Remy came up to me a year or
so ago and said he wanted to talk to me. And I met him and
finally got an opportunity to talk. He said he went home one afternoon
after the evening service and was thinking about the cross.
And he said he saw his sins in the light of the cross and how
awful they were. And I notice in the cross, in
the prayer a couple of times, he mentioned the cross. That's
wonderful, wonderful. Thank you, Remy. Let's read Mark's
account of this rich young ruler. In Mark chapter 10, verse 17. And when he was gone forth into
the way, our Lord, there came one running, kneeling 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 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, 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 possession. And Jesus
looked round about, and said 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 said 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 the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out
of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus
looking upon them said, With men it is impossible, but not
with God. For with God all things are possible. I preached a message on this
many years ago. And I looked at it from the standpoint,
as some have suggested, that possibly this could have been
Saul of Tarsus, young Saul of Tarsus. And I remember going
through that and looking at different places, attempting as the best
I could to prove that this was Saul of Tarsus. And it was very
interesting, I remember at the time, this was near Jerusalem
where Saul of Tarsus studied at the feet of Gamaliel. There
was a reason why young Saul had such an intense hatred to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I thought to do many
things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. We know that
he had a lot of influence, young Saul did, because he could go
into the high priest at any time. He had access to him and even
got letters to different cities to persecute Christians. So he
was a young man of considerable influence, just like this man
was. And I remember at the time looking at that, but then when
I concluded, I had to admit that everything I said was speculation.
You know, it may have been the Saul of Tarsus that come here
as this rich young ruler. I don't know. and maybe later
was converted. I don't know that. I don't know.
But I remember at the time thinking, you know, this could very well
have been him. But whoever it was, we don't
know. You've got just as much right
to say that this young man never returned as I have to say he
did. Because we don't know. The only
thing we know for sure, he went away. He went away. But let's look. as some things,
some more things in this story to see if we can learn some more
lessons from this story. And here's the first one I want
us to see this afternoon. That salvation, seeking the Lord
for life eternal, that's a personal thing, isn't it? It's a personal
thing. We learned that from this young
man here. There came one to Him. running to Him, kneeling
down to Him. It's a personal thing, an individual
thing. We must seek the Lord for ourselves. We must know the Lord for ourselves. If I would be saved, I must come
to the Savior. If I would have life eternal,
I must come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Everywhere in the Old
and New Testament we find this phrase, ìCome unto Me. Come unto
Me.î Salvation is in Him and Heís the one that we have to
come to. I donít know how many times Iíve talked with people
and they seem so anxious. They have questions to ask. They
seem so anxious and then you ask them, ìHave you been seeking
the Lord? Have you been praying to Him?
And you know what so often people have told me? No. No. Then listen. We'll never be saved
if we don't know Him personally. That's how personal it is. The
salvation is not in a church. You can't find salvation in a
church. You can't find it in a system
of theology. You can't find it in good works.
There's one place to find salvation, and that's in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this young man came to the
Lord Jesus, seeking for the way of life. And I tell you, that's
my advice to everybody. That's my advice to myself. That's
my advice for you. And everybody, seek the Lord. Bruce, you don't know how ungodly
I am. I had a woman tell me that. You just don't know how ungodly.
Well, he said, let the wicked forsake his way. Let the ungodly
forsake his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. Return
unto the Lord. No matter who we are, where we
are, go to the Lord. It's a personal thing. Don't
rely upon other people. Don't rely upon what other people
tell you to give you assurance or confidence. Go to the Lord.
Go to the Lord. We see something else in this,
secondly. We see what a serious matter
it is and even a dangerous matter to come to the Lord and come
to His Word with preconceived notions. This man come to the
Lord with this notion that he could be saved He could have
life by keeping the commandments. That was grilled in this man
from his youth, no doubt, and he grew up thinking, if I can
keep all the commandments of God, if I can be good enough,
then I can be saved. It's a dangerous thing for us
to come to the Lord and already have the matter settled in our
heads. And what this young man did,
he came with this notion, if I can just keep the commandments,
I'll be saved. And you know what? The Lord Jesus
confirmed that to him. That's what He said to him. If
thou will enter unto life, Matthew said, keep the commandments.
If you will enter into life, keep the commandments. That seemed
to confirm him in his notion that if I can keep the commandments
of God, I'll be saved. Well, here's the catch, isn't
it? If you can keep the commandments,
you will be saved. But that's it, isn't it? If a man is seeking eternal life
by works, the way to do it is plain. Keep the commandments
of God. But what man, since the fall
of Adam and apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, have kept those
commandments perfectly? It is the way of life if you
keep them. But who has ever kept them? But
Christ Himself. There is a vast difference. in
what God commands us to do as opposed to what we are able to
do in our fallen state. He may well command us and does
command us to keep His commandment. He can command no less. But He turns right around and
says, Who among you has kept the law of God? Who among you
have done it? He tells us in another place,
make you a new heart and a new spirit. Now what about that?
Make you a new heart and a new spirit. Why does He tell us that
but to lead us to the point that we know that we cannot do what
He commands? Why does God command it? Because
He can command no less. And to prove to us that you are
not able to do what He commands. John Bunyan said it's the greatest
shock of his life when he come to realize that he could not
do what God commanded him to do. That is a shocker, isn't
it? And we can't do anything except
He gives us grace to do it. We can't even come, we can't
even believe, we can't even repent even though He commands us to
do it. I believe there's passages in
the Bible put their own purpose for the ungodly and the unbelievers
to stumble over. If a man is seeking to find in
the Bible that he can be justified by works, you know something?
He'll find it. He'll find it. He'll twist it. He'll take it out of context.
He won't hear the whole message. But if he goes to the Word of
God with a preconceived idea, you can be justified by your
works, you bark it down, he'll find it. He'll find it. If a man goes to the Scriptures
to prove baptismal regeneration, he'll find it. He'll find it. He's seeking to confirm his preconceived
notions. And I'm telling you, he'll find
it. He'll find it. I think the Lord teaches us something
in the context of this rich young ruler coming to Him as He did.
If you read Luke's account, I think it's very interesting what he
says just about the same time that this rich young ruler comes
to him. Luke 18, you remember the context when the Lord said
He taught a message to them that trusted in themselves that they
were righteous? Remember that? He set forth a parable to those
who trusted in themselves. Isn't it strange that that's
in the context of this rich young ruler? A publican and a Pharisee
went up to the temple to pray, he said. One humbled himself
and said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. The other exalted
himself and said, I am not like other men. And then he said,
he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, but he that exalteth
himself shall be abased. And here comes this rich young
ruler and says, what good thing shall I do? All of these have
I kept from you." And then He said something else. They were
bringing little children to Him, the Lord to take them up in His
arms and bless them. And the disciples said, Get them
out of here. We don't have time for that. We're in a big business. Man, we're doing a great thing.
Get the kids away from here. And the Lord said, You stop that. You bring the kids to Me. And
He took them up in His arms and He blessed them. And He said,
if you don't be converted and become like this little child,
you can't enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. You've got to become
like a little child. And then, here comes this rich
young ruler. And he exalts himself. And he's
got this notion in his head, I can do it! I can do it! I've got the strength. I've got
the ability. Dispoint me in that direction. He didn't hear what
was said, did he? about him that abases himself. Brothers and sisters, when you
and I come to the Scriptures, let's come abased. Let's come
as little children in humiliation, knowing nothing, and say, Lord,
teach me! Guide me! Show me the truth! Teach me the truth! And He'll
do it! He'll do it! It's a dangerous thing, already
knowing what you think you know, and you just come to have it
confirmed. He don't like that, does he? I remember when the
Lord saved me, He taught me two things. He taught me two things,
really taught me two things. And I tell people, this is just
about all I knew when I come to the Lord, that I was a sinner. That may not seem like much,
but if He teaches you that, that's something. I was a sinner unable
to save myself. And Jesus Christ must save me
or I must perish. And He saved me. He saved me.
But it wasn't long I had all of these notions. I began to
realize, like Larry said, when the Lord saved him, he said,
why can't I find what I believe in the Scripture? And the fellow
said, well, it's probably not there. We've got all these notions. We're in the habit of bringing
them with us to the Word of God. So we need to come and say, Lord,
teach me, teach me. And come to the Bible just like
we've come to it for the first time for Him to teach us. And
don't find anything there that we think is there just because
we think it. I've had to lay so many things
aside that I thought was right. and come find out they were wrong.
Because I found them in the Word of God. And you know, I think
if a man would read the Bible prayerfully and honestly, led
by the Holy Spirit as He reads, I think he'll come to the knowledge
of all these truths. Don't you? We talk about all
the division there is among us. There wouldn't be that much division
if we all come to the Scriptures And this depended upon the Scriptures.
But we get these notions in our head, don't we? If this is right,
this has got to be right. And if this is right, this has
got to be right. We get all these steps in order. And we come to
the Bible and it blows that system apart. It may not fit my system, but
is it the truth? And that's what we're looking
for, isn't it? It's the truth. Oh, He comes with this preconceived
notion. And he was confirmed in it to
his own hurt. Something else we see here from
this young man is this. This will teach us. Desires are
a good thing. Feelings are a good thing. I
love feelings. I tell you, there's feelings
in salvation, isn't there? He had his desires. He had his
feelings. He had his fears. He had his
hopes. But all of these things will
amount to nothing if it doesn't lead us to conversion. He had his feelings. He had his
fears. He had his hopes. But you know,
he never was converted. He went away unconverted. It's good to come to the worship
service. It's good to read our Bibles. And it's good to pray.
And I don't see how a man could have any kind of a hope if He
never darkens the door of public worship. That's just my opinion
and I think it's Scripture. And people who don't pray, people
who don't open up the Bible and desire the sincere milk of the
Word, they may well have a false hope. But here's the thing. Am I converted? Are these things converting me?
Am I being converted when I go to the worship? Does the Word
of God convert me? Am I being conformed to the image
of the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm feeling this and I'm feeling
that. And I have this fear and that hope. But are all of these
things leading to my conversion? Boy, this man came. He came running. Can you imagine how he was feeling
in his heart? knelt down, there was a sense
of reverence in his heart, hope, I'm going to find out something
today. But you know, he finally went away, didn't he? What happened
to all of his feelings? What happened to his fears and
his hopes? See this. This is so important, I think,
how powerful the will is. How powerful the will of man
is, either for good or for evil. Paul said, If there be first
a will in mind, it is accepted. If there be first a will in mind.
If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the fat of the
land. How many times have you and I
struggled? Well, we struggle in our Christian
life. We didn't have any light. We were walking without any light.
We couldn't see where we were going. You been there? Well,
you couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel. And your
heart was cold. It was so dark. And you were
struggling. And you went on. And you got
through that simply because you had a wheel to go on. That old
saying, where there's a wheel, there's a way, I think that's
a good old saying. If a man has a will, boy, that
means a lot, doesn't it? That will carry you on sometime
when your understanding is darkened and when you have no affection.
But it seemingly doesn't matter how much light we have, how much
desire we have. If we don't have a will, we can't
go on. A lot depends upon the will of
man, doesn't it? That's a powerful thing. This
young man listened to this. He had a desire for life. And
now he had the truth concerning the way of this life. Come, the
Lord Jesus said. Come unto Me. I am the way. Take up your cross and follow
Me. This is the way of salvation.
This is the way of life. What was his problem? What was
this young man's problem? It came down to this. It wasn't
a desire. Boy, it was there. It wasn't light. Now He had the
light. He had the truth. Come to Me.
This is the way. What was His problem? It was
the will, wasn't it? He would not surrender. You will
not come to Me that you might have life. There are people in
this world who perish for lack of knowledge. My people perish
for lack of knowledge, the Lord said. This is a people of no
understanding. Therefore, He that made them
will show them no mercy. It's an awful thing to be ignorant,
ain't it? And there are other people, they
don't have the knowledge, they don't have the desire to come
to the Lord. They don't have the desire to
seek out the way of salvation. They love darkness rather than
light. That's an awful thing, ain't
it? And others perish because they have no will to take up
the cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think this
last group will be the most miserable of all other people. This young
man, he went away. And the Bible says he was grieved
and very sorrowful. And the reason was he desired
something so greatly. And he understood how to get
it. But he wasn't willing. And boy, he became miserable.
He went away grieved and was miserable. To be lost because
we're ignorant? Boy, that'll hurt. That'll hurt
a man. When he goes to hell, And he
says, man, I was ignorant of the way. That'll hurt. I was
ignorant of how to be saved. You know, there's all kinds of
people that's never heard the gospel. There's people in other
lands and third world countries and jungles. They've never heard
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll go to hell having never
heard the gospel, being ignorant of so many things. It will be tough to be lost because
a man did not desire the way of salvation. Boy, that will
hurt, won't it? That will hurt. Why didn't you
come to the Bible? Why didn't you seek? I just didn't
want to. I had no desire. I didn't love
my soul. I didn't love God. And a man
will perish. But I think what will hurt the
most, those who have known the truth. Those who have had a desire
to have their poor soul saved. Those who heard, but they had
no will. Their will would not submit to
the rule of Christ. Come to Me! Follow Me! Ah, I ain't going to do that. You asked away. I told you. Why
don't you submit to me now? It ain't so much the will doing
great things. It's the will submitting, isn't
it? And because the will don't submit, there's no salvation.
I can understand Wesley's song when he said, ìForce me, Lord.
Force me. Make me willing.î Because he
knows. He knows thereís no salvation apart from a willing heart if
you be willing and obedient. But he couldnít get his will
to surrender. So what did he pray? ìLord, force
me. Force me. Get into my heart and
bow me. Graciously bow me.î I prayed
that prayer, didnít you? Boy, when you see yourself such
a rebel, I think I could pray that prayer with Wesley. Lord,
force me. Force me. I think this may have
something to do with Hebrews 10, 26. If we sin willfully after
we have received the knowledge of the truth. Willfully turning
from the truth after inquiring about the truth. After seemingly
having a desire for it, and then willfully turning from the truth,
there remains no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful
looking for judgment and fiery indignation. And in conclusion,
we see this in this story. The utter impossibility for any
man, rich or poor, ruler or pauper, to be saved apart from the grace
of God. A man may not be rich, but I tell you what he must have.
He must have his understanding enlightened. I don't care if
you're rich or poor, you've got to know the way of salvation.
And the only way we can know that is for God to teach us,
enlightening our understanding. granting us repentance to the
knowledge of the truth. Every man has affections. He
has desires that must be inflamed and set upon the proper object. Set your affection upon things
above. And every man has a will that
must be brought to surrender to the will and Word of God in
Jesus Christ. And who but God? can bring any
of us to that place. Who but God can teach us. Who
but God can inflame our affections. And who but God can bring the
will to submit. I don't care if you're rich or
poor. This here is an instance of a rich man. But I'm telling
you there's poor people just as lost as this man. And they
won't any more surrender than this man. You go right over to chapter
19 of Luke. This parallel passage is in Luke
18. You go right into the 19th chapter.
And the Lord Jesus showed His disciples, I can save a rich
man. I told you it was impossible,
but not with God. So He comes up to this tree and
there sits Zacchaeus, the rich publican, a sorry fellow. And he looks up and says, Come
down! And what does He do? He comes
down. He comes down. This is the way
of salvation. And He's telling me to come down.
And I want to come down. And I've got a will to come down.
Where do you get that at? Where do you get that at? I'm
telling you, when the Lord saves us, He's got to win the whole
heart to Himself. the understanding, the affections,
and the will. He's got to win it all. And if
He don't, He lets one part go, we won't be converted. We'll
go away unconverted. And with man, it's impossible,
isn't it? I love Psalms 110.3. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. They shall be willing. And I'm
telling you, riches won't hinder them from coming. Poverty won't
hinder them from coming. Hell won't hinder them from coming.
Man won't hinder them from coming. They will come. They will come
to Him and give themselves up to Him. Lord bless His Word. Let's pray.