Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3334
“One thing you lack.” Mark 10:21.
THOUGH the Gospel of Jesus Christ most certainly addresses itself to the vilest of the vile, it is not exclusively to such that the message of salvation is sent. There are, indeed, no characters so far gone in vice that the Gospel does not speak to them. However abandoned they may be, still is this inviting voice sent to the very chief of sinners, “Come to Christ and live.” But the Gospel, with equal affection, addresses itself to those who are not upon any common estimation to be numbered with the chief of sinners—to those whose moral integrity has been unimpeachable, whose outward propriety has been scrupulous—whose lives in all their domestic and social relations have been commendable. There are always some such individuals in our congregation. We are very thankful that there are. We have an invitation for them as frank, as honest and as earnest as for wanton sinners, heinous transgressors and hardened criminals—and our sincere desire is that such may be saved, for we believe that they, also, will make illustrious trophies of Divine Grace when Grace decides them to decide for Christ.
Among us we have a large number of most hopeful people, to whom it may be said, “One thing you lack.” A word of congratulation to you, thatyou only lack one thing/Then I propose, therefore, to utter a warning because you do lack one thing. And after that a few words of instruction to show how this one lack may be supplied. May God grant that His power may rest upon His Word, so that you may no longer lack the one thing.
I. First, then, this is A WORD OF CONGRATULATION.
Let us take this young man’s case as descriptive of that of many here present. He did not lack morality. He could say, “All these things have I kept from my youth up.” Nor did the Savior tell him that he was uttering a lie—He looked upon him and lovedhim—which He would not have done if he had been a willful liar. No, he had been neither unchaste, nor dishonest, nor profane. He had been all that could be desired in these respects. I congratulate you if such is your case. It will save you from a thousand sorrows to have been kept from those grosser sins! You have not formed habits which will lead you in later years into temptation. You have not formed associations which it will be difficult to break. You have not learned words, phrases and sentiments which will defile your memory in later days, even though you should live to hate them. I thank God that you have this privilege—that it cannot be said of you that you lack in morality!
Nor was this young man’s lack that of outward religion. We are told—I think it is by Luke or Matthew—that he was a ruler. That is to say, as we read it, a ruler in the synagogue. He was one who had taken office among his coreligionists and had even presided in their religious assemblies. He was a young man, remember, and it is not often that young men attain to such a position, so that he must have been not only scrupulously excellent in his conduct, but he must have been regarded by all who knew him as remarkably religious at heart. Indeed, when he knelt down before the Savior, when he addressed Him as, “Good Master,” he showed that his outward habits were of a religious cast. And so I congratulate some of you that you love the place where Christians meet, that in their sacred songs you take an interest, that their Holy Book is a book not altogether unread by you, that you would be grieved if you could not go up to the assembly of God’s people. I am glad that as touching these things in your outward regularity, some of you might even put others to shame who are further advanced than you in spiritual things. You do not lack for morality—you do not lack for the outward part of religion!
Nor can I suppose that this young man lacked a becoming respect for whatever was pure and lovely and of good report. In addressing our Lord by that remarkable title which was not used by Jews even to their Rabbis, he showed how he
looked upon the Holy Christ with a profound awe. He did not perceive His Deity, but what he did perceive of His matchless goodness he deferred to. And it is so with you, my Friend. You never utter an opprobrious word against God’s people. You would be very grieved to hear them evilly spoken of. You love the ministers of Christ. There is no company that pleases you better than the company of the people of God. You have religion—you have a respect for that part of religion which as yet you do not possess. You wish you had it. You envy those who have it and would wish to be the meanest of them all if you might but have a part among them. I congratulate you upon this! I thank God concerning you. Looking upon you, I feel as Jesus did, that my heart loves you and I gladly would that you had the necessary supply of that thing which you still lack.
This young man did not lack orthodoxy. He was no doubter, skeptic, or professed infidel. He said, “What must I do that I may inherit eternal life?” He believed in eternal life. He was not one of those Sadducees who say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit. He venerated the grand old Truths of his father’s religion—he was a firm believer in the orthodox faith. And so with you. You have never yet dared to doubt the Word of God and as far as you have learned its meaning, you hold that meaning in the most solemn respect. You would not for the world be found a heretic! You would not willfully call in the existence of God, the deity of Christ, the Atonement by blood, or any other of the essentials of our most holy faith. As far as your head is concerned, you are clear enough about these things. I thank God for this, for it is a grand escape from a pestilent evil. It is hard to get a man’s conscience sound who has gone through the great dismal swamps of infidelity. After once listening to the vile suggestions of ungodliness, or reading such infamies as come from the pen of a Tom Paine, the soul seems as if it never could get clean of the corruption! It is such pitch—it sticks to one’s hands—and though one takes to himself nitre and much soap, yet shall he scarcely cleanse himself from the defilement! You have not acquired that taint of your moral constitution. Thank God for it! I bless God that in His abundant mercy, you do not lack for a knowledge of the faith and a degree of belief in it!