You look at verse 22, and we're
talking about the rich young man who came to the Lord, asking
the question, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal
life? And in those first words, we
see his total ignorance and misunderstanding of the law He claimed to be a
law keeper, you know, as the Lord confronted him with the
second table of the law, which involves love to our neighbor.
And you remember I said last week, the reason the Lord, I
believe he did this instead of bringing forth the first table,
which has to do with our relationship to God, is because it's so easy
for us to talk about how much we love God. and to think we're
demonstrating that. And I know believers are. You know, just to worship God,
that's an expression of our love for Him. And we know that our
love for Him is not yet perfect because we have the presence
of the flesh that pulls at us and tugs at us in a sinful way.
That's that warfare. But this man, he claimed to love
God perfectly, And Christ brought forth the second table of the
law because it's not as easy to prove to people that we love
each other perfectly. Now, we can claim it, you know,
just like I told you about the sign on Dawson Road out there,
you know, we love Albany. Yeah, okay. I believe you, I believe you.
You know how things are, you know, and I quote my little poem,
you know, to dwell above with saints we love will be an awesome
glory. To dwell below with saints we
know, well, that's another story. We have our problems, but we
should arise above them. We should pray that God would
give us a heart of forgiveness, a heart of repentance, sorrow
over sin, give us a desire to fight the urges of our selfishness,
all of that. But we know that our salvation
is not based on our love to God or our neighbor. Our salvation
is based upon His love to us in Christ. which provided a propitiation
here in his love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. I think on our television program,
I did a three-part message on the word propitiation. I don't
know if it started there or if that was the second one, because
I didn't catch it right at the first. But that's so important
for us to understand. that we're sinners saved by grace. And this man did not understand
that. He wondered what good thing I must do to have eternal life.
And what all was in his mind? Well, we know that he thought
he was keeping the law. Remember he said when Christ
quoted him the second table, look at verse 20, the young man
saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up.
So we know, first of all, that he's ignorant of the reality
of the law. The Apostle Paul, before he was
converted, turn over to Romans chapter seven. Before the Apostle
Paul, I didn't put this in your lesson, but I just wrote a note
out yesterday when I was going over the lesson again, just getting
familiar with it. But look at Romans 7, the apostle
Paul, he was in the same shape that this young man was. In fact,
there are a lot of commentators who say that they believe this
young man was Paul of Tarsus. Now, there's absolutely nothing
in scripture that would back that up, okay? All right, that's
just speculation. So I won't say that he was Paul
of Tarsus, but he's just like Paul of Tarsus before he was
Saul of Tarsus, before he was converted, just like him. And
how do you know that? Well, he says in verse nine of
Romans seven, he says, for I was alive without the law once. Now
Paul was brought up under the law of Moses, being taught wrong,
just like this young man, that salvation and righteousness could
be attained by our law keeping. That's what they were taught.
That's what all Israel was taught by the Pharisees and the Sadducees
and the scribes. And that's why Christ told them
in Matthew five and verse 20, except your righteousness exceed
theirs, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.
So here's this man who'd been keeping the law in his mind,
been keeping the law all from his youth up, And now he comes
to Christ and says, well, what good thing? It's almost like
he said, what more can I do? That kind of idea. And Paul says
in verse nine of Romans 10, for I was alive without the law once
before I understood the law. That's what he means. But when
the commandment came, now what he's talking about there is when
the Holy Spirit showed him the reality of what the law requires. not only obedience in the outward
expression of it, but obedience in thought, in word, also in
deed, in motive. The law reaches to the heart
and he says, when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. In other words, that which I
thought was my life keeping me alive, making me alive, killed
me. You've heard of talking about
being slain in the spirit? Well, that's it right there.
These Pentecostals, when they come out and hit people in the
forehead and they go down, that's not being slain in the spirit. That's just false religion. You
understand that. But when you see the law, by
deeds of law shall no flesh be justified. And that's what Paul
said. And then in verse 10, he said,
and the commandment which was ordained to life. In other words,
the problem's not with the law. If anybody who keeps the law,
they have life. Somebody said, well, you can
be saved if you keep the law. If you can keep the law, you
don't need to be saved. You understand that? Salvation
is for sinners. who fall short of the law, you
see? So if you can keep the law, you
don't need to be saved. You don't need salvation, you
don't need Christ. So he says, but when the commandment came,
sin revived in me, and the commandment which was ordained to life, I
found to be unto death. And he says in verse 11, for
sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me. Now the law didn't deceive me.
Sin deceived him. You see that? And that's the
problem with this young man over here in Matthew 19. What good
thing must I do to have eternal life? He's deceived. He's misled. He's been taught wrong. And of
course, Christ told him, he said, well, if you will be perfect,
go and sell all that you have, give to the poor, and you'll
have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. Well, you
notice here in verse 20 of Matthew 19, the last question he has
is, what lack I yet? Well, I can tell you what he
lacked, and Christ told him that in that statement. Now, look
at that statement again in verse 21. Jesus said to him, if thou
wilt be perfect, and of course, he's talking about the perfection
of the law, Go and sell all that thou hast, give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow
me. What did he lack? Well, number
one, he lacked a perfect righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice. He was trying to get it by his
works, thought he had it, but he didn't understand. It's
like in Romans 10. He had a zeal of God, but not
according to righteousness. He was ignorant of God's righteousness,
going about to establish one of his own. And then what does
the Bible tell us in Romans 10, 4? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So he lacked
a perfect righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
And what I've got here, at this point, he also lacked faith in
Christ. Come and follow me, Christ said.
That's faith. God-given faith. And that's the
evidence of a sinner having been made righteous by the imputation
of Christ's righteousness to him. You see? So he didn't believe
in Christ. He didn't have a righteousness.
He didn't believe in Christ, who's the only way of righteousness.
What is the way of eternal life? Christ. His blood to wash away
my sins. His righteousness to justify
me before God. And so what this did, when Christ
confronted this man with this question, when he said, go and
if thou will be perfect, verse 21, go and sell that thou hast,
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and
come and follow me. He's meeting this man at his point of rebellion,
and what we find out is the man, not only was he ignorant of the
righteousness of God, he also had an unholy love for riches. an unholy love for riches. Look
at verse 22. This is, but when the young man
heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. What are you talking about, sell
all that I have, give up all that I have? He had great possessions. He loved the world and the things
of the world more than the things of God. Remember in the, Matthew
13 on the thorny ground here, he left the gospel because of
the deceitfulness of riches. He loved the things of the world
more than the things of God. Now, let me talk about that just
for a moment. I put in your lesson, you all
have heard of the health and wealth gospel. That's a false
gospel. That's a false gospel that tells
people that if you obey God and you believe hard enough, God
will make you rich in the things of this world. If you're sick or you're poor,
it's your fault because you're not doing enough for God. And
they'll even tell people this. I mean, there's one guy on TV,
every time he comes on, that's all he talks about is how you
get money from God. And he says, you know, that it's
God's will that you be rich. that all of his people be, well
you know that that's false. And they'll miss you scriptures.
When it comes, I think I've got one quoted here, yeah. It's where
Christ said, this is 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. It says Christ, or what
Paul wrote by the Holy Spirit, for you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich. And
you know what that means. That's talking about the riches
of God's grace and mercy in our salvation. And we are all equally
rich. Ephesians 1 3, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. I'm not more blessed with the
riches of God's grace than any of you who are saved. We're all
equally, and we didn't earn it and didn't deserve it. It didn't
come to us because we worked harder and did more and prayed
harder and believed more. It didn't come to us that way.
It came to us solely by the death of Christ. The riches of his
grace. But they'll turn that into money.
He became poor so that I could have money. Now, you know that's a lie. And
when it comes to health, anybody know what verse they go to for
that? There's probably several. But
Isaiah 53, by his stripes you are healed. Oh, I've heard that.
That's not talking about physical healing. Now it may be God's
will that you be physically healed. It may not be. I do know this. It is appointed by God unto man
once to die. You're not gonna get out of this
world alive. All right? So somehow it's gonna happen,
either by what we call an accident or by sickness or whatever. But when he says by his stripes
we're healed, he's talking about our spiritual healing from the
sickness of sin and death. And we're all equally healed
in that way if we're in Christ. So when we talk about health
and wealth, you know that's a lot. But look at what Christ said,
now go to verse 23. He says, then said Jesus unto
his disciples, verily I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly
enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, you know and I know that
he's not saying that a person who's rich in money and material
goods cannot be saved. That's not what he's saying at
all. Because if you look in the Bible, you'll know that there
were plenty of God's sheep who were rich in this world. And
I listed a few of them. Abraham, he was rich. Jacob,
David, Solomon, Philemon. Now, we do see in some cases
where material riches didn't do them any good, messed them
up, but they were rich. But we also know of true children
of God who were poor. And then, obviously, Christ himself,
physically in this world. Think about that. Think about
the contradiction. You know, I love that verse in
Hebrews, I think it's chapter 11. It said the contradiction.
Sinful people putting the Lord of glory to death. And of course,
we know it was all the will and the power and the predestination
of God. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. But think about God manifest
in the flesh, and he didn't have any place to lay his head. I
know there was a silly argument, debate, amongst two Catholic
monk orders, and this is silly, over whether or not Christ owned
the clothes that he wore. Now how silly is that? But that's the way people are.
And listen, I'm not just making fun of people like that, because
I know we'd be just about like that if it weren't for the grace
of God. I understand that. But Christ
was poor. And in his poverty, he gave us
his riches. All of that. It's not that a
person who's rich in money or lands or material things cannot
be saved. What the Lord is pointing out
here is that any pursuit of and love for riches that keeps a
person from seeking and worshiping and serving the Lord, trusting
the Lord, and loving his people, Any pursuit of riches that keeps
that person from looking to Christ as it did this man here, that's
evil. And so that's the covetousness
which is idolatry that Paul spoke of in Colossians 3. And so you
all have heard it said this way and it's true. It's not money
that's the root of all evil, it's the love of money and it's
the kind of love that keeps a person from trusting in and following
Christ. That's the guy. And turn over
to 1 Timothy, what it says here. And I meant, I put 1 Timothy
6, nine through 10. I meant to put
1 Timothy 6, nine through 10 and 17 through 19. And here's
what it says. If the Lord has blessed you,
with material wealth, and also, now, before I get to that, think
about, you remember the rich man in Luke, what is it, Luke
12, or I can't remember? He filled up his barns, and what
am I gonna do? I'm gonna build bigger barns,
and the Lord said, thou fool, this night your soul will be
required of you. That's all he was concerned with.
But what the Lord, he cautions, look at verse nine of 1 Timothy
chapter six. He says, but they that will be
rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition,
that's damnation, For the love of money is the root of all evil,
which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. And then look
down at verse 17. Charge them that are rich in
this world that they be not high-minded. In other words, thinking that
I'm better than you or I've done more than you and that's why
I've got this. See what I'm saying? That's high-minded. You know,
well, I know I'm doing something right because I'm rich and you're
doing something wrong because you're poor. Now that's high
mindedness, all right? And so he says, nor trust in
uncertain riches. You know what people think? Well,
if you're rich, the Lord's really blessed you. Really? It may be a curse. Thou fool. This night thy soul shall be
required of thee. Did his riches give him a blessing? No, it was a curse. He said, nor trust in uncertain
riches, but in the living God. And I always loved, when I first,
the first time I ever went through verse by verse the book of Ecclesiastes,
it was a real eye opener to me. Because basically what it says
there is look, if the Lord's blessed you materially, there's
nothing wrong with you enjoying those things. But realize this,
and this is the underlying phrase, it is a gift from God. It's a
gift. You say, well, I worked hard.
Well, great, God's the one who gave you the power and the strength
and the mind to work hard. What if he put you on, what if
he had to use a cane, you know, or whatever? What if you didn't
have those advantages? Because God gave them to you,
and you didn't earn them, and you didn't deserve them. See? And so he says, but in the living
God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, nothing wrong
with a person enjoying what God has given them if they put it
in the right perspective. And it says that they do good.
to glorify God and to help that they be rich in good works, ready
to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves
a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay
hold of eternal life. Now, what does that mean? That
means I'm gonna enjoy what God's given me, but I'm gonna use it
for His glory and the good of His people, helping people in
need, all of that. That's what he's talking about.
So go back to Matthew 19 now. When he says that the deceitfulness
of riches, and he says those who fall prey to that, like this
young man who went away sorrowful because he had much great possessions. In other words, he's spiritually
dead, he's unfruitful. And so, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be
added to you, Matthew 6, 33. We'll look at verse 24. Now,
he says, and again I say unto you, it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God. That's a proverbial saying among
the Jews expressing an impossibility. that it's easier to push a camel
through the Ivany. I know you'll go to a lot of
commentators and they'll talk about a gate that's in the Waldron,
blah, blah, blah, all right, whatever. It's easier for a camel
to do, it's impossible for a camel to get through whatever he's
talking about, okay? And so it's easier for that to
happen than for a person who is in love with their riches
to the point that they forsake God and forsake Christ to be
saved. In other words, an impossibility.
It's just not going to happen. So, all of this is said in light
of our fallen, sinful natures that cause us to love self rather
than Christ and one another. And that's what we have to fight.
That's what we have to fight. Those who are blessed materially
with health, You know, look over at Jeremiah. Well, yeah, I think it's chapter
nine, isn't it? I don't like to do this, because
I didn't put this down in the lesson. I don't like to take
time looking up verses. But I want you to see this. Jeremiah
9. If I can find it. Yeah, verse 23, Jeremiah 9, 23. Mark this in your Bible. And
this is quoted in 1 Corinthians 1, but I wanted to read it from
here. He says, thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory
in his wisdom. If the Lord has made you smart,
you may have a high IQ. Well, don't glory in it, boast
in it. Neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. If the Lord's made you healthy
and strong, don't glory in it, brag about. Let not the rich
man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth glory
in this. If you're gonna boast, here's
where you're gonna boast. That he understandeth and knoweth
me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment,
and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight,
saith the Lord. Why would I glory in that? Because
that's a gift from God. That glorifies Him and not me. Because as I said, I'm a recipient
of things which I didn't earn and didn't deserve. sinners saved
by grace. All right, go back to Matthew
19, we'll close with this. Look at verses 25 and 26. Now
I'm gonna come back next week and pick up with these verses
and go to the end of the chapter. But look at verse 25. When his
disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, who
then can be saved? Now that sounds strange coming
from the disciples because Christ had been teaching them all along
about grace, salvation by grace, and they looked at this man,
but you know, we all have that tendency, you know, as one preacher
said, we're all recovering Pharisees. And they look at this man and
they say, man, he's rich, he's been, in the eyes of men, he's
moral, he's religious, he's zealous. If he can't be saved, who can
be? Well, nobody can be saved by their works. I don't care
who they are. I don't care how good they appear.
You know, we talk about people in our society that we know.
We'll say, well, he's such a kind person. He's such a good person
in the eyes of men. But nobody can be saved, forgiven, made
righteous by their works. I don't care who they are, how
nice they are. We'll even say they're humble,
not before God. The only humble ones before God
are those whom God has brought down and brought them at the
feet of Christ. So understand that. So who then
can be saved? And here's the answer. But Jesus
beheld them and said to them, with men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible. Who then can be saved? All whom
God chooses to save. all whom God sent Christ to save. Salvation is of the Lord, period,
in every aspect of it, from its beginning to its culmination
and everything in between. And it's all based upon the work
of obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ, his blood,
his righteousness alone. That's the way of eternal life,
okay.