which our Lord Jesus taught while
he was upon the earth, not only astonished the public as he taught
as one having authority, but that which he taught and preached,
his doctrine, was amazing to his disciples as well. Now, our
text this evening is Mark chapter 10, verses 28 through 34. Let's
read the text together. Then Peter began to say unto
him, lo, we have left all and followed thee. Now remember the
context. Our Lord Jesus told the rich
young ruler, now you go sell all that you have, come follow
me and you'll be my disciple. Peter responds, now Lord, we
have left all and we have followed thee. 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 and the gospels. But he
shall receive a hundredfold, now underscore this, now in this
time. Not gonna have to wait for pie
in the sky and sweet by and by, it's gonna be right now. 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. But many that are first shall
be last and the last shall be first. And they were in the way
going up to Jerusalem and Jesus went before them and they were
amazed. They were amazed at his doctrine,
amazed at what he had just taught them, amazed that he was now
going up to Jerusalem knowing that the Jews there sought to
kill him. They were amazed. And as they
followed, they were afraid. He took again the 12 and began
to tell them what things should happen unto him, saying, Behold,
we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered
unto the chief priest, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn
him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, and they
shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him,
and shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise again. Now
those things that our Lord taught, his doctrine concerning his grace,
his salvation, and His sin-atoning sacrifice are indeed amazing
things to consider. I want us to look at that which
is given us in this passage of Scripture under three heads.
First, we have before us a glorious promise, and then a solemn warning,
and last, a faithful surety. As I read this text and began
to prepare for this evening's message, the very first thing
that caught my attention as I read these verses of scripture was
the fact that our Lord's response to Peter's statement does not
even have a tinge of rebuke, not even a tinge of rebuke, but
rather he gives Peter a glorious, glorious promise. Here in verses
28 through 30, We see Peter make a statement that really is an
honest and true confession, a true statement that would come properly
from the lips of every believer. Now here, Peter, we recognize
might be blamed for the reason he made this statement. He might
be blamed properly for the apparent expectation he had of receiving
from the Lord a reward because of what he had done for the Lord.
You see, true faith. True faith is often very weak
faith. And true faith is often very
ignorant about many things. The fact is those who know most
concerning the things of God really don't know much at all.
And Peter, this man who was indeed the chief spokesman for the early
church, the chief spokesman for the apostles, was a man who here
displayed both weakness and great ignorance. If you read Matthew's
account of this question, or this statement by Peter, it is
followed with a question. Matthew adds this. He adds this
part of Peter's speech, or his conversation with the Lord Jesus,
that both Mark and Luke leave out. Matthew said in verse 19,
or chapter 19, verse 27, when Peter said, we've left all and
followed you, what shall we have therefore? What a foolish expectation. What
a foolish question. And yet the Lord responds with
kindness, giving a word of promise. Because when all is said and
done, if our faith in Christ does not involve the kind of
self-denying devotion, the kind of self-sacrificing consecration
to Christ that Peter here expresses, then our faith is vain. Did you
hear what I said? If our faith in Christ does not
involve the kind of self-sacrificing devotion, the kind of self-sacrificing
consecration that Peter here describes in this statement,
then our faith is vain. Listen to what he said one more
time. Peter began to say unto him, Lord, we've done exactly
what you told that rich young ruler to do. We have left all
and we have followed you. You see, true faith forsakes
all and follows Christ. True faith is the unqualified,
unreserved surrender of myself, my life, my all to the dominion
and rule and disposal of Jesus Christ the Lord as my master,
my king, and my God. This is what I'm calling for
from you, you who are yet here without faith in Christ. It's
not a matter of you making a choice and decision whether or not you
want to go to heaven when you die. I don't know anybody who
does. It's not a matter of deciding whether you want to want to believe
things that are right and good. I don't know anyone who does.
The issue is, will you or will you not? So trust the son of
God as to commit to him your entire being. That's what faith
is. That's what it is. Lord, here
I am. Now you do with me what you will.
Here I am. Take my life, rule me, dispose
of me, govern me as you will. That's what faith is. Our Lord
Jesus said, if a man will save his life, he'll lose it. That
means, Larry, coming to Christ, you give up the right to make
decisions for yourself. You give up the right to choose
for yourself. You give up the right to determine
what you will do, where you will go, how you will spend your life.
You give that over to the Son of God. Now if you want to keep
it for yourself, go ahead, you can. You can, you sure can. But you'll lose it in the end.
Come to Christ, surrender everything to the rule and dominion of the
Son of God. Our Savior then speaks to Peter. recognizing plainly that what
Peter had said was so. And he tells us that having left
all to follow him, his disciples have lost nothing, but rather
have gained indescribably more than any of us could ever imagine.
Look here in verse 29, Jesus answered and said, barely I say
unto you, that 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 and the gospel." That's the same thing. Christ
is the gospel, and the gospel is Christ. But he shall receive
an hundredfold. Now in this time, houses and
brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions. The persecution's sure to come.
But as you receive the persecutions, you will receive all this bounty.
And in the world to come, eternal life. I have read this and meditated
on it. And you know, I think few promises,
few promises can be found in the entire book of God. that
are more comprehensive than this. I know of none which hold before
us such great encouragement for this present life and for the
world to come. This is a broad, broad promise.
Let every faithful but fainthearted follower of Christ mark this
promise. Read it often, meditate on it
constantly. Here is a cluster from which
you can draw wine for the merriment of your soul. Come often to this
fountain and drink for the refreshing of your soul. The Lord Jesus
here makes a promise, a broad sweeping promise to every true
believer, both with regard to this present life and the life
to come. Now, I must give a word of warning.
He is not here making carnal promises. He is not here saying,
if you come and follow me and you want to have houses everywhere
in the countryside, mansions and this, that, and the other,
you'll come and have it and God will give you great prosperity.
That's not it at all. But He is making a broad promise
with regard to all provision of all things needful for the
comfort and sustaining and strength of His disciples as they follow
Him in this world. This is what He's telling us.
Whatever it is that following Christ involves, whatever it
is that following Christ costs you, whatever it is that following
Christ will take from you, you shall receive in this life one
hundredfold. Pastor, how can that be? How can you explain that? When
Israel left Egypt, They left Egypt having spoiled the Egyptians. And they went for 40 years in
the wilderness. And never had to buy a pair of
shoes. Never had to buy a suit of clothes. Never had to buy
a meal. 40 years. Now, they sometimes
were foolish enough to murmur and complain because they didn't
have beefsteak. And then they got quails and
had teeth that had quail meat in their teeth and running out
their ears. And they wish they'd never seen any quail. I expect
you couldn't get any of those fellows to eat a piece of quail
for another 40 years. They weren't interested. They
were perfectly fed by the hand of God. And wherever need arose,
God would destroy a nation simply to feed his people. They went
for 40 years, for 40 years. Their shoes never got wore out.
Their clothes never wore out. Everything they needed was provided
miraculously wherever need be by God. When they got thirsty
and there was no water, God said to Moses, smite the rock. Here
comes water to feed and flourish to a nation, a nation of people. And we, sat back and murmur and
grumble and complain as though somehow God Almighty who gave
us his own darling son, who spared him nothing for us, will maybe
not feed us or care for us or provide for us. Our Savior here
declares that as God provided for Israel wandering in the wilderness
for 40 years, so he will provide for those who leave all and follow
him. The fact is the obedience of
faith will never cause us to be in war. Not gonna happen. No, sir. But
only shall enrich us even a hundredfold in this world. How on earth can
many women believe in God, take that which they need and give
it for the furtherance of the gospel, give it to those who
would carry the gospel in foreign lands? How is it that they can
dare do such a thing? But God provides for us. Let
me give you an illustration. Let me give you an illustration.
When Paul was in prison at Rome, the Philippian believers, a small
group of people, poor people, they didn't have a lot of pocket
change. They didn't have any folding
money to sit down there. But the ladies got together and
fixed up some goodies for that beloved man who brought the gospel
to them. And what they were able to provide
for him, they provided for him. And they sent by their pastor
Epaphroditus this treasure to the apostle Paul. It was in his
eyes a treasure. I don't have any idea what it
was, I just speculate. Maybe they fixed him some raisin bread
and some chocolate chip cookies, I don't know. But whatever it
was, they were capable of doing, they did. And Paul said, he said,
you out of your necessity, out of your great want, God forgive me. I don't believe
I've ever experienced that. To take out of my want and my
necessity and give for Christ. But they did. They, out of your
necessity, you've given this sweet smelling sacrifice. And
this was Paul's response. He's, I can't take this, I'll
send it back to you. No, no, no. He's, I'll tell you what, my
God, shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. Now that's provision. That's provision. Not my God
will provide your need out of, but my God will provide all your
need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Not
only does the Son of God promise us pardon peace, redemption,
and reconciliation through His blood and through His grace.
He promises us that we shall have, even here upon the earth,
all the comforts and joys that are sufficient to make up our
need while we do that which is His will and obey Him. He promises
He will give us all that which we have left for Him and much
more. Now you who are His disciples,
family witness, Is it not so? Has it not been so for you? Have
you not found, my brother, my sister, in the communion of God's
saints, new friends, new relationships, new companions, more loving, more faithful, more
numerous, more valuable, more lasting than you ever had before? All our former friends, Bob,
would just fly by at night, good old boy buddies, and they were
here just for a season, very brief season. First time you're
in need, first time you're in trouble, first time something
comes up, see you later, buddy. Well, don't want to get involved
with this, but now in the kingdom of God, friends literally everywhere,
everywhere. I've got a home. Anywhere in
the world, I might take a notion to go. I mean, anywhere in the
world, anywhere in the world. And I don't even want a piece
of wood. Anywhere I want to go, I got a friend. Call me up all
the time. Why don't you come stay with us? Come visit with us. Stay as long as you want to.
Now, I got enough sense to know just two or three days is enough.
But stay as long as you want to. We want you to come be in
our home. This home is your home. And they
genuinely mean it. You make yourself at home. Want
something to eat? Just go ahead and have at it.
Just go ahead and have at it. Children of God, our God in his
great mercy and grace has given us to be members of his family. That may seem impossible to you
who don't know God, don't know his grace, don't know his people,
but every believer will say amen. And so, and so God has given
us. this world. Shoot, I hadn't left
anything but trouble behind. I hadn't left anything but misery
behind. Moreover, in addition to all
of this, our Savior promises all who follow Him eternal life
in the world to come. The Lord, the psalmist said,
will give grace and glory. He gives grace here and He gives
glory hereafter. As soon as we put off these tabernacles
of clay. As soon as this earthly tent
is taken down, as soon as this house of clay is dissolved, the
scripture tells us that we will enter into the glorious rest
of the sons of God. What a prospect. What a prospect. More than that, In the last day,
in the resurrection morning, we shall have honor and be put
in honor and joy and glory, surpassing our highest, most reverent expectations. What's resurrection glory going to be like? You sit there
and think about that a while. I mean, when you go to bed tonight,
every wife's going to bed, going to sleep, your husband's going
to sleep, you lay there and think about that. What will resurrection
be like? And look up all the texts you
can look up. Meditate on them. Go over it all day tomorrow.
And when you get done, listen to this. I have not seen, nor
ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things
which God has prepared for them that love him. I light affliction here. Our
Lord said, you're gonna get all this with persecution. in the
world you shall have tribulation. It's impossible to live for Christ. It's impossible to devote yourself
to Christ. It's impossible to confess Christ
before men. It's impossible to be faithful
to Christ and not suffer for it in this world. But all our
light affliction here shall redound to our Savior's greater honor
and our greater joy. These things, the trial of your
faith, more precious than gold that perishes and shall be found
under praise and honor and glory at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And then when all is done, we shall dwell forever. In a world I people, you know,
know going to be this world, going to be another world, going
to live in heaven, floating around on clouds. What's it gonna be? I really don't care. I'm just
really not interested, but we're gonna live in a world with the
Son of God in perfect holiness where there is no pain and no
weeping and no sorrow and no sickness and no believement and
no death and no temptation and no sin. For the former things
are all past. Now then, tell me what you presumed.
Tell me, tell me what it cost to be his disciple. Tell me how
much you suffered for Jesus. Oh, my brother, my sister, take
heart. Time is short. Our sorrows may
indeed last for a night, but joy comes in the morning. And
the Lord Jesus said, I'll give you a hundredfold, not only in
this world, but in the world to come. You remember Bunyan in Pilgrim's
Progress describes Pilgrim fleeing from the city with his hands
in his ears, his fingers in his ears, stopping them from the
cries of his family in the world and crying, eternal life, eternal
life. He's got to have eternal life. Oh, that's the attitude we all
have in this world. Push it aside, stick your fingers
in your ears, cover your eyes and follow after eternal life. Nothing else matters, nothing
else matters. you can't say that. I wish I
could stand on the housetop and speak it so plainly you'd hear
it in your heart. Nothing else matters. Nothing,
nobody else matters. Eternal life in Christ. Now secondly,
here's a solemn, solemn warning. Our master saw how self-confident,
self-conceited Peter and the other disciples were. and how much you and I are defiled
by that same egotism, pride, and it warned them to be watchful.
Now, if this warning was needed by Peter, James and John, it's
needed by James and Don too. It's needed by you as well. Let
us take heed to these words and learn what they mean. Verse 31,
but many that our first shall be last,
and the last shall be first. Now, there are many things that
are applicable with regard to that, but certainly those words
are applicable to the apostles themselves. There stood in their
midst one who was considered by all the other apostles to
be first. He was the most trusted. He was
the most highly esteemed, most highly honored. When they got
ready to have somebody take care of the business of the early
church, they said, let him take care of the money. We can trust
him. We can trust him. And he thought pretty highly
of himself, too. He thought he was number one. He thought he
stood head and shoulders above everybody else. His name was
Judas. He soon betrayed the master.
He soon betrayed the cause. He soon betrayed everyone who
was once his friend, most importantly, the Son of God. And he found
himself hanging from a tree and is in hell. There was another
who was not among them. As a matter of fact, if they
could have observed this other man, Anybody looking at him would
have said the last man to be in this cause, the last man to
be in the kingdom of God, the last man you might suspect to
be one of Christ's disciples is this young man. He was just
a young man being trained at the feet of Gamaliel, a Pharisee,
learning early in his life to despise the Son of God, the gospel
of free grace, learning to be zealous in religion, but to hate
God. His name was Saul of Tarsus.
In just a little while God elevated him to number one position. He
used him above anybody who had ever walked on this earth as
a man in writing Scripture and instructing men in the things
of God. This warning certainly explains the history of God's
Church in this world. I recall years ago when first
I came in contact with Brother Ken Weimer while he was in Africa
Ivory Coast of Africa. I can't remember whether it was
in a sermon he preached here or somewhere else, but I heard
him speak in a sermon and described how he had run into one of those
barbaric tribesmen in the dark, remote parts of the Ivory Coast.
And this man had notions about religion. I mean, he had all
kinds of silly notions about this God and that, and mixed
in among them was some ideas concerning Jesus Christ. Mixed
in among them was some ideas about Jesus Christ, God's son,
coming down to this earth. Mixed in with his pagan, superstitious
idolatry. And it didn't take me long to
put two and two together. You know, there was a time when Asia
Minor, Greece, and Northern Africa were just with the light of the
gospel. Just flourished. And God who set the light, Another
darkness came. Paul Harries is here from Scotland,
Wales, British Isles. You know, most of the books I've
studied all my life as a believer were written and published over
yonder. Go try to find somebody over
there preaching free grace today. Scarce as hen's teeth. Scarce
as hen's teeth. In our land once covered with
darkness, God sent men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield,
raised them up, sent out the light of the gospel. And then
those pagan religious philosophers, Wesley and Finney, came through
and spread the darkness of free will religion and it engulfed
the nation. God is again establishing the light of the gospel. You
cherish it. Because he who said it, Bobby,
can take it away just like that. And your light will be turned
into darkness again. Certainly this is a warning which
ought to sound like an alarm in the ears of us all. How many
there are known to every one of us who seemed once to run
well for a season. They stood out in the crowd.
And you look at them, this one, he's gonna do something in God's
kingdom. This man, he's gonna mount something. This man, you can depend on him.
They were so zealous, so committed, so knowledgeable, so quickly
they grew. So confident, so absolutely sure
of everything. That used to impress me, it doesn't
much anymore. You find somebody just absolutely
sure of everything. Hang on, he won't be sure for
long. I promise you. And now they're gone. They were first. Now they're
last. The love of the world got one. The deceitfulness of riches another. need to need to make a little
money now. And I tell you what, Pastor,
what I'm going to do, I'm going to put you on radio, put you
on television, buy a plane, fly you all over the country. Leave
the money alone. Leave it alone. Don't you compromise
the gospel or your soul or the glory of God for a dime or for
a million dollars. Don't you do it. Don't you? I
promise you, you do. You will go with it. I promise
you. I've seen it too many times. A bad marriage got another. I've
seen it happen so many times. Flattering woman took another.
False doctrine, another. Let us pray for grace to run
our race to the end. Starting off well, not much. I'm not a runner, but I can make
a pretty good start. But I can't last very long. It's
the fellow who finishes the race. We must persevere. We must continue
in the faith. God, give me grace to begin with
Christ. To stay with Christ. And to end
with Christ. Because he next describes himself
himself here as I think he will show that I'm going to do. And we'll suffer all these things
for you. I just got one thing to say about
that. Let us, therefore, present ourselves a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God. Now, God, that's just reasonable.