Luke chapter 18. And we'll begin our reading in
verse 18. 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, honor thy father and thy mother. And he said,
all these things 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 it 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. And when Jesus saw that
he was very sorrowful, he said, how hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of God. For it is easier for
a camel to go through the needle's eye than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said,
Who then can be saved? And he said, These things which
are impossible with men are possible with God. Then Peter said, Lo,
we have left all and followed thee. And he said to them, verily
I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house or parents
or brethren or wife or children for the kingdom of God's sake
who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and
in the world to come life everlasting. Now, we go back to verse 18 here. We see that this man, this ruler,
a certain ruler, and we know this from Mark's gospel that
this man was a rich young ruler. I'm sorry, Matthew's gospel.
We learn that this man was a rich young ruler. He was a young ruler. And this man before us in this
passage is truly A marvelous fellow. This is an outstanding
man. This man before us is truly what
the world would call a successful man. A successful man. He was surely the envy of all
of those around him. Consider this, that he was a
rich, young ruler. How many elderly men have spent
all their youth trying to amass wealth and here's this young
fella and he's already got wealth. He was the envy of everyone. This was a very successful man
and he obtained wealth at a very early age and this man was not
only rich but he was powerful. He was a ruler. He was a man
that everybody went to for counsel. This was a man of great power. And this man was very moral and
religious. He was a religious man. When
Jesus Recited this part of the commandments. He this man comes
and asks. What do I do to inherit eternal
life? Jesus said this, you know the commandment this guy knew
the commandments of God. He said well don't commit adultery
don't kill don't steal don't lie and Obey your parents honor
your mother and father and you look at this what this man said
in verse 21 all these have I kept since I was a young boy and Since
I was young, I've done all that. This man was remarkable. That's what Paul says about himself
concerning the law. He said, I was blameless. You
couldn't point out anything that I'd done. And the same is true
of this man. He boldly stood in the face of
the Lord Jesus and he said, yes, I've kept all those from my youth
up. I've done that. I'm sure that if he was not married,
that this boy, everybody who had a daughter wanted their daughter
to marry this fella. He had it all. He had it all. He was moral, he was upright,
he was successful, and he was young. And I'll tell you, if
this man was a married fella, he was a good husband. He said,
don't commit adultery. Obviously, this guy said, I ain't
done that. I've been a good husband. This man was great of moral character. Now behold, in this man is the
best and brightest that the world could ever offer. This man here
is a symbol of what the best nature can do. This man had it
all. He had everything a man could
desire. Luke says that he was very rich,
very rich. The testimony of this man was
that he was highly moral. He's kept all these from his
youth up. Yet this man had something that was missing. This man had
something that was amiss. He had a great need. This man
had all the world could afford and yet there was something that
his money, his power, or his morals could not buy. And here
it is in verse 18, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life? In Mark's gospel regarding this
account, the scripture says that this man ran to Jesus. This man came with a sense of
urgency. This man was convicted. This
man had some kind of conviction that he knew that he must have
eternal life and all that he had could not provide it. So
he comes running to Jesus and he bows down with a great knee
and said, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
This man who had it all, riches, youth, and religion knew He knew
there was something more than these things. His conscience
could not be quieted by the fleeting things of earth. And he set his
eyes on eternal matters. His riches, he knew, would soon
perish and could not buy his life. He knew that his youth
was fading and he would soon die, therefore he comes running. This man came to Jesus understanding
his own mortality. And that no amount of wealth
or religion could stop his march toward the grave. Have you been
made to see this truth concerning yourself? Have you been made to see your
mortality? Are you aware that all flesh
is grass and the flower of grass is the glory of man? The grass
withereth and the flower fadeth away. Do you know that? Do you
know that? Friends, life is as grass. It
rises up in the morning and in the evening is burnt and withered
away. In other words, we all will soon
wither and die. Wither and die. And all the glories
of man is as a flower of grass. What are the glories of man?
Riches, honor, praise, wealth. Religious and good deeds, all
of these are the flower of grass. Sometimes when the grass grows
out there, my daughter will go outside and she'll start picking
up weeds, flowers, they look like flowers, but that's just
what they are, weeds. What is our best? Our best is
nothing but the flower of grass, is nothing but weeds that'll
soon fade away. In Ecclesiastes chapter 2, the
wise man, the preacher says this. He said, I gathered all the wealth
that I could get. Solomon said, I was the wisest
of men. And yet, it vexed his soul to
understand this. As the wise man dies, so does
the fool. There's all we all go to one
place you and I are both headed to one place the grave That's
where we're going That's where we're headed Some faster than
others, but I tell you we're all headed there. I What then will your riches and
treasure and power and family profit you when you are ushered
into the presence of God to be judged? What will they profit
you? What will all your work, all
your labor, all your efforts to please men, what will that
profit you before God? How shall you stand before God
and be accepted of Him into His eternal kingdom? If it is your desire to be accepted
of God, to inherit eternal life that He alone can give. And don't
you think it would be wise for you to know who God is? If you're
going to meet God, don't you think it'd be wise to know who
He is? Every man by nature knows there
is a God. Survey says 100 out of 100, everybody
knows there's a God. Everybody does. Listen to me,
all proclaimed atheists, I'll give you something very profound
here. Something very profound. All atheists are liars. That's it. You meet an atheist,
you've met a liar. And I tell you, one day God will
soon remove his veil, which is nothing more than an ostrich
puts his head in the ground. That's all they're doing. They
know that there is a God. Scripture tells us plainly that
every man knows there's a God. But no man by nature can know
who he is. They know there's a God, but
they can't know who he is. Go over to Romans. You can see
this. Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 and verse 18. The Apostle says here, Apostle
Paul says in verse 18, For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them. For God has showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen. being understood by the things
that are made, even the eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse. Did you hear that? Every man's
without excuse. You look at the world, you look
at the creation, and you know there is a God. I love this account. Sir Isaac Newton had a friend
who was an atheist and he went to a smith and he had a model
of our solar system made. Very intricate, detailed model
of the solar system. And he put that out in the middle
of his room there and when his friend came in, he noticed it
right away and he said, This is brilliant. This is brilliant. Who made this? And Newton without
looking up said, nobody. And he said, well, no, no, I
really want to know who made this. And he said, well, nobody. It just appeared out of thin
air. And his friend became very upset
with him because he stuck to this. He kept to this the whole
time they were talking. He wouldn't relinquish who made
this. And he said, now tell me. I know somebody made this. And
Isaac Newton said, how in the world can you possibly believe
someone made this, a model of the universe, a model of our
solar system, and yet not believe that there was a creator that
made the original. You see, they're without excuse.
So we don't need to spend a lot of time debating them. I think
that's foolish. You debate an atheist, you might
as well debate somebody that believes in the tooth fairy.
They're just liars. So every man knows there's a
God, and they're without excuse. But what they may know of God
is only His Godhead. They may know only His power. They may know only His majesty. But yet, man knowing this, they
still will not worship Him as God. They will not bow down to
Him as sovereign. even though they know this. So
what do they do? They profess themselves to be
wise, they become a fool, they change the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like corruptible man. What does man do? Man is
a God factory. Man knows there's a God, and
so what does he do? He doesn't worship God as God,
he makes a God of his own thoughts, of his own imagination. The God of natural man is nothing more than an idol.
The God that you make up in your mind is nothing more, nothing
better than a stone overlaid with gold. It's just an idol. Man by nature is never without
religion or without a God. I like this, one archeologist
said this, you would sooner find a civilization without an alphabet
or a language than you would find them without a temple. Consider
that. That man by nature is religious,
but yet he cannot know who God is. Man cannot know who God is, and
he does not know what God requires of His creatures. How then may
man know? How is it that men know who God
is? If you must go to the grave,
if you must die, and you must stand before God, then it's incumbent
upon you to know who God is and know what He demands. How are
you going to know that? Only through the gospel of Jesus
Christ. That's what Paul said. He said
in Romans, he said, I am not ashamed of the gospel. The not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth. For the Jew first and also to
the Greek for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. From faith to faith. The righteousness
of God is revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the only
place God and his what he demands is only revealed in the gospel
of Christ. Now go back to your text, go
back to your text, look at this. When this rich young ruler came
to him, this is what Jesus did first. He wanted to show this
man that he didn't know who God, he didn't know who God was. Look
at this, he said, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal
life? And Jesus answered him and said, why callest thou me
good? Why are you calling me good? There's only one good, God. There's only one good, God. If one sees his mortality and
desires to be accepted of God, he must know who God is. Jesus
was called good master. And truly, he is the good master. But this man only saw another
good man. That's all he saw. He said, why
are you calling me good? Only thing this, in other words,
Jesus was saying, only thing you see me as is just another
man. You don't know who I am. You
don't, if you call me good, then you should know who I am. I am
good because I'm God. This man did not know who he
was. He didn't see that Jesus was God. Behold, Jesus is the
good master even because he is God manifest in the flesh. He is God. Consider that, this
man was staring God in the face and didn't even know it. Didn't
know who he was. God was standing right there
looking at him and he didn't know him. If any man is to ever
know God, listen, you must know Him through Jesus Christ. You
won't know Him any other way. How many people are trying to
know God by these emotional feelings? I mean, that's how people think
they know God. They need some kind of overwhelming emotion
to know God. The only way you know God is
through Jesus Christ. That's it. He's the only manifestation
of God. He's it. It's the only way you'll
know God. In Matthew 11, Jesus said, I
thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have
hid these things from the wise and prudent. Isn't that something? That's not something modern religion
would like to hear, would it? That God hid these things, hid
the gospel. He hid the gospel from some people.
He hid the gospel from self-righteous, proud bolsters and religious
men and revealed it unto babes. He revealed it to those who are
humbled, who are dependent solely on Jesus Christ alone for all
their salvation. Even so, Father, it seemed good
in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, save the Father. Neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and to whomsoever the
Son will reveal him. The only way for you and I to
know God is if Jesus Christ reveals God to us. That's it. You won't
know him any other way. You could study this book 24
hours a day, seven days a week, but if God does not reveal Christ
to you, if God does not reveal that he is your only hope, you'll
never know him. You'll never know him. This man
could not inherit eternal life even because he did not know
God, nor did he see the righteousness of God, which is only manifest
in the person of Christ. Friends, Jesus Christ is the
good master because He is God, very God. He is God manifest in the flesh. Now behold, the righteousness
of God as is manifested by the law of God. Look at what he says
to this man. He said, first of all, you don't
know God. You don't know me. And second
of all, he said, if you want to do something, here's what
you have to do. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit
adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness,
honor thy father and thy mother. And see the self-righteous response
of this man. He said, all of these have I
kept from my youth up. This man was so arrogant as to
stare God in the eyes and say, I've done it already. What's
next? What's next? I've done that from
my youth up. Now what? I'm blameless. I'm
righteous. Now what else do I have to do? But the one commandment that
Jesus withheld, he withheld one of these commandments. If you'll notice these commandments
here, he said, Thou shalt not kill, steal, commit adultery,
bear false witness, honor thy father. That's four commandments
that have to deal with our neighbor. You know, there are five commandments
on one side of the table of stone, and those have to deal with man's
relationship to God. But the Lord Jesus just mentions
four on this side, and He's withholding one, and that one is covetousness,
and He's doing that for a reason. Jesus is going to hear expose
this man that he did not keep the commandments, that he was
a covetous man. He said, Yet thou lackest one
thing. Sell all that thou hast and distribute
it to the poor, and thou shalt have treasures in heaven. Come
and follow me. In other words, Jesus calls this
man Not only to proclaim his righteousness, but to prove it.
He said, all right, I'm going to prove you. I'm going to prove
you. You said you've obeyed the commandments
from your youth up, now prove it. Prove it. Take all that money
that you have and sell it and give it to the poor and follow
me. Now notice Jesus doesn't just
say leave your wealth. He actually tells him to go and
sell it. Then he tells him to willingly
take it and distribute it to those who did not deserve it. The poor. That's what he said. Now, which would be easier? Just,
okay, I want you to leave your wealth. Well, that would be easy
because you may go back to it. But he said, no, uh-uh. You go
sell it all and then give it away. And then you come follow me.
Then you come follow me. And you'll have treasures in
heaven. Give it to those who didn't earn it, those who can't
pay for it, and those who didn't merit it. Behold Jesus then is
the righteousness of God in that he did exactly that. Isn't that
what he done? This is exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ had done. Go to Matthew 13. Look at this. This is exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ had done. Matthew 13 and verse 44. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is likened to treasure hid in a field, which when a man hath
found it, found, he hideth, and for joy thereof, listen, goeth
and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth the field. Again,
the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly
pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went
and sold all that he had and bought it. Who is that? Who is
the goodly merchant seeking pearl, the pearl of great price? You
know who that is? That's the church. That's God's elect. He's
the great merchant and he has sold all he had to buy his church. That's what he did. The Lord
Jesus Christ who is truly the eternal rich young ruler. He is eternally youthful, the
creator of all things, sustainer of all things. He has all power
as a ruler and he willingly left it all to save his people. Jesus willingly sold himself
to servitude for poor sinners. Isn't that what he did? He followed God in perfect obedience
as a man and obtained righteousness, even the righteousness of God
by his own faith. What he was telling this young
man to do, he himself had already done. That's what he was doing. He was revealing the righteousness
of God. Not that this man could obtain
it. He was showing this man that
he could obtain it. all the while He was obtaining
it for us by His obedience. Jesus Christ had offered Himself
without spot to God, and God imputed to Him all the vileness
and sin of His people, and justice, the unmeasurable eternal vengeance
of God fell on Him for our sins. He said, The reproach of them
that reproacheth thee hath fell on me. Behold, sinner, that there
is none of us righteous, there is none of Adam's race that has
ever given all we had. We have never given all we had
because we had nothing to give. You know, I realize that if this
young ruler gave all he had, he would be giving nothing because
God gave that to him anyway. What have you? What have you
that God has not given you? What is it? What is your own?
What do you have that's your own? Nothing. Nothing. We own nothing. Everything belongs
to God and whatever you have, it's on loan. God gave it to you. So you can never have righteousness
by your giving because you have nothing to give. And everything
we give, isn't it full of sin? Isn't it full of self-righteousness? What men fail to see that is
if we give everything we have for the service of God, we are
just giving back to God what belongs to him. See then that
there is nothing we can give to inherit eternal life. That's
the lesson here. This young man, he says, what
must I do to inherit eternal life? Listen to me. There is
nothing you can do to merit eternal life. Nothing. And when Jesus exposed this man's
sin, look what he did. He went away sorrowful, for he
was very rich. Sinners see that we have nothing
with which to please God. We cannot merit heaven. The riches
of the world are fleeting. Youth is fleeting. Power is an
illusion. Forsake it all and follow Christ. This is the message. The message
is leave it. Forsake it. Get rid of it. And follow Christ. That's the
message of the Gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. Faith in Christ is
no mere acknowledgement of Him, but rather is a gift of God's
grace. And faith is the evidence of
a resurrection of the soul. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? What a blessing that is! Because
faith is the evidence of life. Faith in Christ is evidence of
what God has done for your heart and soul. He's given you life,
for by grace you are saved through faith. And that faith is not
of yourself. Faith is a gift of God, not of
works. Lest any man should boast. And
notice what Jesus said when this man went away. He said in verse
24, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom
of God. For it is easier for a camel
to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God. And when they heard that, they
said, Who can be saved? Who can be saved? Jesus said, these things which
are impossible with men. Do you realize this is salvation
for man is impossible? Impossible. It is easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Impossible. Some people want
to explain this away and say, well, that needle's eye, that
just means like a gate that the camel had to get down on his
knees and crawl. That's not it. This word is a
word for a sewing needle. That's what the word means. It's
a sewing needle. Needle's eye, camel. Impossible. That's how possible
it is for you to save yourself. You can't do it. You cannot do
it. The things which are impossible
with men, listen to the hope here, are possible with God. What you can't do, God can. That's right. He sure can. Who can be saved? only those
who God saves. That's who can be saved. Salvation
is impossible for man to do. There's nothing that can be done
to save yourself. If this man would give up all
of his wealth and power, that would have not saved him. Jesus
used that to expose his sin. Do you see that salvation's impossible
for you? Are your works so full of sin
that you can never be accepted of God? Then you should forsake
them. Is your religion and works failed
to save you? You should forsake it. Do riches
and pleasure fail to help you to face God? Then you should
forsake them. And do what? Believe on Jesus
Christ alone. Behold what you cannot do. Jesus Christ has already done.
This is the gospel message. Salvation done. Done. No work needed. This is it. Believe on Christ
and thou shalt be saved. The work is finished. Oh, you
that are rich, forsake your riches. You that are young, don't trust
in your youth. For thou knowest not what a day
may bring forth. You who are powerful are powerless
to save your souls. Listen to what the Lord asked,
what shall a man be profited if he gained the whole world
and lose his own soul? What will you give in exchange
for your own soul? Will you have life eternal? Will
you inherit the kingdom of God? If any man will come after me,
Christ said, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow
me. For whosoever will save his life
will lose it. You want to save your life, you'll
lose it. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake shall find it, shall save it. Listen what Jesus tells those
who would follow him. He said, if any man hate not
his father and his mother and his sister and his brother, and
yea, his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Friends, listen, there's no greater
sufferer in hell than those who only make a profession of faith
without faith. Those who make a profession of
faith but would not forsake the world and follow Christ. You remember how those Jews were
upset when Jesus said this? He said, if the Son shall set
you free, you shall be free indeed. And what'd they say? They got
upset. They said, how dare you? How
dare you say we're not free? They were upset. And these were the men that the
scripture says believed on him. Even so, some profess to believe
on Jesus Christ, and they say, how dare you lecture me on giving
up my wealth and security to follow Christ? How dare you say
I need to forsake my family and friends to follow Christ? Surely if I'm saved by grace,
I can still have my joys and youth, and I can have my family
and my business. Sure. You can have it. But I'll tell you this, if Christ
demands it and you don't give it, there's something wrong with
your faith. If our faith is in God, our faith
is of God, if there's anything that interferes
with our worship or love of God, we must forsake it. We must. True believers will
forsake those things that interfere with our love and worship of
God. Let me ask you this. Will the
believer in Christ, if he forsakes all and follow Christ, will he
ever be the loser? No. No. He will never be the loser. Look
at your text in this last part. Peter says this. He says, Lo,
we've left all and followed thee. And that was true. And Jesus
said to them, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath
left house or parents or brethren or wife or children for the kingdom
of God's sake who shall not receive manifold more in this present
time and in the world to come life everlasting. Jesus plainly tells us that no
believer who forsakes all and follows Him will ever be the
loser. There is no man that had left anything that God will not
restore manifold more. Is that not true believer? Have
you not found that to be true? I have. I found it to be true. All that we have ever left or
forsooken for the cause of Christ has never been toward our hurt,
but only been for our good. Listen, I've left my home and
family, and I've come here to preach
the gospel to you. I've done that. I left my mother
and my father. But look at me. I have inherited
more than I left. My brother. I left my brothers. Look at my brother. My sisters. I've inherited more than I've
left. I've not lost one thing for following Christ. Not one. And you won't either. Let it go. If Christ demands it, we should
let it go. We've gained more because we
inherit all things, righteousness, justification, redemption, eternal
life, pardon and peace with God. Paul said, for Christ's sake,
I count all things loss. for the excellency of the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you count all things lost?
Do you? Then be sure of this, listen
to me, did you just count, did you just, in your heart, did
you say yes? I count all things lost for the
excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Then listen to
me, God is going to try your faith. He'll put you to the test. He'll put me to the test. Remember Abraham? He was commanded
to offer his own son. Now I'm sure Abraham could have
raised all kinds of objections, couldn't he? I'm sure he could
have debated this. Are you sure? Are you sure? You
want me to take the son that you promised would be the seed,
by his seed, all the nations, you mean? He could have debated
that. He could have found many people sympathetic. Don't you
think his wife would have been sympathetic? Sarah, what do you
think about this? But we don't read of Abraham's
faith like that, do we? When Abraham was put to the test,
listen, he rose up early, saddled his ass, and took Isaac out and
was going to kill him. He believed God. Believer, if we count all things
for loss for Christ, we must then be ready to suffer the loss
of all things. Are you ready? We should be ready. We should be ready to suffer
the loss of all things and count them but done that we might win
Christ. And we will never be the loser
for it. You will never lose. If you lay down your life for
the gospel, I promise you, you will never lose. For we are heirs of all things. And he, is he not worthy of all
praise? Now I'll close with this. J.C. Ryle said this, and I think it's
a good warning for us. If you are a believer in Christ,
listen to this very carefully. We must be willing to part with
anything. however dear it may be. If it
stands between us and our salvation, we must be ready to cut it off
as a right hand or pluck it out as a right eye, to make any sacrifice
and to break any idol. Life, we must remember eternal
life is at stake. One leak neglected is enough
to sink a mighty ship. One besetting sin obstinately
clung to is enough to shut out a soul from heaven. The love
of money secretly nourished in the heart is enough to bring
a man in other respects moral and irreproachable down to the
pit of hell. Oh, may God expose our sin and
break our hearts. May God teach us to forsake all
and follow Christ. And I know this, God's people
will never be the loser for it. Because in Christ we have all
things. All things. If you have Christ,
what more do you need? Do you need this world? Do you need your family? No. I need Christ. I must have him. I must be found
in Him and forsake all else. May God give us such grace to
do so. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.