Law to the Proud (Luke 18:18-30, Jeff Kliewer)

Let's pray. Oh Lord our God, it is so good to sing your praises. We experience you here, Lord. We know you are here with us. Thank you, God, that you would come and condescend to be with sinners like us.

Who are we that you would come and love us? And yet you came, you walked the earth, you died on a cross, you rose from the dead, you ascended to the right hand of the Father. Jesus, thank you for coming to save us.

Thank you, Lord, that you love us. And now, Jesus, Master, we are here to sit at your feet to learn from you. Lord, we pray that our attention would just be held completely by your word. Our lives are busy, God, and there's many things on our minds, but right now, God, we pray that you would take the center for us.

That we would sit and be quiet like Mary, seated before the Master. Oh Lord God, teach us now, in Jesus' name. Amen. I know the name of my sermon for next week, and that is because it is the completion of this week's sermon.

Notice, if you have your notes, the title of this week's sermon is Law to the Proud. Law to the Proud. But Law to the Proud, if left alone, would be incomplete. The second half of the phrase, which will be the sermon title next week, is Grace to the Humble.

So say that in your mind, write it down, make note of it. It's a great expression that will help you remember how to share the gospel. Law to the Proud, Grace to the Humble. Law to the Proud, Grace to the Humble.

There are a number of ways to share the gospel. Tonight, if you turn on TBN, you'll notice that there is a program on called Harvest America. Greg Laurie is an evangelist out of California, and he does crusades, and he'll fill a stadium with people and preach the gospel.

But now they also simulcast that over the internet and over TV. And tonight, if you tune in, you can watch the Harvest Crusade, where millions of people will be watching and hearing the message of Jesus Christ.

That is one way to share the gospel. You invite your friend to a crusade or to another event, like a church picnic or some other church event. Invite someone who doesn't know Christ to come where they're going to hear the gospel.

That is one way to share the gospel. Tim Keller has another method that he advocates, which is also a great method for sharing the gospel. And that is to demonstrate the love and compassion of Jesus Christ, and share the gospel from flowing out of that.

So, Acts of Mercy. This week we have a ministry called IHN, where here in the sanctuary we will care for homeless people who are looking for a place to live. And out of that, oftentimes you'll have an opportunity to tell them about Jesus Christ, after demonstrating the compassion of Jesus Christ.

The two go hand-in-hand. Another method is called Friendship Evangelism. There's a book called Just Walk Across the Room, and it talks about being friendly and getting to know people, and walking across the street to get to know your neighbor, so that you then would have a chance to share the gospel.

Friendship Evangelism. There are a number of ways to tell our friends and family about Jesus Christ, but today I want to focus on one. This is called The Way of the Master. There's a church in California that's called The Way of the Master, and it equips Christians to share the gospel the way Jesus did.

Now, Jesus used multiple methods. The way he spoke to the woman at the well in John chapter 4 was different than what we'll see here. So, this is not the only way, but it could probably better be called A Way of the Master.

And yet, it's a very important one that all of us need to learn. So today, the main idea that we're going to find from Luke 18, verses 18 to 30, if you want to turn there, is how to share the gospel with a proud person.

A proud person, an arrogant person, someone who doesn't know that they need to be saved. A proud person does not know that they need Christ. Although they're invited to come to Christ, they will not because they serve themselves and they love their idols.

But the law of God, we'll find, we'll learn from the scripture today, is like a hammer that God uses to smash people's idols and to break their hearts to the point where they're willing to come. Let me begin with this illustration before we go into the text.

If I came up to you and I said, don't worry about it. Your debt is paid. I paid your fine. You're good to go. What would you think of me? What would you think of my statement that the debt is paid? You'd think I was a little strange, right?

You would probably shrug it off and say what's up with that guy? That's just weird. It comes out of nowhere. But if I came to you and I said, don't worry, your debt is paid. You were caught on camera running a red light.

And while you were running the red light, you were texting. Your head was down looking and the camera caught it and the court sentenced you and there was a hefty fine. But don't worry, it's all taken care of.

And then I showed you the evidence. Here's the picture of you texting and driving and running through a red light. Now, would what I say about paying your debt make a little more sense? There's a debt to be paid.

You understand your need. You recognize that you're a lawbreaker. That you owed a debt in the first place. Most people don't understand their need for Christ. And so when you say that Jesus died on the cross to pay for sin, if you'll only believe, in their mind they're thinking, you know what?

I'm fine. I'm a good person. I'm okay without it. So let's go to the text and see how Jesus uses this. Law to the proud. Law to the proud. This is what he does. Luke 18. We're gonna read through it once and then we'll break it down.

Luke chapter 18 verses 18 and following. Please find it if you have a smartphone or if you have the scriptures there printed. Turn to Luke 18 verse 18 and following. And a ruler asked him, why do you call me good?

I'm sorry I skipped something. And a ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments.

Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And he said, all these I have kept from my youth. When Jesus heard this he said to him, one thing you still lack, sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

But when he heard these things he became very sad for he was extremely rich. Jesus seeing that he had become sad said, how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

Those who heard it said, then who can be saved? But he said, what is impossible with man is possible with God. And Peter said, see we have left our homes and followed you. And he said to them, truly I say to you there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom who will not receive many times more in this time and in the age to come eternal life.

So the incident that occurs happens after Jesus has been teaching, particularly on prayer. He talked about a persistent widow who kept on praying until this unjust judge would finally answer. And then he told another parable about prayer where there were two people who go into the temple to pray.

One a tax collector, the other a Pharisee. The Pharisee from one side of the building says to himself, God thank you that you didn't make me like him, the tax collector. Unlike the unjust and the unrighteous, thank you that I'm not like him.

The other guy, a tax collector, beat his chest and bowed his head and cried before God and said, have mercy on me a sinner. And Jesus says one of these two men went away justified that day. It was the humble man who beat his chest and bowed his head and begged for mercy.

The man who knew he needed forgiveness received justification that day. But the prideful man didn't know his need. And now you have a living example. A rich ruler comes to Jesus and asks him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Let's consider that question for a moment. Is there anything more important to ask than that question? What must I do to inherit eternal life? If you ask who's gonna win the finals in the NBA, somebody will say the Warriors, somebody will say the Cavs, but in the end it doesn't matter.

10 ,000 years from now that question won't matter a lot. But this question has the word eternal in it. What must I do to inherit eternal life? This is a question that matters 1 million years from now, not just this week.

It's the most important question a person could ask. In fact, the book of Luke focuses on this question a lot. Do you recall the parable of the Good Samaritan? The parable of the Good Samaritan was precipitated by this question.

In Luke 10 25, a lawyer seeking to justify himself came to Jesus and asked this very same question. And Jesus answered the lawyer the same way that he does here. He goes to the commandments. He says, you know the commandments.

What does the Bible say? What is the law? And the lawyer said, well, the chief commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second commandment is like it.

Love your neighbor as yourself. And the lawyer thought he did that. He thought that he was a law keeper. And so Jesus said to him, well, the man asked Jesus, well, who is my neighbor? And Jesus tells him a parable.

The parable involved a Pharisee and a lawyer, a priest, and a Samaritan. A man walking along the road falls among the thieves and gets beaten up and left half-dead, his stuff taken from him. And along comes a lawyer or a Pharisee or a priest.

They walk on the other side of the road and ignore the man lying in the ditch. And then a Samaritan comes through. Seeing the man lying in the ditch, the Samaritan helps him and binds up his wounds and puts him on his donkey and takes him to an inn and pays for him to be cared for.

And Jesus asked which one was a neighbor to him. The lawyer gets it. It was the Samaritan, not the lawyer. You see, you say, lawyer, that you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You say you love your neighbor as yourself.

But you're a liar. Because you don't care about that man beaten and left half-dead. There's been times in your life where you've walked by the sins of omission, not to mention the sins of commission.

See, the lawyer sought to justify himself. He wanted to believe that he was good. Almost everybody that you meet, except for genuine born-again Christians, truly believe that they're good. Oh, they know they sin, they know they've told some white lies, and they know they've done some things in their own self-interest.

But at the heart, the core of Confucianism, the core statement of Confucianism was that mankind is good at the heart. And the assumption of the world religions is that if your good deeds outweigh your bad, then on par you're a good person, and on the Judgment Day you'll be okay.

The core worldview of most people is, I'm essentially good. I'm okay. And so the question, what must I do to inherit eternal life, is so important. Most people who ask it think that they can do enough to be good.

And that's why they become religious, doing the five-fold path. I mean, the five pillars of Islam, or the eight-fold path of Buddhism, or following the Ten Commandments of Judaism. Their religion is the way they seek to justify themselves, that on the par, they will be good.

This question matters a lot. Eternity hangs in the balance. Notice how Jesus answers. Verse 18 is the question. What must I do to inherit eternal life? And you'd think right here, Jesus is gonna jump in with the gospel message, which is often what I'll do when I'm excited to share the gospel at the gym.

I just jump right in and start preaching the gospel. Tell them about Jesus, how he died. And a person just rolls their eyes and walks away. They heard that. That's not what Jesus does. Before he gets to the gospel, grace to the humble, he gives law to the proud.

It's counterintuitive. Why does Jesus tell him what he must do to be saved, knowing that he can't do anything to save himself? He'll get there, but look at verse 19. And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. Interesting answer, isn't it? Now, some Muslims that I've talked to in the city, they've said, well, see, Jesus knows he's not God. He said, why do you call me good? There's no one good but God alone.

Is that really what Jesus is saying? No. He's exposing that this prideful man, this ruler, believes himself to be good when in fact there's no one good but God alone. Implicitly, since Jesus is in fact a good teacher, Jesus is in fact claiming to be God.

He doesn't refute the fact that he is good. He simply asked the ruler, why do you call me good? The ruler doesn't know he's talking to God in flesh. Why do you call me good exposes the wrong presupposition of the ruler.

The ruler thinks he's good, but there's no one who's good. That's the problem. No one but God alone. Now look how Jesus unpacks it, verse 19 and following. Now verse 20, you know the commandments. He begins with the seventh of the Decalogue.

If you turn to Exodus 20, you don't have to go there now, you know Exodus chapter 20 is the ten commandments. And Jesus will now quote five of the ten in rapid-fire succession. The seventh one, then the sixth one, the eighth one, the fifth one, the ninth one actually before the fifth.

Do not commit adultery. There's one. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. Jesus gives him law. Law to the proud. Law to the proud. Now picture the ruler listening to this.

In his mind when Jesus says, thou shalt not murder. Checkmark. I'm good there. Never killed anybody. Thou shalt not steal. Checkmark. I don't steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness or lie. I'm not a liar.

Honor your father and mother. And look at the answer that he gives following honor your father and mother. See I think Jesus set him up for this. In verse 20, honor your father and mother. 21, and he said, all these I have kept from my youth.

He was a very obedient child, wasn't he? He never dishonored his father and mother, not once. He obeyed first time right away. Everything he was commanded to do. I doubt it. I doubt it. I hear some amens out there from parents.

See there's something corrupt in the human nature. And from youth you disobey your parents. Maybe every day. And yet this man has the audacity to say, all these I have kept from my youth. You know what?

I think in his mind he really believes it. I think he judges himself a law keeper. When he says thou shalt not murder, he thinks I've never killed anyone. Not knowing what Jesus had said in the Sermon on the Mount, which is what?

If you even have anger and hatred in your heart towards someone, you violated the deeper meaning of thou shalt not commit murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. He says I've never physically committed adultery.

Not knowing that Jesus says if you even lust after a woman in your heart, you violated the deeper meaning of thou shalt not commit adultery. This man judges himself. Okay, I'm a good person. I'm keeping this law.

All these I have kept from my youth. Guys, stop and think for a minute. It's your desire, you're a Christian, those of you who believe and know Christ, it's your desire that your friends and your family will inherit eternal life with you.

But the problem is they think they're on their way. They assume, well there might be a heaven or there might be a hell or there might not be, but you know what? If there is one, I think I'll be okay. I'm a good person.

Learn the way of the Master from this text. Law to the proud. Jesus now will double down in verse 22. It's not that Jesus believes the ruler, okay? The five commandments that he's already listed, the ruler says I'm okay, I'm good.

It's not that Jesus believes him at that point, but he sets that aside in order to disprove his past obedience. The ruler thought he had obeyed for a lifetime, since his youth. Jesus will take that and set aside his past and deal with the present.

And he will issue a command right now, which ultimately is the gospel command. Repent and believe. Repent of all your idolatry and believe the gospel. He will issue that command, but really he's reiterating the first and second commandment of the Decalogue.

The first commandment, thou shalt have no other God before me. In Luke 16, the parable of the unjust manager, he commends him for his shrewdness, but he goes on to say you cannot serve both God and money.

Jesus knew that this ruler loved money far more than God. He loved money. He was an idolater. He had a different God that he was serving. Even as he stood in the presence of Jesus Christ, he was sinning that very moment because his heart was more devoted to money than it was to God.

Jesus presently knew he was in sin as he stood there, in his sin nature. So Jesus sets aside the past and he issues a command that would have to be obeyed right there. By the way, again, he's proving himself to be God.

God gives the commandments. Now Jesus says, here's the command, leave everything you have, come follow me. Look at this in verse 22. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, one thing you still lack, sell all that you have and distribute to the poor.

Don't you love how Jesus does this? Just sell everything you have. Sell your house. They didn't have cars back then. Sell your chariot. Sell your weaponry. Sell everything that you own. Every last thing.

Give it all away. Give it to the poor. You'll have treasure in heaven. Come follow me. And the rich young ruler won't do it. The rich young ruler won't do it. His heart is proud. His heart is tied to his money.

His heart is tied to his money. Now one other thing before we move on in the text. Do you notice that this is the same call that we've heard throughout the book of Luke? When Jesus first met Peter and the disciples, they were out fishing.

Come follow me. And leaving everything behind, their fishing boats, their job, their source of income, their career, leaving it behind, they follow Jesus. Matthew at the tax collector booth, taking in money, doing his job, leaving everything, he followed Jesus we're told.

And then over and over again, we have these in your notes. You can look them up later. Chapter 9 verses 57 to 62. He tells, he issues the call to discipleship. To be my follower, leave everything, follow me.

He even describes it as hating your family. Unless you hate your father, and your mother, and your children, you have no part in me. Oh, that's hard to amen that. But why is he saying that? Not literally to hate your family.

Your love for me must be so great that it makes all other loves look like hate. Even your love for your children. Even your love for your parents. This is a full devotion. So discipleship means leave everything and follow me.

So he's actually telling the rich ruler exactly what the disciples have done. Leave everything and follow me. But his heart was tied to his money. Verse 23 and following. But when he heard these things, he became very sad.

For he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. Now pause right there. Who has wealth? All of us sitting in this room.

Even the poor among us have wealth and oftentimes their hearts are just as attached to what they have as any rich man. The issue here is not some kind of tirade against wealth. This is not against the one percenters.

Jesus is looking at this rich man and showing him that his money is his idol. So rich or poor, money can be your idol. And he says in verse 25, it is easier, catch this, for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

What's easier? For a rich person to enter the kingdom of God or for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle. It's easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

So you say, well that's impossible. Right, it's impossible. What's impossible? It's impossible for this rich ruler to leave everything and follow Jesus. Now can he? I mean that's the command. Can he follow the command?

Yes. He physically can do this. He can walk to his house, his legs will work. He can put his house on the market and sell it. And everything that he has he can give to the poor. And he can walk back and spend the rest of his life following Jesus.

He can do that. Physically. The issue here is that he will not. There's something wrong in his nature. This is not the good person. This is the proud person. This is all of us before Christ. When we're in the B .C. instead of the A .D., the before Christ, instead of in the year of our Lord, our hearts will not choose him.

Our hearts are bent against him. In fact, look what Jesus says, verse 27, but what is impossible with man is possible with God. Before I go back to that, notice Jesus is saying it is impossible. The prideful heart, which is the natural heart, this is the ordinary heart.

This is not just the extreme. This isn't just Adolf Hitler. This isn't just the the Muslim cleric for ISIS who thinks he's righteous. This is the ordinary guy that you love, that you sit next to at dinner.

This is the ordinary human heart. It's impossible for this heart to come. That's what Jesus says. And now look at verse 26. When Jesus says it's like a camel through the eye of the needle. Can't come.

Can't do it. Won't do it. What's the natural reaction of the Then who can be saved? Then who can be saved? Right, they got it. That's the point. They got it. They were listening. See, the heart of man is not naturally soft towards God.

The Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, we break every one of them. The first one to love God more than anything else. None of us do that. Our hearts are not that way. Our hearts are fallen in Adam. We are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.

And then from Noah's line as well. We are sinners by nature. We are law breakers. And all people are this way. Who then can be saved? You throw up your hands in despair. Who can be saved? What is impossible with man is possible with God.

Regeneration is a miracle. It is a new heart from on high. It is a new birth from heaven. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to regenerate and make alive what is dead. All men are dead in their trespasses and sins.

Ephesians chapter two verse one. Not just sick. Not just tainted. Not just a little broken with some rough edges. Dead. Dead in sin. And the only solution for a dead man is a resurrection. It is a life from heaven that only God can give.

Total inability. That's what total depravity means. Men are born totally depraved. In sin. Enslaved to sin. What then does Jesus use to break that pride? Law to the proud. He shows the law. He confronts them with the law.

I just had the opportunity to do this on Thursday night. Hanging out after playing basketball. I said to a guy, are you a good person? And that started an hour long conversation. The reasoning is, yeah, I think I'm good.

I'm a good father. You know, I do a good job with my kids and I care. You see, that's the human reasoning that would seek to justify oneself. And so I asked the question, have you ever told a lie? Well, you know, I've told a lie.

Well, what does that make you? A liar. Have you ever committed adultery? And then we talked about lust, you know, as well as adultery. No, I've never committed adultery. Why should I believe you? You just told me you're a liar.

You use the law as a sword. As a hammer that breaks the heart of the proud. This is what Jesus is doing here. He did it in chapter 10 with the good Samaritan. Now he does it here with the commandments of God.

Uses five of them. And then he issues the command to repent and believe. To sell everything. To repent of your heart ties to money. Leave it all behind. Come follow me. So in closing now, we have this note of hope.

Verse 28 to 30. Peter hears this and he's thinking back to those days when he was just fishing by the shore. When he kind of had it all, didn't he? Peter was a fisherman. I'm sure he loved the water. I'm sure he loved bringing in that haul of fish and selling it right there on the seashore.

And something about the voice of Jesus. Three years earlier, remember they're on on the road to Jerusalem now. This is near the end. It's three years into his ministry. But three years earlier, Peter had heard this call of the voice of a Savior saying, come follow me.

And he just left it all behind. There's hope in this. Come follow me. Peter said, verse 28, see we have left our homes and followed you. And look at this word of encouragement from our Savior. 29 and following.

And he said to them, truly I say to you there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive many times more in this time and in the age to come eternal life.

Circle back to the original question. What must I do to inherit eternal life? There was nothing they could do. In fact, they couldn't do. And yet by the call of Jesus, a gospel call, come follow me. The Spirit had worked in their hearts.

And they had left everything to follow Jesus. And Jesus says, you left all that behind. What you will be given is of such greater value than everything you left behind. You'll never miss it for a moment, not in this life or for an eternity to come.

There are rewards for you for eternity in heaven. This is good news because what is impossible with me in my fallenness, when all that I would have worshipped was the basketball and a job and grades and and getting married and whatever else was on my mind.

It's the work of the Holy Spirit that said, leave everything to take this treasure. Because if you have this treasure in your jar of clay, it's of all surpassing power, all surpassing value. It's worth more than all of it.

That's the work of the Holy Spirit. If you've come to know Christ, be like Spurgeon and say at the bottom of it all, it was all him. He did the impossible. He turned an idolatrous heart into the heart of a worshipper.

With man, this is impossible. With God, all things are possible. So I'm going to close. I'm going to ask the worship team to come on up and get ready. When you go out to share the gospel, recognize you can't convince a person that Jesus is their savior unless they know that they desperately need a savior.

You can't convince someone to follow your Christ, even if you make great arguments as to why you know he's raised from the dead or how it is that it's provable. You can't convince them. You want to know why?

They're dead. Their hearts aren't hearing that. Their idolaters at heart. But God has given you a tool and that tool is his law, his word. It's not only written in the Decalogue, it's also written on their conscience because they still have the image of God.

And so you appeal to the law to break their pride that they would recognize that they need a savior. So as we go today, let's go forth as evangelists, unleashed as evangelists, to take the word law to the proud and grace to the humble.

The law will break them of their pride. And that's when you swoop in with the good news offer of a savior who died. And why did he die? He died for the prideful heart, for the sinner who can't pay his debt, who can do nothing to save himself.

He died to save sinners, of which I am chief. Law to the proud, then comes grace to the humble. Use the law as a hammer to break people of their pride. It's a good wound. A slap from a friend is a lot better than a kiss from an enemy.

If you really love someone, tell them the truth about where their life ends. That they can't save themselves. If you love your friend, if you love your co-worker, your relative, you go be bold like Jesus was here.

Share his command. Leave everything to follow Christ. Use the law as a hammer and bring grace through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this parable, the rich ruler. Lord, as I pray this, I recognize there could be people who are sitting here right now or watching the video later who recognize, maybe for the first time, according to the law of God, I am not good.

I will not be okay on my own. I am a lawbreaker. I serve myself and idols. My heart is tied to idols. Lord, I pray for those that right now you would break them with your law in order that you could make them new.

Give them grace. The grace of believing, repenting of all sin, and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Impossible for us to do on our own, Lord. You do this right now, Lord. Please, I beg you, give the new heart.

Regenerate the lost. Help them to understand their need for you. What it really means that you pay the debt. Thank you for your law. It's beautiful to us, Lord. I think of Psalm 119. It's a beautiful thing.

It's light to our feet. And now I pray for all of us who do believe the gospel, that we would be unleashed today like an army to go forth, preaching law to the proud, grace to the humble. In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's stand and worship.