the basic message #E272
7/22/04
A wise man once said, "Salvation is free, yet it costs everything". The majority of our pastors today have somehow decided that salvation is free and it costs nothing. That type of teaching will sends millions of people to Hell, but it's hard to feel sorry for those who never pick up a Bible to find out the truth. One passage from Matthew would reveal much:
Matthew 19:16-22
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." "Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, "'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother', and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'" "All these I have kept", the young man said. "What do I still lack?" Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and then you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
What can we learn from this story? Rich people can't go to Heaven? No. Possessions, on their own, aren't good or evil- only we can allow them to take on those characteristics. Heretic prosperity preachers like Copeland, Dollar and Price will read a story like the one above and then quickly, very quickly, tell the congregation that there's nothing wrong with having nice things. Their problem is that their individual ministries are all built on promising prosperity to their congregation. I find it sad to see poor people sitting in their congregations, pouring their hard-earned cash into the plate to only see "pastor" living well. Enough of this-
So what does salvation cost? Once again: absolutely nothing, yet everything. The rich man in the story from Matthew 19 wanted eternal life badly, but not bad enough to be willing to get rid of everything that kept him from being totally devoted to Jesus. What if Jesus visited your church Sunday and made himself available to council each person in the congregation? I wouldn't be surprised if at least 10% of the congregation slipped out the back door, preferring to get on with their plans for the afternoon. After all, you gotta get to the lake when the fish are biting, and heck, Jesus will understand, won't he? Don't get me started on that subject- I'll tackle that one another day.
What if your session with Jesus came up and you asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" What might Jesus say? The vast majority of Christians might answer, "I don't have to do anything other than accept Jesus as my Savior". Is that what he told the rich man? Is that the only message that the apostles had to say 25 years after the resurrection of Jesus? Please don't be mislead, folks. The conversation Jesus had with the rich man was important 2000 years ago, and it's still important today. So let's get back to the question- what would Jesus have to say to you? Although most of us wouldn't consider ourselves to be rich, we must admit that the lifestyle of the middle class in America is much like the life of the rich 40 years ago. Would Jesus tell the business owner to close his stores on Sunday to honor the Sabbath? Would Jesus tell the soccer mom to cease hauling the kids around to tournaments on Sunday? Would Jesus tell the angry manager to get a different job, since his current job is putting his personal testimony in jeopardy? Would Jesus tell all of us, who live in too much comfort, to reduce our living expenses by 5% and help poor people with the money saved? Most of us could reduce our personal luxuries by 5% and never know the difference. Case in point: I see people regularly sucking down a cup of coffee that costs $3. They think nothing at all of "rewarding" themselves with a ridiculously expensive cup of java. If they only cut that one luxury out of their life they could contribute close to a hundred bucks a month to a poor family. There are men who regularly smoke $10-15 cigars, so why not save that money, save the rest of us the stink that comes from the cigar, and contribute the money to poor people that need it more?
Jesus isn't here to cut financial deals with us. If salvation was for sale, people like Donald Trump would go out and buy every salvation slot and resell them at a profit. Jesus wisely gives equal access to all people, and quite frankly, poor people probably have a better shot at entering Heaven that the rest of us. The rich man in the story from Matthew wanted to go to Heaven, but after talking to Jesus, he decided that the price of admission was too high. I hear people yakking about "faith" all the time, but how much faith do we really have? The rich man lacked enough faith to believe that Jesus had a better plan for his life. When Job was being tested by Satan with God looking on, he had faith that his God would come through for him, and that faith paid off in the end. Job, through his dedication to God, made his way through trials and tribulations that would have sunk the average Christian during the first hour. Where is our faith? Is it remotely possible that we want to place conditions on following a Jesus that offers unconditional love? The modern Christian church needs to wake up to the fact that Jesus isn't some Gomer Pyle chump that can be cheated and tricked. Jesus is a loving, caring Savior, but he has my number and your number too. He's watching each of us, viewing our daily actions, listening to our words. I think the church has somehow conveyed the message that we decide whether Jesus will accept us as we are, and that Jesus has to accept our decision regardless. The Bible promises us that Jesus will indeed accept a sinner, but nowhere in the Bible does that promise include any provisions that we can continue to commit blatant, premeditated sins. For those of you who think you can, consider once again the rich man. If we applied our warped thinking to his story, it would have read something like this: A rich man asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him what he needed to do, and what he needed to give-up. The rich man said, that's fine, Jesus, I'll do it. The rich man walked away, happy that he had eternal life, but never gave up the things that Jesus told him to sacrifice. The rich man's life didn't change at all, yet he still clung to the idea that he had eternal life.
Can you see the parallel to the way we relate to Jesus? We want to lay-claim to all of the good things that Jesus promises, yet we want to play by our own set of rules. Will this work? We'll all find out soon enough, but trust me, it won't work.