Sermon Notes - Cultivating Saltiness (Part 2)

Cultivating Saltiness (Part 2), Mark 9:30-50
J. Josh Smith, MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church, attended October 11, 2009

This will be a text/sermon that is easier to amen than to apply. It calls us to specific and decisive action. We should fear God more than we feel good after reading/hearing this text. Awe, honor, reverence and fear is how we should feel afterwards.

3. We are salty when we are focused on the purity of others – Mark 9:42-49

He gives a common form of punishment as an example of uncommon concern for the purity of others. This is a brutal death. Going further and further into darkness, unable to get free, then suffocate and drown. They now understand the weight of the issue.

He is not just talking about children here. He is talking about any brother or sister in Christ, especially the weaker. He is speaking of inhibiting the walk, damaging the faith or questioning anyone’s worth before God.

1 Corinthians 8-10 discusses Christian liberty. If our freedom causes another to stumble then it is wrong. We should be more concerned about the purity of others. We should be willing to give up everything to cause no one to stumble. This is where our Christianity is validated. Make sure there is nothing we do, even if allowed by Scripture, that would cause another person to fall into sin. Examples are parents not leading children and boys hurting girls in a relationship.

He turns the focus on us individually in Mark 9:43-48. Are you doing (hands), going (feet) or seeing/looking (eyes) anything that is causing you to stumble? He is showing the inclusive nature of all of our life. He is using hyperbole to prove His point. He isn’t talking about self-mutilation but spiritual mortification. Kill the sin. Get rid of it now. We must do all we can to rid our lives of anything that might cause us to fall into sin. No action is too drastic. Remove internet, TV or whatever it is.

The problem of sin is thus worse than you can imagine. Need to deal with sin in three ways.

Immediately – wait no longer.
Aggressively – don’t play around with it.
Decisively – cut it off.

He wants us to see how much He hates sin. Don’t pray about it, just do it. He is about to give His life to free us from sin. He knows if they don’t repent they will spend eternity in the hell He then describes.

Nothing makes a believer less salty than impurity. Every sin must b punished and every sin will receive the wrath of God, unless we stand holy and pure before Him through Jesus.

Note on verse 49 – Salted with fire? He is talking of disciples so fire isn’t hell but fire of sacrifice and persecution. He makes salty people by putting them through pain and sacrifice.