You've heard the saying, three
strikes and you're out? That just about applies here.
Young, rich, and in a position of authority. That's this man. Now, all men and women, by nature,
by nature, have a strong tendency to want to work their way to
heaven. Even the ones that don't want
to work, want to work their way to heaven. They may not want
to work for their bread here, but they want to merit salvation.
It's just a natural tendency in that old nature to want to
impress God to do something. To do something to impress God
is to put our two bits in the plate and feel like we've done
something. That is just a natural tendency in all men and women
to do that instead of trusting, relying, one thousand percent
on Christ alone for all of salvation. It truly takes the power of God's
grace and work to enable a man, a woman, to truly trust the Lord
Jesus Christ completely with no additives, with no additives. As I wrote in last week's All
men and women by nature value their services too highly, too
highly. And that's why they think they
can merit salvation, that God will be impressed with what they
do. I mean, here's a very rich, you go over in Mark and in Luke,
this situation is written about this young man. It says he had
great possessions. He was very rich and no doubt
His success in that area made him believe he could be successful
in meriting salvation also. Salvation is merited all right. It's merited by the Son of God,
merited by the man of Christ Jesus. It's merited all right,
but it's merited by Him, not us. Now here in this chapter,
we have such a man who believes. And he believed this for a long
time. He's a young man, but he believed it from his youth up.
I have no doubt this young man was taught this. Oh, how careful,
how careful we have to be in teaching our children. How careful. They carry that baggage with
them a long time, if it's bad. And I have no doubt this young
man was taught this from his youth up, because he said, all
these have I kept. from my youth up." So here's a young man who believes
that he can truly merit eternal life. He can truly merit God's
favor. He believes this. With all his
heart, he believes this. This man is sincere. If you go
over in Mark and Luke, he bows down. He kneels down to the Lord.
He kneels down to Him. He's dead serious about this. And when he says, what must I
do to inherit eternal life? I'm sure he's probably thinking
about the length of it. You know, paradise, being in
heaven, being in paradise, not being in torment. And that's
what he's thinking. He's thinking the length of it,
you know, and living in paradise. That's what he's thinking. He's
not thinking about being saved from sin. He's already done that. He says, I've kept it. I've already
taken care of the sin issue. I haven't done it. I've been
a good boy. You ask mom and dad. Ask my Sunday
school teacher. Ask the people I work with. I'm
a good boy. He believed that with all his heart he believed
it. He's not asking for the life
of God in the soul. Eternal life is God. Eternal
life, our Lord said, is to know God and Jesus Christ, whom He
has sent. It's the quality of it, not the
length of it. Everybody wants to go to heaven,
but nobody wants to die, listen, to self and sin. Nobody wants
to do that. It takes the power of God to
bring a person to that position. Our Lord said this, except you
lose your life. Now, he's not talking about losing
this earthly life, dying and being buried. He's talking about
this natural, corrupt life. That's what he's talking about.
Except you lose your natural, corrupt ambitions. Except you
lose your life. That's what he's talking about. Here's a man who has been very
successful. Therefore, he believes he can
merit salvation. He comes to our Lord, and He
shows respect. He kneels down. He kneels down
to Him. And He says, what good thing
must I do? Isn't it strange how the works
won't let you rest? He knew there was something missing. He said, tell me, I thought you
had done all these things. Tell me, what good thing? What
good thing must I do? And the Lord, you know, at the
end of this, the Lord does tell him that one good thing you do,
go sell everything you have and follow me. And he couldn't do
it. He asked the question and he
was given the answer, but he couldn't follow it through because
his God was what he possessed. Don't confuse success Do not confuse success and material
wealth with God's favor. Don't do that. Lazarus at the
gate, laying at the gate with the dogs licking his sword. Would
you think he had God's favor? Is that a picture of God's favor
laying at that gate? No, the world would say the man
behind the gate. The man who owns the gate. is
a picture of God's favor, but that's not so. That's not so,
not at all. So don't confuse success and
material wealth with God's favor. If we have not Christ, we have
not God's favor. If I don't have His Son, I don't
have His favor. Instead, we have condemnation,
and all those things will just add to it. They'll just add to
the condemnation. Now, here's what we're going
to look at. The man, the question, and the answer. Those are three
things that just jumped out at me as I was reading this. Here's
the man. He was very rich. And he's a
young man. He may have inherited some of
this. I don't know. But he was very rich, it says.
He was a very rich man. He was a ruler, a civil ruler,
not a religious ruler. He was a civil ruler. And he
was young. He was young. And he was religious. He came to our Lord and he confessed,
I've kept these things, all these things that you have just mentioned,
I have kept. So he was very religious. He
kept all the commandments that our Lord quoted from the second
table of the law. No doubt he was a very moral
man. Sounds just like the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3. Look over
there in Philippians 3. Now, some think this was the
Apostle Paul. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know who
he is. But listen over here. Some think
it because, you know, he sounds just like the Apostle Paul. And
it's over in the Mark of Luke, it says the Lord loved him. Now,
I have no problem with that because Just because the man walked away
sorrowful at that time doesn't mean the Lord didn't save him
later. I tell you this, if the Lord loved him, somewhere along
the line that man was called by grace to God's safety. Paul said, Though I might also
have confidence in the flesh, Philippians 3, 4, if any other
man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I am o'er, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel. of
the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of the Hebrews, touching the
law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching
righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Outwardly, he
thought he was blameless. Sounds just like this man, doesn't
he? I kept him from my youth on. Very religious man. Very moral man. And he was a
very spiritually ignorant man. He came to Christ and he called
him good master. Good master. Why does he call
him good master? Here's the only reason why he's
called him good master. He was judging by outward appearance. He did not call him good because
he saw God in him. Because he saw him as the God-man. He saw him just as a man who
went about doing good just like he did. Just like he did. He judged him on the same ground
he judged himself. to be good. That's what I can
say. He was spiritually ignorant.
He did not know who the Lord Jesus Christ was. He just called
him good master. And our Lord sets the matter
straight. He sets this young man straight. He said, why callest
thou me good? Why did you call me good? Before he goes on and deals with
this, man, he points this one point out here. There's none
good but God. Why cause thou me good? There's
none good but one. In all the universe, in all that
exists, there is only one that is absolutely good. He thought he was good. That just burst his bubble, didn't
it? Well, actually he didn't because
he didn't pay a bit of attention to it. It went right over his
head. It went right over his head. Why calls me good? There's none good but one. That's
God. He saw Christ. When He looked at the Lord Jesus
Christ, no doubt He heard Him speak and He observed Him and
watched Him. All He saw was a man. That's all He saw. A good man. He saw what He thought was a
good man. If that were so, if all He is is a man, He's not
good. That's what the Lord's saying.
If all I am is a man, I'm not good because there is none good
but God. The Scripture said there's none
good, no, not one. God only is good. It's His nature. If I am truly good, and I believe
this is what the Lord is saying, if I'm truly good, it is because
I am God and not because I did something good. It's because
of who I am, not what I've done. Doing something doesn't make
me good. You have to be good first to
do something good. You have to be. God is the standard
of good. Well, we use that word loosely,
don't we? That's probably one of the most misused words in
the English language. Good, well, they're good people. They're good neighbors. By our
standards, yes. But we have standards like skunks.
Just think. That's the way our standards
are. God's standard is perfection. Perfection. And if we ever come
to see God as the only standard of good, if we really see that,
then only will we see our great need of the Lord Jesus Christ
as our righteousness, our goodness, He wanted to know what good thing,
what good thing must I do? Well, you can't do a good thing.
You're not any good. He's not any good. And the Lord
said to him, and here's what he's doing, he's dealing with
him where he is. God deals with sinners where
they are. So he's going to say to him, if thou won't enter into
life on the basis of doing good, on the basis of worse, on doing
something, keep the commandments. You see, he missed out on the
Sermon on the Mount. If you look at a woman to lust
after, you've committed adultery already. If you hate your brother
without a cause, you see, he missed that service. He missed
that one. And the Lord said, if you will
enter into life, then keep the commandments. And he shows his
ignorance here. I said he was spiritually ignorant.
He said, which? Which? And I believe he's sincere
as can be. Which? Ceremonial commandments? Is there one special one? Is
there a special commandment? The key that would give me this
eternal life. Which? Tell it to me and I'll
do it. I know I can do it. That's his
attitude. Just tell it to me. And the Lord
quotes from the second table of the law. He said unto him,
Thou shalt do no murder. He said, I haven't done that.
I haven't killed anybody. You'd be surprised how many people
you've killed. How many people have you hated without a cause?
How many people would you like to run over and cut you off?
Thou shalt not commit adultery. We've committed more spiritual
adultery. It would be shameful that the Lord would reveal it. Thou shalt not steal. Well, I took that pencil from
work, but you know, that's nothing. Well, to you it's nothing, but
God, it's everything. It's skin. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Honor thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Now, if you go over and read
the scriptures there and the commandments, he says, Thou shalt
not covet, but he's going to point out his covetousness. without
even having to say it. He's going to point it out. He's
going to bring it out. He's going to reveal it. And this young
man replied, all these, all these commandments that God has given
from heaven, I kept. And he believed he kept them
perfectly. He said, I haven't broken one
of them. Well, that's arrogance. I mean, that's self-righteousness.
I haven't broken one of them. He didn't realize that to offend
him one point of the law was to break the whole law. He was
guilty of the whole law that he was claiming to have kept. Jesus Christ is the only man
who could say such a thing. The man Christ Jesus is the only
one who could say, I have kept these things from my youth up.
He's the only one who could say that. And this man said, what
lack I yet? What lack I yet? I don't see anything missing. I don't see anything missing.
I don't see anything lacking. Lord, what lack I yet? Well,
first, you lack life. You don't even have it. Spiritual life. You lack faith. You lack obedience. You've never
given one ounce of it. In fact, you lack all of it.
What lack I yet? All of it. All of it. We bring nothing to
the table but sin. That's all we bring to the table.
Sin. And the Lord reveals what he
lacks. He said, what lack I yet? And what he's going to show him
here, you lack love. You lack love to God and love
to your neighbor. And you're full, you are full
of covetousness. If you will be perfect, if you will lack nothing, if
you want to lack nothing, sell all that you have. Now just put it up for sale.
Call the realtor. Put your house up for sale. Put
your business up for sale. Put all up for sale. Don't keep
a dime of it back. Don't keep your IRA, your retirement
account. Don't you keep any of it, he
says. Now he's saying this to this
young man because he's dealing with him where he is. You sell all that you have Don't
invest it. Give it away. Now, think about what he's telling
this young man. I mean, if the Lord... I thought
this is tough. But he asked. He asked. If you don't want to know, don't
ask. He asked. What lack I yet? He said, you sell everything
you own. block, stock, and barrel. Give it to the poor. You'll have
treasures in heaven. And now come, follow me. Rely on me. Trust me. Believe on me." You see, the Lord is going to
reveal who His God is. This young man claimed to worship
God. He claimed to keep God's commandments. And he's going
to reveal that this young man's God is his possessions. It's his possessions. God meets
every sinner where they are. With you, it may be another area.
But with this man, it was his possessions. It was his position
as an authority figure. He said, you give up your job,
you give up your position as a ruler, as an authority figure,
you just Give it all away and follow me." Matthew did that,
didn't he? When the Lord walked up to the receipt there, he said,
Matthew, follow me. He got up and followed him. He was a publican. He was a rich
man. Followed him. Gave it all up, just walked off
and left. And he's telling this young man here, he wants to know. And the Lord tells him, sell
it all out. What the Lord's going to do here,
He's exposing He's exposing His covetousness that's in His heart
that He doesn't even realize is there. We have more sin in
us than we'll ever realize. And He's going to expose who
and what He really loves. And it's not God. It's not God. It's His material gain. It's
His position. Those are His gods. Remember,
where your treasure is, your heart is. And that young man,
he heard that saying. And he heard it too. Because
he was listening. I mean, you know, when he said,
what like I yet? And the Lord said, well, you'll
be perfect. I bet you he just leaned. I mean, he's going to
tell me. He's going to tell me what to
do. And I can do it. I can do it. Lord, just tell
me I can do it. OK, well, sell all you have. Like, oh, no. That's not what I wanted to hear.
I thought you might say, you know, do something. Give me another
thou shalt not. Give me another one of them.
I can do that. Go sell all you have. That's not what he wanted
to hear. He didn't think it would cost
him his life to have life. He didn't think it would be that
costly. He wanted to add, listen now,
he wanted to, this is a business man, he wanted to add to what
he had, not subtract. He wanted to add to the ledger,
not subtract from it. Oh my, Paul said, I count all
things as lost. All things. Paul, Paul, you know,
he left everything. Paul left everything. He gave up everything. He said,
I've suffered the loss. Listen, I have suffered the loss
of all things. That's what Paul said. How many people leave the
gospel when they realize what it actually cost? Your life. This life. That's what it actually
cost. That's why our Lord said count
it. Most people want to be like this rich, young ruler. Most people want to be like that.
Not knowing that this kind is rarely, rarely ever saved by
grace. Not many mighty, not many noble.
Not many. Riches and fame has drowned more
than poverty ever will. speaking, they give us a distorted
view of self. They do. Riches give a distorted
view of oneself. They make a person think, I'm
smart, I'm intelligent, I'm important, I am successful. You know what? There's only one I am in the
Scriptures. The rest of us are a bunch of
was's and used to be. There's only one I am. I'm nothing. That's what I am. And that man went away sorrowful. It says he went away sorrowful.
It's just like somebody died. He came with full expectation
of the Master giving him a command, a thou shalt not, something to
do that He could obtain eternal life by. Instead, He told him
to get rid of everything and follow Him. And he went away,
it says, sorrowful. The Gospel will either make you
mad, sad, or glad. It won't leave you the same.
And the disciples heard this. Then said Jesus unto His disciples,
Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom
of heaven. There in verse 23. And again, I say unto you, it's
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It's hard
business. It's only by the work and grace of God that it'll happen.
And when the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly, exceedingly
amazed of all the things our Lord has said in his earthly
ministry to them. This is one of them that they
were exceedingly amazed at, that a rich man would hardly enter the kingdom
of heaven? They thought they'd be first.
They thought they'd be right up at the front of the line. They said, Lord, who then can
be saved? If a rich man cannot be saved,
if it's hard for a rich man to be saved, who then can be saved? And Jesus beheld them and said
unto them, with men this is impossible. This matter of salvation. This
matter of eternal life. With men, it is absolutely impossible. It's impossible. But with God,
all things are possible. All things are possible. With men, this is impossible.
With God, all things are possible. With men, eternal life is impossible. We cannot give ourselves spiritual
life. We can't give it to our children.
I cannot give it to you. No one can but God. But He can. With God, it's possible. God
can give us that eternal, He can give us the life of God in
the soul. He can do that. With men, justification. It's impossible. That's right,
it's impossible. By the deeds of the law shall
no man be justified in his sight. That young man said, I have kept
all of them. No, you haven't. You haven't
kept one. With men, it's impossible to be justified before God. But
with God, it is absolutely possible to stand in His presence justified,
cleared of all charges. Through faith in Christ, all
that believe are justified from all things in which they could
not be justified by the law of Moses. With men, sanctification
is impossible. To be made holy? Pure? Righteous? That's absolutely
impossible with men. I was watching a thing last night.
It was on that Catholic channel. It was about these monks in a
monastery. And I think the title of it was
like, Keeping Silence. They didn't say a word through this two-hour
program. Not saying a word. They just
go about doing their little jobs and sawing up wood I mean it
just, I watched it for about 30 minutes and I had enough.
I mean it was just boring as could be. Boring as could be. But all that they did, and I
was sitting there and Jason was watching with me. He got, of
course he made it interesting for me because he started talking
about some of the things he studied in college and that lifestyle
and all those chantings they were doing. He was telling me,
kind of explaining some of that to me. So that made it a little
interesting. We got through a half hour of it. But all that work,
and I said to him, I said, just think, one of those was Martin
Luther at one time. I said, just think, that guy
could have been Martin Luther at one time. Going through all
that nothing. Going through all that absolute
nothing. And doing all that, living there throughout their
lifetime, will not make them one bit holy. Not one bit. Doing all that. Locking themselves up. Not one
bit. With men, it's impossible. But with God, it says that we
are made the righteousness of God in Christ. We are sanctified,
pure, made holy in His Son. With men, that's possible. With
God, that's possible. With men, it's impossible. The
new birth? We can't even give ourselves
the first birth. How can we do the second? Even Nicodemus had enough sense
to realize, even though he didn't know what the Lord was saying,
he had enough sense to realize, you can't do that. You can't go back
and be born a second time. You can't do that. It's impossible. Well, boy, the God? Peter said,
being born again was the word of truth. Lord of the Spirit of God. God
can, if He so will this morning, He could literally give a birth
in here this morning. A living, spiritual birth with
God's possible. I cannot do that. I can't give
it to you. I can tell you about it. Take
the Word of God and read about it. He can give it. Pleasing
God? This young man thought he pleased
God. Pleasing God with men is impossible. It's impossible. Without faith,
it's not possible to please God. But in Christ, with God, it's possible. We are well pleasing in His sight,
in His Son. To be raised from the grave and
be seated in glory with men is impossible. Have you ever seen a man open
a casket, open a grave? No. But with God, it says over
there in 1 Corinthians 15, who shall raise our vile bodies,
make them like His glorious bodies. To be raised from the dead spiritually,
to be raised from the dead physically, and to be seated in glory with
men, that's not even remotely possible, but with God, How about my case? How about
my case? Where I am. Who I am. What I
am. With men, impossible. Can't do
anything for me. With God, anything's possible. He can save the vilest of sins.
He can put away the vilest of sins. He can save the vilest
of sinners. With man, it's impossible. With
God, all things are possible. He's able to save, it says, to
the uttermost. They come unto God by Him. See,
He ever lives to make intercession for them. And old Peter said unto Him,
Behold, we've left everything. Now, what are we going to get
out of this? I'm just going to say something
here quickly. We'll pick up here next week.
Peter said, we've left all. We've followed you. What are
we going to get out of this? Almost the same spirit and attitude,
isn't it? Do you know what the difference is? Grace. Grace toward
Peter. He let the other man leave. Aren't
you glad he didn't let you leave? Because you'd leave too. I'd
leave too. Sell out. Sell all you have.
We'd leave. We'd leave sorrowful. Peter said, what are we going
to have? And he said, I say to you that you which have followed
me in the regeneration, which is what he's saying is going
from the types and the pictures and all the shadows and all the
ceremonies, you've gone from that to this, the real Christ.
He's the fulfillment of all these. He said, when the Son of Man
shall sit in the throne of His glory, which He sits right now
in the throne of His glory, you're going to sit upon twelve thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And those apostles did.
They did. They had powers. The Lord said
to Peter, what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Paul
said to those Corinthians, if I have to come bearing a rod,
you're going to know it. The gospel they preached and
they had authority given to them at that time. Everyone that hath
forsaken house, or brothers, sisters, father, mother, wife,
children, lands, for my name's sake, he's going to receive a
hundredfold. And over in Mark and Luke it
says, in this life, you're my brothers and sisters. I'm going to go to Iowa here
in a couple of weeks. Joe Terrell is going to be here. I'm going
to go there. I've got brothers and sisters there. I've got a
home I'm going to stay in already. I've already stayed in it before
and they fed me like I was You wouldn't believe. And she cooked
and cooked and cooked. I'm like, I know I don't look
like I'm starving. But she did. That's houses and
lands. I've stayed in so many houses
over the years, traveling to preach. That's why he's saying, all these
brothers and sisters, they're yours now and hereafter. But
many that are first will be last and last first. He's the ruler
in the kingdom. It's his kingdom. He'll do as
he will in this kingdom. But here it is. Here's what he's
saying. Here's what he's teaching here.
Peter, there are no rewards in the kingdom of God. First, last,
last, first, there's no rewards in the kingdom of God. God said
to Abraham, I am thy exceeding great reward. What's greater
than him? What's better than him? Don't worry about that. I'm your
exceeding great reward.