A long time ago, I discovered a cheese making kit just in time for the holiday wish list. It appeared under the annual holiday tree and with a little vacation time at the end of the year I presumed that by following the recipe and using fresh ingredients from my father's farm - that I could make cheese just as well as anyone. So I soured the milk by letting it set out and began the process. The curds were cooked out and pressed into the mold provided. I followed the whole recipe and when the cheese was old enough, out from the mold it came and the taste test was given. Oh my, something must have gone wrong with the process I thought, and as I was cleaning up I accidentally dropped the cheese on the floor and it bounced! Not a good sign. I did try two or three more times and if there had been a market for bouncing cheese I might have been on to something!

Another time I read about the steel making process (no I wasn't of a mind to make some!). But I was fascinated with the article about the master craftsman, who know full well the official recipe still depended upon his years of experience to seize the pregnant moment when to stop the heating process. Too little and too much would ruin the run of production. I guess that is why good cheese comes from master's of the process, who know more than the common person and like the most excellent of cooks, do so on learned instinct and from vast experience as well. In the process of being born again, we know from their experience that C.S. Lewis and St. Augustine were both suddenly called from a world of sin to learn the lessons of grace and to teach those lessons to all men who would hear and believe the great news of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly it is true that within the Christian experience, both the gradual growth of Peter and the sudden confrontation of Paul are the usual ways of being born again. Not only do Covenant families produce children prepared to hear God, but that some are untimely born without the process of family preparation.

Now let me be careful here not to fall into the Jewish or Mayflower mentality. Jonathan Edwards labored hard and long amongst the Puritan descendants to see the sudden revival of new birth brought about by the Holy Spirit. And in his various writings there is much wisdom that can be learned about revivals true and false. We also know that another generation of covenant children from the parents who were born again in Edward's time went on to become Unitarian Universalists and have in so doing departed into the Devil's playground. And so we must well realize that any cultural knowledge that we might glean from the saving experiences of those who have become saved by grace is of no use as a recipe to guarantee a similar outcome in being imitated detail by detail.

What can I do to be saved, I was once asked by a young man. I worked with Him for two years and philosophically he gained much ground, but there was still something lacking. He didn't like to waste his time in church, home study and regular visits from the pastor was what he craved. At least, he did have an inkling that his new found hobby was not all it should be. When he moved away, I asked him pointedly how he would find the bus that he was taking out of town. "At the bus station, of course!", he exclaimed. I quickly pointed out that if he sincerely wanted to meet the Lord of life, then he needed to hang out in church on a regular basis.

Yes, it is sometimes frustrating to work with those like the rich young ruler in our text today, who come temporarily into the ministry of Christ's Church. "What must I do to be saved ?" is a common enough question that many astute pastors begin to get nervous when asked, not knowing if this is just a passing fancy or the providential work of the Holy Spirit. Of course many false shepherds contrive to control such people, sincere or otherwise. And by telling such questioners just what they want to hear, false hopes are more easily engineered than the real thing.

Let us look carefully at the text today and measure our hopes and sincerity against the situation described by Mark from Peter's solid memory. There is an awful lot going on here in this short passage.

First, there is the sudden appearance of the rich young ruler who has come out on a quest with a seriousness of Sir Galahad or Don Quixote. An impossible dream, literature may wonder? But no indeed - with God all things are possible as we realized last week. And no doubt, many have been saved from asking questions driven in their hearts by the Spirit of God. Calvin observes that the rich young ruler "did not come treacherously, as the scribes were wont to do, but from a desire of instruction; and, accordingly, both by words and by kneeling, he testifies his reverence for Christ as a faithful teacher."

Second, there is the essential question: "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" There are two issues here as Jesus quickly illustrates.

"Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God." Much is made in the commentaries about the presumptions of the young man and whether or not he realized the deity of Christ. However, this is not the point of the question. The real point of the question is to establish the perfection of holiness that exists only in the Godhead. We know from a fuller revelation that Christ was indeed perfect and that His perfection was necessary as a prerequisite to His sacrifice for all of us whose holiness is better exhibited in the old clothes we wear around the house to paint in and do chores.

"You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery', 'Do not murder', 'Do not steal', 'Do not bear false witness', 'Do not defraud', 'Honor your father and your mother.'" We see there in Christ's further comment that the six social commandments are enjoined as a sampling of perfect goodness in the public arena. Will the young man catch the revealed philosophy of incompatibility in the two comments? Calvin observes that "a blind confidence" on the part of the young man "in his works hindered him from profiting under Christ, to whom, in other respects, he wished to be submissive. Thus, in our own day, we find some who are not ill-disposed, but who, under the influence of I know not what shadowy holiness, hardly relish the doctrine of the Gospel." Isn't it interesting that the human condition never changes, those words could have been written this very year to describe the contemporary church.

Calvin continues: "But, in order to form a more correct judgment of the meaning of the answer, we must attend to the form of the question. He does not simply ask how and by what means he shall reach life, but what good thing he shall do, in order to obtain it. He therefore dreams of merits, on account of which he may receive eternal life as a reward due; and therefore Christ appropriately sends him to the keeping of the law,"

The third issue evident in the text is that - yes the young man will miss the point being stressed by Christ and testify to his own perfection. "Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth." Oh, my - is it arrogance or ignorance? In the first debates earlier in the week I couldn't tell which was more in evidence. I have also met people from holiness traditions where I could not tell which of those two were in the greater degree. On the basis of the text, I do not believe we can sort this out easily. What Christ does realize immediately from the young man's testimony is that any teaching is limited by the hardness of heart like that of the ancient Israelites and His contemporary Jews which is an all too common disease. Had the young man been teachable, Calvin would have us understand that he must "first be taught that no man is accounted righteous before God unless he has fulfilled the law, (which is impossible,) that, convinced of his weakness, he might betake himself to the assistance of faith. I acknowledge, therefore, that, as God has promised the reward of eternal life to those who keep his law, we ought to hold by this way, if the weakness of our flesh did not prevent; but Scripture teaches us, that it is through our own fault that it becomes necessary for us to receive as a gift what we cannot obtain by works. If it be objected, that it is in vain to hold out to us the righteousness which is in the law, (Romans 10:5,) which no man will ever be able to reach, I reply, since it is the first part of instruction, by which we are led to the righteousness which is obtained by prayer, it is far from being superfluous; and, therefore, when Paul says, that the doers of the law are justified, (Romans 2:13,) he excludes all from the righteousness of the law."

A harder lesson is necessary. And sometimes it is better to challenge a person's presuppositions than to give them any false hopes. Fourth in the ordering of this text is the sudden focus on the worst frailty of the young man's heart - upon his wealth. "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come take up the cross and follow Me." Mark tells us that Jesus loved the young ruler and in the toughness of that love explained his imperfection immediately and wholly! Prove your holiness, he exhorts - give up your favorite sin! Calvin again gets to the heart of the matter when he observes that Christ "says that one thing is wanting, because he does not need to preach to him about fornication and murder, but to point out a particular disease, as if he were laying his finger on the sore. ... Follow me. For he enjoins him not only to become his disciple, but to submit his shoulders to bear the cross, as Mark expressly states. And it was necessary that such an excitement should be applied; for, having been accustomed to the ease, and leisure and conveniences, of home, he had never experienced, in the smallest degree, what it was to crucify the old man, and to subdue the desires of the flesh."

Now let us be quick to affirm the New Covenant teaching that it is the love of wealth and not the possession that is spiritually debilitating in this and in all cases where a person's pride in possessions is at fault. Certainly, there are more than enough passions to engulf the whole human race in the variety of our experiences and character. One man's wealth would keep him from Christ, another's lust, gluttony and on through the hole catholic list of mortal sins - in them we are all found out. Would that the Spirit would reveal to each and every one of you where real spiritual growth is necessary. Sometimes pride is easily noted and rooted out by fellow Christians, otherwise we must learn our ownselves by examination what we must give over to the devil so that we may have Christ wholly and completely.

In several of the papers circulating around Presbytery concerning the proper fencing of the communion table, some would encourage the elders to question all of the saints more and more closely to endeavor some minimal measure of perfection. I do not share those aspirations but believe that those who have been called according to the providence and wisdom of God will be shown by His Spirit their own frailties and encouraged to put on more and more the righteousness of Christ to cover their own character flaws, sins and tendencies to desire what is not worthwhile. And that is the life of sanctification. Now we do not know the final outcome in the life of this rich young ruler. He had still many years to learn the lesson that Christ would reveal to him and just as we pray continuously for friends and relatives in similar situations we can hope that the same Spirit that called him to confront Christ might be the true Spirit of our Father and God in heaven. May He contend daily and always with our own stubborn hearts that they might be softened so that we like the disciples and all the saints may grow in grace, gratitude and reflected holiness because we have found the pearl of great price in our precious Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.