Wanting It All.Wednesday August 6, 2025 Intro: There seems to be a good many people who are like this rich man (man of many possessions). They think that if they get religion they get God, or eternal life with God. This man wanted it all, possessions and eternal life to go with it. Jesus showed him that he didn’t want a Savior, but wanted a bargain with God. God is not selling. He is giving.
Mat 19:16 And someone came to Him and said, "Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?”
Faith and works: We who have the NT can shy away from doing when eternal life is in view.
Do we read this passage, fear, read Paul, breathe a sigh and then forget about this passage?
Man’s preoccupation is with having, but no one who has eternal life could claim to own it. It is a gift from the Lord.
Citizens of heaven know all things belong to the Lord. Having is not in their vocabulary.
Jesus does the most drastic thing to free Himself to give us eternal life.
It is the wrong idea to see eternal life as an acquisition.
Mat 19:17 And He said to him, "Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."
Only God is good (commandment 1).
All goodness in the world is on loan.
Psa 16:2 I said to the Lord, "You are my Lord; I have no good besides You."
Jesus in the first advent, in His humanity, is to reveal and glorify the Father and the Father will glorify Him.
From have to enter. From the market to the door of a road (Heb 10:19-20).
Entering is something ahead, in the future, rather than having.
The way to God is the way of the commandments – they lead all to poverty.
“Keep the commandments”
“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.” God alone is good, which rolls into commandment 1.
Have no other gods before Him. This is faith that alone God is good.
Beginning to keep the commandments will show inadequacy. What do we do with what the law says to us?
It is in the conscience of the Gentiles who don’t know the law (Rom 2:14). People instinctively know ought and ought not.
The law of God cuts everyone deeply and commands a deep cure.
Mat 19:18-19 He said to Him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; 19 Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself. "
In His own way Jesus gives all the decalogue.
He honors all the commandments as one.
Commandments 6, 7, 8, 9, 5, and then “love your neighbor.
He references the second table: having to do with human relations (the context of Mat 16-20).
Jesus was in the first stages of training His disciples for the new community what was to come (church).
He takes our dealing with others as seriously as our dealing with God. (Mat 25:40 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.')
Money is one of the top destroyers of all kinds of relationships.
We love God first, and more, and with the love of God is the love of people. It is the same love; not a question of importance. God is obviously more important.
Notice how John puts this beautifully and see if you can see the connections to Jesus’ teaching:
1Jo 3:13-22 Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. 19 We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him 20 in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
1Jo 4:7-14 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
1Jo 5:1-4 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.
The second table is the visible way of the first table.
Added - love your neighbor, is a summary of the second table.
It is not giving to each man as they deserve, giving everyone their due, the world’s proportionality: parable of the vineyard laborers (Mat 20).
Neighbor: anyone in our presence at any time. They must be loved as we love ourselves.
Love ourselves: “My worth is what I am worth to God, and that is a marvelous great deal” [John Stott]
Conclusion / application:
EL is a way of life. We are saved by a moment of faith and that gives us a life to live that is forever like Christ.
If we do not conform to Christ in our way we will lose reward – treasure in heaven.
Ask yourself what is holding you back, if there is something, and if not, ask yourself what is the next step in freedom from the world and the people of the world while still in the world.
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