Introduction
Since the very beginning of time, man has responded to the Lord in many ways. In the Garden, Adam and Eve tried to redefine what our responsibility to a Holy God looks like. Then came men like: Cain, Jonah, Saul, Judas and others who continued this attitude of mediocrity and disobedience.
God requires every one of us to face this issue regarding our position with Him. The church has long segregated mankind into two categories. We refer to these as “saved, and lost,” “believers, and unbelievers,” “churched, and un-churched,” “Christian, and sinner.” Scripture even refers to these two classes as “sheep and goats.” And even among those who have accepted Christ, we have varying degrees of dedication within the church.
We have many who have accepted Christ, and are faithful in their attendance. Nearly all in the church understand the call to tithe, and to give sacrificially of their resources. But, there are very few who are “sold-out” for Jesus Christ, and for His cause. Very few who have sold all, and followed Him
As we consider those who have strayed from God’s standard of a whole heart, a whole mind, a whole being approach to service and worship, we would do well to learn from those who stayed the course and remained faithful. Men such as Enoch, and Simeon, among others.
In Scripture we find many accounts of those who were called upon to assess their position with a holy God. Paul, on the Road to Damascus, said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Agrippa said, “Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” It is likely that there is someone here today who has found themselves in that position – Almost Christian. It is easy to come to church and carry your Bible. It is easy to listen to the Sunday School lessons, and the preaching. Even the hymns are easy to sing along with. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof… We find a young man in that same condition in our text this morning.
This man is known as “the rich young ruler.” He has this distinction because of the combined picture gleaned from the synoptic gospels.
He was rich (Matthew 19:22; Mark 10:22; Luke 18:23).
He was young (Matthew 19:20).
He was a ruler (Luke 18:18).
He was a rare young man among the people of his day. This is seen in two facts.
1. He was conscientious, responsible, dependable—traits so often lacking in the youth of his day. He had already been placed into a position of leadership.
2. He was eagerly seeking eternal life—a spiritual matter often shunned by the young people like himself.
The dominant theme of the young man’s experience is his sincerity - his desperate search for eternal life. Jesus takes the man’s desperation and shocks the world. Desperation, sincerity, eagerness, and seeking eternal life are not enough. To inherit eternal life takes much more than just being desperate to possess it. Man has a problem in seeking eternal life.
Turn with me in your copy of God’s Word to Mark 10:17-22: And
But even more than being a wealthy man, a dignified man, Luke says he was a “ruler.” The Greek word for ruler is the word ar-khone, and it means “prince or magistrate.” He was a man with authority. He was a religious man. He had been trained in the Law, and knew the teachings of the prophets. He knew about church.
This man was sincere when he came to Jesus. In this passage we see:
I. This Young Man Sought Jesus (10:17). The scene was striking. A rich young man sought Jesus—sought Him with a sense of urgency and desperation seldom seen.
A. The man was eager, ever so eager: he was running to Jesus.
B. The man was humble: he cast himself to the ground, kneeling before Jesus, showing extreme reverence. He esteemed Jesus ever so highly. He bowed the knee to Him.
C. The man was respectful: he addressed Jesus as “Good Master,” which was the proper and courteous address to a revered Rabbi or Teacher.
D. The man was concerned about his spiritual welfare. He asked what he should do to inherit eternal life.
The young man demonstrated how we should seek eternal life. He did exactly what we should do when we wish anything: seek it. But in seeking, there is something critical. We must go to the right source. This is exactly what the rich young man did: (a) he approached Jesus, the Source of eternal life; and (b) he asked, confessing his need.
Note two things about the young man’s seeking eternal life.
A. He believed that there was such a thing as eternal life. He believed there was life in another world, and he was sincere and eager (perhaps desperate) to receive it. He “came running and kneeled” before Jesus.
B. He did a rare thing. He openly confessed his eager concern for eternal life. Few of his stature would ever confess an open concern as he did, and few of the young would ever consider it important enough at their young stage of life. He lacked and had need, and he knew it and openly confessed it. He was seeking for inner peace and a sense of completeness and fulfillment and satisfaction.
II. So, Let’s Consider the Facts:
A. Fact #1: To Praise Christ is Not Enough (10:18). The first fact to know about eternal life is this: to praise Jesus is not enough to receive eternal life. The young man had praised and honored Jesus as much as a person could. He had eagerly sought and reverenced Jesus, not only kneeling before Him, but casting himself onto the dust of the ground before Jesus. He addressed Jesus with as high a title as a man could address a revered teacher. He could not praise Jesus more. But notice: the man’s praise and honor of Jesus were not enough. He called Jesus “Good Master,” but by Master he meant good teacher, good Rabbi. He was acknowledging that Jesus was an honorable person to be highly regarded. But he conceived Jesus to be only a highly regarded teacher. He did not consider Jesus to be the divine Son of God. He conceived Jesus to be but a mere man, not God. He thought Jesus was a man who had achieved unusual moral goodness and as a result had become a good Master, one capable of teaching the great truths of God and life. Jesus had to correct this misconception. He attempted to correct it by simply saying, “Why callest thou me good? There is none good, but one, that is, God.” He was saying to the young man, “God alone is good. No man is good, not in comparison to God, not good enough to ever stand before God in righteousness. If I am but a mere man, a good teacher, then I am not ‘good’ and do not have the words to eternal life. But if I am God, then you can address me as ‘good’ and I do have the words to eternal life.”
Notice two things. 1. Jesus told the young man how to enter life, that is, how to receive eternal life. Therefore, Jesus was claiming to be God. 2. Jesus was correcting the young man. He was speaking these words forcefully: “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God.” Jesus would not have the young man thinking of Him only as a man, no matter how pre-eminent a teacher the young man thought Him to be. He is God, God’s very own Son; and He is to be known and called the Son of God. Therefore, Jesus tried to lead the young man to acknowledge and honor Him as God. It was the only way the young man could ever receive eternal life.
“I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24).
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim. 2:5-6).
B. Fact #2: To Be Respectable is Not Enough (10:19-20). The second fact to know about eternal life is this: to be respectable is not enough to receive eternal life. Note a crucial point: the young man had asked, “What good thing shall I do?” He had a religion of works, not of faith. He thought man himself could secure eternal life by being good. He felt that if he could just keep some great rule or law and live a moral and clean life, then God would accept him. He believed that his acts of morality and good works just piled up a balance sheet and made him acceptable to God. This was the man’s second major error. Again Jesus had to correct the man; He had to strike right at the root of the problem. The man was failing to love his neighbor as himself, and Jesus knew it (this will be brought out later). So Jesus told the young man very simply, “Thou knowest the commandments”; and He proceeded to quote five of the ten commandments, the five laws of respectability that had to do with his duty toward his neighbor (Exodus 20:12-16). The man made the phenomenal claim that he had kept all five of the commandments that Jesus quoted. He, of course, had not kept them perfectly, not in God’s eyes, not in the spirit in which God intended them to be kept. He was not generous enough with others, not giving and helping like he should. Jesus was now ready to show him and lead him to do this. In summary, here is what Jesus had said to the rich young ruler: keep the commandments dealing with your neighbor—the ones especially needed by rulers and the rich—the ones so often misunderstood and neglected by rulers and the rich. But the rich young ruler misunderstood God’s law: he had a tragic sense of self-righteousness.
1. He thought some commandments were more important than others.
2. He thought man could keep God’s law and build up a balance sheet with God, securing God’s acceptance.
“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees [religionists], ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
C. Fact #3: To Be Loved by Jesus is Not Enough (10:21). The third fact to know about eternal life is this: to be loved by Jesus is not enough to receive eternal life. Note the exact words, “Jesus beholding him, loved him.” Jesus’ eyes penetrated into the man’s innermost being and sensed a deep, deep longing and earnestness. The man’s longing and ache for eternal life touched Jesus deeply. Jesus was drawn to the man and loved him with a perfect love – AGAPE love. But note the crucial point: the love of Jesus for a man’s soul—even the very, very special love of Jesus for a man—was not enough to save the man. The man still lacked one thing.
Thought: The love of Christ is great, and it is touching and encouraging. But it is not enough. The Lord’s love cannot save us, not by itself, not against our will, not if we refuse to surrender all—all we are and all we have.
“Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded” (Proverbs 1:24).
D. Fact #4: Giving All is Required to Follow Christ (10:21-22). The fourth fact to know about eternal life is this: to give everything is required to receive eternal life. Giving everything is the one thing lacking, the one thing that causes so many to lose eternal life. Giving everything is required to truly follow. The real problem is that many have trusted Jesus as Savior but not as Lord. Jesus knew exactly what the young man needed. His rejection of Jesus showed this. He was hoarding wealth instead of sharing it. God had given wealth to him that he might be able to help others, but he was failing to love and help his neighbor as he should (Ephesians 4:28: Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.) What the young man needed to hear was just what Jesus said: “If thou wilt be perfect [be complete - receive heaven, really keep the commandments, as you say you have] then demonstrate to all publicly and without question, that you love your neighbor. Go and sell all you have, and give to the poor...and come follow me.” In our battle to protect the glorious truth that man is saved by grace and grace alone, we often forget and neglect another great truth: to follow Christ is to serve and minister to our neighbor. To follow Christ is to deny self completely—all that we are and all that we have. When we love our neighbor as ourselves, then we show that we truly love God. If we do not love and minister to our neighbor (above self), then we do not love God. When we deny self and give all we are and have (1 John 4:20: If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?), then and only then do we receive heaven; but more importantly, we receive treasure in heaven. To deny self, to give all we are and have is a hard saying, but Christ demands it. Our attempt to soften it does not annul His demand.
The young man rejected Jesus for three reasons.
1. Unbelief: he was not willing to entrust his life to Jesus. There was some lack of belief that the Man Jesus standing before him was really God, and could best guide his steps.
2. Self-righteousness and pride: his concept of religion was keeping laws and doing good in order to secure God’s acceptance. He felt that he, as well as other men, had the power and goodness to make God approve and accept him.
3. Love of the world: he was rich and was unwilling to give up the comfort and possessions he had obtained. He made the fatal mistake that so many make with wealth, power, and fame.
a. He loved the things of the world more than he loved people. He preferred hoarding and extravagance, living sumptuously and comfortably to helping those who were so desperately needful.
b. He loved the things of the world more than he loved the hope of eternal life.
c. He loved the position, recognition, esteem, and power of the earth more than he loved Christ.
Now, notice a critical point: the subject of giving all is a sensitive subject, so sensitive that the words of Christ are seldom taken or preached at face value. The words of the Lord are watered down to mean no more than an ideal in the mind of a man—an ideal that is left up to every man to decide within his own selfish, deceptive, and corrupt heart. Is the man willing to give all? Then his willingness is said to be acceptable to God. The fact that he does not give all is said not to matter. However, the critical point seldom crosses the mind of men: the God of all men can never justify keeping and storing and banking and hoarding and even holding back as long as a single need exists and is going unmet.
If all men are truly God’s by creation, then God is bound to expect all needs to be met, and He is bound to hold accountable the man who has and keeps, stores and banks, hoards and holds back. The point is easily understood by the honest and thinking person when he thinks about the issue. The thinking and honest person sees both the masses and the single person...
• who are starving.
• who are without clothes, housing, medicine, treatment, education, and skills.
• who are lost from God and doomed eternally because they have never heard the gospel.
Imagine the millions who have never heard about Christ even once. When the thinking person sees the picture and is honest, he can no longer refuse to accept Jesus’ words at face value. Yet, so many do not think and so many refuse to be honest. So they continue to spiritualize and idealize what Jesus was saying to this young man. Why? Do we fear the strictness of what Christ says? Do we fear the reaction of people? Do we fear what we will have to give up? Do we lack the faith within to trust God?
The young man had a serious problem—the very same problem that so many have today: he didn’t believe that Jesus was worthy of his giving up of his possessions.
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
He goes away sadly, for he is very rich. He chose temporal happiness over eternal satisfaction. We are quick to judge such a man, but many times we are no better. Often, we make the same mistake. We choose temporal happiness over eternal impact. Do we believe that Jesus is worthy of our giving all to follow Him?
You see, I believe that when we come to Christ – as His children – many times we go away grieved because we value our dreams more than we value His plan for our lives. We value our goals more than we value His purpose of reaching a lost world for Christ. We gather here and worship within these four walls, and we sing about how much we love the Lord. We testify about how much we want to reach the world for Christ. We send our offerings to keep missionaries on their respective fields; Ivory Coast, France, Spain, Brazil, Japan. We even send a portion of our resources to missionaries in our own state, so that others can reach people for Christ and His Kingdom. But what are we doing in our Jerusalem to reach men, women, boys and girls for the kingdom. When is the last time that we stepped out of our comfort zones to reach someone for Jesus? When is the last time that we really prayed – fasted and prayed, asking our heavenly Father to use us in some significant way? When is the last time we “sold all, and sold-out” for Jesus Christ?
We come running and kneeling before the King of kings, and we ask, “Lord what do you want me to do?” And He answers, but the cost is too great and we walk away grieved. Our possessions – our plans, our dreams, our goals, and aspirations – they all mean more to us than the Lord Himself, and we walk away spiritual paupers. Too many people don’t want to know Christ – they just want to experience Him.
So, what can we do? We need to look at some obvious areas of our lives where we need to “sell all, and follow Him.”
Those areas will be different in your life than they are in mine.
Have you sold all to follow Him in Salvation?
Have you sold all to follow Him in baptism?
Have you sold all to follow Him in ministering to the needs of others? As believers, we have the opportunity to meet real needs on a daily basis. People have spiritual needs. People have emotional needs. People have physical needs. Who is better able to meet those needs as Jesus would have them met than those who claim to know Him? Acts 20: 20 reminds us that the Pulpit brings the Word to the people; and One on One brings people to the Word. Jesus spoke to individuals 7X more than He did to the crowds. Look around you and get an idea of the impact that we could make. There are ______ here today. If Each One Would Reach One, imagine the impact it would have… not only on our church, but our community; our families; our workplaces… the impact is both immediate and eternal!
Have you sold all to follow Him in Stewardship?
o Treasures, yes. He deserves the first fruits of our income. But also…
o Time. He deserves the first fruits of your time. Time in prayer. Time in Bible study. Time in Worship, personally. Time serving the needs of others. If everyone would volunteer to teach, to work, to do much of what needs done in the church, we would never have the need of any one person fulfilling more than one position in the church.
o Talents. What are your gifts? Singing? Then sing. Teaching? Then teach. Listening? Then listen. If you really desire to bring Him glory in all you do, you will give Him all you have! Are you honoring Him as a good and faithful steward?
We have to realize the need to step out of our comfort zones and obediently respond!
Invitation
What areas of your life have you not surrendered to Him? Where have you not sold all? In what areas of your life do you feel that you are the weakest? In what areas of your life do you feel the most guilt? If Jesus were standing right here today, what area of your life do you think He would be the least happy with? Whatever areas you are struggling with – those are the areas where you have not sold all to follow Him.
Who are you living for? Is His purpose for your life more important to you than your very breath?
Luke 14:33, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Unsaved, it sounds preposterous to even think of surrendering all you are and all you ever hope to be to Jesus Christ. It is unnerving to imagine not having control of your life, and surrendering it to someone you cannot see. But, on the other hand, how are things going for you on your own? Life is too short to guess at the answers. We were created to have a real relationship with our Creator, and there is only one way to do that. Jesus. He says to cast all of our care on Him. He loves you. And He has a purpose for your life: Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Prayer
