Amen. Thanks, team. I want to encourage you this morning to open your Bibles to Mark chapter 9, verse 42. That's on page 845 in your pew Bibles. And if you do have a Bible, this would be, I think, a handy time to have it open. Sometimes we read along on the screen. Sometimes we read along on our phone. I have no opinions on that. However, this is one of those sermons that I think will make a lot more sense if you actually do have your Bible open because there is a sense in which we could have done this entire unit of text from verse 30 through to the end of chapter 9 as a single sermon. I mean, it really depends on how slow you want to go and how deep you want to mine. Preaching through a book of the Bible is kind of like mining. You can take as long or as short as you like. Mark Dever often will preach on a whole book of the Bible, so his topic will be Daniel. or, you know, Luke. And that is, we did that back in 2012, I don't know if you remember that, when we preached through all the, we did the whole Bible in a year. And so there were several mornings where we were preaching on a whole book of the Bible. That's one way to do it. Then on the other hand, there's Martin Lloyd-Jones, who preached for 13 years through the book of Romans. So he was going slow. He was doing sermons on clauses, right? But, God. Then, God. Like, he was working two verses or a comma sometimes. Like, going very, very deep. So you're always making those choices. And there were some things we wanted to draw to the surface in the earlier parts of this story, but it really is a unit. And I want you to see that. It goes all the way back to verse 30 to 32. You remember we talked about that. for a second time, predicts his suffering and his crucifixion. And the disciples, they don't get it. They think he's speaking allegorically or metaphorically, right? There goes Jesus speaking in riddles again. Who even knows what that means? Suffering, crucifixion. They had no frame of reference for understanding that. In fact, as they were As they were walking along behind Jesus, after that, they started arguing with one another over who will be the greatest. Do you remember that? So Jesus has just said, you know, hey guys, we're heading to Jerusalem, the Messiah, he's going to be betrayed, he's going to be mocked, and he's going to be treated brutally, he's going to be crucified, he's going to suffer. And they're like, oh, that's interesting, Riddle Man. And they start having a conversation about when it's so good, when Jesus is king, who will sit at his right hand? That's the conversation they thought was the appropriate follow-up to Jesus' prediction. Right, will it be Peter? He's the oldest, he's the spokesperson. But maybe not, right? Because just one chapter before, Jesus gave Peter the most stinging rebuke in all the New Testament. Do you remember that? Just one chapter before, Mark 8, 33, Jesus said to Peter, get behind me, Satan, for you're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. So maybe Peter's out of the running, right? Maybe the first chair is up for grabs. That's what they were talking about after Jesus predicted his betrayal and his suffering. They missed it. They missed it marvelously. And yet Jesus is so incredibly patient with them when they arrive at Capernaum. He gathers them into Peter's house. He gathers them into a circle. He said in Mark 35, 37, if you're looking at that now, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. And he took a child and put him in the midst of them and taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. Jesus says, it's not about climbing to the top. or he kicks the ladder out from underneath them. He says, don't be scrambling to the top. Be eager to serve at the lowest rung. It's not about how high you can get. It's about whether you can help people get started. It's about whether you can help the little ones on their way. It's about loving these young ones, helping these young ones know Me love me and follow me that's that's what this is about and then the disciples ask a follow-up question and it was not a good one they say Jesus we saw a guy casting out demons in your name but he wasn't following us so we told him to stop And Jesus called down fire from heaven and consumed those idiots and restarted the kingdom with 12 smarter boys! That's how the Bible would read if I were Jesus. Now that's not what Jesus did. He taught them again. He said, do not stop Him. For no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who's not against us is for us. For truly I say to you, whoever gives a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward." Listen, Jesus says, If these people are following me and if they're helping others follow me, it doesn't really matter whether they are following you. No one should be following you at this point. All that matters is that they're following me and that they're helping others follow me. That's what it's about. If you help others because they belong to Jesus, there will be a reward for you. But now, right here in the text, right here in the story, things take a turn towards the serious. Listen to what Jesus says next. Okay, and this is our text for this morning. Look what he says, starting in verse 42. He says, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, It would be better for him if a great millstone, in Greek it actually says, it's hard to translate, it says a donkey stone, meaning a stone that could only be turned by a huge beast. Imagine the size of that stone. It's not a hand mill, okay? Donkey sized stone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. for everyone will be salted with fire." Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. We took a turn towards the serious there, didn't we? Jesus goes from saying, if you do something helpful to a believer because he's a believer in me, there will be a reward for you. That's encouraging. That's upbeat. He goes from saying that to, but if you do something that harms one of these little ones in their relationship with me, then you're gonna go to hell. You're gonna be cast into the pit of hell. That's a turn towards the serious. If ever I heard one Now remember that this entire sequence this entire unit right all the way from verse 30 Right to the end of the chapter this entire unit is about Jesus getting the disciples back on track They they thought that this whole following Jesus thing. They thought that this whole kingdom of God thing was about position and and privilege and preferment. Jesus says, no, no, you couldn't be more wrong. It's not about that. It's about sacrifice, service, and helping these little ones follow me. That's what the ministry is all about. And so the thing you should be focused on, the thing that you should be talking about while you follow me is not status. It is sin. Because your sin is a threat to your ministry. And more than that, it's a threat to your eternal soul. That's what this passage is saying. Jesus is saying that the disciples ought to be thinking less about status and more about sin, because sin is serious business. Now, he says four things about sin, I want you to notice. He says that sin is serious business, first of all, because sin is contagious. The concern here is that rather than helping these little ones, which is what Jesus wants them to do, The disciples may actually cause them to sin. In verse 44, Jesus says, Some of you will have a text note in your Bible. by that phrase, caused to sin. And if you follow with your eyes down to the little text note, it'll tell you it actually literally means, make to stumble. Jesus is telling the disciples that if they don't get serious about their sin, if they don't eradicate the sin in their own lives, they will end up doing the opposite of what He is calling on them to do. He wants them to help these little ones see, love, follow, worship, serve Jesus. But if they don't take their own sin seriously, they will end up shipwrecking the faith of every little one in their life. Now, I can't help but hear that through the lens of my experience as a parent. Shelly and I had this conversation just a couple days ago. Actually, maybe about a week ago now. We both said that we wish that we could start over as parents. Because when we had our first child, we were so young when we had our first child. You know, we'd been married for 11 months when we had our first child. People thought we were babysitting. You know, we... I've got children over a wide range. I've got a 20-year-old and I got a 6-year-old. When we took our 20-year-old to, you know, bounce and play or whatever nonsense new parents do with their first child, everyone, you know, thought that we were... this was like our little nephew or something that we were practicing because we looked 12. Now, when we took our last little one to those things, they thought it was our grandchild. It's very depressing. But you know, we said, we wish we could start over. Because when we had our first child, we were so young, so stupid, so selfish, so immature in our faith. And I lamented to My wife, I said, you know, our oldest daughter, who's now 20 years old, as I mentioned, she got the worst of us. She got us at our least sanctified. And I worried to my wife that my immaturity during her childhood might make it more difficult for her to love and follow Jesus over the course of her life. Do you ever think about that? You should. Jesus is saying here that if we aren't serious about our sin, if we aren't eye-plucking, hand-amputating, foot-sawing off serious about the sin in our lives, we will put obstacles in the place of our little ones on their way to Christ. Are you hearing that? I am hearing that. I am fall down on my face in sackcloth and ashes hearing that. I wonder sometimes about the different answers you would get if you interviewed my oldest daughter and my youngest daughter on their 80th birthdays about their dad. I wonder if you ask the oldest one, Did your daddy have a bad temper? Was he a godly man? Was he a good husband? How did he speak to your mom? I wonder what she would say. And then I wonder if you interviewed the younger one, asked her the same questions, I wonder what she would say. Something very different, I think, I hope. I think the point here is that if we really love the little ones in our lives, our kids, our grandkids even, the new believers in our church, the little babies that were just on the screen, if we really love those people, then we're going to get serious about sin, right? Right now. Right now, we're going to get eye-gouging, hand-amputating, foot-cutting-off, serious about sin, if you love them. Because sin is contagious, and the sins of the fathers And the mothers, and the big brothers, and the big sisters, and the aunties, and uncles, and the youth volunteers, and the pastor, and the elders are passed on to the little ones. So if you care about that, if you care about them, you're going to get serious about sin. Second thing Jesus says here is that sin is serious business because hell is forever. Now, I realize we don't like sermons about hell anymore. They're very out of fashion. But Jesus spoke about hell more than anyone else in the Bible. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. R.T. France says here, Christians who disparage hellfire preaching must face the awkward fact that Mark's Jesus, and then in brackets still more Matthew's Jesus and Luke's Jesus, envisioned an ultimate separation between life and hell, which demands the most drastic renunciation in order to avoid the unquenchable fire And he did not regard even his disciples as immune from the need to examine themselves and take appropriate action. Do you know what is most remarkable about this teaching about hell? It's not the detail. I mean, the detail is horrifying. Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. When you think about what that might mean, it is mind-recoiling, horrifying. But that's not even the most jarring aspect of this teaching. What is most jarring is the context. This wasn't something Jesus threw out to the crowd. This isn't something he put out there on social media. This is something he said to his inner circle. These are the disciples. He pulled them into a house. The only people hearing this would have been the 12 disciples, probably Peter's wife, his mother-in-law, and this kid. We don't know whether it was Peter's nephew or Peter's son. We don't know. But all believers, All believers. And the bulk of this teaching was about how if the people in that circle didn't take drastic measures to eradicate the remaining sin in their lives, it would drag them down to the pit of hell. What do you then do with that? Listen to what he says. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lamed than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." He said that to believers. He said that to the apostles. So what are you going to do with that? He told a house full of public professed Christians, followers of Jesus we would say, that if they didn't get serious about their sin, It would spread like gangrene and drag them down to hell. What are you going to do with that? Are you going to say that hell doesn't exist? Lots of evangelicals nowadays say that. Are you going to say that God would never do that or Jesus would never do that? Lots of Christians saying that. Or are you going to say that it was just a threat? It's just a threat. We all do this, right? Have you ever been driving down the highway with your kids and they're misbehaving and you're like, if you don't cut it out, I'm going to pull this car over and spank the living shit out of you. No, you're not going to do that on the side of the 401. It's just a threat. You have no intention of following through on that. Is that what's going on here? Or is he serious? So I think it's serious. And I believe that partly because I'm reading and translating my way right now through the first epistle of John in my own private devotional time. See, the Apostle John was there in this circle. Isn't that interesting? And he heard what Jesus said. And then he wrote this, 1 John 3, The word practice isn't in the original Greek. It's a present continuative, meaning he's saying everyone who just keeps on sinning, there's just no break. You know, they become a Christian, they make a profession of faith, they stand up in church, they cry a little bit, they go to retreat, whatever, but they just keep on sinning. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Now you know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. I don't care how many books they sell. I don't care how many people listen to their podcast. I don't care how many people fill that church that you see on TV. Let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. For God's seed abides in him and he can not keep on sinning because he's been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. It sounds for all the world like the Apostle John spent a fair bit of time wrestling with what he heard in that circle. And then under the power of the Holy Spirit, he explained that to his people. He said, listen, if anyone says they're a Christian, but they appear to have made peace with their sin, they are deceived. No one who has truly seen Christ, no one who's truly been saved can ever feel at peace with sin. Now, John earlier said, anyone who says that they don't have any sin in their life, they're a liar. So do you see the fine line? They're threading the needle here. Any Christian who says they never sin is a liar. Don't believe them. They're probably deceived. Right now they're lying, so that's a sin right there. And they're arrogant, that's a sin. And they don't read their Bible. That's three sins right there. So there's no such thing as a Christian who doesn't sin. But there's also no such thing as a Christian who is just okay with sin, who has made peace with sin, who just carries on with sin. John is saying, here's what's characteristic of a real believer. They have unceasing enmity and antagonism towards their own sin. They can't keep sinning. Now that doesn't mean they won't try. Right? I mean, I went through a good stretch of my life where I was trying to be at peace with sin. I couldn't do it. I knew I was either going to split apart and become a complete schizophrenic, or I was going to have to pick a side. Because there was a war going on inside me between the Holy Spirit and the lust of the flesh. Every real believer tells some version of that story. So John says, that's how you know who a real Christian is anyway. It doesn't matter what they say. It doesn't even matter what they think. You can tell by yourself just by looking at them. Are they at war with their sin? Because if they really know Jesus, if they're truly saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, then John says two things would be true. Number one, the power of sin will have been broken in them. and a hatred for sin will have been born in them." If you don't see that, you're not looking at a real believer. That's how John worked this out. Now hear that. I just want you to wrestle with that. Remember, John was in the room. And remember too that Judas was in the room. So John heard Jesus say to a room full of public, professed, I'll even say prominent believers, that if they didn't wage war on the remaining sin in their lives, they would go to hell. From that, John understood that saying you were a Christian didn't make you a Christian, didn't prove you were a Christian. What proved you were a Christian was that you fought sin. and through the power of the Holy Spirit, you overcame sin. By one degree of glory to the next. That's what proved you were a believer. And, he adds, that you loved your brothers and sisters in Christ. He says, by this it is evident, by this it is evident who are. Notice he's not saying, here's how you become. He's not saying, here's how you become a Christian. No, no, by this it is evident who are the children of God. and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. So, Jesus is telling the disciples not to be focused on status, right? Who's at the top? Who's next to the top? He's telling them to be concerned about who's going to the bottom. Who's going to hell? Be focused on that, Jesus. says, think about that, talk about that while you walk on the road. Fight sin in your life through the power of the Holy Spirit because ultimately if you don't fight sin, you will pass it on to all the little ones you have contact with. Did we see that this past week? In the public testimony of Rachel Denhollander? speaking to a man who dared to carry a Bible into the courtroom, who had abused dozens of young girls. She quoted this passage to him. Did you notice that? She quoted it to him. Because obviously, at some point in Nasser's life, he did not make war with the sin that was growing in his heart, And it grew and consumed him. Can I tell you something? Nobody wakes up one day and abuses a young girl. Nobody rolls out of bed and says, I'm going to start doing that. Of course, you know, they found tons of child pornography on his computer. Where do you think abusing teenage girls and some girls as young as six years old, where do you think that begins? It begins in your computer. It begins in the dark in your home. So if you don't fight sin, it will grow and it will affect the little ones and it will consume you and drag you down to hell. That's what he's saying. Third thing he says is that sin is serious business because holiness is compelling. Now, that gets us into the very confusing saying of Jesus at the end of the paragraph. I think we're going to show that on the screen. He says, for everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. It's an odd expression. It's an idiom. Right, an idiom is a saying that makes sense to the people who hear it, but that will be impossible to translate to future generations, right? Like if I said, hey everybody, listen, you know a stitch in time saves nine. Right, I could have just said that in terms of what we were just talking about. Fighting sin early in your life so that it doesn't get out of control and rip everything apart. A stitch in time, right, getting at it early will save you a massive problem later on. Probably everybody in here over the age of 40 knew that expression, a stitch in time saves nine. Guess what? If you try and translate that into another language 2,000 years from now, nobody will have a clue what you're talking about. That's what that is. So it's an expression that everybody understood at the time. We believe that it is a reference to the practice of burnt offerings in the temple. So he makes reference to fire there, and he makes reference to salt. Salt was offered alongside of the offerings, and so a burnt offering symbolized totality. In a burnt offering, no portion of the offering was given to the priest. And then salt symbolized distinctiveness. Salt was what you used to keep meat from decaying in the ancient world. It was a very valuable commodity. They sometimes paid Roman soldiers in salt. So salt was valuable, and it was a preservative. It was distinct, and it was a preservative. And so we think that the symbol has reference to totality, making yourself totally available to God, and being distinctive. William Lane offers the best and simplest explanation of this very odd saying that I've ever been able to come across. He says that the expression means that the disciples must be seasoned with salt like the sacrifice. This will take place through fiery trials, through which God will purge away everything contrary to his will. Have you ever asked the question, why is this happening to me? The answer might be so that you don't ruin your kids. Saul typifies that quality which is the distinctive mark of the disciple, the loss of which will make him worthless. So, the saying means that God will use trials to purify us and to burn the sin out of us, that's the fire, so that we maintain our distinctive character. without which we are dangerous to our kids and useless to God in the world. That's the salt. Okay, that's what Jesus meant by the saying. Now let me put all that together. Jesus is telling the disciples not to be focused on status but rather to be focused on sin. Sin is serious business because it is contagious. It will spread from you and it will shipwreck the faith of the little ones in your life. Sin is serious business because it can grow and spread throughout a person and drag them down to hell. And then here he is saying sin is serious business because left unchecked it destroys our witness to the world. It obscures the character of God that is supposed to shine through us to others. Then lastly, Jesus says that sin is serious business because peace is persuasive. That comes from the same saying. Jesus says, have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. So have salt in yourself means be distinctive, be holy. Holiness is part of your witness to your kids and to the world. And he says, be at peace. with one another, which suggests that peace is also part of our witness to the world. Sin is serious business, Jesus is saying, because it obscures our witness, it blemishes our testimony to the perfections and beauty of Christ, and it destroys our community, which is the ultimate proof that we belong to God. Jesus said that. He said, by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. The linchpin of our witness to the world is the quality of our love for one another. And sin ruins that. So take sin seriously. I say to couples all the time in pre-marriage counseling, I say your sanctification is the best gift that you can give to your marriage. And I'll let you in on a little secret. 99% of all marriage conflicts are caused by sin. The other 1% is caused by stupid, which after a while is also a sin. Sin destroys community. whether in a marriage or in a church. And so the best gift that you can give to your church, best thing you can do to contribute to our witness to the community is to get serious about your sin. That's the point of the passage. And so the application from this passage is fairly obvious. Jesus gives it to us. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. He's saying, sin is serious business. And for you need to do whatever you need to do. You need to be willing to part with precious things. You need to be willing to make war on things that are a part of you. That's what you need to do. That's the takeaway. Now, I hope this goes without saying, but Jesus is speaking in a hyperbole here. This is a figure of speech. A number of years ago, I was teaching in a seminary in Kakanada in India, and there was a young man there who had a, I don't know if it was a glass eye, or I think it was his eye, one eye was destroyed. And after a few days, I asked one of the other boys about that, and he said that he comes from a tribal area. He had no real frame of reference when he started reading the Bible. He read the passage about if your eye causes you to sin. He struggled with lust, so he tried to gouge out his eye with a fork. So let's be clear, this is hyperbole. In fact, the Bible in Deuteronomy 14 verse 1 condemns self-mutilation of any kind. But whatever contextualization that young man lacked, I would pray for half his zeal in my own life. Figure of speech. Jesus is saying, you gotta be serious, right? You gotta be willing to give up things you love. William Lane is helpful here again. He says, Jesus did not hesitate to call for the renunciation of possessions, in chapter 10, verse 21, family, chapter 10, verse 28, and of life itself, chapter 8, verse 34, if these things stood in the way of following Him. Here, in this passage, He demands the complete sacrifice of the sinful activity of the member. You have to be willing to take a scalpel to your life. For some of you, it may mean cutting out relationships, right? Jesus says you've got to be willing to do that. Does everybody need to break up with their boyfriend to follow Jesus? No. But you do if that boyfriend is a barrier to your following Jesus. Does everyone need to get rid of all their money? No. But you do if that money is a barrier to you following Jesus. But everybody's got to be willing to get rid of this sin in their life. You got to carve it out and cast it off. Because if you don't, it will get passed on to the little ones. It will drag you down to hell. It will obscure the witness of our church. and it will destroy the peace of our community. Those are the stakes. So what are you going to do? I'm going to suggest three things. And by the way, this sermon hit me like a ton of bricks on Tuesday. Sometimes you think, oh, Paul, man, I wish Pastor Levi were back. He was so nice and encouraging last week. We had a good laugh about that on Wednesday in the preaching workshops. Oh, man. But it may encourage you to know this sermon hit me like a ton of bricks on Tuesday. I was late to take sin seriously. You've heard me say that before. I started loving Jesus when I was six years old, but I didn't start hating sin until I was in my late 20s. I didn't make war on sin until it threatened my marriage and my ministry. I didn't see this. And I'll tell you this, I wish somebody had preached this sermon to me when I was 21 years old. This sermon makes me sad for my past, but resolved for my future. So if you're feeling that, I think you're where the text wants you to be, and you're in good company. Here are three things I'm going to suggest. Number one, identify the remaining sin in your life. Where is sin hiding in your life? What little monster have you got closeted off from the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit? Is it sex stuff? Money stuff? Language stuff? Control stuff? Independence stuff? Rebellion stuff? What have you got hidden away? Name it. right now in the quietness of your soul, name it. And then secondly, starve it. Find whatever is feeding that sin and cut it off. If it's a sex thing, then cut off whatever is feeding that in your life. Is there a show you are watching that you shouldn't be. Are you looking at porn on your phone? Then get rid of it. Let me speak very frankly, very practically right now. Men, if you have looked at pornography on your phone in the last 30 days, then get rid of it. and don't tell me that you need it. We live for thousands of years without smartphones. Better to enter life with a clamshell phone without data or apps than to be dragged down into the pit of hell. Cut it off. And then lastly, look around. Jesus put a little kid in the middle of the disciples to remind them of the stakes. Right? He put a face on him. That's what I'm saying. Look around. Do you see the face of your daughter, my friend? She will pay the price for your sexual addiction. I tell you that right now. Do you see the face of your son? He will pay the price for your pride, for your stubbornness, for your rebellion. You will hear from his mouth the things you say to your wife. Do you see the faces of the children we dedicated today? Do you know how many children walk away from the church not because they don't love Jesus, but because they think we're hypocrites? Do you want to make them stumble? Do you know what greatness is? Greatness in the kingdom of God is about loving these little ones, serving them, sacrificing things that are precious to you, things that are a part of you, so that they can know, love, and follow Jesus. Will you do that for them? Because doing it for them is doing it for Jesus. Jesus said that. Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers you did it to me. Thanks be to God. Let's pray together. Lord we are by nature a flippant and insignificant people. We think so little of things that matter and so much of things that don't. And we think so rarely of sin. And yet Lord you speak so much of it in your holy word. And so we are rebuked today. And we ask that as you have wounded us, so now you would heal us. As you have corrected us, so now you would help us. As you have forgiven us, so now you would empower us. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.