Turn with me back to Mark 9. Mark 9. Last Sunday morning, we saw where the disciples were
arguing between each other who would be the greatest. Who would be the greatest? And
our Lord very sweetly, He dealt with them so sweetly, didn't
He? Very tenderly, He taught them the importance of humility. That's what He taught them. He
is our example. He humbled Himself more than
any man. Any man could ever dream of humbling
himself. And He did that for the sake
of His people. And this morning we are still looking at the same
conversation. All right. We are still in his
conversation with him. He ends this conversation at
the end of verse 50 by saying, have peace one with another. Christ came and he made peace. So he says, have peace. It's there, have it. And that's
something you can't put a price on. That's just something you
can't put a price on. How could you value peace with
God and peace with His people? That's the greatest thing we
can possess on this earth. That's the greatest thing we
can possess on this earth, peace. Our Lord continually taught His
disciples the way of peace. And I would be grateful if He
would teach me. I would be so grateful to Him.
He taught them. He can teach me if He wants to.
Well, in verse 38, John answered Him saying, Master, we saw one
casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us, and
we forbade him, because he followeth not us." Now, I believe that's
what sparked the argument over who would be the greatest. We saw one casting out devils
in thy name, and he followeth not us, and we forbade him, because
he followeth not us. This man was doing the work of
the Lord's ministry. And the apostles saw him doing
something that they themselves had just recently not been able
to do. Look with me at verse 17. And one of the multitude answered
and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my Son, which hath
a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, and he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth,
and pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out, and they could not." Look at
verse 28. And when he was come into the
house, his disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast
him out? Verse 38. And John answered him
saying, master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, but don't
you worry, we forbade him. We took care of it. He was casting
out devils. But he's not from our circle,
so we forbade him because he followeth not us. But Jesus said,
forbid him not, for there is no man which shall do a miracle
in my name that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not
against us is on our part. Now I pray the Lord would teach
me something and I pray the Lord would teach us all something.
Something about the attitude and the mind of Christ. Something
about the attitude and the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's
be careful how we rebuke. Let's be careful how we rebuke. I'm sure that John was convinced
he was doing the right thing. One of the commentators said
this, he did it for the glory of his Lord, but he did not glorify
his Lord in the process. I think that's an excellent statement.
I think it's an excellent statement. He did it for the glory of his
Lord, but he did not glorify his Lord in the process. And
the Lord ended up rebuking him, didn't he? This man was the Lord's
servant, doing what the Lord called him to do. And our Lord
does not have to tell us everything he's doing. We don't know his
business. He does not have to inform us
of his doings, run everything by us. where he's working, how
he's working. But these disciples looked over
at another man and they said, now, what's he doing? That can't
be of God. We don't know him, he's not running
with us, he's not doing it like we were doing it. And we're going
to put a stop to this. We're going to stop all this.
And our Lord is about to very sharply tell them, mind the business
I've given you. Instead of cutting everybody
else off, cut yourself off. We just had that read to us.
Cut it off. Now, is God telling us to compromise
the gospel? Never, never, never. He told all those religious Pharisees,
you're of your father, the devil. He said, if you believe not that
I am, you'll die in your sins. He said, those that deny the
truth of God are blind leaders of the blind. He said, leave
them alone. He said, come out from among them. Be ye separate. How can light dwell with darkness? Compromise? Never, never, never. But everything that this man
was doing was truly in his name. In his name. Go with me over
to 2 Timothy chapter 2. Just before Hebrews, 2 Timothy
chapter 2. 2nd Timothy 2 verse 19 says,
Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having
this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. He knows them that are his. Our God has men throughout this
world. This is wonderful. But He has men throughout this
world who are truly called servants of His gospel, true preachers
of His grace. And we may not know anything
about them, nothing at all, but God does. So we'll rejoice. We'll truly rejoice when anytime
we hear of the truth being plainly declared by any man, any time. This is not us four and no more. We are not a club. And the gospel is not excluding. It doesn't exclude anybody. Elijah
cried to God, I'm all alone. He said, I'm the last one standing. There's just no point in going
on. Kill me. Just kill me. God said, Elijah,
I have 7000 in Israel. who have not bowed the knee to
Baal. The Lord said, John, Peter, James,
you all are not the only ones. You're not my only servants.
Forbid him not. Go with me over, if you would,
to Numbers 11. Numbers 11 verse 27, And there ran a young man, and
told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, the
servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said,
My Lord Moses, forbid them. And Moses said unto him, Enviest
thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's
people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit
upon them? He said, Don't forbid them. He
said, I wish all of God's people were prophets and God would put
his spirit on them. If God and that's the key right
there, God would put his spirit on them. If God has called them
to preach, one man can put another man in a pulpit. But one man
cannot put another man in God's ministry. The Spirit of God has
to do that. And if it's of God, if God has
called a man to preach, He said, don't forbid them, support them.
Support them. This is what the Apostle Paul
said. He said, some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife. and some also of goodwill? The
one preached Christ of contention, but the other of love? He said,
What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do
rejoice and will rejoice." It's not the servant. It's not the
servant. It's the message. May God allow
us to get past this servant, that servant. May he let us dwell
on the message. All right, go with me back to
Mark 9. Mark 9, 38 says, And John answered
him saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name. and he followeth not us, and
we forbade him because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid
him not, for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my
name that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against
us is on our part. For whosoever shall give you
a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ,
Verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. Whosoever
shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name. In my name means for Christ's
sake. For Christ's sake. You know why
we do everything we do? For Christ's sake. Because God,
for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us. That's why we do everything
we do. And he said in the middle of verse 41, because you belong
to Christ, he shall not lose his reward. Every spiritual blessing
that we receive, every single one, the only reason we receive
them is because we belong to Christ. That's the only reason. It's because we belong to Christ. It's because God the Father gave
us to God His Son. That's the whole reason. Chosen in Him. All because we
belong to Christ. Because it pleased Him in His
heart to own us. Thank God He would own us. Because He was not ashamed to
make us His people. That's what the scripture says.
We will not lose our reward. What's the reward? Christ is. He is the reward. I love this
song, Ed Hale. I mentioned him to you Wednesday
night. He wrote this song and I love these lines. He said,
you can have all the mansions in glory. You can have them. You can have all the streets
of pure gold. For mine eyes will be scanning
the heavens, searching for the one that saved my soul. You can
have all that other stuff. I want him. I need him. It's all about him. All about him. Verse 42. Our Lord said, and whosoever
shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and
he were cast into the sea. When it comes to the gospel.
When it comes to believers, the whole kingdom of God. There should
only ever be one offense. He said, whosoever offends, one
of these little ones that believes in me. When it comes to the whole
kingdom of God, there should only ever be one offense. The offense of the cross. The offense of the cross. What
is the offense of the cross? What is the offense of the cross?
First, it's man's sin that required the cross. That's offensive to
people. You tell them what they are and
what it took. That's offensive. Man's sin that
required it. Second, it's the bloody agony
that Christ endured on that cross. Marred more than any man. Third, it's the offense that
man's pride and his flesh takes no part in his own redemption.
Man hates that. He just hates that. It's what
Christ accomplished on that cross alone that saves. Alone. No help. That's the offense.
And what he's saying right here is, to every preacher of the
gospel, my word is the offense. Don't you ever be. That's what
he's telling John. John is his preacher. Don't you
ever be. Verse 42, he said, whosoever
shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and
he were cast into the sea. As a matter of fact, now he goes
on to say this. Verse 43, if thy hand offend
thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter
into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell, into
the fire that never shall be quenched. Where there worm dieth
not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee,
cut it off. It is better for thee to enter
halt into life than having two feet to be cast into hell, into
the fire that never shall be quenched. Where there worm dieth
not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee,
pluck it out. It is better for thee to enter
into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes
to be cast into hell fire where their worm doth not and the fire
is not quenched. For everyone shall be salted
with fire and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Now
our Lord is not saying that in literal terms. I heard of a woman
years and years ago who somebody read that and she went in and
took her hand off. If we literally cut off every
piece of this flesh that was an offense, there would be nothing
left. There would absolutely be nothing
left. Our Lord right there is speaking
a parable. telling them of the offense of
the hands, the offense of the feet, and the offense of the
eyes. We use our hands to work. We use our feet to walk. We use our eyes to see, right?
He's saying if we offend God's free grace, the message of his
word, if we are an offense to the free grace of God, with our
works." If we're trying to add works
to His grace, we need to cut them off. It's
time to cut them off. And he said, don't tell one of
my little ones to add works to grace. It needs to be cut off,
completely cut off. If our walk, our feet, If our
walk is an offense to us coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't
that his command? Come. If our walk is an offense to
us coming to Christ, he said, cut it off. Cut it off. We sang, prone to wander, Lord,
I feel it. He said, cut it off. Cut it off. No matter how precious it is
to us, no matter how important it is to us in this life, it's
better for us to enter into life without it than to miss Christ
because of it and run straight into hell. Cut it off and follow
me. The work is Christ's alone. The
way is Christ's alone. And he said, if we do not see
things, The way God has declared Him to be. If we don't see it this way,
then there's only one thing to do. Plug it out. Plug it out. Well, I thought it was this way.
Well, God said it's not. So let's get rid of that thought.
I thought I had to accept Him as my personal Savior. Well,
God never said that. So let's get rid of that thought,
cut it off. But this is what's been ingrained
in me from a child, he said, cut it off, just cut it off. The question here is, has he
accepted me, right? I thought I had to walk that
Roman road, I thought I had to do some good things. He said,
cut all that off. You've heard that story of the
guy who whittled hound dogs. Amazing hound dogs. And a man asked him one time,
he said, these are fantastic. How do you do this? He said,
well, I start with a block of wood, and I cut off everything
that doesn't look like a hound dog. And that's what needs to happen
to us. That's what needs to happen to you and me. Everything that
doesn't look like Christ needs to be cut off. Cut it off. My fleshly works, all of my fleshly
works need to be cut off. You know, people think they make
a decision for Christ. That's called arrogance. Man,
that's thinking too much of your ability. That arrogant decision
needs to be cut off. Cut it off. My self-righteousness,
it needs to be cut off. My pride needs to be cut off.
My religion needs to be cut off. My tradition needs to be cut
off. It all needs to be cut off. The
Apostle Paul said, I count it all dung that I might win Christ
and be found in him. Because he said in verse 48,
where their worm dieth not, their maggot, that's what the word
worm translates to, maggot, all of those offenses. That self-righteousness,
those works, that religious tradition, everything that is opposite of
the free grace of God in the blood of Jesus Christ. Every
offense to His glory, if they're not cut off, they're going to
bring a man or a woman all the way down into hell forever. forever. Verse 43, the end of
verse 43, he said, It's better for thee to enter into life maimed
than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never
shall be quenched. He said the same thing at the
end of verse 45, into the fire that never shall be quenched.
Never. Are you saying that I have the
ability to determine whether I'm saved or damned? No. We're the block of wood. He holds
the knife. If anything needs to be cut off,
thank God, He'll cut it off. He'll cut it off. Verse 49, For
every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall
be salted with salt. Every soul on this earth is going
to endure the wrath of God's fire. Every soul on this earth. Every soul in this room. And here's the gospel. Endured.
That's past tense. The wrath of God's fire. Every
single one. But all of his elect. Every soul who, as he just said,
belongs to Christ. Every soul that God put in the
sacrifice of His Son, He said every sacrifice is going to be preserved. Salted
with salt. Every soul is going to be salted
with fire. And our fire rained down on Christ, our sacrifice.
And every soul in Him is salted with salt. Salt is a preserver. And that salt is Christ. We're
preserved in Him, aren't we? Turn with me over to Matthew
25. Matthew 25, verse 31. Matthew 25, 31. When the Son
of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with
Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory, and before
Him shall be gathered all nations, And he shall separate them the
one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats."
Now who does all the dividing? That's how we started this message.
He said, I'll do all the dividing. Verse 33, and he shall set the
sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall
the king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of
my father, Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world." From the foundation, long before any good or evil,
from the foundation of the world. And then he said in verse 41,
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from
me ye cursed into everlasting fire. prepared for the devil
and his angels. Verse 46, and these shall go
away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Now what makes the difference?
Christ does. Christ does. Because you belong
to Christ. That's the only difference, he
said, because you belong to Christ, the preserving salt of God. He is the only difference. Now, back over in Mark 9. Verse 50 says. Salt is good. Christ is good. He is that salt. Christ is good. But if the salt
have lost his saltness, if Christ is not savory to us. Yeah, I'm tasting it, but it
just I don't have any taste for it. He said in verse 49, every sacrifice
shall be salted with But if Christ is not our saver,
if He is not the essence of our sacrifice to God, if He is not
the saver of our sacrifice to God, then our sacrifice will
have no saver to God. Cain brought a sacrifice and it was not a sweet smelling
saver to God. He said in verse 50, salt is
good, but if the salt have lost his saltness, how are you going
to season the sacrifice? Have salt in yourselves. What he's saying is stay on Christ. That's what he's saying. Stay
on Christ. If we lose Christ, nothing will
be preserved. No one will be preserved. Christ is all. He said, have
Christ in yourselves. Lay hold of Christ, cling to
Christ. And he said, have peace with
one another. That's wise counsel, isn't it? Sounds like the writer
of Ecclesiastes is the same writer of Mark. That's what it sounds
like to me. Stay on Christ and have peace one with another.
May our Lord make that to be so. All right, let's stand together.