Mark 10:17-22
The Last Thing
I draw your attention to \\#21\\. ONE THING THOU LACKEST. That was
Jesus’ way of saying, "The last thing."
Let’s think this thing through.
1. Jesus and the rich young man were speaking of salvation
\\#17\\.
a. This man is lost.
b. It is his soul that was being discussed.
c. There is nothing more important.
2. The man had realized some things which were important.
a. He had realized that there was such a thing as salvation.
b. He had realized that salvation had something to do with
the Bible and with Jesus Christ.
c. He had realized that a work’s salvation was not enough.
(1) He had tried that already.
(2) If he had "felt" that was sufficient, he would not
have come to Jesus.
d. With all of this, Jesus told him that there was at least
one more thing he needed to know or understand or do.
Consider, refusing to surrender one thing in your life can keep you
out of heaven as surely as refusing to surrender one million things.
We usually measure spirituality by the huge number of things people
give up. (i.e. He gave up womanizing, drinking, smoking, cursing.)
God measures our spirituality by the things we keep! When it comes to
repentance, refusing to repent over one thing can has the same result
as refusing to repent at all!
Consider also, regardless of how many things you have given up, the
last thing we be the dearest. This young man had given up many things
dear to him, but he had instinctively keep the dearest thing to the
last. Everyone does!
Just two thoughts this morning.
I. There are different last things. I do not know what may be
holding you back from being saved this morning, but it will
likely fall into one of three categories.
A. The last thing could be PRIDE.
1. Mankind is cursed by pride.
2. Pride means that we are too pleased with ourselves to see
things as they are.
3. Pride is manifested in many ways.
a. Self-Righteousness
(1) We cannot see anything wrong with us or what we
are doing.
(2) Sadly, such people are sitting on the sinking
Titanic bragging about how well their ship is
built.
(3) The problem is that you do not know what your
life was supposed to be.
(a) The best you can do is to compare it to what
you can see.
(b) If you are a smart, successful, well-
organized, happy individual, then you are
ahead of the pack but you are still far
short of God’s intention in creating you.
b. Self-controlling
(1) For some, it is a matter of pride that we
maintain control over our own life.
(2) We may agree to surrender areas of our life, but
it is still we who have the last say in the
matter and we are not going to give up last
word.
c. Selfishness
(1) You want what you want and you are going to get
it no matter what.
(2) Some today have so much pride that they actually
see themselves as selfish and are proud of it.
(3) This leads to the next.
d. Self-exalting - That is when you wring your shoulder
out of its socket patting yourself on the back.
4. So you should see a pattern.
a. Pride is revealed in our good opinions of ourselves
and our self-sufficiency.
b. Having a good opinion about yourself (self-confidence)
or your abilities is not all bad; however, they will
not help you in the matter of salvation.
c. In fact, they hurt you by keeping you from seeing
yourself and your condition as they really are.
(1) You are not what God created you to be. You are
like a defective tool. You are broke and duct
tape and WD40 will not help.
(2) But you are defective tool with an attitude. You
the dog that bites the hand that feeds him.
(3) There is nothing that you can do to fix this
problem except accept God.
(4) God’s help came in the form of Jesus Christ.
(a) He paid for our sins.
(b) He offers to make you whole but you must
completely dethrone yourself.
(c) And that is the hardest thing for you to do.
(d) But if you do not, you will go to hell—
pride and all.
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate
evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way,
and the froward mouth, do I hate.
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction,
and an haughty spirit before a fall.
B. The last thing could be PROFIT.
1. I believe that was this young man’s last thing.
2. He was wealthy and Jesus tested his willingness to give it
up. Get this.
a. Jesus did not just tell him what he needed to do.
b. Jesus did not teach him what he needed to do.
c. Jesus tested him with what he needed to do.
3. The man went away sorrowful because he had "great
possessions" \\#22\\. He refused to give up his last
thing.
4. Many a soul has gone to hell because of the love of money.
a. Some are involved in evil trafficking and will not
give it up.
(1) God condemned the liquor sellers centuries ago!
Habakkuk 2:15 Woe unto him that giveth his
neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him,
and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest
look on their nakedness!
(2) If God condemns liquor sellers, how much more
condemnation is on the drug pusher, the porn
distributor, or the peddler of human flesh.
b. But you don’t have to be involved in evil trafficking
to be ensnared by the love of money.
(1) Just love money more than God.
(2) That is called idolatry and it is the same sin
as what Israel committed when they bowed to
their idols.
C. The last thing could be PASSION.
1. Of all the categories mentioned, this is the most
difficult to speak against.
2. This is when we love others so much, we would rather
spent eternity in hell with them than go to heaven
without them.
3. I know of two that were willing to make that mistake.
a. One was Adam.
Ge 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was
good for food, and that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and
gave also unto her husband with her; and he did
eat.
(1) I could be wrong in what I am about to say but I
believe Adam, the only man hand-made by God, was
very intelligent and wise.
(2) I believe he was smart enough to see what Eve had
done and to understand the consequences.
(3) But he ate anyway.
(4) The Bible says that Eve was deceived but not Adam.
1Tim 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the
woman being deceived was in the transgression.
(5) Why did he eat the forbidden fruit then? Because
he loved Eve and decided he would rather be in
hell with her than to be in heaven without her.
b. My mother
(1) I remember sharing the gospel with her and her
husband, Bill.
(2) When I got finished and asked if she would accept
Jesus, she just looked over at him and waited.
(3) After a while, he said he was not ready and she
said she was not either.
4. That is a form of the truest love for that is similar to
what Jesus did for us!
5. However, it is not exactly what Jesus did for us.
a. Jesus did not go to hell to BE with us but to RESCUE
us.
b. True love does not settle for being punished with our
loved ones.
(1) It desires to save our loved ones.
(2) If that is your desire for another, you need to
be saved, live a holy life, and try to win them
by a godly example.
D. The last thing could be PLEASURE.
1. In American society, the flesh is one of the most powerful
enemies of the gospel.
a. If we call Las Vegas, the "SIN CITY," then we should
call America, the "SIN NATION."
b. We along with some of our European counterparts, have
turned our world into a sex-seething, flesh pot.
c. I dare say 75% of all movies, commercials, and
advertisements use sex.
d. In the US, 46% of all high schoolers and 62% of all
seniors have had sexual intercourse.
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/publications-a-z/413-
adolescent-sexual-behavior-i-demographics
e. 3/10 girls will get pregnant at least once before age
20. That’s 750,000 teen pregnancies every year.
https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-teen-pregnancy
f. New estimates show that there are about 20 million
new sexually transmitted infections in the United
States each year.
g. Young people, between the ages of 15 to 24, account
for 50% of all new STDs, although they represent
just 25% of the sexually experienced population.
https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-teens-and-stds
h. That number is growing. In 2003 only about 3 million
teens were expected to become infected.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Family/cda0304.cfm
2. Fleshly pleasure is not only rampant among teens.
a. It is estimated that there are more than 2.5 million
porn sites on the web.
b. That is double of 2003 when there were 1.3 million.
c. From June 2009 to July 2010, 13% of all web searches
were for some type of sexual content.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/julieruvolo/2011/09/07/how-much-of-the-
internet-is-actually-for-porn/#23fab1ef5d16
3. Here is the problem, God says this type of behavior marks
the lost.
1Cor 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall
not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived:
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God.
a. Someone says, "You are judging me,"
b. You are not getting it.
(1) I am not judging anyone.
(2) I am reading to you the judgment that God has
already made.
(3) God has decreed that those marked by sin are not
His and you can condemn the messenger until you
die but it will not change the content of the
message.
II. You must make some decisions.
A. This man made his and he will live with it forever.
Mark 10:22 And he was sad at that saying, and
went away grieved: for he had great possessions.
B. You must humble yourself.
1. That is dethrone self.
2. Quit doing what you want—now and forever.
Matthew 23:12 And whosoever shall… humble himself
shall be exalted.
James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the
Lord, and he shall lift you up.
1Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the
mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time:
C. You must repent.
1. Acknowledged that you have been wrong and sinned against
God.
2. Refuse to ever go that path again.
D. You must believe on Jesus Christ.
1. Believe that Jesus is the Son of God come in the flesh.
2. Believe that Jesus lived a sinless life.
3. Believe that Jesus died on the cross to take your place.
4. Believe that Jesus rose on the third day.
5. Believe that Jesus will come into your heart and save you
if you will ask Him to do so.
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