to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter
12. Now three different, I guess
you would say denominations, had come and were trying to entangle
the Lord Jesus in His words by their questions. And we read
that in verse 28, it says, And one of the scribes came, A scribe
is, if you want to know what scribes are, think of the word
transcribe, transcribe. A scribe in the Old Testament
was given by God to transcribe the Scriptures. But now by this
time, by the time that we're talking about now, the scribes
had grown to great power and influence, but they had been
given that power and influence by men, and they had very little
spiritual revelation. Very little. They were not true
to the Word of God. But now this scribe we're going
to see is a little different. He's a little different than
the other scribes. Verse 28 says, Mark 12, 28, One
of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together,
and perceiving that Christ had answered them well, asked him,
Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him,
The first of all 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 it, namely
this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There's none other
commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him,
Well, master, thou hast 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 all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with
all the strength, and to love your neighbor as himself is more
than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus
saw that he answered discreetly, wisely, prudently, sincerely. He said unto him, Thou art not
far from the kingdom of God. Our subject tonight is not far,
but not in. Not far, but not in. Every time we come together,
as the Lord enables me, I try to keep the charge of Christ's
preacher. The Lord said, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. He says, Cry aloud to Jerusalem
and tell her that her warfare is accomplished. Christ has accomplished
the warfare of His people. He's rewarded her double for
all her sins. She got that from the Lord's
hand. She received it from the Lord's hand. But we don't dare
comfort anybody who is not far from the kingdom, but is not
in the kingdom. We don't dare give a man a false
hope. We don't dare speak to someone
and comfort them who has not yet bowed the knee in faith to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this scribe was very near.
He was near. Christ said, Thou art not far
from the kingdom of God. But the Lord told him the truth.
The Lord told him the truth. He didn't say, Thou art in the
kingdom of God. He said, You're not far. Now,
there might be some here that are not far from the kingdom
of God. Usually, any time the gospel is preached, there are
some there who are in the kingdom of God, and there are some there
who are far removed from the Kingdom of God, and there are
some who are not far from the Kingdom of God. There might be
some here that are not far from the Kingdom of God. I pray tonight
that God will either comfort us and assure us through faith,
or that He'd make us to know and confess honestly, I need
faith. I need to believe on Christ.
One of those two things. It's not enough to meet Christ
on the threshold of faith. We have to go through Christ
the door to enter into the kingdom. We have to go through Christ
through faith, by faith, believing on Him. It's not enough to just
come to that even to the threshold of the door. We have to enter
in through faith in Christ. Now, for our divisions, this
statement has a positive side. He says, you're not far. We'll
look at some of the positives that this man possesses. And
then he says, Or this statement has a negative side. Not far
is not in. So we'll look at what the negative
was. There's one thing that this man
missed. One thing. We'll look at that.
And then lastly, we'll apply this personally to each of us
here. Now first of all, the positive. He said, Thou art not far. Thou
art not far. What were the positives that
this scribe possessed? Well, first of all, he was willing
to come and listen. Verse 28, He was willing to come
and listen. One of the scribes came, and
having heard them reasoning together, out of all the scribes, there
was lots of scribes in Israel, out of all the scribes, only
one was willing to come to Christ, where Christ was speaking, and
listen. to Christ speaking and hear Christ
speaking. That's what he did. It's very
rare, it's a rare thing to find a sinner willing to come to where
Christ is speaking. He said where he's gathered his
people together and he's speaking, sent the preacher and he's speaking,
he's going to be speaking through the gospel there. It's very rare
to find somebody that will come and hear where the gospel is
preached according to the scripture. Most people think they have something
better to do. And it's amazing the things that
men think that are more important and better to do than coming
to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's amazing. But
whatever you do, never forsake assembling together where the
gospel is preached in truth. Never forsake assembling where
the gospel is preached in truth. Abraham's called the father of
believers. He's the father of many nations.
And God saved Abraham through the preaching of the gospel.
That's how He saved him. We saw that Sunday how that God
in His wisdom, He proved man's total ruin and sin. He proved
it by the fall. He proved it all throughout that
period up through Noah's day. And then He proved it all through
the period from the flood to Bible. And the scripture says,
and after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. God proved that a man in his
own wisdom can't find out God. And after that, it pleased God
to save them that believe through the foolishness of preaching.
Through the foolishness of preaching. Well, not only is it rare to
find folks that'll come in here, it's even more rare to find somebody
that'll come and listen. That'll come and listen. This
man says, having heard them reasoning together, You see, it's not enough
to come to where Christ is speaking. We have to come where Christ
is speaking and listen attentively. We have to come there and listen,
trying our best to hear what God of heaven and earth says,
what He declares in His Word. This man sat there. You think
about this. First, they sent the Pharisees to Christ. He sat
and listened to Christ speaking and answered these Pharisees,
and he never said a word. Then they sent the Herodians
to him. This is all in one day. He said, listen to that. And
then they sent the Sadducees to Christ. He listened to that.
The whole time he listened as Christ reasoned with him. Turn
over to James chapter 1. James chapter 1, just right after
Hebrews. Here's why it's so important
to hear the gospel. James 1, 18. It says, Of His
own will, of God's own will, begat He us, made us to be born
again. And He did it with the Word of
Truth. With the Word of Truth. That we should be a kind of first
fruits of His creatures. Wherefore, knowing this is how
God births His children again, of His own will, by His Word. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to write. When I prepare a message, sometimes
it takes weeks to prepare a message. You work on it for weeks. It
takes hours of prayer, hours of searching the scripture, and
then hours of trying to cut it down to just the necessary words
so that it is as simple and as clear as you can possibly make
it. So that there's not anything extra and all this other stuff
that's going to cloud it. You want it to be as close It's
close to what you need to say and nothing else. Just clear
and precise. And that takes hours to prepare. It takes hours to get a message
from the Lord. And so, when you come in here
and listen, you've got 30 to 45 minutes to sit and listen.
Is that too hard to sit and listen attentively to what took that
many hours to prepare? It's 30 to 45 minutes. Listen
attentively. And then afterwards, before being
quick to refute what was spoken, men are so quick, they meet you
at the door and they want to tell you what Spurgeon said.
And you might have used Spurgeon's outline. And they want to tell
you what Spurgeon said or what somebody else said or, you know,
speak against you. How about afterwards? What he
says here, be swift to hear and slow to speak. How about afterwards?
We take as much time as it took to prepare the message, to go
home and search the Scriptures, and search what was preached,
and see if it's according to the Word of God. And then if
we won't speak, speak. I bet you that would cut down
99% of the quick spoken comments that are made against God's preachers.
I bet it would. I bet it would. Alright, here's
another positive. This scribe studied the Word
of God. He came to where Christ was speaking, he heard, he listened
attentively, and he studied the Word of God. It says, verse 28,
he perceived that Christ had answered them well. Christ had
answered them well. How did he know Christ answered
them well? Because he was a student of the Word of God. He studied
the Word of God and he knew what Christ answered was according
to the Word of God. You remember the scriptures from
Acts 17. Let's go there, Acts 17. God commended the Bereans through
Luke, as Luke is writing Acts. He says here in Acts 17.11, He
said, These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that
they received the Word with all readiness of mind. They came
ready in their minds to hear the Word preached. And they searched
the Scriptures daily. and search the scriptures daily,
whether those things were so. They didn't do it now and then.
They didn't take an urge and study and then just let it go.
Daily they searched the scriptures. And therefore, many of them believed. Also of honorable women, which
were Greeks, and of men, not a few. Some of you came out of
Catholicism. And you know that in Catholicism,
the Pope and the priests, they tell the people not to study
the Word of God. That's the Pope and the priest
business. You're not to study the Word of God. But when you
look at the Scriptures, God, through His preachers, encourages
everybody, men and women alike, everybody to go home and search
the Scriptures daily to see that these things that are being spoken
are according to the Word of God. That's what God does. It's
needful when I'm preaching to open the Scripture, look to the
Scripture, and see in the Word of God that this is what God
said. And then afterwards go home. You never get everything
that's preached in a message. You never do. I listen to messages
3, 4, 5 times and still don't get everything that's in them.
But you listen to it, you go back and listen to it again,
you study it, you compare it with the scriptures. I mean if
you want to be a student of the Word, you study these things.
You study them. I knew a man one time, he got
up early every morning and he checked the stock market. Every
morning he was up, he was checking the stock market, every single
morning. And there was a preacher visiting and stayed in his house
one time. And the preacher asked him, why
do you get up every morning like this, so eager, so ready, and
search that stock market page and read it like you do? And
he said, preacher, my whole life is invested in that stock market.
My whole life's invested in that stock market. The Lord Jesus
said, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Is Christ our life? Is He our
treasure? We won't have to persuade other
men He is, if He is, because we'll be in His Word. We'll be
searching the treasure chest for our treasure, if He's our
treasure. That's just so. And if a person
won't test what's preached and study what's preached by the
Word of God, they have no right to even oppose God's preacher.
They won't even pick up the book. They won't even look to see what
does God say. Paul said, therefore many believe. They studied the Word. They believed.
Now we know God in His grace had to give them life because
no man can have any interest except he have life. We know
He had to give them faith. We know He had to give them eyes
to see and ears to believe. But I do know this. I used to
sit and listen to the Scriptures. I let it go in one ear and out
the other. And it wasn't until I started picking this book up
and following along with the preacher. And then go home and
search it and read it to see. that God revealed the Scriptures
to me, revealed Christ to me. And it was so exciting. That
was such an exciting time because for the first time in my life
this book made sense. And the first time in my life
I could see what God was saying. And I would just, I would hear
it preached and I'd turn to the Scripture and I'd look and I'd
say, it's right there. There it is, plain as day. That
is exactly what it said. I was so excited. So excited. I know God did that. God gave
me the hunger and the desire to do that. But it wasn't until
I was looking in that book that I began to see it and understand
it. That's what He'll do. He'll give you a hunger for His
Word. Alright, now here. Here's the chief thing that this
scribe had that was a positive. He had some understanding, some
knowledge that the law is spiritual. He had some understanding that
it's not a legal duty. The law wasn't given for that.
He understood the law requires perfect heart love. Perfect heart
love. And he understood this is more.
This is more than all the offerings and all the sacrifices that all
of his peers made so much of. The scribes and the Pharisees
and all the rest of them made so much of those offerings and
those sacrifices. He knew that this spiritual matter of the
heart was much more than all of that. Much more than all of
that. And so he asked the Lord in verse 28, which is the first
commandment of all? That's what he asked. Which is
the first commandment of all? Now, let's look at Christ's answer. Now, I want to look at this not
in the letter. Not just in the letter. I want to look at it
in spirit and in truth. Spiritually, what does this mean?
Alright, first of all, Christ declares the necessity of faith. The necessity of faith. Mark
12, 29. Jesus answered him, the first
of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel. He's quoting directly
from Deuteronomy 6. The first commandment, he says,
and he begins this way, Hear, O Israel. Now, what is it that
you get through hearing? What does scripture say that
we get through hearing? Faith cometh by hearing. Faith cometh by hearing. And
hearing by the Word of God. He's about to speak the Word
of God. The first thing he says is hear. Hear. God-given faith
comes through hearing. When God gives you faith, He
speaks effectually. He speaks and He gives this command. He doesn't give it on tables
of stone. It's just like He wrote it on tables of stone for political
Israel. But for His true Israel, His
spiritual Israel, God speaks this and writes it on the fleshly
tables of the heart. And when He speaks it, He says,
Hear, O spiritual Israel. And when He says, Hear, you will
hear. You will hear. In hearing, you
will believe. You will believe. The next phrase
declares who we believe. Who we believe. Who it is that
fulfills the law in covenant grace. He says, the Lord our
God is one Lord. Now, read that carefully. The
Lord our God is one Lord. Now, the Lord our God, it means
the word Lord is master, it's supreme, it's the Lord, the sovereign. The Lord our God, that is our
triune God, Our God in three persons, that word is Jehovah,
our God, in three persons, in covenant with each other. When
you read the Lord our God or the Lord thy God in scripture,
it's always speaking of covenant, everlasting covenant. The three
persons in the covenant, God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit are in covenant, everlasting covenant, fulfilling
everything necessary to bring His people to Himself. And then
look at this. The last word declares that the
three persons of our Godhead are all one in Messiah. In Messiah. The Lord our God
is one Lord. The Lord our God, you could read
it this way. The Lord, our triune God, is
one Messiah. Or you could read it this way.
The Lord, our triune God, is one in one Messiah. In one Lord. Now, when God gives us faith,
when He says, Hear, O Israel, and He speaks affectionately
to you personally, in the heart, He gives us faith to believe
on our triune God, to trust our triune God, and He does it by
giving us faith to believe on that one Messiah, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our triune God in Christ. Scripture
says, Colossians says, Christ is the fullness of the Godhead
in a body. The fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's who He is. And that's
what Christ was declaring when He said it over and over in the
Scriptures, I and my Father are one. He said it repeatedly, I
and my Father are one. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit are one God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where we see Him. That's
where we see God's glory. And then Christ uses the law
lawfully. See, I'm trying to give you the
spiritual meaning of the law. He uses the law lawfully. Alright? What's the law given
for? Paul said in Romans 3, the purpose
of the law is to shut our mouths. The purpose of the law is to
declare us guilty before God. That's the purpose of the law.
The law wasn't made for a righteous man. The law was made for rebels
against God. And that's who we are by nature.
The law was given to shut our mouths. And Christ here, by simply
declaring what the law requires, is telling us, you and I can't
ever fulfill this. We can never fulfill this. If
you have spiritual understanding, you'll read what He says here
and think, That counts me out, because I can't do this. If you're
honest, if God's given you a heart, that's what you're going to say.
Now look here, verse 30. 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. That's the first commandment.
And the second is like this, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. There's none other commandment
greater than these. Now, the first part tells us
God requires perfect obedience. Absolutely perfect obedience. And that obedience has to be
by the constraint of perfect love toward the Lord God and
toward your neighbor. Perfect obedience. Perfect love. Toward the Lord God and toward
our neighbor. Now, it's an inward love. He
says there, it's from a true heart. It's from the heart, the
soul, the mind, the strength. That means your whole inward
being. And then he tells us it's love
for God alone. With no rivals. That means with
no sin. Because he says with all thy
heart. and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind, and with all thy strength. How can I illustrate this? Something real, real important
comes up in your family. Once in a lifetime thing. And
you say, you know, this doesn't happen again. It won't hurt me
this just one time to go do this for my family member and miss
worshiping God with His saints. Uh-oh. I just broke that law. Something came between me and
God. It's not all my heart anymore. You see what I'm saying? And
that's just some simple example. But I'm saying, so many times
a day, things come between us and God. Alright? And then, and
then this is true of our neighbor too. It means you lay down your
life for your neighbor. It means every word you speak,
every thought you think, everything you do, you're doing it for your
neighbor. You're doing it laying down your
life for your neighbor. For your neighbor. Everything. All the time. Now, you and I
are sinners. You and I Come forth from our
mother's womb, sinners. That's where we come forth. We
sin because that's what we are in our heart. The Lord said it's
not that goes into the mouth that defiles a man. A man don't
drink beer and become a drunk. He drinks beer and becomes a
drunk because he's a drunk. In his heart, it's his heart
that's where the drunkenness is. And that's what we are in
our sin nature. is sinners. And that's why we
sin. Christ is the only one who fulfilled the law in perfection
of righteousness from the perfection of holiness. You know the difference
between righteousness and holiness. Righteousness is the deed. It's
the outward. It's what you do. Holiness is
the heart from which it's done. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, when
He was made of a woman and made under the law, the Lord Jesus
Christ obeyed God's law in the perfection of righteousness.
He didn't break a single commandment in thought, word, or deed. and
even obedient to the death of the cross. He came to even take
the sin of His people and to lay down His life for His people
to satisfy divine justice for us so that our sin is settled. It's settled before God. We've
died to the law. That's what Christ was doing
on the cross for His people, making us to be dead to the law
by His death. Now, in that obedience, when
he walked this earth and when he went to the cross and died
for his people, he did that in perfect righteousness. And he
did everything he did from a perfect holy heart. Perfectly holy. His heart wasn't divided in the
least bit, ever, at any point. Holy, a holy heart. He loved
the Lord God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his
mind, with all his strength, and he loved his brethren the
exact same way. He laid down his life for both.
Now when we're born again of the Spirit of God, and He gives
us an understanding and to see what we are, in that new heart,
He grants us faith and repentance. And what he does is, he makes
us to repent. Have a total change of mind,
to be totally turned away from, to say, I don't want to have
anything else to do with that. And that thing that he makes
us not want to have anything else to do with, that he makes
us to see as evil and wretched, is trying to come to God by our
obedience to the law. A legal obedience that we've
done whereby we say, now God owes us, Something we've done
whereby we say God owes us a reward for what we've done. That, He
makes us hate that. It's repulsive to us now. We
repent from it because we see how dishonoring that is to God.
And He gives us faith to believe that our triune God entered covenant
with each other before the world was made in Christ, the Son of
God, and He came forth and He honored His own law. He upheld
and magnified His own law. In doing so, He saved all His
people from our sins. Because He satisfied judgment
for us and He established righteousness for us. And when Christ has entered
in through the heart, That new man that's created, whereby we
believe and repent and love the Lord God and all this, that new
man, Scripture says, is Christ in you. And He is the holiness
of the new man. He's that holiness within us.
He's that holiness without which no man will see the Lord. So
then, Scripture says, of God are you in Christ. Let's look
at it, 1 Corinthians 1.30. I want you to see this. 1 Corinthians
1.30. For those that might not have
ever seen this, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. Verse 30 says, But
of God are you in Christ Jesus? That means God is the one that
put us in Christ. If I'm in Christ, God put me
there. I didn't put me there. It says, Who of God? Christ of
God is made unto us. If He's made any of this to me,
it's because God did it. And what's He made to me? Wisdom.
and righteousness, and sanctification, that's holiness, and redemption.
That means I don't look anywhere else now but to Christ for everything. I need wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And why does He do it this way?
That according as it's written, He that glories, He that wants
to make a boast, let him glory in the Lord, saying the Lord
did it all. The Lord did it all. Now that's what He does when
He gives us faith. That's what he does. And that's
when we start believing Christ, and that's when we truly start
to be constrained now by the love of Christ toward God and
toward our brethren. Now it's no more about the law.
It's no more about a legal duty. It's no more about, oh, you've
got to do it. Now it's about seeing what He's
done for me. Oh, I'm so thankful to Him. I'm so thankful for what He's
done to me. And seeing how He's done this for my brethren and
how He abides in my brethren, I'm constrained by His love now
to want to honor Him and want to serve Him. I know I can't
do it perfectly. I know that I can't ever even
look to myself for any of this because it's just so full of
sin. But there's a new motive now.
I want to. I want to, motivated by love.
Faith which works by love. The law and legal duty and rewards
and all this junk has nothing to do with it. Nothing to do
with it. Now listen to how this scribe replies. Verse 32. And the scribe said unto him,
Mark 12, 32, Well, master, thou hast 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 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 understood
something correctly. He understood something of this
correctly, that there is one God, and there's none other but
that one God. He understood something of this
correctly, that the law is spiritual, that it requires a perfect heart
love. And he knew something, had some
understanding that perfect obedience from a heart of love is more
than these outward forms and offerings and sacrifices. He
knew that this thing is not an outward ceremonial, outward in
the appearance. He knew this thing's a heart
issue. And he knew this. He had this knowledge of this.
And yet, listen to what Christ said to him. Verse 34, when Jesus
saw that he answered discreetly, This man was sincere, he was
wise, he was prudent. The Lord said unto him, Thou
art not far from the kingdom of God. Not in, but not far. What had this man missed? What
did this man miss? He had so many positives, what
did he miss? Alright, here's the negative. Let's focus on
the negative. First of all, even though it's
of utmost importance that we come to the Lord's house and
that we attentively hear what's being preached. That's vital.
That's important. Come here and do so with a ready
mind to hear, trying to hear God's Word. But don't ever think
that's going to put you in the kingdom of God. This man did
that. Christ said, you're not far,
but you're not in. Secondly, it's of utmost importance
we study the Bible. It's of utmost importance. Take
the book, read along with me what I'm showing you, go home
and study it. By all means, do that. But don't ever entertain
the thought that that puts you in the kingdom of God. It doesn't. Thirdly, a sincere, correct knowledge,
right knowledge of the truth is needful. You can't believe
somebody you don't know That's needful. You need needful. But don't ever imagine that just
because you know this book inside and out in truth, that you got
the knowledge in truth better than anybody else. Don't ever
imagine that's going to put you in the kingdom of God. James
said this, Thou believest there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble.
I guarantee you the devil knows the doctrine of grace better
than any believer does. And I'll tell you something else,
hell's going to be full of folks who were the finest five-point
Calvinists you ever could see. And talking to them, you'd think
they knew more than a lot of God's saints knew when they walked
this earth. And that's just so. You see what
the scribe missed? See what he missed? Look back
at Christ's word in verse 29. Jesus answered him, the first
of all the commandments is this, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord. Now look at the scribe's reply
then in verse 32. And the scribe said to him, Well,
master, thou hast said the truth, for there is one God. That's not what Christ said.
And he said something before that that this man didn't even
say. He added this, there is none
other but He. That's what he thought that text
meant. There's one God and there's none other but He. That's what
he thought he meant. He left out the first thing Christ declared.
Hear, O Israel. While Christ was speaking, you
know what this man was doing? He's thinking about what He's
going to say. He wasn't listening. And he didn't hear. He didn't
hear spiritually. He missed faith. He missed faith
in Christ is what he missed. And then look, he misunderstood
the Lord our God is one Lord. He missed that Christ is the
Lord our God. He's the triune God. This one
Messiah is the triune God. He missed this. And he missed
faith in Him. That's what he missed. So Christ
told him that he was not far from the one thing needful. Look,
Verse 34, Christ said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom
of God. I looked at this and looked at
this. I'm persuaded our Lord was not simply telling this man,
you're not far off in your knowledge. That's not what He was telling
him. You're not far from having the knowledge of those in the
kingdom of God. That's not what He was telling him. Christ is
the kingdom of God. Christ is the kingdom of God.
Listen to me. You remember when he cast that
devil out and the Pharisees were saying, you did that by Beelzebub,
you did that by the devil. The Lord answered and he said,
if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt the
kingdom of God is come upon you. And then Nicodemus came. Remember
Nicodemus bragging and boasting, telling them all about what he
knew about the Lord. We know you're a man come from
God. We know, we see, we know all these things. The Lord turned
to him and he said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He's telling
him, you don't even know who you're looking at. You don't
know who you're looking at. Knowledge alone won't save us.
Knowledge won't save you. The scribe had the knowledge
that the triune God's one God. But without faith, he didn't
understand that he stood not far from that God in the form
of the Messiah in whom all God's promises are yes and amen. Because
he didn't have faith. He understood this. He had the
knowledge that the law was given to teach us that God requires
love from the heart towards the Lord our God and our neighbor
as ourselves. He understood something of that. But he didn't have the
faith to understand that he stood right there, that day, not far
from the Lord his God and his neighbor in one man, the God-man
mediator. That one who is the Sabbath rest,
in whom the table of the law towards God is fulfilled, and
the table towards man is fulfilled. Because he's the God-man mediator,
our rest, who fulfilled, who is the end of the law for everyone
that believes. And by not confessing Christ,
this man basically did like the rich young ruler. He walked away
thinking, well, I've done all these from my youth up. He's
basically saying, I've done that. I've done that. I've loved the
Lord with all my heart and all my soul." And he missed Christ. He knew. Christ said, Thou art
not far from the kingdom of God. But without faith, he didn't
understand Christ is the kingdom of God. You know what would have
been a good question for him to ask? Exceptional question.
Remember that blind man that the Lord gave sight to? He said,
You believe that Christ is the Son of God. He said, Who is He,
Lord, that I might believe on Him? And the Lord said, it's he that
speaks with you. And he gave him faith. If this
man would have said, Lord, who is the kingdom of God that I
might enter? Or who's the door to the kingdom
of God that I might enter? Christ would have said, it's
he that speaks with you. But you know what he did instead?
Just what the prophet Isaiah said he would do. Hearing, he
heard. But he didn't understand. Anytime
we come to this Word and we hear it, and we think, oh I understand
that, I already know that. We don't know anything. We're
saying, I know that without God giving me the understanding.
I know that without Christ teaching me. And that's what he said,
I know this. Remember those Pharisees, they
said, are we blind also? The Lord said, if you would have
said you were blind, you would have your sight right now. But
because you said, we see, your sin remains. He left them alone. He didn't give them sight. And
this man, because he said he knew, he didn't say, I'm ignorant,
Lord, I don't know. I don't know who the kingdom
of God is. I don't know how to enter the kingdom of God. And therefore,
because he said he knew, and he heard, and he understood,
and he told the Lord, well, I know you. You know what I know. We're
in agreement. The Lord left him right where
he was. This is the sad, look at this sad word right here,
verse 34. And no man, including that scribe,
after that, just ask him any question. He didn't ask him a
question. Now, are you near or are you
in? Turn over to 2 Timothy 1 and
I'm going to end. 2 Timothy 1. I've got two scriptures
I want to show you quickly. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 12. What is it to be in the kingdom
of God? 2 Timothy chapter 1 and look at
verse 12. True faith knows and believes
on Christ. Paul said, 2 Timothy 1.12, look
at the last part, he said, I know, but it didn't stop there. He
said, I know whom I have believed. See, faith has knowledge with
it, but it's faith with knowledge and faith. Faith that believes
who? Christ. And then, true faith
is persuaded that Christ alone is able to save you. He said,
and I'm persuaded that He is able. Faith doesn't say, I'm
persuaded Christ is able. But now, I'm going to keep this
law right here, you know, just in case. Well, don't you think
it's sort of Christ, but we've got to do our part. That's not
faith. That's trying to mix grace with
works. No, faith is saying, it's all
Christ. He's able, and He alone is able.
I'm not able. I can't even add a thing to it. It's all Christ. And that's not
all faith is. Faith is also committing it all
to Christ. Paul said there, And I have committed,
He's able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against
that day. What is that? Everything. Everything. All. If Christ don't save me,
I'm telling you right here and right now, I'm not going to be
saved. Because I'm not looking anywhere else. I don't, I'm not,
I'm not trying to hedge my bets. It's all Christ, there's nothing.
Now, one more place, Hebrews 11, 6. Is this the only way? Is this how it's got to be? This
is how it's got to be. This is the only way. Hebrews
11, verse 6. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. That doesn't mean just, oh, you've
got to have faith. That means faith in Christ. Go
home tonight and read Romans 10. Faith in Christ. Man believes unto righteousness. He's the righteousness of God.
But without faith it's impossible to please Him. For he that comes
to God must believe that He is. That He is what? That He is... and that He is the Savior. That
He's the only Savior. That He's able. And He alone
is able. A to Z. Author and finisher of
our faith. He is able. Believe that He is. And that He's a rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him. Oh, see there? He's talking about
rewards. No, He's saying if you come to Him and you rest everything
in Him, bowing at His feet and saying, Lord, I believe You're
all my salvation. You alone are able. I commit
everything into Your hands. He's going to reward you by saving
you. That's what He's saying. That's
what He's saying. He's the rewarder of those that
diligently seek Him. Not seek a reward in heaven.
Not seek a mansion in glory. Not seek a sweet pie and pie
and a bye and bye. No. That seek Him. That diligently
seek Him. It means Diligently means you
start and you continue and you don't stop till you're with Him
in glory. Seek Him. And I pray He make
us honest. Do I know Him? Do I believe Him?
Or do I just have a lot of knowledge and go through the outward form?
You see, all that stuff He did, all those positives He had, that
was the outward form that He said that He knew that this heart
Faith was more important than all that stuff. But that's all
he had. And he knew all this stuff in the letter. That's it.
You see men, they know what total depravity means. They know what
unconditional election, limited atonement, and all that stuff
is. It's just in the letter. You say those things, oh, got
it. He said that. But they just come and go. They come and go. Because there's
no heart, faith in Christ at all. I pray He'd give us that
faith. Amen.