Open your Bibles to Mark chapter 9. The title of my sermon this morning is: Our Lord's Most Aggressive Demand For Holiness. Mark chapter 9 verse 43. Before we read let's pray once more.
Father, undoubtedly there are 10,000 reasons that You give us to sing Your praise. And, Lord, I pray that we would have many more reasons in hearing Your Word after this meeting, being under the sound of the Word this very day. Father, we pray that You would feed us. Man doesn't live by bread alone, and we need what You have to feed us with. I ask for that in Christ's name. Amen.
Our Lord's Most Aggressive Demand For Holiness. Oh, you could argue that, perhaps; but I don't know that you'd... [Microphone disruption] But Mark 9:43 - I can't imagine that we read these words and then you would want to argue with me that there's something more expressive, more dogmatic, more to the point, that our Lord has ever said regarding holiness. These are strong words.
Mark 9:43. Let me just tell you right off that this is one of those places where your ESV is actually going to go from verse 43 to verse 45 to verse 47, and you're gonna say, "Hey wait, where's 44? where's 46?" Well, verse 48 in some manuscripts, including the KJV and the NKJV, verse 48 is what you find in verses 44 and 46. So it's not like it's not here, it's here. It's just if you are holding a King James Bible, you're going to see the same statement made 3 times. I'm going to read it according to the ESV, but you know, I just want you to know what's there. It is a textual issue, but it's not like something is lost. Verse 48 is here, it's here in all of our Scriptures, just so you have an idea about what's being omitted there.
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If a person is casual about their sin, they are in danger. Jesus Christ looked men directly in the eye and warned them that they will be thrown into hell unless they cut off occasions that cause sin. Many professing Christians will soften a warning like this under the pretense of “grace”, but they misunderstand what grace produces in someone’s life. If a person is saved by grace and justified by faith, they will take the warnings of Christ seriously and not dismiss them. We must fight or go to hell.
