Good morning. If you'll turn
with me in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 19. Matthew
chapter 19. Let's read starting in verse
23. Verily I say unto you, that a
rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, it
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples
heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, who then can
be saved? That's the title of our message
this morning. Who then can be saved? And I pray that we're
all very interested in this question. Who then? Who then can be saved? Now this is the account of the
man referred to as the rich young ruler. And I want us to go through
this account and I pray God will bless his word to our hearts.
That's my prayer. That's my prayer. Look with me
here in verse 16. And behold, one came and said
unto him, good master, what good things shall I do that I may
have eternal life? The first thing I want us to
see is how did this rich young man come to the Lord Jesus Christ?
How did he approach him? Well, here in verse 16, we see
that he came calling him good master. Good master. This man was seemingly very nice,
very polite, a respectful young man, but he did not know the
Lord Jesus Christ. How do I know? In verse 17, look
what the Lord told him. He said unto him, why callest
thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. This man did not know he was
talking to the Christ. He did not know. This man approached
the Lord of glory ignorant. He was a very learned man, but
he was ignorant concerning the things of God. In verse 16, we
see that he came asking a question. He said, what good thing shall
I do that I may have eternal life? His first problem is he thought
there was something good that he could do. God is very clear in his word.
There's nothing good in us. We're accustomed to doing evil.
We can't do good. We cannot do good. And the Lord
responded by telling him that. He said, there's none good but
God. Oh, that we would learn that.
There's none good but God. Second, this man thought foolishly
that there was something that he could do by which to earn
or inherit eternal life. He thought that he would be accepted
by God by keeping God's commandments, by keeping the law. This man
did not know the Lord and he was under the law. That means
he was under the curse. Verse 17, again, the Lord went
on and he said, That's what he was asking. What can I do that
I may have life? If thou will enter into life,
keep the commandments. Now, we're not gonna be saved
by keeping the commandments. No, but the Lord met this man
on the grounds which he came. He came wanting something to
do, so the Lord said, okay, you know the commandments, keep them.
Keep them. Verse 18, this rich young ruler,
he said unto him which. Which ones? Which ones do I need
to keep? 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. Which commandments must I keep?
Every single one. We just, we just heard even the
ones that we don't even realize we're breaking. The sins we don't
even realize we're committing. Got to keep them all. Got to
keep them all. If your hope of eternal life
is based on you keeping the law and obeying God's commandments,
I pray that God will enable you to hear what he says. Paul wrote,
tell me ye that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear
the law? The law says something. I want
to show you what the law says. Turn with me to James chapter
two. James chapter two. What does the law say? James
2 verse 10, for whosoever shall keep the
whole law and yet offend in one point,
he is guilty of all. The law says you're guilty. We can't satisfy God's holy law. We cannot keep it. None of us. Look back at our text. The law declares us all to be
guilty. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. All are guilty. Verse 20. The young man saith unto him,
unto the Lord, All these things have I kept from my youth up. He was deceived. He thought he had kept God's
law, and he was dead serious. That's what it is to be lost,
thinking we've obeyed God's commandments, when we can't. We can't. We've offended much more than
in one point. We're guilty of all. But this
man thought he had kept God's law. He worked hard. He worked
very hard. You know, people who are lost
in religion, a lot of them, they work hard. Oh, they work hard.
And it's laborious. That's why Christ said, come
unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden from your labor.
Come unto me. I'll give you rest. This man
was working hard, working hard to keep the law.
But he had one problem. He could not keep it. He could
not keep it, and neither can you or I. We cannot keep God's
holy law. It is impossible, utterly impossible. Turn back a few pages to Matthew
chapter 5. Matthew 5, look at verse 21. You have heard that it was said
by them of old time, thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall
kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you
that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgment." I think we're all guilty of that,
are we not? We may not have killed anybody physically. There's no
telling how many people I've killed in my heart. There's no
telling. Look down at verse 27. You have
heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not commit
adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with
her already in his heart. I'm showing you these to show
us we're all guilty. We may not commit these sins
outwardly, but every one of us is guilty of them all right here
in the heart. We've not kept one of these from
our youth up, not a single one. Jeremiah 17 verse nine says,
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord,
search the heart. This man thought he was good.
He thought he was good enough. But God looks on the heart. God searches. He tries the reins.
He searches the heart. He knows every sinful thought
that this mind's ever thought. Back at our text. Verse 20 again. This young man saith unto him,
All these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I
yet? What lack I yet? 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. This man lacked just one thing,
just one thing. The Lord told him, he said, if
thou wilt be perfect. He lacked perfection. You see,
he may have been very good, highly esteemed in the sight of men,
but that's not good enough. That's not good enough. That's
not up to God's holy standards. He lacked perfection. you know
we can never reach perfection I can't attain it no matter how
hard I try I can't attain perfection and in verse 21 we see I'm sorry look at verse 22 verse
22 says but when the young man heard that saying he went away
sorrowful for he had great possessions this man He may have had a lot. He had a righteousness, or so
he thought, that he had established. And in verse 22, we see that
he had great possessions, but he lacked one thing. He lacked
treasure in heaven. You see verse 21 at the end of
the verse, the Lord told him, he said, you go, you take all
that you have, you give it to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven. He lacked, he may have had much
earthly treasure, but he lacked treasure in heaven. Turn with
me to Matthew chapter 13. I wanna show you this. This matter of treasure in heaven,
this is very interesting to me. And I must have this treasure. Matthew 13, verse 44. This is our Lord speaking again.
He said, again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure
hid in a field. The witch, when a man hath found,
he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he
hath, and he buyeth that field. Sold all he had, and he bought
that field that had the treasure. Look at verse 45. Again, the
kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly
pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, he
went and sold all that he had, and he bought it. You see, there is one treasure. There is but one thing needful. I pray that God will cause us
to sell all that we have and buy that treasure. Buy the truth,
sell it not. Buy the truth, sell it not. This
man went away sorrowful because he had great possessions. He
had many riches. Look back at our text, 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. This man's problem is he was
too rich. He had too much. I want to show you somebody else
who had too much. Turn with me to Luke chapter 12. I want us to see the danger of
being rich. And I'm not just talking about
material riches. The danger of thinking too much
of ourselves, the danger of thinking we possess anything spiritually
that God has not given us. Here in Luke chapter 12, look
at verse 13. And one of the companies said
unto him, Master, Speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance
with me. And he said unto him, man, who
made me a judge or a divider over you? This is Christ speaking.
And he said unto him, man, who made me a judge or a divider
over you? And he said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness,
for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things
which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them.
saying, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself,
saying, what shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will
I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul,
here's the problem. If the Lord's increased us with
goods, let's not look at our goods and say, soul. Look what he said here in verse
19. What a danger. If God came today, if we were to meet
God in the judgment as soon as we walk out these doors, then
whose is all this gonna be? What's it gonna matter? Paul
said, we brought nothing in this world, it's certain we can carry
nothing out. Verse 21 says, so is he that
layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. This man is referred to as the
rich fool. This is the parable of the rich
fool. And he had the same problem as the rich young ruler. They
loved their riches too much. They loved their riches. That's
the problem. They owned a lot of money. But
money owned them. What a dangerous place to be. You see, we must all be rich.
We must be rich toward God. we must be rich toward God. Paul
wrote to Timothy, he said, charge them that are rich in this world
that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches,
but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. What is it to be rich toward
God? It's to trust in God, who giveth us richly all things. To enjoy, it's to have treasure
in heaven. What is this treasure in heaven?
Turn to Matthew chapter six. Matthew six, verse 19. Matthew 6 19, "...lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where
thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where
thieves do not break through nor steal." He's saying not don't
lay up for yourselves treasure that is no treasure at all. It's all going away. He said,
lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, that treasure which
endures forever. And in verse 21, he said, for
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. We're all rich. We either have
treasure on earth or treasure in heaven. And I'm not saying we can't have
treasure on earth and treasure in heaven, but you get the point. Our treasure is either here,
we're trusting in something here, or our hope is in heaven. We
just sang, high king of heaven, my treasure thou art. Oh, I pray that, I pray we can
honestly sing those songs, those words. The psalmist said, my
heart is fixed. Oh God, my heart is fixed. I
will sing and give praise. If it's not so, I pray God would
make it so. For where your treasure is. There will your heart be
also. I pray that our heart, our affections,
are set on things above, not things below, but where Christ
is at the right hand of God. You see, He is our treasure. Back in our text in verse 21,
the Lord told him to sell, get rid of all that you have, and
then you'll have treasure in heaven. You see, Our treasure's
either here or our treasure's in heaven. He said, you'll have
treasure in heaven and come follow me. Christ is the treasure of
heaven. And we must leave it all. By
God's grace, we must throw it all away like the Apostle Paul,
count it all done, that we may win Christ, our treasure, and
be found in him. You see, the riches of this world
I saw something the other day where the richest man in the
world has so many billions of dollars. To me, that's a lot.
I'm an accountant. I deal with money. But you know,
that's nothing. That's nothing. Absolutely nothing. That's nothing. You know what
those riches are? Searchable. We can put a number
to it, can't we? We're just saying, oh, the unsearchable
riches of Christ, that's wealth that can never be told. We can't
number it. We can't count it. It's unending.
It's infinite. Oh, I'm interested in that. Oh,
I pray we all are. This rich man was actually a
poor man because he went away without Christ. He went away
sorrowful, having treasure on earth, but not needing, not desiring
the treasure of heaven. How sad. He asked this question, what
lack I yet? The Lord told him in Mark and
Luke's account, he said, one thing thou lackest. But in lacking
one thing, the truth is he lacked everything. Because if we don't
have Christ, we have absolutely nothing. Because Christ is all. Christ is all. Look here in our
text at verse 24. A rich man shall hardly enter
into the kingdom of heaven, and again I say unto you, it is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of God. It would take a miracle, an absolute
miracle for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And it would take an absolute
miracle for me, for you, for anybody to enter into the kingdom
of God. You see, we may not have all
these earthly riches. Our bank account may not say
10 billion, but we're all too rich. We all have the same problem. By nature, we're all too rich. What I mean by that is we're
all too good. What lack I yet? I'm ready, I'm
ready to march right into heaven. No, we're not. No, we're not. This rich man wasn't, and neither
are you or me. Like this rich young ruler, we're
too good, we're too self-sufficient. Just like that rich fool. Look
at all my stuff, what am I gonna do? Well, I'll just tear my barns
down, build some bigger ones. What good did that do him? Not a bit. I don't want to perish with my
riches. I want to leave all these earthly riches behind and go
be with my treasure in heaven." The Lord spoke concerning Mary.
He said, that's never going to be taken away from her. Speaking
of himself, never going to be taken away. These riches represent
self-righteousness. And you know what, self-righteousness,
it's no righteousness at all. There's one righteousness, that's
Christ. We can't save ourselves. Look at verse 25. When his disciples
heard it, they were exceedingly amazed. And this is what they
said. Who then, who then can be saved? Is there hope for anyone? I need to know, is there hope
for me? I know I'm too rich. I know I think highly of myself
by nature. This heart convinces me of things
that I just, I know in God's word, he says they're not true.
He says our heart's desperately wicked. We can't know it, but
he does. Who then can be saved? Verse
26, but Jesus beheld them and said unto them, with men, this
is impossible. If left to myself, I can't be
saved. If God leaves us alone, we could never save ourselves,
never. But look at the last part of
verse 26, but with God. All things. Praise God all things are possible. Who then can be saved? Those
who could never save themselves. That's who. Who then can be saved? Those
who need to be saved. You see this rich man He did
not need to be saved. You read through the text again,
he expressed no need of anything. He said, what shall I do? Then
the Lord told him, he said, well, I've done it all. He didn't need
to be saved. You know who needs to be saved?
Sinners. That's the only people who need
a savior. And you know what the Scriptures
tell us? That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And so then sinners shall be
saved. Are you a sinner? Am I a sinner? Turn to Romans
chapter 5. Romans 5, verse 6, for when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Are you ungodly? Verse 7, for scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for sinners. Christ
is our salvation. from start to finish, salvation
is of the Lord and salvation is a person. You see, this rich
man thought he was good. There's one good, that's the
Lord Jesus Christ. He thought he kept God's commandments.
He thought he was righteous. There's only one who ever kept
God's commandments. There's only one righteous man. There's only one righteousness
by which we can be accepted. That's Christ. He is the righteousness
of God. The Lord told this man, he said,
if you'll be perfect, there's only one who's perfect. That's
Christ. He said, sell all that you have,
you give it to the poor. There was only one who ever sold all
that he had and gave it to the poor. Here's what 2 Corinthians
8 verse 9 says, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might
be rich. Oh, what grace. He sold all that
he had. As our brother read to us, he
made himself to be the sin that we are, that we might be the
righteousness of God in him. What grace. Salvation is not
something we earn. This man wanted to earn it. He
wanted to work it. He wanted a glory in his salvation.
The problem is, salvation's a gift. Look over just one page of Romans
6, 23. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. It's not something we can earn.
Salvation's a gift, eternal life, that's what He wanted. What can
I do to earn eternal life? It's the gift of God. And it's
in, by, and through Jesus Christ our Lord, who then can be saved. Sinners, only sinners. Turn to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10, verse 17. Mark 10, 17. And when he was
gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled
to him and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why
callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. Thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear
false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother.' And he
answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from
my youth." This is the same account. This is Mark's account of the
same thing that happened. Now Mark tells us something that
I want to be sure we all see. This is just so encouraging to
me. Look at verse 21. Then Jesus,
beholding him, loved him. It's the same word used in John
3.16. He loved him. How do you explain that? You know, though he went away
sorrowful, this was not the end for this rich young ruler. He
was about to become poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They're the ones who
are going to inherit the kingdom of heaven. His time of love was coming when
Christ would make himself known to him because he loved him. Christ saves all whom he loves. He does not love everybody. He
loves his people with an everlasting love and every last one of them
shall be saved. Many suppose this young man to
have been the Apostle Paul, a young Saul of Tarsus, And we're not
told whether it is or not. But you know, I like to think
that maybe it was. Maybe, just maybe. If you read
what Paul wrote about himself, you read how that he persecuted
God's people above measure. How he was exceedingly zealous
of the traditions of his fathers. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Right before the Lord saved him,
he consented to the death. of Stephen, a dear brother. But you know what happened for
him. Here he is on a high horse, just like this rich young man,
high-minded, trusting in himself, just like us by nature. And Jesus,
the Lord Jesus, spoke to him from heaven. He knocked him down. He brought him low. He saved
him. Paul was a Pharisee. Who then
can be saved? Even a self-righteous Pharisee,
like me, by the power of God. You see,
with men This is impossible for any of us to be saved, but with
God, all things are possible. God does the impossible. God
does the impossible. I'll close with this. Back in
our text, in verse 24, our Lord said, I say unto you, it is 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 see, in salvation,
that's exactly what God does. That's exactly what, something
impossible, that's what God does. Nebuchadnezzar found that out,
didn't he? Oh, he was a high man. You know what he went home
saying? He said, those that walk in pride,
he's able to abase. That means he's able to bring
low, oh, low, low, low. And my confession to you is this, you're looking at a
camel, big in my own eyes, perhaps,
perhaps, I'm not saying this is so, but perhaps highly esteemed
among men, but abomination in the sight of God. I'm a big,
big wild animal. Thinking that my works are something
special. Many wonderful works. God says
they're filthy rags. Thinking I may look good to you.
Knowing that apart from his grace, I'm a stench in God's nostrils.
And like a camel, I've got a big hump on my back. Like that pilgrim,
I've got a great load of sin on my back that I can't get off. I can't get rid of it. And the only gate that I can
enter into, the only gate that this big camel can fit through,
is the wide gate that leadeth to destruction. And unless God
does a miracle, that's exactly where I'm going. So many there
be which enter in their head. But God in grace, this is what
he does for camels. He breaks them. God in grace
rode me. You're right again. Rode me hard. Rode me, drove me straight into
the ground. That means he laid me low. He reduced me to nothing. Nothing. We must be reduced to nothing. If I'm anything, then Christ
is not everything. We must be nothing. By God's
grace, that's what he does. God reduced me to nothing, brought
me low, laid me in the dust. That's what I am. But praise
God, he did not leave me there. I love the song that Gabe sings.
He reached down his hand for me. He reached way down. I was lost and undone without
God's precious son, just like this rich man, but he reached
down his hand for me. And you know what he did? He
pulled me through the eye of a needle, that which is utterly
impossible. That means I'm a miracle, a miracle
of the grace of God, a trophy of his grace, nowhere to boast
but in him. He is my God, my Lord, my Savior,
my all. He brought me through that straight
gate, that narrow way, which leadeth unto life. Few there
be that find it. Has this been your experience?
Oh, I pray it has. I pray it has. Amen.