Eph 573 6/18/87

DOCTRINE OF JUDGING

A. John 8:3-11.

1. Vs.3, “Now the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in the act of adultery. . .”

a. The Scribes and Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day during the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union. They formed the major portion of the Sanhedrin. (The other group, the Sadducees, were the liberals and are rarely found in any Gospel passages.) Only the Scribes and Pharisees are mentioned because they represent self-righteous arrogance. This is brought out in Mt 23 with the oft-repeated phrase, “Woe unto you Scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites.” So the Scribes and the Pharisees represent the leadership of client nation Israel during its decline in the fourth cycle of discipline.

b. They brought a woman caught in the act of adultery and made her stand in front of the crowd our Lord was teaching.

2. Vs.4, “And they said to Jesus, `Rabbi [Teacher], this woman has been caught in the very act of adultery.’” You can guess that these religious people caught her in the very act, having nothing better to do but to stick their nose in everyone else’s business.

3. Vs.5, “`Now the Mosaic Law commands us to stone such a woman [execute her]; now what do You say?’” Vs.6 tells us the motivation of these men. “They said this to entrap Him, in order that they might have grounds to accuse Him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger.” He just seemed to ignore them.

4. Vs.7, “Now when they persisted in interrogating Him, He straightened up and He said to them, `He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’”

a. Our Lord said this very carefully and very deliberately. Note that He did not go into the Mosaic Law which they correctly quoted. Little did they know that the Mosaic Law was already passe because the Jews were already under the fourth cycle of discipline and soon to be wiped away as a client nation to God. Therefore, the Mosaic Law wasn’t even pertinent at this point, but Jesus didn’t say that. He knew exactly what they were doing: they were trying to entrap Him, trying to get Him to say the Mosaic Law was wrong. It’s not wrong; it just wasn’t pertinent.

b. Actually “He straightened up” means He stood up at attention.

5. Vs.8, “And again He bent down and wrote on the ground.” Vs.9, “Now when they heard this, they began to leave one at a time [one by one], beginning with the leaders, until only Jesus was left with the woman who was still standing there.” Vs.10, “Then He straightened up and He said to her, `Woman, where are they? Did not one of them condemn you?’”

6. Vs.11, “`OUDEIS KURIE, i.e., Not one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, `Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on, stop this category of sinning.’”

a. Notice, they called Him Rabbi or Teacher. She called Him Lord; she was a believer. “No one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” This woman was a BELIEVER caught in the act of adultery.

b. If you are legalistic, this is mistranslated “go out and do not live a life of sin.” What self-righteous, pompous, arrogant legalism! That translation is tantamount to the scribes and Pharisees all over again, covered with the same self-righteous arrogance.

c. The negative adverb MEKETI plus the verb means “stop this category of sinning.” In other words, Jesus was saying, “You should be dead by now, so stop this category of sinning.”

d. She was still alive and a believer, and she lived into the Church Age, which was very close at hand.

e. The present active imperative plus any negative means stop doing what you’re doing! Jesus would never tell anyone to stop sinning, for we will sin as long as we live. None of us are perfect; all of us have an old sin nature. Our sins may become more subtle and compatible with self- righteousness, but sin we do. This woman’s sin is not among the seven worst sins in Proverbs 6.

f. The Scribes and Pharisees who brought this woman were guilty of far worse sins than she. She was caught in the actual act, so obviously the man was permitted to escape!

g. Jesus recognized, however, that she had sinned. The active voice of the verb recognizes this; the imperative mood was an order to stop doing what she was doing. Adultery and fornication is always a sin. Jesus did not say it was not a sin. He said, “I do not condemn you.” But He recognized she had sinned. He also recognized the greater sin of arrogance by the Scribes and Pharisees, motivated by arrogant self-righteousness.

h. The religious leaders called Him Rabbi; they did not accept Him as Messiah, even though before their very eyes He had demonstrated He was time and time again. She called Him Lord.

i. She was forgiven as a believer and would shortly live in the great power experiment of the Church Age, the dispensation of grace, in which precedent is not based on the Mosaic Law but on the fantastic invisible assets from invisible God designed to produce invisible heroes.

j. The issue is found in 1 Jn 1:9. Jesus Christ was going to the cross and, while there, He was judged for the adultery of this woman. That sin, like all sins, would be judged on the cross. So we simply name our sins in the privacy of our priesthood and we are forgiven because they’ve already been judged. We are restored to the divine dynasphere.

k. But notice, this woman has not confessed her sin; the religious crowd did it for her! She didn’t deny it; the record shows she didn’t say anything until the Lord spoke to her. Then she recognized His authority immediately. They confessed her sin for her, so there was no confession for her to make. They had already judged her and only wanted the Lord to say the word and she would have been brutally mangled under a pile of rocks. But our Lord made it very clear that since it was already a matter of public record, she was forgiven: “neither do I condemn you.”

l. Our Lord did tell her to stop that type of sin, because you can’t grow in grace and constantly be out of fellowship; it’s impossible! You can’t learn doctrine when you’re out of fellowship. This woman would live a long time, as our Lord recognized prophetically, into the Church Age.

B. Principle of Application.

1. Believers guilty of judging and maligning others are visible losers, while believers who learn Bible doctrine and from it attain spiritual maturity are winners and invisible heroes! The woman was visible as one caught in the act of adultery, but apparently she went on to become an invisible hero of the Church Age.

2. You cannot be occupied with the sins and failures of others and at the same time advance in the protocol plan of God, i.e., the Christian way of life. No self-righteous believer grows in grace! Morality has a place as establishment principle, but morality is not the Christian way of life. Virtue is, which is far greater and which is insulated against self- righteousness.

3. This woman probably lived long into the Church Age and probably executed the protocol plan of God and stopped this category of sinning, and became one of the invisible heroes in first century Christianity.

4. Invisible heroes utilize invisible assets of grace, execute the protocol plan of God through the perception of doctrine, and glorify God through the execution of His will, His plan, and His purpose.

5. Visible losers are negative toward doctrine, and they fail to understand and utilize their portfolio of invisible assets. Furthermore, they spend their lives in self-inflicted suffering, and they fail to receive the distribution of their very own escrow blessings for time and eternity.

6. Confusion reigns in any generation of the Church Age where pastors are ignorant of the mystery doctrine, the uniqueness of the Church Age, and the invisible assets provided by God for the fulfillment of the protocol plan of God.

7. All believers sin after salvation, but each one of us should have the right of rebound in the privacy of our own priesthood.

8. When someone else judges us, it becomes a source of frustration and discouragement and irritation, which means loss of motivation for believers in spiritual childhood. Notice that our Lord continued to encourage her motivation! How? In grace He said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on stop this category of sinning.” Her motivation was not damaged! This is our Lord teaching us a lesson!

9. The believer who contends that he does not sin after salvation is a liar and doctrine is not in him, 1 Jn 1:6-10. Furthermore, we have a tendency as we hang around with other Christians to commit far greater sins than adultery; e.g., arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, implacability, guilt; these are heinous sins all related to the arrogance complex. These are sins against God, whereas adultery is a sin against people.

10. In this Church Age, the failures of other believers must be left in the hands of the Lord for judgment and punitive action. (If you don’t learn this lesson, you may never grow up!) When one believer condemns or judges another believer, he blasphemes by superseding the Lord as our rightful Judge! You take it out of the hands of the Lord which is blasphemy! (The exception is parents to children.)

11. However, there never was a sin or failure by any believer that the Lord cannot handle far better than any one of us! It is only self-righteous arrogance that tells the Lord “Step aside and I’ll handle this.”

12. You leave the sinning believer in the hands of the Lord as judge! Do not interfere! This is a message many pastors ought to hear! The exception is parents over children or any other under establishment authority. Don’t ignore the sins and failures of your children. That’s why you are parents: to correct, to teach, to train.

13. If believers were more concerned about learning Bible doctrine, they would be less concerned about sticking their noses into the lives of other believers.

C. More Scriptural Documentation.

1. Romans 14:10-13.

a. Vs.10, “But you [believer], why do you judge your brother [fellow believer]? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ.” Contempt is the attitude of self-righteous arrogance, the attitude of the Scribes and the Pharisees.

b. Vs.12, “So then, each one of us shall give an account of himself to God.” You will have to account for your life before God. Why must you stick your nose into someone else’s life? Who made you ruler over us?

c. Vs.13, “Therefore, let no one judge one another any more, but rather determine this: not to put an obstacle [stumbling block] in a brother’s way.” This is what the Scribes and Pharisees were doing. While we’ve condemned them, they are still with us in fundamental circles: evil men and women maligning, gossiping, and judging other believers.

2. 1 Cor 4:5, “Therefore, do not be judging anything before the appointed time of judgement, but wait until the Lord comes who will bring to light the things hidden in darkness, and disclose the motives of people’s right lobes, that each person’s praise will come from God.” Some of you just can’t wait. It’s your area of weakness; you’re a jealous, vindictive type, always running someone down. But this passage tells you to wait until the Lord comes, a reference to the Rapture followed by the Judgment Seat of Christ.

3. Mt 7:1-3 is the practical application to your life. “Judge not, or you too will be judged.” Vs.2, “For in the same way you judge others you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you again.”

a. If there’s anything amusing (were it not so tragic), it’s to see a self-righteous moral person being judged for fornication they didn’t commit! But it happens all the time!

b. God will not permit anyone to take His place in judging or evaluating other believers! Vs.3, “Now why do you look at a speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the 2 X 4 in your own eye?” That’s what the Pharisees were doing. The woman’s sin was a speck of sawdust; the Scribes’ and Pharisees’ sin was a 2 X 4 in the eye. They were guilty of a series of heinous sins: arrogance, gossip, maligning, judging.

D. Solution to Judging.

1. +H, or sharing the perfect happiness of God, the greatest problem solving device, is a good alternative to judging others! The trouble is you must wait until you get at least to spiritual self-esteem before you have +H. But once there, it is one of the best solutions to having this weakness of maligning and judging others. Two verses present this fact.

2. Ps 128:1, “How happy is every believer who is occupied with the Lord.” That says in effect that a believer with +H is so happy that he doesn’t stick his nose into others’ business and malign them or judge them or gossip about them.

3. Ps 146:5, “Happiness belongs to the one who has confidence in the Lord.”

a. Confidence in the Lord is a description of spiritual self- esteem. If you have confidence in the Lord, you are not running around gossiping, maligning, and judging other believers. You have confidence in the Lord not only in your relationship with Him, that He will provide for all your needs and see you through all your adversities, but you also have confidence that He will judge those who are judging you, maligning you, and getting in the way between you and the Lord’s necessary discipline of you.

b. The Lord must postpone discipline when believers malign, gossip, judge, for they have become the judge. They have “elbowed the Lord” right off the bench - the quintessence of human arrogance.

4. It is generally true that none of us completely master this area of temptation and we all too often sin in this manner until we reach the point of spiritual self-esteem. That’s where +H as a problem solving device begins.

5. Happy Christians just simply don’t malign others or try to straighten out everyone around them. +H takes up the slack for this vicious and heinous area of sin.

___

---------------------------------------------------------------------------