Posted on 02/20/2005 6:20:05 PM PST by xzins
But remember why Jesus asked that rich young man to give up his riches. Not because being rich is evil or sinful or wrong. It is because in that young man's case he had made an idol of his riches and that idol stood between him and the Lord.
My daddy often speaks of the Jews in Europe who could have been saved from the Concentration Camps except that they could not leave their belongings behind. That, he says, is what it means when it says "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his immortal soul?"
And that is why very few of us girls have any property -- but we have memories no one can ever take away from us.
I think the paragraph above agrees completely with you.
I'm not sure I'd fully agree with that statement. The man had taken the hard way his whole life. He had kept all the commandments since his youth (or at least he thought he had). But he recognized an emptiness that riches can't bring. He knew that despite his obedience to the law, he was not close to God and thus he came to Christ to find an answer. And what was the question? "what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"
What was lacking was a true heart for God. Jesus tested him by noting that if he were to keep the commandments -- if he were to be saved by the law -- then he needed to be willing to love God more than his posessions. He had obviously never been tested in this area. It was likely that he did love God a lot. Perhaps even more than you or I. But Jesus stopped him in his tracks. Jesus gave him the ultimate test. He challenged him on whether he could really obey the first commmandment -- to have no other Gods.
But when faced with the question of whether he was willing to give up his riches for the love of God, he failed the test. He proved to both himself and the Lord that he loved money more than God. He violated the first commandment right there in front of the incarnate God and thus condemned himself under the law.
But Jesus died to free us from that burden. He died to set us free from the law.
Thank you oh so very much for this sermon!
I think he had done whatever he had done in a way that made Christ look at him and love him. There was some serious sincerity going on there.
I think he felt there was some step beyond keeping the law, which he had done. He realized inside that that didn't seem to leave him with a saved feeling.
What in the world could Jesus' advice about selling everything do to help this young man believe he was saved? (Someone say it..."That would be a 'work.'")
But it must not have been the deed that was important to Jesus. It must have been what doing the deed would mean about the heart of the doer.
Paying the price means you've chosen sides.
What's that Jim Elliot quote? "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." (That's a paraphrase.)
Thank you sister in Christ.
I trust you will find a few gems in it here and there that will enrich your walk and your understanding.
I've always loved that line.
What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul?
Even though God may not require us to give up everything and then follow him, he does require that we be willing to give up everything in order to follow him. In that sense what he is asking us to do is to exercise faith in Him and to Believe on Him. And when you think about it, what posession could you possibly have that is worth more than eternal life?
Chuck Smith?
I wish I had the time to listen to his sermons....Pure bible.
In any case, I agree with him.
I can see, though, where Graham would think the ruler was looking for some magic key that would open the secret door.
In truth, Jesus did give it to him.
Naaman rejected the prophet's advice and got (initially) the same result. He eventually listened. I imagine if this young man ever listened, then we would have heard about it in the NT.
The distractions of mortal life are like illusions – hardly negligible blips in eternity - and yet they seem so important when we are in the middle of them.
We feel the distraction when we poor, oppressed, sick or lonesome - but wealth is a burden, too - as is great power, beauty, physical abilities or intelligence. Or it could even be a particular thing or person which has so captured our attention that we cannot stay focused on Christ.
That is what I take away this sermon. Whatever it is, whoever it is - anything that distracts me from following Him has gotta go.
Thank you, my dear brother in Christ!
xzins, I have a few problems with the sermon. Particularly where he says stuff like this:," This rich young man wanted to bargain with God. He said, "Jesus, can't you lower the standard a little bit? I'd like to have you, but I'd like to have the world too." Jesus said, "No, you can't serve two masters--it's either me or the world" [see Matthew 6:24]. The young man said, "Well, I can't give up the world." Jesus let him go."
I don't recall reading that coversation in the scriptures. Mr. Graham did not say that "the conversation may have gone something like this...." Instead he puts words and thoughts into the rich man's mouth and then quotes Jesus as answering him. I don't think that anything was said after Jesus gave him the ultimatum. IMO the scriptures suggest that the Rich man did not attempt to negotiate with Christ, (not that it would have done any good). No IMO the rich young man knew he could not have what Jesus was offering because he was not willing to pay the price. There was no negotiating. He just walked away sorrowful.
Mar 14:51-52 And one, a certain young man, followed Him, having thrown a linen cloth around his naked body. And the young men caught him. And he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.
Some apparently believe this to be the rich, young "ruler" who is referred to in the story as a "young man". We'll never know for sure in this life but it is a pleasant thought that in the end he did leave everything.
The fact that he went away sorrowful was a good sign. At least he was convicted of his sin. If he had walked away angry then that would have suggested that he had rejected completely what Jesus said.
Sounds a bit like Lordship salvation to me.
I think that is true. I also think this man was given an opportunity greater than anything most will ever have: The opportunity to walk alongside Christ as a disciple. But to do that, he would have to humble himself as Christ did.
God does not permit us to come to serve Him carrying anything to be proud of. When Moses was forty years old, he was sure God wanted him to deliver Israel. He was proud, confident, a prince of Egypt in the right position to effect change.
God would have none of that and sent Moses into the desert for forty years so that a prince of Egypt would not accomplish that task but a humble old shepherd would.
God doesn't need our "skills", nor does God need our riches. Those things just get in the way and become stumbling blocks for us. This young man had the opportunity to walk with Jesus in a way most of us can only dream of.
That's exactly what God asks us to give up. In reality, the rich ruler didn't feel he NEEDED Jesus. He was rich and kept all the commandments. That's all that was necessary for a Jew at that time. Jesus just called his hand.
Jesus was informing all of the 100-fold return. The young, rich man was about to become wealthier by selling what he possessed to give to the poor, for 100 times what he gave would come back to him.
After all, Jesus proclaimed in Luke He came to preach the gospel to the poor. Afterwards the religious folks got mad and tried to throw Him over a cliff, Hank Hanegraaff =-p.
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