Turn back with me, if you would,
to Mark 10. Mark chapter 10. I always have good news for sinners. Always. I always have good, good
news for sinners. But this morning, I even have
good news for the religious. I almost never have good news
for the religious. Never. But I do this morning. To any soul who has worked the
good works of morality, done the things you ought to
do, abstained from the things you shouldn't do. To any soul who has given himself
or herself to the church. Remained faithful to your spouse.
Diligently led your children in the right way, the good and
right way. To any soul who has given their
time and their money to promoting Christianity. To any soul who has accepted
Jesus as their personal Savior. To any soul who has witnessed
to others that they have accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. To any soul who can honestly
say, I am religious. I have good news for you this
morning. I have wonderful news. You only lack one thing. There's only one thing you lack. Our Lord is about to tell us
what that one thing is. Look with me at verse 17. Mark
10 verse 17. And when he was gone forth into
the way, there came one running and kneeling to him and asked
him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal
life? And Jesus said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? There is none good but one, and
that's God." And right there our Lord is telling him something
without telling him something. You believe Christ is good? There's
one good, and that's God. Jesus Christ is God. Verse 19,
the Lord said to him, Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit
adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness,
defraud not, honor thy father and thy mother. And he answered
and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my
youth. This man right here was religious, right? He was a religious man.
He said, all these have I observed from my youth since I was a child
all the way up. Never stopped observing them
all the way up. And I will tell us all that's
a good thing. I want to say that is a good thing. Knowing God's
commandments and following God's commandments, that'll spare a
person from a lot of heartache in this life. It really will. If we commit adultery, we need
to expect some heartache around the corner. Don't be shocked
when heartache comes. If we kill, we need to expect
to be punished for it. Stealing, lying, defrauding,
it never ends well. If you have the option to underhandedly
defraud something or just be up and up straight about it,
take the straight way. This one never ends well, never. If we don't honor our father
and our mother, we either need to expect a spanking from them
or a spanking from God, one of the two. And I do want to seriously encourage
every single one of us. I don't want to just sweep that
under the rug and say, don't worry about obeying God. No,
no, no. I want to encourage every one of us to observe God's commandments
from our youth up. This man, though, right here,
he was a moral man, and you can trust this man. Turn with me
over to Luke 18. This is Luke's account. And he
tells us in Luke 18, verse 18, And a certain ruler asked him,
saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? This man was a ruler. He was
a ruler in the synagogue. He wasn't just a religious man,
he was a preacher in the synagogue. And Paul told Timothy, if a man
desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. Isn't
that what he said? This man worked and he worked
hard, very hard. Right here in Luke 18, the end
of verse 23 says, for he was very rich. You don't get that way by being
lazy. He worked hard in every way, shape and form. This man
could be respected. He was an honest, sincere, hardworking,
religious man. And if that describes you and
if that describes me. Then I have some good news for
us this morning. Go with me back over to Mark 10. Verse 17 says, and when he was gone forth into
the way, there came one running and kneeling to him and asked
him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal
life? That's what he's asking. What
must I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said
unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but
one, that is God. Thou knowest the commandments,
do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear
false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. And he
answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from
my youth. And in this man's case, verse
21, our Lord is about to tell him something and it's going
to make him very sad. Verse 21, then Jesus, beholding
him, loved him. He loved him and said unto him,
one thing thou lackest. You know, if you're going to
tell somebody the truth, you're going to do it out of love. You
know that. This man was a good man as far
as the world sees men. And so many men, they go in to
hear these preachers and they lie to him and they tell him
you're good enough. But he loved him. So he told
him the truth. And he said in verse 21, Jesus
beholding him loved him and said unto him, you lack something. One thing thou lackest, go thy
way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven. and come take up the cross and
follow me." And verse 22 says, this man was sad at that saying
and he went away grieved for he had great possessions. He
was very rich. Now, we are all sinners. We're all sinners. In verse 18,
our Lord said, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but
one, and that's God. None good. Isn't that right?
None good. We said this man was a good man.
Well, there's none good but God. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. None good. We're all sinners.
And if a sinner is banking on his or her religion to inherit eternal life, if that's
what he's putting all of his stock in, his religion, in order for that sinner to receive
eternal life, our Lord said one last thing has to be done. Isn't
that what he just said? He said, that sinner has to get
rid of everything. Look at verse 21. And Jesus beholding
him, loved him and said unto him, one thing thou lackest,
go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor. And thou shalt have treasure
in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me. Now, if
this man had come to the Lord and asked him, what must I do
to inherit eternal life? And if the Lord had given him
a list of a thousand things, you know how many commandments
are in this book? If the Lord had given him a list
of ten thousand things or a hundred thousand things, you realize
what bad news that would be? Here's your list. You have to
do, what must I do that I may inherit eternal life? Here's
your list. All these things. That'd be bad news. Here's the
good news I have for every sinner this morning. He said it's one
thing. One thing. You have to take everything
you have and get rid of it. everything, it's either everything
you have or Christ. Look with me at Matthew 6. Matthew 6 verse 19, Our Lord
said, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth
and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through
nor steal. For where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also. The light of the body is the
eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall
be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy
whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. No man can
serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love
the other, Or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon,
the riches of this flesh. The riches of this flesh, you
cannot have two masters. Can't serve God and the riches
of this flesh. It's either the things we possess. Or it's Christ. One or the other,
it can't be both. If we lack this final thing,
we lack it all. We lack it all. Even if we have
everything else right, without this final thing, we cannot inherit
eternal life. Now, every soul in this room
is waiting to hear, what are you getting at? And a soul who does not understand
what our Lord is spiritually saying will say, well, all right,
let's see, I could sell my house, I guess. I could sell my car. I could sell all the furniture
in my house. I got jewelry I could sell, clothes. I could empty
my bank account. I got some stocks, some retirement
accounts. There's probably a few things
I'm not thinking of right now. I could get rid of every bit
of that stuff. And I will say that that is how our Lord lived.
He didn't have a house. He didn't have a car. They rode
on camels and he didn't have those things. He told his apostles,
you don't need a change of clothes. But that is not what he's talking
about. That is not what he's talking about. This has nothing
to do with money. Nothing to do with money. Not at all. If any soul in religion
wants to see the final thing that must be done, turn with
me to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3, look with
me at verse 4. Paul writes, though I might also
have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that
he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised
the eighth day, Saul of Tarsus could say, that was taken care
of from my youth up. circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel. Of the tribe of Benjamin and
Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law, what did our Lord say?
Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear
false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and thy mother. As
touching the law, he said, I was a Pharisee. all those I kept from my youth
up." Verse 6, he says, concerning zeal, persecuting the church,
touching the righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless. Verse 7, he said, but, but. Paul is about to tell us
there was one thing I lacked. One thing I lacked, he said,
but what things were gain to me? Those things that were true
riches to me, I had to get rid of them. I had
to count all those things loss in order to obtain Christ. I
had to count it all loss. He said, I was a good man. I
obeyed all the law. Christ came to me and revealed
to me that was nothing. That was nothing. You who desire to be under the
law, He wrote. Do you not hear the law? I thought I was earning my way
to heaven. I was doing all these good things. Every soul that
looked at me could say, If any man's a good man, that's a good
man. If any man loves God, that man loves God. If any man has
given his all, that man has given his all. Paul said, I had to
take everything I had ever attained, everything that was worth anything
to me, everything I thought would hold up and make my payment when
I go see God, I had to take all of it and count it loss. Every
bit of it. Count it all loss. Verse eight,
yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may
win Christ and be found in him. not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Jesus Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that
I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death. if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead." He's saying if there's
any way I'm going to inherit eternal life, I must take everything
that I thought was anything, count it dung, throw it out,
get rid of it, that I might win Christ and be found in Him. Salvation is by the faith of
Christ that God gives and that alone. It's not by any works
of righteousness which I have done. I'm so proud of me. In a minute, we're going to read
that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, so all
the rich people with their big bank accounts are saying, what?
That's discriminating. No, no, no. Even the man in the gutter is
rich in his own eyes. rich in self. A rich man is every
man born in Adam. Every single man born in Adam. Paul said this is the only way
a sinner can inherit eternal life. It's the only way. Every
soul who is following these works of religion must understand there's
one thing we lack. There is one thing we lack. We must take it all. Everything
we've in our minds earned and get rid of it. You know how a
sinner comes before God? Empty handed. You know how a
sinner comes before God? Naked. Where's your clothing? I don't have one if you don't
provide me one. I had to get rid of it all. Throw
it all out. It's all dung. A man truly may
not be rich in that bank account, but he's rich in pride. I have my pride. Every man has
his pride, doesn't he? You can't take my pride from
me. God can. He sure can. The pride of his
own flesh. He may not have a ton of things,
but He has a ton of self-righteous works. A ton of them. And like
we said in the beginning, we have a heart to obey God. We
do, don't we? We have a heart to obey everything
He's taught us, but we are not resting on any of those things
for eternal life. We have a heart to believe Him.
We believe Him, but we're not resting on our own faith. to
inherit eternal life. We are resting on the blood of
Jesus Christ alone. Nothing else. Everything beside
that is dung. Gone. The blood of Christ alone. Everything
else has to go. Everything else has to go. Verse
21 back in our text in Mark chapter 10. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved
him and said unto him, one thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell
whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me. You get rid of everything. And you come to Jesus Christ
and take up the cross. You know what that means? Take
up his cross. Take up his death. Lay hold of
his death. What's my only hope? His death. His death on that cross. He said,
you take up that cross and follow me. I still have my morality. Throw it out. I want morality. But when it comes to the issue
of eternal life, you know what I need to do? Throw it out. I
have my zeal for good works. Throw it out. I've got my faithfulness to the
church. At least I have a good record
of being a good husband and a good father. Throw it out. You know,
hell is good, full of good churchgoers. Hell is full of good fathers.
Hell is full of good husbands. When it comes to the issue of
eternal life, throw it out. Throw it out. Well, at least
I've accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. Throw that out. You know
what this word says? I was dead in trespasses and
sins. Did you know I can't even throw
it out unless God comes and puts the ability in me to throw it
out? Isn't that right? Dead, dead. Well, at least I've
thrown it out. Throw that out. People love knowing they've accepted
him as their personal savior. If they can accept him, they
can reject him. And you know what this sinful
flesh will do? He came to his own and his own received him
not. Let's take everything we have,
let's take it all, let's take it all and let's throw it out. Everything that we consider to
be a righteousness before God, everything that we believe we
have produced or we have done that God will be happy with,
let's take everything that we have and throw it out, throw
it out. We must cry out in acknowledgement
to him That all of it put together is nothing more than a filthy
rag. It's just filthy rags. And we
do count it all dumb, don't we? That we may win Christ and be
found in him. That's all our hope. That's all
we want. I want to win Christ. How do you win Christ? Christ
wins you. That's how you just notified.
You won Christ. I did. You've been found in him. Now
verse 21 says, Jesus beholding him loved him. Thank God for
that. Thank God for that. There is
no proof of this. Normally when there's no proof
of something, I don't say it. But I'm going to tell you that
many believe that this rich young ruler was Saul of Tarsus. It
ends, this last verse says, many that are first shall be last,
and the last first, that's the last verse we're going to look
at, verse 31. Many believe that Saul of Tarsus,
the last apostle, God used him more than any. And if this is
indeed Saul of Tarsus, then we know what the result was of God's
love for him, don't we? God came to him and he broke
him. Oh, he broke him, all this stuff. He cried, Lord, what would
you have me to do? Isn't that what he said? Ultimately,
we just read where he said, I threw it out, I had to throw it out.
But whether this is or isn't, even if it's not, whoever this
is, God's word mercifully says, whom the Lord loveth, he chastens. He chastens. And that's not only what the
Lord did for this young man right here, I can tell you that's what
the Lord did for this young man. And the Lord is able to do it
again and again and again. He's able to do it again. Verse
23, Jesus looked round about and said unto his disciples,
How hardly shall they that have riches, the riches of this flesh,
The riches of the works of the flesh, how hardly shall they
that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. And the disciples
were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again and
saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust
in and for the word riches, we could substitute anything but
Christ, anything other than Christ. How hard is it for them that
trust in anything other than Christ to enter into the kingdom
of God? He said it is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man, rich in
his own efforts, rich in his own self-worth, to enter into
the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out
of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith,
With men it is impossible. It's impossible. What must I do that I may inherit
eternal life? Well, we have our question worded
wrong. Nothing. That's impossible. That's impossible. That's why we throw everything
out. It won't do us any good. None of it will do us any good.
It's not just hard. How hard is it? It's not just
hard. Our Lord said it's impossible. It is impossible. Verse 27, And Jesus, looking
upon them, said, With men it is impossible, but not with God. That right there is the greatest
news A sinner could ever hear. Not with God. For with God all
things are possible. That right there is why we come
to Christ. That's why we take up the cross. That's why we lay hold of His
cross alone and follow Him. It's because with God all things
are possible. With the blood that God shed
on that cross, Not only is it possible, our Lord said it's
certain. David said it's ordered and it's
sure. Any soul who does come to him,
he said no sinner can come except the Father which has sent me
draw him. And every sinner that the Father draws will come to
me. And every soul that comes, I'll
in no wise cast out. Every soul that comes, they only
come because in Christ they have taken up that cross and they've
been made to follow him and it's ordered and it's sure. Verse
28, then Peter began to say unto him, lo, we have left all and
have followed thee. And I believe from a spiritual
standpoint, Every soul who has been caused by God's grace, this
whole thing is by grace, it's by the doing of God. Every soul
who has been caused to put all of his trust in the blood of
Christ alone. I believe you can say the same
thing Peter did. We have left all, we've literally thrown it
all out. What are we trusting and what
are we holding to besides the death and resurrection of Christ
alone? Nothing. Nothing. We have thrown
it all out. We're holding to nothing but
Christ. Verse 29, And Jesus answered
and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left
house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife,
or children, or lands for my sake in the gospels. But he shall
receive a hundredfold, now in this time, houses, and brethren,
and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions,
and in the world to come, eternal life. He said, but many that
are first shall be last, and the last first. Here's the truth
of the matter. A sinner does not lose anything
in Christ. You're not giving up anything.
We just went through that, didn't we? We're not giving up anything
in Christ. To let go of everything and lay
hold of Christ is a sinner gaining all things. All things, in Christ
we have all things. Just like this man right here,
people come in religion though and they believe in their mind
and they ask the question in their heart, what must I do to
be saved? That's what everybody wants to know, that's why everybody
comes, what must I do to inherit eternal life. And when the gospel
comes to them, when Christ sends the gospel to them, they find
out what Christ has already done that they might inherit eternal
life. That's what they find out. Christ, now here's what our Lord
told him to do. You have to give it all up. He
said, I want you to sell everything you have and I want you to go
give it to the poor. That's exactly what Jesus Christ
did. He never preached anything that
he didn't practice. He had all things. All things. And he gave it all up, didn't
he? Set his crown aside. Left heaven, his father, all
of glory. And He came down to this wicked
place in order to give it all to some poor and needy sinners. Sinners who come with no hope
of eternal life. Though He was rich, yet for your
sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be
made rich. Outside of that right there,
the riches of His grace, the riches of His mercy, the riches
of His blood, outside of all the riches that are in Christ,
let's throw everything else away. Everything else. Let's all come
to the Christ of the cross and let's just follow Him. All right? Let's all stand together.