This is how someone looks inside when they love darkness, even if they may appear clean on the outside.  

 

Todd, the disfigured-face man, said to Brook,

“I’m tired of you deforming my face with punches! ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,’ Jesus said. So, judge with good judgment! You have a plank in your eye, so you are not qualified to judge me. You are spiritually blind and live in sin, just like me! ‘Oh please, God, let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. Please Don’t let me refuse it!”

“What?” The other man, Brook, replied, blinking with confusion. “What is happening to you, Todd? You hate my punches but would love them if it was a godly one punching you?”

“Not ‘strike me’ with punches, Brook, with correction and discipline. And even if they were with punches, they would be much nicer punches than your stoning on my face, punches of love and justice, not punches of hypocrisy, the words of God striking me, convicting me, stabbing me in my heart like a knife, at the same time, mending me, humbling me, healing me, leading me to repentance, giving me new life, I do not understand what is happening to me!”

“I do not understand you either,” said Brook.

The sound of footsteps distracted them.

“Are you okay?” said Elise Beatrice.

They looked and saw the woman’s concern about Todd’s deformed face. She was also amazed that a sin-lover like Todd understood the words of the Lord very well.

Wondering why, with such knowledge, he still embraced a sinful life, she said to him,

“Todd, you understand the words of the Lord very well. So why do you still go against His ways?”

“Convenience, of course,” he responded.

“Oh. I’m amazed you know that.”

“I didn’t until I heard you preach about it; cast the first stone, let the godly strike me, hypocrisy, and the plank in the eye ‘thing.’ For the first time, they made sense to me.”

“Oh, praise the Lord. I’m glad. But that was my sermon from two weeks ago; I never saw you in the room.”

“I was far away and did not want to be seen.”

“Oh. So, what’s the matter? Why are you beating each other up?”

“Ms, only one of us is doing the beating. Brook is the beater, not I. Look, he disfigured me, calling me a hypocrite, flying the stones on my face like I was a punching bag or something. He did that to me, saying that I’ve taken something from him.”

“Did you?” Elise Beatrice asked.

“Yes. I did. He’s stolen from me many times and is now lecturing me about what I should or should not do. We both have stolen from many all our lives, even stricken people dead and have served our time in prison. Just three weeks ago, he stole a girl from me. So, is he qualified to judge me?”

“You listened to my sermon, you said?”

“All of it.”

“Then you know the answer already.”

“It is why I knew how to answer Brook this time,” Todd said.

“In this case, I will repeat it for Brook’s sake. Matthew 7:3-5 says, ‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’ You must understand what the Lord Jesus means by reading Matthew 7:1-5 and analysing His teachings. When the Lord Jesus says ‘not to judge,’ this is what He means, ‘Don’t put yourself there as the judge, for if you judge wrongly, you also will be judged. The same measure you use will be measured to you. What the Lord means here is the same as this Bible verse in James 3:1, ‘Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.’ So, the Lord Jesus is not saying ‘not to judge,’ just as James 3:1 is not saying ‘not to teach,’ but if we must teach, we do it right according to the Lord’s ways, or we will be judged by God severely, and if we must judge, we do it with the right judgment according to the Lord’s ways. Our Lord also said in John 7:24, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly. So, we do not criticise and condemn people or snobbishly look down on anybody like we’re better than them, for that is sinful judgment in God’s eyes. But we judge with the right judgments.”

Brook asked,

“Don’t we have the right to tell someone they’re doing something wrong?”

Elise Beatrice responded,

“We have the right if, in truth, they are doing something wrong. If we don’t, how can they learn from their faults if no one helps them see? We have the right to point out to others their wrongs if they’re not seeing them themselves. We have the right to rebuke those who practice sins, but we must not do it as hypocrites. If we disobey the Lord’s words and righteous ways by living in sin, we are not qualified to teach others right from wrong. King David cried out to the great Lord in Psalm 141:5,

‘Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. Don’t let me refuse it. But I pray constantly against the wicked and their deeds.’ So, yes, the godly have the right to rebuke sin, as the Scriptures say,

‘As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear’ (1 Timothy 5:20.) ‘Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are godly should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted’ (Galatians 6:1). Yes, the godly must do this, for if we do it as hypocrites, it is when the Lord Jesus Christ says,

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5).

So, as we can see in John 8:1-11, the accusers of the adulterous woman, about which my sermon was, were hypocrites, filled with sins, yet they put themselves there as judges, acting like they had no sins, and the Lord could see through them. Suppose they had rebuked the woman and helped her see her wrongs so that she would repent and sin no more. In that case, the Lord would not say to them what He said, ‘Let him among you who is without sin cast the first stone.’ They invoked the Law of Moses in the adulterous woman’s case to test the Lord Jesus, but they failed to stone themselves all since they were filled with unrepentant sins of any kind.”

The power of Elise Beatrice’s preaching sobered Brook and Todd. She looked at them and said,

“Todd, since you’ve listened to my sermon and learned a lot, did you make any decision to turn from your wrong ways?”

“No.”

“Why Not?”

“Convenience, of course; that’s what you said.”

“Yes, I did say that. And you agree to be so?”

“Yes.”

“Then you know the truth already now.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Do you also know that if you don’t turn from your sins, now that you know, and make things right with the Lord God, you are making wrong choices that will lead you to hell?”

“Yes, we do.”

“And you still embrace sin?”

“We don’t know how not to.”

“Would you like to know how?”

They were silent as if they did not know what to say.

“Todd, was it the first time you listened to my sermon?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks to the gracious Lord,” she said. “Seeing someone learning so much from just one sermon is always a miracle. The Lord Jesus is reaching out to you.”

“Really?”

“Well, you listened two weeks ago and did not forget; you acted on it towards Brook without realising. Though you were far away, you heard more than some who were closer. The Lord is presenting this moment to both of you to escape from the darkness and turn from your wrong ways, and He will forgive and cleanse you from your sins. Look at your face, Todd; I cannot tell the difference between your mouth, nose and eyes. Suppose Brook’s punches had knocked you dead, and you left this world in the state you are now, in your sins; where would you be?”

Again, the power of Elise Beatrice’s preaching sobered them both. Something good penetrated their hearts. Then, Todd said,

“Can He really forgive and save people like Brook and myself?”

“The Lord never fails to see a genuine heart who regrets having done wrong and wants to renounce evil.”

A gleam of hope shone in their eyes, and then, Todd said,

“I’d love to be able to hate sins, be genuinely disgusted by them —.”

“Me, too,” Brook added. “I’ve been taking things from people all my life and did not know how it felt until Todd stole something precious from me. It made me realise the pain I have inflicted on people by stealing from them.”

“Oh, Brook, that’s great,” she said. “It’s a good thing you’re feeling.”

Tears rolled down Todd and Brook’s faces and moved Elise, who also began to shed tears of joy.

“Will you be willing to listen?” She asked them.

“My wrong actions strangle me, and I want to stop choking,“ Brook responded. “I want Christ in my life.”

“Me, too,” Todd added.

A wide smile filled Elise Beatice’s face, and she said to them,

“It takes a very short time to become a sin lover but a very long time to become a new creation who hates sins and no longer practices them. But if you do not give up, the Lord will keep you for Himself. Obedience to God and His words, whether His devoted servants supervise you or just you and the Holy Bible, is your fastest route to the Lord Jesus: our eternal Salvation. Many believe in Him but don’t know Him nor have Him. You don’t want to fall into the same category as those believers.

False teachers and bad company are the route that takes you as far away in the opposite direction as possible and never to Christ, who leads you to His Father in heaven.”

“We heard you preach twice, two weeks ago and now, and we understand more than what we did our whole lives.”

Brook nodded to support Todd.  

“We want to know more.”

“Then, come, join us.”

Elise Beatrice took their hands, and they all walked away together. Given that Brook and Todd listen, do their parts, and do not return to their old ways, the Lord Jesus Christ will draw them to Himself at such a fast speed.

“They were covered in spiritual dirt, but only their godly sorrowful repentance pleased God to wash them clean. Spiritual death choked them daily, but it was the renouncement of their own ways that brought the Lord Jesus to revive them.” Elise Beatrice.

Todd was now a new man in Christ, studying and practising the ways of the Lord daily, reflecting, more and more, the Lord Jesus’s Character.

The Lord Jesus said, 

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone” (John 8:7).

The Lord Jesus Christ does not want us to cast stones on those who sin. He does not want us to tolerate their sins either, but to help those who sin become aware of their sins and repent so that He can forgive and cleanse them from their unrighteousness.

“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

Thank You, Lord!

The End.