowledge this reality. Jesus says, go and sin. No more. Jesus came into this world to save sinners. Did you know that he came into this world not to save the righteous? Listen, if you're righteous, Jesus, didn't come to save you. If you're sitting, if you're at home and you're sitting here in the, in house and you're thinking yourself, I'm pretty good guy, Jesus, didn't come to save you. Your, your good luck with that. Like you're going to get measured against Jesus someday. So good luck. But if you don't think that you're a sinner, Jesus did not come to save you. You're probably thinking yourself, Craig, that's awfully harsh. Uh,
Speaker 2 00:29:34 Just got out of the Bible. Here's what it says in Luke five 32
Speaker 1 00:29:37 Jesus himself said, I have not come to call.
Speaker 2 00:29:42 I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, you see,
Speaker 1 00:29:45 Unless you realize you're a sinner, you got nothing to repent from.
Speaker 3 00:29:49 You have to admit, this is you Jesus,
Speaker 1 00:29:54 Voice of truth for this woman because she needed to see it. She needed to see what sin was doing in, uh, in her life. It is not a loving thing to overlook sin. Yeah. If you've got been running around rampant in your house, it's not a loving thing to let it go. You watch where it goes. It'll it'll divide. It'll conquer. It'll destroy. That's what it does. Sin lives to destroy. It will come at you and it'll couch itself in all kinds of wonderful pleasures and all of that. Ultimately we'll steal your soul. If you no, a disease is killing your child, you would probably do something to counter the disease. He's in
Speaker 2 00:30:31 The same way. Jesus knows sin is killing this woman and killing us. And so he says to us, I'm not going to overlook your sin. I just need you to acknowledge it before Jesus reveals is forgive. I'm sorry. Before admonishing, the woman, he reveals his forgiveness. I love that about Jesus. You don't stop sinning so you can have Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:30:55 You need Jesus. So you can stop sending. Is he the difference? If you're getting sold something in your religion where you have to be good enough in order to have a relationship with Jesus,
Speaker 3 00:31:07 That is backwards. That is why
Speaker 1 00:31:10 A communion table. You don't need to make your life right with God, because Jesus has already done that. You come to the communion table because you know who you are, you are and
Speaker 2 00:31:19 Who Jesus is to you.
Speaker 1 00:31:23 Don't stop sending so that you can receive forgiveness. You stop sending because you find someone to love
Speaker 2 00:31:29 More than your sin. The main question is if the woman had not received Jesus offer, would she still have been forgiven? Let that sink in just for one moment. If the woman had not received Jesus offer, would she still be forgiven? Or if you want to ask it a different way,
Speaker 3 00:31:51 Does Jesus forgive everyone? That is a very
Speaker 1 00:31:56 Good question because the offers here, the payment is made,
Speaker 3 00:32:00 But you can opt out.
Speaker 1 00:32:04 You can say, I can pay for this dinner no matter how long
Speaker 3 00:32:07 It takes me, I'm going to pay for this dinner. I don't need any help. And you can opt out
Speaker 2 00:32:14 Of forgiveness. Listen. If, if you believe that Jesus forgives everyone and you're selling it like cheap grace, you're, you're missing a big, big part of what Jesus forgiveness is all about. Jesus. Doesn't come to save us and then just, you know, plot ahead with life. He comes to save us and give us a new life. Forgiveness doesn't come cheap and it is not automatic. Listen, if
Speaker 1 00:32:39 Forgiveness was automatic, what do we have a hell for? If everybody just gets forgiven, why is there help? And listen, if you think that there's no hell, let's just an old fashioned concept. Again, read the gospels. It's one of Jesus' top 10 subjects that he talks about. Why does Jesus talk about hell so much? My guess is he knows what
Speaker 2 00:32:57 It's like. And he does. I don't want us to go there. Matthew 10, 28. Don't fear those who can kill the body, but kill the, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body
Speaker 3 00:33:13 In hell. Jesus has paid
Speaker 1 00:33:16 For our sins and he wants to desperately
Speaker 2 00:33:19 For us to accept forgiveness. I take
Speaker 1 00:33:23 It back to an illustration that we did last week. It was a great illustration. And Jonathan has been sitting on pins and needles to hear the end of this illustration because Jonathan is a car wrecker. I Le I let's say that I give Jonathan my car and he goes out, you remember the story that I told last week? He goes out and he wrecks just Rexford living daylights out of my car like that. He takes a sledgehammer, takes it to the youth group and says it's Craig's car. He won't do anything with it. Let's beat the living daylights out of this thing. Right. Then he brings it back to me and he says, Hey, Craig, uh, I wrecked your car. And uh, I'm really sorry about that. And uh, you know, can I have your neck? Can I have your other car? So I can wreck that too.
Speaker 1 00:34:02 And I'm thinking to myself, that's not very fair, Jonathan. I thought you were, I was going to have actually a picture of a car wreck right here. That'd be fun. But I, I was going to Jonathan. That's not like, you know, I've been hurt. And then pat comes along. You remember pat he's, he's the wonderful, you know, guy that comes along and he says, whoa, what's going on here? And I say, Jilin, wreck my car. Now he wants to wreck my another car and he's not sorry. He just wants to do it all over again. And pat says, oh, Jonathan, did you do that? And Jonathan says, Hey, I don't care. And then, and then pat says, hang on, hang on, Jonathan. I forgive you. And I'm gone. It's my car. What do you, what are you forget, pat? You got nothing to do with this. Why don't you forgive? And Jonathan for wrecking my car, right? That's where
Speaker 3 00:34:42 We left it last week. But let me add a little
Speaker 2 00:34:46 Thing to it this week.
Speaker 1 00:34:49 What if the car I'm outraged? Because pat looks at me and he says, Craig, why are you so mad? I say, well, not only did he wrecked my car, but I had $50 million in the trunk and now he's wrecked. It, burned it. And it's all gone. I need that back. He spent it take a lot to spend that, but I could say to him, I didn't tell you. There was a, there was $50 million in the car. And so pat looks at me and he says, Craig, so what overall is it worth? And I said, well, well I need, I need this much money. And I need the $50,000 a night. This is how much my damages are. And pat says, don't worry, Craig. And pat writes me, check
Speaker 3 00:35:35 For whatever I ask for and covers the bill.
Speaker 1 00:35:41 Now that is a better illustration because that is what Christ has done. I have been wrong. God has been wrong. Somebody has to pay the bill, the adulterer, not Jonathan, but the adulterous here in the story, her C has sin. She needs that sin paid for Jesus, pays for the sin. Pat pays for the car, see the illustration there. That's better. But what if I add
Speaker 2 00:36:00 Another thing? What if Jonathan says, wait a minute, pat, I don't need your help. I don't need your stinging help. I can, I can cover
Speaker 3 00:36:06 This. Craig. I'd pay Craig back.
Speaker 1 00:36:10 I'll do, I'll get three extra jobs. I'll work hard. I'll S I'll I'll work day and night. And I'll make sure that Craig gets paid back and Pat's going, John, that I can write the, I can write the check right here. I can take care of this and Jonathan's going, no, I don't want, I will pay Craig back. So pat says, okay, good luck. So Jonathan goes out, he gets four more jobs, but he's a car wrecker. So he has to borrow other people's cars and he keeps wrecking them. And he just racks up all these wreck cars and he has to pay this family back and that family back and by the end of the story, Jonathan is, is sadly in debt. He is hopelessly in debt. He can never, no matter how hard this poor guy who works,
Speaker 2 00:36:55 He will never pay the bill. He's in debt. He owes as part of that. Funny illustration is simply this. There are people that live their lives just that way. They think to themselves, they can impress God. They can pay their bill. They can do everything
Speaker 1 00:37:17 In their lives to make God impress with them. They don't need Jesus. They don't need his sacrifice. They are going to impress God with how good they can be. And it doesn't matter how good you can be. You have, you have a bill that is outstanding and
Speaker 2 00:37:33 It will come into play. Someday.
Speaker 3 00:37:37 When I stand
Speaker 2 00:37:37 Before God, God is not going to look at me and say, let's pretend none of this ever happened. He's going to look at me and say, yeah, Craig,
Speaker 3 00:37:48 I know who you were, but you're not that way anymore.
Speaker 2 00:37:51 Jesus has paid your bill. Forgiveness is offered to everyone,
Speaker 3 00:37:59 But accepted by some, the offer is still there.
Speaker 2 00:38:07 But eventually we realize hopefully before long we're in too deep, we can't pay our own bill and we need help.
Speaker 1 00:38:16 No matter how much Jonathan is determined to pay his bill, he simply never
Speaker 2 00:38:21 Will be able to pay it. He must take Pat's offer forgiveness cost Jesus more than we know in order to make us this offer, but still some choose not to accept it. So the question is, is would this woman have been forgiven if she didn't accept it? And the answer is
Speaker 3 00:38:44 No,
Speaker 2 00:38:46 She had to accept that Jesus would pay her bill. She didn't get right before she accepted it. She didn't become not an adulterer before she accepted it. The offer is there. The offer is there for all of us
Speaker 1 00:39:03 While we are still sitting, Christ died for us. The offer's there.
Speaker 2 00:39:08 You must accept it. So what, first of all, forgiveness like this does not come easily. This kind of forgiveness
Speaker 1 00:39:17 That forgives all people all time, everywhere,
Speaker 2 00:39:20 Cost Jesus, his life. It cost God. His son, Jesus chose
Speaker 1 00:39:25 To suffer under the hand of a holy father
Speaker 2 00:39:29 So that I would not have to. And Isaiah 53, five, 700 years before Jesus was born.
Speaker 3 00:39:34 These words were written. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for
Speaker 2 00:39:40 Our iniquities, insert the word sin upon
Speaker 1 00:39:45 Him was the chastisement that brought us
Speaker 2 00:39:47 Peace. And by his wounds who, who are healed church by his wounds, we are healed. Jesus pays the bill, our bill.
Speaker 1 00:40:00 This is the whole gospel. This is the crux of what we preach. This is what makes a church healthy. Staying on this course, preaching this message on a regular basis. It's not feeling better about your sin. My job is not to make you feel like God is okay with you. He'll adjust to your foibles and you can have a relationship with a God because his love is greater than his judgment. That's bologna.
Speaker 3 00:40:31 God is equal
Speaker 1 00:40:32 In all his attributes. He must judge sin because he is only, but he loves you too much to let you die in your sin. Jesus' perfect. Life will give us freedom. It sets imperfect people free. And if you're thinking to yourself, well, my sins rival all the sins that you know, Craig
Speaker 3 00:40:58 Let's go back to scripture.
Speaker 1 00:41:00 Noah was a drunkard. Abraham was a liar. Isaac was a manipulator. Jacob was a thief. Joseph was a braggart. Moses was a murderer with anger management problems. Rayhab was a prostitute. Gideon was a doubter. Sampson was a lover of self. David was an adulterer. Peter was a trader and Paul, the apostle straight up murdered people. Cool.
Speaker 2 00:41:21 God has always been about rising people up from their sin and giving them a new start. Let me tell you the buckets there. The ding is there, but you got to go stand under it. Number two, forgiveness is offered to all. There's not
Speaker 1 00:41:39 A person in this room. There's not a person watching online
Speaker 2 00:41:42 That is not represented in this story.
Speaker 1 00:41:46 Picture it. The crowd is standing around. They stand watching. They stand seeing watching Jesus, forgive this adulterous. They walk, we'll walk away, never experiencing it for themselves. It's just quite a show
Speaker 3 00:41:58 Today. They
Speaker 2 00:42:00 Will walk away. Never changed. They are spectators. Maybe
Speaker 1 00:42:05 You've been a spectator for a long time of Jesus Christ. You watch what he does in the lives of others. And you think to yourself, that's pretty cool. And you keep walking Easter, Christmas, Easter, Christmas, Easter, Christmas, and never the never the punch, never the realization
Speaker 2 00:42:21 Jesus is for you
Speaker 1 00:42:26 Are like the crowd. They walk away. They never get changed. They never experienced anything for themselves. Some are like the rulers. I hope you're not like the rulers. Some are, they were sinners, but they felt more comfortable pointing out the sins of others than pointing out their own sins.
Speaker 2 00:42:42 These kinds of people make great politicians. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. But there you go. They walked away from Jesus. Their only
Speaker 1 00:42:49 Hope of being forgiven. And instead of saying, you know what, Jesus, I'm just like her. I need your forgiveness too. All they did was they dropped this stone to pick up another stone. They moved from this spot to condemn this woman to another spot, to condemn another person
Speaker 2 00:43:06 Summer like the rulers and six months from this day, they wouldn't, you standing in the streets of Jerusalem calling for Jesus' blood. Some are like the woman.
Speaker 1 00:43:21 I hope I'm like the woman Jesus offers. They run to it. Some limp to it, some drag themselves to it. Some are broken so much they're on the ground and all they can do is if you've ever watched the passion of the Christ is a great picture because that gives this story. And it has this woman grabbing the ankles of Jesus Christ. Some have to drag themselves to Jesus because their lives are
Speaker 3 00:43:44 So broken. But
Speaker 1 00:43:46 The forgiveness that woman receives is the same abundant forgiveness that I receive it as the same dose of forgiveness that you receive. It is a forgiveness that forgives all past present future. While we are sinning,
Speaker 2 00:44:01 Christ died for us. God knows very well who you are.
Speaker 1 00:44:07 He doesn't need a crowd to condemn you. He doesn't need the list of accusers, uh, accusations against you. He knows you better than you know yourself. And he still offers you grace. Nice.
Speaker 2 00:44:27 I said, I know sin has damaged some people more than others. Some people carry around their past on their shoulders. And it's very difficult for that to get released.
Speaker 3 00:44:37 Some are carrying
Speaker 2 00:44:38 Burdens here today from things that have happened in their past. And they, it just eats away at the back of their minds. But I'm here to tell you this morning, this is why you were here on a good day. God is offering his reach of grace to go as deep into your life as possible to take that sin, release it and let you, no, you are not condemned soon in despair. Like the sea waves cold threaten the soul with infinite loss. Grace that is greater yet. Grace untold points to the refuge, the mighty cross, grace, grace God's grace, grace, that will pardon him. Cleanse within grace, grace. God's grace, grace that is greater than all our sin. Grace has been offered to you since a moment you were born. So that's something you might look up and wonder where all that water is coming from. From last one. Forgiveness is absolute. It is absolutely effective. What I mean by that is God's grace
Speaker 1 00:45:47 Drenches us from the head to the foot. It not only covers our sins. It
Speaker 2 00:45:52 Eradicates that sin from our accounts,
Speaker 3 00:45:58 That woman never be referred to as an adult, or is that great? She is. She was, but Jesus will never refer to her as the adulterer. You see,
Speaker 1 00:46:10 Because pegging you in your sin as a tactic of the evil one. It's
Speaker 2 00:46:14 Not what God does. God releases us of our sin. You know, there's a verse in the Bible says, there's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit for the law of
Speaker 1 00:46:25 Spirit of life has made us free from the law of sin and death. You know what that means? Every believer Jesus Christ has been so much
Speaker 2 00:46:31 Forgiven. They can put their heads on their pillows at night and know there's no condemnation. Don't let your sin define you. Let Jesus define you. That woman would be forever referred to by
Speaker 1 00:46:45 God. And by those who see her from now on
Speaker 2 00:46:49 As a sister in Jesus Christ, and it should be received, absolutely
Speaker 1 00:46:56 This absolute, uh, this forgiveness, this absolution, this forgiveness that we receive should also be received. Absolutely remember the bucket at the great Wolf lodge. Some have only experienced it from, from a viewpoint from afar. They're they're, they're the, they're the witnesses they've seen other people walk over there. And then the bucket of God's grace tips and pours over other people. And they say those people are so fortunate. They look like they're having a lot
Speaker 2 00:47:20 Of fun. Look at that. They're like totally drenched. They're laughing. And I don't
Speaker 1 00:47:25 Want to go over there. I could lose my shorts and that'd be really. So I'm just going to stay over here and watch them over there. Some people have seen other periods, other people experience it and, and maybe they've gotten a little splashed on the side, but they've never realized
Speaker 2 00:47:42 What they're missing. They haven't really taken it on for themselves. Some people believe
Speaker 1 00:47:47 That when that bucket tips over nothing but nuts and bolts come out, some people believe that God is just waiting to bang them on the head with a big nut and bolt bucket of not in bolt. They can't wait for God to bash them over the head. Once they realize once he realizes how bad they really are, are you, it couldn't be so, so much farther from the truth. If people tell you that they're only trying to get power over you so that they can get you to do what they want you to do.
Speaker 3 00:48:16 That's abuse.
Speaker 2 00:48:19 God's grace has never buckets of bolts. God's grace is always a purifying water that comes out and cleanses us from all sin. Some people believe they're not worthy of this kind of grace. They think to themselves, those people over there that are under the bucket of water. They're, you know, they they've obviously done this before. They're the right kind of people to be over there, but I'm not that kind of a person. I met a lady like that this week, actually.
Speaker 3 00:48:50 And
Speaker 2 00:48:52 I, without giving too much, I did a favor for her. And she's, she's bought the lie that she's not good enough to receive the grace that other other people receive. It breaks my heart. You see some people, they just know what they've done. They know Jesus knows what they've done. And they can't believe that he would ever forgive them. But church, listen, let me remind you. And you got to tell people, people have to accept this forgiveness as their own forgiveness
Speaker 1 00:49:25 Is, is absolute. It's it's for everyone. It's it's not free. Jesus paid for it, but you have got to receive it. You got to get off your keister and go stand under the bucket. You got to allow Jesus' forgiveness to flow over
Speaker 3 00:49:36 You. So the
Speaker 1 00:49:39 Question is, will you accept his payment for your sin? Will you look at pat and say, no, you don't know pat, but will you look at him in the illustration? Say, I accept your payment.
Speaker 2 00:49:50 I cannot pay it myself. Will you accept his forgiveness? Jesus forgive all. Absolutely. But you've got to accept it. John seven 37. I finished with this, our verse that we talked about last week, a little bit on the last day of the feast. Remember the feasts are coat the tents. You remember all that on
Speaker 1 00:50:16 The last day of the feast, the great day, the day the finale, Jesus stood up and cried out. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as a scripture said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. There are no qualifiers.
Speaker 2 00:50:33 There's no preparation. If you want
Speaker 1 00:50:36 Jesus, if you want forgiveness, if you want guilt free living, accept his forgiveness.
Speaker 3 00:50:43 It's as easy as that. In fact, it's almost too easy. We want it to be harder. We want to bleed, but somebody has already bled for us. There are no qualifiers
Speaker 2 00:50:57 Stands, ready to release that bucket. The ding
Speaker 1 00:51:01 Is going the bucket's tipping. You've got, you
Speaker 2 00:51:05 Got to run over and accepted as your own. Let that water flow over around you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness church. Lift up your head and drink this amazing grace let's pray, father God. I am grateful for our time this morning, as we've talked about forgiveness and how you deal with us in our sin, you can't overlook it. You can't pretend it's not there. You, it costs you your life, but you have paid the cost. My sin demanded. And I'm so grateful for that. We're about to sing a song, Lord, that that declares this. And I pray father, as we sing these words, we, you would do what you need to do in our hearts to remind us of the grace that we have received, grace, that we did not deserve, cannot earn. And we are welcomed into it.
Speaker 2 00:52:04 Thank you father, for forgiving us of our sins. Thank you that there's no price that we, we cannot, uh, that cannot be reached because your blood has forgiven all sins make you use this church to continue to change the world so that we can preach this gospel to a culture that desperately wants to play victim or say how much they've been hurt or hang onto their pain. May Lord you teach them that you are a God that doesn't cherish pain, but you are a God that cherishes grace and your grace covers a multitude of sins. So I pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.
