Our scripture reading this evening is taken once again from the gospel of Mark. Continuing our series through this gospel and we find ourselves in chapter 9. Picking up where we left off. Verse 43 and I believe it was my error in the bulletin says through verse 47 but actually it will be through verse 48. And we'll begin our reading actually in verse 42, which we had considered briefly last time, but it's one of those that serves as an overlapping verse. Connects us with what Jesus was teaching previously. So we'll read verse 42 through 48 of Mark chapter nine. Hear the word of our God. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and if he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed rather than having two hands to go to hell and into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame rather than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. So far our reading of God's holy, inspired, infallible, inerrant word. May he add his blessing to the preaching thereof. Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have before us this evening a word that in a lot of ways is one that is not everybody's favorite. It's one that is probably more familiar and more common, at least in terms of what we think the church back in the day used to be like. Back in the days of the Puritans, back in the days of these old reformers and reform pastors who had no problem pounding a fist or two upon the pulpit, preaching things about doom and gloom, about fire and brimstone, with all the thunderings from the voice, their voice coming forward from it. And these days we don't hear too much of these things. Sermons on how, sermons with that bravado and with that intensity that would match such a topic. And perhaps the criticism may be warranted that we don't hear it so much from this pulpit. And to which, if that be the case, then we ought to point it out and to hear it more. Because the fact of the matter is, is our Lord Jesus Christ was one who spoke on the matter of hell quite a lot. He spoke on it regularly. In fact, nobody in the Bible talked more about hell than Jesus Christ himself. The one who called himself to be, and he is, gentle and lowly in heart, meek and mild, and yet he spoke more about hell than he did of heaven. I wonder why. comes more often from the lips of Jesus than from anyone else. And I believe it was R.C. Sproul who gave the answer saying that, at least in his speculation, and I think this is a wise answer as well, is that, well, if it was said from anyone else other than Jesus, we wouldn't even believe it. Because the reality of hell and of condemnation is so extreme. We would think, well, this is ridiculous. Nobody could believe something like that. So people, if it wasn't from the mouth of Jesus himself, it were from Jeremiah or Isaiah or the Apostle Paul, you could imagine somebody just dismissing it very easily and say, well, this isn't the teaching of Jesus. But people do that anyways. They put a separation between the words that Jesus spoke in his earthly ministry and the rest of the Bible, but that's not a division that we can make. Or they'll just handpick and select certain ones. It's a reality that's One that isn't spoken of much. One that is denied outright altogether because it is one that we do not want to be thinking about. The reality of it is too horrible. So let me ask you before we dive any further, when was the last time you had thought about or contemplated about the fate of your own soul upon the moment you transition from this life to the next on your deathbed. When was the last time you had considered anything about hell and the prospect of that? When was the last time you were so terrified of it that it kept you up at night I think that if we meditated and considered this reality that Jesus brings forward to us, that we would be those who live in light of this eternity, and would live in the way that Moses had described in Psalm 90, that we would number our days and have been given a heart of wisdom, and that we would then estimate and consider the things of this world around us in a proper way. And so we know and see and consider all of these matters in Jesus' solemn warning. His solemn warning against hell, which is our title for this evening, and we have two points to consider this, is first being the description that Jesus gives of hell, the description that's in his warning, and then secondly, the remedy, the remedy that Jesus provides, the remedy that he gives to his people for the escape from what he describes. And so first, the description that Jesus gives, his solemn warning. And for this description to be accurate, we not only need to stick very, very closely to the text and the words that Jesus describes here, but we also need to consider that this is set within a context. And the context is something we cannot ignore. We have to bear that in mind. And so while we take note of the fact that this calling this and the warning against how but the calling to Cutting off your hand or your foot or plucking out your eye for the sake of sin is something that applies to all manner of sin and all forms of sin, but the context here is plain that Jesus is still giving to his disciples a lesson. And his disciples We're dealing with a selfish, prideful, divisive, sectarian spirit. They were those concerned with status, remember? And they did not want to be one that was like a little child that was perhaps still sitting on Jesus' lap or in His arms here. And so this isn't some kind of isolated saying or some proverbial teaching that's one-off and totally disconnected from everything that has been said before. It's something that is a specific lesson to specific hearers, and something that certainly applies to all forms of sin, but he's getting to the root of the thing that these disciples needed to hear, and that we need to hear as well. Now remember, a while ago, we had considered this idea of roots. Jesus is getting to the root of his pride. And remember the roots, at least the roots of a weed. They are something that needs to be pulled all the way out, but it's the root that is something that is present and present within those who profess and who by all intents and purposes are disciples of Christ. They are believers. They are Christians. And so what that means is that this is a warning to you and to me. specifically. A warning that these are things that we need to take seriously. A warning then that means that we cannot take for granted the salvation that is in Christ, the deliverance and escape from hell that he gives us. We need to be bearing these things in mind. And so these disciples, the question that had to, the lesson that they were learning was really how it is they treated other disciples and other Christians and even those who had a low status in the eyes of men. and the eyes of the world, but this is something that bears fruit in our lives if it's not uprooted and it will lead to a kind of self-righteous attitude that was really exactly the same that the Pharisees had. Self-righteousness. holier-than-thou and better-than-you type of attitude. And remember and recall the Pharisees are the main opponents in a lot of stories of Christ, particularly because of their own legalistic view and of their own view of self-righteousness and of self-holiness. And it was by their own works, by their own dedication, because they were more religious than everyone else, that they were therefore better. and more favored in the eyes of God than those who are not a part of their group, the Pharisee group. And so what they had is they had a false sense of holiness, a false sense of importance. And I would wager that if you were to ask any person on the street, some random individual that is clearly not a repentant believer but living in sin and living in idolatry, that they too would think that they have a false sense of holiness and of self-importance and that they are free from such a danger as hell. We need to know better than that. But these Pharisees, with their attitude, and this attitude that was in seed form, more in seed form than these disciples, but in doing this, it's something that causes many, many people to stumble, to fall into sin. following after the Pharisees, and so he's warning the disciples. He's warning us. This is the root. And the warning is in causing others to stumble. And it's not limited to just the pride of being a Pharisee, but any sin, but it causes others to stumble, and in causing others to stumble, we ourselves stumble. We cause others to sin because we ourselves are sitting and motivating and encouraging and setting an example in certain things. And so usually out of this heart of pride, the ironic thing is that whatever efforts that we are engaged in, in this prideful and self-righteous attitude, is that we think it's advancing us. We think that it's for our good, but Jesus here is saying that it is actually destroying us. And so Jesus calls us three times to dismember ourselves rather than to continue on in this sinful attitude of pride or of any sin for that matter. And so the reason for that, that reason for the call for this extreme action, this radical action, plucking out your eye and cutting off your hand or your foot is because a failure to engage in this life of total and radical repentance has dire, dire consequences. Consider the images that Jesus uses here to describe the place that awaits those who persist in unrepentance. There's a refrain that happens three times. There's a worm that does not die. There's a fire that is not quenched. It's a quote from Isaiah, but what's the point of these images here? And we take note of the fact that the principal image that's used in the New Testament for Hal is what this word for in verse, excuse me, in verse 43 that's translated as Hal is this word called Gehenna. and it's actually a name of a place and this is the principal image that's used in the New Testament and it's referring, Gehenna is referring to an area that was really not far from where Jesus was speaking to the disciples because it was just outside the city of Jerusalem. It was called at one point the Valley of Hinnom. So it's not so much a valley but it is more of a steep ravine that's there just outside of Jerusalem and eventually came to be known as Gehenna and it was there on the southwest corner of the city. And being there, you can read about it being there ever since the city was formed. And so you go back even to the Old Testament and read in the Book of Kings, well, there's the Valley of Hinnom. There is what is later known as Gehenna. And what we read about that place is something that occurred during the reign of kings Asa and Manasseh. Now these were kings described by God as having done evil and wicked in the sight of the Lord. And really the chief reason for that is because they led the people of Israel to stumble. They led them right into one of the absolute worst practices of idolatry that is known in the Old Testament that had infected them. And it is one that is likened to the great sin and evil of our day. And that would be abortion. A human sacrifice at the altar of Moloch. They sacrificed infants, they sacrificed children, they sacrificed older children, and even adults. And this was one of the darkest periods in the history of the Old Testament, where they not only engaged in idolatry, full-blown idolatry, but they were then offering human sacrifices to this false god in the Valley of Hinnom. That's where this was. And so there would be the bodies in Gehenna, just on the southwest corner of the city of Jerusalem. Now, when the prophet Jeremiah was called into the picture, it came under judgment by God's directive and that through the prophecies of Jeremiah and under the reign of King Josiah who brought an end to this. And in doing this, Josiah, he basically undedicated or rededicated that place and put a measure of shame upon it because of what that place was used for. And so what he did instead of making this to be a place where there was idol worship and human sacrifices, essentially what he did is he turned it into the landfill of Jerusalem and the surrounding area. So the valley of Hinnom, Gehenna, turned out to be a garbage dump. It was where all of the garbage from the city went, where all of the carcasses of the dead animals went. If they had a pet that died, if they had a dog that died on the street or whatever else, it's something where they would put the things where we would normally put them into the bathroom and into the toilet. They put them right there. And so all of these things are going in and to prevent them from building up and building up over the decades and the centuries, they burned it. And so it was on fire. That's how they got rid of the garbage. And because there was new garbage and fresh garbage being added to it all the time, they didn't have to start the fire up again every week. It just kept going and kept burning and burning with a stench. And as it is the case when you have a pile of garbage of all of, you know, say carcasses of animals and of the other, you know, wasted food and whatnot, what you will get are maggots. You will get worms, you will get all manner of pests and parasites, and like the fire, because of this continual supply, it was as if these worms never died. They were always there. And so, Jesus points to this, the picture of hell. It's a ghastly image. It's graphic. Now think about this then. This is just an analogy. This is a symbolic or figurative way of describing a reality. And often it is the case that the reality is far more intense than the symbol. So we picture a lake of fire as it's described in Revelation. Is it literally a lake of fire? Well, perhaps it is. But one thing we do know is the reality of that place is far, far worse. And to endure it for just five minutes And you would wish it was just a lake of fire. This is a description that our Lord gives. It's terrifying. It's absolutely terrifying, and it's one that goes on for all eternity. The fire cannot be quenched. A worm does not die. This is a reality that is difficult to think about, to meditate on, as a reality of this. And there's a lot that we can go on about it, but even Even preachers at time tremble to discuss these things even further. Because the reality is so difficult. It's so terrifying. Because there at this place is not just a fire. It's not just a worm. It's the wrath of God. The wrath of God is often described as a burning, as a fire, as something that burns with an intensity that is so powerful and beyond our comprehension, as something that no man can stand before. We have pictures of that in the flood. We have pictures of it at the awesome and catastrophic destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament, the terrifying plagues that are sent upon Egypt. It's a frightening thing. And the reality of it is unutterable. We cannot dilute this. We cannot dilute it from the pulpit. We cannot dilute it in our private conversations. We cannot soften it so that it's less difficult to hear about. When we share the gospel, the severity of God's wrath and of his justice needs to be maintained with the truthfulness and the accuracy with which our Lord warns us of. These are about the worst pictures and images that he had before them that the people would understand. Jesus meek and mild, tender, kind, and merciful as he is, yet describes it in this way. It must therefore mean that he has a merciful and a kind reason for his people to hear it. He doesn't display these things for the sake of being harsh or shocking. It's difficult to imagine this, but we cannot think of the horrors of hell as something that evidences or displays the cruelty of God. We need to understand that what makes the place of hell so terrible is not because God is evil, because he's not, but because we are. By nature, every sin is so evil. And so, wrath of God and His anger is strictly and technically speaking in a theological matter, not an attribute of God, but it is a revelation or an outworking of God. God's own justice and his own righteousness, which is a part of or an attribute of his divine nature. And so we see them consider that the wrath of God is an expression of the love and zeal that he has for his own holiness and for his own righteousness. It is because God is so good that hell needs to be so terrible. Because that's how terrible sin is. So we have a description here of this place of eternal torment. It is a real place. It is a place that will not end. It is a place where God is very much present there. And he's not absent. Contrary to popular belief, many will say that hell is the absence of God. Well, that's awfully convenient. What makes hell to be hell is because his wrath is being poured out. So it's a real place. It's a certain place. And we are being told of it now as a warning that we may escape it. So there's escape in our second point. Escape is not something that is stated explicitly in our text. It is alluded to in a lot of ways and we note for a fact that all of Jesus' words are seasoned with a gracious and a merciful purpose for his people as a warning to us. And it is out of his grace and mercy and love for his people that he warns us of this thing and in warning us, What Jesus is doing is supplying a perspective for us that ought to be beneficial for us. It ought to be for our good in light of His warning. Perspective has to do with the way that we see things. Things of this world, the way that we interpret things that come at us in this world. The way that we esteem or value things and the way that we love them and desire them and so on. And I hope you see then that that is a description of so much of the eyes of faith. And the matter of faith, the perspective, a faith indeed that must start and begin with the fact that we must believe this is real. This place is real. But the first escape that we must mention, it's the only escape. It's the one who's speaking these words. who's giving this warning, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, is that escape. Now I mentioned earlier how it's difficult oftentimes to speak on this and to think on this subject of hell and even the very idea of hell itself is a struggle at times, especially when you think of those who have died in their sin. Where are they now? That's a difficult reality to wrap your mind around and to submit under. But imagine if somehow you could hear where you will be. If something audibly, a voice or so audibly, something you could hear and said your destiny. is that you are going to the place where their fire will not be quenched and the worm will not die. Gnawing and a burning constantly, you will be consigned to outer darkness. And have you heard that? It'd be devastating, absolutely. But do you think you would have a right to complain? It's unfair. And though we should respond in saying that we deserve nothing else, God would be perfectly just to put us there, as terrible as it is to think of it. If we are left to ourselves, That's why we need to cling to the cross of Christ. This is going to be the only hope that we have of escaping this terrible, terrible place. It's true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that escape. It's our only hope. It's our only comfort, both in life and in death, to escape that wrath to come. And we flee the wrath to come by fleeing into and taking shelter in the true ark, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, who went to this place For me, for you as his believing child, he went there. And that's the reason that I don't have to go there. Or any of his children that believe in him, they're united to him through true faith. If we did, we would have no ground to complain if we did go there. But this is the only reason that we don't have to go. That's it. Because we're better than this person or that person. Because we followed it this way or that way. But only and solely because of the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore that very wrath of God and the burning and the gnawing of the worm upon the cross. where he shed his blood. So cling to the cross. That's the escape. And by faith we have been justified, and having been justified by faith in Christ, we have peace with God. through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have peace with God and you don't have to go home tonight with trembling fear of eternal hellfire. You can sleep easy and with confidence. There is no hell to pay. Christ already paid it. What awaits those in Christ? The end of Psalm 16 describes. It is joy, pleasure, and pleasure of a good and spiritual sort, a delight that will not end. Nevertheless, In light of that reality, that doesn't mean that we should no longer be mindful of the other reality. Jesus is repeating this to disciples, remember, to believers, and so he says it three times and it tells us we should pay attention, we should take these things seriously, because if we don't, maybe it displays the fact that we really have trusted in something else or we haven't come to know or appreciate in true and proper sense of what it is our salvation consists of. What it is that we are saved from. And so the perspective that's given here is one that looks down and leads down the path of escape, because it's one that trusts in Christ alone, but with true faith is that twin sister, so to speak, that cannot be removed from true faith, and that is repentance. This perspective is one that repents, one that applies ourselves to a serious consideration of God's wrath, the God with whom we have to do. And so we we ought not to read what Jesus has here in terms of the fact that well because of the cutting off and because of this that and the other thing that therefore we've escaped hell. No, it's not what Jesus is saying. It's the imagery here and the language is intended as a sober admonition to the disciples and to us as a warning not as a prediction of the future. It's a warning. It serves to motivate us unto repentance. We need to understand that yes, we don't escape hell by our deeds, but our deeds are good works. They're evidence. Our saving faith, it evidences the fact that we've been born again. In fact, that there is therefore a holiness without which no man can see the Lord. A holiness which must be known as we in this life are conformed to the image of Christ. And so Jesus is warning us of this. His words are strong. And so we must have an awareness of this definite reality. And this is the reality that we face in our culture. The reality that we face in our culture is that we don't consider the reality of hell. The 21st century, looking at the church broadly speaking, it's the doctrine of hell. Not just, it's not as much emphasized from the pulpit, but it has been erased from many churches, their teaching, to such an extent that they're not a true church. People don't wanna think about it, or they don't wanna hear about it, they wanna dampen it down, but we need to consider, once again, how often People do not consider the fact that they have a soul that will continue on after death, and will continue on, and will continue on, and continue on. You have one of those, a soul. I have one of those, a soul. We need to bear that in mind. And so deal soberly with this and lead a life of repentance and not a life of presumption. and a false security, and to be at ease, and to think, well, God hasn't punished me just yet, so this really must be kind of a scare tactic or a scare theology to keep me in line. But this is the very thing that Peter writes about. In 2 Peter, 2 Peter 3, there's one through nine. 2 Peter 3, one through nine. Essentially what he says there, just to kind of summarize, is that scoffers will come in the last days and they'll be walking according to their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. And they then willingly forget that God is not, that they willingly forget that God is not slack concerning His promise. They forget that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day. That means that our God is long-suffering and He's patient and that for the purpose that His sinful people would come to repentance and avoid this wrath to come. Because the day of the Lord, the day in which these things will be brought to bear, will come like a thief in the night. It will not be something that you can predict or that you will see coming. And it is upon then, this day of the Lord, This reality of eternity. This reality of an eternity in which our undying souls will persist and continue to exist in a conscious and in an aware state for all eternity. That's the focus that we need to have. That will give us perspective. on the days in which we live in this world, in this life, on this earth. And that will give direction also concerning the way in which we conduct ourselves and live through our days on this earth. A lot of the things that we do in life is determined by what we expect we'll be doing in the future. Think of how many of you may be planning for college. Your plans for that, for the major, the thing that you're going to study is going to determine then what you do, what classes you're going to go to, what books you're going to get, when to show up to class. with time and which school to go to, and you can even break this down into very simple things. Lord willing, we'll have synod this week, which means that I will be out of state in California. So that's going to determine what it is that I do. I'm not gonna pack winter clothes, but I'm gonna get things that are necessary for that meeting. I'm going to be acting there as a delegate and so working with all of the other ministers and elders and people that are involved. It's not a time to just pack a bunch of sweatpants and lounge around. And so the expectations of the future is something that will determine what we do in the present. And so when we have the reality that is set before us of this terrible fate, but of the fate that is eternal and undying, that is a promised day to come, is the reality that needs to be before our eyes every single day when we wake up until the time that we close our eyes to go to sleep. Now we have a limited number of days upon this earth. It is appointed for man once to die. And after this, the judgment. Until we need to know of the brevity of our life upon this earth, but also that there is no brevity in the state to come. It's not something that can be measured in hours or years or days or decades or centuries. And so with that in mind, going back to 2 Peter 3, verse 11, he asks, well then, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Bringing it back. And to the text here, Jesus is speaking then of a self-disfigurement, self-mutilation. He's not speaking or prescribing something literal. It is what we might call hyperbole, an exaggeration of sorts, but with the purpose of a different point to demonstrate that there must be a radical, a comprehensive, an extreme, and an intense devotion in the engagement of cutting off and killing the things that will cause us to sin and to stumble. but in turn, the positive end of it. What he's saying is that it's worth an arm or a leg to enter into the kingdom of heaven. This is a pearl of great price. It's worth selling all you have that you may obtain that pearl. and this prospect of not just avoiding torment, but the kingdom of God. That's the thing that Jesus brings home in verse 47, that to enter into the kingdom of God has got to be something that's so worth it to you, to me, that, well, what is my hand? What is my foot? What is my eye? in comparison to the glories of the kingdom of God and of the benefits and of the treasures that are there given to me, given to you, given to all of his people by grace that we can enjoy for all eternity. It's worth it. It's worth cutting off a hand or a foot. I don't encourage we actually do that literally, but there is a radical measure that we need to take to cut off and to destroy sin before it destroys us. And as difficult as it may be in this world, the joys that are in the kingdom of God, the delights that are there in his presence, Beholding the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, who shed his blood for us, it's not worthy to be compared. It's far greater. What he says at the end of Psalm 16. So as we close, I would ask you to turn there with me. Psalm 16. Just real quick, the context of this, and this will provide at least a bit more explanation of the way of escape. Psalm 16 is quoted by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2. And there he says that David, who was the human author of this psalm, was acting in a prophetic manner concerning the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so notice then how this psalm is spoken in the first person, which means that this by way of prophecy are the very words of Christ himself. It speaks of his work. It speaks of the offering that he will give on behalf of his people, the ones who are all his delight, about how he knows that he will not be left in the grave, but he can look forward to the resurrection to come. All those in Christ have a resurrection to look forward to as well. And what he says then, Psalm 16, verse 11, you will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Consider how opposite that is. The way of escape is in the Lord Jesus Christ. True faith and a radical repentance, but it rests upon the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we call upon your name at the close of this message to ask for your blessing once again, applying these words to our heart. We ask that we would treasure and store up the truth that you have declared within us, and we may be taught to measure our days, that we may have that heart of wisdom more and more, and that we may be those who glorify the Lord in all things, with our days, with our lives, and that with utmost joy and utmost seriousness, in all things. For You are our great joy and our reward and our portion forever. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.