Refuse not He who speaks from heaven
By Ivan Ho 24 Apr 2018
And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.
Luke 18:18-23
Jesus called the rich young ruler to forego his riches to follow him. That was the word of life given to the young man which he sadly rejected because earthly riches were more important to him than to follow the calling of Jesus. This man had been trying to follow the written word of God all his life but when God gave him the spoken word, he failed to follow.
Many people read this story and wonder if the young man was saved or not with some suggesting that he was saved later on in his life even though I see no evidence of it. The real issue, however, is not whether or not this man was saved and went to heaven. The thing is, God spoke to him but for one reason or another, he failed to respond to it.
A lot of us want to hear from God but when God speaks the truth which requires us to change, are we willing to respond? Some respond immediately, others years later after fighting and struggling with the word, still others reject the word until it is too late.
In the rich young man’s case, he failed to respond to Jesus immediately and perhaps never did respond to his call because the price was too great for him.
Notice that Jesus never detoured his journey nor abandoned his call to pursue the young man. He gave His word and the choice was given to the man to follow, or not. After departing from Jesus, the rich young ruler could have continued his life as usual, trying to follow the written word and attending church the rest of his life. Ultimately, however, his destiny was defined by that moment when he failed to respond to the spoken word of Jesus.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.
Hebrews 12:25