All right, let's be turning to Luke, Luke chapter 18. But also mark your Bibles in Matthew 19. And if you're writing down the scriptures, you can also add Mark 10 as well. But Luke 18 here, I want to look Peter's response to what he and the disciples had just witnessed between our Lord and the rich young ruler.

So they had just heard our Lord say to this very rich man, sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor. This is back in verse 22. Distribute unto the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and and come and follow me. And so they heard this, they saw this, and they saw this man go away. He went away sorrowful. And they saw this, and they saw what this man chose over Christ.

And our Lord then goes on to explain there, and this is a good time maybe to flip over to Matthew 19, Our Lord goes on to explain the impossibility for man to save himself. This shows it's impossible for man to have a right heart. It's impossible for man to choose God, to prefer the Lord over his own flesh, to trust the Lord in that, to give himself over to that, to be confident in Christ rather than doing for himself that we've, by nature, always done. We've always provided for ourselves and did for ourselves. And now you're going to trust that all to the Lord? Everything, Lord? Everything? I don't know if I could do that. That's what this man was not able to hear.

And we're told, Matthew says in verse 25, they were exceedingly amazed by this. Exceedingly amazed by what they saw and what the Lord said, that it's impossible for man to save himself. And they asked, who then can be saved? And Jesus, it says, Jesus beheld them. He looked at them directly. And it probably pierced their hearts. And he said unto them, with men this is impossible.

You're not going to be able to do it by nature. You're not going to be able to do it by the works of the hand, under the law. Naturally, we don't come forth able to do this. And even putting our minds to the law and religion and trying to fix ourselves, we're not going to be able to do this.

But with God, all things are possible. And until the Lord gives that to your heart and shows that to you, you won't receive that either. You're going to believe, well, oh, I'm trusting the Lord. But you're really just trusting your own works. And you're just trusting yourself.

And it's only by the grace of God that he teaches us this and shows us this. Now, my impression, as I read this, because this is now the third week we're in the same spot on the Rich Young Ruler, is that this really impacted the disciples. That this is much more impactful than, like when we read it now, we kind of just go through it, we might glean a few things, maybe not, but this really struck them. This man, so willing, has thought about it for a moment and decided, no, I ain't gonna give up my riches. I'm not gonna give up the world and all that I have here. And it probably made them think, huh, I hadn't really thought about it this way. And have I made the wrong choice? No one else is sacrificing everything to follow Jesus of Nazareth. Why am I? What am I doing? Why am I giving up everything in life to follow him? Have I made the right choice?

And so they were very amazed by this. Now, in response, it's like Peter seems to just wake up. And he seems to just come back to what he's heard and seen when the Lord said to this rich young ruler, sell all that thou hast, distribute unto the poor, thou shalt have treasure in heaven, come and follow me. Mark adds, take up thy cross and follow me. And in response to our Lord's words to sell all and him saying, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, right?

This is unseen treasure. And you think about how people struggle to even confess that they believe God, or they say they believe God, but they really don't live like they believe God, because they're living for themselves in this present life only. And so you're trusting that God is and that all your treasure, your inheritance is not here, but there. And you've never seen it. And you've not seen God, except as God's revealed himself to you with various tokens and answered prayer, and you hearing the word. And you don't know why, but you believe him. You trust him, and you do believe him. So in response to this, Peter It says in Luke 18, 28, he says, lo, we have left all and followed thee. And in Matthew 19, he adds, we have forsaken all and followed thee. What shall we have therefore? He asks in relation, what shall we have? What will we have? And, you know, I'm looking at all these different, the three gospels that record this, right? Because there's different things.

Luke is probably the lightest on the details. Matthew would have the most and Mark's kind of in between there. And so, We're looking at this, but I'm focusing on this because these three verses, whichever gospel you're reading it from, especially in Luke, it's very easy to read it and to glean nothing from it. It's just tacked on. It feels like it's just tacked on there to the rich young ruler. And we can miss things.

When you look at it in Matthew, and that's why I'm going to be in Matthew mostly, when you look at it in Matthew, it does grip the heart. Because our Lord does say so. He puts some context around it that really grabs you when you see it. And it's encouraging to us. when by the grace of God, by his leading, by his chastening, his care, how he instructs us, because he instructs you and I today. We're being instructed by his word and by the experiences, by the things that we're witnessing in the world, because we see people Like, we love the Lord. We follow the Lord. Why do so many not follow the Lord? Why do so many go away? Why do so many not care and seem so indifferent?

And so we get faced with this exact same thing, the same thoughts that the disciples had. And so when you see this, it, well, gripped my heart. It blessed my heart. It adjusted my perspective at a time when I needed it. And so I pray that the Lord, that if he showed this to me, that obviously his people need it too, right? Because we're one body. And so he'll show it to his pastors and make us to feel it because you need it as well. And so it's a blessing here. And I just want us to see this here.

If we're Christ's, understand that we are new creatures. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. We are following the Lord now, not the world. We know the world. We've been in that path. We've done that. We've walked away of this world. We've gone the course of this world under the prince of the power of the air, doing what everybody else does.

But now things are different. has circumcised our hearts and given us a sight of Christ. and shown us that he is precious and the thing most needful for us. And that's what the scriptures show us, that we are new creatures, that old things have passed away.

The way I did religion, the way I went into the services and what I thought I was supposed to do, all that's different. All that religious baggage and tradition and customs of men That's not our comfort, that's not our hope, that's not our trust. That's been stripped and our confidence is Christ alone. We need him. and he's allowed you to feel your weakness and to know your weakness and to know your insufficiency so that you would find your all in Christ rather than in your strength and this world.

It's on purpose. It's on purpose that he does this, and he does it to each of us in different ways, but it really is all the same thing. We're all being stripped of vain fleshly confidences. And so these passages here It's meant to show us the glory of Christ. What that rich young ruler did is not good, and that's not what we're called to. But to trust the Lord, and the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you, nor leave you shorthanded. He's going to provide all that you need. As I said, this thing seems to jump out to Peter, and if this rich young ruler was told that he would have treasure in heaven, Peter's thinking, well, what about us? Will we have treasure in heaven?

Is there something for us? When he says, we've forsaken all and follow thee, what shall we have there for? Because we're not rich like that guy. That guy had a lot, he could have given a lot and done a lot of good things. What shall we have therefore? Even though we have very little, even though we have very little and though we have so few and such small prospects in the world, yet for your sake, we've left that. We've left the pleasures of sin for a season and are following you. Will we receive little in heaven therefore? Are we making a foolish choice here? Or will we have treasure in heaven, Lord?

And if you think about though, most of these men had left their livelihood. They left their fishing boats. They left their fishing nets and the things that they made a living by. Levi or Matthew was a tax collector. He had a good paying job and he left that. He gave that up and someone else is now sitting there and he ain't getting that back. And they left their homes, they left their families, their friends and neighbors back there. They forsook all to follow the Lord.

What shall we have therefore? And our Lord is very kind to Peter. He doesn't rebuke Peter for asking this. He's very, very kind to him to show us that though it's little, even though it's little compared to what others are able to give, yet it was their all. everything they had, they gave it up. And you can be sure it was dear to them. It may have been little, but it was dear to them. And yet they gave it up.

It's like the poor widow who cast in her two mites, even though comparatively speaking to what others can give, who are rich, they weren't given nothing compared to what she was given, her two mites. And the Lord said, because it's her all, She gave up everything. Out of her penury, out of her poverty, she cast in all that she had. That's how she just threw everything. She trusted the Lord.

And that's what you and I are doing. For the hope of our righteousness and to stand before the Lord, we're casting everything upon him and turning in many ways from this world and what we could get out of this world that we too might have Christ, because he's our treasure in heaven. He's our treasure. He's our inheritance. All that is his, the Lord says, is yours in him. Everything that's his is your partakers of that inheritance in the Lord. And so you might ask, well, should we even ask such a thing? Well, our Lord, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. He looked and so you look, look and behold these things. It's to your advantage.

Now, whatever time the Lord calls you, grips your heart and gives you faith and hope in him, whether you're young or old. It is to your advantage that the Spirit of God has taken you and separated you unto this gospel, because yours is the kingdom. Yours is the inheritance. Christ is yours. He loved you and called you and made you his very own. And so it's a good thing.

Now, look at Matthew 19, verse 28. because our Lord gives some context here to his response to Peter in what you would see in Luke and Mark. They don't include this context that Christ gives here. So Matthew 19, 28, and Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

Now what gripped my heart here in reading and studying this verse in particular here, what gripped my heart here is that our Lord is speaking of this time, right here, right now. Not a time often in the distance. He's speaking right now to his disciples. And we're in that same time, that time which he spoke, covered that time of the disciples and our time. It's speaking of this day, the day of grace, right here and right now. Now there is a sense in which this regeneration that he's speaking of here connects to that earlier time before the cross, when John the Baptist came. John the Baptist came and it was like nothing that Israel had ever seen.

Even as a prophet, he was baptizing them in a baptism of repentance. To see all the customs and the traditions that they were practicing in, that they were steeped in, was not salvation. It was not by their works, but that they were looking to the coming of the Christ. And their hearts were being prepared to wait for him, of whom the prophets and the law did write and spoke of, that he was coming.

And so John the Baptist comes, and that's a new thing. And then our Lord comes, and he's baptized and goes into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, returns, and his public ministry then starts. That's a new thing. A new thing began, and the disciples see this, and they follow him.

They forsake all and follow the Messiah, the one whom they know and believe is the Lamb of God, which should take away the sins of the world. And so they follow him, and they begin to preach with him, with the Lord, that the kingdom of heaven is now at hand. They begin preaching, the kingdom of God is now at hand. to look, to look, to be ready. And so these disciples forsook all, and they heard his new doctrine, how he spoke with authority, unlike what they had been hearing. He did wonderful works, which only God could do, that he could do if God were with him.

And so all these old things were put away. And so that time, the time in which our Lord is speaking to the disciples right here and now before the cross, That was a time of regeneration and light of men there when the truth was being made known to the lost and to the dead and to the diseased and the fools. It was, and that was a right and proper sense in which that was the regeneration. But now this description of the regeneration connects also with what followed, with what our Lord said, what followed and what our Lord said, when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory. And that's speaking to after his redemption work on the cross.

And when he went to the cross and he redeemed his people, and by the shedding of his blood as the sacrifice for the sins of his people, and sacrificing himself as the high priest of his people unto the Father, he obtained eternal redemption for us, he obtained the forgiveness of our sins, and he prepared a place for us in himself. When he said, I go to prepare a place for you, he's talking about the cross. That's when he prepared a place for you and I in his body. You and I that believe that he prepared that place that we might have our life, our all in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he arose from the dead and he ascended up on high where, what has happened now?

He now sits on the right hand of the throne of God. Right now he is sitting in the throne of his glory. What he said, when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, that's where he is right now. He's in glory, being glorified, ruling and reigning, opening up the seals, implementing the will of God in the earth, right here and right now.

And this regeneration properly describes that day when he poured out his Holy Spirit on the disciples and they spoke in tongues and went out and glorified God, all the people hearing the glory of God in their own tongue, in their own language, and he tells them.

He did this so that they could sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. That speaks to what they did by the spirit of grace and power, they were judging the people. They were with authority preaching the Word to the Jews, to the people. They were out there doing the works that the Lord gave them to do. They were, by the commission that Christ gave them, preaching the Word, healing, calling, doing wonderful things. They are in the name of the Lord. They were judging them according to, as our Lord said, a time when the Word had great success. Great, great success. And by the authority that was given to them, they sealed up the oldness of the letter, first in the hearts of their hearers, they sealed that up, and those people that heard that word said, you're right, that's not salvation.

That's not our altar. That's not our sacrifice. That's not our temple. Christ is our temple. Christ is our altar. Christ is our sacrifice. He's our forgiveness. And so their hearts were turned. And then literally, God sealed it up when he destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. It was destroyed. And nobody had that oldness of the letter anymore. That all went away under. under their commission, under that time for them.

And they instituted what? The new ordinances of the gospel. Baptism and the Lord's Supper, under the authority of Christ who instituted those things. They continued that new doctrine. And they went and charged those people that crucified Christ, showing them, pointing out to them, what you did, you crucified the Lord of glory. But God hath raised him up. and declared him to be both a prince and a savior, whom you put to death, but God raised him up, declaring that he is the savior. And they laid down the doctrine and the practice of the church, recorded here in the scriptures for us to read it, so that we follow the same thing. And they did it with great power and great authority.

And then when the Jews refused and rejected that word against themselves, they turned to the Gentiles. Paul was raised up and Paul and Barnabas turned to the Gentiles where that word had great success in the hearts of the Gentiles. They were doing that. And those that refused Christ, it was to their shame and misery. They were judged. They were shut out. It was to their shame and misery.

And so faithfully, they taught the gospel to the true Israel of God, made up of Jew and Gentile. Paul said it this way, for as many as walk according to this rule, the gospel rule, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, you that walk according to this rule, peace be on you. Peace be on them. Peace be on you brethren who believe Christ and mercy and upon the Israel of God. That's who you are.

You are the Israel of God. Not that, you know, death cult over there. in demonic worship over there in Israel. That's not the true Israel. The true Israel is in the heart of his people, the body of those whose only hope and righteousness is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so all who believe Christ and follow him are, Paul called them, your brethren. He was writing to the Gentiles in Galatia. Brethren, as Isaac was, you are the children of promise. Those are very clear words, that you are the Israel of God. And that's who the promise was looking to. Christ the seed, through whom you too now are the seed of Christ. You're born again of the seed of Christ.

Now in that manner, they sat upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Right then and there. Let me give you some examples. In Jeremiah 1.10, We see this language used for the prophet Jeremiah. He said, see, I have this day set over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

And he had that authority. That's what the authority Christ gave to his apostles also, to judge the tribes there. What they opened up was open in heaven. What they sealed up was sealed in heaven. They had that authority. They were judging the 12 tribes through the ministration of the gospel, through preaching Christ. And then in Ezekiel 24, 20, verse 4, he asks, wilt thou judge them, son of man? Wilt thou judge them? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers. And the apostles did that. They did that also. And so this is the language of scripture. This is the language of those that are ministering that gospel, what the Lord gave to them in that day. And so at this time, with their Lord, they're standing with him there, their days are hard. Their days are very hard. The rejection from the people is starting to be more noticeable.

They go through Samaria and a village says, nope, he ain't coming here. And you know they were tired. They were ready to sit down and rest their feet. Nope, go somewhere else. You ain't coming here. So that John and James were grumpy. They were like, Lord, should we just call down fire and burn them up? No, don't do that. We're just going to walk a little further.

And the leaders of the Jews? They didn't believe. They were rejecting Christ, and they were seeking how they might put him to death. And they were turning the hearts of the people against him so that they could put him to death. And so the disciples, now, they were in constant fatigue. They're tired. the excitement's dying down, and they followed Christ when few others did and would. The only ones that had any interest in him were poor people, sick people, widows, diseased, the rejection of society, the publicans and the sinners were the only ones that followed him.

No one of any repute or nobility or wealth or rank were there. And here's this rich, young ruler who seems so interested, such a hope there, and then he makes another choice, and he goes away. And so that's who gathered to Christ, fishermen, poor fishermen, a bunch of nobodies, and sick people, a few women that ministered to Christ, and just the sick and the poor.

And so in that gospel context, provided only by Matthew there, Let's look at Mark 10, verse 29 and 30. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake in the Gospels, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time and in the world to come, oh sorry, in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions, Mark's the only one that has that, with persecutions, and in the world to come, eternal life. And so our Lord's describing these things which naturally would compete with the Lord.

Naturally, we would prioritize these things and make sure we have these things, and yet our Lord teaches us to prefer him, to sacrifice those things and to follow him to ensure that the gospel is heard, that we would hear the gospel and trust him through it.

And so losses are to be expected. He never promises that it's gonna be easy. Losses are to be expected in this time of the regeneration. but it's the day of new things. And this day of new things, there's a purpose in our Lord doing it. There's a purpose. And when the trials and the afflictions come, and they shall, that which is most important is what rises up to our thoughts. But the Lord, by grace, makes it so that He's the most important thing. He does that in such a manner.

Believe him trust him who promises to provide all that you and I need he's able And what he's saying here is none who forsake all and follow Christ none shall be a loser You will never give and it shall not be a recompense to you even greater Not he's not saying you're gonna have a hundred houses. I for forsaking your house. He's not saying you're gonna have a hundred houses. What he is saying, though, is that many homes and many hearts will be opened up to you for the gospel you trust.

You can go to a conference and someone will put you up there. Somebody, even if they don't know you, if you ask, the pastor there or somebody, they'll find someplace for you to go, and somebody will put you up, or they'll put up the pastor that's coming to preach, right?

Because he that even gives a cup of water in the name of God will receive a prophet's reward, meaning that that which God has blessed him in his heart, that he's carrying, he'll come and give that to you. He'll bless, your heart will be blessed. with the gospel that the Lord has taught him. And so, the homes and hearts will be opened up to you. You'll meet with greater kindnesses and greater blessings. In that sense, in the Lord, you'll find great enjoyment in the company of the saints who sometimes you've met for the first time. And there will be greater tokens of his love for you.

All right, even though you may sink down in yourselves in a time of affliction and trial, there's no better companion that you could have as you go through the valley of the shadow of death than the Lord Jesus Christ. And even though you're weak in yourself and sick and dying in the flesh, The Lord has made it so that he draws near to those who are weak, and poor, and sick, and dying, and who are troubled, and afflicted, and hurting.

He does that. He draws near to them. And so all these blessings he's saying you'll have, and Mark tells us, with persecutions, with trials, with setbacks, with difficulties and oppositions, because the Lord uses the wind of persecutions, sometimes to lift that word up and to place it in another land, sometimes just to lift it up and place it in the fertile ground of your own heart. by the instruction that he's giving to you. He makes it effectual in his people.

And so I bring this all out here because we live in a day very much like that. There have been times in this country and in the world where the word has great success, but right now we're in a time where there's very few that delight and need Christ and the salvation that Christ alone gives. There's abundance of religion. There's an abundance of, I don't know, many things to take the mind and the heart away and to make you feel like all is well. But we're in a time where there's great difficulty. There seems to be gains two steps forward and sometimes three steps back. It's just how it is.

But though we have this treasure in earthen vessels, It's that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us, for one thing. Paul even said this, and he was speaking at a time when the gospel was spreading, but he said, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed. How can these things be? But we're not in despair.

Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." And even if that means a rich young ruler forsaking And you're sitting there wondering, well, what am I doing here? Why am I still here? Should I forsake? But the Lord uses that to strengthen his brethren, and to strengthen your resolve, and to strengthen to give you faith, or to make you walk by faith, rather than by sight, to make you walk by faith.

Now the work is great. Now it's tiring and few seem interested in hearing Christ crucified. But the Lord's hand is not shortened that he cannot save. He's able to appear wondrously when you least expect him. And though you're tired, though you're weary at times, though we find ourselves much like the disciples when the Lord was teaching them this, this very lesson here, we find ourselves weak in ourselves, sick in ourselves, diseased in ourselves, troubled in ourselves with widows and the disease, but there shall come a day, there shall come a day when the Lord will turn the wind and blow his sweet spirit of grace upon the hearts of many. and draw the men to hear that word. They'll be made needy and they'll hear. The Lord shall renew your strength. You shall mount up with wings as eagles. You shall run and not be weary. You shall walk and not faint. So when the disciples were called of Christ, being assured of his goodness as the Christ of God, they forsook all and followed him. and they hadn't really thought about what they were leaving. They didn't even think about it at first. It probably was just hitting them now, and it was having a profound impact on them. Had they made the right choice?

Is this the Christ that we're following? Is this the truth here? You know Judas was in that crowd, and he probably was starting to be thinking about it, just like that. But he shows us this, that we would stop and see, where's my heart today? As with the masses of this world. who madly pursue the momentary pleasures of this world.

And the Lord asks, will ye also go away? But to whom shall we go, Lord? You alone have the words of eternal life. Where are we going to hear these words? But through the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe and are sure that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Well, if you believe that and forsake all, and follow Him, and you shall receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come, eternal life. Amen.