I invite your attention to Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. Depending on which way I look,
my eye might look kind of scary and I apologize. Please bear
with me. Ecclesiastes chapter 3, look
with me at verse 1. It's a solemn in writing under
the inspiration of God. He says in Ecclesiastes chapter
three, verse one, to everything there is a season and a time
to every purpose under the heaven. No exceptions. Our God is sovereign,
completely sovereign over everyone, everything. Everywhere, all the
time, no exceptions, and to everything that has ever happened, to everything
that ever will happen, there is a season, it means a point
in time, and a purpose under the heaven. God's purpose, God's
will, that's what comes to pass in everything. Now, in what we're
about to look at, there's a spiritual picture in all of these things
we're about to read about. Look at verse 1 again. To everything
there is a season and a time. To every purpose under the heaven
a time to be born and a time to die. We're all born right
on time. We all die exactly at God's appointed
time. He's appointed our bounds that
we cannot pass. And know this, here's the spiritual
picture. As God's elect children, we're born again. That's what
our Lord said. You must be born again. The Holy
Spirit moves where it will. He does this, okay? And we're
born again by God the Holy Spirit at His appointed time, alright?
Verse 2 goes on to say, there's a time to plant and a time to
pluck up that which is planted. Did you know that God has planted
His people in the Lord Jesus Christ from before the foundation
of the world? And in time, through the preaching of His gospel,
He reveals that to us, causes us to know that and believe that.
We've been planted in Christ, and Christ, through the preaching
of His Word, is planted in us, born in us. Christ lives in us. Verse 3 right here says, there's
a time to kill and a time to heal. Know this, the Lord Jesus
Christ, He alone holds the keys to hell and death. Know this, brethren, if we're
in Him, we have already died. You know, the longer we're here,
the more we experience, at least myself, in this flesh I fear
death, but we know that after death comes the judgment. But
if we're in Christ, it's already happened. It was appointed unto
Him once to die. He was judged for us. We're crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, right now we live.
We have spiritual life. We live, move, and have our being
in Him. We're alive in Him. Truly alive. Verse 3 goes on to say that there's
a time to break down and a time to build up. God will break us
down. In our flesh, we're so high and
lofty, naturally. But if we belong to God, He's
going to break us down. He's absolutely going to break
us down and build us up. Not in the flesh, He's going
to build us up in Christ. And I thought of what our Lord
said. He said this concerning His body which represents all
His people. He said, destroy this temple
and in three days I will raise it up. That's exactly what God
did. destroyed us in Christ and has raised us up together, one,
with and in Him. It was appointed. Praise God
it was appointed. Verse 4 says that there's a time
to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to
dance. Our lives involve a lot of weeping and mourning. They
just do. You who've lived a bit longer
than me, you've experienced this, you know it. But for God's elect
people, I know this, true joy is coming in the morning. We
may be weeping today. Oh, but joy is coming in the
morning, brethren. It's coming. We mourn. By God's grace, we
mourn over our sin. The old wretched man that I am,
as Paul said. Oh, but we can laugh and dance
in our Savior's triumph over our sin. We can and we shall. That's what we're going to do
forever. We're going to rejoice in our Lord. We're commanded
to rejoice and be glad now, and I pray that we can. I pray that
God will enable us to. And even if we tend to be more
down than up here, if we're with Christ in glory, we're going
to rejoice evermore. We will. Now for our message, I want to
look here at verse 5. The first half of verse five it says this,
there's a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. There's a time to cast away stones.
It means cast stones, throw stones. Now in the scriptures, stones
are often associated with death and judgment. In Joshua 10, I
read that God cast down great stones from heaven and killed
many. You remember David and Goliath,
right? What did the Lord cause David to use by which he killed
that giant Philistine? A stone, a rock. People often
died via stoning. It was a means of death that
God had given through His law. Now, people have corrupted that.
You recall religious leaders. The Apostle Paul, formerly Saul,
stood there consenting to the death of Stephen, a dear minister
of God. Died via stoning, and yet, know
this too, that's okay. That was appointed by God. His
death was no accident, no tragedy. It was a God-given appointment.
But yet it was a great sin committed by Saul and those men. And you
recall our Lord too, the Jews, the religious folks, they tried
to stone our Lord. Sinfully. Now I'd like to consider
this matter of casting stones, and to do this I'm going to turn
somewhere, you probably know where I'm going, but we're going
to keep a finger here in John chapter 8. Turn with me to John
8. We're going to leave here and come back here a couple times,
John 8. Read the first five verses. John 8 verse 1. It says, Jesus 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 and the law
commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou?"
Now, right here, we just read that early in the morning, all
the people, a great multitude of people came to our Lord to
hear him. Does that not bless your heart?
When I read that, I think about every time we gather here to
worship our God, what a wonderful... Just like right before Peter
said something foolish at the Mount of Transfiguration, he
said, Lord, it's good for us to be here. It's so good for us to
be here. It's so good for us to be here, to sit and hear His
Word. Just like Mary, she sat at His
feet and heard His Word. The one thing needful, the one
thing that shall never be taken away from her, our Lord said.
These people came to our Lord to hear Him. Well, then some
other people showed up. The scribes and the Pharisees.
Again, religious leaders. Are those not the very people
you would expect to be hearing God speak? And yet they came
with something in their mind far more important, far greater. A greater concern to them than
sitting and hearing our Lord speak. What did they do? They
went and they sought out a sinner. They went hunting for a sinner.
And they found one. They found one. And they bring
this poor woman to the Lord God Almighty. They called Him Master,
Teacher. And they acknowledge the law
concerning this woman. Law says it's time to cast stones.
What do you say? What do you say? Now, I sure
hope that we can easily see the error taking place here. First
of all, let's not make it our business to go find a sinner.
I pray God would cause us to find the sinner right here. Look no further. I have no business
going to point out your sin. And if we love one another, that's
the last thing we're going to do. We're going to cover a multitude of
sins. We're going to cover sin. Acknowledge our own sin and not
worry about anybody else's. We don't have the right. You
know that? We don't have the right to go
find someone else's sin. Well, here's a sinner. I pray
we have no such desire. That's the first thing. Now,
there is a time for sin to be exposed, but it's not our business
to do that. It's God's business. It's God's
business. That's the purpose of God's holy
law, to expose sin. It's kind of ironic. Here they
come looking to the law saying, the law says we should stone
her, not knowing that the law Shows their own sin. Ignorant
to their own sin. And we're about to see this.
Now, concerning the law, yes, the law says she should be stoned. The law says we all should be
stoned. The law says we all must die. We've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. The stones of God's strict justice
and judgment must be cast against our sin. Absolutely. And I want
to show you a verse here. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 6. I want there to be no mistaking
that this woman, she deserved to die. Absolutely she did, and
so do we. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9. It says, Know ye not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived,
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit
the kingdom of God." Does anybody hear any of these things? Anybody? If we're any of these things,
God says we can't enter in. I'll go ahead and read the next
verse it blesses my heart. It says in such were some of
you now Let me preface this by saying we're this captures all
mankind that we're all guilty of these things but but the ones
that he just told us here such were some of you are are the
ones who God's done something for. He tells us right after
that, such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, set apart, made holy, but ye are justified, made pure
in the sight of God, righteous as God, justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Brethren,
we're all guilty. We say, well, I've never committed
adultery. Well, I've never committed fornication.
Turn to Matthew 5. I'm telling you, God's Word is
able to convict us. Oh, I pray it will convict us
right now. Perhaps we say, I've never committed this. Well, look
here, Matthew 5, verse 27. I just thought of that Pharisee
that stood in the temple boasting of what he had done and what
he'd not done, what he was and what he wasn't. Well, look here,
Matthew 5, 27. You have heard that it was said
by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. It's God's
law, don't commit adultery. But I say unto you, that whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery
with her already in his heart. And it's not just talking about
men looking at women, women looking at men. He ever looked on somebody
to lust after them? God says, we have committed adultery
in our heart. God doesn't just look on the
outward appearance like we do. God searches the heart. He knows
the heart. He tries the reins. You can't
hide anything from Him. He knows the secrets of our heart,
the secret thoughts, the secret sins, secret to others, but there's
no secrets before God. Everything's naked and open before
the eyes of Him with whom we have to do everything. God sees
what takes place in our heart every second of every day. How
does that make you feel? Does it make you need a hiding
place? Does it make you need a refuge to run to and cling
to, a rock to hide in? These scribes and Pharisees,
here's the truth, they were no less adulterers than that woman
they dragged before our Lord. They were no less adulterers
than she was. And they didn't bother to bring the man. Did
you ever think about that? We'll just cut him some slack. God
tells us both are guilty. God tells us they were guilty
too. They had wicked, deceitful hearts and God knew it. They
just didn't know it. I pray God will cause us to know.
Oh Lord, reveal unto me my sin, my wicked, evil heart. God saw
the wickedness of man. He saw that it was great in the
earth, and every imagination of the thought of his heart on
the evil continued." Thank God he prepared an ark. Back in John 8 again, verse 5
again. John 8, verse 5. Now Moses and
the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest
thou? This they said, now look at their motive here, tempting
him. that they might have to accuse Him. They weren't interested
in justice. They weren't interested in righteousness.
They were just interested in accusing Him, tempting God. That's all they cared about.
Lifting themselves up and putting Him down. That was their concern.
Verse six again, this they said, tempting Him that they might
have to accuse Him. Oh, but I love this. But Jesus
stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground as though
He heard them not. So when they continued asking
him, he lifted up himself and said unto 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
it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one
by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last, and Jesus
was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. What happened? Something happened. Our Lord
stooped down and wrote on the ground. I don't know what he
wrote. Apparently, we're not meant to know, and that's okay.
But look what he said. Look at the powerful words he
spoke. You that is without sin, here you've come as a judge over
this woman. You that has no sin, you go right
ahead and cast that first stone at her. You that has the right,
go ahead. You know why none of them cast
a stone? Because none of them was without sin. None of them
had the right. None of them. Our Lord alone
had the right. He alone has the right to cast
the stones of judgment against sin. No man, no man but the God-man. No man but Him, the one righteous
man. The very righteousness of God.
He's the only judge. The only judge. There's one judge.
The Father hath committed all judgment to Him. The Son of God,
God the Son. Now, we read through verse 9,
we see at the end of that verse that the Lord was left alone
standing there with a woman. Now, up to this point, these
men are all gone. The people our Lord was preaching
to at the beginning of the chapter, they're apparently gone. It's
our Lord and this woman. It's the God of heaven and earth
who has the right to punish sin, who does punish all sin. The
judge of all the earth, who will judge rightly. and a sinful woman. And we're looking at the subject
of casting stones, and apparently there were some stones right
there ready to be cast. What's going to happen? Is our Lord
going to cast the stones at her? Verse 10. When Jesus had lifted
up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine
accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Can you imagine how she must
have felt? I have no idea. I suppose that
she didn't know the Lord before this encounter. That would make
sense. Throughout this encounter, I
have no doubt our Lord revealed himself to her. And when he said
these words to her, neither do I condemn thee. Can you imagine
the joy that must have flooded her soul? Can you imagine the
shame with which she sat there? I'm sure she sat there in great
shame the moment she was brought before those people. I'm sure
she was in terrible shame just before the Pharisees and the
scribes. But when she knew that she's sitting before the Lord
of glory, can you imagine the shame she must have felt? And
for Him to look her in the face and say, neither do I condemn
thee. I who alone have the right to
condemn you, neither do I condemn you. Oh, oh my soul. How graciously our Lord dealt
with this woman. How graciously our Lord has been
pleased to deal with guilty sinners. He did not cast the stones at
her, though that's what those Pharisees and scribes wanted.
That's all they wanted, was to see the stones thrown at her.
Oh, but did you know, though it was not time to cast stones
at her, I believe it was time to cast stones at those scribes
and Pharisees. Our Lord, did He not cast the stones at their
conscience? Is that not why they walked out one by one, beginning
at the eldest, even to the youngest? The Lord convicted them in their
conscience. But why did He not cast the stones
at her? Here's why. Because it was time, according
to the eternal purpose of God and His goodness and grace, it
was time for Him to gather stones together. It was time to gather
stones together. You see, this woman had not been
appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. There's a time to cast away stones,
and there's a time to gather stones together. In the Scriptures,
God's people are referred to as stones. Turn to 1 Peter 2. Our Lord told Peter, He called
him Cephas, and it means a stone. He called Peter a stone. Our
Lord is the stone, the rock. But look here what we're told
in 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2, verse 1. Wherefore, laying aside all malice,
and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may
grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious,
to whom coming as unto a living stone, speaking of Christ, disallowed
indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, God's people. are stones, lively stones. And
if you're wondering who he's writing to because, and we'll
touch on this in a minute, but people just assume that it's
the whole world and whoever decides to accept him. Look here, it
should be just a page over, 1 Peter 1, look at verse 1. Peter, an
apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, grace unto you, and peace be multiplied." The
elect chosen by God, sanctified by God, are built up, lively
stones, a spiritual house, In the Lord Jesus Christ, verse
6 goes on to say, Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture,
Behold, I lay in Zion. This is Isaiah 28, 16. Behold,
I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that
believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore
which believe, he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
or unbelieving, the stone which the builders disallow, the same
is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed." And we see clearly that not everybody
is God's elect, just not. Those who believe on Christ,
that's the evidence that we're God's elect. Faith is the evidence
God has given. Let me ask you a question. Is the Lord Jesus Christ precious
to you? You think of how He just dealt
with that woman. Is He precious to you? Do you desire to come
to Him to tempt Him and accuse Him, or do you just pray for
Him to have mercy on your soul and your children? You love them. He's either the precious rock
of our salvation, the solid rock on which we stand, or He's just
a stumbling block, a rock of offense. Oh, I pray He might
be the first. Oh, may He be the rock in whom
we rejoice, on whom we stand. We're either going to fall on
Him and beg for mercy, or He's going to fall on us and grind
us to powder, one or the other. Oh, may God enable us to fall
on Him, cast our all on Him, trust in Him, cling to Him, beg
Him to have mercy on us, save us, for His great name's sake.
If God saves us, it's for His great name's sake that the Son
of God, the Lord Jesus, might be glorified. That's the reason
God saves anybody. For the glory of His only begotten,
well-beloved Son. Now, I think we can clearly see
that our Lord was truly most precious to that woman, was He
not? I'm sure the moment she departed,
first I'm sure she liked the rest that our Lord came and saved.
I'm sure she followed Him as long as He would let her. But
our Lord had much business to go about, much good to go do,
many to go save. And I'm sure whenever she had
to leave His presence, I'm sure it was her utmost desire to go
and sin no more. I have no doubt about it. But
she, like you and me, was a sinner still. A sinner saved is a sinner
still in this flesh. Though we don't walk around thinking
we have a license to sin, we loathe ourselves and repent in
dust and ashes, by God's grace we'd mourn like we looked at
earlier. God enables us to. Oh, but our Lord was precious
to her, and He never stopped being precious to her. Now, unfortunately,
for those scribes and Pharisees, I'm afraid it was not so. I'm
afraid our Lord was not precious to them, and I pray that He was
in due time. I don't know. I don't know. You know, that
man Nicodemus, he came to our Lord in John 3. asking about
entering into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord told him, he's
the one our Lord told about being born again. Based on other accounts
in the Scriptures, I think our Lord may have saved that man
later on. One thing I don't like to do, because looking at this
text, I don't like to write anybody off. If it doesn't tell us plainly
that the Lord did not save a person, I'm just going to hope and pray
that the Lord saved that person. And we'd be wise to do the same.
We'd be wise to deal with one another in grace and mercy likewise.
Now, know this, brethren, every time the Gospel is preached,
just like in this account, when it appears our Lord cast the
stones at the Pharisees and Scribes and gathered the woman, a stone,
unto Himself, every time the Gospel is preached, every time
it goes forth, that's what happens. The stones are cast at the unbelieving,
who stumble at the Word, being disobedient. And yet those who
find mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ are stones our Lord gathers
to Himself through the preaching of His Word. His sheep hear His
voice. He knows them. They follow Him. A stranger's voice, the voice
of a hireling, we're not going to hear. We're going to hear
Him. We're going to follow Him. We're going to believe on Him
and cling to Him who alone is precious. Some believe and some
believe not. Back in John 8 again, verse 10, When Jesus had lifted up Himself
and saw none but the woman, He said unto her, Woman, where are
those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more." I want to
look at this for a minute. Again, He who alone had the right
to condemn her, condemned her not. How? How? We know she was guilty. There's
no mistake in it. Not only are we told she was
caught in the very act, we read what adultery is, something that
takes place in the heart. I thought the judge of all the
earth must judge righteously, rightly. I thought the soul that
sinneth it shall surely die. God will by no means clear the
guilty. I thought God is holy and just. He is, He is, He is,
He will. Amen, amen. Then how did He not
condemn her? Here's how. He came not into
this world to condemn, but to save. Look here in John 3, back
a few pages. Our Lord came here to save. He
came to seek and to save. John 3, verse 17 says, For God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved. We're already condemned.
Has God revealed that to you? We're already condemned. Our
hope is in that Christ came and in why Christ came. Now, why
did He come? Again, I mentioned we're going
to touch on this. The word, world. Just this week, my boss, whom
I adore dearly and pray the Lord will save him, made the statement
to me, well, remember, God loves everyone and my heart's just
been burdened to tell Him in love that no, He does not. God
does not love everyone. God does not love the whole world. The word world is more appropriate
if you read it with this understanding. The world of His elect. Or His
people scattered. In Peter, we just read it. His
people scattered throughout the world. Strangers scattered abroad.
Okay, but look here. He didn't come to make salvation
possible for the whole world. Alright? No, he came at the appointed
time according to God's purpose to save a particular people. Now, who are they? In 1 Timothy
1.15, we're told, this is a faithful
saying, worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. And Paul said, of whom I'm chief.
He came to save sinners. They that be whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick." The first message I ever
brought here was, are you a sinner? Oh, may God reveal to us we're
sinners in the hands of an angry, holy, just God who must punish
sin. In John 15, verse 19, our Lord
said, You're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the
world. Well, reconcile that with God so loved the world. Christ
came not to condemn the world, condemned already. Look here
at verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life. God chose the people that shall
believe on Him. Believing on Christ is the gift
and operation of God. In 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13,
Paul said, We're bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel.
He called you and gave you faith to believe. Verse 16 here says,
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. When I read that verse,
I always think of people like my boss I just mentioned, who
take that and just assume God loves everybody. Let's just ask
this question. Why would God love anybody, let
alone everybody? When God sent the flood, when
he saw that every imagination of our heart was evil, was that
God saying, I love everyone, now die? No. He loved, I'll tell you who he
loved. He loved Noah. He loved Noah's wife. He loved
Noah's sons and his sons' wives. How do I know? He put them in
the ark. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Noah declared
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And by doing that, you know what
the Scriptures tell us Noah did? He condemned the world. Thank
the Lord Christ came to save some out of the world. He chose
some out of the world. And it's because of God's love
that we just read in verse 16, that He came to save those very
ones out of the world. Because He loved them, as He
told Jeremiah, with an everlasting love, the Father sent Him and
He was lifted up and drew all His people. I'll draw all to
myself, all His elect. That's what He did on the cross,
brethren. We just read it. Even as Moses lifted up the serpent,
must Christ be lifted up because Him being lifted up drew His
people to Himself. We hear of Christ being lifted
up on the cross. Does that not draw us to Him
every single time we hear it? By God's grace. In love, God
chose a people like this woman not to condemn. Praise His name. But how? Still, how can God do
that? How can God be right and love
a guilty sinner? How can God be just and justify
a sinner? You remember what we read in
John 8 where it says, those men came and asked the Lord, what
do you say we should do here? Remember what said he did? He
stooped down. You know how God saved us? He stooped down. How
low did He stoop? As low as low could be. As low
as low could go. Not only did He reach way down
for us, He stooped way down and He traded places with us. He who is holy and lifted up,
His name is exalted above every name. Every knee is going to
bow, every tongue is going to confess Him. And yet He stooped
down. for this woman, and for you and
me, if we're guilty sinners in need of His mercy. He was hung on the cross in our
place. He took the stoning that we deserve. The Scriptures mention
stones of darkness. He who is light, He is light. In Him is no darkness at all.
And He took the stones of darkness upon Himself, cast Himself into
darkness to put us into His marvelous light. The Scriptures mention
stones of the pit. He went down to the pit to deliver
us from the pit. You know, when Joseph was cast
into that pit, it was dark and he was thirsty, he had no water.
Oh, what a great picture of our Lord casting Himself, rather,
into the pit, that we may never have to stay there, never have
to go there. Stones of fire. Stones of hellfire. He said,
Thou wilt not leave my soul, nor suffer Thine holy one to
see corruption. Oh, the depths our Savior stooped to, to save
sinners like us, amazing grace. How sweet the sound. The fierce
stones of God's judgment were cast on Him, and He willingly
took them upon Himself. It was appointed so that all
His people, all His chosen people like this, dear woman, might
be gathered as stones unto the stone himself forever and ever."
Praise God. Oh, praise God. Our God is a
just God, but He's also a Savior. Aren't you thankful? Oh, I'm
so thankful. There's none beside Him. There's
none like Him. God is both just and the justifier
of those that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
truly is of the Lord, brethren. Praise God, there is a time to
cast away stones and a time, oh a blessed time, which God
has been pleased to gather stones together. Oh may he bless his
word to our hearts today. Amen.