Jesus - A Friend of Sinners

 Temple Baptist Church - 3-22-2023

John 8:1-11 

Introduction:

 

A.  In our text for tonight, we find another “woman at the well”, as adulterous woman whose life is now exposed and lies in ruin.  I am so thankful again tonight that the Lord came to me, changed my life, and secured my future for eternity.

 

B.  Salvation is a personal choice and something that only Christ can do.  We come to God in repentance and childlike faith.  He has already taken care of the rest through the gospel: He died according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He rose again according to the Scriptures. SALVATION IS OF THE LORD!

 

C.  I want to break down these verses to show the love and salvation of God in His love for the outcasts of this world.

 

1.  The Woman’s Fall.  Verse 4.  This was someone’s daughter, sister, mother, or friend.  Somewhere she left her upbringing (virgins of Israel were treated with respect and protected) and to the chagrin of her family, was caught up in her sinfulness. 

 

a.  Sin will take you farther than you want to go, cost you more than you want to pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay. 

 

b.  When her sinful thoughts became sinful acts, she never thought that she would one day be where she was this particular day.

 

c.  The private became public: “taken in adultery, in the very act.”

 

2.  The Woman’s Foe.  Verse 3.  The Scribes and Pharisees

 

a.  Religion at its worst becomes the enemy of the unsaved as they lift their religious noses at the very thought of one such as this woman was. 

 

b.  Simon the Pharisee said in his heart, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.”

 

c.  Instead of reaching the lost, the religious drive them farther away. 

 

d.  Instead of looking beyond their fault and seeing their need, the religious look beyond their need and see their fault!

 

3.  The Woman’s Fear.  Verse 5.  “Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?”  Her fear was two-fold.

 

a.  She feared the command of the Law.  The letter of the law ordered death, both physical and spiritual.  Destruction of sin here and the death in sin later in hell.

 

b.  She feared the condemnation of the Lord.  Our Lord was asked, “What sayest thou?”  She knew who Jesus was in the sense that He was the Messiah but she also knew the holiness of God and what He thought of the sin of adultery.

 

4.  The Woman’s Friend.  Verse 6, 7, 10.  “I have found a Friend in Jesus” the songwriter said.

 

a.  Jesus did not rebuke the woman; He rebuked the scribes and Pharisees.

 

b.  Jesus did not draw, Jesus silently wrote on the ground.  What He wrote, we can only surmise, but what He wrote THEY COULD READ!

 

c.  Jesus asked the woman where her accusers were as the convicted religionists melted away.

 

5.  The Woman’s Faith.  Verse 11.  “Lord!”

 

a.  Her answer was not, “Whew, I am free to go and do as I like again.”  The heat is off.  She could now walk away with no one to confront or stop her but she chose to stay and answer the question.

 

b.  The scribes and Pharisees said, “Master.”  Instructor, doctor, or teacher.  Her address given to Christ was “Lord!”  This was an admission of who she was and an acceptance of Who He was.  Paul’s answer was the same in Acts, chapter 9, when he went from “Who art thou, Lord?” to “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”

 

Philippians 2:10-11  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;  (11)  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

6.  The Woman’s Forgiveness.  Verse 11.  “Neither do I condemn thee.”

 

a.  She was brought to Christ in the darkness of sin, caught and condemned by the Law.

 

b.  She was brought by Christ into the Light of Forgiveness with her sins gone.

 

Isaiah 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

 

7.  The Woman’s Future.  Verse 11.  “Go, and sin no more.”

 

a.  The Lord did not save her and leave her as He found her.  I am glad that the Lord changed me, not left me as I was.

 

b.  The Lord did save her to serve Him!  Salvation cost Jesus His life and salvation will cost you your life!

 

c.  It will be worth it all here on earth and it will be worth it all in heaven!