Title: None Good but One
Text: Mark 10: 17-18
Date: April 3, 2014
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Mark 10: 17: And when he was gone forth into the way,
there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what
shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
To
anyone who knew this man, he would have appeared a good man. He was a moral man—in
verse 20, he told the Lord that he had observed the law from his youth up; he
was a zealous man—he came running to the Lord Jesus; he was outwardly
respectful—he kneeled before Christ; he called Christ, “Good, Master.”—Luke
tells us this man was a ruler, a so-called master in Israel. He addresses the Lord Jesus in the customary
way of addressing a ruler in Israel. Probably, the manner that he liked to be
addressed—“Good, Master”; and this man was concerned about eternal life—He
asked, “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
Here he
stands before the One who is God in human flesh; here he stands before the one
who is the Way, the Truth and the Life; here he stands before the one who is
the Righteousness of God, the one who is the Righteousness of the law, the
Lawgiver and the Lawfulfiller, the one who is the “end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth.”
Yet,
this man asks, “Good Master, what shall I DO that I may INHERIT eternal LIFE?” Eternal
life would not be an inheritance, freely given, if it is by our doing. We are not
made righteous by our doing. But pay close attention to what the Lord Jesus,
first, says to him,
Mark 10: 18: And Jesus said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
The
Lord Jesus did not answer his question but first, the Lord declares two truths
which cannot be declared too much or too dogmatically.
Divisions:
1) There is none good; 2) There is none good but one, that is, God.
It is
evident the man totally ignored this word from the Savior or else he would not
have made his boast of keeping the law.
Proposition: In order to understand our need of salvation by the
grace of the triune God through faith in Christ Jesus, apart from our works, we
must first be made to know there is none good but one, that is God.
Title: None
Good but One
I. FIRST, AMONG FALLEN SONS OF ADAM, THERE IS
NONE GOOD.
These
are the descriptions God gives of sinners.
Psalm 14: 1…They are corrupt, they have done abominable
works, there is none that doeth good…3: They are all gone aside, they are all
together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Romans 3: 9: What then? are we better than they?
No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are
all under sin; 10 As it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is
none that seeketh after God. 12 They are
all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none
that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their
throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit;
the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness: 15 Their feet are
swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and
misery are in their ways: 17 And
the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Abhorred by God
Sinners,
in our sins, are an abhorred, corrupt, filthy, abomination to God. Abomination
is one of the strongest words that could be used to declare God’s abhorrence of
sin and sinners. It means a sulphurous, noxious, nauseous stench that burns the
nose to smell it.
Illustration: Sinner or sin? We have heard preachers say
God hates sin but not the sinner.
Speaking
of sinners themselves God said,
Levitcus 20: 23: And ye shall not walk in the manners of
the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things,
and therefore I abhorred them.
Speaking
of every sinner that does unrighteousness, God says,
Deuteronomy 25: 16: All that do such things, and all that
do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.
Our Abomination
We
began spewing our toxic hate for God in the garden in Adam. Like Adam, our abomination
to God is expressed: first, by breaking God’s law. And we all broke God’s law in our first head,
Adam.
Romans 5: 12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all
have sinned:…[to show us all died he says] 14:…death
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam’s transgression,…15:…through the offence of one many be
dead,…16:…the judgment was by one to condemnation, 17:…by one man’s offence
death reigned by one;…18:…by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation;…19: For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners,…21…sin
hath reigned unto death,
Secondly,
our abomination is spewed out by the sin of covering our wicked deeds with what
we call obedience and good works, which God calls wicked works. Sinners do all
this, while we hide from the Light of Christ because we know God will reprove
us for our wicked deeds. This is the condemnation that we must be saved from,
that only God can save us from.
John 3:
16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17: For
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world
through him might be saved. 18: He that believeth on him is not condemned: but
he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God.19: And this is the condemnation, that
light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil. 20: For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Are my
best deeds wicked before God while dead in my sins? We belch out our burning
cancer by everything our flesh is, says and does. Outside of Christ, our sacrifices to God are
noxious to God—
Proverbs 15:8: The sacrifice of the wicked is an
abomination to the LORD:
Without
faith in Christ, our prayers are a stench to God. Speaking not mearly of the
moral law but every word of God, particularly the doctrine of our depravity and
guilt before the law of God and the doctrine of Christ, God said,
Proverbs 28: 9: He that turneth away his ear from hearing
the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
Even the
thoughts of the natural heart is evil before God.
Genesis 6: 5: And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually.
The
natural heart is the same now, as then:
Jeremiah 17: 9: The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked: who can know it?
For the
sinner who does not rest all in Christ, believing on Christ, even each every
day, mundane activity is sin before God—
Proverbs 21:4: An high look, and a proud heart, and the
plowing of the wicked, is sin.
The
greatest sin of all is that the natural man believes not on the Lord Jesus
Christ.
John 16: 8: And when [the Holy Spirit] is come, he will
reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9: Of sin,
because they believe not on me; 10: Of righteousness, because I go to my
Father, and ye see me no more; 11: Of judgment, because the prince of this
world is judged.
Romans 14: 23:…whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Application: Do you tire of hearing of the evils of sin before
God? I won’t tire of telling you about
it. God told Ezekiel, “cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. “(Eze 16: 1-2)
How I wish I could express how obnoxious sinners are in their sin before God!
These things will not be pleasant to hear but these images barely even portray
how horrible our sin really is before God. It will take the Holy Spirit to make
you abhor sin, as God does.
God’s Description of Sinners
God
describes sinners as an aborted baby cast out in a field.
Ezekiel 16: 4: And as for thy nativity, in the day thou
wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple
thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. 5: None eye pitied
thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast
cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou
wast born. [here is salvation, this is what I pray God will do for you] 6: And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in
thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I
said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.
God
uses menstrual rags to describe us and our very best deeds before God.
Isaiah 64:6: But we are all as an unclean thing, and all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
God
uses that horrible disease of leprosy, and oozing wounds, and running issues of
blood--to describe the sinner.
Numbers 5: 2: Command the children of Israel, that they put
out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is
defiled by the dead: 3: Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp
shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I
dwell.
God
uses the disgusting, rotting, stinking, maggot-filled corpse in the grave to
describe what we are before God while in our sins.
Psalm 88:4: I am counted with them that go down into the
pit: [the pit of corruption] I am as a man that hath no strength: 5: Free among
the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more:
and they are cut off from thy hand.
Illustration: A pit of corruption is that overflowing septic tank.
Really? Would God count all our sincere religious
deeds outside of Christ as dung? Paul
once trusted in who his parents were, in his religious denomination, and in his
outward obedience to the law (Php 3: 4-8)—but when God saved him he counted it
all the same as what God counts it.
Philippians 3:8…I do count them but dung, that I may win
Christ,
None Good
Christ
says, “There is none good”: not the pope, the priest or the nun, not the
preacher, the sweet, little grandmother in the pew or the child in her arms; not
the man giving all his goods to feed the poor or the prostitute giving all her
goods to feed the pimp.
We are
all in the flesh business unless God shed his grace upon us. This cannot be stated too strongly. There is none good.
II. THIS SECOND PART CANNOT BE STATED TOO
STRONGLY—Mark
10: 18: THERE IS NONE GOOD BUT ONE, THAT IS GOD.
Christ
is that One, that good God.
Colossians 2:9: For in him dwelleth all the fulness of
the Godhead bodily.
That
noxious sinner came vomiting his vanity at the feet of holy God when he came to
Christ. And he called him just another “good” master in Israel.” But Christ
corrected that when he said, “There is none good but one and that is God.” He
was saying “And you are looking at him!”
God is Holy
God is
holy. This side of glory we will never
begin to enter into the fullness of what that means.
Psalm 99:9: Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his
holy hill; for the LORD our God is holy.
His name
is holy, his nature is holy, and his holy and separate from sinners. God is the
perfection of holiness.
God is Righteous.
God
loves judgment; The righteous LORD loves righteousness; Holy God executes the
judgment of truth and peace in his gates; perfect God hates everything that is
not perfect; (Is 61: 8; Ps 11: 7; 33: 5; 37: 28; Zech 8: 16-17) God says to
anyone who comes to God with an offering “it shall be perfect to be accepted;
there shall be no blemish therein.” (Lev 22: 21)
God is Good to Sinners
Sinners
must be as good as God for God to receive us. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6: 23). So how can a sinner put
away his own sin? Impossible! How can we make ourselves holy and pure in heart
and mind?
If we
could burn every animal on the planet as a sacrifice to God, it would not
satisfy the justice we owe God.
Isaiah 40: 16: And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor
the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
Job 25:4: How then can man be justified with God? or how
can he be clean that is born of a woman?
God is
so good that only God could save his people from our sins; God is so good that
in order to magnify and make honorable his law, God gave his only begotten Son;
God is so good that he took the sin of his people and laid it on his Son in
order to show us mercy justly; God is so good that when sin was found on his
Son God spared not his own Son but pulled his sword of justice and thrust it
through our Substitute till justice was satisfied for his people.
God is
so good that we can only have life when Christ enters us by his Holy Spirit; God
is so good that we only know God when he gives us the mind of Christ, making
Christ all unto us!
God is
so good that everything we need for God to receive us justly is in God in his
Son alone; God is so good that he will take nothing less from any sinner than
that we come declaring the merits of his Son as our only hope of God accepting
us;
Micah 6: 6: Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and
bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves of a year old? 7: Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my
transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8: He hath shewed
thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do
justly,[with thy God], and to love mercy, [with thy God], and to walk humbly
with thy God?
In
order for a sinner to do justly with God, we must come to God confessing our
sins. Agree with God that all you
deserve is justice—that is doing justly with thy God! Agree with God that his
Son has satisfied justice and he is all your hope!—that is doing justly with
thy God.
In
order for a sinner to love mercy with God, we must come to God a mercy
beggar! The rich, young ruler came
loving his own works before God. He went
away sorrowful when Christ did not receive him.
But the publican who smote on his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me
a sinner” went to his house justified. (Mk 10: 19-22; Lu 18: 13-14) Come to God owning that only in Christ can
God be merciful to you and yet remain just!
In
order to walk humbly with thy God come to God with the sacrifice with which God
is pleased.
Psalm 51:17: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a
broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Will
God really receive me in Christ? God is so good that he will not turn away one
who comes to him by Christ Jesus through faith.
Isaiah 55: 7: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will
have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8: For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Romans 5: 15…For if through the offence of one many be
dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man,
Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many….16:…the free gift is of many offences
unto justification…17:…they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of
righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 20…where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21: That
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Every
sinner that comes to God through faith in Christ finds that God has delivered
him from himself—from that pit of corruption which is our sinful flesh.
Isaiah 38: 17: Behold, for peace I had great bitterness:
but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for
thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
Application: These two great truths is what is missing in preaching
in our day: one, there is none good, and two, there is none good but one, that
is, God. Preacher, preach it; sinner, believe it. And let us all renounce ourselves in faith at
the feet of that one good God and Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord! To God be the
glory!
Amen!