Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10, before we begin,
let's bow before our Lord together. Our Father, we very carefully
and reverently come into your presence this morning. bowing
before your throne of grace, and Father, begging of you that
you would hear our prayers, that you would accept our thanksgiving,
that you would accept our worship, not because of anything that
we've done, but Father, in spite of what we've done, but for Christ's
sake. Father, would you hear us for
Christ's sake? Would you be pleased this morning
to Give us a glory, the sight of the redemptive glory of Christ
our Savior. Father, for Christ's sake, that
he might be glorified in this dark, difficult day in which
we live. How we beg of you that you'd
show us your glory. Father, I pray that as we look
into your word, that you send your spirit upon us and enable
me to rightly divide the word of truth. And that you might
be with your people and give a hearing ear, and especially,
Father, a believing heart. Enable everything that is said
and done here today to be heard with a believing heart mixed
with faith. In what we pray for ourselves, Father, we pray for
your people, wherever they're meeting together today, wherever
your gospel's being preached, bless it for your great namesake,
that the land may be blessed at a sight of the glory of Christ
our Savior. Father it's in his name, for
his sake we pray, amen. Now I've titled the lesson this
morning, Cause and Effect. Cause and Effect. You may recall
we looked at this last week, the disciples had just heard
the Savior tell the rich young ruler, you go sell everything
that you have, and you give it to the poor, and you come follow
me, and you'll have eternal life. And the rich young ruler went
away very sad because he had many possessions. He could not
bring himself to sell out to follow Christ. Now the disciples
heard that exchange. And you know what they thought?
Boy, this is our flesh. This is what they thought. What
about me? Look what Peter says in verse
28 of Mark chapter 10. Then Peter began to say unto
him, Lo, we've left all. and have followed thee. You know,
Peter's asking is, what about us? We've left everything and
followed you, so what's in it for us? Isn't that what our flesh
always wants to know, isn't it? What's in it for me? Because
of what I've sacrificed, because of what I've done for the Lord,
what's in it for me? Even believers are motivated by this now. What's
in it for me? And Peter wasn't lying, he's
telling the truth. The disciples had left all and followed Christ. Now they did, they sold out and
followed Christ. They left their family businesses.
Peter, James, and John, they used to be fishermen working
with their fathers. They left that, they left their
families, they left their family business, and they followed Christ. They left their means of earthly
financial support and followed Christ. Matthew left a very lucrative
business, didn't he? What, he was skimming off the
top? I mean, very lucrative. But all of them left their, whatever
means of support that they had, you know, making a living in
the world, they all left it and followed Christ. Now they did,
Peter wasn't lying. But now, you know, Peter is typically
the spokesman for the other 11. They're wondering the same thing.
The same thing that we wonder, whether we want to admit it or
not, What's in it for me? Will I be rewarded for the sacrifices,
you know, that I've made? And look at the Lord's answer
to him, 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 in 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. Now I love the Lord's answer
to Peter and to us. You're not gonna lose anything
when you sacrifice something for Christ's sake or for the
gospel's sake. You're never gonna lose anything. You'll always
gain by it, always. Look back at Matthew chapter
10. Matthew 10, in verse 40. He that receiveth you, receiveth
me. And he that receiveth me, receiveth
him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in
the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he that
receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall
receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give a drink
unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the
name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise
lose his reward. I don't care what it is that
you give up or sacrifice to serve God's people, the Lord says you'll
never lose. Now that's true of everything
that we can think of that we might sacrifice for Christ's
sake or for the gospel's sake. You know, we should. The believer
should now. We should sacrifice of our time
for the ministry. Now there's an opportunity cost
there, isn't there? Whatever time you spend doing something
to serve the Lord, well you could be doing something else. But
you're not going to lose by it. You're not going to lose by it.
We give of our time, you know what we gain? Eternal life. By
following Christ, we gain eternal life. We sacrifice time and resources
to help a brother who's in need. Now, there's an opportunity cost
for that. You know, we could use that money
and that time, you know, to get something for ourselves. But
now you give and you do to serve one of your brethren who's in
need, I promise you, you won't lose. You'll gain. You'll gain
the blessing of serving and helping others. Now, that might not be
a blessing to a rebel, to an unbeliever, but it will a child
of God. You know, serving the needs of others, washing their
feet, as the Lord taught his disciples. The Lord commanded
us to do that. That's being obedient to the
commandment of our Savior to serve one another. That's well-pleasing
to him. Now, you're not gonna lose, are
you? Doing something that's well-pleasing to our Lord. We sacrifice and
we put money in the offering. Again, there's an opportunity
cost there. You could take that money Going on a big vacation
or something, you know. But you're never going to lose
giving an offering unto the Lord if you're doing it for Christ's
sake. You're doing it for the sake of the gospel. You cannot
lose by it. You cannot out-give the Lord. You're not gonna suffer because
loss and go hungry because you put an offering. You're just
not gonna do it. You cannot out-give the Lord.
Now we give of our money, but you think of what we gain. You
think of what we gain, something so much more important, so much
more precious. We gain having the gospel preached
to us, cuz we've supported it to have the gospel preached to
us. I promise you this, any congregation that gives to support their pastor
so that he does not have to go out and work to earn money to
pay the bills, I promise you the preaching's better. I mean,
I just promise you this. I've done it, I'm telling you.
The preaching will be better if he's got time to spend studying
and searching the scriptures and spend time in prayer. We
gain by that. I'll tell you another way we
gain. We gain by helping the gospel be spread to other places. Now again, that may not bless.
As a matter of fact, it will not bless the unbeliever. But
that'll bless a child of God to think that the gospel's being
spread to sinners and other places who've never heard of our Savior.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter eight. Here's another thing we
gain in giving. This is a way, giving, giving
in the offering now is a way that a believer can be Christ-like.
2 Corinthians eight verse nine. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes, he became poor, that ye through his poverty might
be rich. Now when we give out of our abundance,
that's a way we're following the example of our Savior and
being Christ-like, it sure is. And giving is a way we can please
our God. Look across the page, 2 Corinthians
9 verse 7. Every man according as he purposeth
in his heart, so let him give. Not grudgingly or of necessity,
not because he feels like he has to. This is not a tax, this
is not a tie, this is an offering. Just give whatever it is that
you purposed in your heart to give, for God loveth a cheerful
giver. Now that's a blessing. I'll tell
you, to gain that, that God loves a cheerful giver, now that's
a blessing that the believer can gain. It's very valuable
to us. But now in our text, the Lord's
speaking here specifically, and this must have been, He knew
what was on Peter's mind, what was behind this question. He
tells Peter something specifically about family, about our earthly
family. Now if you have to, if you have
to leave your fleshly family to follow Christ, to follow the
gospel, to be where the gospel is preached and hear the gospel
preached, you will not be a loser. That's what the Savior says here.
He says, now in this time, in this world, right now, this is
not something you're gonna gain in glory. He says, right now,
you'll gain houses and mothers and fathers, and you'll gain
these things right now. The Lord tells us you'll gain
a hundredfold in these things. That's what he says. So you won't
lose if you have to leave your family for the gospel's sake.
Now let me give you a couple things on this point. Don't anybody
here run home and call your family or send a letter to your family
or text to your family and cut them off if they're an unbeliever. Don't do that. Do not do that. This is not a cult. This is the
church of God. This is the family. It's not
a cult. You can love your unbelieving family members and still love
Christ and follow him and worship him. You can do both. If they
cut you off because you believe the gospel, you trust Christ,
and you won't compromise on the gospel. Let me tell you, don't
compromise the gospel to get them back. Don't do that. Don't
quit following Christ to please any unbeliever, family, friend,
anybody. Don't quit hearing the gospel
of Christ just to please some unbeliever. That's just utterly
foolish. And so the Lord is, I mean, he's not teaching us
here that you have to leave and separate yourself from unbelieving
family members or friends. If you did that, how could you
be the salt of the earth? And Paul tells us specifically
a believing wife is not to leave her unbelieving husband as long
as he's content to live with her. Who knows, Paul said. He might see her conduct, see
her attitude, see her spirit, and think, hey, there's something
to this. I'm gonna go hear what she's hearing. And Lord might
save him. So clearly, the Lord's not telling
us that. What he's teaching us here is
about the family of God. The family of God is a real family. It's a real family of believers,
and they should be treated as such. Clearly, that's what the
Lord's teaching us here. There's no way about it. He's
not telling us this is the way it should be. He said, this is
the way it is in this life. That's what the Lord said. Now
I'll tell you from my vantage point over 60 years that I've
watched the family of God operate. This is seldom the case to our
shame, to our shame. This is seldom the case. Blood is thicker than water.
That's what folks tell us, isn't it? Well, now, Jonathan, is that
talking about the blood you and me share? Or is it talking about the blood
of Christ? Now, which one? Which one? Time and again, I
have seen believers put up with anything. I mean, put up with
anything for their fleshly family to to get along with them and
to spend time with them. And they'll cut off fellowship
with a brother or sister in Christ over nothing, over nothing, over
almost imperceivable slight. They have no patience or love
whatsoever for the family of God. Boy, you talk, they're not
gonna do that to their unbelieving family members. Now, am I lying
to you? You've seen it. Time and time
again, I've seen believers go to extremes to spend time with
unbelieving family members, but they leave the family of God
completely alone. A brother or sister who is obviously
alone and in need of fellowship, they need it. They need fellowship. They're all alone. And they leave
them all alone. I mean, they won't lift a finger
for them. But look what they do for an unbelieving family
member. And you know where it's worse? where this shows itself
the worst is in the family that's closest to us, in the congregation
that we worship with two times a week. I don't know, maybe familiarity
breeds contempt, or at least familiarity makes us take each
other for granted, I don't know. But you know, you watch in congregations,
people just ignore the needs of one another, but boy, you
let a visitor come in from another congregation, and you know, whoop-de-doo,
you know, we're just all, And I don't know. I don't know. I've
thought a lot about this. I've prayed a lot about this.
The Lord says this is the way it is. You gain a hundredfold. That's what he said. He didn't
say maybe it is or maybe it should. That's the way it is. I don't
know. Folks have told me you just can't
expect any better than that as long as we're in this flesh.
And that can be the case. But I would encourage all of
us, and I'm saying this as the pastor to people that I love
more than anybody else. I would encourage us to strive
to take care of this family. Take care of them, as much as
is humanly possible, take care of them. Make sure they know
that you love them. Not because you tell them you
do on Sunday, but because you show it. You show it by your
actions throughout the week, and especially in times when
they're in need. Isn't that just our reasonable
service? I mean, really, isn't that the
believer's reasonable service? When you consider the grace of
God that gave us this family, the grace of God has made you
and me brothers and sisters in Christ. Oh, and you consider
that. that he has made us brothers
and sisters and fathers and mothers to each other. It's just our
reasonable service that we love and take care for one another,
isn't it? It is. And the Lord tells us, not only
will you not lose in any earthly way when you sacrifice to follow
him, but much more importantly, those who trust Christ and follow
him, they have the chief blessing of eternal life in the world
to come. Now, as long as you and me are
in this flesh, we cannot imagine. We can't begin to start to commence
to imagine the glory of what our Savior says there at the
end of just one sentence, and in the world to come, eternal
life. If we have eternal life, we've got it now. We've got it
now in this life. And we will never die. Now, the
body will die, but not me. Not me, not the me that's been
born of God. When this body dies, me, I, the
new man born of God, will immediately go straight into the presence
of the Lord. And see him face to face. To be with him where he is, that
we may behold his glory and to be made just like him. I feel a little foolish trying
to say that because none of us, we just, we can't imagine, we
cannot imagine and owe the family that we'll have there and we'll
all be together with our big brother. A preacher friend of mine frequently
tells the congregation where he pastors at the close of a
service. He said, now look around you.
These are the folks you're going to spend eternity with. Let's start taking care of one
another now. Let's be sure we don't ignore one another now.
This is a real family that the Lord's talking about. And it
comes to us by God's grace. Look at verse 31. that our first should be last,
and the last first. See, this reward that the Lord's
talking about, where you receive a hundredfold in this life, and
in the world to come, eternal life, this is, it's a reward,
that's what it is. It's the reward not of works.
See, we didn't get it because, oh, I did everything, I left
all and followed Christ. That's not why we receive this
reward. It's the reward of grace. Now,
it's real, both in this life and in the world to come. It's
a real blessing. But let's never mistake this. It's by grace. It's undeserved. It's by grace. And Lord tells
us, those who think they should be first, oh, you know, I've
somehow earned more than these lesser believers, or I've been
more holy, or I've been more righteous, or I've done more
in the service of the Lord, so I should be first. And they're
basing that thought on their works, the Lord said they should
be last. They'll be last. But those who
think, I'm not even capable of doing
anything worthy of the Lord. I'm not capable of doing anything
to really truly be a help to God's people. Whatever I've done,
it's certainly not enough. I mean, what I tell you, what
I've done, I've earned nothing but wrath from God. I mean, I've
just got no hope but his grace. The Lord said that person who
thinks he's last, he's gonna be first. He's gonna be first. It's by grace. Now that's the
effect of following Christ. That's the blessing of following
Christ that God's people have. In this life, and in the world
to come. But now I want us to look at
the cause. Remember the title of the message is the cause and
effect. What is the cause of all these
blessings that believers have? We have this family of believers. We have a hope, an expectation
of eternal life. What's the cause of that? Well,
the Lord tells us here, verse 32. And they were in the way going
up to Jerusalem and Jesus went before them. And they were amazed. And as they followed, they were
afraid. And he took again the 12 and
began to tell them what things should happen unto him, saying,
behold, we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man should be
delivered unto the chief priests and unto the scribes. And they
shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles.
And they shall mock him and shall scourge him and shall spit upon
him and shall kill him. And the third day he shall rise
again. Now the Lord was leading his
disciples. Verse 32 says that Jesus went
before them. He's leading his disciples. And as he was leading them, he
was talking to them and teaching them. He was leading them in
the word. He was leading them in the gospel.
He was leading them in our duties to each other. That's what he
was doing. But he was also physically leading them. And I love that. how the good shepherd is always
leading his sheep. The good shepherd calls his sheep
out and he always goes before them, goes before them. He's
leading his sheep. He never leaves us to our own
devices. And aren't you thankful? Aren't
you thankful the Lord never leaves us to our own devices. He's always
leading his people. Why are we here this morning?
I mean, just something as simple as here on a Sunday morning,
I know this is our habit, but why are we here this morning?
It's because the Lord led us here. I mean, you think of that,
the Lord led us here this morning, and the disciples were amazed.
They were amazed that the Lord was leading them to Jerusalem.
Now, after following the Lord here for three and a half years,
I mean, this, where they're going to Jerusalem, this is the Passover
where our Lord's gonna be crucified. The disciples had some idea of
what was gonna happen this time when they went to Jerusalem.
The Lord had told them so often they had some idea of what was
gonna happen. Now hadn't completely sunk in
yet, but they had some idea of what was gonna happen. They didn't
fully realize yet what the Lord was gonna suffer and what he
would accomplish in his suffering and in his death. Now they had
some idea, some idea, but they did not see the full glory of
it yet. They just couldn't see it. And
I'll tell you something else that they did not see. I know
for sure they did not see the necessity of the Lord's suffering
for them. If they understood the necessity
that the Lord must suffer and die like this to put my sin away,
Peter never would have said, Lord, don't go. They didn't understand
the necessity of it yet. But they did have some idea of
what was gonna happen to their master, their Lord, when they
got to Jerusalem, and it made them afraid. They were amazed
that the Lord would willingly go there, and they were afraid. Now again, this is our flesh.
I mean, everything that you see about our flesh, what you see
in the disciples and what you see about believers that's recorded
in scripture, it's us. It's us too, we got the same
flesh, we got the same nature, we got the same fears. They were
not afraid for what their Lord and Master was gonna go suffer
in Jerusalem. That's not what made them afraid.
They were afraid for their own sake, their own flesh. They were
afraid, what does this mean to us? If the scribes and the chief
priests, they take the Lord and they do this to him, They torture
him, they beat him with their fist, they spit in his face,
and they kill him. But when they're done doing that,
are they going to take us next? Do the same thing to us? That's
what made them afraid. You know, we would be so much better
off if we quit thinking about ourselves. We quit thinking about
ourselves and start trying to hear and learn what the Lord
is teaching us. We'd be so much better off. And
whatever it is in this situation of the Lord's crucifixion, but
in everything else too, I promise you this, whatever it is that
the Lord's doing, it's a whole lot bigger than me and you. So
maybe we ought to just quit thinking about how the world all revolves
around me and everything that the Lord's doing, how this directly
affects me, and maybe think, to look and see what is it that
the Lord's teaching us, what is it that the Lord's doing for
his people here for his glory, for his glory. Now the Lord's
going to Jerusalem and he's gonna suffer everything that is required
of him to put the sin of his people away so that they can
have these blessings that he talked about, receive a hundredfold
in family and houses and lands and in the world to come, eternal
life. He's going to suffer to earn that for his people. Let
me give you three things about this quickly. The Lord was going
as a willing sacrifice. He could have gone the other
way. Nobody's forcing him to go to Jerusalem. He went there
willingly. Look at Isaiah chapter 50. He
did it willingly. He was going there because it
was his eternal will from all of eternity to go to Jerusalem
at this specific time and suffer as a substitute for his people.
Isaiah 50. Verse five. The Lord God hath
opened mine ear. Now what he's talking about there
is the bond slave whose ear was bored and big earring put in
it to show that he was not a slave by necessity, but a willing slave. The Lord hath opened mine ear.
The Lord Jesus Christ was the willing bond slave of his father.
And he says, I was not rebellious, neither turned away back, I gave
my back to the smiters, and I gave my cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and from spitting. They never could have done that
to the Lord unless he was willing. He gave himself for that. For the Lord God will help me.
Therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. The Savior
set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem because he was
going there to willingly suffer for the sins of his people. And
he knew that when he went, he'd be successful. He knew he was
going to be. And I'm thankful, aren't you?
If the Savior was not willing to suffer like that for the sins
of you and me, we'd have no hope. We'd all perish, wouldn't we?
All right, number two, the Savior would go to Jerusalem, and he
would be hated by the whole world, put to death by the whole world.
And by the world, I mean every kind of sinful man. The Lord
says the religious Jews, the chief priests and the scribes,
they would take him and torture him, and then they'd turn him
over to the heathen, the idolatrous Gentiles, and they'd let him
finish him off, put him to death on the cross. And there at Jerusalem,
wicked men did everything that they desired to do to God. What they're doing is showing
man's, the nature of man, how wicked we are and how much we
hate God. Hate God. People say, oh, I don't
hate God. I don't think most people hate
God. Well, if you don't believe me, just look at Calvary and
see what it is that man did to God's son the only time the father
let man get their hands on his son. And the people that got
their hands on him got the same nature you and me have. Now it's
the same thing. Everything that we did, you notice
I'm not saying they did, everything we did, to the Lord Jesus Christ
leading up to Calvary. And what we did to him on the
cross itself shows man's hatred of God. But that was also the
will of God being carried out. Everything that happened to our
Savior leading up to the cross and on the cross, that was determined
before to be done by God himself. The Old Testament Scriptures
told us everything that would happen on the cross, so that
we know this is God's will. And everything that happened,
happened just exactly like God willed it to happen. And you know the same thing is
true about every detail in God's creation, and specifically, since
I'm talking to you and me, everything that happens in our lives. Someone
says, now, I don't understand this. Can this really be the
will of God? Let me tell you. If it happened, it's the will
of God. Is it really God's will for me
to be here? If I'm here, it is. I mean, this
is not something outside of God's will. I didn't do something or
end up someplace outside of God's will. Now, I don't know what
the purpose of God is in it, but I do know this. It's the
purpose of God. Everything that happens is the
purpose of God. And every kind of sinner, Jew
and Gentile, religious and heathen alike, they both put the Lord
to death. They put the Lord to death as
a sacrifice for the world, for all kinds of sinners out of the
world, Jew and Gentile, religious and heathen alike, that they
might be saved, that they might have eternal life. And every
last one of them, those people that for whom Christ died were
all justified by Christ's sacrifice on Calvary's tree. Because here's
the third thing. The Lord suffered, and he died,
and three days later, he rose from the grave. You know, the
disciples never did seem to hear and remember what the Lord said.
Every time he talked about his death, he said, three days later,
I'm going to rise again. The Savior rose again because
his bloody death, his bloody sacrifice, put away. all the sin of his people. That
sin that was laid on Christ at Calvary is gone. It's gone. Since sin is gone, sin's what
causes death. Since sin is gone, Christ must
rise from the dead. And since the sin of his people
is gone, his people, every last one of them, they must be given
eternal life. They must, because God's justice
demands it. The death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ is the cause of every blessing that God's people enjoy.
It's the cause of it. Then isn't it our reasonable
service to love and care for God's people? I tell you that
it is. It is. We can't suffer any real
loss, no matter what it is that we give up, to help and serve
one another for Christ's sake and for the gospel sake. Our
Savior didn't. He suffered more than we can
imagine, and I mean infinitely more than you and I will ever
suffer. And he didn't lose by it, did
he? No, he gained. And you and I will, too. We will,
too. And I hope that'll be a blessing
and encouragement to you.