Amen. Amen. If you're thankful that his mercy is greater than your sin, can you say amen this morning? You guys can have a seat here today. And man, what a tremendous start to our service here today.
And I'm so grateful that we are all sinners, right? And his grace is greater than any of your sin. And his grace outweighs your sin. And you cannot sin enough that will outrun the grace of God. And I'm thankful for that here today.
And so I don't know what you came in here carrying or the burdens that you bear today or the different things that maybe you've done and you feel like there is no way that God can love you. Let me tell you this, his grace is still greater than anything you've ever done before. And that is true of every person in this place. And that is all of our testimonies here today.
Well, listen, it is good to see you at Union Grove today. And we are so glad that you have chosen to worship with us. Like Pastor Bailey said, if you're a guest, thank you for being here. And we recognize you could have been in a lot of places, and you're here today, and we appreciate that. And we would love the opportunity to connect with you before you leave and just to meet you and just get to know you a little bit better.
And so, make sure you fill out one of those cards here today. And I do want to say, many of you have been attending for some length of time and maybe never taken that step toward membership. He referenced Starting Point that's coming up next Sunday. And we do this about once every two months. And it's just specifically for families that have been attending and interested in learning more about our church, maybe possibly how to plug into the life of our church through a Bible fellowship class or a group, or maybe serve with us, membership, things like that.
This would be a great opportunity for you to do that.
So, if you have been attending, And you're kind of considering taking that step, we would love to invite you to be a part of that. It's one of my favorite things that we do at Union Grove because we get to get to know new people and we get to help new people connect into community into our church, which is so important because, like Pastor Bailey reminded us, church is not just a place that we attend, it's a family that we belong to and that we serve with and that we do life with. And that's why that is. And so we're excited about that here today. But I'm so excited that you are here.
We are continuing. A series entitled Sinners Like Us, Sinners Like Us. This has been kind of our summer series, and I've enjoyed kind of working through this together, and it's been just a fun time.
So, if you have your Bible, I want to invite you today to join me in John chapter number eight. We are back in the New Testament today, John chapter number eight this morning. And we are, like I said, continuing this series. This series is really all about, it's almost like a Bible character type of series. And we are slowly working through many different, what I would call very dysfunctional individuals that God chose to not only save, but to use, which is amazing because that gives every one of us hope, right?
And so, because we're all a little bit dysfunctional, we all have flaws, we all have sins, we all have weaknesses. Weaknesses, we all have struggles. And this series, I hope, has resonated with you just a little bit, just to remind you that the ones that God used and did extraordinary things through in his word were sinners, just like you, and sinners just like myself. And so we've looked so far at Abraham, and remember, he lied and doubted and different things. We looked at Moses, who had an anger issue.
We looked at Rahab, who was a prostitute. We looked at David, who was an adulterer as well as a murderer. We looked at Samson, who really just struggled with pride and with women and different things like that. And then we looked at Jonah, who doubted God's plan for his life and who ran from God when God told him or commanded him to go and tell the Ninevites about him and his justice. That's coming.
And then last week we moved into the New Testament and we looked at the woman at the well and the struggles that she had. She was an outcast of society because of her sin. And today we are going to look. At another sinner like us, and we are going to look from John chapter number eight at the adulterous woman, the adulterous woman here in John chapter eight. Very familiar passage of scripture.
Many of you, if you've been in church for any length of time, you're going to recognize this right as we get going. You might recognize it just by the title, and it doesn't have a name. Just like last week, the woman at the well might not have a name, but aren't you thankful that God still knows them and He sees them? And that's what we learn from this today.
So we're going to go ahead and dive in. John chapter number eight here today. The verses will be up on the screen if you forgot your Bible today, just to help you stay engaged as best we can today. But it says this: Jesus went into the mount. of olives, and uh and early in the morning he came again.
Into the temple, and all the people came unto him, and he sat down and he taught them.
Now, a couple of things they were observing there in this Jewish community a feast. There were three feasts, a Jewish feast on the Jewish calendar, that all Jews were required to go into Jerusalem and participate and remember the feast together. This was one of those. This was the Feast of Tabernacles that Jews from everywhere had come there into Jerusalem to be a part of. And Jesus, who many can, and we know why Jesus came, but he was considered by many a rabbi, a teacher.
And so he went and he began to early in the morning teach. And he sat down, which was a tradition or really what you could call Levitical style, if you would, that the teacher would sit and the people would stand and they would listen. And so we're going. to do that today and so I'm just I'm just kidding. And uh, but that was very common during this day.
So, Jesus, he sat down and he began to teach them, verse 3. And as he was teaching, really, the scribes and the Pharisees they brought unto him. A woman taken in adultery, and when they had set her in the midst, by the way, if you look up the word taken in the Greek and how it was originally written, the word taken, it implies that she was caught in the very act of adultery. And you can imagine that scene. And so the religious leaders took her right after that is what is implied here.
Many commentators believe that she might have, because she was caught in the very act in the way that this was originally written, that she might have even been dressed inappropriately here in this moment in front of this really crowd of people. Verse 4, and they said unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act.
Now, Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou?
Now, here's what I want you to understand about this text. This is about God's grace. It is about the adulterous woman and how she was rescued through God's grace. But here's what I want you to know. The religious leaders were trying to set Jesus up.
That was the whole scene of why they brought her into this midst. You're going to see in the next verse that they are testing Jesus. And so they bring this woman. She was caught in adultery. And adultery, according to the Old Testament law, those who were called in adultery, both the man.
And the woman should be caught, just thrown into the street and stoned to death. This was a capital offense. This was something that if you got caught doing, you're going to lose your very life for it. And so, because they didn't do that, they brought her in front of Jesus. Their motives were all about tempting him to see if he would.
uh break what they uh deemed that the law had already said.
So verse number six, this they said, tempting or testing Jesus that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground As though he heard them not. I love that. And so they're trying to test him. They're trying to see if he would go against.
The law here in this moment. And in this moment, Jesus, he doesn't audibly respond to their question: hey, what sayest you according to the law of Jesus? He bends down as though he didn't even hear him. I mean, and he began to. He began to write.
Verse 7.
So when they continued asking him, He lifted up himself. And he said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first. Cast a stone at her. And again, he stooped down and wrote on On the ground.
Now, there's much debate here about what Jesus wrote. And we really don't know. It really doesn't tell us what he was writing with his finger here on the ground. And we can speculate a couple of things.
So, for example, if you look at throughout scripture, there's two times where the finger of God was kind of referenced. The first one was, if you remember, when Moses was trying to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt, and as Moses and Aaron were going to Pharaoh time and time again and telling him about the plagues and stuff, they assumed that this was the finger of God that was kind of on this situation. But there's one other time where the finger of God is actually writing something. And that is in Uh when Moses received the tablets of stone. If you remember in the Old Testament when Moses received the tablets of stone, it said that when he received those, they were written with the very finger.
Of God.
So many speculate that it could be that Jesus, in this moment, because these religious leaders were coming and they were throwing this woman in front of this crowd, trying to test Jesus, but also to shame this woman in the midst of them. Jesus stoops down and writes, and many believe that he was writing the Ten Commandments. And if that's true, we don't really know that, but if it is true, you got to think about what that meant into the crowd that day. Because, first of all, if Jesus, if that was what he was writing, it would show his divinity, would it not? Because as he's writing there, the Jews that were all gathered here in the midst, they would have remembered the Old Testament and how the law was written by the finger of God.
And so for Jesus to actually stoop down and write the Ten Commandments, it would have shown his divinity, which would have scared everybody there that, wow, he's claiming that, yes, he is God, the Son, right here in the flesh. But also, if what he was writing was the Ten Commandments, it would also reveal. The sin of everybody there. It would have revealed the sin. And that's the thing, because I know how this is.
I've been in church my whole life. And so I know that sometimes in church, we categorize our sins, don't we? Like we think, wow, those sins are really bad. Adultery, really bad. And I get it, the consequences of sins, yes, some are higher than others.
But at the core of the sin, adultery and disobeying or dishonoring your parents are the same. And so, as Jesus is potentially writing this, it would have shown everybody there the struggles that they had because of their sin. And so, I want you to know that we are unsure about what exactly Jesus wrote, but what you see in the next verse is this: we might not know what he wrote, but what he wrote convicted everybody there. Because in verse number nine, you see what happens. And they which heard it.
being convicted by their own conscience Went out. One By One. Beginning at the eldest. Which is interesting, right? And you kind of speculate what that means.
Here's what that means: older people. Are worse sinners than younger people, right? Like, It's got to be true. It's in the Bible. You can't argue with it, right?
Or it could mean, you know, like. Older, you say, man, I've been around. I've done some pretty bad things in my day. I've had a lot more days to do bad things, right? But here in this moment, you can understand.
We might not know what Jesus wrote in the ground, but it convicted everybody there so that as a result of what Jesus was writing, all of them felt such deep conviction about their own sin that one by one, starting with the eldest all the way to the youngest, Just started leaving and Jesus. I love this. Jesus was left alone. And the woman standing in the midst. Jesus was there.
It's just the two of them.
So, this whole situation, everybody, you know, the religious leaders had gathered there together. There was a large crowd that was listening to Jesus. Religious leaders come with this woman here and this, they thought that this was going to end very differently. And here, they thought that Jesus was going to get accused. And they thought they were going to have, you know, the means to say that he disobeyed the law and they were going to, you know, be able to catch him and all these different things and catch him in a lie.
And instead of sentencing the woman, which Jesus could have done, Jesus instead sentenced the accusers. Isn't that interesting? And here, because of that, all of them left. Everybody that was there left, and it was just left the two of them, Jesus and the adulterous woman. In verse 10, it says, And when Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, He said unto her, Woman, Where are thine accusers?
Hath no man Condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I Condemn thee. Go and send No. More.
is all about Sin and how we can be rescued from it. It's all about all of our sin. Right? Yes, it's about a woman caught in adultery, but really, the way that this ends is showing us that every single one of us are guilty. It's showing us that every single one of us are sinners.
And every single one of us are equally in need. of the grace of God. And what this shows is how all of us are sinners. And how all of us need rescue from our sin. All of us need the grace.
And the mercy Do you notice what we sang about today, right? The grace and the mercy and the love and the kindness of Almighty God. That is what we are in need of. And here, this woman, she could have, because this was a capital offense, she could have lost her life. Because of this sin, and she should have been condemned because of this sin, but instead she received love and grace.
And the mercy and kindness of our God. When we think of grace, we have to understand and define what grace really is. And some of us, even though we've been involved in church for a very long time, I think how much we understand God's grace is really revealed in how much grace you show to other people. Because we struggle showing grace to other people a lot of times, don't we? In fact, you could say that many times we disgrace other people a lot of times.
We disgrace other people, strangers, family members, people that you might know from a distance, and people you work with, and neighbors, and everything. A lot of times, we will disgrace them. And here's what I want you to understand: if you disgrace somebody, you really don't understand God's grace in your life at all. Because here, what we find is that God demonstrated His grace to her, which is this: if you look up grace, it really means God's unmerited grace. Favor.
It's his unmerited favor to a bunch of undeserving people. And grace is mentioned 185 times in scripture. The very first time it is mentioned back in Genesis with Noah. If you remember, Noah found grace in the eyes of God. And we see it mentioned, this really thread of God's grace from cover to cover.
And it is really revealed in what He has given us, a way of escape for the sins that we have committed. Grace is given to every single one of us, and what we have to understand is that all of us are undeserving of His grace. I mean, really, if I was to be honest with you, is this. You say, wow, I don't feel like God's shown me a whole lot of grace. Here's what I want you to understand: the fact that you are breathing here today.
And are still a sinner against a holy God, the fact that you are still breathing right now in this moment is God's grace on your life. And that's what you have to understand.
So you might say things like, I don't think, I mean, look at the world that we live in. I mean, you referenced Noah's Day. Look at Noah's Day. Does that seem very graceful where God's going to wipe the whole human race off earth or whatever?
Well, what people don't want to ever admit is this: no, God didn't want to do that. In fact, He provided a rescue for them called an ark. And so many people were so excited and set in the way that they sinned that they weren't willing to look at the rescue from sin that God was offering to them. And let me tell you this: the fact that God has offered you rescue from your sin, that is God's grace on your life. And so in this story, this woman...
It's called an adultery in the very act. You have really a couple of voices in this story to this center. You have the critics, and the voice of critics, let me tell you, they love to condemn, they love to destroy, they love to shame. A critic is someone that puts someone down in order to elevate themselves. A critic is somebody that loves to put somebody else down so that they look better about or feel better about themselves.
Have you ever been around somebody like that? Where, when you get around them, all they want to do is talk bad about everybody else around them and criticize everybody else around them. Personally, it's exhausting. But here's what I'll tell you: the reason why they're doing that, critical people love to talk about everybody else and the problems of everybody else, and their whole motivation is exactly what the religious leaders' motivation was. They wanted to shame somebody else so that they can feel better about themselves.
And I'm sad to say church people are really good about this. They're really good about this. And so you have the critic's voice, but then you have Jesus' voice. And the voice of Jesus in this story is so different. His voice is not one of condemnation.
Like the critics. It's not of shame. Like the critics. It's actually the complete opposite. It's love.
and kindness and grace. And mercy. And so the woman, undeserving and guilty, she didn't deserve salvation. She didn't deserve rescue. She didn't deserve love.
She didn't deserve grace. And she definitely didn't deserve. Mercy. I mean Think about this. Like, she's there.
Imagine how humiliated. Embarrassed. She felt in that moment. And you might not relate to her when it comes to, you know, the sin of adultery. But we are all sinners.
And every one of us struggled with sin. Can you imagine? Like in this service Somebody coming and saying, hey, this person was caught. Gossiping. Out in the welcome center.
And they were gossiping and talking bad about other people in the church. And somebody drags you right from the welcome center right in front of here and says, They were caught gossiping, and what do you say about it? Right? Imagine the humiliation that that would cause, right? The embarrassment.
That you would feel like. We would all want to just leave. We'd never go back to that church, would we? Right? We would feel terrible.
We'd probably never go back to church at all because why would we ever want to be around a bunch of judgmental, critical. condemning religious people. And that's kind of the scene of what you have here, but Jesus' response is so different. Here's what he responds back to them: Jesus did not, and this is what you got to understand about this story. This is what you have to understand about your life, and this is what you have to understand about every character that we're looking at in this series over the summer.
Jesus did not come. To shame sinners. He came to offer sinners rescue from their sin. Jesus never came to shame you for your sin. He actually came for the complete opposite.
He's offering you rescue from your sin. In other words, what you could say is this: because I don't want to downplay sin, sin is still a big deal. Sin is still a problem. And so I don't want you to leave here and think like. God is love, and so it doesn't matter how I live.
I can do whatever I want, and He's just going to love me. And yes, that is true. But what Jesus' message is this: that sin is a big deal, but grace is a bigger deal. That's what he's trying to get us to understand. Listen, don't downplay sin because Jesus didn't.
Sin is a big deal, but what you have to understand is grace is an even bigger deal than that, and he's offering us. Rescue For our Sin. I want you to see first the attitude of Jesus.
So his attitude is so different, and I'll run through this, but Jesus didn't come. to condemn the woman. Which is so interesting. And he came to save the woman. I mean, the scripture talks about this a lot.
Romans chapter 8, verse 1 says, There's no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. If you're thankful for that, can you say amen this morning? There's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.
So if you're a Christian. You don't have to worry about being condemned. God's given you rescue from that. You don't have to worry about feeling shame. God has rescued.
from from all uh of that. We don't have to experience any of that and not only did jesus Not come to condemn the woman. His attitude and his approach, he also loved her. As she was. Wait.
He loved her in the midst. of her sin. And that was his attitude. Towards her. I mean, that is perhaps the most amazing thing about the story to me.
Is that Jesus didn't say To this woman. He did not tell her. Hey, you know, woman. Go fix yourself up. Go and sin no more, and then you will not receive condemnation.
He didn't say that. That would be backwards from what he said. No, he said this: right now, in the midst of your sin. You are loved. I'm going to demonstrate grace to you.
I'm going to give you mercy. I'm going to give you kindness. And I'm going to give you rescue. You are not condemned.
Now, because you're not condemned, go and sin no more. He loved her right where she was. And let me tell you this for you, and I don't know everybody's story here in this place. I don't know if you're in here today and you're thinking, like, man, I got a lot of sins in my life.
Well, guess what? All of us do. The pastor standing in front of you and the people around you, we're all just a bunch of sinners in need of God's grace. And if you're in here today and you think, man, I slipped in here today, I have sin nobody else knows about. Nobody else knows about the things that I have done.
Let me tell you this: right now, where you are. God loves you. God died for you. And what God is offering you is not the freedom to sin. He is offering you a freedom and a rescue from your sin.
And that is what he is offering every single one of us, and that's what he's offering the woman. You see, his attitude was of no condemnation, and his attitude was of love in the midst of that. But then he provides her hope. We see, secondly, Jesus provides hope to her. I mean, You see this really in verse number 12 when Jesus begins to speak again.
He says. I am the light of the world. He begins to contrast light and darkness a bit. Right after this story. And What's interesting is he likens the sin life or the sin lifestyle.
To darkness. And he offers himself what he can provide for you as light. And here's what I want you to know is that for the woman. He offered her a hope. You say, what type of hope is that?
It is the way out of darkness. It is the avenue. and the rescued from darkness into his marvelous light. And that's what Jesus has offered us. And so if you're in here today and you're in sin, You've come to the right place because I want you to learn from this series that you're no different than the adulterous woman.
And here's what I want you to know: is that God, through His Son Jesus, has offered you rescue and hope from your sin. He's offered you a way out of darkness and into his life. You could say it this way: a relationship with Jesus is the only way. out of the dark.
So if you're in darkness here today and Guess what? I mean, we all have been there at some point. I mean, I was there, and luckily, as a young boy. I realized that I was in darkness. And that there's nothing that I can do to get myself out of the darkness.
There's not enough good works. There's not enough verses to memorize. There's not enough church services to attend that could ever get my life from darkness to light. The only way for me to remove and to get out of the darkness and walk in his marvelous light and live in his marvelous light is one thing. It's a relationship with Jesus and trusting him as my savior.
And when I did that, the scripture says that I moved from darkness to light. And now I can walk freely in the light of Jesus. But he gives us a new life, number three. He gives us a new life in verse number 11. He says, Neither do I condemn thee.
Go and sin no more.
Now, there is a debate in our society about the tension between love. And judgment. Have you ever been a part of that conversation? Like, you know, people, uh, you know, You know, Facebook. Um that's where all truth is on Facebook, right?
And And have you ever seen something on social media and you just want to chime in? Because somebody's like, where is the loving God? Because of. Fill in the blank. And there's always this tension between how do we handle that conversation between.
God's love. Right? And also judgment, because the Bible is full of judgment as well. And how do you balance those two? Aren't they contrary?
How do they work together? And how do you balance the two of them? And here's what I'll tell you: this story gives you that. The answer to balancing those two is really found in this story. It's found in how Jesus responds to this.
Here's what I want you to know: Jesus was 100% love. If you believe that, can you say amen? He was. And so he loved this sinner, this adulterous woman, just as she was. He loved the thief on the cross.
He loved people in adultery. He loved people in sin. He loved the demonic. He loved the possessed. He loved people that a lot of church people today in 2025 wouldn't feel very comfortable with.
They wouldn't really welcome them into their midst. That's the kind of people that Jesus loved.
So he was 100% loving. And so he spoke truth, though, at the same time, and he called people to repentance. Like you see that. His very first sermon, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Like, you see, there's two ways to look at this.
You aren't, let me say it this way: you aren't like Jesus. If you only speak truth without love. And some of us struggle with that, don't we? If you only deliver truth with no love behind it, you're not like Jesus as much as you think you are. You're just full of knowledge.
And so you would be what the scripture would say self-righteous. Right? But you aren't like Jesus if you speak only love without truth. Either. You have to balance both of those because Jesus was always love and truth mixed together.
He was always love and truth mixed together, and he was always both of those. But the point of the story is this: that when you encounter Jesus. Don't miss this. When you encounter Jesus. There is a change in your lifestyle.
Like, here's what he told the woman. I mean, he said, listen, neither do I condemn thee. Right there in that moment, she was fully free, 100% free, and she had rescued from her sin. But then you can't miss the last part. He told her, now, because you're not condemned.
Go and send no more. Go and send no more. Let me tell you this: when you encounter Jesus. When you encounter him Your life's going to be radically changed. It's going to look different.
You're not going to want to continue in the sins that you've been rescued from. I mean, Paul even asked that rhetorical question, like, why should we continue in sin? Literally, he's saying, why in the world should we continue in the same thing that we've been rescued from? And that's what Jesus is saying. He's telling this woman, hey, as you go.
Live free. You're not condemned. I have not condemned you. I have not come here to shame you. But because you're now not condemned, go and sin no more.
Go and live like me. Go and allow the righteousness that I'm giving you to be lived out in your life, not because of anything that you can do or have done, but because of everything that I have freed you from. Go and sin no more.
You see, the point of the whole story. Is this that Jesus did not come to shame the adulterous woman? And let me tell you this: He didn't come to shame you either. He didn't come to condemn you either. He didn't come to shame us.
He came to offer us rescue. from our sin. He came to offer us rescue from our sin. I'm so thankful that I have a rescue from my sin. Like I don't have to continue in sin.
I don't have to live in it. Like, I hate when people say, I just can't stop this.
Well, let me tell you this: the scripture says that you can, not because of you, but because of who lives in you. You have the rescue. You have the power. It's not in you, it's in the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you. You have the rescue from your sin.
But the point is, we are all sinners in need of God's grace, and He has come to offer you rescue. Through the grace of God. You know, there's a lot of stories that we could talk about the grace of God, but one, not in the Bible, it's more recent. Last hundreds of years is a man by the name of John Newton. Many of you would know his story, you would know his testimony and the whole deal, but few people understood.
God's grace. More than John Newton. And here's why. John Newton, he grew up and his his mom raised him and his biography, you read all about it. But his mom raised him and she passed away when he's like 12 years old.
And so he went into slave trade. And so he actually became, as he got older, because this is what his dad did, he became a captain of a slave trading ship. And he writes about himself in his diary some of the things that he would do on that ship because he was the captain. I mean, nobody's going to question the captain. And not to get too grotesque with some of this, but he admitted in there that there were times where he would just take advantage of all these slaves, the women, and he would rape them and do some terrible things to the women there on that slave trading ship.
He was the captain. And he writes about that.
Well, one day in the 1700s, he was at sea, and a huge storm came up. And this big storm came up, and he said that in that moment, someone shared with him about the grace. of Jesus. And in that moment, he learned about the grace. Mercy.
and rescue from the terrible things that he was involved in. In that moment, Forget the year, but in that moment he trusted Jesus. As his Savior. And he went on after that. He got out of the slave trading industry.
He got out of that. He became an advocate to free. He wanted to free slaves as a result of that. But he went on to write the most famous hymn. That you and I know amazing grace.
And he went on to write it. And if you think about the lyrics to that song, it is really John Newton's testimony on paper. It says, Amazing grace. We know how sweet the sound. That's saved.
A wretch like me. I Once Was Lost. And when you know the story behind the song, it makes it that much more special because nobody, this guy was a terrible human being. But when he came in contact with the rescue that Jesus has offered him out of his sin, he writes, This amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see.
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did That grace appear. The hour. I first believe. When John Newton was about to die, he was 82 years old.
He was writing this and or he told somebody this. He said, my memory. is nearly gone. But He said, these two things I remember. He said, I?
and a great sinner. But God is a great savior. You see, that story Really shares the grace of Almighty God. For sinners. Like you and me.
Because when you sing that song, we really are all. The wretched. We all can sing that song and say, We all were lost. We all were in need of the saving grace of. Jesus.
And he demonstrated that to us. And let me tell you this: if you forget anything that I tell you today, don't forget this. You're a great sinner. But he's an even greater Savior. Don't ever forget that.
Can we bow our heads for prayer? Yeah.
