That little story illustrates a lot of people’s religion. It sounds pretty pious; it sounds pretty religious; it has good Bible words in it. But for a lot of people it is entirely earthly – it has commercial purposes to it..
What do you think of this young man in our scripture? Over the years my attitude towards him has changed. Years ago, as I read this passage, I would think – “What a fool.” Then I’d see people all around me in must the same condition, and I’d think the same of them. Perhaps you are of the same mind as I was. But I’m not of that opinion anymore. Without implying for a minute that such people are not responsible for their foolishness – they certainly are. I know, at least in part, that they are as much victims as they are criminals. “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” While still getting frustrated, I don’t get as angry with sort of people as much as I used to do.
I see this man as typical of so many in our society. He has just enough religion to be really, really dangerous to himself. This fella may have been like so many of us and our children, who’ve grown up in the presence of Christ. We’ve come to church all our lives, and in some cases from the first week that we got out of the hospital. By mental osmosis, if nothing else, we’ve assimilated much of the rudiments of Bible religion. But we’ve also grown up in the most commercialized, self-centered century of human history. In this man we see a blending of worldly attitudes and mediocre religion. Unfortunately, it is his religious opinions that have suffered the most damage.
We can study this man using a number of words beginning with the letter “P” – such as possessions, pride, and purchasing power.
Despite being somewhat religious, the man measured himself by his EARTHLY POSSESSIONS.
Verse 22 says that he owned a lot of stuff. And it is implied that he wasn’t willing to give them up without a fight. This is related to the old advertising slogan which some might remember — “The clothes make the man.” Where do people get ideas like this? It is utter foolishness. A lambskin veneer doesn’t turn a wolf into a sheep. And an Armani suit doesn’t make an American into an Italian.
Years ago I was visiting churches in the Houston, Texas area. On the semi-rural outskirts of the city I ran into poverty unlike anything that I’d ever seen before. It rivaled the poverty of Juarez, Mexico that I witnessed years later, but with a major difference. I saw street after street lined with horrible shacks which people called their homes. I saw doors hanging on single hinges, windows broken out and roofs caving in. There were shacks which had never seen a coat of paint. But the thing which made them different from the poverty in Mexico were the cars. Outside the hovels were Cadillacs, Oldsmobile 98s and a few foreign luxury cars. Keep in mind that this was back in the early to mid 70’s. In this case, it wasn’t the clothes that made the man, it was the car. And according to the ads that I still see today, that hasn’t changed one bit in the last forty years.
There are a great many people who should have Luke 12:13-21 emblazoned on a plaque and hung over their bedroom door to be read every morning as they get out of bed. They need to memorize Luke 12:15 – “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” Elsewhere we read – “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” The man of our scripture had neither godliness nor contentment. The Bible says, “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” “Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.” “They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” I don’t know for a fact, but I fear that the man in Matthew 19 might have eventually died of drowning. With many foolish and hurtful lusts, he drowned in destruction and perdition. “The Love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
How foolish it is to seek for gold and to forget about looking for a good name. We need to strive for character rather than capital. We need to serve the Lord – not luxury. We need to prize righteousness – not riches. “How hard it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven” – verse 23. “It is easier for a camel to go through eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Possessions were the measure of this particular man.
And can we say that he thought that he could PURCHASE his way into Heaven?
“Behold, one came and said unto him, good Master, what good things shall I DO, that I may have eternal life?” Wealth doesn’t necessarily bar the doorway to God. The Bible speaks of several severely wealthy people, who were at the time, godly servants of the Lord. But how they looked at their wealth and what they did with that wealth made them unique people.
In our text this morning, and then earlier in chapter 18 the Lord referred to “little children.” Until we are willing to meet the Lord like children, we shall never meet the Lord at all. The man in our text had the perfect antithesis of the child-like approach. Until we are willing to come to the Lord with humility and the faith of a little child, we will never come. And what can a child bring to the doorway of King of Kings in order to gain admission into His presence? I can assure you that no man is going to bribe the possessor of Heaven and Earth. He who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, is not going to impressed with the size of your bank account. Generally speaking, the child has no wealth with which to buy his way into Heaven. “Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” “It doesn’t matter that they don’t have money, gold, trophies or diplomas; let them come as they are.”
Look at the foolish PRIDE of this man.
When the Lord tested him, he puffed out his chest and said, “look at me everyone.” “Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” As I have often said, the Lord was far more precise in what He said than I could ever be. Observe here that Christ referred to six of the Ten Commandments. Was it an oversight that he didn’t refer to the other four? Not on your life – or that man’s soul!
Jesus was leading that man – and us – to an important point. We all have things in our lives with which we have some degree of success. We all have things about which we are proud. And probably in this man’s case, the six commandments which Christ selected, were areas where he had no problem – except for perhaps the last – but then “who exactly is my neighbor.” We can all say before God, “I have never physically murdered any one.” I can say with that man, and perhaps you can as well, “I have never committed physical adultery.” And my parents have both passed away, so I have no problem not honoring them now that they are gone.
But notice that the Lord made no reference to the commands which regarded God Himself. At that point Jesus didn’t say, “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” Christ was leading this man into a corner from which he couldn’t escape. Furthermore, the Lord had already set up a powerful spot light on that corner.
It is debatable which sin is most hated by God, but one worthy candidate is pride. The warnings and examples of pride abound throughout the Word of God. Generally speaking, with some special exceptions, pride is a form of idolatry. It is the elevation of the individual to positions where he doesn’t belong. “Master, all these have I observed from my youth.” It is no wonder the Bible says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” In Proverbs 6 Solomon lists God’s most hated sins, and what do we find at the top of the list? “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look…..”
It is a sad fact, but true nevertheless, that misapplied religion leads to pride. I can be as guilty as the very worst of the Pharisees in Jesus day. You may be as guilty of it as I am. The man might have said, “Lord, I have gone to Sunday School all my life. Certainly I know these things. I know and believe the doctrine of sovereign election, the incarnation, and the evils of fornication. I condemn homosexuality, abortion and euthanasia. I am a good little Baptist.
Christ Jesus replied – “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” But what did the man do when he heard the Lord’s suggestion?
He went away POUTING.
One of the flaws of modern society is the idea that everyone is always right. We want to encourage our children to draw, so we tell them that their art work is beautiful, when it isn’t. I understand the concept of encouragement, but at some point, we have to tell them the truth. “Let me show you perspective; this picture of our house can be a little more accurate.” We are told today that there is truth in every religion, and I suppose that in some ways that is true. But if one religion says that deliverance from sin comes through baptism, and another says that it come by giving money to the priest, they both cannot be right – in fact, neither one is right. If one church says that Christ is God, while another says that he was a mere man, they both cannot be true. If one Bible version reads one way and another reads differently, they cannot both be the Word of God. And yet that is what we are told.
Along comes Christ Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, or a preacher of the Gospel, and he refutes what we have been told from our youth, how have we been programed to respond? Nine times out of ten we react like this young man. Because we are polite we don’t stick out our tongue, but we do stick out our bottom lip. Either we lift up our heads in pride, or we cast down our eyes, and we walk away. “Who is the Son of God to challenge what I have been taught for the last thirty years?” Or maybe it is something which we have decided upon only a few years ago – it was a conclusion that we made ourselves through the strength of our own intelligence. “No one is doing to dissuade me, no matter how many Bible verses he may throw at me.” “No one is going to change my mind even if it is the Son of God Himself.”
My last point this afternoon is the saddest – He parted company with the one person he needed the most.
“When the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.” Mark says, “He was sad at that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.” Can we be sure about what made the man sad and grieved? Was it that the Lord questioned his honesty about keeping God’s law from his youth? Was it that the Lord beheld him and loved him – his heart went out to him?
It appears to me that the man parted company with the eternal God, because he refused to part company with his new god. “For he had great possessions.” It was not the man’s wealth which caused his problems. It was not the man’s wealth which caused his problems with Jehovah God. It was that his wealth was his god.
I have forgotten what Missionary Paramanandam said, but I have read recently that the Hindus have more than 330 million gods. I wasn’t sure of that number so I googled the question “How many Hindu god’s,” and I snickered at the answer. The second article said that there were 33 millions Hindu gods, and the third said that there were 330,000. Somewhere in the answer is 33. But I’m not sure that it really matters – the truth is there is but one true and living God. And this man was walking away from Him, because he worshiped his $330 million dollars, or his $33 million dollars or perhaps it was his $330,000 dollars.
My point is that the man had plenty of religion, but it lacked the Lord Jesus Christ – Jehovah. The man had plenty of religion, but it didn’t prepare him for the truth, it didn’t give him a willingness to listen to what God had to say. He had a commercialized version of religion, exactly like that of so many people today. “The love of money is the root of all evil,” because it creates idolaters. “Take heed and beware of covetousness.”