[0:00] in Romans to the portion of Scripture we read together in the Gospel according to Mark. And we shall read again on the 17th verse.
[0:20] Reading the 17th verse of the 10th chapter in the Gospel according to Mark. And when he was going forth into the room there came one room and ran to him and asked him, Good Master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
[0:54] This incident is mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel according to Mark and here.
[1:07] And so the writers must have a scene quite an important scene connected with this incident.
[1:21] And it is all right of us to inquire why does it get such importance in the Word of God?
[1:35] Well, every syllable of the Word of God is very important but some more than others. one reason why it is related again and again and again is the fact that there are so many stumbling blocks between a sin in a state of sinfulness and his entrance into eternal life.
[2:11] another reason is that one can come very close to salvation and yet not after that salvation at all.
[2:28] As one person can mark that there was a path from the gates of salvation to the gate of heaven.
[2:42] One reason for a few moments are considered first the person mentioned here. He was a young lawyer and that is he was a teacher teaching the law of God in certain schools.
[3:12] He made a blameless life in accordance with what he himself taught. He made according to the revealed will of God as far as it was possible for him to do so.
[3:31] he had also considerable wealth it is mentioned so he was an independent young man and living a most respectable life.
[3:55] No one could find fault with anything that he was doing or with anything that he was saying. And the reason for this was that he was blazing his eternal destiny upon his own life and character.
[4:18] father. I so know whether it was at that time or not for the first time that he heard Christ teaching or preaching on Jerusalem and he made every effort possible to meet with Christ and we see that as Christ was moving away from what he had been preaching he came to him around.
[4:55] He came in his Now the reason we believe for this is that he must have heard and preached and that he realized that the preaching of Christ regarding eternal salvation was very different from what he taught and what he was teaching others to depend upon for their eternal salvation.
[5:32] Now here is a person and when we see him he is running for eternal life. Now I don't know if you ever saw such a person running for eternal life.
[5:50] If you were older and lived in a city during the war you could see a lot of people running for their life for the present life.
[6:02] When there were signals made that an air raid was coming sirens were sounded and many would leave their own houses and run to the shelters in order to preserve their own life.
[6:23] Well this person it wasn't his present life he was concerned with but he realized that death natural death that is the death of the body was not the end of his person that he had a soul that needed to be delivered from the sinfulness and the punishment that accompanied the sins.
[6:57] Now if you look at him again as he is coming running unto Christ he is running for eternal life to find out what is the difference is he right or is wrong in what he is teaching and is Christ mistaken in what he is teaching he is a master too the very same as this lawyer he was a master of the law now you will notice that he is respectful in his approach when he comes to Christ he kneels down before him and addresses him as good master he makes good master now that was our respectable address and many had called
[8:27] Christ a master before but he realized in this case that he simply believed and was convinced that Christ was just an ordinary teacher and Christ therefore wants to correct him in this and he asks him why do you call me good where is man good but God now this is a very sweeping statement he he he was to remind this person that he himself was not good that no one else was good but God and that he was reminding him if he could understand the implication of what he said he says that he himself was God actually manifested in the flesh and there was no good master there was nobody good really but
[9:33] God and he was God none of us revealed in flesh that is in human nature and it's not a revelation just of God like what Abraham saw when he saw three men coming towards him he thought they were ordinary people just passing on a journey and he saluted them and asked them to stay and he prepared food and they ate with him and one of them was the son of God appearing in the form of human nature because to one of them Abraham began to pray and to intercede for Sodom while the other two were ordinary angels who went to Sodom and delivered Abraham's nephew out of it with his two daughters now
[10:43] Christ had a mystery being that could not be seen by looking at him when this man came running to him to inquire about eternal life he could not see anything in Christ that would indicate that he was the second person of the Godhead appearing in human nature because that person of the Godhead took real human nature and united it to his to his sin the human nature was united to the divine person even from the very conception and that which was born by the virgin was the son of God and he took upon him what he never had before and now this man this young lawyer is coming to him and saying good master and he reminds him as I said that no one was good without the tent of sin no human being since the fall is without sin in this world but
[12:12] Christ himself now he when he asked this question of Christ and when he was coming forth into the way there came one running and named him and asked him good master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life now that indicates that he was basing his eternal life his eternal destiny he was basing it upon what he could do now that is the tendency in human nature right down through all ages since the fall it's that is what was given to our covenant head to live a perfect life glorifying
[13:21] God and enjoying him but once he sinned he sinned not only for himself but for all for whom he stood in covenant he and here we have Christ stressing this fact and he understood as I said the condition in which this man was and the condition in which everyone continues to be who are interested in their eternal salvation it is based in their minds upon what they can do what can I do and this is the problem the difficulty which the ordinary sinner will find in the way of salvation not that it is not made clear that it's not written again and again and that it is not preached by those who declare a simple clear gospel that it is not by works but by faith alone now it is again stated here that this young person was loved by
[14:48] Christ it is it is stated here when he had questioned him concerning his own way of salvation when he questioned him what does the law say he knew what he was supposed to do in order to obtain eternal life that it was by by doing and fulfilling the law and he could quote it out he said thou knowest the commandments and it is interesting it is you would assume from this that it was Christ himself who quoted this to him thou knowest the commandments do not commit adultery do not kill do not steal do not bear false witness defraud not honour thy father and thy mother now that is the second table of the law the first table is our duty to
[16:03] God and the second table is our duty to man and these are in the ten commandments that were written by the finger of God on the two tables of the law and it is here our duty to our fellow be and Christ sent up these ten in two in two commandments to love the Lord with all thy heart and to love thy neighbour as thyself that is the totality of the law now this man this lawyer maintained that he had done all this his duty of the second table that is his duty to his fellow man that he fulfilled it and that it was upon fulfilling that duty that he was basing his eternal salvation now we might find most of those who are attending the public means of grace in the churches we find many of them perhaps alone to themselves basing their eternal salvation upon what they are and upon what they are doing they find that there is very little difference between themselves and those who declare that they have received
[17:43] Christ and that they are heirs joined with Christ of eternal life and therefore they are quite at ease they are not in the least of concerned over their own eternal salvation you you can sit there you can listen to sermons you can read your bible you can hear about eternal condemnation and you are not in the least concerned or disturbed concerned yourself and it is just simply like this young lawyer he was circumspect in every way and he he thought he was fulfilling that law to his fellow being and Jesus it says when he when he when he said that he knew all his life and walking according to the second table of the law and
[18:52] Christ looking at him loved him now what kind love love was that that Christ had that it is mentioned concerning Christ that he loved this person well it was I believe a love of pity he was seeing this young respectable life as far as people were concerned he was seeing him on the way to eternal damnation and nobody would believe that and himself the last would believe it that God would do such a thing but remember that the commandment has already gone forth regarding the whole of mankind that they have sinned they have come short of the glory of God and they are all under condemnation and they have to be delivered from it now
[19:57] Christ's method of delivering this person from it is by repeating the very thing on which he depended for his eternal salvation that is on the second part of the moral law our duty to fellow man to love thy neighbor as thyself now this person thought he was doing this and Christ realized this and he pitied him or he was sorrowful for him his heart yearned for this young man who was astray and who thought he was on the way to eternal life and he thought that Christ might enlighten him in any point in which he was coming short of that hope of eternal life but
[21:00] Christ pointed out to him his mistake that his mistake was so dreadful that it would take him down into the deepest hell and he pointed to the idol that was on this man's heart and the idol was that he had great wealth he trusted more in his wealth and in what that could get for him the comfort and the authority and the respect and everything that he would have in this world by his wealth this was his idol and yet he thought he was fulfilling the law and the law was to love his neighbor as himself and this is where Christ pointed to him how far short he was coming of eternal life that if he were fulfilling the law he would give away to the poor to the perishing to those who were in great need he would give of his wealth to them and that is what he asked him to do well if he will be perfect he said
[22:27] Jesus beholding and loved 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 well that is the challenge that is what conferences what you value most in this life look at your own life consider how you live and what you prize and what is valuable to you are you prepared to forsake it all and take up your cross and follow Christ now what is the cross that he was to take up well it comes in connection with our denial of self the cross is what would give us pain and suffering and that we have to destroy and that is self from which selfishness comes the person himself whatever he is and whatever part or place he has in society there is this sinful nature in us all and it has to be destroyed infinitely and all together to be destroyed before it can enter eternal the glory of eternal life but the crucifixion of it has to begin here and this is where the difficulty of our salvation begins the denial of self forsaking self and prepared to follow
[24:46] Christ at such a cost to to deny all the desires and pleasures that arises from the sinful nature of our being to try to deny this is where the trial of the Christian is continually to deny self and follow Christ through good and evil report going to the poor now Christ I noticed here a character a person who could be very useful and who could be used mightily in the cause of Christ himself if he were prepared to do what
[25:50] Christ suggested but you see what Christ seemed to be to be telling the disciples and how amazed the disciples were when they saw the reaction of this man when you see him first running and coming with the question of all questions what shall I do to inherit eternal life and what Christ tells him to do is actually to deny self to deny the idol that is in his heart to deny himself and follow Christ and obtain the life that is through Christ himself go thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven come take up the cross and follow me
[27:05] God well that is the same situation continues to occur in every life and in every generation we have the same difficulties the same confrontation in following Christ it is not just to say that you're a Christian and to follow the outward means as this man was doing he was he was following and doing what the law of God commanded it was the shadows of the Old Testament that he in particular referred to Jesus beholding him loved him and said to him one thing that thou lackest he lacked the one thing that was needful he lacked the knowledge of how a person could be saved from the sin he failed to realize what sin was and that every sin demands the wrath and the curse of God in this life and in that which is to come and that the law has to be honored and the law has to be raised and glorified as before a sinner could actually be saved from the law and this was taught to Israel when they were brought out of Egypt when they came to
[28:49] Simei God revealed himself in a peculiar way to the Israelites at Simei those of you who know the Bible well you can remember that on a seventh day after three months after coming out of Egypt they came to Simei and the Lord Moses told them to prepare themselves wash their bodies clean and wash their crows come in their best apparent come near the mount God was going to reveal himself it was like going to church and hearing a sermon concerning the law of God and on the third day after this command Moses brought the whole congregation towards the mount and they started sounding the trumpet in the air sounding louder and louder and then there appeared darkness and blackness and fire on the moon and then
[30:10] God spoke the ten commandments and his voice shook the earth and even Moses said that he greatly feared and quaked and we cannot understand the mystery of that blackness and darkness and fire and what did it indicate it indicated God's wrath against sin he spoke out the law the ten the moral law the ten commandments and he revealed his own wrath and his own punishment of breaking the law his law his moral law now God is unchangeable the same wrath and the same terror is connected with God's punishment of sin and it's not often that we have the voice of God speaking to sinners in the world he speaks through various means he speaks through inspiration but this was the voice of God himself declaring the ten commandments and we have we have a picture a real picture in Sinai of what is the punishment of sin in the blackness and darkness and the fire and God's voice and the trumpet now that is what is declared to be when Christ comes again there will be the voice the sound of the trumpet the voice of the archangel and then the shout of Christ coming down and there he will separate the sinners are thrown the saints that will be gathered before him when he sits on the great white throne now before this could really happen before sinners at all could be could be saved by Christ there had first to be a rousing of the law making it honorable and exalting it in its glory and in its power and this was seen that the law that sin is a bridge of that law and the punishment of God forever follows the breaking of that law however it is if it's in the angels they're cast away from him if it's in mankind they are coming under that law but there is there is still the the the possibility concerning any of the human race that there is a way of salvation out from the punishment of the law through the Lord
[33:21] Jesus Christ now the Lord Jesus Christ on occasions saw the darkness and saw the blackness saw the fire and saw that he had to go into that in order to suffer the punishment of sin on behalf of those whom he came to save that is that is where he went at the end of his pilgrimage in the world he lived here for a little over 30 years or about 30 years and then died a cursed death he went into that blackness and darkness and the fire that we might call the punishment for sin and that is what every unsaved person will receive from a just God God cannot do otherwise than punish sin he is obliged to do it and everyone has sinned and came short of the glory of God and there is no shelter anywhere in the world or anywhere else but in Christ
[34:37] Jesus to sell what you have sell whatever it is that is keeping you away from the shelter that is in Christ come deny thyself lift up thy cross and follow Christ now by following Christ it means to receive him as your personal savior we still use that term here concerning a person we have seen leaving the world and coming into the shelter of the church that he is following he begins to follow those who are followers of Christ and this is what Christ demands of this person deny thyself lift up thy cross and follow me now if we could realize if we could see as the Israelites saw they saw what the wrath of God might be against sin in the blackness and darkness and the fire and the terror of the voice of God that will be heard as I said again at the last day when Christ comes again and he will sit on the great white throne and he will say depart from me ye workers of iniquity and where
[36:10] Christ himself tells about his second coming again and sitting on that throne he divides them like a flock and he tells the other to depart from him not because of the things they had done because of their wickedness that the charge is laid against them but because of the things they did not do because they kept what should have been given away I was naked and he clothed me not I was thirsty and he gave me no drink I was hungry and he gave me no food I was sick and he didn't come to see me depart from me because of the things they had not done and what could be so wicked as this person has done he came to the very door of salvation he came into
[37:10] Christ Jesus and he was so bruising you would assume that he was a real and a beautiful Christian a young man well taught running into Christ and saying what shall I do to be saved and Christ said sell what you have give away your life what you are living for throw that away deny yourself and lift up the cross that is deny thyself and follow me follow me through good and evil report well you might be saved well that is a fearful condition is there any other way we can be saved but through this has self to be destroyed has all the prayers in the world to be destroyed are there anything at all we're allowed to do if we become
[38:20] Christians many a person will speak about the merriness of the Christian religion and how our fathers the Puritans and the Scottish Covenanters how they made lives so narrow and so dull and so impossible to lose one thing the Bible is emphatic about we cannot ride two horses at the same time we cannot live for sin and go into eternal glory sin has to be destroyed and it has to be destroyed in our life in this world we cannot live for sin and for the world and for the pleasures of sin for a season and expect a happy and a glorious eternity it is by following
[39:30] Christ he is our example and that was the example that the apostle Paul was pleasing before the churches that he founded he lived for Christ he tried to follow in his footstep but he felt he was coming short but that was his same denying himself and seeking the reward he was looking to the reward not to the pleasure of sin for a season but for the reward that Christ was to give to all who would deny themselves and follow him and seek the things that belong to his kingdom to make an effort to come in and receive the way Christ says that when the example he used that when they brought little children to him and the apostles objected why were they bringing these children and
[40:35] Christ said let them alone and he lifted one of them and blessed him and he said that of such is the kingdom of God and he said further unless you come as a little child you can in other ways enter into the kingdom of God how does a grown up person how does a person like the young lawyer here and anyone else how does he come as a little child well you know what a little child can do he can do nothing for himself he has to be nursed by his mother or by somebody else he has to be cleansed he has to be clothed he has to be taught to walk and so has the disciple of Christ he has to be taught that he is completely and wholly hopeless that he is wholly dependent upon
[41:40] God the Holy Spirit for everything but God is wealthy God is generous God can supply all our needs according to his riches and glory and the world can never meet the desires of the soul as the Spirit of God can and this is what they receive they receive the Spirit of God and what does it give it gives the graces joy love joy peace long suffering easy remember there are millionaires in this world who would gain millions to receive that but they can't it cannot be bought you cannot buy peace you cannot buy love you cannot buy joy no matter what you do but here it is offered to us in Christ
[42:43] Jesus deny thyself come follow me and you become an heir and a joint heir of eternal glory of an inheritance that undefiled and that shall not fade away now are you losing your life chasing the pleasures of a season and forgetting the infinite and glorious salvation that is offered to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered in the room and in the place of sinners in order to bring them unto God may the Lord bless his word let us pray eternal God thou art the great and glorious Jehovah thou art able to do for us more than we are able to ask or think and may we be taught by thee we cannot teach ourselves and we cannot teach sinners neither can we teach thy church but thou canst teach us thou art the great teacher and thou knowest how to deal with each person according to his individual needs and
[44:16] Lord please thee to reveal thyself to reveal unto us that Christ is the door that Christ is the way that Christ is the life and that we are invited to come to deny ourselves and partake of the life that shall never end bless us now and help us to sing thy praises in parting and all we ask is in the name and for the sake of Christ our Lord Amen we shall conclude by singing to his prayers in Psalm 119 and reading at the 69th verse
[45:18] Heaven and the Lord and God God