Each month I’m sharing a new chapter of my book.This is for your review. Please let me know what you think,
and if you see any errors in grammar or spelling.
GET UP!
GOD IS NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!
Where Are
Your Accusers?
Recently in a message to Grace Chapel, I use the text of the adulterous woman to illustrate that God has come to save us not condemn us.
We all
can quote, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life”
(John 3:16). Indeed God did send His Son so that those who believe will not
perish but have eternal life. Often missed is the next verse. “For God did not
send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world
might be saved through him” (John 3:17
ESV).
One of
the best illustrations that condemnation is not God’s agenda, at this time, is
the story of the adulterous woman. I preached this message at Grace Chapel in
Dacutan, Antique, Philippines. Sometimes
in delivering a message the Holy Spirit intervenes. This particular message was
to have a greater message for me personally. This intervention by the Holy
Spirit also enhanced the message for those who heard. I pray this message will
encourage you, as well.
God was
speaking to my heart as I delivered this message. He brought to my remembrance
a prayer. As I suddenly remembered the prayer, it was made clear that still to
this day He is answering my prayer. I shared this prayer with you in the
Chapter 1. It was at the end of my rebellion when the pain and grief of my life
were unbearable. This pain and grief drove me to my knees and I cried to the
Lord, “Lord, my sorrow,
guilt and pain are too much to suffer. Can you help me, please? Lord, if only I
can find a little happiness and joy in this life I would be so thankful.” God
brought to my remembrance this part of the prayer, “…if only I can find a
little happiness and joy in this life I would be so thankful.”
Just a week earlier I was talking to
a friend. She was sharing that she had been singing in an angelic tongue. She
said sometimes this happens to her. She continued to tell me that when this
happens she feels close to God and has enormous joy. I don’t speak in tongues
and I have never experienced this kind of Holy Spirit gift. What struck me was
when she said she felt close to God she experienced enormous joy. I have heard
people speak in tongues. When I hear tongues, it causes me to ponder. My
theology on the subject is neutral. My friend talking about singing in tongues
is not the point I want to make. What struck me was she said she felt
incredibly close to God. As I have said earlier that my goal, like Enoch, is to
walk with God. I want to be as close to God as I can become.
Since I’ve been in the Philippines, I
have been exceptionally happy. I am experiencing God almost daily. We arrived
one year ago. I’m retired from secular work. I devote all my time in God’s
service and Kingdom. He is blessing this ministry in marvelous ways, and God’s
hand is truly in this ministry. Daily I thank Him for the remarkable privilege
of serving Him. I walk each day through this ministry with Him. In one year we
have started 5 new churches. Our goal is to start 5 new churches each year. The
Lord’s providence and moving of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds people
are obvious and evident. In the past year I have been the guest speaker at 11
churches. When I came here I had only hopes, dreams, ideas and prayers. God is
putting power and substance and multiplication to my dreams in fantastic ways.
Many churches here are coming to our assistance. We serve and awesome and
powerful God. His providence is not just in the Bible. It is active and potent
today. We are in the harvest. “Thank you Lord” is continuously on my lips.
Overwhelming Joy
I could
stop here and happily say God has answered my prayer, “If only I can find a little
happiness and joy in this life I would be so thankful.” I can’t stop here. God
has answered my prayer in a bigger way. God’s gifts of love and mercy and grace
are beyond our comprehension.
As I write this, the following words
ring in my hear, “They will pour into your lap a good
measure--pressed down, shaken together, and running over,” (Luke 6:38).
This is a partial quote of that verse. Jesus was talking about giving, and how
He measures it back. For me, Jesus is explaining the goodness of God. When He
answers a prayer, it is “pressed down, shaken together, and running
over.” Maybe this is the giving of my heart, my soul, and my life to God to use
in a way that pleases Him.
My
message to Grace Chapel was that no matter what sin we have committed or how
badly we fall, God does not condemn us.
John
8:1-11 tells the story of a woman caught in adultery. She was not only caught, but publicly
humiliated. If the Pharisees had their way she would have been stoned to death
for her sexual misbehavior. It does not say she was a prostitute paid for
sexual favors. It says she was an adulterer. She was having an affair. We are
not told who was married. One of them or both of them were married, but not to
each other. Their sexual relationship was adultery. The penalty is to be stoned
to death.
In my thirteen years of rebellion, I was involved in almost every kind
of sin you can imagine, including adultery. I’m sorry to admit that adultery
was only one of my many categories of sin. So there I stood before the people
of Grace Chapel ready to give this message. The Lord had fully restored me to
the ministry in spite of my sinful past.
I was ready to talk about “Where Are
Your Accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?" (John 8:10), and
Jesus’ response, "Neither do I. Go and sin no more," (John 8:11).
It’s a powerful message! But God was going to make his point hit home in a more
intimate way.
I need to add more background
before I tie it together for you. Since my prayer and subsequent turn to
repentance, I cry easily. I’ve always been macho in attitude, so crying is
unusual for me. I mentioned it before when I talked about my communion
experience when I went back to church for the first time. Again, I told about
it in the Chapter 1. To give you better background, let me quote it. “To my surprise, at the end of the
message the pastor started talking about communion. I wanted to run out the
door, but as he talked of the cross and shedding of the Lord’s blood for me,
all I could do was weep. While glued to my chair and weeping, the emblems came
to me. I shared in the Lord’s sacrifice of dying on the cross for me and for my
rebellion. Never did it mean so much to me as it did in that moment. Since that
day, I cry easily. I went from tough guy to humble guy. To this day I’m still
broken, but I am restored and I walk by His grace only through his mercy. I
went home humbled and grateful. My prayer that night was ‘Lord, You arranged
that for me, thank You. You are an awesome God!’”
That experience broke my heart. Because my heart is still
broken I cry easily. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a
broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise,” (Psalm 51:17). At the beginning, my crying would embarrass me. It still does
a little, but I’m getting better about being embarrassed. It’s been going on
now for more than ten years. I’ve noticed there is a pattern to it. It always
happens when I give my testimony. It also happens when I praise God. It happens when I praise Him through song,
preaching, and prayer. I don’t always cry at these times, but when I connect
with God during these times, I cry. Since I’ve been in the Philippines,
sometimes I cry while preparing for a message or just before I give a message.
I have come to think of these times as the presence of God, or confirmation
that He is with me in the task set before me. This was even more confirmed when
my friend talked about singing in tongues and feeling close to the Lord. I did
not entirely understand this until just before I was to give the message of
“Where Are Your Accusers!”
As I was about to go to the pulpit,
it hit me. These tears are tears of joy. My mind raced as I said yes! This
feels just like when you are so happy that you become overwhelmed with a lump
in your throat and hold tears back. Not only was God confirming He was with me,
but He was doing it by filling me with overwhelming joy!
I feel it just now. The presence of
God through the Holy Spirit fills me with inexplicable joy. There have been
occasions when my tears pour out, and I can’t stop them. Fortunately this only
occurs in my alone time with God. One time I could not stop crying. I asked God
to please stop, I can’t take it anymore. A long time passed with no crying
episodes. I felt terribly lonely. I’ve never asked Him to stop again. I just go
with it. If it kills me, I’ll go to heaven happily crying, overwhelmed with
joy. What a way to go! I have been known to ask God out loud and from the
pulpit, “please God let me continue to speak.” Sometimes I think God has fun
with me.
Well, there is even more to tell. This goes even deeper. In
my PowerPoint of this message, I have a picture of the adulterous woman at
Jesus feet reaching upward. As I’m delivering the message, I identify in my
mind with the woman. I thought, this is me in the picture. I deserved death. I
was even a greater sinner than she was. It is only through Jesus that my
accusers have fallen away. Jesus reached down and pulled me up. He said to me
neither do I accuse you, go and sin no more.
At this point in my message, the tears came again. The tears
where shooting out of my eyes. The lump in my throat was chocking my words. I
finally gained composure and continued. Later in the message I used the example
of the woman who washed Jesus feet with her tears. Luke says she was an
“immoral woman,” (Luke 7:37 NLT), “Then she knelt behind Him at His
feet, weeping. Her tears fell on His feet, and she wiped them off with her
hair. Then she kept kissing His feet and putting perfume on them,” (Luke 7:38
NLT). Jesus continues to explain her action of washing His feet with her tears.
"I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has
shown Me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little
love," (Luke 7:47 NLT). As I told of the woman kneeing down with tears, my
tears began again. I imagined myself, kneeing at the feet of my Lord. My tears
were of thankfulness because He had forgiven me for so much.
This was the deeper realization
of what my tears of joy where about. Like the woman, my sins were many. I have
been forgiven a great deal, more than most people I would estimate. Not only
has God forgiven me, He has restored me. Not only has He restored me, He has
blessed my restoration. My tears are tears of the joy because of forgiveness
and restoration. These are the tears of gratefulness. They are the tears of
praise.
When I feel the undeserved
presence of God in my life, these are tears of a broken heart realizing that
God could forgive and restore someone like me. God’s amazing grace of forgiveness
and restoration overwhelm me, and I express them with tears of immense joy!
Lord Jesus may my tears touch your feet!
Where Are Your Accusers?
Also,
significant in this story of the adulterous woman are the Scribes and
Pharisees. The story begins with Jesus coming into the Temple. The Temple was
to be God’s house of prayer. That’s what Jesus called it when He became angry
with the Scribes and Pharisees. They had turned the Temple into a den of
thieves. The Temple was to be where His people could come to worship. The
Temple was to be a place they could offer sacrifices and prayers in the
presence of God. Isn’t this a picture of our God’s Church today?
The
Church today is to be a place where God’s people can worship with the
sacrifices of a contrite heart, and offer up prayers in the presence of our
Lord and Savior. “For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give
it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise,” (Psalms
51:16-17).
These Scribes and Pharisees were the keepers of the Law and the
Prophets. This is our Old Testament today. Its purpose was to prepare God’s
people for the coming Messiah that would save the world. This salvation was to
come by way of His personal sacrifice of Himself. The Messiah was not coming to
condemn the world but save it through mercy. "For God did not send the Son
into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through
Him,” (John 3:17). John the Baptist was Jesus’ appropriate herald. John’s
message was to prepare the hearts God’s people with the baptism of repentance.
Their hearts were to be made ready for salvation not judgment. Salvation comes
from forgiveness not condemnation.
Ironically, the Scribes and Pharisees met weekly on the Sabbath. In
this weekly meeting they read from the scriptures. They read the scriptures
that described their Messiah and His coming with salvation not judgment. John
records in the story of the adulterous woman, that Jesus came to the Temple. The
Temple was to be a house of prayers and sacrifices and contrite hearts. He came
to the Temple as their Savior and not their Judge. Here they threw the
adulterous woman to Him not to be saved, but to be judged. But, she fell condemned
at the feet of her Savior, not her Judge.
The religious leaders were God’s appointed shepherds. God’s shepherds
were to lead His people to their Messiah. Their Messiah who was coming to
sacrifices Himself, so His people could be forgiven and restored to a right
relationship with their Creator. But the
religious leaders, the shepherds, had become self important. God’s ordained
Temple and house of prayer and sacrifice had become a man ordained Temple. The
law had become a system of controlling people in order to benefit its leaders.
The shepherds had become wolves feeding the appetites of their own bellies. The
shepherds were leading the flock to a man-made man sustaining religion. Jesus
said they had become “blind guides” (Matthew 15:14). With prideful hearts and
evil judgmental control, they missed not only their opportunity to shepherd
God’s people, but they also missed their own Messiah. They burned with a desire
to kill Jesus even though they could find no fault with Him. They were afraid
he would take their control from them. Paul describes them well.
"Brothers—you sons of Abraham, and also you God-fearing Gentiles—this
message of salvation has been sent to us! The people in Jerusalem and their
leaders did not recognize Jesus as the One the prophets had spoken about.
Instead, they condemned Him, and in doing this they fulfilled the prophets'
words that are read every Sabbath. They found no legal reason to execute Him,
but they asked Pilate to have Him killed anyway,” (Acts 13:26-28 NLT).
We need
to guard that our churches and denominations do not become like the Scribes and
Pharisees. Our churches need to be houses of forgiveness offered by our Lord
and Savior, not our Judge.
Those who have fallen, even church leaders, need be able to fall at the
feet of their Savior, not the feet of judgmental Pharisees and shepherds. These
Pharisees, shepherds, cared nothing for the woman they threw at Jesus feet.
They had no interest in her well being. They cared not to lead her to
repentance and salvation. They had but one purpose. They wanted to kill Jesus.
They wanted people to continue following them, not Jesus. If sacrificing the
woman would accomplish their goal then so be it.
So they caught this woman in the act of adultery. They sought to
condemn her to death so they might trip up the Messiah and condemn Him to death
as well. They grabbed the woman and filled their hands with stones. They threw
her at His feet and declared, “The law of Moses says to stone her. What do You
say?” (John 8:5 NLT). But the mercies of God are greater than the evils of men.
The Savior, her Savior was about to act. He would disarm the accusers and
forgive and restore her.
Curiously, he bends down and writes on the ground. “They were trying
to trap Him into saying something they could use against Him, but Jesus stooped
down and wrote in the dust with His finger,” (John 8:6 NLT). No one knows why
He bent down or what He wrote. None the less, the Scribes and Pharisees pressed
Him. “They kept demanding an answer,” (John 8:7a NLT). They were pressing God
Himself in the flesh. Accusing and condemning the woman they were accusing and
condemning themselves. If Jesus had come to judge the world, He would have thrown
not only the woman but the Scribes and Pharisees into hell. The Savior and now
the woman’s Advocate responds, “So He stood up again and said, "All right,
but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” (John 8:7b NLT).
They had set out to trap and condemn Him, but now they stood trapped and
condemned by their own action. If they threw a stone, their own false judgment
would have condemned them to stoning, as well. “When the accusers heard this,
they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was
left in the middle of the crowd with the woman,” (John 8:9 NLT).
The Savior and Advocate had defeated the accusers. Now the true
Shepherd acts with care to the adulterous woman. In His freeing her from the
accusers and condemners, He would now saves her and restores her. Jesus asked
her. "Where are your accusers?” Didn't even one of them condemn you?”
(John 8:10b NLT). She was guilty of adultery and the appropriate penalty was
death by stoning. But there she stood in front of God, Himself, freed and about
to be restored. “And Jesus said, "Neither do I. Go and sin no more,” (John
8:11b). There was no jail in place of the stoning. There was no lesser
sentencing. There was no probation. Jesus just simply says “go and sin no
more.”
I am sure of this, that not only was the woman astonished, but the
crowd was astonished. The religious leaders were astonished. The angels were
astonished. Heaven rejoiced at the mercy of God, and the woman rejoiced at the
mercy of her Savior and God, the Lord Jesus.
Who could refuse to love a God like this? Whose heart could not be
melted at such fantastic mercy? Who could not rejoice and be glad at seeing
this woman live and her life restored? Who could not drop to their knees with
worship at the kindness of God to their own life? Who could not repent and
serve such an awesome God? Who could keep silent at such awe-inspiring Good
News?
The Bible does not tie this woman, the adulterous woman, and the woman
who washed the feet of Jesus, with her tears because she had been forgiven so
much together. If they are not the same woman, I’m sure the adulterous woman,
if given the opportunity, would have indeed worship and cried at the feet of
her Redeemer. I certainly worship and cry my tears at the feet of my Redeemer.
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing
to You, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer” (Psalms 19:14 NLT).
