Divine Barriers to Superficial Seekers (Mark 10:17–22) | John MacArthur

today on Grace to You. >> He knows he doesn't have the life of God in his soul. He knows he's a carnal man. Let's put it that way. He didn't have eternal life and he needed it more than anything because eternal life, it is the life of God in a person that lasts forever.

What in the world makes us so embarrassed about the gospel? I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I want you to turn in your Bible to Mark 10 17- 22. And this is another one of these conversations about salvation that is so important.

So let me read starting in verse 17 of Mark 10. As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him and asked him, "Good teacher, what shall 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, I have kept all these things from my youth up."

Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him. And said to him, "One thing you lack. Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me." But at these words he was saddened and he went away grieving for he was one who owned much property.

This young man appears like the ideal prospect for the gospel. He's the ideal seeker. And Jesus could just make a few statements and he would be in the kingdom. But he doesn't. And what Jesus does say at first is confounding. So let's look at the story starting in verse 17.

As he was setting out on a journey meeting our Lord, a man runs up to him. a man and he is a religious man. Uh he's a religious man. We know because the other gospel writers tell us very religious man. And he has a very important question. Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

He thought he was on the brink just as we might think he was just exactly where he should be, right there at the door. You might even think he's knocking and the door should be opened. But the truth of the matter is he was far from where he needed to be to receive eternal life.

Again, I I just say most people in a scenario like this would tell him to pray a prayer, believe in Jesus, give him some gospel truth. And with someone like this, that would have been a false conversion because he had not come to grips with the sinfulness of his sin. nor would he submit to the lordship of Christ.

So the Lord shows us how to put barriers in front of superficial seekers. Okay? How to put barriers in front of superficial seekers. Now what's interesting about this man is he's young. He's young. Matthew tells us in his account and then Luke adds that he was a ruler.

So the rich young ruler probably the ruler of a synagogue which would for a young man that would be a very formidable responsibility usually that was saved for the older people. So this is a very religious young man who has achieved prominence in the religious community to the point that he is a ruler in the synagogue. devout, religious Jew, rich, young, prominent, influential, moral, respected, so highly respected that they elevated him in the synagogue.

And this is this is such a special young man that in Matthew's account, it starts with behold. Matthew says, "Behold, like this is an amazing thing. This is a wondrous thing that one like him, a ruler in the synagogue, wealthy and young, would be grappling with fears and doubts about his spiritual life.

But that's exactly what he's doing. He knew he did not have eternal life. He was honest enough with his own heart and his own soul. There wasn't that rest that we just sung about. It is well with my soul. It wasn't with his. There wasn't the peace and the joy and the settled hope that he would want.

He was restless. He was unfulfilled. He you could say he was anxious as well. And this is really where the gospel does start. It starts with knowing you need something you don't have. And he's absolutely right. He didn't have eternal life and he needed it more than anything because eternal life, it is the life of God in a person that lasts forever. divine life.

So, this is a good place to start. He knows he doesn't have the life of God in his soul. He knows he's a carnal man. Let's put it that way. And the second thing you can say commending him is this was a deep issue. He felt it deeply.

What shall I do? He knew he didn't have eternal life. He wanted it desperately to the degree that even though he's the ruler of a local synagogue and a man of dignity, he comes running to Jesus and it says that he knelt down in front of him. This is a posture of humility.

And according to Matthew 19:20, he said, "What am I lacking? What is missing in my life?" Strong need the cry of an unsatisfied, unsettled, unfulfilled person. And thirdly, he's very urgent about it. That is evidenced in verse 17 by his running and his kneeling. He is in a hurry.

He is in turmoil. All his religion, all his wealth, all his position has not settled his heart. And there's an urgency. He wants eternal life. He wants to know that God is in his life. And so he comes. Not only are those things essential, you need to know what you don't have, what you want, and to seek it diligently.

But there's a fourth reality here, and this is probably the most important thing of all. He came to the right source. If you're going to ask somebody how to obtain eternal life, you couldn't do better than Jesus. Jesus is even called 1 John 5:20, that eternal life. John 1, in him was life.

He is the life, the way, the truth, and the life. And he comes to him and he comes recognizing that he is a teacher. Look at the 17th verse. Good teacher. And then in verse 20 he repeats teacher. So he thinks he has found a teacher who knows the way to eternal life.

Nothing says that he knew he was God. Nothing conclusive about what he thought about the nature of Christ. I think it's fair to assume that he thought of him as a teacher. Good teacher. Not just any teacher, but a uniquely good teacher. But he believes because of exposure to Jesus that he is a good teacher, obviously beyond any other teacher he'd ever heard.

And so he has come to the right source. 1 John 5:11 says, "And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his son." The man didn't know it, but he was talking to the eternal life, the one who always was, the one who had no beginning and no end.

So he knew what he wanted. He felt the need deeply. He sought eagerly. He came to the right person. And then to top it off, he asked the right question. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? By inherit he means to take possession, to receive, to acquire.

And that is the right question. We could say this this man is is really ready. We don't even have to do anything but say, "Pray this prayer. Ask Jesus to come into your life." But that's not what Jesus says. With all that leading up to Jesus response, verse 18, Jesus speaks to him.

He doesn't say just pray this prayer. He doesn't say believe in the gospel and you'll be saved. Wouldn't be wrong to say that. But what he does say is shocking. Verse 18, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. He he's saying to the young man, you're throwing around this idea of goodness in kind of a cavalier way as if you had some kind of relative approach to goodness, some kind of relative idea of goodness and righteousness and holiness.

And of course, that's exactly what he had because he's in a self-righteous system. He's a self-righteous person. So, he thinks he's good. But that's because he doesn't understand absolute goodness. The absolute goodness that characterizes God and therefore is required by God. He doesn't understand that to come to God you have to be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.

Jesus said. So he needs a lesson on righteousness and sin. Why are you calling me good? Well, he's a religious legalist. So he has a concept of good that is lower than the absolute character of God. He also thinks he's good. Verse 20. I've kept all these things from my youth up.

I'm the very personification of goodness, righteousness, virtue. And if he thinks he is the personification of righteousness and goodness, then he has a very low view of righteousness and goodness, which means he has a low view of God, which is accommodating a high view of himself. So our Lord says to him, look, we have to go back to the beginning and understand that God is good in a way that is only true of him.

And if you're less than that, you're not good. Unless you're perfectly good, you're totally condemned. So Jesus needed to put a barrier up at the point of this man's understanding of sin and righteousness. This is where the gospel always has to start. If somebody comes and said, "What do I do to to inherit or receive eternal life?"

You back them off. You back them off into the category of sin and righteousness. But this direct attack on the young man exposed him in this essential category of his view of himself regarding sin. Our Lord says in verse 19 and he starts quoting the second half of the decalogue, the ten commandments.

Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother. So he's rattling off some of the ten commandments. And he said to him, "Teacher, I've kept all these things from my youth up." Well, that's not possible.

That's not possible. Jesus in the sermon on the mount said, "If you hate, you're a murderer. If you lust, you've committed adultery in your heart. If you covet, you're a thief. You can violate those not only in action, but in attitude." So, this man is completely distorted about his condition.

He thinks he is righteous enough that he only needs to do one more thing to reach eternal life because he's kept the law. And again, look, any legalistic system has to define keeping the law in a superficial way because they they have evil hearts and they know it.

So it's all about the external. I've kept all these things. He's blind to his own sinfulness. He lived in constant lifelong violation of the perfection of God. He doesn't know it, but he's a blasphemer and he's a proud one elevating himself. He really worshiped himself, not God. And so his response when confronted with the law and righteousness, I'm investy, compassion, and said to him, "Okay, one thing you lack. go and sell all you possess, give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.

And you might say, "Wait a minute, that's another wrong answer." The first wrong answer was he gave him the law when he should have told her to pray a prayer and believe the gospel. Now, it sounds like Jesus is saying, "If you want eternal life, give up your possessions.

Sell everything you possess. Give it to the poor. Come and follow me." Salvation by philanthropy. Jesus had a love for him. Important to note that because that means he he would only say what was true to him. But what our Lord is saying is the the really the great test that he has to face.

Will you confess me as Lord? Will you yield up everything if I ask it? It's not that he's going to receive eternal life by giving up all his possessions. It is that he will not receive eternal life until he confesses Jesus as Lord who may ask him to give all of his possessions up.

First of all, you have to acknowledge your sinfulness and then you have to submit to the lordship of Christ. This is so important because many people come to the gospel and they have a superficial understanding of their own sinfulness. So their their repentance isn't real, heartfelt, and they think Jesus wants to give them everything they want when Jesus wants the authority in their life to tell them to give up everything they have.

Very different. Invite Jesus in your life and you'll get what you want. No. Invite Jesus into your life and you'll get what he wants. That's submission. That's Luke 9:23. If any man come after me, let him deny himself. Deny himself. Hate his own life. These are the two barriers that our Lord puts up in this encounter.

Barrier number one, he needs to understand the holiness of God and the sinfulness of his own proud, self-righteous heart because repentance is required. And then he needs to be willing to give up everything if that's what the Lord asks. That's like the parables in Matthew 13. Sell all to buy the pearl, which is a symbol of salvation.

Sell all to buy the treasure in the field, another symbol of salvation. Are you willing to give it all up? Will you submit to the lordship of Christ? You don't come to Jesus in order to get what you want. You come to Jesus in order to live the rest of your life receiving what he wants.

If if evangelism was done this way, we'd have a lot less false converts. If all you have to do is pray the prayer, whether you've grappled with your own sinfulness and God's righteousness or not, if all you have to do is tell Jesus to give you what you want, I can imagine people lining up to get what they want.

But it's the opposite. True saving faith is confessing Jesus as Lord and setting aside what you want. That's deny yourself even to the point of death, taking up a cross and follow him. So those are critical bearers barriers in evangelism. Does the sinner understand righteousness and sin? And does the sinner understand submission to the lordship of Christ?

Many people come to Jesus. They want to pray the prayer. They want to make the confession. I believe in Jesus. But are they really coming like the publican pounding on their chest and saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner." You have to come empty-handed. You bring nothing.

You offer nothing. You have nothing to offer. You come as the biatitudes say bankrupt, poor in spirit, meek, sorrowful, empty, offering nothing that you've achieved to God. And then you say, "Lord, I I acknowledge you as my King, my Lord. I only want what you want." That's the heart and soul of saving faith.

It's easier, Jesus says in verse 25, for a camel to go through the eye of a needle and a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Success, prosperity, wealth, riches acrru to a person's pride and piles up pride. And the idea that you would strip yourself bare, nothing but a wretched sinner and be willing to give up everything for the sovereign lordship of Christ is very difficult.

Verse 26. They were more astonished and said to him, "Then who can be saved?" Looking at them, Jesus said, "With people it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God." That's important, isn't it? Salvation is hard. Salvation is hard. Humanly it's impossible but with God it's possible.

And in 1 Corinthians 1 we read that God chooses those that'll be saved and he chooses very few of the high and the mighty. Very few. the poor, the nobbodyies, the destitute, the low lives for his own glory. As long as you think you can make some righteous contribution to your salvation, you will not be able to receive the gift of eternal life.

And until you acknowledge the lordship of Christ to the degree that he is lord of your life and you live not for him to give you what you want but for you to give him first place in all that he desires. Salvation is saying, "Christ, I'm an unworthy sinner.

Take me though I have nothing to offer and do with me whatever you will." That's the hard attitude that our Lord did not see in this young man. Poor, destitute people might be more likely to come to that point than those who have been very successful. But every sinner has to come there to receive eternal life.

Today, Pastor John reminded us how important it is to get the gospel right and to get the gospel complete. Salvation is a narrow gate and hard to find and does come with a cost. The cost is denying yourself and taking up your cross and following Christ. We live in an age where many have their own version or interpretation of what it means to be a Christian.

And sadly, that means many will think they are saved when they are not. In the book, The Gospel According to Jesus, John challenges each of us to evaluate our commitment to Christ. We do this in part by looking at the real fruit in our own lives. This is a great resource for new believers as well as those needing to be reminded their faith wasn't a one-time conversion, but a lifetime of obedience.

Order a copy today by giving our operators a call at 88857grace. That's 88857grace or visiting our website gty.org/store. The Gospel according to Jesus answers the important question of what does it really mean to be saved. Thank you for joining us today in our study of conversations with our Lord from Mark 10.

On behalf of all of us at the ministry, I'm Jade Greenfield. We'll see you next time on Grace to You.