ENCOUNTER: The 39 Most Misunderstood Words in the Bible

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If you have a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

I'll start reading in verse 1 in just a moment, but we begin a new series today entitled Encounter.

And Encounter is basically this.

It's very simple.

We're going to look at different situations in the Bible where people have an encounter with God.

And we're going to ask ourselves, what do we take away from that?

What does the Bible say about this thing that happens here, okay?

And while you're finding John chapter 8, if you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.

John 8 · chapter mention

And I'm going to start reading on page 894.

But let me just say this.

Everything in the Bible kind of, it's not static.

It's not, the Bible's not a collection of these off disconnected incidents.

Well, Jesus said this one time on a Thursday in October, and over here he said this back in February.

And no, no, no.

This thing kind of moves.

It's systematic.

It kind of, and so why do I say that?

Because we're going to start in chapter 8, John chapter 8, verse 1.

John 8:1

But chapter 7 ends with Jesus going to a very big religious feast, a big festival, and there's all this pomp and circumstance going on.

And Jesus stands up in the middle of it and says, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink, and out of his inmost being will flow rivers of living water.

And the Bible says by that he meant his spirit, which those who believed in him were later to receive.

Well, this drove the scribes and Pharisees crazy.

Let me tell you who the scribes and Pharisees are, because we're going to read about them in John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

The scribes were like religious lawyers.

You couldn't buy a house without them drawing up the contract.

You couldn't get married without them kind of approving it, okay?

Very religious, very meticulous, very down to the jot and the tittle.

They were just, that was the smallest markings in the Hebrew language, and they were they were the people that took a magnifying glass and read the fine print, okay?

They went to college and majored in the fine print.

You tracking with me?

That's the scribes.

The Pharisees were a religious sect, S-E-C-T, a group of people that believed in the resurrection, but they really didn't value the Bible.

They valued this collection of teachings called the teachings of the fathers or the word of the father, some people refer to it.

Basically, it was a bunch of religious rules.

And they loved this body of literature because they had the inside knowledge.

We keep all the rules.

That's why anytime Jesus would say something to them they didn't like, they would say, Oh, oh, they were so offended.

They said, We we tithe of our mint and cumin and deal, and we we give alms and we do this, and I fast three times a week.

And Jesus was like, You guys are just telling me about all your religious activities.

And so all this stuff happens at the end of John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

I want you to get the movement where we pick up in John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

They were so mad at Jesus because you interrupted their religious festival.

It'd be like you going to a wedding.

Anybody here ever been to a wedding?

Can I see your hand?

Yes?

Yes?

You men are kind of like, I only go to weddings and my wife makes me go too.

I love doing weddings because I look out in the crowd and I see men who've got a tie on, they haven't worn in six years, and they're like this.

I'll tell you what, there better be an open bar at this reception, or I'm gonna be mad.

You ever been to a wedding and they go to a real traditional wedding, and the preacher sometimes asks this question Can anyone here show just cause why this woman should not be married to this man?

I'm the guy in the crowd going, please somebody say something.

Wouldn't it be great if you were to a wedding and say, can anyone should just call?

Yeah, yeah.

He's the fat undisciplined slob and she's beautiful.

How did he get her?

Let's start there.

Now, Emily Post on line one, all right.

It's funny because all you women are like, and you men are like, Yeah, I want my old lady to drag me to that wedding.

That's how don't miss this.

That's how offensive what Jesus did was when he stood up at this religious feast in John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

And so they're mad at him.

Matter of fact, John chapter 7 ends, they send what's called the temple guard, like the security, you know, people at the church, the security police.

John 7 · chapter mention

They send Renicop to go arrest Jesus, and they come back.

And they're like, hey, and and the Pharisees are like, Well, where is he?

And they just take their badges off and throw them on the desk, and they're like, no one ever talked like that guy, man.

We couldn't arrest him.

We went to arrest him, and he started talking, and it was like a clown on fire.

It was compelling and tragic and beautiful, so we quit.

Let me ask you a question.

What was it about Jesus that made people who hated him end up loving him?

Said differently.

We have community groups starting tonight all over our city where people meet in homes.

Maybe this would be a great question for a community group.

What is it about how you live?

What is it about how you live out your faith that causes people to rethink what they believe about Christians and Christianity?

Because the Bible says you can read later when the Texans are just killing the redskins and it gets boring.

Read the end of John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

They sent the temple guard.

Y'all are kind of like, he knows there's a game on, right?

He's been talking for four minutes, and we hadn't even gotten to the text yet.

We could be here all day.

The Presbyterians are gonna beat us to the good restaurants.

We're going somewhere else next week, honey.

We're visiting a different church.

Keep your powder dry, Henry, okay?

They go to arrest Jesus and they go to arrest him and they're like, man, Jesus, God come to your house and for lunch on Tuesday, you rock.

Why?

Because he said things and he lived his life in such a way that people that hated him ended up loving him.

People that, matter of fact, Nicodemus, one of the guys that will that the Bible talks about, he's one of the Pharisees.

When Jesus was killed, two people came to get his body off the cross.

Joseph of Arimathea and a man named Nicodemus.

So this is what happens.

This is John chapter 8 begins pregnant with backstory.

John 8 · chapter mention

John chapter 8, verse 1.

John 8:1

They, all these people we've been talking about, they went each to his house.

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives early in the morning.

He came again to the temple, and all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.

And the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery.

In adultery, caught doing, I mean, caught in the act of adultery.

She'd been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst.

They said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught to the act of adultery.

That's how religious people talk, by the way.

This woman's been caught in the act of adultery.

Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women, so what do you say?

And this they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.

And Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.

And 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 her.

And it once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.

But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones.

And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Jesus stood up and said to her, Woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you?

She said, No, no one, Lord.

And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you.

Go.

And from now on, sin no more.

Here's what I want to talk to you about this morning.

In very short, succinct fashion.

So listen carefully, okay?

I want to talk to you this morning about the 39 most misunderstood words in the Bible.

If you're an engineer and you count the letters, the red letters in this passage, Jesus uses 39 words.

39 of the most misunderstood words in the Bible, okay?

And let me just say this the point of this story is not the woman.

The point of this story is Jesus.

The woman is just something they're using.

She's a means to an end, okay?

She's not the focus.

So, what is the focus?

Three things, okay?

Number one, Jesus upholds the law.

Jesus upholds the law.

You say, why is that a big deal?

That's the first seven verses.

All the people came to him.

That's what drove the Pharisees crazy.

Is because people were like, I don't want to hear no more religious lectures.

I want to go listen to Jesus talk because when he reads the Bible and explains it, my heart beats faster and my life makes sense.

And so people were flocking to him.

Matter of fact, this is in the Bible.

And one time the crowd was so big, Jesus said, I gotta get away from these people.

He gets in a boat and he goes across to the lake, and these crazy people run around the lake and they beat Jesus to the other side of the lake, and he gets in there like, aha, you bearded Galilean, you can't get away.

And so what Jesus, the Bible says that Jesus got out of the boat and he just taught them.

No, why do I tell you that?

People were starving for the real thing.

Now, why do I tell you that?

Because we're surrounded by people that are starving for the real thing.

Tomorrow you're gonna go to work with people that are starving for the real thing.

And so, what do you mean?

Jesus opposed the law.

Why is that a big deal?

Because we live in a culture that takes one verse out of this passage and they build a worldview out of it.

For them, this is all the Bible they know, so it applies to everything.

What is the Bible that, what is the one of the one verses that everybody in the world knows?

It's right here where Jesus says to them about verse 7, where the back half of verse 7, and he says, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.

Now, we hear that and we go, oh, well, see there, Jesus is kind of saying, Don't be judgmental.

Who are we to judge you?

So don't throw a stone.

I mean, people live in glass houses, shouldn't throw rocks, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

When I say Jesus upholds the law, here's what I'm also saying.

He's not saying, hey, you shouldn't judge this person.

He's actually saying, if you listen to the lens of the Bible, he's actually saying Jesus is necessary, so necessary.

Matter of fact, let us start with ourselves.

That's the little thing we don't hear in verse 7.

He says, Jesus says, Hey, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.

Now let me back up.

They come to Jesus.

Remember, you we've read it already one and a half times.

They come to Jesus and they say, Jesus, in the law of Moses commanded us to stone such women.

But what do you say?

And then verse 6 says, they use this question as a trap, as a basis so they could accuse him.

Because they've got Jesus, remember all the people?

Remember that?

All the people they're following Jesus, and they got Jesus between a rock and a hard place.

Let me just tell you something.

Nobody gets Jesus between a rock and a hard place.

You're not going to come up with some intellectual question that you found on the internet chat room that's going to stump God.

He's going to go, oh, well, I didn't see that coming.

So they're like, hey, the law commands us to stone such women.

What do you say?

Because if Jesus says, yeah, stone the skank, she deserves it.

She's been out getting freaky on the weekend.

She deserves to be beat down.

Then all the people that are standing around, I wish I could see some of you are like.

Did he just say, She's been out getting freaky on the weekend?

Yes, yes.

Or as the Bible says, she's been caught in the act of adultery.

So if Jesus says, yeah, stone her, all the people look at Jesus and go, hey man, you you are you kidding me?

Because we've we've all sinned too.

You're gonna stone us?

But if he says, hey, you can't stone her, then he breaks the law of Moses.

He never does.

Remember, Jesus said, I didn't come to nullify the law, I came to fulfill the law.

See, point number one, and it sounds real religious, and like you're like, you got that of a book somewhere.

No, I didn't.

Jesus upholds the law.

What do you mean?

How do he he upholds the law by saying, hey, judgment is actually necessary.

Leviticus, don't turn it or come on the screen.

Leviticus chapter 20, verse 10.

Leviticus 20:10

This is the law they're responding to, and they say, Moses says, here's what the Old Testament says.

If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, that doesn't mean when it says his neighbor, that doesn't mean the person that lives to your right or to your left across the street.

That means with somebody else that you're not married to.

If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

That means the man and the woman should both be put to death.

Now, here's what's happening in this room right now.

All of you are scrolling through your mind through the list of people you know have committed adultery and think, I wish he were here to hear this.

Jesus upholds the law.

We said, What do you mean?

The law says both the man and the woman, or the adulterer and the adulteress, shall be put to death.

So, see, they're violating the law by not bringing the man.

As a matter of fact, some biblical scholars believe that the guy who was involved in committing adultery was one of the scribes or Pharisees.

Remember, they set the whole thing up.

How would you like to have been at that little meeting at the religious moochlage when they said, hey, we're gonna get some woman of reputation, by the way, you can sin so much that people no longer think of you as a person.

That's this woman.

She sins so much, they're like, we're gonna, we're gonna we need somebody that we can get somebody to sleep with, commit adultery with, and then we're gonna pin Jesus down and embarrass him in front of all of his followers.

And we need somebody to sleep with her.

Can you imagine Bill in the back?

I'll take one for the team.

I'll be your guy.

Because some biblical scholars think that it was one of the scribes and Pharisees.

You say, Why do you tell us that?

Because they come to Jesus with a big question, and Jesus ignores him, leans down, and he starts writing in the dirt.

This is the only time Jesus writes recorded in the Bible, by the way.

We don't know what he wrote.

I just wonder if he just drew an arrow to the guy that slept with her.

Wouldn't that be great?

It's the red-faced guy who's not making eye contact in the fourth row.

We don't know.

Let me just say, we don't know what happens, but we do know this.

Jesus upholds the law.

You say, what do you mean?

If you're in John, turn to the right, to the book of 1 Corinthians.

If you don't have a Bible, it'll come up on the screen.

Because let me say something while you're turning there.

Uh without this kind of merciful discernment, because he's not saying, hey, don't judge when he says, hey, let he who without sin among you be the first to cast a stone.

Jesus is saying, no.

Hey, actually, if you're going to judge, start with yourself.

It is necessary.

Let me say something that may sound controversial in this therapeutic day and age.

It is necessary that we as Christians assess ourselves.

Without this merciful, discerning judgment, the salt loses its saltiness.

And what happens is the church fills up with people who say one thing and live another.

You say, oh no, it doesn't.

Sure it does.

Because what's happening?

You've heard this before.

See, the kind of biblical redemptive posture is necessary because one of the criticisms leveled against the church for all time has been this.

You invite someone to church, they say no.

You say why?

I ain't going down to that church.

It's full of.

See, that's why it's necessary that we kind of, Jesus says, He's not saying, hey, don't judge.

He's saying, hey, start with yourself.

He's upholding the law.

And by the way, this is what the Bible says to Christians all through.

1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 9.

1 Corinthians 5:9

Paul says, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

Let me ask you a question.

Do you ever read things in the Bible and think that God has a kind of a sarcastic sense of humor?

You should.

And here's one of these examples.

1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 9.

1 Corinthians 5:9

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

Not at all, meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters.

Since then you would need to go out of the world.

It's God's way of saying, of quoting that great theologian Maverick.

This is a target-rich environment right here.

This world's full of immoral, greedy, swindling people.

Look at verse 11.

But he says, hey, I don't want you to go around pointing the finger at the world.

Start with yourself.

Verse 11.

But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother.

If he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater or a violer, a drunkard or swindler.

Not even to eat with such a one.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders?

Is it not those inside the church who you are to judge?

God judges those outside.

Purge the evil person from among you.

See, Jesus upholds the law.

He doesn't say, oh, you got me.

I'm going to have to contradict myself.

No, he says, you got a great point.

Second point that the Bible makes this morning is not only, number one, is Jesus uphold the law.

Secondly, Jesus applies the law.

He applies the law.

You say, what do you mean?

Jesus says, hey, you guys back here in John chapter 8, you got a great point.

John 8 · chapter mention

All right?

The Bible says, the law says, uh, back in Leviticus chapter 20, if a man and a woman commit adultery, that means that they are sexually with somebody who's not their husband or their wife.

Leviticus 20 · chapter mention

They should be stoned.

Now, let me just say this.

Look at me just for a minute.

Don't check out on me.

You may be, this may be the first time you came to church in a long time.

You're like, see there, those narrow-minded religious bigots, they're just out to kill people.

We're gonna kill.

This is not how God feels about adulterers and adulteresses, or however you say that.

Look at me.

This is how God feels about sin.

And God hates sin in all its forms.

You say, well, why does God hate sin?

Because the Bible says that the wages of sin is.

How can you stand by and watch someone kill themselves and not speak out to dissuade them from doing that?

Make sense?

So God's not mean-spirited with a pocket full of rocks going, I'm looking for sinners.

Not at all.

He upholds the law.

Secondly, he applies the law.

You say, Well, what do you mean he applies the law?

Well, the Bible says in Deuteronomy 17 that a person should die on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Remember that.

A person dies on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

They said earlier in John chapter 8, and actually in verse 3, the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who'd been caught in adultery, in the act, is the inference in the text.

John 8 · chapter mention

Let me just ask you this question.

Who watches other people commit adultery?

How jacked up do you have to be?

And by the way, this is a different sermon, maybe for a men's retreat or something, maybe not for here.

But let me just because some of y'all are like, where's this going?

I got kids here, okay?

I I hear you.

Let me just say this.

Who watches other people commit adultery?

You do anytime you look at something pornographic.

So don't get all self-righteous and think, oh, what kind of perv and that?

I mean, they set this up and watch this and then jumped out of the closet, bam, gotcha.

So it's in the act.

See, why do I tell you that?

Because with their own words, they establish the fact that they know who the man was, and yet they didn't bring him, which the law clearly states.

See, Jesus upholds the law.

Secondly, he applies the law.

He applies the law to the Pharisees.

And most people miss the point because we misapply what Jesus is saying.

When Jesus says that he among you who's without sin cast the first stone, what we hear in that, our culture hears in that is, hey, we're all sinners.

God understands.

Let's not get crazy and go all legalistic and hardcore on this woman.

I mean, help us sister out.

I mean, who hasn't sinned, right?

Instead, what Jesus is saying is, you guys are in sin right now because you brought this woman and you left the man.

And so you don't, unless you're going to tell me you set the whole thing up and watched it, you're going to have to produce some witnesses.

Because the Bible says a person dies on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

A fact is established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

And so Jesus wasn't winking at sin.

He was just commenting on the legal status of the case.

He declares a mistrial and says, hey, without the witnesses, the law is required to set this person free.

He said, Well, they got all these people there.

For now, look at what the Bible says.

They roll upon Jesus and ask him the big question, What should we do?

Jesus says, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone in her.

Verse 8, we pick up the story.

And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.

But when they heard it, they went away.

Now, by the way, the language in the Greek is really subtle.

It says, Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground once more.

And then the next sentence says, And when they heard it, was the writing that loud?

Jesus has the capacity to get down to the get down.

He's like, here, I'm not just here giving you religious lectures.

Let me just paint you a picture that is undeniable.

By the way, I think, and correct me on this, some of you Bible scholars, there's only one other time in the Old Testament where God writes with his hand, and it's in the book of Daniel.

It's a big drunken feast, and people are getting together, and Nebuchadnezzar and all these people gotta go, they got their beard goggles on, they're kind of looking around.

I'm feeling lucky tonight.

And God says, Hey, enough of this.

And the hand appears and writes on the wall, and he writes, Mene, mene, tekel ufersom.

And no one can translate it.

It's one thing to be drunk, it's another thing to be stupid.

And they're like, I don't know what that says until they get Daniel, and Daniel interprets it.

You know what it says, what it meant?

You've been tried in a balance and found lacking.

When I read John chapter 8, I wonder if Jesus wrote a New Testament version of the same thing.

John 8 · chapter mention

I don't know.

By the way, nobody knows.

Any preacher that tells you, I think this is what Jesus wrote, is lying.

Because nobody knows.

What do you mean?

Jesus applies the law.

Jesus brings it down to where they live.

Look at verse 8.

And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground, but when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Jesus stood up and said to her, Woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you?

She said, No one, Lord.

And we'll stop right there.

He said, What do you mean?

Jesus applies the law.

That's how Jesus thins the herd.

That's where they all go.

He just applies the law.

He just goes, He upholds the law.

By the way, I keep using the word law, and some of you wince, like, we don't like that word.

Without an unchanging standard, you have no sense of right and wrong.

And we live in a culture that wants to do away with that standard.

We live in a culture that says, Who are you to judge me?

I'm not trying to judge you.

I'm just trying to establish the truth that there's some things that are right and some things that are wrong.

Not because Congress votes on them, or not because you and your boyfriend or your Girlfriend have agreed this is okay.

They're right and they're wrong because of who God is.

Because you were created in his image.

And when we violate what God clearly says, sin, the Bible says it's missing the mark.

We're missing the mark, but we're also misrepresenting who God is and what God says is the truth.

And if you're not careful, what happens is that you end up with no truth to apply to nobody.

Which is when we were standing here earlier giving out Bibles to the second greaters, what went through my mind was Amos chapter 8, about verse 10 to 12, where Amos, God prophesies through Amos, speaks through the prophet Amos and says, the days are coming, declare as a sovereign Lord, when I'll send a famine on the land.

Amos 8 · chapter mention

Not a famine of food or drink, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

He goes on to say that men will stagger from north to south, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.

In that day, the lovely young women and the strong young men, by the way, we got enough lovely young women.

We got enough women who base their life on their physical appearance.

And we got enough men who's whole who would rather get a workout in than do anything.

I got friends that work out five, six days a week.

I ask them, have you read the word lately?

Man, I ain't got time.

Did you work out this week?

Oh, yeah, you know I work out every day.

Can't you tell?

Not really, but anyway.

By the way, I've got a treadmill in my garage, and there's about seven garden instruments hanging on it right now.

That thing is handy.

In that day, the lovely young women and the strong young men, listen to this, will faint because of thirst.

Because they're longing for someone to tell them the truth.

Let me give you a second question to think about in your community group tonight.

And it's simply this Who has the platform in your life right now to hold you accountable?

Who asks you the hard questions that you don't maybe want to answer, but you need to answer?

Jesus upholds the law.

Secondly, Jesus applies the law.

He says, Let him who is without sin.

Translation, you and I both know you got to set this whole thing up.

You're trying to get me.

But I'm going to make a statement about her.

It's what Paul says in Romans 2 when he's preaching to the religious people of the day in Rome.

And he says, Hey, you who say do not rob temples, do you rob temples?

You who say do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

Pretty soon the picture becomes very clear.

And this is what happens.

The Bible's so subtle and yet so loud.

And it says, And they dropped their rocks and they departed, beginning with the older ones.

The older you get, the more you should understand grace.

And that doesn't mean you become some kind of a just weak universalist.

Oh, who am I to judge?

I don't know.

No, you you you you hold on to the truth, but you also apply it most to yourself.

Thirdly, finally, this morning, Jesus, he upholds the law, he applies the law, and thirdly, he fulfills the law.

Look at verse 11.

You still with me?

Jesus, she said, Jesus says, Hey, where are they?

Woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you?

No, because when you apply the law, it thins the herd.

Because the law robs people of any basis on which to stand.

Where are they?

Has no one condemned you?

She said, No one, Lord.

And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you.

Go and from now on sin no more.

And he said, What do you mean Jesus fulfills his law?

Now, by this point, you should have developed some opinions about these people right now.

You should be kind of thinking, I do not like the scribes and Pharisees.

I kind of really like Jesus.

But here's the problem.

You can hate the Pharisees and love Jesus and say, I want to be more like Jesus.

Well, the way you'd be more like Jesus is beginning, you get there by the place you begin is realizing I'm the woman.

I am naked and defenseless before a holy God.

By the day, by the way, the Bible says that she was caught in the act.

There's a good chance all she has on, if anything, she might have grabbed a sheet and wrapped it around her or a shawl.

So she's standing there before the Son of God, humiliated.

Kind of like, hey, how about them Texans?

Heard any good jokes?

Let me say something sounds crazy.

And this passage bears it out.

Your worst day is also your best day.

Your worst day.

And so I want you to think about, spiritually speaking, what was your worst day?

Because it's also your best day.

And here's why.

Because if you listen to your life, you'll stop trusting in yourself.

Because your life will remind you of how capable you are of screwing it up.

And that's what I mean when I say Jesus fulfills the law.

You say, I don't know what you mean.

We're not only, she's not only face to face with her own depravity, but here's the part that sounds great, but it's really indicting.

It's where my liberal friends get it wrong.

Jesus says, hey, who condemns you?

No one, my Lord.

Well, neither do I.

Go your way and sin no more.

I got liberal friends who are like, see, Jesus doesn't think adultery is a big deal.

All sin can be forgiven.

It's not the unpardonable sin.

And so they think she just hops on the way.

Absolutely not.

This is why these 39 words, when you think about Jesus, says, go, I mean, she's got her sheet around, she's walking off.

Thank you, Jesus.

You are awesome.

And Jesus says, Go your way and sin no more.

And she stops in her tracks, like, what?

By the way, it's imperative in the Greek when he says sin no more.

The literal translation is be sinless.

Anybody want to try that on?

See, here, the law, when I said earlier, the law slays us and robs us of any claims of righteousness.

That's just big preacher talk when Jesus says, Hey, go your way, and I'm commanding you to not sin ever again.

That is impossible.

And no one knows that more than the woman who just got caught in the act of adultery.

So what's Jesus saying?

Is he winking and saying, hey, you know, sin's no big deal?

Not at all.

He's asking the question.

Yesterday afternoon at my house, I was flipping channels with my 16-year-old daughter on the couch.

Who, by the way, I woke up at 2.55 yesterday afternoon.

Yeah, that's 3 o'clock for those of you who don't.

I'm just like, what is this kid doing?

My wife, same response every time.

Well, she's a girl.

Really?

I didn't know that.

Well, you know, girls just need a lot of sleep.

For what?

Well, she babysat last night.

Those kids went to bed at 8 30.

How hard is it to lay on the couch and thumb the remote?

Well, she got home at 12:30.

What time did she stay up?

Anyway, woke her up at 3 o'clock.

Hey, hey, it's time to get up.

This is verging on sin.

Hey, Dad.

What's for breakfast?

The breakfast train left a long time ago.

We're almost to supper.

So she gets up.

We start flipping the channels.

Come across True Grit, the remake with Jeff Bridges in it.

And I said, You should watch this because the gospel's in here.

And she's like, that's Madison talk for my dad's a preacher, and the gospel's in everything.

So I just spooled her out and just set her up.

That great scene where they're across the field.

That sounds like a lot of bull talk for a one-eyed fat man.

He puts him reins in his teeth.

And I said, This is about a day when principled men roamed the earth, because earlier he was telling little Maddie about that he put his reins in, she was like, fat chance.

Then the old fat man lays the wood to him.

But at the end of the movie, she snake bit.

She falls in the hole.

She snake bit.

And I said, Madison, we're all snake bit by sin.

And we need a mediator.

I said, here's why, if you go into business, you should make a lot of money and make great movies.

The Cohen brothers make great movies that make you think.

And I said, here's the thing that's been woven all through this movie: the old hymn, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.

So he gets Maddie out of the pit and he gets her and they get on little black in their riding double, and Rooster Cockburn's had some of them corn dodgers that Chin Ling makes.

It's a big old fat man that likes whiskey, and ha, they tuck off riding, and then the piano starts off.

And I said, You hear it?

She's like, I hear it, Dad, I hear it.

Shut up.

Oh, don't tell me to shut up.

And I said, We all need a mediator to get us there, or else sin's gonna kill us.

And the horse goes down and she's like, What?

Is that her horse?

I got her now.

She's hooked in.

She's off Instagram.

Miracles still happen, people.

What?

He's not gonna pow.

I said, That horse ain't gonna get him there.

And he picks her up in his arms.

And he starts struggling through the night to get her there.

He gets close to the trading post and he just falls down, pulls his gun down, pow! And the light comes on.

And I hear in my spirit Isaiah 9, where he says, You that dwell in deep darkness, a light has shone on you.

And I said, Madison, we've all been snake bit by sin, and it's gonna kill us unless God sends a mediator.

Shut up, Dad.

I want to see the end of the movie.

I'm gonna whip you twice later, right there.

Why do I tell you that?

Because when Jesus says to her, Go your way and sin no more, he's really saying, You're gonna need a mediator.

And by the way, you're talking to him.

You say, Well, how do you know?

Look at the next verse.

Look at verse 12, and we'll be done.

Jesus said, again, Jesus spoke saying, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

How do you not walk in darkness?

You don't get that through religious determination.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for God, for our sake, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God made Jesus, He said, Hey, I'm the mediator right here.

Go and sin no more.

Sounds good, can't do it.

I know, that's why I said it.

Because I want you to come to the end of yourself so you can get to the beginning of me.

Let me close this morning by just reading Romans chapter 3, verse 21.

Romans 3:21

And now I just want to point out a few phrases in here.

This is what the Bible says.

Paul says, but now, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there's no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

A lot of times we can read things in the Bible and it's so big you're kind of like, whoa, let me close by just pointing out some things that the Bible just said.

First of all, he says the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

Because the law says that we all deserve to be stoned.

Me first, your preacher at the top of the list of all the people that deserve to be stoned.

I worked about a 60-hour week this week.

That's not a complaint.

It's just easy to think I do a lot of good stuff.

Help me.

I could live a thousand years and work a 90-hour week and never do enough good stuff to outweigh my bad stuff.

So keeping the rules, I can't get there.

Second thing I want to just point out to you, he says that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

And then he says, secondly, through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

I want to ask you the question: do you have who do you have more faith in?

You have more faith in Jesus and what he did on the cross, or do you got more faith in yourself?

Third thing I'll point out to you is just this simple phrase that I think is beautiful.

It says of Jesus, whom God put forward.

It says we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, but just here, whom God put forward.

Translation, God says, This is my solution to the problem.

I'm just putting Jesus forward.

What do you put forward that you think is on the same level with Jesus?

Next, he says this, it's to be received by faith.

What does that mean?

You don't have to deserve it.

I didn't deserve it.

No one deserves it.

That's why it's okay to receive it by faith.

Finally, he says this, and I'll be done.

He says, at the end, he says it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier.

Now think just for a minute.

That he might be just talking about God.

If God's see, God's not fair.

That's a human word.

He's just.

In other words, he's truthful, he's honest.

See, if God's not just, you can't be justified.

If God winks at sin, you'll die in your sin.

That's why you're like, well, this woman caught in adultery.

Why are you talking about the law?

Because that's what this really all about.

He upholds the law, he applies the law.

That's why they scatter.

And then Jesus very suddenly just kind of says, Hey, I fulfill the law.

So you adulterous woman, don't go home and try harder.

Come to me.

So he might be just.

See, so you can't have a God who doesn't call a spade a spade because you can never be justified.

You can never get right with God if your God isn't just.

And then lastly, he says, He's just, he's a justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

So the question before all of us this morning is simply this is do you have faith in Jesus?

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Jesus did not come to be profound, He came to tell the truth.

Because the truth is what sets you free.

Depart now and live in and speak and love the truth that you were created for.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.