Amen. Well, if you're turning your Bibles to the gospel of Matthew chapter 19, we'll be looking at verses 16 through 22 this morning, Matthew 19 verses 16 through 22. In the last two sermons, we saw Jesus address the subject of marriage, divorce, and the calling and gift of singleness that he does give occasionally to some Christians, and the place of children in the kingdom of heaven, which we looked at last week. And in this world, the only place the kingdom of heaven is manifested is in the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we saw that it seemed to be one of the main reasons Jesus crossed the Jordan, east of the Jordan, as he was going south, in order to receive these covenant children into this kingdom, because once he receives and blesses these children of believers in him, Matthew tells us he departs. And in fact, this morning's text, like last week's text, occurs in all three of the synoptic gospels. That means in Matthew and in Mark and in Luke, as Jesus is departing from the east of the Jordan, as he's crossing back over into Judea proper, a young, rich ruler comes running up to him, falls on his knees, and he asks him the most important question that a human being can ask, and he asks the most important person, that a human being can ask that question, what does Jesus say is the way to have eternal life. That is the subject of our text this morning. Let's pray as we turn to God's word, Father in heaven, how we do just pause again and ask you to bless the reading and the hearing and the preaching of your word. Give eyes again to see ears to hear, hearts to believe, and minds to love and do your word, that we would trust in you alone, Lord Jesus, for the salvation that you have promised to bring. And we would know, Lord, God, that we would understand and know what that way is. Give the grace, Father, of knowledge, and give the grace of regeneration, of sanctification this morning. Lord God, how we would pray even for some who may not know you, who can hear my voice, that you would use your spirit, your word, to say and to bring the lost to be found and darkness to light. Lord God, save and sanctify your people by the power of your spirit through your word. We pray and deceit me. In Jesus name, amen. Here now the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter 19, beginning again in verse 16, this is God's holy and perfect word. Give careful attention to it. Now, behold, one came and said to him, good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? So he said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one. That is God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. He said to 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. The young man said to him, all these things I have kept from my youth. 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. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. May the Lord establish this word this morning in our hearts. Right from the outset, beloved, I just want to call your attention to an article that I wrote in the back of your bullets. And ordinarily, I go through the larger catechism because that's why it was written that adults would read and learn the faith by the larger catechism. But I took a break from that this morning and I wanted to write on something that really this text has a lot of these kinds of things. A lot of times I will deal with it in the sermon itself. The little discrepancies between Matthew and Mark and Luke when they have the same event where the discrepancies between what's called the critical text really just a few manuscripts mostly from Alexandria and Vaticanus and the majority text which is a whole lot of manuscripts, mostly the Byzantine manuscripts. And I call your attention to that and I show how those things aren't to be concerned about. But this morning, I wrote an article because I had about another 20 minutes explaining it to try to really go into it. So I give that to you. Please read that after the service and you'll see how we can have these discrepancies and yet scripture be completely infallible and inherent. And it basically boils down to the fact that scripture doesn't give us a transcript of a recorded event. But it faithfully relays the Holy Spirit inspired men to faithfully relay the truth of an event and truth of conversation in ordinary human words. And we all know that this is the way we would talk in any kind of representation. So for example, if I was at the cash market and I ran into gym and we start talking and I see Robin later and I said, oh I ran into gym at the cash market and he said to me, come over my house, we'll watch the masters tonight. I said, oh yeah, I'll come over and do that. Thanks. And then if I ran into Rick a little bit later and I said, hey, I saw gym down at the cash market and he told me to come over to house and watch some golf this evening. Masters tonight golf this evening. Nobody would think I was lying. Nobody would think I was saying something that wasn't true. And nobody would think that I'm trying to reproduce an exact quoted reference. I'm just relaying the conversation that had happened in my own words on different ways for different occasions. And that's what scripture does when it gives us these things. So that's the answer to nutshell, but please read that article and it will help you in your faith to really understand how it is that we are to understand these things. But I want you to notice this morning as we get into this text, the good man. I want you to notice the good man. We know that this man comes up to Jesus verse 16. Now behold, one came and said to him, we know from the from the three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke that this man was young, that this man was rich, and that this man was a ruler and our comb in the Greek, a leader, a ruler, maybe in the state, maybe in the church. We don't know. John Calvin sees him as one of the elders of the Sanhedrin, a man of great integrity, one who rose up honestly and justly, who rose to this place of prominence and wealth because of his godliness and his industry. So something rare, this was a man who had integrity, who was successful and he earned it all and he built himself up. And he was a young man to have this kind of prominence and fortune and leadership as a young man is very rare and Mark tells us that he comes running up to Jesus. He runs and Mark tells us he falls on his knees before. Now rich, powerful men do not run to religious leaders and they don't fall on their knees to God's spokesman. They come to them. They serve them. They call them to come to their house and teach them and their children. This man has enough humility and enough knowledge to know that Jesus is a better man than he, that he needs to kneel before Jesus. He runs to Jesus. He doesn't care how, look, this is out in public. And he kneels before him and he calls Jesus good teacher. He respects, he humbles himself before him. And he is confident that Jesus can show him the way to eternal life. Notice it in verse 16, I'll be hold. One came and said to him, good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? This man knows that this great teacher from God, this at least proper from God, Messiah, who knows how much this man knew. He knew he was from God and that he needed to listen to what this man said from God. And he knows the important issue if eternal life. He doesn't come up to Jesus as one man does on another occasion and says to him, Lord, make my brother divide the inheritance with me. He doesn't do to Jesus, as we saw people did earlier, try to force him to be king over them because they see how powerful he is and he can throw out the Romans and give them all this prosperity and freedom. And well, again, he doesn't do what others do for due to Jesus and come running up to him and say, how great am I going to be in your kingdom? Let me sit on your right hand in your kingdom. Let me sit on your left hand in your kingdom. Make me important, make me big. He doesn't even come up to Jesus with the real and serious need of a physical healing. He comes to Jesus with something more important than all those things. He understands who Jesus is, that he is the teacher from God who shows the way to eternal life. This man understands the most important thing from the most important person. He goes to Jesus asking him, what must I do to have eternal life? Oh, beloved, this man not show me a sign from heaven. Give me bread from heaven. Show me how I can have eternal life. He had faith that there was such a thing as eternal life. He knew it and he knew it was the most important thing and he knew that Jesus could show him the way. And even after Jesus points out to him, a half a dozen commandments, he could say in verse 20, all these things I have kept from my youth. A little caveat, we're going to go back to that and show that there's a lot wrong with that answer. But there was this much that was right about it. Outwardly, this was a man of integrity. He says this publicly and no doubt people would have called. Yeah, this is a good man. He has risen up to a place of leadership in such a young man. He has been so successful and so hard working that he's wealthy. Everybody would have been nodding to this man. Yes, an outwardly good man, an honest man, a neighborly man who honored his parents who had integrity. I think this would have been like the Apostle Paul in his unconverted state. Remember what the Apostle Paul says of himself, Philippians 36, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Nobody could have pointed the Paul and say, well, you've been here. Outwardly kept all the commandments. No doubt this man outwardly had an impeccable record. He could say this with some conviction and others publicly could not gain say the man. He was a good man. The way we would ordinarily use that word. He was a very good man. A dependable man, a faithful man, and he knew he was going to an even better man, a teacher of God who taught the way to eternal life and he ghosted him to find that this is the good man, beloved. Secondly, I want you to notice the good teacher. I want you to notice the good teacher. Now, behold, one came and said to him, good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? Good teacher, what good thing? This man knows that eternal life can only be had by righteousness. He knows the requirement for eternal life is righteousness. He knows that. He knows you have to be to say it this way, good enough to get to heaven because God is a righteous judge and God will judge everything. So we must have righteousness. If we're going to be accepted by God, he understands that. He knows that and he knows that goodness is not as our world'sest. He knows that goodness is not whatever the world is calling goodness. There's always a kind of goodness in the world that the world pressures people to conform to. Not too long ago, the goodness of the world really infiltrated the church and all of the ways in which you're not supposed to do things. I remember this hearing about it mostly when I was a child, but really back in the middle of the 20th century, when goodness was what you don't do, right? Well, if you're a woman, you don't wear makeup and if you're Christians, you don't play cards and you don't go to movies and you don't drink any alcohol and you don't dance and you don't do this and you don't do that. And a lot of that was in the world, right? Remember the, I remember reading about it, hearing about it in communication classes, we were studying the media and when the Ed Sullivan show had Elvis on the first time, everybody probably has heard of that, right? The camera refused to show him from the waist down because he was moving, you know, dancing. That was the world. That wasn't a church and that got into the church and all this, don't do this and don't do that. And it became a morality for many Christians and for many denominations that they bought into what the world was saying. And we're seeing it again today with the social justice movement, which is a false gospel, plain and simple, telling us what is good, telling us what is right. Again, favoring one race over another race, the same thing our forefathers said that we're all ashamed of. Oh, they had political and scientific and economic reasons to favor one race over another. And today we're told they have political and scientific and economic reasons to favor one race over another. It's a different race, the same racism. This man doesn't go to the world. There were many things in the world at that time that was teaching people what righteousness was. There was phyllo of Alexandria, the great mystical Jew, combining Hellenism and Judaism and doing it through a kind of system of mysticism. Why, there was neoplatonism that was taking off at that time. There was the Epicureans and the Stoics and they had their system of righteousness and what you should do. This man goes to Jesus and Jesus points him exclusively beloved to the commandments. Look at it in verse 17. He said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one that is God but if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. Jesus doesn't point him to the world. He doesn't point him to what the world is saying is good. He doesn't say, oh yeah, you know the word God is good but right now in this environment and you know I know the circles you run with, there's going to be a little bit of truth in it and so you know it's not so easy as it's just doing what God says. We have to combine it somehow. We have to have to be moderates for God. That's what God wants. He wants moderation, right? The Luke warm church. Jesus doesn't do that. He points him only to the commandments. Even when the man says which ones, okay, Jesus could combine a little bit here. Come on, Jesus. You want to be palatable to the world. Combine a little bit of what the world wants you to do. No, which ones and he gives him six from the second table and then one that summarizes the second table, you shall love your neighbors yourself. He gives him only the word of God. Beloved, there's only one standard for righteousness. There's only one standard. It's only the word of God. We don't add anything to it. We don't look at what the world is doing and try to bring some of it in. Oh, if I obey this, what the world is saying, that makes me a good person. No, it doesn't actually. And there's no truth in it. I don't care what circles you run with. This in this alone tells us what righteousness is. This alone judges all people. We will all be judged by the law of God, that and that alone. And this man, after hearing Jesus pointing to the commandments, thinks he's kept them in verse 20. All these things I have kept. And yet there's a conviction there. There's a gnawing there. What do I still lack? Can you imagine? You've just been told to keep the commandments the perfect absolute only standard of righteousness. You say that you have since your youth and yet you think you still lack something. This man must think there's something beyond what God has said that he must do. Something that he has to add to the word of God in order to be perfect. He hasn't done enough. There must be something more. And then Jesus gives him kind of this straight answer in verse 21. When he does tell him to do something more, right? If you want to be perfect, go sell what you have, give to the poor, you have treasure in heaven and come follow me. And he doesn't say that to everybody. This man, right? Should we add to what the world is saying? Do we look at this passage and say, there are other things we need to do? What do we make of this answer? What does Jesus mean? I know what the wealthy redistributionists say today. Oh, yeah, this is what we're supposed to do, you know. We should give away wealth, wealth is evil. That's what they're saying. Is that what Jesus is actually saying in this passage? Notice in Jesus' answer to the man, if you want to be perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. You will have treasure in heaven. He doesn't say you'll make things better in this world. You'll turn this world into heaven. He doesn't say you'll get rewards in this world. He says you'll have treasure in heaven. This again tells us something about Jesus' view of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is not making this world better politically, socially, economically. It's not about rewards in this life. It's about rewards in heaven. This world is not our home. We are pilgrims here. We used to know that in the church. The greatest selling book in modern times next to the Bible among Christians is Pilgrim's progress. What's it about? A man who understood that this world is a pilgrimage. This is not his home. This is not the kingdom that he's building. He's not trying to turn this world into Eden. He's trying to live for God in a place that's in rebellion against God and will be until Christ returns. Jesus says you'll have treasure in heaven. He points the man to heaven. And in fact, when the man goes away sorrowful, listen to what Jesus says act as I show up to go to your Bible, verse 23, 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. Wait a minute, Jesus. He didn't ask that. He asked what must I do to have eternal life? Jesus, when he doesn't do what he said, says how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Do you see that for Jesus having eternal life is entering the kingdom of heaven? Clearly. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven isn't about this world. It's about having eternal life, which means being one of the saved. And in fact, salvation is also indicated as meaning the same thing because the disciples in verse 25 says when his disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished saying who then can be saved? Wait a minute. He didn't ask to be saved. He asked what must I do to have eternal life, which Jesus equated with entering the kingdom and now the disciples equate with being saved because that's what the kingdom is. The kingdom of heaven is having eternal life. The kingdom of heaven in this world is being saved. That's why the church is the only place in this world where the kingdom of heaven is manifested. And Jesus Christ is building that kingdom of proclaiming that kingdom and He's raising up leaders in that kingdom, not earthly governors and magistrates and kings, but apostles and elders. And He's not giving them armies and weapons of this war, but He's giving them weapons that are not carnal, spiritual weapons, word and sacrament. And He's not telling them to go to a land and have your counties and your districts and your and your regions and here's your inheritance and here's yours and go into all the world. It's all mine. And proclaim this kingdom, this otherworldly kingdom that Christ Himself will establish physically and literally when He returns and not until then. And so clearly we are talking about heaven and the next life. And yet Jesus gives him this commandment in verse 21. Is He saying that wealth is evil to some say? Are we supposed to have a redistribution of communism and socialism? Well, if we are, let's not play games. Look at the parallels. Luke chapter 18 verse 22 says, has Jesus saying, sell all that you have. Sell all that you have. Don't just go halfway. This is something you're persuaded of that we have to redistribute wealth and wealth is evil. Don't play games with scripture. You don't give away some. You don't give away most. You don't make everybody equal. That's not what Jesus says. You have to give away everything. Every penny. When you've given away every penny and you have nothing now, you're a good person. Until then you're an evil person. That's what Jesus said. All beloved. So if that's what we're to do, let's do what scripture says and give away all. So thirdly, I want you to notice the good way. Are we to do this? Is Jesus saying everybody must do this? I want you to notice the good way. The way to eternal life is not by keeping the commandments. It's not by the earning of good works and merit. And Jesus is not saying there are better things in the commandments or something you have to add to the commandments or that wealth is evil and you have to get rid of all your wealth. Jesus is being a good teacher. He's being a good teacher. And he's showing the man the one thing he really needs. In fact, in the gospel of Mark at this point, right after the man says, all these things I have got from you, what do I still lack? Mark's verse and has said this, then Jesus looking at him loved him. Jesus looking at him loved him. And he said to him, one thing you lack, go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come take up your cross. Mark hasn't said and follow me. Do you hear that beloved? This man didn't need another good work. It wasn't that wealth was evil. This man's problem was that he had a superficial understanding of goodness. He thought he was a good man. Everybody said he was a good man. He looked like a good man. Jesus is a good teacher. He knows and heard. Jesus is a good teacher. He thinks, you know, like we hear today, people are basically good. It's hard work, but you do, you do your good. There's some good in everyone. He's buying into the normal world definition of goodness. Verse 17 again in the text. Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? Now Jesus is not saying that he's not good when he says no one is good but God. But Jesus knows that this man doesn't know that he's God. This man thinks that Jesus is good the way he thinks that he is good. Everybody's good if they work hard. You work hard. Jesus, I work hard. We're in this good person club. Let's all just talk about our goodness. And it was good. Howard Lee, he doesn't know that he's talking to goodness incarnate. He's talking to the only one who is God. He thinks that Jesus is good the way he is good. And he thought he kept God's law perfectly from us yet. Beloved, he won't allow the law of God to do his work. It's work. He won't allow it.
And so he's basically answering a part from the word of God. What it really would say to him. And this is what we see so often in people of the world. They'll talk about being good, not a good person. He obviously had not heard Jesus in the sermon on the mount. For him goodness isn't that hard. It's pretty easy. What did Jesus say on the sermon on the mount? Matthew chapter 5 verse 27, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery in his heart. He kept all these things from my end. Is there an adult anywhere that would have the temerity, the personal dishonesty, to say that you've never committed adultery. That you've never looked man or woman at another person and had some lust and had some thoughts and went down a road that you shouldn't have gone. Is there anyone in the room who's not an adulterer? Anybody want to show their hand to God? I hope you don't. You might get struck down.
We've all had this not just that one. Verse 21, you've heard that it was said to those of all you shall not murder. And whoever murders shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you whoever is angry with his brother without just cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Anyone here ever been angry? And ever had the slightest bit of that anger, just a little bit over the top. Little bit more than it should have been. Maybe for some selfish reasons, we always do that in anger. It's very rare when our anger is perfectly righteous and just and only for the glory of God because ultimately that would be the only reason we should be angry that somebody would do something that would reflect badly on the glory of God, including when they do injustice to us. Do you see how beloved and we can do this with all the commandments? All the commandments focus on our hearts and our thoughts and our imaginations in every one of these things. And we sin in every one of them. And we sin and we come up short and we fall short. In fact, first John says he who says he has no sin deceased himself. Right now has no sin. If any of us would say right now I'm sinless, we're deceiving ourselves. All these things I kept from my youth. Oh, this man does not understand God's law at all. This is why Paul could say in Romans 3, 10. Listen, and there are many passages like this in scripture. As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. They have all turned aside. They have together become worthless. Listen to this. There is no one who does good. What good thing? I'm a good man. You're a good teacher. There is no one who does good. And that scripture says there is not even one. Not Peter, not Paul, not Mary, not Elizabeth, not Zacharias, no one except God. And this man does not know he's talking to God. He thinks goodness is the kind of thing that our world thinks it is. God weighs the heart and the mind and the desires. In fact, in Matthew 22, 36, Jesus is going to be asked what the great commandment is, the greatest commandment. And you know what he answers? The greatest commandment he says is to love God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind and markets, with all of your strength. And love God. This is the greatest commandment. Now that means according to Jesus that the greatest sin is to not love God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind, with all the strength. The greatest sin is not Joseph Stalin killed 40 million of your own people. The greatest sin is not Adolf Hitler killed six million Jews. The greatest sin is what we're all guilty of in the eyes of God. How could we not perfectly love the being who has made us like him, given us all that we have? Do you recognize what an infinite transgression it is to not love God? How much worse than hurting another person? Martin Luther said that the first great use of the law was as a mirror to show us our sin so that we would flee to God for mercy. By the way, many commentators think the only reason Jesus points them to the second table exclusively is because it's easier to see where we fall short among each other. Right? I mean, he could say this and his wife could be there and say, wait a minute. I think you've done a lot of wrong things just this week, right? People that really know us so they think that maybe that's why he points to the second table whatever Jesus gives him the law. He points him to the commandments. He shows him the mirror and this man looks at the mirror and he sees no blemishes. All these things. What do you say to such a person? Fourthly and last, I want you to notice the good word. I want you to notice the good word. Beloved, this is why Jesus loving the man. He looked at him and loved him and then what did he do? He gave him this particular unique special command to sell all that he has, give it all away to the poor. You'll have pressure and heaven come take up your cross and follow me. The man needed to see that he did not truly know that he was a sinner. He needed to hear from the one sent from God that he was not willing to do what God said, that he fell short of the law. He needed this because this is the only way you can desire salvation by grace and by mercy to know that you're condemned before God. Have you known that? Do you know that if God were to judge you as you deserve he would throw you in hell in a moment. If God were to take my life and get rid of all the bad things boil it down to my best five minutes, a little bit here a little bit there where I mean I remember weeping before the Lord crying out for my dad's salvation. I remember weeping before the Lord crying out for another chance with a girl I thought I had lost. I remember crying out to God for salvation for people. With my heart and feeling and not thinking of anything else if God would take the best five minutes of that and judge me on that I would go to hell immediately. I would go to hell immediately because I fell short of his glory and I was not loving him with all my heart and my soul and my mind as my strength and as much as I was crying out for others I was not loving them as I loved myself. You see Jesus doesn't correct the man when he says to him all these things I have kept from my youth because the man would not have believed. This is a difficult thing but when people come to you a lot of times in Christian California and they'll have an issue and they'll there's thin issues in their lives you can't really point them out right away because they don't believe you you become the accuser you have to have people see it for themselves it's hard we don't want to look at ourselves. When Jesus said to this man keep the commandments he should have fallen on his face and then said well woe is me woe is me I can't keep them I break them all the time I must not be able to have eternal life the law should have done its work but it didn't so Jesus gives him another law he gives him a test he puts him to the test because he knows this man's heart and he knows what was the sin of his life what he was living for and it was wealth and so Christ puts him to the test John Calvin says quote Christ had no other object in view than to correct the false conviction of the young man the man is not convicted so the Lord of salvation the Lord of glory gives him a command he gives him a test fit for him especially made for him in love Jesus gives him the ability the opportunity to really see his heart Jesus shows it to him when his own hardness would not allow him to see it from the law Jesus goes beyond he loves him he gives him the command that the man won't keep and now he knows he's not worthy of eternal life because he comes up short and he knows it the man thinks he is righteous so he gives him a test beloved this isn't about wealth it's a great tragedy to see this text is teaching that wealth is evil or the Christians have to give up wealth and can't be wealthy when God tests Joe he doubles his wealth by the end of the test Joe but the wealthiest man in the world and he becomes twice as wealthy at the end that's God's reward on him not his punishment Solomon has given amazing riches Joseph of Arimathea in the New Testament is described as rich and a disciple of Jesus and he never has to give away his wealth in fact because he's rich he can buy that tomb that Jesus is put in a brand new tomb huge out of the rock Joseph of Arimathea a rich disciple Jesus Lydia was one as well and many of the wealthy women that supported Jesus and he never says give up everything Zikias when Jesus goes to see him and and Luke 19 Zikias is a chief tax collector there was only one in the whole region he lived in Jericho he would have been enormously wealthy and powerful and he says to Jesus if I defrauded anyone I return for a fold and I get half of what I possess to the poor and then Jesus says behold salvation has come to this house for this two is the son of Abraham wait a minute he's only given away half it wasn't the amount this man was showing he was honest and he was generous in other words he had a heart that believes in God and love God and lived it in keeping the commandments by the way a little little side note here I'm not going to spend a lot of time but there is a sense in which if someone would come up to me and say pastor how should I live to have eternal life I would say keep the commandments that is the right answer there's no other way to live as a Christian if you're really a Christian you must keep the commandments they don't become the 10 suggestions after you're saved it's true that this is a fact many commentators Matthew Henry points this out beautifully he quotes Romans 27 where it says it is by patient continuous in well doing that we seek for immortality in other words by doing good we seek for eternal life that's a Romans 27 says but Matthew Henry goes on it says we must be doing that which is good the blood of Christ is the only purchase of eternal life but obedience to Christ is the appointed way to it and then he fights Hebrews chapter 5 verse 9 which says Christ is the author of salvation to all who obey him if you're Christian you have to be living a life of obedience but you don't trust in your obedience you trust in Christ you obey because you're a Christian not to become one you obey because you have eternal life not to earn it you trust in Jesus but you keep the commandments yes so there's a sentence which of course but this man thinks he can do something good by which he can have by which he can earn by which he can merit eternal life and so Christ calls him to make a great sacrifice the idol of his heart the thing that he's holding on to you notice in the scripture reading that Israel had this idol in their heart and God judge them this man has an idol and Jesus puts him to the test so all that you have see who your God is and effect he takes him back to the first commandment you shall have no other gods before me if the son of God commands you to sell everything and you sell everything you don't hesitate come and follow me you will have treasure and heaven Christ holds out to him eternal life just get rid of your idol get rid of your false God make the sacrifice put me first two thousand years earlier beloved God called another man to make a sacrifice God doesn't call everyone to make the sacrifice of the rich young ruler clearly giving you examples he doesn't call everyone to make the sacrifice that he called the rich old ruler to make two thousand years earlier when he tested him to see whether his greatest earthly treasure was the thing that he loved most of all and was it something that he loved more than God it's a God tested him Genesis 22 now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and he said to him Abraham and he said here I am and he said take now your son your only son whom you love and offering offer him on one of the mountains that I will show you go to Mariah and offer him on one of the mountains that I will show you he tested Abraham what is your greatest treasure Abraham is it your son that you waited so long for that I promised you I would give you and now at last I've given it to you your heir the thing you've wanted most in the world do you love him more than me Abraham verse 22 of our text says that the rich young ruler failed the test he went away sorrowful does he ever return does he ever repent we don't know the rich young ruler failed the test the rich old sheepton passed the test and I suggest to you that the treasure that he was called to give up was greater or he was called the sacrifice system beloved the question of this text is our question what are you trusting in what is your God are you trusting truly in Christ alone for salvation then is he your Lord is he the most important thing that's how you know is he the most important thing in your life if you're not willing to endure honest poverty for Christ then you're not a Christian if you're not willing to endure honest unemployment for Christ you have to quit the job because they call you to sin then you're not a Christian if you're not willing to disappoint and maybe even have to leave your family members for Christ and you're not a Christian give up health give up friends if you're not willing to die if you love your life more than Jesus than your life in this world is your God beloved this is where we need to let the law do its work in our heart to realize for certain whether or not God is first that we would give up all for him that we would take up our cross and follow him that we'll live for him and if you do know no that you will have pressure in heaven and you can know right now if you put Jesus first right now you can know that you have eternal life let's pray our Father in heaven how we thank you for this passage we thank you Lord God that you recorded this for us that we could see how easily we can deceive ourselves and sometimes the more outwardly good we are the harder it is we look and see that we're better than other people we've done things wrote well like the Pharisee at the temple who said I ties and I do this and I do that and I'm better than this public and yet it was the public and who beat his breast and said have mercy on me a sinner that you said went to his house justified because the only way to be saved is to seek you for mercy to know that we're condemned before you on our own so Father I pray you bring this conviction to any who don't know that to all of us who do strengthen the conviction that we deserve to be condemned that we would even more hold tightly to mercy and flee to Christ for grace let us grow in our faith and confidence in him even as we grow in our despair of having any confidence in ourselves give us that grace sanctify your people help us to believe and know that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and His name we pray amen