The sermon, centered around John 8, discusses the account of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, emphasizing Jesus' response to the Pharisees and scribes who sought to trap Him. The speaker encourages listeners to see themselves in the biblical narrative, stressing the importance of self-reflection and personal application of Scripture. The sermon highlights that faith requires a response beyond intellectual acknowledgment, urging believers to allow the Holy Spirit to transform their lives. It critiques the role of the accuser, linking it to the work of the enemy and emphasizing repentance and forgiveness. Jesus' words, 'Go and sin no more,' are presented as a call to live a life transformed by grace and the Holy Spirit's power, encouraging believers to walk in their faith actively.

I will trust you Lord. We're in John, we're beginning chapter 8 this morning, and I'd like to read the text with you and then we will just kind of walk our way through this. Kind of begins, it ends with 53 of the last verse, everybody went home, and then it picks up in verse 1 of chapter 8, 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 the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery and when they had set her in the midst they said unto 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, rode 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, He who is without sin among you, let him throw the stone at her first. And again he stooped down and rode 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 that 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, Neither do I condemn you. Go. Sin no more. Father, as we work our way through this text and as we just see and picture this accusation and Jesus' response, We're asking you Lord to allow us to see ourselves and to have your Holy Spirit speak to each and every one of our hearts.

It's in your name we pray. Amen. That's really the theme question. That's what we have to look at this morning, is can you see yourself here? We're looking at a very real account in which we should all try to place ourselves.

I like to do that, I don't know if you've ever done that before, I don't know if you do that when you read the Word, but in order to make it much more personal for me, in order for me to to get it reality in my life, I try to picture myself in the account, in the story if you will, in the Word. Some of them are easier than others. This one happens to be fairly easy. Obviously we eliminate Jesus, okay? Let's just start there.

Nobody here, myself included, are going to place themselves where Jesus is. But we have other options. But I do trust, and it's my prayer, that all of us would hear what Jesus has to say at the end. Because Scripture needs to be applied to my life and your life. You see, it can't just be intellectual.

That was one of the greatest deceptions feasted upon the Church, is that You can just say, I believe, and that's good enough. Because faith then becomes very passive, not active. Faith doesn't require a response in that sense. Bible, Biblical faith requires a response. And so it's more than just intellectual.

And I hope you know that you can know all the right doctrine, you can know all the right teaching. Perhaps you even have eschatology right. However, it doesn't affect your life. If your life, my life isn't transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit through Scripture, it's of no avail. We're just intellectual.

As well, chambers labels us prigs. I like that. So let's look this morning at the two options that we have in this biblical account. We have beginning at chapter three or verse three, I'm sorry, the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery and when they'd 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?

Let's just clarify one thing, the beginning. Moses didn't say they had to be stoned. He said they should die, okay? Stoning was something that the skies and the Pharisees decided a little later on. But the reality was she was caught in a sin that was worthy of death.

We should remember from Romans chapter 6, you know, that sin leads to death. From Romans chapter 3, all have sinned that come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin, chapter 6, is death. So we have this woman. The accusations are accurate and true.

Okay? But what was their motive? What were the scribes and Pharisees trying to do in this accusing of this woman? Well, verse 6 tells us, they said they were testing him, that they might have something of which to accuse him. You see these people were very intelligent.

I mean these people knew what they were doing, the scribes and the Pharisees. They knew the scripture, they knew the law, they knew what Moses said, and they knew that they had Jesus conflicted between two options, really. That was their perspective. The first option was that he could condemn her. And yet that was inconsistent with his ministry.

That was inconsistent with us how he broke bread with the sinners, how he spoke to them, how his first words to the sinners were, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, how he purposed to bring them to a place and a relationship with him. But that was against what Moses said. Or he could have just minimized the sin and negated Moses completely, minimizing the law in which Scripture tells us he came to fulfill. So they're thinking, the scribes and the Pharisees are thinking, we've got Jesus in a good place. He can't answer this without bringing some accusation against Him.

And that's what we're looking for because obviously their motive what we read earlier they want to kill them and they're looking for any reason but what did Jesus do love it Jesus stooped down wrote on the ground of this finger as though he did not hear. Can you imagine how irritated they were? Again, just kind of picture yourself in this scene. Here they come, they're livid. They think they have Jesus right where they want Him.

They've accused this woman of adultery, caught in a very act. I mean, this is reality. This is stone cold fact. And Jesus kind of just stoops down and writes in the sand. Nobody really knows what he wrote and it doesn't make any difference what he wrote.

It was just his pondering what they had said and his response. And they're Adam. They're badgering him. They said in the next verse, so when they continued asking him, you can kind of just picture this, how it was going. And Jesus raised himself and said to them, He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.

Oh, that was an option they didn't figure out. What was he appealing? It tells us in the next verse that he was talking to them and to their conscience. Let him who is without sin, let him throw the first stone. And the Holy Spirit searched their hearts.

It tells us in the next verse, those who had 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. So their conscience was pricked. Now people, I have to ask myself as I'm asking you this very question. If the Holy Spirit can challenge and convict their unbelieving hearts. How much more of a place should he have in mind in yours?

It says quite clearly, those who heard it being convicted by their conscience. They all left. The accusers. I just have to ask myself, and I'm asking you to ask yourself this morning, can you see yourself in that place as being an accuser? Learned in Scripture, yet accusing one before the Lord.

And even in our conversations with one another, you and I both believe, I hope, that God hears every word we say. So when I bring in, or if I bring an accusation against somebody else, That's before the Lord as well. It's not directly before the Lord, like we believe these people were trying, but they were bringing it to Jesus. And you and I can do the very same thing. We use Scripture.

And an accurate representation of the activity. Being an accuser of the brethren, Scripture calls it. Listen to what Revelation chapter 12 verse 10 says about this. It says, Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down." This is the work of the enemy.

And I want to tell you he's been at it for 2000 plus years. He's good at it. Very good at it. We don't have to help him. He doesn't need our help.

He doesn't need our help. Proverbs confirms just this very act about who is at this, whose work it really is. Proverbs chapter 6 verse 14. Perversity is in his heart, he devises evil continually, he sows discord. Goes on in the same chapter.

These six things doth the Lord hate. Yes, seven are an abomination to him, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among the brethren." People, that's our flesh. That's our propensity. That's kind of how we are. And yet, God is saying we can overcome that.

And our motive is usually just to justify our actions, it's just to justify our reactions. It's to justify our response. Gossip, slander, accusers of the brethren. Well, what should our response be? Should you see yourself, myself, as an accuser?

Psalm 51 says it quite clearly, David praying after he's been convicted of the Holy Spirit by his sin, said, against thee, O Lord, have I sinned, thee only. Repentance to the Lord, to those who we've accused, to those who's been influenced by our accusations. Because it's very rarely that we just keep it between the brothers, as Jim read this morning. It's usually we go to our brother and make sure that our accusations are kind of spread out amongst all before we bring it. It's a sin, people, that needs to be addressed in each and every one of our lives.

Because it's prevalent and it's our propensity. And it makes us look good. But that's pride. When I have to bring somebody else down to look big, God needs to speak to our hearts, my heart. Well perhaps you see yourself as the accused woman, not in adultery necessarily, but sin.

The scribes and the Pharisees, it says this, were convicted by their conscience, probably not of committing adultery. But that wasn't the charge from Jesus. He just said this, He who is without sin among you, He was the only one without sin among them. He's the only one without sin among us. We know Romans 3, I quoted earlier, all have sinned, they come short of the glory of God.

We know Romans 6, I quoted that earlier, the wages of sin is death. James tells us what described in the Pharisees truly knew. It said, for whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he's guilty of all. For he who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you become a transgressor of the law.

So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty, for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Moses said, thou shalt not commit adultery. What did Jesus say? Jesus said, you have heard of old, thou shalt not commit adultery.

But I say to you, He who looks upon a woman with lust in his eyes has already committed it. Jesus expanded that. Moses said, Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not murder. Jesus said, You've heard of old, thou shalt not kill. But I say unto you, whoever hates his brother commits murder." So even in our life with Jesus, this law has expanded to cover our hearts, our attitudes, our thoughts.

And when Jesus speaks to my heart and your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we're convicted of our sin. Matthew chapter 5 tells us first of all to agree with our adversaries quickly. You know, don't put this off. Agree with your adversaries. That's correct.

I know I'm guilty of that. But our response is not to justify, our response is to repent. Our response is quite simply found in 1 John. If we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

Confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive. I hope you see yourself and not others in this account guilty before a righteous, holy judge, Jesus. Righteous holy judge, Jesus. Listen to his response. He asked her the question, where are your accusers?

Have they all gone? Who's left? She said, No one, Lord. Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.

Go and sin no more. You see, condemnation assigns one to hell. Her sin, adultery, consigned and assigned her to hell. Matthew Henry in his commentary says, these sins found here, these sins found in Galatians chapter 5 Shut heaven's door It's pretty serious obviously Jesus said I don't condemn you because he has provided the way for forgiveness. Only Jesus could say, I don't condemn you.

The Holy Spirit, the accuser of the brethren, all of the enemies and the forces of enemy condemn. But Jesus said, in me you have a way. Go and sin no more. Tells us quite clearly in Romans chapter eight, there is therefore now no condemnation, Listen to this, to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh. Galatians chapter 5 talks about, these are the sins of the flesh.

You can read them. I'm not going to repeat them this morning. You can read them. But these are the sins that condemn. But Jesus said, if you're in Christ Jesus, you don't walk according to your flesh, but according to the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of a sinful flesh, an account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The condition is to be in Christ, walking and living, being controlled by the Spirit. Ephesians 4.1 says, Worthy of our calling.

Now, again, put yourself in the picture. I would have liked to have heard the whole conversation. I don't know that we haven't heard the whole conversation. Our account doesn't give us her response of repentance. You know, the only response we have of her is, where are your accusers who's left?

And she says, no one. Many commentators speak to her penitent heart. We don't have that. We have some indication when Jesus says, go and sin no more, and Jesus, the only one who knows her heart, who knows my heart, who knows your heart, can understand our penitence and our repentance. But we do know the heart of God.

That we do know. Listen. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief." Can you imagine Paul saying that? Of whom I am chief.

This is Paul writing to Timothy, the pastor of the Church of Ephesus. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy that in me first Christ Jesus might show all long-suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." Paul is saying what we started out saying is scripture if it's our life has not changed and transformed Then our life isn't real in Christ Jesus Well, listen, however for this reason I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long sufferings.

That in me first, Jesus Christ might be shown all suffering as a pattern to those. You and I are to have Jesus so permeated every area of my life and your life that people see him. Not because Rick's such a great guy, all of you who know me know that's not true, but because Jesus is working his transforming grace in each and every one of us, if we're in him. Luke chapter 19 says, the Son of Man's come to seek and to save that which was lost. 1st Timothy said, He who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, for there is one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.

One God, one Mediator, between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, only through Jesus, only through His shed blood, Only through Christ's sacrificial love for you and for me on Calvary's cross can we find forgiveness and redemption in a new life. It's a gift. We've read Romans chapter 6 twice now, but the end of that verse is the gift of God as eternal life. And the requirement for that gift and that penalty to be paid is shed blood. And only through the blood of Jesus Christ can our sins be forgiven.

So our call is to repent, to ask Jesus by His shed blood to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Scripture then exhorts us to receive Him into this blood-cleansed heart. To as many as received Him, to them He gave you power to become the sons of God, by grace through faith. And then walk, worthy of His calling. Walk, hearing His Word this morning for you, for me.

Go. Sin no more. One of the remarkable things about God's Word, spoken to us through Scripture, empowered by the Holy Spirit, as it carries the grace, God's enabling power to do His will. When He says to me, when He says to you, go and sin no more, that is not a call to be frustrated. It's a call to respond, to receive his grace, to listen to his and live in the power of his Holy Spirit.

Colossians chapter two verse six says, As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk. How do you and I receive Christ Jesus the Lord? By grace through faith you've been saved. That's how we walk, by grace through faith. By grace we receive God's Word this morning, Go, sin no more.

And we respond by faith to that Word, saying, that's my call. One of the realities that I have to face, one of the realities that you have to face this morning, people, and I want you to listen to this very clearly. Every sin I commit, every sin you commit, is a choice. There was a comedian many years ago, and his tagline was always, the devil made me do it. Now, the devil may have brought the temptation, but I choose.

You choose. Here the progression. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire is conceived it gives birth to sin, action. And sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death.

But 2 Corinthians chapter 10 tells us, the weapons of those who are for are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That's given to us. Downstairs, in many places, there used to be kind of a picture. And the picture was a lady with a bird nest on her head. I don't know if you remember that, I have no clue where it went.

But the phrase underneath was, you know, you can't stop a bird from flying over, but you can keep him from building a nest. You and I can't stop the thoughts that come into our mind. Thoughts are not sin. That tells us quite clearly, you know, when desire is conceived, when we give that a nest, when we begin to think about it, then we begin to act on that. And although I can't control these thoughts that I have, I can take them in obedience to Christ.

Proverbs chapter 1 is a portion of Scripture that our children love to quote because from the translation that we would read to them in the morning, you know, it quite said, if sinners entice thee, a little louder, consent thou not. Only have one child here this morning so she speaks loudly for the other 13. I'm not a big fan of bracelets, okay, But if you need to wear a bracelet that has WWJD on it, what would Jesus do? Wear it. But don't wear it to show Rex how holy you are.

Wear it because you want to look at it and ask yourself as He pierces your heart, my heart with His Holy Spirit, what would He do? How would He respond? How would He act? You can read it. We've shared it.

Listen to the encouragement from Hebrews chapter 12. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Go, sin no more. Romans chapter thirteen says, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Psalm 101 said, I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.

Hear the word of the Lord this morning for all of us. Go. Sin no more. Whether you've seen yourself as in the role of the accuser, whether we've seen ourselves in the role of the woman caught in adultery, Forgiveness is available through shed blood of Jesus Christ. And the power to go and sin no more is given to us in the Word of God, spoken by His Holy Spirit to each and every one of our hearts.

Father, I would pray this morning that we would be not only convicted, Lord, but hear Your precious words. If we confess our sin, you're faithful to forgive and cleanse. If you live in our blood-cleansed heart, and we are in Christ, there is no condemnation. And if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Lord, allow us to give evidence of that new creation, sinning no more.

Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And giving evidence, Lord, in our actions, our reactions, our conversations of this new life. It's for your honor and glory and a testimony of who you are to this sin-sick world that we can say, I hear you Lord. Send me. It's in your name we pray this morning.

Amen. Even when the sun is down