<TITLE>06. Par 63-73</TITLE>L-63   But the rich young fellow, the teen-ager of his day, had probably an heir, a lot of money. And--and, which, that's all right. There's nothing against that. And I'll--I'll be thankful for any man or anybody that's been given that privilege. But when the... What I have against the fellow is this: being a man of business...

L-64 And did you notice, he asked for Eternal Life? That was his business proposition, "What must I do now to have Eternal Life?" And Jesus told him exactly what to do. But he wasn't interested, because of the thing that he had to do, to--to have Eternal Life.

L-65   And now we look on that, we Pentecostal people, and think that man was out of his mind, not to do a thing. But let's--let's take it down home for a few minutes. See, there was something went with it.

L-66 He was asked about the commandments. He said, "This I've done since my youth."

L-67 Probably raised in a--in a good, orthodox home, where they was raised up, not to steal, or lie, or cheat, or commit adultery. Maybe the boy wasn't a cheater. The boy wasn't a liar. Had been raised with good parents, somebody that had taught him that there was a God, and that that God would bring him to Judgment someday, and he'd have to give an account for all that he did. And that teaching of his--of his parent maybe had stuck with him, and he knowed that there was a--a God.

L-68 But now it comes a time where he's got to--to personally meet this God. He's got to meet this Person. And he was asked what... He asked what could he do, and to have this Eternal Life, and Jesus told him what to do. But he was not interested in that kind of an investment, because it took away the things that he had held so dear.

L-69   Well, you say, "That man had money, and it was taken from him because the money, rather. Jesus was taking it because that was his earthly possessions."

L-70 But it don't altogether mean money. There's just a lot more things that we hold to us, just as much as a idol, as that young man held to that money; popularity, denominational difference, fashions, lust of the world, idols, everything. There is so many things that--that men, today, instead of being rich, holding to things, they of money, they--they hold to different things like that, just as tight as that young man, because they're not interested in the investment that Christ is offering them.

L-71 It might mean that Christ would call you out of the group that you're in. Christ might call you out from the card party that you have in your church, the bunko game, the society that you belong to. As you hold to that, you're--you're just as much making a rashal mistake as this young rich man did. See? You're holding to something more of a treasure than investing your life's journey in Jesus Christ.

L-72   Now, this may not have a shouting background to it, but it's got a Gospel background to it, of Word. See? It's the thing that... The children laugh, and dance, and rejoice, and so forth. But you got to know what you're doing this about; if you don't, that becomes idolatry to you, see, just becomes idol. And if we look, and notice at--at the conditions that we're winding into! It comes so sneaking.

L-73 It's just like a man, a tree, standing on a--a highway. And a little vine rises up, a wild vine, and begins to wrap around that tree. The tree wants to grow straight, but that vine finally gets a hold of that tree in such a way until it's forced to move the other way. So do we get in those kind of places, where we let other things slip in to us, and wind us from that real sincerity in the Word.


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