Let's turn in our Bibles now to Psalm
62 for our scripture reading.
I'll read the first, the outnumbered verses.
Pastor Brian will lead the congregation as you
read the even-numbered verses.
Shall we stand as we read the Word
of God?
Truly my soul waiteth upon God.
From him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation.
He is my defense.
I shall not be greatly moved.
How long will you imagine mischief against a
man?
Ye shall be slain, all of you, as
a bowing wall ye shall be, and as
a tottering fence.
They only consult to cast him down from
his excellency.
They delight in lies.
They bless with their mouth, but they curse
inwardly.
My soul wait thou only upon God, for
my expectation is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation.
He is my defense.
I shall not be moved.
In God is my salvation and my glory.
The rock of my strength and my refuge
is in God.
Trust in him at all times.
Ye people pour out your heart before him.
God is a refuge for us.
Surely men of low degree are vanity, and
men of high degree are a lie.
To be laid in the balance, they are
altogether lighter than vanity.
Trust not in oppression, and become not vain
in robbery.
If riches increase, set not your heart upon
them.
God has spoken once, twice have I heard
this, that power belongeth unto God.
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy, for
thou renderest to every man according to his
word.
Let's pray.
Lord, we've come this day to wait upon
you, to open our hearts to that work
of your spirit within our lives, to receive
instruction in the way of righteousness and truth.
And so, Lord, we pray that you would
guide us now as we turn to the
word.
May your Holy Spirit minister to our hearts,
and may we receive, Lord, from you guidance
and direction for our lives.
Blessed, we pray, the study of the word
this day, in Jesus' name, amen.
You may be seated.
While we're continuing our study through the Bible,
this week we are in Mark's Gospel, chapters
9 and 10.
Great chapters, we encourage you to read them
over, and join with us at 7 o
'clock tonight as we gather to continue our
journey through the Bible.
This morning, we'd like to draw your attention
to the 10th chapter, beginning with verse 17.
Mark tells us, and when Jesus 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 might
inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said unto him, why do you
call me good?
There's none good but one, that is God.
You know the commandment, 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 you lack, go your
way, sell whatever you have, give the money
to the poor, and you shall have treasure
in heaven, and come take up the cross
and follow me.
And he was sad at that saying, and
he went away grieved, for he had great
possessions.
Mark tells us of this rich young ruler
who came to Jesus running, kneeling before him,
and asking him that all-important question, what
must I do that I might have eternal
life?
Now the word eternal life in the Greek
is not speaking of quantity so much as
a quality of life.
Evidently he had been observing Jesus.
He saw the joy that Jesus had.
He observed what peace he had.
Watched him under stressful situations and admired that
life that he saw in Jesus, and desired
that he could have that kind of a
life himself.
He realized that with all of his success
and with all that he had, it had
not brought to him that same quality of
life that he saw in Jesus, and he
desired to have that quality of life.
This man had everything that we usually associate
with a good life.
He was rich.
So many people think that if I were
only rich I would be happy, but in
this story this man who was rich became
sad because of his riches.
He was young.
Some people become rich when they are so
old they can no longer really fully enjoy
the riches.
They're lacking the vitality that they had earlier
in life, and they just aren't able to
enjoy the riches.
He was a ruler.
Looking at him from this standpoint, he's rich,
he is young, and he has position.
You, if he lived in your neighborhood, might
be very jealous of him.
You might think, wow, he's got it all.
He's got it made.
But with all of his riches, his position,
his youth, he still was conscious that there's
more to life than what I am yet
experiencing, and this brought him to Jesus.
Kneeling before Jesus, asking Jesus how he could
have this same quality of life that he
observed in Jesus.
Jesus told him, keep the commandments.
And he asked, which?
And so Jesus gave to him the six
commandments that are on the second table of
stone.
As you know, the commandments were written on
two tables of stone.
The first table of stone dealt with the
commandments that regarded man's relationship with God.
If you're to have a right relationship with
God, these are the things you must do.
The second commandment had to do with a
right relationship with fellow man.
If I'm to live in a right relationship
with you, these are the things that I
must observe.
And as Jesus talked about these commandments that
dealt with his relationship with fellow man, he
could say, been there, done that from the
time I was a youth.
Now, I do not think that this was
an empty boast.
I think that he was very moral, because
it says that Jesus at this point looked
at him and loved him.
Now, Jesus was very harsh on those who
were making false claims, the Pharisees and all.
He could not abide them.
But here was this young man saying, I've
kept all of these from my youth.
But Matthew tells us, he said, what lack
I yet?
Still conscious, I haven't found it.
There's something more.
We see him kneeling before Jesus.
He is saying, good master, what must I
do to have this age abiding life?
And Jesus answered his question with a very
strange question.
He said, why do you call me good?
There is none good but God.
What is Jesus saying?
Well, he's saying one of two things.
He is saying, I'm no good.
Or he is saying, I am God.
Calling to his attention, that which he has
observed in Jesus that is drawing him, is
the fact that Jesus is God.
The fact that he would say, good master.
Jesus is saying, the only one that is
good is God.
Why do you call me good?
Trying to awaken his conscience to the realization
that Jesus is God.
And so Jesus said, keep the commandments.
Thou shalt not kill.
Do not steal.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not bear false witness.
Defraud not and honor thy father and mother.
And so he was able to say, I've
done all of this from the time I
was young.
Yet, what do I lack?
Jesus, beholding him, loved him.
He said to him, one thing you lack.
Go your way.
Sell all that you have.
Give the money to the poor.
And you will have treasure in heaven.
And come, take up the cross and follow
me.
What was the one thing he lacked?
If you just read it in a cursory
manner, you might say, well, he lacked poverty.
I don't think that that's what Jesus is
saying.
If it was a lack of poverty, then
the story has no application to most of
us.
I think that the real thing that Jesus
is saying is that you lack God in
your life.
Because the real message of Jesus to him
was, take up the cross and follow me.
The first part was incidental to taking up
the cross and following Jesus.
The first part was the thing that was
keeping him from God.
He was very wealthy, and his wealth was
keeping him from following Jesus Christ.
And so Jesus is putting the finger on
that which is keeping him from following Jesus.
And if you come to Jesus seeking the
path of life, he'll put the finger on
what it is in your life that is
holding you back.
From following him completely.
I really do not believe that Jesus is
saying, if you sell everything and give it
all to the poor, you'll have this quality
of life.
That isn't complete.
What is complete is, you've got to take
up the cross and follow me.
You need to commit your life fully to
God.
You call me good.
Why?
Because I am God.
You've recognized that.
Follow me.
What is it in your life that is
keeping you from following Jesus completely?
That's the thing that Jesus would address to
you today.
He's saying, that's got to go.
It's keeping you from following me.
Jesus is saying, you need to have God
at the center of your life.
Follow me.
Maybe we understand now why Jesus didn't give
to him the commandments that are in the
first table of stone.
The commandments that relate to man's relationship with
God.
He didn't give those commandments to him.
What are those commandments?
Well, they start with, thou shalt have no
other God before me.
I think that in just quoting that, the
young man would have again said, well, I
kept all of these from my youth.
But in reality, his money was his primary
God.
As with so many people, money had become
his God.
It was one of the gods of the
Old Testament.
They called him mammoth.
The love of money and the possessions and
all that money can bring was his God.
And so rather than pointing out the commandment,
he gave a interesting illustration.
Putting his finger on it, he said, you
need to have God at the center of
your life.
The thing that is keeping you from that
is your wealth.
Get rid of that.
Don't let that be your God.
Follow me.
The Bible tells us that he was sad
at this saying.
He went away grieved because he was very
rich.
In this case, his great riches didn't make
him happy, but they made him sad.
His riches were his God, and he was
sad at the thought of having to give
them up, and he went away grieved.
Now, this is one of those interesting stories
that doesn't tell us the ending.
We don't know what the ending of the
story is.
As we see it, it sort of ends.
He's walking away.
He's sad.
He's grieved.
He had come to Jesus to find eternal
life, this quality of life, and he's going
away sad.
But what happened to him?
One of two things.
One, he started thinking about what Jesus said.
He started thinking about his treasures here on
earth, his wealth, and he began to realize
that they indeed were the things that were
keeping him from committing his life fully to
God.
He realized that I'm not going to keep
my wealth forever.
I'm going to die one day.
I can't take it with me.
I want eternal life.
I want this age-abiding life.
I don't want a life that just ends
when I die, but I want eternal life.
Jesus said, I would have treasures in heaven.
They would be eternal treasures.
The treasures I have now are limited, limited
to my lifetime if I hang on to
them.
But he's promising eternal treasure.
He sort of was in the position of
Moses.
It tells us that when Moses came of
age, he refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a season.
You see, he realized that it was only
for a season, and he esteemed the reproach
of Christ greater riches than the treasures in
Egypt, for he considered the eternal consequences.
So he forsook Egypt and endured as seeing
him who is invisible.
Last week, we looked at the question of
Jesus.
What would it profit a man if he
would gain the whole world and lose his
own soul?
Jim Elliot said, no man is a fool
who gives up that which he cannot keep
in order to gain that which he cannot
lose.
Jesus is saying, give up that which you
cannot keep in order that you might gain
that which you cannot lose.
And coming to this, he called his servants
in, and he said, sell everything, distribute the
money to the poor, I'm out of here.
And he came, and he found Jesus, and
he began to follow Jesus.
Or he shook his head and said, I
can't believe that I just did that.
The audacity of that man to tell me
I had to sell everything and give the
money to the poor, how ridiculous.
What is it that came over me that
caused me to run up to him and
kneel down and ask that question?
Perhaps in years to come, he was at
a party with his friends and the subject
of Jesus came up.
And he said, you know what, one day
when I was young and impulsive, I actually
met Jesus.
I knelt before him, and I asked him
how I could have eternal life.
Can you believe that?
You know, the foolish things that you do
when you're young.
And he actually mocked that day when he
had approached Jesus and was close to him.
You say, is that possible?
That a man can have a close encounter
with the Lord, and one day sort of
scoff at that, pass it off as something
that is ridiculous and foolish?
Yes, it is.
It is possible to have a heart that
is hardened to the things of God, so
much so that now you sort of make
fun of the earlier times when you were
drawn by the Holy Spirit to come to
Jesus Christ.
Maybe some of you today were at one
time drawn to Jesus.
It's possible that you went forward at a
crusade, and there you went through the sinner's
prayer, and you felt drawn to the Lord,
but you went away, and you soon forgot
it.
And now someone talks to you, you say,
oh, you know, I once went forward in
a Billy Graham crusade, or in a Greg
Laurie crusade, or yeah, I actually went with
those that went forward, and now it is
something that you sort of make fun of
and sort of scoff at.
And in the meantime, you've sought to fill
the void in your life with other things.
You've done so many things to try to
bring that satisfaction, that deep kind of a
sense of this is what I'm living for
and should be living for.
You don't have real fulfillment in your life,
but you're still trying to fill the void
with other things.
But it's still there, and you're still aware
there's got to be more to life than
what I've yet experienced.
I can't believe that this is all.
Perhaps you're older and wiser today, and this
time you'll not walk away sad, but this
time again you've been drawn, and you realize
that Jesus is the answer to the quest
in the heart of every man for meaning
and purpose in life.
And you're ready now to do whatever is
necessary to get rid of whatever other god
may be paramount and prominent in your life.
You're willing now to take up the cross
and follow Jesus that you might have that
age-abiding life.
And rather than going away sad, you'll go
away rejoicing in that you have found that
which you've been seeking after all your life,
that contentment and that fulfillment that comes from
denying self, taking up the cross, and following
Jesus.
I pray that it shall be so.
Father, you see our hearts today, and Lord,
you've planted into our hearts that thirst and
that desire for a meaningful relationship with you.
That emptiness, that void that is there, is
something, Lord, that you created to draw us
unto you.
And Lord, so many have sought to fill
that void with other things, but the void
remains.
And today they are still aware that life
has to have more than what they've yet
experienced.
The emptiness is not gone.
I pray, Father, that this day they'll be
willing to give up whatever it is that
has held them back from a full commitment
to following Jesus Christ, and that they might
know the joy and the richness of serving
you.
In Jesus' name we ask it.
Amen.
Shall we stand?
The pastors are down here at the front
to pray for you who would like to
know that eternal life, that age-abiding life,
that quality of life, that comes from following
Jesus.
And so we would encourage you to come
on down.
As soon as we're dismissed, make your commitment.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee.
The Lord make his face to shine upon
thee.
And be gracious unto thee.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee
and give thee peace.