The Adulteress' Story - Pastor Robert Morris

once you take your Bibles out and I want you to turn to John chapter 8 John chapter 8 I'm only asking to turn to one passage although we'll look at some others today so John chapter 8 and we are continuing our series called face to face divine encounters and this is a little strange the title we started with like John story and Mary story and pastor Preston did Matthew story and then we had to kind of describe the people because we didn't know their story the lame man's story was one week this is we don't know her name the adult arrest his story that's really all we know about her what she was caught in adultery so the adulteress story all right John chapter 8 look at verse 1 John 8 verse 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives now early in the morning he came again into the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery won't you notice this word caught and when they had set her in the midst they said to him teacher this woman was caught in adultery in the very act now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned but what do you say this they said testing him that they might have something of which to accuse him but Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger as though he did not hear so when they continued asking him he raised himself up and said to them here's a very famous line from the Bible he who is without sin among you let him throw a stone at her first and again he stooped down and wrote on the ground then those who heard it being convicted by their conscience went out one by one beginning with the oldest even to the last and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst when Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman he said to her woman where are those accusers of yours has no one condemned you she said no one Lord and Jesus said to her knew neither do i condemn you go and sin no more now there's all sorts of conjecture about what he wrote in the ground in the in the dirt and I kind of like to think about that like I think about were there miracles in Jesus's home growing up is he the one that stirred the water you know at the Pool of Bethesda okay so this was my personal opinion I personally think that he wrote the names of the men who were there and their sins beside their names just my personal opinion in other words there's a guy standing there he's got a rock in his hand he looks down he sees his name and then he sees adultery beside it and then he sees another guy so he throws his rock down and leaves you know and then another name and then he they see you know cheats on taxes you know I don't know that Jesus did that but we'll find out one day we get to heaven but when do you think about this woman this is her divine encounter even though she doesn't she didn't know it was a divine encounter this is her meeting with the most famous church leader of the day there's not a more famous well-known well-respected church leader than Jesus and the way she meets him is she gets hauled into church into church he's in the temple and this happens after she's been caught in adultery in the very act and this is probably also the last thing that's ever going to happen in life because the law said you have to stone someone so she's going to die she's not going to see her husband ever again he's going to she's going to die and he's going to lose his wife without her even being able to explain what happened she's not going to see her children again if she has children we know she's married because she was caught in tree but she had children this is the last thing that their her children are going to remember about her see just think about how shameful this is for her and she meets Jesus and her life's only changed here's why I think her life has changed because I think she learned some things about Jesus in this meeting that we need to learn today here's here's number one Jesus isn't condemning Jesus is it condemning he is not a condemning person for some reason we have this picture of God that he condemns that he wants to condemn now when pastor Preston was here a few weeks ago he talked about my famous saying that the Lord gave me years ago and I just want to remind us of that my my little saying that God gave me was hunters hunt golfers golf and you can finish this one and sinners okay hunters hunt golfers golf sinners sin the first time I ever shared that with the church we were real real small and I said hunters and you know I was asked to infinity and hunters hunt and when I said golfers this woman in the front row said why I thought well that's true too but that's not where I'm going okay but sinners sin here's why Jesus isn't condemning because it doesn't shock him when sinners sin it's amazing that as believers we are shocked when a sinner sins can I just tell you something that's what sinners do sin hers lets dawn on you sinners sin that's what sinners do see that the first time I ever went out of the country I was shocked by how no one I was in a third-world country I was shocked because no one stayed in their lanes driving now if you've been in some third-world countries you know what I mean you come to the intersection there are three lanes and at that intersection there are three lanes there there will be five cars and seven mopeds and I was just so shocked and I remember saying to the missionary I'll bet you have a lot of car wrecks here do you know what he said he said oh we have very few he said matter of fact you know the country that leads the world in car wrecks America and I couldn't figure that out and then I realized it in these other countries they expect people to get out of the lines they don't expect them to stay in the lines so they're actually watching for a car to come their way in America we expect you to stay in your lane and when you come over in our lane it's very shocking to us it's offensive and that's we bow stay in your lane stay in your lane and if they just get close to our line right we honk at them and then when we get up beside and we give them the you got close to my line look don't ever do that again this is why Jesus wasn't shocked by sin because he didn't expect sinners to stay in the lines this is why he wasn't condemning he didn't have this holier-than-thou attitude and by the way can I tell you something about that little phrase holier than thou okay Jesus is the only person who's ever lived that legitimately was holier than thou he could have had the holier-than-thou attitude because he was holier than thou than every vowel in the world they didn't have that address oh he wasn't shocked I want you to understand Jesus is not condemning one of my favorite verses in the Bible is the verse right after the most famous verse in the Bible John 3:16 for God so loved the world starts with 4 God okay John 3:17 starts with 4 God also it says it this way for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved okay can you just take some theology here God did not God did not God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world matter of fact if you read verse 18 after that it says we were already condemned he says we were condemned already we were born condemned Romans 8 says it this way there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus have you ever seen the they used to have little shirts and it was a little saying what part of no do you not understand that's the way I feel was believers what part of no do you not understand there is no condemnation here's the reason we don't understand it because we use knowing the wrong way today we exaggerate a lot when when we were on family vacation one time I have three children Josh James and Elaine and James has always been the saver in the family he's always saved money I'm told my from the time he was young I told all of the kids when you get birthday money whatever you put in the bank I'll match it so if you have fifty dollars from grandpa for birthday you put 25 in the bank I'll put 25 in you still have 25 to spare okay um James is the only one that got that the lanes on the front row Josslyn Lane had a difficult time grasping that concept James got it he had thousands of dollars in the bank as a child he almost broke me because I had to match everything he put in the bank but here here's the we're on family vacation one time he's 16 years old and he's in the backseat Josh James Elena backseat and he's looking through his wallet and he just just all of a sudden just there's this big sigh like that he said I have no money and of course we're all shocked because we know he's loaded and we said well what do you mean you have no money and then Josh sitting beside him said I see money in your wallet and he closed up and I said hey yeah how much do you have in your wallet right now they said I don't want to talk about it I said come on you said you have no money how much money do you have in your wallet he's 16 years old he said $600 I said you have $600 in your wallet right now and then Josh said he has money in his car too I said how much money you have your car I don't talk about it that's how much waited you on your car finally said not mud three or four hundred maybe seven and then Elaine says he has money in his room too well by the time we got it had luck you know not including the money had in the bank which was thousands you know yeah just hundreds of dollars and I said to him what do you mean you have no money see he said this okay do we just say this when the Bible says there is no condemnation uh it doesn't mean no like james means no when he says he has no money or like a woman when she says i have nothing to wear okay how could jesus say there's no condemnation i was reading through I like to read through the Bible and different versions only if you ever done this but it's a blast just something different I was reading through the Bible one one year in a paraphrase not a translation but a paraphrase and I was just doing it for fun and see different something different and I got to this verse in Romans I know it very well but I got this verse and it just said it differently in this paraphrase it said God has declared us not guilty and I remember thinking lord thank you that you've declared me not guilty I mean this was my thought though but you and I know the truth I mean I am guilty I'm guilty but I thank you that you have declared me not guilty it's like I had offended him he said to me are you saying that when I say you're not guilty that I'm lying is that what you're saying and then he said to me son I could not declare you not guilty if you are guilty because that'd be a lie I couldn't say that I'm saying they're thinking well then god I know I'm guilty so how do you declare me not guilty and then he's just like this he said to me because I declared my son guilty I took all of your sin Robert and put it on my son and I said he's guilty and he was condemned and executed for your sin that's why I can declare you not guilty because I took your sin and removed it as far as the East is from the West so I I just want you to hear this this is what this woman found out that day Jesus said there's no one condemned you she said no one he said neither do i I want you to hear that in your spirit Jesus does not continue he isn't condemning alright here's the second thing what you see about this passage Jesus isn't compromising it isn't compromising I mean this is just amazing to me he says I don't neither do i condemn you and then the next verse the next statement is go and sin no more I love this neither do i condemn you go and sin no more okay he wasn't condemning but he wasn't compromising do you realize that we have the tendency to go one way or the other today we don't want to be condemning so here's what we do actually I think we compromise and we call it being relevant well pastor you don't understand that's just our generation we just we just that was your generation that had those morals and those beliefs and those ethics but but we we have to be tolerant of people we can't act that way we have to be relevant to our culture listen you want to hear the most relevant person who ever lived his name is Jesus show you two scriptures this is just shocked me Matthew 11 verse 19 Matthew 11 19 says the Son of man came eating and drinking and they say look a glutton and a wine-bibber a friend of tax collectors and senator sorry so he's called a friend of sinners I want you to notice that a friend of sinners then Hebrews 7:26 says for such a high priest was fitting for us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners okay notice the two phrases a friend of sinners he's not condemning separate from sinners he's not compromising do you understand that if you compromise you have no platform with which to witness when you need to witness and sinners loved hanging out with Jesus you know we talked about that Jesus hung out with sinners it's really not the best way to say it actually sinners hung out with him and they love being around you know why they love being around him because he wasn't condemning but he also wasn't compromising he didn't compromise a scripture that many pastors will not read today unfortunately and I don't understand why Malachi 2 verse 16 look at the scripture Malachi 2:16 says for the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce for in other word for is a synonym for because because it covers one's garments with violence now let me explain to you something about that verse it does not say God hates divorce people it does not say that and that's why I think pastors shy away from the verse because we live in a society where unfortunately about half of our generation have experienced divorce but doesn't say that doesn't say he hates divorce people says he hates divorce because it hurts people that's what he's saying it covers your garment with violence if there's violence in that situation it is a violent horrible situation that affects you affects your friends affects your family affects your children so the reason that he hates divorce please don't ever forget this he's because he loves people he'll a it would have been the same if this verse had said God hates car wrecks doesn't say he hates people who've been in car wrecks that says he hates car wrecks why does he hate car wrecks because car wrecks hurt people that's why so I'm telling you that God is it against you that's what I'm trying to tell you he is not against you he's for you and when you make a mistake whether you trip and fall or whether you walk into it maybe like this woman did willingly he still loves you but he's not going to compromise he will not pull back from the conviction that sin hurts people I remember having a conversation with my son one time when he was younger Josh my oldest son and we were having a very serious conversation conversation and I said to him you know my greatest concern is my greatest concern is that you won't believe me when I tell you that sin is horrible because I lived a very sinful life before I came to Christ I don't want you to ever get curious about sin I want you to believe me when I say that life was horrible I don't want you to feel like yeah it might not be as bad as that said I want you to understand that it's horrible I am I think that we can be we cannot be condemning and we cannot be compromising all in the same time because Jesus did Kevin Grove who's one of our elders Kevin Grove and I led a men's group for a while and Kevin brought this guy from work and the first night he was there he got all pumped up after the whole group was believers except we had one unbeliever we've been praying for him an unbeliever but I'm not sure we're gonna know what to do when we got one but we were praying for one so kevin invites this guy comes from work and we're talking and he got real excited during the lesson i was teaching a lesson and he said this is great he's also said this is great he said you know what we ought to do he was thinking you know he's a part of the group now he said you don't we all do he said we ought to study all the religions and take what's best from all of them okay now listen what I said I said that's a good idea just like that I said that's a good idea because for a lost person is a good idea it's not a good idea of one of you say something like that that's a good idea for him I said but um religion is based on the Bible but the way a religion becomes a religion is man comes along and his opinions to it so if we simply study religions will be studying man's opinions about the Bible so instead of studying religion in this group we're just going to study the Bible and the guy said that's a good idea okay here's the point I wasn't condemning I didn't say Tim that's stupid I didn't condemn him but I didn't compromise either so Jesus isn't condemning he isn't compromising here's number three Jesus is compassionate he's compassionate a matthew 9:36 says when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion for them do you understand when this woman is brought in front of him caught in adultery do you realize the only emotion Jesus felt was compassion to an angry at her he just felt love for he was moved with compassion that's why he did what he did even though they're trying to trick him so that they could crucify him he's moved with compassion and he won this woman with his compassion she was caught it's this now I want one just want to zero in on this word for a moment she was caught in adultery here's the reason I want to say this because I want you to understand if you're in sin right now if you're doing something you know you shouldn't be doing um I heard this pastor say one time that it's not true repentance if you get caught that if you come forward and confess it before you get caught then that's true repentance but a person who gets caught can't truly repent and I remember thinking to myself that's that's not true because I can go through the Bible and name people who got caught who repented and I can I can go starting at Genesis and I can go through nearly every book of the Bible and name people who got caught but still repented and I as a pastor I know people who've gotten caught that have truly repented and I know people that came forward and confess before they got caught and then went right back into what they were doing and they didn't really repent the point is not whether you get caught or not it's whether you change your mind about what you're doing that's the point this woman got caught in adultery but I personally believe her life was never the same she was never the same because she met Jesus there was this compassion in him that only Jesus can give you know we have a lot of professional athletes here in the church and one of our NFL players started the Bible study on his team and other athletes were coming to the Bible study and so they're coming and he's ministering to him and one of the athletes in the Bible study said guys I'm I think I'm really in trouble in the area they said well what do you mean he said well years ago I committed adultery and I've never told my wife and I know at some point I need to talk to her about it so they prayed for him that he would talk to her and that it'd be the right way and God would prepare her heart and things like that and so a few weeks later he came back and he was just crying this is an NFL player he's crying and they said what what happened he said you'll just never believe what happened he said I shared with my wife last night that years ago I committed adultery and this was her response she said I'm so sorry that you've had to carry this by yourself all these years I'm so sorry that you've had to carry this by yourself all these years only Christ can do that only Jesus can do that and that's why I'm telling you I'm telling you that Jesus is compassionate and I think that he feels the same way I think in the same way here's what he's thinking I'm so sorry that you are trying to carry this all by yourself when I already carried it on the cross you don't have to carry this if you'll just come to me I'll take care of this I'm an evangelist at heart I love to win people to Christ I loved it when people Christ I like I know this is going to this may not come out right but I like befriending sinners because I know I can help them I can change her life someone befriended me I got saved in that motel room you know so I know that so I I am after I you know I got saved I went to school to prepare for the ministry while I'm in school there's this guy that is the class clown the campus clown really always doing stuff you know funny stuff but he was also involved and we're there most of us were there preparing for the ministry and he's there he's living a life of sin you know he did all sorts of things he gets drunk he's immoral I mean just he's the biggest Center on campus everybody knows that and I got this burden for him and so I'm actually talking to the other preacher friends there I'm I'm going to school I'm traveling and preaching youth revivals as well I'm talking to other guys preparing for the ministry and I've got this real burden for this guy I'm gonna I'm gonna try to reach out to him and I'm asking them for prayer you know what they said to me deliver it here's what they said he's not worth it he's not worth it I thought what do you mean he's not worth it he's worth the blood of Jesus someone reached out to me am i worth it and so I befriended this guy and we just started becoming friends and hanging out together now let me say this if you're not strong in your convictions you don't need to be friends centres right now you need to work on yourself first because Jesus comes and and totally reverses an Old Testament principle in the Old Testament if the clean got around the uncleaned it made the clean unclean Jesus comes and changes that so that if the unclean gets around the clean it makes the unclean clean because he was strong enough so you need to make sure you're strong enough so I heard this guy and then if the change of the semester it comes up where even his roommate moves to another school and he says hey you want to be my roommate and I said yeah well I start talking to him more and more I start gaining his trust and late one night about two o'clock in the morning he starts telling me his story on the day he was born his father walked into the room right after he was born took his wedding ring off and threw it on the bed and said I told you I didn't want any more children walked out of the room and never saw his son and he had never seen his father when he was 12 years old his mother died of cancer the only reason he was at this Baptist College was because he had one sister and she was there so his family was there but he said to me I could never trust a God that did that to me and I said to him God didn't do that to you Satan did and you're actually serving the one who did that to you and about two o'clock in the morning he accepted Christ and today he's a pastor he's a pastor of a church today simply because he met someone who was not condemning wasn't compromising and was compassionate I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and just like we do every weekend then won't you just take a moment and ask the Holy Spirit what are you saying to me through this message what are you saying to me and then in a moment we're going to stand we're going to have one final worship song like we do every weekend at all of our campuses and if you need prayer for any area of your life any area of your life then I want you to come you don't have to be a member of Gateway Church to come for prayer but in any campus whatever campus you're attending or if you're in an overflow room if you need prayer for any area of your life as soon as we stand up I want you to stand up step out and come and let us pray for you Holy Spirit I pray that you will draw every person at every campus that needs any prayer in Jesus name Amen I was 19 years old when I gave my life to the Lord and everything changed I didn't have any desire to go back to that old life I wanted to walk with the Lord and learn more about him and some people helped me to learn the Bible and to learn how to pray and to learn about my new life in Christ and that's what we want to do for you I am so excited that you've given your life to the Lord he's forgiven all of your sins and you're on your way to heaven but we need to learn some things now about the Bible about prayer about some basics of the Christian life so that you can be victorious and live for the Lord like I know you want to so we've designed a class called fresh start and I want to encourage you to sign up for this class because we want to help you grow in your walk with the Lord now I love you and I'm so proud of you

Channel: gatewaychurchtv

Views: 160,375

Rating: 4.7838492 out of 5

Keywords: Gateway Church, gatewaypeople, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert, Face to Face, The Adulteress' Story, Adultery, DFW, Southlake, Texas, New Sermon, Jesus, Forgiveness

Id: OIiN3F9bdhk

Length: 32min 12sec (1932 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2013