Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew 19. Matthew 19. We are going to be in Matthew 19 all day today. finish out the chapter together
throughout the course of the day. And this all goes together. This is the same conversation
from where we are going to pick up, which is verse 16 to the
end of the chapter. It could all be preached in one
message. I thought about preaching this
all in one message just at one time, but I want to divide it
into three parts. We're going to look at the problem.
the remedy and the result. That's what we'll look at throughout
the course of the day. I am very excited to tell you
about the remedy, but I want to take a minute and make sure
that everyone clearly understands the problem. I sincerely want
everyone to clearly understand the problem. The heading at the
top of my page, if your Bible is like mine, it says how to
attain eternal life. How to attain eternal life. That's the subject matter here.
That's what's being discussed in these verses, how to attain
eternal life. And again, we pick up with verse
16, it says, And behold, one came and said
unto the Lord Jesus Christ, good master, what good thing shall
I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, why
callest thou me good? There is none good, but one,
that is God. But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. He saith unto him, which Jesus
said, 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 neighbor
as thyself. The young man saith unto him,
all these things have I kept from my youth up, what lack I
yet? Jesus saith unto him, if thou
wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow
me. But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Great possession. This rich young
ruler, as he is commonly referred to, the rich young ruler, he
came to the Lord and he addressed him as good master. And that is the proper way to
address the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the proper way to address
him. And the reason is because he is God. That's the reason
he is God. And to emphasize the fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ is God, the Lord asked this rich young
ruler, why are you calling me that? He came up and he said,
good master. And the Lord said, why are you
calling me that? In order to call me that you
have to call me God. Verse 17, he saith unto him,
he said unto him, why callest thou me good? There is none good,
but one that is God. And that's the truth. That's
the truth. There's none good, but God almighty
himself. I hear people say, you know,
and you hear it too. I think there's a little good
in everybody. There's not, there's just not. There is none good
but God, God Almighty Himself. God's people are only good in
Him, in God, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
God. Outside of Him, the scripture
says, there's none good. No, not one. Outside of being
robed in His righteousness, there is none righteous. All goodness
belongs to Him. That's a good thing to remember.
All goodness belongs to Him. That's His. And that's about
to be proven to us here in the next few verses of Scripture.
Verse 16 says, And behold, one came and said unto Him, Good
Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal
life? Okay, let me get everybody's
attention right here. That I mean if you wanted to
circle something and put arrows and and check marks and everything
around it that right there is the error that all of mankind
is naturally born into. If you want to see all error It's that right there. Thinking
that I have to do a good thing to inherit eternal life. That covers all error. That covers
all false religion. That covers all the gods of this
earth and all the worshipers of idols and false gods of this
earth. Thinking that I have to do a good thing to inherit eternal
life. That is the common thought. That's
what everybody wrongly thinks until the truth comes. And I'm gonna go ahead right
now and tell us what the truth is, okay? What the new changed
mind of repentance. The message comes and it says
repent. Repent, that means have a new
mind about this. Have a totally changed mind about
this. All right. This is what the new
changed mind will teach a man or a woman. I'm going to tell
us this truth by changing the question. Error says, what good
thing must I do that I may have eternal life? That's error. Truth
says, What good thing did Christ do that I may have eternal life? We're going to get more into
that in just a second when we get to the remedy. For now, let's
keep focusing on the problem, okay? Verse 16, behold, one came
and said unto him, good master, what good thing shall I do that
I may have eternal life? And He said unto him, Why callest
thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. He said if you want to attain
eternal life, if you want to earn eternal life, here's what
you do. Keep the commandments. Now here's the fact of the matter.
If a person will keep the commandments of God, that person will walk
straight through the gates of heaven into glory itself. That's the truth. That's the
truth. When the law was given, God said,
God cannot lie. God does not lie. He does not
say one thing, meaning something else. He doesn't write in trickery.
God said, If you'll do this, you'll live. That's what he said. And if a man or a woman truly
kept the commandments, that man or woman would inherit eternal
life. But there's a problem. All right,
there is a problem. Turn with me to first Samuel
chapter 16. First Samuel chapter 16. After the books of
Moses, before Kings. First Samuel 16 and look at verse
7. But the Lord said unto Samuel,
look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature,
because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth." So critical to know this. He said, for man looketh on the
outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. The problem
for all of us is God is not just looking at the things that can
be seen concerning us. God is looking at the things
that can't be seen. God looks on the heart. God looks
on the heart. Proverbs 4 23 says out of the
heart are the issues of life. What are we talking about this
morning? We're talking about how to attain eternal life. Out of the heart are the issues
of life. What that means is God looks
on the root of the matter. All that man can see is the result. All that man can see is the evidence,
just the manifestation of what originated in the heart. That's
all man can see. Whatever comes out of a man or
a woman, it started in the heart, it started in the mind, it started
in the inner being. That's what God looks on. That's
what God's looking at. And what that means is God sees
all of it. That's what it means. God sees
all of it. There are things that go on inside
each one of us that never make it out. Aren't you so glad about
that? There are things that go on inside
each one of us. We all commit sins and transgressions
and wicked things. Wickedness is inside us. Wickedness. And other men and women don't
ever get to see it because they never make it out. Here's the thing about it. God
sees it. And that's a problem for us. That's a big problem
for us. It's those inner things that
cause us to transgress against the law, whether they make it
ever, ever make it out or not is irrelevant. That's what I
want us to understand. Whether they, if it makes it
out, you may have to go to jail for a minute, but whether they
ever make it out or not is irrelevant. The law has been broken in the
heart and that's what God's looking at. That's what God sees. So
if we're going to keep the commandments, we have to keep them outwardly
and inwardly. It's a big problem. That's the
first component of the problem. Here's the second component.
If we're going to keep the commandments, we can't just keep some of them. We have to keep all of them.
Turn with me to Galatians chapter three. While you're turning there, I'll
remind you that the rich young ruler asked the
Lord, you know, the Lord said, keep the commandments. And the
rich young rulers question was which ones, which ones, you know, and that's what people
think. Well, I got some of them. I, you know, I, I probably don't
have all of them, but I got some of them. Well, Galatians 3 verse 10, it
says, for as many as are of the works of the law. And what that
means is as many as believe that they are going to attain eternal
life because of their good deeds, their good works, their obedience
of the 10 commandments, they're obeying the Bible. As many as
are of the works of the law are under the curse, under the curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them." All things written. Whoever's trying to keep the
law for their salvation, that's a cursed person. Because that
person is trying to accomplish something that cannot be accomplished
in sinful flesh. It just cannot. The law is so
strict. The law is so exact. The law
reaches all the way in to the deep fiber of our beings and
it spans the entirety of our lifetime. And what that means is we can't
break one law. That's what it means. We can't
break one law from the moment we enter this world to the moment
we leave this world. We can't break one law. Look
at Galatians 4 verse 21. Galatians 4 verse 21 says, Tell
me you that desire to be under the law. But wait a minute. Wait,
wait a minute. Hold on now. But what about the law? Tell me you
that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? Do you
not hear the law? You who are counting on your
ability to keep the law. Do you not see the impossibility
of that task? Turn with me to James chapter
2. Hebrews James, James chapter
2. Verse 8, it says, If you fulfill
the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself, you do well. But if you have respect of persons,
that means if you love somebody more than somebody else, and
you prefer one neighbor over another neighbor, and well, you
know, I'm an acquaintance with this person, but I'm best friends
with this person. Verse nine, if you have respect
of persons, you commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors. He said, if you keep a commandment
of the scripture, great. But if you don't keep all of
them and you break one of them, you are considered by the law
as being a breaker of the law. The law will not consider you
to be mostly good and just a little bit bad. The law will consider
you to be a sinner. Verse 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole
law and yet offend in one point, if you forget to dot one I, he
is guilty of all. He's guilty of all. If the speed
limit is 70 miles an hour and we go 71 miles an hour. We would not be a 170th breaker
of the law. We would be a breaker of the
law. We'd be a breaker of the law.
And if we received a ticket for $71, the judge would not say,
well, now 70 of those miles an hour were legal. It's just that
one. So really, you just owe $1. He
wouldn't say that, not if justice was being served. That law is broken, it's broken
in full. And the payment has to be made
in full. And that's what people don't
naturally understand. Keeping the law of commandments openly,
outwardly, it's not good enough. I'm not against the law. I'm
not against morality. I'm not. But it's not good enough. It's not good enough. We ought
to strive to do good and strive to do right, but it's not good
enough. Keeping most of the commandments is not good enough. Starting
to keep them right now, and that's what people think, they go around
telling everybody three words, I got saved. It's not how it
works. How it works is Christ saved
me. But people go around saying,
I got saved, bam, last Sunday night, boom, that's it, okay?
I have a lifetime of rebellion behind me. But from here on,
this point out, And that's not good enough. That's not good
enough. Not with God. If He finds one
speck of disobedience to His commandments in us, His holy
justice has no choice but to condemn us as sinners against
the law. No choice. So look back at our
text. Matthew 19. Matthew 19 verse 16, behold,
one came and said unto him, good master, what good thing shall
I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, why
callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. He saith unto him, which? Jesus
said, 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 neighbor
as thyself. The young man saith unto him, all these things have
I kept from my youth up, what lack I yet? That is not so. He may have done OK on the outside,
but not on the inside. But here's the point I want to
make about that. Even if he did, OK, he said he did. You say,
well, you don't even know that man. You're not that man's judge,
OK? Even if he did, here's the problem for me. I haven't. I haven't. It makes no difference what he
did. My problem is with me. Our Lord said don't commit murder,
don't commit adultery. Matthew 5 tells us if you get
angry with another human being without a just cause, you have
murdered that person in the heart, which is what God's looking at.
It says if a man looks on a woman and lusts after her or if a woman
looks at a man and lusts after him, Adultery has been committed
in the heart. That's what God's looking at.
Our Lord said in verse 18, don't steal. I stole something one
time when I was about four or five years old. I was born in Alexandria, Louisiana,
and we had a neighborhood of young families and a bunch of
young kids, and there were some boys that, you know, after school,
we'd run around all summer long. We'd run around all over the
neighborhood. You leave in the morning, and your parents have
no idea where you are until you come home at dark. And me and
a few, two or three other boys were down the street, went behind
this house, this older couple's house, and pulled on the sliding
glass door, and it was open. And I was the youngest, so we
all determined that I needed to be the one to go in and steal
something. We need to go steal something. And what do I need
to steal? I don't know, just go steal something.
So I opened up that door, and I went in the bedroom, and I
pulled the bottom drawer out of a chest of drawers, and there
was a red ski mask in there. And I got it, and I don't even
know if I shut the thing back, but I came out, we stole something.
Man, we were just so proud of ourselves and walking back down
the street, I put it on, you know, red ski mask, three holes.
And I walked into my house with a red ski mask on. My dad looked
at me and he said, where'd you get that? You know, I found it. It took him about, you know,
10 seconds for me to confess, this is what we did and this
is where it was and all that kind of stuff. So he picked me
up, probably tore me up. I know he did. Before or after. And then he carried me down to
the house. I had to knock on the door and I had to say, this
is what I did. Here's your ski mask and I'm
sorry. I'm out. I'm out. I stole. I'm out. Whether we steal things
physically or not, we steal things in the heart all the time. We
are constantly stealing the credit from other men and women. Well,
I was the one who gave them that idea. Really, I'm the one who
started that. Yeah, that was me. That was me.
It's stealing the credit. We steal the glory from God all
the time. We still do as God's people.
That's why He keeps having to humble us. You're not what you
think you are. We steal and we steal. Verse
19, he said, honor thy father and thy mother. Listen, how much
regret do we all have for the grief and the rebellion and the
talk back that we gave to our parents growing up? How much
regret? Most of it was in the heart because
back then you'd get torn up or something like that. And it worked. I'm all for it. I'll probably get a lot of backlash,
but I'm for spanking. Because God said so. And all
of us turned out OK. And if your mom's still alive,
apologize right now. Your dad can handle it, but I'm
serious. How much regret? Verse 19, he
said, focus on the word as. Love your neighbor as yourself. I mean, really? You know, you
mow your neighbor's grass every now and then, or you, you know,
you think, well, I'm loving my neighbor as myself. No, you're
not. Go empty your bank account and deposit it in your neighbor's
account. Once we really get a hold of
this, all we can say is the same thing the disciples said. Look
at the end of verse 25. They said, who then can be saved? Now that's
where the remedy comes in. Look at the end of verse 26.
With men, this is impossible, but with God, all things are
possible. Isn't that good news? Now we're
about to bring a message on that in just a moment, but I'm not
going to close this Bible study without pointing us to Christ. The other accounts of this in
Mark and in Luke, they tell us that the Lord Jesus Christ loved
this rich young ruler. And rather than reprimanding
him right now, the Lord pointed him to the good news of the gospel
of Christ. Verse 21, Jesus said unto him,
if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give
to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come
and follow me. But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
He said, you deny yourself, you rid yourself of everything that
you believe has any value before God. Rid yourself of everything
you believe has any value before God and you follow me. You look
to me. You trust me. You cast your all
on me. What is it going to take for
us to inherit eternal life? It's going to take the complete
fulfillment of a perfect law. And it's going to take the complete
payment for a broken law. And both of those things can
only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Both of those things. The gospel is in Christ being
our substitute. Eternal life is in Christ being
our substitute. He said, I did not come into
this world to destroy the law. I came to fulfill it. Wonderful news. I came to obey
the commandments. I came to pay the penalty. And
that's exactly what He did every step that He took on this earth
all the way to the shedding of His own blood on the cross of
Calvary. He fulfilled every commandment
of God. Now that's an amazing feat. Do
you know how many commandments there are in this book? He fulfilled
every commandment of God all the way to the point that see
if the Lord will let you see the gospel here. In what he told
this rich young ruler, he fulfilled every commandment of God all
the way to the point that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became
poor. He took all of his riches. What
did he tell that rich? If you want to see eternal life,
this is what's going to have to happen. He took all of his
riches and he gave them to his poor people. He did that so that
through his poverty, you might be rich, spiritually rich. Our Lord doesn't command anything
of us that he did not purpose to come fulfill for us. That's
the gospel. In what he told him to do, that's
the gospel. The question is not What must I do to inherit life,
eternal life? The question is, what did Christ
do that I might inherit eternal life? And the answer to that
question is, all of it. That's what he did. All of it.
Everything that needed to be done. All of it. All to the praise
of the glory of God.