Open your Bibles please to the gospel of Mark chapter 10. I brought my own water this week. Mark chapter 10, we're going to read verses 17 through 31. As we do, keep in mind there's a context here, as there always is, for any passage of scripture that we read. Keep in mind that just before what we're reading, there was this beautiful passage in verses 13 through 16 about Jesus blessing the little children. And he said that the children, let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. Now keep that in mind as we read this incident that Jesus had with a rich young ruler. Verse 17. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother. And he said to him, teacher, all these I have kept from my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, you lack one thing. go sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, with man, it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. Peter began to say to him, see, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother 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 the word of the Lord. I said that Jesus tells us in the verses right before what our passage is for us today, that you have to have the same kind of trust that a little child has with the Lord. We have to have the same kind of trust with the Lord if we are going to enter the kingdom of heaven. Trusting faith, simple faith, directed towards an object of our faith. If we're little kids, we learn how to do that with our parents. When we begin to grow older, we understand that we need to use that simple kind of trusting faith to put it into the hands of Christ himself, and saying to the Lord Jesus, I have no ability to bring eternal life to myself. I can't do it. I'm not good enough. But Jesus, I give you who I am, and I will let go of everything in my life, if that's your will, so that I can follow you. Now that's the sermon. That's the passage. But I would like for us to think about it in a little more detail. Here was this man who came to Jesus, and it's really a shocking incident, I think, when we consider it. The disciples were shocked at what took place and what it meant for them. Let's notice, though, how this works. First of all, let's notice here that God's standards for his kingdom are not the same as man's. God's standards for his kingdom are not the same as man's. And we see that in verses 17 through 22 in this conversation, if you will, that Jesus has with this man, this young man. And he had some assets. He had some real assets that he was presenting to Jesus and Jesus noticed them. He also has some liabilities. The assets, of course, we could tell that he was eager because it says he ran to Jesus. We don't see that. in other people in their conversations with Jesus. They seek Jesus, but to run to Jesus indicated that he had a lot of interest, a lot of zeal to want to know, genuinely want to know how he could have eternal life. He also was wealthy. Verse 22 tells us that he had riches, great riches. He was influential. Luke's version of this story tells us that he was a ruler of, probably a ruler as a member of the Sanhedrin. And then, of course, he was young. Matthew's gospel points that out to us in his account. And he was spiritual. He had eternal life on his mind. Now think about those qualities. And not only that, but he was moral. I've kept these commandments that you just told me, Jesus. What an impressive resume. What do you think most churches would do if someone like that ran up to the pastor and said, I'm ready to have eternal life because I think I'm qualified. And they were wealthy, they were young, they were ready to take on the world, they had all this ambition, and all they needed to know was if there was anything lacking in their lives that would prevent them from having eternal life. Now this week, I was reading through the sports pages, as I am wont to do, And I noticed a contrast between two of the most famous athletes in professional sports right now. Scotty Scheffler is the number one professional golf player in the world. He's on the verge of perhaps winning another golf tournament, a major golf tournament today. He recently said that winning golf tournaments did not fulfill him. He realized that that kind of success can only go so far. He said, winning is not a fulfilling life. And I quote him here. It is fulfilling from a sense of accomplishment, but it is not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart. Now that was quite an honest acknowledgement from someone who perhaps doesn't know the answer to how to deal with the deepest places of your heart. So he needs to talk to Aaron Judge, Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, who is a professing Christian. And this week, the same week that Scottie Scheffler made his comments, Aaron Judge said just before the all-star game this week that being a successful baseball star is not as fulfilling as having a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's why I say, Scotty, you need to talk to Aaron. He might be able to help you. Scotty Scheffler perhaps is more in this same category as this rich young ruler. The rich young ruler knew that he had a lot of things going for him, but he doesn't seem to be able to put it all together, or else he would not have asked. There was still something missing in his heart. And so he says, what else can I do to have eternal life? And that's where we find ourselves so often. in our own lives? Have I done enough? Am I really sure, even though I'm a church member, even though I pray, even though I read the Bible, am I really sure that I have come to terms with God and what he tells me I need most of all? Was Jesus too hard on this young man with his answer? He seems to be able to point out the liabilities of this candidate. He had assets, as I said, but he also had liabilities. For one thing, he failed to understand the nature of God. In verse 17 and verse 18, We read that he calls Jesus good teacher. And Jesus responds not by answering his question, at least not immediately. He responds by saying, why do you call me good? No one is good but God. Now Jesus is not denying that he was good because he is the son of God. He was fully God and fully man. But what he is saying is, do you really understand what you mean by saying good? Because what you've been describing about yourself is what we would think of as what a good person you are. You're such a good guy. There's lots of good guys out there, you know? Lots of good girls. Good in the general sense of the word. Maybe they don't have a rap sheet. Maybe they don't constantly rebel against authority. They go to church. They're pretty moral and upstanding, and so we consider them good, and that's understandable. But there's another standard for good, and that's the holiness and goodness and perfection of God. And what Jesus is saying here is, you don't really know me because you don't really know who God is. That's one of the, if not the biggest issue that people have today who are not believers in Christ. They don't know who God really is. They don't understand that God is holy, that God is just, that God is going to render to us what we deserve if we don't know the answer to what we deserve, which is eternal death because of our sin. So he was using the word good improperly. And I dare say that a lot of times our church's outreach, not our church, but any church's outreach has to be careful that they don't water down the gospel message by saying, oh, you're a good guy, come on in and join us. We're just a bunch of good guys that love Jesus and we're going to try to serve him. Well, we've got to go deeper than that. We've got to come and realize the depth and the realities of our sin. And most of us, Lord, blessing us, yes, that'll be the answer, but most of us have got to come to a point in our lives, if we haven't already, where we understand we are at a dead end street when it comes to our relationship with God. Notice how Jesus deals with this. He says that, the good rich young ruler says that he's kept the commandments. Jesus asked him about it. What about all these commandments? And Jesus rattles off a number of the 10 commandments we just read from them a while ago. And he said, teacher, I've kept all of these from my youth. He sincerely believed that. There was not any obvious evidence that he had ever lied or stolen or committed adultery or any of the commandments that were mentioned. I've been a good guy. but he didn't understand what it means to keep those commandments from the heart. Like Jesus tells us in the chapters in Matthew five through seven, the Sermon on the Mount. You may think you don't commit adultery, but do you commit lust in your heart? You may think that you've never stolen, but have you coveted? Have you wanted something that was somebody else's and you wish that it was yours and not theirs. And on and on we can go. He failed to love God above all else, this rich young ruler. He was thinking that he loved his fellow man, And that's why Jesus only gave the commandments in the second table of the law where it tells us how to love our neighbor. The first four commandments tell us how to love God. The last six tell us how to love our neighbor. Honor your father and mother and on down the line. And he wasn't really even doing that. You can't love your neighbor as you're supposed to if you don't love God. first and foremost. And so he's calling him on that, pointing that out to him. God's goodness is perfection. Do you remember that God said, and this is in the Sermon on the Mount too, Jesus said that your righteousness has got to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. They were the classic keepers of the law on the outside. You got to do better than that is what Jesus is saying to anyone. And he's certainly saying it to the rich young ruler. He thought he could possess eternal life by doing it. You notice he said in verse 20, what shall I do to gain eternal life? Answer, you can't do anything. to earn eternal life. You can't do it. You can't keep the law of God. Now, if you try, well, there's worse things that you can do. You can try to be good enough, but let me ask you something. How good do you have to be to get into heaven if you're trying to be good enough? Jesus said, you've got to keep all the commandments. You've got to be absolutely perfect. You've got to make 100 every time. None of us have been able to do that. Romans 3 says, there's none that are good. No, not one. And it says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've come short. Settle it in your own mind and heart, dear friend, if you haven't already, that it is impossible for you to be saved on your own. And you look at the next part of the passage, verses 23 through 27, and we see that God's standard for his kingdom is impossible. Jesus goes on to point that out. After this conversation with the rich young ruler, you see what happened to him in verse 22, disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. That's one of the saddest verses in the Bible. Don't you think he went away sorrowful. The word sorrowful is actually stronger than what it says here in the ESV. It's actually the word grieved. It's the same word that Jesus, that was used to describing Jesus when he was praying on the night of his betrayal. When he was praying for God, if it were possible to let this cup pass from him, he was in great suffering and agony. Grieve, the same word here. I mean, the air had completely gone out of this man's inflated sense of his own morality and worth, as it should, because Jesus challenged him, knowing that there was a God that was standing between that man and Jesus. And that God was money. He had great wealth. Jesus said, give away everything you had, give it all away and then come and follow me. Do my will, let go of what you have and commit yourself to me supremely. He couldn't do it. Just like a lot of people can't do it. They have their God that they won't let go of. Jesus, I'll join the church, I'll read the Bible, I'll pray, but I'm not gonna let you touch this part of my life. Could that describe you today? If it does, keep listening. Keep listening. So, He turns away, Jesus then turns to his disciples. And notice that it says, looking at them. He's staring at them right in their eyes. And he wants them to listen carefully to what he is saying. Notice what he says, notice how he describes his disciples here. Jesus looked around and said, verse 23, 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 it again to them. Children, pick up on that. Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It's a reminder to us of what we read in those verses right before this passage. Jesus says, let the children come. Their kind of faith is the kind of faith we need to have. Absolute trust and confidence in what our parents are doing. When they get older, that begins to get a little iffy, right? But while they're little children, Jesus knows that that's a real key for us. trusting someone else completely. How difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It's difficult for anyone. It's impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of God on their own. And then he gives that classic illustration. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Now there's been a lot of debate on what Jesus meant. The eye of a needle. And there's basically two interpretations of this. One is a more literal interpretation that says that in the wall around Jerusalem, there was the big opening where people and animals and carts and everything can go through. But there was also a small little tunnel like where a man could crawl down under that wall through that opening and come out on the inside of the tunnel or vice versa. But a camel couldn't. A camel was the largest animal in the Middle East in those days. Camels are big. They couldn't go through there. They couldn't stoop down that low. They were too large. Impossible. Of course, the other interpretation is the more literal one and just what you and I tend to think of. A camel going through the eye of a little needle that's used for sewing. And at the end of the needle, there might be that little curve with a little hole in it where you put the thread through. No, I'm not an expert in sewing, in case you're wondering. But a camel couldn't go through that either. But we get the point. A camel can't go through the eye of a needle, whichever way you look at it. So it is impossible to be saved. There's nothing you can do on your own to enter the kingdom of God. See, that's the first step in grasping the beauty of the gospel. The gospel says you are far more sinful than you can possibly imagine. And you have to come to admit that. That takes a lot of God's grace working in your heart to humble you to realize that. It's how you stand before that perfectly righteous and holy God that matters. What he sees in you that matters. And what he sees in you is insufficient. So that's the lesson that's being learned here. The disciples were, They were so shocked. They were so shocked they hardly knew what to say. So he gives this example of the camel going through the eye of the needle. But he's saying, he's focusing on a rich person. Now please understand, Jesus is not saying that if you are a wealthy person, you can't get into heaven. Okay? A poor person is just as far away from being able to get into heaven as a rich person when it comes to our sin and our need for a righteousness that's not our own. But rich people find it harder to give their lives to Christ. It's a wonderful thing when you see people who are well off, they don't have to be billionaires, they're well off, God takes care of them and blesses them and they give God all the glory. but this rich young ruler couldn't see that. So the conclusion the disciples reached in verses 26 and 27 was, who can be saved then? If this man, this rich young ruler can't be saved, who can be saved? Do you remember what the apostle Paul said about his own coming to faith in Christ? There's a sense in which the Apostle Paul was not too far off from the rich young ruler. They had some things in common. Remember what he said in Philippians chapter three, I myself, this is verse four, I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. I was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, that is, I kept the law. Of course, only to a certain level. as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Paul said, if anybody could have been saved by works, I could have. And so we had that in common with this rich young ruler. And he knew that he needed a righteousness that was far better than his own, because his own was not really a true righteousness at all. It was sadly lacking. Impossible. The word impossible there literally means no power. You have no power. It's the word for dynamite. You don't have any dynamite. You don't have any spiritual power to enable you to get to heaven. It's impossible, but what does the good news tell us here? Jesus goes on to say in verse 27, with man, it is impossible. but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Do you remember what happened with Abraham and his wife when Abraham was told by God that he was going to have a son? A year later, they would have a son. And Sarah was hiding back there. She overheard the conversation and she laughed. Well, you would too if you were almost 90 years old, ladies. And you were told, hey, you're going to be pregnant. You're going to have a kid the next year. She laughed. And I kind of understand that. And it's funny because you read there that the angel says, you laughed, Sarah. She thought nobody heard her. She said, no, I didn't. The angel says, yes, you laughed. And then we laugh when we read about that. And then when Isaac came along, they all laughed. And Isaac's name means laughter. Well, that's a hard lesson to learn, that God can do what you can't do. And God will do. what you can't do, which is what we read in the last part of this passage. God's standards for his kingdom will never be regretted by those who follow Christ. This wonderful ending here is an encouragement. I hope it is an encouragement to you. As we read, Peter says in verse 28, Lord, see, we have left everything and followed you. Peter's saying, didn't we do the right thing? We did what you told the rich young ruler to do. We dropped it all. You remember they were fishermen. Jesus came and said, follow me. They dropped their nets and took off with Jesus. Matthew, the tax collector, got up out of his chair and from his table of collecting money and pocketing a lot of it for himself, like most of the tax collectors did. Dropped all of that, followed Jesus. Follow Jesus. You don't have to give up all your money. This was what applied and what was needed to the rich young ruler because God knew, Jesus knew his heart. But you do have to let go. You have to let go in your own heart of saying, this can't get between me and Christ. It's all of us. We have to give all of ourselves. But there is a cost to following Jesus. Peter says that, we've left everything. And Jesus is fine with that because he understands that. We all have to part with whatever comes between us and God's will for us. And so he says, yes, you may have to even suffer the loss of your family. When you say I'm going to do what Christ wants me to do, I'm not going to cheat on my income taxes anymore. But we need that money. They won't notice. I'm sorry, but I can't do it. I'm not going to accept this promotion in my job because it's going to require me to work on Sundays and I'm just not going to do that. But how are we going to live? by that you live by the promises of God when you do his will and trust him. And so he says, There's no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, meaning in this life. Houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions, there's a cost. You may be persecuted for your faith. But in the age to come, eternal life. Many who are first will be last, and the last first. Those who are rich, who seem to be first in life, they may end up being last because it's hard for rich people to enter the kingdom of God. Not impossible, but hard. It does happen. The point is, what about you? What about me? Don't forget the cost when you suffer for Christ, but don't forget the rewards either. There's never been a Christian who truly trusts in Christ who has looked back and said, it's costing me too much to live for Jesus. There will be times when you say, Jesus, is this really, you really want me to do this? This is hurting. But if you know what God wants you to do and you do it, you will not regret it. God is going to take care of his people. The churches today often are too easy to win new members. And so they, to adjust the requirements of making a credible profession of faith in Christ alone. And that's why when people join healthy churches, and we trust and pray that ours is, the elders of the church make sure that people who want to join understand the gospel and understand what it means to relinquish your control of your life and to submit it to the lordship of Christ. that his will be done. It was the missionary Jim Elliott that famously said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. I think it was interesting when I was reading Tim Keller's book on the Gospel of Mark, He said, you know who the real rich young ruler is? Jesus. Jesus knew all about riches. Remember what Paul said about Jesus? I'm almost through. That's not what Paul said, that's what I said. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 8, 9, that though he was rich, Yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich, truly rich, I would add. There's a difference. Jesus knew what real riches were. He set them aside and incarnated himself into this world to redeem us from our sin. And when we admit our sin, the depth and magnitude of our sin that we've come to see, at least to that level, And we acknowledge that and give our sins to Christ. Isaiah says, you know, that the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus took our sins upon himself. And what did he do in return? He gave us his righteous standing with the Lord. He gave us a perfect righteous standing as if we had never sinned. It's all of him, you see? Sovereign grace. The only thing we can do is give to the Lord our need for him. Now we're gonna sing that right now. And I want you to consider what's being said in these verses, hymn 500, and remember that Jesus truly was the one who rules us and rules us well. Let me pray once more before we sing. Thank you, Father in heaven, that your grace is incredible. You love us more than we can say, more than we can grasp. Just like Jesus, you loved that rich young ruler. You cared for his soul and he rejected that. I don't know, maybe he came back to you later. That would be wonderful. But Lord, help us all to search our hearts today. This is a gospel passage filled with the riches of your grace. So help us, Lord, to rejoice in it by trusting in Christ alone now and always. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.