Turning your Bibles, please to the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 18. And I will begin reading from verse 18, a very familiar passage contained in all three of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, with certain variations. Listen carefully and worshipfully as we read now from God's Word. A certain ruler asked Jesus, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good, Jesus answered? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother. All these I have kept since I was a boy, he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, you still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. When he heard this, he became very sad because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Indeed it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of an eagle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard this asked, who then can be saved? Jesus replied, what is impossible with men is possible with God. Peter said to him, we have left all and we had all we had to follow you. I tell you the truth, Jesus said to them, no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and in the age to come, eternal life. This ends the reading of God's Holy Inspired and Inherent Word. Let's return to the scripture that we read a moment ago with David from Luke chapter 18 as we continue our study this morning in the Gospel according to Luke. David said this is a very familiar passage, a passage that is one of those passages that we have heard preached many, many, many different times but I urge you to open your Bible to that passage even if you know it quite well. I find that every time I turn to a passage no matter how many times I've been there, I learned something new and fat. This morning we're going to look at the first part of this passage where Jesus is really talking to this man about the gods that he has or the God that he has in his life.
This passage is also about money. Someone said to me this week, you know, everyone focuses on money in this passage but the man's God could have been anything and Jesus would have come and stand and stood beside that God and said, geez, either this God or me. And that is true and we will look at that some this morning, but Jesus did say in this passage, and this is strong language. How hard is it for the rich man to enter the kingdom of God? Indeed, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. That's a strong statement. Truthfully, we'll see in a few minutes that most all of us, if not all of us, comparatively speaking, have more money than this man had. We have more stuff than this man had. What was Jesus saying? Does Jesus have something against money? Does money mean that we're automatically lost? Was Jesus a communist who hated capitalism? What's the story here? Next week, we're going to look at that part. God and our money. What is a Christian today? That's for next week. This morning, we're going to look at Jesus, talking to this man about the God in his life. Before we do that, let's pray and ask the Lord Jesus who was there speaking to that man that day, who's here this morning. Let's ask him to speak to each one of us where we are. Let's pray. Our Father, we come to the sanctuary, different ages, some of us very, very young, children, and some of us very, very old. Our Father, we come here as husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, children. Young adults, college students, career folks, we come as grandparents and grandchildren. Our Father, some of us come from deep, deep needs. We have felt tragedy in our lives in these last few weeks and we're hurting. Father, some of us come here and Father, we're so full of joy. We've just got the greatest news we've ever heard and we just want to laugh and tell everyone. Our Father, I cannot speak so that each one of us will hear and be changed from the inside out. I can't speak to each person where they are, but Jesus is able to speak that way. We can walk out of here this morning and know that Jesus spoke plainly to me in my situation and someone else can walk out and say in a completely different situation and say Jesus spoke to me in my situation. Father, I'm helpless to teach that way and so I pray in these next few minutes that we will hear the voice of Jesus Christ in our hearts. That we will be changed. Maybe some of us for the first time and his name we pray. Amen. Is your Jesus to safe? Jesus had just finished talking to His disciples, disciples who really thought they were something. He had just finished talking to them about turning away little babies and children who's parents had brought them to be better. Bless by Jesus. Remember that disciples had turned them away. Jesus had just said to Peter, John and James, who had appointed themselves gatekeepers to Jesus and His kingdom. Jesus said to them, you want to enter the kingdom of God? You want to get through the gate to my kingdom? Then those babies must not become like you but you must become like those little babies dependent and helpless. You're going to have to get small to get into my kingdom. He had just said that. Have you ever walked into a right cross? I mean it's just like you walked up and said, hit me. Boxers usually try to slip and slide and duck right crosses and uppercuts just as Jesus humbled those proud disciples. Here came a proud man to ask Jesus a question and he walked into a haymaker, folks. Haymakers and knock out blow from which one does not recover. He came thinking he was worthy of the kingdom. He had a very safe and confirming God and he came to be confirmed by Jesus but he left Jesus. He left very disturbed. He left thinking the kingdom cost too much. He had met a God who was dangerous to his status quo to dangerous. Most of us are very much like this man. We seek to know and to have around us a safe Jesus who is quite comfortable with our lives just as they are. I want to tell you folks this message really really this passage really disturbed me this week as it never has is your God is my God is my Jesus to safe answer that with me about yourself in these next few minutes. First I want you to see in this passage a salt a salt confirmation look at verse 18 a certain ruler ask him good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life. Folks this was not a desperate man on his knees saying what must I do to be saved. This was a man who believed in God. In God we will see in a moment that he had made seven said he had made serious efforts to obey God's law. He had been cataclyzed as a child again we will see in a moment that he had been talked to obey the law of God from his youth some of you this morning or not even in the first grade. What he like you had said in the synagogue he had been to the temple since before he could remember maybe he had heard the parable of the Pharisee and tax gather in the temple. Maybe he had heard Jesus review the disciples and say you must be small to enter the kingdom. Maybe he just respected Jesus as a teacher of Jewish law. He did call him good teacher but for whatever reason. This was not a desperate man who knew he was a spiritual leper with no hope. This was a man who thought he was good who thought he was very good and was seeking confirmation. Jesus just confirm what I already know. Jesus just confirm I'm a good man just confirm I have in the kingdom just confirm that I have eternal life. He was very much like the Pharisee in the temple who so reason for going to the temple was to remind God how good he was. I once asked a coach how his undefeated team could have lost the state championship game. I will never forget his answer it went something like this his team really was unbeatable and he said our team went to the state saying to the other team we're the best we know we're the best and we want you to confirm it in the coach said the other team had no intention of affirming my team's assumptions. We hear a lot today of that God will affirm you and God will confirm you people all across our land today will walk into sanctuaries and they're seeking a God who will confirm who they are just as they are. They come to a safe God wanting him to confirm their goodness tell us we're okay this morning tell us we are good people tell us we are good enough you look at this passage and you see a man coming to Jesus and saying confirm me. And what's really disturbing is that Jesus didn't do it a sought confirmation secondly I want you to see an unavoidable confrontation look at verse 19 why do you call me good Jesus answered no one is good except God alone that sounds like a strange comment to make. You want to say Jesus didn't you hear the man's question. Why did Jesus say why do you call me good no one is good except God but you must know this the rabbis who were very exacting were very careful with this word good there's no record in the Talmud of a rabbi being called good. The term was reserved for God alone so when this man use the term Jesus threw it back to him Jesus was saying Mister only God is good. Are you calling me God what it was saying was to am I really Jesus was confronting this man just like he had been confronting everyone in his ministry read through the gospels. Maybe you're a stranger to the gospels maybe you really haven't read the gospels or know that much but you've heard the world say over and over and over again Jesus didn't claim to be God don't you believe it. I challenge you this afternoon or maybe you're one who is familiar with the gospels but you're not that familiar and you really think well maybe Jesus didn't claim to be God go home pick a gospel. I won't tell you which one choose Matthew Mark Luke John okay which one you choose read that gospel find a page in the gospel where Jesus doesn't claim to be God find it and then come and see me on every page it's there. Every miracle proclaimed his deity he said things that only God could say like to a paralytic one time with a great crowd gathered around him he said to the paralytic. Hey mister your sins are forgiven you and the Pharisees in the crowd say no one can forgive sins but God and Jesus looked them right in the face and said say that you may know that I have the authority to forgive sins. Parallytic take up your bed and go what was Jesus saying in that miracle I am God folks that question by Jesus is unavoidable. You can't get around it if you hang around Jesus any time at all I don't care who you are he's going to push the question to you who do you say that you're calling me good. No man's good but God are you calling me God you know I used to look at this and say why is this so important I know why it's important to the gospel but in this situation in this specific conversation why is this so important is about to say something to this man that is so huge and so overwhelming that only God would dare to say it. And so it's important who says it do you know why do you know why the liberals the theological liberals the theological liberal churches and the theological liberal ministers do you know why they deny the deity of Christ for years I thought it was because they were saying we're two modern we're in the 20th century or we're in the 21st century and we don't believe God became flesh. You know that's not it may have something to do with it but that's not the base reality you know what it is they want they want a safe Jesus it's because they don't want a God who breaks into their world without warning who breaks into their world without permission they don't want a God who wrecks havoc with their status square. I've been reading a book you've been reading it too if you've been reading Westminster notes a book entitled your God is too safe by Mark Buchanan and I want to read a paragraph in that right now listen to this I hope each of you will buy this it's a it's a very disturbing book listen to it this is Mark Buchanan I did a funeral once for a lady he was a Christian but few of her many children and grandchildren were Christian I thought I spoke the gospel clearly and boldly after what a woman came to me thank you she said that was so nice what you said it was really nice I'm religious to the family always ask me to pray for the weather when we go golfing Mark Buchanan wrote I reckon this the idol of the nice God the safe God has done more damage to biblical faith more damage to people coming to faith than the character to her of a tyrant God ever did that is spotted God howling with rage wielding punishment with both ransacking destruction and surgical precision at least inspired something in us we were afraid we wanted to appease but this milk toast pampering deity is nothing but a cosmic lackey on Aaron boy we call on to make our golf games pleasant or to help us escape reality for a little while and then summarily dismiss him worship him revere him die for him believe that he died a cruel and bloody death for death for us you must be kidding the safe God has no power to console us in grief or to shake us from complacency or rescue us from the pit he just putters in his garden smiles benignly ways now and then and mostly spends a lot of time in his room doing puzzles if he's not quite God if he's just a great teacher if he's just a great prophet or he's somewhere in between he doesn't mess up our world he can't wreck havoc because he's not God but if Jesus is God he is the one who throws the galaxies into space who walks on the storm and raises the dead and he's loose in our world why Jesus confronted this man with his deity you look at this passage and you see a salt confirmation you see an unavoidable confrontation thirdly you see an impossible obligation look at verse 20 you know the commandments do not commit adulterer do not murder do not steal do not give false testimony honor your father and mother our fakes everyone in here who really knows the gospel knows that that answer is stranger than the comment that Jesus had just made we know that we're saved by grace we know that we cannot be saved by keeping the law this man said I want eternal life and Jesus said let's pull out the law just keep the commandments and you will have eternal life we know fakes that's true if you're born without a sin nature and you keep the commandments God's going to say you're perfectly innocent come on him stay in the stress at this point the man thought this is good he's going to confirm my good standing I like the law I beg God's law Jesus in reality was giving that man an impossible obligation that was once preaching a series of services in a church in Alabama it was a well known and large congregation it was involved in lots of different ministries all over the world the service has started on Sunday morning and evening and we're going through the week and I preach Sunday morning and I preach Sunday evening fakes I preach my heart out but the people and I preach the gospel but the people seem totally unmoved this is just apathy and it seemed like they were they were just sitting there in a fuse looking at their bottles none of them were sleep they at least they had their eyes open but it was apathy and it was like you're a good preacher and we're a good people and what you're saying is okay next that Sunday evening a minister who was a friend of mine had come to visit the congregation and to visit with me and he heard the message the next day he came by where was staying and he thanked me for the message and I said you know John I don't understand I said I really preached my heart out and I said I felt like I was preaching to a wall it was just so much apathy in that place and he laughed and he said John these people are good Christians and these people are good Presbyterians and he said their parents and their grandparents were good Christians and good Presbyterians he said and they don't understand the gospel they don't understand their need of the gospel that's it so what do I do I'll never forget he was just a couple of years older but he had extraordinary wisdom and he said John preach the law what he said made sense so that evening I changed the message and I preach the law of God a law no one can keep a law that is an impossible obligation folks it was like a storm of lightning and thunder crashing through that sanctuary some people were weeping afterward but they were silent some were stunned but they were silent they had been confronted by the law of God and it is when you understand it it is an impossible obligation when I was a student pastor in Joel Ridge Virginia there was a crusty old Scotsman who lived beside me and that cold mining camp he made a point to say to me the first day I was there I don't go to your church I don't go to any church my religion is a sermon on the Mount folks he said this to me at least twice a day every day for the first month I was there one night after supper I was visiting with him in his house and he said to me you know it's not difficult my religion is a sermon on the Mount and I looked at him and I said I've had enough of that I said where's your Bible and he got out his Bible and I said let's look at the sermon on the Mount where Jesus speaks about and says that you're a murderer if you hate your neighbor if you hate someone you're a murderer even you hate your enemy you're a murderer and I said you're not that makes me a murderer but evidently you've never hated anyone in your heart now I went to the passage where he said if you look at a woman and you want her you're committing adultery in your heart committed adultery and I said you know that I don't know about I said I'm that makes me an adulterer but evidently you've never looked at a woman and wanted her in your heart and then I just went verse by verse through the sermon on the Mount and I said in essence I don't do too well how do you do finally he said to me preacher I must go to bed his past my bed died and you know he never said to me again that summer my religion is a sermon on the Mount why he had been faced with an impossible obligation in a story that is just opposite one of my mentors in the faith and in all of life Dr. Robert Todd Langston was once standing before a seminary class in which I was a student and he had read part of the sermon on the Mount the part about murder and the part about adultery 75 years old and tears streaming down his face and he looked at his class and he said boys I don't know how you measure up against that kind of teaching but I don't measure up too well he knew that he was faced with an impossible obligation why did Jesus pull out the law he wanted to face the man with the impossibility of an obligation a sought confirmation an unboarded confrontation an impossible obligation fourthly look at this and see an arrogant calculation look again at verse 20 you know the commandments do not commit adultery do not murder do not steal do not give false testimony honor your father and your mother look at verse 21 all of these have I kept since I was a boy can you believe he said that do you see how he was an arrogant is that Scotsman I kept all those so get about confirming me is there anybody who sat in this church for over two Sundays and heard the gospel who had raised their hands they all I kept eyes he stood before the God of heaven and earth who could have told him the last time he spit and he said I kept them I kept this the audacity in 1992 in Rapid City South Dakota Dennis Lee Curtis was arrested for armed robbery he was guilty but he was a thief who had scruples in his wallet the police found this code of rules that Curtis swore to follow as a thief listen to them number one I will not kill anyone unless I have to number two I will rob only at night number three I will not wear a mask number four I will not rob many marks and seven number five if I get chased by cops on foot I will get away if chased by vehicle I will not put the lives of innocent civilians on the line number six I will rob only seven months out of the year in that good number seven I will enjoy robbing from the rich to give to the poor what was the thief say I really am a good man that man was a thief who had scruples we're like that we're like that we're sinners with scruples I will only tell white lies I will not gossip I just tell the truth I will live for money but I'll use it to help others if I divorce my wife I will take care of her and I'll confess any sin on my part I will obey my parents when it makes sense I will only cheat when I have an impossible teacher people that means we're liars that means that we're materialistic idolaters that means we're adulterers that means we're covenant breakers disobedient children and cheaters we're sinners but we have scruples but we have interpreted a sense of morality to be the same as obedience we say that again we have interpreted a sense of morality to be the same as obedience that reasoning would make most rapists rapists and murderers obedient same calculate the God of heaven and earth pulls out his law I've kept him I do quite well thank you assault confirmation an unavoidable confrontation an impossible obligation and seen insane calculation we could put it this way in a sentence a proud man sought confirmation but encountered an unavoidable confrontation and an impossible obligation yet in the face of impossible obligation he made an insane calculation and family we see a demand for a costly, costly capitulation look at verse 22 if you haven't looked at anything else look at these verses and listen to the voice of Jesus when Jesus heard this he said to him you still like one thing sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven then come follow me when he heard this he became very sad because he was a man of great well folks we have read this so many times we've become immune to the force of what Jesus was saying hearing this so many times it's been like a vaccination against the truth we hear Jesus say sell all you have and come and follow me we say yeah of course that's our Jesus I don't think so people that was a real man this is a real occasion it's not a parable I was someone asked me this week the subject of the message and I told them I'm speaking from the ruler who came to Christ the wealthy man who came to Christ asking about eternal life and the person said oh that is a great parable I said no no no no it's not a parable this was a real man not a parable this man head wealth just like many of us in fact most all of us if not all of us are wealthier than this man was in terms of living in the 20th and 21st century and Jesus really said to him there is one point of the law that you're missing now you could have gone back and said hey you want to know the last time you lied you want to know the last time you committed adulterer you want to last time you committed murder you want to know the last time you stole something but Jesus did Jesus did Jesus just ignored the man's insane arrogance and he said there's one thing let's go to the first commandment I'm the Lord your God you shall have no other gods before me and money is your God it's only one point when it comes to laws the first commandment man money is your first love money is your God you haven't kept the first commandment unless the rest of him so you want to turn a life here it is get rid of your God and this what he said he said sell your house sell your investments sell your summer house sell your clothes sell your horses sell your stocks sell your securities sell it all and go give it to the poor and then follow me now at that point if we're sitting here and listening we say inside the message but that is our purvely Jesus really didn't mean it now I want to ask you question what part of it wasn't our purvely did Jesus not mean to sell all that he had and then study he walked away sad he said I can't do that and Jesus letting walk he didn't say all I was I was just speaking in religious terms you see we don't want to deal with that quite quite if all the people in the church started selling their houses in their homes and giving the poor and you're saying here Jesus is a blank page I signed the bottom just send me wherever you want yeah I know what you're saying you said but John God calls us where we are in that's true but see we want to use as the cop out we don't want to deal with this Jesus in that way who thus would have gone yeah this man had to go home say to his wife honey God sell house God sell everything God sell our summer hood we're going to sell it all now we say he said that because money was a man's God and we say you know money is not our God oh really in this sanctuary we have all these people in there's none of us we have money as a God I don't think so but let's suppose that money is not our God you say to me you know well he wasn't just saying about money you know anything can be our God's relationship with people or parents or children whatever they can all be he's just coming and standing beside the number one thing in our lives and saying choose me that's right that's exactly right capitulate give it up thanks this Jesus was not kidding he came and stood what was first in that man's life and they choose and he'll always come to what's first in our lives and you'll say choose this is the Jesus who said whoever loves father or mother more than may can be in the kingdom whoever loves son or daughter more than may cannot be in the kingdom this is not a safe Jesus who just fits wherever we desire this is a Jesus who demands we give up that which we love the most that we capitulate unconditional surrender folks no one in your life if you understand the gospel no one in your life will ever demand of you what Jesus demands he was not kidding God is not kidding this is a God who said to Abraham give me your son Isaac sacrifice him to me this is the God who said Abraham you go sell all you have give away this land at his or sell this land it's been in your generation been in your family for generations and you go wonder for some years and I'll finally come and tell you where you're headed this is the God who said to get you I want you to take 300 he grew soldiers and go to fight an army of 135,000 season Midianite soldiers 300 against 135,000 this is a God who said to a 13 year old boy I want you to go fight the greatest warrior in the Philistine army this is a God who said to Job I will take your wealth from you I will take your children from you I will take your health from you will you still love me this is a God you said to Daniel go pray and keep the faith even if the world is promised to throw you into a din of hungry lines if you do pray people what kind of God is that it's the God of the Bible it's the God of the gospel and he's not a safe God many of you have read Amy Carmichael what most of us don't know is that she grew up in a Presbyterian home in Ireland she went to India as a missionary in 1895 she served there 56 years never coming home never a furlough the children of India especially those who were to become temple prostitutes became the focus of her efforts in her book things as they are she wrote a lot of books but in her book things as they are she spoke of a conversation she had with a Hindu queen in the Queen's palace Amy had been telling her about Christ and about the Christian God and this Hindu priest and Queen seized on that and said tell me more tell me more tell me about this God tell me what the Christian God demands for salvation Amy tried to keep her back and say look it's a huge story we need to take some time here but the Queen pressed her and pressed her until Amy began to read the gospel to her right there the words of Jesus himself here's how Amy she described the moment listen the Queen knew quite well and quite enough excuse me the Queen knew quite enough to understand and take in the force of the forceful words she would not consent to be led gently on no I must know it now she said and as verse by verse we read to her her face settled softly and she said so far must I follow him so far I cannot follow him so far she may have turned away from the gospel but she understood the demands of the gospel she understood that this Jesus was not safe and when he said follow me when he asked her to lay down the gods of her life she said I cannot follow him that far as we come to this table this is not a safe Jesus remember he's the one that said this is my body broken for you this is my blood how far was he willing to go in himself as we look at this table and see the links to which God would go to save us God himself said even though even though you reject me even though you ridiculed me even though you spit upon me I will crush my own son to save you says we come to this table we're not just reminded of his grace as we look to the extent that this God went we hear the extent to which he calls us today in this table don't just approach this table saying give me grace you what I want I want God's grace I say you know since he's going to love me and since he's going to save me in spite of my sin I might as well keep my idols that's not what Jesus says what is it we were saying as we look at the cross as we look at the table we're the whole realm of nature mind that we're present far too small love so amazing so divine demands my life my soul my heart