Requirements of Entrance
=MsoTitle>Matthew 19:16-26
A week or so ago, I turned on one of the morning news shows. The host went out into the streets of New York and asked passersby two questions (1) Can you recite the ingredients for a Big Mac hamburger? (2) Can you recite the Ten Commandments? Nearly every person asked could describe the hamburger but no one could remember more than three commandments.
A young man came to Jesus seeking eternal life. He came with certain preconceived ideas of how one is made righteous. Jesus might have told the young man that salvation requires belief, faith, and obedience. But knowing what was in the man’s heart Jesus confronted him at the point of his limited understanding. When Jesus told him to keep the commandments the young man wanted to know which ones. He asked this because the Pharisees had so added to the commandments that no man could remember them all.
After the Lord had summed up the Ten Commandments, the young man was more confident than ever for he was certain he had kept them all. What Jesus said next really burst his bubble. He required the young man to demonstrate his obedience by giving up his wealth and becoming a penniless disciple. The young man’s inability to give away his possessions proved that he neither loved God with all his heart nor did he love his fellow man.
James 2:10 reveals the truth about keeping the Law, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”
*1. Love of self and personal comfort more than God breaks the first commandment – “No gods before Me!”
2. Love of material possessions breaks the second commandment – “No graven image” No idols.
*3. Flippant and hypocritical use of God’s name breaks the third commandment – “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain”
*4. Carelessness about the Lord’s Day and failure to worship in Spirit and Truth breaks the fourth commandment – “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy”
*5. Disrespect, ingratitude, and disobedience to parents breaks the fifth commandment – “Honor thy father and thy mother”
*6. Unreasonable anger, maliciousness, and hatred violate the sixth commandment - “Do not murder”
*7. Lustful thoughts, unfaithfulness, and extramarital sex violates the seventh commandment – “Do not commit adultery”
*8. Cheating and/or taking things from others breaks the eighth commandment – “Do not steal”
*9. Slander and gossip violate the ninth commandment - Do not bear false witness”
Coveting what another has breaks the tenth commandment – “Do not covet anything that is your neighbor’s”