Salvation and eternal life are not inherited based on one's actions or possessions, but must be received as a gift from God. The sermon uses the example of the rich young ruler who asked how to inherit eternal life, but Jesus explained that he lacked total commitment and needed to sell all he had and follow Him. This illustrates that true discipleship requires a separation from worldly attachments and a complete dependence on God, a truth echoed in Jesus' temptation in the wilderness where He chose to live by God's word rather than immediate physical needs. Ultimately, what is impossible for humans, like a rich person entering the kingdom, is possible with God through His grace.
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I would like you to turn with me to Mark's Gospel Chapter Ten, beginning with verse seventeen. Mark's Gospel Chapter Ten and verse seventeen. And when Jesus was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? We are reading in Mark ten and now verse eighteen. And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one that is God. Thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Defraud not. Honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing 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. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked around about and said unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God? And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answered again, and said unto them children, How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?
And Jesus looking upon them said, With men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all things are possible. But I want to read just a verse out of Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four and verse three. Matthew's Gospel chapter four, reading from verse three. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
And he answered and said, It is written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Now we commend the reading of the Scripture to God, and we await His blessing this evening as we meditate on these two portions we have read. The story in Mark ten is well known, and you can't help but feeling a very warm sensation when you think of this man. It's true that he was a wealthy man, but we've read that he came running to the Lord Jesus.
And we have read that he knelt down before him, a sign of reverence and respect. And we have read that he called him good master, which was a most eloquent title in addressing the Lord Jesus. And then the content of the question he raised touches the most vital aspect of our human existence. What can I do to inherit eternal life? Farther down we read that the Lord Jesus, looking at this man, he loved him. Imagine we loved him this evening, for in a sense he represents that which is good. Let me just quickly go over it again.
He ran to the Lord Jesus, knelt down before him. addressed him respectfully and asked information about how to enter the kingdom of God. But when you read that verse in Mark ten, verse seventeen, you find that there is a very basic flaw in the question the man raised. For he said to the Lord Jesus, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? The key to understanding all that follows is linked to the word inherit. You cannot inherit entrance into the kingdom of God.
You cannot inherit eternal life. Verse fifteen of Mark ten tells you how you can obtain eternal life. Jesus said in Mark ten fifteen, Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God, as a little child, he shall not enter therein. You cannot inherit it. You must receive it. And there is a vast difference between these two terms. The word inherit has to do with what you are. It has to do with what you have.
And it has to do with what you have done. On that basis, the young man believed that he might have a right to inherit eternal life. This chapter speaks of salvation. It speaks of eternal life. And it speaks of the kingdom of God. They are synonymous terms. You cannot inherit any of these things. The Lord Jesus teaches that you must receive it, for it is something that is given, just like a little child in simplicity receives a gift that is the only way to receive entrance into the kingdom of God, salvation or eternal life.
So though we love him and we respect him, we notice the flaw in the question that he raised. Now what the Lord Jesus said in the following verse is not a blunt answer. There is no lack of courtesy here. When the young man said to the Lord Jesus, good master, the use of the word good points directly to someone who comes from God. It even takes the thought of someone who might be a special messenger from God, a divine messenger, good master. The Lord Jesus answers and he says, Why callest thou me good?
There is none good but one that is God. And speaking that way, the Lord Jesus is not detracting from his own person and the glory of his Godhead. He is simply directing this man to the only possible source of life, entrance into the kingdom of God, salvation, God. And he turns this man's eyes directly to God as the source of life. Having done so, he then refers to the Word of God, and he says in verse nineteen, Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother.
If you are interested in eternal life, If you want to enter into the kingdom of God, you know what the Word of God says about these masks. Now this man would know the Old Testament scriptures. Let me read just one or two of them to you this evening in Deuteronomy chapter thirty and verse fifteen. See, I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil. In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statute, and his judgment, that thou mayest live and multiply, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
Then a verse in Ezekiel chapter thirty-three, verse fifteen, and it reads, If the wicked restore the pledge, give a gain that he had robbed, walk in the statues of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live. He shall not die. Thus even to the man who was heir, The invitation goes out, if you come back and make restoration and commit yourself wholeheartedly to the Word of God, you shall surely live and you shall not die. The Lord Jesus then pointed this man to God.
He pointed him to the Word of God, and the young man answered, and he says in verse twenty, Master, All these have I observed from my youth. Now, to me there's an apparent contradiction here because if this is true, Master, all these have I observed from my youth, then the door is open to life and blessing. Why then did he ask the question in verse seventeen, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? life in abundance that will go on and on, if he had the deep assurance and conviction that he had kept all of the commandments of God.
There is a tension between the two phrases, no doubt in his own mind, in his innermost heart there is the doubt that he had fully kept all of the things set forth in the law of God. Then the Lord Jesus said, Verse twenty one, beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lacked. Many preachers have preached on this phrase. May I suggest to you tonight that the one thing he lacked was total and sacrificial commitment to Jesus Christ, the sent one of God. The Lord Jesus looked him right in the eye, filled with love for this man.
and he said, One thing thou lackst. He goes on to describe what must be done in order to obtain that one thing, a total and sacrificial commitment to the Lord Jesus. Now the first one is something that we have heard many times. Sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. This is not a general prescription for all men and women. This is a word to a specific person, and it meets his specific need.
The Lord Jesus, who knows what is in man, knew what was in this man that formed the barrier that prevented him from wholehearted, full sacrificial commitment to God and to himself, the Lord Jesus. So he says, now you go out and sell everything you have and give it to the poor. In doing this, the man would become absolutely poor and totally dependent upon God, which was specifically what the Lord Jesus was looking for. For no one will ever enter into the presence of God, into the glories of the kingdom of God.
will never know the wonders of salvation, will never possess eternal life, unless there is a separation from all that we are and all that we have and all that we can achieve and a complete and full commitment to the Lord Jesus with that sense of real need and dependence on God. So he said to him, and these words form, the first answer to the question of verse seventeen. Not that you can inherit eternal life, but if you want it in this particular case, you go and sell all that you have. And in that sense of dependence on God, you will be led into the path of eternal life.
Then secondly, and this second part of the answer takes us to a much deeper level. The Lord Jesus said to him, take up the cross, and follow me. I'm sure you've noticed how often in the Gospels the Lord Jesus looks for a means to separate people from their historical existence in order to bring them into a new quality of existence in one that's with himself. For instance, John, pardon me, Peter and Andrew, they are fishing, and the Lord Jesus passes by, and he calls them, He calls them to leave what they're doing and to follow him.
And the Bible says they forsook their nets, and they followed the Lord Jesus. Then right after that, he met John and James, the son of Zebedee, and he called them. And the Bible says they left their father and the hired servant, and they followed the Lord Jesus. You go right through the gospel and people who come into a meaningful relationship with the Lord Jesus go through the experience of separation from those things that they hold very precious to them. As a matter of fact, Peter said as a spokesman for all of the disciples on one occasion, we have left all Lord to follow thee.
You may wonder sometimes that some of those apparently harsh sayings of the Lord Jesus, unless you hate your mother and father, your wife, your children, and so on. You cannot enter into the glories of the kingdom of God or of fellowship with the Lord Jesus. You must understand the word hate, not in the sense of active hatred, but of placing other things, even precious things, legitimate things, on an inferior level and placing God and the things of God in preeminence in your life. We read this morning that in all things Christ must have the preeminence.
So this man who ran to the Lord Jesus, who knelt down before him, who called him good master, who asked information about how to inherit eternal life, the Lord Jesus now gently but firmly pressures him into a position where he must abandon all that he has, sell it, become a poor man, completely dependent on God, and then follow the Lord Jesus. He listened to the Lord Jesus, and then you read in Mark ten and verse twenty-two, and he was sad at that same, and went away grief, for he had great possessions.
That's why the Lord Jesus spoke about selling all that he had, for that man was obsessed with his material possession, he had more interest in that world than he really had in the possibility of obtaining eternal life. And the Lord Jesus brought him to the place one or the other. And he turned, and he went away, grieved. He was very sad. And the disciples, they were standing around. They witnessed this interview, this dialogue. The Lord Jesus, turning to the disciples, verse twenty-three, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God?
And the disciples were astonished at where to start. No salvation for rich people? Then again you read in verse twenty-four, but Jesus answereth again, and says unto them children, How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of an eagle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. May I suggest tonight we must not minimize the trust of verse twenty-five. I take it literally. The largest animal in Palestine two thousand years ago, and probably still today, was the camel.
The smallest opening that you could imagine would be the eye of a needle. It was absurd to think that a camel could pass through the eye of a needle, but the Lord Jesus is stating emphatically, no salvation for a rich man. Now when you remember that all of us here today, in comparison to the peoples of the world, are rich, it's a most sobering thought. Notice again the reaction of the disciples in verse twenty-six, and they were startled out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? Now, have you thought of that question? Surely not all the people in Palestine were rich people.
If I had been present, I would have stood up right away and said to the disciples, ninety-five percent of the people in the Dominican Republic, they don't even know where their next meal is coming from. Surely they can be saved. But I'm sure the disciples would have turned to me and they would have said, you missed the thrust of what he said. For his comment about rich people shuts the door for any man to merit salvation. For when the Lord Jesus thought of this man, who trusted in what he had, what he was, what he could do and achieve, in a sense we are all included.
We may only have two dollars or a hundred dollars. We may just live in a rented home. We may only have two suits of clothes. But what we have, if this is what we are, and if this is what we trust in, And if our trust is also placed on what we can do and what we can achieve, there is no possible way of entering into the kingdom of God. It is just as absurd as thinking of a camel passing through the eyes of a needle. Let me read that verse to you once again. Verse twenty, twenty-five. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus, looking upon them, said, With men, it is impossible. But not with God. For with God all things are possible. Without digressing too much tonight, Romans chapter eight is the theological and doctrinal comment on these words of the Lord Jesus. And you read down in verse six of Romans eight, for to be carnally minded, that's the man who glories in what he is, whose boast is what he has, and whose glory is what he can do.
That man is carnally minded. And Paul says in these doctrinal terms, For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. That's the man who has come to an end of himself, and all that he has, and all that he can do, and he turns in mercy to God. And that man receives life and peace. Verse seven. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
May I comment whether you are rich or poor in the flesh. You cannot please God. It is impossible to enter into the kingdom of God. But Paul says of Christians, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. What is impossible to men is not impossible to God. And God, through his Holy Spirit, can touch the life of a man or a woman, and bring that person to an end of himself or herself. And in deep, dire need, that person can turn to God, And then God in grace, in supreme grace, in the sovereignty of His grace, He does for us what, humanly speaking, is impossible.
He gives the salvation. He opens the gate to the kingdom of God, and He gives us as a gift, where it can only be received, not inherited, eternal life. Now I've spent some time this evening on the life of this rich man at this particular moment in his life. I want you now to turn back to Matthew chapter four. And in verse three we read, And when the tempter, who was the devil, came to the Lord Jesus, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread. As I suggested this morning, in order to understand this first temptation, It is imperative that we go back to the story of Israel.
When you go back to the story of Israel, let me read to you from Deuteronomy chapter two and verse seven, Moses is summarizing the history of the people of Israel. And he says in verse seven of chapter two, For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand. He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness, these forty years The Lord thy God hath been with thee. Thou hast lacked nothing. And in chapter twenty-eight of Deuteronomy, beginning with verse one and right down to verse fourteen, let me just choose one or two choice phrases.
Deuteronomy twenty-eight, verse one, and it shall come to pass if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe. and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shaltarken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. The blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle. the increase of thy kind and of the flocks of thy sheep.
Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. Verse eight, and the Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou setest thine hand unto, and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee and holy people unto himself. Verse eleven, And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in good, in the fruit of thy body, in the fruit of thy cattle, in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord swear unto thy fathers to give thee.
The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land and his season, and to bless all the work of thy hands. and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow, and the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail, and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath. Thus you have a long list of the good things that God will do for his people. These promises are based on the Word of God, at the very beginning of the history of the people of Israel. And what God asked of that people was trust and confidence in His word and in His promises.
When you come to the Psalms where so many of them written by David and many of them known by memory, many of you here this evening, you remember Psalm twenty-three, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want Psalm thirty-three and Down in verse eighteen, the psalmist who again as David says, Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. Notice that in the experiences of Israel and in the experiences of the psalmist, there were real problems, there were difficulties. Here references made to famine.
But in all of these circumstances, the promise of God is I will be with you. I will keep you. I will supply all of your needs. All that I ask is that you trust me, that you put your confidence in my word. Psalm thirty-four in verse ten reads, The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. That's running right through the Old Testament. As the background of the history of Israel is this great number of promises from God. The only condition is trust me, believe me, rest in me, be quiet, and see that I am God.
And over and over again, Israel complained and murmured. And in our King James Version, there is a very strong word. They lashed it. after material things, especially after food. And as they murmured and complained and lusted, you also read many times that the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Why this reaction in the part of the Lord to his people, sometimes in difficult circumstances, this reaction is because the Lord saw their attitude, their unbelief, their doubt. They did not really believe that God would supply their needs.
This is the people that God called. Israel is my son, my firstborn. I will be a father to Israel. He looked for that relationship of confidence and trust. And for long, long years, God became the object. of the wrath and displeasure of the people of Israel, even though they went on with the religious machinery and in their way professed to believe in God, to honor Him, and to worship Him. Now turn back with me just for a moment to Deuteronomy chapter eight, for this is the background of this first temptation. Deuteronomy chapter eight and verse three, As He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.
Again you are face to face with a choice. Israel, in their attitude toward God, sent to God, we live primarily by bread. We must have a varied diet. We must have all of our needs supplied. We must have abundance on every hand, and we must have it now and the way we want. The other choice is to rest and trust in God, recognizing that above the material needs of our lives, is something far more important, that word that proceeds from God, which is the source of true life, of eternal life, of that sustenance that will go on forever and ever.
You may wonder this morning or this evening why God made the people to suffer hunger, why He took them through difficult circumstances. Well, we read this morning in Deuteronomy eight in verse two, it was to prove them to see what was in their heart. We can now look back from the perspective of our present age and through the New Testament and say that the Lord was proving them to see if they were like the rich man who loved his material blessing so much that he would not leave them even to obtain eternal life. Israel in the Old Testament professed to know God, to love and to worship Him, but their attitude was this, material things first and the things of God afterward.
And as a result, that nation fell in the desert, that generation, and they never entered into the wonders and the blessings of the new land. And the Lord God passed His people through those circumstances to teach them that man does not live by bread alone. But by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God, Israel failed. But this evening we are face to face with the Lord Jesus, who is also in a desert surrounded by stone, forty days and forty nights without eating. And he is truly hungry, and the tempter comes. You know, I don't think it's without significance that you find in the Sermon on the Mount that the Lord Jesus refers to the Father, and he says about this Father, if his Son asks him for bread, surely he will not give him a stone.
Now the Lord Jesus has come as the Son of God, completely and totally dependent upon God. He believes the promises of God. But where has the Spirit taken him? Into the desert. surrounded by stones, almost ironic, and perhaps implied by Satan, is the thought, you trust in God. You believe in all his promises the way Israel professed to do but failed. Look, you've asked for bread. Surely the Lord Jesus, after forty days without needy, must have sensed that deep hang of hunger and would have shared it with his Father in heaven. But looking round about all he sees is stone.
And so the tempter says, you take initiative. Never mind your dependence upon the promises of God. God will not fulfill his promises. You take your power. You change the stones into bread and you eat and satisfy your needs. And the Lord Jesus facing the same temptation that Israel faced so long ago. He did not give. But he quoted directly to the evil ones. the words that we have read in Deuteronomy chapter eight and we find in Matthew four and verse four and Jesus answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God and thus the evil one lost that initial battle the Lord Jesus did not yield does God fulfill his promise verse eleven of Matthew four And the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Have you thought about the ministry, what they did for him? Now, I suggest to you tonight I am not dogmatic. The need of the Lord Jesus, as a human being in our world, after passing forty days without eating, was bread. And God fulfilled his promise to the man who trusts in the Word of God. And when that temptation passed, God opens to heaven as He sends angels and they minister to the needs of the Lord Jesus. The longing of God's heart in the Old Testament, the pledge that He gave to Israel that I will meet your every need. Even in the most tragic circumstances, in the most difficult trial, I will be with you.
You will not miss the time, but I will bring you through it and I will meet your needs. Israel was impatient and reacted. And said, No, we want now bread, a very diet. And they put their confidence in their own needs and in their own methods. And they rejected the promises of God. But the Lord Jesus did not yield. And he would not turn the stones into bread. He patiently waited. And God fulfills his every promise. And the angels were sent. And they ministered to him. Now, dear Christian friend, I come as a guest. I do not know your own particular needs or circumstances. I don't know if the night you feel that you are in a desert and that all the promises of God are like hard, cold stones that surround you, that your need has not adequately been met by God.
You have two possibilities before you to react as Israel did, God's Son in firstborn. and complain and murmur and laugh and take your own initiative and no doubt move into experiences that are even worse than those that you're going through right now. The other possibility is to take your stand before the Lord Jesus, beside the Lord Jesus, and as the temptations come to remember that man does not live by bread alone. Our health is not the most important thing in the world. Our bank account is not the most important thing in the world. The car we drive, the house we live in, the clothes we wear, they are necessary, but they are not the most