Good morning, everyone. Father, we come before you privileged to have your word wash over us. I hope it's something that we don't take for granted, Lord. I know that I'm guilty of that at times. Even just a great blessing it is for me to be able to commit my life to studying it like this and sharing it with your people.

I pray I want to take that for granted Lord and help us to recognize a wonderful blessing it is and even privileged to be here knowing there are others who would lack this grace that we're able to experience so freely. And so I pray Lord to be attentive. I pray that the full work that you would desire to accomplish in our hearts and lives through this preaching would take place today. I pray, Lord, that we can be fully committed to you, our hearts, and what you wanna say to us. I pray that we'd all have the recognition that this is your word and it is what you want to say and so to be here and to hear the verses is to hear you speaking to us.

I do thank you for this account. I find it particularly sobering with the rich young ruler. I think there's ways in which we might be able to relate to him because of our wealth and opulence in this country better than people throughout human history even and throughout the rest of the world today Lord and so I pray that the the full work you want to do would be done and I pray you just use me as your vessel to accomplish that and we ask this in Jesus name Amen. Alright we're going to see all of you. Hopefully you're in Luke 18.

The title of this morning's sermon is Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler. So on Sunday mornings we're working our way through Luke's Gospel verse by verse. You know, we find ourselves in Luke 18, 18. We've reached a wonderful suffering account that I've referenced in other sermons, but I've never had the joy of being able to preach through verse by verse like this. I've been looking forward to this account.

I hope you're as blessed and challenged having it preached to you as I have been blessed and challenged studying it. Randy Smith said, "'The problem with greed is not so much seen in our possessions but rather what is possessing our hearts. Let me say that one more time. The problem with greed is not so much seen in our possessions and I suspect he said that because possessions are largely amoral, but rather what is possessing our hearts or our possessions possessing us. And this morning we'll see a man, the rich young ruler whose possessions were possessing his heart.

Look with me at Luke 18, 18. A ruler asked Jesus, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now I'm going to reference the parallel, well you probably noticed this as we're going through Luke's gospel, sometimes we'll reference the parallel accounts because of the added details that they give. And this morning, I'll do that a few times, and the parallel account in Mark's Gospel says as Jesus was setting out on his journey listen to this a man ran up and knelt before him and asked good teacher what must I do to inherit a turn our life so just picture this I think it's wonderful when we're reading narratives to allow the imagery to be created in our minds of what this actually looked like not to go through it too quickly and their accounts are described for us, and so to really savor them by picturing what's happening. And so our Lord is setting out on this journey, and there's this man who's so eager, he runs up to Jesus, he kneels before him And asks him this question.

So let me just ask you how does the rich young ruler sound? Do you sound good or bad? Let me say that I Think he sounds good. I Think he seems zealous He runs up to Jesus. I think he sounds humble.

He kneels before Jesus. He's respectful. He calls him good teacher. He clearly thinks highly of Christ. Is he interested in spiritual matters?

Does he care where he spends eternity? Absolutely. He asks one of the most important questions we can ask, what must I do to inherit eternal life? So he believes in God. He believes in heaven.

He wants to go to heaven. Look how Jesus responds. But he says, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Now Jesus is not saying that he's not good and he's not saying that he's not God.

Instead he's saying there's only one who's good and that's God and so if the rich young ruler would call Jesus good, he must also recognize that he's God or another way to say it would be that if the rich young ruler doesn't recognize that Jesus is God, then he should not be calling him good and in a moment, we're going to see Jesus help the rich young ruler see that really only one is good and that's God and that nobody is sinless. Because did the rich young ruler think he was good? Not did the rich young ruler think Jesus was good, did the rich young ruler think the rich young ruler was good. Yeah, he absolutely did. He thought he was very good.

So look what else Jesus says to him now. Luke 18 verse 20. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. The seventh commandment.

Do not murder. The sixth commandment. Do not steal. The eighth commandment do not bear false witness the ninth commandment honor your father and your mother the fifth commandment so apparently when you're Jesus you can put the commandments in whatever order you want now this is interesting I want to ask you something if you were not familiar with this account and you see someone ask Jesus how to inherit eternal life what would you expect Jesus to say or here's another way to say it if someone came up to you and asked how to inherit eternal life what would you say oh come on Maybe we really need to talk about this, the gospel. What would we say to someone if they said, I want, how do I inherit eternal life?

What would you say? Repent and believe, believe in Jesus, have faith in Christ. All things associated with believing, faith, probably repenting as well. Our minds could go to Paul and Silas who received this question from the Philippian jailer. Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

And Paul and Silas said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. But here's what I can guarantee you wouldn't say. If someone asked how to inherit eternal life, obey this commandment and this commandment and this commandment, this commandment. Like Jesus said. I'm not trying to sound irreverent, but did Jesus forget the gospel?

Why did he respond this way? Is he describing another way to be saved? And believe it or not, this is not the only place Jesus responded this way. Turn a few chapters to the left to Luke 10 25. This account has similarities with the lawyer.

The account with the rich and ruler has similarities with the lawyer who tested Jesus. So briefly look at Luke 10 25. Behold, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test saying, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now, there's similarities and differences between the rich young ruler and the lawyer. The similarity between the rich young ruler and the lawyer is they asked the same question, how do I inherit eternal life?

The difference is that they had completely different motives in doing so. Do you see that? How did the rich young ruler ask? I would say sincerely. He's being Jesus and he wants to know.

I don't wanna say how, but why did the lawyer ask? Why did the lawyer ask? It says it there. What did he want to do? Yeah, he's trying to test Jesus.

He's not asking sincerely. He wants to trap him and make him look bad. Now, I'll explain something about lawyers So you better understand Jesus' response. And I don't mean lawyers in our day. In fact, that's what I would pull you away from picturing lawyers in a courtroom.

Instead, think of the way that lawyers in our day would study the law. Lawyers in Jesus' day would study the law as well, but the Mosaic law. And so the lawyers were the experts in the law. They were even greater experts in the law than the priests and Levites, because the priests and Levites ministries were so committed to sacrifices and worship or temple ordinances that they didn't have the same amount of time to commit to studying the law like lawyers did. And so I would say this, or in fact, many of your Bibles, if you have the NIV or Amplified Bible, it says expert in the law versus lawyer, doesn't it?

If you have the NIV, does it say expert in the law versus lawyer? If you have the New King James or NASB, there's probably a footnote that says lawyer could be translated as expert in the law. So that's how that's how much they were experts in the law. They even get their own footnotes in the bibles to identify that. And so I emphasize this because if there's anyone who could contend with Jesus in a debate, it is going to be this man.

But Jesus responded as brilliantly and effortlessly as every other time verse 26. Jesus said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it? And the lawyer answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. So Jesus told the rich young ruler to obey the commandments and indirectly he told the lawyer to obey the Ten Commandments because if you obey these two commandments you obey both tables of the law.

And here's what I mean by that. If you love God perfectly, do you see how you're going to obey the first four commandments perfectly? You're not going to have other gods, you're not going to make idols, you're not going to use God's name in vain, and you're going to observe the Sabbath rest, which just as a note, we observe through resting in Christ's finished work. Now, if you love your neighbor perfectly, the other commandment that the lawyer quoted, then what are you gonna do? You're gonna obey commands.

The second table of the law commands five through 10. You're gonna honor your father and mother, you won't commit murder, you won't commit adultery, you won't steal, you won't give false testimony against your neighbor and you won't covet. But we know that we can't inherit eternal life by obeying the law. And so that's why unless you're involved in a workspace religion or a false religion and you preach a false gospel, you would never tell someone to obey the commandments to inherit eternal life. So of course Jesus is gonna tell the lawyer that he cannot keep these commands to be saved, right?

Nope. He responded the same way to the rich young ruler. Look at this, verse 28. Jesus said to him, you have answered correctly, Do this, obey these commandments perfectly and you will live. And this brings us to lesson one.

We would be justified by the law if we kept it perfectly. We would be justified by the law if we kept it perfectly. Is the law good or bad? Say good. Is the law good or bad?

Say good. Is the law good or bad? It's good, that's right, yes. The law is good. It provides a morality that when obeyed perfectly allows for salvation or eternal life.

There's actually an individual who kept the law perfectly and received eternal life as a result, got to ascend to heaven, and that's Jesus Christ. And so, why did Jesus respond to these two men this way? Well, he was simply answering their question. Think about this. He was answering their question because much of his answer is contained in their use of the word do.

Luke 10 25, the lawyer asked, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life the rich young ruler asked what must I do to inherit eternal life both of these individuals are convinced that eternal life is achieved by doing or working or performing or obeying well enough. They thought they were saved by doing so Jesus told them what to do with the law perfectly. Now I don't, I'm speculating here but maybe if they would have asked differently, maybe if they would have said, how can I inherit eternal life versus what must I do to inherit eternal life, Jesus would have told them something different? Now you could be uncomfortable with this. You could say, well, Pastor Skarnomos Sounds like you're saying that Jesus misled these two men.

No, he did not mislead them. He told them the truth. This is one of the ways to be saved. If you can keep the law perfectly, you can be justified or declared righteous by it. The law itself testified to this.

Let me say that one more time. The law itself testified to the reality or truth that if kept perfectly, it can provide eternal life. So when the rich young ruler and the lawyer responded to Jesus, it's pretty obvious they were quoting the law. Right? It's obvious they respond to Jesus quoting the law.

But what might not be as obvious is that Jesus was quoting the law back to them as well, and here's what I mean. Jesus said, do this and you will live. And those words, you will live, were frequently attached to Old Testament verses. And in particular, obeying the law and being able to live as a result. So when Jesus said, do this and you will live, those familiar with the law, like the lawyer, would understand that Jesus was quoting it.

Here are three examples. Deuteronomy 4-1, Israel, listen to the statutes and rules I'm teaching you and do them that you may live. Nehemiah 9 29 if a person obeys your commandments he shall live. Ezekiel 18 9 whoever walks in my statutes and keeps my rules by acting faithfully he is righteous he shall surely live. And so because of this it was well known that if people obeyed God's law Perfectly they would live or inherit eternal life.

And so that's how Jesus responded. But what's the problem which we all know? Yeah, none of us can do this Not even one day not even one hour of our lives. Be perfectly obedient. This brings us to lesson two.

We must be justified by faith because we can't keep the law perfectly. We must be justified by faith or declared righteous by faith because we can't keep the law perfectly We've talked about this many times so I don't want to spend much time on it But the point of the law or one of the points of the law is to show us our sinfulness We've talked about this right the world has this Incredibly wrong The world looks at the law oppositely of what it's intended to do. People believe that the law, or let's say the 10 commandments, are meant to provide a way to be saved, that by keeping them mostly or some of the time, you're going to be good enough to go to heaven. Romans 3.20, by works of the law, no human being will be justified or declared righteous in God's sight because through the law comes knowledge of sin. We should look at the law and recognize our sinfulness and need to be saved a different way apart from the law.

We should be able to look at the law and have the humility to say, I am not keeping this perfectly for salvation. So because none of us can keep the law perfectly, God has graciously provided a way for us to be saved apart from or independently of the law. The very next verse, Romans 3 21, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law." So God has in his mercy because of our inability to keep the law perfectly, provided a way for us to be saved independent of having to obey the law and that is by faith in Christ. That is the gospel that we are justified or declared righteous by grace through faith.

Now look what happened when the lawyer, so in Luke 10 we'll look at his response and then the rich young ruler. To justify himself said to Jesus who's my neighbor and I wanted to see this verse because as sad as it is I do love the way that it's worded I don't love this man's pride I do not love this man's misunderstanding of the gospel But I do love the way this verse shows that if people are not justified by faith, they must Strive to justify themselves right by works, which is what he did. He desired to justify himself My suspicion is The lawyer knew that he couldn't keep the law perfectly, but he was not willing to submit to Christ, so instead he tries to lower the bar or the standard by saying, well, then who's my neighbor? Now turn back to Luke 18. He wanted to make it more manageable by limiting who his neighbor might be.

Turn to Luke 18 to see if the rich young ruler recognized his sinfulness and need to be saved. Shockingly, after Jesus presented the commandments to him in verse 21, he said, "'All these I have kept from my youth. Now, I don't know how many times I've read this passage. Over the years, I've wondered why he said this. I can only see a few possibilities.

One, he's lying. I don't think that's it because I believe he's sincere. Or the other is he's proud. Pride blinds us to the truth. I think that he sincerely believed that he had kept these commands perfectly since he was a child.

And so in this truly remarkable demonstration of pride, the rich ruler seems to have been obedient to all the commandments. And so he believes the world's most common lie. I am a good person. Ask people why they'll go to heaven, why they will go to heaven, and many will tell you they follow the Ten Commandments. They're just like the rich young ruler.

Essentially people say I've kept all these commandments, you know, why would you go to heaven? Well, I've kept these commandments since my youth, largely like the rich young ruler. Now, I want to ask you a question. Are any of you familiar with Jeff Foxworthy and how he used to, he became famous I think with kind of the you might be a redneck jokes. Does anyone know those by a show of hands?

You might be a redneck if. That's in only like seven or eight of you. Okay, maybe more. Okay. I think Jeff Foxworthy is a Christian.

I seen him do some neat stuff that seems like he has a heart for Christ. So he had his you might be a redneck if jokes. And here's just a few of them. You might be a redneck if you cut your grass and find a car. Anyone ever cut their grass and find a car?

Okay. You might be a redneck if birds are attracted to your beard. Yeah. You see birds attracted to your beard, you might be a redneck. You might be a redneck if you own a homemade fur coat.

Does anyone own any? Now everyone's going to not wear their homemade fur coats to church. Does that? Katie told me to just do three of them. But I'm going to do a few more anyway.

You guys want to hear a few more, don't you? Okay, I thought so. Alright, alright. Where's Katie? Well, tell her a lot of people want to hear more, so.

Okay, you might be a redneck if the gas pedal in your car or, excuse me, you might be a redneck if the gas pedal in your truck is shaped like a barefoot. Yeah, And I heard that that's the way the gas pedal in Will Bosque's truck is shaped. Yeah. Yep. You're passing it down.

You got it from Chuck Senior. It's just going to go down through the generations. Okay, here we go. You might be a redneck if you've ever made change in the offering plate. Yeah, yeah, that's why we stopped passing the plate.

Too many people were making change and it was delaying service. Okay, my personal favorite. You might be a redneck if someone said you were lying through your tooth. That's good, that's good. Okay, why am I talking about this?

Because when I read this account, and I might have shared this even years ago, I kind of think like you might be proud if that's what comes to mind. You might be prideful if. And you might be prideful if you don't think you've broken God's law. You might be prideful if you think you've kept the Ten Commandments from your youth. You might be prideful if you just think you've kept most of the commandments or even some of them perfectly.

You might be prideful if you think you've even had one day of your life that if that day was isolated would have been good enough to get you to heaven. Now I'll tell you something interesting not just about this account but about its location. This account is in all three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And in all three synoptic gospels, this account follows the account we studied last week of Jesus blessing the little children. In fact that account of Jesus blessing the little children seems to be perfectly sandwiched between the Pharisee and the tax collector, the Pharisees pride, and then the rich young ruler right here.

So the Jesus blesses the little children and in that account he says the kingdom of God belongs to little children and those like little children and we talked last week that that means the kingdom of God belongs to those with the humility of little children And if you listen to me say that and you say, well, how are children humble? I'd invite you to go back and listen to last Sunday's sermon. But the idea is children have a humility that we must have to receive the kingdom of God. And this brings us to lesson three. The rich young ruler is the opposite of little children.

By this count following Jesus blessing the little children, As you read through Luke 18, you might see it like Jesus says, be like the little children, don't be like the rich young ruler. We talked about how we must become like little children so that the kingdom of God belongs to us as well. Matthew 18, unless you turn and become like children, you'll never enter the kingdom. Whoever humbles himself, has the humility like a child, is greatest in the kingdom. And now, look at Luke 18, 17.

You're in Luke 18, look at verse 17. Jesus says, truly I say to you, whoever does not receive "'the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.'" So Jesus said we must receive the kingdom of God, which is synonymous with receiving the gospel, like a child because children receive things freely. Salvation is a gift, we must receive freely. Romans 6 23, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Why am I mentioning that?

Because the rich young ruler is largely the opposite of what Jesus just preached with this little child. The rich young ruler does not think he will receive the kingdom freely. Instead he thinks he has earned it because he's been so obedient since he was a child. So he's almost a picture of self-righteousness and salvation by works. Now, because the rich young ruler has not yet recognized his sinfulness, which is a huge problem because then you don't recognize your need to be saved or you don't recognize your need for Christ.

Jesus is graciously going to take this another step to help the rich young ruler recognize his sin, in particular his covetousness. Look in verse 22, 1822. When Jesus heard this, the young rulers claim that he kept all the commandments, Jesus said to him, One thing you still lack, sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and then come follow me. So you might notice that when Jesus was giving the second table of the law, that he left out one of the commandments and which one was that? That you shall not what?

You shall not covet, that's right. He didn't list the 10th commandment, but now he did. Indirectly Jesus just gave this man the 10th commandment and pointed out his disobedience to it. And this brings us to lesson four. Following Jesus requires repentance.

Following Jesus requires repentance. Now this brings up a question. It's kind of like when you're in Acts 2 and everyone shared everything communally, right? It looked like that was almost socialistic culture, although it's definitely not socialism because what they were doing, they did voluntarily, but socialism would be something that the government enforces or is a form of stealing. So Acts 2, when the early church was living that way, that's not, that's, don't ever let anyone tell you that's socialism.

But when you read Acts 2 there and people are sharing their possessions, you can look and say, well, should I do that? But we need to remember, certain things are descriptive without being prescriptive. Some accounts describe but don't prescribe. They're describing what happened without prescribing what we must do. So how do we explain Jesus saying this to the rich young ruler?

This is an account that requires recognizing what is descriptive and what is prescriptive because there is a descriptive portion as well as a prescriptive portion for us. So consider these two verses. John 2 24, Jesus knew all people. Hebrews 4 12, Jesus is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now because Jesus knew the ruler, or in particular could look deeply into the young ruler's heart, Jesus knew what the rich young ruler needed to repent of, right?

Which was covetousness. If Jesus could look into my heart, then he would see sin that I needed to repent of to be saved and see what is an ongoing requiring ongoing repentance in my Christian life and that sanctification process. If Jesus was to look into your hearts he would see what you need to repent of and as Jesus went around the room looking at each person's hearts, he would see different struggles. He would see different sins that require repentance. And so here's my point.

For the rich young ruler, his Repentance involved putting off and putting on because all repentance involves putting off and putting on. That's something we've talked about before. Repentance isn't just stopping, it's also starting. It's in the language of Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3, you put off this, you put on this. You gotta fill that vacuum or else it'll end up being refilled with that sin you were committing.

Now with that said, Jesus told the rich young ruler what repentance looked like or what he would put off and put on. He had to put off covetousness, which meant selling his possessions. He had to put on giving, which meant giving his possessions to the poor. So it's not prescriptive for us that we must give away all our possessions. Although I guess I'd say this, if you struggled with covetousness enough, perhaps God would want you to give away some of your possessions to develop victory over that sin.

But what is prescriptive for us is that to follow Jesus to be saved requires repentance. It requires a turning from sin to Christ. You know, you can't walk in two different directions. You can't follow Christ while clinging to your sin. Doesn't mean we stop sinning, but repentance means turning from our sin toward Jesus.

Now, Let me get you to notice one more thing before we look at the next verse. Jesus told him to get rid of his possessions because he would have treasure in heaven. When Jesus told the man, you will have treasure in heaven, do your minds go anywhere that Jesus said something similar to this. Like the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6, 19, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And so Jesus essentially told the rich young ruler part of what he said in the Sermon on the Mount which was don't be so concerned with your earthly possessions or building up or storing up wealth or treasure for yourself on earth instead focus on storing up treasure for yourself in heaven and he says if you're to give away this much stuff then you'll be building up that much stuff or more in heaven.

So now we get to see is the rich young ruler going to cling to his earthly wealth or is he gonna do what Jesus said here and store up treasure for himself in heaven? Sadly he might be the best example in Scripture of disobeying Matthew 6 19 and 20 about storing up treasure in heaven. Look in verse 23. But when the rich young ruler heard these things, he became very sad for he was extremely rich. So his earthly treasure was more important to him than heavenly treasure.

Luke's account does not say that the rich young ruler walked away after this. In fact, Many of you, you're probably thinking about him walking away, not because of the Sesaharan loop, but because you've read that in Matthew and Mark. Matthew 19, 22 and Mark 10, 22, both say the same thing. He went away sorrowfully for he had great possessions. They describe him departing from Jesus.

Now because of the way that Jesus talked to the rich young ruler, in particular, let me say it like this. Because Jesus said something to the rich young ruler that caused him to walk away. Or I don't wanna say caused him to walk away because that sounds as though it was not the rich young ruler's choice. Because Jesus said something and then the rich young ruler upon hearing that chose to walk away from Christ, you could perhaps think that Jesus is harsh, or you could perhaps think that Jesus does not care about the rich young ruler. It is not recorded here in Luke's gospel, but in the parallel account in Mark 10 21, listen to this.

Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, you lack one thing, go sell all that you have and give to the poor I mean this is touching to me this is dramatic this is a we see it we have a very tender side of our Lord here where he looks at this man, he sees the man's humility, his interest in spiritual matters. We're told that he loves the man. We don't read many places in the Gospels that Jesus loved someone. I might be wrong, but the only other account is John 11 5 where it says, Jesus loved Martha and her sister, which would be Mary, and their brother Lazarus. Now we know in John's gospel that John is the disciple whom Jesus loved, but that's because John referred to himself that way, right?

I guess if you write your own gospel, you can refer to yourself however you want and John wants to refer to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. But even then in John's gospel, That's just John's way of describing himself. It's not specifically saying that Jesus loved him, even though I think he did. And here's my point, or let me say this. Here's not my point.

I'm not trying to make the point that Jesus didn't love everyone. In fact, he did. I'm not arguing that because it says that Jesus loved this man, that he didn't love everyone. I'm convinced Jesus does love everyone, but I'm saying that the fact that scripture tells us that Jesus loved him, when it doesn't say that frequently, is significant or makes this man significant. Now I cannot tell you with absolute certainty why we're told that Jesus loved the rich young ruler, but I can tell you that it is a blessing to read this here because it would be easy to think that he didn't because he said something and then the man chose to walk away and this brings us to lesson five.

Jesus isn't chasing us down. Lesson five. Jesus is not chasing us down. If you want to think about God's pursuit or love or compassion in nature, I don't know that you're going to have a better example than the parable of the prodigal son, which we were looking at in Luke 15. I mean, that was just an incredible window into the heart of God.

But I wanna ask you this, as much as that father left his son, did the father chase his son down? Did that father Go to that far country, grab his son by the collar, say, I gave you this inheritance. Look how you're squandering it. You're ruining your life. You're destroying your reputation and by extension mine, and then drag his son home.

No, he didn't. He went out, perhaps daily, looking, longing for his son to return, but that's the point. He longed for his son to return. He did not chase him down. In fact, he let his son go.

He gave him the inheritance knowing how he'd squander it. In a sense, this is what shocks me about this account. Jesus said the one thing we would expect Him not to say, considering that He knows everyone, John 2, like we just talked about, or Hebrews 4.12, that He's the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Or in other words, if He knows everyone this well, He knew that this is what would then produce that ruler walking away. But He said it anyway.

I mean, you would think this would be the one thing He wouldn't say. And then you'd almost think that after the ruler walked away, what's Jesus going to do? No, wait, wait, wait. No, no, come back. You're so close.

You're so sincere. The questions you're asking are so good. You're not treating me like the lawyer did. You're not treating me like the religious leaders. Please come back.

The kingdom of God, you're like steps away from it. Don't walk away like this. Nothing like that. Right after this man walks away, Jesus turns to the disciples and starts teaching them about this incident and what they can learn from it. And this is far from the only place that we see this type of behavior with our Lord.

It reminds me of Luke 9, 10-17. You don't have to turn there, but Jesus fed the 5, 000. In Luke 9, We know this caused even greater crowds to follow him, recognizing that these clouds, not clouds, crowds are bloated and filled with people who don't really wanna be his disciples. They just wanna get a free meal. They want more free food or they wanna witness another miracle.

Jesus says this to them, Luke 9 23. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Do you know when you say this to people? When you don't want them to follow you.

This is what you say to people when you're trying to get them to turn back. Or you could say, this is what you say to people when you're trying to get them to count the cost. But you definitely don't say this if you're seeker sensitive. You definitely don't say this if you preach health and wealth. You definitely don't say this if you preach a prosperity gospel.

This is what Jesus preached. And I cannot imagine that anything that would cause more people to abandon Christ than telling them to pick up their cross, which was a death sentence and follow him and it gets even worse look in Luke 18 24 Jesus seeing that he the rich young ruler had become sad he says his disciples how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. This account is in all three synoptic gospels and In each account after the rich young ruler walks away, Jesus turns to his disciples. He's talking to the rich young ruler. He recognizes the rich young ruler's sadness.

The rich young ruler walks away. Jesus doesn't yell anything after him. He just turns to the disciples and he makes this statement. And I wanna encourage you, don't chase people down. Present the gospel, but do not try to argue them into salvation.

Share the truth with them like Jesus did, but the results or the consequences are left up to those people. And it is only a work that God's Holy Spirit can do in people's hearts. It is not a work, we cannot reach into people's chests and regenerate them and bring them to life spiritually or give them a new heart is what I mean by retake out that heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh and so I would encourage you follow our Lord's example love people Like Jesus did share the truth share it Compassionately like Jesus did but do not chase people down Do not try to twist their arm into salvation. Now I'll share two things with you that I find particularly significant and sobering about this account. And I do hope you're, I want you to take this with you.

I want you to remember this. The rich and ruler was not an atheist. He was not a pagan. By all outward accounts, he looked like a pretty religious and spiritual man. Now what's my point in saying that?

We expect an atheist to walk away. We would expect a pagan to turn from Christ. We do not expect deeply sincerely religious people or sincerely interested in spiritual matters to turn away from Christ like this. He was a man who looks like he would not walk away based on what he asked and based on how he felt. And this brings us to lesson six.

Riches can choke Jesus out of our lives. Riches can choke Jesus out of our lives. I read about the rich young ruler walking away from Christ and I find it very sobering. I find this to be a very sobering account. It is an account that I identify with more than others.

And all of us should. We are the wealthiest people in the world and we are the wealthiest people throughout all of human history. Poor people in third world countries are not going to have the problem the rich young ruler does. They're going to read this account and say, I don't have any problem following this because I don't have any possessions to give away. But this is going to be a struggle for us, covetousness, greed.

And here's why this is sobering to me. Nobody should ever walk away from Jesus. But if I had to imagine situations that I believe would be so difficult they would produce apostasy, Or if I had to imagine trials that would be so painful or excruciating to people that they would turn from Christ, it would be the loss of a child. Can you imagine someone losing a child and how they might cry out to God in confusion and say, how could you let this happen? Or an unfaithful spouse, how could you let my spouse act this way?

Or a terminal disease, how could you let me have this disease? And so that's why frequently, just to be candid with you, when I hear about people having sicknesses or diseases and I've been told that they're Christians, I pray for, I might even pray before I pray for them physically, I might pray for them spiritually, that their faith perseveres, survives the trial, that their faith remains strong. Persecution. How many people would turn from Christ because of persecution? I wouldn't expect people to turn from Christ because of possessions.

I just wouldn't. That's not in my list of reasons people become apostates. But the rich young ruler, he abandoned Jesus because of his possessions. And that should be shocking and sobering to all of us. And so think of it like this.

Let me ask you a question, not a trick question. Did the rich young ruler want to go to heaven? Yeah. I mean, he's asking this question because he wants to know how to get there. So what happened?

He did not want to go to heaven enough to part with his riches. As soon as Jesus told him to choose, sadly he chose his possessions. He said, I want to go to heaven. I will run up and kneel before Jesus. I want to follow him.

But not this much. I want Jesus, but I don't want him more than my wealth and it is a reminder that covetousness is one of the Ten Commandments for a reason it is as dangerous as any other sin. Think about the parable of the sower. Regarding the third soil, Jesus said, Matthew 13, 23, for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful. Covetousness choked the word right out of the rich young ruler's heart.

He's a perfect example of having that third soil and the deceitfulness of riches choking out the word or in his case, choking out Christ. And just to drive the point home, Jesus gives us one of the most familiar analogies in scripture, Luke 18 25. 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. Now if you've been in the church for any length of time, you've probably heard people provide different explanations about what the eye of the needle is and what it means for the camel to go through it. And I don't think I need to spend much time on that because I think that the point Jesus is making is abundantly clear.

You don't have to know what exactly he means or what exactly the eye of the needle was in Jesus's day to know that Jesus is saying that it's difficult for rich people to go to heaven. Similarly, people who love money cannot fit into the kingdom of God. Their wealth simply does not leave room for Jesus. Now this does not mean the rich people can't go to heaven. That is not what I'm saying.

I mean, there are some rich people who are incredibly generous, and there are some poor people who are incredibly stingy. There are some poor people who struggle with covetousness much more than wealthy people. There are great servants of the Lord that God has entrusted with wealth who use that wealth in incredibly wonderful ways. But it does mean that it can be harder for rich people. There are certain temptations that rich people face that those who do not have riches do not face.

And in this way, riches can be an obstacle to salvation. And the issue is competition. We can only have so many things occupying space in our hearts. It's opportunity cost to say yes to one thing is to say no to something else. To say yes to Christ in your heart is a wonderful thing.

But it requires saying no to other things and to say yes to something else other than Christ in your heart can be saying no to Christ there's only so much room and Jesus said Matthew 6 24 no one can serve two masters Either he will hate the one and love the other or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You can't serve God and money. You expect, after everything Jesus said, you expect him to say, you can't serve God and another master, right? But he says this because money is a master it becomes the Lord of our lives or our hearts It sets up its throne in our hearts and doesn't leave room for Christ there So we cannot serve both God and money if we serve money it pushes Jesus out of our lives. Let's make sure that we choose wisely.

If you have any questions or I can pray for you in any way, I will be up front after service and I'd consider it a privilege to speak with you. Father, I thank you for the sobering account this morning that I believe has great application for us living in our country even those of us that are even people who would consider themselves poor or poorer in our country are generally wealthier than people throughout the rest of the world and definitely throughout human history It doesn't mean we need to give away our possessions as you commanded the rich young ruler to do, but perhaps we'd be convicted to be more generous or more giving. I do pray that we would take from this the need to have you take root or set up throne in our hearts and that it would not be occupied, that throne by money. I pray, Lord, that we'd see it just how sobering it is that a man could turn from Christ simply because of his possessions. Help us to learn from that, and I pray, Lord, that you would be with us this week.

Help us to serve you faithfully in whatever capacities you've called us to. And I pray for any unbelievers who are here, Lord. I assume we couldn't have a room or number this size without some number of unbelievers. And I pray today would be the day of salvation that they'd see their need for repentance, that they can't keep your law to be saved, that no matter how well they think they're keeping the Ten Commandments, they are in fact failing as miserably as the rest of us and require to be saved by faith in Christ, Lord. And we thank you for that grace, the gospel, and we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.