It says here in Matthew 19 16
behold one came Said unto him good master. What good thing
shall I do? That's the title of this message.
What good thing shall I do? What good thing shall I do that
I may have eternal life There is one good thing that that all who truly are brought
to believe on Christ shall do. There's one good thing they shall
do. There's one good thing they must
do. But most all who are yet in their natural born state in
Adam, if they do ask this question,
If they do ask this question, ask it with the same problem
that this man had when he asked this question. That problem is self-righteousness and spiritual
ignorance. It's self-righteous pride and
it's spiritual ignorance. Verse 17, he said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? There's none good but one, that's
God. This is how the master answered
him. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
He saith unto him, which? And Jesus tells him, you know
what the commandments are. Thou shalt do no murder. Thou
shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother.
And thou shalt love thy neighbors thyself. Now, what would you say if the Lord
told you that? What would you say if the Lord
said that's what you must do if you have eternal life? This is what this man said. The
young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept from
my youth up. What lack I get? What possibly is there left for
me to do? I've done all these things from
my youth up. Are you like this man? Is there
anybody here like this man? He was earnest and he was sincere.
Mark says he came running to Christ. And he came to Christ. He was orthodox in his creed. Think about that. He believed
in God. He believed the Holy Scriptures.
He believed there was such thing as eternal life. And the fact
of the matter is, the Pharisees, who were the straightest sect
of the Jews, of whom this man seems to be a part, the Pharisees
accurately believed that salvation is by God sovereign election.
They saw firsthand that God made the nation Israel, that God delivered
them out of Egyptian bondage, that God gave them all the blessings
he gave them, and that God passed by all the nations all the way
around them. They knew that doctrine. They
knew the doctrine of particular redemption. When they saw the
high priest, It was their high priest. When they saw him go
into the tabernacle, it was the tabernacle God provided for them. When they saw him go into the
holiest of holies and sprinkle that blood before the mercy seat,
it was the holy place of mercy that God provided for them. And
the lamb that he was slain was a lamb slain whose blood was
shed for them. And it wasn't shed for anybody
else out there around them, for them. This young man had his doctrine
down. This young man was devoutly moral. He says here, since the days
of his youth, he said, I have outwardly kept the law of God.
He had outwardly kept the law of God. And the Lord begins here
by declaring his two essential problems. Verse 17, he said unto
him, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. These are the two problems of
every man born in Adam. These are the two problems of
the majority. According to the Lord Jesus Christ,
broad is the way, broad and many go in there at. According to
the Lord Jesus Christ, these two problems are the two problems
of most, the majority of folks in religion. This young man thought
Jesus of Nazareth was a man come from God, just like Nicodemus
thought he was. And when he came to him and he
called him good, this young man was declaring that he thought
there were some men who were good. And the Lord declared to him,
there is none good but God. None. And the second thing was
is this man came and what he was saying here by calling him
good master was that he didn't understand and know and believe
that Jesus Christ is God, the Lord of salvation. And he didn't
believe on it. These are the two problems that
the majority in religion have even today. He did not believe
he was absolutely ruined by the fall. And he did not believe
on Christ Jesus the Lord. This man was ignorant of all
spiritual truth, and he was full of self-righteousness. Verse 17, the Lord said unto
him, if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
And this man says unto him, which? Just tell me which ones. And then after the Lord tells
him which ones, verse 20, the young man said unto him, all
these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I yet? The law must be kept perfectly. The law must be kept in all points.
The law must be kept at all times. The law must be kept outwardly
and the law must be kept inwardly. God never intended for the law
to be the means or the way of salvation for his people, never. He gave that law to declare His
holy character and to declare our own condemnation and guilt. The Lord said to him, if you
want salvation by human merit, in any shape, form, or fashion,
by your will, by your intellect, by your gnosticism, your understanding
of doctrine, by your casting out of devils, by your religious
morality, if you want salvation by human merit in any shape,
form, or fashion, you have got to keep the law of God perfectly. Perfectly. This young man was
like Paul. He answered as touching the law,
I'm blameless. And he said, what lack I yet?
What do I lack? Mark said, Jesus beholding him
loved him and said unto him, one thing thou lackest. One thing. He lacked the one thing needful. He lacked faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He didn't have Christ. He didn't
have the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to think about this.
He was rich in morality. He was rich in his doctrinal
understanding. He was rich in his religious
duty. He was rich in his sincerity. He was rich in his zeal. But he had never had his stone
heart broken by the power of God. And he had never been given
a new heart and granted repentance and faith to come and truly believe
to cast all his care into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, all that other stuff is worthless without Christ. Every bit of it is worthless
without Christ. But this man was also rich in
money, in temporal possessions. And as much as all these other
religious treasures were his riches, Money was his riches
too. Money was his riches too. And
so the Lord uses his love for his money to show him the vanity
of all these other riches he trusted in. Verse 21, Jesus said
unto him, if thou wilt be perfect. He said, you lack one thing.
He says now, You still want to come by human merit? If you want
to be perfect, here's one more thing you have to do. Go and
sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven and come and follow me. Four things he's told him here.
Four things he said to him to do. The first thing the Lord
commanded this young man was, he said, surrender unto the authority
of the Lord. You know what we've had a problem
with ever since we began thinking ourselves to be as God in the
garden? Submitting ourselves to authority. I don't care how well a man can
preach the gospel. I don't care how well a man looks
outwardly. I don't care how he impresses
you. If he won't submit to Christ and he won't submit to those
God's given to have the rule over him, that man has not submitted
to anybody. He thinks he's God. Period. Period. Go sell all that thou hast and
give to the poor. That's what he's telling him,
surrender everything to my authority. Here's the second thing the Lord
commanded this man to do and asked to trust him. He said there,
after he said all this, he said, and come, and come. Coming to Christ is the act of
faith. That's what faith does, comes
to Christ, unto whom coming. It's not a one time thing, it's
a continual act of grace coming to Christ. And our treasure in
heaven is Christ Jesus. And faith trusts Christ for all
in this life and in the life to come. That's what God-given
faith does. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
He's our provider. He's the one who provides all
salvation in His Son, provides all righteousness in His Son,
provides all justification through the work of His Son, provides
all sanctification through the work of His Son, provides full
redemption through His Son, and provides every temporal thing
we need by His Son. He's the one that does it. And
when we behold that it is by and through and in Christ Jesus
the Lord, the eye of faith beholds our treasure. and it's him, it's
Christ Jesus the Lord. The third thing he tells him,
Mark adds for us over in Mark's gospel, and I'll read this to
you. Mark says that the Lord told him, take up thy cross,
take up thy cross. That's to say the Lord commanded
this man to confess him leaving his former camp completely and
bearing whatever reproach was cast upon him for doing so. The scripture says this, he that
loveth father or mother more than me, this is what Christ
said, he that loveth father or mother more than me, son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his
cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. Look over
at Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13 verse 12. All throughout the Old Testament,
they took, after all those sacrifices, they take their skins and the
dung and the carcasses and they would go out, way outside of
the camp and they would burn those things there. After the
sacrifice had been made, they burned them there. And the scripture
says here, verse 12, Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify
the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. He went without the camp. Let
us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his
reproach. For we have no continuing city,
but we seek one to come. Jerusalem below is not the city. The tabernacle below is not the
house. These treasures below are not
the treasures. Christ is, and if we will go
to him, we're gonna have to go without the camp of all our former
companions, and we're gonna have to believe on him and bear the
reproach from those with whom we once associated. You know, when Paul was called
on the road to Damascus, we just looking at this the other day
over in New Jersey in Acts 26. He said, when I heard this, when
I received this call, he said, I wasn't disobedient to the heavenly
vision. He said, I went to Damascus first
to preach the gospel. And he said, then I went to,
I went back and I preached the gospel, uh, and from Jerusalem
all the way to the, through, through the camp of the Gentiles.
And he said, and for these causes, the Jews have taken me and sought
to kill me. for these causes. Why? I'm going to tell you something. If folks who believe the God
I'm preaching to you hear the gospel that I'm preaching to
you, the Christ I'm preaching to you, and they truly have confessed
Him and are willing to bear His reproach, they'll agree with
me in delighting Him because we're talking about the same
God. And if they don't, they won't. And if they don't, and
they won't. They're going to hate you if
you do. Bear that in mind. And that's what the Lord told
him. You're going to have to bear reproach. And then fourthly,
he commanded this young man to obey him. He said, follow me. Follow me. These are the things
which our Lord requires of all his people. Submission. to his
authority, faith in him, confession, and obedience. This man missed
them all because he had missed Christ. What was his response
when he heard all this? What's your response? Right now
there in your heart where you sit, what's your response? Verse
22, but, but, when the young man heard that
saying, he went away sorrowful for he had grave possessions. Just as much as his religious
riches were his confidence, his security, his gods, so was his
money. And just as much as his money
was his security and his God, so were all his religious riches. And the Lord used this man's
love of money to bring it out, to show it to him, show him how
far he'd come short of the glory of God. He bowed outwardly when
he first came, but in his heart he wouldn't
bow to Christ the King. All his religion, everything,
he appeared outwardly to be professing God, but he couldn't make himself
forsake all for Christ. Couldn't do it. In all his zeal,
he appeared outwardly to be confessing Christ before everybody, but
he couldn't make himself even submit to the thought of bearing
reproach. I'll tell you a good simple way
to put that. What are our sayings, man sayings? Birds of a feather. Birds of
a feather. That's true. He appeared outwardly to desire
obedience to God. Oh, there's a lot of talk about
obedience to God. Let's see about that. Prove it. Will y'all prove that, that you're
zealous to be obedient to God? Will you? Will you prove it? That you're zealous to be obedient
to Christ? But in his heart, he wouldn't
follow Christ. He wouldn't be obedient to him. Verse 23. Then said Jesus unto
his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly
enter into the kingdom of heaven. 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. You know, the
scripture tells us that covetousness is idolatry. It's not just in temporal possessions.
It's in religious possessions, too. Religious riches. And Isaiah,
the Lord said, when I bring them out, and I cause the light of
Christ to shine into their hearts, and they behold the glory of
God in the face of Christ Jesus, he said, you shall cast away
all your idols of silver and gold like it's a menstrual cloth. You'll abhor them that badly.
You'll see exactly what they are. Well, that's all those idols
of silver and gold that God never commanded them to make, that
they made out there outside of the tabernacle and were worshiping
those things. Do you realize how many things
there were in the tabernacle that God commanded them to make
that were silver and gold? The Ark of the Covenant. and they didn't see Christ in
it. They went about all the form and all the ceremony and all
the religious duty and all the religious goings on with a form
of godliness, but all the while, that ark and that tabernacle
and everything about it was nothing more than an idol. just like
today in this day and age right now. Men are building their church
buildings, they're calling in their members, they're going
about all the work of disciplined people, they're preaching about
the body of Christ, but they're not holding the head from whom
all the bands have received their ministering. and are knit together
and increase with the increase of God. It's from Christ that
these things come. That's why you find, you know,
the difference you've heard. The difference you've heard.
You've heard men preach about the head. And not men come putting
your attention on the body. The body's the church. The body's
you who believe. Christ is the head. And the difference
between the gospel I preach and the gospel that men preach that
have made religion into an idol is they're preaching about what
you need to do and not do. They would have had this man
right here back off in a corner somewhere in a discipleship class
and they'd have had him out next week going about trying to win
souls for Jesus. Because he's just the kind of
man religion's looking for. Just the kind. An idolater. Somebody that worships his service
and doesn't worship Christ the head. Read Colossians, that's
exactly what Paul told the saints in Colossians. He said, the reason
these men are puffed up in their fleshly mind and they're telling
you do this, don't do that, do this, don't do that, they're
trying to turn your attention away from Christ is they don't
behold the head from whom the whole body receives its nourishment. Religion is an idolatry just
as much as it's covetousness. It's desiring to come to God
in my religious riches. Didn't we do many wonderful works
in your name? Didn't we cast out devils in
your name? There'd be a lot of folks right now in our day and
time that would be real disappointed if Christ came back right now.
Because one, they got so many temporal possessions in this
earth, so many riches in this earth, but mainly because they're
too busy going about doing the work of God to have Christ to
come back and interrupt things. Kind of makes it sound ridiculous,
doesn't it? It is. That's what God's, that's
what God in human flesh is manifesting to this rich young ruler. It's
all been in vain. And when his disciples heard
it, verse 25, they were exceedingly amazed and they said, who then
can be saved? Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said
unto them, with men, this is impossible, but with God, all
things are possible. Everything that he told this
man to do is possible with God. Salvation's not a work of man.
This is the first point. Salvation's not a work of man,
it's a work of God. He saw there was no man. He wondered
that there was no intercessor. Therefore, his own arm brought
salvation unto him and his own righteousness sustained him.
You see, he told this man, keep the whole law. If you want to
come in human marriage, keep the whole law. None of God's
children could. So he sent forth his son. And
have you ever noticed Adam broke one commandment? One. But when Christ came, he was
made under the law and all the host of commandments that was
given in Israel he came under all those and it manifests to
us how fully obedient he is and how fully righteous and faithful
Christ Jesus the Lord is in that he he had in undoing what Adam
had done for the elect remnant that God gave it to him before
the world began he had to not keep one commandment he had to
keep all these commandments and he did with men this is impossible
but with God This is possible. He did it. He said, my meat's
to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish the work. And that's the last thing, he
is finished. He's finished. Salvation, here's
the second thing. Salvation is the work of God
whereby he declares his righteousness, not man's righteousness. Listen, let me give you a tip.
If you want to focus on you, and you want to focus on what
you ought to be doing and ought not to be doing, things that's
going to make you feel better, and it's going to entertain you,
and it's going to give you some assurance by your own hand, watch
Oprah Winfrey, or watch Dr. Phil, or something like that.
Just leave God out of it. Just leave God out of it. This
is not psychology. This is not some psychiatric
work. This is not something that's
designed to entertain you like a movie would do. This is God
declaring how you came out of His presence, was cast out of
His presence, and how He forbids you to come into His presence,
and how He's going to bring whom He will back into His presence
and do it in a righteous and just manner. That's what this
gospel is about. Now the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. If you're still using that Bible
that says faith in Christ, I'd throw that thing out in a creek.
Because that changes the whole gospel. It makes the gospel be
by your faith in Christ, the righteousness of God to be manifest
by your faith in Christ and not by the faith of Christ Jesus,
the Son of God. And that's night and day from
the gospel. That's the gospel over here that
man's preaching and the gospel over here that's the true and
living God. The righteousness of God is not manifest in what
we do, not even in our faith. It's manifest by the faithfulness
of God's Son. God set Him forth to be satisfaction,
and He made satisfaction. We're justified freely by His
grace, not by our work. He says He came forth to declare
God just and the justifier of him that believeth. Where's boasting
then? You've done nothing. I've done
nothing. None of my righteousness has done anything to declare
the righteousness of God. I have no righteousness. I've
done absolutely nothing to declare His righteousness. Where can
I boast? I can't boast. It's excluded.
What law, what principle, what concept excluded my boasting? Was it works or was it faith? It was faith. And do we then make void the
law through faith? God tells us we have to keep
his commandments. He told this man, you've got
to keep the commandments of God. How am I going to do that if
I can't do that? The faith God gives, trust Christ
to have completely, totally, thoroughly, absolutely done it
for me. And I'm established in him. I've
done the whole lot. With men, this is impossible.
But with God, this is possible. Well, here's the third thing.
Salvation is an inward work within the sinner whereby God creates
a new man and gives a new heart. You see, this man had all this
outward stuff, but what defiled him? His heart. The heart. Not this thing in here that's
pumping in my chest. His very nature. Everything he
is in Adam, that's what defiled him. That's what defiles man. It's not what goes in his mouth.
It's not what he eats or he don't eat that defiles him. It's what
comes out of the heart that defiles a man. Righteousness has got
to be wrought for His people, and righteousness has got to
be imparted to His people. And by that, I don't mean that
you have some kind of righteousness by your hand. I mean He's got
to create you anew in the righteousness and true holiness of Christ Jesus.
Christ's got to be formed in you and in me. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, It's the gift of God. Lest any
man should do what? Boast. Because of what? Why? Because we're His workmanship. The work of His hand. Clay in
the hands of the potter. His workmanship. Salvation. Here's the fourth
thing. Salvation is an effectual work of God, not a man. It means he gets it done. He
gets it done. With man, this is impossible.
With God, this is possible. Christ said it's the spirit that
quickeneth the flesh profits nothing. Nothing. Without me,
you can do nothing. That's what Christ said. Here's the word. Blessed is the
man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he
may dwell in thy courts. And you know what happens when
that happens? We, every one of us, since Abraham, since Abel,
every one of us, up to this hour right now, in this place and
in that place over there, in this place and in that place
way down in that part of the country, in this place and way
over in another part of the world, we all, you know what we all
do? Every one of us, you know what we all do? we shall be satisfied with the
goodness of God's house, even of his holy temple. Where
has God the Father, with whom has God the Father been satisfied
from before he ever created this world? His son. And when he effectually works
this work of grace in the heart of his people, you know what
he does, Lenore? He makes us satisfied with the one he's been
satisfied with from all eternity. The goodness of his house. The
Lord said there's none good but one, and that's God. And he was
telling that man, and he's standing right here before you. This is
the goodness of his house. Are you satisfied with him? That's
what Christ was telling that man. I'm the goodness of God's
house. Are you satisfied with me? With men this is impossible,
but with God all things, all of these things are possible.
Why then do you tell folks these things? Why would we even say
these things? If none of these things are possible
with men, and they're only possible with God, why would we tell men
these things? What's the point? The fatalists will say, well
if I can't do anything, I'm just going to head out the door and
do what I want to do. The religious man said, you can't
tell people that stuff. If you do, they'll do what they
want to do. And oh, God forbid we do what we want to do. You know what I do? Let me tell
you what I do every waking hour. Exactly what I want to do. You know what I do when I come
to the house of God? Whether I drive 30 minutes or I drive
two hours or I drive 12 hours like I'm going to do, Lord willing,
First week in September and going down to Danville, you know what
I'm gonna do? Exactly what I wanna do. When I'm in the house of
God and I'm hearing his gospel preached and my heart's overflowing
and rejoicing in Christ, you know what I'm doing? Exactly
what I wanna do. If you believe God, you know
what you do? Exactly what you wanna do. If you don't trust
Christ, all your religion is, is doing things you really don't
want to do, and folks constantly trying to keep you from doing
what you really would like to do. Let me give you proof of
that. Our folks meet on Sunday morning,
and they meet on Thursday night, midweek. I have never once constrained
them, put any restraints on them in any way, and said you have
got to be at those services. Never. And you know what they
do? They come anyway. You know why? They're doing exactly what they
want to do. And you take a man who's sat under the Sabbatarians
of our day, and he's been whipped and beat and beat and beat, that
he's got to be in the Lord's house. He's got to be there.
He's got to be there. If they don't, the Gestapo's
coming to his house, knock on his door, want to know what's
wrong. And that man gets brought out from that, and he comes to
a place where now that yoke's not on him anymore, and he stops
showing up. You know what he's manifesting?
He never was doing what he wanted to do, and now he's going to
do what he wants to do. But you know that whole time
he was sitting there going through that religious charade? He never
was there. He never was there. His body
was there, but he wasn't there. That host that came out of Egypt
and kept murmuring and complaining against Moses and looking back
and looking back, you know what they did? They never did leave
Egypt. They never did. They were still
just as one with Pharaoh. They hated his whip, they hated
his yoke, and they just loved it if they got to do the yoking
and the whipping. And that's what man is by nature. Every
religious man is that by nature. Hates it and loves it. Hates
it when it's done to him, but loves to do it to others. That
Lot's wife, when she came out, She came out in body, but she
never did come out. She proved it by looking back.
She never came out. God's people come out and they
follow Christ. They submit to Him. They confess
Him. They follow Him. He's their treasure. They submit
to His authority. They submit to those God has
given to have the rule over them, to pastor them, and lead them,
and guide them in spirit and truth. And they do so rejoicing
because He is King of kings and Lord of lords. And He really
does reign in the hearts of His people. And I don't have to yoke
you to make you enter into that. And you don't have to yoke me.
We claim we believe sovereign, irresistible grace, and then
we show we don't. Now how are we gonna force people
to do what we, these scriptures? And by doing that, we're not
doing these scriptures. We turn the grace of God into
lasciviousness. We have a form of godliness,
but we deny the power of God. That's why I tell you, I tell
you this, same reason the Lord told him this, because this rich
young ruler was eventually saved. God eventually called him by
his grace. How do you know that? The Lord
loved him. The Lord loved him. God's love's
not this fickle, sentimental junk that men talk about. God's
love saves. God's love's everlasting. God's
love's effectual. God's love accomplishes its end. One of you children here, your
parents say you love these children. One of these children here are
about to perish. And you don't do anything to
bring them out of that loss of life because you love them and
you just don't want to offend their will. You know what I'm
going to say to you? You don't love that child. If
you loved him, you'd have saved him. God loves his children. And he saves them. He saves every
one of them. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. And therefore, because I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, I have drawn thee in loving
kindness. God's love saves. And I tell
you this because you've got to beware of the deceitfulness of
the human heart. It will not be sin that keeps
you from Christ. That won't be what keeps you
from him. When you really make to know
what you are, you'll flee to him. It'll be your self-righteousness
that keeps you from him. you don't need him. The whole
have no need for a physician. No need. Sick men don't go to
doctors. I mean, well men don't go to
doctors. And I tell you this gospel because
you've got to bow to the claims of the sovereign Christ. You
must believe on the Son of God. You must confess Christ as Lord
and Savior and you must follow him. And you can't know him of
whom you've not heard. This is a gospel through which
God breaks the stony heart and gives a new heart in those He's
everlasting love to all those whom His Son has fully redeemed. Now, if you will not believe
on Christ, it's not because Christ is not
able. It's not because Christ is not willing. It's not because
Christ is not ready to save sinners. It's because you will not come
to Christ that you might have life. You'll go to all these other
things that the rich young ruler went to. You'll say, what do
I lack? Just tell me what to do. But
when told this, flee to Christ, you will not come to Christ that
you might have life. But if you do believe on Him, if you do believe on Him, you'll
do so rejoicing that it's entirely, entirely
because of His sovereign effectual grace. And this is The one thing thou
shalt do. With men, it's impossible. But
with God, all these things are possible. And when he works this
work of grace, this is the one thing thou shalt do. And you will have eternal life.