The Rich Young Ruler

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Lord's Day message from June 9th, 2024 -Biblical Text: Matthew 19:16-30

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Matthew 19, starting in verse 16. Now behold, one came to him and said,
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Good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I might have eternal life?
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So he said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is
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God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.
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He said unto him, Which ones? Jesus said, You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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The young man said to him, All these things have I kept from my youth.
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What do I still lack? Jesus said to him, If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.
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But the young man heard that, saying, He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
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Then Jesus said to his disciples, Assuredly, I say to you, that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
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And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
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When his disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying,
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Who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said to them,
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With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
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Then Peter answered and said to him, See, we have left all and followed you.
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Therefore, what shall we have? Jesus said to them, Assuredly, I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the
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Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
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And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or fathers, or mothers, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life.
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But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
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And all God's people said, Amen. Thank you. Thank you,
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Mark. This morning we're going to be looking at the story of the rich young ruler. And there's a lot here, so we're going to just go through verse by verse.
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But this is really one of the things that Jesus says, and the rich young ruler, this conversation.
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It really brings across some of the most basic teachings of Christianity regarding mankind and his relationship to God.
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Because we all, mankind, we all need to be reconciled to God.
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So today, most people, even the majority of professing Christians, while they acknowledge that nobody is perfect, people tend to think that mankind is basically good.
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Isn't this what the rich young ruler thinks? He approaches Jesus, not understanding who
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Jesus is, and he calls Jesus what? Good teacher. Oh, he's good.
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And, of course, he says he's kept all the commandments from his youth, so he thinks he's good, and everybody's good.
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And you know what people conclude once they start believing that everybody's good? Well, if everybody's good, we've got nothing to worry about.
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We're all set. This idea is called universalism, the idea that man is actually good.
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And even if he isn't, God is so good he's going to let everyone into heaven anyways.
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So Jesus, in this passage, he really turns a lot of these assumptions that people back then had and people today have, he really turns them on their head.
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So we get a lot of great truth from Jesus in this passage. Let's just go through it,
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Matthew 19, starting in verse 16. This is how it starts. It says,
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What does he assume? I must have to do something. What good deeds do
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I have to do to inherit the kingdom of God? Isn't this the way most people think?
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Just tell me what I've got to do. Do I have to give so much of my income to the poor? Do I have to do this many good works?
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And that's really what he's assuming. And Jesus is going to pour cold water all over that idea.
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So what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? The first thing that shows us is that nothing has changed.
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So he thought that back then. People still think this way today. Now, in just a few verses, because one of the basic teachings of Christianity is that, yes,
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God is good, but mankind is what? Not so good, you could say.
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Mankind is desperately wicked. Okay, the human heart is wicked, right?
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So the idea that man is not good, but most people don't believe that. He didn't believe that because in a few verses, the rich young ruler is going to tell
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Jesus that he's been doing good things ever since he was young. As far back as he can remember, he's been keeping basically all of the commandments.
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So it doesn't appear that he's really worried about his soul. That's not his concern.
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Why is he coming to Jesus asking this question? If he already thinks he's good and he's been keeping the commandments, is he really asking
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Jesus about eternal life? Here's what I think he's doing. I think he already has it all figured out, or he thinks he does.
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He believes that you go to heaven or you get the kingdom because you do good deeds, but he wants to see what
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Jesus has to say. Now, on any given Sunday, I don't get that many questions from the congregation.
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So every once in a while on the way out, somebody might ask me a question, but on the typical
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Sunday, I don't get a lot of questions. There could be a few different reasons for that, but I think part of it is you already know after listening to me for years, you kind of know what
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I think. You've heard me say it, so you're not, like, questioning what I believe or what
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I would say. But if you were to meet a new pastor, let's say a new pastor came to town, or maybe you got to meet a very well -known pastor who is nationally known, you might ask him questions, not because you don't know the answer.
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You just want to see what he has to say, right? Haven't you done that? So you're not really asking to know.
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You're asking just to see what his take is. I think that's happening here.
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So Jesus is the talk of the town. He's the talk of the entire nation. This rich, young ruler is asking
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Jesus questions just to see if he would say something new. And this next point is important, so you need to understand this.
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To rightly grasp this story, you need to understand the rich, young ruler does not understand who he's talking to.
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To him, Jesus is, yeah, he's a good teacher. Maybe Jesus is even a prophet.
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But almost certainly, the rich, young ruler does not believe he's talking to God in human flesh.
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I don't think that's in his thinking at all. I mean, it took the Jewish people, it took even the disciples a long time to really grasp that idea.
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So does the rich, young ruler think he's talking to God in the flesh? Almost certainly not.
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So that's important when we read verse 17. So in verse 16, remember, he calls
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Jesus good teacher. Now look at verse 17. Jesus responds to him, why do you call me good?
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No one is good but one, that is God. Now is Jesus good?
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Yes, because again, he is the Lord. He's God in the flesh.
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So Jesus is good, but when he seems to rebuke that idea or correct it, why do you call me good?
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Remember, this man doesn't know that. So some, because of this statement, Jesus says, why do you call me good?
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Some professing Christians, more of maybe the progressive variety, they claim that Jesus here, they say
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Jesus is denying his deity. This is something you'll hear from neighbors maybe who, again, they profess to be
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Christian, but maybe they're Episcopalian or United Methodist, and not that there's not believers in some of these denominations, there are.
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But it's very common for them to say that Jesus was just a man, an enlightened man, maybe a prophet, but he wasn't
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God. So they'll say things like, Jesus never claimed to be God, and they'll point to a verse like this and say, see,
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Jesus is denying this idea, because he says, why do you call me good? So Jesus, they say, is denying his divinity.
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Is that really what Jesus is doing though? No, that's not what
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Jesus is doing. Remember, the rich young ruler doesn't know who he's talking to.
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So what is Jesus doing? He's trying to softly correct the rich young ruler, so that the ruler will come to this understanding himself.
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Because you can't just tell somebody something, they kind of have to realize that for themselves.
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You can tell someone, but they need to work through it on their own. Just something about this rich young ruler, what do we know about him?
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Now, he's not called the rich young ruler here in Matthew, but elsewhere he is. So what do we know about him?
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When you look at all the gospel accounts, we know that he's rich. We know that he's young.
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And we know that he's what? What's the third thing? A ruler. A ruler. That's about all we know. Now, the idea that he's a ruler, this could mean that he's a ruler in the synagogue.
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We don't know that exactly, but based on that statement, if you look at it, that could be a reference to the fact that he, today we might call him an elder, or like a pastor in a church.
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I mean, he really might be a religious leader in his own right. We don't know that for sure, but that's kind of the way it looks.
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So he's young, he's wealthy, he may be a leader in the synagogue himself.
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So the point is, the way most of the Jews would have looked at this young guy, they would say, if anyone's going to heaven, it's this guy right here.
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I mean, he's a Jew, he's following the law of Moses, he's maybe even a leader in the synagogue.
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He's rich, so in most people's mind, God is blessing him. Because if you're rich,
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God's blessing you, right? Well, not necessarily, but that's how they thought. So they all would have thought that this guy is a shoo -in for the kingdom of God.
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But Jesus, again, he is correcting him. So this man, he has a lot of problems, a lot of assumptions.
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He thinks that rabbis, all rabbis, are good people. And he thinks that he is a good person.
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And like most people today, this is the idea that we're all good.
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Mankind is basically good. Actually, back then, the Jews would have viewed
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Gentiles differently, but you get the idea. Most people you run across in society are good people.
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Now, I don't want to totally dismiss that, because if you're out, how many of you have lost your wallet?
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You dropped your wallet on the street, or you left it in the grocery store. Did you get it back?
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Who got it back with the money still in it? Right? Like, people do that, right?
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They do nice things. If somebody's going across the crosswalk, you stop, typically.
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People help each other. If you have a flat tire, of course, today we all have cell phones, so we don't really need anyone to stop.
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But we've all had strangers help us out, and we've helped out other people. So humanity, in general,
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I can understand why people say people are basically good. But also understand we have all these restraints upon us.
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We were brought up being taught to do good. We have the law and the court system, which kind of pushes us in the right direction, that if we do bad, we're going to get in trouble.
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So we have all these reasons why people are, quote, unquote, generally good. But from a religious standpoint, from God's viewpoint, is humanity good?
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No. But that's how the rich, young ruler viewed it. Say, I'm Jewish.
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We're God's people. We're keeping the commandments. I'm good. Jesus is good.
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And that's the main thing that Jesus had to correct. Okay, let's turn to Romans 3. And I would say this is still the big thing that we have to correct.
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I realize it might seem like, Pastor, you know, I've heard so many sermons, and this is just something that is brought up again and again and again, that mankind is sinful.
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And I'm such a drag hearing about how mankind is so terrible. Can't you kind of lift us up?
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Well, I say what the Bible says. Here's something to lift you up.
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If you believe in Jesus Christ, your identity is no longer that of a sinner. Your identity is that of a what?
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Saint. Saint. Okay, so that should lift you up. We have been given the gift of eternal life if we've trusted in Jesus.
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We have a bright future ahead of us. We have eternity ahead of us.
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God loves us so much that he sent Christ to die. There are plenty of reasons why we can feel good that God cares about us.
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He's redeemed us, and we are saints. But generally speaking, and certainly this is true before a person comes to saving faith in Christ, they need to realize that they're bad.
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This is what people need to know. Because you can't understand, and I've said it a thousand times, you can't understand the good news until you first understand the bad news.
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You need salvation because there's something you need to be saved from, and that is sin and its penalty.
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But looking at the rich young ruler, I don't think he's thinking along these lines.
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All right, so you're in Romans chapter 3, right? Let's just look at one verse. We'll read a few more in a moment.
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Look at Romans 3, verse 10. What does it say? As it is written, what?
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You read it to me. There is none righteous, no, not one. Okay, there is none righteous, no, not one.
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Do you believe that? I'm not hearing the amens. But you reckon this isn't what
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I'm saying. Like this isn't my opinion. This is what the Bible says. There is none righteous.
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See, I think a lot of Christians would say, well, it's in the Bible. Of course, I believe that, but then we struggle.
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Like there's none righteous? No, not one? I mean, that seems like a hard sell to some people.
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Well, this is a quote from Psalm 14, verse 3. So this is a teaching you find in the
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Old Testament, and now Paul is repeating it in the New Testament. But here's the thing.
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I think people inherently know, whether they want to admit it or not, people inherently know that they are not good, or at least that mankind is not good.
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Why do I say that? Well, the people, this is what I've noticed, people that typically will say that humanity is good, they are the same people that tend to fight for so -called social justice.
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Who's heard of fighting? This is a big thing in the culture for the past four years, fighting for social justice.
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And I acknowledge that there are injustices in the world. Sometimes we would, depending on who we're talking to, we would argue about where the injustices truly are.
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We have kind of one view, and others might have a different view. But we all acknowledge that there are injustices in the world.
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So why are there injustices? Because human beings are corrupt.
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Human beings don't treat each other well. Again, if you're in a civilized society where there's order, things look good on the surface.
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But we would all acknowledge that people are corrupt and there are injustices in the world.
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Why is that? Well, the Bible gives us the answer of where it all started. In the fall, in Genesis chapter 3,
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Adam sinned. And as the result of Adam's sin, the entire human race fell into disobedience.
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So we all fell in Adam. This teaching is called original sin.
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Okay, this isn't just something the Catholic Church believes in. I mean, original sin is a real, real thing.
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What does that mean? When Adam sinned, Adam was the first man, right? So all of humanity came from Adam.
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So if Adam was a sinner, and Eve was a sinner, all of their children, the family tree going down to the entire human race, are what?
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They have that same nature as Adam did, and that is that we are all, we have the sin nature within us.
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I mean, this is why you need to teach children to do the right thing. You don't have to teach them to do wrong. That just comes naturally.
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And when you have a society like, what is the, Haiti, right? Didn't they have that collapse of their government?
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You look at a country where the government has collapsed, and there is no government or police or courts.
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Are the people all living in peace and harmony? No, people are being murdered left and right, and it's chaos.
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You wouldn't want to be there. I mean, that should prove something that the human race is sinful.
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So we know why that is. It's because it all started with Adam, and then it spread to all of his descendants, the human race.
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Let's look at the rest of Romans 3, or at least a few more verses, 9 through 12, just to show that this is the consistent teaching of Scripture, that mankind is fallen, mankind is sinful.
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Romans 3, 9, Paul writes, What then? Are we better than they? Not at all.
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For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
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This was the common view for the Jewish person. We're not sinners. The Gentiles are sinners.
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So when Jesus and the apostles started teaching that, actually it started with John the
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Baptist. Remember he told the nation you need to do what? Repent and be baptized.
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The idea is you all need to do. The entire nation needs to repent.
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And they thought, well, what do we need to repent of? At least the self -righteous people thought that. And then he said you need to be baptized.
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You need to be cleansed. See, they already thought they were clean. And this is as Christians, sometimes growing up in the church, we can start to have that mindset that we're the good people, and everyone out there, they're the bad people.
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So we're good and they're bad. Well, the reality is we're all in that same boat to the degree.
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That's an inside joke for some people. You won't get it. We are in that boat that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
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Look at Romans 3 .23. This is that verse. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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Just jump back to verses 10 through 12. Because this really brings it home.
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As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands.
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There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable.
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And there is none who does good, no, not one. Does that cover every human being?
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Well, here's the thing. It covers every human being except Jesus. I said we're all descended from Adam.
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You realize there's one person who his family tree is a little different because his father, the father of Jesus, is who?
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God is his father. So he is the son of God. He is not a son of Adam. So the virgin birth was necessary for Jesus to not have that, if we want to call it the stain of original sin.
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But anyway, this is the clear biblical teaching. And if that's not enough to convince you, so let's say there's one or two people in this room.
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Say, well, I don't think it's everybody. All are sitting down. I don't buy into this.
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Well, turn on the 6 o 'clock news and tell me what you see. Or just go home and look at your front door.
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What does your front door teach you or tell you about the depravity of man?
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Why do you have a lock on your front door? I mean, if you really believe that humanity is good, take the locks off your doors.
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Take the alarm system out of your car. Depending on what car you drive, you're like, there's no way I'm doing that.
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Why do people have locks? Because we understand. Why do we have police?
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Why do we have a military? Well, you know why. Everyone knows why. Because the sinfulness of mankind is evident to all.
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So really, all Paul is doing here is, in some ways, stating the obvious. The only reason people think otherwise is because we tend to judge ourselves by ourselves.
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We say, well, yeah, that's okay. Maybe everyone, humanity in general is sinful.
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But I'm not as bad as this guy. And they can always find this one person to compare them.
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Why is he the standard? He's not. But it's true. Compared to somebody, you're better than they are.
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That's true. I am better than some people. But I am not as good as some other people.
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And I'm definitely not as good as Jesus. None of us are as good as God.
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And God is the standard, obviously. So, again, this should be obvious. 1
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Peter 2 .22 tells us, just in case you need a verse, 1 Peter 2 .22
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tells us that Jesus, however, never sinned. But back to the story of the rich young ruler.
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Go back to Matthew chapter 19. Again, the rich young ruler does not understand any of this.
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And I don't even think he would agree with some of the verses from Romans 3. Again, he thinks
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Jesus is good. Rabbis are good. I'm a good person. We're all good people.
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You realize a person who thinks that way cannot be saved. As long as you think you're good in the eyes of God, you cannot be saved.
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Because in your mind, there's nothing to repent from. So, again, Jesus responds, no one is good but one.
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That is God. And now we see that Jesus is going to test this young man. He is going to walk him through a process so that this self -righteous rich young ruler recognizes for himself that, no,
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I actually have not kept all of God's commandments. So Jesus tells him in the second half of verse 17, look at it.
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He says, but if you want to enter into life, because this was his question, how can
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I inherit eternal life? Jesus says, okay, if you want to enter into life, what does
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Jesus say? Keep the commitment. Now, this is another thing that could be misunderstood.
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Just like Jesus is not denying his deity, Jesus is not actually teaching, hey, you want to be saved, keep the 10 commandments.
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On the surface, it might look like that. But, again, Jesus is trying to walk him through a process.
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So you have to follow along. One commentator says about verse 17, this, of course, is law, not gospel.
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So before showing him the way to life, Jesus wanted to impress on the young man both the high standard required by God and the absolute futility of seeking salvation by his own merit.
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Because, remember what he said, what thing must I do? What good thing must I do? So he thought he could do it on his own.
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This should have elicited a response, when Jesus says keep the commandments, this should have elicited a response about the impossibility of keeping the law perfectly.
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But, instead, the young man confidently declared that he qualified for heaven under those terms.
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I mean, this guy is, today, we would say he's deceived. He has deceived himself.
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You know, the Bible talks about those who are deceiving and they're being deceived.
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This is the most common, you know, gospel, quote, unquote, it's a false gospel. But this is the most common gospel that's being preached out there, that you can go to heaven by what you do, based on what you do.
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Well, the people who teach that are self -deceived and they're deceiving others when they teach it.
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So look at his response in verse 18. So Jesus tells him, okay, let's start with this.
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Keep the commandments. And he says, which ones? So, all right, maybe that's an honest response.
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I don't know. So Jesus says, you shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.
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You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother.
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And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So Jesus is really focusing on the second half of the
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Ten Commandments. So Jesus says, keep the commandments. He says, which ones? Jesus gives a list of commandments.
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And his response is like, oh, is that all? Is that all I have to do? Look at verse 20.
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The young man said to him, all these things I have kept from my youth.
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What do I still lack? Okay. Now, Jesus could have responded a few different ways.
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How would you have responded? I know how I would have been like, yeah, right, pal. You're saying you've never lied, but you're lying to me right now.
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That's what I would have said. But, you know, Jesus has a better approach. So Jesus could have responded a few different ways.
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But, yeah, the idea that you've kept the commandments from your youth, I mean, there's just no way.
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But remember, he's deceived. I think he really believes that. I think he honestly believes that.
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Just like there are a lot of people today, they honestly and sincerely believe that if there is an afterlife, of course
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I'm going there because I do all these good things. You hear people say, you know, as long as you're sincere, like that's the most important thing, as long as a person is sincere, they'll probably make it.
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Well, I believe a lot of these people that are in error, I believe they're sincere, but they're sincerely wrong.
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There has to be some standard of truth. And we believe the Lord and his word is that standard.
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How many of you are familiar with the method of evangelism known as Way of the
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Master? Ray Comfort is the, I think he's the one who either started this or he popularized it.
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So Ray Comfort is a well -known evangelist. He popularized this method where he goes up to people on the streets and he tries to talk to them about Jesus.
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And of course, most people that he encounters, they don't really think they need God or religion and they think they're a good person.
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So here's what Ray Comfort will do. In a sense, he's doing what
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Jesus is doing. He's trying to walk people through the law so that they'll figure it out for themselves.
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But again, the problem is this guy thinks he's good and many people today think they're good.
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There's the interview even with the Pope, which technically Catholicism on paper acknowledges the sinfulness of man, but even the current
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Pope said all mankind is good. So it just kind of shows you that just about everybody thinks this way.
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But here's what Ray Comfort will do. He'll encounter someone on the street and they'll say, No, I'm good. Of course,
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I'm going to heaven. I'm a good person. And he'll ask them, Okay, let's test this out based on God's law.
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Have you ever told a lie? Maybe not today, but like at some point in your life, have you ever told a lie?
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Well, let me ask you. You're an honest group this morning, right? You're in church, right? You'll tell the truth.
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Have you ever told? Who's never told a lie? Don't raise your hand. But he asked people on the street,
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Have you ever told a lie? And inevitably, everybody admits yes. At some point in my life, yes,
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I've told a lie. And then he'll ask them, Okay, have you ever stolen anything? Even when you were young, maybe something small.
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Have you ever stolen something? And of course, they say yes. And then he'll say, Well, have you ever taken
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God's name in vain? And then he explains how people do that all the time.
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They don't even think about it. It's basically inserting the name of God or Jesus or Lord when you're not talking about the
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Lord. And people don't need to have their arm twisted. They admit, Okay, yes, I have taken the name of the
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Lord in vain. And then he'll ask them about adultery. And a lot of people say, Well, no, I haven't done that.
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It's probably 50 -50, the ones who say yes or no. But then he'll go to the
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Sermon on the Mount and say, Well, Jesus said if you've looked at someone to lust after them in your heart, you've committed adultery in your heart.
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So based on that standard, have you committed adultery in this? Okay, well, I have desired to,
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I've wanted to. And then at the end, he says, Okay, by your own admission, you are a lying, thieving, adulterous, blasphemer at heart, right?
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And then he says, So you thought at the beginning, if you stood before God, you'd be let in because you're so good.
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You still think you're that good. And then, you know, you get a variety of different responses from that.
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But a lot of people realize that that moment. Okay, yeah, I have to admit, I have not kept the commandment.
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So if you understand what Ray Comfort does in that method of evangelism, you will understand what
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Jesus is doing right here. So the man says, I've kept all the commandments from my youth.
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And Jesus says, Okay, let's start with commandment number one. What's the great commandment in the law?
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What is it? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, your soul, your strength.
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Let's start with that. So Jesus, look at verse 21. Jesus is playing along.
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If you want to be perfect, he says, go sell what you have and give it to the poor.
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And then you will have treasure in heaven and then come and follow me.
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Well, how is that getting to the root of the first commandment? Here's the thing. Jesus knows that this man's
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God is his money. This man, the rich young ruler, worshipped mammon.
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He worshipped money. He worshipped material things.
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So Jesus starts at commandment number one. Okay, go give away everything you have.
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And he was he about to do that? Absolutely. I think in that moment, he realizes what
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Jesus is saying. Because look at verse 22. It says, When the young man heard that, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
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So the rich young ruler refuses to admit wrongdoing.
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He knows, but he won't admit it. He will not turn to Christ. And because of that, he walks away utterly disqualified from the kingdom of heaven.
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Just one other misunderstanding. This idea that you have to give away all of your...
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Do you have to give away all your money to follow Christ? Is that a blanket commandment for all people for all time?
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No, it's Jesus speaking to this one man. Again, because he knew his God, his idol was his money.
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And that's really true for all of us. Maybe there was a time before you came to Jesus, before you came to saving faith.
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Maybe money wasn't your idol. But some people, they don't want to give up drinking.
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They don't want to give up a relationship. They don't want to give up... There's something they know that if I'm going to follow
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Jesus, I really got to stop doing this or that. People understand that's the thing that's keeping them from salvation.
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That's the thing that's keeping them from following Jesus. And they're just not willing to give it up. And this rich young ruler is not willing to give it up.
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All right, we're almost done, but now we see a shift here of now the disciples, after they hear all this,
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Jesus has this brief dialogue with the apostles. Look at verse 23. So after the rich young ruler walks away,
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Jesus makes this statement. Assuredly, I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
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And again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
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And some people debate, is this... Is Jesus saying it's impossible or is he saying it's just really difficult?
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But remember, in Jewish society, the rich were seen as having
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God's blessing. So this rich young ruler, again, he would have been seen by the majority of people as a shoo -in for heaven.
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So if anyone's going to heaven, it's this young pastor maybe who's got all this money.
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He's being blessed by God. So when Jesus says, no, it's actually impossible for a guy like that to go to heaven, what do his disciples say?
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They're astonished. Look at verse 25. When they heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved?
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I mean, here's a guy who on the surface has been keeping the commandments. He's Jewish. He's blessed.
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If he's not going to make it, who then can be saved? And notice what
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Jesus says. He looked at them, verse 26, and said to them, with men, this is impossible.
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But with God, all things are possible. So in this passage,
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Jesus is turning all their assumptions upside down. Salvation cannot be assumed.
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It cannot be earned. It cannot be worked for. And nobody is good enough.
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A person must first understand, number one, their own lack of goodness.
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They need to realize, Lord, I am not good. I need forgiveness. And then, number two, they need to understand
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God's grace. A person has to understand that salvation is not something to be worked for.
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It's a free gift to be received. That's what grace is. It's a free gift.
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This is the gospel that Jesus, in the early church, preached.
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Salvation by grace. And then, of course, after Jesus died on the cross and rose again, this is what a person must do.
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Place their faith in the Lord. So the church preached that gospel for centuries. And then, after many more centuries, for a thousand years, or after a thousand years of Catholic domination in Europe, finally the gospel started to be clouded over and covered over.
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But in the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s, the gospel was rediscovered.
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And today, we sort of summarize the Reformation teaching by the five solas.
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Sola is Latin for the word alone. So grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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How do we know that? Because the Bible alone is our authority, and it's all to the glory of God alone.
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So, in conclusion, a person cannot be saved by their works. It's all by grace, all by faith, personal trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
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And then one last question, where do works fit in? We say works is the evidence. If a person truly loves
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God, they truly believe there's going to be works, right? James chapter 2, faith without works is dead.
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It is a piece of evidence. And then, one last thing, after hearing this dialogue with the rich young ruler, a little light bulb goes off in Peter's head.
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So Peter's, you know, standing there. He's listening to all this. He's watching all this. Jesus tells the rich young ruler,
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Give away all you have, and you will have treasure in heaven. And a little thing happens in his mind.
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He thinks, well, I've given up everything. What am I going to get? Look at verse 27.
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Peter says, Lord, see, we have left all, and we have followed you.
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Therefore, what shall we have? Notice Jesus doesn't correct Peter or admonish
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Peter. Oh, Peter, you shouldn't be worrying about that. No, listen, working for rewards is a good thing.
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Okay. A worker is worthy of his wages. So if you are serving
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God, and Peter was doing that. If you are working for God, yes, there is a reward.
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And I like that there's a little bit of an irony here. Jesus talks about in the regeneration.
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So this would be the kingdom age, the age to come that Revelation 20 talks about. Look at verse 28.
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Jesus said to them, to his disciples, Assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration,
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When the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, You who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones,
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Judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So notice this, the rich young ruler,
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The person that everyone in society would have looked up to, And I want to be that guy. He's out, and Jesus says to Peter, You're going to be the ruler.
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You're going to be the rich. I mean, you might not be young. I don't know, you know, in the resurrection, I don't know if we're going to be young or old,
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Or if Peter's going to be young or old. But the fishermen, these common men, Who really had nothing and gave up what they had,
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You're going to be the ruler. And you're going to have wealth, so to speak. You're going to be ruling in the kingdom of God.
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So what does that tell us? Whatever work we do, once we get saved, And we've covered that, that's the most important thing,
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That's true. But the rest of our lives, we should be working. We should be serving. And we, one day,
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Christians, one day, Here's something that should encourage you. You look at the world and how backwards it is,
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How upside down everything is. You know, sometimes it's the most evil, And they're not all rich and powerful,
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They're not all evil. Jesus said it's hard for them. But the people you think in power
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Who are corrupting this country, You realize it's from the top down, right? It's from the top down.
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Those people that are corrupting society, Guess what? What does
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Jesus say in verse 30? But many who are first will be last, And the last will be first.
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So the way the world is right now, Guess what? When Jesus comes, it's going to get all turned around. Christians who are mistreated,
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Maybe you were persecuted, Maybe you lost something, Maybe you can't earn a living because,
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And that's not something that happens a lot in this country, But it's happened throughout history. Christians are persecuted,
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Looked down upon. Guess what? The meek shall inherit the earth. Believers will judge the world.
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Believers will rule the world. So the rich young ruler, in the end, Unless he repented before he died,
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He was out, and God's people are in. So that's who we become in the kingdom age.
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Essentially, we become the rich young rulers. Let's close. Father, we thank you for this truth.
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We thank you that you are on the side of the oppressed, The oppressed who are believers in you.
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Father, the things that happen in this world are unjust. There's no question about it.
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Lord, we are not treated fairly. But it's good to know that when the
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Lord returns, He's going to set everything right. And Lord, the most important thing of this message,
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If there's someone listening who is, As the Bible would use the term, self -righteous,
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If they are like the religious leaders, Like the Pharisees, They really believe that they are good
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And they're going to heaven because of their goodness. Lord, I just pray that this message, Your word would change their mind.
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And that they would admit their need to you. And that they would turn to the only hope
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That is given to mankind. The only hope for eternal life, Which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Lord, I pray that you would save many people In this age before Jesus returns.