It's an honor to be here with
you all. I grew up here in Rupert for
many years, having him come to our conferences down in Lexington
and things like that, so it's a real pleasure to be here with
you all, to fellowship with you. If you would, turn to Mark 10. We're going to look at a familiar
story this morning. A story that would become to
be known as the story of the rich young ruler. And we'll see
it from Mark's perspective. And I want to start by reading
this story. If you would, pick up in Mark 10, pick up in verse
17. And when he was gone forth into
the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked
him, good master, What shall I do that I may inherit eternal
life? And Jesus said unto him, Why
callst thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is, God. Thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear
false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. And he
answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from
my youth. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto
him, One thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven,
and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad
at that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples,
How hoardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom
of God. And the disciples were astonished at his words. But
Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, children, how hoard
is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom
of God? It's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into
the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out
of measure, saying among themselves, who then can be saved? And Jesus
looking upon them saith, with men it is impossible. but not with God. For with God,
all things are possible." Story of the rich young ruler from
Mork's perspective. Now, the theme of this story
is relatively simple. The theme is this. It is the
blinding, debilitating, and ultimately damning effects of self-righteousness,
unless the Lord intervenes. That is the theme of this story.
Now, with that being said, Let's get something out in the air
for a second. We are all self-righteous in one way, shape, or form. Somebody
says, how can that be? What are you talking about a
believer being self-righteous? What do you mean? It goes something like this.
Let's say, for whatever reason, I come into a little extra money
at the end of the month, and the Lord puts it in my heart
to give a special gift, to give something back, something he
gave freely to me, and I would give just a small portion back.
And so I write out the check, and I walk back to the offering
box, and I put the check in the box. And as I'm turning away,
a little voice creeps up in my head and says, look what you
just did. Good job. Man, the Lord must
be pleased with you. That's self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. Let's say I see one of my brothers
or sisters in Christ, and I've watched them fall into a very
grievous sin. Very grievous sin. And I sit back and say, can a
believer act like that? Folks, we talk about this thing
of total depravity all the time, but when I say things like that
and I think things like that, how much do I really believe
it? Self-righteousness, promoting myself over my brother. Now,
as bad as that is, as evil and as sinful as I am in and of myself,
that is not the self-righteousness that's being talked about here.
This self-righteousness is self-righteousness before God. It's where a man
stands before the Lord, he says, look at me, look me over, Judge
me based on what I've done, what I am by nature. There is good
in me. There is good merits. There is a personal righteousness.
Judge me on my own merits." Coming to the Lord with a personal righteousness. That's a self-righteousness that's
being talked about here. And if a man comes on those grounds,
he will perish in his own self-righteousness and in his sins. Now, let's take
the time to consider just verse by verse, what this story is
conveying. So if you would pick back up
in verse 17, let's look at this man's approach. And when he was gone forth into
the way, there came one running and kneeled to him. Now he starts
off pretty good, right? His approach starts off pretty
good, comes running, shows some urgency. shows some interest.
He comes kneeling, seemingly humble, seemingly respectful,
but now this man will do what every man who comes to the Lord
Jesus Christ does. He will confess who he perceives
Jesus Christ to be and what he needs. Go back reading. And asked him, listen to how
he addresses him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? Good master, that means teacher,
not God, not Lord, not Messiah, not Savior, teacher. You're a
good man, and I'm a good man, and you're a good teacher. You
have a lot of good information, and that's what I need. I need
information. What shall I do to inherit eternal
life? He has come on the grounds of
salvation by works. What shall I do? He came to a
teacher, and he came seeking information. That's a problem. Let's look at another story within
the same chapter of a man who came the right way, the acceptable
way. And let's see what he had to
say. Look at verses 46 and 47 of your text. You all are very
familiar with this man. This is Bartimaeus. And they came to Jericho, and
as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number
of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highway side begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. Now look at the differences there.
How did Bartimaeus address the Lord? He said, Jesus, thou son
of David. What did he mean? During this
time, all Jews received a religious education, even the poor and
the blind. And the one thing all Jews knew
is that the Messiah, God's Christ, the Savior of his people, was
coming. And they knew what physical line he was coming through. He
was coming through the line of David. And that's what Bartimaeus
is confessing here. He's saying, this one who is
passing before me right now, this Jesus of Nazareth, you are
God's Christ. You are that Messiah. You are
that Savior, that one who's come to save his people from their
sins. You are God himself. Bartimaeus
knew that Jesus Christ is God, and that cannot be overstated.
And what did he need? Have mercy on me. Mercy, not
information. Why not information? Because
information wouldn't have done Bartimaeus any good. You could
sit down next to Bartimaeus on the side of that highway where
he's begging. Say, all right, Bartimaeus, here's what you need
to do. Here's how you see. What you do is you open your eyes.
And you look, and there's all these beautiful colors, and all
these beautiful shapes, and these things called trees, and Bardemage
just sits there and shakes his head, says, friend, this isn't
doing me any good. The problem's not information.
I don't need to be told how to see. The problem is I'm blind,
and I can't see. The problem isn't information,
it's ability. I lack the ability. So there's
two things we see about the rich young ruler right off the bat.
Number one, he had no idea who he was coming to. Good master. Had no idea who Jesus Christ
is. It hadn't been revealed to him. And here's the second thing
we can see about him. He came with this statement,
what shall I do? He came on the grounds of salvation
by works. This man came with personal ability. And I tell
you this, if you come to Christ with your own ability, you exclude
yourself from his ability. That's just so. Now, look at
verse 18. This man's going to be met with
a rebuke. And Jesus said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. Now, I love this about the Lord. He never argues with men. It
is absolutely beneath him. Absolutely beneath him. But here's
what he does do. He meets this man on the grounds he comes to
him on. And he applies the principle of if-then. He's saying, if,
to you, in your perception, I'm not God, I'm not the Christ,
I'm not the Savior, if, in your perception, I'm just a teacher
with good information, if that's the case, why would you call
me good? There's none good but God. Now, when you remember back when
the Pharisees would come to the Lord and they'd try to catch
Him up in some sort of lie, they'd concoct these schemes to try to catch
the Lord up in some sort of lie, how would He answer them? What
would He say? Have you never read? He always used the scriptures. Have you never read? What do
the scriptures say about that? And it's the same thing he's
really saying to this rich young ruler here. He's saying, you're
religious, right? Clearly you are. And you have the Old Testament,
right? You've read it. What are you
going to do with Psalm 14.3? They are all gone aside. They
are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. How are you going to deal with
that? How does that fit into your, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? What a rebuke to be met with
the scriptures. Now, for a second, put yourself
in the position of the rich young ruler. No doubt he is reeling
from this rebuke. Why? Because he's young, he's
rich, and he's in a position of authority. And young rich
people in positions of authority don't like rebuke. And so no
doubt he's thinking, this is not going the way I thought it
would. I was expecting to be patted on the back. He came running
to begin with because he thought he was going to get a pat on
the back. You're so good. You've done such a good job. You're
such a moral and ethical individual. I just have high praise for you.
And all of a sudden, he's met with a rebuke. And he thinks, this
is not going the way I thought it would. But notice, the Lord
gives him no opportunity to rethink the way he came. There's no opportunity
for him to say, well, You know, I came this way, and perhaps
this is wrong. Let me try another way. No, the Lord simply continues
to meet this man on the grounds he came to him on. He says, you
came to me on the grounds of what you shall do to inherit
eternal life, the grounds of salvation by works. If you want
to come on those grounds, I'll meet you on those grounds. And
here's what you need to do. Look at verse 19. Thou knowest
the commandments. You want to come on this ground
of salvation by works on what you shall do. Keep the law. That's your command. If you want
to come on those grounds, keep the law. But here's how you keep
it. You keep it in every aspect of your being all the time, every
time. You keep it in every action.
You keep it in every thought and every imagination. You keep
it in all your affections, everything you love. You keep it in all
your intentions and all your motives and you keep it in your
will and you keep it all the time, every time. From the day
you're born to the day you die. If you want to come on these
grounds, that's your commandment. Keep the law. Now, this man's
going to expose his true blindness. Look at verse 20. And he answered and said unto
him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Now this man's
lying. No man has ever kept one law.
One time, not in his heart. Never ever. But you know what?
I don't detect any insincerity in this man. He's lying, but
he doesn't know it. He actually thinks he has kept
the law. Why is that? Because he's blind. He's blind. Now, a moment ago,
we considered Bartimaeus. What was the one thing Bartimaeus
had going for him? He knew he's blind. He knew he had a great
need, and he knew only the Lord Jesus Christ could fulfill his
need. Either Christ was going to do something for him, or he
was going to be lost, and that was the end of it. He had a great
need. That was the one thing Bartimaeus
had going for him. He knew he was blind. But this man's blindness
is different. It's deeper. This man's blind,
but he's so incredibly blind that he doesn't know he's blind.
He doesn't perceive that he has any need. And let me ask this
question. What good is a physician to a man who is not sick? What
good is a Savior to a man who doesn't need saving? To a good
man, to a moral man, to an ethical man who can save himself? None
whatsoever. Now, there are two types of blindness
that are talked about in the Scriptures. There is a good,
God-given blindness, the blindness that is given to every believer.
And there is a bad, a negative, judicial blindness of the natural
man. And I want to show this to you. Turn to John 9 and look
at verse 39. John 9 and verse 39, these are
the two types of blindness. And Jesus said, for judgment
I am coming to this world, that they which see not might see,
and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the
Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto
him, are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, if you
were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say we see,
therefore your sin remaineth." Now here's the good God-given
blindness, the blindness of every believer. If any man stands in
the presence of God and he looks inside himself and he cannot
see any reason in and of himself that the Lord would look favorably
upon him. He is blind to himself. He is
blind to any reason in and of himself that the Lord would look
favorably upon him. You know, that man actually sees.
That man actually sees things for the way they really are.
He's blind to himself, but he sees things for the way they
really are. There are no good merits in us. There are no good
works. Everything we do is sin, and
it's sin simply because it comes from this originating source,
our heart. He sees things for the way they really are, and
he has eyes to see the Lord Jesus Christ. He can see that only
in Christ he can be found acceptable before the Father, only because
of what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished on that cross
through his life and through his death and through his resurrection.
Only in him can he be found acceptable. He is blind to himself, but he
has eyes wide open, looking only to Christ alone. That's a good
God-given blindness, blind to self, but eyes wide open for
Christ. This is the blindness of the natural man, the judicial
blindness of a natural man. If a man stands before God and
he looks inside himself and he can see, he can see good works,
personal merit, personal righteousness. personal ability. If you change
my circumstances just right, I can work up a good work. I
can believe anytime I want. I just have to make the appropriate
decision. A man stands before God and he says, I can see a
reason in and of myself that the Lord will look favorably
upon me. That man's blind. He's stone cold blind. He does
not see things for the way they are. And that man's sin remains. If he sees inside himself good
works, personal merit, that man's sin remains. The man who is blind
to himself, his sin has been taken away. The Lord Jesus Christ
has bore that man's sin on the cross, and it's gone. It truly
has been put away. That man has no sin, but the
man who sees good works inside himself, personal merit, his
sin remains, and he cannot see the Lord Jesus Christ for who
he is. He can't see him in all his wonderful attributes. He
can't perceive his holiness. He can't perceive his sovereignty,
the fact that he's the first cause behind everything. And
everything that's happening is just according to his purpose.
He can't see that he's all-knowing. He's all-knowing because he's
predetermined everything. He's wrote everything down in a book,
and at the end of that book, it says, the end. It's over, and we're
just acting out everything that's written in that book. That's
it. He doesn't know that he's all-powerful. He controls all
things. He creates all things. He creates
by just thinking it and willing it to be in existence. He can't
see Jesus Christ for who He is. A loving Savior, loving so much
that He would lay down His life for His friends. Sinful, evil
people. He cannot see who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. In His eyes, He's just a teacher.
And this man's blindness was the latter. This man could look
inside himself and he could find a reason in and of himself that
the Lord would look favorably upon him, and this man's sin
remained in his own experience right now. Now, look at verse
21. The Lord's going to give this
man the true commandment. Then Jesus beholding him loved
him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest. One thing thou
lackest, what did he mean? Did he mean that because of this
man's seemingly immoral and unethical behavior, he had accomplished
99% of his salvation, he just needed the blood of Christ to
go along with it? We just need to mingle the two.
You know, take your works and take the blood of Christ and
mingle them together, and man, you'll be set for heaven. Is
that what he means? No. Everybody knows that. There is
no mingling of grace and works. Salvation is either all of grace
or if it's all of works. And if you want to come on the
grounds of salvation by works, you are a debtor to do the whole
lot. But if salvation is going to be by grace, it is all of
grace. It's not what he means here. One thing thou lackest.
Now, as a sinner, and through search of the scriptures, I see
that I have a need of much more than one thing. I need many things.
Many, many things. The first thing I thought of
was mercy. What is mercy? Mercy is the Lord not giving
us what we rightfully deserve and what we have rightfully earned.
And I am in great need of that. I have earned to be cut off.
I have earned to be passed by. I have earned, rightfully, to
go to hell. That's what I deserve. And I
need mercy. I need the Lord to not give me
what I rightfully deserve. And I need the polar opposite
of that. I need grace. I need the Lord to freely give
me what I have not earned and what I do not deserve. I need
undeserved favor, free, unmerited favor with God based nothing
on what I have done, only by what the Lord Jesus Christ has
done. I am in great need of mercy and grace. I'm in need of the
forgiveness of my sins. I truly need to have my sins
forgiven. I need the Lord Jesus Christ
to have taken my sins and bore them in his body on that cross.
And I need that to be real. I need the father to have lifted
my sins off of me and put them on him and him actually be punished
for my sense. I need him to have been made
my sin and to be raised upon that cross and the wrath that
the father was dealing out to the son. That was the wrath that
was reserved for me and my sense. And in him, that's when I died
and when I was punished. And when he died and he was resurrected
again, those sins were put away. So far, as far as the East is
from the West, they truly have been put away, and that's what
I need. I need forgiveness for my sins for one chief reason,
because there's nothing left there to forgive. My sins truly
have been put away, and they can never be brought up again,
because the price has been paid. I need that. I need a righteousness. I need a real personal righteousness. I don't have one of my own. I
can't come up with my own righteousness. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. And every believer here knows that. You know, there's
no good that comes from me simply because of the originating source,
because it comes from me. I need a righteousness. I need
the Lord Jesus Christ to have lived for me. Through my union
with him, when he walked those paths of righteousness, I need
those righteousnesses to be my righteousnesses. So much so that
it's real. It really is mine. So when the Father looks at me,
he just sees his darling son. That's what I need, to be found
just acceptable as Jesus Christ is in the eyes of the Father.
That's what I need. I need spiritual life. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. We're born with the old man.
I need a new man. This old heart, there's nothing
you can do with it. You can't change it. You can't reform it.
You can't fix it. There's nothing you're going
to get out of it that's going to be any good, no matter what
you do with it. I need a new heart, and I need a new man.
And I need all the spiritual blessings that accompany spiritual
life. Belief in the truth. Repentance. Love to God. Love for his people. So desperately need all those
things. Now, I just talked about many things we're in need of.
But he says, one thing thou lackest. If you boil all those things
down to one whom, who do you come to? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord says, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father except
by me. That's what he's saying to this
man. He's saying, one thing you lack, you lack me. You lack having
known me. You lack me having done anything
for you. You lack me having revealed myself to you. One thing you
lack. If you go back to verse 21, you
pick up where we left off, he's now going to give this man a
twofold commandment. Then Jesus beholding him loved
him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest. Now here's the
beginning of the twofold commandment. Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.
That's the first part of the twofold command. Here's the second
part. And come, take up the cross, and follow me." Now, what is
this twofold commandment? What is it? Turn to Mark 1 and
look at verse 14. What is this twofold commandment
he's given this man? Mark 1, look at verse 14. Now
after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, the time is fulfilled
and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the
gospel. This is the twofold command that
is issued to every man, woman, and child on the face of the
earth right now. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Now look back in verse 21 of
your text. A twofold command, first of repentance
and the second of faith, belief of the truth. Now what is repentance?
Repentance is a change of mind. I thought one way about something
before, I think the correct way about it now, a change of mind.
It's a change in the way you see things. I saw things in this
light before, the incorrect light. I see things in the correct light
now. It has something to do with turning. You are turning from
one thing to another. When you turn from that first
thing to the other, you are turning your back on that first thing. It is absolutely worthless to
you. Now, this man's problem is that he was rich. He was rich. And we're not talking about physical
riches, money, or lands, or physical possessions. It has nothing to
do with it. This man was rich, and by his own estimation, in
a personal righteousness. Rich in good works. rich in personal
ability and personal merits before God. That's man, this is how
this man sees himself. And here's what the Lord says.
He says, go thy way and sell whatsoever thou hast. Consider
it as nothing. See it for what it actually is.
Change your mind about all these personal righteousness you think
you've stacked up. They're just iniquities. They're just filthy
rags. They're just sins that have to be atoned for. change
your mind about them, see them for what they are, turn your
back on them. They're absolutely worthless.
Think about Bartimaeus. Physically, before Bartimaeus
came to the Lord, what did he do? He shed that filthy garment,
that filthy, stinking beggar's garment he had on That type of
man's personal righteousness, he shed that garment. And he
didn't just gingerly laid it down, it says he cast it aside.
He wanted to get as far away from it as he possibly could
and he turned his back on it and he came to Christ. And that's
what the Lord's calling on this man to do right now, repent.
See yourself for what you actually are. See your personal ability
and your perceived personal righteousness for what it is, change your mind
about it, turn your back on it. That's what he's telling him
to do. If repentance is one side of the coin, the flip side of
the coin is faith. And here's the command of faith.
Come, take up the cross, and follow me. Come. Now, turn to one of my favorite
scriptures, Isaiah 55. Look at verse 1. This call to come is to believe.
Simply all this means, come. Isaiah 55, and look at verse
1. It says, Ho, every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. Folks, if there's nothing else
I can enter into, if there's nothing else I can get in on,
I can get in on Isaiah 55.1, and I'll ask this question. Is
anyone here thirsty? Thirsty. What is thirst? It's
a need. It's a need. You are in need
of something that you do not have. You're thirsty. I'm not
asking how thirsty you are. How acutely you feel your thirst.
But is there anyone here who is in need? Is anybody here a
sinner? Who's in great need of a Savior?
You're unable to save yourself. You're unable to come to Christ
on your own. You're unable to do anything to accomplish your
own salvation. Spiritually dead. how you would
perceive yourself. Anybody here like that? That's
thirsty? Then you come. There's come. You come. You believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's only one prerequisite
for coming. You have to have absolutely nothing. When you
come to the table to receive, you have to have no money to
lay down. You must have no good works to lay down and be like,
this is the reason you should save me. I stockpiled a few good works
here. Here's some personal ability
here. I brought this to the table to kind of attract you to me.
Now, how did Bartimaeus come? Naked, exposed, a beggar, a charity
case, empty-handed, no money. Does that fit anybody's description
here? That's me. I'm a filthy, wretched
sinner in and of myself. That's me. And there is no reason
in and of myself that the Lord would look favorably upon me.
And you know what? That means I'm a candidate for
grace. I'm needy, and I have nothing to buy with. And so he
says, come. Come. Come with nothing, and
freely be given everything. What stands in your way? I tell
you what, folks, it won't be your sins that'll keep you from
coming to Christ. Come to me, all ye who labor and are heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest. It'll be your self-righteousness
that'll keep you from Him. Because the only way you can come is
with absolutely nothing. Come, take up the cross. It's
the second part of the twofold commandment. Take up the cross.
What's the cross? It's the picture, the type of justification. Justification
by the death of a substitute, of another. What's he saying?
Take up the cross. Take your rightful place as a
sinner. And you trust that one hanging on that tree. bleeding
and dying, taking on the sins of His people, His elect in His
body, trusting that His work alone, that finished work alone
is enough and it's everything that makes you holy and blameless
and unapprovable before the Father, Jesus Christ and His finished
work alone. Take up the cross and follow
me. It's the last part of the twofold command. Now how do you
follow somebody? I saw an example of this a couple months ago and
it made me think of this verse of scripture. I was in Walmart
and there was an old blind man there. And he was stone cold
blind, he couldn't see a thing, he had the dark glasses on. And
there was a young man next to him who I perceived to be his
son. This old blind man, he had a death grip on his son's arm. Just a death grip on it. There
was no way you couldn't pry that old man's hand off his son's
arm. It would have been impossible. And you knew, I never spoke to
this man, but you knew exactly what he was thinking. He said,
I'm going to clinch on to this man right here. I am not going
to let him go. I'm going to hold on to him no
matter what. He's going to lead me through this door. We're going
to get him everything we need, and he's going to get me home
safe and sound. But I'm not going to let him go. He's my only hope.
I'm blind. I can't get through here on my
own. I'm going to hold on to him. And that's how we follow
Christ. We hold on to him by faith, trusting
him that he's going to lead us through this life. And he's going
to lead us back to his father, safe and sound, without a scratch
on us, because he's engaged in a covenant where he said, I will
be surety for them at my hand, shall you require them. Come,
take up the cross and follow me." Repentance and faith, that
is the command that the Lord's giving this man. Now, look at
verse 22 and let's see how this man responded to the command. And he was sad at that saying
and went away grieved for he had great possessions. Now, why didn't he do what the
Lord told him to do? Repent ye and believe the gospel. Sounds
relatively simple. Why wouldn't he do it? Well,
look at verses 26 and 27 of the same text. And they were astonished
out of measure, this is the disciples, saying among themselves, who
then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith,
with men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all
things are possible. Why didn't this man obey the
command? Well, number one, because it's impossible. Has something
to do with John 644, no man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me. Draw him. No man can. By nature,
we lack the ability to repent and believe. No man can change
his own mind. No man can change the way he
sees things. And no man can turn his back on his own possessions.
He lacks the ability by nature. He should. He is commanded to.
And yet, he can't. No man can come to me. He can't
muster faith. Man says, I can believe anytime
I want. This gospel, it'll do me some good one day, and I'll
make a decision to believe, and that'll be fine. No, you can't.
And that's one of the first things you learn when the Lord saves
you in your experience. You find that you can't believe,
and you can't trust Christ, that you lack the ability, that you
have no personal ability. No man can come to me. That's
the first part. We cannot by nature. There's something greater. It has something to do with John
540. And ye will not come to me. You will not come to me that
you might have life. We are unwilling to repent and
unwilling to believe. By nature, we don't want to.
That's every natural man. We are unwilling. Now, let me
give you an example of this. Why? Why is that the case? Why
are we naturally unwilling? Look back at verse 19 of your
text. Lord says, thou knowest the commandments, but then he
lists specific commandments, right? And he addresses the second
table of the law. Now, I don't know anything about theology,
nothing, but I've had this explained to me. As I understand it, theology
breaks the law into two tables. The first table, it defines perfection
of interaction between God and man, and it's categorized by
the first four commandments. So, thou shalt have no other
gods before me. Thou shalt have no idols, no taking the Lord's
name in vain, honor the Sabbath to keep it holy. The first four
commandments governs perfection of interaction between God and
man. The next six commandments govern perfection of interaction
between men. And that's what the Lord is listing here in verse
19. Let's go on and look at them. Thou knowest the commandments,
do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear
false witness, defraud not, which is actually a precept, honor
thy father and thy mother." Now, out of the second table of law,
which one was left out? Anybody catch it? Thou shalt
not covet. He names all the rest of them,
the whole second table of law, but he leaves out this one, thou
shalt not covet. Now, that should grab our attention.
The fact that the Lord would leave out this one, why would
he draw this to our attention? Why would we be drawn to that? For this reason. Covetousness
is the beginning or the essence of every other sin. All other
law-breaking has something to do with covetousness. And we
can look at the garden as our example. So back in the garden,
Satan is speaking with Eve. And what's the lie he uses to
beguile her? What does he say? He says, you
shall be as gods, right? And you'll know good from evil,
right? What's he saying there? He's
saying, so right now, you're upright and you're innocent.
And you're doing what is upright and innocent, but you're just
acting out according to your nature. That's it. You're just
acting according to your nature. You're not making any choices.
There's no moral virtue in what you're doing. You're just acting
according to your nature. But if you eat this fruit, your eyes
will be open. You'll be your own god. You'll
be a free agent. And what you can do, you can
start choosing the good over the evil. And there will be moral
virtue in you choosing the good over the evil. And they start
thinking, they're like, you know, These angels flying around here,
they're always praising the name of the Lord, constantly singing
songs to praise his name. But maybe if we eat this fruit
and we start choosing the good over the evil, maybe they'll
start singing our name. Covetousness. They wanted to
be their own God. They wanted the place of God. They wanted glory for themselves. That's where the essence of every
other sin begins. And I'll tell you what, this
thing of who's going to get the glory, this has been the question. It's
been the sticking point with men as long as men have been
around. And that's why if you preach the gospel, the true gospel
of God's free grace to the natural man, he will reject it every
single time. Because if salvation's by grace, that means there's
one man who's going to get all the glory, and that is the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. And every one of his elect, his
people, are just going to be trophies of his power and his grace, and
that's it. And man's not going to get any
glory. And the natural man says, I won't have that man reign over
me. I will not have a salvation or I will get no glory. I will
not turn my back on my possessions. You will not come to me. Covetous
people by nature. But thank the Lord, our natural
inability and our natural unwillingness is no match for his omnipotence. Look if you would back at verse
21 of our text. Then Jesus beholding him loved
him. What does that mean? What do we get from that? What
can we take away from that? God loved this man. No uncertain
terms he says that. What does that mean? That means
this man would be back. absolutely no doubt this man
will be back because it says God loved this man. And if God
could love a man and Christ could die for a man and a man could
end up in hell anyways, what good would be the love of God? God doesn't love everybody. You
know what? He does not love everybody and
Christ didn't die for everybody, but those the Father does love
for whom he did foreknow. Then He also did predestinate.
Those He foreknew, He foreloved. Those the Father loved, He gave
to Christ that He would accomplish their salvation. He would bring
them back to the Father without a scratch on them. Any man who
God loves cannot perish. It's impossible. I'm more convinced
of this man's salvation than I am my own, simply because it
says in no uncertain terms, God loved this man. Now, at some
point, this man will be back, maybe not physically, but certainly
in his heart. At God's appointed time, he would send the Spirit
to blow upon this man, to enter this man's heart. And this man,
before, he looked down and he saw that garment of personal
righteousness, and he saw it glowing and white and beautiful.
And all of a sudden, he looks down now, as soon as the Lord
hits him with the Spirit, and all of a sudden, it's filthy.
And it's disgusting. And it's covered in blood and
filth. And he's tugging at it and trying to get out of it as
fast as he possibly can, casting it away just like Bartimaeus.
No doubt, absolutely no doubt, he would see his righteousness
for what it actually is. There was nothing he would finally,
the scales would fall off his eyes. And he would see, not a
teacher this time, but his God and his Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. In all his wonderful attributes, he came running before. He'd come sprinting now. He came
kneeling before. He would come face down in the
dirt this time in the worship of a sovereign God. I have no
doubt about that because it says God loved this man. Now, in close. For all the old believers here,
those of you who've been here for many years, trusting the
Lord day in, day out, I hope this message has been somewhat
of a blessing to you, that you know that first way you came
as nothing, as a charity case, empty, naked, and exposed, a
mercy beggar, you keep on coming just the way you did that first
time, with nothing, and you will freely be given everything. Come
to Christ, come today. to whom coming. I also want to
address a second demographic. Anyone who may be, in the case
of this rich young ruler, you came first to a teacher. You
came seeking information, saying, what shall I do? And you went
away grieved because you would not part with your possessions,
your personal righteousness. I would ask you this. What about
right now? How do you see him right now?
Can you see that they're all filthy rags? Just iniquities,
sins that have to be atoned for. Tell you what, if you can, here's
your command. Come. You take up the cross and
you follow Christ. That is your command and you
do it right now. I'm gonna stop there. Thank you
all.