Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today,
I'm glad you could join us. Today I'm going to be preaching
again from the book of Matthew chapter 19. I began this message
last week and the title is How Good is Good? Now this is part
two, this'll be the last message in this two-part series, How
Good is Good? And I'm preaching from the book
of Matthew chapter 19 beginning at verse 16. where a rich young
ruler, a ruler of the Jews, a young man who was rich and who was
high in religion, approached the Lord Jesus Christ and asked
him the question, look at Matthew 19, 16, and behold, one came
and said unto him, good master, what good thing shall I do that
I may have eternal life? So that was his question, what
can I do? that I can have eternal life. What can I do for salvation? Tell me what to do. And I think
about that, you know, in false religion, that's what they pretty
much do. They tell people what to do in
order to gain or maintain salvation. But the Lord answers him in a
very interesting way, very telling way. Verse 17, teaching him a
lesson, he says unto him, why callest thou me good? There's
none good but one. That is God. But if thou wilt
enter into life, keep the commandments. And I mentioned last week how
the legalists look at that and they say, well, see there, you
can be saved by keeping the commandments. But that's not what the Lord
is teaching here. In fact, the opposite. He's gonna show this
man that nobody born of Adam, fallen in Adam, ruined by the
fall, born dead in trespasses and sins, no one who's a sinner,
and that's what we all are, we've all sinned and come short of
the glory of God. It's impossible for salvation
to come to us based on our works, our law keeping. By deeds of
law, That is, by doing, trying to keep the law, no flesh shall
be justified in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge
of sin. So what the Lord is doing here, he's going to expose the
man, his sinfulness to him. And the reason he asked the question,
well, why do you call me good? Is this man approached Christ
not as God manifest in the flesh, that's who Christ is. He is the
living God, manifest in sinless human flesh. God-man, the Word
made flesh, dwelling among us. And this man did not believe
that Jesus of Nazareth was God in human flesh. He just thought
he was a good teacher. That word master, when he said
good master, that just means teacher. You're a good teacher.
We know that. What good thing must I do? And
so the Lord shows him that this man's standard or measure of
goodness is way lower than it ought to be. All he's talking
about, this young man, is human goodness in the eyes of humans,
as sinful humans measure goodness. Human morality, human righteousness,
which falls way short of God and His goodness and righteousness.
Only God is good. And you see, when it comes to
salvation, when it comes to blessing, when it comes to approaching
God, when it comes to a right relationship with God, the standard
of goodness has to be God Himself. It cannot be human beings. That's
why the Apostle Paul says it's not wise for us to measure ourselves
with ourselves, because we always fall short. And I quoted this
last week. It's quoted quite often, Romans
3.23. Many of you know it. For all
have sinned and done what? Come short of the glory of God. That means we've missed the mark.
And here's what it's telling us. It's telling us that no matter
how good we try to be, how sincere we try to be, we will always
fall short of the mark. And that mark is the perfect
righteousness that can only be found in the person and work,
redemptive work, cross work, death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have no righteousness of my
own. Romans 3 10, there's none righteous, no, not one. That's what he says. And in order
to have eternal life, in order to To get to heaven, as you say,
we must have a righteousness that we don't have by nature
and cannot produce by keeping the law. One of my favorite verses
is Romans 5.21 that says this, that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. not by my keeping the law. Well,
shouldn't we try to be the best that we can be? Yes, while realizing
and acknowledging that the best we can be is not good enough. And that's why we pray and beg
God for his mercy, his grace in Christ. Lord, be merciful
to me, the sinner. The best that I can do is not
good enough. And so when he says in verse
17, why callest thou me good? He's not denying, he said there's
none good but one, that is God. He's not denying his deity. He's
just simply showing this young man this, if you don't believe
I'm God, then don't call me good. Now you say, well, is there no
way that I can look around at human beings and say nobody's
good? Well, in human terms, we might do that. We might look
at a person and say, well, he's a good father, she's a good mother,
good husband, good wife, good employee, good boss, all those
things. We might say that in human terms.
But see, the man's question was about what? What must I do? What good thing shall I do that
I may have eternal life? When it comes to salvation, when
it comes to a right relationship with God, there is none good. No, not one. We're all sinners. And here's how that goes. Now
think about it. The Bible teaches that at our
best, if God were to judge us, Based upon our law-keeping, our
morality, our sincerity, we would all deserve nothing but condemnation
and eternal death. Do you believe that? Because
if you don't, you don't know the Word of God. You don't know
God. Only God is good. Goodness is to be measured by
God. And so if you're thinking that
salvation is conditioned on something you do, or something that I do,
then that doing has to equal the perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ and His doing. You'll fall short. Lord, Psalm 130 verse three,
Lord, if thou Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? There's none good, no not one.
There's none that doeth good, no not one. There's none righteous,
no not one. And that's what we have to realize.
Well, go back to our text. Matthew 19, in verse 17. He said, why callest thou me
good? There's none good but one, that is God. Only God is good.
How good is good? That's the title of the message.
Only God is good. How good must I be to be saved
and get to heaven? I've gotta be as good as God
is. You say, well, I can't do that. That's why salvation is
by grace and not by works, friend. That's what the whole thing is
and that's what the Lord's teaching this young man. Well, he said,
but if thou will enter into life, keep the commandments. Well,
how would you respond to that? Keep the commandments. Well,
I'm trying. I had a man tell me one time he had a bracelet
on his wrist and it had the 10 commandments written on it. And
I was trying to tell him about salvation by God's grace through
Christ and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he popped up
that brace and he said, right there's my salvation. Well, I
read this last week in Galatians 3.10, as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse of the law. It's written, cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That's what it says. And it tells
us that if you're going to be a doer of the law, you're a debtor. If salvation comes by the law,
you're a debtor to do the whole law perfectly. And you're starting out in the
negative because we fell in Adam into sin and death. We're born
dead in trespasses and sins, and we've all sinned. And what
can atone for sin? What can wash away my sins? The Bible says, not my law keeping.
My trying to be a better person does not wash away my sins. And
let me tell you this today, people. Faith doesn't wash away my sins.
My believing doesn't wash away my sins. My repentance, my tears
of remorse and sorrow, they do not wash away my sins. What washes
away my sins? You sing the hymn, don't you?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Now, why is that? Because only
God is good. Only God is righteous. Well,
he says, keep the commandments. Well, here's how the young man
responds. Look at verse 18. He saith unto him, which, which
law should I keep? Is there one law? Now, you remember
Christ summarized the whole law in two laws. Love God perfectly,
all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, no wavering, and love
your neighbor as yourself, no wavering. And your neighbor includes
your worst enemy. Well, that puts us all under
the condemnation of the law if we're trying to seek salvation.
So he says which, and Jesus said, verse 18, 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. That's the summation.
Now he quoted to this man the second table of the law. I mentioned
this last week too, that the law had two tables. The first
table, the first four commandments has to do with the person's relationship
with God. The second table has to do with
our relationship with one another, human beings. And why did he
quote the second table, not the first table? I'll tell you exactly
why. It's easy for false religionists to really brag on their love
for God and kind of get away with it in the eyes of people.
Because you can't see God. God's invisible, he's a spirit.
But when it comes to putting the pedal to the metal, as they
say, if you wanna know how much you love God, measure it by how
much you love your neighbor, even your worst enemy. And there may be people who brag
on that. I've had people tell me, they say, oh, I just love
everybody. And I look at them, I say, no, you don't. And I'll
give them examples. Have you ever wished ill? on any human being at any time. You know why you do that? Because
you're a sinner. I am too. I'm a sinner. Do I love God perfectly, purely,
without any sin or contamination of the, no. Do I love my neighbor
perfectly without any contamination of self-love and self, no, I
don't. I'm a sinner, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. That means we've missed
the mark of perfect love, perfect obedience. That's the goodness
that we need. How good is good? We have to
be as good as God. The human goodness and human
righteousness will not measure up. It will not measure up. And so this man, he says, look
at verse 20. The young man saith unto him,
all these things have I kept from my youth up. This man really
believed that he had kept the law. And so he asked Christ,
he says, what lack I yet? What am I lacking? You know,
I look at this. And it kind of proves to me that
those who are trying to keep the law for salvation, either
to attain it or maintain it. You know, there are people who
call themselves Christians today, who will say that salvation is
by grace to start off with, but you have to maintain it by your
works. And that's just as bad as this
young man. What good thing must I do? That's work, salvation. You can't mix works and grace,
the Bible tells us that. But they can really have no real
biblical lasting assurance of salvation. Because at any moment,
any given thought, they might fail. And so this young man,
I believe that it shows even in the first way he approached
Christ. He thought he kept the law, but
then he goes on to say, what good thing shall I do that I
may have eternal life? I've kept the law. I've done
everything I can, he's saying. I've tried to be a good person.
I've tried to be sincere. What do I lack? Is there something
like, well, let me tell you what he lacks. He lacks the perfection
of the law. that can only be found in Christ. You hear me say that all the
time. But my friend, that's the issue. The righteousness of Christ
imputed to His people is the standard by which God will judge
all righteousness and goodness, all works. The Bible says in
Acts 1731, a passage I quote all the time, that God has given,
has determined a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained righteousness as measured by
a man, a God-man that God has ordained in that he hath given
assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead.
How good is good? Only God is good. Christ is good. He's God, ma'am. I must be as
good as Him. I must be as righteous as Him.
And the only way that I can be as righteous as Him is to have
His righteousness, the merits, the value, the worthiness of
His righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to me. But this young
man, he didn't know that. He said, I know I'm lacking something.
What lack I yet? Well, now look at 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. You think you keep the law perfectly?
You think you love God perfectly and love your neighbor as yourself?
All right, go sell everything you have and give it to the poor.
Now is Christ saying to him that if you do that, then you'll be
worthy of heaven? No. This is not a commandment
that God gives to everybody. Abraham, for example, was a rich
man. God didn't tell him to go sell everything he had and give
it to the poor. Now rich people, those who have been blessed with
riches in this world are to be generous. And they're to help
people when they need help. But this is not teaching socialism
or communism or welfare state or anything like that. This is
not teaching salvation by giving it all away. What he's doing,
he's revealing to this man the problem that, one of the main
problems that he had, and one of the main problems he had was
love of riches, love of money. He loved himself more than others. And if you love yourself more
than others, you can't say you keep the law. Besides, I heard
one old preacher talking about this. He said, you know, if Christ
would tell us all to give everything we have, to sell everything we
have and give to the poor, who would be the buyers in this world? We'd all be fighting each other
to give it away. But the Bible doesn't command
that. We're sinners. And if we've been blessed by
God in any way, health, wealth, or whatever, in such a way, The
Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. This
man had the love of money and it's proven by what happened
next. Look at verse 22. He says, but when the young man
heard that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. Now when that phrase, he had
great possessions, it doesn't mean that he had a lot of possessions
or a lot of money. It means he looked at his possessions
as being great. He valued it more than anything
else. And I don't care what it is in
your life or my life that would prove that we don't keep the
law, that we don't love God perfectly and we don't love our neighbors
ourself. It is true. And what does that tell us? It
tells us that how good good is. We must be as good as God. We
must be as righteous as his son. Human righteousness, human morality
will not save us. It will not bring us into a right
relationship with God. And this young man, what Christ
was doing, approaching him where he's at and showing, you don't
keep the law. You're a sinner. You need salvation
by grace. Well, listen, let's go on in
this passage. Look at 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. Now, if he's saying
that there's no rich people gonna enter the kingdom of heaven,
I can tell you right now, Abraham is not there, David is not there,
Solomon is not there, and we could go on and on. Philemon
is not there. The book of Philemon, he was
a rich man. And we could go on and on. He's
not saying that if you've got rich, if you've got money, a
lot of money, you can't. He's talking about those who
like this young man who loved riches more than anything else.
The love of money. And he says in verse 24, 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 heaven. In other words, there's no way
a person who denies Christ and loves money and riches and possessions
more than anything else to enter heaven. They're sinners. But
now listen, that doesn't mean if you're poor you're gonna enter
heaven, they're poor people. Poor people who think more of
themselves than they do of Christ or anybody else. They don't believe
the gospel. They believe they can still work
their way into heaven. So that's not the issue here.
The issue here is the problem that rich man had. He loved his
money and he wouldn't part with it. Claiming that he kept the
law, loved his neighbor as himself. Well, he didn't. None of us do.
Should we try to do that? Yes, but we don't. We fall short.
We're sinners. and we will be nothing else.
We need a righteousness we can't produce. How good is good? As
good as God. Well, he said it's easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Now there's a lot,
I've heard a lot of preachers go on that and then they go back
to Jewish tradition talking about a gate. in Israel that was low
and that people had come up there with their camels and they'd
have to take the burden, the load off the camel and the camel
would have to get on its knees and crawl through. That's just
Jewish tradition. That's not scriptural. In fact,
in Luke's version of this story, the word he uses for needle is
a surgical needle. So you take a needle that you
sew with and look at the eye of it. And he says, it's easier
for a camel to go through that than for a rich man to enter.
Now you can be rich in money, you can be rich in works, rich
in self-righteousness. My friend, unless you're as good
as Christ, righteous as Christ, you cannot enter the kingdom
of heaven. You've got to have a righteousness you cannot produce. And that's what he's saying.
It's impossible for a sinner to enter heaven, to enter eternal
life, to have eternal life by their works. And so verse 25
says, when his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed,
saying, who then can be saved? If this fella, who's a rich young
ruler, who is trying to keep the law, if he can't be saved,
then who can be? In verse 26, but Jesus beheld
them and said unto them, With men this is impossible. Why is
it impossible with men? Because we're sinners. And good
can only be measured by God. That's how good we must be. But
with God all things are possible. Well, how is it even possible
with God? Well, it's through the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's how. In the book of Romans, chapter
one, the apostle Paul, talking about the gospel, which concerns
the glorious person and the finished work of Christ, he says this
in verse 16. He says, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to the Jew first and the Greek also, the Gentile, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just or the justified shall live by faith. You see,
the gospel is the good news, not of how you can do something
in order to enter eternal life, to have eternal life. The gospel
is the good news of what God has done and accomplished through
His Son, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, to produce the
only righteousness, the only goodness, by which sinners can
be saved. And it's not the righteousness
of men. It's not the works of men. It's not even the decision
of men. You say, well I know I can't
do anything, but I decided this and decided that. If you think
salvation is based upon something that you do or you decide, you
make the difference, you're just like this rich young man. And
you don't have a righteousness, you say. A goodness, how good
is good? The righteousness of God is the
entire merit, value, worth of the obedience unto death of the
Lord Jesus Christ as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer
of His people to bring forth everlasting righteousness and
goodness by which God can be just to justify the ungodly. And so you see, this is what
it's all about. By grace are you saved through
faith, not of yourselves. That not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Over in the book of Romans chapter
three, it says in verse 19, listen to this. It says, now we know
that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God." The word world there refers to
all who fell in Adam into sin and death. And he says, therefore,
by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified before God, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin. And verse 21, but now the
righteousness of God without the law was manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faithfulness of Jesus Christ, unto all and
upon all that believe. There's no difference. How good
is good? God is good. We're not. God is righteous. We're not.
We need Christ. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.