Let us come again to prayer.
Let's all pray. Our loving Father, we thank Thee
that Thou has given us opportunity this night once again to come
within the sound of Thy Word proclaimed. These things are
precious to them that believe. The opportunity to hear the gospel
preached, to read the word of God, to bear public witness,
to share fellowship with thy people. We thank thee that already
this evening we've had opportunity to meet new friends and share
something of the desire that we have to see the word of God
uplifted in the name of Christ extolled. This is not a vain
activity upon which we are engaged, we believe, O Lord. For though
there is much religion in this city, for though there are many
who would name the name of Christ, we believe that Thou art pleased
to maintain a remnant people and uphold that people in the
face of all adversity, whether that comes from the secular world
or from the religious world. Therefore we rejoice this night
that this witness is taking place, that sovereign grace is preached
here in this place, that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the Omnipotent One is lifted up amongst men, that such who
are of thy people shall be called to salvation in thy due time. It is a great privilege, O God,
to be so involved in such a matter as this, and we pray that thou
wilt give us each one a sense of humility at the responsibility
that falls to us, be it speaker or hearer, to hear these great
truths declared. And we ask that in thy mercy,
Thou wilt remember us in our need. Thou wilt come to us in
our state. In that state of inability. In that state of death and trouble. And Thou wilt be pleased to breathe
life into our nostrils. to give our heart a new fleshy
heart, to open up our eyes to see the living Christ, to unstop
our blocked ears that we might hear words of eternal life, and
bring us by thy regenerating power into an experience of grace
as it is thy will so to do. And so, our God, we wait upon
thee. This activity will not profit at all if thou art not
here in our midst. We call upon thee, we wait upon
thee. Be faithful to thy promise thou
that hast said, where two or three are gathered in my name,
there am I in the midst. And give us an ability, our God,
this night to discern the living Christ, that we may rejoice in
our hearts and be of a blessing and a help to those around us.
May it be so for thy name's sake. Amen. My verse this evening is taken
from a parallel passage to the account that we read together
in Mark chapter 10, the account of the rich young ruler. I wanted
to use a verse from the parallel passage simply because I wanted
to have a short, straightforward verse that we might remember
and it is found in Luke chapter 18, verse 18. You don't need
to turn to it. I'm sure you're familiar with
it. It simply says this, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life. That was the question that the
rich young ruler asked. What shall I do to inherit eternal
life? Sometimes a preacher will give
a sermon a title. Well, my title this evening is
this. The man who did everything right. The man who did everything right. Here we have the account given
to us in several of the Gospels of a man who seemed to do everything
right. Here is the rich young ruler. He comes to the Lord and he is
seeking the right thing. His question is What must I do
to inherit eternal life? What does he want? Eternal life. He wants the right thing. I'm
not going to take a poll tonight, but I doubt if there are too
many here who don't want everlasting life. It's something that anyone
who has any time to sit and seriously think about the great Matters
of importance, the great questions of life, must deal with it sometime
in their experience. Good to see you little young
lads here. Good to see the young people here with us. Even young
people have to confront the realities of life and death sometime. And if your friends and your
relatives live to great old ages and you don't have to see too
many taken away in your youth, then good! But you will know
sadness sooner or later as someone is taken from you and you will
have to ask yourself questions about what is going to happen
to those who have died. Where are they now? What is going
to happen to me when it is my turn? The great questions of
life beset us all, and no one can answer those questions for
you. Here was a man who wanted the
right thing. He wanted everlasting life. He
thought to himself, sooner or later, I am going to have to
face God. What do I need in order to have
everlasting life. He wanted the right thing. And he came to the right person. He came to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He could have gone anywhere. He was a man of wealth. He was
a man who had the world at his feet. There would have been many
places that he could have studied, many teachers that would have
been glad to give them the benefit of their wisdom. He could have
gone anywhere to learn the religions of this world, learn the philosophies
of the age, come to terms with these great and profound questions. What is life? What is death? Who is God? How are we going
to in any way be able to have some sort of assurance that these
great questions are answered for us personally? Who will give
me an answer? There would have been many, as
there are today, clamouring to give Him an answer. But He came
to the Lord. He came to Christ. And that was
commendable. That in itself, the fact that
you are here this evening, the fact that you have in some small
capacity a desire to hear the Word of God, the fact that you
are ready to come and it's only going to be a short hour, the
fact that the Word of God is opened and you are in the hearing
of that Word, that is a blessing to you. It may be that you will
turn your back upon that blessing and go from this place totally
unperturbed and unconcerned about anything you've seen. will constrain you. I trust the
Lord will place a mark upon you and that you will not be the
same for this night. I trust that the mercy of God
might be demonstrated in the heart of one or another this
night. But here was a man who wanted
the right thing and he came to the right person. Acts chapter
4 and verse 12 tells us this. Neither is there salvation in
any of us, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. If you want eternal life,
you must go to Christ. If you would have these questions
answered, you must go to Christ. Here was a man who went to the
right person. And he asked the right question.
He asked the right question of the right person for the right
need and burden that he had. He says, what shall I do that
I may inherit? Now, most people who preach on
this passage, they say, well, here is his fault. He says, what
will I do? OK. But I'll tell you this. We all have to do something if
we are going to come to Christ. We all have to believe. This man knew that life had to
be inherited. He said, what will I do to intext
eternal life? He knew that it wasn't going
to be given simply to him as a result of his deeds. There's
something more profound going on here. There were many, many
people in Israel in these days who were followers of Judaism,
followers of the law, seeking to abide by the law, seeking
to, in some capacity, in some way, identify with the religious
faith of their day in order to, perhaps, smooth the road, in
order to give them the benefit of the doubt. We live in a land
full of religion. There are people all over and
they are careless for their souls, though they may give lip service
to some religious observation. Careless for their souls, for
so many reasons we were thinking this morning. Just how it is
that people no longer have any real understanding of what sin
is. they will do anything they want
to do. And if someone says, you know,
that's wrong, they'll find a way of rationalizing their behavior
to satisfy the lusts that they have. And we see it all around
us, people doing exactly what they want. We need to be clear
that to have eternal life, It must be a gift from God. It is not of our works. It is
God's gift. And it seems that this young
man was different from the others, for he appreciated to some degree
the need to inherit that life. That it had to come to him. It had to be given and granted
to him. And he shows the right concern. We're all going to really think
this man is wonderful before I'm finished here. He shows the
right concern. Here is a man who comes running. He runs to Jesus. And when he runs, demonstrating
that urgency, appreciating that here was his opportunity. Jesus
was a busy man. Here was his opportunity. Now
he would go remember Zacchaeus. And Caius had to climb a tree
in order to see Jesus. Such was the throng about the
Lord in his earthly ministry. There were so many who were curious.
There were so many who wanted to hear a word, see a miracle,
have some demonstration of His power and His glory. They'd heard
a lot. They wanted to see for themselves.
The crowds followed Jesus. Here was an opportunity. He better
move. He better go now. And he ran. with an urgency to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he bowed down. So much that
this young man did shows that he had some sort of appreciation
of this specialness of the Lord. He bowed before him. He got on
his knees. And he brought the right qualities
He was young. He was powerful. He was wealthy. Now, I don't know very many of
you. I know the little congregation
of which I am a part back in the north of England. But we
are not very rich and powerful. And most of us are not very young
anymore. Here was a man who had so many
attractive qualities. Indeed, there would be many who
would desire to have this man in their congregation. If we
could get the young people, if we could get people of influence
into our congregation, if we could get people with resources
into our church, think how wonderful that would be. Think what we
could do. Here was a man who in so many
ways was attractive to those who have anything to do with
religion. Youth, vitality, energy, power,
influence, wealth, resources. He seemed to have so much going
for him. And he was righteous. He was righteous. Under the law,
he was righteous. He, as far as the law was concerned,
and we've no reason to doubt it, the Apostle Paul could say
at a later date that as far as the law was concerned, he was
perfect. He, as far as the Ten Commandments,
as far as the Jewish traditions were concerned, as far as the
Old Testament law of Moses was concerned, he had not committed
adultery. He did not kill. He did not steal. He did not bear false witness.
He did not defraud. He honored his father and mother.
He says to the Lord, he says to the Lord, all these things
I've done since my youth. His failure, of course, was to
appreciate the spiritual nature of the law. He was observing
these things in the letter. We're going to come to this in
a little while. His failure was to understand
that the law is spiritual. He thought he was using the law
in order to please God by his obedience. Indeed, in many ways,
it's clear that this young man believed that he had eternal
life. He was coming to the Lord Jesus
looking for reaffirmation, looking for some comfort that that which
he believed, some assurance that that which he believed was in
fact true. Here was a man who seemed to
do everything right, and in many ways we would regard him as a
role model. In many ways we would look at
this man and we would say, here's a man who wants the right thing,
here's a man who comes to the right person, here's a man who
asks the right questions, who shows the right concerns, who
seems to have the right qualities. Here is someone that we could
readily put in charge of the youth group. Here is someone
that we would be happy to let our daughters court. Here is
someone that if he was coming to our church seems to do everything
right, you would think so, wouldn't you? But you'd be wrong. He came to
the Lord looking for confirmation about his own self-righteousness. And what the Lord observed in
this man was not a man who was doing everything right, but a
man who by his very own comments betrayed his vanity. betrayed
his pride and his conceit, showed that he had no real appreciation
of what the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ was about, no true
understanding about why Christ had come into the world, no appreciation
that the Lord Jesus Christ was going to have to die. Now he
was not alone in that, but demonstrably that was the position he was
in. And you know what? I think this is lovely. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke to
him tenderly. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke to
him tenderly. Let us be careful that we speak
to men tenderly. Let us be careful that we don't
lord it over those who are ignorant of the truth. Sometimes when
we get the truth, we carry it like a badge, and it almost appears
as if we've been given something because we're better than anyone
else. Oh, the elect of the Lord have
much indeed to be thankful for. But let us be tender in our words. Let us be careful about the way
that we live before men. Let us be attractive to those
who are going to a lost eternity perchance, even if they will
not listen to our words, even if they will not hear our preaching,
they may observe something of the Lord in our lives and in
our conduct. Sometimes we are the only sermon
that men and women will ever hear in the whole of their lives,
and it might just be the tenderness of a word that will win their
confidence to hear us a little more. Here was a man who seemed
to do everything right. Now I want to introduce you to
a man who seems to do everything wrong. Most Christian ministers today
will tell you, Jesus never did anything wrong. Right? Most Christian ministers would
tell you, Jesus never did anything Well, at least I hope they will
say that. But the vast majority of them
act as if he did. The vast majority would look
upon this young man and they would say, here is a sincere
and a genuine inquirer. Here is someone who is really
serious about knowing Christ. Not one of them would deal with
him as the Lord dealt with him. Imagine, for a moment if you
will, that someone was to come in the door, someone maybe who
knew little about Christianity, maybe who knew little about the
Bible, but in some way had been pricked in his conscience, in
some way had been brought to that place where he knew there
was something missing. And he comes and he knocks on
the door, or he puts his head around the door, and maybe we're
all sitting here, and he, in his urgency, in his impetuosity,
doesn't appear to act courteously to those who are here, but rather
he shouts out, excuse me, Reverend, What do I need to do to be saved? Now you'd be surprised if my
reaction to him was, why are you calling me reverent? I'm
not a reverent. You'd be surprised if my reaction
to him was as cool as that, if I told him only God is reverent. And if I turned him to Psalm
119 and said, he sent redemption unto his people, he had commanded
his covenant forever, holy and reverent is his name. The man
in his ignorance doesn't know any better. The man in his ignorance
assumes that all those boards outside the church which says
reverence so-and-so and reverence so-and-so is in some way an appropriate
title that should be addressed to a minister of the gospel.
The man is just coming out of his ignorance. He has asked a
genuine question. And rather than me anticipating
The foolishness, I seem to be standing upon the letter, standing
upon some sort of proud position, rather than dealing with him
as clearly he needs to be dealt with. Oh really? You see, that's
not how the Lord dealt with him. The Lord did exactly that. Most
people would say, sign a card. That's what you need to do. Or
they would say, raise your hand. That's what you need to do. Or
come to the front and sit here. We've got a seat especially for
you. We could keep this seat. Especially
for people just like you. Come on in and sit down. That's
what most ministers would say upon such an interruption as
that. Everyone has got something for
you to do to be saved. Everyone will give you something
to do. It is noticeable that the Lord
did not impose a duty upon this young man to exercise faith. Some of you might know what I'm
talking about. For others of you, that can be
left hanging. But he did not impose a duty
upon this young man to exercise faith. He gave no request to
believe in him. He did not say to him, trust
in me. The trouble with so many today
is that we assume that the wanting to possess is the same as possessing. But that's not right. We wouldn't
say that about any other aspect of life. We wouldn't say wanting
to possess a house was the same as possessing it. We wouldn't
say that wanting to possess a car was the same as possessing it.
We wouldn't say that wanting to possess a wife was the same
as possessing one. The wanting and the reality of
that is entirely different. Wanting to be saved is not the
same as being saved. And I tell you this, that the
Lord might stir a man in his heart to be saved and not bring
him to that place of having any real experience of that for some
considerable length of time. Indeed there are many people
who go through a long and arduous path. before they come to any
real sense of the presence of Christ with them, any assurance
that what they actually have is everlasting life. And yet
what most churches want to do is get the signature on the piece
of paper, is to get the testimony at the front, is to get the witness
made to the congregation and get that young man into a job
as quickly as possible. Because then, We'll have Him
and all of His power and all of His resources and all of His
youthfulness and all of His energy and all of His money and we can
make good use of Him. The Lord didn't do that. Here
was a man who seems to do everything wrong as far as the spiritual
or the religious, let me change that, as far as the religious
world of our age is concerned. The Lord gave this young man
no sticking plaster of false words. The Lord gave this man no hope
that he had any interest in eternal life. Indeed, this young man
had to be dealt with quite differently. He had to be shown something
much more important. There was no easy answer for
this young man, no flippant reply. from the Lord, no easy access. No, this young man's heart had
to be crushed. This young man's heart had to
be broken. It had to be opened as like with
a knife and it had to have the cancer that it contained cut
out. That was what was necessary.
What did Jesus do? He is a man that is looking for
eternal life. The Saviour sends him, not to
life, but to death. The Saviour doesn't send him
to life, but to what is called the killing letter. Here is a
man who is sent to the law. The Apostle Paul says that the
Lord hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of
the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. And this young man had to be
sent back in order to be slain before he could experience life. He had to be killed We might
think to ourselves that that's a strange way of introducing
someone to life, but it's the only way. Accept that seed, fall
into the ground and die. Accept there be that breaking
up. Accept there be that recognition
that we are dead in trespasses and in sins. This young ruler
thought that he had obeyed the commandments. until the Lord
showed him that he hadn't even begun to obey the very first
of them. He had to learn his lessons. Let me introduce you now to the
man who doeth all things well. The man who doeth all things
well. That breaking up was exactly
what was needed The Lord Jesus Christ knew, as he looked upon
this rich young ruler, what that man required. He knew what he
needed. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
knew what he needed because the Lord saw into his heart. He knew what was going on in
the young man's heart. Don't try to kid God. Don't dare try to be righteous
in the presence of the Holy God. Thou fool, this night thy soul
shall be required of you. And whose will these things be?
Those things that we build with our own hands are nothing to
God. They're worse than nothing. They
are nauseous to His sight. If we dare to come before God
in our own self-righteousness, He will destroy us from before
His sight. The Lord Jesus Christ knew exactly
what this man needed. In 1 Samuel chapter 16 and verse
7 we read this, the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his
countenance, looking for a king in Israel, or in the height of
his stature, because I have refused him. He looks good, but I've
refused him. For the Lord seeth not as a man
seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance. So many would have said, what
an attractive young man to have in our congregation. Just the
sort of person we're looking for. Why? Because they were looking
on the outward appearance. They were looking at his energy.
They were looking at his enthusiasm. They were looking at his approach
to the Lord. They were looking at the words
that he used, the language that he employed. But the Lord looked
on the heart. Man looked on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looked on the heart. In Luke 9, verse 47, we have
this verse. Jesus perceiving the thought
of their heart. He knew the heart of men. He knows what is going on in
your heart and in my heart. Right now, He knows what we're
thinking. He knows our attitudes. He knows
why we're here. He knows our concerns. He knows
what we need. Mark chapter 7 and verse 37.
We see that the people around the Lord Jesus Christ at a certain
time were astonished at the things that he said and the things that
he did. Astonished that he had such insight,
understanding and power. He said, or they said of him,
he hath done all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear
and the dumb to speak. The Lord Jesus Christ does all
things well, for He knows what a sinner needs. The need of the
sinner also is a testimony to the fact that Christ must be
all in all. Let me read you a couple of verses
from Matthew chapter 9. You don't have to turn to them.
This is Matthew chapter 9 verse 10. It came to pass as Jesus
sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came
and sat down with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees
saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but they
that are sick. Go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice,
for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This young man was all too righteous
in his own eyes, and he was righteous in the eyes of all those who
observed him. But before the gaze of the Holy
God, the Lord Jesus Christ knew that he needed repentance. He needed humility. He needed
to be brought under the hammer of the law that he might properly
understand the true spiritual nature of the law and recognize
that it never ever was designed to make us holy before God but
rather to expose our inadequacies and inabilities and show us how
far short of the holiness of God we actually are. There is a third testimony also
the way in which the Lord Jesus Christ dealt with this young
man and the propriety, the appropriateness of it. And that is the testimony
of those who find Christ to be their Saviour and their Lord.
In Romans chapter 7 and verse 9 we read these words, For I
was alive without the law once, That is what this young man was. He was alive without the law
once. But when the commandment came,
you see, he thought that the law was merely there to testify
to his goodness. And he enjoyed his life thinking
that he was good enough for God because the law testified it
to be so. He was alive in his own reckoning,
he was alive in his own perception, without the law, outside of the
law, for he was not properly understanding the usefulness
or role of the law. But when the commandment came,
when he truly understood the spiritual dimension of the law,
When he realised that having no other God before me didn't
mean that you bowed down to a little statue, but that it meant that
you humbled yourself before the sovereign God. When he realised
that not killing wasn't to do with not actually slaying someone
and spilling their blood, but having anger in the heart. When
he knew that not committing adultery was looking on a woman, or looking
on a man. with lust in our hearts, then
the killing letter had its true purpose and its usefulness. Then when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died. It took the law to slay him. a proper understanding of the
law. What does that mean? I'm not looking for you to say,
oh, now we've got a new understanding of the law, that's great, that's
better. No, I'm talking about this law coming into your heart,
into your mind, into your conscience as a real vital experience. And the outcome of that experience
being that you are broken before God because you see yourself
as a sinner. Because like that publican that
went down to the temple and bore testimony to the fact, God be
merciful to me a sinner. That's the purpose of the law.
Paul says in Romans chapter 7 in the commandment which was ordained
to life, I found to be unto death for sin. taking occasion by the
commandment, deceived me and slew me. There needs to be an awareness
that we are sinners before a holy God and there needs to be in
that place a turning to the only one who can deal with our need
and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ looked
on this young man and loved him. I don't know what the outcome
of this meeting was, but I like to think that there was something
there in that word which spoke of Christ's everlasting love
to this young man. There are those who will suggest
to us that maybe, just maybe, this young man was actually Saul
of Tarsus. Again, I don't know, but it's
an interesting thought. Here was a young man anyway.
be he known to us or not, who needed to come into that place
of recognising himself a sinner, for only in that place will any
sinner ever turn to Christ. Whether that turning to Christ
is an easy experience or a hard experience, only the Lord knows
that it may well be that there are some people here who have
struggled with any sense of assurance for a long period of time, not
knowing whether they truly have an interest in the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Let me tell you this, that if
we come with our own righteousness to God, there is no hope for
us. But if we come as guilty sinners
and throw ourselves upon his mercy, then there is hope. And in the Lord Jesus of life for sinners like you
and me. Let it be that the testimony and the witness of this young
man who seems to do everything right, and the way in which the
Lord dealt with him, which seems to be all wrong, disappears in our sight as we
see the One who has done all things well. and recognize him
to be the only hope that we have in this life and for eternity. Amen. Let's have a word of prayer.
Almighty God, we thank thee for bringing us together this evening
and giving us the opportunity to sit under the sound of thy
word. We pray that thou wilt be pleased
to take these things which have been said and done in thy hearing
Apply them to the hearts of those gathered here. Some of us are
very young and some of us are very old. Some of us have seen
many things in life and for some, life is only just opening. There
will be times of trouble and trial and difficulty yet to be
faced. Our God, we pray that we will
know thy hand in our lives in the days that lie ahead. Whether
it be the weakness of our body and the frailty of our flesh,
takes us down to the grave in the near future or the energy
and vitality of youth which still has all of its enthusiasm there. May it be that we are directed
by thy Holy Spirit first and foremost to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ who alone can give that that we require for our
sinful state and our evil condition. Heavenly Father, Open now the
eyes of thy people that we may see the Lord Jesus Christ and
trust in him for that completed work which he has accomplished.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face
shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee and give thee peace.