Let's take our Bibles and turn
to Luke 10, Luke chapter 10. The Lord is in an audience of people where there were found some that
despised him, desired to discredit him. And the scripture says in
Luke 10 verse 25, and behold a certain lawyer stood
up and tempted him saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life? Now this lawyer is not a lawyer
like we would think of as A lawyer, but actually a lawyer here was
a professional teacher of the law of God. And the question
that he asked was really a good question. It was a question that
should be given the ultimate attention by every hell-deserving
sinner, which is everybody. This was the same question that
was asked by a rich young ruler in Luke 18, 18, when he said,
good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? A question that was asked by
that rich young ruler that had some restrictions to it, and
the Lord brought him out. And the Lord asked him, what
does the scripture say? He said, well, you know, love
the Lord your God, don't kill, don't steal. And the Lord said,
you've rightly said. He said, well, I've kept all
those from my youth up. I've never done anything, made
no infractions whatsoever. And the Lord said, well, Go sell
all that you have and give it to the poor. Do that and you've
kept all those others perfectly according to your word and you'll
live. Scripture says he went away sorrowfully
because he had a lot of money. And you know that's man by nature. He wants to go to heaven when
he dies, but he's not really willing to give up some things. I mean, you know, it's like those
in Luke 14, verse 15 to 20. One of them that sat at meat
with him heard these things and said unto him, blessed is he
that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said he unto him,
he said, a certain man made a great supper and bade many, and sent
his servant at suppertime to say to them that were bidden,
come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one
consent began to make excuse. The first one said, well, I bought
a piece of ground. I must needs go and see it. I pray thee have me excused.
Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen. I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excused.
Another said, I've married a wife, and therefore, I cannot come. So you ask somebody, do you want
to go to heaven before you die? Oh, yeah. Yeah. What's it going to cost? What's
it going to take? Well, I can tell you what it's
going to take. A total forsaking of everything. Total forsaking. Everything. Aren't you glad that salvation
is by the grace of God and not by our works? Because there's not one of us
in this congregation or any other congregation that truly desires
or can, because of the weakness of our flesh, do that very thing. Well this lawyer stood up, tempted
him, asked that question that that rich young ruler asked.
Also there was a man that, that Philippian jailer. Earthquake
came, Paul and Silas in the jail. He came in, he saw all the doors
open, got his sword out, going to kill himself. Paul said, don't
do yourself any harm. We're all here. He came in, saw
him, and he asked this trembling, and he said, sirs, what must
I do to be saved? And the Spirit of God who obviously
had moved on that man to ask that question with a heart made
tender. Now this lawyer, scripture says,
behold a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him. That rich young ruler came and
he asked the question but he had some restrictions to it and
the Lord knew it and drew him out. This jailer right here said,
what must I do? No restrictions. No ulterior
motive. I'm serious. What must be done? What must I do to be saved? And
Paul, moved by the Spirit of God, didn't send him to the law. He sent him to Christ. He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But not this lawyer. He didn't ask that way. He asked
out of an attempt to perplex the Lord and catch Him. Catch Him contradicting the law. He saw himself as an authority
on the law. And here he is, one who professed
to be skilled in the law of Moses, whose business it was to explain
the law, asked the Lord. who gave the law? And that question had an ill
design. It was a trap. That's what he
was trying to do. He asked him. You see, in his
mind now, he said, I know the answer to this. I'm going to
find out if you do. What is demanded of a sinner?
This is what he's asking. What's demanded of a sinner that
his sins be pardoned? What is demanded of a man to
come before God and be justified in the sight of God? How shall
a man escape the wrath and damnation to come? What must I do to inherit eternal life? Again, that's a question every
hell-deserving sinner ought to be asking. What is demanded? What must I do in order to be
saved, to have eternal life? Now listen, that question needs
to be asked. There is a day of judgment coming.
You know it, you know it, we've read that scripture. In Revelation
20, I saw a great white throne, all men, great, small, stand
before the books were open. I know it's gonna happen. Now
listen, Romans 14, 10, for we shall all stand before the judgment
seat of Christ. Now listen, every one of us here,
we're all gonna stand before God. Everybody's going to be
there, and everybody is going to have to answer either for
themselves, in their own works, in their own decision. What did you do? Well, I walked
down the aisle. Depart. Well, I came to the altar. Depart. I'm here, not in my own merit, but I'm
here only in the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ, who I've cast
myself upon for mercy. I can't, I can't say, I'm trusting
totally in him, in or in. We're all gonna stand there.
And this lawyer asked that question, And rest assured, there's going to
be a day of reckoning. And the Lord even gave a parable
concerning being ready and not being ready. Matthew chapter
22, verses 1 to 14. He gave a parable teaching. And
may the Lord teach us. Matthew 22. One, Jesus answered and spake
unto them by parables and said, the kingdom of heaven is like
a certain king which made a marriage for his son. Now you know that
the Lord's got a bride, you know that. And sent forth his servants
to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they wouldn't
come. Again, he sent forth other servants saying, tell them which
were bidden. Behold, I prepared my dinner. My oxen, my fatlings
are killed. All things are ready. Come to
the marriage. Now here's what I'm saying. Here's what I'm saying.
The Lord has set forth and commissioned me as a pastor. This is what
he's commissioned me to do. You go into all the world and
you preach the gospel to every creature. The gospel is the declaration.
I'm not inviting anybody to exercise their free will. I'm telling
you that the gospel is the declaration of what God Almighty has eternally
purposed and done for a people of His choosing that I know the
Spirit of God is going to call out because Christ has borne
their guilt and put it away at Calvary. And here's what I know. I'm going to preach this message
and I'm going to tell everybody. Come to the marriage. Come to
the marriage. Now you know who's going to come?
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. I don't know
who they are, but I know they're coming. So I'm going to tell
everybody. Somebody says, do you believe in free will? No.
No, I don't. Man's will is dead by nature. But I know this, the Spirit of
God is going to remove that heart of stone, Pat, and He's going
to give him a new heart, a new spirit. I know that. I know salvations
of the Lord. And when the Spirit of God calls
a man or a woman out of darkness, gives them faith to believe,
the Scripture says He will robe them in the righteousness of
Christ. I don't have the ability, they
don't have the ability, but I know that salvation, again, is of
the Lord. I know that. And so I believe God. I believe
Him. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. But they made light of it and went their ways, one
to his farm, another to his merchandise. And the remnant took his servants
and treated them spitefully, slew them. But when the king
heard thereof, he was wroth, sent forth his armies, and destroyed
those murderers, and burned up their city, and then saith he
to his servants, the wedding is ready. But they which were
bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways,
as many as you shall find, bid to the marriage. So the servants
went out to the highways and gathered together all as many
as they found, both bad and good. And the wedding was furnished
with guests. Bad and good. The servants didn't know who
they were. There's tears. They're weak. But I'm going to
tell you something. I'll tell anybody. Come. I had a guy call
me yesterday about a problem. And he said, what do you think
I ought to do? Well, I didn't know the answer
to the problem. But you know the answer I gave
him? I said, won't you come sit? And listen, what else can I tell
him? Tell people, tell people to come.
Well, they won't come. They're going to die. They're
going to die. They're going to die in their
trespasses. Won't you come see it? Just listen. And the king
came in after the wedding was furnished, bad and good, wheat
and tares. I don't know who they are. The king came in to see
the guest, and he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. And he saith unto him, Friend,
how camest thou in hither, having not a wedding garment? And he
was speechless. Then said the king to the servants,
You bind him hand and foot, take him away, cast him out. Out of
darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many
are called, but few are chosen. Now what does the scripture say? preach the gospel, wait on the
Lord, and God's gonna save his people. Well, this lawyer back
in Luke 10 asked the Lord, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life? And the Lord, knowing the heart
of that lawyer, sent that lawyer to the place that he truly wanted
to go. The right place, it was a good
place. He said in verse 26, well what is written in the law? What
must I do to inherit eternal life? Well
what is written in the law? How readest thou? I know that the lawyer wasn't
seeking out of a needy heart. I know that. Unless the Lord
gives a needy heart, no man will. But he asked out of resentment
to the Lord, and he did it to justify himself, prove that he
was right before God. And here's the thing that I know. I know that God Almighty, to
whom belongs Every soul, all souls are mine. Wherever a man or a woman desires
to come before the Lord, where they desire to come before the
Lord, the way they desire to, that's where God's going to meet
them. If He gives a tender heart and they come willing in the
day of His power, He that has drawn them is going to meet them
right there and comfort them. A man, a woman comes before God
wanting to plead their own works, what they've done. You let God
leave a man or woman to themselves, that's where he's gonna meet
you. What must I do? He said, well, what does the
law say? These scriptures that we read,
I've read this before, I'm gonna read it again. This is where
every man, every woman's gonna be judged. The Lord, in John
chapter 12, What a telling passage of Scripture. John 12, 47 to
50. Listen to this. What's the basis
of judgment? What's the basis? What's it going
to be based on? John 12, 47. If any man hear
my words, and believe not. Now listen,
we're hearing words this morning. We're hearing some words. If
any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not, for I came
not to judge the world, but to save the world. Now there's a
day coming when he is gonna judge the world. But he came this first
time to seek and to save that which was lost. He that rejecteth
me and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him. The
word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last
day. For I have not spoken of myself,
but the Father which sent me. He gave me a commandment, what
I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment
is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak therefore,
even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. So listen, let
me tell you, that everything that is brought up when the gospel
is proclaimed, everything you hear, it's coming up again. The books, it's written. It's going to come up. And so
here the Lord has set forth. He said, based on your question,
what must you do in order to be saved? He said, What does
the law say? And the scripture that the lawyer
gave was the right answer. And the Lord commended him for
it. Look at verse 27, 28. And he answered and said, when
the Lord asked him, he said, what does the law say? How do
you read it? How do you read it? Well, he
answered and said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and
with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto
him, thou hast answered right. This do, and thou shalt live. Now what must a man, a woman
do in order to stand before God based upon their works. Now here's the answer. What you
did in order to, in your mind, be saved, whatever you did, whatever
act you committed, it must have been with a heart of love and
respect and praise and honor with no deviation, none whatsoever
to the glory of Almighty God. It must have been done with that
respect that only is accepted by God, which is holy respect,
holy reverence. It must have, without one deviation
of mind, ever, ever, before or since, it must have been executed
with absolute consistency to this word right here, and done
with no self-gratification, nothing in my sense. It was all for the
glory of God, and then on the other hand, that I would love
my neighbor. with absolute unselfish love,
no giving to me of any credit. I'm doing it all to the glory
of almighty God. I'm doing every bit of it. The
Lord said, I'll tell you what, you do that and you're gonna
live. That lawyer spoke from a heart
that he thought was right before God. And the answer of the Lord, when
he told him, he said, you do those things and you will inherit
eternal life. You know, it will always benefit
us to know exactly what scriptures say. It'll always be to our good to
know exactly what the law says. What must I do? What does the
scripture say? What does the law say? How do
you read it? How do you read it? A self-righteous
man, woman, reads the law and says, as the Apostle Paul, Saul
of Tarsus at that time said, all of those things, I was blameless. I did every one of them without
deviation. I never deviated one time. You
know how a believer reads them? I can't do this. I can't do that. How readest thou? No man taught,
no woman taught of God knows. I can't do that. The God of all
grace has to do something for a sinner that a sinner cannot
do for himself. Romans 8.3 says, for what the
law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. The law
is not weak. I'm the weak one. In me, I'm
God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. What does that mean? It
showed the heinousness of it by Christ bearing the sins of
his people and dying for them at Calvary. So the law was given,
not as a rule to follow. Salvation has never been by the
works of the law. It's never been by works of righteousness. Salvation has never been by a
man or a woman's attempting or ability to keep it. It's never
been like that. The law was given, not as a rule
for men to follow, but that which pointed men to Christ. It was
the schoolmaster. The law was given to show us
God's standard of righteousness and our inability to keep it. Paul the Apostle says under Galatians
4.2. Now here's a man that, like I
said at one time, rested in his ability in what he had done.
He said, tell me you that desire to be under the law. Do you not
hear the law? You that want to be under law,
to do in order to be saved. Works, salvation, exercise your
free will. Do you desire to stand before
God in your supposed good works? You want to stand before God?
Do you know what one infraction, do you know the the moment that
you even think, or the moment that you don't think what you
should have thought. Do you realize that you've polluted
the whole of your work? Do you realize that whatever
you're trusting in, whatever you're doing, that your inability
to maintain, well to do it first, or to maintain it, do you realize
the severity of the law and the impossibility to keep it? Have you not read the scripture,
now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that is, obligated to it, those
that are seeking salvation by the law, agreeing in themselves,
I can stand before, I can do this, and I can stand before
God. Do you realize what you're saying? Now we know that what
things soever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped. I'm telling you,
this is what happens when a believer reads the demand for righteousness
before God. Every mouth may be stopped and
all the world may become guilty before God. And that's what a
believer says, Lord, I'm guilty. I hate it. I hate it, but I agree
with you. Lord, I am a sinner. Thanks be
unto God that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of God. The law is that which brings,
directs people. As I said a while ago, the law
was our schoolmaster. It doesn't mean that it teaches
us how to keep it, no, it's the one that one that takes you to the Christ,
takes you to the Lord Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by
faith. Our precious Savior came into this world to obey and to
keep and to honor God's law, and that he did. This is my beloved
son, whom I'm well pleased. You hear him. He is the end of the law, the
scripture says, the end of the law for righteousness. It means
that he, number one, fulfilled it. He's the end of the law.
He's the fulfillment of the law. And also, he's the destination
of the law's purpose for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He
accomplished it. He fulfilled it. He obeyed it. And as the man, Christ Jesus. He finished the work of obedience
and earned righteousness as a man that the scripture declares as
the righteousness of God. The man Christ Jesus, the Word
made flesh, he obeyed every dot, every cross of the T, everything. He obeyed God perfectly. And that's the righteousness
that robes a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they know. Mine is filthy rags. I admit
it. I'm telling you, I know what
it is. So here we learn afresh our need
of Christ's blood to cleanse us from all sin and have that
Righteousness that he earned, imputed, charged to our account. It's ours, it's truly ours. He has given it to us. And the
gifts of God are without repentance. Where God gives faith, where
God gives righteousness, he don't take them back. They're without
repentance. That we might be justified before
God, justified. No infraction of the law, that's
what it means. No charge, no charge. Not one deviation. To
Him alone, we must come for life eternal. Casting ourselves, not
to the law, casting ourselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting
Him, asking Him, Lord, like that, I told you that, Last week I
said this, I think about that thief on the cross. He had one hope. Lord, will you
remember me? When you entered your king, would
you remember me? And the Lord who put that in
his heart by his spirit said, verily I say to you today, you'll
be with me in paradise. We must be found. accepted in
the Beloved. Life is only in Christ. There was a certain lawyer that
stood up and tempted him, and said, Master, what shall
I do to inherit eternal life? And the Lord, knowing his heart,
knowing what he wanted, knowing what he asked, He said, what's
written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering
said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with
all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy
neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, thou hast
answered right. This do, and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself
said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor? And Lord willing, in
this next service, I'm going to preach on what the Lord said
concerning loving his neighbor. And I'm going to tell you this.
The only one that ever loved his neighbor as himself was the
Lord Jesus Christ. I would desire to. But I'm telling
you, salvation is by the grace of God. And we're going to have
no confidence in our flesh. And a believer loves it to be
so. Lord, keep us, help us for Christ's
sake. Amen.