What Condemns One Purifies the Other

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

Well, good afternoon, beloved. Okay, so we're getting ahead of time, so I'm going to have to watch my volume, but welcome once again, everyone, back to Grace Fellowship Church. It's a pleasure to see everyone back again and hoping that everyone had a blessed week.

I was joking with Shane before this service that in preparation to preach this text and practically, and also just in way of study, I've been getting a pretty beat-up by this text, and I'm just happy I get to share that with you guys, and you guys can partake in those beats with me.

So last week, Shane preached, and he concluded with the verses 35 and 37. And if you remember, this is where Christ sat down with his disciples, and he rebuked them for the conversation about them establishing their supremacy.

It was a sermon on pride. After descending from the Mount of Transfiguration earlier on in Mark 9, the disciples were witnesses to more of Christ's amazing miracles and his teachings. And as we progress through the chapter of Mark 9, this wasn't the main concern of the disciples.

Remember, Shane preached on pride. Their main concern wasn't the Mount of Transfiguration or the teaching or the things that they had been witness to. No, instead, however, their main concern wasn't on these miraculous things, but on scoring points, leaderboards within the kingdom of God.

Pride, Supremacy, and the Need for Self-Examination

So, as we see in today's text, as our brother Ty has read, thank you brother, Jesus is going to conclude his teachings on pride. He's going to finish his final corrections and rebuke with the disciples.

And he's going to do so dealing with pride and sin with gruesome and grotesque hyperbole. And he's also going to give us a haunting depiction of hell itself. But, being the loving shepherd that he is, he's not going to leave us there.

He's going to leave us with loving direction on how we can, through his power, through the power of the Holy Spirit, master the sin of pride and submit to the loving guidance of Jesus Christ. So, like Ty said and he read, our text aims today, the main focus of the text is that it shows and demonstrates the reality and the danger of sinful pride while instructing us with the method that he gives, the prescription that Christ himself gives with humble service.

That is how we are to overcome this spiritual pride. But before we even get to the text, this is a test of self-examination. This is a text that we bring to bear on our own souls and we beg the question, just how true is it that how wicked a human heart is sometimes?

Before we laugh and before we mock the disciples for their arrogance and their rash decisions, try not to hold your breath too quickly. But think about this, how prideful is any one of us? Like I said, in preparation for this text, I think I received a very cold dose of reality with this text about the dangers of spiritual pride, the pain that spiritual pride brings and the dangers of that sin.

When the veil of arrogance sheds itself and we reveal just how much pride we inwardly all have, I'm most included in this list, how we carry that in our hearts, disguised as piety or righteousness. It's a veil of lies.

I'm going to pick on the kids today because this is a text that the kids are going to understand probably a little bit more than the adults, just from the visual nature of this passage. I came across this little quote, so I'm going to ask you guys to remember this.

And this is a neat little quote that we're going to... If you're going to remember one thing, it's going to be this, okay? And the quote is this. So just as I is found in the middle of sin, the letter I, so is the letter I found in the middle of pride.

We cannot divide these two things to go together. Okay, so without further ado, let's pray first before we begin. Father, Lord, thank you. Thank you, Father, that you don't treat us according to our sin.

Lord, that you are merciful. You're merciful to a loss of pride for people. How often are we reminded of the graces and the riches of Christ, and yet, Father, we turn so quickly. We return back to the filth of man, the filth of this world, Lord, and we pursue these things as opposed to the righteousness, the virtue, and the goodness of the Lord.

Oh, Father, were it not for the love that you give, Lord, we would be as chaff, Lord, burnt up and consumed by your very judgment. Father, I ask, purify us, Lord. Purify our hearts and our minds, Lord, with ears ready to hear and eyes ready to receive, Lord, what it is you have to give.

Lord, that every man, woman, and child within this room, Father, in those hearing, Father, would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

And see him fully.

Help me, Father, as I preach this text, the weight and just the awesome, sheer value of this text, and help us as we study this. In our Redeemer's name, in the Lord Jesus Christ we pray.

Amen.

Be Careful Not to Overcorrect

So, beginning on our text, like I said, we are back in Mark 9. We're reading from verses 38 to 41. And if you notice, if you're very observant, we're treated with a little bit of a difference in this text than we're usually used to seeing in the Gospels.

In our text, verse 38 actually opens up with John speaking. And this is interesting only because this is the single time in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke that John is the one to speak up. Usually we're used to seeing Peter speak up, and we know that that happens often.

But interestingly enough, John is the one who speaks. And what he says is really quite interesting. So while we look at our text, this is our first point. Be careful not to overcorrect. For those of you taking notes, be careful not to overcorrect.

And that's in verses 38 and 41, it says this. John said to him, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.

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. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly I say to you, whoever gives you the cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

So as the text goes, verse 38, we see the disciples. John speaks up. But you see the disciples rebuke this anonymous exorcist for performing these duties in the name of Christ. He was casting out demons, and he was doing it in the name of Christ.

And if you look at the footnotes in your Bible, there's textual variance here, but we're going to rely on these today in our text because there's a lot of context that goes into this. In one of the footnotes, it says, if you have an ESV, it says, those who do not follow us.

That's added right at the bottom there, if you have that. This little statement adds some crucial context, indicating that this lowly servant wasn't just an unknown servant in the kingdom that had heard Jesus' teachings at some point, but he wasn't one of the disciples.

Specifically, he wasn't part of this in-crowd, this elite group that the disciples believed themselves to be. And because of this, because he would not follow them or follow us, as John says,.

They rebuked him.

They prohibited him from speaking the name of Christ and casting out demons. I mentioned it at the top of the sermon, but Jesus rebuked the disciples for quarreling and trying to establish a pecking order.

Again, verses 35 to 37. So it's likely that this response from John comes as a defensive response. He's becoming defensive to the rebuke that Jesus Christ already rendered. And in other words, he's trying to defend his zeal or self-righteousness or enthusiasm for Christ by bringing this forward.

Not only were they caught discussing a pecking order, establishing leaders and followers amongst the servants of Christ. At this point, they pivot again, and they over-pivot, and they over-correct. Again, those words, who does not follow us or who do not follow us.

We can gather from this short little phrase that the disciples felt as though they were delegates for Christ, that could speak for him. So in other words, they were like his gatekeepers. Hoping that Jesus would commend them in their arrogance and their rash response, they believed that they were doing what was right.

Jesus does the opposite. Verse 39 says,. As is a trend now, Jesus corrects the disciples. So instead of condoning their behavior, Jesus rebukes them, and he corrects them, and he instructs them not to prohibit the work of another brother.

So from verse 38, it's clear that this man is a true disciple of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 12 .3 says,.

Pay attention.

Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God in the Spirit of God says, Jesus is a curse.

No one can say that.

Paul later on says,. So this man using Jesus' name to cast out demons and do his work is of the Lord. Another place in the Gospels, Matthew 12 .30, says that whoever is not with me is against me. And whoever does not gather with me scatters.

It's clear this man was following Christ and serving faithfully. And Jesus Christ makes this point. In verse 40, he says,. And although he doesn't make this point explicit, implicit, he makes this distinction between two groups.

There are those that are for the Father. So in our first group, we have the group number one. We have those who are of the Father who do the good works set before them. And in the second group, there's this distinction that's made and that there are those that are for Satan.

And they do his evil works.

There are these two groups.

There are no others. There are both middle and between categories.

There are only two.

As believers, we would do well to understand who is for the kingdom of heaven and who is against us. Jesus Christ made a point of this in John chapter 9, if you want to turn with me very quickly. John chapter, excuse me, John chapter 8, verses 42 to 44.

So again, if you're turning with me, John chapter 8, verses 42 and 44.

It says this.

This is Jesus speaking to the Pharisees.

He says,.

Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. This reminds me of a story that I heard, and I can't remember the origin,.

So if someone does know this, please let me know.

As the story goes, there was a couple of brothers that were attending a church, brothers in Christ. And as the story goes, one had a bone to pick with another. And he said, after the service, I'm going to deal with it.

And he came, actually it's fitting, it's about evangelism.

He came up to him and he said, I don't like the way that you do evangelism. And then the guy receiving criticism said, Well, okay, what's the problem? What is the issue? And he proceeded to lay down a series of things that he didn't like.

He didn't enjoy and he didn't find them gratifying to God.

Some of it good, some of it not good.

And then he said, okay, I understand that you may not like that. What would you suggest? What do you do? That was what the brother receiving the criticism said to him. The first guy who brought the problem to criticism said, Well, I don't.

I don't do it. I just don't like the way that you're doing it. And, so humbly, the guy who's receiving the criticism stands back and he says, Well, I like the way that I do it versus the way that you don't.

So, like I said, you guys can bring up that story if you know it, but the reality is, we need to know who is for us and who is not against us. We are not to, we need to be sure that who is for us, that we are praying for and that we are encouraging.

But we also need to know who's against us. For there are two groups, and we're going to look at the destination, the ultimate destination of both these groups in our second point. Because Jesus Christ has this point in mind.

Jesus has a kingdom view of heaven and hell. And we would do well to know that as well because we need to know who is for us. Like I said, that's in the second point. But before we get there, we're going to look at our last verse, verse 41.

Jesus makes it very clear that even the most humble of servants will receive their reward. Now, this isn't an earthly reward, as we might be quick to jump to, but this is a reward that we are to receive in heaven.

If you turn with me, or just want to listen, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 12 to 14, Paul talks about this reward. He talks about what this reward looks like. So again, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 12.

Picking up from there, it says this, Now, if anyone builds on the foundation, again, building means serving, on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, heat, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it.

Because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

He will receive a reward.

The Lord is all-knowing. He's omniscient, He's all-knowing, He's all-powerful. And He sees perfectly those who serve Him from heaven above. And He rewards in kind. So we can take that encouragement that our reward is in heaven.

As we serve humbly, this is something that should encourage us not to be people-pleasers, but to please our Father who art in heaven, who does see a reward in His perfection. But our point about spiritual pride, to jump back to this, is we need to notice the response of the disciples.

This story, this reaction from John and the disciples in verses 38 -41, is a direct result of unrepentant pride within them. They move from one source of pride to another. And in doing so, trying to over-correct, they dig deeper into the pride or the sin of pride.

They have not repented.

So before we move on, we need to examine this unto ourselves. We turn this text inwards. And we focus, and we say, where does this describe me? Where does this particular text bring the bearer of my soul, and what domain of my life is this true?

Think of all the ways that pride affects what we do, our money, our work, our battle against temptation, sexual sin, idolatry, the battles against the flesh, popularity and praises of men. All the ways that we battle against sin.

Where are we prideful? Where are we relenting God's power in favor of our own? So in other words, where are we over-correcting? As believers, as blood-bought saints, as those who care to put sin to death, we do battle with flesh and temptation.

Are we quick to become defensive when our sin is pointed out to us,.

When this finally comes to bear?

And do we over-compensate?

I'm going to pick on the kids in here.

Remember that saying, I started the talk with a sermon. Does anyone remember? Does anyone have a little bit? Okay, but just as sin, remember, it started,.

Just, it goes like this, remember,.

Just as I am in the middle of sin, so is the letter I in the middle of pride. So you guys need to remember that. Talk to your parents on the way home.

That's your homework.

This is application for us as believers, but also application for us as adults, as blood-bought saints. Our application that we can draw right now from this text is.

Repent for true humility.

We need to repent for true humility. This text is riddled with really good application already. Like I said, recognition and praying for brothers who are not directly tied to us, that is one easy application, but before we get to all those other good things that the text has to say, we first have to be willing and ready to accept this, and that is through humility.

Before we reach that other door, we must first step through the door of Christ and be humble. 2 Corinthians 7, pay careful attention. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10 says this. Just listen to the wording. For godly grief, godly sorrow, godly grief, produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.

So that's godly grief and godly repentance, no regret. But on the other hand, we have worldly grief. Paul continues, whereas a worldly grief, so in other words, fleshly grief, produces death. It does not cure the ailment of sin.

So these apostles, they were feeling something. They were rebuked, and they were feeling prideful. Their egos were stung. There was ungodly grief.

There was worldly fleshly grief,.

And in their defensiveness, they overcorrect, and they seek that the Lord would condone their sin,.

Would give it a pat on the back,.

And the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't do that. They have not yet repented of their spiritual sin and pride. I think most people know here that we are a competitive family. That's the Cortezes, the Cortezites.

We're really competitive by nature, and actually we like boxers, and we like sports, and we compete a lot. I trained as a boxer for many years. I don't know if you guys know that. And I realized not long after doing it that I didn't have too many brain cells to spare,.

So I stopped, and I focused on studying.

However, this is something I did. But you see some interesting observations when you're in the gym, and anyone who's played any kind of sport or any kind of competitive field sees this and knows this, that there are big egos, and there's a lot of pride to go around in these places.

I mean, that's an easy place to spot them, but really it's everywhere. And as it goes with any sport or any kind of competition,.

Sometimes it just isn't your day.

What I would often see is that during the course of maybe, for example, a tough sparring session or something that, a tough exercise at the gym, usually sparring amongst two guys, one guy would be doing well, and the other guy would have to get pulled.

And eventually what would happen is as you're working on skills, the coach would pull you. Probably no different than any other sport, and there would be a counsel, there'd be advice given. So one guy's getting walloped,.

The coach pulls him and gives him advice.

One of two things happened.

Only ever one of two things happened.

Whenever that fighter or that competitor would step back into their ring, either that person would go in with a completely bruised ego and ignore the coach's direction, resulting in further beatings, or they would over-apply their correction and proceed to put a whoopin' on the fellow teammate.

Remember, this is in the same gym. So either they would receive more beatings or they would just go the opposite end and over-apply and actually do harm to the other person. True humility is found in repentance.

Only in repentance. And that repentance comes in prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Doing the work of self-examination, reading this text, to bear on our souls. We need to examine parts of our lives, domains in which we have pride,.

Because we all have it.

We need to take that pride, that sin, we need to bring that burden. That burden comes to the cross of Christ. We need to go on our knees and we need to confess it. We need to confess it, that the Lord Jesus Christ would bear the load, do away with it, give it to Him.

We need to rely on Him, on His frame, on the redeeming work of Christ. We cannot rely on our own. If we do, if we rely on our fleshly frame, and we attempt to correct any situation, either battles with sin and pride and death, we do all that we can to work within our own frame and forsake the power of the Holy Spirit.

We fool ourselves and we delve further into that. And as our next point is going to demonstrate, the Lord takes this pride very, very seriously. So before we get to our second half of our text here, again, speaking of kids here, this passage is an interesting one, obviously.

But it's interesting maybe to kids, mostly because of how visual this passage is. Just the visual elements and the hyperbole with which Jesus Christ speaks, it's very stark. When we think about the humility of a child, they are much more vulnerable and sensitive to these kinds of things.

And kids also implicitly know this. Kids just know they're vulnerable sometimes, unless you're my nephew, for example. Things that adults might not be scared of, for example. We might not be scared of things, but kids, they can be scared quite easily.

Their fear is of a lot more sensitive sense than ours. If you think, maybe adults and kids, not to linger on this too much, but if you can think of the scariest thing or things that used to scare you when you were smaller maybe, you think about things with the magic of movies and CGI and special effects.

People have gotten very creative in ways to drive that out of you. So in other words, generally speaking, things that appear scary today might have been a little bit different than someone in the first century during the time of Jesus Christ as he walked.

But this fear that Jesus Christ is going to teach us on, this fear that he's instilling upon us, is not just fear for the apostles. This isn't just for the disciples of Christ during his day when he walked, but this is for the everyday believer now in this moment.

And I'm not needlessly trying to scare anyone here, but the danger and the consequences of pride and sin, this should scare us. And this is a healthy fear. So looking back at our text, we're going to go to our second point here.

Unrepentant Pride Has Eternal Consequences

So the rest of our time is going to be spent on verses 42 to 50. It's important to note that while the book of Mark is really short,.

You may or may not know,.

Mark is the shortest gospel of the four. However, there is moments where the gospel of Mark gets special attention to certain sections that the others do not. This is one such occasion.

So as we look at our point,.

We're going to look at the special details that Mark gives that none of the other gospels give. So this is our last point. I think there's actually a typo in the bulletin,.

My mistake.

Unrepentant pride has eternal consequences. So if you're taking notes from the bulletin,.

I know.

Unrepentant pride has eternal consequences. So in this last section, as we look at the fearful warning.

That Jesus Christ is going to give,.

Mark is going to tie all these loose ends together to make one strong point against this sin of pride.

He's driving all of this,.

Chapter 9, the end of 9, to this point.

In verse 42,.

Jesus references the child within their midst from earlier on in verses 35 to 37. If you remember, Jesus sat down and he drew a child from among the crowd and he sat with him and used him as an illustration.

So verse 42 says this,.

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. This is a stark warning. And this child that Jesus Christ references from a very literal reading does mean the child and children like that,.

Which is comforting.

But it should also be known that this young child, also symbolically, does not just mean this little child, although they're included, it means young believers. It could also mean young believers or any believer, truly, that is young in spirit, this unknown man from verses 39 or 38 to 41,.

Him included.

These are the young children that the Lord is pleased to call his own. He's ransomed. And the Lord looks harshly upon people who would cause anyone to come to sin, especially those little ones. We need to look at some of the details of this verse.

The literal translation of sin in this verse quite literally means to stumble or fall. What it means to stumble or fall in the Greek. And this millstone that Jesus Christ references,.

If you guys don't know what this is,.

It's like a giant round stone. You might see something out of the Flintstones. But it was this giant motor pestle, if you can imagine that. This millstone would be tied to a donkey. And as this donkey would be forced to walk, this millstone would turn and grind wheat.

And it would bring it to a fine powder.

That's what this millstone would be doing. Imagine just a large millstone or a motor pestle. And these millstones were very large. They needed a mule to pull them, which is a very strong creature, and could not be carried by the weight of man,.

At least not one.

And this is what the Lord references as consequence for someone who brings sin upon a child or a young believer. We recently preached through the book of Jonah. Actually, this is fitting. And we reflected on the agony that he underwent as he sunk within the depths of the sea.

If you guys remember, we went to Jonah chapter two. And this is, just listen to the distress. Just listen to the agony that Jonah undergoes in the water. So Jonah chapter two, verse one says,. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God from the belly of a fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me.

Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me deep into the sea, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. All your waves and all your billows passed over me.

And then I said, I am driven away from your sight. Yet shall I look again upon your holy temple. The waters closed in over to me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds wrapped about my head.

At the roots of the mountains I went down to the land.

Whose bars closed upon me forever. These are words of agony that Jonah praised to the Lord. And if we go back to our verse, Mark nine, this type of death would be better for you than causing a little one to sin.

This is Jesus Christ by his own words, means that this is better for you than causing a little one to sin. This is a very dire warning.

And it doesn't end there.

So we're looking at the rest of the chapter here, or the rest of the verse, in verses 42, 45, and 47. Jesus continues with his dire warnings, his hyperbole.

He says this,.

The seriousness of sin shouldn't be lost on us. Jesus Christ is making a very, very sharp point here. Verse 42, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Verse 45, if your foot causes you to stumble, remove it.

Verse 47, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. How many of us have already done that? Jesus Christ says, pluck out your eye. In response to this sin. Now, what Christ is doing, Christ is using hyperbole, and it is figurative language.

He does not literally mean that we are to do these things. After all, those of us who understand the grace of Christ, understand the danger of sin, know that no amount of self-mutilation, any kind of work, can ever atone for sin.

None of this can atone for sin. So Jesus isn't saying that, that this is how we literally deal with sin. However, Christ is demonstrating a really severe point, that sin requires a severe response. A complete turning away, a 180, from what is leading us to eternal destruction.

We must be prepared to denounce sin and completely turn away from it. 1 Corinthians 6 .18 says this, flee sexual immorality.

Full stop.

Flee sexual immorality.

Paul goes on,.

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Paul Washer, preaching on this very text, said this, Why stay and fight something that the Lord has told you to flee from?

Why stay and fight a fight you will not win? Like Joseph in the book of Genesis, when presented with the opportunity to sleep with Potiphar's wife,.

If you remember that story,.

He had a choice, and he made the choice to run.

He chose to run. So quickly in fact, and so forcefully,.

That in the exchange his clothing was ripped,.

And used against him.

That quickly, that powerfully, that 180 about to be his turn, was the response that Joseph gave, and it was the correct one. If we clearly understand the present, the present dangers and consequences, but also the eternal consequences of sin and pride, this response is completely justified.

The eternal consequences of God's judgment are too clear to cast aside.

But we have to answer this question.

We have to, so what?

Why the reason for such a stark warning?

Why?

Why is Christ so firm? Why is he so hyperbolic? Why is he really honing in on this point in particular? Because Jesus Christ is going to talk about hell in this passage, as we've come to know. So the word for hell in verses 43, 45, 47, is the Greek word, or gehenna, as it might be more pronounced.

This word, gehenna, is a transliteration of the place called Valley of Hinnom. So this valley was found just south of Jerusalem, and within this valley, dead animals, filth, garbage would be sent there to be disposed and burnt.

This was essentially a flaming garbage dump where people would send all their waste, and the fires were constantly burning, as it were, just in this valley. And furthermore, the reason for this place being a garbage dump, being used for what might seem such unrighteous purposes to get rid of all this garbage, all this filth, wasn't just out of convenience, actually.

But this place was chosen,.

Not coincidentally,.

But because it was considered a cursed land in the eyes of the Jews. It was a cursed land. In 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 33, verse 6. We read that the king of Israel, at the time of Chronicles 33, the king Manasseh, offered child sacrifices, the most vulnerable of us,.

For selfish gain.

2 Chronicles 33, verse 6 says, And he, Manasseh,.

Burned his sons.

As an offering in the Valley of the Son of Ammon, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery and deviled mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord,.

Provoking him to anger.

And Jesus uses this to paint a horrible picture, horrible torment of fire. In Matthew, we read of the weeping and gnashing of teeth. We read this imagery that Jesus Christ puts forward of hell being this place that you would not wish on your worst enemy.

And yet, it exists. Yet it must exist. If we read verses 44, 46, 48,.

It says this, this crucial detail.

It says,.

Where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. Some of you, as I was talking about preparing this sermon, some of you know that I was tempted to preach a different translation this week. Because if you notice in your ESVs, it actually doesn't have 44 and 46 within the mainline.

It's actually as a footnote. And I think that that actually comes to us as a disservice. The reason why they don't do this, why it's not within the mainline of the text, is because some of the earlier manuscripts don't have these verses included.