(Click to read Mark 10 v. 17 - 27)

In 1912 a discovery was made in Kent that captivated the minds of both the scientific community and the world at large.

In a quarry at Piltdown in Kent, several special fossils were found, nine pieces of skull bone, one jawbone and a canine tooth. Not animal bones but early humanoid. "Piltdown man" it was called, and announced to the world as the "missing link" - evidence at last that "Darwin's Theory of Evolution" was true. Fossil evidence had at last been found that man had indeed evolved from primitive apes.

In the 40 years that followed, many papers were written, theories developed and conclusions made about human evolution, based on Piltdown Man. The evidence was conclusive!

The whole thing was a hoax

Until 1953 that is. Using newly discovered fluorine dating techniques, the fossils were tested - only to discover something quite awful! The bones were of different ages! The cranial pieces dated from the Pleistocene era. The jaw was modern. In panic more tests were done - and the results were even more alarming. The jaw was that of an orang-utan, stained to look old. The canine was of a fossil chimpanzee. The whole thing was a hoax.

The evidence the scientific community had used for 40 years to support their research and theories was a fake. What they thought was true, turned out not to be. Some of the foundations of their work had suddenly crumbled.

Assumptions
Preconceptions
Pet beliefs

The man in our reading is suffering the same fate. As he approaches Jesus with his question, he too is going to find that his assumptions, his preconceptions that had encouraged his question, are not as sure or as solid as he believed. His pet beliefs are to be exposed as untrue, his ideas are going to be shown up as fakes. Much of what he believed was about to be challenged by Jesus' reply.

So let's look at this man and his question. It was a good question to want to ask. He has the right attitude as he asks it. He is humble as he kneels before for Jesus. He has everything going for him - and what does he ask?
Mk 10 v. 17: Good Teacher - what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Yes, it is a good question. But as you examine it you can find some flaws in this man's thinking. You can see attitudes and preconceptions that are mistaken. It seems that he is hanging on to certain religious myths - just like the scientists of the early 20s and 30s who based their research, their ideas on a hoax.

Let me explain ...

Hoax or misconception No. 1

Why do you call me good?
No one is good except God alone.

His first mistake is to believe that Jesus is just a man. He calls him "Good Teacher" - and Jesus immediately pulls him up by saying:
Mk 10 v. 18: Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Now that is quite a statement! That nothing and no one is good - except for God.

It implies that all of us - are not good; that we all have flaws - an uncomfortable but not unexpected truth. Yet Jesus does not deny that he is "Good". Actually he accepts the fact that not only is he good, but by implication - he is God too.

This was a huge leap in understanding for this man to make - to grasp that Jesus is more than a mere man. In fact, many times, Jesus claimed to be God.

In Matthew 11 v. 27 Jesus says
All things have been committed to me by my Father [God]. No-one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

In fact, many times, Jesus claimed to be God

At His trial , He is asked in Mark 14 v. 61, 62:
Are you the Christ, the son of the blessed one?
I am said Jesus.

Again talking to the Pharisees Jesus says in John 8 v. 58:
Before Abraham was - I am.

This was a very clear claim to be God!!

Now our young man has a problem - his assumption that Jesus is an ordinary man has been challenged - what will he do?

What will WE do?

Many people today have the same idea: that Jesus was just a very good teacher - and no more. That he lived just to set a good example, to set a standard we can aim for if we are religious. But this is not true. It is a hoax, a false belief encouraged by the enemy of God - the Devil.

If people can be fooled . . .

You see, if people can be fooled into believing that Jesus was just an ordinary man - then they will see no need to turn to him to be saved. Jesus becomes just a standard - rather than what he actually is - a Saviour.

So that is Misconception No. 1 - Jesus is an ordinary man.

Hoax or Misconception No. 2

Again this comes from a misunderstanding of the reply given by Jesus: "Only God is good". So often the Goodness of God , is taken and wrongly applied. It is easy to believe that God is good. After all, imagine what it would be like if God were evil! We would not be able to rely on anything. Our physical constants like gravity could be switched on and off. The routines of seasons could be mixed up at will. In fact whatever we needed, could be withheld by an Evil God. So yes - God is Good. Yet so often our acceptance of the goodness of God goes beyond the clear teaching of Scripture.

It all sounds lovely - but it's not true!

I wonder if you have ever heard it said:
"God is good - too good to be a God who will judge!"
OR
"It doesn't matter what we do - God is good - he will let us into heaven anyway! God is too good to send anyone to Hell!"

It all sounds lovely - but it's not true! It's a hoax - a complete misconception of the nature of God.

In John 3 v. 18 we find these words:
Whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only son!

This condemnation is not a future event, but a present reality. This condemnation hangs over us because - as we have already learned - we are not good. In fact we are sinners.

Romans 3 v. 23 tells us that
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God - and because God is good and Holy he can have nothing to do with our sin.

it won't be
"all right on the night"

So don't be fooled. If we are still in our sin, it won't be "all right on the night".

Yet because God is good, because God is love, he didn't want this situation to continue. That is why Jesus came. He came to bring a way to mankind so that sin could be forgiven. It was God's plan, a plan that was to cost the life of Jesus himself - God's only son - so serious is the problem. So - sit up - take notice! God is good - yes. But God is also Holy and we dare not presume on his goodness! That is a hoax that leads to death: spiritual death.

So -
Hoax No. 1: Jesus was just a man.

Hoax No. 2: God is too good to condemn.

Hoax or Misconception No. 3:
From this man's own lips - the classic, the most common misconception of all time...

What can I do ... to inherit eternal life?

Millions of people walk this path to destruction in the false hope that they can earn their salvation. Jesus meets this misconception head-on as he replies.

He draws the man's attention to God's law - the 10 commandments. These are God's ultimate standard. This is what God demands of everybody.

Have you kept these? (Mark 10 v. 19)
Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not give false testimony. Honour your father and mother.

"Yes! I've kept them all! I've done it! I'm in..."

How our young man's heart must have beaten with excitement!
"Yes!" he says. "Yes! I've kept them all! I've done it! I'm in...".
But he wasn't.

Jesus is still speaking:
Only one thing you lack. Sell everything, give it all away. You will have treasure in heaven - then come and follow me!

What a let down! What a disappointment! Give it all up? NO WAY!! And his face falls - and he goes away sad.

You see - though he had kept the last five, he had broken the first. His wealth was more important than following God. He hadn't, he couldn't, put God first.

"NO WAY!!"

• Humanly speaking - he had done it all
• Spiritually speaking - he lost it all.

You see - when the standard is perfection, there is no working our way into heaven. Our sin will always keep us out.

It's hopeless then? If there is nothing WE can do - we are lost.

No.

We have hope.

Not because of what we can do - but because of what Jesus did. He came to deal with our sin. He came to die in our place, a man's life for a man's sin, a perfect substitute in the place of a sinful man. As Jesus died on the cross, he willingly took God's punishment for my sin on himself.

2 Corinthians 5 v. 21 puts it like this:
God made him who had no sin to be sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus did that for me. Jesus did that for you!

And how do we receive this righteousness from God?

Are you trying to earn God's favour?

• We need to see ourselves as God sees us - as sinners.
• We need to accept that Jesus, God's son, died in our place
• We need to ask God to forgive us - to make as right - and he will.

Ask yourself: are you trying to earn God's favour? Or are you trusting Jesus, who has earned it for you?

Surely the Hoax that leads us to believe that we can earn our own salvation is the cruellest of all.

Yet there is one more Hoax that we need to look at before we finish.

Hoax or Misconception No. 4:
It costs too much to follow.

It was this thinking that drove our young man away from following Jesus. In his short conversation with Jesus had his eyes had been opened? Had he grasped the truth that Jesus was more than a mere man? Did he see clearly that he couldn't presume on the goodness of God? Did he understand that he couldn't earn his own salvation, but could gain it by believing in Jesus and following him?

I don't know, but this I do know, whatever he understood, he stopped just there!

He gave up his chance of eternal life

He saw so much - yet he couldn't give everything up and follow.

He gave up his chance of eternal life because he loved his material wealth more.

• What would it cost you to follow Jesus?
• What is it that you know would have to go of if you turned to him?
• What is holding you back - fear, habits, status, friends? Are they worth more than following Jesus?

Count the cost by all means - a proper thing to do - but don't ever believe that the cost is too high.

Listen to Jesus' words in Mark 10 v. 28:
I tell you the truth Jesus replied. No-one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive 100 times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, the fields - and with them persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.

The cost is high - but worth paying

• The cost is high - but worth paying.
• The cost is high - but Jesus was willing to pay a much higher price to buy your freedom

Which of these Four Hoaxes holds you back?

Let me illustrate...

A few weeks ago I was helping some friends to cut down some pine trees. We had a rope tied to the top of the tree, a chainsaw roaring as it cut through the trunk and we were all yelling "pull, pull" as we hauled on the rope. The tree was shaking; the noise was incredible as at last the tree started to fall. The second before the tree hit the ground, to our amazement, a pigeon flew out of the tree! Amidst all that noise and confusion it must have thought that it was safe, but it was wrong. Its confidence in the tree was badly misplaced. Don't be like that pigeon!

Don't be like that pigeon!

Don't put your trust in any of these hoaxes...

That Jesus just a man?	No! He is God!
That God is too good to condemn?	God is Holy!
That you can earn your salvation?	Only Jesus offers salvation!
That the cost is too high?	The rewards far outweigh the costs!

Whatever holds you back - it's a fake! Listen to Jesus. Drop your misconceptions, and believe in the one who said:

John 14 v.6:
I am the way, the TRUTH and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

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