The Seriousness of Sin
Text: Mark 9:42-50
Core Idea: Jesus lovingly warns us of the seriousness of sin knowing how destructive it is. Then we must make every effort to eliminate all sins in our lives as we aim to stay salty – passionately pursuing holiness as we help others to know this life-giving message of the gospel.
INTRODUCTION
Thank you, Joey, for sharing your story with us. It was really encouraging to hear that God has used all his circumstances, struggles, and sufferings to not only shape him but prepare him for ministry – to be a blessing to others. And this really is no different for us – no matter where we are in our journey, no matter what we’re going through right now, know that God is graciously carrying us in His arms. Then I invite you to desperately cling to Him today – trusting that in all things, He is working to bring good in our lives (Rom. 8:28-29). And, of course, if you want to share your story with us, please speak to me – and we would love to hear from you.
We are exploring the life of Jesus through the Gospel of Mark. Last week, we saw Jesus withdrawing from His public ministry and devoting Himself exclusively to the training of His disciples as He made His way to Jerusalem – to the cross. In fact, for the second time, Jesus predicted His death and resurrection as a way to prepare His disciples for His crucifixion and their own path of suffering. But it was clear that the disciples had no idea what Jesus was talking about as they were found arguing intensely about who was the greatest. Now, instead of rebuking them, Jesus saw this failure as a teaching moment and radically redefined what true greatness was all about. You see, our greatness doesn’t come from securing rank and status but by humbly serving, graciously loving, and joyfully celebrating the unity we have with other believers. It’s not about protecting our power, positions, or possessions, but giving of ourselves as we seek to live for His glory and the joy of others. I pray that this was the kind of greatness you pursued this past week.
Now, we also heard from John that the disciples had stopped someone from driving out demons because he was not one of them, because he wasn’t following them. John must have thought they did the right thing – he thought they were protecting Jesus. But to their surprise, Jesus didn’t commend them but corrected them. He told them not to stop him, because verse 39, “For whoever is not against us is for us.” And with that, Jesus turned to one of the most graphic and weighty discussions in the whole NT about the seriousness of sin.
Now, it’s true that this passage is something one can be tempted to skip because it’s so sobering, so frightening – it’s incredibly uncomfortable to read. And for this reason, our impulse will be to soften the truth in order to make it more acceptable for both ourselves and our culture. But I want us to remember that these are our Savior’s words. He deliberately chose these harsh, scandalous images because He wanted to awaken us to live in fear of God, to never take our sins lightly. It’s like Jesus was saying, “Stop what you’re doing and pay attention. This is a really important matter.” But at the same time, I really pray that we won’t misunderstand His words. Jesus isn’t trying to scare us, intimidate us – He’s not trying to condemn us or crush us with guilt and shame. No, He simply wants to sound the alarm out of love and care for us. Listen to what Pastor Paul Tripp said, “God never reveals our hearts to discourage us. Convicting us of sin is one of the most profound ways God demonstrates His love for us. He is committed to completing His work in us. He will not allow us to live with hearts that are enslaved. He works in every situation so that we would know the freedom His death purchased for us. The conviction of our hearts is a sign that we are dearly loved children who have not only been forgiven of our sins but are in the process of being delivered from them.”
Then, friends, I pray that you would be convicted by the truth today. I say this, especially with our youths in mind – know that I’ve been praying for you this week that you won’t get lost in the gory details of this passage but that you’ll leave this place moved by the truth. And I pray that all of us will experience the fullness of His mercy and grace as we humbly repent before the Lord. Then with this in mind, please turn your Bibles to Mark 9:42-50. Let me read this for us.
42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in Me – to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. [44] 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [46] 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where “‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ 49 Everyone will be salted with fire. 50 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
Amen. This is the Word of God for you today.
There are three things I want to point out from this passage:
THE DANGER OF CAUSING OTHERS TO SIN
OUR FIGHT AGAINST SIN
STAYING SALTY
1) THE DANGER OF CAUSING OTHERS TO SIN
Look with me to verse 42. Here, Jesus warned the disciples not to stumble the little ones. Two things that will help us better understand this. First, when Jesus referred to the little ones, He wasn’t talking about children but all those who humbly chose to follow Him – “those who believe in Me.” Second, the word “stumble” in Greek is “skandalizo” which literally means “to cause one to doubt, question, or sin.” Then putting these two thoughts together, it’s clear that Jesus was warning His disciples of the danger of causing another disciple to turn from faithfully following Him – causing them to doubt and sin. John thought stopping the man who was driving out demons was good – but Jesus was saying they were borderline sinning before God as they were leading him away from Christ. What would this look like for us today? It could be through the inconsistency that exists between what we claim to be and how we live – causing others to question, “If this is what it means to be a Christian, do I really want to pursue this?” Or it could be through tempting or provoking others to sin because of our sin – giving them an excuse to sin and turn from Christ because of our anger, our laziness, and our prideful and self-centred actions.
But either way, Jesus wanted them to know that this was a very serious sin – so serious that in verse 42, He said, “It would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.” He was basically saying, “I know this sounds horrible. But if you thought this was bad, know that the judgment coming against your sin will be more severe, more intense, more painful that you would rather choose this kind of death.” Can you feel the weightiness of His words? But again, don’t miss the compassion and mercy that’s driving Him to speak these words. He was warning them because He cared – because He wanted them to turn away from this sin. And of course, this word is for us as well.
Brothers and sisters, all of us are in the position of influence – which means that we can either lead people closer to Christ or away from Him. We must remember that all of us have the responsibility of caring for, protecting, and helping those around us to grow in their relationship with God and thrive in their faith. To put it differently, you and I have been chosen to be part of what God is doing in the lives of others – to be His instruments in drawing them closer to God. God has intentionally placed us at our homes, our schools, workplaces, and this church to help people in their journey of faith. It’s not an accident that you and I are here. God has purposefully brought us together because He wanted us to carry each other’s burdens and grow together. Then let me ask you: how are you influencing the lives of people around you so that they may love God and serve Him more joyfully? If you’re a parent, do your words and actions toward your children strengthen their faith? If you’re married, does your relationship with your spouse encourage faith in them, encourage a life that is pleasing to the Lord? If you’re a single person, do you take your friendship seriously? Are you careful with your words, attitudes, decisions, and actions knowing that they can have an eternal impact on someone today? Friends, take this seriously because Jesus did. Then let us continue to watch our hearts so that we won’t become comfortable with just being consumers of faith. Instead, let us remember that we’re called to be faithful ambassadors of Christ – representing Him well to others. Let us be careful and intentional in the way we relate to others so that we may not sin.
2) OUR FIGHT AGAINST SIN
Let’s look at verses 43-48. The words here couldn’t be more graphic. “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, pluck it out.” Please note that Jesus wasn’t advocating self-mutilation – His words shouldn’t be taken literally. And we know this because self-mutilation was forbidden by the law – Jesus wasn’t going to break one law to keep another. But it’s also because cutting our body parts would not ultimately solve the problem. Do you remember what Jesus said in Mark 7:15? “Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” Defilement starts with what’s inside us. It’s our heart that is self-centred. It’s our heart that wants to live a life that honors and pleases us rather than the God who created us. It’s our heart that wants God to serve us rather than for us to serve God. If our problem was just behavior, taking Jesus’ words literally would’ve been helpful. But our problem is ultimately not our behavior. Our problem is our very nature; our problem is the essence of who we are; our problem is us. In other words, cutting off one’s hand or foot or plucking out one’s eye won’t actually address the root problem because if we were to do that, we would simply be one-armed, one-legged, one-eyed people who are still tempted to sin. Our dilemma cannot be addressed by amputation which is exactly why Jesus came. He came to do the impossible – to give us a clean heart. On the cross, He exchanged His place with us – His perfect, sinless, clean heart was transplanted to us while our imperfect, sinful, defiled, unclean heart was engrafted to Him. And He died to pay the penalty for our sin so that anyone who trusts in Jesus will receive forgiveness and eternal life with the King and His people. This is the gospel – the good news: what seemed impossible (cleaning our stained heart) has been made possible through Jesus Christ (we received His perfect heart).
But this doesn’t mean that we have nothing to do. In fact, Jesus’ words here remind us that we also have the responsibility of fighting against our sins knowing how destructive and aggressive sin is in its nature. Think of our sin like a fire that broke out on the couch in your living room. You’re not just going to sit there and say, “Well, the house is okay – it’s just a couch.” If you don’t do something immediately and decisively about it, the whole house will be engulfed. Fire is never satisfied. It can’t be confined to a corner. It will eventually overtake everything. And sin is the same way: it will eventually consume everything about you. And it will bring pain and destruction not just in this life but also in the life to come. John Owen said it this way, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Jesus is giving us a call to take radical actions against anything that is hindering us from following Christ in order that we might enter life. There can’t be any compromises – we must do anything and everything we can to avoid sin. Then brothers and sisters, let me ask you, “Are there sins that have been crushing your heart – sin that no one knows about, sin that you’re constantly justifying, sin that you don’t want to deal with because, in the deepest of your heart, you enjoy it, sin that you’re too lazy to do anything about, sin that you’ve now become apathetic toward?” Pastor Tim Keller said, “The sin that is most destructive in your life right now is the one you are most defensive about.” Then whatever it is, respond to God’s gracious call and take immediate, dramatic, drastic action today – cut it off; pluck it out. And of course, get help from others in this community. Become accountable to a godly friend who can serve you in your fight against sin.
Now, don’t get me wrong – this is not easy. Pastor Andrew Davis says, “The life of genuine repentance is costly, and it involves drastic actions… After a Christian has sinned, they should study what happened, how they reacted, what temptations the devil used to deceive them, and what actions led to the sin. Then the Christian should be doubly vigilant about that sin in the future, knowing that a pattern of sin can be established quickly… Without this kind of vigilance toward sin, we have learned nothing from the experience and may soon be repeating it regularly.” Then brothers and sisters, how meticulously are you planning and executing to eradicate sin from your lives? We would for sure meticulously plan when it comes to other things in life – like buying a house, choosing a job, losing weight, or raising children. But when’s the last time we’ve done that to eliminate sin from our lives because we know how devastating the effect of our sin is? We all need to be challenged by this: let us make every effort to truly repent of our sins so that sin will no longer define who we are, dictate what we do. Let us stop taking this passive position when it comes to our battle against sin because Jesus makes it clear that it’s better to lose those things than to be thrown into hell. There’s no sin worth going to hell for.
Then before we move on, I want to take a quick detour and share something about hell. Now, hell obviously isn’t the most pleasant topic to talk about. In fact, to reflect on hell fills our hearts with heaviness. It makes us uncomfortable. Then why go out of our way to be depressed? Why talk about hell? A simple answer would be this: Because it’s taught in the Bible. Hell is not something that’s mentioned in one or two obscure passages – actually a huge portion of the Bible deals with this doctrine. Did you know that the Bible refers more to the wrath of God than to His love? Christ was love incarnate, full of compassion and mercy, yet He spoke very frequently of the judgment and everlasting punishment. Jesus actually talked more about hell than heaven. If it’s important to God, it must be important for us too.
Another reason why it’s absolutely imperative and necessary for us to talk about hell is because so much is at stake, yet it often has been distorted, twisted, and rejected by the people. Why do some have a difficult time believing in hell? One of the reasons could be because they may personally know someone who is adamantly resistant to the gospel (a spouse, parent, child, sibling, friend, co-worker, or neighbor). Imagining the person you love as the object of God’s eternal wrath makes hell seem even more unbearable. It could also be from the fact that they’ve been a victim of someone who wrongly used the teaching of judgment to corner them with fear and terror. No wonder they’re so repulsed by it. Or it could just be that it goes against their personal conviction. They would say, “I refuse to believe that those who don’t believe in Jesus is lost and condemned. I work with good people who are Muslims, Jewish, or atheists. And you’re telling me that they’re all going to hell just because they don’t believe in Jesus? That’s such an arrogant statement. That’s just unfair.” But again, the Bible makes it absolutely clear that the sinners will be punished eternally in hell.
Then let’s think about this for a moment. If a child runs out into the street, is it unloving to warn her of the destruction coming in the form of a car? Does anyone criticize the fireman for waking up a family to rescue them from a burning house? Does anyone blame a doctor for telling someone that he has an illness that must be treated if he’s going to live? Of course not. We would thank them for warning us. Hell is a far more terrible and permanent reality. Then the most loving and responsible thing we can do is to study this doctrine so that we may be better equipped to lead others out of such an unspeakably horrible place. Then that’s exactly what we should do – learn more about it.
To start, what is hell? According to the Bible, hell is the final judgment of God for those who have rebelled against Him. Some people claim that hell is not really a place of punishment but a place of separation from God. So, they think it won’t be that bad going to hell because they never wanted to be with God anyway. But let me clarify one thing: it’s true that hell is separation from the grace of God, the care of God, the love and goodness of God, but it’s not separation from God. Pastor R.C. Sproul said, “The greatest problem that the person in hell has is not the devil but God. God is in hell actively punishing the wicked. The person in hell wants nothing but to get God out of hell because the terror this person would face is God Himself.” In hell, God will be present in the fullness of His divine wrath. He will be there to exercise His just punishment for those who reject Him. They will know God as an all-consuming fire.
Maybe some of you are thinking: “Okay, I get that hell is needed to protect God’s justice. But hell seems too harsh of a punishment for what we’ve done.” It’s normal for us to reason this way because this is how our society operates. When you break the law, you receive a punishment that would fit the crime. Someone would not get a life sentence for speeding. Now, the Bible presents hell as a just penalty for sin no matter how big or small it may be. Why? Because of whom we sin against. Let me explain. Imagine walking down the street and you notice someone sitting on a bench focused on something in his hands. You go closer and realize that he was pulling the legs off a grasshopper. How would you respond? You would probably think this guy is weird, but you probably won’t confront him about it. But what if it wasn’t a grasshopper but a frog? More disturbing, but still reluctant to do anything about it. What if it was a bird? Would you say something or just walk away? What if it was a puppy? You might definitely call the police. Finally, what if it was a child? Would you stop him? Absolutely. At risk to yourself, you would do everything in your power to intervene and protect the child. In each case, the act was the same (pulling off legs). But why would most people just walk away if they saw a grasshopper, but stop if they saw a child being assaulted? What’s the difference? It’s the one who is sinned against. The more valuable the creature, the more serious and unacceptable it’s to assault them. Friends, God is not just a creature; He is the Creator of the universe. He is perfect in holiness, righteousness, and love. There’s no one who compares with Him in terms of His beauty. His glory is of infinite worth, which means that sinning against Him will be the highest form of evil. If we don’t see sin as an attack on God’s infinite worth, we will never be able to see hell as a just response to it. But when we see our sin as against this awesome God, then we understand that the punishment does indeed fit the crime.
Then what should be our response? I want to speak to those who have yet to place their trust in Jesus. Friends, our sin has merited eternal death and we are not able to come up with the payment on our own. It pains me to say this, and it will be painful to hear, but if you continue this way, the Bible tells us that you are headed to hell. Please don’t get me wrong. I don’t say this with a hint of condemnation or judgment. No, it’s actually the opposite. I say this with deepest grief and sorrow, with a humble and broken heart knowing that I too was headed to this horrific place until God in His infinite loving wisdom made a way by sending His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus offered an eternal sacrifice, to satisfy God’s eternal justice, and provided eternal life for people like you and me. Jesus died on the cross to pay the debt for our sin and satisfy God’s wrath. And we receive this blessing by turning from our sin and trusting in Jesus. So, friends, this really is not about avoiding hell but all about receiving Christ because He is the greatest treasure we can find. So, I plead with you, as painful as this subject may be, let this truth sink in and turn to Christ today. Surrender your life before it’s too late.
Let me speak to the believers. How should we respond to this truth? First, rejoice and give thanks for the fact that the wrath of God was satisfied in Christ. We have been set free – how can we not celebrate? Second, hold to the truth. We must realize that Satan continues his efforts to make sin less offensive, heaven less appealing, hell less horrific, and the gospel less urgent. We must guard the truth that has been entrusted to us. Lastly, we must have the urgency to share that truth with others. In Romans 9:1-4, Paul says, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of… the people of Israel.” Can you feel Paul’s anguish? Then do we have the same kind of anguish for the lost in our lives – to the point that we’re willing to give up even our own salvation if we could so that they may be found in Christ? May God ignite in us a passion to proclaim the gospel to those who are unaware of the terror that awaits them outside the mercy of God.
3) STAYING SALTY
Let’s turn to verse 49, “Everyone will be salted with fire.” This clearly is a different fire that Jesus speaks of here. It’s not a fire of judgment; it’s a fire of purification. Listen to what 1 Peter 4:12 and 1:7 say, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you… These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” In other words, Jesus wanted us to know that the trials of life will purge away all the dross of our Christian lives. Jesus is reminding us here that just because He has made it possible for us to live in freedom from sin doesn’t mean that we’re left to fight the sin on our own. No, He will be with us helping us fight the good fight. He will refine us, sanctify us.
So, “stay salty,” Jesus said. As you know, salt can be used as a preservative and a seasoning. On one hand, it keeps food from spoiling, but on the other, it brings out the rich flavor of the food. Then Jesus was challenging His disciples to keep this world from further decaying and draw out the good in the culture around us by proclaiming and living out the gospel truth in our lives. Notice that Jesus didn’t use metaphors that reflect military values. God doesn’t send His people into the world to take over and take control but to be at peace with one another. He sends us to serve, to be a blessing to the people. Through our love, we’re called to attract people to our heavenly Father. And this is my prayer for Lighthouse – let us remain salty for the Lord.
CONCLUSION
Lighthouse family, Jesus lovingly warns us of the seriousness of our sins knowing how destructive it is. Then we must make every effort to eliminate all sins in our lives as we aim to stay salty – passionately pursuing holiness as we help others to know this life-giving message of the gospel. Let us faithfully, boldly, eagerly share Christ with others knowing that He alone is our hope, our joy.
Discussion questions
What does this passage teach us about the seriousness of sin? How is the Spirit convicting you to respond to this truth? What is one thing you can do to intentionally fight against your sin this week?
Why do people have a difficult time believing in hell? Do you believe in hell? Why or why not? How can we help those in our lives to be awakened to this frightening reality?
How can you stay salty – being a preservative and a seasoning to those around you?
Spend some time praying for two things: for your heart to grow in urgency to intentionally share the good news to those around us and for non-believers in our lives that they would come to embrace this life-giving gospel truth.