In the sermon titled 'The Seriousness Of Sin,' Pastor Grant Brown delivers a compelling message based on Mark 9:42-50, emphasizing the radical measures Jesus advocates to avoid sin, including the metaphorical cutting off of body parts that cause one to stumble. Pastor Brown underscores the analogy of a house fire to illustrate the urgency and severity of sin, drawing parallels between a father's promise to rescue his child from flames and Jesus' warning about the eternal torment of hell. The sermon delves into the destructive nature of pride, which can cause others to stumble and lead to severe consequences. Pastor Brown calls for radical repentance and practical steps to deal with sin, such as using accountability software and confessing sins to one another. He stresses that genuine freedom comes from cutting off anything that leads to sin and encourages the congregation to heed Jesus' warnings seriously. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the eternal consequences of unrepentant sin and the promise of purification for those who belong to Christ, urging listeners to make war on their sin and seek help from the Christian community.

Mark chapter 9 beginning in verse 42. If you have a pew Bible, the Bible under the chair in front of you, you'll find that on page 1006. Mark chapter 9 beginning in verse 42 and I'll ask the congregation now to stand as we hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believes to stumble.

It would be better for him if with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than having your two hands to go into hell into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. If your foot causes you to stumble, Cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than having your two feet to be cast into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast 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 becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again?

Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. May God bless the reading of His Word. Amen. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, what a task in front of us to dive into these words.

I am insufficient to convey the radical, serious nature of sin and its killing on men and women across the globe. Please come and help. Please. Grant repentance and faith and newness of life for Your glory and the joy of Your church. In Christ's name we pray, amen.

Amen. Be seated. May be seated. Well, not very long ago, one of my daughters became very concerned with the thought that our house would burn down by a fire. And she was very concerned.

In fact, she was so concerned, so preoccupied with the notion that our house would be engulfed in flames that she was even dreaming about it. And so for several nights we had to assure her that there was no fire, that she was safe, and that if there were ever to be a fire in our home, that her mother and her father would come and whisk her away as soon as possible. And she was adamant as she looked into my eyes, very adamant. She wanted to be sure I meant what I had just said. I would come and rescue her.

She said to me, Daddy, you won't leave me in this room, right? I said, no, I will not leave you in this room if there's a fire. Daddy, what if there's a fire in my room? And you have to go through the fire to get me? I looked her in the eyes and I said to her, I will come in no matter the cost.

If it costs me my hand, I'll come and get you. If it costs me my eyesight, I will come and get you. If it costs me my very life, I will come and get you, little girl. The cost for doing nothing is far greater. I would respond no matter the cost.

And my daughter was very comforted by that. Beloved this morning, the Lord Jesus Christ sounds the alarm that is a far greater alarm than any smoke alarm could give you in your house. You hear the smoke alarm, and you rush to get those that you love. You rush to safety. You heed the call of a smoke alarm in your home, this morning the Lord Jesus Christ sounds the alarm, sounds the trumpet of warning, fire is coming.

A far more terrible fire than the fire of my daughter's dreams. A great inferno, a dreadful, horrifying, eternal blaze of torment is coming for you sinner. That is your inheritance. That is what you earn as your wages as a sinner. Sin is serious.

It is so serious, it is such an abomination to the thrice holy God that God must punish those who sin in such a severe way. And this severe way involves casting men and women into hell where the worm does not die and the fire is never quenched. That's how serious your sin is against He who is thrice holy. And our Lord Jesus at the end of chapter 9 of Mark's Gospel issues to you a very grave warning. Hell is real.

Fire is coming. Damnation, eternal torment is coming for you. The Lord Jesus is sounding the alarm. He's blowing the trumpet of warning. And if there is one thing that you must hear Him say this morning, it must be, repent.

Cast your sin away from you. Run to Jesus who alone can deal with your sin. Heed His warning this morning. This should be a very sober sermon. No matter the cost, turn from sin.

Let sin no longer reign in you. Let sin no longer be your master. Let sin no longer be what kills you for eternity It is far better For you to have lost your very body Than to lose your soul in hell forever It is far better Jesus says for you to be drowned in the sea. It is far better for you to descend to the lowest part of the ocean and for your body to perish there, then to enter into the depths of hell and suffer the second death forever in anguish. The Lord Jesus blows the trumpet of warning this morning.

He begins so to you. He begins so in verse 42. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, It would be better for him if with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. You'll recall that the immediate context of our passage this morning reminds us that these disciples, what have they been up to? They were thinking of themselves very greatly and they were turning friends of God because of the disciples' pride, they were turning friends of God into their own enemies by forbidding those outside of their group to do the work of the Lord.

And so a man, in our verses prior to this passage this morning, a man was casting out demons and he was being hindered by fellow disciples of Jesus from doing the work of Jesus and That man Jesus declares was being made to stumble these disciples were taking a believer, a little one, and causing this man to stumble. Jesus says to you, Jesus says to those who make others stumble, you make a child of God stumble like that? Hell is to pay. It would be better for you if a heavy millstone was hung around your neck and you were cast into the ocean. And we should probably talk briefly about that.

A millstone was used to grind up grain and this is a heavy millstone And so this millstone would have been so heavy that a mule or two mules would be required to turn it as it ground out the grain. To have a stone like this hung around your neck would render you immovable. It would crush you and if dropped into the sea with your necktie around it You would sink like a lead brick, and you would most assuredly meet your end at the bottom of the ocean. There was no going back. Jesus says, don't think you're great by canceling out others who are faithful, by exalting yourself over faithful children of God.

Jesus said, you're making children of God, fellow disciples of Christ, stumble, and you may cause them to enter into sin with you in your pride. You may be responsible in part for their sin. It's better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and go to the depths of the ocean than having done that. That's how serious sin is. And the question in your mind should be, better than what?

Better than what? Jesus says it is better for you to have that millstone around your neck and be sunk to the bottom of the ocean because of your pride, the question is, better than what? To have a millstone hung around your neck would be really bad. You should be talking to Jesus here as you're thinking through this passage. Jesus, that's really serious.

I'd sink like a lead balloon. I'd sink like a lead brick all the way down to the depths of the sea. That's serious, Jesus. That's pretty lousy. What could be possibly worse than that?

And Jesus answers that question three times. You want to know what could be worse than that in verse 42? Three times He tells you. Being drowned with a millstone around your neck is better than hell. Better it would be to be at the bottom of the ocean, crushed under the weight of the entire sea, then verse 43, that to go into hell into the unquenchable fire.

Better it would be to be cast into the sea and your body destroyed, then verse 45 and 47, then to be cast into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Three times Jesus blows the trumpet of warning. Sin is serious. And your sin, according to the context of this passage, is a result of your pride. And in your pride, you make others stumble, you make others sin, and in doing so you flirt with eternal torment.

Don't flirt with eternal torment. Don't flirt with hell. Hell doesn't play games. God doesn't play games. This is serious.

And you need to listen this morning, friend. Hell makes drowning in the ocean with a lead weight around your neck look like a treat. Look preferable. Look infinitely better than itself. Your sin is serious and it is so serious that you need to get Serious about putting that sin to death in you You got me you don't got me.

I hope you give me by the end of verse 50 As the wonderful theologian John Owen said in his paraphrasing of Romans 8 13 you need to be killing sin or sin will kill you there's the two options and so what does Jesus do here three times the trumpet of warning is given to you by Jesus and each time in a couplet of verses I want you to notice this three times in couplets first in verses 43 and 44 the first warning then in 45 and 46 the second warning then in verses 47 and 48 the third warning each of these couplets has the same language with very minor deviations three trumpet blasts of warning I need you to consider this just as in Isaiah chapter 6 when the seraphim cried out what did they cry out when they saw God three times holy holy holy what were they doing They were recognizing the supreme awesomeness of God, how there is no one like Him in holiness. He is holy, holy, holy. He is unmatched in the intensity of His holiness. He is Unlike anyone, unlike anything in this world, He is holy to the greatest degree.

In the same way, Jesus now here gives you three repetitions. It is better, it is better, it is better to enter life crippled, to enter life lame, to enter life without eyes, than to endure the torment of hell. Three times where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Three times to convey to you the reality of the intensity of the awful, horrific conditions of hell. Three times to convey to you that hell is unlike anything or anywhere you've ever seen or even imagined.

Torture to the greatest degree. You should pay attention when things are repeated three times. Each of these three couplets begin with the same thing, the cause of your sin. The cause of your sin. Each of these three couplets begin with the cause.

Look in verse 43, if your hand causes you to stumble. Verse 45, If your foot causes you to stumble. Verse 47. If your eye causes you to stumble. Hand, foot, eye.

These members are simply supposed to communicate to you the extent of your depravity. The extent of your sin is total. The extent of your problem is massive. Sin has corrupted every part of you. And Paul says the same thing in Romans chapter 3, doesn't he?

You know this passage. All are under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks for God.

All have turned aside. There's no one that does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. Their tongues keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips.

Their mouth full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are their paths. From head to toe, from hand to foot, your sin is serious. And you sin because you are a sinner at your core in total, apart from a work of Christ.

So what has Jesus already taught you from Mark chapter 7? What has Jesus taught you in Mark chapter 7 verse 21? Look there. What has He already taught you in Mark chapter 7 verse 21? This is what He's taught you.

From within, out of the heart proceed evil things. Jesus tells you evil things proceed from within. Your heart is where the ultimate problem lies. Your heart is the root cause of your sin. Do you know that, beloved?

And coming out of your heart, it comes out through your hands and what you do. Your sin comes out from your heart and into your feet, where you go. Your sin comes out from your heart and into your feet, where you go. Your sin comes out from your heart into your eyes, into what you see, what you meditate on, what you delight in. So Jesus, looking at these men, looking at His disciples, He tells them, if your hand, if your foot, if your eye, if What you do, if where you go, if what you see makes you stumble, rid yourself of it.

Get rid of it. Because it will destroy you. Now that phrase in our English translations, that phrase that happens multiple times in chapter 9 verses 42 through 50, that phrase causes to stumble, makes you stumble, that is actually one Greek word. And it's the word scandalizo. Scandalizo.

Does that sound familiar? Scandal. That's where we get our English word scandal. It carries with it great negative connotations. As in almost all scandals in our day.

Entrapment. It traps you. It destroys you. It's a word that carries with it this idea of ensnaring. Throughout the New Testament, this idea of ensnaring is that Greek word.

It will grab ahold of you and not let go. So what is Jesus saying? If your members will destroy you, if your members are going to lay traps for you and kill you, kill them first. Lest your entire self be destroyed. That's the whole argument.

If your hand is what's going to bring you to hell, kill it! Lest your whole self and your soul join your hand. Your sin is so serious. The further we get along, I hope you see what I mean by that word serious. And it demands a response from you this morning.

You must be killing sin or your sin will kill you It originates in the heart James tells us a man is first enticed and carried away by his own lust in his own heart And then when sin is given way to, it brings death. It brings death and destruction, and that's why Jesus is warning you of your sin. That's why Jesus speaks so strongly on the necessary response towards your sin. He conveys to you that you must respond. If where you go or what you do or what you see seeks to destroy you, it seeks to scandalize you and entrap you forever, rid yourself of it.

Cut it off. He's warning you, friend. He's warning you so much in this passage. Listen to him. Cut it off.

There are many men, there are many men, who have walked down the alleyway of the flattering woman, of the enticing woman named Lust and Adultery. There are many women who have done the same for the man named Lust. So many have listened to the voice of her lies. She has called out to them from the street corner. She's called out to them from the alleyway, seducing them with flattery, speaking of the satisfaction that can be theirs in her bed smelling of rich cinnamon, of fresh linen, the Proverbs tell us.

And she tells these men, she tells you, no one has to know. It could just be you and I for a moment. And so like oxes being led to the slaughter, so many men enticed by this woman named Lust's lies, like an ox being led to the slaughter, they enter into her house called pornography. They enter into her house called infidelity and adultery. So many men and women enter into that house and you know what happens in that house?

Killing happens. She kills people. She seeks your destruction. Young men, listen to me. Do not go into her house.

Don't go there. Do not go into the house of the flatterer. Do not enter into the dungeon called pornography or fornication. The beautiful woman you see there is but a facade She is death itself calling out to you and within her walls that look like a palace on the outside Within her walls are only Maggots and bones and women the same applies to you There is only decay there Your hand What you do your foot where you go your eye, what you see and delight in. Cut off what you must, lest you perish.

I have walked through this issue of pornography myself. And with so many men, so many men, by God's grace, I've walked alongside them too in this issue. And so many men will come to me horrified by what they've given themselves to I want to be free pastor. Amen I Will tell these men and women I will tell them of these words of Jesus that there is freedom to be had. There is freedom to be had in Christ.

Christ Jesus died for you. That you might go free. He died to unleash the shackles and you can leave the prison cell but right now you're running back and putting the shackles back on. Be free! And I tell these men, but in order to chase freedom, Jesus tells you in Mark chapter 9 that you must cut out these things that lend themselves to your sin.

Jesus died to give you the freedom to do that kind of cutting, to do that kind of killing. He died to give you the freedom to do that. And so I have urged man after man to place Covenant Eyes or Accountable to You, different software on their devices to rid themselves for a season of search engines like Google to pluck out movie subscriptions that lead them into sin. Google's not what causes the sin. YouTube's not what causes the sin.

Amazon's not what causes the sin. But if those things lead you into the house called destruction, cut them off! And so many times, so many times, men will look at me and I get it. This is what they say. See, Pastor, that's so much to ask of me.

I mean, do you not realize how often I Google? Do you not realize how often I use YouTube? To Get rid of some of these things sounds way more like slavery to me, Grant. Doesn't sound like freedom at all, having to cut some stuff out. That's what I hear time and time again.

Man, you're asking me to go into further slavery. And I have so often wanted to shout out, slavery? That's what sounds like slavery? What do you call that which you are doing right now? What do you call that?

Enslaved to lust and given yourselves over to pornography? That's slavery! No friend, Jesus has set you free. You have the freedom to rid yourself of the very thing that causes you to stumble. Pluck it out.

Run away from it. Do whatever it takes to put this sin to death. To this day, friends, I, it's funny, it just happened this morning, to this day, I do not have YouTube on my phone. I plucked that eyeball out a long time ago. Is YouTube bad?

No! But I make it bad. For years I've had no access to YouTube. And you know what I get to do when I get a YouTube link from one of you? I send it to my wife and we watch it together.

You know what she's told me so many times? Thank you for doing that. I'm not the hero, but that is freedom. That is freedom. Unfiltered access to the internet is not freedom.

Plucking out eyes, cutting off hands, cutting off feet, making war on your sin, no matter the cost, You can't do that unless God sets you free. That's freedom. And so the Lord Jesus this morning tells you, whatever keeps you from holiness, whatever results in stumbling, whatever will result in your eternal destruction, pluck it out, cut it out, cast it out, lest you die forever with your supposed liberties Friend there is a terrible way There is a terrible way to gain the whole world for a moment, and then lose in exchange, lose your soul in hell forever. You need to fear God. You need to fear God this morning.

Fear Him who can cast body and soul into the lake of fire. You need to heed His words. No matter the cost, deal with your sin. No matter the cost, deal with your sin. Look to the only one who can free you as a slave to your sin, cry out to Him, cry out to Jesus, and then believing upon the work of Christ accomplished in His death and in His resurrection, obey Him.

Obey Him. These are the words of life. Listen to them. Be killing sin. John MacArthur writes this.

Jesus called for radical, severe action against anything that hinders the pursuit of holiness, righteousness, and purity throughout the Christian life. But the action he had in mind, both here in Mark 9 and in similar metaphoric language in Matthew 5, was not, of course, physical mutilation. MacArthur writes, misguided aesthetics over the centuries have foolishly assumed that the way to defeat sin was through emasculation or otherwise mutilating themselves. But friends, a person with one hand, one foot, one eye is no less capable of sinning because no matter what body parts are lost, Sin remains in the heart. We're talking this morning about a heart set free to kill sin.

Do not go home and be abundantly foolish and think about getting out of chainsaw. But do get a chainsaw spiritually and do work with the Lord. You're a good woman, dear. Put to death that which is earthly in you. So friend, for every wound that you receive in the fight against your sin, for every perceived liberty that you must give up in this war against your pride, against your lust and your lies.

And you will get wounds. It hurts to pluck out eyeballs. It hurts to cut off hands and feet. It hurts to get honest about your sin and confess your sins to one another so that you may be healed. It hurts to do that.

For every wound you experience here, it will be as but nothing in comparison to the torment that awaits you if you don't. That's what Jesus communicates this morning. It's what he communicates to you. The torment will be worse. And that's the third reality of our sin.

The eternal consequence for our sin. For your sin. I want you to remember what my daughter had asked me. She said, daddy, if you hear the fire alarm, If you hear the fire alarm, will you respond? How will you respond?

Will you come in and get me even if it hurts you? Will you come and get me even if it comes at great cost to yourself? And I told her, looking her right in the eyes, it would cost me far more. The cost would be far greater if I did nothing. You need to hear that this morning.

That's true for you. Jesus says to you, if something causes you to stumble, cut it off, cast it aside, rid yourself of it. It would be better for you to enter life crippled. It would be better for you to enter life lame. It would be better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two hands, two feet, two eyes to be cast into hell.

I want you to notice the parallelism used throughout this passage. It would be better for you to enter life, it says in verse 43. It would be better for you to enter life than in verse 45. It would be better for you to enter life than in verse 47. It would be better for you to enter the kingdom of God you see that there What I really want you to see this try to zero back in on me Try to zero in here Verse 43 enter life verse 45 verse 45 enter life verse 47 enter the kingdom He's not talking about earthly life.

He's actually talking about the kingdom of God. He's talking about eternal rightness with God, reconciliation with God. He's talking about the happy, eternal state of all children of God for those who obey His words here. That though the body might die, the soul will be gathered into the glorious presence of God, where there's no more sorrow, no more tears, every wrong made right, every curse broken, every shackle released, death itself defeated, Eternal life, reconciliation with God for eternity. Jesus is talking here about fighting sin so that you obtain, by the grace of God, secured for you by the blood of Jesus, you obtain everything that hell is not.

Life the glorious opposite of eternal hell fire. The loss of a hand is but nothing In comparison to the glory and joy that is yours to have in heaven, Christian, if you make war on your sin. You ought not to leave here with false assurance. If you sit in that chair this morning and you have no concern over the sin in your life, check your heart. It's probably dead.

You need to repent this morning and get right with God. The heart that has been transformed by the sovereign mercies of God is a heart that will no longer tolerate sin. It will not look at sin and say, well that's respectable. That kind of language does not jive with our language and our passage this morning. You must make war on your sin.

If you don't, you will feel the fire of God's white hot wrath. Let's say you have two hands. Let's say you have two eyes and you have two feet. All the more to feel the torment with. Three times Jesus describes hell.

Hell is real. Hell is potent. Hell is terrible. Three times Jesus uses the same language to describe the place it fell. Where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

Three times. Now that phrase where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched, if you look in the New American what do you see there? It's all capitalized. There's brackets too. We're not going to get into the brackets today.

Ask Pastor Dave if you need to. He brought it up. They're all capitalized, which means they come from the Old Testament. They come from Isaiah 66. That phrase comes from the last verse in the last chapter of Isaiah.

The last thing that Isaiah says, right there. You know what Isaiah's been talking about in his entire book, Judgment. And at the end of chapter 66 in Isaiah, you have this idea where Isaiah is prophesying of coming judgment particularly upon the enemies of God, those who oppose God. And so Jesus, taking that language, says that's you. If you fail to deal with your sin, you are an enemy of God.

And here are the horrors of the coming judgment for you. The worm will not die and the fire won't be quenched. Your sin is really serious. And it can really be seen for how serious it is by just those two realities. The worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

First, the worm does not die. I want you to consider that picture. The worm does not die. In Isaiah chapter 14 verse 11, It's the only other place in Isaiah where they talk about worms. He talks about worms at the beginning of his book in Isaiah 14, and Isaiah uses it at the end of his book talking about judgment.

In Isaiah 14, Isaiah uses the image of a worm to convey the covering of a tomb. The covering of a tomb. The sealing of your grave. So worms cover you in death. You cannot escape the tomb because the worms that eat your flesh are on top of you.

They've conquered you. They've triumphed over you. And they're not going to release you. The worms have you trapped. The worms have won.

The worms have sealed you in from above. That's the idea communicated from Isaiah. It's no different in Mark chapter 9. Jesus says to you, those worms will not die. The worms in hell do not die.

What's he saying? Really simple. You cannot escape hell. There is no longer the possibility of resurrection for you in hell, in Gehenna. Your tomb, your eternal damnation is sure and final.

The worm will not die. You will not, you cannot escape your doom. Hell is your inheritance. Then the second part of that phrase, the worm will not die and the fire is not quenched. The fire is not quenched.

Unquenchable fire. Let me ask you a question. When a house catches fire, what is the first thing that you do besides, of course, get out and get to safety? You call 911, you call the fire department, they come rushing out and they will take every ounce of water around them and spray it on your home. And eventually they will quench the fire.

The water will quench it. It will extinguish the flames. Though there might be only smoldering ruins of destruction remaining, right? But at least the flames are quenched despite the destruction. There's at least solace, right?

The flames are gone. It will not be so in hell. It's not possible in hell, Jesus says. The wrath of God against you and your sin will never be quenched. It will never let up.

It will never be diminished. It will never be made less severe. The flames will only burn hot. You will suffer and be tormented for eternity forever in a way that will never turn for the better. Unquenchable fire, Destruction that never ends.

That is your dwelling place as an enemy of God who will not turn from their pride and confront their sin. The worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Think about that imagery. The worms above, fire below. You're trapped.

You're sealed in. You're sandwiched between two torments. Do you see how serious your sin is? If you're cast into hell, you cannot escape. Damnation, the wrath of God has found you out and it's made you its own forever.

Beloved, the wrath of God must be metered out against sin and those who commit sin. It must. He would cease to be holy, holy, holy God. He must meter out His wrath. God is unchanging.

He hates sin. He hates sin with a holy passion, and all who practice sin. And you say, wait a minute, I don't like that. Well, that's Psalm five and Psalm 11. That's a terrifying reality.

The eternal consequence of your sin is to fall into the hands of a living God who has every right and more to be angry with you. So what are you going to say about that? What are you going to say about that? I want you to look at verse 40. I want you to look at verse 40 in Mark chapter 9.

I want you to remind yourself of verse 40. Jesus says right before our passage this morning, this is what He says, He who is not against us is for us. You know what that implies? It implies the opposite to also be true. If you are not for Christ, then you are against Him.

Beloved, Jesus in verse 40 tells you plainly, you may not straddle the fence. You may not sit in that chair this morning, and you may not simply say, well, I am neutral about my sin. I am neutral about that which is earthly in me. I am neutral about the ways I have disobeyed God. You may not sit there in that chair and be neutral.

God doesn't give you the neutral category. There is no neutrality. You may not sit in your chair and be neutral. You are either for Christ, belonging to Christ, hoping in Christ, and destined to eternal life in Christ, or you are his enemy and your inheritance is eternal destruction. It's a lake of fire where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

Hell, which makes being drowned in the ocean again look like a dessert on a dessert bar in comparison to itself. I want to say again friend if you are sitting in that chair this morning and you're not trusting in Christ and you refuse to obey Him, you refuse to be baptized before the people of God declaring to the world, my hope is in Jesus. If you refuse to bow the knee of your heart and say my sin I will no longer pet and adore no no my Lord is Jesus my salvation is found in him and him alone. If you refuse to bow the knee like that, if you will not submit to those truths, if you refuse to submit to the Savior and Lord, you are not in some kind of neutral position. You're not sitting there kind of an enemy, kind of a child of God.

No, you are very much an enemy of God. So snap out of it. There are people in this room that are thinking they can straddle the fence. Jesus says, you may not. You may not.

If you think you're straddling the fence saying, well, I haven't made a decision, well, you've made a decision. You made a decision. And from his mouth, you will go directly into the lake of fire. You think that's funny? You just going to sit there?

Ah! But for those in this room who see their desperate need, for those who recognize that just as a child who was weak and frail must appeal to someone outside of themselves for help, for salvation, for you, there is really good news. There's greatness. There's the most awesome news in the world. There is news that this Savior went to a cross.

His name was Jesus. He bore the sins of his people. He bore their guilt and their condemnation. And his people are those who come to him not in strength, not in might, but in weakness, carrying only their sins with them to the cross. Nothing in my hands I bring except for my sin.

And simply to the cross I cling. The people of God, those for whom Christ died, are those who come to Him in faith, in humility as the weak, the least, knowing that they are the most undeserving of anyone for anything good. His people are those who trust Him to do that which they themselves cannot do. He died for you, believer. Christian, you hearing that?

He died for you. And You think about that. He had His hand nailed to a cross for you so that you would go home this morning and have the freedom to deal radically with that which causes you to stumble. His feet were nailed to a cross, pierced so that you would have the capacity by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the body, to kill your sins, to cut off your spiritual hands and your spiritual feet that you might live forever with Christ. He, Jesus Christ, endured the full wrath of God, every drop of it for you, Christian, so that not an ounce of the just punishment that you deserve would be left unaccounted for.

I said earlier that God must meter out His just wrath. And if you are believing on Christ, He has already metered it out. There is not one sin for you, Christian, that is left hanging like a hanging chad where you will face the judgment and be held accountable for with regard to hellfire. All has been dealt with by the blood of Jesus. You think about that?

Because of Jesus' death on the cross in your place, Christian, not a single worm will lay claim to you spiritually. Not a one will be held over you victorious. Not a worm. And not a single flicker of the unquenchable fire will touch you. Those worms and that fire, conquered.

And in exchange, what a glorious exchange. No longer are worms and fire to be what follows you all the days of your life. Goodness and mercy are yours. What an exchange! And it's all because the Lord Jesus bore your sin, bore your guilt, He bore your eternal condemnation on Himself, making you a child of God through His substitutionary sacrifice.

And if you are a child of God this morning, you will Hear this sermon. You will hear the voice of your Savior crying out to you, warning you, kill sin within you. And you'll do it. You will go home, my sheep hear my voice, they know me, and they follow me, Jesus says. His children obey Him because they love Him.

He gave Himself for you. He rescued you from eternal ruin so that you this day may hear His command to kill sin lest it kill you and you say, Yes, Lord! Yes, I will obey you no matter the cost. You want to know if you've got a heart that beats for Jesus? How do you respond to this sermon?

If you're a child of God, you will say, yes, Lord, I will go home and put to death the deeds of the body because I am your child. So what do you say, friend? Will you turn this day and be saved? Will you turn this day and be saved? Will you turn this day and be saved?

Let's say you're Christian. Will this day, will you humble yourself and in the power of the Spirit make war on the sin within? All of us in this room, myself included, need to pluck out some eyeballs, need to cut off some hands and feet. But Christian, hear this. You must, you must leave here fighting your sin.

You must leave here resolved with your face set like flint. I will kill my sin by the grace of God. Many of you this very day need to speak with an elder or another brother or sister in this church. If you want to know how to fight sin, if you go, I have no idea what it means to pluck out an eyeball. Here's the first step.

Confess your sins. Confess your sin to God the Father and receive the forgiveness offered to you through Christ the Son. And then obey the command to then confess your sins to one another that you may be healed. Drag your pride, your lust, your lies out into the open. Expose them to the radiance of the glory of God.

Get brothers and sisters around you. Confess your sin. Start with confession. That's how you start plucking eyeballs out. You must be about this work.

Some of you need to confess patterns of sin in your life, The way you've been stumbling in many ways. Perhaps you need to confess the way you are at the buffet line in the sin of gluttony. Perhaps it's the sin of getting out of the bed in the morning and the sin of slothfulness and laziness. Perhaps it's internet consumption, some other lust. Perhaps it's anger, greed.

Perhaps it's just the propensity for you not to tell the truth. You need to get a brother. You need to get a sister. I'm telling you today. You don't do it today, you just made a decision.

You just made a decision. It's not that serious, Grant. My sin's not that serious. You do that when you got a knife stuck in your side, Not that big a deal. I'm going to pull that thing out and go get a doctor.

I'm not going to use essential oils either. Has a low blow, I know. Low blow. You need to get serious about your sin. And so if you'll do that with a knife, do that with a brother and sister, you need to go to him and say, I need you in my foxhole.

I need you to help feed me bullets called the promises of God as I'm fighting sin. Boom, boom, boom. I need you to feed me bullets called the promises of God. If I don't have promises, I've got no hope. Whatever it takes, I need help.

That's what you need to say to your brothers and sisters. I need you badly. And you know that's the type of people that inherit the kingdom of God. Go back and read Matthew 5. Yours is the kingdom.

Yours is the kingdom. You must do this. And the only reason that some of you won't do this, the only reason that some of you won't obey the commands here, is the same reason that the disciples are in trouble at the beginning of Mark chapter 9. Your pride. You will insist on going to hell because of your pride.

I just think it's really simple. Some people might accuse me of saying, man, you're ruining people's assurances. No, I'm not. When I say if you don't fight sin, you'll go to hell, I'm just saying what Jesus said. And I'm Offering you the opportunity to fight sin, proving that you're a child of God.

You want assurance? Obey! Okay, glad we got that settled. Your pride will be what keeps you from obeying this thing. That's exactly what this whole passage is all about.

It started with pride and it ends with pride. I just wonder, is your pride worth holding on to, to such a degree that it would bring you all the way down to hell? It would be better if you'd humble yourself and repent. It would be better if you'd humble yourself and repent. It would be better if you'd get lowly, because God promises to raise you up.

And that's how our passage ends, and I will be very brief here. I appreciate your kindness in sticking with me. Lastly, we see the purification of your sins. We're going to look at that briefly. Our last two verses.

Look at verse 49. Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt becomes unsalted, with What will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. Now, you could go all round and round about what salt is and what salt isn't, but let's just be real simple.

Salt is a preserving and purifying agent. And so for those who belong to Christ, what's the promise for you? You will be purified. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 tells us, Jesus Christ went to the cross and accomplished, secured, guaranteed the purification of your sins. Go home and read Hebrews 1.3 and be amazed.

He will purify you so that those whom God predestined, He also called, those whom He called, He also justified, those whom He justifies, what does He do? He glorifies. He will bring you to glory. He will purify you. Philippians chapter 1, it's promised to you, Christian.

He who began a good work in you will what? Perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. The promise is yours of purification. He's working in you, Christian. He promises to do so.

If you leave here convicted, if you leave here wanting to put to death the deeds of the body, cry out in thankfulness, thank you for not leaving me, Father. Wow, I am Yours. Because You're purifying me. It hurts. And it's good.

Jesus tells you, Mark tells us right there, everyone will be salted with fire. Everyone. Everyone. But not all in the same way. For those in Christ Jesus, they will be purified.

But for those outside of Christ Jesus, their fire will be hellfire. But man, for those in Jesus Christ, to those little children, holy leaning on Jesus' name. Do you know what you can sing here in just a minute or two? You'll be able to sing the song, How Firm a Foundation, and you'll be able to sing the line, the flame shall not hurt thee. For God's only design, your father's only design is thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

Your eternal good is what he is after. His glory in your life. He will purify you, Christian. And so again, I just want to say one more time to be clear. If you will leave here this morning and you say, well, I'm just unsure.

I don't think I'm going to obey Christ today. If you leave the sermon undecided, and you're not going to take the necessary steps to kill sin in your life, well that is actually to question the very work of Christ in you. Because He is in the business of perfecting and purifying His children. So when you read that verse 50 at the very end, that can be really confusing to people. When you hear Jesus say, you know, salt, it becomes unsalty, and you're going, what?

That's supposed to get your attention. You're supposed to read verse 50 and go, that's not, how's that happen? There's different commentators that argue for different interpretations here, but let's just be the most simple we can be. That verse is supposed to startle you. Salt that doesn't taste like salt isn't salt.

That's what it is. I don't know what you got on your french fries, but it ain't salt. They don't taste like salt. That's what that passage is conveying. Salt is salt.

Children of God are children of God. And a child of God responds to the commands of his heavenly father in obedience. So be salty. Be salty. Be the salt of the earth, Matthew 5.13.

Be unlike the world. Treat one another differently. As believers, treat one another differently than the world treats its own. You're to be purifying agents of the world. And so Jesus says, be at peace with one another.

Don't make others stumble. I don't know if you noticed this, did you say in verse 42 how It says if you make others stumble, it would be better for you to enter the sea with a millstone. Did you see that? Others. And then what's the rest of the passage say?

It would be better if your hand causes you to stumble, if your eye causes you to stumble, if your foot causes you to stumble. The pronoun changed. Others to you. What's that convey? If something causes you to stumble and it can result in eternal hellfire if you don't deal with it how much worse If you make someone else stumble how much worse You got to be killing sin, You know what you're gonna pass on to your children?

Patterns of sin. You gotta be killing sin. Eternal torment is on the line. Kill your sin. I'm pleading with you.

Don't leave here undecided. Let me end with a word from John Piper. Remember Jesus has just sounded the alarm. What are you going to do? Here's Piper's last words and then I'll be finished.

What a wonderful thing it is that Jesus warns us, as He does in this passage. He does not leave us ignorant of the wrath to come. He not only warns, but He also rescues. This is the best effect of fear. It wakens us to our need for help and points us to the all-sufficient Redeemer, Jesus.

So let it have this effect on you. Let it lead you to Jesus who says To everyone who believes in Him, fear not little flock. It is for your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom and to set you free. Amen? Thank you for putting up with my long sermon.

Beloved, I love you. And this sermon is not at all Pastor Grant saying, do something. I am asking you to join me in humbling ourselves to say, I need you. And we need one another. Don't we?

I want to kill sin with you. I want to do it with you. I need this passage. We're going to celebrate the Lord's table in just a moment. And we should be reminded of this sweet truth, that together we are one in Christ, and we really can't obey the command to confess our sins to one another.

We really can't. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this Your Word. We pray that it would endure, that people in this congregation would not leave here unmoved. Oh, that they would be filled with joy that you call them into holiness.

And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.