We're going to be back in the gospel according to Mark in chapter 9 today, picking it up in verse 42. And not a subject I preach on a whole lot. One of the things that's wise about expository preaching, where you just pick a book and go verse by verses. You don't get to skip around and pick the subjects you want to talk about. I remember us spending three weeks talking about women's hair one time and head coverings and whatnot, because we were in Corinthians and going through those, you know, chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians. So we're on the subject today of something that is a little difficult to preach for me, and that I think, by and large, the world doesn't believe anymore. And that's that there's a literal hell. I remember preaching on a mission trip in Jamaica down in a market square. And there was no Americans around. It was just a Jamaican market. And so was the locals. And one of the brothers was preaching. And I was handing out gospel tracts. And he was preaching on the subject of hell and how to avoid hell by turning to Christ. And a car pulled up, it was a taxi car, and an American popped out just as he was on that subject. And I just remember the look on that man's face of almost like What a bunch of morons out here talking about this hell stuff that doesn't even exist. I get to see it right on his face. He was obviously not a believer. He was in disgust that we were even out there preaching to the locals about hell, the reality of hell, and the way to avoid hell by turning to Christ. So it's not a popular subject, and it's not even a really believed on subject. But who talks about it more than anybody in the Bible is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's interesting, and I was doing more of a Bible study yesterday than my typical prep work, and I'm going to take you on that Bible study too. But it's interesting that even the Apostle Paul, when you read his letters, that he really doesn't get into the subject of hell. He'll make inferences about coming judgments and whatnot, but to get into the actual subject of hell itself, you almost have to turn to Jesus. He talks about it more than he talks about heaven. He wants us to avoid it at all costs. And that's really what we're going to look at today is avoiding hell at all costs. So let me pray and then we'll begin by just looking at verse 42 of Mark 9. Our Father and our God, we pray for the help of your spirit, Lord, that we would understand your word. Lord, maybe if we're hesitant to even believe in such a thing and a place as hell, Lord, that you'd even give us faith to believe the words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that there is a literal hell that awaits those that do not turn to Jesus Christ as Savior. So Father, help us with this difficult subject In Jesus' name, amen. So Jesus begins here in verse 42 with a warning against causing offenses. And it says, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to stumble, it will be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. Let me also read to you Matthew 18, 7, where Jesus says, woe to the world because of offenses. For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. When Jesus speaks that way, when he uses the language of woe, it's Jesus's office as prophet. We have a hymn that we sing, and I remember one time I said, do you even know what this hymn's talking about? Because we talk about in times of weal and times of woe, and that was the two directions a prophet would speak in. A time of weal would be God's blessings, you know, God's abundant provision, and the prophet got to speak about that. And then there was the prophecies of woe, to be under the frown, if you will, of God. And that's what Jesus is saying, woe to the world because of these offenses, but specifically woe to that man by whom the offense comes. In Mark 9.42, our verse, he says that those who would cause this offense to one of these little ones. Now remember, in context, a couple of things are going on here. We looked at this last time. He has a little child that he's picked up. And he's teaching the disciples about being like little children themselves. And he almost gives the language that this little child is going to be my ambassador to the world. I need somebody like this child to go and speak for me. And if they receive him, they receive me. If they receive me, then they also receive him who sent me, the Father. And so he's teaching his disciples this, but this also comes on the heels of John's confession that they found somebody ministering in Jesus' name and casting out demons, and they told him to stop. And Jesus said, you shouldn't have told them to stop. And did they cause an offense with this man, with his little fledgling faith? He hadn't really joined their group yet, but he was ministering in the name of Jesus. Had they really stifled his faith? And so Jesus now turns to the subject of causing an offense for one of these little ones. Is he talking about the child? Is he talking about somebody that's just got a fledgling faith, has just come to Christ? Or is he just talking about believers in general? Because we're all called to be like children in that sense of our utter dependence on God. But he says that somebody that would cause, if we're looking at just maybe Christians here, a Christian to stumble He then gives this contrast. It would be better for him. Now, what's he comparing that to? The judgment that could fall on somebody, right? You would wish, oh, if only I had a giant donkey drawn, because that's the language in the original language. It's not the little millstone, it's the millstone. I wish that instead of this fate, I wish I had that millstone just tied around my neck and somebody would have dropped me into the deepest part of the ocean, that's also in the original language, where the waves are tossing and they just throw me overboard and I just go right to the bottom. That would have been a better fate for me than what I have here. And he's really beginning to get to the subject of judgment and hell for those that would do such a thing. Jesus had said in Matthew 18.3, surely I say to you, unless you are converted, become like little children, you'll by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. And so I think he is talking here about those who would trip up a Christian, would cause an offense, would try to get them to stumble. There's an interesting, a lot of Leviticus is really interesting, but there's an interesting law tucked away in Leviticus 19, in the Old Testament, Pentateuch. In verse 14 of chapter 19, it says this, You shall not curse the deaf. Now think about that. You shall not curse somebody who can't hear. And that says, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God, I am the Lord. Now what's going on in that law? The idea is if you curse a deaf person, they don't hear what you're saying. And it's all a big laugh. Everybody else heard it, and they're all laughing, and the deaf guy doesn't even know what you said. And it's just a big ha-ha. Or the blind person who doesn't know you did it, and you stick some kid's toy out in front of him as he's walking along to watch him trip, and everybody thinks that's really funny. He couldn't see you. He didn't know you did it. The deaf didn't hear you, and the blind didn't see you. And what God is saying, but I saw. But I heard. And I'm telling you, don't do that. That's what God's saying here. And this is also true of those who would cause a Christian to stumble and get tripped up. God says, I see that. And it would be better for you to die this horrific death, this ghastly death, than to go through what I'm going to have in store for those that would cause a Christian to trip up. Now we can look at that and think, okay, I don't want to blatantly cause a Christian to stumble. There's a lot of ways that that can happen. But there's also ways that we can subtly have that happen and not even really be aware of it. So the scripture in a couple places tells us to be very thoughtful as you handle your freedoms in Christ. And so let me read you a couple passages. Galatians 5.13 says, For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. The area of Christian liberty, we're not free to do whatever we want. There's areas that the Bible doesn't speak to as we conduct our lives. And we think, well the Bible doesn't specifically forbid this or that. And it doesn't specifically command this or that. It's sort of an area of We don't know exactly where the Lord falls on this thing that we might partake of, or this place we might want to go. And the scripture doesn't speak directly to it, and we would call that an area of indifference, or an area of freedom. But we're not free to do anything we want. We're free to do that which our informed conscience indicates it's okay for us to do. So based on what we do know what God said not to do and to do, based on those things, our conscience is informed with those things, now we're capable of making a good decision. Is this pleasing to the Lord for me to go ahead and partake of this or that or to do this or that? Peter says the same thing, 1 Peter 2, verse 15, he says, for this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God, Peter says. So we have these freedoms, but we're to filter how we utilize them and what we allow ourselves to partake of or to do. And the reason why that is, and Paul brings this up in Romans and in 1 Corinthians, because we might have freedom in some area that really God's not angry with us for partaking of something, but it'll trip up our brother or sister in Christ. And that's the main filter that Paul keeps going back to. As you decide what you're going to do, are you making a stumbling block for your brother in Christ, for your sister in Christ? And you know these passages, but I'll read them to you, like Romans 14, 13. says, therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. It almost is the same language as our Leviticus law about tripping up somebody who's blind to something. Paul's talking in that context about the practice in antiquity of sacrificing animals to pagan deities And they would then have the meat market. So the best steak you could buy was a cow or an animal that was sacrificed to a pagan deity. And Paul, if you know what Paul comes back with on that, he says, the deity is nothing. There is no god, these false gods. He doesn't want us to go to the temple and partake of it. But he says, it's just meat. So Paul says, I'm free to eat the steak. But then he says, but what if your brother has a problem. He used to go to that pagan temple. And he's thinking, you know, I shouldn't be eating this steak. I used to do this when I was a pagan. Now I'm a Christian. We shouldn't be eating this meat. And you have him over for dinner. So he comes to my house for dinner and I'm like, oh man, I got T-bones tonight. And he's thinking, did you get these down at the pagan market? Yeah, these are fantastic. I'm cooking them up. And now he feels like he needs to eat it because he doesn't want to offend me, his host. Paul says, in that case, the Christian who bought those T-bones should throw them away. And say, you know what, brother? We're not having these T-bones tonight. We're having hot dogs. Or whatever it is that you're going to have instead. Because we want to make sure we don't cause that person who Paul, in his writings, calls weak. They're weak. They're new Christians. You don't want to cause them to stumble and then partake of something outside of faith. In other words, if we think something's wrong, even if God doesn't forbid it, and we think it's wrong, we do it anyway, the Bible says that's a sin. Because we thought it was wrong, we did it anyway. So there's that area of freedom and we don't want to cause our brothers to stumble. As a matter of fact, on that subject, Paul says in 14.21 of Romans, he says, it is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. And he just gives the example of meat and wine. Maybe you have freedom in some context, but if it's going to cause your brother or sister to stumble, then you're better off not having that. Because why? Because the law of the duty that I have towards my brother and sister outweighs my freedom. That's what Paul's talking about. Again in 1st Corinthians, he writes about this in 8-9. He says, but beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those that are weak. And then in 1st Corinthians 8-13 he says, therefore if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble. Do you see the law he's setting up there? That I have a duty to my Christian brother and sister not to stumble him up. He does say that we want to see people grow out of weakness into strength, but that takes time. We don't want to trip up our brothers and our sisters. J.D. Jones in his commentary says, no one I suppose who reads this would deliberately set a stumbling block in a brother's way. we would shrink with horror from the thought of luring, goading, tempting a soul into sin. But it is possible even for us to be guilty of causing a brother to stumble. I'm constantly being told by men and women that their greatest stumbling block is found in the inconsistencies of Christian people. Remember that there are little ones, there are weak ones, little faiths, fearings, ready to halts. all about us. And some lapse, some selfishness, some uncharitableness, as in the case of these disciples, may easily cause them to stumble. So we always want to be filtering all of our freedoms through the filter of, is this going to cause my brother or my sister to stumble in the faith? And Jesus gives a stark warning about that, doesn't he? And now Jesus is going to launch into a deeper dive into the reality of hell itself. I will tell you that I'm going to read Mark 9, 43 to 48 in my New King James translation. If you don't have a New King James, yours might look a little different. And that is because of the repetition in the New King James and the King James of their worm does not die, the fire is quenched. In the best, earliest manuscripts, that's only written down once. And a lot of folks think that a scribe might have copied it down a second time and a third time. So if you have an NIV or some of the other translations, it won't read exactly like mine. But they are the words of Christ, because he did say them. So the one time that they're down there, Jesus absolutely said it. But I'm going to read it the way it is in my Bible, with a repetition. Let me just read it straight through. This is Mark 9, 43 to 48. And these are all the words of Jesus. 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, 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 their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Jesus is making comparative statements, right? It would be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and tossed into the deepest part of the sea. It would be better for you to lop off your hand. It would be better for you to lop off a foot. It would be better for you to gouge out an eye than end up in hell. Those are all comparative statements that Jesus is using. And it's really a shocking teaching. I mean, it really is. I mean, when people that really don't walk with Christ try to tell you who Jesus is, you know, and, oh, Jesus is love, Jesus loves me. It's like, have you read what Jesus said? I mean, I don't doubt God is love. The Bible says that. But God is also just and holy. I mean, all these attributes of God. Jesus is the one teaching this here. And he wants us and his disciples to know the reality of hell and we have to avoid it at all costs. That's what he's getting at. Now Jesus is quoting the very end of the book of Isaiah, which I want to read to you, the last three verses of the book of Isaiah. And I'm going to read it to you in two different translations. I'm going to read it to you in the New King James, and then I want to read a paraphrase that I think helps to see how ghastly this reality of hell really is. But Isaiah chapter 66, beginning in verse 22, says, For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me, for their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." That's how Isaiah ends. Listen to this in the New Living Translation, which is a paraphrase. It's not a word for word translation, but it reads this way. As surely as my new heavens and earth will remain, so will you always be my people, with a name that will never disappear, says the Lord. All humanity will come to worship me from week to week and from month to month. And as they go out, they will see the dead bodies of those who've rebelled against me, for the worms that devour them will never die, and the fire that burns them will never go out. All who pass by will view them with utter horror. That's a good paraphrase. That's what Jesus is pulling into his discussion and teaching here, that passage out of Isaiah. He's talking about Gehenna, right? The pit of fire where they would bring their refuse and the Ophel, and they would burn it. The dead bodies of criminals that were executed were taken there to be burned. And I want to give you a little bit, I told you I was going to do a little Bible study with you. I want to go back and give you a little bit of the history of Gehenna. In Joshua 15 and again in Joshua 18, when the land is divvied up to the tribes, you'll find that Gehenna was actually called the Valley of Hinnom. Right? And Gehenna is just a transliteration of that. So don't let that throw you. But this is the border between the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. So we hear about it all the way back in Joshua 15. Ahaz, the wicked king of Judah, roasted his son to death. in Gehenna at this valley. It says in 2nd Kings 16.3, But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. Indeed, he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. King Manasseh, the wicked king, roasted his son to death in Gehenna. 2 Kings 21.6 says, Also he made his son pass through the fire, practicing soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. When God was provoked, he raised up a prophet, as he always did. And Jeremiah prophesies against this place twice. Once in chapter 7, once in chapter 19. I'll just read you the section of chapter 7 of Jeremiah, which begins in verse 28. says, So you shall say to them, This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God, nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. Cut off your hair and cast it away. and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord. They have set up their abominations in the house which is called by my name to pollute it. They built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom." That's Gehenna. to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my heart." That's the Lord's way of saying, I didn't even think about that. It's not even a thought that crossed my mind. That's what God's saying. He says, Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it shall no more be called Tophet of the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter. He says, for they will bury and tofit until there is no room. The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth, and no one will frighten them away. Then I will cause the cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride, for the land shall be desolate. And as God does, he raised up a God-fearing king. And Josiah comes into power. And Josiah brings reform. And he takes down the high places, and the Asherah poles, and the little nooks where they would put their little idols to worship. And it says in 2 Kings 23.10 of what King Josiah did, it says, he defiled Topheth. which is in the valley of the Sanahenam, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech, the false deity that they were sacrificing their kids to. He defiled it. It became the refuge dump. And they would burn the trash and the dead animal carcasses. And they would burn the bodies of criminals that were executed. And their own sewer system was basically to haul it out there and burn the awful out there in the valley. That's what that place became. And that's what that place was known as. Outside of scripture, Gehenna was called by writers the gate to hell. And so this is the illustration that Jesus is pulling from. They knew of this. I was down in Belize, the first time I went down to Belize with Nate, and we were driving all over the country, witnessing to people, and we pulled into their dump. that they had. And there was a man there and we pulled in and witnessed to him and talked to him. And he obviously had mental problems. He wasn't really all there, but he could understand. We gave him the gospel. But his family left him there because he was to tend the refuse dump. That's all he did. And it was always burning. And he was always dragging something over to the pile. And it looked like hell itself. I told Nate, I said, I'll never read these passages the same way again, having seen this place and this poor man who's confined here to tend the fires of their Gehenna, if you will. That's what Jesus has in mind when he says, you're better off chopping off a hand, chopping off a foot, or plucking out an eye than to end up there. That's what Jesus is pulling from here. Jesus references Gehenna like 11 or 12 times in separate teachings. He brings this up over and over again because of the reality of hell. And that at all costs, we have to find a way of escaping the reality of hell. And that's only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus taught over and over. Let's read you a couple of teachings. Matthew 5.22. In other language, he's teaching and he gives parables and stories. But he says, but I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Whoever says to his brother Raka shall be in danger of the council, but whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire. You see what Jesus is saying? The root of murder is already in your heart. You're basically guilty of breaking the commandment of murder because you're angry with your brother without a cause. He says that can end you up in Gehenna, hell, hellfire. Matthew 10.28, Jesus says, And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, Jesus said. Jesus says in Matthew 23.33, you serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell? And in John 5 verse 28, Jesus says, Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. those who've done good to the resurrection of life, and those who've done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. And that condemnation's where? In hell. So everybody's got eternal existence, but not everybody has eternal life. Only those who repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ, His atonement, His death on the cross, His resurrection, only they have eternal life. But everybody's coming out of the graves It's not like somebody's like, well, you Christians all be in glory, I'll be gone. No, you won't be gone. You'll be raised out of the grave. And when we are raised out of the grave as Christians, we'll have different bodies. We'll be glorified. Paul goes into that in a couple places, where what's perishable is planted almost like a seed. Our perishable bodies were raised imperishable, incorruptible. We're different. We're fitted and suited now for glory. And those that are raised outside of Christ will receive also bodies perfectly fitted for eternity in hell. Whatever that looks like. John the Revelator, in Revelation chapter 20, recorded in verse 13, the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. It's described in the worst possible ways. And you might say, well, yeah, but he's using the language of that valley. He's pointing to a place of the pits where the dung and the animals and the disease, and you can see the worms on the carcasses and the fire. But it's a literal place. Is that a symbol? And I'd say, yes, it's symbolic. But how much horrific is the reality than true Gehenna was, or that burning pit I saw in Belize? That's why he's bringing this kind of language. Eternal torment. Their worm. And that's a retention of the worm. It's my worm. It's those that are suffering. It's their worm does not die. Internal torment. And their fire is never quenched. External torment coming from outside. Matthew Henry on this passage says, The wrath of God fastening upon a guilty and polluted conscience is the fire that is not quenched. For it is the wrath of the living God, the eternal God, into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall. There are no operations of the spirit of grace. upon the souls of the damned sinner, and therefore there is nothing to alter the nature of the fuel, which must remain forever combustible, nor is there any application of the merit of Christ to them, and therefore there is nothing to appease or quench the violence of the fire." Jesus says in Matthew 8, chapter 12, I'm sorry, chapter 8, verse 12. It says, but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. Now he was talking about those who thought they were right with God. The sons of the kingdom. He says he's going to cast them into outer darkness. That's another picture of hell. There will be what? Weeping and mashing of teeth. Matthew 13.41 says, The Son of Man will send out his angels, they'll gather out of his kingdom all things that offend. And those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 22.12 Jesus says, So he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Now Jesus is telling a parable about somebody who would get to glory and is not cloaked in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. How did you get in here without a wedding garment? He was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away, cast him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 24, 50. Master of that servant will come on a day when he's not looking for him and an hour when he's not aware and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And last one, I know this is a lot to take, Matthew 25, 28. Therefore, take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given. He will have an abundance. But from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast that unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." These are all the teachings of Jesus. Jesus, meek and mild. This is our Lord teaching us the horrors that await those that do not turn to repentance and faith to embrace Jesus Christ savingly. And he's telling us and his disciples in the teaching, you must avoid this at all costs. He's not literally telling us to lop off limbs. He's saying whatever you need to do to avoid hell, you need to do it. That's what Jesus is teaching. Repentance is a necessary condition of salvation. John the Baptist came preaching that. When Jesus takes over, in the very first sermon, Jesus says, repent and believe the gospel. It's the same coin, it's two different sides. We repent, we turn to Jesus, that's the point. We turn from sin to embrace Christ by faith. It's all one motion, if you will. We're saved by faith alone, but that faith does conditionally include repentance. Sanctification is not what we do to earn salvation. It's a consequence of our salvation. In other words, when we repent and embrace Christ and turn to Him savingly, we become new creatures. We're not who we were. We're new people. He breathes the Spirit into us. He awakens our dead souls, so to speak. We were dead to God, now we're alive to God. We're new creatures, and now we're on a new path. And now we, along with the work of the Spirit within us, are fighting against the sin that still wants to corrupt us, right? And so Romans 8.13 says, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. And that's the active role of the saved believer, is we're actively at work with the Spirit that's within us, putting to death those things that still cling to us, because we all still sin, and we're fighting now. We used to not fight it, and now we're fighting against the sin that still wants to corrupt us. Colossians 3.5 says, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, and he lists them, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. You're to put to death these things in the life of a believer. That's on the other side of salvation. You can get somebody and tell them those things that don't know Jesus Christ savingly, they don't have the Spirit, and they can get an outward conformity, but their hearts are still wicked. They need to be born again, right? So this is to the Christian that we're born again, we're new creatures in Christ, our old man's been crucified like Romans 6 gets into, and now as new creatures we are at war against the sin that still wants to corrupt us. The Bible knowledge commentary says, if the activity of your hand, an instrument of inward inclinations, causes you to sin, should entice you to fall away, then cut it off. Jesus meant a disciple should take prompt, decisive action against whatever would draw him away from his allegiance to him. The same is true of the foot and the eye, for temptations come through various means. Whatever tempts a disciple to cling to this world's life must be removed, much as a surgeon amputates a gangrenous limb. And that's what Jesus is teaching. It's radical teaching. I hope that comes across that way. And it's not me. I'm not a radical teacher. I'm just teaching what Jesus said. And he meant it to be radical because the horrors of hell are to be avoided at all costs. And you think about what he's talking about here. Hands or feet or eyes. Immediately think of what what you let your hand do, where you allow your feet to take you, what you allow to come through the gate of your eye sockets into your mind and into your body. He's saying that those things have to be guarded in the life of a Christian, right? In the life of a Christian. Galatians 5.24 says, And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires. And JD Jones, who I've been quoting so much as we're going through Mark, I really like his commentary. He gets a little gruesome here, but this is what he says on this subject. He says, the Christian life is not an easy life. There's much lopping and cutting and maiming to be done. There is agony to be endured and blood to be shed. And what's he talking about? I don't know what your experience was when you came to Christ. For me, it was wonderful, obviously. I was thrilled. I'm still thrilled about my Lord and the things of God. But God had to do some radical work on this guy. And it didn't feel good. I didn't even know what God was up to for a while. And it can be painful, and things are taken away. I lost all the friends I had. I went to all of them. I went to all my friends that I grew up with in high school, because I was in my 20s, so I went and witnessed to them all. And all I heard was, hey, don't be ramming your religion down my throat. And I lost all my friends. And then I found a new family. I found, oh, the church is my family. And then Karen and I got plugged into a local church. But there is a radical cutting away and a beautiful reconnection with the things of God. But it's radical. I was a little shocked for a while there. My wife was scared when she saw me changing because she was like, what happened? It's like, I don't even know how to explain it. I'm not who I was. And as the old priest used to say, I'm not yet what I need to be, but thank God I'm not who I was, you know? And then Jesus gets into the subject of seasoning. So he says for, and this is back in Mark 9, he says, for everyone will be seasoned with fire and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another. Now, again, my new King James has some there that maybe is not in the better original manuscripts. Like the NIV just says, everyone will be salted with fire, to put it a little more succinctly. Every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Well, that's true. You can read Leviticus chapter 2, and that's true. But what's he mean? Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt and fire have at least this in common, they both purify. And to what I was just discussing, God will purify his people. And it can hurt at times if you don't know what's going on. I mean, I don't know if somebody explained it to me as well, when I was going through the firings that the Lord put me through to get the dross out of my life, that you think, I came to the Lord, and now He's going to kill me. And no, He's not going to kill you. He's going to kill that which is in you that would kill you, is what the Lord's doing. He's firing it up to get the dross out of your life. And that's how Peter describes it in 1 Peter 1. As you fire up, the metals and the impurities float to the top, and you can scoop them out. That's what God does to us. Everyone, He says, will be salted with fire. Peter actually says in chapter 4 of 1 Peter, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange thing was happening to you. That's just beautiful Christian doctrine. Don't think it's strange when this fiery trial comes. God's allowing that to happen, to purify you, to purify the church, to purify his bride. And then he says these two commands, have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another. Salt's a preservative, right? And we're to be the salt to the world, right? We're to be that preservative influence in society as we live our Christian lives. And he commands us that we would be salt. Salt is good. If it loses its flavor, how do you season it again? He says, have salt in yourself. Be that preservative in your society, in your family, in your church. And above all that, have peace with each other. I read that passage before we came to the Lord's table the day from Ephesians, where it tells us that we're to endeavor. It's something we endeavor at, we work at, to have that bond of peace with each other. You know, just like in a marriage, just like in a family, same thing with a church family, we need to work at that. And Jesus commands us that we would not only be salt, but that we'd have peace with one another. Our Daily Bread, I'll end with this little snippet I found from Our Daily Bread. It says that the disciples of Jesus will lose their saltiness when they compromise with the world and learn to love its ways. Instead of being different by remaining godly and faithful to Jesus, their love for wealth or fame or luxury or pleasure may lead to a loss of their saltiness. Instead of being salt rubbed into decaying food, they may take on the decay themselves. By not living as good and faithful witnesses of the holiness and majesty of God, they lose their testimony and their positive effects on the society around them. Contrary to what God had intended, the world would not be a better place because of them. And I pray that the world is a better place and our society is a better place because we have Christ working in us. Let's end that with prayer right there. Our Father and our God, very difficult teaching today. Difficult for this man anyway. Lord, the realities. of hell and to avoid that hell at all costs. Father, may that resonate with us, especially as we talk to our friends and family that do not know you savingly. Father, I don't want to see any of my family in that horrific place. I pray you might save them, Lord. I thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Receive the benediction of the Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Go in the peace of Christ Jesus to a world that desperately needs to hear the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.