|
God’s
Constitution for Living 7
Grace
Emmanuel Church
Pastor Sam
Chess
(Setting the
Focus)
John 8:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared
again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him,
and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the
Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand
before the group…
Don’t be too quick to condemn this woman… This woman wasn’t a
prostitute. She probably wasn’t too different than you and I. At some
point she was a young bride with dreams about a fulfilling marriage.
She probably dreamed of having children and raising a large happy
family. She dreamed of them all going to the synagogue and worshipping
God together and her children growing up into a Godly lineage like the
great Israelites who had gone before.
As a girl she studied the stories of women in the Bible like Ruth
and admired her character and integrity. She knew that when she grew up
she would be just like Ruth or Esther or maybe she would save her
country like Deborah or prophesy like Miriam.
But things didn’t turn out the way Miriam planned. Her husband
didn’t turn out to meet all her expectations. Perhaps he didn’t give
her the attention she deserved….maybe he took her for granted…maybe she
wasn’t able to have children or maybe she did and they didn’t turn out
like she had dreamed.
For what ever reason…. Her guard went down and one day she met
another man who seemed to care more about her than her husband did. I’m
sure it was all quite innocent at first. a compliment, a listening
ear…and then one day they crossed the line. A touch that was just a
little too long…maybe a little caressing….maybe the sharing of a little
secret that the other had no right to know. Both suspected they had
crossed the line, both know the danger to their reputations, their
futures, and because of God’s Law they were headed down a path that
would threaten their very lives.
Just so you know: We established a profound principle in our study
here on Wednesday evening: All sin is the result of wrong choices…
little choices to commit little sins will eventually lead to bigger
choices to commit bigger sins. Fortunately, the opposite of that is
true as well: Choices to resist temptation lead to greater strength
over future temptations.
At some point this woman made the choice to walk over the line…then
run over the line into the arms of another man. This was not a one
night stand…. When she stepped over into her secret world the drudgery
of her other life didn’t seem to exist. She had to have thought about
what the possible effects of her sin could be on her children and
husband but she forcefully sacrificed the consequences of her sin on
the altar of immediate pleasure.
“she forcefully sacrificed the consequences of her sin on the
altar of immediate pleasure…..”(somewhere along the line we are
going to have to bring us into this picture)
She suspected this immediate pleasure would have a devastating
effect on her relationship with God…and it did… God was no where to
be found. Oddly I’ve heard more than one person, soon after falling
into sexual sin say that their relationship with God had never been
closer. A few months later their story had drastically changed. You
need to know God doesn’t take this particular sin lightly.
The first time she lied to her husband about where she was going
her heart was pounding until she was sure her husband would sense
she was not telling the truth. Each time it became easier.. finally
it seemed so right. (How can something be wrong when it feels so
right)
The first time she went to the synagogue, after sleeping with
another man, she was sure the guilt would be all over her face….
She was sure everyone would know. She thought God might strike her
with fire from heaven….he didn’t. nobody seemed to notice. She even
found herself able to smile at her lover across the isle during the
reading of the Scriptures.
II. Caught in the Shutter’s Eye
Then comes the night she feared most. She and her lover are together
again for more times than they care to count.. The door smashes open.
Men have been waiting outside. Not only have people known what was
taking place they have been secretly watching the action. She screams
she cries, she begged for mercy. The fantasy she had been living in is
ripped away… All the excuses for why she had to sin suddenly seem
hollow…
As she is being dragged through the streets of Jerusalem partially
wrapped in sheets..she thinks she is going to die! She had broken the
seventh of the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 20:14 "You shall not commit adultery.
Na-aph- A married man or a married woman having a physical
relationship with someone outside their marriage covenant.
I know I’ve beat on this horse until it can barely stand up.. but
here goes again. God places huge emphasis’ on covenants. He built his
relationship with mankind around covenants. He set up marriage as a
daily, earthly example of a covenant that was supposed to help us
understand our covenant relationship with God. When God’s covenant
people, Israel would break their covenant with him, he would often
refer to their unfaithfulness to their covenant as prostitution.
Needless to say, A God who takes His covenants so seriously, also
takes the marriage covenant, He created, seriously. It was he who
created human sexuality, not just for procreation, (as in animals) but
also as special covenant bond between a man and a woman who have
entered in vows to be a covenant couple for life.
After this point is Scripture God gets very specific about
forbidding any sexual relationship outside a marriage covenant between
a man and a woman. But before he gets to all the other possible sexual
combinations…he must first deal with the most important of them all.
When a man and woman are in covenant relationship and are
sharing a covenant sexual bond… and one of them steps outside that
covenant and shares something God considers so sacred with
another.. God, in several places in the Old Testament calls it…
“the great sin”. God sees this sin….as not just a sin against your
covenant spouse but as a great sin directed at God himself.
Patriarchs seemed to know this:
Genesis 39:9 (Joseph with Potiphar’s wife) No one here has more
authority than I do! He has held back nothing from me except you,
because you are his wife. How could I ever do such a wicked thing?
It would be a great sin against God." (NLT)
Psalm 51:4 ( David after Bathsheba) Against you, and you alone,
have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.
Our enlightened society has figured out what the patriarchs didn’t
seem to understand. Did you know that in this country until 1954
murder, stealing, lying under oath, and adultery were all
punishable crimes? In 1955 the American Law Institute, in all their
liberal wisdom, determined that murder, stealing, and lying under oath
were still crimes but that adultery would no longer be considered a
crime and would, in fact, be a protected constitutional right. The
sexual revolution of the 60”s got it’s legal foundation in the 50’s.
It was all very different from what God’s Law said:
Leviticus 20:10 " 'If a man commits adultery with another
man's wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the
adulteress must be put to death.
In case your sexual sins happen to fall outside of a married man and
a married woman , God starts to fill in the blanks:
Lev. 18: 6 " 'No one is to approach any close relative to have
sexual relations. I am the LORD. 7 " 'Do not dishonor your father
by having sexual relations with your mother. 8 " ….your father's
wife; 9 …your sister 10 " .. with your son's daughter or your
daughter's daughter 11 " 'Do not have sexual relations with the
daughter of your father's wife 12 " 'Do not have sexual relations
with your father's sister 13 " …your mother's sister 14 " 'Do not
dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have
sexual relations; she is your aunt. 15 " …your daughter-in-law.
16 " …your brother's wife; 17 " 'Do not have sexual relations with
both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with
either her son's daughter or her
daughter's daughter; That is wickedness. 20 " 'Do not have sexual
relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her.
22 " 'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is
detestable. 23 " 'Do not have sexual relations with an animal and
defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an
animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
I can simplify all this for you… You are not to have sexual
relations with anyone other than your covenant spouse.
I heard someone say it again this week… “this stuff may have been
true for the Jews in Old Testament times but it doesn’t apply to us
today.”
What we do, or don’t do, sexually today is up to our own inner sense
of right and wrong. It’s not our place to judge anyone else’s sexual
views or preferences. Any belief that two hormone-charged teenagers or
two consenting adults (regardless of their marital status) should
refrain from sex based on some 3500 years old set of laws is archaic,
behind the times, prudish..
These 3500 year old laws are part of God’s timeless moral code……
God’s moral laws are universal and are binding on all peoples in
all places, at all times. The New Testament, and Jesus himself,
took the moral codes of the Old Testament and made them just as
morally binding on New Testament believers.
Pastor, if you just finish the story you started earlier you will
see that Jesus simply forgave the adulterous woman. Oh??
The woman on the way to a brutal stoning finds out that she is being
used as propaganda to bring down a local Rabbi.
John 8:3-6 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in
a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4
and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of
adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now
what do you say?" 6 They were using this question as a trap, in
order to have a basis for accusing him.
If he was from God like he claimed he couldn’t refute the
Ten Commandments. The Romans had forbidden stoning, so if he
supported Moses law they could report him to the Romans.
You’ve got to wonder where the man was….whether they’d done
some sort of a plea deal with him to use the woman against
Jesus? Notice their words: “Teacher, this woman was caught in
adultery, in the very act.”
Here is a very guilty woman, trembling in fear, perhaps her husband
and children, and close friends on the edge of the crowd, shocked
beyond belief.
Her accusers, true to Scripture probably leaned over and picked up
stones, others joining in the pack mentality, fitting just the right
stone to their palms. Were they going to kill her? Sure seems like it.
She was seconds away from the first stone thudding into her stomach….
V:7 But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his
finger.
It’s the only time in Scripture we find Jesus writing
anything…What was he writing? Roman law said the sentence had to be
in writing before it could be carried out. Was he writing out
Leviticus 20:10? I doubt it. Jesus was all about helping the
penitent find forgiveness. I think he was probably writing out the
sins of the woman’s unrepentant accusers. Because he then stood up
and said:
John 8:7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and
said, "All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned
throw the first stones!" 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in
the dust. (NLT)
9When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one,
beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle
of the crowd with the woman.
10Then Jesus stood up again and said to her, "Where are your
accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?"
11"No, Lord," she said. And
Jesus said, "Neither do I….
See there… this woman’s sexual behavior wasn’t a big deal to Jesus.
He probably believes that it doesn’t matter what her sexual preferences
are, as long as she doesn’t force her beliefs on others…as long as she
doesn’t hurt others with her lifestyle, as long as all her sexual
unions are consensual…
We must not miss the last sentence because it is the most important…
Go and sin no more." (NLT)
"Then neither do I condemn you (continual action into
the future)," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin!"
(once for all)
He didn’t pass over her sin any more than he does ours. His words
fill her with remorse because she realizes he knows every detail of her
sordid affair. His words fill her with hope because she realizes this
Jesus believes she can be forgiven. His words fill her with faith
because she now know she has a post-sin future. His words will ring in
her mind all the rest of her life.
When she gives her testimony to others…She will stress Jesus
words…Go and sin no more! When she warns her children not to follow her
path of sin she will stress the point to them over and over: sin no
more…say no to sin. She almost certainly met her accusers after that
day. Now they had publicly admitted that they too were sinners. I can
see her setting down with them and telling them what happened after
they left and repeating Jesus words: Go and sin no more…Go and leave
your life of sin.
So Adultery is surely not an unforgivable sin…. But it is very
much a sin…a great sin… a sin against our Creator who made our
bodies.
In case you still believe that this story demonstrates that Jesus
had a relaxed attitude toward sexual sin you need to realize that it
was this same Jesus who took this command, like so many of the other
nine and restated it in even stronger terms.
Matthew 5:27-28 "You have heard that the law of Moses says, `Do
not commit adultery.' 28 But I say, anyone who even looks at a
woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her
in his heart.
Command can be violated by thought without an outside action.
Conclusion: Good news…
I Corinthians 6:9 Don't you know that those who do wrong
will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don't fool
yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol
worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, 10
thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers--none
of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. 11 There
was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your
sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for
God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord
Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you.
|
