When I was in the ninth grade I ran track. Not really because I liked it or was good at it but because that’s what you did after football and basketball season. One of my events was the 440-yard race. One day during practice I was on the inside lane and was about to break out of the pack and make a move toward the finish. Just as I did the guy in the lane next to me (Sam Stathakis--not that I remember or anything) bumped me. As he did I fell off the track and landed, going the opposite direction. When I fell I heard something pop in my right leg but was able to get up and walk. When the coach checked me he told me to just go rub some "Cramer’s" on it.

Two days later, the pain was unbearable and my Mom took me to get it x-rayed. The doctor discovered that a bone in the inside of my thigh that held muscles in place had broken off and was now down in my thigh. So rather than more "Cramer’s", I was put in the hospital for a week in traction so that the bone could reattach itself. It took several weeks for me to recover. While I never ran track again, I later started running for exercise in college and continued until another injury in 1994 stopped it altogether. The fall was painful because something had broken. The hospital restored what was broken and allowed me to run once again.

People on the lost highway are people who are broken for one reason or another. They are people who have fallen from a path that is a "gateway to life" and have begun to travel a path that leads to destruction. For some, that pathway is as Jesus said, "a highway to hell." We’ve talked in these last weeks about "Exiting the Lost Highway." In order to exit the lost highway you must recognize you are going the wrong way and get direction to go the right way. Once you recognize you are going the wrong way you must turn around by unconditionally repenting of the sin or sins that are taking your further away from God. After you recognize the wrong direction and turn around by unconditionally repenting you need to start over by being restored through the love and grace of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that when someone has fallen into sin, when they are on a lost highway that they are to be restored. It says, "…If someone is caught in a sin. You who are spiritual should restore him gently" (Gal. 6:1). That word "restore" means to mend a broken bone or a broken net. The very best person to mend what I know is broken in your life and mine is Jesus.

The story that was read to you is the story of Jesus restoring a woman who had fallen from the path that God had intended for her. We see the crowd but also in the crowd were the religious leaders and Pharisees. They come in almost on cue and drop a woman in front of him who had been caught in the act of adultery. If ever someone were on the lost highway it would be this woman. We don’t know if this was her first time or her twentieth. It really doesn’t matter because her choices have now led to a shameful exposure of her sin. She may have been set up just as a ploy to get at Jesus. Regardless she is caught. The religious leaders and Pharisees who brought this woman pretend to be concerned for matters of moral law and justice. If they were concerned about justice they would have brought both the man and woman. As far as her accusers were concerned this woman was meaningless. She was merely an object, a pawn. She was bait to catch a bigger fish.

Jesus it seems is in a no win situation. Because of her being caught in the very act of adultery, their laws required her to be stoned. They were however only trying to trap him. If He says "No," He loses; if He says, "Yes," He loses. That’s the trap. The Jewish law says to stone her. If He says, "No," He violates religious law. So if He says "No" He loses. If He says, "Yes" He violates Roman law because Romans said Jews could not have execution in their jurisdiction. So either way – if He says, "Yes," He loses, if He says, "No," He loses.

I’ve got to imagine these religious leaders were pretty smug and prideful at this point. The tension is building between the woman, Jesus and the Jews. We don’t know why but Jesus response was that He just stooped down and wrote in the dust. Why? Maybe in a very non-verbal way He was turning His back to the religious elite. Maybe because he was God he knew what was going on in the hearts of everybody there. Maybe as He stooped down there was some anger and disappointment. The Bible doesn’t tell us what He wrote. We don’t know.

We don’t know what He wrote but what He says is very, very clear. "All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stone." It would have been very easy for Jesus to move into the role of judge but He doesn’t. He avoids that role. His brilliant response broke the dilemma because He didn’t say that what she did was right. He is saying, "I will not judge her. That’s not why I'm here." Was he capable? Oh, yes. Willing? No.

In verse 8 it says He stooped down again and wrote in the dust again. We don’t know why. Part of me thinks, knowing the character of God, He didn’t want to add to the shame of the woman. He knew that somehow the exposure of her sin had deeply connected with her soul and that further condemnation was worthless. Maybe as He’s down for that second time, He’s imagining what this woman was created to do and to be. Maybe He was looking at her and thinking that this creation was made to enjoy life, to have right relationships with others and with God, to be loved. The same dream that He has for all of us.

The result in verse 9 was that her accusers slipped away until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then in verse 10 Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, "Woman, where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?" The word "woman" is a word of affection. This is the same word that Jesus used when He addressed His mother. Imagine how this woman must have felt about herself. It probably wasn’t a name of affection. Maybe it was some of those things that she’d been called by those people around her or what she was thinking about herself at that time, it wasn’t one of pleasure or relationship. Yet Jesus said, "Woman."

She answered, ‘"No one, Sir.’ Then Jesus said, ‘Neither do I’". Think hard about those words. Jesus doesn’t step into the role of judge. He steps into the role of Restorer. The only one who could have thrown the stone didn’t even pick one up. Jesus alone could pronounce her, "Not guilty." Why? Because in a little while He was going to go to the cross and take all of her sin with Him as a payment for what she had done wrong, so He could say to her, "Not guilty." Then He says these incredible five words, "Go and sin no more."

Do you see this as a picture of what it means to be restored? He refused to condemn her any further and because he is God he accepts her without approving of the sin. Then by telling her to "Go…" he is in essence releasing her from her past sins and failures because his focus is toward the future. He doesn’t bring up the past. He doesn’t give her a lecture about adultery. He says, "Go…" But he adds that she now has the responsibility for her future by telling her, "… sin no more." He is telling her, "You’re forgiven. Now, go act like it." A paraphrase could be, "You did wrong. But I will pay for your sins. You matter to Me. I want you. I will not give up on you. I value your life. Don’t let it end here."

The Bible doesn’t tell us what happened to her. We don’t know. We do know this event reveals in the actions and words of Jesus what it means to have our broken lives restored to a new life once our sin has been confronted and confessed. He shows us how we can start over when we exit the lost highway.

How do you start over? How do you experience being restored? I believe restoration begins by resisting the trap of self-condemnation. (John 8:11) Jesus told her that he was not interested in joining any further condemnation of her for her sin. The reason, again he could say, this was that he alone would pay the penalty for her sin by his death on the cross. Therefore, once we have confronted and confessed our sin before God, the Bible says, "…if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us" (I John 1:9). Once that has happened, regardless of what our conscience says to us or how other people want to condemn us, when it comes to God the issue is over and done. The Bible says, "whenever our hearts condemn us…God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." (I John 3:20)

Now this doesn’t mean that our conscience will not assault us nor does it mean that other people who have been affected by our sin can just ignore the past. People hurt by our time on the lost highway cannot be expected to act like nothing ever happened. So what do you do? First, you have to decide to face and live through the pain of your choices. That may mean living with the tears, fears and damage that your sin has caused. Second, it will mean accepting the consequences of your sin. That can mean a broken marriage, a lost job, a time away in rehab or the sorrow of just living daily with hurt. You can’t blame at this point because your sin has no justifiable excuses. Third, you must choose to live in grace. That means you choose daily and hourly to remind yourself that on a human level you deserve every bit of anguish but that God has forgiven you and chooses to not place you under this judgment. You just live in grace. The trap of self-condemnation is strong but you will never know restoration as long as you stay there. When you have confronted and confessed your sin and feel the condemnation rising within you, hear Jesus’ words, "Neither do I condemn you" (NASV).

The next thing we have to do to let restoration begin is to let go of our past (Jn. 8:11). Jesus told the woman simply to "Go…." I’m really not trying to read a lot into this but what Jesus does is command her not only to leave the scene of shame but also leave her past, let it go and move on into new life. Why is letting go of your past so important for restoration? Because it affirms what God has already done with our sin. The Bible says that once we confess our sins that God not only forgives our sins but that he also can be trusted to "cleanse us from every wrong" (I Jn. 1:9). The word cleanse is the same as our word for "catharsis". It means to purify or become clean.

When we have spent time on the lost highway, it’s hard to let it go. We feel guilt and shame and condemnation. Yet if God through the death of Jesus on the cross has paid in full the penalty for all of our sin, nailed to the cross and it is settled, there is no reason for us to keep carrying it around. We need to let it go. Gordon MacDonald calls this carrying baggage from the past. He writes that when he and his wife Gail enter a hotel carrying their suitbags and attaché cases that they are "worn out, my back is sore, and I’m getting tired of traveling then a uniformed attendant comes alongside. "Let me take those for you," he says. ‘No,’ I answer. "We can handle them by ourselves." As much as I’d like to give them to the young man, we do not have any cash in our pockets (only credit cards), and I’m ashamed to admit the real reason.

"‘You sure? I’d like to help,’ he says. ‘I’m sure. Thank you,’ I say back. We reach the hotel desk, register, and turn toward rooms. ‘Let the bellman bring your bags up in a little while,’ the desk clerk says. ‘No thanks,’ I respond, again ashamed to admit that I’m short on tipping change. "‘Please let him do it,’ she says, ‘all the gratuities are added to your bill anyway. You don’t have to tip him.’ Has she read my mind? Have I carried these bags for fifty yards when someone was there, already pain in effect, to handle them for me? I have the brain of a bird.

"Carrying bags when someone is there, paid to carry them for me, is almost as incomprehensible as carrying baggage from the past… when Someone has already paid to lift it off me. And that’s exactly what happened at the Cross. As the hymn writer put it so well: ‘Jesus paid it all.’" (Rebuilding Your Broken World, P. 138-139) Jesus tells you to "go" and leave your past behind.

The final step for starting over on the lost highway is to accept responsibility for your future (Jn. 8:11). Jesus tells the woman "sin no more." He is telling her that her future from this point on is in her hands. It is her responsibility what she does with the restoration he is giving her. It lets us know that there is the possibility that she could return to life on the lost highway.

We have to recognize that we are responsible for our own future once God has restored us, once we have started over. That requires us to recognize that there is the danger of falling back into the sin from which we have been restored. How? If it is a relationship with another man or woman that has become toxic for you, then cut it off! Don’t email them, call them, write them, answer voice mails—as far as you are concerned they no longer exist. If it is a habit, then break it! Do what ever it takes to break the cycle of porn, drugs, alcohol, gambling, lying; whatever has been the habit of your past, break it! Then for your restoration to have any hope of succeeding, you will need help, so get it! We have resources here at our church that won’t cost you anything but your time and your pride. We have Celebrate Recovery every week. We have First Hope Counseling Ministry. If you want to talk to me, call me. If you don’t like any of those, we’ll show you other options. There are men and women who can meet with you. You won’t do this by yourself. You need help to get you started, and keep you accountable for heading in the right directions.

Another story that Gordon MacDonald tells is about watching a spider in his office build a web and then being intrigued by the various bugs that became trapped in the web. One day he noticed a fly that kept touching the web ever so slightly. He writes, "I have the impression that the fly was driven by curiosity about the spider’s web. Or perhaps he was playing I-dare-you games with the spider or with something within himself. Did the fly have something to prove? If he did, the fly didn’t get the job done. He made one visit too many to the edges of the web. This time the fly tiptoed too far out on the strands and suddenly became entangled. He struggled mightily but unsuccessfully. The well-built web held its pray, and soon the spider was out of his hiding place…pouncing upon the hapless fly. The contest was over swiftly, and the study was silent; no buzzing any longer." (Rebuilding Your Broken World, p. 141). Unless you cut off toxic relationships, break destructive habits and get help where you need it you are tiptoeing on the spider web! You are responsible for the future of your personal restoration. "Go," Jesus said, "and sin no more."

Conclusion for 10:50: Exiting the lost highway begins by recognizing you are going the wrong direction, turning around by unconditional repentance and starting over with grace-filled restoration. The time has come, though, for you to make a decision that you can’t do this by yourself. You must realize that to exit the lost highway will mean giving control of your life to the very person of Jesus Christ.

There’s a song by country artist Carrie Underwood that describes this well. It tells the story of a young mother going to see her parents on an icy road on Christmas Eve. Her baby is in the car seat in the back and because of some internal distractions and driving too fast the car starts spinning. She throws up her hands in fright, pleading for Jesus to literally take control of the car and save her and her baby. When the car does come to a stop she recognizes that God has done more than save her from a physical tragedy but has also given her a chance to start over with her life. So she says, "I’m sorry for the way I’ve been living my life. I know I’ve got to change. So from now on tonight Jesus take the wheel. Take it from my hands cause I can’t do this all my own. I’m letting go. So give me one more chance to save me from this road I’m on." ("Jesus, Take the Wheel," Arista Music)

Today he is inviting you to let go. He is giving you one more chance to save you from the road you are traveling. Let him have control today and exit once and for all the lost highway of your life.

Sunday, March 5, 2006

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org