Dealing Violently with Occasions of Sin

Introduction and Textual Clarification

0:04 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, November 9th, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together to the Gospel according to Mark, Mark's Gospel and the 9th chapter.

0:25 Would you follow, please, as I read Mark chapter 9, verses 42 through 50. Mark chapter 9, beginning the reading at verse 42.

0:42 Picking up on the theme introduced primarily in verse 37, in which our Lord speaks of receiving one such children in his name, referring, of course, to all believers who have been brought to the posture of dependentness and vulnerability characterized by a child. He says in verse 42, And whosoever shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, or to be ensnared in sin, it were better for him if a great millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. And if your hand cause you to stumble, or to be ensnared in sin, cut it off. It is good for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into hell, into the abyss. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is good for you to enter into life halt, rather than having your two feet to be cast into hell.

1:58 And if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is good for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, or literally one-eyed, to enter the kingdom a cyclone. Rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell, where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire.

2:30 Salt is good. But if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace. With one another.

2:47 Now let us again seek the face of God in prayer, and ask the Lord by his Spirit to own the exposition and application of his own holy word.

3:02 Our Father, we come this morning conscious of the words of our Lord Jesus, uttered just prior to his return into your presence, that his followers were to teach disciples all, of the things that he commanded.

3:21 And you know, Lord, that it is nothing less than the sense of being true to that commission which binds us to handle these sober words this morning. Left to ourselves we would pass over them lightly. Left to myself, O Lord, you know, I would not preach on them. But constrained by the word of God, I would preach on them.

3:49 But constrained by the word of him who has all authority in heaven and upon earth, we subjugate all of our natural inclinations to his gracious authority, and come to hear his word. Speak then, we pray. Send the Spirit upon us in power. We ask in Jesus' name.

4:12 Amen. Now, no doubt there are some of you who, in following the reading of this portion, a few moments ago, wondered why I omitted what appears in your particular translation as verses 44 and 46. For if you have before you the authorized or commonly designated King James Version, or the new King James Version, you will have noted that I skipped what you see in your particular translation as verses 44 and 46. And in both of those verses, you will find written the precise words of verse 48 with reference to hell, our Lord says, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And you may ask, and rightly so, why this discrepancy? Well, without wearying you with the technical data, suffice it to say that all of us hold in our hands, if we have an English version, that which is a translation out of the original language of the Word of God. Those who hold a Greek New Testament before them

5:35 hold what represents a studied judgment as to what the original text was, a judgment based on a collation or gathering together and a comparison of all of the available manuscripts of the New Testament, documents plus excerpts out of liturgical forms of the early church and other extant documents containing references to the New Testament scriptures. Now, in the passage which is before us, men who are equally devoted to Christ, equally convinced of the highest view of the divine inspiration and inerrancy of the Word of God, equally fearful, fearful of either deleting or adding to the Word of God, and you know I'm referring here to the horrible threat found in Revelation chapter 22, well, men with equal commitment to those perspectives come to equally strong convictions with reference to including what appears as verses 44 and 46 in some of the versions and excluding them as the translators, the verses of the 1901 and many other translations have done. Now, since there is no disagreement

7:01 as to whether or not verse 48 belongs in any translation which purports to be a translation of God's Word out of the original, and since verses 44 and 46 are exactly the same as verse 48, nothing is lost in omitting verses, verse 44 and 46, but the repetition of the thought patterns embodied in the language of verse 48. And so without giving you my reasons for casting in my lot with the judgment of those who have omitted those verses, we will approach the text with what I trust is the modesty of realizing that the truth of verse 48 is so inherently horrific in its nature, that it doesn't even need repetition for us to feel its weight and the impression upon our souls. Now, with that issue of the discrepancy in the number of verses in the passage behind us, let us reverently approach this portion of God's Word and seek to understand its message, first of all to the disciples to whom it was originally spoken, and then to us,

The Central Concern: Dealing with Personal Occasions of Sin

8:23 as a gathering of disciples of Jesus. I remind you briefly of the general setting. The disciples had been arguing among themselves as to who would be greatest in the kingdom. Jesus responds to his knowledge of that discussion and argument by giving several vivid lessons on the matter of humility, using a child as his object lesson.

8:50 As Jesus speaks, John's conscience, is smitten with reference to an earlier incident in which he fears, apparently, that he may have violated the final word of Jesus in verse 37 about receiving whoever is to be found under that general identity as one of Christ's little ones. And John confesses what his conscience troubles him about, and he indicates that he prohibited this unnamed disciple from casting out demons, in Christ's name. Jesus reverses the prohibition and gives three reasons for the reversal of that prohibition. And then, in verse 42, he begins this section which could be given the general title, Serious Warnings About Causing Offenses. And as we saw last week, the first warning focuses on the terrible possibility that disciples may do, that disciples may do, that disciples may do, say, or in some other way, cause, do things that cause believers in Christ, little ones who trust in Him, to be ensnared in a course of sin. And rather than be the occasion of causing a believer to sin,

10:13 Jesus says it would be better for us to be cut off by a gruesome, violent death. Even a death, gangland style, having a great millstone hanged around our necks, and to be thrown into the deep sea. Now this morning we come to verses 43 to 48, in which our Lord warns His own about another danger. And here it is not the danger of their becoming an occasion of sin to others, but of their becoming an occasion of sin to others.

10:50 But of their becoming an occasion of sin to others. But of their becoming an occasion of sin to themselves. But of their becoming an occasion of sin to themselves. And as we take up the passage this morning, I want us first of all to understand the central concern addressed in this portion of the Word.

11:08 Amidst all of this graphic, even horrifying language about amputating limbs, casting away an eye, a never dying worm, and a fire unquenchable, What is the central issue addressed? Well, if you look carefully at the passage, you will see that it all hangs on the words with which the passage begins. Verse 43, and if your hand cause you to stumble, our Lord is introducing the subject in these words, the very subject that he picks up two more times. Verse 45, and if your foot causes you to stumble, verse 47, and if your eye causes you to stumble. So you see, the central concern addressed is this.

12:10 It is the issue of what we are to do with those things, people, relationships, attitudes, or actions, within the sphere of our own control, which become the occasion of our being ensnared by sin. That is the central concern addressed in this passage. He is addressing the issue of the things, the people, the relationships, the attitudes, or actions within the sphere of our own control, which become the occasion of our being ensnared by sin. Now, our Lord, in typical graphic Eastern fashion, does not address this concern in nebulous abstraction.

13:06 Rather, as we see him do again and again throughout his earthly ministry, he addresses the concern in concrete terms, something so concrete and tangible as your hand, your foot, and your eye. He does not say, if you have a relationship. If you have a relationship, an attitude, an action, a thing, which within the sphere of your control causes you to...

13:45 No, the Lord does not deal in abstract generalities. He says, if your hand causes you to stumble, verse 43, if your foot causes you to stumble, verse 45, if your eye causes you to stumble, verse 46, but in so repeating the central concern, and by expressing it not in abstractions or generalities, but in these vivid, concrete ways, our Lord's point clearly and unmistakably. He is giving his disciples directions as to what they are to do with those things which become an occasion of sin, to them. And I remind you that whenever he is concerned about matters pertaining to sin, he is concerned about sin as defined by God. When he says, if your hand causes you to be ensnared, if your foot causes you to be ensnared, if your eye causes you to be ensnared, remember that our Lord is not speaking of just gross outward action.

15:08 He is speaking of aggravated sins as the world may define sin. According to his own description of sin, he is speaking of the inward disposition of the heart, the volitional glance of the eye. He is speaking of sin in terms of any violation of the law of God. He is speaking of sin in terms of any failure to do what the law demands.

15:36 For this is the same law. The Lord, who in describing the coming day of judgment, describes the whole of lost humanity as being damned, not for what they did, but for what they did not. Matthew 25 and verse 45, Because ye...

16:01 Now then, do you see what the central concern is? And do you see immediately how burningly relevant this concern is? Do you? Do you as a disciple struggle with sins of omission?

16:20 Are you conscious in your day-by-day experience of being in sin by various things over which you have control, which result in your failure to do your clearly defined duty? As an individual Christian, as a Christian who stands in certain relationships, the duty of which are clearly defined by God, husband, father, wife, mother, son, daughter, to parents, citizen in society, worker in the shop, in the office, in the home? Do you as a disciple of Christ struggle with sins of omission? Sins of commission?

17:01 Occasioned by things within the sphere of your control? Do you wrestle with things, relationships, activities, desires, natural inclinations which become the occasion of your being ensnared by sin? If so, then, dear disciple, hang upon the words of Jesus as you would hang upon life itself. The central issue addressed in this passage is the issue of what I am to do as a disciple with those things, those relationships, those attitudes, whatever falls in the sphere of obedience and control that becomes my life. Do you? It becomes the occasion of sin to me.

Addressing Indifference and Self-Deception

17:55 And if you're sitting here saying, well, if that's what the central concern is, I can pull down the shade over my mind. I don't need the light of this passage. If you can hear that this is the central concern and have any other attitude but one that says, oh, God, yes, that's where I live. That's where I'm at.

18:14 Speak, Lord. Oh, Lord, to me. If you have an attitude of indifference, then it's only because of one or two things. That is true of you.

18:25 Either you're a lover of sin and a slave of sin and thereby a stranger to grace. And you don't want anyone to touch your chains. You love your slavery to your sin. And my friend, if so, you're to be pitied.

18:41 And I pray that just a few beams of light will come from the word of God that will cause you to see that the ropes and chains you love are ropes and chains that will continue to bind you. And call you through all eternity unless you repent and flee to Christ to be delivered. The other alternative is you may be a self-deceived man or woman who in the language of 1 John 1 8 dares to say, I have no sin. God has a word for you.

19:12 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If you say there is one day that you can live without this central concern of the words of Jesus. Being applicable to you and yet you claim to be a disciple, you have it upon the word of God. You are self-deceived.

19:32 If you say there are no occasions to sin with which you struggle, you're above and beyond that. God says you're a liar and self-deceived. The truth is not in you. Well, then, having looked at the central concern addressed, now notice the ultimate issues involved.

The Ultimate Issues Involved: Heaven or Hell

19:51 The central concern addressed is whatever becomes an occasion. As an individual disciple, the ultimate issues involved, what are they? Well, it's very interesting that as Jesus addresses the matter of the things that become occasions of sin to disciples, not the things by which they might cause sin to another, but by which they cause sin in themselves, he does so by focusing on the ultimate issues that are at stake. And to get the message across, just like the central concern comes before us three times in the exact same wording, if the... And then he changes the things, hand, foot, eye, but it's if something pertaining to yourself causes you to stumble, so now we have two couplets of three.

20:49 The issue of eternal life is set before us three times, and the issue of eternal torment is set before us three times. Look. Look at the passage. Verse 43.

20:59 It is good for you to enter into life, literally into the life. That is the life which is life indeed. Speaking of the consummate bliss of eternal life in the age to come. Verse 45.

21:16 It is good for you to enter into life. And then verse 47. It is good for you to enter into the kingdom of God. Three times he says to his disciples, are you concerned with this central issue of the things that cause you to stumble into sin?

21:37 Well, if so, let that concern be touched in the light of these ultimate issues, the issue of eternal life. It is good for you to enter the life. It is good for you to enter the life. It is good for you to enter the kingdom of God.

21:56 And again, the kingdom of God in terms of its consummate glory at the second coming of Jesus, even as we find it described in Matthew 25, 34, come ye blessed, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. But set in stark contrast as the other side of the ultimate issues involved, three times Jesus makes reference to eternal torment. Verse 43, rather than having your two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, into Gehenna, into the fire, the unquenchable, verse 45, rather than having your two feet to be cast into hell, verse 43, it is merely going into hell. Verse 45, it is being cast into hell. Verse 47, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell. My friend, I ask you, could Jesus make the ultimate issues involved any plainer than this?

23:21 In this short compass of dealing with this central concern, three times the issue is eternal life or eternal torment. Eternal life. Eternal torment. Eternal torment.

23:34 Eternal torment. Eternal torment. Eternal torment. Eternal torment.

23:34 Eternal life. Eternal torment. The kingdom of God. Unquenchable fire.

23:41 What is he saying? He's saying to his disciples, look, as I address this subject of occasions to sin found in yourself, don't you couch these issues in any other context but the context of the ultimate end of all men. The glorious bliss of the immediate presence. The presence of God in the new heavens, the new earth, amid the company of all of his redeemed.

24:17 Of Gehenna, the unquenchable fire, the place where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.

24:31 These, according to our Lord Jesus, are the ultimate issues involved in the matters of concern with respect to our own. The tated by factors in our. Why did Jesus do? Well, for the simple reason that he understood all too well that sin is so subtle, so self-excusing, so dulling to the senses, so blurring to spiritual vision, so eloquent that nothing less than dumping down upon sin the glories of heaven and the horrors of hell shut the mouth of its devilish eloquence and unravel. The horrible, horrible scenario of its subtlety and its deceitfulness.

Confronting Practical Antinomianism

25:46 And one of the things that has gripped my heart in preparation is this very simple truth that while I am convinced there is no one in this congregation who accepts in theory what is commonly called the carnal Christian doctrine, that is the doctrine that there are three basic categories of men. Men and women. You have the saved and the lost. You have not only natural men, but you have spiritual men, but in between you have people who have accepted Christ, who are regenerate, who are saved, who if they died would go to heaven, but the dominant characteristic of their life is fleshiness, worldliness, carnality, and yet they are still saved. We reject theoretically that horrible teaching. But I fear from a pastoral perspective. That there may be more than a few who have embraced that theory at the level of how you deal with your offending eye, your offending hand, your offending foot.

27:00 And though you would never doctrine of the carnal Christian, the act that you've embraced a practical doctrine of the carnal Christian.

27:25 Theoretically, you would never deny that without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. No man shall see the Lord. But in the day by the offending hand,

27:39 looking at you would certainly gain the impression that you're convinced that you'll still make it even though you're not hacking, hewing, and plucking.

27:51 And you've imbibed a practical antinomianism that says heaven is secure to me whether I hack and cut and pluck. And that's the only explanation as to why you can sit in counseling sessions and have your duty laid out before you and sit there and say, I'm not sure if I'm going to do it. You can have your duty spelled out in preaching that is so plain, conscience has no control as to what the law of God demands. Leave this place and do nothing.

28:30 It has been articulated by the Word of God and by your willful, perpetual sins of omission you demonstrate that you don't really believe it's a matter of life and death. Whether you become holy in the way of God's precepts. My dear friends, God have mercy on you. Jesus Christ stood in the circle of the twelve that day and he stands among us by his word and spirit as the Lord of his church and as he addresses this sin to the things, the people, the relationships that become an occasion of sin to me. Either sins of omission, sins of commission. He addresses that central question. He addresses that central concern.

29:31 He says the ultimate issue involved in this concern is heaven or hell. Some of you are practical atheists on that point. You really don't believe that. God helped you to believe it because Jesus does.

The Difficult Duty Enjoined: Radical Sacrifice

29:46 And in the day of judgment you'll be judged by his measure of reality, not yours. Now then, having looked at the central concern addressed, the ultimate issues involved, now look at the difference between the two. The first one is the difficulty in joining. The difficulty in joining.

30:10 And I've chosen the word in joined purposely. If you were to look it up in the dictionary, you'd find that it means to urge with authority. And Jesus is urging with authority a difficult duty. But the duty laid upon his disciples is unmistakably clear.

30:31 Three times he uses an aorist imperative. A form of the verb is used to speak of the most strict, immediate pressure of an authoritative word of direction. Look at verse 43. And if thy hand cause thee to stumble, pray cause it to wither and fall off.

31:00 And cause thee to stumble. The you who possesses the hand, and the you upon you to stumble. Why are you spiritually paralyzed? And pray that God will make it better known. Can this be the same Jesus of whom it is said they wondered at the words of grace

32:14 heeded from his mouth? It's the same Jesus who says to the people of the twelve as he addresses this central concern of occasions to sin, that thoughts and actions and activities, that we have something to say about them in the altissues of heaven and hell. The duty he does, if your foot offends, cut it off if your eye offends, cast it out then. You say, yes, it's evident. That's what he said, but what did he mean? Well, surely there are two things our Lord did not mean, for it would contradict his own teaching in the rest of Holy Scripture.

33:15 Our Lord does not mean that sin has its residence in our bodily members. Sin does not have its residence in our bodily members. The whole of the Bible teaches that sin has its residence in the heart. You remember you who were with us for our earlier expositions in Mark 7.

33:35 One of the great errors of the Pharisees was a religious system that looked upon sin in a materialistic way. And Jesus said, no, sin has to do with the heart. And so he says in verse 21 of Mark 7, For from within out of the heart of man evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, etc. These evil things proceed from within.

34:06 Not saying into a pocket of evil somewhere between the wrist and the fingers and if you'll only cut it off high enough on the forearm you can be done with the sin. No. He is not teaching that sin has its residence in our bodily members. Though the Bible does teach and our experience validates that the members of the body are called into the service of sin, sin does not reside in the members of the body.

34:38 Romans 6.16 says, You presented your bodily members servants to uncleanness, but the uncleanness had its origin not in the finger or in the hand or in the arm or in the foot, but in the heart. And then surely our Lord is not teaching sanctification by dismemberment. There have been some in the history of the church who actually based on these words and similar words found in Matthew 5, and Matthew 18 and in Luke 17 actually cut off certain members of the body.

35:12 You see from the words themselves it's evident our Lord is not teaching this. For if a man is allowing sin in his heart to find expression with his hand taking forbidden objects, what good would it do to cut off one hand? He still has another with which to take a forbidden object. And if his two feet are carrying him into forbidden paths or through sinful laziness refuse to go into a path of positive obedience, cutting off one foot would not keep a man determined to pursue his sin or to pursue his sins of omission.

35:47 He would simply hobble in the forbidden path. And if I is the inlet of a covetous spirit and of lust, plucking out one will not do. Plucking out two will not do because then the man would flash upon the chambers of his mind all of the thoughts of lechery and uncleanness that he had stored up out of the filthy storeroom of his heart. No, Jesus is not teaching that sin has its residence in our bodily members.

36:17 He is not teaching sanctification by dismemberment. This cannot be the meaning of our Lord's words. Well, what then is His meaning? Well, one author has expressed it something like this.

36:31 He is teaching us that it is our solemn duty to sacrifice what is nearest, dearest, most precious or most necessary to ourselves if the sacrifice is essential to the avoidance of sin and to living a holy life. That is what he is teaching. It is our solemn duty to sacrifice whatever is nearest, dearest, most precious or most necessary to oneself if the sacrifice is essential to the avoiding of sin and living a holy life. To state it differently, what is it to be maimed? Look at the words. It is good for you to enter into life maimed.

37:40 Verse 45. It is good for you to enter into to enter into the kingdom one-eyed. Now, some of us know, not just theoretically, but from close relationships with some who have suffered the loss of an eye, the loss of a hand. There are among us some who have lost the use of foot and feet.

38:20 And apart from the embarrassment that is inevitably present, think of the inconvenience of having to operate in a world in which all systems of service and convenience and all of its interaction is predicated upon normal human beings who have two eyes, two hands, two feet. And to go through one leg and to go through life one-eyed, having a narrowed field of vision, all the strain upon the one eye is certainly to go through life inconvenienced, isn't it? It is to go through life handicapped is the word we use. You see what Jesus is saying? If the only alternative to dealing with that which is an occasion of sin to you is not inconvenience, then having a whole person

39:46 that's what Jesus is saying. If you're not conversant about the latest issues that are discussed on the television, you'll be considered a little out of it. But if the only way you can gain the mastery of your television is not to have it,

40:51 brothers and sisters, have with a parent no idolatrous attachment, but for you to have them is to create an idol which feet you worship and to which you pour out your devotion through life one-eyed, then having a whole and go to hell as the price of it. As difficult as is the duty enjoined, the duty's clear. If you would go to heaven, you've got to hack, you've got to hew, you've got to pluck out and cast away. Now having looked at the central issue addressed, the ultimate issues involved, the difficult duty enjoined, now in closing, look at several unavoidable conclusions. That we are warranted to draw from the text, number one, according to these words of Jesus, all professed disciples must pursue holiness at any cost or run the risk of going to hell. Do you hear that? Jesus was not talking to the Pharisees.

Unavoidable Conclusions: Holiness at Any Cost

42:10 Jesus was not talking to the scribes and the mixed multitude. He's talking to the inner servant, Peter, James, Philip and Bartholomew. If you have a heart, or you'll perish. If you have an offending foot, an offending eye, which is the base on which any sin, if he's to hack and hew out of evangelical motives, if he is to hack and hew with the power of the operative in him, there is nothing here about union with Christ and the gift of the Spirit. Jesus would give much more rich teaching to these very disciples. You'll remember that earlier in the chapter, verses 30 to 32, he had emphasized the necessity of his impending death. Jesus is fully conscious that the cross lies before him, that if these men to whom he speaks are ever to be cleared before the bar of eternal justice, he must complete his life of obedience on their behalf,

43:37 and he must lay down his life to satisfy all the claims of divine justice against the sins they had committed and while he is on his way to the cross and the cross fills his own vision, he utters these words. What he's saying is this, nothing I do on the cross to form the just basis of your forgiveness and acceptance will ever negate the necessity of your hacking, your hewing, and your plucking out and casting away. Later on, he gives them the rich teaching of the upper room and he speaks of union with himself under the imagery of the branch and the vine and he says, without me you can do nothing. He says, when I go away, the spirit, the comforter will come and in the comfort he's coming, I come, my father comes, the triune God will inhabit you. Glorious truth. But he didn't stop at the end and say, oh no, by the way, in the light of all the privileges that will become yours at Pentecost, just strike out those rather harsh words I spoke as I was heading to Jerusalem. You see, once my spirit comes, sanctification will be as easy as breathing.

44:42 Just forget all those words. Those words about offending eyes, offending feet, and offending hands. That's all can't...

44:51 No, no, my friend, listen. Though there was a fuller revelation to come of the only basis of a sinner's acceptance with God through the blood of Christ, though there was fuller teaching to come about the gift of the Spirit and the precise nature of justification and the privilege of adoption, none of those realities ever formed the basis of canceling the duty enjoined in the passage. Christ died, the Spirit was given, and the privileges of adoption and justification are conferred. But to make us effective in that exercise, the privileges of grace are not to make us careless regarding sin, but to intensify our hatred of it and to give us power to conquer in the fight against it. My friend, if Jesus' words mean anything, they tell us that every professed disciple in this place must pursue holiness at any cost or run the risk of hell. You see that in the passage? The second conclusion we draw is this.

Unavoidable Conclusions: Bringing Near Ultimate Destiny

46:10 It is essential to bring near our ultimate destiny when struggling with occasions to sin. Why did Jesus say, If thy hand offend, it is good to enter life maimed, rather than having two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, right down in the...

46:33 What he is saying is so great. The rationalizing influence of sin is so subtle. Its ability to be a chameleon and adopt itself to the varying colors upon the tapestry of the soul at any given moment, that ability is so great that the only...

47:03 of all... in all its nakedness against the glories of heaven, and the horrors of hell.

47:11 You see, when you and I are being enticed to sin, it is as though sin becomes an unusually astute and prolific artist, pulls out its canvas and splashes very quickly right before our eyes all of the so-called pleasure and satisfaction that will come from the indulgence of a given sin. Whether it is a sin of commission or a sin of omission, whether it is a temptation to lust or to laziness, it matters not. Jesus says, take the fist of truth and push it to the horizon. See upon the horizon light that goes up and up until it is enveloped in the very glory of the immediate presence of God in all the redeemed. And then look down over the abyss until you see the fire unquenchable, until you see the horror. Decide what you will do with that offending eye, hand, and foot, surely if the text teaches us anything. It's teaching us dear people that it is essential for disciples to bring near our ultimate destiny when struggling with occasions to sin.

Unavoidable Conclusions: Honesty About Hell and Seriousness of Sin

48:36 Then thirdly, according to the example of Jesus in this passage, faithfulness to the souls of men demands honesty about the horrors of hell. Faithfulness to the souls of men demands honesty about the horrors of hell. Faithfulness to the souls of men demands honesty about the horrors of hell. Bishop Ryle, in commenting on this passage, said with such astute and perceptive insight, it is not possible to speak too much about Jesus, but it is possible to speak too little about hell.

49:13 And friends, you'll notice I haven't even expounded the phrases the fire, the unquenchable, where their worm dies not, and the fire is never quenched. I've not even expounded them, have I? I've simply quoted them. But those twelve who heard Jesus speak would have known immediately that he was referring, it's almost a verbatim quote, from the last verse of the prophecy of Isaiah, where God in prophesying of the future glory of the kingdom of God and the ultimate destruction of the wicked, that glorious prophetic utterance embodied in the book of Isaiah, begins with these words, that you shall see God's judgment upon those concerning whom it is said their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. This is not the time or the place to go into an exposition of the word Gehenna, which is used by our Lord ten times in the Gospel records, refers to that place of torment and unspeakable suffering and woe, suffice it to say that in this passage, even choosing the textual variant that does not allow that the words of verse 48 are repeated in verses 44 and 46,

50:42 as some of you have them, surely once is enough! For our Lord Jesus' faithfulness to the souls of men demanded honesty about the horrors of hell. And as one author has said, don't spend time inquiring or disputing about the nature of the unquenchable fire. Spend your time doing that whatever figures and images he used were but the poor stuff of human communication to convey something of a horror that is far greater than words can ever convey. And then finally, we learn from this passage, according to Jesus,

51:53 God takes sin seriously. Do you? Do you? Into which I see no such distinctions in the passage.

52:21 God takes your sin and all of it to threaten hell, if you continue in it. God sins seriously. Do you? Do you?

52:42 Serious enough not simply to bow quietly when Mr. Hushing's plays are sobering him at the end of his service. Serious sensation when the means to take it serious enough to do something about it, to do something more than that, and even pray. Jesus didn't say, God, if he said go to whacking. When you say, can we do it in our own strength? No.

53:43 And when you set yourself to do it, you'll see how impotent you are and then you'll pray. But your prayer won't be an excuse for obedience. Your prayer will be a true act of reverent dependence upon the living God in the course of obedience. See the difference?

53:57 It's all the difference in the world between whimpering to excuse your sin and crying to God to deal with it. But no matter how much God helps you, he's never going to be the amputating surgeon you must be. You must. So works as to negate either the consciousness or the vigor of your effort.

54:33 What grace does, promise success by the Spirit, do mortify. What is it, the Spirit? It is not I without the Spirit, not the Spirit without me. Is that all that is?

55:00 It proves you're not doing it, or you would. Dear people, this is an awesome passage. Jesus Christ stands among us as he stood among the twelve and he puts the issue into sharp focus. He says the issue is this, whatever there is in your life, whatever in your life over which you have any control that becomes to you, not to your brother, your sister, your wife, your husband, son or daughter, no, whatever becomes to you the occasion of the snaring you, sins of commission or omission, you must be prepared to do whatever you must do to deal with that occasion to sin.

55:45 You say, well, it's a hard thing. Yes, but dear child of God, heaven awaits us, not as the reward of our hacking and hewing, but as the reward of grace to all who abandoning all confidence in themselves for pardon and all confidence in themselves for even sanctifying power have looked unto Jesus and in the strength of Jesus out of love to Jesus have hacked and hewed and plucked and cast away until they come to that place where hacking and hewing and plucking are no longer needed and we are like him when we see him as he is. What is it that to you is the offending hand, the offending eye, the offending foot? Jesus tells you what to do. He sets it in the context of heaven and hell.

56:46 May God grant that we shall not despise his word, that we shall not find some clever way to get around his word. Surely in the sayings of Jesus there are things that the most profound and devout souls pray over and examine carefully all the days of their life and at the end have to say, oh God, the light upon this issue is but veiled darkness. But my friend, this is plain stuff. If your hand offend, cut it off.

57:20 If your eye offend, cast it from you. If your foot offend, cast it off. Why? It's better, it's better to enter life.

57:27 Jesus is concerned that you enter life. He doesn't say it's good to go into hell maimed, hauled, one-eyed. He said it's good to enter life. But there's no way that even the Son of God can make a way into life that bypasses the hacking and the hewing.

Closing Prayer and Exhortation

57:43 And if you want such a way, you'll make it and you'll sink into hell with it. God help us to go His way in His strength out of love to Him who loved us and died for us that He might have in the language of Titus chapter 2 a people zealous of good works. Let us pray. Our Father, we pray that the Holy Spirit would even now take the words of Jesus upon which we have meditated this morning and cause them to be burnt into our hearts in an age characterized by self-indulgence and such pitifully low standards of holiness and obedience and radical discipleship. Oh, that each one who truly knows your dear Son would hear His voice in the Scriptures and follow Him this day. We pray for those who sit among us careless in their sins, cavalier in their attitude to sin. Oh, God, may the word preached this morning sting their consciences and alarm and awaken them to just how seriously You take human sin.

59:08 And may they find no rest nor peace until they rest under the canopy of the forgiving grace that You extend to sinners in the Lord Jesus and until they are endowed with that grace essential to wage an effective warfare against their own occasions to sin. Lord, hear our prayer and may the great and final day reveal that this word was not proclaimed in vain this morning but that according to Your promise You have made it to prosper in that whereunto You have sent it. Hear us, we plead, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.