Good morning. Okay, let's ask
the Lord to bless this day. Our Father in heaven, we come
here this day to worship you. Again, this is another day that
you have made. And we are here. And you brought us here. And
Lord, may we be here to hear your word, to hear your voice.
Speak to us, Lord. We want to worship, but with
man it's impossible. Flesh, lusts, wars against the
Spirit. Spirit against the flesh, we
cannot do the things that we would. So we ask you to have
mercy upon us, and your greatest mercy will be to allow us to hear your word. The
entrance of your word gives light, life, salvation. Just as you spoke intimately
and privately to your disciples and revealed things to them,
you still speak to your people in that way. So I ask that you
would teach us, lead us, guide us, direct us from your word,
restrain us, Have mercy upon us. Keep us from this world,
us and our children. Lord, have mercy on us all. The world is a snare, it's a
trap. God of this world holds men,
women, and young people captive to it. And we ask that you deliver
us from it. And take it out of us, and take
us out of it, us and our children, Lord. Have mercy upon our children,
that they're in the world. Right now, they're obits. And
we pray that you would open their eyes, open their ears. And your
word is your power. So we ask you to bless your word
this day, here and everywhere your people meet, for Christ's
sake. And forgive us of our sins, in
his name, amen. Luke 18, let's read verses 18
through 30. Luke 18, verses 18 through 30. A certain ruler asked him, saying,
good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 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 the young
man said, all these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus
heard these things, he said unto him, yet likest thou one thing,
sell all that thou hast, and distribute 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 a 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 off and followed thee. And he said of them, Verily
I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, 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. Stop right there. Now after the
Lord deals with this rich young ruler, and this is recorded three
times, After he deals with the rich young ruler, the disciples
asked those that were with him, and we believe it's the disciples,
said, who then can be saved? He said,
it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And they were just,
well then who can be saved? And you know, everybody in this
room is rich, increased with good. Now, he says, with man
it is impossible. It's impossible. But with God,
all things possible. Our Lord is going to tell us,
teach us, show us that salvation is of the Lord 100%. Salvation
is impossible with man. Why? Because man is flesh. That's all man thinks about by
nature. And he'll live and die for the
flesh. And if God saves him, It's got
to change. It's going to change. It will
change. And He's showing us no flesh
and no... and salvation's of the Lord.
And it's for His glory, because no flesh is going to glory Him.
Not by the works of the flesh, the deeds of the law, none of
those things. Even giving, Paul said, giving
up all your riches, giving your body to be burned. That won't
do. So there's two or three lessons, and we've looked at this many
times. I've heard it preached many times. We ought to learn
something each time. First of all, the truth, the
first lesson is salvation is of the Lord. It's not man. The Lord's going to have to save
us. Secondly, riches. This is going to be the truest
test of discipleship. The truest test that God has
really done a work in a flesh and blood human being is that
they, if they don't leave everything, they're willing to. It's the truest test. There's
no exceptions. And our Lord has been teaching
us from the beginning. And thirdly, he's going to show us and teach
us that salvation of anyone is possible, even a rich man. Is it harder for the Lord to
save a cussing sailor or a praying Pharisee? Which is harder? It's impossible, period. They
both need saving. They're both lost. They both
don't know it. They both don't care. Salvation
is up to the Lord. Same prayer. Save a poor harlot
or a rich young ruler. This is a lesson I learned from
them, that I believe the Lord saved this man. Alright, he just
rebuked the disciples for their pride and self-righteousness
because they wanted to get these insignificant children out of
here. Get these kids out of here. They're insignificant. We don't
need these kids around. They're nothing. They're nobody.
Simon Peter. And what were you when I found
you, Simon Peter? James, John, Andrew, what were
you? A cussing sailor. A longshoreman. A nobody. A nothing. An insignificant. Never gave God a thought. Living
for fishing and all that. Salvation is of the Lord. So we rebuke them for their pride,
their self-righteousness. And the Lord's going to keep
us humble all our days. They hadn't been with the Lord
but a couple of years at the most. And they're already lifted
up with pride. We're somebody. No, you're not. You never were anything. You
never will be anything until you're made like Christ. The Lord is going to keep us
humble. And remember He just said this, He that exalteth himself
shall be obeyed. And all our days in this world,
the Lord does the has-to-do things to us. Teach us hard lessons
to bring us down. Because the way up is down. The way up is down. All right,
here comes a rich young ruler, and that's what Matthew and Mark
calls him, the ruler of the synagogue, and he's young, a young man,
and he's rich. Verse 18, a certain ruler asked
him, saying, good master, what shall I do? Or Mark said, what
good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now, the Lord is
going to address this man. He's a Pharisee. He's moral. He's zealous. He thinks he's
kept the law, but the Lord doesn't rebuke him for that. You know
that? The Lord didn't say, You're self-righteous.
You didn't keep the law. He didn't say that. What's He
rebuke him for? Covetousness. Okay, what is covetousness? Idolatry. You know, the first... I'm getting
ahead of myself. But he's going to address his
covetousness and ours. He doesn't address his self-righteousness
or the law because, listen to the weight of this statement,
the love of money is the root of all evil. All evil. And we all have it, a lot of
it. Right? Things, stuff. Those things
aren't evil, but they become evil when we live for them. They become idolatrous. All right?
Verses 19, Jesus said unto him, Why callest
thou me good? None is good save one, that is
God. Now, this young man thought that Jesus of Nazareth, this
teacher, he calls him master, was a good man. He called him
good master. There were no other Pharisees
who said that. I have hope for this young man. I do. I believe he solved Tarsus. But
anyway, in Mark's Gospel it says he came running when he heard
that Christ was there, that Jesus of Nazareth was there. He came
running. He wanted to hear Him. He wanted
to see Him. And it says when he came to Him,
he kneeled down. No other Pharisee ever did that. They didn't come running. They
didn't kneel down. And it says he asked Him. He
called on the Lord. He asked. Ask and you'll receive,
right? Seek and you'll find. Call. Knock
and it'll be opened unto you. He asked Him. He said, Good Master. None of the Pharisees ever called
Him Good Master. He did. And in Mark's Gospel
it says the Lord loved him. Now you can mark this down. Whoever
the Lord loves, He came to save. Mark it down. You say, but it
doesn't say that. Yes, it does. Having loved His
own, He loved them to the end. Everybody Christ loves, He saved.
We don't know the rest of this man's story, but you can mark
it down, the Lord came to save. But He gave him an urgency to
hear Christ. He came running. He gave him
a respect, some deep respect. He kneeled down. And he knew,
this man is good. Nicodemus. What about Nicodemus? Nicodemus came to Christ, didn't
he? At night, yes. He knew, if my fellow Pharisees
see me asking him questions, they'll kick me out or something. Well, he came, you know, and
he said, Now, Master, he said, Teacher, Rabbi, we know that
thou art come from God. Remember that? We know that thou art a man come
from God, but no man can do the things you do except God. And
the Lord saved Nicodemus. Yes, He did. He came out publicly
after he saw Christ crucified, and he came forward and confessed
it. So I believe this man was saved, because with man, it's
impossible. You tell me if it's not more
difficult to talk to a Pharisee than it is to talk to just an
old blue-collar worker. Isn't it more difficult? You'd
think there's no sense in me talking to him. He's religious.
He's too religious. He's not going to hear a thing
I say. Well, the old down-and-out fellow,
he's too caught up in the world. He's not going to hear you either.
And it's not impossible. I mean, it's impossible with
man, but not with God. At least half of the people in
this room were in religion before the Lord revealed Himself to
them, right? At least half of them. The other
half were gutter dwellers. Whether in the pew or in the
gutter, you're lost. You don't know Christ, and the test is
going to be leaving everybody and everything for Him. That's it. All right. This man went away sorry. And
the reason I believe he was Saul of Tarsus is because Paul said,
the things that were gained to me. He said I was a Pharisee,
a Hebrew of Herod, concerning zeal, I persecuted. He said the
righteousness of the law is blameless. All these things I kept from
my youth up, he said. He said that I lost them all.
Yeah, but it's just dumb. He said, oh, the unsearchable
riches of Christ. All right, he called him none.
He said there's none good but one, that's God. Two things this
Pharisee is going to have to find out, this rich young man
and everybody is going to have to find out, is that God alone
is holy and righteous and just and good in the truest sense
of the word. Because the scripture says there's
none that doeth good, no, not one. None righteous, right? That's
the natural man. He has no goodness in him by
nature. None. If he does, he's not dead
in trespassing sin, right? The man is dead. The Lord looked
down to see if they're in it. No, there's none. None. They're
dead. Christ came that they might have
life. To call the dead to life. To call those in darkness to
life. That's why Christ came. There's
no good. Christ came to be the goodness
of his people, the righteousness of his people. The Lord is not
pleased with anybody by nature, but he's well pleased with Christ
for his righteousness. And he came to do that. Here
we go again. Yes, it's the good news of God. Christ came to take the place
of guilty sin, but he's got to make them guilty. And the only
way we're really guilty before God is to see that God is good,
I am not. God is holy, I am sinful. God requires perfect righteousness,
I don't have any. What I do have is a filthy rag. A little article in the bulletin
from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress says the man was dressed in rags
and had a book in his hand. So we're going to learn, everybody's
going to learn that God saves, they're going to learn that God
alone is holy and just and righteous and I am not. Not man's sinful,
no, I am. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. And thirdly, covetousness is
idolatry. We've got to, we're going to
learn that. And it takes a new birth to give someone new desires
and new heart and to make Christ their treasure rather than things. With man,
that's impossible. With God, it's certain. A certain
young group of people, okay? I was going to go and show you
a few scriptures that the Lord called certain people good, but I'm out of time. But He called
Joseph of Arimathea a good man. He called Barnabas a good man.
Paul said in 2 Timothy 3 that the people of the world will
be despisers of those that are good. You see, whatever God does
is good. When God created everything,
He said it's good. After He created man, He said
it's all very good. Created in His image. Whatever
God creates in His image is good. And Christ in a believer is a
good person. None good but God. And there's
none good to God except those that are in Christ and Christ
in them. Okay. So what God does is good. He
takes a no good, well now that old man doesn't change, but he
puts a new person in it, creating his image. There's that. Okay. Look at verse 20 and 21. Our Lord said, 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
the young man said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
Our Lord said, you know the commandments. What good thing must I do, must
you do to be saved? Keep the law. To be saved, to
enter heaven, keep the law. Do it. And don't fail in one
of them. Except you keep every point,
you're guilty. Do the work. Work your way to
heaven. You have to keep the law, all
of it. Now notice he did not Our Lord gave five of the last
six commandments. Theologians like to talk about
the two tables of the law, the first four being toward God and
the next six being toward man, right? And our Lord said, love
God and love your neighbors to fulfill the whole law. But the
first four are toward God. Number one, what is it? Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. All right? The last law toward
man, the Lord didn't mention it. What is it? Thou shalt not
covet. All right, covetousness is what? All right, whether it's the first
or it's the last, it's against God. And everything in between. It's God's law to offend at one
point, guilty of it all. David found out and said, against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil. And I said,
I'm guilty from the first to the last. I haven't kept one
jot or tittle of it. It was the law of the Spirit.
But the Lord didn't bring this up to him. He didn't bring up
the first tables of the law. Why? Well, do you not think it's easier
to keep the second six as opposed to the first? Is it not easier? Thou shalt have no other God
before me. No graven images. Not to take His name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath to keep it over. He didn't bring those
things in. He dealt with them toward man.
None of it's easy. It's all impossible. But the
Lord didn't even bring that up. There's no point in bringing
that up. He's guilty. That's charter. And he mentions five
out of the six things. And the rich young ruler's thinking,
oh, I haven't committed adultery. I haven't killed. I haven't stolen. I haven't borne false witness.
I've been a good son. Yeah, I've kept all of these.
And now he's going to bring up covetousness, which is to have
another god before God. That's what covetousness is.
It's idolatry. He's going to bring it up. And we all are guilty
of it. What the law saith, saith them
that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped. Guilty
on all points, right? And look at this, it says in
verse 22, Our Lord said, When Jesus heard these things, he
said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing. Sell all that thou hast, and
distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure, treasure
in heaven. You remember hearing that? He's
already dealt with that. Where your treasure is, that's
where your heart is. Sell everything, Distribute it
to the poor. Come, and Matthew and Mark said,
take up your cross and follow me. Follow me. One thing you lack,
what do you lack? Christ. See, if he really has Christ,
he doesn't need all these things. He may have them, but they're
not his treasure. Christ did it. Lots of rich believers
over through the years. Abraham, beginning with Abraham,
he was rich. But that wasn't his treasure. When it came time,
Lot and him, all that stuff caused strife, didn't it? What did Abraham
say? You take, you take it all, take
whatever you will. And Lot revealed his heart at
the time, didn't he? I'm going to leave God, I'm going to leave
Abraham, I'm going to leave the people of God, and I'm going to dwell
in Sodom. That's where his heart was, for the Lord's sake. One thing thou likest, ye like
me, Christ said. That's what he said. You may
be religious. You may make a profession of
religious. You may be moral. You may be zealous, like this
young man was. But if you don't have Christ,
you're lost, just as lost as an old harlot in the street. Now picture these two young men.
Picture this The young man, you had to be 30 years old to be
a man. That's about the age of Christ here. 30, 31, 32. I've
got two young men standing there, talking. One's dressed in, oh,
he's dressed like me. His hair is just perfect, and
he's probably got rings on his finger, maybe a necklace around
it. Finest of shoes bought at, where did I get that? Online
somewhere. Finest of shoes and clothes and
his hair and his rings and his jewelry. Probably pulled up,
maybe, no, he came running. When he got out of his chariot,
you know he had a pretty nice chariot or a pretty nice horse,
he comes running. to the Lord. And there the Lord
is. Look at Him. What's He like? He has one robe. One robe. Sandals. They're not worn out. They will
never wear out, but they're pretty worn. They walked everywhere. And no home, had nowhere to lay
his head. Didn't have a dollar, a mite in his pocket. You want
to tell me who the blessed person is? Who's rich? Who's rich? Who's rich? Which would you rather
be? Which one's son of God? Child of God? Which one? Huh? The whole world
would rather be this rich man than this poor fellow. Right? The world looks and says,
look, there's a blessing. There's riches. Oh, that's poverty. No, no, no, no. It's the opposite. See, the truth is opposite. If
the Lord doesn't do something for this rich man, he's going
to die and go to hell. no matter how moral he is. And
his riches, he can't redeem his soul with his riches. He can't
do it. You know what he's going to have to be redeemed with?
This man's blood. And this man who was rich, yet
I believe for his sake became poor, that he, through his poverty,
might be made really rich. True riches. Rich toward God. Rich in faith. Rich in peace. Rich in love. Rich in assurance. And someday, we're going to see
in a minute, that you lose everything. Everybody's going to lose everything.
Everybody's going to lose everything. But our Lord said, nobody, none
of God's people, lose anything. They get it all back. and life
eternal. He told him, sell everything.
He heard this, verse 23, and he was very sorrowful. He was
very rich. But as I see it, I believe there's
hope for him, but now he's very sorrowful. He is very sorrowful. And it says in verse 24, when
the Lord saw that he was very sorrowful, he saw this. You know, the Lord is very pitiful. Can the Lord look at sorrow without
pity? He's a man of sorrow. You tell
me what, you know, my daughter, you know, she could really Maybe
fool me, but she could just, you know, just look at me like,
and I'd go, honey, honey, honey. Because I loved her so. You know,
tears. True, true tears. True. The Lord is very pitiful. I believe
He looked at this man. He's very sorrowful. He's going,
I think He's going to make him very happy later on. But he's
got to be very sorry. He's got to be very guilty. He's
got to be very condemned. Somebody recommended a message
to him. He said it was very convicting.
Good. That's good. And the person even
said it was scary. Good. Everything our Lord says
is fearful and trembling. We're all done here. It's terrible. They're not sorrowful. This man's
very sorrowful. Remember Barnard, he said, if
the truth is preached, really preached, the person will go
away mad, sad, or glad. Now, I believe this was Saul. And how he's sad, I think later
he gets mad. He says, I want to show him. And then he gets glad. And then our Lord says, He gives
this illustration. How hardly shall they that have
riches enter the kingdom of God. It's easier for a camel to go
through a needle's eye than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
Why did the Lord use a camel? Why? Well, a camel, have you
ever been around a camel? Whew, you won't want to be around
him again. It's slow, they're dim-witted.
Have you ever seen a pretty camel? Have you ever thought, you've
seen a camel and you thought, that sure is, he is pretty. Ugly. Ugly. Slow, dim-witted. Where do camels live? In the
desert. They can go days without water.
Long time without water. They can go a whole lifetime
without the water of life. Stinking, ugly, filthy, slow,
dim-witted creatures that live in a desert place. That's us,
isn't it? And they got this big old hump on their back. Huge
hump. It's got to come off before you
go through the straight and narrow way. That hump's got to come
off. What is it? Self. Pride. We all got a big chip on our
shoulder. Don't pick my nature. Don't offend
me. Well, who are you? A camel. And how's you going to get? It's
impossible. You can't get a camel through the iron needle. And
you can't make a proud sinner come down. Somebody said that
the way is so narrow, so narrow that you've got to take all your
clothes off to get through. And it's so low, you've got to stoop.
You've got to crawl, you've got to get down to crawl through
and crawl through naked to get through. It's that straight,
that narrow, that low. And that's what the Lord does
with every proud sinner. Strips them of their pride. Strips
them of their covering. Brings them down at His feet
and brings them through the way. Straightened there. That's one
reason. It's impossible. But to show
us, there's no way you can get a camel through a needle. God
does. Yes, He does. Well, the disciples
said, who then can be saved? He said, these things are impossible
with man, but possible with God. And now look at what Peter said.
Peter said, lo, we have left all and followed thee. We have.
And they did, didn't they? Didn't they? They did. They came calling Simon and Andrew,
and they dropped their nets and their boat. John and James and
John dropped their nets, boats, and their father and their servants.
They had a lot. Dropped everything. Matthew,
the publican, sitting at a table. He's rich. He's a rich man. He's counting his money. And
when Christ came and looked on him and said, follow me, that's
all he said. everything. He didn't put a dollar in it.
He dropped everything and went and fought and cried. They did. They all did. All God's people
did. Why? Because He called them. That's why. No flesh is going
to glow. They didn't decide to do that. The Lord decided that
long ago. I'm going to come for this fellow.
And how do you know that the Lord did it? They left everything.
They left their family. They left their home. Do you remember all the scriptures
that we've already looked at where the Lord said, Strive to
enter in. Many shall seek to enter and
shall not be able. Remember all those scriptures? He said, except
you forsake all that you have, you cannot be my disciple. If
any man hate not his father, mother, wife, children, brothers,
sisters, yea, own life also, cannot be my disciple. Whosoever
does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be his disciple.
You've got to count the cost. He's already been saying all
those things. And so Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John
and Matthew and all these disciples said, we have. Because Christ did it for his
glory. But here's the thing. The end
will tell. The end's going to tell. As we
said a while ago, everyone shall lose everything. We all are going
to lose everything. The Lord's going to take it away
from believers and unbelievers. All of it. Everybody. But look
at verse 29. 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. And it says in the Revelation
about all these people And there's a great cloud of witnesses who
love not their lives unto death. And many truly left everything,
like Moses. I love the story of Moses. When
he was come to year, when the Lord brought him, he was in Pharaoh's
house in Egypt, and the Lord came for him. And the Lord revealed
Himself to him. And what happened? What did Moses
do? He said, I'm not Pharaoh's daughter or son. No. I don't belong in Egypt. It's
not my home. He said, I don't need all of these things. I want to be with God's people,
walking through the wilderness, looking for a celestial city
like the Pilgrim. That's how you know. I tell you
now. And they all get it all back. They all get it all back. We
become joint heirs with Christ. And life in Him, and all that
He is and has, we receive. And so we've lost nothing. We've
lost nothing. There have been many people over
the years who've literally left, you know, preachers. and let
them leave their home and families and job and houses and all that,
and go for the sake of the gospel, for Christ's sake, okay? Men,
all right? But the Lord gives it all back,
even in this time. Even in this time. And, you know,
if you lost your home, You lost your job. Lord, you're
not going to do with that. You're not going to do with that.
Because God has people everywhere who have homes, and their home
is your home. You'll never be with that. Understand? But the main thing is, and the
most wonderful thing is, life every last day. Because all this
will be dissolved. Moths, termites, powder-post
beetles are going to destroy your home. Rusts are going to
corrupt your cars, trucks, and everyone else. They're going
to rust to the ground, go to the smasher. Thieves are going
to break through and steal it. But if Christ is your treasure,
they can't steal Him. They can't take you away from
Him either. And this is the snare. Here's the point I'm trying to
make. Our Lord said in Luke 21, as a snare, it's going to come
over all the world. Prosperity. This is the snare. This is the trap. This is what
the God of this world uses, the things of this world. And flesh
can't resist it. Cannot resist it. It's impossible. The things of God are unseen.
The things here are seen. The flesh lusts for these things,
not spiritual things. And the God of this world knows
that. It's a trap. It's a pit. It's a lure. It's a bait. And with that is
a hook, though. And He knows how to use it. And
He uses it over all people. But how you know God's people
is, you've got to fight for it. He sends His Word, how? Right
here, from the entrance of Thy Word. It delivers our feet from
falling. In vain is a net spread in the
sight of a bird. Do you know what that means?
A bird is not going to fly into a net to show it to him. Hear
a bird flying? No, no, no. He's going to fly
from it. And that's what the Lord told
Timothy. Flee, useful love. Flee, riches. Flee. And I'm going to bring
up old Pilgrim in the next message. And God's people do. They run
to Christ. They run to Him. Okay.