Matthew 19, verse 16. Let's read this passage together and then
go back and look a little more closely at it. I think it's important
to see both the entire context and then, by God's grace, dwell
on some key words and phrases. In verse 16, It says, Behold,
one came and said unto him, Good master, what good thing shall
I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? And
Jesus said, 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. The young man said unto him,
all these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I
yet? 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. But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a
rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And 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 God. When his disciples heard it,
they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said
unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. You think about all of the ways
that you might expect this man's question to be answered. What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?
And he addressed the Lord this way, good master, good master. And then he asked the question.
And of all the ways that you might imagine this question might
be answered, would you ever have predicted that our Lord would
answer him the way that he did? And yet it is the perfect answer. And when I say that, I'm not
judging his answer based on my understanding
of what perfect is. I know it's perfect because of
who he is. And by his grace, I see some
things here in this answer. Why callest thou me good? He
stopped him at the first word, so to speak. The first word.
Good. Why you calling me good? There's
none good, but one. And that is God. Our Lord just taught this young
man the first two things he needs to know before entering into
a conversation. at all about measuring up to
the standard of God. And that's the question. That's
what this young man's question was, is how can I be good enough
to deserve eternal life? I want the reward. What do I
got to do to earn it? All right, here's what you need
to know. Two things that are taught by our Lord's answer.
First of all, if you ain't God, you ain't good. And this is the
perfect answer to his question. If you're going to enter into
the kingdom of God based on merit, on doing something, then you
must be good. That word there, good, that he
said and that our Lord said in his answer, it means of good
constitution or nature, upright and honorable. That's what you
have to be. Now remember his question, what
good thing must I do to have eternal life? And the Lord said,
there's only one good, and that's God. The man asked about doing something,
but the Lord spoke of being something. If you're gonna do something
good, you have to be good. And only God Is good You can't get clean water out
of a dirty fountain that's what joe bet how can he be clean that
is born of a woman how Because he knew something of
the sinfulness of man, how can you get a clean out of an unclean? Adam before the fall Was good
but no man since the fall has been good and therefore there's
nothing you can do to deserve to inherit to have eternal life
in order to do good you have to be good there's nothing you
can do that's what he said at the end of this passage with
men it is impossible he began to teach this young man that
right from the start You're not God, so you're not good. So don't even ask what good thing
without understanding something of what goodness is and what
it takes to be good and to do good. There's nothing, nothing
we can do. With men, it is impossible. He
told his disciples that. He could have answered this young
ruler the same way. He could have said nothing. It's
impossible. That's what he told his disciples.
But he answered this man a different way, to teach him something.
And I pray us something this morning about goodness, what
it is and what it's not. With men, it is impossible. The
more you do, including and especially your religious attempts to be
good, the more you owe, the more in debt you go. The more sin
you've committed, the more good, the more you do. And I say, especially
your religious self-righteousness, because God hates that more than
anything else. It's the good that the Pharisees
did that was their problem. Those wonderful works. So we
need to learn right off the bat here. If you're not God, you're
not good. And you're not going to do anything
good. Paul said, in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. That's not an exaggeration. That's
a simple, basic truth about us and what we are. The second thing
that's clear from what our Lord answered this man is this. He
said, if I'm good, you calling me good? If I'm good, then I'm
God. And here's the implication here
in the context. He said, you calling me good.
There's none good, but one that is God. And if I'm God, then
you'd be out of your mind. Not to sell everything you have
and come follow me. He's establishing who he is right
up front with this man so that when he says. Here's what you
gotta do. Here's what you need to do. He
should have. understood what our Lord taught
before he ever came to that place, the place of his rebellion. And
that's what the Lord brought him to, the place of his rebellion.
And he'll bring you there and every sinner there in his good
time to the place where you will either follow him or shake your
fist in his face. You will either submit to him
or you will rebel. And if left to ourselves, we
know what we'll do. Because with men it is impossible.
And if not left to ourselves, we know what we'll do. Because
with God, all things are possible. And he's not using that word
possible there in the sense of it could possibly happen. The
word possible there has to do with ability. He's saying there's
nothing God can't do. So you see, this is the question.
Who is this that this man is speaking to? That's the question.
If you can see Christ and you know Him for who He is, then
I don't have any worries about you. What do you mean by that,
Chris? Well, I'm not concerned about
you making a decision to abandon yourself and all that you have
and all that you know. I'm just concerned with you seeing
Christ and knowing Him. Because I know if you ever see
Him, you'll phone in the selling of all that you have and you'll
follow him with all your heart and never look back. I have no
doubt about that. So I'm not trying to get you
to decide, well, I've got a lot of stuff, I got a lot of things
here that I'd have to give up if I follow him. That's not the
decision we're concerned with this morning. We're not concerned
about any decision. What the issue is this morning
is do you know him? You see what I mean? Because
if you know Him, there's no decision to make. If you ever find that
pearl of great price, you're not going to sit there debating
about how much it costs. You're going to go and sell all
that you have, and you're going to say, I got to have Him. I
got to have Him. The blind man in John 9 was asked
by the Lord, do you believe on the Son of God? And that man
asked this, who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?
That's the issue. Who is He? Who is He? That's
the issue. And that was the issue here.
It wasn't Him weighing His possessions again. It was for Him. But that's
because He didn't know who this was. If He had known who it is,
that's what He said to the woman at the well, if you knew the
gift of God and who it is that's talking to you, You would ask
and I would give living water. So that's the issue here. Who
is he? Who is he Lord that I might believe
on him? And the Lord said, thou hast both seen him and it is
he that talketh with thee. And the man who had been blind
said, Lord, I believe and worshiped him and you will too. And this
man would have too if he had known who he was. If you knew
the gift of God and who it is that speaketh with thee, you
would ask. And so this is what our Lord
dealt with here in our text. Who is he? And also this, what
is good? Who is good? And having begun
that way, he added that last part of verse 17. But if thou
wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He answered him based on what
he asked. He asked, what good thing can I do that I might have
eternal life? And he answered, not one good
thing, but all good things. Keep the commandments. He asked,
what good thing? And our Lord said, you got to
keep all of them. You got to do all that. You're
a debtor, Paul said, to do the whole law. That's what our Lord
said to him. If you're going to get in based
on goodness, you, as Paul said in Galatians 5.3, are a debtor
to do the whole law, keep the commandments. And this man, it
sounded like he was ready for that answer. He wasn't ready
for the first part, but he was ready for this, I believe. He
came there thinking he was righteous. And so this didn't intimidate
him in the least. It should have caused him to
despair of goodness. And it only didn't because he
didn't hear the law. He didn't know who that was he
was talking to. He didn't know what goodness
was and what it wasn't. And he didn't know the law. That's
what Paul said in Galatians 4.21. He said, tell me you that desire
to be under the law, do you not hear the law? That's a rhetorical
question. It's saying to you, if you would
desire to be under the law before God, if you desire to stand before
God based upon your goodness and when you're doing some good
thing or all good things, then you have no idea what God's law
says. That's what Paul's saying there. Apparently, this young man wasn't
present at our Lord's Sermon on the Mount when our Lord said,
if you've just thought it in your heart, you've done it. Or he wouldn't have boasted like
this, surely. I've had him kept all these from
his youthhood. Really, you think about what
he said he'd kept. Or maybe he was there at the Sermon on the
Mount and just didn't have ears to hear. Maybe there's something
like that here this morning. If you can hear, if you know
who this is, this man was speaking with, and you know what it means
to be good, then blessed are your ears for they hear. What our Lord taught in that
Sermon on the Mount is that we're not sinners because we sin. We
sin because we're sinners. It's what we are on the inside.
That's our problem, not just what we do. But think about this
with me. Our Lord has purposed here on
this day to expose this man's hypocrisy right there on the
spot. He's going to expose him for a hypocrite. He came asking
about eternal life. I want to go to heaven when I
die and I've done everything. I feel like I've done everything
I need to do. Is there anything else that I need to add, you
know, so that I can, Be sure that I have eternal life. The
Lord has purposed to expose his hypocrisy right there on the
spot. How is he going to do that? The man claimed to have never
murdered anyone. The Lord said that thou shalt
not kill. He mentioned that commandment specifically. Thou shalt not
kill. The man said, I've kept that
for my youth up. How's anybody going to prove otherwise on that
day right there at that moment? You got any proof that he hadn't
kept that? Well, no, I don't. Pretty sure he hadn't because
the Lord said in that sermon on the mountain that if you've
ever hated anyone or been angry with anybody without a cause,
you've murdered them in your heart. Yeah, so I'm pretty sure
about him on that one. But I can't prove it. The Lord's
going to expose him right here that day. He claimed to have
never committed adultery, even though our Lord said, if you
look on a woman, if you look on a woman. And this young man
here, think about that. He claimed to have never lied. Can you believe that? The Lord
said, thou shalt not bear false witness. He said, oh, I've kept
these from my youth up. Really? never lied when he said
that he lied he broke that one right there but nobody could
know that except the Lord and remember our Lord is teaching
not just this young ruler but all of his disciples who had
this question later that are standing there listening to all
this he's teaching his disciples and he's going to expose this
man for what he is right here right now how's he going to do
that how's he going to expose his hypocrisy what wisdom Look
what our Lord tells him in verse 21. What wisdom. 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. Notice first here, he said, if
thou wilt be perfect. That's what we're talking about
now. He started this whole conversation by talking about what am I going
to do? And the Lord's been telling him all along, and it's still
telling him, it's about what you are, not what you do. If thou wilt be perfect. Again, this man asked about doing
something. But our Lord makes it clear.
Entering the kingdom of God is not about doing something. It's
about being something that you are not by nature. There is none
good. It doesn't say there is none
that does good. That's true. But the root of the problem is
that there is none good. That's what this is all about
a sinner is what we are not what we do and being saved isn't about
what you do either But look at what our Lord tells him to do
here right here Christ both exposes his sin and Tells him how to
be saved How to be saved All right. First of all, he exposes
his sin How does he do that? Well the very first commandment
that this man said, I've kept the commandments from my youth
up. The Lord mentioned all of the
commandments on the second table of the law verbally, but now
he confronts him with the first table of the law, which starts this way. I am the
Lord, thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage, Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Why did this young man go away
sorrowful? Verse 22 says he went away sorrowful.
Why? Because he had great possessions. What did our Lord say in Matthew
6, 24? No man can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he
will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and your great possessions. This young man had a God named
Mammon, and our Lord told him to leave his God and follow the
true God, and he could not do it. How come he couldn't do it? With
men it's impossible. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, For they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. He didn't see the worthlessness
of his great possessions, nor the value of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the priceless, precious Son of God. Because that which is born of
the flesh is flesh. And the truth, the spiritual
truth of the gospel is only understood by the Spirit. With men, it is
impossible. No man can come unto me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. And notice something else here.
Our Lord said that if this man would do this thing, That as
we've seen already is impossible. It's impossible for him to do
it in his natural condition. He can't do it. He's not going
to come to Christ, except God do something for him. Okay. But the Lord said, if you do
it, you'll be perfect. Think about that. He'd already
broken the commandments. He said, I've kept these from
my youth up and he lied when he said that. So he broke, thou
shalt not bear false witness right there before our very eyes. And yet the Lord said, you go
and get rid of your false God and follow the true God. Come
and worship and commit yourself and follow the true God, follow
me. You can't do it, but you'll be
perfect if you do it. And let me add this, many have
done it. Multiplied millions have done
it. And they're perfect. Have you left all and followed
Christ? I hope so. I pray so. I pray I have. If so, you're perfect. Regardless of your law-breaking,
regardless of you lying right to the Son of God Himself, you
lie right in His face and claim to be what you're not, you're
self-righteous. But if you followed Him, You're perfect. Not because this
one act of following Him is accepted as compensation for all of the
law that you haven't kept. That's not why you're perfect.
Not because that one thing makes up for all that you've done.
That's not it. But because the way sinners are
made perfect is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I guarantee you, if God gives
you faith in His Son, faith to see Him for who He is, Faith
to see him as the very righteousness of God, wherein a sinner like
you can stand accepted of God. Faith to see him as the propitiation
for your sins, your lamb, your sin offering before God. You
will follow him. Again, it's all about who is
he. Who is he, Lord? Just open my eyes. that I might
see him, and I will follow him, and I will be perfect. Perfect. You see how all this ties together?
He confronts him right away with who he is. There's none good,
why you call me good? There's none good but one, that's
God. And you're not, and I am. How does that make you perfect?
How does following him make you perfect? Well, I want to read
you a fairly lengthy passage of scripture, and then we'll
be very brief after that. I just want us to see this. John
19. Turn with me to John 19. How does following him make me
perfect? I've broken every law, every
one of those commandments. I see this young ruler couldn't
see it yet, and maybe he never did. I don't know. But by His
grace, I see that everything He said, I'm guilty. I'm guilty
of breaking. So how can I be perfect by following
Him? Look at John 19. A lot of ways
that question could be answered. We know that it's His righteousness,
not ours. Paul said that his countrymen
went about to establish their own righteousness, that righteousness
by which no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God. And what
they must do by God's grace is submit themselves unto the righteousness
of God in Christ. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. But we see that
right here in John 19. Listen to this. And Pilate therefore
took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown
of thorns and put it on his head. And they put on him a purple robe and said, Hail, King of the Jews. And they smote him with their
hands. And when I say they, I mean we. And our Lord says, we. This is us. Pilate, therefore, went forth
again and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that
you may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith
unto them, Behold, the man. When the chief priest, therefore,
and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify
him. And Pilate saith unto them, take
ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered
him, we have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because
he made himself the son of God. And when Pilate therefore heard
that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the
judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, whence art thou? But Jesus
gave him no answer. And then saith Pilate unto him,
Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have
power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? And Jesus
answered, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except
it were given thee from above. Therefore he that delivered me
unto thee hath the greater sin. And from thenceforth Pilate sought
to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let
this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself
a king speaketh against Caesar. And when Pilate therefore heard
that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment
seat in a place that is called the pavement, but in the Hebrew,
Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of
the Passover, and about the sixth hour he saith unto the Jews,
Behold, your king. The things that Pilate said,
and had no idea what he was saying. Behold, the man. Christ is the
man. There's just one. And he is your king. He's the
sovereign. But they cried out, away with
him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, shall
I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we
have no king but Caesar. And then delivered he him therefore
unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led him
away. And he bearing his cross went
forth into a place called the place of a skull. which is called
in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified him and two other
with him on either side, one, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate
wrote a title and put it on the cross, and the writing was Jesus
of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title then read many
of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh
to the city And it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin.
And then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, write
not the king of the Jews, but that he said, I am king of the
Jews. And Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written.
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his
garments and made four parts to every soldier apart, and also
his coat. Now the coat was without seam,
woven from the top throughout. They said, therefore, among themselves,
let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be,
that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, they parted my raiment
among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things,
therefore, the soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross
of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas,
and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his
mother and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto
his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple,
Behold thy mother. And from that hour that disciple
took her unto his own home. And after this, Jesus knowing
that all things were now accomplished that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full
of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon
his hip and put it to his mouth. And when Jesus therefore had
received the vinegar, he said one word, it's three there in
the English, but he said one word. And it's exactly the same
word that he said in verse 30, in verse 21 of our text. In verse
30 of John 19, it is there in its verb form. In verse 21 of our text, it's
in its adjective form, but it's the same word. In the original,
it's pronounced this way, taleo. The root word is. if thou wilt be perfect. And there's only one way that
a sinner can be perfect. You see, as I said before, he
not only exposed this man's sin when he said that, if thou wilt
be perfect, go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor
and come and follow me. He wasn't just exposing his sin,
which he did. He exposed him for the hypocrite
that he was, but he also showed him the way of salvation. If
you will be perfect, abandon all that you have, all that you
are, all that you have earned by your labors, and see this
spiritually, not just physically, especially spiritually now. I've
earned a lot. I've got great possession. Look
at all that I've done. Look at the many wonderful works
I've done. You have to go get rid of all that and trust the Son of God. Can you imagine the trust that
it would take to literally sell everything that you have? Your
house, your car, your chariot in his case or whatever, his
horses, his cattle, his livestock. all of his possessions, sell
all of it and make a donation and go follow a man. So you see the spiritual picture
here. The only way that a sinner can
be perfect is to trust, to forsake self, to deny self and take up
the cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who hung
there on his cross and said, You know, I know there's so much
that he was saying when he said it's perfect. He's talking about
his life, no question about that, his righteousness that he had
accomplished up to and including his death there on that cross.
But you know what else he's talking about there when he said it's
perfect? He's talking about me. He's talking about me. He's talking
about you if you follow him. Everything that we've earned
by our own labors, or think we have, must be given away, abandoned,
seen for what it is, dung, that we might win Christ, and follow and trust he who is
himself the goodness of God, the one good man. That's what
Pilate didn't have any idea he was saying. Behold the man there's
one man that God can say this This is my son in whom I am well
pleased Him and everyone who follows
him According to our text if you follow me you'd be perfect
And God will say I'm well pleased He is my goodness. He is my perfection. And what He did and had done
and was doing when He said that word from the cross was my very
salvation. What do you have this morning
that would keep you from the Son of God? What do you have? Well, that depends on the real
question. Who is he? Who is he to you? If he is the righteousness of
God, if he is the Christ, the son of the living God, If he
is the God-man, if he is the pearl of great price, then your
answer is nothing. I have nothing that'll keep me
from him. If he's anything but that to you, then what you have
will be greater. In Mark 8, 35, our Lord said,
whosoever will save his life shall lose it. If your life is
worth saving to you, you're a goner. You gotta sell all you have.
But whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's,
the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul? That rich young ruler was faced
with that proposition, go and sell all that you have and follow me. And he went away
sorrowful because he had too much. He had too much. Just a few verses later, Peter
said, Lo, look, Lord, we've we've we've sold everything and followed
you. And our Lord said to him, you'll
have a hundredfold what you've left in this life, in the world
to come, life eternal. What's the difference? Seeing him for who he is. How
does that happen? By grace. Blessed are your eyes,
for they see. Let's bow and pray.