the rich ruler Peter in Adam
1. Luke is different than Matthew and he's a bit different than
Mark in his analysis of the things that took place. He plainly declares
that he would set in order those things that are commonly understood
and believed concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. So we fully appreciate
the narrative of Luke and his perspective on what took place. But some events take place in
the history of the gospel in the coming of Christ in the book
of Luke require a little larger enlargement or a little different
perspective as one would gain it or acquire it from the gospel
of Matthew or Mark. We call this a synopsis view
when we have a sort of full angled perspective on an event that
transpires. It's one thing for Luke to give
us commentary on an event. It's another thing for Mark to
give us a commentary or John and Matthew. Now generally you
have heard this individual who has come to Christ in Luke 18
called the rich young ruler. This is a message that we have
heard for millennium now. The rich young ruler. Now you
don't acquire that in Luke. In Luke you've got the term ruler
there. But you do acquire the term young
in the gospel of Matthew chapter 19 verse 20. So when we take
Matthew's narrative and connect it with Luke, at least we've
got a young ruler here, a young ruler here. But in all three
of the narratives, one cannot miss the fact that he is extremely
wealthy. This is an extremely wealthy
young ruler. So what we have today is a ruler
meeting the master. A ruler meeting the master. Now, this is extremely important,
at least on the part of the disciples, because for the disciples, this
is a special event. Doesn't always happen as they're
walking with the Lord Jesus, going about ministry, that a
ruler, especially of this magnitude, speaks personally to the Lord
Jesus Christ. So for them, as will be for us,
this is an object lesson that we stand back and we observe
and we pay careful attention to how our Lord transpires this
conversation with this very prominent, rich, young ruler. What's taking place here? Well,
again, if you're gonna grasp a sort of a historic accuracy
about what is occurring, you've got to go to Mark's account.
In Mark chapter 10, we are told that this man ran into the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ with haste, as if there was an urgency
about his needing to talk to Jesus. This is Mark's gospel
chapter 10. And in Mark chapter 10, it says
he ran, and when he came to Jesus, he kneeled down in a worshipful
mold before Jesus Christ. Now that's quite different than
Luke, isn't it? It's quite different than Matthew. In Matthew and
Mark, we don't get the sense of the urgency. I'm sorry, Matthew
and Luke, we don't get the sense of the urgency, but in Mark's
account, he's urgent. Also in Mark's account, he's
reverent. He's reverent. Generally, when
the Jew bowed down to an individual, they were reverencing their authority,
recognizing their superiority, respecting their position. I want to note this because as
we deconstruct this rich man and have to deal with his flaws,
I want you to recognize that there are some noble things about
him. First and foremost, he respected the Lord Jesus Christ highly.
He had a great regard for the master. Now he's a ruler, the
Greek term is archon, and it means that he was possibly, not
necessarily, but one of the rulers of the synagogues. Now what this
means is, as our Lord Jesus Christ was going about his ministry,
and we are now on the far end of the third year of our Lord
Jesus Christ, he is headed up to Jerusalem to be crucified,
so a lot of people know him. Our master is well known throughout
Jerusalem, Capernaum, Galilee, and the regions of Judea, well
known. He has preached all throughout
the Galilean coast, all throughout Capernaum, all throughout the
regions of Judea. They know him in virtually all
the synagogues. Now a synagogue in that day is
exactly like our local churches. A synagogue was a smaller gathering
place. That's the Greek word, synagogue. It means to gather together,
to come together as a congregation. Generally, a synagogue would
hold maybe anywhere from 50 to 100 people. So in that sense,
synagogues were quite a bit more intimate. And that means for
those people in those synagogues, they enjoyed the privilege of
having the master come to worship with them. You guys remember
Luke chapter four, when our Lord went back home, the first time
he went home and preached in his own synagogue, the ruler
of the synagogue gave the scriptures to him. And Christ read from
Isaiah chapter 53 and then expounded those texts and said, this day,
the scriptures are fulfilled in your ears. That was probably
one of the most Christ-centered worship services any of the Jews
could have ever had. To have Christ there, to have
him reading the scriptures, to have him preaching the scriptures,
and to have him pointing to himself. What a worship service. My point,
however, is this, is that as you and I are reading the account
that Luke brings us, there's a lot of information in the background
that makes this very similar to you and I. We are somewhat
acquainted with the Lord Jesus, are we not? By his mercy and
his grace, he has revealed himself to us in the gospel. Some of
us have been in Christ for years, and thus Christ has been pleased
to make himself known to us in the teaching of scripture. Some
of us can honestly say that our worship of God has been a worship
of God in the revelation of Christ as if and definitely Him being
in our presence to bless our souls with a knowledge of Him. We can say we worship not only
the Lord Jesus, we can say we worship Him through the scriptures
which teach about Him and we can say the Lord met me in worship
today. We might also have the right
or privilege to say we have had a hearing of the Lord Jesus Christ
very much like this rich young ruler, where we take our questions,
our issues, our concerns to Christ. That's what this rich young ruler
is doing today. He's taking a very germane, very relevant issue
to Christ. Today you can follow me in your
outline. This is how it goes in luke chapter
18 verse 18 a certain ruler Asked him saying good master. What
shall I do to inherit? eternal life the first point
in our outline the light of truth that affirms the eternality of
god and of man the light of truth that affirms the eternality of
God and man. Well, you notice that his question
was, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? What was on this
man's mind? Eternal life. What was on his
mind was the hereafter. This ruler who may have been
a ruler in the synagogue and he would have corresponded to
the local elder or pastor in the church. His concern was about
eternal life. Now, eternal life ought to be
every breathing, reasonable human being's most avid concern. We ought to be concerned about
eternity. It may be, however, a foregone
conclusion to draw that because he was a Jew, because he was
a leader in the church, He had been under the pedagogical system
of biblical truth from his childhood, as we shall see, so that biblical
truth was constantly exercising his senses in this reality. You
are more than the time-space continuum that this world lauds. You are more than a material
being that lives and then dies and go into oblivion. Life for
you, ladies and gentlemen, is far more important on the other
side of the grave than it is on this side. And in fact, if
you are going to begin to appear to be a person of wisdom, well,
you better start thinking about eternity now. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Regarding eternal things is critical
to those of us who have been created in God's image and in
God's likeness. And what I am saying is whether you are saved
or not, you have both the responsibility and privilege to think about
eternity. You know what the preacher said
in Ecclesiastes chapter two or three, it's in your outline,
you don't have to go there. This is what he said, Ecclesiastes 3.11. He
says, God has placed eternity in our hearts. God has placed
eternity in our hearts. He's placed eternity in our soul. He's placed eternity in our psyche. Eternity is something with which
every human being grapples with. I don't care how simple you are
as a thinking human being, you won't meet anyone so simple that
for them, eternity is not a matter. And the older we get, the more
important eternity is, is it not? Therefore, if you are not
the kind of person that it can be impressed by an individual
who rushes up to another leader and falls down before him publicly
with the kind of anxiety and request of wanting to know, wanting
to know something that is so pertinent to him. If you're not
impressed by the exhibition of this man's zeal towards Christ,
at least be impressed with the subject matter. Eternity. Eternity Eternity and mark what
he says good master. What might I do to obtain eternal
life now? We've learned this before there
are at least three Undeniable witnesses with which the whole
human race are driven to contemplate both eternal God and Eternal
life and that is creation Creation testifies to the reality of God,
does it not? Creation speaks vividly and clearly
to the reality of an intelligent designer, a God of infinite capacity,
a God of infinite power, and a God of infinite wisdom. When
we allow the evidence to speak for itself without us marring
the evidence, distorting the evidence, or suppressing the
evidence, as Romans 1.18 says, The evidence cries out according
to the psalmist, day after day, utter his speech, night after
night, showeth forth knowledge. What are you talking about? Day
and night, a 24-hour cycle? Speaks like an open book to the
whole world that there's a God. He sits on his throne. He created
the universe. He sustains all things by the
word of his power. He arranges events and providences
and circumstances. And this same God does good to
you every day, even though you don't acknowledge him. This is
what David said in Psalm 8. Oh, Lord, our Lord, how excellent
is your name. above the earth. You have created
the heavens and you have created the earth. You made the sun,
you made the stars, you made the moon, and you ordered them
by course and you gave them all a name. And when I think about
this glorious creation, it drives me to contemplate who I am in
relationship to you. And the question that emerges
is this, what is man that you are so mindful of him? Can I
say something about that? See, you have to be gifted by
God to think about God's mindfulness of you. God has to qualify you
with a mind to think about his mind concerning you. See, the
animals don't think like that. Only the pinnacle of his creation,
only mankind, only you and I have the privilege. This is what we're
getting ready to get back to. We have the privilege to think about
God in terms of God thinking about us. We have the privilege
to think about God. in terms of God thinking about
us. That's creation. It does that. It does that to
the pagan. It does it to the heathen who will acknowledge
the evidence. And then we have conscience, Romans 2. Our conscience
bearing record of right and wrong, these absolute truths that God
has placed into our soul. It's a broken compass today,
but it's still there. Ultimately, we know what's right
and wrong based upon God creating us with that moral compass in
our being. We intuitively know that it's
not right to steal. We intuitively know that it's
not right to kill. We intuitively know that it's
wrong to lust, it's wrong to commit adultery, it's wrong to
commit fornication, it's wrong to do evil, wrong to defraud
your neighbor. Am I telling the truth? We know
it. Even the pagan knows it. You know it. God gave you that
as a gift to contemplate eternity. But for this rich young ruler,
he has another added benefit, which corresponds to where you
and I are. And you know what that is? The
word of God. He had the Tanakh, he had the Torah, he had the
book. He had the light of God's law that he read from his childhood
all the way up, which testified in a very specific and clear
unambiguous sound as to the things that are made, who made them,
who we are, and who we are in relationship to him. And you
know, that book talks about eternity all the time, doesn't it? It
talks about eternity. So his heart is compelled to
contemplate eternity. And come on now, let's give him
some credit He's going to the right person, isn't he? Is he
going to the right person? The boy got a little sense. He
got a lot of money, but he got a little sense. He's got enough
sense to know that in order to get the answer right, you go
to him who is the way, the truth and the life. He got enough sense,
doesn't he? So I want to make sure you understand
that we are not dealing with a maniacal character who is wholly
set out to deceive. He's struggling with issues in
his soul with which you and I should struggle. If you really know
that the next breath is not given to you. So he says, good master,
what must I do to obtain eternal life? Which brings us to our
second point in our outline critical to the issue. And this is that,
that is this, the flattery, the flattery that leads to an absolute
truth. The flattery that leads to an
absolute truth. I want you to mark how our Lord
Jesus Christ responds to this man's question. When a man says,
good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Christ
doesn't first deal with the issue of eternal life and what he should
do to obtain it. The first thing that Christ deals
with is his prerequisite to the question by calling Jesus good
master. The first thing that our Lord
does is challenge him on that man's premise for calling him
good master. So stay with me, let's go to
work a little bit. This is gonna require a little bit of thinking. Why
did Jesus ask him, why are you calling me good? Was Jesus insecure? Did he have a problem with the
concept of goodness in relationship to himself? Of course not. Was
that an appropriate statement in all rights given to Jesus
Christ? Absolutely. What is Christ getting
at as he deals with this young man on something that would have
been in our culture, basically a compliment. Good master. It wouldn't
have been necessary. Most of the other Pharisees called
him master. Didoskelon, master. He was a
teacher and that was undoubted. Everybody called him teacher.
Remember Nicodemus? We know that you are a teacher.
a didoskelon, a master. We know you've come from God.
That's good, isn't it? Now, a whole lot of professing
Christians don't know he's come from God. But now, this man says,
good master. Now, Lord says, why are you calling
me good? And it's important for you and
I to now work through this. It's a very important statement
that I want to make. He forces upon this young man
an absolute truth that is critical to the continuance of the conversation. Notice that Jesus raises a question
and then Jesus gives the answer as if he wants to now establish
the legitimate grounds upon which that statement is made. Mark
it. Why are you calling me good? There is none good except one,
and that is God. Do you see that? The question
is, why are you calling me good? But I'm going to tell you this
true. There is none good Save one, that is God. That statement
is called an absolute, ladies and gentlemen. An absolute is
a statement that doesn't require any other qualifiers. It's a
statement that's true all the time and everywhere. It's also
a statement of absolute that draws this necessary conclusion
that there is no other goodness outside of God. If God is good
and God only is good, there is no other good. He's laid that
stipulation out before this young man to help this young man think
through the manner in which he raises the question. Now, it's
very possible that this young man, and I think he did, I think
that this young man made the same mistake that Nicodemus did
as he approaches Jesus, and that is he viewed Jesus as indeed
a good teacher, but viewing Jesus as a good teacher, as Muslims
do and others do, is not good enough. See, if Jesus accepted the underlying
premise of this man's interpretation of goodness, he might have been
accepting this meaning. I want you to watch this now.
Watch this. Good master. You know, you're good because
you're a master like I am, which means we're both good. It's kind
of a backwards way of patting himself on the back. You know,
this is the good old boys term. And you see this in cliques all
over, whether it's political or social. Oh, he's a good man.
He's a good man. That's a good person. And what
you mean by that is he's part of our group. And by inference,
that means I'm good too. So what our Lord is getting ready
to do right here is destroy this flawed assumption on the part
of this young man that because he is a colleague of Jesus in
the ministry, it doesn't make him good. But he's under this
assumption for many reasons, and the first he has to be told,
and you have to be told, and I have to be told, and that's
this. There is none good but God. Get that in your soul. Get that in your soul. I know
this seems bold, but this is absolutely true. When it comes
to the origin and the source of goodness, God alone is the
origin of goodness. God alone is the source of all
true goodness. It is absolutely true that God
alone is good. You guys got that? You got that?
Now, we got to work through some issues because I know that tears
us all down. That's the ax that goes to the root of the tree
and cuts us all down. Because intuitively, we want
to have a certain sense of goodness, don't we? Don't we want to have
it? Yes, you do. Yeah, you do. You want to feel good about something. So let me help you with this. The way to comprehend the concept
of truth or goodness, truth or anything else, is this way. Ask
the question, what are we dealing with? Are we dealing with an
absolute? And in this case, we are dealing with an absolute.
If we're dealing with an absolute, we are asking the question, what
is the origin, therefore, of what? Good. Somebody tell me
the origin of good. God is the origin of good, is
he not? God is the origin of good. Now, You know, in religion,
we like to say God is good. What? All the time. That's how
religious folk do it, right? You can't find a Bible verse
to save your life that says God is good. Now you might. But my point is this religious
folk like to talk like that. But you should be able to substantiate
it from the word of God. So now let me help you with this,
because it's very important. When we say that God alone is
good, affirming what our master is saying, Affirming what we
call absolute truth without any qualifications. It's true all
the time And in this sense that God is the only one good what
we are saying is that God is the one by whom good originates
Our goodness has its origin in God's nature God is by nature
good He is not only by nature good, goodness wouldn't even
be a word that you and I would have contemplated had not God,
watch this now, been the first one to use it. The law of first
mention is the law of interpreting concepts or words or doctrines
as they are first delivered to us in the scripture. And if you
remember when God created the heavens and the earth, he said
in verse four of Genesis chapter one, after he had created the
night and the day and divided them and called one darkness,
the other light, you know what he says? And God saw the light
and said that it was what? Good. And then when he created
everything, verse 31 of chapter one, you know what he says? And
he saw all that he had created. And God said that it was very
good. Now watch this. Only the person
with whom goodness has its origin has the right to define goodness. Only the person with whom goodness
has its origin has the right to define goodness. God defines
good. He defines evil. He defines right. He defines wrong because it all
derives from God. There is therefore original goodness
that is ontologically wrapped up in the person of God. I'm
getting ready to confirm this. And that being true, God has
the right to define what's good. Remember what he told Adam and
Eve? You get to eat all the fruit of all the trees of all the garden. But there's one tree don't you
touch. It's called the tree of the knowledge of what? Good and
evil. God created that tree. He defined
the term and he placed inside that tree consequences that correspond
with goodness and evil. And he told Adam and Eve, you
don't have the right to define what's good and evil. Are you
hearing me? You don't have the right to define
what's good and evil. Why? Well, logically, because goodness
does not originate with you. Because goodness doesn't originate
with you, you don't have the right to determine what's good
and wrong. And see, in our culture, that's what we do, right? We
define evil as good and good as evil, but that's because we
are not the source and origin of good. So follow me now. Moses had a
problem with his brothers and sisters whom God had elected
him to lead out of the wilderness, out of Egypt into the wilderness.
They get into the wilderness for maybe a month or two, two
months to be exact. And the whole nation, almost
2 million people go buck wild. Moses is up in the mount receiving
the law of God. The people are down at the bottom
of the hill, living like hell, committing idolatry and fornication
and all kinds of abominable things before God. You guys remember
that? Moses comes down off the hill
and God has to kill almost 25,000 of them. Moses is having a bad
day as a pastor. That's a bad day for a preacher. You have to execute the assignment
given to you from God to kill 27,000 people for committing
idolatry. That's a bad day. That's a bad
day, especially when you only two months into a 40 year project. So Moses goes back to God and
says, God, listen, there's a side of you that I never knew. And
I've got to ask some real questions here because right now, the way
I see it, I have just discovered an indiscriminate holiness on
your part that will not compromise itself for anyone, even your
own people. Your holiness demands that your
people respect you, love you, and obey you. And your holiness
is such that if they don't, you will destroy them as you just
did. That's a part of you, God, I
didn't know. Now I'm confessing there's things
about you I don't know and if you're gonna give me the assignment,
retain the assignment with me to get these knuckleheads into
the promised land, you're gonna have to show me your glory. You're
gonna have to manifest yourself to me in a much more fuller,
much more comprehensive way because right now I don't know you. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? Your holiness, your righteousness,
Your justice is outside of the scope of my point of reference. I cannot right now grapple with
your calling us out of Egypt to take us to the promised land
and you opening up the ground and swallowing up 25,000 in one
day. I can't reconcile those two,
so help me. You know what God said? Okay, I'm gonna tell you
what I'm gonna do with you, young man. I'm gonna show you my glory. I'm gonna place you in a rock.
Gonna hide you in the cleft. And when I pass by you, Exodus
33, I'm gonna show you all my goodness. I'm gonna show you all my goodness. What are you saying, pastor?
God is the ultimate exclusive good. Everything that good could
possibly mean has its origin in God when we contemplate good
God is good in all of his being he's good in his attributes He's
good in his characteristics. He's good in his ways. He's good
in his works He's good in this person and he's excellent in
the qualities of those things that he are and does that's what
makes him good. I Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Moses had a chance to see the goodness of God. Now
I want you to grab with this because I am laying down a point
and I'm taking time because I want you to be able to deal with the
term goodness better than you have in the past. What God was
saying to Moses is this, no matter how I act, and even though it blows your
fuses and runs you into mental and intellectual contortions,
and even causes you don't want to withdraw and refrain from
even identifying with me. Here's what I want you to know.
There's nothing in me or in what I do that can even remotely be
called bad. Everything I do is good. I am good through and through. This is the excellency of God.
This is the superlative nature of God. God is gloriously good
in all he does. And so even when God executes
the greatest and severest of what you and I would think is
evil in the destruction of a person, our nation, our being, our country,
it was his goodness that moved him to do it. And his goodness
is never, never compromised. God is Good. You got that? Now watch this.
There is what we call the ontological or the original good and it's
in God and it's God alone. Our master told us that. Therefore,
none of us ever ought to contemplate stealing God's glory by calling
ourselves or someone else good in the original sense. That's
why we say everywhere at all time when people ask us whether
or not we believe in human goodness. Are you kidding? Do we believe
in human goodness? This is what we believe about
humans. There's none good. No, not one. There's another
absolute right there. That's a Bible verse, isn't it?
It's out of the Psalms. It's out of Isaiah 59 and it's
out of Romans chapter 3. There's none good. You want another
absolute truth? All men by nature are evil. You
and me and Mother Teresa and everybody else. Can I keep talking
to you for a minute? We are all evil by nature. You
and I exist on the other end of the universe from God ontologically,
by nature, when it comes to what's in us in terms of our essence.
Well then, pastor, is there any sense in which we can attribute
goodness to people? Yes, in two senses. We call it
derivative good. Derivative good. And then we
talk about what is called relative good. Relative good. See, we do acknowledge that when
people do good things, those were good things that they did.
Don't ever not acknowledge that. Don't get yourself in trouble.
Can I teach today? Don't ever get yourself in trouble. Don't
take a Bible verse and use it as an absolute principle denying
other Bible verses. Learn how to reconcile the whole
thing. That'll keep you right. That'll allow you to tell the
truth and it'll allow you to live in God's world the way God
wants you to live. Did you get that? See, because
if you take a certain doctrinal truth and spread it out so wide
that you disregard other doctrinal truths, supportive of that essential
doctrinal truth, but distinctly different in its category, you
will deny an aspect of God's perspective that he wants you
to have. Watch this, ladies and gentlemen. There are relative
goods that people do. There are derivative goods by
which people act. For instance, all of God's people
are good by derivation. All of God's people are good
by derivative. All of God's people are good
not because in themselves they are good, but they are good because
of their connection to God. God is the original good and
we are good in Him. We are good by Him. We are good
through Him. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
You better get that in your system. The psalmist says that I think
it's Psalm 33 verse 7. Here's what it says. Trust in
the Lord. Isn't that what a believer is?
Somebody that trusts in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. And watch
this. And do good. Trust in the Lord
and do good. You know what that means? When
you're a true believer and you've got God in you, it's evident
by your trust in God. And then because you trust God,
having God in you, this is what we call union with Christ. You
can now do the good that God calls you to do, knowing that
that goodness is a derivative of him and his union with you. Am I making some sense? John
chapter 15, Jesus says, I am the true vine. My father is the
husband. Every branch in me that bears
fruit, my father purges it so that it can bring forth more
fruit. Jesus said in verse 5, watch this now, without me, you
can do nothing. Now follow this now, derivative
goodness, derivative goodness, the goodness that derived from
God and is placed in the believer is designed for the believer
to be able to glorify God in the good that God graces us to
do for Him. But we never steal God's glory
by saying, I am personally good. So you know how the apostle Paul
puts it? Watch this. I am what I am by
the grace of God. I am what I am by the grace of
God. I am what I am only by the grace
of God. You know what that does? That
runs a person from me back to the God who is the origin of
good. There is relative good. There is relative good. And what
we mean by that is there is good that is done on a temporal level,
even by evil people that can be called good at one moment
and the next moment called evil. You can do a good thing with
an evil motive. Am I telling the truth? You can do a good
thing with an evil motive and God will say the act that he
did was good, it had good consequences and good benefits, but for him
it was evil. You can see an individual that is about to be accosted
or robbed or taken advantage of. And that's why you and I
in our present day need to be very careful about the evil that's
emerging everywhere. The kind of criminal activity
that's taking place today lets us know we are in trouble. Am
I telling the truth? I mean, it's unreasonable today. But
I follow this now. If you see an individual rescue
a lady, because the lady is being robbed and her purse is being
snatched up. Now, if the Holy Ghost is touching some of you
knucklehead men in here, let him do it, okay? If you see a
lady being robbed and then some individual breaks in to deliver
her from the criminal and give her her purse back, everybody
will laud him for doing good. We would never say that was evil.
Am I making some sense? But then you come to find out
that the individual that delivered that lady from that criminal
and gave her her purse back only did that because he saw the poster
of that crook at the DMV and there was a $5,000 reward. Now
watch this now, watch this now. So he goes to the woman and the
woman said, thank you, you are a good person. He said, lady,
I don't care nothing about you. I saw $5,000. That's the only
reason I gave you your purse back, because I needed $5,000.
A good deed, evil motive. It's relative. Am I making some
sense? And you can use all kinds of
analogies to underscore that. Our Lord is teaching this young
man that if you're going to talk to me about eternal life, don't
come to me on relative terms. And you can't even come to me
on derivative terms. Because you're not coming to
another man like you. You're coming to God. Now we're
coming back home on this point. Now, young ruler, you son of
the law, you bar mitzvah, you lover of the Tanah, you lover
of the Torah, you lover of the word of God, you lover of the
Psalms and Genesis and Exodus that Jesse Gittes then has just
expounded on the origin and nature of goodness. He would have known
what I said. You lover of the law. Let me ask you the question. Are you saying that you and I
are good because of our being ministers of the gospel. As foolish
people will think, as if ministers of the gospel are any better
than the common folk. Because if you're all, you're
wrong. Are you saying that all men are good? That's your relative
goodness. Because if you're all, you're
wrong. You must be saying that I'm good because you recognize
that I'm God. See, the subject of eternal life
requires that. The subject of eternal life requires
that when you go to the person with whom you want to discuss
and talk about and get a right answer about eternal life, you
better be going to God. God better be the teacher to
help you understand eternal life. Eternal life is too important
for you to just be going to a man. Am I making some sense? All right,
let's work through this now. The flattery that leads to absolute
truth drove Our lord to explain to this man that he's better
come right and then the next thing our lord does Is he drives
him to the law point number three verse 20 the law that leads to
what death? Here's what our lord said upon
the question that was raised by this young man. Why are you
calling me? Good? None is good. Save god.
That is god You know the commandment see it Do not commit adultery
do not kill do not steal do not bear false witness honor your
father and your mother profound The disciples were just blessed
today with an absolutely marvelous approach to their Savior's high
honor of God and high honor of the law of God. If they were
careful, they would have probably seen little hints of Christ's
omniscience because as he lays down this law, which I say leads
to death as the scriptures demand that it must in the case of human
beings like you and I, he is setting this young man up to
actually tell the truth. The law that leads to death,
what are we talking about? We're talking about a law that
promises life if you would keep it. Leviticus 18.5 says, and
these commandments shall you do. And if you do these commandments,
you will live. If you obey all God's Word at
all times without violating one of them at any time, you will
live. The men or women that do with
them shall live in them. That's the way laid out by the
law to men as a pathway to life. It is a true hypothetical scenario. Are you hearing me? Problem is
when God lays that rule out to you that law is gonna leave you
and me to death Are you hearing me when the proposition comes
to you if you could for just 24 hours Not think an evil thought You can go to heaven Y'all got
that Just for 24 hours, don't think an evil thought. Start right now. If you make
it through 24 hours, you get to go to glory. Who gonna take
on that proposition? Let me get a hint. Who gonna
take on that proposition? Good, you smart people, smart people.
What's the point? Even though it's a legitimate
and hypothetically right pathway, for you, it's a path to death.
Because on the other side of that proposition, if you do them,
you'll live. If you don't, I'm going to kill you. That's the
nature of the law of God. Our Master is setting Him up
to kill Him because that's what you do with sinners who fail
to understand their need. Our Master takes the law of God
and lays it out before Him. As Paul had said in Romans chapter
7, the commandment is good, And the commandment talks about life,
but what I found when I came under the influence of the commandment,
Romans 7, 14 through 17, is that it worked in me death. By virtue
of my sinful nature, what the law that is good and is designed
to promote and affirm death did to me was slay me. It exposed
me for all my sin. It shut me up to the curse of
the law. It damned me for all eternity
because rather than it saying to me, yes, Jesse, you can live.
What it says to me is you're guilty of violating all my law.
That's why James says if a man offends at one point of the law,
he's guilty of the whole thing. And our Lord, knowing this device
of the law is leading this man to death. Because this man is
under the assumption that he's got a good running start to obtain
eternal life. The need to show men that the
law of God proceeds from God, to show men how sinful they are
is critical in helping men see their need of Christ. Are you
guys following me? And secondly, he didn't give this young man
what are called the first legs or first tables of the 10 commandments,
two sets of tables. Five laws on the first, five
laws on the second. The first set of laws on the
Decalogue are what we call the commandments in relationship
to the worship of a true and holy and glorious being. I am
the Lord that brought you out of Egypt. I am Jehovah, which
brought you out of the house of bondage. I am the God that
by power delivered you out of bondage. I am Jehovah, and you
shall have no other gods before me. You shall not bow down yourself
to worship them. You shall not make graven images
in heaven, in earth, or under the earth, or in the sea. I am
the Lord your God, and the Lord your God you alone shall worship.
Watch this now. And you shall not take the name
of the Lord your God in vain. You don't get to just tag Jesus'
name on cars and t-shirts and concepts. You don't get to just
wear Jesus' name with a raggedy life. That's taking his name
in vain. You don't get to say, I am Jehovah's,
he delivered me out of Egypt, and you still live as if you're
in Egypt. That's taking his name in vain.
See, when God delivered you, he's saying that he delivered
you on the basis of a power that actually delivered you. See he
didn't even give him that set of commandments until he actually
delivered them. Will you hear me? He is only
the Lord your God when he has brought you out of the land of
bondage, out of the house of bondage, out of Egypt. I'm the one brought you out and
you shall worship me. You shall not commit idolatry.
You shall not take my name in vain. Don't go around acting
a fool and saying you are a Christian. Thirdly, or fourthly, honor the
Sabbath day. Keep my day of worship holy. Keep it holy. Keep it holy. And so what God does is he establishes
first the relationship between the people of God and God. And
then he says, Now, honor your father and your mother. Don't
steal, don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't covet. Don't
mess up your relationship on a horizontal level with people.
Don't act like you know God vertically and then mess up your relationship
on a horizontal level. Are you guys following me? Now
watch this. Watch this now. This is very
important. He gave this rich young ruler the second portion
of the Decalogue because it's in the second portion of the
Decalogue that I believe that you and I are exposed to be what
we are. Sinners! Help me now. It's easy for people to say,
oh, I love Jesus. Oh, I love God. Oh man, I love
God with all my heart. Lord, I love you. Hate your neighbor. Reject your neighbor. Despise
your neighbor. Defraud your neighbor. Neglect
your neighbor. Set a notch of neighbor. Despise
your neighbor. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So our Lord wisely laid out before this young man not
not The secret motives of his heart in terms of his devotion
to God Let me help you with this now because you and I are a mixed
bag of a bunch of stuff that I don't really want To say you
and I are mixed bag. Am I telling the truth? Watch
this now. You're not pure. I'm sorry. You're not pure You
ought to be but you're not in yourself. You're not pure. You
got a bunch of stuff in there a lot a lot of junk This is what
makes you so complex. You and I are not simple like
God. God's simple. God's pure. God's glorious. His attributes are not mixed
up. They're not contaminated. They're not flawed. God is gloriously
simple in that sense. But you and I, we're mixed up.
We got a bunch of junk in there. Am I telling the truth? Got a
bunch of junk in there. And it's so mixed up that you
can deceive yourself into saying that you really love God. Like
this rich young ruler. He has actually developed sort
of a dichotomy in his life that allowed him to fascinate himself
with the concept or idea that he really, really loves God and
he really, really wants eternal life. Religious folk do that. They make a radical distinction
between one set of categories that has to do with their calling
and their purpose and other sets. In the areas in which they do
well, theology, study, Doctrine didactics propositional considerations
and contemplations learning things being able to argue doctrinal
truths. Oh, that's good They may even
be relative to a real relationship between you and God maybe But
over on this other end you are toe up when it comes to relationships
You got a whole lot of problems when it comes to submission to
authority You got critical problems when it comes to being able to
respect your peers You got jealousy issues pride issues, envy issues,
all kinds of insecurities that make you not only tear up the
second leg of the commandments, but abolish them altogether.
Am I telling the truth? Am I telling the truth? That's
the area where the Lord laid it out before him. Let me show
you what happens. I know I'm running through my
time, but I want you to see this is absolutely critical. The law
that leads to death. He says, now, if you know the
commandments, young man, if you do not commit adultery, If you
do not kill, if you do not steal, if you do not bear false witness,
if you do not dishonor your mother and your father, if you don't
do these things, you're good to go. And do you know what that
young man said over in verse 21? Listen to what he said. This
is what I title the blindness of self-preservation. He said,
all these have I kept from my youth. I have no idea what universe
this man is in he he said from his you he has kept the second table
of the law perfectly do you see that now now now I know some
theologians and scholars they take him seriously but I can't
take him seriously What measure is he using to justify this outrageous
claim? See, he didn't say, as most people
do, well, Master, you know I'm a good person. You know what
he's doing when he says that. He says, I want to use a sliding
scale, a relative scale. I'm better than other people.
That's how people think. I'm better than other people.
Come on now, am I telling it true? Yeah, you know, I'm bad,
but I ain't bad as that other person. Lord, come on now. You
know, most of the time I keep those five, most of the time.
No, he said, This man opened his mouth and said, I have kept
all this, Lord. Do you know what he just said?
Can I help you? I have never sinned. I don't
do sin. In me is no sin at all. You know
what he's just doing? He's making himself qualified
to be the savior of the world. Did you get that? In him is no
sin. He does no sin. He knows no sin. And he's free from sin. He has
really deceived himself, hasn't he? He has really deceived himself. But now watch this. Really what
he has done, and our Lord knows this, he's taken on a very superficial
interpretation of the law. And people do that. You can say,
well, you know, I'm not committing adultery. But you're lusting
after that person deep down in your heart. Well, I didn't do
it. Well, it's true. You didn't do it But you're still corrupt on the
inside Because of your heart are you hearing me because of
your heart and with God it's the act is already done You're
under the wrath of God right then and there am I telling the
truth? See, but now according to the superficial standards
of the law as Paul had said in Philippians chapter 3 He says
according to the law. I'm blameless. I He said, according
to the law, I did all the external things that makes me look like
I'm all right. But according to Christ, you were nailed by
these commandments. The Lord used the second leg
of the law to nail this man to the wall. But now I want you
to follow this now, please. When the law comes against you
and the law comes against me, you and I now have a question
to ask. Will we run and hide like this
rich young ruler behind a superficial interpretation of obedience to
the law? out of a desperation to save ourselves. Remember what
Christ said, whosoever will seek to preserve his life will lose
it. But whosoever will lose his life for my sake, he will find
it. I submit to you that this man
is struggling right now with a work of the Spirit of God in
the ministry of Christ, having nailed this man to the wall with
a clarity of his internal corruption, because he is wealthy, he is
an authority, and what you and I may know, we can assume is
true, and you can ask yourself this question, what kind of temptation
would go on in your life if you were in a position of authority
over people, and you had all kinds of money, What kind of
mess would you be? What kind of attitude would you
have? What kind of stinking, funky, self-righteous attitude
would you have if you had all sorts of money and you lived
in a culture like our master did, where people lauded you
and they bowed down and kissed your feet and they worshiped
you almost like a god because they were under the flawed assumption
that to be rich is to be blessed. Right? Are you hearing what I'm
saying? Listen, and then I want to add one more caveat to this
before I go on. You're not only an authority
over people, you got a bunch of money and then you are young
too. You know young people are a mess.
You know that. Filled with all kinds of energy
and aspiration, testosterone driven. You must feel like a
God. The problem of this young ruler
is that he heard and saw a man in his ministry and his teaching
and his preaching that was so impeccable that it slowly began
to grip him that in his ministry he did not have what that man
had. And the man that he's observing is Christ preaching from synagogue
to synagogue to synagogue to synagogue to synagogue. hearing
his words, hearing his exposition, hearing the deep, probing, probing,
true, accurate, true, piercing to the soul, observing the humility
of Christ, witnessing the poverty of Christ, recognizing that externally
Christ and him had very little in common. Christ was not a powerful
man. Christ didn't have a big entourage.
Christ wasn't super wealthy. He didn't have, as it were, armor
bearers walking with him to the bathroom. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? And this rich young ruler is
saying, this man don't even begin to have what I have, but I also
don't have what he has. And I need to have what he has.
Because I've heard him, more than all the Pharisees, talk
about eternal life. This is what drives him to him.
He's driven to this man in the ass about eternal life. Now I want you to think about
this now. He says in verse 21, and he said, all these I have
kept from my youth. Now you and I would whack him
upside his head, especially I would say, boy, you're lying. You ought
to stop right there. The ground's about to open up
and swallow you up. You're taking the name of the Lord in vain.
Don't you even let it come out your mouth. But do you know what
Mark's gospel says? I just need to share this with
you. Do you know what Mark's gospel says when this man tried
to save his life? And you and I would do the same
thing if we didn't have a legitimate exit strategy. Out of love for
our own life, we would find ways to wiggle out of the truth that
nails us against the wall. Am I telling the truth? You know
what Mark's gospel says in Mark chapter 10 verse 21? When the
rich young ruler said, I kept all these from my youth. Mark's
gospel says Jesus looked on him, and loved him. He looked on him
and loved him. Poor boy. He ain't got no sense. Just looked on him and loved
him. It's in a verb form that just said right then and there.
This is how Mark puts it. And right then and there, Jesus
loved on it. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't it wonderful that we have
a god that can love on us when we are nailed to the wall by
the truth and we have no way of escape, and we are blinded
to the narrow way, and we don't have access to the narrow way
out of our sin and rebellion against the God of glory. Isn't
it wonderful for there to be a man who looks on you and just
loves you? Loves you. See, Jesus could have
walked away from him and left him in his utter delusion. Am
I telling the truth? But he didn't do it. You know
what our master did? having led him in the path of
death by the law he now leads him in the path of life look
at the next text absolutely phenomenal our master says over in verse
22 now when jesus heard these things he said of them you lack
one thing you lack one thing young man sell all that you have
distribute to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven
do what follow me do you see that he said to the young man
because the young man hadn't he hadn't resolved this issue
this young man was in a worse straight now than he was when
he first came to Jesus Jesus knows this man's heart he made
his heart Jesus knows his psyche he understands all things he
understand that this young man is deeper in his pit now than
he was when he came and Jesus is about to deliver him now The
question was very pragmatic. What shall I do to inherit eternal
life? I want to stay with you on that
because the young man that's asking Christ's question is not
asking him about the doctrine of regeneration. I want you to
get this now. The young man is not inquiring
about what it means to be born again. He's not contemplating
the necessity of the new birth. He's not struggling through being
dead in trespasses and sins and saying, Lord, save me. That's
a glorious truth, isn't it? And we call that those of us
who understand salvation as eternal life imparted to us through the
new birth. Is that so? But what this man
is contemplating is a major portion of Jewish teaching, which is
also Christian teaching, which says eternal life for all those
who are in Christ, or believe God, or trust Christ, or looks
to Christ is something that we ultimately obtain in the resurrection. What this young man is asking
is, what might I do to secure that when I die, you are God
rather raises everyone from the dead which is strong Jewish teaching
John chapter 5 says it like this all that are in the grave shall
hear the voice of the Son of God and they that have done evil
shall rise to the resurrection of damnation and they that have
done what good see the word good shall rise to the resurrection
of the just that's what he was asking He was asking what Daniel
said in Daniel 12 verse 2 and then shall the stars shine forever
And some will rise to everlasting life. Others will rise to everlasting
damnation. Stay with me now watch this as
much as you may feel quite comfortable and secure in your conversion
and Salvation status and if you've got the gospel, right and if
you've got the right God you should be comfortable with being
born again but understand salvation in the book that we teach is
describes a process. A process which requires the
believer to be diligent, to be careful, to make his calling,
her calling, and election sure, until they breathe their last
breath. Am I making some sense? See, the Bible doesn't give you
and I the idea that we can say, once saved, always saved, and
then keep living like hell, do whatever we want to do. The Bible
doesn't teach that doctrine. It doesn't teach that doctrine.
We fully believe in regeneration. We fully believe in the fact
that when Christ chose us in him before the world began, he
infallibly will call us by the gospel. He infallibly will save
us by his grace, but he will also infallibly keep us in our
life to the point where when he comes again, we will be partakers
of those who experienced the resurrection. and the reward
that comes with it. Are you guys following me? And
that's the doctrine that's in this man's head. He's under the
faulty notion that he had a good running start, but there was
something in his soul that says, I'm not quite, I'm not quite
confident that I'm going to, confident that I'm going to make
it. And our Lord is saying to him, if you want to be perfect,
because that's the way Matthew puts it. One thing you lack,
Jesus said in Matthew, you want to be perfect? And remember what
our master said in Matthew chapter five? Be ye perfect, even as
your father in heaven is perfect. The only people that are going
to go to glory are perfect people. The only people that are going
to make the resurrection of life are perfect people. He said,
if you want to be perfect, here's what you got to do. And we talked
about the doctrine of perfection as the New Testament lays it
out. It's the fruit and manifestation of the seed of faith in the life
of the believer. See, everybody who says they
are a believer has the seed of faith in them. But that faith
must manifest itself in love and obedience to the Savior.
Am I making some sense? It must manifest itself in perseverance
in this life with your eyes constantly fixed on Christ, which you are
being committed to His glory and His purpose in this world
till you hit the dust. This is where our Lord is nailing
this young man. He's nailing this young man,
not on the proposition that if you merely believe on me, you'll
have eternal life, but on the proposition that eternal life
in total We have been saved, we are being saved, and we will
be saved. Eternal life in total looks like
this. Are you ready? It looks like
a man or a woman who has heard the glorious gospel of the death,
burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it has made such
an impact in their life that it has brought them to a total
commitment to Jesus as Savior and Lord. And it has gripped
them in such a way that they are abandoning their former life,
ready to live for his glory until he comes. Did you get that? So watch it now. What Christ
is talking about is salvation's process, not salvation's foundation. It's process. Listen to what
he says. If you will be perfect, if you
want to have that sense of security, if you want to know that you
are on that course of eternal life, here's what you're going
to have to do, young man. You got to sell everything that
you have. You got to give it to the poor. Now, let me ask
you something. Is that too severe a price to
pay for a God who loved you and gave himself for you? Is that
too austere? a legalistic command placed upon
you by God who gave you the riches anyway. Who gave you the power
to gain wealth anyway? Who gave you the resources anyway?
Is it too much for God to ask you who has saved you by his
grace and brought you into his kingdom and is leading you to
glory and has given you the overtures of his promises being yes and
amen in him so that you don't have to struggle through the
infallibility of going to glory? Is it too much for him to say,
but now here's what I want you to do. I want you to take all
that money that I gave you. Because I am the source from
which all blessings flow. And I want you to use that money
for my glory. I want you to feed my poor saints,
my poor brothers and sisters. I want you to help ministries
here and help ministries there, since I gave you power to get
wealth. Since I made you a good man in
whom I have given you power to get wealth. Ecclesiastes chapter
two. God giveth wealth to him who he sees as good in his own
sight. Well, I'm teaching you today.
And what God is saying to this young man is you want to secure
this issue of eternal life. Do the right thing with the resources
that I've given you. Do you guys hear that? Do the
right thing with the resources that I have given you. Point
number six, the evidence of spiritual death. Look at it. Verse 23. And when he had heard
this, He was very sorrowful because he was very rich. Sit. Let me help you now. This is
our master teaching his disciples how to deal with men and women
according to their own individual circumstances. Our master knows
this man, he created him. He knows this man's struggle.
He knows that this man struggles with the pride of wealth. He knows this young man is just
constantly daily vacillating between the security of being
wealthy. Boy, wouldn't we like to have
some of that for just five minutes, wouldn't we? Come on now, just
little parentheses here. Wouldn't it be nice for like
five days Come on now, join me for a second, I need you to get
inside the shoes to just be, have as much money to do whatever
you want to. Have so much money that you can't
even make a mistake. Now that's a lot of money. Now
watch it now, I'm talking about have so much money that you are
so wealthy that in five days, it would take longer than that
to make a mistake. Because any mistake you made,
you can pay for. to be able to go to sleep at
night and say, you know what? My bills are paid for for five
years. I can give indiscriminately or
indiscriminately as I will. I can buy. I can shop. I can
just fulfill my heart's desire. And you know how a lot of us
are. We're broke. I mean, real bad broke. But we swear that
if God ever give us some money, we're going to be the most altruistic,
philanthropic person on planet Earth. We swear we are. Yeah,
we are. We're going to give everybody
all kind of stuff. But now just think if God gave you a couple
hundred billion dollars, how would you feel? You might be all right for a
minute, and then you would find the awful burden that this rich
man has been struggling through. And you know what it is? An evil
heart that covets what you already have. See, when riches increase,
they increase that eat them. And the love of money is the
root of all evil. And when people acquire wealth, they acquire
a whole lot of burdens that us poor people don't have. Aren't
you thankful poor people that you don't have those burdens? I'll be done in a few minutes. One thing is very clear that
from the narrative, the rich young ruler, Was very conscious
that he didn't have the one thing that he wanted a piece of conscience
That said he was on the right road to eternal life Are you
hearing me? He had all kind of money. He
was a leader in the church. He was young Had all kind of
promise and potential but his heart was grieved with the reality
that eternity was out of his grasp he could not control the
fact that he doesn't have security when it comes to eternity. He's
hearing Christ preached. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
whosoever heareth my words and believes on him that sent me
already has eternal life and shall never perish. But he has
passed from death to life because he believes on me. That's blowing
him away. That's blowing him away. For
God so loved the world that whosoever believeth on him shall never
perish, but have eternal life. That's blowing him away. He that
hath the Son already has life. That's blowing him away. He that
is born of God already possesses eternal life. That's blowing
him away. Now the just shall live by what? That's crazy. It's blowing him
away. It's blowing him away. Christ
is liberating sinners all over the synagogues and he's stuck.
He got a bunch of money, he's in a position of power, he's
young, and eternal life is still an issue with him. And you know
what Jesus' assessment on all that I just said is? Hear me. It's hard for a rich person to
enter into the kingdom. Did you get that? The epitome
of wisdom has just said to you and me, here's the problem that
he has and a lot of wealthy people have. It's hard to enter into
that righteousness and peace and joy of the Holy Ghost that
God gives freely to anyone that believes when you are barricaded
by an enormous amount of wealth. Wealth can keep you from the
Savior. Now when our Lord said what he
said to the young man, just give it up and follow me. He was simply
preaching faith. I don't care what you say. He
wasn't calling this man to works righteousness. He was calling
this man to a faith that works. What he was saying is he that
cometh to me must believe that he is and is a rewarder of them
that what diligently seek him. Now don't tell me if God calls
you by His grace as a wealthy person. that the Spirit of God
is not gonna work in your heart and mind to teach you how to
be a steward of your wealth for the glory of God, so that when
you end this life, you don't let the devil and the world have
taken your resources and you have scandalized that great authority
with which God has given you and you exclusively. Because
most of us are not wealthy, most of us are not gifted in that
capacity, most of us need help from those who have economic
resources to get the job done. The world is set up that way.
The world is set up that way. God set the world up where he
gave stewardships here and there to certain parties and he expects
them to do the right thing with those stewardships. If you are
a believer and God puts you in a certain authoritative position,
your job is to take that authoritative position and bring it up under
the authority of Christ and glorify God in that position. That's
all he was calling that young man to do. Listen, he wasn't
just telling the man to go empty out his bank account, tell all
the poor folk to meet him on the corner and just jump in the
bin and get as much money as you want. He wasn't saying that.
Can I help you? He wasn't saying that. Our Lord
never ever once advocated unwise business methods. Never, never. No, no, no, no. Start orphanages. Start homeless shelters. Get
some wise men to deliberate this. Make sure you get as many tax
write-offs as you can. See, I'm going way overboard.
But I'm trying to help you understand how. See, you can do that, rich
young ruler. Be saved, love me, preach Christ,
and still enjoy. You may not be driving a Rolls
Royce, but you can drive a Mercedes, or you can drive a Toyota. A
real nice Toyota. I mean, you know, Toyotas are
nice today. I'd rather drive a nice Toyota
and give up my Rolls Royce to make sure that I can say I have
helped 10 people get out of poverty. Am I making some sense? Am I
making some sense? But I'm gonna tell you what happened
here. I'm almost done. He had 12 disciples who were
listening to this conversation between the teacher and the master.
And when the master told the teacher up, those arrows that
nailed the master to the wall, the teacher to the wall, nailed
the 12 disciples to the wall too. That's the way the spirit
of God works through biblical teaching. You coming in with
your shield on, thinking this ain't about you. And the spirit
of God has an arrow that goes right in your heart. The text
tells us in Matthew's account and in Mark's account, when the
rich young ruler went away grieved and sorrowful, the disciples
fell apart. Literally, the word is they became
beside themselves. They were devastated. They said, man, do you see what
happened? Look at what the master did.
He completely ran off one of the fellas we just knew was right
up against the kingdom. I mean, we've been knowing Jimmy
since he was a seven-year-old boy. We saw him at his par mitzvah. We saw him as he got his degree
and went into seminary and finally made it to church. We saw him
living this ostensibly good life. I mean, if anybody was up close
to the door, it was Jimmy. The Lord then ran that brother
away. and it compelled him to raise the question, if that brother
can't be saved, who can be saved then? Can't nobody be saved? That's the language. Martin puts
it, he said, they were astonished out of their wits. You know why? Because the Lord
Jesus Christ is no respecter of persons. He doesn't respect
persons. He doesn't respect positions.
He doesn't respect prominence. He doesn't respect power. The
God of glory doesn't respect persons. Every one of us stand
on the same ground. When the law of God is given
to us as a test to take, guess what? Rich and poor, wise and
stupid, smart and not so smart, when we take the test, We all
come out with the same result. You know what that is? F. Flunk. Failed. Fall. You come out the
door all dignified with your nice suit on, nice clothes on.
How'd you do? I failed too. How'd you do? I failed too. They thought he
was going to pass the test. Our brother didn't pass the test.
He didn't do any better than them. And then Peter, he made
the mistake. He said, I got this. This is
not cool. I've got to say something. I've
got to say something because the Lord didn't already lay down
what we got to do. Lord, you told him to give it
all up. We got that because we didn't
do that. We gave it all up for you. We abandoned everything
for you. Are we on the right course? See
it. Do you see how they were compelled
by the same words? Righteousness attitude. This
is what I call Adam one. Adam one. Adam one. It's the
same works attitude. Now Peter loved him. I love him
to death and he's representing all of them. All of them had
this attitude. They said, listen, I'll be says it's impossible
for a rich man to get in. Peter said, we've left everything
to follow you. Everything now is one thing to leave everything
and follow Jesus today. It's another thing to leave everything
and follow Jesus tomorrow and the next day and the next day
after that and the next day after that. So you're trapped now. You're trapped by the boasting
of your good works. You're trapped by the boasting
of your self-righteousness. You're trapped by the claim that
you're more noble than that rich man. You're trapped by the claim
that you have performed well enough to now start, listen to
me, taking your confidence in your sacrifice. Your problem
is you still got tomorrow to go. You got the day after that
to go. You got the week after that to
go. You got the month after that to go. Peter made the dumb mistake
of boasting as if he was taking his armor off when he was just
putting it on. That's what the king said let
him that's put this armor on to go to war Don't boast as if
you didn't fought the battle one and you taking the armor
I'm putting the toga so getting ready to have your triumph around
the city What Peter didn't know was that right around the corner?
He was going to scandalize the Lord Jesus Christ in such a public
way that all of the good works He had just alleged that he had
did would be completely discredited Are you guys hearing me? It's
not by works of righteousness which we have done. All of our
works by nature are filthy rags. It's God who saved us by his
mercy and by his grace. It's God that works in us the
will and to do of his good pleasure. It's God that gives us grace
to do his will. It's God that works in us to
do his will. Are you guys hearing me? It's
God that graces us to live for his glory today. And tomorrow
we will need that same grace. Tomorrow we will need that same
grace. Tomorrow we will need the same grace that graced us
to live by his grace today. And tomorrow I will need the
same grace that graced me to live right today when I fall. I need his grace. I need his
mercy when I fall. I need the grace that keeps me
to pick me up when I fall again. Am I telling the truth? See,
this is what Jesus is shedding his disciples. He said, boys,
don't get caught up in what this man is caught up in. Don't you
make that mistake. The only reason you made it three
years with me is by the grace of God. I kept you. Remember
John 17. Father, I have kept those that
you have given me. I've given them your word and
they have kept your word. The only reason that you're keeping
on is because God is keeping you. One more thing as we close,
the glorious truth that Christ sets forth in the scriptures,
and I don't want any of my brethren to stumble over this, particularly
those of you who are teachers of the word. Don't ever pit the
statements of scripture that emphasize good works and the
fruits of grace over against the statements of scripture that
emphasizes faith as it has its origins in God. Don't ever pit
the fruits of grace that emphasizes good works, which are designed
to glorify God over against the doctrine of faith, which has
its origin in God, by which God is glorified to don't pit the
glory of God and the origin of your salvation rooted in Christ,
based upon faith alone, apart from works over against the grace
of God that produces works in your life, which are designed
to glorify God to don't pit them, harmonize them. Harmonize them. Understand that it is to the
glory of God that we live to his honor. It's to the glory
of God that we bear fruit. And this is my father's glory
that you bring forth much fruit. Herein is he glorified. Are you
guys hearing me? It doesn't cancel out grace.
It honors grace. It defines grace. I need the
grace to believe and I need the grace to do. I need the grace
to serve and I need the grace to be effectual in my service.
I need the grace of God in total and you do too. So here's how
our Lord closes out his word to Peter having said what he
said. He says over in verse 29, verily
I say unto you, there is no man that is left house or parents
or brother or wife or children for the kingdom of God's sake.
Do you see that? You know who does stuff like
this? When they met Christ? Are people who are so full of
God. Full of God. Are you hearing
me? So full of God that they are
willing to abandon everything for his glory. The natural order
of human existence is important, but not as important as a man
or a woman who is an eternity bound soul hearing the message
of redemption. The God that called this person
by his grace into eternal life with all of the blessings and
the constituent blessings that come with it is the same God. This is how he's thinking. Are
you ready? that can keep my wife and keep my kids and keep my
parents and keep my brothers and keep my sisters while I abandon
myself to the glory of God and spend everything in me for the
salvation of sinners because his glory has been so absolutely
astonishing to me. My God can keep them while he
keeps me. Oh, but you don't find many people
like that. You just don't. I'll tell you, Peter, this is
the truth. There's no man that has left house or parents or
brothers or wife or children for the kingdom of God's sake
who shall not receive manifold more in this present time. And in the world to come, what
everlasting life? What was he describing? The reward
of faith. through grace, the reward of
faith through grace. This is why we strive to live
for his glory. Is it not true? We believe in
the reward of faith through grace. Amen.