How Can I Earn Heaven?

Please turn with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 18 verses 18 through 27.

Luke 18:18–27

We're back in the Gospel of Luke now, and you can find uh the scripture passage on page 877 in the uh church Bible that might be located there in front of you in the pew.

And uh wanted to comment.

I so appreciate the the Gideon's ministry.

Uh the first New Testament I had was a Gideon's uh New Testament, and uh that was instrumental both in my coming to Christ and eventually my mother's uh coming to Christ.

And uh here we love to give away Bibles as well.

And so if you're here this morning and you don't own a copy of the Bible for yourself, uh I want to encourage you to take that Bible that you're holding right now that you're looking at and take it home with you as our gift for you, uh our gift to you.

We would love for you to have it, uh to read it and study it, and then bring it back week to week as we study God's word together.

Luke chapter 18, beginning in verse 18.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

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.

When Jesus heard this, he 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 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?

But he said, What is impossible with men is possible with God.

This is God's word.

Young, confident, and in control.

That's who this guy was.

He wasn't rich, he was very rich.

He didn't have a care in the world.

He was respected.

From all appearances, he was in good health and he was a man of influence.

He was a ruler.

We don't know what kind of role it was, if it was an official role, or if he was just a power broker in the community, but he was a ruler and he was looked up to by others.

He was a moral man.

He was an upright man who followed the law to the best of his abilities.

He was a sincere man.

If we were to look in Mark's gospel, it says that he ran to Jesus and knelt before him as he began to ask these questions.

But he was an unsure man.

For all of his morality and self-righteousness, there was something that was still nagging him.

Something that he was missing, something that he was lacking.

He didn't come to Jesus to trap him or to trip him up.

For all of his attainments, there was a hole in his heart.

He wasn't quite there yet.

And he thought he was close.

Maybe there was one more grand moral act, and then he would know that he had eternal life.

In this interchange this morning, we'll examine three movements in this passage here with Jesus and the rich young ruler.

First, we will examine a shallow but sincere faith.

Or a sincere question, excuse me, a shallow but sincere question.

Secondly, we'll examine a complex and penetrating answer.

And finally, we'll examine a shocking and profound assessment.

So, first, we'll look at a shallow but sincere question.

Notice what he begins asking here.

He says, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

It was a sincere question, but it was a shallow question.

He asks, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

This man wants to know what is that one grand final act of goodness that he can do in order to assure that he has eternal life.

He wanted assurance, he wanted security, and he didn't have it.

In spite of all of his attainments, in spite of all of his morality, when he was honest with himself, he recognized there was something missing.

We don't know why he asked the question.

We don't know anything about his life prior to this, other than what we see in the text, but there's an uneasiness in spite of his goodness.

He didn't have an assurance.

He knew something was wrong in the quietness of his heart.

But notice what this man says.

He begins, and it seems like he's paying Jesus high respect.

He calls him good teacher.

But honestly, this was flippant flattery.

There's not an example in Jewish literature of that day and later of a rabbi being called good.

In the Talmud, for instance, there is not one example of a rabbi being addressed as good.

And this man uses this word as he approaches Jesus to come up to Jesus, and Jesus questions his understanding of the word.

Notice what Jesus says in verse 19.

Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone.

There are multiple layers here to what Jesus says in response to this man's question.

Why do you call me good?

First of all, Jesus is asking if this man really understands the meaning of good.

We're going to see this in the rest of the passage in this man's own self-assessment.

He believes Jesus is good, but we'll see he also thinks that he's good.

And so he has a high view of himself.

He's using this word to describe somebody else like me.

And so he has a high view of himself.

So Jesus questions, what do you mean by good?

What do you understand of that word?

Secondly, Jesus is asking the man to consider the reality of that because there is no one good but God.

If he really understood what he was saying, if he really understood the meaning of good, he would understand that there is no one who's good save God alone.

And so this man had a low view of God's holiness.

And because of that, he doesn't recognize his own sinfulness.

But I believe that thirdly, Jesus is challenging the man to recognize who he really is.

This man has a shallow view of Jesus.

He has a high view of himself, he has a low view of God, and he has a shallow view of Jesus.

You call me good, and that is true.

I am good.

But you need to recognize that God alone is good, and so you need to recognize who I am.

God alone is truly good.

Therefore, for me to be good, I must be God.

So this man, in his flippant flattery, didn't recognize the meaning of the word good.

He didn't assess himself properly.

He didn't assess the holiness of God rightly, and he didn't recognize the reality of the man who was standing before him was God himself in human flesh.

And so we we see this question, this shallow but sincere question.

He wanted to know one what one thing he was still lacking, what one thing will put me over the top, so that I can know that I have eternal life.

But then Jesus doesn't give him the answer that he expected, and quite honestly, Jesus doesn't give him the answer that we expect.

So now we see the second movement here.

We've saw the first movement a shallow but sincere question.

Now we see, secondly, a complex and penetrating answer.

Notice what Jesus does here in verse 20.

He turns to the commandments.

You know the commandments, he says.

Many people struggle at this point.

I think even most evangelical pastors, if somebody had come to uh to one with a question like this, uh, I think we very quickly, and I think I myself, oftentimes very quickly hearing a question like this, would immediately uh take that person through a gospel outline and ask him to say a brief prayer and welcome him into the kingdom of God.

And shockingly, here, Jesus doesn't do that.

Jesus assesses there is something more, something deeper that needs to be addressed because of the shallowness of where this man is and his understanding of what eternal life is.

So shockingly, Jesus doesn't immediately tell him you need to trust in me.

And this interchange challenges our thinkings not only on how to present the gospel, but also on how to make a proper assessment when we're talking to people about Jesus Christ.

Notice what Jesus does here.

He begins with the commandments, verse 20 do not commit adultery, the seventh commandment, do not murder, the sixth commandment, do not steal, the eighth, do not bear false witness.

The ninth, honor your father and mother, the fifth.

Jesus turns here to the commandments.

Well, what is Jesus doing here?

He is pointing to the law to show this man how holy God is and how sinful he is.

Some of you may be familiar with Ray Comfort in his teaching series, The Way of the Master.

If you're not familiar with it, I'd encourage you to go online.

There's some uh interesting and somewhat humorous clips on there.

Uh, because he will go through and he'll approach people and he'll ask them questions.

He'll begin to talk to them.

Uh and he points to the law to show sinners the depth of their sin.

He'll ask people, well, what do you call somebody who doesn't tell the truth?

And well, a liar.

Well, what do you call somebody who takes something that's not his?

Well, a thief.

Well, what do you call somebody who uh who wants something that isn't his?

Well, covetous, greedy.

Uh what do you call somebody who who loves something else more than God and bows down and worships that?

Well, an idolater?

Well, then he'll turn and say, Well, let me ask you a question then.

Have you ever lied in your life?

Uh yeah?

Well then what does that make you?

Have you ever stolen anything in your life?

Yeah?

Well, what does that make you?

Have you ever wanted something that wasn't yours?

And so what he does in talking to these people is he isn't trying to belittle the people, but he's trying to help people to realize the reality of who they really are and to make a proper assessment.

Jesus here is in love, helping this man to see the reality of his sin.

This man, Jesus asked him, you know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness.

Honor your father and your mother.

And this man, shockingly, in verse 21, says, All these I have kept from my youth.

We don't realize it here, but he's actually from North Dakota.

All of these I've kept from my youth.

He hears the standard by which he will give an account.

He hears really what he's hearing is a presentation of God's character.

God is holy, God is just, God is righteous, God is truth, God is the giver of life, God is pure, God is the standard by which all behavior is judged and evaluated.

Jesus said in Matthew 5, 48, be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect.

God doesn't grade on a curve.

Jesus here points to the moral law, the reflection of God's character, that reveals God's holiness and his holy standards.

And God's morality doesn't change, and it isn't based on a bell curve.

But this man's assessment of himself is all of these I've kept from my youth.

Now, if we think about the commandments, and let me distinguish that there is civil law that regulates the people in society, and there's civil law that regulates the Jewish people in Jewish society.

There is the ceremonial law, and we're very familiar with that when we read through the Old Testament, given in types and symbols, pointing to the future reality of Christ.

It is but a shadow of the things that are to come and are fulfilled in Christ, and Christ came and he fulfilled the ceremonial law.

But then there is the moral law that's a reflection of God's character.

It is the unchanging truth of who God is.

And implicit in these commandments of these negatives of what not to do, beyond the negative, there's also an implicit positive.

Not only should one not commit adultery, and Jesus says this in the Sermon on the Mountain, but not only should one not commit adultery, but we should be singularly faithful to our spouse.

Not only should one not commit murder, but we should protect life.

Not only should we not steal, but we should be sacrificially generous.

Paul says that in Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Not only should we not bear false witness, but we should be marked with truth and honor one another as even better than ourselves.

And so not only is there the negative that we ought not to do, but there is also implicit even in these the positive of what we ought to do, of what ought to be marked in our lives.

Beyond that, we're reminded that God is not merely concerned about the outward appearance.

God isn't concerned only about outward conformity to the law.

God is concerned about about the heart.

So, in order to truly fulfill the commandments that Jesus lists here, not only do you have to do the right things, but you have to do the right things in the right way, and you have to do the right things in the right way for the right reasons to have the right motives, and you have to do it in the right strength, not your own strength, but relying completely, solely, exclusively on God alone.

And if this man had understood the true intent of the law, he would have looked at the moral purity of God, and he would have looked at himself, and he would have seen how far he fell short of God's standards.

He would have immediately realized that not once, not ever, has he obeyed the commandments in the way that God requires them, and the only thing he could do is plead for mercy and grace.

If he had understood the weight of what Jesus was saying here, he would have realized, he wouldn't have said, Well, all of these I've kept from my youth.

He would have said, Not one day have I kept these commandments.

Not one moment have I fulfilled them in the way that God would require me to fulfill them.

Jesus, what can I do?

This man would have realized that all of his self-righteousness was nothing more than filthy rags, as Isaiah says in Isaiah 64, 6.

He would not have thought that he had kept him from his youth.

He would have recognized he had never kept them a day in his life.

Jesus gets to the heart of the matter here.

This is what this is the interchange that happens here in verses 22 and following.

Jesus gets to the heart of the matter.

In Mark's gospel, it says at this point, Jesus looked at this man and loved him.

Sometimes when we read scripture, we ask ourselves, well, what is the tone of what's being communicated?

Is Jesus here in indignation chastising this man and pointing out?

There is a love here that Jesus has that looks at this man and loves him and wants him to see the reality of his need for a savior.

And friends, that's the heart that we need to have whenever we approach somebody to tell them about Christ.

We see them caught up in the blindness of their sin, self-deceived, and our heart ought to long for them to break free, to be broken free of their blindness and their deadness and to come to Christ.

Jesus looks at this man and he loves him.

And in verse 22, when he it says, when he hear when he 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.

This man had claimed to have kept all of the commandments.

That was his assertion.

All of these I have kept from my youth.

So Jesus says, okay, let's start from the top.

Exodus 20, verse 3 says, You shall have no other gods before me.

Exodus 20:3

And that isn't in matter of succession and priority.

What the word there in Hebrew for before is, is that you shall have no other gods in my presence.

That I am God alone, and there is no rival gods before me in my presence.

And the second, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the neath.

That you shall have no idols.

Nothing should brook, should be a rival.

God will brook no rivals.

Jesus exposes the reality of sin in this rich young ruler's heart.

What Jesus is doing here is this man in his self-assessment says, as far as morality goes, I've arrived.

I just want to know the one more, the one other thing that will bring me over the top.

And Jesus, by turning here, puts his finger on the reality of this man's sin.

This man is a sinner.

He's a sinner by nature, he's guilty of sin, and he's a sinner by practice.

Well, does this command to sell everything apply to everyone?

Must we sell everything and give it up to the poor to have treasure in heaven and then come follow Jesus?

Is this a pattern that all are to follow?

And I think we can read this wrongly in a couple different directions.

One of them is to read this and say this is a universal categorical imperative for everyone who comes to Christ.

But we're going to see in the next chapter.

You remember the story of Zacchaeus?

Zacchaeus, you know, he's a wee low man.

A wee low man is he?

You remember the story.

At least the song.

Climbs a sycamore tree.

Jesus asks, uh says, today, I'm coming to your house.

He goes and stays at his house.

Zacchaeus comes to faith in Christ and he exclaims, out of the overflow of God's rescuing of him, he says, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I've defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

Now, Jesus didn't say to Zacchaeus, well, you really need to give away 100% of it.

50% is really uh uh uh uh below what what's required of you.

No, that isn't the intent of what Jesus is saying there or here.

Jesus is saying this to point to the reality that this man worships his belongings and that his property, his possessions are a false idol.

Jesus doesn't make this a universal practice to challenge someone to give up all of his wealth in order to be a disciple.

In fact, earlier in Luke's gospel in chapter 8, we saw that Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's household manager, and Susanna and many others provided for Jesus and his disciples out of their wealth.

And Jesus didn't tell them that they needed to give up their wealth in order to follow him.

This man, his wealth was his obstacle of seeing his own sin and seeing his need.

Jesus is putting his finger on an area of this man's life because it reveals his unwillingness to recognize the sinfulness of his heart.

Jesus wants to expose him, his sin and break him of self-righteousness.

This man's wealth is an alternate God who provides salvation and comfort.

And you cannot add Jesus to your other gods.

He will accept no rivals.

In fact, Jesus says in Matthew 6, 24, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

So there's a danger here of turning this into some kind of universal standard, and this misses the intent of why Jesus brings this up with this man.

This applies to this man in his situation with his blindness.

However, we may be caught up in the very same trap as this man.

Maybe wealth and possessions is our idol too.

And so it does cause us to question our own selves and ask what would be our response if Jesus said this to me?

How would I feel if Jesus called me to give up all of my possessions?

And maybe I'll find that there is a rival to my affection for God.

But notice this man's reaction to this.

He weighs his options.

He hears what Jesus said.

And at this moment, verse 23, but when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

The man weighs his options and he walks away.

There's an interesting progression here in this chapter, and let me just point it out.

If you have your Bible open to Luke 18, in verses 1 through 8, we saw the parable of the persistent widow.

And Jesus begins to talk about the persistent widow who wants justice and talks about always praying and not losing heart.

She can't do anything, she has no power, she has no influence, she has no standing in society.

All she can do is cry out, and her cry is heard.

Next we see the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

And the Pharisee is arrogantly boastful.

He prays to himself of how great he is.

He looks at himself and commends himself that he's not like other men.

The tax collector recognizes his sin.

He wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying, Be merciful to me, a sinner.

And it was that man, the tax collector, who cried out for mercy.

It was he and not the other who went to his house justified.

And then you have the children to come to Jesus.

They were bringing children to Jesus, and again, they have no status, no power, no influence.

They're helpless, needy, and trusting.

And Jesus says, it is those who are like these children that belong to the kingdom of God.

And now you see this rich young ruler.

He's so sure of his righteousness that even though he senses something missing, he clings to his pride and his wealth as his hope, and so he goes away sad.

Luke tells us that this man was still apparently in his hearing when Jesus says what he says next in this final movement.

We see a shocking and profound assessment.

A shocking and profound assessment.

Verse 24 and following, Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, says, how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

We need to understand the true weight of what Jesus is saying here.

He says, How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

What he is really driving at, and what he wants the disciples and those hearing him to see, is that ultimately we need to recognize that it is impossible in and of ourselves to come to God.

In fact, that's the point of what Jesus says next.

Look at verse 25.

He says, 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.

Some people try to soften what Jesus says here, coming up with honestly some mythical explanations.

And maybe you've heard some of these, and so I do want to address them.

One explanation says that there was a small gate at one place in the wall of Jerusalem called the Needle's Eye, that a man could fit through if he crouched down.

And the legend says that a camel to get through it would have to be unloaded of all of his baggage and then crawl through on his knees.

The only problem with that explanation is that there is absolutely not one shred of evidence to substantiate that story.

But somewhere over time this story was told and repeated until it got into books and was preached in sermons.

Another explanation that really tries to explain them away is to say that the word camel in Aramaic had a similar sounding word that meant a thick cable or a rope often used to pull in ships.

So that Jesus was saying that to put a thick rope through the eye of a sewing needle.

But again, there's no proof that this is the case.

And both of those explanations, in addition to not having any historical backing, also miss the point completely of what Jesus is saying.

Look at what he says next.

Because he's saying that it is impossible.

They say, who can be saved?

He says it's impossible with men.

He's not saying that it's difficult, and if you try really hard, you can do it.

What he's saying is that it is impossible.

He's saying, and he's being comical here.

He's saying, imagine taking a camel, which would have been one of the largest or the largest common animal that they would have known in that day.

And he said, imagine taking a camel and squeezing it through a sewing needle.

Some of you kids are starting to imagine that.

Don't.

It doesn't look nice on the other side.

It's impossible.

You can't do it.

And the people who hear Jesus understand that because they asked the very logical question.

Who then can be saved?

Why do they ask this?

They asked this because, quite honestly, they had a form of a prosperity gospel.

They believed that the wealthier you were, the closer you were to God.

Because if you were wealthy, that meant God had blessed you.

And so the wealthier you were, the more blessed you were, the closer you were to God.

You had a leg up on everyone else.

Everyone else was behind you.

If you were wealthy, God was with you.

And if the wealthy couldn't be saved, then who could?

They understood it's impossible.

And that's exactly Jesus' point.

With men, he says, this is impossible.

But with God, all things are possible.

Let me close with this.

Sometimes we miss the true weight of what Jesus is saying here.

We want to see that we have some part in our salvations.

We may be weak, but we're not powerless.

We may be sick, but we're not dead.

It may be difficult, but it's not impossible.

But what Jesus is saying here is left to ourselves, it is impossible.

Salvation is a divine act.

You can't change your heart, and you can't change anyone else's heart.

That's the bottom line.

There's nothing that you can do, no work that you can perform, no courageous act of faith that can change your heart one bit.

It isn't difficult, it's impossible.

And it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, black or white, you have a PhD or a high school diploma, you cannot change your heart.

It's only God who can break through our stony hearts.

But here's the beautiful message I don't want us to miss here.

It is impossible with men.

But it's not impossible with God.

With God, all things are possible.

You may have a friend or a relative that seems totally impossible to reach with the gospel.

But nothing's impossible with God.

You may think to yourself, I've gone too far, I've done too much, I've sinned too much, my life is too much of a mess.

There is no way that God could save somebody like me.

With God, all things are possible.

We have the tendency to look at people and see their outward appearance, see their appearance of confidence, and tell ourselves, well, that person would never hear the gospel, that person would never come to Christ.

With man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

There is no one that is outside the reach of God's grace.

Rich or poor, there is no one outside the reach of God's grace.

The most hardened sinner is no more difficult for God than the moral upright man.

And so we share the gospel confidently and boldly.

We share it expectantly.

We share it with the eyes of faith because we know that with God nothing's impossible.

And that is the power of the gospel.

I want to close us in prayer, and then we'll sing a final song.

Maybe you're here this morning and you're like the rich young ruler.

You've been trusting in yourself, trusting in your goodness.

And you need to turn away from that, to recognize your sin and to come to Jesus and say, I need forgiveness, I need mercy, I need your grace.

Or maybe you've lost confidence in the gospel, and so you've stopped sharing the gospel with others.

With man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

Let's pray.

Father God, I pray for those who are here who have put them trust, put their trust in themselves or in something else other than Jesus.

Their goodness, their morality.

Father, I pray that you will help each one to recognize their sin.

That they fall short of glorifying and honoring God the way that they should.

And that they will cry out to you, be merciful to me, forgive me, come into my life.

I know that Jesus died for me to pay the penalty for my sin.

Lord, I pray for us that we will have confidence that the gospel is powerful and effective, that your word is able, uh, that sharper than two edged swords are able to cut through joint and marrow, soul and spirit.

And that no one is outside of your reach.

With us, it is impossible, Lord, but with you, all things are possible.

We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.