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I'm gonna do something I've never really done before, and that is, well, two things I've never really done before. One is preach a very, this will be the shortest sermon I've ever preached on a Sunday morning.
No clapping. I just preached over there too, so this is antiphonal preaching. Some back there, some up here. And I also wanna change the message because of the circumstances and because of visitors and for those who are even part of our church to preach a passage that asks and answers this question.
What must I do to inherit eternal life? If you had someone come up to you, running full blast, come to a screeching halt right before your presence, and then get down on your knees, grab you by the hand and say, you know the Bible, you've been to that Bible teaching church, I know when I die, I'm going to hell, what must I do to be saved?
What would you tell that person? Would you know enough to preach the gospel? Or would you revert back to things like, maybe you should be baptized to go to heaven? You ever accept Jesus in your heart?
Would you ever pray a sinner's prayer? What would you tell that person? And frankly, I could ask you the question, what about you? When you die and stand before God in heaven, what will be the basis of your salvation?
And if you'll take your Bibles and look in Luke chapter 18 with me, we will look at this wonderful physician's account of the question, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? After all, I thought it only apropos and appropriate if we're dealing with baptism and testimonies and how God has rescued sinners from judgment unto heaven, wouldn't it be good to look at a passage that deals with that for every one of us?
My prayer for you today, if you're a Christian, that you'll be encouraged with your evangelism, that you would evangelize like Jesus. And my prayer for you today, if you're not a Christian, one of two things would happen.
Either God would open your heart and soften your heart, or I think this is a sad thing, although it's true and biblical, both through Jesus and Paul, that God would take this word and harden you even more.
I don't want that last one to happen, but the effect of the word of God and what it has on people's hearts as unbelievers, it either softens or it hardens. May today the spirit of God soften your heart when you have to ask and answer this question, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
And honestly, most of us don't like to think about death at all. And if we don't think about death, why would we want to think about eternal death? We have a neighbor and they have a German shepherd dog and they start losing their hind legs and then things become paralyzed and the nerves and everything else are just not meant to live for a long time with the use of their back legs.
And this Tuesday, in two days, the person comes over to their house to put the dog to sleep after 16 years. I'm sad. Buddy's going to die. I remember Gracie, who's... It's hard to keep track of all their ages.
Seven now. And I held her when she was one year old on Buddy's shoulders and I would hold underneath Gracie's armpits and let her ride Buddy around the yard. If I'm sorry for a dog's death, and I thought, how can I minister to these people who live next door to me when their dog dies?
A dog that has no soul, no eternal value. Well, then what about when people die? What about when you die? The most important question. What do you do with Jesus and what are His requirements for heaven?
We learned today with the baptismal testimonies. It's not what your church teaches. It's not what I teach. It's not what your denomination teaches. It's not what your grandmother taught. It is what does the Bible say about eternal life?
And Luke is particularly fascinating because he's a doctor. He's detailed. He talks with doctor kind of terms. And you never have met anybody like Jesus in the pages of Matthew, Mark, specifically Luke and John.
So we jump right in in chapter 18, verse 18. Jesus is given a parable about prayer. He's also given a parable about the Pharisee and the publican. And in the midst of all this talk about salvation and sin, something dramatic happens.
Some churches have to perform skits up on the staging area here. Matter of fact, last week in Milwaukee, the pastor got a bow and arrow out, a real bow and arrow, and shot the arrow in the auditorium to make an illustration, probably missing the mark, I would guess, of what that is.
But he was fined because it's illegal to do that in a church building. Some people have brought motorcycles up on stage to show illustrations and then turned them over and just let it kind of idle. One man in the Midwest, he accidentally popped it into gear, went off the stage, fell down and broke his wrist.
I guess the illustration of that day would be not just stupidity, but maybe a healing service would break out. I don't know. My point is this. You don't need some kind of cheesy illustration for this dramatic passage.
If you've never seen it, it will strike you. And even if you've read it a hundred times or memorized it, I want you just to look at it again and you'll think, this is one of the most amazing demonstrations of Jesus's own evangelism that you'll find in all the Bible.
And we call it the rich young ruler. What would Jesus say? What did he say? You can read the account in Matthew chapter 19. You can read the account here or in Mark, but let's focus in, in our short time this morning on Luke 18, 18.
A ruler, an archon, somebody who led questioned Jesus. And here's the question. I think it's a valid question and a good question. Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? That's a lot better question than my dad's gonna die pretty soon and how do I split up the inheritance with my other brothers?
That could be a lot worse questions. What do I do? Now, other accounts tell us he's rich. Maybe he's thinking to himself, how much money do I give to earn heaven? You think that's crazy. Frankly, people today even try to say, if I give money, I'll get an indulgence or I don't have to pay for my sins as long.
It's happened throughout the ages. Mark says that this teacher ran up to him and knelt before him. He's running up full blast, comes to a screeching halt and then now kneels down in submission. Maybe lots of children around, maybe it's hot in the sun.
This is not necessarily proper protocol for the mucky mucks of the world. The hoi polloi do that, but not the big shots. This is not for the people. I mean, there's respect after all. Who wants to be humiliated?
There's deference for some of these rich people. But here he sprints up and he says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? The rabbis used to encourage that question a lot back in the Jewish days.
Rabbi Eliezer said disciples would come and visit him and say, Rabbi, teach us the paths that we may merit the life of the world to come. We all die, that's a fair question. It's a valid question. What do we do when we die?
I mean, is it annihilation? Is it absorption? Is it reincarnation? Is it some kind of karma deal? What we know is it was, I think, a good question. Now, what would you say if you were Jesus? Believe and repent?
Trust in the gospel? And here comes the cold water on the face. Here comes the shock. When I was a kid, in science class, we had this little kind of generator thing. And one person, the teacher, would go like this, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun.
And the whole class would get in a big circle and you'd all hold hands. And that current that was through everyone was dissipated, so it wasn't very shocking. But when you didn't like the feeling, you kind of let go.
And then you were out and then the circle got smaller. And it kept getting smaller and smaller. And as the circle got smaller, the shocking got greater. I think I was in sixth grade and I wasn't very big when I was in sixth grade, but there was a girl who was a little bigger than I was and her name, I never forgot, it was Alice Police.
What's in a name? So now it's down to two people, Alice Police and me. And we're holding each other's hands in this generator circuit in between us and we're going like this. I mean, what would happen in school systems today?
And all the guys are going, go Mike! And all the girls are like, you're gonna kill this poor little kid. And you can't stop yourself from shaking. That's the effect that this passage should have on you if you're living and breathing.
It's a shock to the system. The shock is taken away because A, we don't know culture and B, we've read it so many times, it's just like, I gotta get my Bible reading done. As usual, Jesus doesn't answer the question.
He asks a different question because He's in charge and He will cut to the quick. The running, begging man now gets this for a response. Verse 19, and Jesus said to him, oh, that's a great question. You learned that in Bible college?
Good for you. A, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. He says, friend, you don't even know A, what you're talking about and B, who you're talking to. You have no idea the ramifications of this conversation.
This isn't Rabbi Eliezer talk. This is the real deal. Good in a proper sense, in the ultimate sense is reserved for God and God alone. Sir, do you know that when you call me good teacher, it isn't just deference, it isn't just a sign of respect, it isn't just, well, you know, I've got a question I'd like to ask the rabbi.
You are calling me as the ultimate good, agathos, God Himself. You're saying, it's God. And if you're calling me God because I'm the ultimate good, what does that make you? Friend, you think you're good and you're going to ask a question that will somehow make me want to answer that you can do something out of your goodness to get to heaven.
You're not good, you're sinful, your heart's wicked, depraved, corrupt, you're unable to do anything good. So anything that you use for your money, for your influence, what you do, how you walk old ladies across the street, how you feed the poor, how you give your money away when you're rich and famous like Warren Buffett, it comes from a sinful heart and then has sinful hands.
You're not good. You're calling me good should make you think of two things, rich young ruler. A, I'm God. B, you're not good, you're a sinner. This isn't Peter falling on his face saying, depart from me for I am a sinful man, oh Lord.
Is it? Oh, good teacher, what must I do in eternal life? I've got all these other things done in my life and I'd like to do that. And so now Jesus says what? Here's one more of those generator jolts, verse 20.
You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother. Matthew 19, 17 says, if you wish to keep these commandments, if you wish to enter life, keep these commandments.
Just obey the law. You know the law, obey it. When it comes to loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and loving your neighbors yourself, you know that, you've been taught. And now how do you think the guy responds?
Well, I haven't done what I ought to, but I want to. I realize that I'm not really a great citizen. What does he say? And this proves the point that Jesus says, I'm good. And if I'm good, you're not good.
And you think you're the good young ruler, you're the sinful ruler. And Jesus says in verse 21, and he said, all these things, not Jesus saying, but the ruler, all these things, all the 10 commandments, all the law, all that God requires, all these things kept from my youth.
I remember when I got at the bar mitzvah. I remember I had 12 and 13 years old. From that point, I was just determined. I'm going to start living right for God from my youth up. By the way, what does he drop here?
He drops the designation, good teacher. He's not saying good teacher anymore now. He's saying, well, I've done all these things. Let's kind of get rid of that good teacher thing because that's too indicting.
And of course, we know in the study of the Sermon on the Mount that God wants internal obedience, internal sincerity, driven from the inside. Anybody can give lip service externally, but it's an internal circumcision of the heart religion that God requires.
I looked up a dictionary definition of Christian. Webster's Dictionary, this is what a Christian is. A decent, civilized, or presentable person. Wow, no wonder Gallup and Barna say 80 of the South is Christian.
Random house doesn't get much better. Quote, exhibiting a spirit proper to a follower of Jesus Christ as in having a loving regard for God. A loving regard for other persons. I just wanna squeeze all the sappiness out of that.
Ring it out. This man, the rich young ruler, sounds like Paul in Philippians chapter three as he gives his pedigree for why he thought he was good. He said, when it comes to the law, I was found what?
Blameless. Really? That's like the 18 year old that came to my Bible study in North Hollywood, California. And I started giving them the bad news before you can get to the good news because who needs the good news without the bad news?
So you start the bad news with sin. And the person sat there and looked at me and said, I've never sinned a day in my life. I thought you just did, you liar. But I didn't say it like that. Can you imagine, Gene just said that and the waters of baptism too.
Where is Gene? So I can see your face. Right there, yeah. I never thought I sinned. And what gets pushed away is if you say, God isn't quite this thrice holy, other, infinite, alien God. I don't mean like an alien green-eyed monster.
I mean alien different. He's not really that high and my sins aren't that low. They're not putrid, horrible sins. I'm pretty good. God's not that good. And so the chasm to be jumped isn't that great. And I can do it by good works, sacraments, doing everything else.
But if God is this thrice holy, infinite God and we're sinners, this chasm cannot be bridged by anyone else except Jesus Christ, the God-man. But what people do is they rationalize it. I have a question for you.
Why do super smart people not believe the gospel? There are many reasons. Here's one. Super smart people are super smart rationalizers. And their IQ is such, they can make some kind of algebraic formula where they think they're okay on judgment day.
Dumb people make dumb decisions because they're dumb. Smart people make dumb decisions because they're smart. I said that on purpose. The rationalizations that people have. And when I was in India, we have all these false gods everywhere and monkey gods, bachelor gods, elephant gods, all kinds of different gods and goddesses and stuff.
And I just thought, man, this is just weird. The feeling, you just kind of go, ooh. So I brought a couple home, but that's a different story. And I remember getting off the airplane and taking the steps down on the tarmac or getting on the runway thing and tarmac or however the flight thing is, the deal that comes over to the airplane, you walk out.
I don't know, it doesn't matter. I remember walking out and I go, the false god feels so gross. There's a false god every single turn, every single gift shop, every single curio shop. And I thought, I want to throw up.
Oh, I'm not talking about Bombay. I'm talking about Boston when I got back. See, our gods don't have elephant heads. Our gods are currency, power, sophistication, celebrities. You can make them look really nice because we're smart.
We're not some third world, weird Hindu people. We're Americans and we worship the right way. But sadly, anything less than the Bible, holy God way is the wrong way. That's why John says, little children, the last thing he says to them, guard yourselves, keep yourselves from idols because we're tempted to make a God that's all love.
It's, you know, the Beatles, all you need is love and a God and you're set. It is if you like to sin on earth and have no conscience, but the payday is horrible. And Jesus loves this man enough to say, forget your tradition, forget what you've been taught, forget what that implies to everybody in your family who's now dead and gone.
They're already dead and gone. So you can't say, I better not believe in Christianity because that indicts my grandfather, my mother, my friends. They all believe thinking if you eat a wafer, you go to heaven.
You get baptized as a kid, you go to heaven. Truth is truth and Jesus wants to cut through all that. This guy's praising himself. Oh yeah, I kept it all without blinking an eye, self-righteousness, I'm good to go, moral life, son of wealthy parents, pillar in the synagogue.
My grandfather's a nice guy. People want their daughters to marry this kind of guy in life. When Jesus heard this, verse 22, he said to him, one thing you still lack, there's an idol that you have and here's the big one.
Oh, you've got many, but here's the big one. Sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven and come follow me. What do I lack to have eternal life? Your allegiance is divided and it's not all towards God.
It's towards money and God. And as far as God concerns, then that's not at all. If it's not full born love for me, you don't halfway love your spouse. You don't halfway love God. And he says, you know what?
There's a problem and here's where the problem is. It's money, get rid of it. And Mark chapter 10, insightfully says, don't turn there, but it says, Jesus felt a love for him before he said that. We should feel sorry for people that talk that way, that know the truth, but just want to go to hell anyway and they're happy and don't confuse me with the facts.
I was born a Lutheran, I'm going to die a Lutheran. I'm born a Catholic, I'm going to die a Catholic. When we talk to those people, the first thing you should say is, oh, I feel sorry for you, I'm sad for you.
Tradition can't save anybody. Please open your Bibles. What does Jesus say? And Jesus has this pity and this compassion, tender concern while he tells this man the truth, the love of compassion, the love of Jesus enough to warn them.
One thing you lack, go and sell all your possession, give to the poor. Why? Because if you're rich, you can't go to heaven. Obviously not. Abraham was rich, Job was rich, but this man's riches was his spiritual Achilles heel.
It was his vulnerable spot and it exposed his heart. It was like the x-ray people at the baggage. As you go into the gates of the airplane and you go in and they scan your briefcase, make sure you take your computer out, okay?
They scan your briefcase and they're looking and they're looking and they're looking. And as Jesus scans the briefcase of this mind's soul, there was a love at the top, at the apex, and it was called money and things and power and everything that goes with it.
So Jesus said, dump it all and then what? Come and follow me. Keep on following me. Always follow me. Perfect diagnosis from not Luke the physician doctor, but Jesus the physician. And so what do you think happened?
Verse 23, I think the only person that ran into Jesus and went away this way, when he had heard these things, he became very sad. Why? Because his sadness was commensurate with his richness. He was extremely rich, extremely sorrowful, very, very rich.
Mark 10 says the man, when he heard these words, had his face, his face fell. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Love God first. And now his face, sullen, gloomy, despaired, sour. Scrooge said he wanted God, but not at the cost of his gold.
And that's just like people sitting here today. I want God, I want eternal life, I want Jesus, but I can't give everything. And so Jesus said, then just do something for sure. Don't somehow go to bed tonight and think, I'm good with God.
Make sure you realize you're far from God. And based on your own testimony, you're not going to heaven. Just earlier in Luke, and we need to wrap things up, someone said to Jesus, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?
That's the right question. Are only a few? If you want total commitment, total cost, this can't be developed internally. The spirit of God has to make you this way, has to do this to you. If this is true, why are only a few going to heaven?
Jesus said to this in answer to the question, oh, don't worry about that. Everybody goes. We're all Unitarian Universalists for unity. You all go. Here's what Jesus said. Strive, agonize to enter by the narrow door.
For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Like lots of people right here. I want to go. I don't want hell. Who wants hell? But I'm not willing to follow Christ Jesus. Oh, I believe, but it's a belief that it won't follow.
Friends, if Jesus were talking to you today, he'd say, that's a false faith. You're drinking the cocktail of potion that says, oh, I'm good. Who would ever invent a religion like this? No one would because it calls for such a high God and sin is so bad.
And so verse 24, Jesus looked at him and said, how hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. It's difficult because they have credit cards. They have resources. They get things done.
They know people. Verse 25, for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. I don't have any time to talk about that needle gate, but it was no needle gate in the 15th century.
This is a camel and this is a needle. This is a thread and needle, that small thing. This is the kind of needle that I remember I wanted to push through as a piece of cloth that I was getting stuck in denim.
And I pushed real hard with my finger. And the next thing I know that went all the way through and I can see the kind of the head of the needle on this side of the fingernail. It's that kind of needle.
A camel through that needle's eye. Now that, by the way, if you think about it a little bit, is a pretty gross deal. If it has to be, if you have to take a camel through some kind of tree shedder to get through the middle and make it like dental floss, like, that's a pretty long trail with a tail of a camel to get through, but I digress.
It's impossible is what Jesus says. Those trusting in themselves can't go to heaven on their own. Those having divided allegiance and alliance can't go to heaven either. So what's the question? And they said, verse 26, they who heard it then said, then there ain't nobody going.
Then who can be saved? Not just the rich. Who can be saved if it has to be God at work to save people? They are dumbstruck. They are bewildered. This is a perplexing thing. Rich got everything back in the day, and rich gets everything today, but it doesn't buy heaven.
Verse 27, Jesus said, the things that are impossible with people, oh, aren't you glad, are possible with God. There's a way, there's a sovereign, gracious work of God in Christ Jesus. Peter said, we get the picture, Jesus, because we did this, verse 28.
We have left our homes and followed you. It cost us, and then Jesus gives a blessing, a benediction. Truly, I say to you, there's no one who has left house, our wife, our brothers. By the way, that's what it might cost you.
You want to follow Jesus, it might cost you everything. And if you're not willing to follow, then you've got the wrong Jesus, or the wrong view of Jesus, at least. It might mean leaving house, our wife, our brothers, our parents, our children, for the sake of the kingdom, your creator.
You've been made to worship God. And you will either worship in heaven for all eternity, or you will show his good pleasure on you as he has prepared eternally a body for you in hell for all the days of eternity, who will receive many times as much in this time and in the age to come eternal life.
Friends, there are two roads in life. These are the roads. The one road that says heaven, and on the path is it's only Jesus's righteousness, goodness, death, burial, and resurrection in my place. I'm hoping that Jesus's work is enough for me.
That's the one road. The other road also says heaven, but it says this. I can be good. I can have my best life now. I can do whatever I want. I can love God and money. I can love my wife and money. I can love all these things, but God is always equal.
God is always under. And that road, sadly, people think go to heaven, but it goes to hell. And Jesus says, if you wanna follow me, it's going to cost you everything. And you go, I can't do it then. And then the answer is good.
That's when you say, God, save me. God, rescue me. God, make me born again. I can't make myself born again. You will have to rescue me. I know I'm a sinner. God, help me. Still sweating from the jacuzzi earlier.
Wow. You would never find it appropriate if I was a man of God and say, he calls himself a Christian. Even if you're not a Christian, you're here and you go, he's a Christian man. If I had a little God here, a Vishnu God, a little elephant head God here, and a stack of a million dollars, and I said, you know what?
I'll do a little worship here. Bow down. I worship you. I love you. I adore you. I lay my life down before you. Then I come to this little God. I love you. I worship you. You are exalted. You're exalted on high.
I come to this God and I say, blessed be your name. Blessed be the name. And then I go, and by the way, I've got a little leftover and here's Jesus. And Jesus, I love you too. What would you think of me?
You think of the same thing that God himself in a holy way thinks of those who say, I'll worship over here, one thing. And then Jesus gets my leftovers. And Jesus said to the rich young ruler, I'm good.
I'm God. You're not good. And you'd need my grace to save you because you can't save yourself. Faith is the only thing you can bring to the table. And even that isn't meritorious. You must believe that I am who I say I am because you are nothing.
You have nothing. And even the faith you have is a gift from God. What about you? One day standing before God, how will you inherit your eternal life? Through the work of the cross alone or through paganism are the most insidious deadly form that we have in Massachusetts today and in the world today is Jesus plus something else.
And for Jesus, it's all or nothing. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for our day-to-day wonderful baptisms, wonderful opportunity to hear your word. Jesus Christ preach himself in the words of Luke. And we would just ask today, you do a mighty work in our hearts.
Help the Christians to be thankful. Help the Christians here to be aggressive in their outreach, knowing the eternal consequences. Help us by the grace of God to live in a manner worthy of the calling you've given us.
And for those who aren't Christians today, Lord, I pray that you would help them by your spirit to see their need, the Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord, the only Savior, in his name we pray, amen.