ness and deity. He is trying to show the young man that by the very title he used, He was indeed God. He wanted to see that if he recognized goodness in Jesus, it was because Jesus is God. Jesus told him he should keep the commandments. He gave our Lord some answers we will consider in our next message. Let me urge you to never forget that God is able to save to the uttermost. If you don’t get saved, it isn’t because God doesn’t love you, or hasn’t pro vided a way of salvation. It is sim ply because you have chosen to go to hell. God will never send anyone to hell. Men, themselves, choose to go there. Don’t you be one of them. “Be lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved!” P art II I T is always TRAGIC and heart-break ing to see people reject the Lord. Such was the case of the rich young ruler.who, as far as we know, chose to be in hell forever. He went away sorrowful. Keep in mind; no one ever comes to Jesus finding salvation and then goes away sorrowful. Christ al ways makes the heart glad. In Mark 10, Jesus said to him that he should keep the commandments. They all had to do with man’s relationship to his fellow man. He excluded the four that have to do with man’s relation ship to God. The wealthy fellow re sponded, “All these I have kept from my youth up.” There is no reason to think that the young man had not kept them. No doubt he was very sin cere. The Apostle Paul testified simi larly concerning himself in Phil. 3:6. There may be many men who don’t literally violate the law of God. Christ said, “Thou shalt not kill.” I don’t believe the fellow ever did kill anyone. The same is true with other statements. Keep in mind, how ever, that there is more than the letter of the law. The Saviour de clared, “Ye have heard . . . Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say
unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath com mitted adultery with her already in his heart” (Matt. 5:27-28). There is more than the overt act. What about the heart? Then the Lord gave the young man an opportunity to prove the righteousness of which he boast ed. “Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell what soever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me” (Mark 10:21). Jesus isn’t teaching that to be saved one must be poor or give up his riches. He is merely pointing out that a man with a divided heart cannot be saved. This rich young man was willing to guard the law and give out his wealth insofar as his relationship to his fellowman went. But he refused to obey the first commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods be fore me.” He wanted salvation but not at the expense of any sacrifice to himself. Gold was his god. Silver is not a substitute for salvation. The one thing this man lacked was the thing that mattered most. He would not take up the cross and follow Christ. No wonder he went away sad and sorrowful. He made a fatal choice. His was the great refusal. Two things impress me greatly. Jesus loved him. While he was lost, he wasn’t unloved. Then Christ didn’t pursue him. He didn’t try to persuade him to change his mind. Jesus told His disciples why so few were saved. “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” (Mark 10:25). This saying surprised them. They had imagined that riches were an evi dence of God’s favor. There are ob stacles of one kind or another placed in the way of any person who would be saved. In the case of the rich young ruler it was his riches. The disciples asked among themselves, 9
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