SPEAKER_00: Sermon Text this morning comes with the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been with us through the summer, you know that we're in this Mark Gospel series.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, at the same time, we welcome so many of you who are new to APC this summer.
SPEAKER_00: So many visitors who are coming and coming back.
SPEAKER_00: And we want you to know that we're glad that you are finding a home at APC.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is where we are in our sermon series in Mark.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're looking at chapter 9, beginning to read at verse 38.
SPEAKER_00: Hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said, Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.
SPEAKER_00: For the one who is not against us is for us.
SPEAKER_00: For truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
SPEAKER_00: And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
SPEAKER_00: It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell to the unquenchable fire.
SPEAKER_00: And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.
SPEAKER_00: It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.
SPEAKER_00: And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out.
SPEAKER_00: It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone will be salted with fire.
SPEAKER_00: Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?
SPEAKER_00: Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, inerrant, powerful word.
SPEAKER_00: We need the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you that you did, in fact, give your son, and your son gave us truth and life.
SPEAKER_00: Spirit, would you please open our ears?
SPEAKER_00: We need to hear spiritual truth this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Would you open our eyes?
SPEAKER_00: We need to see reality as you see it and define it, not us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you give us humble hearts to receive, to understand, to believe, and to live according to the truth you give us?
SPEAKER_00: This we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So here we are, months into the gospel of Mark, months into this journey, and you know we've had two questions that we have been asking, two questions that just surface again and again.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this one who calls us?
SPEAKER_00: Many of us, many of us are learning new things about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite Christian authors, Philip Yancey, wrote a book years ago, The Jesus I Never Knew.
SPEAKER_00: It's a good read.
SPEAKER_00: The Jesus I Never Knew.
SPEAKER_00: He grew up in the Bible Belt.
SPEAKER_00: Phil Yancey.
SPEAKER_00: Grew up in the Bible belt, grew up in a very fundamental evangelical church.
SPEAKER_00: And this book is all about what he learned after he grew up.
SPEAKER_00: What he thought he knew about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Then he met the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it changed his life.
SPEAKER_00: It's been that way ever since for many, many people.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this one who calls you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you getting to know him in a more intimate way?
SPEAKER_00: In a more clear way.
SPEAKER_00: And then what's the second question?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to follow him?
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot we have to dismiss.
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of bad tapes in our minds that we have to eject.
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of bad podcasts that we've listened to.
SPEAKER_00: That we have to dismiss.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: Because we have inaccurate views of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's not high and lifted up enough in our minds.
SPEAKER_00: That's my prayer for you.
SPEAKER_00: This is my prayer for me.
SPEAKER_00: I find this preaching this gospel series very challenging to my own soul.
SPEAKER_00: But that's good for my soul.
SPEAKER_00: Centuries ago in the 17th century, there was a theologian philosopher by the name of Thomas Leneker.
SPEAKER_00: He said this very famous quote as he was reading the Gospels in the Greek language, in the Greek language for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: He'd been reading the Latin Vulgate for years.
SPEAKER_00: He was a scholar.
SPEAKER_00: He was reading the Latin.
SPEAKER_00: And then it dawned upon him that he probably ought to read the original autographs in the Greek language.
SPEAKER_00: This is his famous quote when he had this day of reckoning.
SPEAKER_00: Either this is not the gospel, or we are not Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Like, wow.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the real Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Am I coming to know the real Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Do we inform the scriptures or do they inform us?
SPEAKER_00: I can't think of a better text of this than the text before us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you happen to read this text on a separate sheet of paper, if you didn't have your Bible in front of you, if your Bible wasn't open and you didn't know that this is the Word of God, if it was just on a piece of paper, this text was written before you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in.
SPEAKER_00: Three things I want us to consider.
SPEAKER_00: We need to examine our attitude toward other people.
SPEAKER_00: We need to examine our attitude toward ourselves, what we think about ourselves, and we need to examine our attitude toward Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What we really think about all three.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, we need to examine our attitude about others.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's very much embedded in this text.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is back with his disciples, and as you've heard through the preaching of the last few weeks, he's been busy, he's been with his disciples, and there have been some ups and some downs for the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden now they're on their way to Capernaum, and John the apostle comes up to Jesus and says, Jesus, we saw somebody casting out demons in your name, and we didn't know him.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't one of us.
SPEAKER_00: So we said, stop.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Why did you tell him to stop?
SPEAKER_00: He was casting out demons, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's a good thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: By the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Why did you tell him to stop?
SPEAKER_00: Ready for this?
SPEAKER_00: Because he wasn't one of us.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't following us.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said that was the most inappropriate use of the royal we we've ever heard.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't following us.
SPEAKER_00: It probably would have been more truthful and accurate and helpful if they said maybe he wasn't following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples are still competing with each other.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't you hear that last Sunday here?
SPEAKER_00: The disciples still, there's so much they don't get.
SPEAKER_00: And they've been with him for so long.
SPEAKER_00: And they're still confused.
SPEAKER_00: And they're still learning.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is patient with them and he's patient with us.
SPEAKER_00: But he expects us to learn.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get a pass forever.
SPEAKER_00: Wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I don't get it, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you so miffed that he was doing this good work in my name?
SPEAKER_00: Why is that so upsetting to you?
SPEAKER_00: Their pride.
SPEAKER_00: You see, he wasn't one of us.
SPEAKER_00: How ironic.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' disciples are trying to stop this man from doing the very things that they were unable to do just a few days before.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the sermon a couple weeks ago?
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus and his disciples came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, and they came down into the valley, and there they were met with a grieving father whose son was possessed by demons.
SPEAKER_00: And the father came to his disciples asking them to please, would you please cast out these demons from my son?
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to kill them.
SPEAKER_00: And you remember?
SPEAKER_00: And they were really confused and upset by that.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus joins the conversation and Jesus rebukes his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting is sometime prior, perhaps weeks or months before, Jesus had commissioned the 12 and sent them out, and they could cast out demons on those occasions.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's so many powerful lessons here for us.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not about your gifts ultimately.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about your gifts.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about my gifts.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about my gift of preaching.
SPEAKER_00: It's about what's in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's what's in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we can serve and not be close to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants to be close to him, to be empowered by him, to serve in his name.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's so ironic.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples were not able to cast out the demon from the sun, and here they're rebuking this other man because he could.
SPEAKER_00: How jealous we can be.
unknown: Both?
SPEAKER_00: How petty we can be?
SPEAKER_00: How envious we can be when we see other people doing well and we're not.
SPEAKER_00: Why is it so hard to see the depths of our souls and our pride?
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, these disciples saw their proximity to Jesus as an entitlement to position and prestige.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, by the way, we're not done with this.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see this again and again in the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: It's a reminder to us.
SPEAKER_00: Guard your heart.
SPEAKER_00: May your pride be exposed.
SPEAKER_00: It just gets in the way of everything good that Jesus wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you forget that, Tom.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you forget that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' response, don't stop him.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: I thank God for the Christians in the churches in this city, in this country, in this world who are building the kingdom of God that don't have the initials PCA.
SPEAKER_00: I thank God.
SPEAKER_00: There's a good work that's going on around the world today.
SPEAKER_00: In other continents closer by, there are other churches that are doing good kingdom work and they're not PCA.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: We're not the only denomination.
SPEAKER_00: Are we humble enough to see the good that Jesus is doing in and through others and to praise him and to thank him?
SPEAKER_00: The true story, I'm a pretty avid fan of George Whitfield.
SPEAKER_00: I've read a lot of stuff about Whitfield's life, the Anglican preacher in the 18th century.
SPEAKER_00: Great preacher.
SPEAKER_00: Brought thousands and thousands of people to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He had good friends, John and Charles Wesley, and they had some major disagreements on theology.
SPEAKER_00: Whitfield was a Calvinist.
SPEAKER_00: The Wesleys were Arminians in their theology.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of things they disagreed about, but they were friends.
SPEAKER_00: And some one day, some somebody trying to cause a little trouble comes up to Whitfield and says, Reverend Whitfield, do you suspect that one day you're going to see Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Wesley in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: No, that was just a real insult.
SPEAKER_00: What he was saying was his theology is probably so skewed, he may not be there.
SPEAKER_00: You know what Whitfield said?
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't.
SPEAKER_00: But don't pass judgment too quick.
SPEAKER_00: He says, no, out of respect and admiration for the holiness of Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Wesley's life, he said, I suspect that he will be far closer to the throne than I will be.
SPEAKER_00: I may not be able to see him.
SPEAKER_00: I read that many years ago in one of the biographies I've read.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't forgotten that.
SPEAKER_00: May we not be proud of our theology, of our denomination.
SPEAKER_00: May we be open to bless what Jesus blesses, to honor what Jesus honors.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes on to say, Whatever is done in my name, if you give a cup of water in my name to somebody who needs a cup of water, you will not lose your reward.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: This is the week of ministry fair, right?
SPEAKER_00: I was going over the ministries.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of ministries we're going to talk about downstairs after the worship service.
SPEAKER_00: Please go downstairs.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to ask God to just fill these spots of ministry opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going over these ministries.
SPEAKER_00: The church mice.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: The church mice.
SPEAKER_00: Do we have a rodent problem?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: I get to see it on Thursdays.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes when the ladies' Bible studies meeting on Thursday mornings downstairs, there's a group of children that walk through these pews.
SPEAKER_00: You know what they're doing?
SPEAKER_00: They're gathering your mess.
SPEAKER_00: You know the stuff that we leave behind.
SPEAKER_00: They're arranging the hymn books.
SPEAKER_00: They're cleaning.
SPEAKER_00: You will not lose your reward.
SPEAKER_00: I was here early this morning in the sanctuary by myself, and I saw the closer and the opener.
SPEAKER_00: You know, somebody has to open this church up, right?
SPEAKER_00: You know that.
SPEAKER_00: We don't just go, voila, and the coffee is made downstairs, and the nursery's already full of angels who are going to take care of the kids.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of work that goes on in preparation for every single worship service here.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people involved.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, You will be rewarded.
SPEAKER_00: You do it in my name.
SPEAKER_00: You do it for my sake, and you will not lose your reward.
SPEAKER_00: That is stunning.
SPEAKER_00: The elders and I, we were all discussing this last, yeah, yesterday morning.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, eternity will afford lots of time to be rewarded.
SPEAKER_00: We don't do it for the reward.
SPEAKER_00: But if you do it for the sake of Jesus, you will be rewarded.
SPEAKER_00: Don't despise small things.
SPEAKER_00: Don't think, oh, I just what I want to do is I want to be able to exercise demons.
SPEAKER_00: I want to do these lofty great things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not into giving people cups of water.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like a proud heart.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do today, in the name of Jesus, for the sake of Jesus, you will not lose your reward.
SPEAKER_00: Then he goes on to say in verse 42, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better.
SPEAKER_00: For that person, if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he was thrown into the sea, this is a horrifying picture.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever causes one of these little ones, now listen up because you're likely to be a little bit surprised, he's not necessarily talking about little children.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of scholars, understanding the text and the context, believe he's actually not talking about children.
SPEAKER_00: He may be.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know definitively, yay or nay.
SPEAKER_00: But many scholars, including R.
SPEAKER_00: C.
SPEAKER_00: Sproul, think that he's talking about little ones, those who are little in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Like what they're doing right now, the way they're talking to that man who's exercising demons, the way that they're talking about other people.
SPEAKER_00: It could well be both.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: If you become a stumbling block to a little child, watch out.
SPEAKER_00: Watch out.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a stumbling block because of your pride and your arrogance of the way you talk and the way you treat people, watch out.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever causes these who believe in me to stumble, guess what that word is?
SPEAKER_00: We get the Greek, we get the scandalize is the English word.
SPEAKER_00: If you cause a scandal with one of my followers, you beware.
SPEAKER_00: If you cause them to sin, to scandalize means to place a snare or a trap in somebody's way so that they stumble.
SPEAKER_00: It's good for us to think about these things, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus said it.
SPEAKER_00: It's good for us to think about these things.
SPEAKER_00: Do we entertain thoughts or do we speak words that cause others to stumble?
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes spoken out of pride, when we can be so sure of ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We can be so right in our minds, and yet we can be so arrogant and off-putting.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, May your heart be humbled, to see the real condition of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you dare cause the people I love, the people I died for to stumble.
SPEAKER_00: This is our attitude toward others.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, we need to think about our attitude toward ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: This is really about worship.
SPEAKER_00: The word doesn't appear here, but this is a paragraph about worship.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 43 to 47.
SPEAKER_00: Let me frame the question.
SPEAKER_00: Where do we look for life?
SPEAKER_00: In what ways are we looking to feed our identity in our ego?
SPEAKER_00: What are we giving ourselves to?
SPEAKER_00: What are we living for?
SPEAKER_00: It's the famous quote from a Hollywood actor who doesn't know apparently much at all about these things of Christianity, who said it pretty well.
SPEAKER_00: The heart wants what the heart wants.
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: The heart wants what the heart wants.
SPEAKER_00: And what your heart wants most, your heart will go after.
SPEAKER_00: What I want most, my heart will go after.
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't it Bishop William Temple who said, you know what religion is?
SPEAKER_00: This is how he defined religion.
SPEAKER_00: Religion is whatever you think about when you have time to think about things most.
SPEAKER_00: Where does your mind go when you've got time to just think about the things that you want to think about?
SPEAKER_00: The things that you find attractive, the things that you find drawing you.
SPEAKER_00: He said that's really religion.
SPEAKER_00: What makes you feel alive?
SPEAKER_00: What is the it that you feel like you need in your life without which you feel empty and it's not God?
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what Jesus is saying right here.
SPEAKER_00: If your hand causes you to sin, if your foot causes you to sin, if your eye causes you to sin, you know what these are?
SPEAKER_00: These are metaphors, they're pointers for what we view with our eyes, what we do with our hands, and where we go with our feet.
SPEAKER_00: These are just metaphors.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful what your eyes see.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful what your hands touch.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful where your feet go.
SPEAKER_00: What captures our hearts?
SPEAKER_00: What does capture our hearts?
SPEAKER_00: What makes us anxious to be without?
SPEAKER_00: We call those addictions.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible calls them idols.
SPEAKER_00: Addictions, idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: What did the prophet Jeremiah say to the people of God in his day?
SPEAKER_00: You have as many idols in your town, you have as many idols in your heart as you have towns in Judah.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: What idol might be in my heart?
SPEAKER_00: What idol might be in your heart that is rising up, shaking its fist against the authority of King Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: We must consider these things.
SPEAKER_00: Addiction, you know what that means in the Latin?
SPEAKER_00: To surrender to the gods.
SPEAKER_00: What I think I need to feel alive.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is nice, but he can't get me where I need to go.
SPEAKER_00: So we pick up shovels and we start digging for water, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: We start trying to find relief.
SPEAKER_00: We start trying to find meaning.
SPEAKER_00: We try to find purpose.
SPEAKER_00: That we feel better about ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We feel more alive.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, you better identify it.
SPEAKER_00: You better identify it.
SPEAKER_00: You better deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: Cut it off.
SPEAKER_00: He says three times.
SPEAKER_00: Cut it off.
SPEAKER_00: Tear it out.
SPEAKER_00: Radical surgery is required.
SPEAKER_00: He uses hyperbolic language.
SPEAKER_00: Why hyperbole?
SPEAKER_00: It gets our attention.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying if you're looking at stuff you shouldn't be looking at, literally cut out your eye.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says don't mutilate your body.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, you still have another eye.
SPEAKER_00: He's just trying to get our attention.
SPEAKER_00: Deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't flirt with it.
SPEAKER_00: He says you're married to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be dating around.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be dating the things that you think you need to make you feel alive.
SPEAKER_00: To make you feel like a man.
SPEAKER_00: To make you feel like a woman.
SPEAKER_00: That's not for you.
SPEAKER_00: Deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: Pride, unbelief, self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: He's not, he's certainly referring to sexual lust.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's part of it, but that's not all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Some people's lust is for career.
SPEAKER_00: Some people live for career.
SPEAKER_00: We know that in this city.
SPEAKER_00: Some people live for relationships.
SPEAKER_00: They need people to need them.
SPEAKER_00: Codependency.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever your heart is lusting for to complete you other than Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: Ask Jesus to show you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just assume that you know.
SPEAKER_00: Cut it off.
SPEAKER_00: Tear it out.
SPEAKER_00: Radical surgery is required.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because our very souls are at stake.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know who spoke more about hell than anybody else in the New Testament?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Why did Jesus speak so much about hell?
SPEAKER_00: Why did Jesus speak more about hell than anybody else?
SPEAKER_00: Think about it for half a second.
SPEAKER_00: You know the answer.
SPEAKER_00: Because he knows the reality of hell better than anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus speaks more about hell.
SPEAKER_00: There is a place called hell.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's very unpopular today.
SPEAKER_00: Polite company doesn't discuss these things.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think if Jesus says, I think we should, there is a real place called hell.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't guard your soul, if you're living, if you're living, if you're living to worship other gods, beware.
SPEAKER_00: Three times Jesus uses in this short paragraph the Greek word Gehenna, the valley of Hinnem.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do a quick history lesson.
SPEAKER_00: Back in the Old Testament, when King Ahaz, who was a very wicked king, very wicked king, he was supposed to be worshiping God, he wasn't.
SPEAKER_00: He got to the place where he was worshiping the God of Moloch.
SPEAKER_00: He got to the place where he was sacrificing some of his own children into the fire in Jerusalem to please, to placate a false God.
SPEAKER_00: How horrible.
SPEAKER_00: King Josiah came afterward and stopped that practice and other kings.
SPEAKER_00: But what it became, this is in the southwest part of the city of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: It became, you know what that became?
SPEAKER_00: The garbage dump of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: This is where fires would burn continually, 24 hours a day.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reference to Jesus' words at the end of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Where the worm does not die.
SPEAKER_00: I was at a garbage dump on vacation because that's we have garbage dumps we have to use.
SPEAKER_00: We drive to this garbage dump.
SPEAKER_00: Not a pleasant odor.
SPEAKER_00: Mile by comparison to this garbage dump in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The worm doesn't die because the worms there always have a host to feed on.
SPEAKER_00: The worms don't die because there's always refuge, there's always things that are being dumped that keep the fires burning.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: I told you, if you, I'm serious, if you just printed out a piece of paper and gave it to a hundred people that you know, how many of them would say, Who said that?
SPEAKER_00: That's not Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't talk like that.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does talk like that.
SPEAKER_00: But he's not talking like that to harm us.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking like that to awaken us to a real punishment that's eternal.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, there is no such thing as annihilation.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have heard that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible teaches nowhere that there's annihilation, that when you're dead, when you take your last breath, you just no longer exist.
SPEAKER_00: Some people think that.
SPEAKER_00: Some people think, oh great, I'm not going to go to hell.
SPEAKER_00: At least I'm not going to go to hell.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not true.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't teach that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible teaches that there's a real place of damnation called hell.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a real place of paradise called heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And every single person in this room is going to be in one or the other.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you going to be a hundred years from now?
SPEAKER_00: You are going to be in either one or the other.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to be anywhere else.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, friends, I want you to think about these things.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to act.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to take decisive action.
SPEAKER_00: The condition of your soul matters to me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the teacher.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the speaker.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Edwards, whose most famous sermon was Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you read in school.
SPEAKER_00: He just, Edwards just got pillaged for this.
SPEAKER_00: Modern-day psychology textbooks use this as an example of a really how do I say this politely?
SPEAKER_00: Messed up guy.
SPEAKER_00: He was a statist.
SPEAKER_00: What is statism?
SPEAKER_00: Taking pleasure in the infliction of pain, punishment, or humiliation of other people.
SPEAKER_00: That's statism.
SPEAKER_00: College textbooks have been saying for decades Edwards was a sadist because he had the nerve to talk about the reality of hell.
SPEAKER_00: In graphic detail, in symbolic language.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, people will say, well, is hell really a lake of fire?
SPEAKER_00: Is it really this?
SPEAKER_00: Is it really that?
SPEAKER_00: You know what the Bible's doing?
SPEAKER_00: It's using symbolic language.
SPEAKER_00: You know why the Bible uses symbolic languages?
SPEAKER_00: Because in our finite minds, we cannot fully comprehend the depth and the breadth of the total reality.
SPEAKER_00: We think in word pictures.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus teaches in word pictures.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus uses these very graphic terms and descriptions, he's appealing to our sense of understanding.
SPEAKER_00: The reality always surpasses the symbol.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_00: The reality, heaven will be far better than you can imagine.
SPEAKER_00: And hell will be far worse than you can imagine.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Edwards was not a sadist.
SPEAKER_00: Most of all, Jesus is not a sadist.
SPEAKER_00: See, if you're really a sadist, if Edwards is really a sadist, he wouldn't say there's a place like this.
SPEAKER_00: Run to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Run to Jesus for refuge.
SPEAKER_00: Run to Jesus for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: If you were a sadist, if Edwards was a sadist, you know what he would say, right?
SPEAKER_00: Join me here, right?
SPEAKER_00: What would you say if you were if you were a if he was a sadist?
SPEAKER_00: There's no place called, no, there's no hell.
SPEAKER_00: See, if you're a sadist, you want to see people suffer.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a sadist, you're saying, no, no, no, no, don't believe all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: But because it's true, we must believe and teach these truths.
SPEAKER_00: To the contrary, Edwards was immensely helpful to the people in his congregation.
SPEAKER_00: That's why they had a revival in Northampton, Massachusetts.
SPEAKER_00: He preached the real Word of God, the true Word of God, and people woke up.
SPEAKER_00: People who were spiritually dead woke up.
SPEAKER_00: They were born again, and there was a revival in New England.
SPEAKER_00: And that New England revival spread.
SPEAKER_00: Hell is a real place for real people who worship false gods, who are under the control of idols.
SPEAKER_00: And it is the sin of pride, it's the sin of lust, it's the sin of unbelief that can ruin my soul.
SPEAKER_00: We were created to be consumed and ravished by the greatest love of all.
SPEAKER_00: Annie read about that this morning, right?
SPEAKER_00: We were created to be consumed by real love, not cheap artificial love.
SPEAKER_00: You were made.
SPEAKER_00: You were created by the God who created you to know him and to believe him and to trust him.
SPEAKER_00: How would you know that?
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten Son, that whoever believes on him will not perish, but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: The God who created you, the God who loves you, the God who says, Come, come to Christ for your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: It's not too late.
SPEAKER_00: We were created to be consumed and ravished by that kind of love, the greatest love of all, not by the things that otherwise would consume us.
SPEAKER_00: Anything other than God will burn you up.
SPEAKER_00: Anything other than God will consume you.
SPEAKER_00: Anything but God.
SPEAKER_00: Psychologists call it tolerance.
SPEAKER_00: You go to something that you think you need and think you need it more and more and more and more and more.
SPEAKER_00: That's tolerance.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love the words of John Dunn, the English poet, talking of his savior.
SPEAKER_00: Take me to you, imprison me, for I, except you enthrall me, shall never be free, shall never be chaste, except you ravish me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but that's what I need.
SPEAKER_00: I need a savior who loved me so much that he died for me.
SPEAKER_00: So I could be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: So I could be healed.
SPEAKER_00: So I could be accepted.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: Do you need that?
SPEAKER_00: Think so?
SPEAKER_00: And that's why, out of our understanding of grace, we can cut it off.
SPEAKER_00: We can put to death the misdeeds of the body because of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther said, don't ever bring a fictitious sin to God.
SPEAKER_00: Bring a real sin.
SPEAKER_00: If you bring a real sin, there's real forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Stop playing around.
SPEAKER_00: Stop minimizing your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Stop excusing yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Stop giving yourself a pass.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, the forgiveness of God won't really reach your heart.
SPEAKER_00: When you understand that you're a real sinner and your sin is harmful and hurtful, not only to you, but to other people.
SPEAKER_00: And when you take it to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and when you say, God, would you please forgive me for this sin?
SPEAKER_00: God, would you please crucify this sin in me?
SPEAKER_00: You find life and you find freedom like you never found before.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul could say in the book of Titus, the second chapter, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.
SPEAKER_00: Today.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to live in your chains.
SPEAKER_00: This is the good news.
SPEAKER_00: You can be freed from whatever is hounding you, from whatever is beating you, whatever is messing you up, and now you're messing other people up because of it.
SPEAKER_00: You can be freed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is the power of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, as we close, we need to examine our attitude toward Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's life is an altar.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about verses 49 and 50.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we I wish we had 30 minutes to talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't.
SPEAKER_00: What he's talking about is worship.
SPEAKER_00: He's using religious sacrificial language, verse 49, and verse 50.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone will be salted with fire.
SPEAKER_00: Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how would you make it salty again?
SPEAKER_00: Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's life is an altar.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is an altar.
SPEAKER_00: My life is an altar.
SPEAKER_00: He's using temple liturgical language here.
SPEAKER_00: For those who don't live for the Lord Jesus Christ, for those who are not trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will serve, they will serve the false God.
SPEAKER_00: And they will worship the false God, not only in this life, but in the next life for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Where the worm does not die, where the fire does not get extinguished.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to worship their God forever.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody has a God, everybody's a worshiper.
SPEAKER_00: There's no such thing as somebody who's not a worshiper.
SPEAKER_00: The question is not, are you a worshiper?
SPEAKER_00: The question is what are you worshiping?
SPEAKER_00: That's verse 49.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 50.
SPEAKER_00: Is those of you that are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, if you're saved by his blood, your life is an altar.
SPEAKER_00: Keep that altar pure by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Expositor's Bible puts it like this: everybody must be salted somehow.
SPEAKER_00: See, salt was language, salt was used in all the sacrifices of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Salt preserves, salt adds flavor.
SPEAKER_00: So the Old Testament sacrifices had salt.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying here is your life is an altar.
SPEAKER_00: May your life be salted with the season of grace, of mercy, of love for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Expositor says everyone's life will be salted somehow, either with the unquenchable fire of hell or with the severe fire of self-discipline and renouncing all for the sake of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart is an altar.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one question.
SPEAKER_00: For whom?
SPEAKER_00: Yourself or Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: That's the only question.
SPEAKER_00: Who is your altar for?
SPEAKER_00: What sacrifices are you burning on your altar?
SPEAKER_00: Is it praise and glory to King Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it the self?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what a way to close the service.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Ben and Bailey and your worship preparation this week.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I love the fact that you chose, oh come, all you unfaithful.
SPEAKER_00: That says it pretty well, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: We are the unfaithful.
SPEAKER_00: Oh come, all you unfaithful.
SPEAKER_00: Come, weak and unstable.
SPEAKER_00: Come, know that you're not alone.
SPEAKER_00: Oh come, bitter and broken.
SPEAKER_00: Are you bitter?
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people that are bitter.
SPEAKER_00: Are you broken?
SPEAKER_00: Come with fears unspoken.
SPEAKER_00: Come and taste of his perfect love.
SPEAKER_00: Oh come, guilty and hiding ones.
SPEAKER_00: There's no need to run.
SPEAKER_00: See what your Savior, your God, has done.
SPEAKER_00: He's the Lamb who was given, slain for our pardon.
SPEAKER_00: His promise is peace for those who believe.
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: But I love the words.
SPEAKER_00: So come.
SPEAKER_00: You have to come.
SPEAKER_00: You can't just sit there and do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: You can't file it away and say, I'll think about this someday.
SPEAKER_00: You need to think now and you need to act now.
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to come?
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to come out of your idolatry?
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to come out of your unbelief?
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to come out of your fear?
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to come out of your pride?
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to come to Jesus again today?
SPEAKER_00: I have to come.
SPEAKER_00: You have to come.
SPEAKER_00: Though you have nothing, come.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has it all.
SPEAKER_00: He is the offering.
SPEAKER_00: Come and see what your God has done.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come now.
SPEAKER_00: By the work of your spirit in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Spirit of God, we pray that you're doing your work so that we would respond as we ought.
SPEAKER_00: Bring us conviction where we need to be convicted.
SPEAKER_00: Bring us comfort where we need comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Bring us hope where we need hope.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, would you give life?
SPEAKER_00: Would you give life where there'd be people in this room this morning who would be born again hearing your message, your truth, to rest in your grace?
SPEAKER_00: I pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.