Jesus taught us truth in its wonder and glory but also in its straightforwardness, sobriety, and stark reality. We tend to hear what we want, believe what we want, and accept what we want. That’s our mistake. We must be willing to hear, accept and apply the scripture regardless of how we feel about it. Jesus doesn’t conform to us. He never betrayed truth to be likeable. He was the embodiment of truth. A lot about Christianity rubs the flesh the wrong way. God doesn’t accept lukewarm-ness and hypocrisy. Backsliding is evidence of a departure from God.
Jesus meant what he said. Think it out. He’s talking about cutting off our hand or foot or plucking out our eye. He said if it’s necessary for us to live right, it’s worth it. This is serious business. Sin cannot enter into heaven. There needs to be a surgery. In other words, sin has to be cut out. It needs to be removed. In order to keep living in this life, at times we need surgery. This is a matter of life and death for the soul. If anything is offensive—endangering our soul—surgery is necessary.
Mark 9: 42 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. 43 And 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: 44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45 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: 46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 47 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: 48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Are we in danger? Jesus was speaking to his disciples. He had just got through speaking to the church-going people. At times we think that what we’ve done in our past is okay—it’s enough. We can be careless now as if we’ve scored enough points in the past to do us now. We can do what we want and get right before we die. We can’t plan on repenting later for what needs fixing now. We can’t depend on later.
If a doctor recommends bypass surgery in order for you to live and you decide to put it off a few years, you’ll die of a heart attack. If you have an operable tumor in your lungs that will kill you in a month, have surgery by all means. If your gall bladder is going to explode and endanger your life, you’ll do the sensible thing and have it removed. All these things hurt, but we do it for the betterment of our health.
Sin is a killer, a criminal to even the most sincere Christian. None of us are so perfect to excuse sins. The Lord knows when we sin; we know too. The Holy Spirit convicts us. A nurse does the preliminary work preparing people to see the doctor. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. He checks us over and lets us know we need to see Doctor Jesus right away. If we disregard and say we don’t need Jesus, if we go our own way looking at what we want to look at, going the way we want to go, doing what we want to do, we put our spiritual health in our own hands. It’s an insult to the Lord, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God when we ignore what they say. It hurts our family to watch us go our own way putting undue strain on them. It hurts our spiritual family too. The end one to be hurt is the one who ignores the truth and clings to his sins. Heaven is for Jesus to give. Hell is enlarging itself for those who choose to hang onto sin. People who go to hell have chosen it. If we hold to what God says, we must let go of things. The Bible says it’s better to have a hand cut off. If we can’t keep our feet from going a certain direction, the Bible says it’s better to cut off a foot. If our eyes want to see things they shouldn’t, it’s better to pluck them out. Now, God doesn’t want us to cut off our hands and feet or pluck out our eyes. He does want us to cut out what we’re doing and listen to him.
We can sin thousands of ways, but in God’s eyes a lie is as bad as murder. Jesus knew his disciples wouldn’t like it, but he gave them the truth anyway. We can lie, have pride and arrogance, gossip—so many things—and the only way to get rid of them is by having surgery. When I had my throat surgery, the doctor didn’t hand me the tubes and tell me to shove them up my nose and down my throat myself. I could do that surgery no more than I could do spiritual surgery on myself. Why do we think we can save ourselves? Why do we think we can hold onto what we want and ignore what God says? Why do we think we can believe what we want regardless of what God says about it? God does not have a political platform. He is truth, and we’ll stand before him and give account of our lives. If anything offends us—by that meaning hurts us spiritually—we must cut it out. Whether it is being lukewarm, having pride, thinking wrong thoughts, or holding malice and hatred, anything that is offensive to the health of our soul has to be taken care of.
Turn it over to Jesus. It hurts to be completely honest with God. It causes us pain to confess our sins. It’s a challenge to admit we fail. It’s sometimes hard to let it go. It is best to let go of things in this life than to allow them to take you completely from the Lord and you end up in hell. The scripture tells us that the fire is not quenched and the worm is undying. Hell was made for the devil and his angels, yet many go there because they didn’t take care of the sin problem.
Are you better off living with a diseased gall bladder? Sometimes you have to let the gall bladder go. You can either walk in or be carried in. While you still can, have the necessary surgery for spiritual well-being.
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 