Amen, we come now to the reading of God's will, our text, our passage for consideration. Mark chapter 10, and we'll read verses 17 to 31 as we continue our march through the gospel of Mark. And as Jesus continues his march now through Judea, closer and closer to Jerusalem. That's page 1076 in most of the Pew or Chair Bibles. And we read these verses. Many may find these words familiar and recognize this as the account of the rich young ruler then you might note this passage never mentions that the man is young and this passage never mentions that the man is a ruler so why do we call him the rich young ruler well there are parallel accounts in Matthew and Luke and so Matthew 19 20 tells us the man is young Luke 18 18 tells us that the man is a ruler so we read about the rich young ruler Mark chapter 10 beginning at verse 17. Let us hear the word of God. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother." And he said to him, Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, You lack one thing. Go sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. and come follow me." Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, with man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Peter began to say to him, see, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, truly I say to you there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first. Grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is a pastor in China who I know very little about. I'm not even sure I pronounced his name correctly. But his name is Wang Yi. He is currently in prison has been since the end of 2018 for his Christian convictions. And again, I know very little about this man, but I have seen one clip from one of his sermons with English subtitles. And he was given an illustration in this sermon about a time in life when He seeks to enter a place of spiritual security as soon as possible, even though he knows it will bring him to a place of physical harm, physical lack of security, physical danger. What would be a situation where one would simultaneously need to find spiritual safety and physical danger? Well, he speaks about when he is brought to the police station. And he says, the first thing I do is up front, I make it clear that I am a Christian, and I will declare Christ, and I will not apologize for that, even if it means that I say something which our communist government does not like. He says, by saying this up front, I become one who is now in a place of spiritual safety. Because if I didn't say that right away, I would be tempted not to say it. And that is a place of spiritual danger. If I am allowing myself to be tempted not to speak up immediately for Christ, I'm putting myself in spiritual danger and I cannot do that, the pastor says. I must put myself immediately into a place of spiritual safety by speaking up front clearly and plainly about who I am and who I follow. Now of course that place of spiritual safety brings physical danger and that has been borne out as he is now in prison. What is the point? How does this relate to the passage before us? The passage before us is very much about what happens when there is an attachment to physical safety, physical security, physical possessions at the price of spiritual well-being. It's a passage about what happens when one's possessions are more precious than one's soul. It is a passage about being in a place of spiritual danger. Spiritual danger exposed by a fair and loving command of God. And so in our passage before us, it is clear that God is the one who has the right to require everything. and has the power to do anything. And we'll walk through this passage. Our outline is a little bit, we might say, not as strictly defined as it sometimes is. Basically, we're just walking through the verses and these questions help us along the way. What is goodness? What is commitment? What is easy? What did Jesus say was easy? And what is possible? So first, what is goodness? A question which helps us to go through these first few verses. And we see here in verse 17 that this man, he has a certain sincerity and eagerness about him. He has a certain eagerness which is seen in that this is a man who runs. He runs to Jesus, running which is seen as particularly undignified in Middle Eastern culture. I mean, nowadays it's still seen as undignified. If you're, like, all dressed up, maybe, you know, it'd be undignified to be seen running in your business casual or whatever it is you go about the week. But, I mean, we do see people running down the sidewalk in their running clothes. Well, in this culture, that wasn't just any running. It's just, this is undignified. What is this man doing? Why is he running? Who runs? This is very strange. He's displaying a certain eagerness. He's running to Jesus. He displays a certain humility. He kneels before him. He kneels. And then also, in his very address, there is a certain sincerity, good teacher. a certain recognition of who Jesus is. But then we start to see where he is in error. For his very question shows an error in thinking. For he says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Do you see the problem which is already there in the question? What must I do? What did the Philippian jailer say? What must I believe? Already he is displaying a certain dependence upon physical things such as one's own actions. What must I do to inherit eternal life? And so Jesus sees through this and thinking about what is to be done, thinking about what is good, pinpoints that word good and asks the question, why do you call me good? Where did this goodness even come from? How is goodness to even be defined? Mark Strauss says we can paraphrase the question of Jesus this way, quote, before you address me as good, you had better think soberly about what the implications are, and especially what they are for you. End of quote. In other words, think about what goodness is. What are you saying? What is good? How can I be good? How can you be good? For we know Jesus is good. We know Jesus is good in every way, not only in the outward conformity to the law, but in every way. But Jesus is directing the man to start thinking about these things. Hold on, what is goodness? How is it defined and how can it be possible to find goodness apart from God? It's a very leading question. The answer should be obvious. Apart from God, there is no such thing as total goodness. And so, Jesus gives even a summary of the commands of God. He runs through a list of the commandments. He goes from the 6th, the 7th, the 8th, to the 9th, and what we might call a substitute for the 10th, and then the 5th. Why is the fifth one listed last? We don't know. Why is there the command, do not defraud, instead of the command, do not covet? Well, this one we can certainly understand. Jesus is substituting a command which is related to actions, and he's putting in there a command which would apply in a particular way to the rich, would it not? We can think of Deuteronomy chapter 24. What does it mean to not defraud? It means to not take advantage of another. And we might imagine that someone who is rich, someone who again Luke also tells us is a ruler, would be one who is particularly attempted to break such a command one who is particularly in a position where they might defraud and so we even read in Deuteronomy chapter 24 verses directed particularly to one who would be doing the hiring to one who is the wealthy so we read in Deuteronomy 24 verses 14 you shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy Whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land or within your towns, you shall give him his wages on the same day before the sun sets, for he is poor and counts on it, lest he cry against you to the Lord and you be guilty of sin. Do not defraud, do not fail to give that which is earned. And of course, this man's position in society and this man's wealth would mean This is a particularly appropriate command for him to hear. And so, Jesus makes the man to think about what goodness is and runs through the commandments, even one which applies to him in a particular way. Jesus is directing the man to think inwardly, to come to a proper dependence And so, we come to the point, the question, verses 20 and 22, what is commitment? What is commitment to what is really good? And we see his misunderstanding immediately in verse 20, where he says, teacher, all these I have kept from my youth. And what way has he kept all these from his youth? Because it's all external things and he's thinking only of them in external ways. It is as when the Apostle Paul reflecting upon his previous life in Judaism as a Pharisee when he says in Philippians 3.6 that he was as to zeal a persecutor of the church and as to righteousness under the law blameless. What did the Apostle mean? He meant according to those externalized standards which had driven the hearts of the law out of the law. According to those external standards, he was blameless. He'd never stolen anything from anyone. He'd never murdered anyone. He'd never committed adultery. You see, it all becomes externalized. And now, all of a sudden, in that way, the commitments are, yeah, the Pharisee, the Pharisee Saul can say, I am blameless. And the rich man can say, I've kept all these from my youth. I've done it. What more do you want from me? That's why I'm here. That's what I'm here for. See, I've already done it. Just tell me what else I have to do. Jesus is exposing his heart. Jesus is exposing his lack of understanding. Jesus is exposing his external focus. And so Jesus looks at him, loving him, loving him. Why those words? Jesus is about to now confront directly the weakness. The question up above should have exposed it, right? The question up above should have led to a confession of sin. Amen. Teacher, you are right. Only God is good. Tell me what I must believe. It has not. He's only dug in his heels. All these I have kept for my youth. So now Jesus is going to confront him directly. But what's the motivation for that confrontation? What's the motivation for the pointed question. The motivation is love. Don't you see? Jesus wants the man to see his sin. It's a loving motivation to do so. It's loving to show someone their need for Jesus Christ. It's loving to show someone that what you do doesn't matter because God's the only one who's good. We're all sinners, all have fallen short of the glory of God. And the very motivation of Jesus is one of love. And so looking at Him and loving Him, He says, You lack one thing. Go, sell all that you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me." Is such a command fair? Wasn't this man eager? and humble in his coming? How could Jesus possibly demand such a thing? Remember, Jesus is exposing, is exposing the heart of this young man. Jesus is laying it out to bear. because he knows the young man is focused on external possessions and external actions for his salvation. And Jesus is going to expose this by making a demand which God has the right to require of all of us, doesn't he? Now how do the Psalms say it? We worked through Psalm 104 recently. What is what is God's of all the creatures are God's the creatures of the sea great and small? How does the how do the other psalms say the cattle on a thousand hills are? God's everything is God's How are how is man described from from the beginning and again in the Psalms? It's all mate reiterating this man is a steward. We don't own anything whatever we have we're stewards of because all of it is God so God has this right to For any of us, for any of us, God can demand that we would give him all we have. God has that right. Now quite often, quite often, God chooses to give his servants much as stewards. So we know it's, It's not evil to have a wealth, which is from God, to be stewards over. But God has the right to make this demand of any one of his believers. And here he does it for a very particular reason, because for this young man, this demand must be made in full to show him where his false dependence is. So is it fair to demand he sell everything and follow Jesus? It is absolutely fair and it is absolutely loving. Go, sell all, come and follow me. Loving, fair, And now we see that this heart needed to be exposed because he is disheartened or the Greek there could be translated shocked. He is shocked, he is crestfallen. It is visible in his physical reaction. And so he goes away sorrowful for he had great possessions. And in those possessions he trusted. So we see why Jesus made this demand of this man. His heart needed to be exposed. Now he was a young man. We do not know if later in life this question worked upon his heart and he came to actually trust in his Lord and Savior. But certainly at this moment Jesus is exposing the reality that he does not trust in God alone. He trusts in his own actions and his own possessions. Again, Jesus has the right to demand radical discipleship, radical service to Him. Not only all the possessions of the rich, but our very lives. Do we remember what is at the very center of the Gospel of Mark? The confession in chapter 8, verses 27 to 30, and then following that, the first clear foretelling of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and then following that in verses 34, and following, whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his very life for my sake and the Gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Remember even that in not as clear of a way, but still as we work through it in 9 verse 49, that was really saying the whole thing. Everyone will be salted with fire. We must all be willing to offer our whole self up to God through the fire of trials, through whatever God calls us to do or to give up. What will the church be called to give up in the next 10, 20 years? This is something so difficult to predict. We don't know, but we can look and see that there is a lot of political chaos right now. Maybe, maybe all of the tax laws that protect the church and religious institutions will be gone. In order for a church to even keep its lights on will become a great financial sacrifice from one church to another. Maybe we'll be required to give up more than we have for generations and generations. I don't know. It's now something that we can look out and say is politically possible to come upon us and then maybe the church will not have the stewardship of wealth which it has had in this country for many, many years. What has the Lord already required of you? There are many here who have been required to give much already, hasn't there? God has the right to ask us to give our very lives for Him. And when He makes such demands upon us, it is a fair demand, it is return to that word that he looked at the young man and loved him. It is a loving demand. Because if you are willing to do those things, give thanks to God that the Spirit of the Lord has been impressed upon your very heart, that you would give up all for Him. And if you are not willing to do those things, if sufferings come upon you and merely bring out anger against God, then your heart is being exposed. and give thanks that your heart has been exposed and come in repentance asking the right question, Lord, what must I believe and how must I trust upon you? What is commitment? Commitment is to give one's whole self for God, for certainly, certainly, God has given his whole self for his people, for his church. He does not ask you to do something he has not done. Those verses we read from Mark 8, they came right after the first clear foretelling of his death and resurrection in this gospel. And what do we come to right after this? What will we, Lord willing, consider next week Sunday morning? The third clear foretelling of Jesus' death and resurrection in verses 32 and following. Jesus gave his life for his people. Jesus gave his life which really was good so that sins might be covered. Jesus loves his people indeed. And the heart of this man has been exposed. The difficulty of wealth has been exposed. And that's the question in verses 23 to 25. What is easy? Jesus has to repeat himself. The disciples are astonished and then Jesus gives this impossible illustration. And the disciples are astonished again. That's the movement of verses 23 to 25 and 26. Because what's the illustration that it gives? It's completely impossible. It's the largest animal that you would see from day to day in the life of ancient Israel, a camel. And so everybody knew what a camel was. It's a large creature. And it's the smallest opening you could think of. It's still one of the smallest openings most of us can think of. through the course of daily life. A camel and the eye of an eel, that's impossible. Yes, it is impossible. The point isn't that it's difficult. The point isn't that it's almost impossible. The point is that it's impossible. And what is in the context of this declaration about what is easy? The context is, note the end of verse 24. The context is how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. Notice what it says at the end of verse 26. Who can be saved? It's the context of salvation and entrance into the eternal kingdom of God. And in this context, any dependence upon physical things, whether that's physical wealth, physical ability to keep the law, physical ability to find salvation in and of oneself, it is impossible. That's the point of the illustration, not that it's difficult, but that is completely impossible. Salvation with man is impossible, but with God, that's the context of With God, all things are possible. The context of that is not, you know, have enough faith and you'll be healed. The context of that is not have enough trust in God and you'll have wealth upon this earth. No, it's in the context of a passage about giving up your wealth. purpose of that saying within the context of God's scripture is this, salvation, entrance into the kingdom of God is possible only with God because only God is good and only God in his sacrifice can cover sins. That's the context of this saying which is one of the verses so often ripped out of context and found on you know, living room walls. Salvation. Salvation is not possible with man. Whatever outward conformity to the law you have, whatever possessions you have, whatever physical security you have or don't have, God alone makes salvation possible. And since God makes salvation itself possible, there are great blessings in following God. Peter says, verse 28, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus says, that you have given up, you receive. you give up family and home, you receive a hundred homes, we might paraphrase it. How is that possible? You should think of this in the context of the directions to the disciples to go out in Mark chapter 6, if you turn back just a couple pages. few pages, Mark 6 verses 8 to 11. Do you remember the instructions? He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and to not put on two tunics. And he said to them, wherever you go, enter a house and stay there until you depart from there. In other words, those who give up their home, those who give up their family, receive entrance into the homes of many others in the name of Christ. Receive fellowship with many others in the name of the communion, the community of faith, brothers and sisters in Christ. That's what this passage is about. Think of it, think of it in terms of a modern missionary who lives in this place where, again, many Christians have been blessed materially throughout the decades. Not always the case. Think of it in terms of a missionary who has given up his home and leaves his family and goes even to a foreign and poor nation. Well, he gains much. Maybe he gains a hundred brothers and sisters. Maybe he gains entrance into a hundred homes. They might not be grand homes, but they're homes where there is fellowship, Christian fellowship. Yes, you give up much, but you gain so much more. The community of faith is a real blessing. But of course, this is not health and wealth gospel. We see that very clearly at the end of verse 30. How do these things come? With persecutions. With persecutions. And then another reminder of the context and of the eternal blessing which comes from believing on the name of Jesus Christ and what He has done Not only the promise of the family of faith, but the very promise of eternal life in the age to come. All those other blessings, note, they're blessings for this age. They're blessings we have now. But then there's even that blessing for the age to come. And then, words about the first being last. For that, you can simply write down on your notes, if you're taking notes, Matthew chapter 20, verses 8 to 16, because there's essentially the parable of the foreman of the vineyard, and it's basically expounding upon what does it mean that the first shall be last, and it comes down to this. that God can choose whomever He wills. And those who worked for just a couple hours or those who worked for the whole day, what matters is not how long you worked, what matters is that you came to God and depended upon Him and He can give you whatever He wills. So God makes the first, last, and the last first. People of God, do we hear the weight of the passage before us? Do we hear the weight of the requirement? Do we hear the clear difference between depending for safety upon physical things and depending for safety upon God and upon spiritual things and spiritual truths? You know, one way to read this passage is to read it and go to passages like Luke chapter 8 or Proverbs chapter 10, which speak about wealth and how there were wealthy women in Luke chapter 8 who sustained the ministry of Jesus and his disciples. So one way is to read this and step back and say, oh, well, yeah, but Jesus doesn't usually require people to give up all their wealth and so we read this in context and then to kind of take the punch out of the text so to speak. Another way to read it is to realize it's speaking about that dependence upon physical things versus the dependence upon spiritual things and Jesus lays it out so clearly exposing the heart of one whose heart needed to be exposed so that we can all sit back and see that lesson, and see that message, and hear that declaration to come in confession, and to come in dependence, not based upon what we do, but based upon what we must believe. Because salvation is possible only in God alone. Hear the full weight. Hear the full strength of the questions laid before us in this passage and trust in Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray.