in the Gospel of Matthew chapter
19. You'll find this account in three
of the Gospels concerning this rich young ruler. You'll find
it in Mark chapter 10 and Luke chapter 18. It's interesting
to read those accounts. I want to begin this morning
And I want to look again this afternoon in Mark's account of
this rich young ruler. But I want to read it first to
you in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 16. And behold, one came
and said unto him... One of the other accounts, I
think it was Mark, said one came running. Running to him. Kneeling down to him. and saying
unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have
or inherit eternal life? And the Lord said to 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. And he said unto him, And Jesus
said, Thou shalt not do murder. Do no murder. Thou shalt not
commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And the young man
said unto him, All these things have I kept, not just for a while,
not just lately, but 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, thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow
me. And when the young man heard
that said, he went away sorrowful. Mark says he was very sorrowful.
Another writer said he was grieved. for he had great possessions.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a
rich man shall hardly enter unto the kingdom of heaven. And again
I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter unto the kingdom
of God. When his disciples heard it,
they were exceedingly amazed, and they were saying, What then? Who then can be saved? And Jesus
beheld them and said unto them, With men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible. I want us to think this morning,
I think it tells us what a dilemma this man was in there in verse
22. A young man with great possessions. A young man with great possessions. Now boy, that's a remedy for
disaster in most cases, is it not? A young man with great possessions. Young people are instructed in
the Scriptures to seek the Creator in the days of your youth. Seek
Him out. Seek Him out in His Word. Seek
Him with all your heart. Seek Him that you may find Him.
But boy, how difficult it would be. to be a young man and have
great possessions and have your heart to set upon them. The Apostle
Paul was writing to young Timothy and he said this, Childhood and
youth are vanity, therefore flee youthful lust. I think all of
us, even we that have gotten older, especially when we look
in retrospect at our teenage years, we can understand How
lustful, how careless the average youth is. There's a lot of temptations
that befall youth. And boy, here was a man that
had the greatest temptation of all. He had great possessions.
He was young and had great possessions. The Apostle Paul said, they that
will be rich. They have a will. They set their
hearts to riches. They fall into temptation and
a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown
men in perdition. Riches provide opportunity for
temptation, and they come from every corner when you've got
riches. Getting the riches, trying to preserve the riches, trying
to manage the riches, There's the danger of trusting in riches
for happiness, trusting in riches for security and longevity of
mind, of life and even ease. How many people trust in possessions
for ease? Remember the rich man who said,
I've got many goods stored up for many years. Take fine ease. Take thine ease. Take it easy. Brothers and sisters, don't we
all want an easy life? Would you have struggled in your
life as you have unless it would have been necessary? Would you
avoid every struggle that you faced? But necessity was laid
upon you. But not rich men. They don't
have to. The wise man said this, Lord,
don't give me poverty, but don't give me riches. If you give me
riches, I'm going to forget you. I'm going to say, who is the
Lord? Who is the Lord that I should come to Him? Who is the Lord
that I should obey Him? Who is the Lord that I should
trust Him for everything? But don't give me poverty lest
I steal and take your name in vain. Give me that which is convenient
for me, that which will get me by and not hinder me and expose
me to the temptations of the rich. I think of all the young
men in the gospel, and we have different ones. I think this
man here pulls sympathy from my heart more than any other.
because of his possessions. Here he is and he's rich and
he's fighting. He's having to watch. He's having
to be careful against these temptations, the snares, the greed, the ease
of body and mind. And Luke adds this about this
young man that he was a ruler. He was a magistrate of some kind. He was a prince, maybe, some
tell us. So he was a young man, he had
great possessions, and he was in great authority. There's many
things in this young man that seems to be very commendable,
especially when we consider that he was a man of great wealth
and position in this life. I want us first of all to consider
some things that was very commendable in this young man. Even things
that young people should pattern. And the first one was this. He
was a very humble and respectable person. A very humble person. You don't see this much in rich
people, do you? They get somewhat aloft. They
get somewhat arrogant. But not this man. The Scripture
tells us in Mark that he came kneeling to the Lord Jesus. And there was people surrounding
them at this time, and no doubt this man was known, and yet he
was not ashamed. He was not embarrassed to come
and kneel down before this man who had nothing seemingly, Jesus
of Nazareth, who was despised by so many. What a humble young
man this was. And no doubt this man held himself
to one of the high standards of morality and decency in society. We're told here by him, and I
think he was sincere. The Lord never rebuked him for
what he professed. He took the commandments of God
as his standard of morality, his daily life. And the Lord
Jesus said, What's the commandments? And he didn't hesitate. He said,
All these have I kept. You can follow this man in his
daily life. And I'm telling you, you couldn't
find any fault outwardly with this man. He was a man that loved his wife.
He was faithful to his wife. He said, I've never committed
adultery. He wasn't tempted to kill anybody. I've never murdered,
he said. He never stole anything. Everything
this man got, but he paid for it. He paid for it. He bought it with his own money.
I've never stolen, he said. And I tell you, he never spread
rumors. This was an amazing young man. If you'd have been around
him and you started to bear false witness against someone, you
know what he'd say? Listen, I don't want to hear
that. I don't speak evil and bear false witness of other people,
and I don't want it done in my presence. I don't bear false
witness. Oh, isn't that commendable? Isn't
that commendable? All his business practices, I'm
telling you, you shook hands with this man or he made a promise
to you, he'd keep his end of the bargain. He said, I don't
defraud people. I don't cheat people. I'm an
honest man in my dealings and in my business practices. He
said, I've honored my father and my mother. He loved his dad
and mom. He respected them. They could
depend on him to care for them and to aid them. I tell you,
this man was a tremendous asset to his country, was he not? And
to his community. I don't know how much good that
he did. It doesn't say here. Maybe he
did a lot of good. Maybe he brought groceries for
poor people. Maybe he paid the rent, the hospital
bills. I don't know what all he may
have done that was good. But we don't say here, we don't
see that he did any evil. All of these things, he said,
I've not done these things. I've not done evil in society.
Wouldn't you love to have this fellow as a church member? The
average Baptist church would love this man, would they not?
What a citizen in a country. What a good fellow in the community. And here, secondly, is something
else that's so commendable about this fellow. He was concerned
about eternal life. He was seeking the way to obtain
it. He said, Lord, I know. I know,
Master, that there's a life beyond this world. This life is not
the end of all of it. He wasn't a Sadducee. He wasn't
a man who believed that this life ended it all. He believed
there's going to be a resurrection. There's a world beyond this world.
There's a life beyond this life. And he was seeking the way for
eternal life. What must I do that I may have
eternal life? How few a people do you meet
today who are as concerned as this man? Is anybody running
up to you? and asking you this question.
Do you see many people openly seeking the way of life eternal? You notice something else about
him here. He was first and foremost concerned for himself. He said,
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Many are talking about other
people like that. They need to do this or they need to do that.
He wasn't concerned about somebody else. First and foremost, he
said, it's me. I need life. I am seeking the
way of life. What must I do to secure the
eternal life of my poor soul? And notice this about this man,
and this is very commendable. He knew there was a connection.
between the end and the means. He knew that something had to
be done, didn't he? If I live and die just like I
am, I'm in doubt. Something more needs to be done. What like I yet? Now don't you
wish people would come to that understanding and inquire as
to what like I yet? This man wasn't content to be
in doubt about the matter. How many people are? How many
people do we meet that they say such things like this? Well,
I trust everything's all right. On what grounds do you base that?
What are you doing to obtain eternal life? I'm doing nothing. I'm doing nothing. Do you think
some changes don't have to be made? Well, I don't know. You
mean if you die like you live, you have life? Well, I don't
know. This man wanted to know, didn't he? There are some things
that need to be done. And he was seeking what those
things must be that I may obtain eternal life. Some people in
our society think nothing more needs to be done. But just what
I've been doing, which is nothing, or less than nothing. This young man had already labored
much, but he was in doubt, and therefore he was inquiring, what
lack I yet? And something else that's commendable
in this man, the Scripture says he came running. He came running. He was anxious. Boy, he didn't say, I think I'll
wait until tomorrow. I've got some business I've got
to do today. I've got some other pressing
things. He was urgent, wasn't He? He was so concerned about
having eternal life that He came immediately and He was so urgent
that He came running and bowed down before the Lord Jesus Christ. Master, what must I do? Why did He come to the Lord Jesus?
It seems obvious that this man was a Pharisee. He was somewhat
awakened. There was an awakening at this
time among the Pharisees, some of them. You remember Nicodemus? He was a Pharisee. He came to
the Lord by night. And he said, Master, some of
us among the Pharisees, we know. Some of us have denied it, but
some of us know that your teacher sent from God. And the word had
begun to get out among these Pharisees that Jesus of Nazareth
is a teacher sent from God. And this young Pharisee heard
it and he said, I'm going to Him. I'm going to inquire of
Him what I must do that I could have eternal life. This is one
sent from God. Boy, I tell you what, if you
need some information about your soul, find somebody sent from
God. That's what he said. That's what
he said. When you and I have questions,
brothers and sisters, concerning matters of our soul, and conscience,
and eternal life, and being right with God, and preparing to meet
Him when this life is over, we must seek out a reliable source
of information. We can't trust our own thoughts,
can we? We can't trust our own convictions. We can't trust our feelings,
nor those of our fellow man, no matter how respectable they
are or how well liked they are. There is not an infallible source
of information that is available to us, and that is the Word of
God. And there is not an infallible
teacher an instructor, a comforter, and that's the Holy Spirit of
God. And that's all we need, is it
not? If you and I love our poor souls
truly, and we desire to secure for them eternal life, we'll
not be content with anyone or anything less than these infallibles. guides, the Word of God and the
Holy Spirit. Paul and Silas there in Acts
chapter 17 was preaching to the Bereans and every one of them left the worship
service and went home and opened their Bibles. Now I don't think they were doubting
the Apostle Paul. I don't think they were down
in Silas as they preached. But they said, I've got to know
this for myself. I've got to have my own conscience
taught. I need to be instructed for myself. So they went home and they opened
up their Bibles. And they said, Lord behold, what
they said was true. And you know something? The Bible
says many of them believed. Don't you wish that everybody
was concerned about obtaining eternal life as this man was?
And don't you wish everybody said, I'm going to seek out the
best source? And he sought out the best source
of his day. And that was the Master Himself.
Oh, I wish we could run in. I wish we could have an awakening
like this, don't you? Where people got so anxious,
so urgent, that they had to turn the TV off, lo and behold, and
get out their Bibles. And had to seek the Lord for
a witness of His Holy Spirit. To the law and to the testimony. Now let's look at this. Let's
look at some things that wasn't so commendable in this young
man. Things that must be avoided. First of all is this. He never
really knew who he was coming to. He come to the best teacher
of his day. But he thought he was only a
good teacher. Thou art a good master. And I think this is the very
reason the Lord Jesus confronted him with this question. Why callest
thou me good? There is but one that's good,
and that's God. Do you believe that I'm God? Is that not the conclusion that
he's bringing him to? God is essentially good, is He
not? And you know being essentially
good, nothing can affect Him for bad? If you are essentially
good, nothing can affect you. If you have got a little pasted
on goodness, something may affect you. But if you are essentially
good, nothing can affect you for bad. God is naturally good. And He can never do anything
contrary to His nature. God is independently good and
He looks to none to maintain His goodness. He is eternally
good and can never change. And listen, Jesus Christ is the
same essence with God. He is the eternal God. He is
God. Good. That's why He can never sin.
That's why He can never do wrong. He's God. He's God. He's not just a good teacher.
Oh, He's that. He's more than just a good master.
He's that. He's more than a puppet. He's
more than a holy man. He's God. Don't you love to say
that? I just love to say that. I just
love to repeat that. He's God. When Randy read that
passage over there, my Lord and my God, I was talking to Jehovah
Witness about that one time and he said, well, Thomas got confused.
And I said, wouldn't it have been a perfect time for the Lord
Jesus to unconfuse him? But he said, because you've seen
me, you have believed. You've seen who? God. I'm God. And you've seen me. And you believe. He's God, isn't He? I wonder
if it would have affected this young Pharisee if he really knew
who he was talking with. Oh, listen, young man. He is
a good teacher. But he's God. He's God. You realize that and it may affect
how you think and what you do. Oh, the angels are good. We call
them the good angels, don't we? But their goodness is a created
goodness. And saints are said to be good.
Barnabas was a good man. But they're good because God
has made them good. They have their goodness from
Him. He has His from nobody. It's
self-contained. And Jesus is that God. The very essence of God. And
He, the Son of God, is the mediator between God and man. Here's something else that's
not commendable in this man that we have to avoid. Secondly, this
young man was a Pharisee. And he thought that eternal life
could be gotten by good works. Oh man, that's critical, isn't
it? That's critical. What good thing shall I do that
I may have eternal life? Mr. Mantum said this. He thought
that men, he thought that men could be saved by their own works
and that it was in their power to do them. Now you've got the
merit of man and you've got the strength of man. This is that age-old issue that
has been from the very beginning. Can I be good enough? Can I do
good enough to inherit eternal life? And this era and this controversy
and issue goes all the way back to the beginning of time. For
King says, I can. I can till the earth. I can plant
a garden. I can bring forth the best fruits
that I have and the labor of my hand. I can set them before
God and be accepted. And Abel says, You can't either.
You can't either. And I've been telling you ever
since then up until this day, this is the issue. Does life
come? Is it possible for eternal life
to be obtained by the good works that a man does? Or does life
eternal come by a gift of God only? And there is no doubt in
your mind, isn't there? The issue is settled with you.
There are no gray areas. The gift of God is eternal life. through Jesus Christ the Lord. This is the record. Listen to
this. I John 5. This is the record. This is the
testimony of God that God hath given to us. God hath given to
us. Eternal life. Oh, don't you love
to just roll that over in your heart and in your head? God has
given. Just repeat it in your heart
until it sinks down deep into your soul. God hath given to
us eternal life. God hath given. Oh, we can't
purchase it. We can't earn it. We can't deserve
it. We can't merit it. We are not worthy of it. It is
a gift of God. He gives it freely. I have to repeat that to myself
all the time. I spend a lot of time convincing my heart of this
truth. Eternal life is a gift of God. There is nothing you can do to
obtain it. There is nothing you can do to
keep it. It is a gift of God. I used to
have an old red bone hound, an old coon dog. Raised him from
what was a young pup. And I used to, my wife would
have a big old bone, a hound bone or something. And she'd
give that bone to me and I'd take that bone out and give it
to that old hound. And he'd get that thing in his mouth and his
feet and he'd just turn that bone every which way and roll
it in his mouth. And you'd go out there a day
later and that bone was just as white as it could be. He had
rolled in His mouth and He got all the meat off of it, all the
nourishment off of it. That's the way we should do with
this, brothers and sisters. God hath given. God hath given. God hath given. He's given to
me. What a gift He's given to me.
He gave us His only begotten Son. What a gift. He's given
us faith. He's given us repentance. He's
given us heaven. Why? He didn't lift a finger
to earn it. And we can't merit it. It was
His good pleasure to give you the kingdom, little flock. Oh,
it's a gift. And this man erred. And I'm telling
you, that's a deadly error. That's a deadly error to think
that a man can earn by what he does and what he abstains from
doing eternal life. He can't do it. The Lord Jesus
told that Samaritan woman, He said, Woman, listen to me. If
you knew the gift of God, and if you knew who it was that's
talking to you, you would have asked of Him, and He would have
given you living water. That's life, isn't it? I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. That's the life this young man
was seeking after, but his whole problem was he was trying to
seek it by his works. Thirdly, think about this. He
didn't know this. Not only is life eternal a gift
of God, but it comes through redemption. It comes through
salvation. And salvation and redemption
comes through Jesus Christ and the cross. A better question for this young
man would have been this, I suppose. What must I do to be saved? I am lost in my sins. Before God can give us something,
He must deliver us from something. He saves us from something before
He saves us to something. He saves us from sin. He saves
us from the curse of the law to life eternal. And if a man
hasn't been saved from sin, he hasn't been saved to anything. I was talking with a lady down
at the nursing home, one of the older ladies. She made a statement
at the last worship service that we had down there. She said,
God was the great orchestrator. I thought, I like that. God is
the great orchestrator. And I stopped by a couple of
days or so after that and visited her in her room and I said, I
like that statement you made at the worship service the other
night that God is the great orchestrator. I said, He orchestrates all things.
And she said, He does. I started to quote that scripture.
He worketh all things after the counsel. And she finished it
for me. After the counsel of His own will. But I dug just a little too deep. I got so disappointed. I said,
When did the Lord save you? I think she's 85 years old or
so. And you know what she told me? She said, Oh, I've never
been saved. I've never needed to be saved.
My parish took me to church and I've been in church all my life.
I've never needed to be saved. I think she's found out that
there's a way of life eternal without being saved. without
redemption, without salvation. And listen, that is a notion
in her head. It is not so. That is what this
young man was seeking after. And life cannot be gotten that
way. Life comes through a bloody cross.
Life comes through sin, being punished. Life comes through
a new birth. Oh, this is the best question
to ask. What must I do to be saved from
my sin? If I am not saved from my sins,
I can never enter into life eternal. This young man did not understand
that. Oh, do not rest in a desire for
eternal life. This man had that. Don't rest
in a mere desire to go to heaven. He desired that. Devils may desire
that. Don't rest until Jesus Christ
the Lord saves you from your sin. Saves you from the penalty
of it. Oh, think of that. Saves you
from the guilt of it. Saves you from the love of it. Saves you from the power of it.
Don't rest until you see yourself accepted in the Beloved. Don't rest until you know that
you've been given grace to believe in the Son of God and the Holy
Spirit bears witness to it. Fourthly, consider this about
this young man. We'll consider this and we'll
pick it up tonight. This young man was ignorant of
the nature of God's law, of God's commandments. Listen to what
he said in verse 20. All these things have I kept. I have observed them from my
youth up. All of these things. I've kept
all of them. I've observed all of them. There's
a reason why you and I around here, we talk a lot about God's
law. We dwell on that a lot. We don't
skip over that without looking into it and examine what is this
law? What is this commandment? And
Paul said, I have not known sin. I have not seen the exceeding
sinfulness of it. But by the law, He said, I had all of this stuff
in my heart and I didn't even know it was there. All the idolatry,
all the lust, all the blackness. And when the commandment came,
it came to me in my darkness with its light. Then I saw I
had all kinds of idols. I had all kinds of lust in my
heart working in there, working in me. The law will do that. John Bunyan even made this statement.
I don't know if he went too far or not. You can judge that. But
here's what John Bunyan said. A man who is ignorant of the
spiritual nature of the law of God is also ignorant of his own
sinful nature. And he said that man that's ignorant
of his own sinful nature must also be ignorant of the saving
nature of Jesus Christ as a Savior. For Christ come to save sinners. I have not known sin, but by
the law. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all your heart. all your mind, all your soul,
all your strength, never be cold towards Him, never be indifferent
towards Him, never choose anything above Him? My goodness! My goodness! And love your neighbor
as yourself. Had this young man loved his
neighbor as himself? One thing you will notice in
this whole area of Israel that our Lord traveled, up in the
northern part, Galilee, southern part of Judea, and around Jerusalem,
that whole area was full of people in poverty. And He said, You always got the
poor with you. I have no man to help me. This man was rich. Did he love his neighbors himself?
How come he was so rich? And everybody else was suffering
in poverty. I doubt seriously if he loved
his neighbors himself. How does all this affect us when
we come to know the strictness of God's law, the spirituality
of it, how it searches out our inward most thoughts and motives?
How does it affect us? It makes us realize this, I need
a Savior. I need a Savior to save me. I
need a righteousness that I don't have. I need to be justified. I need to be clothed. I need
the Holy Spirit. I need a heart. I need comfort. I need to be
kept. I need to be preserved into His
heavenly kingdom. Ain't that the way you feel? We love the law, do we not? We
love it. We delight in it. But I tell you, it drives us
to Christ. It drives us to Him. I've sat in my offices. I've
sat in my office. I've sat out there eight hours
doing nothing but reading. reading the Bible, reading good
books, praying, seeking the Lord, seeking to study His Word. Eight
hours I've sat in my office. And I tell you what, I've come
out of that office feeling like if anybody ever should go to
hell, it's me. My trouble is not outside. My
trouble is not in the world. My trouble is in here. And while
I'm sitting there learning of God, this law keeps opening my
heart and seeing the darkness and the sin and lust and the
hate. It's awful. And it makes me cry,
oh wretched man that I am. But I don't stop there. I thank
God. I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. With a mind I serve the law of
God. But with this flesh, the law
of sin. And if you feel the same way
about yourself, boy, never a day goes by you're not cleaving to
the Savior. You're cleaving to the Savior. Well, we'll pick up there tonight,
this afternoon, and see some more about this fellow. Let's pray.