Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: Sometimes guys, it is better not to say anything than to speak and try to answer. There's a place in the scripture that talks about if you try to answer a question, you're casting your pearls before swine. There are certain people who ask you questions about God who do not want answers; they just want to fight.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Here we are in May already as schools are getting ready to finish the school year, and summer vacations are being planned. But at the same time, there are many right now who feel like their train came off the tracks. They're shooting up the prayer flares and hoping God is listening.

And maybe that's you who's calling out "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday." That's where we come in. We want to be that safe place of hope and encouragement to you. I'll share more for you at the end of the program, but for now, let's jump right in with today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "Almost Stoned." And some of you take that a whole 'nother direction, obviously, by the response. But turn to John chapter eight, and we're going to begin with verse one. You know, everybody's probably got some favorite stuff out of the Bible. This is a great story. It's just a real story about a real person, and some people say, "Well, all this stuff didn't really happen."

Let me tell you something, this stuff happened. Nobody made all this up and wrote it down. This stuff really happened because it's too real and the details of it. This would make daytime soap opera stuff. It's pretty juicy stuff, as you'll see in a minute. But Jesus here in John chapter eight, let's just start reading and I'll give you some background as we go along.

It says, "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 He taught them." Jesus would go out to the Mount of Olives at night some nights, then He'd come back to the temple. And He spent a lot of time in the temple, and when He went, He'd sit down, obviously, and these people would gather around. They'd come and go, "Who is this guy?"

And I think some of them knew who He was, some of them were very curious about who He was, but they listened. And there's a passage in the Bible that talks about that the comment they made about Jesus was He spoke not as the Pharisees or the Sadducees, but as one having authority. It was like when He spoke, it meant something. When the other guy spoke, it was just a bunch of religious rhetoric.

But He goes in and He sits down and He taught them. And you almost have to kind of put a parenthesis here and go to a whole 'nother place before I read the next verse. And I want you to imagine this scene. This is Jesus now in the night is out on the Mount of Olives. But during the night and in the morning hours, there's a bunch of preacher types, these religious guys, these Pharisees, and this is what they spent the evening doing.

These guys had found some woman they knew who had a reputation of sorts, slept around a lot. I mean, she was kind of a woman of the night, pretty loose, okay? So they identify this woman. They know, "She ends up in the sack with somebody different every night. This is a good prospect for what we want to do." So these religious guys follow this woman. And they follow her if she had a date that night.

Now I want you to think about this. What if a group of religious people followed you for a night, Friday night, Saturday night? And somehow they could track you and knew everywhere you went, and even when you got in a private situation, they had geared cameras or whatever, and everything you said, everything you did was going to be monitored and then exposed the following day. These guys were basically entrapment here of this poor woman.

And this woman has gone about her business that evening, has found herself a partner, whether she's sober or drunk, I don't know what her state is in as far as that goes, but she ends up in this situation somewhere, and these guys are so close by and are watching so—I mean, they're watching. They have to be watching. Now, you say, "Well, where's this in the Bible?" You're about to see it.

These guys are plotting something, but they have to watch something go on. They're watching this woman with this man, and they have to be there at a certain point to catch them, it says, in the very act. They're not just in the same house; that's not enough. They have to be behind a tent, looking through a window somewhere. So you have—and it can't be just one. There's all kind of stuff.

They did it by the book, by the Old Testament. In Leviticus, it's all nailed down in Leviticus and I think a passage over in Deuteronomy. There had to be a certain number of witnesses. So there's not just one guy; this is a bunch of guys watching this woman. So their evening is spent tracking this woman, and they catch her in bed with some guy at the moment they're getting busy, okay?

Now, they bust in this house, grab this woman, either naked or half-naked, maybe throw something on her. Now Jesus, remember, that night has been on the Mount of Olives. He's going down to teach. That's His day is going to unfold that way. He's sitting there teaching, and these religious guys who are supposed to be doing and living what Jesus is living come busting in the temple with this woman, half-clad, ashamed, embarrassed, who's been caught with this man.

Now here's another—this isn't in the book, but where the heck is the guy? Well, I know, I thought I'd get a lot of amens out of the woman on that. So there you have it. They don't haul this guy in; they grab this woman and come dragging her. Now see, this will make a spectacle. Half-clad, here she comes into the temple. And their whole purpose, now follow this, their whole purpose, it's not to catch her.

Their whole purpose is to nail Jesus and get Him to do something and make a decision and do something about this woman. They're trying to trap Him in something too. All right, now look what happens. Early in the morning, verse two again, He came into the temple and all the people came to Him and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery.

She was caught in the act. Either she's married or she's with a married man. And when they had set her in the midst, this is what they said to Him: "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery. We don't just—it's not hearsay—in the very act." I'm sure there's a gasp from the crowd. "They caught her in the act." I mean, this is all very tantalizing. "We caught her in the very act."

Verse five, now they start quoting scripture. Now I'm going to tell you something guys, religious people are notorious for this kind of junk. They can be the most perverse on the one hand, just twisted people, and then start quoting scripture on the other hand, right? They start quoting Moses. "In the law, Moses commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say?"

Now we know what God said through Moses in the law, but what do you say? Now do you think they give a rip about this poor woman? Her life, her past, her guilt, her shame, her fear, her anything? They don't care about this woman. They're using this woman the way the guy was using her to get to Jesus. "Moses says to stone her. What do you say? You're some great teacher. You claim to be God. What do you say to do with this woman?"

I hate to tell you this, guys, but there are a lot of churches that would say, "Yeah, what do you say? Let's stone her." That's what the Bible says to do. And you know what, in a way, that's exactly what we do. We don't take literal rocks and stone the woman to death. We just verbally assault people sometimes so much we kill them, or we drive them clean out of church and they never come back.

These Pharisees and scribes, they were not trying to enlist this woman to be a part of their temple. They were trying to blow Jesus away with her life and her sin. "What do you say?" Verse six: "This they said testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him." Not her, accuse Him. Now guys, this is one of those deals, and I'm going to rent this one.

If there's a Blockbuster in heaven and you can rent this clip—there's a lot of these clips I want to rent. I want to know what happened at this point because these guys, remember, He's sitting there in the temple, He's teaching, He's been interrupted, here's this woman, these guys say, "Moses says this, what do you say?" And Jesus does an astonishing thing.

Do you know what He did? It says He's sitting there and all of a sudden, look at the next verse: He stoops down and wrote something on the ground with His finger as though He did not hear them. He completely ignores these guys. They come in saying all this stuff and Jesus simply slips down to the ground and starts doodling in the sand. Now I want to know what He wrote. I don't know what He wrote. I don't know if He's just drawing pictures of whatever.

But you just don't ignore people like that. These are the guys who run the building He is in. They want an answer, and He stoops down and says, "I'm not going to even acknowledge your question." And Jesus didn't do this just to them. Jesus did this before He was crucified. People would ask Him questions and He would not even—He says, people would say, "Well, don't you know who I am?"

You know what He could have said was, "Don't you know who I am?" Sometimes, guys, it is better not to say anything than to speak and try to answer. There's a place in the scripture that talks about if you try to answer a question, you're casting your pearls before swine. You don't throw your pearls, valuable pearls, in a pigpen somewhere. There are certain people who ask you questions about God who do not want answers; they just want to fight.

And you've got to be very sensitive, very discerning, very careful not to get into some religious argument. If they want to know God and want to know about God and know how to get to know God, answer their question. If not, say, "You know what? I really don't think it's about that at all," and walk away. Ignore them, or you're going to end up entangled in some kind of fight about religious stuff and you're not going to end up anywhere.

They don't want answers; they want a fight. Anybody ever been in one of those conversations? So He writes on the ground, stoops down, writes on the ground with His finger as though He did not hear. He acts like He didn't even hear what they said. I think this stuff's hysterical. I mean, I just don't picture Jesus ignoring people. But it says here, as though He did not hear, He acts like He doesn't hear them.

Verse seven, so when they continued asking Him, they keep harassing Him: "What do you say we do? We want an answer. Moses said to do this. We're going to stone this girl. What do you say to do?" He raised Himself up and then He speaks. Now they're wanting an answer, here's what He says: "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."

Now verse seven has been quoted a lot in our country lately. It's amazing how godless people will jerk a verse and throw it out there. Have you ever been caught in a sin, and you could either deny it and run or just say, "There's nowhere to run." Now it's interesting in the world today and in any time, if you have enough power, you know what, you can get away with about anything.

But I'm going to tell you something: somebody's got more power than anybody on the planet, and there is a day—do not ever worry, guys. Some people worry, but somebody's going to get away with something. Let me tell you something, you're not going to get away with jack. And instead of praying, "God, take somebody out or punish somebody or do something," our prayer ought to always be "God have mercy on his or her soul" because the book says vengeance is mine, says the Lord, and I will repay.

And I don't know what somebody's done to you. I don't know how much pain you've been through. But you in your wildest imagination, you do not want to wish on anybody and you couldn't come up with anything worse than what God will do to people who mess with Him and His power and His will and what He's about. Pray God have mercy on their soul.

And I know people have gone through divorces, who have been raped, who have gone through all kind of stuff. And let me tell you something, you can carry that anger around the rest of your life, but you will never be free and you will never really live until you begin to say, "God, I've got to let this go. And Father, as mad as I am and the things that I think about doing to that person, I'm asking you to do to that person. I'm telling you, I'm going to let them go and I'm asking you to have mercy on their soul."

"Because if I got what I deserved, I'd fry too." Be careful what you pray on somebody else. And remember, there is a day coming, guys, when everyone will stand before either the judgment seat of Christ, the book says, or the great white throne judgment. We will all give an account, the Bible says, for the deeds done in the flesh, whether good or evil. There is a day coming when everybody, no matter how powerful they are on this side, will give an account.

So don't worry about that. He stands up and looks at these people and said, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her." Now what's the implication here? Who's going to throw a rock at her? Is there anybody on the planet who could have done what Jesus just said to them to do? There's only one person who has ever lived who could have done what He said to them to do, and He's the man that said it.

He is the only one without sin who could have picked up a stone and thrown it and been justified in it. Now look how this unfolds. "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. He goes back to writing or doodling on the ground. Verse nine: "Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last."

There's a mob of them. The oldest guy, the oldest scribe or Pharisee, had to take the lead. And when he left, the rest of them dominoed. They had to go too because if he was the one that could have done it, if anybody could, but when he was even convicted and had to walk, the rest of them realized, "Well, if he's not good enough to stone her, then maybe I'm not, and I'm not, and I'm not."

So they all file out. Now He has ignored these guys and now He has embarrassed these guys because they are either going to pick up stones and say "We are without sin" and kill this woman, or they're going to leave her alone and walk out and the whole crowd's watching this thing unfold. "Beginning with the oldest to the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst."

There's this woman. I'm talking minutes before probably had been caught with some man. She is thrown into this arena in this temple with the God of the universe and a man, all the leaders in the temple, all these people watching and listening in the morning. And a decision is about to be made to either end her life, take her outside the city and stone her, or somebody's going to intervene.

And this guy who's doodling in the sand says some words and drives the guys who have the power to condemn her. They're gone. So there she's left standing with Jesus and all of her shame and all of her fear, nowhere else to go. You don't hear anything about excuses, "Well, I didn't do it, they're wrong." You know what? She's just guilty. She's guilty as charged. She deserves to be stoned.

Sooner or later—now listen—sooner or later in your life, you will find yourself in a spiritual sense naked before Jesus Christ. And you will either stand there and make excuses and say, "Everything you're saying everyone else is saying is wrong," or you'll say, "I've got nowhere to hide, I've got nowhere to turn. Everything they said is true. What they say I did, I did. And I have no way out and I am completely at your mercy."

"And if you sentence me to die, I'll die. If you say I can live, I'll live." And there's no finagling, there's no appeals, there's nowhere else to turn. Sooner or later, you end up just you and Jesus, like this woman. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, now He speaks to the woman. He hasn't spoken to her yet.

Now listen to what He says: "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" Now guys, I don't know where you are in your life, and I don't know what you've done in your life, and I don't know what you're carrying around in your life. But whatever you've done, whoever you are, wherever you've been, whatever it is, you can't change it.

But Jesus can. You say, "But Richard, you don't know what I've done. I've robbed somebody, I've killed somebody maybe, I raped somebody." Whatever you come up with, you say, "Richard, you don't know what I've done. I've crushed somebody. I do things at work, I've been a ruthless business person." Whatever it is you think of, you say, "Richard, you don't understand. There's no way I have been condemned."

Now let me tell you something, guys: you are not God. You do not have the right to sentence yourself. And when you find yourself before the God of the universe and He says, "All right, you've been condemned by all these people, where are they now?" And they're gone, then it's you and Him. And if He looks at you and says "You are sentenced to death," you're going to die.

But if He looks at you and says, "Where are your accusers? Is there no one here?" Look what her answer is. She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." You say, "But I'm wrong." Please don't miss this, guys. This is the whole reason we do this church thing.

Either you don't have anything to pay for and there's no God, there's no heaven, there's no hell, there's nothing to it. You just eat, drink, and be merry, tomorrow we die, make the best of it. That's one scenario. Or there is something to this Jesus thing, and He either is God or He's not. And if He is God and He lived and He died, was buried, and rose from the dead, there is something to this.

Either you're going to handle your past, your future, your life, your sin, all your crap His way or you're going to pay for it your way. And the whole gospel, the whole life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is about this. Now listen: He died, was buried, and rose from the dead so you don't have to be condemned. He got condemned in your place.

He paid your way. He was sentenced to death when you deserved to die, when I deserved to die. And because He died, I live. Because He was punished, I don't have to be. And because He paid, it's not that I'm capable of sinning anymore, but He can say, "Look, just go, but don't sin anymore." You say, "But I'm a sinner."

This is one of the biggest lies on the planet. People say, "Well, I'm just a sinner saved by grace." Hogwash. If that's all you are, then you haven't received this power of God in you. You are not just a sinner saved by grace. You may have been a sinner and may have screwed up in your life, but if you have God in you, you have the power to say no to the temptation, say no to the sin, and to do the right thing.

If not, then what are we trying to do even? Let's just make the best of it and wing it every day. It is possible not to sin. But when you do sin, you do not have the right because you are not God. You do not have the right to condemn yourself and sentence yourself. And there are people—I spent 20-something years of my life this way, and there are people in this room and under the sound of my voice who are living this way.

God says you're free. God says you're forgiven. He says, "I choose not to condemn you because My Son died, was buried, and rose from the dead to pay your way. You have not been sentenced. You are free to go and sin no more." And we say what? "Man, that all sounds great, but God, you don't know what I've done. There's no way in the world I can get off. I've got to pay."

It is like if this were a courtroom and Jim is guilty of something and Jim comes up here and we try Jim and I say, "I'll take Jim's place." And Jim is pronounced not guilty and he's free to walk out the back door and go. But instead, Jim goes down to Lew Sterrett and says, "I need a cell." "Why are you here, sir?" "I'm guilty." "Why are you guilty?" "I just am."

"Didn't someone pay your way and pay your debt?" "Yeah, I understand that, but I'm just guilty." If you can pay your own way, what the heck do you need Jesus for? Either His death, burial, and resurrection paid it all and it's enough, or you're going to have to let Him make a down payment and you make the installments. And I'm telling you guys, it is enough.

It is enough that He died, that He was buried, that He was raised from the dead. He paid your way. Let Him pay. You live. You go and sin no more. I spent 20-something years of my life paying for something I could never repay, instead of letting Him be the payment and trusting in what He did on the cross in His burial and resurrection to provide life eternal, but abundant between here and heaven.

Now in a minute when we pray, I'm going to ask you to do something. If you're the one who feels caught today and you're the one who stands before this Jesus and you know who He is, and you realize He has the power to sentence you, but for the first time in your life you have heard Him say, "Go." Not "die," but "go and sin no more."

And He's forgiven you, He doesn't condemn you, and He has the right to, then I'm going to ask you to receive that gift of eternal life that He purchased when He died, was buried, and rose from the dead, and start living. Get a life. And if you are a Christian and you understand the story and you said, "Well, yeah, maybe He died enough to get me into heaven, but He can't get me through life and I'm going to pay while I'm on the planet."

Guys, you can't find that in the scripture. And I'm going to ask you to receive not a gift of eternal life, but a gift of abundant life and say, "God, I'm going to live between here and heaven. I'm not going to try to pay for this stuff. I can't. I'm going to let you." The same way Jesus died to pay for heaven, guys, He paid for whatever it is you're trying to pay for.

You say, "But Richard, you don't know how bad it is." Let me tell you something: He does. And this chick got caught in some pretty heavy-duty stuff, and God let her walk away. Now did she walk away going, "Whew, got out of that deal, let's go back and do the same thing"? She might have fallen again, but I don't think she left with that intention. It's not that she left perfect; it's that she left forgiven with some hope, with some future, with some forgiveness.

Let's pray. And our Father, I thank you for your Word. I thank you for this woman, and I thank you for the people here who in so many ways feel caught. And Father, sooner or later, there's got to be a point in our life where we just say, "I've got nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no more excuses, no more justification, no more rationalization. God, you're right and I'm wrong and I deserve whatever I get."

But Father, if that's where they find themselves, I pray they'd also understand that though we all deserve whatever we would get, Jesus got what we deserved. And that He died so we wouldn't have to. He suffered and paid the price so we wouldn't have to, Father. And for anyone, Father, who is struggling with this issue and trying so hard to participate and do something to earn your love or to be good or good enough or better than they've been, and they realize that there's no way they'll never be perfect, they'll never make it, Father, let them today receive this awesome gift of eternal life and just allow you to love them and live in and through them and give them the power they don't have, the life they don't have, the hope they don't have, the love they don't have for you, for themselves, and for other people.

And Father, for the believers, the people who already know you personally, who have trusted you to get them into heaven, but they can't trust you to get them through life, I pray that this day they would allow you to save them from themselves, Lord, from life itself, and live in them and through them between here and heaven and receive this freedom, this forgiveness, not condemnation, and realize that you're God, you have the authority and the power and the right to sentence all of us and you chose not to because of what Jesus did and that we need to receive that, Father.

I pray that would be the case in many lives today. Father, you are so awesome, you are so patient, so kind. Your mercy endures forever, and we thank you for loving us and for forgiving us and for what you're doing in this place today even right now. And we pray it all in Jesus' name who makes it possible. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Richard Ellis Talks. We deeply appreciate you taking the time to be encouraged by Richard's unique way of challenging us to become more like Jesus every day. Here we are in the month of May, and we want to take a different kind of twist to these days.

There's a common distress signal that is used for life-threatening emergencies where those who are facing dire circumstances declare "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" in hopes that someone will come to their rescue. Even though it's primarily used for aviators and mariners, we know that some of you are going through some really hard times.

We want to be a part of your buddy system that will support you in prayer and encouragement to help your heart land safely. So let me encourage you to go to our website, richardellis.com, and click on the prayer link under the "More" tab at the top. You'll go directly to our prayer wall where you can share your prayer request and know that we will be praying for you.

And for those who want to pray as well, you can click on the "Pray" tab at the bottom of the request. Because of a faithful donor, we have a substantial matching gift where your contribution will be doubled right now. Help us by becoming a prayer partner and by contributing to this ministry.

Someone may have been there in the past to help you during challenging times. Now it's your turn to partner up with those in need through prayer and support. Let's make this day a great day in someone else's life. Go to richardellis.com and support this mission today. That's richardellis.com.

You can also send us your gift by calling 855-6-RICHARD, 855-674-2427. Thank you. And until next time, thank you for listening. We look forward to coming alongside you again for more Richard Ellis Talks.