Oct. 11, 2015
Unsure
of Yourself; Sure of God
Mark
10:17-22
Grace, Mercy, and
peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hear again the starting sentence
from the Gospel reading for today:
Mark 10:17
And as
he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked
him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Notice the posture of this man with a
question. He was not standing with a sneer as did so many other questioners we
hear about, cynically trying to catch Jesus in a trap of words, proving that
His message is wrong and He is a fraud. He doesn’t sit there scoffing, refusing
to believe all that Jesus would say, refusing to appreciate all that Jesus
would do. No, he kneels. He seems to sincerely fear the Lord. He seems to be
genuinely concerned about his future, his destiny. Sadly, his question didn’t
get an answer he could accept.
This
man sure seemed religious enough. He knew the commandments and had kept them
his whole life. He was doing well for himself, great possessions, a success in
life. But he had to ask Jesus, what must I do? He had everything going for him;
still he was unsure of himself and uncertain about his eternal salvation.
That’s how it is, folks. When you
cling to the things of this life, you can’t be sure of yourself. There is
uncertainty in your riches, in your status, and in your accomplishments. But
there is certainty with God. If you only measure life in terms of how much you
have or what you do for a living or what good you yourself can do, you will end
up with nothing but uncertainty. You’ll worry and wonder, will I be able to
keep what I have and get more? Will I be noticed, and recognized for what all I’ve
accomplished? Have I done enough good? That’s uncertainty.
With God there is certainty. He says
it. And it’s so. And you know what He says -- things like this: “God so loved that world that He gave His
only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
God says things like, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be
saved.”
The Old Testament reading today ended
with this sentiment:
Amos 5:15
Hate
evil, and love good,
and
establish justice in the gate;
it may
be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
This is a tricky verse. It might sound
like Gospel at first, but really it worked as law for the people Amos was preaching to. It set them
up to desire something more, something more certain than just a “maybe”. This
was a call to repentance. Hate evil, and
love good and maybe the Lord will be gracious.
The Holy Spirit works through the
law to tell sinners to turn from their sinful ways and listen to what God has
to say next. A sinner, convicted of His sins, fears God and worries about judgment,
wishing that maybe, the Lord will be gracious.
And many people that that’s the best
they can hope for. The best feeling that they can get. People don’t expect
certainty. Some of you probably feel that way when it comes to your eternal
destiny. Saying, “Maybe the Lord will be gracious to me at the end. But I’m not
so sure.”
The Gospel of Jesus Christ has more
for you than maybe, more for you than probably, more for you than uncertainty.
My
hope is built on nothing less
Than
Jesus’ blood and righteousness
No
merit of my own I claim
But
wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On
Christ the solid rock, I stand;
All
other ground is sinking sand.
You ought to be unsure of yourself, your merit,
your works, your riches. But you cannot be unsure of Christ. He is the Rock, the
only Rock, on which you stand.
Throw away whatever uncertainty you
have about your status with God, your acceptance by God, your eternal life with
God, and set your hopes on the solid foundation of Jesus’ blood and
righteousness.
Don’t settle for maybe or probably
when it comes to your salvation. Uncertainty about your salvation is a big problem.
Martin Luther called uncertainty a “monster”, “worse than all the other
monsters.”
It’s a monster that attacks and strangles
faith. It leads poor believers to doubt and to despair and to just give up. The
uncertain soul is anxious for a while, but the Monster of Uncertainty uses that
anxiety to so tear up faith that eventually there’s nothing left but apathy and
hopelessness. And so the defeated person just walks away, physically like this
man in Mark 10, or walks away intellectually and emotionally from the things of
faith.
Martin Luther warned people about the
Monster of Uncertainty. Christians will invite that monster in whenever they
start thinking that their salvation has something to do with their works. That
is, they believe, foolishly, that God will like them if they do good and avoid
evil. Sin rises up as it does in all of us and the poor sinner worries, have I
let God down? He probably doesn’t like me anymore.
Or here’s another common way that
the Monster works on Christians. Many believe a message that the Gospel is only
real to those who feel it in their hearts. Those glowing warm, happy feelings that
you get when you are really feeling religious, those are the key to faith and
righteousness before God. The Monster of Uncertainty waits until you are
feeling down, tired, sad, and the Monster of Uncertainty says, maybe you aren’t
saved, because you aren’t feeling it. You don’t have that bubbly feeling? You
must be separated from God. So says the Monster.
Such doubts and worries will
inevitably arise as we cling to our riches, whatever our riches may be. None of
us here cans say, well, I’m not like that man in Mark 10. He was rich. I’m not
rich. We all have riches. Whether it be enough money to splurge, or rich in emotions
of happiness and pleasure in this earthly life, or rich in relationships with
the friends and family God has given. Whatever our riches, when we cling to
them we are not clinging to Christ and we will soon feel the effects of the
Monster of Uncertainty.
If you ever wonder “How could I
survive without my riches, without my happiness, without my loved one? What
will happen if I lose that which I love so much?” That’s the uncertainty that
the riches of life bring.
Instead, trust in this. You have
treasure in heaven. Jesus Christ and Him alone is all you need. So long as
Jesus sits in heaven at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for you,
watching over you, you have all that you need.
Whatever your sins, whatever your
mortality and your fear of death, whatever attacks the devil and his monsters
may bring against you, You have a sure and certain Savior, Jesus Christ. He
died for you to take away God’s wrath and disappointment. He died and rose
again, to defeat death and all the reasons you might have for worry and fear
about death. He gives you continuously His words and promises of forgiven and
salvation. He gives you baptism, and the new life that comes from there. He
gives You His body and blood for your forgiveness life and salvation.
How, then can we doubt? If God did
not love us, He never would have gone to all that trouble.
If you love someone, you prove
yourself trustworthy to them. You keep your promises. You tell them the truth.
God is, of course, better at doing that kind of thing than you are. He loves you. He cannot lie to you. He
cannot fail to keep His promises to you. You can be sure of God.
Now you might say, “Doubts and
worries are unavoidable. They are to be expected. Everyone has them. No one can
be 100% certain.”
Let’s be very careful to define what
doubt is. When you doubt God, you are insulting God.
1 John 5:10
Whoever
believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not
believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony
that God has borne concerning his Son.
See what horrible, blasphemous thing
the Monster of Uncertainty does in you? It says, “God’s lying”. He is lying when He says He loves you. He is
lying when He says, “I forgive you.” He is lying when He says you will have
eternal life.
Doubt is a sin. Call it a sin. Treat
it like a sin. Repent and believe the gospel of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Follow
Him and you will have treasure in heaven.
Romans 10:9
If you
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Amen.
