Let us turn in our Bibles today
to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10, and beginning
in verse 17, reading through verse 31. 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 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 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 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 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 first. I want to call our attention
to four very simple things in this passage of scripture. By
the way, Matthew and Luke, they also record this instance. First, a man came to the Lord
Jesus. That's very simple, isn't it?
Verse 17, if you notice, a man came to the Lord Jesus, and when
he was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled
to him. Now, I want to give us several
things that we read about this man who came to the Lord Jesus. A, he was a young man. He was
a young man. And he was a young man who had
kept all of the commandments of God outwardly perfect. God had kept him from a very
immoral life. Not every young person is kept. Many go into all kinds of sins
and degradation. But the Lord Jesus we know came
into this world to save sinners. But it is a blessing, no question
about it, you young people here today. If you've never been saved,
it's still a blessing if you keep yourself and live a moral
life. You say, why is that, preacher?
Well, I'll tell you one thing. Should the Lord save you, and
I pray that he does, you won't have regrets, even though it
is true that when the Lord saves a person, he declares that he
will remember your sins and iniquities no more. God will not remember
them, but you will. You will. Yes, this man, the
first thing we see about him or I mentioned about him was
he was a young man who had been kept. And yes, it was by the
mercy of God that he had been kept from an immoral life. Second thing, B, he was rich.
And this serves, or this man serves as an example of our Lord's
words in verse 23. When the Lord said, how hardly
shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. So he
was a young man. He was a rich man. And also we
learn from another gospel from Luke, he was a ruler, that is
a ruler among the Jews. He was some kind of civil magistrate,
maybe like we would call a justice of the peace or something like
that. So there are three things we read about this man. But let
me mention also several things we read about his conduct. on
this particular day. First of all, he came running
to the Lord and kneeled to him. Now, when this man kneeled before
the Lord Jesus Christ, he showed respect. There's no question
about that. And we all like to see young
people who've been taught to respect others, respect their
elders. And the word of God declares
that is something that we should do. But this man showed respect
to the Lord Jesus, but what he didn't do, he didn't worship
the Lord. Now, some men we read about in
the gospels, they came like the leper in Matthew chapter eight. And they kneeled, yes, but they
also worshiped the Lord. This man kneeled, but he didn't
worship the Lord. Most likely, this person had
been raised in a home like most of the Jewish people. And every
day of his life, he had heard these words, Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thine might. He probably had heard those words,
that verse of scripture, every day of his life. as he had lived
in the home of his parents. But he did not recognize Jesus
as God. He was like many people today. When you mention the Lord Jesus
Christ, they will say, oh yeah, he was a good man. No question
about it. He was a good man and they would
put him on the same level of some of the world's philosophers
and some of the founders of other religions. Yeah, he was a good
man. He taught some good things. But he addressed this man, good
master, good master. In other words, he addressed
him as a teacher. He was like Nicodemus. Nicodemus,
you know, in John chapter three, he was a religious leader, a
Pharisee, a ruler among the Jews. And he too came to the Lord Jesus. He came by night. He didn't come
running. He was an older man, no doubt.
But he too addressed the Lord Jesus Christ as a teacher, good
master. Yes, many people will acknowledge
the Lord Jesus Christ as a good man, as a good teacher. but not as a savior. He addressed
this man as a teacher come from God, that is Nicodemus did, but
he did not see him as a savior sent from God. That's the reason
the Lord Jesus Christ was here in this world. He came, his father
sent him. Not to be just a teacher. Yes,
he's the greatest teacher that ever lived. But my friends, he's
more than a teacher. He's a savior. And a person doesn't
just come like you'd go to school, one of the colleges and get your
PhD and learn to be a very knowledgeable and a doctor in some science. No. You must come to the Lord
Jesus Christ as a sinner in need of a savior, of a new birth. You don't just take up religion.
That's a problem that so many people, they just take up religion. Just take up being a member of
a church. A person has to be born of the
spirit of God. A person has to have Christ revealed
to him by God. Only God can do that. And B, he asked about the way
to eternal life. Now he believed, this is strange
if you think about it. He actually believed when the
Lord said, you know the commandments, and he named the last commandments
of the 10 commandments. And this man said, I've kept
all those. From my youth up, I've kept those
commandments. He believed he had kept all the
commandments of God, but yet he still knew there was something
missing. Well, listen, if a man could
keep all the commandments of God perfectly, he wouldn't need
a savior. He wouldn't need a savior. But
this man believed in his heart. I assume he confessed what he
thought was so. I've kept all these commandments,
but yet he knew there's something missing. There's something I
don't have. There's a relationship, a personal
relationship with God that I know nothing about. He's not real
to me. He's not been revealed in me. He asked about eternal life. What must I do to inherit eternal
life? You know, you read through the
Gospels and what a blessing it is to have the Word of God. I
can't emphasize this enough. You look back in history at the
many thousands, jay millions of people who lived and died
and never had a page of the Word of God. What a blessing. that you have, that I have. But
you read through the Gospels and you see many people, they
would come to the Lord, a blind man would come and desire sight. A woman would come who had a
daughter possessed of a devil and she would desire that the
Lord cast that demon out of her daughter. But do you read of
any You read of any other than this man who came asking about
eternal life? He was an exception. He knew. He knew that when this life ends,
this life, there's another life. There's another world. That when
you breathe your last breath in this world, you don't cease
to exist. No, you're going to go on throughout
eternity. You have a soul that will exist
somewhere, either in heaven or in hell throughout all eternity. He realized that. The second thing I want to bring
out to us is the Lord Jesus dealt faithfully with this man. In
verse 18, And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? There's none good but one, that
is God. The Lord dealt faithfully with
this man. The Lord declared to him the
truth about God and the truth about man. What is the truth about God?
He's good. He said, well, I call it shall
make good. There's none good but one. And that's God. And
yes, God is good. He is so good that the scriptures
reveal that he is of pure eyes and to behold evil and cannot
look upon iniquity. God is light. God is light, John
tells us, and in him is no darkness at all. We look up at the sun,
and this past week one morning I was in my car coming in this
direction going east, and the sun, that big beautiful ball,
red or orange, and you could see it so well. And it looks
perfect to us, doesn't it? But the scientists tell us there's
dark spots there. But there's no dark spots in
God. He's light. He's perfect. He's good. He's
holy. There's not good but one. And
he told this man the truth about God. God is good and only does
good. And he's the only one that's
good. Man is not good. I remember preaching
from this passage a couple of years back at a funeral service. And I just wonder how many people
really hear what the Lord said here. There's none good but one. What was he telling this man?
Well, he was telling him, you're not good. You're not good. You, along with all other men,
are not good. Now, relatively, yes, a man may
be better than another man, morally, may act better, conduct himself
better, that's true. But before God Almighty, who
is absolutely holy, there's none good. There's none good. When God created man, he created
him good. Why? Because he was created in
the image of God. And God is good. God is holy. God is righteous. And yes, Adam,
and God declared when he created Adam, that all things that he
created in that week of creation, you read every day that God created
something different. And at the end of the day, he
saw that it was good. Whatever it was he created that
day, whether it was the lights in the sky, the sun and the moon
and the stars, whether it was the grass, whether it was the
animals, whatever it was on that particular day, it was good. And on the sixth day, what he
created, man, it was good, good. At the end of the week, God said,
or the scripture said, God saw everything that he had made,
and behold, it was very good. Not just good, but very good. Adam, Adam, as he came from the
hands of his creator, was very good. He loved God. with all his heart, all his soul,
all his mind. Yes, he did. Until the day that
he disobeyed God. Until the day that he took the
fruit from the hand of his wife Eve, fully knowing, now this
is important. The apostle Paul tells us this
in the New Testament. Eve, his wife, she was deceived. Satan deceived her. But not Adam. No, Adam knew what he was doing
and he did it anyway. He chose the creature, his wife,
over his creator. He put his love more upon the
creature than upon his creator. He disobeyed God. You say that's
all too simple. Well, the simpler the better. As far as I'm concerned, you
can call it simple if you want to, but my friends, this is what
the Word of God declares, and I believe it. I believe that
this is the only answer as to why all men, when we come into
this world, come into this world sinful beings. No mother has
ever had to teach her child to lie, to be selfish. No, no. We come into this world
with a nature we have inherited from our father, Adam, which
is a fallen, sinful nature. There is none good but God. How often do people, usually
after a person passes away, they'll make, well, he had a good heart.
At bottom, had a good heart. Well, that's not what the word
of God says. You know what God says? You know this. The heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? And the Proverbs tells us, he
that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. You say, well, my
heart tells me I'm all right. I'm okay. He that trusteth in
his heart is a fool. Rather than trust in your heart
and trust in your feelings, how about trusting in God's word,
what God says. Let God be true and every man
a liar. This man did not receive this
truth. He did not know, he did not believe
that he was a sinner in need of a savior. He did not look
upon the Lord Jesus Christ as a savior, as I said earlier,
but only as a teacher. And when the Lord said, why callest
thou me good? There's none good but God. He should have replied, but thou
art God. Good master, why callest thou
me good? But thou art God. I call thee
good because thou art good, because thou art God. But he didn't. They didn't recognize him as
God, as the son of God. Instead of knowing that he was
a sinner and that the Lord Jesus is a son of God, he trusted in
the fact he thought that he had kept all the commandments of
God. And I'm sure he was like most
of the people, the Jewish people of that day, this is what they
had been taught. And you know this is so if you'll
read the Lord's Sermon on the Mount. You have heard it hath
been said of old. The way they had been taught
was if you just keep these commandments outwardly, everything's okay. But the Apostle Paul tells us
the law is spiritual. It's not just doing these things
outwardly, but it is the heart, even the desire in the heart. This man had kept, as far as
he was concerned, all the commandments outwardly, but he didn't know
that the law of God deals with the inward thoughts, the imaginations
of the heart. The Lord dealt faithfully with
this man when he said, sell whatsoever you have. Sell whatsoever thou hast and
give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come
take up thy cross and follow me. Now one of the prophecies
in the Old Testament of the Messiah is and was that a bruised reed
shall he not break, and a smoking flax he shall not quench. You
say, what does that mean? Well, nothing any weaker than
a bruised reed, a plant that grows in the marsh by the water,
and you just walk through and you just touch it and it falls
over. And the flax also is another
plant, and it's set on fire, The Lord will not, as the scripture
says, or it was told of him, that he would not bruise a smoking
flax. Well, this man was not a smoking
flax. He was not a bruised reed. The Lord told him something very
difficult. The Lord dealt with this man
faithfully. I'll tell you who is a bruised
reed and a smoking flax, that man who brought his son to be
cured to the Lord, to his disciples, first of all, and they couldn't
help him. And he told the Lord, he said,
if thou canst do anything, help us, help me. And the Lord said,
If thou canst believe, all things are possible. And here he is,
I do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Now that's a bruised reed. That's
a smoking flax. Just a little light. Weak. Yes, just beginning to experience
the convicting power of God, the Holy Spirit, waking up to
the fact, I've got a problem here. There's something wrong.
And just that little light that a person may have, follow on
and God will give you more light. And God will give you more light. I think about that woman in Luke
chapter 7. Turn over here to Luke chapter
7. This is a picture of a bruised reed and a smoking flax. This
man was more like a strong oak. Nothing bruised about him. In Luke chapter 7. In verse 37, the Lord Jesus is
here invited into the home of a Pharisee to eat. And we read,
and behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner. When she
knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought
an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind
him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears. and did
wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and
anointed them with the ointment. Now, there you have a Bruce Reed
and a smoking flax. This man, this man that came
running to the Lord, he certainly wasn't this person. He was a very self-sufficient,
self-deceived, dishonest person. I've kept all these commandments.
Well, sell everything you have and give to the poor. Here's my third point. This man
went away grieved, verse 22. And he was sad at that saying
and went away grieved, for he had great possessions. Think
about this. Now, we don't know if this man
maybe later was saved. I pray that he was. But think
about this. He came into the very presence
of the Lord of life, and now he's going away, going away sad. How many people over the many
centuries have come into the presence of where maybe they
heard the gospel and it offended them when they were told there's
none good. And so they went away. Never
again. I'll never listen to that stuff.
I'll never hear that stuff. This man went away from the one
and only person who could do him good. Right? He did. There's only one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, and he was in his
presence and he went away from him. He went away, turned away
from the Lord of life, from the only one who could really do
this man good. He had great possessions. Not
every story has a happy ending, does it? No. If the Lord had told this man,
sell half of what you have. Or if he had not had any possessions,
maybe he would have followed the Lord. But the fact, the Lord
said, sell everything you have, and this man had great possessions. And our Lord said, how hardly, how hardly, how hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of God. Do you believe that?
You say you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ As God is your
Savior, those are His words. I wonder if we really believe
those, why so many so-called Christians do everything they
can to get riches. Forgetting about their soul,
putting that on the back burner while getting riches is all important. When our Lord tells us very clearly
how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom
of God. And yet that's what most people,
maybe you here today, maybe that's on the top, the high priority
of your life is to get riches, to get wealth. Remember our Lord's words, how
heartily shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom
of God. What does it mean to trust in
riches? Our Lord goes on there after
he said, how hard it is for they that have riches. And when his
disciples were astonished, he said, how hard it is for them
that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. What
does it mean to trust in riches? Well, one writer gave these two
answers. To trust in riches, number one,
is to forget that riches are the gift of God. Whether we've
earned them ourselves or we inherited them, they're only lent to us. They're only lent to us. They
should be used in serving the Lord and furthering His kingdom. And one day we will give an account
for how we have spent the riches that he has given, or lent rather,
he has lent to us. To trust in riches is to forget
that riches are a gift of God. And number two, it is to look
to riches for happiness. This is a mistake so many people
make, you know this is so. They think if I could only win
the lottery, Five million dollars, oh boy, I'd be happy. No, riches,
outward blessings cannot satisfy the soul. I believe it was Augustine
here in the third century, right, who said, God is so created man
that until he comes to rest in God, he'll never find rest. You'll never find happiness in
this world, in the things of this world. They can minister
to the outward needs, but not to the soul. To trust in riches is to look
to riches for happiness. Only the favor of God can make
a person happy, content. The word happy depends on our
happenstances, doesn't it? Being content depends upon our
relationship with God. This writer went on to give this
example. A rich gentleman once said to
a day laborer, do you know to whom these estates belong on
the borders of the lake? No, replied the laborer. They
belong to me, said the rich man. And the wood and the cattle,
do you know whose they are? No, they're mine also, continued
the rich man. Yea, all, all that you can see
is mine. The peasant stood still a moment,
then pointed to heaven. and in a very solemn tone asked,
is that also yours? Is that also yours? Now here's my fourth and last
point. The astonished disciples. They were astonished. Now look
at your Bible. I want you to see this in verse 26, or verse,
first of all, in verse 24. And the disciples were astonished
at his words. And then in verse 26, and they
were astonished out of measure. What does that mean? They were
astonished at his words, first of all, when he said, how hardly
shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. But
then when he gave this example and 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 heaven, they were astonished at a measure. Years ago, many years ago now,
I remember reading the comments of a man on this passage of scripture. And he spoke in his commentary,
his book, he spoke about a gate in Jerusalem called a needle
gate. When the main gates of Jerusalem
were closed, according to him, there was a needle gate over
to the side. And through which a man could
go, take his camel through it even, but it wasn't easy. Wasn't easy. Had to get down
on your knees, had to bow down low and kind of inch your way
through that gate. Well, he pictured that as representing
a man coming to Christ. But you know, there's two things
wrong with that. Number one, the Lord didn't say it's hard. He said it's impossible. Right? Let's look at the scripture. Verse 27, when the disciples asked, who then can
be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith,
with man it's very hard. That's not what my Bible says.
My Bible says with man it is impossible. That was the first
thing wrong with this man and his comments. And the second
thing wrong was there never was a needle gate. Historians tell
us there never was a needle gate, a gate in Jerusalem called a
needle gate. You know, all this talk about
AI. We hear it all the time, don't
we? Be careful, be careful. what you read, what information
you get from AI. Listen, that's always been the
case. Be careful, because there's things in books that are just
as wrong as wrong can be, too. There's only one book that is
infallible, and that's this book, isn't it? That's this book, yeah. Two questions. First of all,
who then can be saved? And our Lord's answer is, with
God, all things are possible. Salvation has always been and
will always be a work that only God can accomplish. Only God can quicken a man who
spiritually did. And that's what a lost man is.
He's spiritually dead. He has ears, but he cannot hear.
He has eyes, but he cannot see. He has a heart, but he cannot
feel. And no matter what you pack on
top of him, he's still dead in trespasses and sins. And only
God, God Almighty, God who caused the light to shine out of darkness
when he said, let there be light. Only God can shine in a man's
heart and give him the knowledge of the glory of God in the person
of Jesus Christ. With man, it's impossible, but
not with God. Salvation, Abraham, he was a
rich man and he was a saved man. God, the Lord is not saying that
every person who's saved has to sell everything he has and
give to the poor, but I tell you what, God's gonna make you
willing. God's gonna make you willing
if that's what it takes. Why? Because you desire Christ
above everything. That's when God does work in
your heart. And then the second question,
what about us? And I don't believe Peter was
speaking out of pride. He said, Lord, we've left everything.
I believe he thought back to that day when he was cleaning
his nets, and there was his boat out there. He'd made his living
fishing all of his life. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
by and said, follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of
men. And he left. He left his nets. He left his boat. We've left
everything and followed you. What about us? And our Lord told
him, said, Peter, and as well as the other disciples, no man
has left house or land or wife or children, all those relationships
that are so important, but he'll receive a hundredfold in this
life and in that to come. Let me close. If you have your
Bibles, look with me in Revelation 21. What about us? We've left
everything. Revelation 21, verses 1 through
5. Here's what the Lord will give
you. Give you eternal life, a new
life. Forgive your sins and make you
a child of God. And then when you pray that prayer,
that model prayer, our father, which art in heaven, it's not
going to be just words that you say that you've learned from
a child, but you're going to speak to your heavenly father.
You know him. You love him. You have a relationship
with him. Our father. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, behold, The tabernacle of God is with men
and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and
God himself shall be with them and be their God. You could never
want more than that. For God to give you himself to
be your God. Could there be a greater blessing?
Could there be more than that? Of course not. And God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat
upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he
said unto me, write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. Are you thirsty? Oh, I'd like to find some thirsty
people. Wouldn't you? I'd like to see
some people who are thirsty. The Lord said, I'll give unto
you the water of life freely. You don't pay a penny. You don't
have a penny to pay. I'll give it to you freely. Do
you want it? Well, no, I've got other things
I've got to do. Something more important. Well,
don't be surprised when you meet God. If you continue in that
condition, don't be surprised what you hear from God. Depart
from me, you cursed into everlasting destruction, for I never knew
you. Oh, but if you're thirsty. What
an invitation. You know, the Bible almost ends
with an invitation, doesn't it? If anyone's thirsty. This man
in our story today, in our passage today, he wasn't thirsty. He
had a fountain in his own heart, he thought, that satisfied him. His works, his obedience, He
was satisfied. Yes, I'm ready. I'll stand before
God, trusting in what I've done. Oh my. But for the thirsty, he'll
give the water of life freely. That is salvation. Salvation. May the Lord bless his word.