Lord, I pray for us. Lord, I thank you for having done the impossible in your son, Jesus. And I ask that you would continue to do the impossible and give us a heart for you. Help us to love you better this morning. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm sorry text this morning is from the book of Luke chapter 18 verses 18 through 30 Luke 18 verses 18 through 30 made those for us Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? I 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, so 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. And 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 of God, who will not receive many times more in this time and in the age to come eternal life. Well, you know how on video documentaries or online conference videos, when someone gets up to talk or appears for the first time on screen, a little bar appears in the lower left corner of the screen with their name and a short description of who they are right underneath their name, you know, a way to quickly introduce them to the viewers? If this was a video, a bar would have just appeared right about here saying, I am especially ill-equipped to talk to anyone about our text this morning. How often have I failed my Lord in exactly these areas? And I don't say that lightly, but Jesus is a great Savior. And this passage is here in the Bible, so we are going to preach it. If you're visiting with us, or if you've missed some weeks, Pastor Paul is in the middle of a sermon series on the Ten Commandments. We're going through each of the Ten Commandments. And we're doing this because we believe that the commands of God are important. Because we believe that God deserves our love and devotion. During this series, we also have some supplemental sermons planned, in addition to each sermon on a specific commandment. Last week, we did the first of our supplemental sermons, as Tim preached on John 4, verses 23 to 26, and the importance of real worship, real love for God. God wants worshipers that worship in spirit and in truth. And this morning, we're going to continue with another supplemental sermon by examining a passage in Luke that shows us what love for God really looks like. And it does this by digging into the whole issue of goodness. And so this morning, we're going to walk through this episode from the life of Jesus. And I have kind of five main headings for us to work through. They roughly follow the order of our text, so I'll introduce them as we walk through Luke 18, 18 through 30. But if you're a note taker, I'll give you the heads up. The five headings are goodness and God, goodness and Jesus, goodness and riches, the impossibility of goodness, and God's goodness in the church. So five topics we'll think about as we unpack verses 18 through 30. So section one, goodness in God, verses 18 through 20. And the main point here being, goodness is defined only relative to God. A ruler asked him, good teacher, what can I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except for 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. Sometimes, some outside the church, and even some professing Christians, have viewed this as sort of a problem passage for recognizing the truth that Jesus is Lord and God. They reason, or they question, why did Jesus respond the way he did if he is God? On some ways of taking the whole exchange, it kind of sounds as if Jesus is denying that he is, in fact, good. Because the will opens by addressing him as a good teacher, and Jesus seems to be correcting him. but we have to understand exactly what's going on in this scene. People are right to pick up on Jesus' correcting tone, but we need to understand exactly what it is that Jesus is correcting. The ruler, who Matthew tells us was relatively young, hence the way we refer to him in Christian circles, the rich young ruler. Anyway, the rich young ruler was looking for an out, a kind of get-to-heaven-free card. He addresses Jesus as good teacher, which was probably a bit of flattery. People didn't address rabbis as good teacher. That wasn't a nicety in Jewish society. We have no record of anyone in the entire Talmud using that kind of title. And so the rich young ruler opens up with this, and he puts this issue of goodness in the foreground in this kind of transparent way. And his use of the word good was unusual socially, and so Jesus jumps on it. You see, the rich young ruler was looking either for a loophole or perhaps, in his case, some form of assurance. The way Matthew words the exchange help points this out, Matthew words the ruler's request as teacher, what good thing can I do in order to have eternal life? But even here in Luke, the issue is playing just by the fact that he, as a Jew, is asking this type of question at all. What can I do to inherit eternal life? You see, many Jews at the time thought that surely there existed specific good deeds that, if performed, could secure eternal life. Certain situations and actions provided opportunities to guarantee eternal life, apart from normal life and the laws of God. And it's not hard to understand the impulse, right? The idea that there must be deeds so great that they are pretty much a guaranteed ticket into heaven. Islam teaches that martyrdom is such an act. I mean, people today generally think that good deeds can outweigh bad deeds. Okay, I've spent my life violating the express commands of gods in many ways and at many times, but I selflessly took care of my grandmother all throughout her battle with cancer, so yeah, I'm probably square. We believe generally that good deeds can outweigh bad deeds. It's a short leap to get to the idea that surely there are some deeds so good that doing them must be like, oh, Nina, no hell insurance policy. That's the mindset of the rich young ruler when he asks, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He isn't asking, what kind of life do I have to live in general? He isn't asking, what is righteousness? What is goodness? He's asking, are there any deeds out there of super merit that will get me into heaven? Anything I can do. Any side jobs that would sweeten the pot in my favor when final judgment comes. He's looking either for a loophole, a way to circumvent obeying the laws, or a special guarantee in addition to obeying the laws. Since he was probably at least an outwardly moral person in his particular case, he's probably looking for some sort of guarantee in addition to keeping the laws. But the heart motivation in either case is ultimately the same. And so we have to understand Jesus' response in light of that motivation. Jesus isn't denying his own goodness. He is rhetorically attacking the very mindset that there is any way of defining or thinking about good apart from God and from God's explicitly revealed will. With his rhetorical question, why do you call me good, Jesus isn't saying I'm not good. He's asking, what is the thinking behind this question? As Matthew reports, why are you asking about a good deed? Jesus is getting at this man's kind of misguided approach to living life. You're looking for a loophole. You're looking for extra credit. There is no loophole. There is no extra credit. There is no special secret thing out there that will put you on the short list for eternal life. There is no good apart from the simple revelation of God. Hence Jesus' response, no one is good. There is no teacher out there that is going to be able to give you a special task to gain eternal life. There is only one definer of good, and he is God. And only God is good. Only God defines the bounds of what is good. You're wrong just to be asking this question. God defines what it means to be good, and he has revealed that to us in his word. And so all attempts to be good apart from God or without reference to scripture are illicit. They aren't okay. They aren't real. Jesus says, come on, man, you know the commandments. You know there is only one who is good, and he has revealed what goodness looks like in human relationships. You have been given the revelation of what a moral life is. Jesus cites as examples the 10 commandments. He doesn't quote all of them, but he lists them off just to make the point, goodness has been revealed by God. Have you read Exodus? Then why are you trying to find some secret to eternal life? There is no secret. As it says in Deuteronomy 10, God has revealed what he requires of you, to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep his commandments and statutes. That's why we as a church are in the middle of a sermon series on the Ten Commandments. We're gonna be picking right up next week. Because we believe that only God can tell us what is right, what is moral, and that he has revealed it to us. And so it behooves us to closely study that revelation. And not to rely on our own natural inclinations about what we think is good, or what we think must be important. Regardless of whether you're looking for loopholes or some special ticket to heaven, or just a way to assuage your conscience as you live an atheistic life while denying the existence of God, all people, because of our fallen, twisted, and corrupt hearts, are naturally prone to wanting to define goodness apart from God and His revelation. Do not commit adultery. How about follow your heart? Maybe your marriage was a mistake. Maybe here is the person you were really supposed to be with. I mean, it would actually be a sin not to commit adultery given this situation. Do not murder. How about this baby? Wait, no. Let's just say fetus. How about this fetus is not really what I want for my life right now. Really, it would be wrong for anyone to tell me otherwise. What about my autonomy? And you know what, given how messed up the world is, do I really want to bring a child into it? I mean, surely terminating the pregnancy is actually the most righteous thing to do. Do not steal. How about take what you can get? What about what I deserve? The world is unjust, so I should be able to do whatever it takes to fix that for me. Do not bear false witness. How about I speak my truth? I mean, what is truth? It's just a social construct. There is no false witness. Just my unique witness and perspective. To deny me that, that's the real sin. Okay, maybe here at church we don't go that far that often. But even within the church, the temptation is strong to think about our goodness in relationship to some super special act that we have done. When I'm feeling especially guilty over my sins, sometimes I'm quick to go to, well, I am an adoptive father, and I did serve as a missionary in Africa, so I'm probably safe. But Jesus says, no. Righteousness is straightforward and clear. Obey the commandments of God. You can't define the good any other way, and you can't be considered good if you disobey those commands, no matter how many or great any other good deed you have done might have been. As James tells us, you break one command, you break them all, because they were all given by the same Lord. God won't rubber stamp all your disobedience to his commands just because of one amazing deed. Which brings me to section two, goodness in Jesus, verses 21 through 23. Our main point here being, goodness is defined relative to Jesus. You see, this all raises an important question. If God has told us what is moral, what is good, then is the way to a heavenly reward based on our ability to keep the commandments? What about the relationship of the heart and our outward actions? What about our motivations? Well, since Jesus citing the commandments is not the end of the story, it behooves us to keep reading. The rich young ruler said, all these I have kept from my youth. And 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. The rich young man replies, everything you just said? Yep, I have done all that. I have been keeping those commandments since I was a kid. And if woe commandment keeping was the ultimate decider in the question of real goodness, righteousness, and heavenly reward, we would expect Jesus to say, well, then you're cool. You've got this. No worries. But that isn't what Jesus says. Nor does Jesus question whether or not the Mishnah ruler has, in fact, kept the commandments. Jesus allows that to be stipulated as true in his response to the ruler. This signals us that just avoiding certain evils is not the ultimate issue when it comes to goodness and eternal life. Jesus says there is still one thing that the young ruler lacks. One thing that he still doesn't have. And Jesus reveals that lack with a simple but seemingly huge ask. Jesus gives him a three-part command. Sell what you have, give it to the poor, and follow me. Now, it's important to understand what Jesus is and isn't saying. Jesus isn't saying, here is one more command for you to do, and then you'll have squared away goodness and eternal life. Jesus isn't saying, OK, you've mastered not murdering and stealing. Now, final challenge, give your wealth away. Once you've done that, you're good. You're going to heaven. Once you've done that, you're all right. Jesus isn't contradicting himself by saying that there is some superactive goodness that gets you into heaven. It's selling your stuff and giving it all to the poor. Jesus is using this command to reveal the deficiency in the rich young ruler's commandment-keeping, and consequently, in all of our commandment-keeping. Listen closely. There is a deficiency in all of our good deeds. You see, you can't understand Jesus' words to the rich and ruler apart from the final part of the command. It's the key to it all. So all you have, get to the poor and follow me. Follow me. The issue is loyalty, trust, and love. Jesus, in effect, is saying you can't just keep the commandments at an outward level. You have to keep the ultimate command. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You have to be willing, if called to, to forsake everything and come with me. Over and over in the book of Deuteronomy, as Moses exhorts commandment keeping, he parallels that with the call to love God. Love God and obey his commandments. Treasure God. You can't claim to love God if you ignore his commandments, and you can't claim to really please God even if you keep them outwardly for one reason or another, but you don't love him. And note the shockiness also of what Jesus is saying. The rich young ruler started all this by asking about a good deed, and Deuteronomy pairs commandment keeping and heartfelt devotion to God. And Jesus gives us the ultimate command, follow me. Follow Jesus. Jesus says, only God is good. And if you want to know ultimate goodness, then come follow me. Far from Jesus denying that he is good or that he is God, Jesus is defining true goodness, true love for God, true heart obedience in relationship to himself. You want to know righteousness? You want to know true righteousness? Leave everything for me. Trust me. Love me. Come with me. Far from denying he is good, Jesus is making a demand only God in the flesh could make. The real issue for righteousness, for goodness, is love for God. Do you actually trust God enough and love Him enough to go with Him, to follow Him, to obey Him, no matter what the earthly cost may be? And the way you answer that question is by looking at your relationship to Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate, God in the flesh. Do you love Jesus? Do you trust what he says? Are you willing to forsake everything for him? There is no goodness apart from loving God. I don't care how many times you haven't stolen or murdered or how many times you've told the truth. You can live an apparently perfectly moral life in relatively successful commandment keeping. And if you don't love Jesus, it is all corrupt. God defines what is good, and he tells us what he wants us to do to reflect his goodness. And all of that is bound up with being God's people, loving him and following him, imaging him to the watching world as representatives, as servants of the true master. That's why Paul in Romans says that any action that's not of faith is sin. Even commandment keeping, in the case of having no real faith or devotion to God, is sin. Listen, non-believers can be nice. A common refrain in new atheism literature is that you can be good without God. And that's true, but only with a really truncated understanding of the word good. You can be pleasant. You can be agreeable. You can be likable. You can be nice if you are not a Christian. You can be a relatively good person by various standards. But you aren't good, and you're not good in the most real, most true sense of that word, if you don't love and trust and follow after your maker and the maker of all things. As Tim said, if you're a child with loving, sacrificial parents who gave you everything that you have, you aren't a good kid, no matter how nice and pleasant you are to other kids, if you deny your parents and offer them no love. You are an ungrateful rebel. No goodness cares about commandment keeping, but it cares about commandment keeping because of love for God. And our love, or lack thereof, for God is revealed to us by our response to God's full revelation of himself in human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus' reply to the rich young ruler forces him to put his money where his mouth is. Do you want to know where you stand right now? Give up everything and follow me. Take my yoke upon you, for my burden is light. You can be sure that there would have been an amazing future for that young man had he done it. But he couldn't. The young ruler, upon hearing what Jesus said, became very sad. It's a pretty strong word used here that we translate very sad. Jesus uses the same word to describe his turmoil in the Garden of Gethsemane before the crucifixion. The rich young ruler was torn. He felt gut-wrenchingly upset. He was put in a position that broke his heart. Because the text tells us he was very rich. He had a lot of stuff. That would be a lot of stuff to sell. He wasn't willing to do it. It was too big of an ask. Too big of an ask. He valued what he had more than he was willing to follow Jesus. He did not love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He couldn't. He met God face to face in Jesus Christ. He got to personally ask God in the flesh about eternal life, and he went away sad. Brings me to our third section, goodness and riches, verses 23 through 25. And our main point here being riches are a deceptive and powerful means of drawing us away from Jesus. In response to all this, Jesus says something that every single person in this room needs to hear. Jesus, seeing that the ruler 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. The reaction you are supposed to have to the exposition so far is not good. Jesus doesn't actually call us to give away all of our stuff. That was just a test for this guy to show him that he didn't really love God. Boy, he really got that rich, I want to learn. I'm glad that isn't a literal command to me. No, no. Don't miss the force of what Jesus is saying and how it is binding on us today. Jesus immediately generalizes. It is very difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Not just for that rich young ruler, for any rich person. In other words, there are specific dangers and temptations that come with wealth that are crippling, that are potent methods of blinding you to the wonders and joys of knowing God through Jesus Christ. There are natural temptations that go with wealth that will steal your heart away from the Lord. Scripture doesn't give the same warnings about poverty. It's not that there's an inherent moral superiority to being poor. Scripture's clear about that. We judge the poor and the rich by equal standard, not giving preference to either. But there are real temptations to wealth, which we are warned about time and time again in the Bible. We've talked about many of these dangers recently in church. When we went through the book of James, we meditated on how wealth can trick you into thinking you're self-sufficient. It can make you forget about your absolute reliance on God. It makes you think you got there on your own. Our Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy 8 this morning highlighted that. And notice, if you remember from that reading, the final result in Moses' warning was idolatry. Moses warns that wealth might cause the people to forget God. And then he says, and if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Having a life full of riches is fertile ground for abandoning God and going after other gods. So be vigilant. We also looked recently in a devotional from the Beatitudes at how it is very tempting when you have money to think of it as money as your servant, as serving you. It's an aid to setting yourself up as God in a form of self-idolatry. You have power. You can do what you want. This morning, though, I want to highlight another danger of wealth that we haven't really focused on yet, but which is actually hiding right here in front of us in Luke 18. And it's a danger that is connected to one of the dangers that we have talked about when we preach through James, that I do want to quickly rehash. The danger that we talked about in James that prevents us from really hearing these warnings is to classify ourselves as not rich, and then to not apply these passages to ourselves, to not let the full weight of the danger bear down on our hearts, And in our heads, I'm not Bill Gates. I'm not rich. I'm not in danger of loving my wealth too much. I have student loan debt. I have to buy from Aldi sometimes. There is no way that Jesus would have issued the same test to sell all that I own to me. You see, that's one of the most potent dangers of wealth. One of the most deceptive things about wealth is that wealth is pretty good at blinding you to its presence. When I was young, I was taught the difference between the idea of a want and a need. Just because you desire something doesn't mean that you can't live without it. Thus, I was told I should be careful about saying that I needed something, as all children are prone to say when they really, really want something. These are helpful categories. They're good categories. And I think that Christians, in general, are pretty amenable to the idea that we probably spend too much on our wants. and that we could be more generous with our disposable income. And that's good. That is good, that we can hear sermons like this and be more willing to forego the big screen TV that we were planning to get and instead donate that money to a missionary. That's fantastic. However, maybe the most devilish deception that wealth perpetrates on our hearts is how it affects the sort of things that we sort into our needs and our want categories. You see, we never have to evaluate our needs. They are our needs. They are what you have to spend money on. I mean, they're absolutely essential to life. We must have them. That's why we call them needs. If you don't have much money to spend on your wants, then you aren't really wealthy. It's our wants. It's only our disposable income that needs evaluating. Only when we have much to spend on wants, that's when we're really wealthy. You see, the more we have, the more things that we are tempted and tricked into moving into the need category, and thus absolving ourselves from ever having to evaluate them again. The more we have, the more we believe is essential to our lives. The more we have, the more we are liable to think, I can't live without that. The more we have materially, the more opportunities there are to think, no, not that. I won't give up that to follow you. Jesus, I can't give that. The rich young ruler didn't go away because he thought there are too many indulgences that I enjoy with my wealth and I'm not willing to give up. He didn't think, no, I like my weekly pedicure and I like the expense of figs. He went away sorrowful because he was asked to give up too much. It was too much. It was too big of an ask. Because he was very rich, his riches deceived his heart about how necessary they all were. Don't forget the stakes explicitly laid out here. The rich young ruler asked, what do I do to inherit eternal life? eternal life. As Jesus words it, the issue is entering the kingdom of God, or as the disciples phrase it here in our text, being saved. All of these things are three ways of talking about the issue that is at stake. Entering God's kingdom, being saved, having eternal life. Escaping hell and judgment, being welcomed into God's kingdom where there are no tears and no pain and where there is joy and joy forevermore because you live forever in a quality of life that makes even the most full life in this world seem like but a shadow. overcoming death itself. These are the stakes that were laid out by the rich young ruler himself and reflected on by Jesus and his disciples. That's what they were talking about. The rich engineer didn't walk away from that because he didn't want to give up his weekly massage and facial. He didn't walk away from that because he didn't want to give up the top-shelf wine for a lesser brand. He went away sad, extremely sad, torn, because of the great mass of things that he believed that he needed, the things that he thought were essential to his life, that he loved or valued. more than Christ, the things that he thought of not as luxuries, but as needs. The only reason he would walk away from eternal life is because he thought what Jesus was asking was not possible. I can't do that. That would be too hard, too unbearable. And maybe, as we read this, we're tempted to think judgmentally concerning this rich, angular ruler. I mean, what would be too hard to give up for eternal life? What would be too hard to give up for being welcomed into God's kingdom? It's anything that we have deceived ourselves into thinking that we believe we cannot live without. The more we have, the more we move into the need category. The more temptations there are to think exactly those types of things. We all have those things. We can't sit in judgment on this rich young ruler. What are in our needs categories that we haven't evaluated? What are in our needs categories that we would not be willing to give up? Herbert Moret is a pastor of a small Reformed village church in Africa. He's not a celebrity preacher. There's no reason you would have ever heard of him or will ever hear of him again. But he is a faithful, hard-working pastor whose church cannot afford to pay him, so he has to do other work. He has three children, and he has one on the way. And he lives in a mud-brick house about the size of my master bedroom. But he isn't destitute, and he lives happily, comfortably. So you tell me, how much square footage do you need? There are 1.5 billion people without the complete Bible in their language. There are around 2,000 languages with no Bible whatsoever. In order for these languages to get Bibles, we need translators. That means people have to study and learn to be fluent in ancient Hebrew and Greek. And then they have to go and learn to be fluent in the language that they are translating into. And some languages aren't written languages. So you need linguists to go, create a writing system, disseminate that writing system, turn the culture into a literate culture, then give them the Bible. These aren't six-month projects. In some cases, they are lifetime projects. And they require lots of highly skilled workers, workers who will die if they do not eat. But Bible translation is not a money-making endeavor. Publishers aren't going to make money by having the Bible translated into new languages. HarperCollins isn't paying anyone to get the Bible into Tunia. This kind of work only happens when churches and people who believe that it is important and necessary fund it. So you tell me, how much do you need a second car? The point is, there are so many things that each and every one of us have been trained to assume are essential to our lives just because of the fact that we live in such an affluent time and place. Our riches make it harder for us to readily see and think about all the kingdom causes that we may, in fact, be distracted from. or just all the other options out there for using our money. In America, we are told there are very specific ways to live a good and wise life. Study something that will get you a high-paying job, buy a house, save for retirement. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. Not seek first stable retirement, and then you can safely work for God's kingdom with your financial freedom. That somehow always seems to escape us. We have so many voices in our heads telling us what we need, and we take it to heart. And then we're trapped in a vortex of financial obligations and desires. Listen to me. If you are listening to this, you are probably rich. If you are thinking, but I am barely covering my needs, you are probably heavily overestimating your needs. Jesus says it is very difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Don't diminish what Jesus is saying. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for you to be saved. Which brings me to point number four, which is the impossibility of goodness. Verses 26 to 27, the main point being, whether you are rich or poor, you actually don't have it in you to love Jesus and to follow him. You see, the listeners respond to this stunning statement about rich people in verse 26. Those who heard it said, then who can be saved? But Jesus said, what is impossible with man is possible with God. If a more rich person, probably hardworking, probably someone who earned his money and used it well in the community. If that type of person can't be saved, then who can be? The rich young ruler was probably an upstanding guy. At least Jesus allowed that to be hypothetically considered when he didn't question his commandment keeping. Proverbs tells us that wealth is often the blessing of a life of good and honest hard work. Wealth is good and can often be a sign that the one who possesses it has lived life well by godly standards. So if a more wealthy person can't be saved, if it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for any rich person to be saved, who can be? And notice what Jesus does not say in response. Jesus doesn't say poor people. Poor people can be saved. There is no moral superiority to poverty. Jesus doesn't highlight any other group. Jesus doesn't pick any defining feature and say, people with this, they have a chance, or people who don't have this, those are the ones. Jesus says, what is impossible with man is possible with God. The first thing that Jesus implicitly acknowledges, salvation for any on their own ability is impossible. You already made it clear it's impossible for the rich because, you know, camels actually can't go through the eyes of needles in case you thought otherwise. You know, the people who ask who can be saved, Jesus effectively says, sorry, everyone is in the same boat as the rich for one reason or another. It is an impossibility for man. It is impossible for you. What the rich young ruler was looking for, how to enter eternal life, is not something you can do. You can't do it. You don't have it in you to live a life pleasing before God and to be welcomed into his kingdom. And that reveals to us our heart condition. Because remember, it is the issue of following Jesus. It is the issue of loving God. that ultimately decides salvation according to Jesus. So when Jesus says that no one can be saved, he's revealing no one really loves God. No one is really willing to follow me with all their hearts. Paul echoes this confession in Romans 3. There is no good. No, not one. No one seeks for God. They've all turned aside. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now, maybe this is not the sermon you were hoping to hear today. What did the preacher say today? He told me that I was rich, caught up in the deceptions of wealth, and that I couldn't be saved. And if that's what you've heard so far, you've got it. That's right. That's what I'm saying. You have to reckon with the fact that for man, it is impossible to be saved, because we don't have the heart for it. We don't really love our Creator. When you scratch the surface in our heart of hearts, we are corrupt and we will reject the call to follow Jesus. For everyone, it is impossible. Because no one sees Jesus. No one sees God is worth it. No one believes the call to follow Jesus is worth it. That's all of us. But, Jesus doesn't leave us there. What is impossible for man is possible with God. You can't pull away the blinders that your material prosperity has put over your eyes, but God can. You can't talk yourself into having eternal priorities, but God can put them in you. You can't earn your way into eternal life, but God can provide it for you. We don't love God until he pours his love into our hearts. We loved because he first loved us. That's why Jesus taught this way. It's why God inspired Luke to record this story, and why God made sure that these words would be preserved for us to read. We can acknowledge the absolute bankruptcy of our hearts and mind, and we can come to God and we can ask Him to change us. Yes, I am wealthy. I am caught up in that. I can't see clearly in this fog. Lord, please help me to see. That's why we read these passages, because we trust that the Spirit can illuminate them, make their meaning clear to us, and then we can write that meaning on our hearts, so that we come away changed, made more into the image of Christ. We can admit our faults and trust God to make us more like Jesus. And I know that no matter how much we are changed and we are sanctified, no matter how much we overcome sin, whenever we come back to the Bible, it seems like it shows us that there is so much more new sin to deal with in our lives. I know it seems like we will never be worthy of the kingdom of God. That's because that is also true. And yet again, look back to Jesus. What is impossible for man is possible for God. That's why not only does God provide the means of changing our hearts, that is, the Word of God and the Spirit of God applying it to us, He's also provided the very basis of even doing that good work for us. God has provided for our very acceptance into the Kingdom. God has provided the very grounds that we should be rewarded with eternal life. God has provided salvation because God has provided a Savior. How can any of us be saved? Only if someone saves us. That's why Jesus came. For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That's why the cross is central to everything. Jesus' death wasn't just an inspiring act of selflessness. It is the very foundation of all of our hope. We don't deserve eternal life. We do deserve to die. It isn't possible for us, corrupt and selfish, to live a life pleasing to God. But Jesus, God in the flesh, lived a perfect human life. God did what was impossible for us. He lived a perfect human life. And though Jesus is the only person who did not deserve to die, he suffered and was killed, and he took upon himself the divine wrath that all of our evil justly deserves. And so God makes a trade for his people. The death we deserve, Jesus died. The wrath we deserve, Jesus took. And the life Jesus lived, he counts as us having lived. And so we can have the status of punishment paid and righteousness lived because of what God does, not because of what we do. God does the impossible and saves us. Now listen to me. This impossible gift is not for everyone. It is for those who are united to Jesus by faith. His life is only counted for you. His death is only counted for you if you belong to Him. If you have acknowledged your real need. If you have acknowledged the impossibility of saving yourself and you have turned to trusting Jesus and acknowledging Him as the only Creator and Lord. And when you do that, you follow Him. You treat His words as life because they are. That brings us to the last few verses and my final point today. Section 5, Goodness and the Church. God's goodness in the church. Verses 28 through 30. The main point being, God demonstrates his goodness for us in our local church, which is where we are called to live out sacrificial lives for him. God demonstrates his absolute goodness for us in our local church, which is where we are called to live out sacrificial lives for him. See, the passage ends with Jesus addressing those who have, in fact, followed him. In response to all this, Peter says in verse 28, see, we have left our homes and followed you. And Jesus 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. Peter may sound a bit self-righteous, but Jesus doesn't chide him here. Peter isn't exactly acknowledging the necessary truth that results from what Jesus just said, namely that Peter's own obedience is a result of the gracious work of God in their hearts. But still, Jesus graciously chooses to offer words of comfort, addressing those for whom God does that work in their heart to follow him. And this comfort belongs to all of us who have, in fact, followed Jesus. He offers words of comfort to all of us who have believed on his name, but who may yet struggle with some particular sacrifice that he may call us to make. Jesus says, I promise you, no one who is called to leave everything for me will not receive more. Losing everything is not the end to any Christian's story. I want to point out a couple things in this promise that help us to understand it and apply it rightly. The first is, it's two-pronged, right? Two-part promise. The promise envisions both a reward in the consummation when Jesus returns and makes all things new, but it also envisions a reward in the present. Jesus says that those who follow him will receive many times more in this time, as in the present age, as in now. And in the age to come, they will receive eternal life. Now, this is not a prosperity gospel proof text, though some have used it this way. I had a student once, actually, who tried to make that exact argument, that this text promises material prosperity to believers. He said, it says here, if you give up your house, Jesus promised wealth enough to have many houses. But that is not what the text is saying. Because first of all, it's wrong to focus just on the word house. The majority of Jesus's list here are family members. And Jesus picks these things for two reasons. The first is he picks what is theoretically the most difficult sacrifice any of us may be called to make. For most of us, the most difficult thing to give up for Jesus would be family. But the second reason that Jesus picks these examples is because they parallel the form of provision that Jesus provides to those who follow him in the present. The point is that even if following Jesus means you must leave your family or be abandoned by your family, even if you have to leave the material security of having your blood-related support system, he promises a new family. You see, there's a natural asymmetry to the promise. It's not, if you give up your house, Jesus will give you three. Anyone would take that deal. No, Jesus is saying, if you give up one family, he will give you another. Jesus is talking about the church. Those who give up everything to follow him are gifted the church family. They are brought in, grafted in, adopted into Jesus's family. Look at the kindness to how the Lord Jesus responds to us. He doesn't say, suck it up, you just have to follow me. He deserves our true loyalty, our total loyalty. He has every right to demand it absent any kindness. But look at how he loves us. He says, I know the road looks hard. I know all the affections that pull you away from me. But if you leave your mother to follow me, I will give you Bev and Murray. I will give you Alicia and Chris. I will give you Yvette and Cheryl. You say, I don't know if I can make the sacrifice I feel convicted to. I don't know if I can support a Bible translator or take a lower paying job. I don't know if I can do that. Jesus says, it's okay, you won't be in this alone. I will give you a Camilo and a Josh, a Mike and a Damien, a Paul and a Tim. I'll give you three Tims. What kindness, what encouragement. Jesus says in the present age, right here, right now, I will give you my family and you will not be alone in the sacrifices I call you to make. And here is a concrete application point. Grace Covenant Church, we are the fulfillment of this promise to each other. So let's be the fulfillment. It is our job to be there for each other, to encourage each other and to provide for each other during the course of sacrificing for Jesus. We are one of the means of God giving each other the strength to be able to make the hard decisions, to give up the things that we think we need. Jesus says, no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will not receive many times more in this time. Brothers and sisters of Grace Covenant Church, if there is someone among us who needs a place to stay, Jesus promised them your house. The fact of the matter is, we are called to make the same sacrifice that the rich young ruler was called to make. Jesus makes the equal demand of all men. Total commitment, complete love, true loyalty. We are called to make that sacrifice. This is a direct call to us. And one of the ways we make this sacrifice is that we make it for each other as a means of fulfillment of Jesus' promise to provide for us. Jesus didn't say to the rich young man, take all your stuff and burn it. He said, sell your stuff and give it to the poor. Jesus said, use your stuff for others in the course of following him. We are called to love Jesus and to follow him. And notice the direct parallel created by verses 28 and 29. Peter says, we have left everything to follow you. And Jesus, talking about Peter and the others, describes what they did as leaving everything for the sake of the kingdom of God. The two inform each other. Following Jesus is prioritizing the kingdom of God. You aren't a member of the kingdom. Much less can you say you truly care about it if you haven't left your own life to follow Jesus. And following Jesus means that we prioritize our work as representative members of God's kingdom. Using our wealth, using the gifts that God gives us for the sake of kingdom purposes, evangelism, mercy ministry, charity, these are the ways that we demonstrate our love for God, our love for Jesus. And this manifests primarily in the ministry and life of our local church, here, at Greece Covenant Church. We are called to give up everything for the sake of loving each other as we love Jesus Christ and seek to make his name famous in Elgin and in the world. One of the reasons we're usually able to make hard-asked passages like this not apply to us is because we don't think in terms of the local church. Well, of course I'm not told to sell all my stuff. That would be ridiculous. Give to the poor? Which poor? I can't help every poor person in the world. And that dismissive thought always ends up in helping no poor person. Christian, do you want to know how this command works out in your life? You need only to look around you. to the people that you have covenanted together with as Grace Covenant Church. We are called to make the same sacrifice as the rich young ruler. Do not diminish the gravity of that. I don't want to let you off the hook just because there hasn't been any need in the life of our church for any particular sacrifice that would shock you too much. Maybe there has been, and you've been blind to it. Maybe one is coming. Imagine the Lord takes one of our brothers from us, and they leave behind a widow and children, and they didn't have life insurance. We don't wag our fingers at their irresponsibility and let them suffer the consequences. We sell some of our homes and buy smaller homes so we can use the proceeds to support the family. Or someone sells their home and buys a bigger home so the family can come live with them. The ways we use God's blessings to us are varied. But the point is, none of our stuff is off limits for Jesus and the church. And brothers and sisters, don't get defensive or scared or exceedingly sorrowful at these ideas the same way our rich young ruler did. Don't walk away from today sad. Rejoice, fear not for Yahweh, Lord of hosts says he is your shield and your reward is great. I said it before as a warning, but now I'm saying it as an encouragement. Remember the stakes. Let's not forget the second thing that Jesus promises here, right at the end of our passage. Besides the joy and provision of the covenant community in the present, we will have eternal life. Those of us who love God and Jesus, those of us who follow after Him, who give Him our loyalty, inherit the kingdom of God. We will live forever in the new heavens and the new earth, with glorified immortal bodies, free from all sin, corruption, suffering, and death. Jesus will wipe every tear from your eye. Listen, my church family, I promise to walk with you in any sacrifice that you are called to make for Jesus. But even better than that, Jesus promises to wipe every tear from your eye. Jesus promises to one day take away every reason you have for crying after he has spoken you out of the ground. Don't forget the stakes. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for what you have done for us, you and your son, Jesus. What we were unable to do, we have all been unable. to leave everything to follow you. And so I ask that you will continue to work that miracle in hearts, continue to open people's eyes to your words so that we would turn and follow you. I ask that you would give us great joy and gratitude for that work that you do. And I ask that you would continue to strengthen us with your spirit, through the reading of your word, to be able to make any sacrifice that you call us to. For you are worth it, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.