Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 84. Hymn number 84. Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set Thy people free. From our fears and sins release
us, let us find our rest in Thee. Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth award. Dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart. Born thy people to deliver, born
a child and yet a king, born to reign in us, ? Now thy gracious
kingdom bring ? By thine own eternal spirit ? Rule in all
our hearts, O Lord ? By thine all-sufficient merit ? Raise
us to thy glorious throne be seated we'll sing hymn number
296 296 All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy? Who through life has been my
guide Heavenly peace, divinest comfort Here by faith in Him
to dwell For I know whate'er befall me Jesus doeth all things
well ? For I know on every falling ? Jesus doeth all things well
? All the way my Savior leads me ? Cheers each winding path
I tread ? Gives me grace for every trial Feeds me with the
living bread Though my weary steps may falter And my soul
a thirst may be Gushing from the rock before me Lo, a spring
of joy I see Gushing from the rock before me Blew a spring
of joy I see All the way my Savior leads me O the fullness of His
love Perfect rest to me is promised in my Father's house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song through endless
ages, Jesus, let me all the This my song through endless ages. Jesus led me all the way. Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter
10. Got this on. Start reading in verse 17. Down to verse 30. 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 our Lord said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? None good but one, God. Thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do ne'er
by false witness defraud not, honor thy father and thy 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, 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 hardly shall they that have riches enter
into the kingdom of God. And the disciples were astonished
at his words. But Jesus answered again, and
saith unto them, Children, how hard it is for them that trust
in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. It is 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. Then Peter began to say unto
him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. Our Lord
answered and said unto them, very verily I say unto you, there
is no man that hath loved house, or brethren, or sisters, or father,
or mother, or wife, and children, or lands for my sake and the
gospels. But he shall receive a hundredfold,
now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers,
and children, and lands with persecutions, and in the world
to come, eternal life. Our blessed God of all grace,
our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever, to him that loved us and gave
himself for us, redeemed us by his precious blood,
called us to himself. Oh, Lord, we come to praise and
bless your holy name. Who is a God unlike unto thee? Lord, salvation that's impossible
with men is not with you. So Lord, we ask that you'd cause
the gospel to run well here today. May it run in power, in liberty,
truth, honesty, And may it be pure,
God-honoring, Christ-exalting. And Lord, we pray for this congregation,
Lord, that you'd have mercy upon it, that you'd cause it to grow,
that you'd cause it to flourish, that you'd enlarge the tents
of this body of believers. And we pray for those who have
never yet believed that you and your sovereign mercy Lord, you
said you'd have compassion on whom you'd have compassion, have
mercy on whom you'll have mercy. So Lord, we ask that there may
be someone here that you'll have mercy on, that you'll be gracious
to, that you'll open a heart, open understanding, make them
see their great, great, great, great need of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Lord, we pray for those who
are troubled, have troubled, going through things in their
mind, in their heart, in their homes, we ask for your great
and abundant mercy. We know your grace is sufficient.
And we ask, Lord Jesus, that of all things that you do for
us, keep us from ourselves, keep us from trusting ourselves, keep
us from hurt, harm, and danger. Save us, oh Lord, and we'll be
saved. Keep us and we'll be kept. Turn
us and we'll be turned. Uphold us and we'll be upheld.
We bless you in Christ's holy name, amen. Let's stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. We cannot help but praise Him,
our God who came in flesh. He's perfect and almighty, our
Lord, our righteousness be. The Lord of hosts is His name. The great and mighty God Who's
mindful of poor sinners Redeeming with His blood The one who dwells
eternal Has love without an end Our God of love came to us to
bear our awful sin. Our Savior and Deliverer, the
sinless Lord is He. ? For our sins on the cross ? In
love to set us free ? He is the Lord of glory ? He is the King
of kings ? He sits on high on his throne ? By grace He secured
all things ? For those He calls to Himself ? His mercy He makes
known ? He is the Rock of Ages ? His glory they now own Worthy
the lamb that was slain will be the song we sing. Multitudes from all nations will
join our song to bring. ? Worship and praise to Jesus
? ? Creator of all things ? ? The Lamb's righteousness will reign
? ? Throughout eternity ? Be seated. ? Sleep over my soul ? Sweet spirit
? Sleep over my soul ? My joy is complete ? When I sit at his
feet I hope you're still in Mark chapter
10. You know, last week, our Lord,
the parents brought young infants to Him, young children to Him,
and asked Him to bless them, asked our Lord to bless them.
Well, He took them up in their arms, and those disciples, they
tried to rebuke the parents, don't you dare bring those children
to the Lord. And our Lord was much, much displeased
with them. He said, You allow these children,
You allow these infants to be brought to Me, for such is the
kingdom of God, the kingdom of God of children, little children,
not a bunch of know-it-alls, not a bunch of intellectuals
or philosophers, but children, people that can't do nothing
for themselves, don't know nothing in themselves. And you know,
Paul said he was nothing, knew nothing. And when we become nothing,
Christ becomes everything. And when we don't know, when
we know we don't know nothing, then Christ will be able to teach
us. But that's men's problem, they know too much, they know
too much. But our Lord said, you know,
you received the kingdom of God as a little child. And he lifted
those children up in his arms and he blessed them. And He is
showing us the importance of our children's souls. Children's
souls. It's sad that a lot of people
believe that you got to get to the age of accountability, 12
or 13 or whatever it is. But there's no age of accountability. There's no such thing. Our Lord's
showing us how important children are, infants are. And I believe
that if you're carrying a child in your womb and if you're one
of God's elect and you know the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe
you start praying for them before they're ever born, before they're
ever born. And you know that you're bringing
a living eternal soul into this world. And our Lord said, don't
you dare suffer these children not to come to me. You know,
children aren't to be ignored. They're to be taught, they're
to be instructed, and most of all, bring them to the Lord Jesus
Christ, bring them to Christ, for as such is the kingdom of
God. How does a child receive the kingdom of God? Well, first
of all, first of all, a child or an infant don't know anything. They certainly don't know nothing
about working. THEY CERTAINLY DON'T KNOW NOTHING ABOUT PAYING
FOR THEIR SALVATION. THEY CERTAINLY DON'T KNOW NOTHING
ABOUT FREE WILL. THEY CERTAINLY DON'T KNOW NOTHING
ABOUT AN ALTAR. THEY CERTAINLY DON'T KNOW NOTHING
ABOUT MAKING A DECISION. THEY KNOW EVERYTHING THAT THEY
GOT HAS TO BE GIVEN TO THEM, AND THAT'S WHAT OUR LORD'S TALKING.
BUT NOW IT SAYS HERE IN VERSE 17, OUR LORD LEFT THAT HOUSE
WHERE HE WAS WITH THOSE CHILDREN, AND HE WAS IN A HOUSE WHEN THEY
STARTED DOING THAT. And he was going forth, he left
that house and went out into the way. I don't know if going
down the street, down through the village, whatever. He went
out into the way, and when he come out into the way, there
comes a man, a young man. And as he went into the way,
there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, saying,
Good Master, what shall we do that I may inherit eternal life?
Now this same thing is in Matthew chapter 19, verses 16 through
26. It s in Luke also in chapter
8, and in Luke he s called a rich, young ruler. He s called a rich-rung
ruler over there. So he s a very wealthy man, young
man, young man, but he s also a ruler. He s got some authority.
In Israel, he s a very, very wealthy man. And here s the thing
about it, it says here that this fella come running, come running. He was dead earnest, he was really
interested in coming to Christ. He come running. He didn t just
walk up, chew on his blowgum, switch from one side of his jaw
to the other. He wasn t doing that. he come
running to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then when he got there, he
kneeled down. He kneeled before the Lord Jesus
Christ. So this fellow, he s a ruler,
and here he comes running, he comes kneeling, and he come to
the right person, come to the right person, and did everything
that he possibly could, and then the first thing he said, and
he asked him, Good Master, Good Master, What shall I do? I do that I may inherit eternal
life. He KNEW that there was eternal
life. He BELIEVED that there was eternal life, but how do
I GET it? That's what he was interested
in. How do I get it? How do I inherit it? And in one
place he said over there, he said, What good THING? In Luke
18 he says, What good THING must I do? What good THING must I
do? So here's a ruler. Here s a wealthy
young man, and he s running, he s kneeling, he s doing something
that church preachers would love to see folks doing. Come running!
Come running to Christ! Bow down before Christ! And that
s what this fella did. That s what he did. But oh, how
ignorant he was, how spiritually ignorant he was, what spiritual
darkness he was in. He was wanted to do something,
wanted to do something, wanted to do some good thing so He could
be saved. But I want you to notice the
first thing He s ignorant of. He s ignorant of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, Good Master. He called Good Master means that
you re a good teacher. That s the way Nicodemus came
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to the Lord Jesus by
night and said, WE KNOW THAT OUR TEACHER, A TEACHER SITS FROM
GOD, AND THAT'S WHAT THIS MAN SAID, YOU'RE A GOOD MASTER, YOU'RE
A GOOD TEACHER, WE THINK YOU'RE A GREAT TEACHER, YOU'RE A GOOD
TEACHER. HE HAD SUCH SUPERVITIAL VIEWS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. And I tell you what, if you get
the wrong views of Christ and the wrong views of who you are,
there's no hope of salvation for you, I'm telling you that.
And that's the way this fellow was. He had such superficial
views of the Lord Jesus Christ. Good teacher, good master. And
oh, he didn't know what good was. He didn't have a clue what
good was. And that's why he said, What
shall I do? And that's one thing people wonder, what shall I do?
I don't know how many times people ask me, what do I need to do
to be saved? What do I need to do? Over the
years, how many people's come to me and said that? And you
try to tell them, you try to tell them. And our Lord answered
him, he said, oh my, how did our Lord deal with his ignorance?
Oh, he didn t believe he was absolutely good. He didn t believe
Christ was good. He didn t believe Christ was
God. He had such superficial views of Him. If he had known
who Christ was, he would have called Him Good Lord. He would
have said, Lord, You re the God of heaven and earth. You re the
Creator of all things. But he said, You re just a good
teacher. Well, how did our Lord deal with his ignorance? Look
what he said, Why callest thou me good? Why are you calling
me good? If I'm just a man, if I'm just
a teacher, why in the world are you calling me good? Why are
you calling ME good? Only GOD is good, and what he's
saying is, is either you've got to acknowledge me as God, or
else God HIMSELF is good. And God IS good! Nahum says,
God is good! And I tell you, God's good! There's
not a soul on this Earth that'll ever be able to say that God
mistreated me, that God wasn't good to me. It's because Him
we live, move, and have our being! He's the one that gives us RAIN.
He's the one that gives us HEALTH. He's the one that gives us a
sound MIND. And I don't care whether you're saved or lost,
God is good! I mean, He's good to you. He
let you get out of bed this morning with some SENSE in your brain.
You know how many people that's not like that? He's good to you
to let you come hear the gospel. God is good! I mean, He's good
whether you're up, whether you're down, whether you're black or
whether you're white, whether you're Chinese or whether you're
an Indian, don't make no difference, God is good to everybody! He causes the rain to fall on
the just and the unjust. And I tell you, God is good!
I tell you, He's good to give us life, give us life! He s good to PURPOSE salvation. If had not God purposed salvation,
who would be saved? And oh, God is good to SAVE! Oh, He s the only one that can
save! And if you believe in God, only God is good, and that s
what our Lord said. Why are you calling ME good?
Why are you calling ME good? If I m just a man, I m just a
good teacher, why are you calling ME good? Why are you calling
me good? And oh my, and he wanted to know,
he wanted to know how to inherit eternal life. How am I going
to be saved? He wanted to be saved. He said,
I want to be saved. What good thing must I do? Well,
our Lord said, if you want to be saved by doing, what shall
I do? If you want to be saved by doing,
I'm going to tell you what you have to do. I'm going to tell
you what you have to do. He said, Thou knowest. He said,
There are some things you do know. There are some things you
know. There are some things you know.
You know that? There are some things that you know. You know! And He said, This is what you
know. You know the commandments. You know the commandments. And
our Lord in these commandments here, these commandments was
only the commandments that relates man's relationship to man. The
first tables of stone has to do with man s relationship with
God. Love the Lord thy God and Him
only. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Have no gods before me. Don t make no image of me. And
then these six things that he said here, they have to do with
man s relationship with man. And that s the first thing he
says, Don t commit adultery! Don t do that! Don't commit adultery. Do not kill. Don't you kill nobody. Don't you get a gun, shoot nobody.
Don't get a knife and stab nobody. Don't get a club and beat somebody
to death. Don't do that. And you know these
things. He said, you already know that.
And whatever you do, don't you steal anything from anybody.
If you see something don't belong to you, you leave it alone. If
it don't belong to you, leave it alone. Leave it alone. And then he says, don't you tell
a lie. Don't you bear false witness. Do not tell a lie. Don't never
tell a lie. People say, well, it's a white
lie. There's no such thing. A lie is a lie. Does a man become
a liar when he tells a lie or is he a liar because he was born
a liar? Man don't become what he is because of what he does.
He does what he does because of what he is. And oh, he said,
now don't tell no lies. Don't tell no lies. And then
that defraud, that means don't try to talk somebody out of something
and lie about it and manipulate people to get what you want from
them. Don't defraud them. Don't present
anything in a way that's not honest to get something by honesty. Don't defraud them. Don't defraud
them. And oh, he said, in honor of
your father and your mother. Oh my, you wanna be saved by
doing? You wanna be saved by the commandments?
You wanna get saved by keeping the law? You wanna get saved
by doing things and doing something for God? Well, I tell you what,
if you wanna do something for God, you know how, look in Leviticus
22. Look in Leviticus 22. I won't
even quote it to you, I'll just show it to you. Look in verse 21, this is what God said now, this
is what, this is law, this is law. Whosoever offer a sacrifice of
peace offerings, that's what this fellow wanted, he wanted
peace. To the Lord to accomplish his vow, what should I do to
inherit eternal life? or a freewill offering in beefs
or sheep, listen to this, it shall be perfect to be accepted,
no blemish in it. You want God to accept you? Get
you some perfection. How good do you have to be? As
good as God. How holy do you have to be? As
holy as God. How righteous do you have to
be? As righteous as God. And I tell you James chapter
2 says this, If thou offend, cause to stumble, and you stumble
over one law, if you keep the WHOLE LAW, and you stumble or
offend over one point of that law, like these six here, if
you was to commit adultery, if you was to tell a lie, If you
sometimes rebelled against your mom and dad, said, listen, I'm
so sick of you bossing me around, I can't wait till I get out of
this house. Just do that, that's all it takes. You done broke
the law, and you've already offended God, and God's gonna have to
deal with you for breaking that law. Huh? Oh my. Look down there in verse,
oh, I tell you, this is what's so sad about people. You know
how many people want to be saved by doing? Huh? How many people want to be saved
by doing? How many people think that they,
everybody, listen, I'm gonna see so-and-so when I get to heaven.
I'm gonna see this when I get to heaven. I know so-and-so's
in heaven now. Have a heavenly, have a, you
know, people that's died, you see them, they say, have a happily
heavenly birthday. There's not birthdays in, don't
have birthdays in heaven. Birthdays is for here, not there. There's no birthdays there. Who in the world wants a birthday
when you get to glory? I don't even like them here.
I don't want no more here. I don't
want no more cakes. I don't want no more ice cream. They make a lot of birthdays
here, but I'll tell you, there ain't no birthdays up there. You can go to your mama's grave
or anybody else. If they're not in glory, and
even anybody you love, their body's still there. But this
fellow wanted to know, what in the world can I do to be saved? Oh, I tell you, people want to,
the first thing they want to ask you is, it says, the first
thing they want to ask you is, do you believe I'm saved? That's
not for me to judge. Only God can do that. Only God
can make a person know whether they know the Lord or not. I
can't make a person, either gospel will put you in Christ or the
gospel put you out of Christ. The gospel will give you hope
in Christ or the gospel will leave you without hope without
Christ. And oh my, and I tell you what, you know it has to
be perfect to be accepted. But oh, look how ignorant this
man, not only is he ignorant of Christ and has superficial
views of Christ, but look what else he goes on to say. And he
answered and said unto him, master, still calling him master, still
calling him a teacher. I've done this since I was a
boy. I've done this since I was a boy. I accepted Jesus when
I was seven years old. He said, I've done this since
I was a boy. In one place there he says, I've kept the commandments
since I was young. Now some people, and I started
to get out all the information I have on this, a lot of people
think this was Saul of Tarsus. And that may be why he hated
Christ so much because of how Christ dealt with him. But he
wanted to know how to enter eternal life, and our Lord said, if you
want to be saved, but look how ignorant he is of the law. I've
done this. I've done this, I've kept it.
I've kept it. I've kept it. I wonder how many, and I'm gonna
talk about myself now. There's not one commandment that
God has, not one precept in his book that I haven't broken. Not just broke it, I mean shattered
it. Not one. Not one. To love the Lord thy God with
all your heart? I haven't. Lie? Oh my goodness. I've told more lies than, oh
it's unbelievable how many lies I've told in my lifetime. And I tell you this, see the
law is spiritual. It's a spiritual thing. It deals
with your motives, why you do what you do. And here the law,
this guy said, look, I've kept these things. I've not done any
of these things. Not done any of these things.
Oh my. Oh how spiritually blind he is.
And I tell you, have you ever heard Anyone with more darkness
and self-ignorance than this man right here. Well, there's
a lot of people. Look with me. I think it's Psalm
51. Look in Psalm 51. Let me show
you Psalm 51. Look over here what David said. Psalm 51. Oh my. He could have known rightly
about himself, but he didn't. Look what David said here, Psalm
51, verse five. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Lord, or behold, you desire
truth in the inward part, in the heart, and in the hidden
part, shalt thou make me to know wisdom. It's inside, it's in
the heart. And when it says here we're shaping
in iniquity, that means that when he was born, when he was
in his mother's womb, he was just like his mama. Can a clean
thing come out of an unclean? And he was shaped, what it means
was that I was born a sinner, I was a sinner in my mother's
womb, I come from my mother's womb, and I was conceived in
sin. When I come from my mother's
womb, I had Adam sin to my count And that's what he's saying there
he said he's not he didn't say my mother was I was born out
of wedlock That's not what he's saying That's not what he's saying
at all. He says I come from my mother's
womb a sinner. I And that's what folks don't understand.
They don't understand. People say, well, I don't want
to be lost. You was born lost, you was born in sin and shaping
in iniquity. And if God don't have mercy on
you all the days of your life, I feel sorry for you. But oh
my, this man, he could have known this. He could have known this.
But oh my. HE COULD NOT BECAUSE OF HIS IGNORANCE,
BECAUSE OF LOOKING AT THE LAW, HE COULD HAVE KNOWN NOTHING RIGHTLY
ABOUT HIMSELF. HE CERTAINLY DIDN'T KNOW NOTHING
ABOUT GOD, AND HE CERTAINLY DIDN'T KNOW NOTHING ABOUT GOD'S LAW.
YOU KNOW WHAT THE ABSOLUTE STANDARD OF GOODNESS IS? GOD. YOU KNOW WHAT THE ABSOLUTE
STANDARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS? And the law requires, if the
law required life, the scripture says then there would have been
a law that could have given life. But here's the thing, if man
could be saved by doing, if man could be saved by doing, tell
me why God put Christ on a cross and caused him to suffer, caused
him to bleed, and then turn around and look to you for something
besides him? Oh, that's why Paul said, I ain't
gonna make void the grace of God. I'm not gonna make it void.
I'm not gonna make it useless. I'm not gonna make it empty.
I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna frustrate grace.
I'm not gonna do it. No, no. God confronts him with
the law. And you know what the scripture
says, what the law was given for? You know what the law was
given for? To make, give the knowledge of
sin. That's what it says. Look, I
think it's in Romans chapter 3. I think if you'll look in
Romans 3, I can show you that. Yes, yep. And now he said, thou knowest,
our Lord told that young man, said, thou knowest, you know
these things. I know you know these things.
But look what he said here in Romans 3, 19. Now we know, and
we know some things here. We know this. that whatsoever
thing the law saith, and that's what he just did, he used the
law. The law saith don't steal, don't
commit adultery, don't lie, don't bear false witness, honor your
father and your mother. The law said that. It saith them
that are under the law. Why? That everybody shut their
mouth. When you're facing God's law,
your mouth is shut up. And everybody's guilty or condemned
before God, subject to the judgment of God. Now listen to this, and
that fellow said, all these I've done from my youth up. He said,
therefore by the deeds of the law, by the, you say you've done
this since you was a boy? Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. Listen to this,
for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Paul said, I had not
known sin, but the law said. The law said. The law said, and
oh, my, Christ confronts him WITH the law. How can a man be
saved from this ignorance? Job said, I heard about you.
Now, I mean Job went, there was forty four chapters, I believe, of
Job, 44 chapters, and then the 42nd chapter, they d been talking
about God and His greatness and His glory and all that until
they got down to Job 42.4, and Job said, I heard about you.
Oh, we ve been talking about you forever and ever. I got all
these friends of mine talking about God. Oh, how loving he is, how much
he loves everybody. And I tell you how much Jesus
loves him and died for him. But he said, I heard about you
with my ear, but when my eye saw you, when you showed me yourself,
when I saw you, I said, oh, I abhor myself. As long as you're looking at
yourself, you'll be all right. But when you see Him, I abhor
myself. And I repent. I change my mind
about myself. I change my mind about sin. I change my mind about God. I
change my mind about righteousness. I save my mind about holiness. My mind has been changed. That's
what repentance is. And I'm gonna get down here in
the dust and the ashes. That's the only place that I've
got, it's my rightful place. And oh my, and I tell you, that's
why Paul says, you know, he said, the law's spiritual, but I'm
carnal. I'm a carnal man. And I'm sold under sin. And that's
why he said, oh, wretched man that I am, what am I gonna do? He said, what I would do, I don't. What I would do, I don't. What I wouldn't do, I do. What
in the world's the matter with me? With my heart, my mind, my
soul, I serve God Almighty, but with this flesh, sin, sin, sin,
sin. And oh my, and that's a struggle
for believers. Only believers understand what
it is to have that struggle with flesh and spirit. Only believers
understand what it is to know you're complete in Christ and
you still have this trouble with this old rotten flesh. And if
you ain't got trouble with your flesh, that's because you ain't
got two natures. Oh my. Sorriest fellow in this
building this morning is the preacher I'm telling you the truth. I'm
not making it up and I'm not trying to be pies. I Know if God Almighty does it
save me and keep me safe. There's no hope for me or nobody.
I just know hope But oh my and he said oh my and you know over
Over in Matthew, look what our Lord tells him. Now, we won't
go to Matthew, but look back here in Mark 10. He said, oh,
master, I've done all these things, in verse 20, since I was a boy,
from my youth. And this is, and I'll deal with
this later, but then Jesus behold him, beholding him, look what
it said, loved him, loved him. That's why I think it's probably
Apostle Paul. That's why probably Saul of Tarsus
is who this was. I've got a whole list of things
that shows that he might very well may be him. But anyway,
in one place he asks the Lord Jesus, he says, what lack I yet? What lack I yet? Jesus behold
him loving, said unto him, one thing thou lackest. You know
there was three questions, three questions that were asked to
this young man. He come over in one place, he
said, what good thing must I do? And in another place he said,
what lack I yet? What lack I yet? And then they
asked, who then can be saved? Those three questions. And so
our Lord looks at him and says this, Jesus in verse 21, beholding
him, loved him and said unto him, one thing thou lackest. One, one thing, what is it? Go thy way, you go, you leave
me, you leave and go on and sell whatsoever you have. And then
everything, when you get all your money together and you've
got it all sold, I want you to take it and go to all the poor
folks in town, I want you to go to the next village and everybody
you find poor, I want you to give it away, I want you to give
it away. Sell everything, when you get
all your money together, You get your money together and you
start going out and you give it away. I want you to find poor
people and give it to them, give it to them, give it to them. And look what our Lord said,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, treasure in heaven. Now what does he mean thou shalt
have treasure in heaven? Our Lord said where your heart
is, that's where your treasure is. Look over, keep Mark chapter
10. Look in Matthew chapter six.
Look in Matthew chapter six. What he's talking about is you
know you're not putting up, you know when you do good works or
something, you're not adding to your mansion in glory. What
he's saying is that where your heart is, your treasure is. Your
treasure's on this earth. He said, your treasure's in your
money. Your treasure's in what you possess, and you got great
possessions. He said, that money, you know,
instead of you having money, money has you. And so what he
says, you give that and give that away to poor, and then you'll
find out where your true treasure is, where your true riches are,
where the treasure really is laid up for you in heaven. And
look what our Lord said here in Matthew 6, 19. And lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth. And that's exactly what this
young fellow was doing. Where moth, moth and rust doth
corrupt, and then not only that, but they'll break into your house
and steal what you got, steal what you got. And look what he
goes on to say. But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven. where moth or rust, it can't
corrupt that. And there's not a thief that
can get there and steal it and break through a steal. And this
is the key to it right here. For where your treasure is, that's
where your heart's gonna be. If your treasure is Christ and
grace and salvation, And Christ is all, and you're
complete in Christ, that's where your heart's gonna be. If your
treasure's on this earth, and in your money, and in your bank
accounts, and how much you got, and how much you possess, and
what you're gonna do with it, that's your treasure's on this
earth, that's where your treasures are. And he said, your heart's
on this earth, and the things of the earth, or else your heart's
in heaven, and the things of Christ. And I'll tell you what,
and he didn't give you no options. Don't give you no options. And
he didn't give this fella no option. He didn't give him no
option. He gonna do what Christ says.
But now look what our Lord told him now. Oh, you know, let me
tell you something. There were a lot of wealthy,
wealthy men in the scriptures. And not one of them was told
to do this. Abraham was a wealthy man. He had hundreds of servants. He had hundreds of servants.
You know, when they took Lot and went down there and took
Lot and all of his possessions, Abraham went back and he fought
against five kings with 300 servants. And he took Lot and all his treasures
back, and the king of Sodom said, listen, listen, I'm gonna give
you all this money, and I'm gonna give you all this power. You
know what Abraham did? He lifted his hands. He said,
I'll take not a shoelace from you. He lifted his hand to God
and said, for God has already blessed me, and I don't need
a thing in the world from the world, you or nobody else. Church, you don't have to go
to the world to get anything. And that's what Abraham said,
I don't want a thing in the world you got. Nothing, and oh my,
and then, you know, Joseph of Arimathea, he was a wealthy man.
And he went and said, he got Christ's body and put it in his
grave. Nobody was much wealthier than Jacob, but God never told
him, said, now, fellas, give it up. Never told him. But this
fella right here, he wanted to be saved, but do it. Christ met
him right where he wanted to be saved and pointed to his point
of rebellion. And Christ will either cross
your path and meet you at your point of rebellion and break
you right there, or else, but oh my, and then look what He
says to him back over here in our text. He said, and come, and come. Take up your cross. You know
what a cross represents? Death. Denying self represents
death. Take up your cross. Cape up that
death. Take up that death to self. Crucify
yourself. Take up this cross. Take it up. And listen to this. And you follow me. Follow me. Follow me. And if you follow somebody, if
you look at the ground, you'll miss them. You've got to keep
your eye on them. And that's why he said, you keep your eye
on me. And oh my, and oh, look at his reaction now. Look at
how this poor old, look at how, in one place it said he was sorrowful,
so sorrowful. But here it said he was sad,
sad at that saying. Oh, he was so sad. He wasn't
sad that he missed Christ. He wasn't sad that he didn't
keep the law. He wasn't sad because he isn't
saved. He's not sad because he didn't
know the law. He's not sad because he didn't
know who Christ was. He was sad because of the requirement
to be saved, to give up his will, and he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't
do it. And look what else it says about, he went away grieved.
He grieved over that. He grieved over that. I know
of two instances, listen to me while I'm gonna tell you. A neighbor of mine got sick and
was dying, and he collected knives, and
oh, he had a collection of knives and had them all in these boxes
and things, and arrowheads and all that, laid in his living
room, and he said, bring me all my knives, I wanna look at them.
Bring my boxes and bring all those that was in these glass
cases. Bring them. I want to look at them one last
time. And another fella down in Grassy
Cove, he had a big, big herd of black
cattle. laying on his deathbed, said,
bring all my cattle up here so I can look out the wind and see
them. I want to look at them one last time. Grieved, he went away grieved,
grieving, grieving, grieving. This one thing to grieve over
a lost loved one, but grieve over money? Grieve over possessions? Grieve over somebody dying, grieve
over somebody sick, grieve over a doctor giving you bad news,
but don't grieve over possessions. And I'll take up your cross and
follow me. But oh, he went away grieved.
And this is what he said, for he had great, great possessions. Well, that was his right hand
sin, and that was his right eye sin. That's what these were. Right eye sin and right hand
sin. He wasn't gonna give them up. And then, oh, Jesus having
behold him, loved him. But look what he says, our Lord
says now. And Jesus looked round about, I hope I'm not taking
too long. Jesus looked round about. He
looked round everybody. Looked around, looked at everybody.
How sad this fellow was, how grieved he was. And our Lord
looked at his disciples, says to his disciples, HOW HARDLY
SHALL THEY THAT HAVE RICHES ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD." HE
SAID THEY COULDN'T, HE DIDN'T SAY THEY COULDN'T, HE SAID HOW
HARD IT IS FOR THEM TO DO IT. AND LOOK AT HOW HIS DISCIPLES
REACTED TO THAT. OH, LOOK AT HOW HIS DISCIPLES
REACTED TO THAT. AND THE DISCIPLES WERE ASTONISHED
AT HIS WORDS, ASTONISHED AT HIS WORDS. Astonished at what Christ
just taught this fellow, while Christ dealt with this man. And
our Lord answered him again, said unto him, children, how
hard is it for them that, now he really nails it down right
here, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter
the kingdom of God? If you trust in riches, that
was the key to it. Abraham had wealthy, wealthy
men, but he trusted God, he believed God. That's the difference. And
oh my, and he's teaching his, it said, them that trust in riches
to enter into the kingdom of God. It's how easy it is. And
then our Lord goes on to teach this. He said, it's easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man
to enter in the kingdom of God. Now I've heard fellas say that
that eye of a needle's a little old door and the camel has to
kneel down to get in there. That's not what our Lord's talking
about. He's actually talking about a needle. A needle. And I mean there's
some big, big needles in this world. But he said it'd be easy
for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle for a rich man
to be saved. Oh my. And what our Lord is talking
about, you know, He showed here man's total inability to be saved
by Himself. And look what He goes on to say
now. I'll hurry up, get through this. And His disciples, look
at them. Oh, my. And they were astonished
out of measure. They were so astonished, you
couldn't measure how astonished they were. how troubled they
were. They were SHOCKED, if I could
say it that way. And then they began to say among
themselves, Who then can be saved? And let me tell you something,
the Gospel, the Lord s Word, the Truth of God, the Gospel
has this effect. It SHOCKS people. It ASTONISHES
people. ELECTION SHOCKS people. God s
Sovereignty SHOCKS people. MAN'S DEPRAVITY AND INABILITY
SHOCKS PEOPLE, BUT THAT'S WHAT GOD DOES. HE SHOCKS US TO THE
PLACE WHERE WE AIN'T GOT NO PLACE ELSE TO GO, AND THAT'S WHY HE
SHOCKED THEM, ASTONISHED THEM. AND OUR LORD SAID THIS, AND HE
LOOKED UPON THEM, HE LOOKED ON THEM AND SAID, WITH MEN IT'S
IMPOSSIBLE. WHO THEN CAN BE SAVED? WITH MEN?
NO POSSIBILITY, ABSOLUTELY, UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE. Huh, but not with
God. Ain't you glad, but God? Bed, no hope, no hope, no hope,
but with God. With God, all things are possible. Salvation. is by the Lord. Oh, salvation's impossible with
man. Keeping the law's impossible
with man. Being saved by works is possible
for man. Oh, but with God, thank God salvation's
possible by God. Impossible with men. At every
point, from beginning, middle, and end, impossible. My man is
utterly, utterly incompetent and completely dependent upon
God for his salvation. Yeah, I mean completely, completely. That fellow went away sorrowful,
went away sad. I hope the gospel shocked you this
morning. I hope it shocked you. I hope it astonished you. I hope
you asked, can I be saved? With you it's impossible, but
not with God, not with God. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing us to
meet here today. Thank you for your precious truth.
Thank you for the gospel of the grace of God. Oh Lord, let us,
let us, God help us to deny ourselves, take up that cross, that cross
that represents death to this world, death to sin, death to
all hope of salvation other than God Almighty and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Dead to the wrath of God. And
Lord, enable us to look to the Lord Jesus Christ all our days
of our life. Lord, save your people in this
place. Make the gospel find a lodging place. Put that seed in a heart.
Put that seed in a heart. That seed, that incorruptible
seed, that precious word of God, that gospel, put it in a heart. Put it in a heart. There's only
you can do. We'll bless you and thank you
and keep these dear saints and please have mercy upon those
who are going through hardship and troubles. And Lord, help us never to be
deceived in ourselves for Christ's sake, amen, amen. Here's what you need to do. Turn
your eyes upon Jesus Look full in His wonderful face And the
things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory
and grace. See you tonight, 6 o'clock, God
willing.