Oh, excuse me, chapter 10. All
right, we're in Mark chapter 10. We'll begin reading there in
verse 13. And read through verse 31. And they brought young children
to him that he should touch them. And his disciples rebuked those
that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was
much displeased and said unto them, Suffer the little children,
or permit the little children to come unto me. And forbid them
not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you,
Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child,
he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms,
put his hands upon them and blessed them. 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
callest 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 kept or have
I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved
him and said unto him, One thing thou lackest, go thy way and
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 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 is it 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. And Jesus
answered and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, there is no man
that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother,
or wife, or children, or land for my sake in the gospels, but
he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time. houses and
brethren, and sisters and mothers, and children in lands with persecution,
and in the world to come eternal life. But many that are first
shall be last, and the last first. Now, this is an interesting passage
of scripture, and we realize as, you know, the different gospels,
record different perspectives of these accounts that took place. They're all intermingled and
very much support one another. Some of the Gospels give a little
bit more detail on some of the things that the Lord said than
others, but they're all to support one another in the lesson that
he was teaching. And so some brought these parents
brought their children to the Lord for him to bless them. And
some of the disciples looking on thought, well, this is not
important. We've got the more important
things to take care of. And the Lord rebuked them. Now,
some have tried to make more of this than the Lord was teaching. And they try to come up with
ideas that children, by the very fact that they're children, are
included in the elect of God. Now, no doubt there are children
who are of the elect of God, but there are some who are not.
Now, that might be a shock to some people. I grew up in a tradition
that held to the notion that there was such a thing as the
age of accountability. and so that somebody was off
the hook and innocent. And if they died in childhood,
not having reached that age of accountability, that they would
surely be included in the kingdom of heaven simply on the basis
of the fact that they were innocent. Now the only problem with that
is that scripture does not indicate that men are born in innocence.
In sin were we conceived. And that's how we were brought
forth. And so it is surely true, whether men like to think of
it or not, that all men of all ages are accountable for their
sin before God. There is no age of accountability. Now having said that, some have
accused us of believing that we believe the Lord is going
to cast babies into hell. Now let me say this. I don't
believe there'll be any babies cast into the pit of hell. But
I will also say this, that if the Lord saw fit to do so, he
most certainly would have the right to do so, would he not?
And would they not deserve to be there based on the fact that
they are born sinners. And so we don't, you know the
scripture does not tell us a whole lot about that and I'm not going
to go into a lot of it. But what the Lord was teaching
here was that in order for a man to enter the kingdom of heaven
he must be as a child. And the Lord blessed the children
and surely There's no more innocent human
beings on the earth insofar as men are concerned, as far as
the committal of sin, than children. That not true? I mean, you know,
children are comparatively innocent compared to their adult friends,
no doubt about it. But you know, as age comes, so
does the ability to figure out how to put the wickedness that's
in the heart into place. Children, they don't have the
wisdom yet to know how to use their sin, do they? But they
learn, don't they? Pretty quick. It doesn't take
them long to learn how to manipulate and work things to their benefit.
That's just the way it is. I'm not coming here to give you
a diatribe on children. I love children. Thank God for
children. Children are a heritage from
the Lord. They are a blessing. And indeed, we are to bring them
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They need to be
taught because they're constantly learning at all times. But what the Lord was teaching
here was not that there are some who are by nature innocent and
on the basis of their natural innocence will be carried into
the kingdom of God. That's not at all what he's speaking
about. But what he is saying here And
he says, I believe it's in the Gospel of Matthew, he said, Verily
I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God
as a little child, he shall not enter therein. He added a statement
in there that Mark did not see fit to put in here. And the Lord
didn't see fit for Mark to put it in there. He said, except
ye be converted and become as little children. ye shall no
wise enter to the kingdom of heaven. Because there has to
be a conversion from the way that we are into the way that
children are comparatively by nature as those who have not
entered in to the multitude of sins that they will in later
time if the Lord doesn't restrain them from it. But we must be
converted. And so it is that a man must
be changed from what he is to humility. Children are basically
humble because, I mean, they don't know what to do. You know,
a child, when left alone, they pretty soon, they're helpless. They don't know what to do. They
don't know how to get themselves out of a situation. If their
mother and father should walk off and leave them, they're in
a panic pretty quick because they don't know. And so they
must be taught. And so, except we become as that,
to realize we don't know anything. Now, there's a lot of times people
grow up and they get to thinking they know a lot. I mean, nobody
knows more than a 16-year-old boy. I can tell you that from
experience, because I was one one time. And the stupidest man
I thought there was on earth was my daddy. I didn't think
he knew anything. I mean, look at him. And so it is that except we be
converted and become his little children, we cannot enter the
kingdom of God because we must be brought to a place of humility
before Almighty God. We must be brought to a place
where we don't know anything. We don't have the power to do
things. We want to do things perhaps,
but we don't know how. We don't know what to do. And
so it is that the most blessed state that a man can be brought
is to be brought to the place where he confesses that he has
nothing before God. The worst place that a man can
be is thinking that he does have something to bring unto the Lord. And he took them in his hands
and he blessed them. And when he had gone forth in
the way, there came one running and kneeled to him. and asked
him, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now I want you to think about
this for a minute, about this young man. Now I know that a
lot of people read this passage of scripture and they go away
with the notion that this young man went away and that was the
end of the thing. But I believe, and I think that
this is spelled out in the scripture, although I can't, we don't know
who the Lord's people are. I mean, unless the Lord reveals
it to us, we can't know what is in the heart of a man. But
I see some things in this young man who came to the Lord. He
recognized the goodness. of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
saw that there was something about this man Christ that he
needed, and he needed to know. And so he came to the Lord to
find out the answer to his question, just like Nicodemus. Now why
did Nicodemus come to the Lord? Because the Lord caused him to
come to him. Why did this young man, of all
the men, I mean, there was plenty of young men, was there not?
Wealthy young men, no doubt, in the country at that time,
but there was this one young man come here, and he asked him,
good master, what must I do that I may inherit eternal life? He
knew that there was something lacking in himself, did he not? I mean, now, he did have a lot
of self-righteousness, no doubt, as we'll see in the things that
he told the Lord. But yet, at the same time, he
knew that even though in his mind he had kept all these commandments,
he didn't think that was enough. The Lord said that, did he not?
He said, when you have done all these things, he said, then you
need to confess that you're but an unprofitable servant. So a
man, even if he thinks that he has kept the law of God in his
jot and tittle, that he is righteous in that sense, yet he's not righteous
before Almighty God. And apart from the grace of God,
he'll go on in that thinking that he is. But this young man
did not think so. I don't believe he did. I mean,
because why else would he say, what must I do to inherit eternal
life? Now, he thought he could do something. I mean, didn't
the Philippian jailer? He thought he could do something,
didn't he? I mean, the men on the day of Pentecost, they said,
men and brethren, what shall we do? See, men, by the grace
of God, when the Lord awakens a man's heart, he believes he's
got to do something. There's nothing wrong with a
man thinking he needs to do something. I mean, Nicodemus thought he
needed to do something, so he came to the Lord. If somebody says, what must I
do to be saved, what are we gonna tell them? Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. I'm not gonna tell
them, well, you don't need to do anything. Now I know this, that
it's not anything that the man's going to do that's going to make
him a child of God or that's going to cause him to be saved. But the Spirit of God moves men
to desire to do something. I've got to get myself out of
this. We're going through the book Pilgrim's Progress. A Christian, when he was in the
city of destruction and the Spirit of God came upon him and convinced
him of his sin, he knew he needed to do something and he started
running out of the city. He wanted to get away from it.
He had to do something. He wanted eternal life. And so
I believe that you see that in this young man. He comes to the
Lord and he says, good master. Now he recognized the goodness
of the Lord. He said, what must I do? to inherit eternal. He knew that he had done all
these things he thought in his mind, but he knew that wasn't
enough, did he not? And so the Lord said, well, you
know what the commandments are. Yeah, he did. You know what they
are. Don't commit adultery, do not
kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor
thy father and mother. And he said, Master, all these
have I observed from my youth. Now, see, he was in ignorance.
He was in ignorance, number one, about what the law was. He was in ignorance as to what
keeping the law was. Now, Brother Thomas brought forth
some very good things this morning in his study in John about keeping
the law. What is it to keep the law? Now,
the Pharisees believed that keeping the law was reading the law and
making a checkmark out by it that they had done that. That
was the error of this young man. He looked at these things that
he knew the law said, and he said, well, I've done that one,
and I've done that, and I've done this. And that's how most
people think about keeping the law. Say, are you a law keeper? Well, yes. they would say, I
keep the law. Now there is an error in that,
and then there is a blessedness in the keeping of the law. But
the keeping of the law, if we look at it as the marking it
off in the jot and tittle, if a man believes that he keeps
the law in that fashion, he is in error. Because he has not
kept the law. Because the Lord said, if you
have broken one, in the law. You're guilty of all of them.
No man has kept the law. That is perfectly, that he has
observed every jot and tittle of it. In fact, it would be hard,
you'd be hard pressed to find a man who has not offended in
all points. Not just from the fact that he
disobeyed one, but from the fact that he has disobeyed them all.
I mean, write them out sometime and take stock in your life and
you'll come to see that you have disobeyed them all. If not in
actual deed, you've done so many times in thought, in intent. And so this young man, believed
he had kept the law. I think he was sincere. He said,
well, I've done all of that, but something, I'm still needing
something. I mean, I look on, you know,
having, I've done these things, but that's not enough. See, Paul
came to that conclusion, did he not? He said, I was alive
without the law. That is, without an understanding
of the law. But he said, when sin, when the
law came, sin revived. He said, it stirred up what,
it told me what sin was, and when I saw that, he says, it
slew me. It brought me down. Well, see,
that's the place that the Lord's bringing this young man. He was
alive without an understanding of the law once. But when the
law came, when the Lord said, well, you know what they are.
And he said, well, yeah, and I've done all that. And the Lord said, well, if you'd
be perfect, if you'd be perfect, one thing thou lackest, go thy
way, sell whatsoever thou hast, give it to the poor, thou shalt
have treasure in heaven, come take up the cross and follow
me. He never gave any thought to
that, did he? Thought never entered his mind.
because he was full of his own self-righteousness. He didn't
look, he didn't take stock in himself, but he looked at what
he had done. Now see, the sins of omission
are as great or greater than the sins of completion. Now there
are many things that we have failed to do. And to fail to
do something is the same as breaking the law in fact, in inactivity. And so when the Lord told him,
you know, come, take up your cross, follow me. Sell all that
you have. And he was sad at that saying
and went away grieving. He had great possessions. And
a lot of people leave him there. They say, well, there he went.
He loved his riches more than he loved the way of God. Yes, sir. An old rich man, he
went down to hell. There he went. I don't believe
that's true. There's several reasons I don't,
but one is, it says here, and Jesus beholding him loved him. Oh, what a place to be. See, the Lord loved him, and
that's the reason that he told him what he told him. And that
was the reason that the young man's heart was broken. Because
I believe by the Spirit of God moving in him, he saw what he
was by nature. And he was sad, and he was grieved
in his heart that he had fought all this time, he was walking
with the Lord, but yet the law came, sin revived, and he died. And he went away grieving because
he said, I've got all these things, and I've never even given it
a minute's thought that I ought to be helping the poor. And I ought to be doing these
things. And he was sad. And Jesus looked
round about, and he taught his disciples something. Because
he said, how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the
kingdom of God. Now again, I don't believe he's
saying this in condemnation of the young man, but he's pointing
out to his disciples that men often trust in their riches and
have no consideration of the kingdom of God. And that is true. And the disciples, they were
astonished at what he said. Why? Because the Pharisees basically
were health and wealth preachers. They said, well if you're really
blessed of God, you're going to be Rich. You ever heard any
preachers teaching that? Oh, there's plenty of them on
the radio and TV today. They'll tell you in a heartbeat,
you know, that God, I mean, you can have the greatest of blessings
from God if you'll just send me your money and God will open
up the windows of heaven. I often wonder, well, why doesn't
the Lord just open up the windows of heaven and give them the money
if they want the money so bad, but they want you to give them
your money. And with the promise that God's gonna pay you back.
And so, how hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of God. Because they trust in
them. They have confidence in them.
And there are multitudes today who believe that by their obedience,
they can earn the blessings of God. By doing certain things,
by walking in a certain way, they can ensure that God's going
to bless them. Such is the way of a rich man.
Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to
enter into the kingdom of God? Now, listen to what he said.
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. Now, I've
heard a lot of explanations about what he said there. I think he
said what he said, the eye of a needle. Some say, well, this
was a gate somewhere in the wall called the needle gate, and a
camel couldn't go through there unless he got down on his knees
and went through. As if to say, well, if you'll
just get humble, you can go into the kingdom of heaven. No, he's
saying it's impossible. You can't put a camel through
the eye of a needle. He wasn't saying it is possible
for the camel to go through this eye of the needle. They were astonished. They said,
well, who can be saved? Because they knew it was impossible.
Now, if this had been talking about the needle gate, some gate
somewhere where the camel would have had to got down on his knees
to get through the gate, they wouldn't have been astonished
to say, well, you know, I've seen that happen before. I don't
know why somebody would be doing that, I don't know. But that
wasn't what he was teaching. He was teaching, look, you cannot
be saved by the activity of the flesh. And the things that men
trust in will not bring them into the presence of God. They
were astonished, saying, Who shall be saved? Jesus, looking
upon them, said, With men it is impossible, but not with God. And I'm here
to tell you this morning that without the Lord it's impossible
for a man to be saved. He can't be saved. unless the Lord, in mercy, visits
a man. It's that idea that brought Fanny
Crosby to write the words to that old hymn, Pass Me Not, O
Gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry, while on
others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Oh, without the Lord,
brethren, you'll perish. He alone is the Savior. And it's impossible that a man
can enter the kingdom of God apart from the grace and mercy
of Almighty God to bring him there. And then Peter began to
say unto him, lo, we have left all and followed thee. Now there
was a measure in which that was true, was it not? I mean the
Lord Got him by the waveside, or by the seaside, and he said,
come follow me, and they left their nets, and they went and
followed him. They left all, but he wasn't telling a lie,
but he was thinking about it, wasn't he? Well now look, what
we've done, now what are you gonna do for us? Now it doesn't
record it here, but in the 19th chapter of Matthew, I believe
it is, that Peter asked this, when he asked this question,
then the Lord gave the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Peter's thinking, well, you know,
we ought to be gonna get something good, because, I mean, we've
left, I mean, we've sacrificed, and we've struggled, and we've,
you know, this is a hard thing, and Lord, what are you gonna
do for us now? And the Lord gave the parable
of the vineyard, and the workers in the vineyard, and you know
what it was. Some came in the morning, and they agreed to work. for a certain amount. Some came
later in the day and later and later and later until some came
right up until right up before quitting time. Well, when time
to pay up came, what did he do? He paid them all the same thing.
And those that came in the morning, they was like, Peter, well, what
are we gonna do? Brethren, rejoice that your names
are written in heaven. I mean, you know, They used to
teach us that we needed to be faithful and work so we'd have
a bigger reward when we got to heaven. I mean, you know, some
people just gonna have a little old shack and some people gonna
have a big old mansion when you get there. Well, how ridiculous
is such a thought is that? Brethren, all those things won't
mean anything. You know, the former things are
passed away. I mean, the blessedness. of serving the Lord is serving
the Lord. I mean, I can't think of a greater
blessing that could be bestowed on a man than to be given the
desire and the ability to walk in the presence of God, to serve
him, to perform his work, to do his will, to be found faithful,
to be found rejoicing in the presence of God. day by day. I mean, is there a greater blessing
in the world than that? Paul said, Oh, that I might know
Him and the power of His resurrection, not being conformed to this world,
but conformed to Christ. Is that not the greatest blessing
that could be given? And Jesus answered and said,
Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house,
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or lands for my sake in the Gospels, but he shall receive a hundredfold
now in this time. Now if you're a literalist, you
have a real problem with this passage of scripture because
all these disciples died in poverty not many years from this point
in time. So he wasn't speaking about natural
things, but he said I'm gonna bless you in such a way in this
life that you won't, it'll be a greater blessing than all of
those things that you could have. And he shall receive with persecutions
and in the world to come, eternal life. He said this is gonna be
your inheritance. You're gonna have all these things
and persecution. Now that doesn't seem like a
blessing, does it? But you remember when Peter and
John were walking, had been set loose from the prison, had been
beaten and they were going and they were counted it joy that
they'd been counted worthy to suffer. for Christ's sake. See, only the Lord can grant
such a mind as that. We don't want to suffer. But
oh, to suffer for Christ's sake. What greater blessing can there
be? And he said, but many that are
first shall be last, and the last first. What do you mean
by that? What do you mean by that? Well,
there are many that seem to be walking in a high position. He said, many that are first,
they're out there just like this rich young man. I mean, men looked
at him. They look at the Pharisees. They
said, man, these people are righteous. But he said, they that are first
shall be last. Because you see, the way up is
down. And the way down is up in the
kingdom of God. Who's sufficient for these things?
See, these things can't be embraced by the natural man. I mean, you
tell a man such things as that and he says, well, that's foolish.
He doesn't want to be humble before men, he wants to be lifted
up. I mean, isn't that the whole purpose of being religious is
to be lifted up? I mean, you look at these false
prophets of our day, and that's what they're looking for, to
be lifted up. They want men to see them. Their
name in lights. All of the fancy things they
have, bigger airplanes and all of these things, and they want
all of this stuff, why? So they might be seen as men. Oh, that the Lord might give
us a mind and heart to understand that the kingdom of God is not
flesh and blood. It's not all these things, but
it is the blessing of God as He's been pleased to visit His
people. Even, I believe, as He did the
rich young ruler. I haven't read where the rich
young ruler came back and and came back to the Lord, well,
I've divested myself of all these things. I don't know that. I
believe that he did what the Lord told him to do. I believe
the Lord loved him. Those whom the Lord loves, does
the Lord love? Does he love people and then
turn them aside? I mean, you know, some people
say, well, the Lord loves everybody. And yet they believe that some
is going to perish in the eternal fires of hell. What kind of love
is that? No, the Lord loves whom he loves. And what a great blessing it
is to be loved by the Lord. What can a man do to gain the
love of the Lord? Nothing in the world. But does that mean we tell men
don't do anything? No. We tell men, seek the Lord
while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.
He's the Savior of sinners, and he saves such. Even as Brother
Thomas said this morning, whosoever, whosoever will, let him come
and take of the water of life freely. See, no man's prevented
from coming to the Lord who desires to come. Those that desire to
come The Lord said, ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters. Without money and without price,
buy ye wine and milk. Come. He's a Savior. And He saves such as call upon
His name. What a glorious Lord He is. Somebody
have a question or a comment? All they ever knew was the law
of Moses. And in their minds, you had to obey that law. That
was your ticket to heaven. And the mystery of godliness
And he didn't expound that to them. He's letting them figure
it out. That's right. The impossibility of getting
to heaven by keeping the law. And then when Christ died and
was resurrected, and then it all became clear. That's right.
That your sins are forgiven. Well, it didn't become clear
to everyone, did it? No. Only those whom the Lord
revealed it to. That's right. But it's like the
Apostle Paul when he said, I forget what book it is, but he talks
about the mystery of Godliness. You know, this was in from the
world. That's right. In fact, for the
purpose of God, God says if they had known, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. But they didn't know by the Lord's
design and by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye by wicked hands have taken them crucified. the Son
of God. Oh, what a glorious Lord He is. Someone else. Well, let's be dismissed.