You'll turn back to Matthew 19
that my brother Wayne read for us. I'm going to, if the Lord blesses
it, bring a message this morning on what must I do. That's the question that that
rich young ruler asked. And sadly, I was the one There's
one thing that he needed to do and he couldn't. And so we're
going to look at what must I do and kind of going to start with
this example. And it's, you know, we've been
told a lot of ways, a lot of times the easiest way to see
a straight stick is to put a crooked one next to it. And this initial
story that we're going to look at, it's a crooked stick. It's
what must I not do? And then after that, we're gonna
look at a couple of examples in scripture and see the true
answer to that question. So as we go through this story,
I wanna just bring out some quick points as we go through and look
at this story of the rich young ruler. The first thing that we see as
he comes to Christ He comes without the reverence.
He comes and he says, good master. That's looking at Christ almost
as a peer. At least, at most, as a good
example, a prophet, a teacher. He doesn't come to the Lord. He comes to the good master.
And if you have any doubt, In that meaning, Christ himself
says, why are you calling me good? There's none good but God,
right? He almost rebukes him there,
right? And Christ is saying, you don't believe that I'm God,
that I'm Lord. You're revealing it, and I'm
gonna tell you there's none good but God. So you shouldn't be
calling me good because you don't believe that I'm God. The second thing that we see
is that that rich young ruler is looking to himself for salvation. He says, what good thing shall
I do that I may have eternal life? Well, we know that there's
none good. There's nothing that a man can
do to please our righteous, holy God. There's nothing that we
can do. Actually, I almost said Eric,
because I heard Eric a lot tonight, this morning. As Brady said in
Romans 3.12, there's none that doeth good, no, not one. There's
nothing that man can do that's good. And in trying to do that,
in trying to save ourselves We're stealing God's glory. That's
what this young man is trying to do. He's trying to take Christ's
glory from him. One of my scriptures that really
hit me when I first came to hear the gospel was Exodus 33, and
starting in Exodus 33, 18. After the children had been brought
up out of Egypt, that sinful place, after the Lord had led
them from up out of Egypt, miraculously, Moses says, show me your glory. God, show me your glory. And
how does God answer that? God says, and I will make all
my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. So
there we see the glory of God. God tells us what his glory is.
His glory is that he's gonna make all his goodness pass before
us. Not our goodness, his goodness. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
All that goodness is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact,
I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. God's glory
is proclaiming the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving him
all the honor and all the glory. He's the creator. And then, I
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show
mercy on whom I will show mercy. So, God's glory is to show his
goodness, proclaim the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to
save whom he will save. It's not by the will of man that
we're saved, it's by the will of God. And one of the best examples
of how salvation is through the will of God and not the will
of man, is found in Luke 22. In Luke 22, Christ is preparing
to go to the cross. And Christ, the God-man, you
know, he's perfectly man and perfectly God. He's one with
the Father. in one of the great mysteries
of the Bible, and don't ask me to explain this, but I can believe
it. Christ, as he was preparing to
take that cup of God's wrath and have all the sins of all
of his people put in his body on the tree to endure the wrath
of God, as a man, he said, if it be thy will. He said, Father,
if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not
my will, but thine be done. It's the will of God that Christ
should come and save his people. And that's where salvation is.
The next thing I want to look at is this rich young ruler. He had the wrong desire. He wanted,
he asked, What shall I do that I may have eternal life? Well,
he wanted eternal life. He didn't want Christ who is
life. Christ who is our life shall appear, and then ye also
shall appear with him in glory. Philippians 1.21, for to me to
live is Christ and to die is gain. And Christ himself proclaims
in John 14.6, I am the way, truth and the life. No man cometh
unto the Father, but by me." So here he's seeking that eternal
life. He's not seeking Christ, who
is our life. And then we see, as Christ responds
to him, that Christ is going to meet us in judgment where
we want to be met in judgment. The world's going to be judged
in We're going to be judged and either going to be seen in our
representative Adam or ourselves, full of sin, or we're going to
be judged in the substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. But that
judgment is coming. And those who want to be judged
in their selves with their own works, God's going to meet them
there. Christ says, if thou wilt enter
into life, keep the commandments. who pointed him to the law. And
we know we can't keep that law, but that's what that young man
was so caught up in. He was caught up in the law.
And he says, well, which ones? 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. And what was this
young man's response to that? All these things have I kept
from my youth up. He thought that he could please
a holy God in his keeping of the law, but we know that we
can't fulfill the law. We know that only Christ fulfills
the law. Matthew 5.17 says, think not
that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets, for I am
not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill. and Romans, for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So this man was
looking to himself for salvation. He wasn't looking to Christ.
For as one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. He was looking
to the law, and Christ let him trust in the law. And that self-righteousness
is our biggest enemy. Is this man's biggest enemy? It's our biggest enemy. You and
I both, we have that. But even at that, he knew that
that wasn't enough. The creation testifies of the
power of God, And in the back of his mind, he knew, and every
one of us, when we're trying to keep the law, you know, if
you keep it, if you try to keep it, you're under all of it. And
we know we can't do it. We know we can't. That's why
people seek. That's why people try so hard. You know, all these things have I kept
from my youth up. What lack I yet? What lack I yet? he still knew
there was something lacking. Well, what was lacking was that one
thing that he couldn't give up. Let's read on here. Verse 21,
Jesus said unto him, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast
and give to the poor. and thou shalt have treasure
in heaven, and come and follow me.' But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions."
Now, I know that we can't serve two masters. We can't serve God
and man. We see that we get confused on
this story, I think, sometimes, that we're thinking that this
wealth of this world, right, we can't look to the wealth of
this world. It's gonna all be burned up. It's all gonna go
away. But that's not the point of this. What was it that that
rich man brought to Christ? He didn't bring his wealth. He
brought his righteousness. And that righteousness, that
doing of the law, what must I do, that's what he couldn't give
up. That's the thing he couldn't give up. And it's so sad that
he went away sorrowful because he couldn't give that up. No
man's justified by the law in the sight of God. We need to
remember what Galatians 3.24 tells us. Wherefore, the law
was our schoolmaster. And what does that schoolmaster
do? to bring us to Christ. That's what we need. That's what
we must have. In fact, that's the final command
that Christ gives him in verse 21. Lay aside all that treasure,
lay aside your self-righteousness, and come, come follow me. That's the command of the gospel.
That's the command of the Bible. Come, come to Christ. lay all
your righteousness aside, come to Christ. And that's that simple
command, right? Brady was talking about that
this morning, that simple command. Zacchaeus, come, come down. Come to where I'm at. Christ
came down, come to Christ. So that's the command, and we're
commanded that throughout scripture. I'm just gonna read a few examples
here. forgive me for you all don't need to turn to all these,
but in Matthew 11, 28, we hear, come to me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Then in John 7,
37, we hear, in the last day, the day of the great feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink. And then Revelation 22, 17. And
the spirit and the bride say come. Let him that heareth say
come. Let him that is a thirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Christ
is that water of life, that smitten rock. Christ put to death for
our sins. life to us, that's the water
of life. And I like that in Revelation, the spirit and the bride. There
is one, we're one with the father, the bride is one with the spirit,
and they both say, come, come. When Christ is revealed to us,
that's what we're here to do, we're telling people, come, come
to Christ. So that's the command of the
gospel. And yet, we don't come. Men don't come. We're commanded
to come, but we don't. Look at, or let me just read
John chapter four, verses 37 through 40. And the Father himself,
which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither
heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And you have
not his word abiding in you, For whom he hath sent, ye believe
not. Search the scriptures, for in
them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me, and ye will not come unto me, that ye might have
life. And why won't we come to Christ? Why won't we lay aside that self-righteousness
that thinks that we can please a holy God and come begging Christ
for mercy? Well, the answer is that for
a natural man, it's impossible. Can't do it. Let's look back
at this scripture and pick up in verse 23. Then Jesus said
unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man, a
man rich with his self-righteousness, a rich man shall hardly enter
into the kingdom of heaven. Again, I say unto you, it is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples
heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, who then can
be saved?" And that's That tells us that that's not
the world's richest, because not every man is rich in the
world, right? What that man was asked to put
aside, the disciples heard, it's hard for a rich man to come to
heaven. Well, who then can be saved? Well, not everybody's
rich. We have the poor here always. But when they heard that, they
asked, who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said
unto them, With men, this is impossible. What a sobering, terrifying thought
that with men it's impossible, but Christ doesn't leave us there,
does he? Read the rest of that. But with God, with God, all things
are possible. It's impossible for us to save
ourselves. It's impossible for us to lay
aside the world and our righteousness and come to Christ. It's impossible
to come, but there's hope because with God it is possible. We can
come if we're drawn. We can come if we're drawn. If
you will, let's go over to John chapter six. There's a few scriptures
in John I'd like to read. about this drawing. And while you're turning there,
I'm gonna read just another scripture from Jeremiah 31, verse three. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn thee. John 6, 44. Sorry. Go to chapter six, verse 44. No man can come to me, no man
can come to me, or commanded to come, but no man can come
to me except the Father which hath sent him draw him. And I
will raise him up at that last day. And then again in verse
65 of that same chapter, therefore said I unto you that no man can
come unto me except that were given of him by the Father. so we can't, it's impossible. But now look back at John 6, verse 37, and we read, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. That's a promise of God. There's
a promise of God that the Father has given some to Christ. And all those that he's given
to Christ are gonna come, they're gonna come to Christ. And those
who come to Christ, he will in no wise cast out. So let's not
get caught up in the impossibility of us. Let's look to what God
can do for us and beg God for mercy. that he would call us
and draw us to Christ and rely on those promises, because he
said, they shall come. So, what does it mean to come,
right? What does it mean to come to
Christ? This rich, young ruler, you know, opens up, it says he came to
Christ. But he didn't come. He didn't
truly come. He came to a teacher. He came to an example. He didn't
come to the Lord. So I want to look at a couple
other scriptures to see what it is to come to Christ. First scripture, a couple stories
I want to look at are the woman with the issue of blood and then
a leper. to people who came to Christ
and see how they came, what it is to come to Christ. So let's
go to Mark 5 first. And read this account of the
woman with the issue of blood. Mark 5, 25 through 34. And a
certain woman, Don't we love those certain people
in the Bible? Called. And a certain woman, which had
an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things
of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing
better, but rather grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus,
came in the press behind and touched his garment. For she
said, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And
straightway, the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she
felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus
immediately, knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, his virtue is what heals. His
virtue covered her sin, turned him about in the press and said,
Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him,
Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched
me? And he looked round about to
see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him
and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter,
thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and behold of thy
plague. And then if you'll hold that
place and turn over to Matthew 8, verse 31, you see the account
of the leper. When Christ was come down from
the mountain, Great multitudes followed him. And behold, there
came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou
canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him, saying, I will be thou cleaned. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. So, what do we see in these two
accounts? Well, the first thing we see
is that they came having heard of Jesus. Having heard of Jesus. When that woman with the issue
of blood, when she'd heard of Jesus, that's when she came.
In Matthew 8, you know, There's a great multitude following Christ.
Well, I guarantee you, she heard. She heard he was there. She heard.
But it's not just hearing. It's not just hearing words.
It's hearing God. It's being taught of God. That's our prayer. That's why
we're here. We pray, Lord, show me thy ways. In John 6, 45, it's written,
it is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught
of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned
of the Father, what cometh unto me? It's not just hearing, it's
being taught of the Father. For whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall we preach lest
we be sent? A week ago, I didn't know I was
gonna be standing here when I was called in. I shouldn't be here as a man.
But I am, and I should be here, because this is where God put
me today. And he put every one of you out here today. And he's
brought us, and we pray, Lord, speak to our hearts. Take away
the cares of this world. Take away the delivery of the
man. Take away the commentary of the
man. Speak to our hearts, Father. Tell us of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Cause us to run to him in mercy. The next thing we see is that
they came worshiping, and that's how we know that they were taught
of the Father, right? They not only heard, but they
were taught of the Father, and they came worshiping Christ.
Christ is God. He's worthy of all worship. He's the creator of heaven and
earth. He's one with the Father. He's
our only hope. God is glorifying Christ through
the saving of sinners. That's the only reason for us
to be saved, is to glorify Christ. It's his glory, it's not us,
it's Christ. And he's worthy of all worship. And that leper, he came to him
and he called him Lord. Young Ruler didn't worship him
as God, He said, good master. That leper came to him and said,
Lord, Lord. Matthew, and it was because he
said Lord before he'd done anything for him. That leper knew he had
no hope. He didn't know Christ was going
to do anything for him. But he came and he called him
Lord anyway. He worshiped him. And it's not for what he can
do for us. It's because he's worthy of praise and adoration. And I'll tell you, that woman,
though, after he did something for her, she told everybody the
truth. She fell down and she worshipped
him, too. She fell at his feet and worshipped and told the truth,
told everybody about what Christ had done for her. The next thing we see is that
they come with no hope. I'm not putting any hope in the
law or the devices of men. That woman, she had suffered
many things of many physicians, and it's been all that she had.
She had nothing left. She had nothing left. Nothing
was better, but she grew worse. That leprosy, that leprosy's
a death sentence. You know, God has given some
abilities now to to doctors and men. There's treatments now for
things like that. But at this time, that leprosy
was a death sentence. It was a picture of sin. The
wages of sin is death. And there was no hope, no hope
for either of them. They didn't have anything left
but to go to Christ, come to Christ. And they came not self-righteous
like that rich, young ruler, but they came as sinners. They
came as sinners. The law is clear that that woman
with an issue of blood, she was unclean. In fact, everything
she touched would be unclean. Leprosy is that picture of sin
throughout the scripture. We're commanded to come unto
the Lord because of our sin. That's why we come. That's why
we're commanded to come. And Hosea, Chapter 14, verse
one, it says, O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou
hast fallen by thine iniquity. Israel, the chosen people of
God, have fallen in sin, in their own iniquity, their own sin. And because of that, they are
called to come to Christ. And it's only when we see that
we're nothing but sin, that we can be made clean. I
hadn't seen this before as I was studying for this. If you could turn to Leviticus,
chapter 13. We're not just a little bit sin.
We don't just do sin every now and then. We're full of sin. We're nothing but sin. If we
look in Leviticus 13, and picking up in verse 12, we're seeing
some instruction in the law concerning leprosy. And if a leprosy break out abroad
in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that
hath the plague, from his head even to his foot, Wheresoever
the priest looks, then the priest shall consider, and behold, if
the leprosy hath covered all of his flesh, he shall pronounce
him clean that hath the plague. All is turned white, he is clean. It's not just that first glimpse
of sin that pops up, knowing that, yeah, I'm not as good as
I should be. This thought ran through my mind
the other day. It's not just that first sore
of leprosy. When you see that you have nothing
to bring to Christ but your sin, and you beg him for mercy and
forgiveness of that sin, you claim, my sin was put on Christ. He died for my sin. Only then,
when you see that you are nothing but sin and you have nothing
to commend you to Christ, you're made clean. And even in that
Levitical law, when that leprosy, when you're nothing but leprosy,
nothing but, it's from the top of your head to the bottom of
your feet, everywhere you look, nothing but sin, then the priest
is gonna proclaim you're clean. And if Christ says you're clean,
Christ is God. God doesn't say things that aren't.
He says things and they are. He spoke this world into existence.
And if God says you're clean, you're clean. The next thing we see is that
they came to a sovereign. They came to the sovereign God. That lipper said, Lord, if thou
wilt. He recognized that everything
was in God's hands. And if it was God's will, he
could be saved. And they came with faith in the
ability of Christ. That woman thought, if I just
touch him, if I touch his garment, I'll be saved. That rich, young
ruler thought, what good thing must I do? That leper looked
at the ability of Christ and said, thou canst make me clean. If thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. He had complete trust in the
ability of Christ. Wherefore he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. Come to God
and he's able to save you to the uttermost. So we see that
if we come in that way, God will in no wise cast us out. That fountain of blood was straightway
cleansed, and Christ said in Mark 5, 34, he said unto her,
daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and behold
thy plague. And then in Matthew to the leper, Jesus put forth his hand and
touched him, saying, I will. Be thou clean. And immediately
he was cleansed. He was saved. So we're called to come to Christ. And that's my prayer for me,
that's my prayer for you, that we come to Christ, that we lay
all of our doing aside and we trust in him, completely in him,
begging him for mercy, for salvation from our sin. But I know there's people out
there that gotta be thinking, okay, you said come, but it's
impossible, unless God calls me. So what if I'm not one of
the elect? Election is a glorious theme of the Bible. God has a
people. He's chosen a people in eternity
past. And through saving of those people,
he's going to glorify his son. That's a truth. It cannot be
denied. but that's not an obstacle. Don't
think, what if I'm not one of the elect? Don't think about
it. Come, we're commanded to come.
It's a command, come to Christ. And if you think that that's
just me saying that, I will look at just one more scripture today
and show you that it doesn't matter. We're still commanded
to come. Let's turn to Matthew 15. Just
over a few pages, Matthew 15, verses 22 through 28. We'll finish up with this. This is a wonderful, wonderful
scripture. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, have
mercy on me. Oh Lord, thou son of David, my
daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered
her not, not a word. And his disciples came and besought
him saying, send her away, for she cries after us. But he answered
and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. Then came she and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it is not meat to take the children's
bread and cast it to dogs. She'd been taught. She said,
truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. begging for mercy. Then Jesus
answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto
thee even as thou wilt. She's given the same will as
God, and he saved her. And that's what I implore everyone
here, myself, everyone here, come to Christ. Come now. There's no yesterday. We can't
come yesterday. We don't know if there's going
to be a second from now. We can't wait. Come now. Now is all that we have. Coming. In whom? Coming. Let's come to
Christ. All right. Hope the Lord blesses. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for this day. We pray, Lord, that you would
put your word in our hearts, Lord, that you would teach us,
that you would draw us to Christ, cause us to know our sin and
to seek mercy in our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in his name
that we pray all these things.