"If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost" (II Cor. 4:3). Mark 12:28-34
Is close always good enough? Not when you think about it.
• If 99.9 percent were good enough ...
• The IRS would lose 2 million documents this year.
• 22,000 checks will be deducted from the wrong bank account in the next hour.
• Telecommunications companies will misdirect 1,314 telephone calls every minute.
• 2,488 books will be shipped with the wrong covers on them each day.
• More than 5.5 million cases of soft drinks in the next year will be flat.
• Over 3 million incorrect drug prescriptions will be filled each year in the U.S.
• 12 babies will be given to the wrong parents each day.
• There are times when close is not good enough.
• As important as some of these items are, nothing is more important than one’s eternal destiny.
• Researcher George Barna has discovered the disturbing fact that “half of all adults who attend Protestant churches on a typical Sunday morning are not Christian.”
• He also points out that people who call themselves Christians but are not born again are “a group that constitutes a majority of churchgoers.”
• Barna’s findings are similar to those reported by Bill Bright, founder and fifty-year president of Campus Crusade for Christ.
• According to Bright, “Our surveys suggest that over 50% of the hundred million people in church here in the United States every Sunday are not sure of their salvation.”
• In addition to discovering that 50% of people in church are “lost churchgoers,” the Barna Research Group has also revealed that 44% of Americans are “notional Christians.”
• These 90 million notional Christians are people who describe themselves as Christians but do not believe that their hope for eternal life is based on a personal relationship with Jesus and the belief that He died and rose again from the dead.
• In parables of Jesus, we learn that a majority of people who are confident about their eternal security are wrong.
• In today’s passage, a layer to ask Jesus a question, but his attitude is open to Jesus’ answer.
• What was a scribe?
• The position changed in Jesus day from what it had once been.
• Once a military position to record history and record the king’s commands(2 Sam. 8:17; 20:25; 1 Chr. 18:16; 24:6; 1 Kings 4:3; 2 Kings 12:9-11; 18:18-37, etc.), it later became a theological position of pinning the word of the prophets (Jer. 36:4, 32).
• After the captivities, when the Jews were allowed to return home, there arose another need; to copy the Law.
• As scribes began to copy, they became very familiar with it.
• Being familiar and versed in the law opened an opportunity to teach the law to the common people.
• The scribes took on that responsibility.
• They were also viewed as experts of the law for consultation in legal matters.
• The problem was, they tended to be also scribes, teachers, and experts in the commentaries of the Law, which diluted the law and made it meaningless.
• This controversy, the difference between the original Law and the liberal interpretations, was something that bothered several of the scribes.
• In this chapter alone, questions had been asked Jesus about marriage and taxes.
• Accusations towards Jesus was that He had forsaken the deepest, most valued beliefs of the Jews.
• By the end of the captivity, Israel was convinced that there was one and only one God.
• The idolatry of the pagans was no longer a threat.
• Yet, Jesus had represented Himself as God while speaking of the Heavenly Father.
• To the Jews, one plus one equaled two. Very unacceptable.
• But the clarity of Jesus’ teaching and his accurate representation of the Law was noticed and appreciated by the scribes.
• So we read:
Mar 12:28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?"
• Jesus had answered several questions and challenges.
• A scribe had been watching and perceived that Jesus’ answers were both in alignment with the Old Testament scriptures and full of wisdom.
• There was a clarity and simplicity in Jesus’ answers, and this man had something on his heart.
• Perhaps you have been there before. You have heard someone speak clearly about a trying subject and your struggle came to mind.
• This question was a topic of debate among the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day.
• They found a need to divide the Law into two categories; Greater Laws and Lesser Laws.
• However, no two theologians could agree on where the line was drawn.
• Something in the debate had bothered this scribe.
Mar 12:29 Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
• Well, this certainly confirmed the Jewish teaching of Jesus.
• This was part of the Jewish confession required to be spoken twice a day by every Jew.
Mar 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
• This is also recognized as being part of the Jewish confession.
Mar 12:31 The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
• Jesus marked these two commandments to be the greater of all commandment.
• Love God and love like God. Hmmm. Sounds like Sunday night’s here in the Spring, doesn’t it.
Mar 12:32 And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.
• They were on the same page about the “one God” thing.
• The scribe, however, did not grasp the trinity of the one God.
Mar 12:33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."
• This one even understood that it isn’t what you do, but who you are.
• It is an inner relationship, not an outward show or compliance.
• Everyone one around said, “Amen”. The Pharisees, Sadducees, and the other scribes all agreed.
• Everyone but Jesus thought this one had it right and that was enough.
Mar 12:34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
• Yet, Jesus said, “Close, but no donut.”
• Close is not good enough. Close means you missed the mark.
• Oh, hear this message today. Close doesn’t cut it. Why?
• Because God, in His love, made a way for you to make it.
• Close means you did not take God’s gift.
• This man had come a long way, only to fall short.
• He respected Jesus. He sought the truth.
• He understood that God was sought by inward love not outward demonstrations of righteousness.
• He understood that it was not of works lest anyone should boast.
• He was focused on the important issue, not the trappings of the religious.
I. What you know.
• You can know a whole lot and not find life.
• When I was a teen ager, we went door to door in Temple, TX, trying to find someone who would give his or her life to Jesus.
• We used the simple Roman Road as our guide, and proclaimed that all had sinned, sin assures separation from God.
• God bridged that separation by sending His Son to pay our wages of sins, and that by trusting in and calling upon Jesus for salvation, one could be forever adopted in to God’s family and have their sins forgiven.
• I don’t remember many of the homes or people we met, but I remember one specifically.
• A friend of mine and youth worker went up to the door with me.
• A lady answered the door, and as soon as I began, she shut me up.
• She then told me about her education in religion and philosophy, her superiority to me, and the foolishness of a teen trying to “save her soul.”
• I tried to think of something sharp and catchy, something that would knock her into reality.
• Nothing came. I remember saying something like, “I pity you.”
• She said, “I pity you,” and closed the door.
• I couldn’t think of the scripture, 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, which says, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”
• Too many people fall into the category of those who are “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” 2 Timothy 3:7.
• You can know a lot of stuff and never find salvation.
• There is a lot of wrong knowledge to obtain that will steer you wrong and it can fill your head.
• But the truth is, you can know all the right stuff and it will simply bring you to a choice.
• It will lead you to a point, and that point will be close, but will not be close enough.
II. Where you go.
• You can come very close and lose it all.
• See, you can come extremely close and lose it all by not being close enough.
• Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman once told of a prodigal son who came home for his Christian mother's funeral. Beside the casket stood his father and sister. When the prodigal boy was urged to stop weeping and leave, the father said, "We'll see Mother again." The boy answered, "Yes, Dad, you and sister shall see her again, I know, but I shall not, for I'm not going that way."
• You can go to Church, you can go to Bible College and Seminary. You can go to every evangelical rally, revival, camp, workshop, Bible study or religious meeting.
• All of those may bring you to the cross, but they will only bring you so far.
• They will lead you to a point, and you may be close, but not close enough.
• You see, there is a final step.
III. What you show.
• You can do a whole lot and never know Him.
• Matthew 7:22-23 tells the sad story of many who did all the right things except the main thing.
• They cried, “'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'’
• “We did all the right things. We did Church, we did visitation, bible study, Sundays school. We took offernings, sang in the choir, was there on an average of twice a month.
• “Lord, I read my bible every day and sometimes twice a day.
• “Lord, I talked to my friends and family about coming to Church and giving their lives to Jesus.
• “Surely, Lord, all that I did shows where my heart is!”
• All those things can bring you close, but there is one final step.
• If you do not make that final step, you are an eternity away.
• No sinful man can take that step. It takes a bridge from God.
• Jesus came to be that bridge, and you must enter into Him to be saved.
• You enter onto the bridge when you believe in Jesus Christ and ask for His salvation.
• He supplies the way, the truth, the step, the strength, the faith.
• When you surrender, He takes you all the way.
• IF you walk away, you will be like the crowd.
• See verse 34, “And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.”
• If you walk away, there will be a resistance to come again.
• You will resist coming close again, like the Pharaoh, your heart will be hardened.
• But you are here now. Why not settle it with Jesus before it is too late?
Many years ago, the British sailing ship, Royal Charter, after a voyage around the world, was approaching its home port of Liverpool. At that time, Dr. William M. Taylor was a pastor in that city, and the wife of the first mate was a member of his church. Crowds of people waited throughout the night to welcome the men who had navigated the vessel through many hazards.
However, the ship sank during the night, and a devastated nation mourned its loss. When news of the tragedy was confirmed, Dr. Taylor was asked to break the news to the family of the first mate.
As he laid his finger upon the bell, the door was suddenly opened by a small girl who excitedly exclaimed: "Oh, Dr. Taylor, I thought it was my papa; he is coming home today."
The preacher felt he was like an executioner entering the home. The table was set for breakfast, and the lady of the house stepped forward to say: "Dr. Taylor, this is indeed a privilege. If you will wait a little while, perhaps you will sit at our table with us. My husband was on the Royal Charter, and he will be home soon."
Dr. Taylor looked at her for a moment, and then said: "Poor woman, your husband will never come home. The Royal Charter went down last night, and your husband sank with the ship."
The lady grasped her head; staggered for a moment, and as she slumped to the floor, said: "Oh my God, so near home and then lost."
• Please stand, bow heads, close eyes.
• Christains are praying for you. We are cheering for you.
• You may be thinking, “No one knows. I have been faking it for years.”
• “I know the right things, go to the right things. I am faithful.
• “I do the right things. No one knows but me and I would have to swallow too much pride to admit this.”
• But people are praying for everyone who hasn’t trusted Jesus.
• We don’t know who we are praying for, but God knows we are praying for you.
• We are longing for you to be saved. We will celebrate with you fully. It will be to our joy that you get saved.
• Please, don’t come this close and walk away. Don’t make it impossible for you to come in the future.
• Come as we begin singing after this prayer.
