Go with me, if you would, back
to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12. In this portion of scripture
we just had read to us, our Lord deals with three different types
of people. We just heard about three different
types of people. They're all in the same boat. They all have the same end. And it's not a good one. First, some rebels came to our
Lord, some troublemakers, look at verse 13. And they send unto
him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch
him in his words. And when they were come, they
say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true and carest
for no man. For thou regardest not the person
of men, but teachest the way of God in truth. We know that
what they were saying is we know that you're not going to pull
any punches. We know that you're going to answer honestly. They
said in verse 14 at the end, is it lawful to give tribute
to Caesar or not? Shall we give or shall we not
give? Should we really bow down to
a crooked government? Really? Should we support Their
agendas and their greed, that's all it is. That's all it is. Wouldn't we be better off just
being anti-government? Wouldn't we be better off? Better
off just saying, I'm not giving the government one red cent. Shouldn't we just cheat the government?
That way we could give more to the church. We'd have more to
give to the church. Verse 15, shall we give or shall
we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy,
said unto them, why tempt ye me? You know, it's dangerous
to tempt the Lord, isn't it? It's dangerous to tempt the Lord.
He said, why tempt ye me? Bring me a penny that I may see
it. And they brought it, and he said
unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they
say unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto
them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God
the things that are God's. And they marveled at him." What
he said was, pay your taxes. That's what he said, pay your
taxes. Acknowledge in doing so. that God is the one who allowed
that government to be put into place. Render unto God what belongs
to God. Acknowledge to him that that
government can't do anything without him allowing it. Nothing
without the permission of God Almighty. Acknowledge to him
that that government is in his hands. We're about to have a
new government, aren't we? Let's all in our hearts acknowledge
every bit of this in your hands. The lot is cast into the lap.
I am going to go vote. And as soon as I cast my ballot,
may God cause my heart to say, and I want to say this as I walk
out, I'm going to pit, accept, turn around and walk out and
say, the whole disposing is of the Lord. Every bit of it. It's all of the Lord. Acknowledge
to God that all of the government is on His shoulders. Every bit
of it. Render the things that are Caesar's
to Caesar. And then render to God the things that are God's.
After those rebels left Him, some atheists came. Verse 18
says, Then come unto Him the Sadducees, which say, There is
no resurrection. There is no life after death,
you just die. That's it, you just die. You expect me to believe all
of that hogwash? You expect me to believe there's
a new heaven and a new earth? You expect me to believe that
there's a man whom we've never seen? who is everywhere, but
nobody can see Him, who chose some people, and they were that
bad against Him. They sinned that greatly against
Him, and they didn't have to do anything for Him to freely
give them eternity and all that's in it. You expect me to believe
all that without scientific proof? Verse 18 says, Then come unto
Him the Sadducees, which say, There is no resurrection, And
they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's
brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children,
that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto
his brother. Now there were seven brethren,
and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. They had
no children. And the second took her and died,
neither left he any seed, And the third likewise. And the seven
had her and left no seed. Last of all, the woman died also. And they said, now in the resurrection. Okay. And they don't believe
in the resurrection. So they're mocking him. That's
what they're doing. They're just mocking him. They
said in verse 23, in the resurrection, therefore, when they shall rise,
whose wife shall she be of them for the seven had her wife. And
Jesus answering said unto them, do you not therefore err because
you know not the scriptures, neither the power of God. For
when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor
are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven.
And as touching the dead that they rise, have you not read
in the book of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him saying,
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob. He is not the God of the dead,
but the God of the living. Ye therefore do greatly err. Is that not our greatest problem?
Isn't that our greatest problem? Mankind airs not knowing the
scripture, right? Not knowing the scripture. He
said, you're going to find out really soon that there is a resurrection. God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living. He said, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
they're all alive. They're all still alive. God
told Moses that while he was in that bush. Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, they're all still alive, they're alive and well, but the
resurrection of the unbelieving. Is a resurrection unto damnation. All the bodies are going to come
for. And it's a resurrection to damnation, they're alive,
but they're not well. They're not well, it's a resurrection
to eternal torment. And he said, you're going to
find out really soon that you've greatly erred. How terrible. Man, how terrible. Well, after
the rebels left and after the atheists left, one more man comes
to him. And this man is a religionist.
This man is a law abider. He's a believer in God. This
man is a believer in God. Now, let's all pay attention
to this man. Verse 28 says, And one of the
scribes A scribe was a man who by profession wrote the word
of God over and over and over. They didn't have printing presses
and the only way to preserve the book was to continually rewrite
it. They transcribed. That's what
his job was. That's what he did. And our Lord
just finished telling the Sadducees, you do err not knowing the scriptures. Isn't that what he said? Now
this man right here practically knows every word. Almost every word. It's his job
to read it and write it. That's all he does. He reads
it and writes it. Verse 28. One of the scribes
came and having heard them reasoning together, he was listening to
our Lord's conversation with the rebels. And he listened to
our Lord's conversation with the atheists. Verse 28, one of
the scribes came, having heard them reasoning together, and
perceived that he had answered them well, and asked him, which
is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, the first
of all the commandments is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is
one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, And with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with
all thy strength, this is the first commandment, and the second
is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe
said unto him, well, master, thou hast said the truth. You've just said the truth. For
there is one God and there is none other but he and to love
him with all the heart and with the with all the understanding
and with all the soul and with all the strength and to love
his neighbor as himself is more than all whole burnt offerings
and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered
discreetly, he said unto him, thou art not far from the kingdom
of God. You're not far from the kingdom
of God, which means you're not in it. That's what it means. You're not in it. You're close.
You're close. But you're not in it. It doesn't
matter if you are far from something or not far from something, you're
not in it. Isn't that right? In either case,
you're not in it. A man or a woman can know this
book and still not know the Christ of this book. Every page, every word. and still not know the Christ
of this book. There are men and women who have
given their lives to study in Hebrew and Greek. They've given
their lives to knowing that language, the original language of the
scripture. They know all about the dates.
They know all about the events. They know all about the historical
significance, how this affected this, how all of that ties together,
but they still don't know Christ. Isn't that right? Our Lord told
the Pharisees, you search the scriptures. You do search the
scriptures and in them, you think you have eternal life. But they
are they which testify of me. They testify of me. And he said,
you won't come to me. You'll come to dates, you'll
come to events, you'll come to historical significance, but
you won't come to me that you might have life. That you might
have life. And he said, you're going to
die in your sins because you'll come to everything but me. Everything
but me, he said, you're close. You're close to the kingdom,
but you're not in. Now, this is something that deserves
our vital attention. Our vital attention, we should
not assume that we are in the kingdom. All right. Everybody does. Everybody does. We should not just assume that
we are in the kingdom of God and then go on about our business.
And I'll show you why. All right. Let's look at this.
This last man, let's see what he believed here. Mark 12, verse
29 says. Jesus answered him, the first
of all the commandments is here, O Israel, the Lord, our God is
one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment.
And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these. And the scribe said unto him,
well, master, thou hast said the truth, for there is one God. This man believed. There's one
God. That's what he believed, there's
one God. He said, well, master. You've said the truth. You've said the truth, there
is one God and there's none other but he. This man knew the word. He knew the word. He knew there
was one God and there was none beside Him. This man was convinced
in his heart of that. Verse 33, he said, And to love
Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with
all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love His neighbor
as Himself is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. He knew that loving this one
God and bowing to his word, he said, love your neighbor as yourself.
He knew that that was more important. And more profitable than observing
any ceremony. He knew that any ceremony that
that could be put on a person. He knew that there must be a
commitment in the heart Not just a show of hands, there must be
sincerity involved. And that's exactly right. Isn't
that right? There must be sincerity involved.
Out of the heart are the issues of life. Verse 34 says, And when
Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, that means soberly, carefully,
sincerely. He meant what he said. But even
though he knew there was one God. There was no God beside
him. Even though he knew that true
worship was not just a show of hands, it was a conviction of
the heart, even though he knew that. And even though he said,
Amen, Lord. You just said the truth. You
just spoke the truth, even though all that was so. The Lord said
to him, you are still outside the kingdom. I know that you've prophesied
in my name. I know that you've cast out devils
in my name. I know that you've done many
wonderful works in my name. I know that, but you're still
outside the kingdom. How scary is that? How scary is that? You think
about Judas, just think about Judas for one minute. Judas literally
kissed God and he still went to hell. Isn't
that something? He walked with him. He talked
with him. He was his treasurer. He was
close to the kingdom of God. So close, but he was not in the
kingdom of God. Now, it's one thing to know that
there is one God. It's another thing altogether
to know who that one God is. It's one thing to believe that
somebody is telling you the truth. I believe that's the truth. I
believe you just told me the truth. It's one thing to believe
that somebody is telling you the truth, and it's another thing
altogether to believe the truth he's telling you. Somebody will say, well, you
sound like you're splitting hairs. No, I'm not. A person can believe in Christ. And not believe Christ. You know where that will leave
a man or woman. Close. Very close. Close to the kingdom
of God. When Noah finished the ark. When Noah finished that ark,
I'm sure there were a lot of people around that ark when the
rain fell and you could ask any of them, is that the ark? Yes. That's the ark. If I've ever seen the Ark, that's
the Ark. You'll never be able to convince
me that that's not the Ark. Never. They were close. But they were
not in. They were not in. It didn't matter
what this man right here saw to be the truth. It didn't matter
how right his doctrine seemed to be. Our Lord just said to
him, you're not in the kingdom. Now that's fearful to me. That's
fearful. Does that at all cause us to
stop for just a second and wonder, am I in the kingdom? I have a real concern about this.
I have a real concern to know this. And here's the reason why. Okay. I believe that there's
one God. I only believe there's one God.
Men can talk about all these other gods. Muhammad and Allah
and all those. I don't I don't have put any
stock in them. I believe there's one God. I believe beside him there is
no other. The next thing I believe is that
his word is truth. I believe that's the truth. I'm convinced of it in my heart.
That is the truth right there. I believe that salvation is an
issue of the heart. Not the works of the hands. But
the Lord said to this man that he was not in the kingdom. What
makes me to differ? What makes me to differ? Am I
in the kingdom of God? How can I know if I'm in the
kingdom of God? You want to know the answer to
that? How can we know? Is there any difference in this
man and us? Any difference at all? The Lord
said he's out of the kingdom. How can we know if we're in it? Verse 34. When Jesus saw that, he answered
discreetly. He said unto him, thou art not
far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask
him any question. After he said, you're close. If I ask my kids a question to
see if they know the answer, sometimes you ask a question
because you want an answer, and sometimes you ask a question
to see if they know the answer, right? If I ask them a question
to see if they know the answer, after they answer me, if I say,
you're close, what I'm saying is, you're wrong, try again,
right? After our Lord said to this man,
you're close, this man didn't say another word. Was he satisfied with being close? Was he offended by the Lord saying
that to him? Let me ask us this, are we satisfied
with being close? Now you think about religion,
well, we're close. You ever heard somebody say that?
You ever heard somebody say that? Well, I mean, I like listening
to him just fine. He doesn't have everything right,
but he's close. All right, now listen, are we satisfied with
being close? Are we satisfied with being close
to the blood but not in the blood? Are we
satisfied with that? Are we satisfied with being close
to the promise of his covenant but not in the promise? Can we just walk away on that? Are we offended? Does it offend
us? By him telling us that in our
flesh, everything that we know and do and are by nature, every
single one of us stand without. You're close. You're not in by
nature. You're not in. When God says that to us through
his word. That by nature, we have no hope
and we're without God in the world. Does that offend us to
the point that we walk away with no more questions? Nothing more to say to him. Or does our heart, just like
Jacob, cry out to him, I will not let you go except you bless
me. After hearing the truth of our
condition with God, does our heart have nothing more to say?
Or does it drop to its knees and start begging? Which does
it do? Please, Lord, you have no hope. You're without God in the world.
You cannot be saved on your own. You don't deserve it. You're
rejected, you're an outcast, and you're going to die in your
sins. Please, God. God, please have mercy on me. I know I don't deserve it. I
understand that I'm not owed it. I understand the whole condition
would be an unfair condition. I know that I have nothing to
offer you. But I'm begging, please God be
merciful to me. I'm a sinner. That woman came
to him begging for help. She was begging for help and
this is what he said to her. Why would I help you? You're
a dog. What'd she do? She turn and walk
away. Nothing else to say to him. She cried. Truth. But I'm your dog and I'm going
to sit here and beg. I beg, Lord, I beg. Are you saying
that salvation is dependent on us? Nope. What I'm saying is this is our
evidence. A child of the kingdom hears
the truth and runs to Christ for mercy. A child of the kingdom hears
the truth about everything he is not and everything he does
not have and God opens his eyes to see that Christ is all. He's
all my hope. He's all my doctrine. He's all
my salvation and I can't walk away from him. I just can't. I cannot stop begging and pleading. I cannot stop. This man right
here said to the face of Jesus Christ, he said, I believe there's
one God. Those who are in the kingdom
say to the face of Jesus Christ, I believe you are God. This man said to the face of
Jesus Christ, I believe you just told me the truth. Those who
are in the kingdom say to the face of Jesus Christ, I believe
the truth you just told me. I believe it. You're saying that
I am by nature without. I believe you. I believe you
help me, Lord, help me. After hearing the truth, this
man right here walked away. Our Lord asked his disciples
one time, will you go away also? They said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of life. I can't, there's nowhere else
to go. Can we say that? One way, one God, one salvation,
there's nowhere else to go. Well, over there it's close.
I can't do that. Close is not close enough. If that's what our hearts say,
we are in the kingdom. We're in the kingdom. He that
hath the son hath life. If he is all I need, if he's
all I must have, if nothing else will do, that's life. All that
the father has given him shall come to him. Him and he that
comes to him. The soul that can't walk away
because God, the father's drawing him can't walk away. He that
comes begging and pleading for mercy, he said I will in no wise
cast out no wise. They're going to be in. And I
will raise them up at the last day. This is the final thing
I want to say to this. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
How does a person do that? Ask him. Come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lay hold of him and don't let
go. How does a person do that? Ask
him. If we do, that'll be our evidence. That'll be our evidence that
he's laid hold of us and he won't let go. Come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's stand together.