If you would, turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 18 with me, so that you can follow along this morning as we consider these verses in Luke 18, verses 18 through 30. Let's read this text that's before us. Luke 18 verses 18 through 30. Hear the word of our Lord. And a ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother. And he said, all these I have kept from my youth. Then Jesus, when Jesus heard this, he said to him, one thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard it said, Then who can be saved? Then 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. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we thank you that you've given us your word and that you speak to us in your word. You speak to us, giving us light to clear away the darkness of our own ignorance, so much that we don't know, God, that we need to know. And we have no excuse for this, but you shed your light abroad. the hearts of those who read your word in faith, having been illumined by your Holy Spirit, and we give you thanks. But it's not just understanding that you impart, you give light and life, and we need life. We need spiritual life. we need and desire, long for eternal life in the age to come. We pray that you begin that work now in our hearts. Some who are with us this morning have no understanding of these things, confused by the gospel, don't understand salvation through faith in Jesus. Some are a stranger to the promises and who are dead in their trespasses and sins, and we pray, God, that this morning you would raise them up together with Christ and give them new life in Him by your Spirit. God, those of us who have been born again, we pray that you would sustain our life, not just giving us the food that we need, to stay alive in terms of our physical existence, that you would give us food for our souls, that we would have what's needed to persevere in our life of devotion and service to you as we make our way to Zion, as we make our way to glory. So give us understanding, open our hearts to receive the grace that you mean to give to us through your word this morning. We pray all of this in Christ's name, amen. I love singing hymns like the one we just sang. We're marching to Zion. There's a section in the back of the hymnal that is labeled eternal life, heaven. There's songs that are, many of them are sort of jovial. They're more happy than you would expect them to be because we're speaking of our hope. of glory and of being in heaven one day. Familiar songs like We're Marching to Zion, on Jordan's stormy banks I stand, I'll fly away, and many others like this. What I love about these is that they do a good service to us. They fix heaven in our minds and in our hearts. And they encourage us to be what we sometimes call heavenly minded. It's a biblical idea, but the idea of being heavenly minded is so important because it's such a temptation to be earthly minded. We're surrounded by the things of earth. And if we're not careful, we can see the things of earth not as means to a higher end, but as an end in and of themselves, as if we've been created and we've been placed here to enjoy life in this world, to enjoy the relationships and all of the benefits of blessings of this temporal and earthly life, when in fact all of this stuff is a gift of God and meant to be enjoyed, but in such a way that our hearts don't terminate on the things that are here and now on this earth, before us presently, but that we look beyond the gift to the giver and we long to be in his presence. We know that if he can give us such good things here in this fallen world, how much better are the gifts that he gives to those in a world which knows no sin, which is perfect and without the shadow or the stain due to sin. It's a perfect world of glory, a heavenly home for those who have faith in Christ. It's good and right for us as believers to keep heaven in mind and hymns like that fix heaven in the mind and so I encourage you to sing them. Sing these kinds of songs as you go about your day and week. Here in our text we have a man who evidently is heavenly minded. He's concerned about the life that is to come. He's not so focused on the life here and now, which is somewhat unusual for rulers in this day. Not every ruler is like this, but there are some, the party of the Sadducees, who don't even believe in a life to come. There are a certain group of Jews that were Jesus' contemporary. There were also the Pharisees and others, but the Sadducees, they didn't believe in a resurrection of the body or a life after death. And so because of this, they didn't have a hope of heaven. So many rulers were like this. And this features into the New Testament. You see certain times in the book of Acts, for example, where this is actually a way that Christians are providentially able to escape danger because these two sects get into an argument of the Sadducees and the Pharisees about whether or not there's a resurrection, whether or not we can look forward and hope in heaven. But this is a ruler. He's called simply a ruler here elsewhere in the Gospels. We have these other passages in Matthew, Mark, where the same story is told in slightly different words, giving other details. And we're told that he's not just a ruler, but he's wealthy and he's young. And so it's a rich, young ruler. We sometimes know him by this name, a rich, young ruler. But he has heaven in mind. His heart is fixed on the hope of heaven, and he asks this question because he's concerned with whether he will reach heaven, whether he's going to receive the blessings and the benefits of those who will, in the end, be in heaven with God forever. He asks this question in this way, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? That phrase inherit eternal life. Could be a synonym for a lot of things that we talk about salvation and so forth. We have this hope of heaven, this desire to receive spiritual blessings, to be with God in glory, to be saved. And all of this is talking about that hope that when we die, we know that we have to stand before God in judgment, that there will be a final judgment. And that some, obviously, will not inherit eternal life. That it is a question. It's not a shoe-in for us. We're not universalists. We don't believe that everyone, regardless, will be saved. And so it is a question. And for each of us, it's a personal question. I hope it's a personal question for you. I hope that you're not making the assumption that I'll be in heaven. I hope that you ask yourselves, will I be in heaven? Will I inherit eternal life? And all of the good things that that represents. This teacher didn't assume, that's good, or this ruler rather, did not assume. He asked the question. And Jesus gives him an answer. And in this answer that he gives them, he helps the man to discern for himself, whether he will inherit eternal life, and it's an excellent way for us to discern the answer to our own question, will I? Will you this morning? And so put yourself in the shoes of this ruler or the sandals, I guess, and ask yourself, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Will I inherit eternal life? Am I even asking this question rightly? And I want to first consider the perfection eternal life. The requirement of perfection for eternal life, at least in the context of this man and the way that he's framing this question, we see the connection of eternal life with perfection in verses 18 through 22. The rich ruler asked the question, first of all, what must I do to inherit eternal life? I want you to pay attention to this. Already, from the way this man forms the question, we realize that he understands eternal life as something to be worked for or earned. The man asked, what must I do? So already we realize he has an idea about what it means to be saved and it has to do with working for earning that salvation. He's seeking to establish a positive relationship with God on the basis of good works and obedience to God's law. Now this sort of relationship to God is what we sometimes call a covenant of works, a covenant of works. If you read the Old Testament especially, but this is also found in the New Testament, last Sunday evening we celebrated the Lord's Supper and this language comes into where we had the language of the Lord's Supper, the words of institution. We say that this is the new covenant. Jesus himself describes the cup. of wine as the new covenant in my blood. And so there's a new covenant, but there's an old covenant. In the Old Testament you see this language of a covenant relationship with God. And covenants can have different, they can have different, there's different natures of this kind of relationship. I mean, we have different kinds of relationships, friendships, relationship between husband and wife, so forth. There's different kinds of covenant relationships, and the Old Covenant is a covenant of works. And the formula for this kind of relationship to God is, do this and live. And you'll see that language throughout the Old Testament. And when the New Testament describes the kind of relationship that people had under the Old Covenant in the Old Testament, the Testament actually itself is another word for covenant. And so you see how even the Bible, the way we divide the Bible, is Old and New Covenant or Testaments. So different ways of relating to God, the Old Way, Old Covenant, do this and live. In our scripture readings this morning, you see this. If you do all that I've commanded you, you'll inherit the blessings of life in the land. Listen to some of these verses. Deuteronomy 4.1. The Lord says to the people through Moses, And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you and do them that you may live. That's the relationship to God in a nutshell. Here are all the rules. Here is God's law. Do them and you shall live. Again, in Deuteronomy 8.1, he says, the whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do that you may live. Leviticus 18.5, we read, you shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules. If a person does them, he shall live by them. I am the Lord. So this language of obedience, serving as the basis of reward is found throughout the Old Testament, doing the law in order to receive the blessing of life. In the prophets, the people are reminded of it. So in the prophets, oftentimes, the prophet is sort of a preacher of righteousness. He comes in, and we think about a prophet as telling the future, but more often, they're coming in to preach the law to God's people, to say, look, the reason why enemies are at your gates, and it feels like God is cursing you, you may not remember this, but God has told you that if you disobey his law, you will come under these curses. So the prophet is calling God's people back to the law. He's saying, so repent of your disobedience and obey because if you do all of these commandments, God will no longer curse you, but he will bless you. You see this all throughout the prophets. Ezekiel 20 verse 11, the Lord says, I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules by which if a person does them, he shall live. I mean, it's just pervasive throughout the Old Testament. And this is the way that Paul understands the Old Testament. He writes in Romans 10, 5, the New Testament. Paul writes, Romans 10, 5, Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law. So in other words, righteousness being whether or not you're acceptable before God. Does God accept you? Are you right with God? Righteous, that's what it means. And Moses writes about the righteousness, the being right with God, that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. And this understanding of what it takes to be acceptable to God and receive life is in the background of our text this morning and is implied by the language of the rich ruler's question. He just is assuming this is how you're right with God. It's by doing. You do the law and you live. And so he's asking, what must I do? in order to live, to have eternal life. What must I do to inherit eternal life? As one Bible commentator puts it, this man dreams of merit. I love this. This is a perfect way of thinking about how some people think about their relationship to God. If they don't already have self-confidence, oh, God must surely accept me. Surely I'm good enough. If anybody's good looking around at other people, if anyone's good, I'm good enough for God to accept me. If they don't already think that, then they dream of it. They think, if I could just do a little more, if I could just get rid of this sin, or I can overcome this difficulty, this failure, or temptation, or if I can just pursue this obedience in this area of my life, then I will be worthy of God's blessing. And so this man dreams of merit. Well, what Jesus says in response, is calculated first of all to help this man fully understand what it takes to receive life if one approaches God in this way. So Jesus begins by challenging this man's understanding of morality. Even if the rich ruler did not confess Jesus to be God, he has the highest respect for him as a rabbi. He calls him good teacher. So Jesus uses that. He calls him good teacher. Jesus begins to answer this man's question here. He says God alone is good. Why does he say that? Is he just sort of being nitpicky? I mean, he's God, but this man doesn't know that. I don't think he's yet to that point and perhaps never gets to that point. He's not confessing that Jesus is God. And so I think what Jesus is doing here is he's saying, let's begin with, you want to know how good do you have to be to inherit internal life? How good is good enough? Let's begin with what is your standard for good? And he says, you're calling me good, so obviously you're throwing that term around and using that of people that you have the highest respect for. But the standard for good is not the best person that you know on earth. It's not other people around you. God alone is good. And if we would think about ourselves clearly and understand our spiritual condition rightly, we need to make sure we're measuring ourselves against the right standard. Periodically I decide to keep an eye on what I'm eating. I still eat what I want but I keep an eye on it. But sometimes I think I need to maybe drop a few pounds and sometimes we diet, we cut out bread, it's the worst. And so I'm careful about what I eat for a while until I give up and it's miserable. But when I do that, I'm thinking, I'm conscious about, I need to drop a little weight. In the mornings, I'll step on the scale for that feedback. How am I doing? And to see whether I'm doing okay or I need to change something about my diet. And every now, the scale will get off. Something happens to it and it just, it's off. And I may not realize it, you know, and so the scale needs to be reset, and then I'll reset it. I'll push the button in the back, it'll reset, it'll calibrate. I'll step back on, and then either I'll realize, oh, it was saying I was five pounds more than I really was. And so I'll get a dopamine hit, and I'll be like, great, you know, I don't need to diet after all. Go have a cookie. Or, more often than not, I'll have thought I was doing a lot better than I actually was doing. I'll thought, man, I'm doing great. Reset the scale, now it's more accurate. Oh, I'm not doing as well as I thought I was doing. It said that I weighed less than I actually do. And so the scale, the recalibrated bathroom scale brings me back to cold, harsh reality. Well, the scale that you use to measure yourself matters. And many people measure how they're doing in terms of how good they are by comparison with other people. It's not a good scale. It's not an accurate scale is the problem. It's a scale, but it's not an accurate scale. You're not gonna get the right, I mean, weight is a, that is a objective reality. You just, on Earth, given our gravity, you just weigh what you weigh. And if you think I need to weigh less or I need to weigh more, it's just, it's not subjective at all. And a properly calibrated scale will tell you that. Well, morality is the same. It is not subjective. And so we can't compare ourselves with how other people are doing. We have to calibrate our scale by the person of God. He's the one that defines what it means to be good and to do good. And we may think that we're doing great since we're doing a lot better than others we know, but this is a busted scale. And Jesus starts with this. What scale do you use to measure how good you are? God alone is good, Jesus says. God alone is the standard, the measure for what it means to be good. And so his word, and not our whims, defines what it means to do good. God alone is good. God alone defines good. So Jesus follows up. God alone is good. He follows this up with you know the commandments. That makes sense. If God's the standard then we need to look to what he says in his word for what I need to do in order to be considered good in God's eyes which is all that really matters. And so he follows it up with, you know, the commandments because it is in the Ten Commandments especially that God defines true morality. And Jesus recounts here, he recounts commandments. If you notice, if you count them up, he recounts four of the Ten Commandments. Or five, I think it is. It's Commandments 5 through 9. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. So five commandments he lists. which most, this is most of what we call the second table of the law, which is defining what it means to be good and to do good to our neighbor. Why do you think Jesus mentions only the second table of the law, the commandments that have to do with how we treat other people and not, why not the first? commandments which have to do with how we interact with God, what it means to be good and to do good towards God. I think probably it's because although our love to God is more important, it's easier for the insincere and the hypocritical to fake this. I mean you just tell everybody you love God, you sing loud in praise in church, you can say your prayers and people will think that you are very good in terms of, but it's harder to fake a love for other people and obedience to God's law as it concerns doing good to our neighbors because then you actually have to, you have to put your money where your mouth is and do something, maybe. The second table and our love for neighbor is just more visible and more difficult to fake. But in any case, Jesus gives the man God and his law for the standard of what it means to be good and to do good. And the man responds with confidence. Let me ask you this morning, how confident are you that you measure up against the standard of God's law? How confident are you? Do you think of yourself as basically a pretty good person? I mentioned earlier that it's kind of paradoxical that many unbelievers or new believers think of themselves more highly than they are. They think of themselves as basically good people. What you find, the more that you mature as a Christian, that you're more deeply humbled. You're more aware of your sin. And so you feel less confident in yourself, more confident towards God, but less confident in yourself. But I want to know, what do you think? How confident are you that you measure up against the standard of God's law? Do you feel pretty okay about how you're doing, keeping God's word? If, in view of your own works, you do feel confident before God, I think that you seriously misunderstand the requirement of law keeping. Because in order to receive eternal life and spiritual blessing from God, you must render a thorough and perfect obedience to His law, to His commands. If that's the way you're going to go, I'm going to receive eternal life, I'm aiming to inherit eternal life by doing keeping God's law, then here's the standard. It's not just God, who God is, what he says that we must do, but it's doing it in the way that he requires and God requires perfection. Paul summarizes this requirement for perfect obedience in Galatians 3.10, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be... So he's saying, remember Deuteronomy 28, blessings and curses, obedience, disobedience, blessings, curses. He says, but here's the cold, harsh reality, that when you measure yourself against God's requirements for absolute obedience to his law, to all of his law, then there's only curse. Because who among us has rendered that kind of obedience to God? If you rely on your good works and obedience to save you, you had better make sure that you are keeping the law in whole and not in part. Paul says, Galatians 3.10, again, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them. James 2.10 says, For whoever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point, has become guilty of all of it. So Jesus addresses the rich ruler saying, One thing you lack. I'm confident. Jesus fires back, are you confident? Are you sure that you've kept all of God's commands? He's just listed out half or better of the 10 commandments, five of the 10. He lists out all but one of the commands that we consider to be part of the second table of law. What's the missing command? What's the final one, the last commandment? This is the one thing that he lacks. Could it be because this was the one commandment this man was guilty of breaking that Jesus says one thing you lack? And then what does he say here in our passage? Look with me at verse 22. One thing you still lack sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. I think what he's doing there is he's touching on this man's disobedience to the 10th command which he is strategically left out earlier because he knows. This is the one this person has a problem with. I'm gonna ask him about all these commandments. He's gonna express his confidence. Oh yeah, I'm a good person. Yeah, but what about this? Putting his finger on this sore spot in the man's life. Are you willing to part with your material possessions? But the man will not. Because he's unwilling to keep the whole of God's law. And maybe you think this morning, you know what, I think I'm pretty good. Because you're keeping what, nine out of ten commandments? And if you really know yourself, and you know, I did this recently, I'm not sure I'm guilty of breaking all 10, but I feel like maybe with more careful thought I could figure out a way that I actually am guilty of breaking all 10 of the Ten Commandments. But I could come up with, I mean it was like eight out of 10. That I could easily think of ways in which over the course of my life, and sometimes more recently, that I've broken God's law. That's the point is that even if you could keep 8 out of 10 or 9 out of 10 and not break 8 or 9 out of 10 it wouldn't matter. You know all of this man's proud obedience and good works and religious observance and all of ours means nothing because for all that he was still guilty of breaking God's law. in one command, but as James tells us in James 2.10, if you've broken one of God's commands, you're guilty of breaking the whole of it. And the consequence for breaking one of God's commands is the same as it is for breaking all of God's commands. So we need to think about God's law and His requirements for what it means to keep it in a way that's acceptable before Him. And when we do that, we're humbled. We haven't kept God's law, we've broken it, and we ought to be devastated. I think this man is devastated. This man, after Jesus walks him through the law, has him consider carefully God's standards, not his standards, God's standards, the man left in despair. Because he now knew that he could not inherit eternal life by his own works. But he knew no other way of relating to God except by the way of works. Maybe that's the only way you know of relating to God. And so you hear this and you think, well then that's terrible. I've broken God's law. What hope is there for me? And this is the default for mankind to seek acceptance with God and blessing from God by obedience. But it's only one of two ways of relating to God. So first we see the perfection of eternal life, the requirement of perfection for eternal life, at least in the context of a covenant of works. But now let's consider the possibility of eternal life because just because we have disobeyed and there's nothing that we can do to be saved. Because we failed does not mean it's not possible for us to be saved. So we look here at verse 23 through verse 27. When he heard these things he became very sad for he was extremely rich. Jesus seeing that he had become sad said how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to inherit, to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard this said, then who can be saved? I think that they're looking at the big picture here. They're looking at this man who comes. He's a good guy from the way we think about what it means to be good. He's kept all the commandments, maybe except one, but who can blame him for cherishing His possessions, he's earned them. He's worked very hard. He's accumulated this wealth. But he just seems like a pretty good guy. Many of the people who are hearing Jesus probably had a lot more problems than this guy had. If this guy walks away dejected because he knows he can't earn salvation, they're thinking, well, what hope do we have? He was pretty good. I know I'm not good. And here's what Jesus responds with. Verse 27, he said, what is impossible with man is possible with God. So first of all, if you're trying to have a relationship with God by works, by good works and obedience, and you think you can earn salvation, you think that God might be pleased with you because of what you've done, Jesus says here, this is impossible. This is impossible. And if you need to study God's law as he does, he does a Bible study in the law of God with this ruler, if that's what it takes for you to be humbled, or if you're already humbled and you know that there's no good in you, and you're fully on board with Romans 3, there's no one good, no not one, you believe it, you feel it in your bones. You need to hear, yes, it is impossible for you to please God by your own good works and righteousness, but it is not impossible to please God. It's impossible to please God on your own by trusting your own works, but it's not impossible to receive eternal life. There is a possibility that's held forth here. Jesus doesn't get very deep into the specifics of what he means. But what he does say is here, it's possible with God. It's going to have to take a work of God. A work of God. I think we can connect it to what he says just after this passage in verses 31 through 34. He turns to his 12 disciples and he says to them, we're going up to Jerusalem. And he says, everything that is written about the Son of Man or the prophets will be accomplished. and he explains this a little bit, but they don't understand. It's going to take a while for the disciples to understand, but we have, with the light of the New Testament and this further teaching, we have clarity that perhaps those who heard Jesus at this time lacked. We know how it's possible to be saved. apart from works. It's by faith. How is it that God can be both just and the justifier of the ungodliest because he's the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. That Jesus was perfectly obedient in all the ways that God's law requires where we failed. And he did it as our representative and our substitute so that everyone who has faith in Jesus who says, you know, God, I have zero confidence in myself that I'm righteous, but I'm trusting in the righteousness of Christ. God accepts that person. So it is possible that we can inherit eternal life. And so I would call you, just as Jesus, he leads this man to despair in himself, but he does open up the possibility this man would trust God for salvation. I would encourage you this morning to despair in yourself. You're not coming to church because I'm going to build you up so that you feel self-confident. Self-confidence is anathema here. That word should have no place in your vocabulary. I mean, you know, out in the world, be self-confident that you can do whatever. That's fine. Self-confidence in many applications, fine. But when it comes to your faith, it comes to your religious observance and your relationship with God, there is no place for self-confidence. That's a surefire way to be on a path to hell and damnation. There is no self-confidence in Christianity. And so you have to see the impossibility of pleasing God through your own works and totally despair of that as this man does, but to see that it is possible to please God through faith in Christ. Salvation is possible with God. Trust not in yourself, but trust in God. And here's the promise. We see not only the possibility of eternal life, but even the promise and the assurance of this in verses 28 through 30. Peter said, see, we have left our homes and followed you. I think part of this is that, you know, Peter's looking at Jesus like, Jesus, we are trusting in you. We're not special. We're not confident in our own righteousness. That's not what this is about. We're trusting in you. How sure are we that we're going to receive eternal life? Because things are not exactly looking up. In fact, he's going to go on to promise them again in this next section that he's going to be rejected. He's wanted Jerusalem to be rejected and despised and to be crucified and killed. How sure are we that this is actually going to turn out well for us? And Jesus promises. He says this. In verse 29, 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 life and in the age to come eternal life. If you despair of self-confidence and your confidence is in Jesus, you can know because you have it on good authority. God is promising you this morning that you will receive eternal life. If you trust in yourself, will you have eternal life? I don't know. Can you obey all of God's word perfectly all the time? Then you're under a curse, friend. But if this morning you cry out to God for mercy, as we see again and again in this chapter, these examples of children coming to Jesus with nothing to offer, just simply with a childlike, open-handed demeanor to receive from Christ what he might give, to demand from him or to earn anything with God, not to give something to God, but to receive something from God. We see the publican, the tax collector, who beats on his chest and cries out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, when we approach God in this way, we can have eternal life, we are promised it. And so I would urge you this morning to close with God, to take him at his word, to believe the promise, Don't let time escape you. Don't cling to that vain hope that maybe with enough time you can please God. Maybe you're not pleasing to him now, but you can. Don't cling to the vain hope that he's going to overlook all of this disobedience. The only sin that Christ forgives is the sin from those who have put their faith in Christ. And so trust in him this morning. Believe the promise that you will be saved and he will give you the mercy that you cry out for. Let's go to him in prayer. Father God, we thank you that you have made these promises to us. We thank you that you have given us this hope of heaven. And it is truly hope is the assurance of things hope for. Because it doesn't hinge upon our perfect obedience, which none of us can render. It depends upon your son, Jesus. And he has done all things well, and he has obeyed perfectly, and he is a sufficient savior for unworthy and insufficient sinners like we. Pray that you would save us for his sake. We cry out to mercy in the name of Jesus and have confidence towards him. We pray that you would change the hearts of those who are here this morning who don't yet have faith. Bring them to faith. Stir up our faith in him and make us heavenly minded. We pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen.