Thank you for that message. Thank
the Lord for the message. It was a very sobering message. Very sobering. Turn to Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. I thought as he spoke of the
Lord taking his soldiers home one by one, I thought written on each one's
tombstone is, I'm just a voice. That's all I am. No more, no
less. I'm just a voice. And the next
one comes along, just a voice. That God would teach us. That's
all we are. Matthew chapter 19, verse 16. Let me read a few verses. And behold, one came And said
unto him, Good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have
eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest
thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. And he said unto him, Which? And our Lord didn't say which,
he said keep the commandments. He met him on the grounds that
he came on. That's what he did. The Lord's going to meet him
at the point of his rebellion, at the point of his problem.
That's where he's going to be met. That's where God meets every
sinner. And he said unto him, which Jesus
said thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery,
Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor
thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. The young man saith unto him,
All these, all these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I yet? Jesus said unto
him, if thou wilt be perfect. He said, what good thing? And the Lord takes this to another
level. Perfection. Perfection. Let's talk about
perfection. Go and sell that thou hast, and
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and
come follow me. And when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. I titled the message, Something
is Missing. Something's Missing. In 1979, I heard the gospel. I heard the gospel in power.
I heard my pastor, Henry Mahan, preach the gospel on television.
I had made a profession three years earlier when I was 20 years
old. And the place I was going, an
independent missionary Baptist church, and I remember telling
a person there, Something's missing. I remember distinctly saying,
something's missing, but I don't know what it is. I don't know
what it is. And then I went over to my parents'
house. My dad, he had Henry on. He said, that man's preaching
the gospel. And I sat down. And I heard the
gospel. I heard the gospel. And I found
out what was missing. Jesus Christ was missing. The
Lord Jesus Christ was missing. His name was being used, but
His person was not being preached. He was missing. And if He's missing,
everything else is missing. Like this young man asked, he
said, what lack I yet? Well, the short answer is this,
everything. Absolutely everything. What lack
I yet? Everything. But if you have Christ,
you are complete and you lack nothing. If you have Jesus Christ
Himself, you lack nothing. In Him, you are complete. Apart from Him, you lack everything. Everything. Something's missing. It's also
evident here that his thoughts and understanding of eternal
life was wrong. that it was not according to
the Scripture. You see, lost men and women are
thinking of the length of it, while the Word of God is speaking
of the quality of it. You know, eternal life is a person. Eternal life is Jesus Christ. John said, we have touched life.
We have spoken, we have heard, and we've touched life. And the
life is Jesus Christ. He's the life of God. That's
who He is. He's life. This young man was
talking about the length of it. But the Word of God is talking
about the quality of it. It's the life of God. That's a big difference. That's
a big difference. Now the question is asked in
verse 16, What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal
life? It's evident the young man was
religious. He believed in the hereafter.
And he wanted to end up in the right place when he died. As all religious people do, they
want to end up in the right place when they die. I worked with
a man, I've told this story, but I worked with a man years
ago, and he was talking to me, we were talking about the Scriptures,
the Gospel. And I asked him, I said, what do you fear the
most, God or hell? He said, I fear hell. I don't
want to go there. I said, if you find favor with
the judge, you don't have to worry about that place, do you? You
don't have to worry about the prison if you find favor with
the judge. I said, you fear the wrong thing. If you fear God,
you don't have to fear hell. You see, our meaning is we have
you fearing a place. God has you fearing Him. And
that's the beginning of wisdom. When you learn to fear Him, This
man wanted to end up in the right place. And he believed there
must be something to do to earn eternal life. His conscience,
his conscience was always accusing him. His conscience was always
saying, it's like the leech. More, more, more. That's what
works for us. More, more, more. Never enough.
Like the sea, never full. It's never full. He knew, I think
this young man, and some believe, and they may be, this may be
the Apostle Paul when you go over and read in Philippians
3, it matches this young man. But whether it is or not, I don't
know. I don't know. But I do know this, this young
man knew. He knew something's missing.
Something's missing. Even though he said he kept all
these commandments, if he did, then what are you worried about? What are you concerned about?
You said you kept them all, what are you bothering me for? I tell you why, his conscience,
he knows something's missing. He had no rest. He had no peace. Because you can't get that through
works. Think about this. Works. Does
that speak peace? No, that speaks get up and go
do something. That doesn't speak rest. It speaks of being busy,
of laboring. Laboring. Working. That doesn't
speak of rest and peace. And he had none. He had none. There's no peace in works. The
only peace that you and I could really have is through the Prince
of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, I give you my peace. He's my peace. I tell you what,
now that gives you peace when He's your peace. When you know
He's your peace. Between you and God, He's my
peace. God's at peace with me through
His Son. You can't put a price on that,
can you? No, that's priceless. In verse
2, our Lord asked him a question before answering him. For part
of the answer is in his question, if he's paying attention. He says, good master. You know
where Mark is, he ran to him and kneeled down. He says, good
master. What good thing must I do?" And
the Lord said to him, why do you call Me good? Here's a question. Why do you
call Me good? Because he said, there's none good, there's none
good but God. And it went right over his head.
It's like the Lord said to him, you're no good. And if all you
see Me as is a man, I'm no good. And if I'm good, I'm God. Good
can only come from God. He went right over it. He was
so full of himself. Not good, not one. He must be
talking about you and you and you. He's sure not talking about
me. He was that self-righteous. That's the one thing, I believe
you said, that will keep you from Christ. Self-righteousness
will keep you from looking to Him. Why call me good? There's none good. None good. No, not one. I wrote out in my
Bible, even me. So every time I read that, I
apply it to me first. You know, a good rule in reading
the Scriptures, apply it to yourself first. First, when the Lord said,
what are you going to deny me? What did they say? Lord, is it
I? They didn't say, I know who it
is. I know who it is. I suspected that guy all along. They said, Lord, is it I? Apply it to yourself first. First. The Lord exposes his ignorance
as to true goodness. True goodness is God. None good
but God. And if there's really any true
goodness, it comes from God. If we do any true goodness, it
comes through the Lord Jesus Christ working in us most of
the will and due of His good pleasure. It's His work in us. Goodness doesn't come, now listen,
goodness doesn't come from what we do. What good thing must I do? Goodness
doesn't come from what you do. Goodness is a nature. It's a
nature of God. You gotta be good to do good,
you know that? You gotta be good to do good. Here's another thing. His ignorance
as to the true nature of the law was exposed. I kept these
commandments. He didn't keep one of them. He
didn't come close. You know the Lord could have.
You know, the Lord could have exposed his heart so bad at that
time. He could have exposed his adulterous
heart, his covetous heart. He could have exposed so much
about him. But one of the things he exposed right here is his
ignorance as to the spiritual nature of God's law. He didn't keep one of them. And
to offend the law on one point? It's guilty of all because it's
one law. We talk about the doctrines of
grace, but really it's the doctrine of grace. It's one doctrine. When we talk about the fruit
of the Spirit, it's not the fruits of the Spirit. It's the fruit.
Because it's all bound up in one person. Jesus Christ. One person. Now, let me go on here. Notice
in verse 18, After our Lord told him to keep
the commandments, he replied, which? What the? This is an eye roller. Have you
ever seen that commercial where these college kids are trying
to get away from this guy with a chainsaw and he's standing
there in a barn and the car's right there and they decide to
run into the barn instead of taking the car and that guy goes,
He rolls his eyes. This to me is an eye roller. It's like, wow. Witch. Shoot. Tell me. Here's what he's saying,
and I think he's saying this a little arrogantly myself. Let's
read it. It's like, Tell me which one and I will keep it. Here's
why I'm saying, which one has eternal life attached to it?
All of them. If you're going to come on the
grounds of keeping the law, all of them. All of them. And here's the scary part, you
don't know all of them. You don't know them all. You
think you memorized everything? Every law, every commandment?
No. He didn't keep the law. Because
it has to be kept in the heart first. It's the heart. It's the
heart. The Lord's driving at his heart
is what he's doing. And school is in session right
now. And you and I are sitting here
being instructed. So pay attention. The Lord is teaching us something
here. And our Lord quotes to him several
commandments. And he replies, all these have
I kept from my youth on. How sad to be that fool. How
sad. And I lay the blame, a large
part of the blame at the feet of his teachers and his parents.
His parents shouldn't have let him listen to those teachers.
I don't know his parents, but they shouldn't have let him.
They sent him to that school. where he learned all this stuff. And
where he learned to be so self-righteous. I kept all these commands. Part
of that attitude was supported by his teachers. That's why John
says, try the spirits, whether they be of God. Open your Bible
and make sure that what he's saying It's true. This is the one thing that I
can say when I heard my pastor, when I heard him, and I told
him this when I was 23 years old. And when I said, what you
said matched what I was reading. What you said matched what I've
been reading. What I was hearing didn't match what I was reading.
But like a puzzle, it came together. It just came together and I saw
it. Listen, this is important. This young man's morality became
his snare. One thing I heard Henry say and
I never forgot it. Don't mistake sovereign constraint
for personal holiness. Don't mistake that for personal
holiness. God's constrained you. That's
why you ladies are not walking the street and you men are not
their subject. God has constrained everybody. God exercises a sovereign
constraint over the human race. Or we couldn't live here. And
He does it for the sake of His elect. He does it for the sake
of His elect. That's why He does it. This young man believed that
since he had not committed any of these things outwardly, that
he had honored his father and his mother, and that he loved
his neighbor as himself, that he was in good shape. He's in
good shape. But he knew something was missing.
I'm in good shape, but there's something not right. There's
something missing. Or he wouldn't have ran to Christ
and asked Him this question, what lack I yet? Give me something
else to do. And this is what works will do
for you. It won't let you rest. Give me something else to do
and I will do it. I'm good at it. Give me something
else to do. Well, He's going to give you
something else to do alright. You're going to have to lose
your life. You're going to have to lose everything. Everything. And what Paul said he did, he
counted everything as lost. He lost everything for Christ's
sake. And our Lord replies, Jesus said
unto him, If thou wilt be perfect. Perfect, not just good. With this young man's understanding
of good, he's talking about being good. You and I have a low standard
of good. Our standard of good is way down
here. God's standard of good is perfection.
You know the perfect definition for perfect, the definition for
perfect is Jesus Christ. He knew no sin. He knew no sin. If you open the dictionary and
they give a perfect example of what perfection is, perfect,
just His name would be there. That's all you have to put. Holy, harmless, separate from
sinners. But the Lord said, if thou wilt
be perfect, because the scripture says, it must be perfect to be
accepted. Anything short of perfection
is going to wind up in hell. And what our Lord is going to
do here, He's going to expose His heart. And He's going to
give here the acid test. Here's the acid test. Go and
sell all that you have. He's going to reach into His
heart. Because salvation is a hard work.
He's going to reach into His heart. And this man is going
to be exposed for his covetousness and what he really loves. And
it's not God. It's not God. Peter, lovest thou me more than
these. And this is what this man is
going to have to deal with here. The Lord said, if you'd be perfect,
go and sell that thou hast given to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. This is the process. When he called John and Peter,
when he called Matthew the publican, he called him, he says he got
up and left everything. They jumped out of the boat,
left their dad in the boat, and followed him. I started the title of this,
and I changed it earlier, but I started the title, Everybody
Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die. But there's a country
song that has that lyric, so I decided not to. Kenny Chesney, I think, has it. You've got to die, now that the
Lord saves you, you've got to die before you die. You have
to die before you die. This life has to go. All of it. Jesus Christ is not a part of
my life, He is my life. He's my life or I don't have
it. I don't have it. There are some things our Lord
revealed here. He revealed a covetous heart. You don't love your neighbor. It's like, I'm not going to sell
all I have and give it to my neighbor. No, I'm not going to
do that. He revealed a covetous heart.
He revealed no love for his neighbor. He revealed his ignorance of
the spirituality of the law. He revealed his ignorance as
to who God is. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness went about to establish one of their own. If a man is, listen, if a man
or woman, either one, if they are ignorant as to the true righteous
nature, holy nature of God, if you're ignorant of that, you're
going to go about to establish one of your own. That's exactly
what's going to happen. But when you realize, When God makes you realize you
can't do it, that's when you submit to His and you give your
self-righteousness. Your self-righteousness, which
is no righteousness at all. We don't have any. Self-righteousness is nothing
but sin dressed up in a suit. That's all it is. It's just sin
dressed up in a suit. That's what self-righteousness
is. Turn over to Matthew 16. I want
you to read this. Peter, over here, Peter had in this chapter made
the confession, Thou art to Christ the Son of the Living God. And
after making that Confession. It says in verse 21, from that
time forth, Jesus began to show his disciples how he must go
to Jerusalem. That's when the Lord began to really open up
to them what's about to happen. When Peter said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. As I said last night, now
you're teachable. Now you can learn substitution. Now you really
can learn the Gospel. When you find out who He is with
all your heart, you believe that. You believe Him. And then Peter
told him, Peter said, don't, no, Lord, he rebuked him. He
took him inside and said, they rebuked him. He said, pity thyself.
That's why he's saying, don't, you can't die. And he turned and said, get thee
behind me, Satan. Sharpest rebuke he ever gave.
Get thee behind me, Satan. Then, in verse 24, then said
Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, and
you know this still applies? It didn't just apply to the twelve. It applies to us now. If any
man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross,
and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. Lose it. And whosoever will lose
his life for my sake shall find it. What does a man profit if
he gained the whole world, lose his soul? What shall a man give
in exchange for his soul? We must lose our righteousness,
our self-righteousness and receive His. We must lose our false hope
and rest in Christ alone. We must lose our... and here's
the tough one. We must lose our ambitions. You know, the believer has one
ambition. That I may be found in Him, not
having my own righteousness. That's my ambition. That I might
know Him and the power of His resurrection. Now whatever He
will have me to do, does that mean I can't do anything? No.
That's not what it means. But it means this. Your life
is over. His life is my life. For me to
live is Christ. To die is gained. Jesus Christ
is not an insurance policy. He's my life. He's my Lord. He's
my all in all. Or I don't have Him at all. We must lose our ambition that
takes us away from the Lord Jesus Christ. We must lose our life
for His eternal life. Salvation is free. It is the
free gift of God. But it will cost you your life.
This earthly life has to go. Here's a young man's reaction
when he heard this. But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.
You know, if he had come like he went away, he would have went
away like he came. He didn't come sorrowful. No,
he came, he just wanted to add something to it. He wanted an
insurance policy. Because he knew he was going
to die. He wanted an insurance policy. But listen, I think we can say
it like this also. His great possessions had Him. They were His God. They were
His God. He didn't realize. He was claiming
God in heaven was His God, but His possessions was His God.
He couldn't let them go. He couldn't do it. It's interesting
how we think We are free when we are in bondage to these earthly
things. We think we're free. A very wealthy man said to me
one time, what I have doesn't mean anything to me. I thought you're so full of horse
manure. I did. I'm serious. I thought you're
so full of it. You're so full of it. We don't realize, now listen,
we don't realize how much these things have our hearts until
God takes them away. That's when we realize what has
us. And that's why the Lord giveth
and the Lord taketh away. Who really has your heart? Well
your heart is, your treasure is. If Jesus Christ has your
heart, He's your treasure. And you've given everything up
for it. You've sold everything and bought that field. You've
sold everything for that pearl of great price. When He's your
treasure. The young man's heart was brought
to light. Even he didn't realize how much
his riches meant to him. Even he didn't. He was proud
of them. They were a badge that he wore
around. Riches make you think you're
somebody. The Lord said over here, He goes on to say, I'm
not going to deal with it, but, How hardly shall they have riches,
enter into the kingdom of heaven? I believe it's in Mark, Mark
or Luke. He said, How hardly shall they
who trust in riches. Trust in riches. Happy is the
man that trusteth in the Lord. But riches make you think you're
somebody. God said, and I said this to
a wealthy man here not too long ago. He was talking about his
wealth. I said, you know the scripture says that the Lord,
He said, I make the rich and I make poor. It's like, I'm hoping
He's hearing me. God makes rich and He makes poor.
He can make you poor just as quick as He made you rich. A
whole lot faster than He made you rich. They come from God. I lift up,
I bring down, I kill, I make a living. But they blind you. His heart was brought to light. And he didn't like it. He didn't
like it. I thought about this last night. We should let everything go when
we go to bed at night, and if they are there in the morning,
we'll use them again for that day. But don't let them get a
hold of you. Henry used to say, hold everything
loosely. Hold everything loosely. Don't
hold so tight that God will have to break your hand. But to hold
them loosely, let them go. And it says, he went away sorrowful.
What's my reaction? That's a sobering story. But what's more sobering is what's
my reaction. Is Christ all in all to me or not? I pray God he makes himself all
in all to me. I need that. That man went away
sorrowful. Everyone in this world, I mean
to the very richest person in this world, Bill Gates, will
be penniless one day. You know, every one of you is
going to be penniless one day. Okay, how much money you got
right now? You're going to be penniless. You're not taking a penny up
to the grave. And the only thing that you have that is worth anything
is your union to Jesus Christ. That's all. That's all. Do I need to go home and sell
my house and quit my job? No, but you must be willing. And if you have it, let me put
it this way, if it's in competition to Christ, you will. If it's in competition to Christ,
you will. Whatever stands between me and Christ is where God will
meet me. That's where He'll meet me. Either Christ is all or nothing
at all. Three years has gone by and now
nothing's missing. Nothing. All right. Thank you, buddy. Thank you.