Has No One Condemned You?

Thank you worship team for leading us in worship.

We’re really excited about tonight because we are starting our brand new series, 10 questions that our Lord asked while he was on this earth. So for the next several months, we’ll be going through this series on the 10 questions that Jesus asked. And the task that I have in front of me is probably the most difficult out of all the questions that are here on our list. And I’ll explain to you why that is. And the question that I have in front of me is, has no one condemned you?

And if I were to ask you where this question is coming from, I think most of you will be able to tell me where it’s coming from, right? It’s a very familiar story in God’s word, but there’s a problem with this story. It’s probably not in the original writing of the gospel of John. And that’s the problem. And that’s the reason why I said the task that is in front of me is probably the toughest task that we have.

So just very briefly, a little bit of history on biblical manuscripts and how God’s word is in our hands the way it is. The new Testament, as you know, the original copy is not to be found, but we have more copies of the new Testament than any of the ancient document in history. The closest one has like five or six copies. For example, writings that are about Alexander the Great are from 980. Alexander the Great lived in 300 BC. And we have maybe like one or two, about three or four partial copies that tells us about the life of Alexander the Great. And the time between his life and when we have the copy is about 1400 years.

Now many of the ancient stories and ancient figures, we have very little information about them. Now compare that to the new Testament, there are more than 12,000 manuscripts of the new Testament, copies of it that’s available. And they agree to each other about 98 to 99% inaccuracy. Now you might be asking, why is it not 100%? As you know, these manuscripts are being copied by different scribes. So in some manuscripts, you have a different way in which certain things are phrased. There’s no difference in content between the manuscripts, but the way they are phrased is sometimes different between different manuscripts. And when compared to someone like Alexander the Great, where we have a manuscript that is dating to after 1400 years of his life, the oldest manuscript that we have in existence today comes to within just 30 to 40 years of the life of our Lord. So that’s remarkable because the closer it is to the life of something happening, you know how remarkably accurate it is. And you can take this 12,000 manuscripts and you can compare them to each other to show the authenticity of the Bible.

Now here’s a problem with the passage that we’ll be looking at today, which is John 7:53-8:11. In fact, depending upon what version of God’s Word you’re using, in many of your Bibles, these verses might be absent. In fact, in my Bible, there is a note, and in some online versions, this entire passage of Scripture is in italics. It’s not even in the regular font to show that the way different people feel about it.

Here’s a problem. Out of the 12,000 manuscripts that we have, only 900 of them contain this passage. And the oldest manuscripts that we have in existence of the Gospel of John does not contain this passage from John 7:53-8:11. And when you look at it and you read it in the original Greek language, it does not read like John’s writing. Somebody else wrote John 7:53-8:11.

Now it’s actually 100% agreed that John did not write this portion. In fact, if you carefully read through John 7:37-51, there the whole focus of John is on the water pouring ceremony that is part of the Feast of Tabernacle. Then you go to John chapter 8 verse 12, and what you say there is a second thing that is done, which is a lighting ceremony of the Feast of Tabernacle. So you know that there is not really, this story doesn’t really fit with the sequence of events that John is writing for.

So what do we make of this? I don’t think this is inspired Scripture, I really don’t. But almost every theologian out there will attest to the fact that this is a true story that happened in the life of our Lord. And here’s the reason why we believe that. From it, it completely 100% agree with the way our Lord dealt with sinners and with the Pharisees. And the way He approached it is so much in alignment with the way our Lord functioned on the face of the earth. But I don’t believe that it was intended by the Holy Spirit for this event in the life of our Lord to be found in the Scriptures. Someone else later on probably added this story into the writing of John because it was a well-known story in the New Testament church. We don’t know who did it, someone probably maybe in the contemporary to John or much later than that wrote this portion onto it.

But what we are going to do, knowing that this is a true story and it really did happen, we are learning it and we’re also trying to find out what we can learn from it about the way the Lord deals with us and the mindset of our Lord. So turn your Bibles and we see in John 7:53 that each one of them went to his own home.

And then John chapter 8 verse 1 tells us, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. There is a little bit of an interesting detail here even in John chapter 8 verse 1. When you study the life of our Lord, He never spent entire night on the Mount of Olives until the Passion Week. In this account it makes it sound like our Lord spent the entire night on Mount of Olives. So this really happened during the Passion Week or it somehow happened sometime earlier in the life of our Lord. Whatever the case might be, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

Verse 2, at dawn He appeared again in the temple courts where all the people gathered around Him and He sat down to teach them. So this is something John chapter 8 verse 2, if you go to the next slide, you see the way in which our Lord is teaching. This is something that our Lord did all the time. All the people are coming around Him because by this time in the life of our Lord, He was well regarded as a teacher and the people really wanted to hear Him teach and they’re all gathering together.

But look at verse 3 and 4, now the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in the act of adultery and after placing her in the center of the courtyard, they said to Him, teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of committing adultery. I love a little bit of details in God’s Word because it kind of shows to us of how closely, carefully God’s Word is crafted. Do you know that this is the only portion in the entire Gospel of John where He lists scribes and Pharisees together. In no other portion of the Gospel of John, He lists both of these people. That also tells us John didn’t write this.

Now scribes and Pharisees, who are scribes and Pharisees? Pharisees as you know, probably numbered just a few, but they were the ruling class. They were in control of the temple and along with the Sadducees and they were the people that were the kind of religious leaders of that time. Scribes on the other hand are basically in today’s world would be like the lawyers of the Jewish community. They copied Scriptures and they interpreted the law and they were the experts on the law. And so these two people are coming together. These two people who are supposed to not only interpret the law, but also understand what the law is trying to teach and be people who are faithfully administering what the law is saying, had become so corrupt in the life of our Lord that they were using the law for their own benefit.

And they come together and the Bible says, they find a woman who is committed, who was caught in the act of adultery. The word caught that is over there literally means to apprehend someone by force, to snatch someone away. So another way of thinking is that they literally are kidnapping a woman who is committed in the act of adultery. And this very important detail here also in God’s word, it says, this woman has been caught in the very act of committing adultery. So without going into much graphic detail, they caught her red-handed basically. And as you know very well, and this detail is very, very important in Scripture, it takes two people to commit adultery, not one person.

Now if you go back to verse five and six, they quote Scripture. They quote from Deuteronomy, they quote from Leviticus and they say, in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say? Here’s a problem here with what they’re asking. First of all, in Moses’ law, in Deuteronomy and Leviticus it says, if a man and a woman is caught in the act of committing adultery, both of them are supposed to be stoned to death. Now there’s one person that is missing from the whole picture, the man who is involved in committing adultery.

So there, initially itself, we know very well that these people are not interested in what, doing what Moses asked them to do. And later on, the Holy Spirit, I mean, God’s Word reveals to us what they were trying to do. First of all, the man is missing. Secondly, women or men who are caught in adultery like this are supposed to be tried in a court of law, a Jewish law, a court, privately, and they’re supposed to be sentenced to death if the witnesses came forward and they’re able to collaborate what they have found and be two or three witnesses, you can commit someone to kill them. But the Jewish people have a problem. The Romans do not allow for any kind of a death sentence like this. According to Roman law, adultery is not punishable by death. So the Jewish law says you can kill someone if they commit adultery, but the Roman law says you cannot do that.

So they come to the Lord and the reason why they’re bringing him to the Lord, again, is not because they want to do what Moses asked them to do. They were saying this to test him so they might have grounds for accusing him, but Jesus stooped down and with a finger wrote on the ground. They’re trying to put Jesus between a rock and a hard place. If he says to them and says, you should not throw stones at this woman, they can accuse him of breaking the law of Moses. If on the other hand, he says, this woman should be punishable by death, he allows that woman to be stoned to death, then he’ll be breaking the Roman law. So they’re trying to put Jesus in a very, very difficult position, either find him to be guilty in breaking the Jewish law or find him to be guilty in breaking the Roman law.

So look what our Lord did. He stooped down and he started with his finger writing on the ground. Now there’s a lot of people who have written a lot of things as to what he was writing on the ground. You know what the answer to that question is? We have absolutely no idea, but I can tell you the only other place where God used his finger to write something. You know where that is? That is in the book of Exodus when God used his own finger to write the commandments that God was giving on the tablets of stone, the Bible says. So maybe a good guess of what the Lord was writing was, maybe he was writing down the 10 commandments on the ground with his finger, the same finger that wrote them thousands of years ago. So if you want to make a guess on what he was writing, that would be a logical guess because that’s the only other place in God’s Word where God wrote something with his finger.

And he’s keeping on writing and they’re standing around trying to get an answer. He’s not saying anything at all. Look at the next verse, verse 7 and 8. When they persisted in asking him, they kept on asking him, what do you want us to do? In all of this commotion that is going on, I don’t want you to forget the woman at the center of all this. We don’t know how many people were there. It’s probably 10s, 20, 30, 40 men. They have caught this woman who is now embarrassed, feeling all kinds of guilt and shame. And now she’s even afraid for her own life. And she’s now in the center of this men that are standing around and the Lord is sitting down and he is stooped on the ground, he’s writing on the ground and all of these men are asking a verdict on what should be done to this woman. I want you to picture the fear, the anguish, the guilt, the shame that is going through the mind of this woman. She’s guilty, but obviously all this emotion that she’s going through makes us really feel pity for her.

And then he says to them, and look at the beauty and the greatness of the wisdom of our Lord. He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. What is he doing here? He brings it back to their own life. He takes the focus away from the woman in the center and he wants to draw their attention back to their own life. And then he does something else. He starts again writing on the ground. He’s giving them time to think about this.

Do you know what is probably the most frequently quoted Scripture by unbelievers are from the Bible? Let who is without sin cast the first stone. You hear that quite a bit. You know what other words is? Do not judge so that you are not judged. The moment you point out something that is wrong with the world or something is wrong with sin, immediately they say, what, do not judge so that you should not be judged. Probably one of the most misquoted and misapplied and misinterpreted Scripture in all Scripture. And the reason for that is because they’re not really understanding the principle or the reason why behind our Lord saying that.

Does the Bible really prohibit us from judging? And even if the Bible prohibited us from judging, can you really live your life without judging? Is there anybody in here that has never judged anyone in your life? In fact, I dare you to show me one person on the face of the earth that has never done any kind of judging. You know what the Bible says? Test everything. Now, how do you test everything? By judging. Hold on to that which is good. You shall know them by their fruits. How do you know the fruits? By looking at somebody and judging them. So the Bible is not really against what? Judging.

And do you know that the Bible says, one day we will sit on the throne along with our Lord and we will judge the world. So the Bible is not what? Against judging. But what is the Bible against?

Look at Matthew chapter 7 verse 3 and 5. We talked about this quite a bit in different circumstances. Remember telling them, do not judge so that you will not be judged. The Lord made it very clear what He was talking about. He says that this, why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye? Now how small is a speck of sawdust? Very very small. In fact, it is so small that probably only the person who has it in the eye will even realize that it is in the eye. You know when I read something like that, I’m wondering how do you even see the speck of sawdust in someone’s eye? You have to look really really close. You have to hold their face really close to your face, open up their eyes and look in there to see the speck of sawdust.

But here’s a problem with the person who is looking. What is it? When you have a plank in your own eye. Now imagine this, I mean our Lord is kind of funny, right? I mean it’s really funny to think about this. You have this huge plank that is coming out of your eye and you’re going and looking. If you’re not careful, you will poke the other person’s eye with the plank that is in your own eye. Because that is how close you have to get to what? To see the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye.

So you see, there’s a problem here. The plank is so much bigger than the speck of sawdust. But you are only looking for the speck of sawdust. How can you say to your brother, let me take this speck out of your eye? And all the time there’s a plank in your own eye. Then the Lord continues, you hypocrite. First take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Jesus is saying, even if you wanted to take the speck out, with the plank in your eye, you are in no position or ability to remove the speck of sawdust anyway. I mean, I don’t want somebody with a huge plank coming out of the eye, trying to take a speck out of my own eye. Because they’re going to come and what? Do exactly what I said before. You better take the plank out so you can now see clearly. And Jesus is not saying, don’t take the speck out. But first what? Take the plank out of your own eye.

What is the Lord saying here? It is not that we should not judge. In fact, church discipline and disciplining people within the walls of church all has to do with judging. But if I am approaching that from the wrong perspective, to put my brother or my sister down rather than to redeem them to greater righteousness, then I’m not doing what my Lord wants me to do.

Secondly, the first person I should be judging is not the person I should be looking at. It’s me myself I should be judging. That is exactly what the Lord asked them to do. Before you judge this woman that is at the center, that you’re wanting to kill by throwing stones at her, judge your own life. If any one of you do not have sin in your life, let you be the first to throw stones at her. So the Lord is not prohibiting judgment, but the Lord is asking you to do what? Judge yourself first before you start judging others, looking into someone else’s life, trying to correct them.

What kind of a perspective, what kind of a position that we are coming from? Lot of Christians come from a place of self-righteousness. Lot of Christians come from a place where they feel like they are somehow better than others. And that is the reason why the world despises the judgment that we are able to pronounce. But if it comes from a place of humility, if it comes from a place of contriteness, if it comes from a place of honesty, if it comes from a place of integrity, if it comes from a place where you are trying to seek the highest good of the person that you’re approaching and the way you come up against them, then it is something that is even desirable in the sight of God.

God wants us to be people who look at others’ life and hold each other accountable. But the first person that we have to hold accountable is what? Ourselves. I have no right to go and correct someone else when there’s greater sins in my life that needs to be corrected. That’s exactly what the Lord says.

And look what happened. When they heard this, they began leaving one by one, beginning with the older ones and he was left alone. They started dropping their stones one by one and they started walking away. The Bible also tells us it started with the older ones. Why the older ones? Very interesting. It started with the older ones because according to Jewish tradition, the first person that is supposed to cast the stone in a sentence like this is the oldest person in the group. And he is the one that is first of all convicted of his own sins that he drops the stone. Then he goes to the next person, then he goes to the next person. Before you know it, every single one of them is convicted of the sins of their own life and they leave him alone. And then the woman where she was in the center of the courtyard.

Now I want you to picture this now. All these men one by one is leaving. All that is left in the courtyard is now the Lord and her. But here’s the beauty of that picture. If there’s anyone in that entire group who could take a stone and throw at her, it is the one that is stooping on the ground. Because remember what he said before. If any one of you do not have a sin in your life, let him be the first one to cast a stone. Guess who fit that qualification? In fact the only one who fits that qualification is our Lord. In fact in the entire history of the universe, the only one who can always throw stones at anybody at any time is our Lord. Because he was always perfect. He is still perfect. Forever as we sang last week, he is forever holy. That is what who he is. His essence of who he is is that he is holy.

But look what he does. And straightening up, Jesus said to her, woman where are they? Did no one condemn you? She said, no one Lord. I love the way she answered. I have no idea if this woman knew who Jesus was before this encounter. But you can already see how this encounter is dramatically changing her life. No one Lord, Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Go from now on. Do not sin any longer.

A lot of beautiful things that we can learn from this passage of God’s word. First of all, he is the only one who is able to clearly say, I do not condemn you. In fact when you come to Roman chapter 8 verse 1, exactly what God says to us as well. Therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. See there is no one in the world who can judge us rightfully. Because everyone is guilty of one thing or the other. But there is one who can judge us rightfully, who can kill us, who can condemn us to eternity without him, because we are all sinners, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But the beauty of the scripture, I do not condemn you, is repeated again in Romans as well as Paul tells us about justification by faith. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

But then he says something else to us. Go from now on and do not sin anymore. Jesus is not excusing the sin of adultery. Jesus is not saying to the woman, what you did was okay. God still loves you. No, that’s not what he’s saying. He hates sin. He says what, do not sin anymore, because sin is so hostile to the nature of God. In fact, there is one thing in the universe that just makes God just revolt to his core self is sin. Sin is opposite to everything that God stands for. He never likes it. He never tolerates it. He hates it. But at the same time, he still has mercy and compassion upon the sinner. And the greater desire for his life is that those who have been forgiven are now living their lives, not committing sinful acts that lead to death.

See God’s desire, and I love what Jesus says here. If you go on and he says to her, and do not sin anymore, I will forgive you. That’s not what he said. At first he told her, I do not condemn you. But then he said to her, do not sin anymore. Exactly what God says to every person who comes to him. See when a sinner walks up to him, the first thing that Jesus says to him is not that you should not sin anymore. The first thing that he says to him is what? I forgive you. You are not condemned anymore. But now, having received God’s forgiveness, what are you supposed to do? Do not sin anymore. That’s exactly what God, Jesus is saying to all of us today as well. We have received the unconditional love and the forgiveness of God. But that does not mean a license to sin. But that does not mean that you live your life the way you want to. But the same Lord who forgives you now says to you, do not sin anymore.

Exactly what we find in Romans chapter 6 verse 1 and 2. What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? And then he uses a very strong Greek word. It’s almost like saying, no way, no, don’t even think that. He says, by no means. We are those who have been dead to sin. How can we live in it any longer?

Do you continue sinning so that you receive more of the grace of God? No. In fact, there are a lot of teachings like that in the world today. It doesn’t matter how you live. It does matter. Christians who have been forgiven by the Lord have now called to live their lives pleasing the one who has set them free.

But we come not from a place of condemnation. We start with a place of acceptance and forgiveness. And we come from a place of freedom. Freedom not to sin anymore. Freedom to live according to the Spirit of God that is living inside of us. See our freedom that Christ has given to us is not to live our lives pleasing our flesh. But our freedom is what? Freedom to live according to the Spirit that is now empowering us to greater holiness in our life.

Exactly what it repeats to us in verse 12 and 13 of the same chapter. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. I want you to kind of pay attention to the different words that are used in this verse. Look at this. Sin reign in your mortal body. What does that mean? If you’re not careful, sin can what? Rule over you. Where you have become what? A slave to sin. And sin is controlling you. And then when you do that, you start obeying not just his desires, it’s evil desires. Desires that lead to death. Desires that are not for your own good. Not good for your body, not good for your soul, definitely not good for your spirit. They’re evil in the sight of God.

Do not offer any part of yourself. The word of God cannot be more clear. To sin as an instrument of wickedness. Not only that, but rather here’s what we’re supposed to do. Offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. See, sin equals death. We have been transferred from death to life. So what are we supposed to do? We’re supposed to do the works of life, not the works that lead to death. We are not children of darkness anymore. We are children of light. And he continues on saying, and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. So it’s very clear, isn’t it?

Do you want death or do you want life? Do you want wickedness or do you want righteousness? Do you want sin to reign over your life or do you want the spirit to rule over your life? And these are all questions that every believer has to ask. And having been forgiven by the Lord, our motivation more than ever is to live for him.

Look at Titus chapter 2 verse 11 and 12. The Apostle Paul says the same thing to Titus as well. The grace of God has appeared and that’s what brought us no condemnation and forgiveness. That offers salvation to all people. But what is it teaching us? Is teaching us to live the way we want to? No. It is teaching us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live, what kind of lives? Self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

See, a lot of people think that now that I’m forgiven I can just live my life the way I want to. No. The Bible says just the opposite. The Bible says now that the grace of God has appeared in your life, you are to live self-controlled lives, upright lives, which means honest lives, life of integrity, godly lives in this present age.

Grace motivates us to follow our Savior. You know, the Bible doesn’t say what happened to this woman, but I can make a fair guess that this woman was never the same again. I mean, she came so close to death, didn’t she? She came so close to dying a brutal death on that day. And what she met on that day was unlike anything that she had ever seen before. All the men in her life so far have tried to use her, abuse her, and finally, when it was convenient for them, they were using her as a pawn to kill her to achieve their selfish goals. But here comes a man, the perfect man, to walk on the face of the earth that shows to her true love, true acceptance, true grace, true mercy, what it means really to be loved by God. And I don’t think she will ever be the same again. She can no longer live in that life of sin anymore because she can never forget that encounter that she had with her Savior on that day.

The same thing is true in our lives as well. We were people who were destined to die. The Bible says we were dead in our sins and trespasses until God came and saved us. And when we think about His amazing grace and what He has done for us on the cross, He should motivate us to live our lives no longer for the world, but to the one who died for us and gave His life for us.

As D.A. Carson says so beautifully, the proper response to mercy received on account of past sins is purity in the future. Don’t ever forget this, especially young people. The proper response to mercy that has been received in your life on account of past sins is purity in the future. The greatest gift that you can give to your God is to offer yourself as a sacrifice to Him because of His sacrifice that He did for you on the cross. Purity in the future is what we can give to Him.

What have we learned today? A couple of things I want to leave with you. First of all, judging and condemning with the wrong motivation and without examining ourselves is what is prohibited by our Lord. Anytime somebody quotes a scripture, judge that you’re not judged. Make sure that you understand what our Lord was talking about. It’s all talking about your heart, the proper motivation. Have you judged yourselves? That’s the questions that should be asked. It’s not our Lord is prohibiting us from looking into lives and trying to correct others.

Secondly, grace and mercy does not endorse or promote sin. They are designed to produce gratitude and holiness. Grace and mercy does not mean that sin is okay. In fact, sin is not okay. God judged Himself and made Himself to be sin on the cross so that we can be forgiven. If you ever think that sin is okay, remember the cross. You will change your attitude about sin when you think about God’s attitude towards sin and how He judged sin so fiercely by laying it upon His Son and crushing Him upon the cross, piercing Him, tearing Him into pieces, ultimately killing Him on the cross because Jesus had to pay for our sins. That’s how much God hates sin.

Why did God kill His Son on the cross? Because God hates sin. If you ever have any kind of an attitude towards sin that is mediocre, think about the cross. The cross shows to us not only the love of God, the cross shows to us the depravity of sin and the darkness of sin and the way God looks at sin. So grace and mercy does not endorse, does not promote sin, but they’re designed to produce gratitude and holiness in our life. They’re supposed to bring gratitude, God, thank you. I could never say to myself, thank you that you died for me on the cross and showed me grace and mercy to a wretched sinner just like me. But now that I’m saved, I’m not perfect, but I’m going to do everything in my power with the Spirit of God that you’ve given to me to live a life that is worthy of my calling and the fact that you have made me to be a child of God. If I’m a child of the Heavenly Father, I’m going to try to please my Heavenly Father. I’m going to try to look as closely as I can to the Heavenly Father as humanly possible so that when others look at me, they’re like, wow, He looks just like His Father. I want to know who His Father is. That’s how you spread the Gospel. But your lives, and that’s why Jesus said, I am the light of the world, and then He says, you are the light of the world, because Jesus wants us to be reflecting His own light in this dark and dreary world, exactly what God wants us to do.

You know, oftentimes there’s a question that’s asked, how do we live a Christian life? There are some people that say you just completely forget about everything that happened in the past. Then others that will say, well, if you don’t remember the past, you are doomed to forget what? To repeat the mistakes of the past. So what do we do?

I think you’ve heard me say this before, but I think the Christian life should be lived as if you’re driving. When you drive, you know, there’s something called what? A rear-view mirror. What if you constantly stare at the rear-view mirror? What will happen? You’ll crash, because you’re not looking forward. What if you don’t look at all? You will have complete lost a sense of what is going on around you, and you could make a fatal mistake by not realizing the car right beside you and getting into a lane, or somebody that’s speeding and just about to crash into you, you’re not changing a lane or something. So the Christian life is kind of like driving by properly looking at the rear-view mirror. You don’t fix your eyes in the rear-view mirror looking at the past all the time, but you take a glance once in a while to see what has happened in the past.

The Christian’s life should be just like that. You cannot live your life just obsessed on the mistakes of the past. You have to believe that having asked for forgiveness, your Lord has forgiven you. But you also cannot forget the mistakes of the past, because a remembrance of God’s grace and mercy that He has poured out into your life will make you to be more grateful for what He has done. Just try to make you to be more holy in His presence also will enable you to be gracious in dealing with others. When you face the next person who is caught in the act of adultery, I’m just using an example, will you remember the fact that Jesus has forgiven greater sins in your life as well, and you are able to show grace to them? A person who does not remember that will be quick to judge and very slow to forgive, and that’s not the heart of God.

You always come from a place that realize, I’m not any better than this person. I’m going to offer Him God’s love, God’s grace at the same time being very stern and clear about what is right and what is wrong. See grace and mercy does not excuse sin, but it promotes gratitude and holiness.

I’ll end with this story. It happened in the life of a young woman when she was just 16 years old. She was driving down the road. Her name was Shannon Etheridge, and she was driving. She was a new driver, did not see a woman who was riding her bicycle. Her name was Marjorie. She hit her along a country road, killing her instantly. She was found to be at fault by the authorities, and she was consumed by intense guilt in her life. As a teenager, she tried taking her life three different times. She contemplated suicide several times because of that accident in which she killed this woman.

You know what changed her life? The husband of this woman, Marjorie, his name is Gary, he forgave the 16-year-old and went as far to ask the attorney and the district attorney to drop all charges against the 16-year-old. He shared with this teenager about how his wife was a godly woman who lived in the grace of God and the forgiveness of God. He told her, you cannot let this ruin your life. God wants to strengthen you through this. In fact, I am passing the legacy of my wife’s godliness onto you.

And you know who this woman became? She completely transformed her life. This one act of forgiveness by the husband. Today, Shannon Etheridge is the best-selling author, books you may have heard of, Every Girl’s Battle, Every Woman’s Battle, and her book, Completely His, Loving Jesus Without Limits. All of this was authored by this 16-year-old woman who had lost all hope in the world, but one act of forgiveness by the husband of the woman that she killed in that tragic accident changed her life.

See, forgiveness changes everything. Showing forgiveness changes everything. I want to challenge you that not only live our lives as people who have received the forgiveness of God, but also be willing to dispense that same kindness and forgiveness to others.

I think the one thing in ministry that I had to learn, sometimes a very hard way, is how to be gracious towards people. Because it’s very easy as pastors and people who are in charge of youth ministries and everything to come down really hard upon young people. But then forgetting how we were when we were at that age, right? But ministry for many years, this is some of the hardest lessons I’ve learned, is to be patient with people, is to believe in second chances, is to not ever count any person out, to always think that no man, no woman is far too gone for the grace of God to capture them and to bring them back into the fold of God. And to maybe have a better sense about how much I’ve been forgiven of in my own life when dealing with others. We have this tendency, especially in our culture, maybe in our community, to classify sins as great and less, to look at certain things as being greater sins than others. But remember what we read in the book of James today, if you’ve committed, broken one law, you are a lawbreaker, equal, guilty in the sight of God. So we have to be gracious, we have to be kind, but the most important takeaway of tonight is this, sin is not okay. We have been forgiven. Jesus says to us, you are not condemned, you are forgiven. But his admonition to us tonight and every day is this, now sin no more.

So I pray that we’ll always live in light of God’s forgiveness, God’s grace that will drive us to greater holiness and a pursuit of God’s righteousness even more in our day-to-day life. And I pray that God, by his grace, will enable us to do that.

Let’s stand in the presence of God.