Practical Steps to Stop Throwing Stones and Start Restoring

You really want to know who's really tired?

It's my wife, who is 39 weeks pregnant, and she will be 40 weeks on Tuesday if she happens to go into labor while I'm preaching tonight, we have a code word.

It is cookies are in the oven.

All right?

So if you hear that randomly, that means I got to go.

I'll give you the points real quickly and I'll leave.

All right?

But anyways, it's good to be here with you guys tonight.

If you would turn to your Bibles, to John, chapter eight.

John, chapter eight.

This is a very familiar story, of course, if you know anything about John, chapter 8, the first 11 verses.

This is when the Pharisees bring in the woman who was caught in adultery.

And we see some interesting things from these 11 verses that I think would be a really great help to us tonight.

And if you would, in a moment here, we'll look at verse number one.

But I want you to put yourself in the story picture.

You're one of the people maybe in the synagogue while Jesus is preaching.

Maybe put yourself as one of the disciples or maybe even put yourself in the woman's shoes.

Put yourself in this story.

And I think the Lord will use that in a great amount of way.

Let's look at verse number one.

It says, jesus went out, or sorry, went unto the Mount of Olives.

And early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him.

And he sat down and taught them.

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery.

And when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act.

Now, Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned.

But what sayest thou?

This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him.

But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not.

Tonight I would like to talk to you tonight on Casting Stones.

Let's pray.

Lord, I want to thank you so much for you giving me this message tonight, Lord.

It spoke to my heart in a great way, Lord.

And Lord, I pray that I wouldn't just preach to the congregation here, Lord, that I'd preach to myself and that you would take over my words, Lord, and that it would be your message and not mine, Lord.

Hide me behind your cross.

I pray, Lord, this in your holy name.

Amen.

Have you ever found forgiveness from somebody?

Sure we have.

Maybe you've also been the one to forgive somebody.

Maybe it was right away.

Maybe it took some time, but we all have experienced the circle of forgiveness in our life.

The problem is, is that many Christians become numb to the experience of forgiveness and forgiving others.

The Bible is clear that we are to forgive our debtors while God forgives our debts.

Unfortunately, this problem has stemmed from unholiness and self righteousness practiced in our life.

I remember as a teenager, I was a young teenager, I was maybe probably 14 if I remember correctly.

And there was a person that started coming to our youth department.

I won't say names, I won't say if it's a boy or girl.

At least I'll try not to, just to try to keep it the situation private.

But they did not normally come to our church during this time.

My youth pastor was Brother Jesse Latta.

And we had every once in a while, every year there would be some kids that would come in and out, maybe from, you know, different churches, maybe not of similar faith, but not quite the same.

And you know, that wasn't a huge deal.

We were happy that they were there and unfortunately my pride took over in one moment.

And this person posted on social media, they posted that they were at their other church and in my self righteousness I commented something that wasn't very nice.

Unfortunately, I thought that I was being righteous in the moment.

I was calling them out on their sin, I was calling them out on their, on their lack of faith or their lack of spirituality.

And come to find out that cut deeper than I expected it ever would.

And that person stopped coming regularly.

And it was my fault and I'm ashamed of it.

Do you often find yourself casting the first stone?

I have tonight three ways to avoid casting stones.

Number one, avoid looking for the opportunity to.

In verse number one, it says, Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives early in the morning.

He came again to the temple, right?

He's sitting there, he's preaching to the people.

This is a very, you know, serious time.

This is a time of quietness and a time of God's word.

And the Pharisees, we know them, we know how spiritual they are or the lack thereof, how spiritual they at least think that they are.

And that comes and basically bites them on the foot more times than you can count.

And it's amazing that they come and bring this woman before Jesus.

They're trying to trip him up.

They're trying to say, I wonder if we can get him on this.

Moses law says that if you're caught in adultery, you are to be stoned and even a little more Crazy, this, that.

Not a lot of people notice this, but the Bible says right here that when they're talking to Jesus, it says, master, this verse number four.

Master, this woman was taken in adultery.

In the very act they caught her red handed.

In other words, not to be crude tonight, but were they looking for it?

Were they waiting?

They managed to catch her in the act.

There's a good possibility that when they brought her before Jesus, she may have not been decent.

They've embarrassed her, they've shamed her.

They're coming in and interrupting the synagogue preaching.

They're thinking, we've got Jesus now because we're acting on Moses law.

She should be stoned.

I love what we're going to get here to a moment.

But isn't it amazing how the people looking to cast stones will often find the words in the Bible to fit their narrative?

We have to be very careful of this.

I have to be carefulness.

I cannot take God's word and apply it to my belief.

It's that I need to take my beliefs and apply it to God's word.

I need to align with God's word, not God's word aligned with me.

In other words.

And too often, especially Christians, they will take verses and twist things.

It sounds good, that's the right words.

But it doesn't come across the same way.

Unfortunately, Pharisees have been twisting God's word to fit their narrative.

And right here the Pharisees were looking for it, right?

They're looking for the moment to catch this woman in the mat to bring her before Jesus.

How you say, how does this apply to me?

Well, have you ever called someone out wrongfully?

No, I'm not saying you're going to somebody and you're saying, you know, hey, this is something that I'm concerned about and I'm concerned for your soul.

That's not what I'm talking about.

How quickly are you to judge someone that maybe is a newer Christian?

Maybe they're just getting kind of the swing of things.

There's something that has plagued our churches across America and that is this holy, the self holiness, self righteous way of thinking that we need to hold down the standards now.

We are the ones that are supposed to speak up.

Oh, he came wearing a T shirt to church today.

Did you see her skirt?

Her skirt was way too short.

How.

Why did they bring their kids in basketball shorts?

Did they not have anything nicer to wear?

I know, I'm just picking on the clothes now, but this is our examples.

I'm sorry, I cannot Picture Jesus Christ saying those things.

Aren't we supposed to be like Jesus?

Are we supposed to follow in his steps, align with what he says?

But we don't.

We try to align what Jesus says with what we believe.

We like to take God's word and say, nope, this is how it works for me.

Not what is God's word actually saying?

And you see the Pharisees, they were caught, ran, headed by Jesus.

We'll see that in a moment.

In Proverbs 17:9, it says, he that covereth a transgression seeketh love.

But he that repeateth a matter separateth their friends, separateth very friends.

Matthew 7, verses 1 through 5 says, Judge not that ye be not judged.

Now we can twist that, say, oh, you're not allowed to judge.

But here's the kicker right here in verse number two, it says, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.

And with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye.

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Unfortunately, this woman was caught in adultery.

She was doing wrong.

She did break God's law.

But how often do people break God's law?

Especially according to the Old Testament standards that they didn't get caught.

Do they still die?

I believe that God dealt with them, sure.

But I also believe that there was still forgiveness during that time to God's nature.

And we're quick to even in the New Testament age, we are under grace.

That does not give us a free ticket to act the way that we want to.

But we should be administering grace to others.

We are quick to snap back.

We're quick to react.

In other words, we're very fast to pick up a stone.

So number one, avoid looking for the opportunity.

And number two, avoid ignoring your own conscience.

In verse number seven, it says, so when they continued asking him, he lifteth up himself and said to them, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

And they which heard, being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, probably because they had more sense even unto the last.

And Jesus was left alone.

And the woman standing in the midst.

The Pharisees have everyone fooled here.

They're the religious ones coming in the building.

They set the standard for everyone else.

If you don't align with what the Pharisees were, then you just weren't making the cut.

They had everyone fooled.

Their self righteousness got in the way of their own consciousness.

They never once considered the sin in their own lives.

When they took this woman, how come they didn't take the man with her?

If she was truly caught in adultery, why didn't they take the man with her?

There's a few arguments on why that was.

Was it because it was one of them?

We don't know was one of their buddies?

It's possible.

The most clear answer is that they could manhandle her into Jesus.

That was basically some of the bottom line there.

They could force her before Jesus.

Way easier for them.

It also makes Jesus look worse by casting punishment onto a woman.

There's some people that believe that.

You see, the Lord knows the sin of all.

I like right here what it says in verse number six.

But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not.

What did he write?

I don't know.

A lot of people speculate and there's probably good evidence for it.

He wrote each of those men's names down and the sand in the dirt and the next to their name, their sin.

If I was one of these men, Jesus would have knelt down in the sand and said, noah Day did this at 9:00am this morning, did this at 3:00 clock this afternoon.

Maybe even some of them had also committed adultery.

We don't know for sure.

We can't be dogmatic about it.

But how quick they were to cast judgment on this woman and to catch Jesus.

We've caught him, we've tripped him up.

This is when he falls.

You see, we actually do that with God every single day.

I got away with sin because no one else saw it.

No one else knows what I did today.

It's good, God will forgive me.

It's all good.

But heaven forbid if my spouse did the same thing.

Heaven forbid if my child does the same exact thing.

How often as Christians are we so quick to pick up a stone?

And the problem is, is that we have silenced the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We said, I'm good enough, I don't need my conscience, I'm holy enough, I am self righteous enough.

And we may not be saying Those exact words in our mind.

But I do believe that even I myself have a problem with convincing my own self of this.

The Lord knows all sin.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, is hid from God.

We fool ourselves into thinking we can hide our own transgression from the Lord.

Have we truly given ourselves to the Lord?

And if our emotions control our actions, if our wants control our actions, if our fleshly, worldly desires control us, rather than God's Holy Spirit, God gives us his spirit to utilize.

It's supposed to empower us to fight against the sin.

But we've silenced him.

In fact, churches across America have silenced him.

It's a shame, really.

Imagine how much more could be done for Christ if the Holy Spirit had a hold of our conscience.

Too often we do not let God's word influence our decisions.

We would rather act on our own opinions, selfish desires.

How about this one?

This is a problem for me.

Pride.

Unfortunately, I have an issue with pride.

I'll admit that tonight.

I do.

I have a pride problem.

I have a major pride problem because I like to use things for my own self gain.

Use situations to make myself look better.

So I get praised, so I'm loved more.

It's foolish.

Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24 says, Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts.

Have you ever prayed this before?

I have when I was younger.

And it's hard, I have to admit.

It's hard for me to pray this again and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.

Too often I have left my own spirit, lead me rather than God.

In Romans 2, verses 1 through 3, it says, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man.

Whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.

For thou that judgest does the same things.

There's been a lot of times I've been quick.

I'm gonna embarrass my wife here tonight.

I've been quick to call my wife out on something that bothered me, that made me upset.

And then she took a step back and said, but you did this.

And I have to be silent because I'm just as guilty.

In fact, I was probably even more guilty, come to think of it.

And that's what that verse right here means.

It means that if we're super quick to condemn the sins of others, we're really just condemning ourselves.

Verse number two, it says, but we are of Romans, chapter two.

But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them, them which commit such things.

And thinkest thou this, O man that judgest them which do such things, and doeth the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

You think you've gotten away with it?

Unfortunately, God's judgment has come on my life more times than I can count, more times than I'd like to admit.

Yes, God has provided he loves me, but he chastens me.

He puts me back on the right track a lot of times.

And sometimes he tries and I don't let him.

This is my pride.

But you that are very quick to judge, you better be very careful.

Number one, avoid looking for opportunity to cast stones.

Number two, avoid ignoring your own conscience.

And number three, avoid standing in the way of God's restoration.

Look at verse number 10 right here.

When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, woman, where are those thine accusers?

Hath no man condemned thee?

She said, no man, Lord.

Jesus comes to this woman.

I imagine the room's gotten silent at this point.

I imagine that when those Pharisees and scribes cleared out, it was silent for a second and Jesus stood up.

And he looks around anyone else left, walks over to the woman, says, where are your accusers?

May I remind you tonight, Jesus, because of what he did for us on the cross, constantly asks us the same question, especially if you're saved.

Where are your accusers?

Because I paid for it.

That is what Jesus says here.

Where are your accusers tonight?

Have you let others tear you down?

Have you let yourself tear you down?

God's here saying, Jesus is here saying, where are your accusers?

Where are the ones that are tearing you down because I paid for you with my own blood?

Where are your accusers tonight?

Do they have a say in your life?

Do they have a hold of your actions?

Verse number 11.

She said, no man, Lord.

And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.

When the Pharisees were out of the way, it was just Jesus and her.

The noise was gone, the so called, the prosecution was gone.

Jesus did not condone the sin.

As you can see here in verse number 11.

He said, Sin no more.

He didn't condone it.

You know, there's some Bible translations that they've taken this story out because they were worried that it would be a way that people would manipulate for to get away with adultery.

That's ridiculous.

Because Jesus does acknowledge the sin.

He says, go and sin no more.

The sin was not okay, but I paid for that sin, and I'm going to restore you.

Jesus did not condone sin.

He called the sin what it was.

He did not excuse her actions.

Let's make that clear.

It was not excused.

He had every right to pick up a stone.

He's God, after all.

If we truly believe he is the Son of God, he had every right.

And when he stood up and those Pharisees were gone, he had every right to pick up a stone and to cast judgment and to cast execution.

Maybe Jesus did.

I don't know.

Does the Bible say.

But we could be creative.

Maybe he did pick up a stone.

Maybe.

Maybe when he's asking her these questions, where's your accusers now?

And she says, no, man, Lord.

And he says, neither do I, and just drops the stone.

There's a lot of people, unfortunately, in this world that believe that they cannot be restored back to Christ.

I talked to individuals out still winning in California when I was.

And I remember this one woman I had a really good conversation with.

She was kind of doing some things in her garage and her husband was there.

And we were just talking, and I was asking her, have you ever accepted Christ as your personal savior?

Have you ever made a decision like that in your life?

Would you like to know more about that?

And she says, well, yes, but I don't understand how God can forgive me of everything that I've done.

I'm too far gone.

May I ask you that?

Was the thief on the cross too far gone?

Was Paul the murderer too far gone?

Are you too far gone tonight?

And Jesus is here to say, you're not.

You are not too far gone tonight.

She was forgiven and restored.

Jesus told her to move on, move on from your sin.

This is a problem with a lot of Christians, that they'll get into this habit of asking forgiveness constantly and constantly and constantly for the repeating sins in life.

And then they finally come to the point of saying, the problem is not that I'm not getting forgiven.

The problem is I'm not moving on from it.

I wonder what would happen if we had a world of Christians that just moved on from their sin, that truly left it at the feet of the cross, the cross where Jesus paid for that sin and said, that does not control me because Christ is mine.

I wonder what would happen.

Jesus gave her a second chance.

And right now, tonight, God is giving you a second chance.

He's giving you a second chance on casting judgment, and he's giving you a second chance on if judgment has already been cast to you.

You have a second chance tonight.

Is this not God's will for us Christians?

We are to encourage each other to defeat sin and draw closer to the Lord and restore the person.

But the problem is our self righteousness gets in the way of God's restoration.

Restore the person, condemn the sin.

Let's let God be the ultimate judge and let's let him deal with his children.

Let just let us be a love and support to them being an encouragement care for the soul as Christ cared for yours.

Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

Galatians 6:1 says, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

We need to not be on the hunt to condemn, but be on the lookout to restore.

Micah 6:8 says, he has showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.

James 2:13 for he shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy, and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

Avoid looking for opportunities to condemn.

Instead, look for opportunities to uplift, to help, to forgive and encourage.

Go to the brother you see falling.

Go to that sister you see stumbling and say, hey, I'm not condemning you.

I'm here to help you.

I see the path that you're going down and it's contrary to God's word.

And I love you enough to help you, not to shun you, not to cast you aside.

Avoid ignoring your own conscience.

Instead, ignore your fleshly reactions and surrender to the Holy Spirit in your life.

Stand aside.

Sorry.

Avoid standing in the way of God's restoration.

Stand aside and let God work in the hearts of others so that he may restore them.

Unfortunately, there's too many Christians even in churches today.

They got in the way of God restoring someone else in their life.

They stood in the way because they had the stone in their hand.

How foolish can us Christians be?

How foolish can I be?

Before you pick up the stone, remember the mercy God showed you.

Don't look for an opportunity to condemn.

Don't ignore your own conscience and don't stand in the way when God is trying to restore somebody.

We can call sin what God calls it without becoming an executioner.

Our responsibility is to speak truth, extend mercy, and point the sinner toward restoration with Christ.

As the musicians get ready tonight, I have too often caught myself doing this.

Whether it was to somebody's face or behind their back, I was quick to cast my stone.

Oh, it feels good.

In the moment I won, victory is mine.

But instead it leaves your brother or sister bruised and bloody.

Do you feel like you're too far gone from God?

Because you're not.

Jesus wants to restore you tonight.

With every head bowed and every eyes closed as we all stand.

This altar is open for you.

Maybe there's some things in your life you need to get right tonight.

Maybe you've been quick to cast judgment.

Maybe judgment has been casted quickly on you.

Bring it to the Lord tonight.

Laid out this altar.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for this evening.

Thank you so much for the message, Lord.

Lord, I pray that this time invitation would be a blessing and that others would restore to you.

Lord, we love you.

In Jesus name I pray.