Turn with me to the gospel of
Mark chapter 12, please. Mark chapter 12. Let's begin
reading in verse 28. Mark 12, 28. And one of the scribes
came and having heard them reasoning together
and perceiving that he had answered them well, 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,
the Lord Jesus, he said, well, master thou has 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. And when Jesus saw that He had
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. The words of our Lord here, thou
art not far from the kingdom of God. In our text and in their
context are not words of encouragement, but actually words of warning
and danger. You see, to be not far from the
kingdom of God means that you're not in the kingdom of God. This
is like a man who is in a seeking ship and they bring the lifeboat
around and he jumps out of the ship into the lifeboat, misses
the lifeboat, falls into the water and drowns. Doesn't matter
how close he came to the lifeboat. If he missed it, he perishes.
This is like the manslayer in the cities of refuge. A man kills
someone. He's out chopping wood. The handle
of the ax flies off and hits someone in the head and kills
him. He is running for his life to the city of refuge. God set
these cities of refuge up for him to get to. And that avenger
of blood, someone in the family who has the right to kill this
man for killing his loved one. He's close behind, and just before
the man reaches that city that assures his refuge, he falls
and he's overtaken by his adversary just outside of the gate of that
city, and he's slain. You see, not being far from something
is not to be in, and being close in that sense really doesn't
matter. I'm sure you've heard the old saying I've had many
times that close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. You see, all most saved is altogether
lost. It's being in the kingdom that
saves the soul, not being near the kingdom. if you were just
on the borderline of that city of refuge, even outside, just
right outside the gate, but you haven't actually entered in,
you're not secure and you're not safe and you cannot rest. I think of those five foolish
virgins. They were almost in the banquet
hall. They were not far from the wedding, just outside the
door, the scripture says. And they said, Lord, Lord, open
up unto us. And as the man in our story was
not far from the kingdom, he was not in it. And he might as
well have been a thousand miles away. Now there are many today
who are religious, but yet lost. There are many who are self-righteous,
but don't have the righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are many who are devoutly religious, but they haven't been
regenerated. Here we have a man who's interested
in the law. He's interested in morality.
But he has no righteousness, no holiness in the sight of God. And those who are not far from
the kingdom of God this morning, it would do you good to listen
close as to how the Lord Jesus deals with this religious and
moral man. Please listen closely if you
are at all interested. in being in the kingdom of God.
All of us are encouraged from scripture to examine ourselves
to see if we be in the faith. All of us need to give diligence
to make our calling and election sure. That's what the scriptures
teach. We must not take for granted the most important thing in all
the world. And it'll do no man or no woman
good to not be far from the kingdom of God. We must be in the kingdom
of God in order to be safe, secure, and saved. Now let's first look
at who this man was. Who was this man? Well, according
to verse 28, he was one of the scribes. Now that's about all
we know about the man, but we do know some things about a scribe. The duty of a scribe was to preserve
and to translate and to interpret the Old Testament Scriptures.
They sat down with a pen and parchment and translated the
Scriptures from and to other languages. This man was actually
somewhat an authority on the Scriptures, on the Bible. In
Matthew's account, he's called a lawyer. And the Greek word
for lawyer there simply means expert. He was an expert in the
law of God. He knew by memory much of the
word of the Lord. He had written the scriptures
over and over and over again with his hand. They didn't have
computers and printers and copy machines and printing presses.
The scribes would have to make copies by hand. And if anyone
should have known the scriptures, it was this man. Yet Christ says
to him, you're not far from the kingdom of God. He wasn't in
the kingdom of God. Now the way to the kingdom of
God is found in the scriptures. The way to eternal life is found
in God's word. We know that faith cometh by
hearing and hearing by the word of God. We're told that God of
his own will beget us with the Word of Truth. The Gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And our Lord taught
the religious Pharisees in John chapter 5. He told them, He said,
you search the Scriptures and in them you think that you have
eternal life, but you don't. Because But they the scriptures
are they which testify me If you miss Christ in the scriptures,
then you've missed Missed it all you've missed it all I told
you about many times about my father's friend who had committed
the whole New Testament to memory. It was an amazing thing to observe.
You could tell him to start any place in scripture, just holler
out a scripture and he could start right there and quote you
the rest of the Bible all the way to the end of Revelation. I don't know if he had a photographic
memory, must have had. Anyway, my father used to say
all the time of that man, he sure knows his Bible. Sure knows
his Bible. You know, so did this man in
our story. My father's friend wound up committing
suicide. I never heard my dad say that
concerning him again. This man here in our story was
a student of the scriptures. He was a scribe. He was an authority
on the Bible. He knew the doctrines, he knew
the traditions, but he didn't know Christ. And the Lord said,
you're not far from the kingdom, but to not be in is to be out. There are many today who are
not far from the kingdom. Some of you this morning are
not far from the kingdom, but you're not in it. Oh, how I pray
that God would bring you in. And I'm telling you, this is
why I strive, personally. You know, preachers and pastors
aren't exempt from this. I strive daily to make my calling
and election sure. That's why I examine myself to
see if I am in the faith. Am I trusting in the things that
I preach? Paul said, less by any means.
When I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. I sure
don't want that. Secondly, I want us to consider
this man's question to the Lord and his concern. After the Lord
had dealt with the Pharisees and the Sadducees earlier in
this chapter, he had silenced them. They couldn't say anything
when he got finished with them. And here we find this man looking
at Christ and asking this question in verse 28. He said, which is
the first commandment of all? You see, he was concerned about
the commandments of God. Being an expert of the law, he
had a real interest in the law. And the Lord replied in verse
29, the first of all the commandments is here, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one God. 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. That's the first commandment.
And the second is like it, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. There's no commandment greater
than these. Now listen to what this man said.
Verse 32. And the scribe said unto him,
well, master, Thou hast said the truth, for there is one God
and there is none but he." Now again, I remind you, he's a scribe.
He's an authority of the scriptures. He's memorized much of the word
of God. There wasn't many hours in a
day that his nose wasn't stuck in the scriptures. I find this
remarkable. Here's a man that believed in
one God and not just any God, not a false God. He believed
in the God of the Bible. He believed in the God of Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob, the God of David, the God of creation.
He said, master, you've told the truth. I agree with everything
you say. There's but one God, there's
none. There's no other God but Him.
Just one God. Everything else is an idol. But
Christ said to him, thou art not far from the kingdom. He
wasn't far from it, and he wasn't in it. You see, to believe in
one God is not salvation. You can believe that there's
one God, and that's not salvation. James wrote in James 2, verse
19, Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well.
The devils also believe and tremble. The devils believe in just one
God. When the Lord cast the demons
out of that man into the herd of swine, they said, we know
who you are. You're the Holy One of Israel.
Have you come to torment us before our time? You see, the devils
believe in one God. They believe that Christ was
the Holy One of Israel. They believe that Christ was
the Son of God and God the Son. And they believed in judgment.
They said, have you come to torment us before our time? Have you
come to judge us before the time to judge us is? They believed
in judgment, but they weren't redeemed. This man even knew
more than they did. He knew that there was but one
God, and he also knew some other things, some other important
facts and truths. But always remember, salvation
is not knowing facts and truths. Salvation is knowing the Lord
Jesus Christ. Salvation is in a person. Look
at verse 33. This man knew that to love God
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. This
man lived in a day when that was pretty much all that his
peers trusted in. They trusted in their works.
They trusted in their ceremonies. They trusted in their sacrifices
and in their burnt offerings. But it doesn't seem that this
man did. Most of his friends, his co-working scribes, trusted
in all these things for their salvation. But it sure doesn't
seem that he trusted in them. And I was thinking today we have
so much religion in the world. There's a church on almost every
corner. And we have so much religion
in this world. People find so much assurance
in the working of the flesh. They trust in their works and
their will and their worth. They're quick to tell you what
they're doing for God, just like those in the Day of Judgment
did. Lord, haven't we? Haven't we done this? Haven't
we done that? And many of them know a lot of truth, but they
don't know Christ. Salvation is in a person. Now, thirdly, let's consider
this man's attitude. This Bible scholar, this Bible
translator, a man who had memorized the scripture, a man that believed
that there was only one God, a man that had no use for idols,
a man that knew that the condition of the heart was more important
than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices in the whole world. Yet the Lord said of this man,
you're not far from the kingdom of God. And that sadly means
you're yet outside the kingdom of God. And what was this man's
attitudes? Well, as I said, the Pharisees
and the Sadducees, earlier the Lord had silenced and they done
pouted off. walked off and would have nothing
to do with the Lord Jesus, but this man had a much better attitude
than they did. This man recognized the wisdom
of Christ. Notice that he called him master. He spoke well of Christ. He said,
you're telling me the truth. I believe what you're telling
me. The other religionists had left,
but he was still standing there. Now in Matthew's account, it
tells us that this man first came with the intention of tempting
the Lord. It seems that his first intentions
was to test the Lord, to try him, to try to prove him wrong,
to trap him. to expose him as an ignorant
man, but it seems that the longer this man conversed with Christ
and listened, the more he agreed with him, at least in doctrine. He said to Christ, I agree with
you. You're telling the truth. This
man had some degree of spiritual understanding and perception.
And when his friends had spoke of tithing and fasting and giving
alms and all the ceremonies and sacrifices, this man agreed that
loving the Lord, loving the Lord God was the most important thing. He agreed that loving one's neighbor
was equally as important. But something's missing. It has
to be missing because the Lord said, you're not far from the
kingdom of God. So, lastly, what was missing? Where in did this man fail? Where
did he come short? You know, there are many men
and women today who are very much like this man. Maybe they're
interested in the commandments of God. Maybe they believe in
one God. They may, maybe they are one
who loves God and loves their neighbor. Maybe they're a student
of the scriptures. Maybe they believe in what is
right and what is wrong. They may in many ways know the
truth of the scriptures and agree with them. Yet like this man,
they are not, they're not yet in the kingdom of God. Why aren't
they? There's some vital things missing.
vital things missing. You know, in reading this account
of this man, concerning this man, we find no personal confession
of sin. He speaks well of the law. He
inquires about it. He studies it. But we don't hear
any confession from him that he's broken the law. We hear
nothing from him that in any way he had sinned against a holy
God. He makes no confession of his
heart. Personally, like every heart, the scripture says that
is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. He makes no
mention of his heart. There's no mention by him of
his carnal mind, his fleshly mind, no mention of the evil
imaginations of his heart and mind that constantly exalt themselves
against the knowledge of God. No mention of his need to bring
every thought into the obedience of Christ. You can go over his
complete conversation here with the Lord. And there's no mention,
there's no confession, there's no acknowledgement of his sin
and his iniquity. Doesn't the Word of God tell
us that if we confess our sin that God is faithful and just
to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness? Yes. And it's true. God is faithful
and just to forgive us when we confess our sins. Every person
that has ever come to Christ has come to Him as a sinner.
Not as one who's moral. Not as one who is righteous,
but one who is a sinner. Christ said, I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Those that are well,
he said, have no need of a physician. Why was this man not in the kingdom
of God? By today's standards, we would
have made him an elder or a deacon. Why wasn't he in the kingdom?
He didn't see himself as sick. He didn't see himself as needy. He had no need of a physician. Paul wrote, this is a faithful,
sane and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save who? Sinners. And he added, of whom
I am she. This man spoke of the law and
the truth that the master declared. He agreed with the Lord. He agreed that the greatest commandments
of all was to love God with everything. And to love his neighbor as his
self. And he called it truth. He professed to believe the gospel. He believed the need to love
our neighbors as we love ourselves. He agreed with Christ on the
solitariness of God. He knew that the Lord, our God,
is one Lord. But he says nothing concerning
his own personal guilt before God. You can talk about the law,
but if you don't see that God gave the law to strip you. The law should have stripped
this man of his own personal righteousness and convinced him
of his sin. The law of God should have showed
him his guilt and been his schoolmaster to bring him to Christ. You see
what the law says. It says to them that are under
the law. And that's all of us. We're all
under the law that every man may be stopped and that all the
world may become guilty before God. The law was not given for
us to keep, but to show us our inability to keep it. To drive
us to Christ for salvation. Why? Because He fulfilled the
law for us. He satisfied the holy justice
of God for us. There's no confession here like
that of the publican. That publican went up to the
temple to pray, and he said, God be merciful to me. The sinner. There's no confession
like that of the prodigal who said, Father, make me a servant
in your house. I'm no longer worthy to be called
by son. There's no confession here like
David's who confessed, I acknowledge my sins and my transgressions
are ever before me. There's no confession like Paul
who wrote, oh, wretched man that I am. He said, I'm less than
the least, the chief of sinners, not fit to be called an apostle. He said, I'm a blasphemer, a
persecutor, injurious, inert, and unbeliever. And I hear no
plea from this man in his conversation with the Lord like the plea of
that thief on the cross. who said, I'm getting what I
deserve. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. Do you know who it is that comes
to the water of life? One who's thirsty. One who's
thirsty. Do you know who it is that comes
to Christ for rest? The sinner who's weary and heavy
laden in sin. Every believing sinner says with
David, have mercy on me, oh God, according to thy loving kindness.
Not according to justice, not according to what I deserve,
but according to your mercy, your grace, your loving kindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. Oh God, blot
out my transgressions. I don't hear this man saying,
Lord forgive me, blot out my transgressions. David pled, wash me from mine
iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, create in me a right spirit,
renew in me a clean heart. I don't hear this from this man. David wasn't far from the kingdom
of God. David was in the kingdom of God. See the difference? It can't be said of that repentant
publican that he was not far from the kingdom of God. He was
in the kingdom of God. It can't be said of the prodigal
son. It can't be said of the thief on the cross. The Lord
said to him, today, you're gonna be with me in paradise. He wasn't
far from it. He wasn't far from it. He was
in it. I don't hear or see any request
or confession by this man desiring that the Lord Jesus be his Lord
and Savior. Do you? Oh, he shows Christ great
respect. Many today do. He talks about
the Lord being his Master. A lot of folks say Jesus is Lord.
He believes Christ to be a great teacher. He acknowledges Christ
to be a great example. He believes Christ to be one
of authority. But there's no mention here of
the Lord being his Redeemer, his Savior, his Substitute, his
Sacrifice. No request for Christ to be his
Lord. In Matthew's account, chapter
22, the Lord asked this scribe and a new group of Pharisees,
I guess the question of all questions, what think ye of Christ? And
no man was able to answer the Lord a word. And from that day
forth until Christ died, they asked him no more questions.
The Bible does not say that if a sinner shall confess with his
mouth Jesus to be a good man, he shall be saved. No, sir. The Bible doesn't say
that if a sinner shall confess that Christ is a prophet, a healer,
that he shall be saved. Rather, it says, if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe in thine
heart that God raised him from the dead. You see, he was crucified,
buried, and raised from the dead by the power of God. That's what
we have to believe. That's the only way that our
sin's gonna be put away if he put it away for us. He said,
you believe that, thou shalt be saved. And because of this,
this man's state, this man's condition and position was not
far from the kingdom of God. The Lord asked his disciples
one day, he said, who do men say that I am? And the disciples,
if you allow me to paraphrase, said, oh, they speak pretty good
of you. Who do men say that I am? Well,
they say you're Elijah. Some say you're John the Baptist
reincarnated. And all of them agree, Lord,
that you're a great prophet. And he said, who do you say that
I am? Who do you say that I am? Those who said that he was Elijah
and John the Baptist and some great prophet, they weren't far. They were far. They are not far
from the kingdom of God, excuse me. But they fall way short of
salvation and the glory of God. They're not far from the kingdom
of God, but they might as well be. Peter said, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. And Peter was that rock on which
the Lord built his church. So let me ask you in closing,
who do you say that Christ is? How horrible, how terrible it
would be if you should come so near the kingdom of God and yet
be lost. Do you not see how much the Lord's
already done for you? Will He not do more if you ask
Him? He's plenteous in mercy. That old hymn says, is there
mercy still reserved for me? You better believe there is.
In God, in Christ, there is plenteous mercy. He has, friends, by His
great grace brought you so close. Would it not be wise to ask Him
for more? Is it not clear that you need
something more to be brought all the way in? I can assure
you of this. If you're asking and you haven't
received, then you're asking amiss. You're asking for the
wrong thing or for the wrong reason or the wrong way. I don't
know. You're asking amiss wrongly. The scripture says that you might
consume it upon your lust. The Lord always hears, always,
always hears the cry of mercy. Always. He always hears. Therefore submit yourself to
God. Draw near to Him and He'll draw
nigh to you. Humble yourselves in the sight
of God and He shall lift you up. We've got to come down before
we can be raised up. We have got to die before we
can be made alive. We've got to die to self. May
God be pleased to make it so.