Mark 10:17-31 - Part 2

Continuing our verse-by-verse exposition of the Gospel of Mark.

! And last week we dealt with verses 17-31 in some part,

! And this week we're going to look at the other part, the second part of this text.

Let's begin by reading it.

Beginning at verse 17 of chapter 10.

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 said, looking at him, I'm sorry, 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 houses 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.

This is God's word to us, written for his glory and our good.

We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.

Let's pray together.

Father, I have no good thing in me apart from you.

The gifting that we would call natural only has its proper effect when you work powerfully in me.

The gifts that you have given me were ultimately given for the church,

and so I would pray that you would use them this morning.

Use me beyond my giftedness to speak your word with clarity and conviction to your people.

Father, we would ask this morning that you would have the word properly work in our hearts,

convict us of sin, turn us to repentance and further belief.

Make us this morning long for Christ all the more as we hear the preaching of your word.

And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Now, as I mentioned, this is part two of us dealing with this text.

Last week we dealt with the more evangelistic aspect of the text.

You remember that we have here, aptly subtitled in most of your copies of the word,

the rich young man or the rich young ruler,

a man who comes up and interrupts Jesus as he's setting out on his journey,

his journey towards Jerusalem.

We're in the months leading up to his crucifixion and subsequent resurrection.

And he's trying to pack in the last bit of teaching that the disciples need to receive,

the things that he's trying to build into them that he promised he would bring to their remembrance

by the power of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

So he's setting out on this journey and he's interrupted.

We get from the context of the parallel passages in Luke chapter 18 and in Matthew chapter 19

Luke 18 · chapter mention Matthew 19 · chapter mention

that he's this rich young ruler, likely a ruler of the synagogue,

which would have been a very esteemed religious position.

As a young man, he would have had to be incredibly pious by the culture standards

to be able to hold this position at that age.

And it was also a position that came with a lot of wealth.

He would have had great possessions.

And we see that in verse 22 of our text.

He had great possessions.

He knows, though, that he's lacking something.

He gets that the equation is not quite completed

as we see him come in an apparent act of humility

and come to Jesus and say,

Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And in fact, he runs to him,

which is a thing that rich people did not do in this day,

and he kneels down before him.

But Jesus gives him a curious response.

Most of us would have wanted to just preach the gospel to him,

give him the very clear repent and believe.

But Jesus instead gets at his very heart.

And he knows where this man stands as he calls,

he throws around this term good.

He uses it very flippantly of a man who he knows is a teacher,

but he doesn't know that he's the Son of God.

He does not know that he is the Christ.

And so Jesus sees that his intention is not really a humble intention,

but what he wanted to do was to add to the things that he already had.

He didn't come to him seeking God himself.

He came seeking what could be added to his account.

He wanted to see what he could gain from God.

This is evidence in the way he responds as Jesus tells him the thing he's lacking.

This is what you lack.

The thing that you treasure,

the thing that you are holding so dear to,

is your material possession.

And if you're to worship the one true God,

you have to stop worshiping this thing,

and the command he gives to him is,

therefore, get rid of it.

Prove it.

Prove that you don't worship the things that you have

by giving it away to the poor.

And come follow me.

And the young man we see goes away disheartened.

So we dealt with that primarily last week.

Jesus' evangelistic strategy in this case.

Today we're going to look and see what true wealth is in God's economy.

What true wealth is in God's economy.

Now we have to be really, really careful, I think, when we talk about money.

The scriptures have a lot to say concerning the matter.

And it's very easy to get on the pendulum and swing from one extreme to the other

and not walk the proper balance of the doctrine of money

and how it is we're meant to deal with it as followers of Christ.

Because the Bible does not condemn the right of private property.

The Bible has been used throughout history to make claims of socialism

and more severe forms of the same.

But the Bible doesn't condemn the right of private property

but actually assumes the rightness of it.

In the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20.15 says,

You shall not steal.

Why?

Because those are other people's possessions, not your possessions, right?

They rightly own those things.

Therefore, don't take it from them because it's not yours.

Another wonderful example of this, if you'll turn to Acts chapter 5,

Acts 5 · chapter mention

is the story of Ananias and Sapphira.

This is early days of the church.

And we see at the beginning of chapter 5, verse 1,

But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property.

And with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds

and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.

If we were to stop here, it would seem that the right and proper thing

for all Christians to do is to sell things we have, give to the poor.

I'm going to make a case to that later, but not on this text.

Look at what Peter says in verse 3.

But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit

and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

So the lie here is against God, against the Spirit.

Verse 4, while it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

It was yours. It was your property.

Was it not yours?

And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?

Was it not your possession to do with it as you please, is what he's saying?

Why is it that you contrive this deed in your heart?

You have not lied to man, but to God.

We see shortly after, the two of them dropped dead in the presence of Peter.

The issue at hand was not that they didn't give all of the proceeds,

but that they lied about giving all of the proceeds.

That they did this good act to mount on themselves a claim for being so devoted to the early church,

when in fact, they sold it, kept some for themselves, and said,

here's the proceeds from the selling of that land.

So Peter affirms that they had a right to the personal possession.

Now there are other teachings, of course, in the Scriptures about this.

Let's look together at what the Proverbs, just the Proverbs, right?

The challenge of preparing for this is narrowing down what text we're going to use.

Let's look just at the Proverbs together, what they say concerning possessions,

because they both commend the having of wealth

and give strong warning concerning the having of the same wealth.

They do both.

There's a balance struck here.

Proverbs 10, verse 15.

Proverbs 10:15

A rich man's wealth is his strong city.

The poverty of the poor is their ruin.

So wealth has a place.

It serves a purpose.

It gives to us security.

It is the way in which we deal in the world.

This is what this Proverb is saying.

Proverbs 10, verse 15.

Proverbs 10:15

However, on the other side of the coin,

Proverbs 18, verse 11,

Proverbs 18:11

says,

A rich man's wealth is his strong city.

Notice the same phrasing.

And like a high wall in his imagination.

So this Proverbs says that it would seem to those who have wealth

that they are in fact secure

when the reality of it is that their security comes from a higher place.

God uses their wealth as a means for their provision.

So you see the two sides there.

The proper way to think about wealth as a security.

All right.

Again, chapter 10, verse 4.

A slack hand causes poverty,

but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

Here, a positive thing for working hard,

for not being lazy,

because if you are, you will be impoverished.

But if you're to work hard,

you will be rich.

But, Proverbs 11, verse 4,

Proverbs 11:4

So, we're being commended to be rich.

However, 11, verse 4 says,

but they're not going to profit you in the end.

But righteousness is what delivers us from death.

And the Proverbs go on.

And again and again and again,

the Proverbs are full of encouragements to generosity.

Chapter 19, verse 17.

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord,

and he will repay him for his deed.

Proverbs 11, verse 24.

Proverbs 11:24

One gives freely, yet grows all the richer.

Another withholds what he should give,

and only suffers want.

They're being commended to give,

not necessarily to receive monetary wealth,

but that will be richer in another way,

which we'll talk about shortly.

Right?

But the ones who withhold only suffers want.

It's lacking.

Proverbs 28, verse 27.

Proverbs 28:27

Whoever gives to the poor will not want,

but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.

So there's a proper balance to strike here,

especially as we look at our text before us today,

and see that Jesus gives a very pointed,

unavoidable command to the rich young ruler.

In his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount,

James Montgomery Boyce,

who was a 20th century Presbyterian pastor,

commentator, as I mentioned,

wrote this,

Now someone will ask,

Aren't we to sell all that we have and give to the poor?

After all, this is how Jesus instructed the rich young ruler.

Boyce writes,

Yes, he did.

But we must also note that he did not say it to Mary or Martha or Lazarus or to John the Evangelist or to Zebedee.

He said it to the rich young ruler because his chief obstruction to a life of following Christ lay in his possessions.

He proved that by turning away.

For such a person,

and there are many today,

don't catch,

miss that phrase,

for such a person,

and there are many today,

many in this room,

the loss of their possessions would be the most significant blessing of their lives.

The best thing they could do would be to give them away.

This does not mean, however,

that possessions in themselves are wrong.

It's the people and the way we use the possessions that's wrong,

not the possessions themselves.

They're amoral.

Or, for that matter,

that poverty is a particularly blessed form of Christianity.

God has not called us to poverty,

but he has told us how we should deal with our wealth.

In a very particular way.

So let's look together first in our text at the poverty of possessions.

Beginning in verse 23.

Jesus looks around after this encounter with the rich young ruler,

and he makes some very big statements.

How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom.

Right?

They're amazed by this.

Verse 24.

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.

He keeps raising this.

He says in verse 24 how difficult it is,

and he goes on to use this analogy of a camel going through the eye of a needle,

which was a popular saying of the day,

and it meant, simply, it's impossible.

There are many people that try to get around this,

many commentators that make up all sorts of things

about there potentially being in Jerusalem.

A gate called the needle gate that they took camels through

that they just barely fit through.

There's no archaeological evidence of that.

It's absolutely insane to think that anyone would try to stuff a camel

through a small gate rather than taking them through the big gates

that were conveniently located around the exterior of the city.

No, what he is saying is that it's impossible.

That is what he is saying to them in our text so far.

Why is it particularly impossible for wealthy people to enter the kingdom of God,

which is his address?

And that is because it is easy to love the things that you have.

It's particularly easy to love the things that you hold in your hands.

You can love things either way.

Don't miss that.

You can love and worship stuff and not have much at all.

But it's especially easy when it's in your hands to love it.

A number of years ago, I don't remember how many exactly,

but we were preaching something similar about wealth

and holding on to material things in this world.

I've come to a place in my life where I'm pretty open-handed with the things that I have.

And I can't say to you this morning that I always am.

I struggle just like you do, loving stuff too much sometimes.

But for the most part, I'm pretty open-handed.

I have plenty of things taken from me.

I've lost things.

I've come to realize that my goal is to be eternal and not temporal here.

But there's one thing in this world that it would just break my heart to lose,

and that's my wedding band.

My wife gave me this wedding band.

I really can't replace it.

I could get another wedding band, sure,

but it wouldn't be this wedding band.

I really, really like this.

It's not worth a ton of money, right?

Maybe you could sell it for $100, right?

But it's really precious to me.

And after we had gotten done with this sermon,

I talked quite a bit about holding so tightly to Jesus

that we didn't have anything else, no other room in our hands for anything else.

We went out, and it was the 4th of July,

with her parents out onto the lake to watch the fireworks.

And we pulled around the front of this island close to the dam

where the waves are three feet tall because everyone's out on the lake

renting their massive houseboats and causing quite a commotion out there.

And her dad, who has this old pontoon boat and doesn't have a proper anchor

that drags and catches you in the sand when you're trying to sit in those kinds of ways,

you boat people know what I'm talking about,

but instead had an old set of barbells with a rope tied to it,

which would roll along the bottom because they were round,

was trying to get us off the bank, and we were smashing into the bank,

and so I thought it'd be helpful.

I hopped up on the back of the boat, pulled the rope up,

and gave it a good heave-ho out there.

And the rope actually made my ring spin on my finger,

and it spun straight up right off my finger

and then dropped, I mean, an inch from the edge of the boat.

And I was standing on the edge, I mean, you know, phone-in pocket and all that,

and I didn't catch it, and it went into the bottom of the lake.

I promptly threw everything out of my pockets and jumped in after it,

but the water was so murky, and I'm really not a fantastic swimmer,

that I spent 20 just desperate minutes trying to find my ring on the bottom of the lake

and finally had to say, well, oh well.

And as I gave up and got out, climbed up out of the water onto the boat,

the thought that went through my mind was, prove it.

Everything that I had been saying that very morning,

God was saying to me, show it to be true.

Even your wedding band, you have to be okay.

With this.

Praise God, two days later, actually it took me a couple days to kind of settle on it all

and say, well, it is just a thing.

It is temporal, right?

It's fading away like everything else in this world.

It is, in fact, a temporal thing.

Just about the time I had become okay with that,

her dad had really graciously gone back out with a triathlete from his church

and a much better swimmer than myself is the point I'm making,

and he dove a hundred times and found my ring.

So I got it back.

I got to tell the story the next Sunday, and I had it off my finger as I'm telling the story,

so people are having heart attacks, and then I put it back on my finger.

So this is the ring, still on my finger.

Here, I have it back.

Right?

But are we willing to let go of all those things that we have?

And it's just so easy when it's in your hands to love it.

To absolutely love it.

And to not want to give it up for the sake of Christ.

1 John 2, verse 15-17 says this,

1 John 2:15–17

Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life,

is not from the Father, but is from the world.

And the world is passing away along with its desires.

But whoever does the will of God abides forever.

And a lot of people want to stop at this point.

And they want to say,

Yes, it's okay to have things as long as I don't worship those things.

And if I were observing a life that seemed properly oriented,

that in all ways said,

I love Jesus more than these things,

I would say,

Amen, I think you've got it right.

I think you're walking the balance just so.

But most of the people who will say that,

don't live that way.

By all appearances,

they love their stuff much more than they love Jesus.

John goes on to say in 1 John, in chapter 3, verse 17-18,

But if anyone has the world's goods,

and sees his brother in need,

yet closes his heart against him,

how does God's love abide in him?

Little children,

let us not love in word or talk,

but in deed and truth.

We live in an incredibly broken world.

Sin is ravaging across the face of our planet.

One of the major ways it does this is in poverty.

And there's a lot of factors that go into poverty

there's a lot of factors that go into bringing people out of poverty.

But it's a reality.

It exists.

And we all know that it exists.

We very conveniently hold poverty at an arm's length

because we pay taxes

and we have social welfare programs in place in our country,

which we all know are horrible failures.

They don't do the work

because they're not accompanied by love and truth.

Just money.

It's not accompanied by love and truth.

There's all kinds of statistics out there

about poverty in the world.

I'm just going to give you a couple.

Gallup did a world poll

where they actually asked individuals these questions.

And of course, it was a broad study.

I think you guys all know how statistics work, though.

But they say,

self-reporting,

33% worldwide say they don't have money for food.

They're lacking money for food.

38% say their living standards are poor.

39% say they are in difficulty.

So there's a big issue out there of poverty.

And the way in which we can go and minister and love on people in difficult situations,

the tool that's used to accomplish that is financial.

The means are necessary to get these types of things accomplished.

And we live in a world,

American evangelicals give on average 2% of their income.

2%.

Which means there's probably many who don't give at all,

and there's a lot that give way beyond.

But the average, it averages out.

American evangelicals,

those who say that we follow Christ,

and we follow Christ in such a way

that we know we need to share our faith.

That we want to bring people into the church.

That this is our goal.

The Great Commission means something to us.

Give 2% of their income.

And they live on the rest.

We live in a nation that's indebted.

The average American household

has $15,000 in credit card debt.

$15,000.

So not only,

we would include Christians in that category,

not only do we only give 2%,

but we live beyond our means just the same.

It's a sickness.

And it's the sickness of our souls.

Now in these things,

just writing checks and throwing money around

is not the solution.

And I'm not suggesting that.

We don't have time today

to talk about a proper methodology of giving

and therefore helping issues like this.

It's not the time for that type of thing.

However,

there's a high calling for us in Christ

to give,

not just materially,

but also of our time,

of our energy.

To really love people out of these situations,

we're going to have to enter into relationships with them

and love them with the truth.

We've pursued them with everything that we have.

Another case by Paul in 1 Timothy 6.

He instructs at the end of his letter to Timothy,

beginning of verse 17,

As for the rich in this present age,

charge them not to be haughty,

nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches,

but on God,

who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

You've probably heard this verse in your life.

It's another one that likes to be flagged,

heralded as a way of saying,

See,

I can have stuff.

The stuff is good.

The stuff is for me to enjoy.

That's why God gave it to me.

He richly provided it for me to enjoy.

I just can't hope in it.

I've got to hope in Him

and not in Him.

I've got to worship the giver,

not the gift.

But read on.

Context here.

What's the instruction that Timothy's meant to give to the rich?

They are in fact rich.

Be rich.

But what are you to do with that?

Verse 18,

They are to do good.

To be rich in good works.

To be generous and ready to share.

Which necessitates sharing.

Not just ready,

but sharing.

You're ready to share so you do.

Verse 19,

Thus,

storing up treasure for themselves

as a good foundation

for the future

so that they may take hold of that

which is truly life.

So does God give us things to enjoy?

Yes.

He does

by enjoying Him.

By being engaged

in His kingdom work.

He gives money

to people.

And let's face it,

even you college students in the room,

we are wealthy.

We are wealthy by the world's standards.

And in fact,

most of you,

socioeconomically,

from your background,

are wealthy by American standards as well.

You're doing better

than a lot of people.

We have

so that we can enjoy Christ.

So we can get the thing

that's ultimately enjoyable.

Wouldn't God be a mean God

if He is the greatest thing

that He could possibly give us?

Himself,

the Creator,

and instead He says,

Here, go play with these toys.

Don't spend time with me.

Don't be around me.

Don't be involved in my work.

But instead,

go be distracted by cars

and fancy vacations

and clothes

and stupid jewelry.

He'd be a horribly mean God

if He doesn't give us Himself.

Dietrich Braunhofer,

an early 20th century

German Lutheran pastor,

theologian,

who was an anti-Nazi dissident.

He was part of a plot

to murder,

to assassinate Hitler.

He was also a martyr.

He said,

Earthly goods are given

to be used,

not to be collected.

Hoarding is idolatry.

Now there's some

in our world,

certainly in our country,

that teach

that a camel can squeeze

through the eye of a needle.

Jesus is very clear about this.

It's impossible.

A camel cannot squeeze

through the eye of a needle,

but many teach

that a camel can.

It's most commonly called

the prosperous.

prosperity gospel.

And it is a special type

of devilish heresy.

It's being exported now

from our country

into other countries,

into incredibly impoverished countries.

Proponents of it

are false teachers.

They're absolutely false teachers

who say true things at times

which only proves

that the devil does in fact

come as an angel of light.

Joel Osteen,

Joyce Meyer,

T.D. Jakes,

Benny Hinn,

Creflo Dollar,

to name a few of them.

Heretics,

cut off from the faith.

We ought not listen

to such people.

If I just shattered

your world

with any of these names,

please come talk to me.

Stop.

Stop listening

to these teachers.

They are false.

They're leading you astray.

And the shame is

that it's more subversive,

but I think much

of this teaching

has crept into

a lot of our

evangelical churches

as well,

primarily in the form

of silence.

We just don't talk

about it that much.

People are afraid

to get into

that area

of people's lives

because they know

the idol

that it is.

As Paul says,

I seek not

what is yours,

but you.

I want you

to have the greatest

and highest joy.

I want you

to be caught up

in the mission of God

and not sit around

playing with toys.

I seek not

what is yours,

but you.

The Bible's not

silent on this matter

and neither

should we be.

I want to encourage you

to begin to read

your scriptures

with the idea

of money in mind

and just see

all the many places

it's dealt with.

And this is the case

because we're all

going to encounter it.

This is not a situation

that's unique

to any of us.

Not all of us

will walk through cancer

in our lives,

but we're all

going to deal

with money

and we all

need to deal

with money

rightly.

Now as it concerns

false teachers,

whether so

out in the open

or more closeted

on the matter,

take some courage

in this.

2 Peter 2,

1-3

But false prophets

also arose

among the people

just as there

will be false teachers

among you

who will secretly

bring in destructive

heresies,

even denying the

master who bought them,

bringing upon themselves

swift destruction.

Not swift by my standard,

but swift by God's standard.

And many will follow

their sensuality

and because of them

the way of truth

will be blasphemed.

And in their greed

they will exploit you

with false words.

Their condemnation

from long ago

is not idle

and their destruction

is not asleep.

There will be damnation

for people

who lead people away

from the true and living God

to worship things.

Who say to them

that if you add Jesus

to your life,

you will gain

materially.

No.

You will gain spiritually.

You will have joy

abounding.

You will have peace

in Him,

but it does not come

with money.

If you have been

given things,

you have been given

things to get more

of Him.

To get more of Him.

The gospel's not cheap.

It's costly.

Jim Elliott,

famous missionary,

Christian martyred

by the people

he went to go

share the gospel with,

famously said,

He is no fool

who gives what

he cannot keep

to gain that

which he cannot lose.

Are we fools,

beloved?

Jesus in today's text

is really just elaborating

on the general call

He made to the crowd

in Mark chapter 8,

Mark 8:34–37

verse 34 through 37.

You remember this?

If anyone would come

after Me,

let him deny himself

and take up his cross

and follow Me.

That is to die.

That is to die

to our own desires.

For whoever would

save his life

will lose it.

But whoever loses

his life for My sake

and the gospel's

will save it.

For what does it

profit a man

to gain the whole world

and forfeit his soul?

For what can a man

give in return

for his soul?

It costs us something

to follow Jesus.

It costs us

our self-determination.

It costs us

our desires.

But praise God,

He makes our desires

into His.

He shapes us

into one who wants

to worship Him,

who wants to give up

these things.

Discipleship is costly.

It asks everything of us.

We are to be men

selling all that we have

to buy a field

and merchants

selling everything

to have the pearl

of surpassing value.

You recall these parables?

Mark chapter 13.

Mark 13 · chapter mention

Back to back,

the kingdom of heaven

is like treasure

hidden in a field

which a man found

and covered up.

Then in his joy

he goes and sells

all that he has

and buys that field.

Jesus is the treasure.

Again,

the kingdom of heaven

is like a merchant

in search of fine pearls

who on finding

one pearl

of great value

went and sold

all that he had

and bought it.

Willing to give up

everything

to have this

greater prize,

this greater treasure.

That's found in Christ.

Now again,

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

to quote,

the previous quote

was from his book

The Cost of Discipleship

that I would really

commend to you.

He talks a lot in there

about cheap grace

versus costly grace

and let me read you

an excerpt

from that book.

Cheap grace,

which is what's being peddled

so often today

in American churches,

means grace sold

on the market

like cheap jacks wears.

The sacraments,

the forgiveness of sin,

and the consolations

of religion

are thrown away

at cut prices.

Grace is represented

as the church's

inexhaustible treasury

from which she showers

blessings with generous hands

without asking questions

or fixing limits.

Grace without price,

grace without cost.

The essence of grace,

we suppose,

is that the account

has been paid in advance

and because it has been paid,

everything can be had

for nothing.

Since the cost

was infinite,

the possibilities

of using and spending it

are infinite.

What would grace be

if it were not cheap?

What he's saying is

the way we tend to think

about grace

is that it's this free gift

and because it's a free gift

bought by Christ,

we can just presume upon it

and presume upon it

and presume upon it.

We can go say

some trivial,

trite little prayer

and never respond.

We can never live

in a different way.

We can never say

God has rescued me.

He's made me a child.

He's put me into his kingdom

and now I'm meant

to live a certain way.

I'm meant to worship him

with everything that I am.

That's cheap grace.

Cheap grace is the preaching

of forgiveness

without requiring repentance.

Baptism without church discipline.

Communion without confection.

Absolution without personal confession.

Cheap grace is grace

without discipleship.

Grace without the cross.

Grace without Jesus Christ

living and incarnate.

Costly grace

is the treasure hidden in the field.

For the sake of it

a man will go and sell

all that he has.

It is the pearl of great price

to buy with the wife

which the merchant

will sell all his goods.

It is the kingly rule

of Christ

over our lives.

For whose sake

a man will pluck out the eye

which causes him to stumble.

It is the call of Jesus Christ

at which the disciple

leaves his nets

and follows him.

Costly grace

is the gospel

which must be sought

again and again.

The gift which must be asked for.

The door at which

a man must knock.

Such grace is costly

because it calls us

to follow.

And it is grace

because it calls us

to follow Jesus Christ.

It is costly

because it costs

a man his life.

And it is grace

because it gives

a man the only true life.

It is costly

because it condemns sin.

And grace

because it justifies

the sinner.

Above all

it is costly

because it cost God

the life of his son.

You were bought

at a price.

And what has cost God

much cannot be cheap

for us.

Above all

it is grace

because God

did not reckon his son

too dear a price

to pay for our life

but delivered him up

for us.

Costly grace

is the incarnation

of God.

God

means something.

It is going to require

things

of us.

Jesus is just

further developing

this idea.

He very soon

in our text

in Mark 10

is going to once again

foretell his death.

And once again

the disciples

are not going to get it.

They have been debating

all along

what does it mean

that Jesus is going to die.

How can this be?

We don't want you

to have the suffering.

We just want you

to have the glory

because we want the glory.

We don't want the suffering.

We don't want to have

to give up anything

to follow you.

We want to be us

like the rich young ruler

to have all that we have

and just add to it.

Just give me a little extra

for eternal life

and not be willing

to give away anything

to gain it.

Do you recognize

that you can have

all that this world

has to offer

every bit of it

and still be

impoverished?

That this life

is fleeting.

You're passing through it.

It's a vapor

in the wind

and that your mind

should be set on things

eternal

and not those things

that are temporal.

Everything you can

see right now

besides the souls

of the people

you're looking around at

is finite.

It's going away.

It's not infinite.

It will all be turned

to dust one day.

It will all be tested

by fire.

Do you recognize

that wealth

has been given to you

for the sake

of eternal joy

and not just

your temporal joy?

If Jesus were to say

to you,

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.

Would you go away

disheartened

or would you gladly

trade it all

to gain him?

Now in response

to this,

verse 26,

the disciples

are exceedingly

astonished.

Exceedingly

astonished.

Then,

who can be saved?

And we have to

understand why

they were exceedingly

astonished.

The common

teaching of this day,

and I'll thank

John MacArthur

for spelling this out

in his sermon

on this very text

for me.

Saved me a ton

of time.

The common

misconception of the day,

which was from

the rabbis,

the teachers

that had worked

through time

over the previous

400 years,

is that the way

in which you

gained redemption

is through the

giving of alms,

which was giving

to the poor.

This is the thing

that Jesus has

asked them to do.

They said that

with alms,

one purchases

his redemption.

A couple of

examples for you.

One writing taken

from Tobit

says this,

It is good

to do alms

rather than

to treasure up

gold for alms,

deliver from death,

and this will

purge away

every sin.

Syriac 3

says,

alms will atone

for sin.

The Talmud

says,

almsgiving

is more excellent

than all offerings

and is equal

to the whole law.

If you give

to the poor,

then this is

an equal thing.

And who was

most able

to give to the poor?

For the rich.

Here,

even Jesus

gave the command

to this young man

which he was

unwilling to do.

But what Jesus

was telling him

to do

is not to do

a good work

that he might

gain righteousness,

that he would

have his redemption,

that he would

be justified

before God

because of the action.

He was telling him

to give up an idol

and to worship

Jesus,

to follow him.

That's the key

distinction here.

It's a matter

of the heart.

Not that we go

through some works

in order to gain

our salvation

which is an impossibility.

None of us

can keep the whole law.

You can't do it.

Don't try to amass works

in order to gain salvation.

Be saved,

respond to the gospel,

and then do works

as a response to it.

The disciples got this,

but they got it wrongly.

They went too far

with the cultural understanding.

And as such,

Jesus broadens

the impossibility.

Look at him

broaden it out.

They say,

then who can be saved?

Jesus looked at them

and said,

with man it is impossible,

but not with God.

He doesn't say

with rich men

it is impossible,

but not with God.

He says,

with man it is impossible.

You cannot save yourself.

God can save you

if he so desires.

If you have some working

in your heart

to respond to the gospel,

see it as the Spirit's work

on your behalf

and respond to it.

Jesus says to them in this

that man is spiritually

impoverished,

whether they're rich or poor,

they're spiritually impoverished.

We have nothing to offer God

for the dimptive of our souls.

This is why we need grace.

It's why we need a Savior.

We cannot save ourselves.

That's the bad news side

of the gospel

which makes the good news

so good

because Jesus did it

on our behalf.

He paid the debt

for us

that if we would believe in Him,

we would have eternal life.

Paul puts it this way

in Ephesians 2,

Ephesians 2:8

verse 8, 9,

grace given as a gift to us.

For by grace you have been saved

through faith.

And this is not your own doing.

It's the gift of God,

not a result of work

so that no one may boast.

So proper living

is a response

to the work

that God has wrought

in our hearts,

the way in which

He has changed us.

So we looked at

the poverty of possessions.

Let's look now together

quickly at the possessions

of poverty.

Verse 28,

Peter began to say to Him,

and I really love this

just because I'm musing about it.

Mark seems to cut Him off.

Peter was always

the wordy one.

You see Him constantly

interrupting

and opening His mouth

when He shouldn't have.

So He just says,

Peter began to say to Him,

see if we have left everything

and followed you.

I would imagine

that He went on

to elaborate

on that point.

And Jesus responds to Him

with His rather amazing truth.

Truly I say to you,

no one is left,

and I won't read all those

for the sake of time,

for my sake

and for the gospel.

Not left those things

that they might gain more things,

but for the sake

of Jesus Christ

and the good news

of Jesus Christ

who will not receive

a hundredfold

now in this time

all those things

with persecutions

and in the age to come

eternal life.

He says to us again,

but many who are first

will be last

and the last first.

The one who wants to leave

might become a servant.

The one who wants to leave

the gospel of all.

Look at this proper response

of Peter.

John chapter 6

John 6 · chapter mention

beginning in verse 65.

Jesus just said

some very difficult things

to the larger group

of disciples.

He's talked about

drinking His blood

and feasting on His flesh

and they just don't get it.

And He says to them,

not all of you believe.

Not all of you believe.

No one can come to Me

unless the Father sent Me

and draws them.

He's using this type of language.

Verse 65.

This is why I told you

that no one can come to Me

unless it is granted Him

by the Father.

Verse 66.

After this,

many of the disciples

turned back

and no longer walked

with Him.

Verse 67.

So Jesus said to the twelve,

Do you want to go away as well?

Do you also want to leave?

Is this too hard for you?

And Simon Peter answered Him,

Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words

of eternal life

and we have believed

and have come to know

that You are the Holy One

of God.

You can put these texts together.

We have left everything

for Your sake.

Right?

Where are we going to go?

We've left it all behind.

We know that You're the Christ.

Why would we leave?

Look at some improper responses.

Luke chapter 9,

Luke 9 · chapter mention

beginning of verse 57.

As they,

Jesus and the disciples,

were going along the road,

someone said to Him,

I will follow you

wherever you go.

And Jesus said to him,

Foxes have holes

and birds of the air

have nests,

but the Son of Man

has nowhere

to lay His head.

It's presumed at this point

that the man did not follow Him

because of this saying.

Verse 59.

To another,

He said,

Follow Me.

But He said,

Lord, let me first go

and bury my father.

And Jesus said to him,

Leave the dead

to bury their own dead.

But as for you,

go and proclaim

the kingdom of God.

Yet another said,

I will follow you, Lord,

but let me first say farewell

to those at my home.

Jesus said to him,

No one who puts his hand

to the plow

and looks back

is fit for the kingdom of God.

We must set our sights

fully on Jesus Christ.

Whatever may come,

whatever may fall away,

here you have men

who are leaving Judaism

to follow Jesus.

This happens in our day as well.

Many of you college students

experience this

with unbelieving parents.

You become strange

to your parents.

Your parents don't want

to spend time with you

the way they did.

The decisions that you're making

are counter-cultural.

They don't want you

to enter the ministry.

They want you to have a career.

They want you to make money.

They want you to take care of them

in their old age.

It puts you at odds with them.

This is a common thing.

The gospel often divides people

because people become devoted

to Christ

and others just don't get that.

What are we to do with that?

He gives us a promise.

This is the way

in which we leave behind

houses, brothers, sisters,

mother, father, children, lands.

He says he'll give to us

a hundredfold in this day.

How is that the case?

What does he mean by that?

What he means

is that in this age

he'll give us the church.

He'll deliver us

into a community,

a faith family,

that we might love each other

the way in which

a family is meant

to love each other.

Praise God,

many of you have

believing parents

and this has not been

the case for you.

But we as a church

need to do better

at loving each other

like a family loves.

Because there are people

amongst us

that are hurting in that way

who need spiritual fathers

and mothers

and brothers

and sisters.

How do you have

houses and lands?

Because you have my house

and you have my lands.

Right?

You come over

and you can eat with me.

You need a place to crash?

Let me know.

Not just me.

There's other people

in this church too

that have houses

and lands.

I don't want to run

a bed and breakfast.

Look at an example

of this from the scriptures.

Acts 2

is after the day

of Pentecost.

We have seen

thousands,

3,000 is the number

I believe in verse 41

recorded of people

added to the early church

and most of these people

would have been pilgrims

from Jewish settlements.

They would have traveled

to Jerusalem

and they didn't want

to go home.

The only church

at the time

was this group of people,

these thousands of people

that were gathered

in Jerusalem.

They didn't want to go back

to their towns

where there were no Christians

and so they lingered.

They stuck around

for a little while.

We see beginning

in verse 42

and they,

all these new Christians,

devoted themselves

to the apostles' teaching

and the fellowship,

to the breaking of bread

and the prayers

and all came upon

every soul

and many wonders

and signs were being done

through the apostles

and all who believed

were together

and had all things

in common

and they were selling

their possessions

and belongings

and distributing

the proceeds to all

as any had need

and day by day

attending the temple

together

and breaking bread

in their homes

they received their food

with glad and generous hearts

praising God

and having favor

with all people

and the Lord added

to their number

day by day

those who were being saved.

So you see that these people

crashed on the couch.

They wanted to stick around

and they were glad to have them.

All these new baby Christians

got together

and they were so hungry

to hear the teaching

of the apostles

to know more about Jesus Christ

that they got really practical

about it

and they shared things

and they sold lands.

Ananias and Sapphira,

the failures in this thing,

but that's what they were about doing

in this process

of providing for

and being a family

together.

So for those of us,

for those of you

who are leaving behind

these types of things

to follow Jesus,

giving up that kind of stuff,

it's being granted to you,

it's being given to you

in the church.

But he includes in here

also

that persecutions

will come.

Isn't that curious?

He talks about

all these things

but he includes

all these other things

in this age

that are going to be

given back to you,

families, brothers, sisters,

with persecutions.

Why would he include this here?

It's because he wants them

to know that life's not

going to just get easy.

You've left behind

this family,

I'm giving you

a different family,

there's going to be

limitless resources,

you're going to have

so much fun,

it's going to be great.

No,

you'll be persecuted.

Matthew 5.10,

Blessed are those

who are persecuted

for righteousness' sake,

for theirs is

the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you

when others revile you

and persecute you

and utter all kinds

of evil against you

falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad

for your reward

is great in heaven.

For so they persecuted

the prophets

who were before you.

It's a wonderful response

that the apostles

are recorded for us

in Acts chapter 5

Acts 5 · chapter mention

after the apostles

are beaten by a council

of Sadducees

in these early days

of the church.

It says,

Then they left the presence

of the council rejoicing

that they were counted

worthy to suffer dishonor

for the name.

One of the ways

we'll know

that we're following Jesus

is if we're persecuted

for his name,

rightly,

not in some of the

bizarre political ways

we see in our day,

but rightly persecuted

for sharing the gospel

of Jesus Christ.

So how do we

in this day

properly

manage our money?

All I can say to you

is what the scriptures

say to you.

Work hard.

Gain it.

Please,

young people,

go after it

because the church

needs it.

Our church needs it.

Other churches need it.

The work of God

needs your resources.

Be generous.

Recognize

that you're given money

to live on

for your needs,

the temporal things,

and take the excess

and give it

freely

to the kingdom.

Gain Christ.

Buy more of him

with your money.

Not the salvation,

but the experience

of him.

Be involved

in what he's doing

around the world

with your finances.

It used to frustrate me

that the scriptures

seem to be so vague

on some issues.

Like,

I just want the list.

Just give me the budget.

I want the percentages.

Just tell me exactly

what it is I'm supposed

to do in every area

of my life.

And I've come to the point

where I believe

that God does not do that

because he wants us.

He wants to know you.

And he wants you

to know him.

He wants you to align

your desires

with his desires.

Right?

If I was given a list,

I would ignore him

altogether.

I'd stop asking.

He already gave me the list.

I know how I'm supposed

to send in my money.

He wants us to go to him.

He wants us to go to him

on our knees humbly,

recognizing that nothing

that we have

belongs to us ultimately.

It was given to us

as a gift

by his provision.

He gave it.

He could certainly

take it away.

Pay attention to the story

of Job on that point.

And he gave it back.

Why is he giving it to us?

What is the point

of him giving it to us?

It's that we might

enjoy him forever.

He also promises here

that this gifting,

this giving,

will have some effect

in the age to come.

And that is eternal life.

Our grace can't be cheap.

There must be a response.

There's a cost

to following Jesus.

And how do you know

if you're a disciple

of Jesus Christ?

How do you know?

Don't pin it on a date.

Don't pin it on some card

that somebody handed you,

a little placard,

or a date you wrote

in the front of your Bible.

I grew up in a church

that told me constantly

if you ever doubt your faith,

if you're ever not so sure

that you're saved,

remember the date

that you were saved.

This is entirely anti-biblical.

It's not in the Scriptures anywhere

to pin it on a date like that.

Rather,

pin it on the fact

that you're growing in holiness,

that you don't love

the things of the world,

but you love the things of God,

and that you're growing

in that way.

Test your faith.

If you don't know

that you're a Christian,

I plead with you,

repent and believe.

Repent and believe.

If you are a Christian,

there's room for repentance

and belief as well.

Let me close by reading to you

a psalm.

Psalm 73.

Let me ask you to turn there.

I'll finish quickly.

I had every intention

of not going this long today.

Psalm 73 is a psalm of Asaph.

He's a songwriter.

Some of my favorite psalms are his.

He says,

Truly God is good to Israel

for those who are pure in heart.

And so,

God is good.

I'm setting that up

as the very premise of this psalm.

For those who are pure in heart,

God is good to us.

Verse 2,

But as for me,

my feet had almost stumbled.

My steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity

of the wicked.

For they have no pangs until death.

Their bodies are fat and sleek,

which would have been a good thing

in this day.

They are not in trouble

as others are.

They are not stricken

like the rest of mankind.

Therefore,

pride is their necklace.

Violence covers them

as a garment.

Their eyes swell out

through fatness.

Their hearts overflow with follies.

They scoff and speak with malice.

Loftily,

they threaten oppression.

They set their mouths

against the heavens

and their tongue struts the earth.

Therefore,

his people turn back to them

and find no fault in them.

And they say,

How can God know?

Is there knowledge

in the Most High?

Behold,

these are the wicked,

always at ease.

They increase in riches.

So see,

he's recognizing

the folly

and the error

of these men.

But that these men

are followed by other people.

People look to them

for leadership.

They think they've got it

all together

because they're fat and sleek.

Because they have wealth.

Because they're not suffering

at all in this world.

He says,

My feet almost slipped.

I almost bought into this.

I almost thought

that was a better way.

We brought this

into our current context.

We could throw the word

American in here

a few times.

Verse 13.

All in vain

have I kept my heart clean

and washed my hands

in innocence.

For all the day long

I have been stricken

and rebuked

every morning.

If I had said

I will speak thus,

I would have betrayed

the generation

of your children.

There's that summation

of the way he was feeling

and the things he was thinking.

The way he almost aired.

Verse 16.

But when I thought

how to understand this,

it seemed to me

a wearisome task.

How is it that

these people,

these evil people,

these adulterous people

have everything?

And those who

keep their hands clean,

who try to follow God,

don't have things?

It was a wearisome task

to understand this

until I went

into the sanctuary of God.

Then I discerned

their end.

Truly you set them

in slippery places.

How they are destroyed

in a moment,

swept away utterly

by chairs,

like a dream

when one awakes.

O Lord,

when you rouse yourself,

you despise them

as phantoms.

Their eternal destruction.

He understood

their eternal destruction.

His eternal life,

their eternal destruction.

Verse 21.

My soul was embittered

when I was pricked in heart.

I was brutish and ignorant.

I was like a beast towards you.

Nevertheless,

I am continually with you.

You hold my right hand.

You guide me

with your counsel.

And afterward,

you will receive me

to glory.

Whom have I in heaven

but you?

And there is nothing

on earth

that I desire beside you.

My flesh

and my heart

may fail,

but God is the strength

of my heart

and my portion

forever.

For those who are far from you

shall perish.

You put an end

to everyone

who is unfaithful to you.

But for me,

it is good

to be near God.

There's the wealth.

There's the true wealth.

There's the possession

of poverty.

God himself.

I have made the Lord God

my refuge

that I may tell

of all

your works.

Let's pray together.

God bless.