Good morning. All right, our
text will be Mark 12, verses 28 through 34. Mark 12, 28 through
34. And what we'll see today is the
sinner's need for Christ. The sinner needs
Christ. And that's because Christ alone
is the one who saves the sinner, apart from anything in them,
apart from any of their works. Because without Christ, without
Christ, no man, no one, shall enter into the Kingdom of God. And it may be that some of us
are very near, very near to the Kingdom of God. We may be near,
but that doesn't mean that we're in it. We may have a head knowledge
of things, we may know some doctrine and know some things about God,
and even good knowledge, yet have no knowledge of Christ,
and not know Him as our Lord and Savior. Our title is, Not
Far, but not in either. Not far, but not in either. And we'll have three divisions.
First, briefly we'll look at, we'll touch on preaching as opposed
to debate. Preach rather than debate. And
then we'll see distinctly known, that God makes himself distinctly
known to his people, to his children. He reveals himself. And then
we'll see this being near is not in. Being near is not in.
Alright, so let's look at our first point with verse 28, the
first verse of our text, verse 28. And there's a scribe, and
a scribe is an educated Pharisee. He's a well-educated Pharisee,
probably a little more wealthy. He's a good, he's doing well. And he asks Christ a question. And he says, or it says, one
of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together,
remember we saw the Pharisees and the Herodians, and they came
with their question, and then we saw the Sadducees last week
who say there is no resurrection, and their question, and this
scribe has noticed what's going on, and he's listening to what's
been said, and he heard them reasoning together and perceiving
that Christ had answered them well, because they went away
with their heads down and not knowing what else to say, he
asked Christ, which is the first commandment of all? which is
the first commandment of all. Now, I don't know exactly what
this man's intentions were. I can't read his mind in asking
Christ this question, but one of the things that we should
understand as we close this portion, these texts that we've looked
at in chapter 12, is seeing the debate, the debate of man, and
how he came and challenged Christ and had many questions. He wouldn't
believe Except his questions were addressed and he really
it wasn't that he wanted to believe except his questions were addressed
they came to entangle Christ in his words and It makes us
think of ourselves, we realize what we are by nature and how
we're that way. Typically if you're debating,
usually if you're debating with someone, you're showing off,
you're showing what you know. You either are, you want them
to understand and know what you know and you can't tell me because
I know this or that or we're trying to be clever and give
a good zinger, make people think and we're trying to do something
that shows people what we know, and it's pride, and it's being
puffed up. And so we see this in this text,
and we also see about ourselves, and something about ourselves. And debate rarely does people
any good. And usually the debaters, they
show up with their preconceived points and what they're going
to say. And it doesn't matter what you say, they're not listening.
They've already decided what they're going to say and what
they're trying to prove. And so they get no value out of it. And so the reality is nothing
spiritual is ever gained in debate. And we're not called to debate. That's not what we're called
to do. Debating isn't witnessing for
Christ. Debate isn't called the power
of God unto salvation. but the preaching of Christ,
the gospel of Christ. Romans 1.16 says, the gospel
of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. So we're called
to preach, to preach Christ, to preach him. And Paul told
Titus, In Titus 3.9, he told them, avoid foolish questions
and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law,
for they are unprofitable and vain. And that's what the scriptures
tell us about debating and just questions and and endless questions
like that. So, bearing witness of Christ,
it isn't for us to show others what we know, right? We want
to come with heart. We want to come with a sincerity
that people hear Christ and that they look to Him. We should never
come and speak to someone to teach them a thing or two. We
want to teach, we want to speak of Christ and glorify Him. As
our Lord said, the sweetest way is what our Lord said to one
converted soul who wanted to go with Him. He didn't let them.
He was a Gentile and it just wasn't time for the Gentiles
to be shown up at synagogues and temples. And He said to them
in Mark 5, 19, tell them how great things the Lord had done
for thee. Just tell him what great things
the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee. So that's what Christ is doing.
Christ is speaking to this man and he's telling him the thing
most needful. He's telling him what this man
needs to hear. He's teaching him of Christ. He's teaching
him his need of Christ. That's the purpose of God. is
to reveal Christ, his Son, to sinners. So, it's not about quoting
scripture or debating. Christ is teaching this man Christ
and his need for Christ to effectually work in him, to save him from
his sins. Alright, that's our first point.
Second, let's look at this being distinctly known. God is distinctively making himself
known to his people. So let's look at that. Mark 12,
verses 29 through 31. 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."
So the Lord is quoting from Deuteronomy 6, where the Law of Moses was
recorded, Deuteronomy 6 verses 4 and 5. And these words, Hear
O Israel, those are sweet words, that's the Lord instructing this
particular people, Israel, his Israel, his chosen people, his
beloved people, those whom he's predestinated and separated to
himself, he's teaching them of himself because none of us by
nature knows him. In the flesh, what we are naturally,
our natural thoughts and what we do or don't do and how we
do it, that natural flesh the scriptures teach us is enmity
against God. It's hatred of God. And so we
don't know Him. So God must reveal Himself to
us. And He says, Hear, O Israel,
and then He tells us, The Lord our God is one Lord. Now doesn't that seem a bit strange
that God would say the Lord our God is one Lord? And what that
tells us is that they had an understanding of God in three
persons. And we certainly today have an
understanding of God in three persons. Unless we should think
that they are three gods, three different distinct gods, God
is making it known to us that he's one. The Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Ghost are one God. They are one God revealed
in three persons. He's one Lord. And we're told in verse 30 that
we should 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.
What is being revealed here, what the Lord is doing in this
commandment, is He's pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you believe that? He's pointing us to Christ. He's showing us the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I say that because when When
Christ summarizes this point, when he says this is the first
commandment, first what we're seeing is that men ought to worship
God. Men are to worship the Lord God.
He's God. He's our creator. We are to worship
Him and to bow before Him, right? But what do we know? What do
we know of ourselves? What did we do? What did we do?
Well, we know with our heart and with all our heart and all
our soul, what do we do? We worship ourselves, right? We pursue that which is for us,
what I want, what I'm going to do for me, and that's what we
pursue. That's the God that we worship,
this idol right here, myself. That's what I worship in the
flesh naturally. That's where I am. My heart and
soul worships and serves the creature more than the creator. Romans 125. That's what we serve
and worship by nature. And then man, to do that, he
employs all his mind and all his strength. He brings all that
natural wisdom and strength to bear. And what he's been given,
naturally, and he brings that to bear to pursue what it is
that he lusts for and wants in the flesh. That's what man is
doing. Whatever he's valuing and set his heart upon, that's
what he's pursuing. That's what he's going for. after. So that's just us serving with
all our might, all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, all
our strength, pursuing and serving that which pleases this flesh,
what it lusts for, what it feels it needs, what it hungers and
thirsts for. That's what we do, but it's Christ
And Christ alone that delivers sinners from that prison of death,
from being the servant of sin and the servant of unrighteousness
and just banging around inside that cell, that prison cell of
death that we're all in by nature. The Lord opens the gate and He's
the one who draws us out of that darkness to know Him and to see
God has given you a heart. a soft heart now remove that
that hard heart giving you a soul giving you that that knowledge
of that precious uh soul right my darling it's described in
in in the psalms my darling And He gives us a mind set upon Him
and gives us strength by the Spirit of God to serve and worship
Him. But it's Christ who does that. It's Christ who makes us
to know that He alone is true life and godliness and that it's
all found in Himself perfect, right there. In Him, nothing
necessary outside of Him. Now turn over to 1 John 3. 1
John 3 and look at verses 23 and 24. I told you that this first commandment
reveals to us Christ. It reveals to us the Lord Jesus
Christ, points us to Christ. And this is what the Apostle
John says, 1 John 3.23, and he's speaking about this very commandment. This very commandment. He says,
and this is His commandment. Whose commandment? God the Father.
So we're going to see here the Trinity revealed right here,
and we're going to see that this commandment is pointing to Christ,
right? Those two things. This is His commandment, whose?
God the Father's commandment, that we should believe on the
name of His Son, Jesus Christ. and loved one another as he gave
commandment. That's what Christ is quoting
there. And the apostle there is revealing
that when he declares that your God is one God and that we're
to worship him and love him with all that we have, what he's saying
is you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you worship
and serve God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your
strength. Don't look, don't hear it in
the flesh. This isn't pointing you to start doing something
more. This is to turn you to the Lord Jesus Christ to see
that's exactly how we worship God with all those things that
he's blessed us with, those spiritual gifts that he's given to us.
Verse 24, let's see the Holy Ghost. And he that keepeth his
commandments dwelleth in him. As we saw this morning, we dwell,
we continue patiently with the gift of patience that his spirit
bears in us in Christ, serving Christ. We keep His commandments,
dwelleth in Him, and He in Him, and hereby we know that He abideth
in us by the Spirit which He hath given us. So there's the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost right there, and the Lord's telling
us, you're going to worship me with everything you've got, you
go to Christ. You look to Christ and right
there, stay in Him, and go nowhere else. So, The commandment reveals
the Trinity of God and stirs us up, points us to the Lord
Jesus Christ, that we should believe on the name of His Son,
Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave His commandment. So
the purpose of the law, when we go and look there at that
law, the purpose of the law is to shut us up, to Christ, to
shut us up to Christ. Now I use that phrase every so
often and what I mean by shut us up, it's to wall us in, to
surround us so that we can't go anywhere for comfort or peace
or assurance, right? Whatever we turn to in the flesh,
if we're the Lord's and He's pursuing us, if He's going after
us and He's going to have what He pursues, He's going to save
those with effectual calling grace. He's going to bring them
to Himself. He's going to wall us up so everywhere we would
turn in the flesh, We're stopped. We're prevented from going there.
We are shut up so that we're helpless and have nothing. And
have nothing to boast in, nothing to glory in, nothing to honor
ourselves with. We're dead. And we see it. We
know it. And He reveals Christ. So we're
shut up to Christ. That's what I mean by shut up
to Christ. We can't look to the law for
any peace. We can't look to any good works
that we're doing. We can't look to what we've stopped
doing. We can't look to any vow we've
made to God. God, if you get me out of this,
I promise I'll do better, right? We can't find any peace in that. Dead men, dead, dead, dead religionists
can do that, but not the children of God. So we're brought to see
that Jesus Christ alone is the very salvation that God has provided. Not man, but God provided this
one. He's provided perfection for
us. And it's God, Paul says, who commanded light to shine
out of darkness and he's shined in our hearts, these dark hearts
by nature who don't know him, he's shined in our hearts in
this darkness. and into our hearts to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. That's how we're going to see
and know the true and living God, that He's one God and that
He's provided everything in His Son. that He dwells in us by
His Spirit now, to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him
in our brethren. So we learn by the Lord. We learn by the Lord that we
are justified. by faith of Christ. We're justified by the faith
of Christ. We're justified by the faithfulness
of Christ. That faithful work He did, that's
what justifies us. God reveals that to us by revelation,
making you to know what He's done for you. Galatians 3.22
says, But the Scripture hath concluded all of us under sin,
so He ain't looking to us, all under sin, that the promise by
faith of Jesus Christ, the promise that God gives us due to arising
out of that faithfulness, that faithful work of Christ, might
be given to them that believe, that believe Him. that have been
shown that He's what we need and that He's sufficient and
has done everything. And we see that it's the Lord
God that gives His children that faith. He gives them that belief,
that fruit of faith. It's God who gives it to us so
that it's God's grace that bears that fruit of believing, that
fruit of faith, and it's fixed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians
2.8, For by grace are ye saved through faith, And that, not
of yourselves, it's the gift of God. God gave us this faith,
alright? So the keeping of the commandment
perfectly. You can see that God commanded
that we love our God and serve him with all our heart, soul,
mind, and strength. That demands perfection. It's
got to be perfect. And none of us, I hope none of
us, thinks that we and ourselves and our flesh can do that perfectly. Who of us loves our brethren
perfectly? Not one. Who of us loves our
God perfectly? Not one. We're all guilty of
offending our God and falling far short. But this perfect obedience
to the law is exactly what we've done in Christ by faith. We've done this perfectly in
the Lord Jesus Christ. You that are His, you that hope
in Him, have no confidence in the flesh, but you're looking
to Christ, that's exactly what you've done. You've kept that
law perfectly. the Lord Jesus Christ. So we
establish and fulfill the law through that imputation. God
imputing it to us. Because Christ made us righteous,
God says you are righteous. That's imputation. He's calling
us what we are. That's exactly what means that
Christ really made us righteous to stand before God. Romans 3.31
says, Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law. I need only look back to this
morning and know I've, in my flesh, I've broken the law. and in my heart and in my mind
and in my thoughts and with my strength I've broken the law
of God. If that's what I'm looking to,
it's that I am my hope. That's not my hope or confidence,
but by faith I know in Christ I've established the law perfectly
so that though I die right this moment, I stand before the throne
of God faultless, without fault, because thanks to the Lord Jesus
Christ and what he's done for me. Romans 8.1, Romans 8.1 says,
because of Christ there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after
the spirit. All thanks to God. All that praise
and honor and glory goes to Him because He's the one keeping
me. He's the one causing me and keeping me looking to Jesus Christ. And so God, what this is saying,
what God is revealing to us is that He's provided everything
that we need. He's not looking to you or me,
sinner, for anything more. Anything that's necessary, it's
the power of Christ in us that brings forth those fruits in
the new man which Christ created in us. All the praise and glory
goes to Him. So faith in Christ, therefore,
that fruit of faith, it offers to God, renders to God the things
that are God's, right? We offer up to God, render to
Him those things that are His, that faith, that hope. We are
exalting the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, Lord, I'm coming in your
Son, and covered in the blood of your Son, believing that you
said, that's how we're received, is by His faithfulness and His
blood and righteousness, Lord, that's how I'm coming. And saying
that, I know that's all of your grace and mercy that brought
me to this point to see I'm nothing and to see that Christ is all. Thank you, Lord. We're rejoicing
in Him. So Christ is our representative.
He's our substitute that fulfilled all the righteousness for every
one of God's elect children. Christ did it all, and He made
satisfaction. To God's offended justice, Christ
satisfied fully the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe that?
He did that for you, brethren. Do you not believe that's what
Christ accomplished for you? He did that for you. So look,
just rejoice, rest in Him. And that's what it says in 2
Corinthians 5.21, for God hath made Christ to be sin for us
who knew no sin. He's no sinner. He knew no sin,
but He made Him sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5.21 Righteousness
of God and Him. So one are we with Christ that
when Christ obeyed God, we obeyed God. When Christ died, we died. And when Christ arose, we arose
in Him. That's how one we are with Christ. And that's why the scriptures
in Jeremiah, if you turn to Jeremiah 23, we see there that the scriptures
call Christ the Lord Our Righteousness, and the scriptures call the church
the Lord Our Righteousness. because he's our righteousness.
He's the one who has made us righteous. I'll show you both
those scriptures in Jeremiah. First, Jeremiah 23, verse 6. Here it's a scribe to Christ.
First to Christ. Jeremiah 23, verse 6, In his
days, Christ's days, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
safely. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. That's Christ. Now turn over to Jeremiah 33,
verse 16. Jeremiah 33, verse 16. Here, this title, what we're
called is a scribe to the bride, the bride of Christ who's been
made righteous by Jesus Christ, her Lord and Savior. It says,
in those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell
safely. And this is the name wherewith
she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. So you see,
what Christ is, is what we've been made, what we are in Him.
We are righteous, and He's our righteousness because of His
perfect righteous work which He's done. So the Lord is teaching
this scribe, Christ. Just as John showed us in 1 John
3, that that's pointing to, the Lord's telling us, you believe
on my son Jesus Christ. And in Him, you'll fulfill all
the law perfectly because He's done it. You just believe on
Him. You trust Him and look to Him alone. And that's what the
Lord is saying to this scribe here who's asking this question.
Alright, now, our third and final point is being near is not in. Being near is not in. First, the man responds this
way to the Lord. He responds. He hears what Christ
says. He's probably debated this point before with his buddies
or his associates. And he's heard Christ. And he
likes what Christ says. He says, Mark 12, 32, and the
scribe said unto Christ, 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, it's more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."
Right? He's saying Yeah, this is more,
this is needful, more so than that ceremonial outward law that
we're practicing and so many are thinking is their righteousness.
Wow, Lord, that's right what you said. And so we can see,
though, this man is different. He seems a bit different from
the others that have come before, those Pharisees and Herodians
and Sadducees. He's different, and yet, being
different, Guess where he is? He's still on the outside of
the kingdom at this time, right? He's outside the kingdom of God. And he might think, wow, we're
kindred spirits here, and we know and say the same thing.
But they're not kindred spirits, and the problem is, though, they
know similar things, though they know the same thing, he doesn't
know Christ. He doesn't look at that Jesus
of Nazareth that's standing before him and say, that's my Christ. That's my Savior. I need him,
his righteousness. Whatever he's come to do, that's
what I need. is what he's accomplishing for
his people. He doesn't say that. And so it's
a warning to us all that insight into doctrine, insight into biblical
knowledge, being in the right church, or baptized by the right
person, or whatever it is that man is looking to for his or
her confidence and her hope, those things Anything outside
of Christ is not salvation. It's just a knowledge. It's just
a knowledge of those things. And so someone who can rattle
off verses or can speak of doctrine and articulate them even well,
that doesn't mean salvation. That's not what we're to hope
in and trust. and trust in, right? And so this
man, he had a lot of knowledge but didn't know that this is
the Christ standing before him. He had no personal saving knowledge
that he needs Christ. He thought he was doing pretty
good and that he was a little more subtle in his understanding. So salvation isn't knowing about
Christ. Salvation is Christ. He is the
Savior of his people. He is their very salvation. John
17 3 says, and this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. We've got
to know Christ. We can't be religious. Being
religious isn't going to save any of us, even those that are
you know, deeper in religion and understand there's some deeper
things than just the external. So the kingdom of God, it's a
spiritual kingdom, it's governed and ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the kingdom of God is the gathering of the family of God,
right? That's his elect, gathered in
to his church, and that's his kingdom, that's who he rules
over. And we know that some are in the kingdom, some are way
far out of the kingdom. Way, way far out of the kingdom,
and some are near. Some are near the kingdom, right? And this fella was near, right? Look at verse 34. When Jesus
saw that he answered discreetly, that the young scribe answered
discreetly, he said unto him, thou art not far from the kingdom
of God. And then no man after that durst
ask him any questions. He was not far from the kingdom
of God. And that's all that we know of
that man, not far from the kingdom. Now, some, as I said, are in
the kingdom. Those that are in the kingdom
are in the kingdom because they've been quickened. They've been
regenerated. They've been made alive by the
Spirit of Christ, giving them life. It's God who gives life,
and he gave them life. And Christ gives that life, as
the Father hath life in himself, so he's given life to the Son
to give life to whom he will. And so Christ gives life. It
says in Colossians 2.13. I'll just say some of these and
read some scripture. And he says, you, Paul wrote,
you being dead in your sins and uncircumcision of your flesh.
That's where we all are by nature. We're uncircumcised of heart. We don't know God. We're dead
in trespasses and sins. Weighed down, just buried under
the debt of sin that we've accumulated, that debt of wrath that we've
accumulated in our sin. So you being dead in the uncircumcision
of your flesh, hath he quickened, hath he made alive together with
Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses. All right, so then,
being made alive, his people, being made alive by the Spirit
of God, are brought to the obedience of faith. We're brought to obey
God, to believe on his Son, Jesus Christ, for our righteousness,
for our faith, or rather for our life and hope in him. We're
brought to that obedience by the Spirit who gave us life.
All right, he's bearing these fruits. It says in 1 Peter 1.22,
seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit, through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren."
Right? So we're brought to believe,
or rather to obey the commandment of God, which is to believe on
his Son, and that's all worked in us by the Spirit, through
the Spirit giving that to us, working that obedience and that
faith in his people. So, it's God. And then, we're
adopted into the family of God. Through Christ, we're adopted
into his family. It says in Ephesians 1, 5, and
6, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. God did that all of His own choosing,
His own will, which gave Him pleasure. He wanted to do it,
and so He did it. And it's to the praise of the
glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. By nature. we're not accepted. In Christ, we are accepted and
received into that beloved family of God where only those that
are perfect and righteous may be part of and partake of that.
And it's Christ who makes us perfect and righteous in Him. Therefore, having this all done
for us by the grace of God, we are now led and taught and guided
by the Spirit of God. He's the one keeping us, just
as He brings us, enters us in, draws us in, so He keeps us in
our pilgrim walk. In our walk to Him, He's the
one keeping us. He doesn't turn us away and look
to the law now to do things better and be more sanctified. Nope,
He's the one that keeps us looking to Him ever. It says in Romans
8, 14, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God." They are the children of God. If you're led,
and it's the Spirit. He's the one, if you believe,
if you rest in Christ, you have the Spirit of Christ. Because
you can't believe. Not in truth, not in spirit and
truth, except the spirit of God be in you and give you that faith
and rest in Christ. Alright, so if we're in God's
kingdom, then we confess. What, did we start talking about
what I did for Jesus and the decision I made and the aisle
I walked and the prayer I prayed? Nope. We give all the glory. to His grace, to His power, to
His honor, to His glory, it all goes to Him for every fruit and
thing that we see, every blessed fruit and rejoicing that we have,
it all goes back to Him, it all redounds to His glory. It says
in Colossians 1.13, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. So that's true of all those that
are in the kingdom. That's a description of those
that are in the kingdom of God. Those that are out, way out,
far outside of the Kingdom of God, what do we understand of
them? Well, they just have no interest
in God. They don't think about God, they
don't think about His Christ, they don't think about eternity,
they don't think about their soul and what's going to happen
to their soul. It doesn't even enter into their
heart or their mind. They just have no interest in
what we're doing here, what we're talking about. You know, Christ,
who's that? And why did he come? I could
care less. That's how they are. There's
no interest. And like we sang in that first
hymn, Jehovah's Akinnu is nothing to me. Nothing to me. That's
how we are by nature. And that's how all those way
out and far off from the kingdom of God, they have no interest
in these things. And they're just like the brute
beasts out in your backyard. When you see them just rooting
around for food and eating what they eat and going after what
they go after, That's what the wicked in this world are, who
are just far out of the kingdom, just don't even care. They're
just like a beast, a cattle out in the middle of the field, just
doing what they do with no interest to God. There are some that are
near, near the kingdom of God, just like this scribe. They're
near, or not far as how Christ described it, not far from the
kingdom of God. So we saw this man was different. He wasn't quite like the others.
There seemed to be some sincerity because Christ just answered
his question. He asked a question and Christ
answered it. was right with what he asked. And so he seemed to
be sincere, but he was still grossly mistaken about righteousness. And he thought he was well and
that everything was good with him because of his righteousness.
And yet he was outside of Christ. There are some in our day, and
they look to the law, they see the law, and they do pretty good
in keeping the law, and they're pretty faithful about coming
to church and reading their Bible and saying some prayers and doing
those things. But that's the extent of their
experience. That's their religious life.
And they think that because they do those things, that's their
righteousness. And that because things are going
well, God must be pleased with them because everything seems
to be doing good. And if it's not, then they turn
back and examine in their mind, well, what did I do to get myself
messed up? And they try and fix it. And
that's religion. That's what this man in religion
is doing with those wheels turning. And this man and some others,
they seem to have An idea that it's more of an inward understanding.
The law isn't just an external ceremonial belief, right? There's
some that are a little near. They realize, you know, it's
not just showing up the church that saves me. It's got to be
something. And they see a heart experience
as opposed to just a head knowledge that there's got to be some love
and kindness there, as opposed to that harsh exacting and judgment
of other people. That's not how God saves. And
so they seem a little more soft and open to what religion should
be, and that it should be softer and not so harsh and mean. But though this guy was like
that, He seemed to still be like those five foolish virgins, right? And those virgins, they could
hold up a lamp, and it was a lamp of religion, and it looked just
like the lamps of the other people. It was a lamp of religion, but
inside that lamp of religion, there was no oil of grace. And so they couldn't see Christ.
They just remained in darkness and couldn't see Christ when
He came. They had no oil of grace in that lamp of their religion. And so this guy, he had much,
but he lacked that one thing needful, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what I want you to
hear. It's Christ is who we need. He's
our salvation. He's our hope. And we trust and
look to Him. and called out to Him, Lord,
save me. Have mercy upon me, Lord. I can't do this perfectly.
I got no righteousness of my own. I'm insufficient to save
myself. But I see that that's why you came. to save me, to
deliver me from my sins. Lord, cleanse me of my sins and
turn my wicked heart. Turn me to serve you and to love
you, not in hypocrisy and in falseness, but really looking
to you. We've got to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Lord said, I am the door,
by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in
and out and find pasture. It's the Lord that must make
us content with Christ and to see our need of Him. And so,
in closing, I would ask, we should just ask ourselves, when I die,
will God say of me when I die that He died not far from the
Kingdom of God? Is that what you want to hear?
Does that give you any comfort for God to say, well, when he
died, he was not far from the kingdom of God. He was so close.
That's not going to be any comfort to you or I if that's what we
hear said of us. So the only thing that's going
to be satisfying, the only thing, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the righteousness. And you seek first the kingdom
of God. You seek His righteousness. I mean, you seek Christ. You
seek to know Him as your Lord and Savior. And He says all these
other things, you'll have them. Anything you need, any leading,
any work that you need, any grace you need, any gift you need,
God will provide it all for you. He'll give you the faith. He's
the one that gives you light and life and regenerates you,
puts you in the kingdom, gives you that faith, leads you to
His obedience, leads you all the rest of the way. It's all
Christ. So you seek Him first. and everything
necessary will be given to you. So I pray the Lord will bless
that to your heart so that we are found in the Kingdom of God
and not just short of it. So I pray the Lord will bless
that to our hearts. Let's pray. Gracious Lord, we
thank you, Father, for your grace in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord,
we thank you that you've provided everything in your Son. And Lord,
we confess our ignorance. Lord, we don't even know If we
don't know You, we don't even know what we don't know, and
we don't know how to come at You, Lord, or how to worship
You or believe You. Lord, we see in Your Word that
this is a work of God in us, that it's by Your Spirit that
teaches us and shows us our need of Christ, and that shows us
that He is righteousness, and that He is salvation for His
people, fully provided by the grace and kindness of our God
toward us. Lord, we ask that you would put
us in the kingdom of God, that you would make us to not be content
to be way out or even just close to the kingdom, but Lord, that
we would continue to hunger and thirst for righteousness till
we find that you have put us in the kingdom of God. We pray
this, Lord, in Christ's name. And Father, we pray for our brethren
here, Lord, if any are not with us due to sickness or just away
and can't be with us, Father, we pray that you would bless
them and that you would warm the hearts of your people. And
Lord, that you would keep us till you bring us together again
to be with one another. We pray that you would Indeed,
bless your people here that you would give us faith and hope
and lead us to the obedience of Christ, for him to be our
righteousness. We pray this in his name. Amen.