Matthew 19:16-22
Were You Faithful?
Today is the last Sunday of 2018. Tuesday begins a new year and
although it is just another day on the calendar, New Year’s do
provide us with a good opportunity to evaluate our lives and make
some decisions about the direction we are traveling.
In this last year, you have had some difficult days. I do not need
to be a prophet to know that for everyone has. Yet, I pray that you
have been faithful despite your difficulties.
If you are married, you have had some disagreements.
If you work, you have wanted to quit.
If you have responsibilities, you have considered running away.
But I hope you have not done so. I hope you are still married. I
hope you still have a job. I hope you have not abandoned your
responsibilities. In fact, I know you that most of you have been
faithful in these areas of your life.
Yet, what about your walk with Jesus? You are in church on Sunday
morning and that is good, but have you stayed faithful to the Lord?
Have you read your Bible? Have you studied it? Have you learned
anything new?
Have you made it a both a habit and a joy to pray to the Lord? to
talk with Him as you go through your day? Do you have a friendship
with Jesus or is He merely your internal 911?
Have you attended church regularly? Have you stepped up to the plate
of service? Have you helped others to find Jesus?
Have you been faithful to Jesus in 2018?
1Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in
stewards, that a man be found faithful.
Sadly, the Bible is filled with those who abandoned Christ.
Here, the rich young ruler came seeking eternal life and walked away
to eternal death. We almost think that we can understand that. Many
do not want to bear the reproach of the cross and so are never truly
saved. They walk away.
John 6:66 From that time many of his disciples
went back, and walked no more with him.
John 6:66 tells us of many who turned back and walked no more with
him." Were all of them saved? No. Were any of them saved? Probably.
Yet they all turned back.
\\#Matt 26:15\\ tells us that Judas not only turned back but betrayed
Christ, selling him for thirty pieces of silver.
Finding people who have forsaking Christ is not just limited to the
time period of Christ’s earthly ministry.
\\#2Tim 4:10\\ Paul wrote that Demas hath forsaken me.
In the same book, Paul wrote of the many who had turned away from him
and from His Jesus.
2Timothy 1:15 This thou knowest, that all they
which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom
are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
John the Apostle wrote of the many who turned back.
1John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were
not of us; for if they had been of us, they would
no doubt have continued with us: but they went
out, that they might be made manifest that they
were not all of us.
Some of these left Christ being yet lost;
some left Christ seemingly saved;
some left Christ confused;
some left Christ for convenience;
some left Christ almost as soon as they met Him;
some left after having served with Him;
BUT ALL THESE LEFT CHRIST.
At first glance, it might seem that none of these had anything in
common but they did. Everyone who leaves Christ has a problem with
certain truths. What truths?
I. A truth that those who turn back miss is that God is in charge.
John 13:13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say
well; for so I am.
A. Much of the abandonment of Christ is due to rebellion against
Him.
1. This is what it boiled down to for the rich, young ruler
\\#Luke 18:18\\ of our text.
2. This man had a life he was comfortable with - riches,
power, and whatever those things could bring him.
3. Christ knew this man’s power and wealth was his god and
demanded that he give it up.
a. The man refused and walked away.
b. At the time, he probably thought what Jesus was asking
him to give up was greater than what Jesus could
give to him.
c. After 2,000 years, I wonder if he may have changed his
mind about that.
4. This young man walked away because he did not want to
obey what Jesus had commanded. He rebelled against God’s
leading in his life.
B. There are some lessons here:
1. Lesson #1 - No matter whether you like where God is
leading you or not, God always has your best interest in
mind.
a. God was attempting to lead this man to Himself, to
heaven, to eternal life; but it seemed to the ruler
that God was leading him in the wrong direction.
b. Eve must have had that same thought.
(1) God had made a beautiful garden in which Adam and
Eve could live.
(2) There was no laborious work, no sickness, no
death.
(3) There was no book of rules or requirements.
(4) In fact, there was only one rule, one law, one
don’t - Don’t eat of the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil.
(5) God had only one direction Adam and Eve could
not go; yet, that was the very direction they
felt they must go.
(a) God divided the compass into 360 degrees and
gave Adam and Eve 359 degrees in which they
could travel and only 1 in which they could
not.
(b) Strange how they felt the one degree in which
they could not travel was the right one for
them.
(c) So God opened Adam and Eve up to an unlimited
number of directions they could travel, but
they felt like all of them were the wrong
directions for them They simply had to
travel the one direction that God had
forbidden them to travel.
(d) That is rebellion.
(e) I wonder, after all these years, how they
feel about it now.
i. It is amazing how the human prospective
changes.
ii. How many of wish we had what we did not
appreciate just a few days ago?
iii. Understand, God’s leading—no matter
what we may think about it—is in our
best interest.
2. Lesson #2 - I do not say….
a. that where God leads our life, our ministry, or our
family will:
(1) …always be pleasant,
(2) …always be convenient,
(3) …always be fun,
b. I do say that where God leads will always be the
correct path for us and that it will always be worth
it.
c. The direction that God lead the rich young ruler…
(1) …was difficult. It would require great sacrifice
for him.
(2) …would affect others. Obeying Jesus’ command
would likely affect not only him but also his
family.
(3) …was illogical. How could he ever explain what
he must do to others?
d. God gives us examples of those who have lived a hard
life to honor and obey God.
(1) The Apostle Paul’s life did not always "feel"
good, but he was determined to live it in
obedience to Christ.
2Cor 11:24 Of the Jews five times received I
forty stripes save one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I
stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and
a day I have been in the deep;
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in
perils of robbers, in perils by mine own
countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils
in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in
perils in the sea, in perils among false
brethren;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often,
in cold and nakedness.
(2) \\#Acts 7:59\\ Stephen remained faithful even
when the stones hit his body and piled up at his
feet, even as they broke his flesh, cracked his
bones, and crushed the life out of him.
(3) \\#Acts 12:2\\ James remained faithful while
being run through with the sword.
(4) \\#Mark 6:27\\ John the Baptist remained faithful
both in jail and as his head was cut off.
e. Any or all of these could have rebelled against God’s
authority, they could have decided God was leading
them the wrong direction and that they were better
bosses of their own future; but all of them chose to
follow Jesus.
f. They heard God’s voice.
They knew what God called them to do.
And they were willing to stick with it no matter
what.
g. They understood that God was in charge.
II. A truth that those who turn back miss is that our warfare is
spiritual.
A. Some are limited in sight and only see this physical world.
1. To them, life is like a big Super Bowl with comforts and
pleasures being the only score that counts.
2. I think this was Judas’s problem.
3. He thought he was following an earthly king. When nothing
earthly materialized, he abandoned Christ.
4. However, Judas was looking at the wrong world.
B. The real world is the spiritual world, and we must look to it
for the true score.
John 4:32 But he said unto them, I have meat to
eat that ye know not of.
C. Remember three things about this physical world.
1. The physical never accomplishes the spiritual.
a. I am not saying the physical world is not important.
(1) It is.
(2) God proved that when He sent His Son from the
spiritual world into the physical world to
rescue us.
b. I am saying that the true work to be done is not
physical in nature. It is spiritual.
(1) When we serve God regardless of what we DON’T
see being accomplished in this world, we are
doing a great work.
(2) When we stop serving God because of what we
think we are accomplishing in this world, we
are spinning our wheels.
(3) Jesus taught this truth to Martha.
Luke 10:42 But one thing is needful: and Mary
hath chosen that good part, which shall not be
taken away from her.
2. The physical cannot defeat the spiritual.
a. I am not so spiritual minded that I don’t see the
reality of the world in which we live.
b. I know the wicked physical world does win some
battles.
(1) There are times when it looks like the worldly
has defeated the spiritual, but it has not and
it will not.
(2) We can never see the end of the war from this
world. All we see is the outcome of a few small
skirmishes.
(3) The war will have a much different outcome than
these few individual battles.
c. David could not be defeated by Goliath.
(1) Goliath had strength, height, skill, and armour.
(2) David walked in the spirit.
(3) But in the end, the spiritual man walked off the
battlefield and the physical man was carried.
d. The Roman government could not defeat the early
Christians.
(1) Rome had whips, prisons, and guillotines.
(2) Without doubt, many Christians died at Rome’s
hands.
(3) Today the Roman Empire is history and
Christianity is alive and well.
(4) Although Rome won many battles, it could not win
the war.
e. Satan never defeated Jesus.
(1) Satan controls this physical world and he wins
many battles. We all bear scars that proof
that.
(2) But he will not win the war! That honor belongs
to the King of kings!
3. The physical must be sacrificed for the spiritual.
a. \\#John 9:3\\ A man was born blind that God might be
glorified.
b. \\#John 11:1\\ Lazarus physically died that the God
might be glorified.
c. Paul gladly suffered physically that God might be
glorified.
d. Christ died on the cross that God might be glorified.
e. One doesn’t get from the Lord without giving.
f. Those who have given the most in this physical world
will receive the most in the world to come.
Matthew 19:29 And every one that hath forsaken
houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or
mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my
name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and
shall inherit everlasting life.
III. A truth that those who turn back miss is that your strength
comes from the Lord.
A. When I consider those who have turned back from following
Jesus, I find the number of Christians who have abandoned
Christ to be mind-blogging.
1. Sometimes Christian pretend Christians don’t quit on
Jesus, but they do it all the time.
2. There is a reason church pews are empty in churches across
America this morning! A lot of God’s people are missing.
B. People abandon Jesus for different reasons.
1. Some are pressured or persecuted into abandoning Christ.
2. Some are deceived or tricked into sin. (Satan, world)
3. But some just get weak in the spirit. (flesh)
C. Every believer needs to learn that the only way to abide with
Christ is to be regularly rejuvenated by Christ.
Is 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall
renew their strength; they shall mount up with
wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be
weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
1. Strong’s Concordance defines several words to help us
understand the meaning of this verse.
a. "Wait" is to collect, to bind together, to look for.
b. It refers to those that bind together with the Lord.
c. The strength of the believer comes from our bond with
Jesus.
d. We are not just following, obeying, or serving the
Lord. We are binding with Him.
e. That is having an intimate, consistent, deepening
relationship with Jesus.
2. Good Christians sometimes don’t realize how much living
right takes out of them.
a. I’m not talking about serving here, although serving
in any capacity increases that drain.
b. I’m talking about just living right. It drains you.
(1) Would you think a soldier posted in Iraq would
only be tired when he confronts the enemy in a
fire fight?
(2) Would you not think that just to be on guard and
alert for a given number of hours would be
taxing and draining to the body?
(3) At some point, those soldiers need rest.
c. Christians don’t just need a day off. They need a
time of spiritual refreshing.
(1) Christians need to sit at the feet of Jesus and
adore Him.
(2) They need the reward of hearing His voice, of
knowing they have pleased Him, of feeling His
embrace.
(3) That will strengthen them.
3. Some ways to get that strength:
a. Not just going to church but going to worship.
b. Not just praying words but talking to God.
c. Not just reading the Bible but soaking in God’s love
letter.
The joy of Jesus is not just to begin your race with Him but to
finish your race with Him.
1. If you have not begun, start a relationship with Him today.
2. If you have begun, determine that you will finish.
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