the reading of the Word of God, we come to Mark chapter 10. I'll be reading to you from verse 13 through 31. Verse 13 through 31, Mark chapter 10. Once again, this is the Word of our God. Then they brought little children to Jesus that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was greatly displeased and said to them, let the little children come to me and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. Now as he was going out of the road, out on the road, one came running, knelt before him and asked him, Good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? So Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good, but one, that is, God. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your father and your mother. And he answered and said to him, Teacher, all these things have I kept from my youth. Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, One thing you lack, go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me. But he was sad at this word. and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard is it for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God? And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, children, how hard is it? For those who trust in riches to enter 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 greatly astonished, saying among themselves, who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, with men it is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible. Then Peter began to say to him, see, we have left all and followed you. So Jesus answered and said, assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children. or lands for my sake, and the Gospels, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children, lands with persecution. In the age to come, eternal life, but many who are first will be last, and the last first. That ends the reading of God's holy, inspired, glorious word. Briefly let us go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this passage, in a sense, three separate sections, truly marvelous in our eyes. We thank you for the kingdom of God. We thank you for the ability to enter therein. We also thank you for this demonstration of those who remain on the outside of that kingdom. I thank you for all that we learn about the kingdom of Christ. May we know much of his kingdom today, and may we know him as our king, that he may rule over this church, that he might rule over our families, and that he might rule over each and every one of us, ruling over our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to bring to you verse 30, verse 30 of this portion of the Word of God. But in order to get there, we need to look at a few things prior to it. I don't want to focus on this, who shall not receive a hundredfold, now in this time, receiving a hundredfold. Well, it was a month ago, I believe it was a month ago, when I came to preach the gospel to you, and it was my honor and it was my delight to preach to you from the gospel of Mark, and I was a number of passages back I've been preaching through it pretty much every Lord's Day, sometimes a couple of times, preaching the same sermon. Sometimes when I go to preach somewhere, I'll preach in the morning and preach the same sermon at our one o'clock service in Dumat. Well, the last two weeks we've covered some of these portions. Let me just get you caught up to where we've been. I won't be as exhaustive as I was the last two weeks because I want to focus on this last section. What did we have the last couple of weeks, though? First of all, The Lord Jesus teaches his disciples, and in a sense, checks them against the boards. He pushes them and kind of shocks them. You see, there were families that were keen to bring their children to the Lord Jesus so that he could hold them, so that he could bless them. And the disciples are saying, hold on, can you just wait a minute there? We're not going to bother him with such simple things as children. And Jesus says, no, no, no. Allow the little children to come to me. And he says, of such are the kingdom of God, of such are the kingdom of heaven. What's he saying here? He's saying that really in a sense the kingdom of God flies in the face of the kingdom of this world. How do you rise in the kingdom of this world? Well, it might be poisoning your way up high. Some kings have done that. It might be going to war, or it might be getting to know very, very important people so that you can rise and rise and rise. And that was the disciples' understanding. They're thinking, well, we're not going to bother the Lord Jesus with the unimportant of society. Children, he's saying, we are going to be concerned about the important people. They still have a worldly mindset, and Jesus says, no, no, of such are the kingdom of God. Again, the first are last, and the last are first. Well it's fascinating because Jesus is pointing to children, and in a sense he's saying here and elsewhere, we need to be like children. And we don't want to be childish, we don't want to be immature, not to be that, that's not what he's saying, but what he is saying is that we must trust in a heavenly Father just as a child is inclined to trust a father and even a mother. There is a sense in which children are totally depraved. They are sinners. The depravity of Adam's first sin does penetrate to every aspect of our children, but At the same time, in many ways, they still have certain innocence to them, and we ought to be like them. And so the kingdom of God is not be like someone high up in the world, it is be as children, because we are children of our Heavenly Father. So just after this, this man comes, and he is one of the first in the world, And we are told that he is the rich, young ruler. Well, how do we know that he was rich? How do we know that he was young? How do we know that he's a ruler? If we piece together what Matthew says about him, what Mark says about him, what Luke says about him, what we have is one says he's rich, one says he's young, one says he's a ruler, so we put these together, a cumulative effect, you could say, but substantively Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, It is the same. A man comes and he says, good teacher, and Jesus checks him right there, just pushes him. You realize what you're saying? You realize what you're saying? Now, some people will look at that and say, Jesus is denying that he's divine. No, he's not. He's saying, you realize that only God is good. He's pushing this man's understanding. We are inclined to do that even ourselves. Oh, he's a good man. She's a good lady, et cetera. You know that ultimately though the Bible tells us there's no one good, no, not one. Only God is good. And so Jesus is actually reaffirming his divinity and saying, you ought to be careful about your language. You ought to convey what is truly right, and what you're saying is actually more right than you realize. So Jesus is affirming his divinity, but then Jesus answers this man's question. He says, You want to go to heaven? You want to go to the kingdom of God? Keep the commandments. And he names some of those from the latter portion of the Ten Commandments, namely the second table of the law. You know those? Don't steal, don't murder, etc. Now this man says, I've done each and every one of those. So I'm good. And so this man's understanding of the law of God and his understanding of his own ability is very casual, just, I've got this, no problem, everything is fine. You realize that the law of God was given to humble us, to show us our sin, and this man sees the law of God as an opportunity for more arrogance, So Jesus says, ah, there's one thing you lack, and he says, go sell everything you have, give it to the poor, come and follow me. Now let me just ask you this. Do you think the Lord Jesus is offering up a works-based salvation? All you need to do to go to heaven is, in a sense, buy your way in by becoming poor. taking a vow of poverty. There are many Christian traditions that have taken that. I said, well, the really holy people, they're going to take a vow of poverty, and they'll make it into heaven, when in fact that's not what's going on here. Jesus is not offering an ultimately a way of salvation that a man can work his way in. He's actually showing that not only is this man not able to keep the Ten Commandments, he has not kept them at all. He doesn't understand that the latter portion of the Ten Commandments are about loving your neighbor. And Jesus is saying, let's see how much you love your neighbor. No, you don't. You love your stuff. You love your toys. You love your trinkets above your neighbor. And so Jesus is pushing him in exactly the way that he needs to be pushed. We understand that you're not saved by giving away all of your toys and trinkets. You're not saved by giving away all of your wealth. You're saved by trusting Christ and his death and his resurrection. You're saved by being regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Well, the man walks away and he says, he's disheveled. He says to himself probably, oh, I thought I could learn something from that guy, but he's crazy. He's nuts. I'll go find my own way. And Jesus says some penetrating words. He says, you see how hard it is for a rich man to go to heaven? And he uses this absurd example. Jesus is prone to what we call hyperbole. Now what is hyperbole? He says things that are crazy, things that are almost cartoonish. to get his point across. And he's saying it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go through, to get into heaven. I understand there are all these crazy theories about there's some sort of camel gate that's called the needle. That was not in existence during the time of Jesus. Nobody said that for 900 years. They had needles back then. They really did. They had needles and they had thread and they would put it through just like we do in our day. Jesus is saying something that's absolutely crazy. Imagine taking a little needle and trying to ram a camel into it. It's absurd. It's like when Jesus says, you know, if your hand, your eye, your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. Well, I think it was even last month, we talked about if we were to do that, what would happen? We'd all just be cutting ourselves up. We'd not be able to cut our hearts out, because that is what is most sinful. Because we wouldn't have hands to do it. Jesus is using hyperbole. We must not take him literally when he's speaking hyperbolically. I really do mean that, almost absurd cartoonish, because he's making a point with it. Praise God that he uses the kind of communication we use all the time. People say it all the time. My head was literally exploding. You're like, figuratively? It was literally exploding. The word literally has become something we use hyperbolically. Just listen to the language we use. We use things like this all the time. We utterly destroyed them. You won by seven points. You know, you didn't utterly destroy them, but I understand what you're saying. You defeated them. Okay, we get the picture. That's what Jesus is doing. And Jesus points to this man and says, you see how hard it is? And they say, the disciples say, well, who then can be saved? And Jesus says, with man, it is impossible. Well, there you have it. This man is not going to be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments because by man's standards and in man's ways, it is impossible. Well, what about if he really had taken Jesus up on his offer and said, you know what? Eternal life is more important than my trinkets, so I think I will. Guess what? He would not have earned eternal life even then. Why? Because with man such things are impossible. But with God, all things are possible, even salvation. And Jesus, in his conversation with Peter, Peter takes this to heart and he says, you know what we've done? We've kind of done what you called him to do. Now Peter's not gonna be saved by doing it either. But he does ask, you know what, what is all this about? What are we to think about these things? You know, we've left a lot of things for the kingdom to come and fellowship with you, Jesus, and to have you teach us. Peter could be fishing, he could be working, he could be doing all kinds of things. We've left a lot. And that is where we have this, verse 28, excuse me, verse 29, verse 30. Verse 29 is really about leaving. And Jesus answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife. Some versions don't have wife, but it does belong there. Or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospels. He's saying, there are some people who leave all these things. Is Jesus speaking hyperbolically again? Indeed, I think he is. What would we say of some Some man who goes on a religious quest and leaves his, like literally leaves his children and his wife for some extended amount of time. We're not talking about some week-long business trip or something like that. We're not talking about going to a meeting for a night or two. We're not talking about that. We're talking about leaving. Jesus is talking hyperbolically again. We would say that's a bad father for some extended amount of time. But Jesus is making this point. There are rewards. There are good things that happen to those who leave for the kingdom of God and follow Jesus Christ. And verse 29 is about leaving, and verse 30 is about receiving. This is what he says, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, and children, lands. In other words, someone might look at this and say, this kind of sounds like those preachers on TV, you might have heard them. They basically say that Christianity is about a get healthy and get wealthy scheme. And you'll hear them say things like, if you just confess with your mouth wealth and prosperity and health, then you'll actually make it come to pass. Well, that's just an abomination. Many of the apostles were quite poor. Many of the followers of the Lord Jesus were quite poor. Jesus did not come to make you healthy and wealthy. Jesus came to suffer and to die for our sins. But Jesus says that those who leave, again, a little slighter, more slight, but hyperbolically, there are some people who leave many things for the gospel. And we look at the end of the verse, he says, you know, eternal life. And to that we say, okay, yeah, that makes sense. There are some people who are saved and don't do too much for the kingdom, and there are some people who are saved and do all kinds of things. They both have eternal life, and some just seem to have greater rewards in the afterlife than others. Okay, but here's the thing that I want you to point to you, point out to you, is that he talks about in this time, he talks in this, who shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands. Is he saying that we ought to leave one set of resources and people whom we love so that we can go have more trinkets in this world? No, he is not. But when he talks about this time, here's what he is saying, that those who come to the Lord Jesus They have a new family. They have a new family. They have a new family. Christian's fellowship is the sweetest fellowship on earth. And that is this reason why those who come to Christ have all the things that are received and a hundredfold houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, lands." In other words, there are some who leave to go and to preach, and they have fellowship with other believers. And it is a fellowship which is very beautiful and it is very sweet. Now some people do not go that far geographically in life. Some stay around the same exact area. But some are called to go from one place to another. Some we find go for the gospel and they are almost as wanderers in this world, you realize that you can venture far from home and think about home often. When you go back to it, what happens? You find that it's not the same. It is not what it was. when you left it. And play back the videos in your mind, the things that you did there. You go there and it's just not the same. And we just say, well, those who leave their original places, do they have nothing? No, no. In a sense, God restores to them everything. God restores to them 100-fold. And how does he do this? He restores it to them in the fellowship of Christian believers. Christian society and Christian fellowship is the sweetest fellowship of all. Maybe you are one who has not had too much experience out in the world. Maybe you think, oh, you know, everything's fine here. Maybe everything's fine out there, but I have to say, out in the world, the fellowship is not so sweet. It is not like true Christian fellowship. Fellowship on the outside of the church, oftentimes you're wondering, am I being befriended because Or is it because of the things I have and the resources that I have? Christian fellowship is sweet, and it is the sweetest because it is gathered around the Lord Jesus and His death and His resurrection. This is why Christian fellowship is truly sweet. We are not, as a church, some sort of common interest club. We're not like, you know, some club, throw something out there, like motocross motorcycles, or some club for computers, or some common interest comic books, or something like, that's not what we are. We are a people who are gathered around the Lord Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. And so when we come to fellow believers, whether they are well known to us or whether they are not, whether we are traveling, we have this in common, that we are trusting in Christ. We love the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we have this interest in Christ, cross and resurrection. And we would say, the church and her fellowship is also centered around the Word and the sacraments and prayer. We gather around, once again, not because of some common interest in some worldly thing, because we gather around the preached Word, and so this is the highlight for us of the week. It's the highlight of the Lord's Day when the Word of God is opened, and the preacher explains it to us, and the preacher helps us to see things that we hadn't seen before. There are precious jewels and precious gems which are on these pages that we can read many times, but it's not until someone else mentions something or until the preacher gets up and explains something that you say, there it has been for me all along. Hidden in plain sight, but there it is. Precious jewels. Precious jewels which are found in the Word of God. And when the Word of God is truly preached to us, And it is faithful. We say, you know, I heard the voice of the Savior in that sermon. This is what we're all about. So we are gathered around to hear Jesus speak to us in the reading and the preaching of the gospel, but it is also gathered around the sacrament. There are so many hardships of ministry, but there are so many delights. Of course, weddings. Very joyful. Funerals, bitter and sweet, simultaneously. And how about baptisms? When we baptize a little child. Beautiful. I'd say just like the apostles did. Whole households, absolutely. I saw a very wonderful meme, it said, infant baptism, not only is it biblical, it's just so darn cute. To which I say, amen. But also when someone is converted later in life, me, converted in college. I was baptized by a beloved pastor in college. I was much taller than him. I had to kneel down, nice and low, and I told him, I want you to just get me with a ton of water. He just poured it on. It was excellent. When someone is converted from outside the church, this is beautiful. We're centered around baptism and also the Lord's Supper when we partake of that holy feast, bread and wine. The Lord Jesus who said, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And when we say this, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Drink ye all of it. It's beautiful. We're gathered around prayer, that is to say, we come together and we pray to the Lord. And we have sweet times of prayer. So we are gathered around the cross and the resurrection, word and sacrament and prayer. And here's what we're also gathered around. We are gathered around the truth. Christian society, when it is truly Christian, we say, it is gathered around the truth against lies. When I say Christian society, I mean Beacon Light is a Christian society. That's what I mean by that. We're gathered around the truth, and we proclaim true things. We proclaim, for example, the Word of God, and we proclaim the Apostles' Creed, and the Nicene Creed. We proclaim that Jesus Christ has died and risen from the dead. But what happens is all kinds of lies will be thrown at us as soon as we say these things. Jesus died in rose, He speaks to us in the preaching of the Word, we speak to Him in prayer, and we're gathered around these visible pictures of the Word preached, namely the sacraments. You say that, guess what happens? People start to say, But that's not true. No, that's a lie. Or they'll begin to say such nonsense I even had to deal with today. Not today, rather, but during the week, you know, people say, you know, there are all kinds of books that were kept out of the Bible. No, there were not. That's a lie. I love dispelling that myth. Love it. People get on, they think that they're informed, they'll watch things like the History Channel, or I don't know, I don't really too much watch TV, but it used to be on, and they say things like this, Jesus didn't really get crucified. Jesus didn't do this. Jesus didn't do that. Jesus walked on water, but he was actually walking on rocks to make it appear. Lies, lies, lies. And that one, there are many books that were kept out of the Bible, and there's a secret conspiracy. I told a room full of about 30-some convicted people, we'll just say. I said, people who believe that are historically illiterate. A couple of them said, what? What? What? Because I know the things they've been listening to. I know the things they've been hearing. Brothers and sisters, we must gather around the truth, and we must encourage one another in the truth, and we must discourage one another against the lies that are coming in, because they're seeping into Christian families. and they're seeping into churches, and we must band together and fight against the lies, and we must do so by further proclaiming the truth of God's Word. That's what we're about. This is what we're about. And of course, if we're in favor of truth against lies, then we must be willing to be told that you've been deceived. The Bible tells us, be not deceived. I think a lot of people read that and go, I'm not deceived. You can be deceived. Jesus says in Matthew 24 that the deception can be so great that it can deceive, he says, even the elect. And those who leave resources and such, you understand they are often blessed with close relationships. Close relationships. I have heard testimonies of people say, you know, I remember listening to a funeral one time. Very significant funeral for me. There's this lady saying, you know, I'm from North Dakota, a prairie girl, and the Lord brought me far away, up to Philadelphia. And she's thinking, well, my children, or excuse me, my mother and father are back at home, and I visit, but I'm not able to be a part of their lives as much as I would like. And this woman gave testimony. to the deceased at that funeral. And she talked about the fact that she realized that although we may be separated from father, mother, for a time, we adopt in the kingdom of God regionally around us. We adopt fathers and mothers, that is, people who are older than us in the congregation. This is what we're called to do because those who leave are restored 100-fold. And this is what we ought to see it as. And so this woman bore testimony to the fact that the woman who had just died ended up becoming almost like an adopted mother and she cared for her and looked after her, drove her places that she needed to go. So I encourage you to embrace that. Embrace the 100-fold. Embrace the fact that those who come to Christ are brought into a new family. and those who leave and go places that are unknown to them years ago. They are able to embrace a new family as well, namely the family of Christ. And oftentimes, the family of Christ becomes far closer than our blood relatives. I used to hear this all the time years ago, blood is thicker than water. What that meant was, your blood relatives, those are your closest. But we want to say, the Spirit is thicker than blood. And what we mean by that is that our spiritual brothers and sisters and our spiritual fathers and mothers, these are even closer because they're eternal bonds. And sometimes our literal father and mother and etc. are believers as well, but sometimes they are not. Sometimes they are not. Let me just seek to say this, a couple more things before we end very soon. Let me just say, know that sin disrupts our fellowship. Satan loves to disrupt the fellowship that we have as Christians and as churches. Sin, whether intentional or unintentional, often causes great harm to the fellowship that we have. And when I say that Christian community, when truly following the Word of God, is the sweetest, what I'm saying is, We're talking about a community of believers where there's requesting forgiveness, and there's granting of forgiveness. A community in which people love one another even though they have offended one another, but they forgive according to Christ's appointment. Understand, we can say things, we can get all miffed, we can get all angry at this person and that person. Okay, this happens to all of us, but what are we called to? We are called to reconcile. If we have offended another, we ought to go to that person. and confess. If another person has offended us, Jesus tells us you've got to go to him alone and explain to him. We ought not to be petty. We ought not to fight and bicker. That's the fellowship of the world, or that is Christian fellowship in which we allow Satan to get a foothold, and it's cutting in to our 100-fold, once again, hyperbolic language of the Lord Jesus, but the point ought to get across. That the fellowship that we have is sweet, let us not be gypped out of it, and so let us be reconciled. Also, let me encourage you, beacon light, given the place where you are, nice new building. in Gary, Indiana? I don't know. How many visitors do we have coming in? We don't know the plight of the people, people who would come in as visitors. Of course, we talk to those around us. We have our friends. We must seek out the people who enter in. You must do this. In a sense, let me just say this, we must not be cliquish as the church. Now, of course, you're going to have common interests with fellow believers and that sort of thing, and you're going to have those two or three people that you really get on well with and you want to talk to, but let me just encourage you, when you see someone who walks in off the street whether the person looks well off or whether he looks like he's kind of ragged and he's had a couple of hard days. Of course, you ought to be careful about the safety of the congregation, but let me encourage you to be a welcoming people. I trust that you are. I trust that you are. You certainly have been for me. Let me just encourage you, this is what we are called to be, casting off cliquishness and making sure that we are welcoming all. everyone we do not know. This person could be down and out, could be simply there for free resources. This person could be lost, and you could share the gospel with him. You could share the gospel with her, and she could come to know the Lord Jesus as her Savior. You could be used in great ways. So that is my encouragement, to embrace one another who are here. and also to embrace anyone who would come in to the building. Psalm 133. Psalm 133 says, Behold how good a thing it is, and how becoming well, when those that brethren are delight and unity to dwell. In other words, Once again, it's so beautiful, Christian fellowship, when brothers and sisters dwell in unity. That doesn't mean always dwelling in agreement. You can be disagreeing, but still dwelling in unity. Now Jesus says, and it comes with persecutions. This 100-fold often does come with persecutions, sometimes from the world, sometimes from within. May we encourage one another if we should find ourselves persecuted, and may we not be participants in such persecutions. But also, lastly, brothers and sisters, I encourage you to look to heaven, to what the Lord Jesus points us to, verse 30 and 31, who shall receive a hundredfold houses, brothers, etc., with persecutions, and he says, and in the age to come, eternal life. We are participants in that perfect fellowship now, though imperfectly. Imperfectly, but in that great day, all will be resolved. All will be reconciled. We're called to it now. But we are called now to mirror that in that day. And in that day, it's truly going to be magnificent. For we will gather with people from every nation, tribe, people, and language, and we will worship together perfectly and in a spirit of perfection. And we will have perfect society where no one is looking down on anyone else. And no one is trying to get over on anyone, and no one is seeking to take from anyone, because all sinners and all who hate the Lord Jesus Christ will be cast into the flames of their just judgment. But the community of Christ, we will live and worship, and guess what? We will be centered around the Lamb of God who took away our sins and we will be centered around the cross and resurrection of the spotless Lamb of God and we will hear him speak to us and we will join arms and we will join hands and praise the Savior together. This is what we have to look forward to. May we live in the light of that eternal truth even now. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word which is precious to us, and we thank you for everything that it speaks to us. Help us to live in the light of the truth of the gospel. Help us to delight in the preaching of Christ crucified and raised beauty of the sacraments and prayer speaking to you, our God, have mercy upon us. We confess our many ways that we have failed, the ways that we have sinned, and our need for reconciliation. Help us, O Lord, to love and to serve and to be used of you in the brief time which we call this time of life. Help us to embrace the family of God. as it is found here at Beacon Light or wherever you should bring us. In Jesus' name, amen.