Not Good Enough, God, Grace, and the Rich Young Ruler

We all know that sometimes in this life we get

evaluated on our performance. That can happen in academia, that

can happen when someone takes an exam to obtain a

professional license. That can produce anxiety. And there were times

when I was growing up that I as a student

that I didn't do as well as I should have

because I simply forgot to do the work or something

like that. I didn't organize my time well enough. But

there was something else that would sometimes give me anxiety.

You see, I know, and I knew then that God

expects obedience. God expects us to do certain things. And

I knew then that as I know now that not

everyone in this earth is going to be saved, And

sometimes I would have this terrible anxiety. Am I gonna

make the cut when Jesus comes? Am I going to

be good enough? We're gonna be talking about that today.

Let's start with prayer the heavenly Father.

I pray that your Holy Spirit will be here. I

pray Father that you'll make.

The scriptures and this message of blessing from you. It's

nothing that I can do, but it's something that your

spirit can do. And I pray for the mighty personal

presence of your holy Spirit this morning in Jesus name.

Amen, let me.

Take you back to first century Palestine. We are standing

near the front and a crowd of people. We've been

listening to a tea called Jesus. He doesn't really look

like the teachers of his time. He doesn't wear fancy clothes.

He really looks very ordinary. But he's a teacher and

everyone is paying attention to him. Jesus is getting up

to leave when we hear someone running, and then we

see him. He's breathing hard, he's sweating profusely, and yet

he's wearing some of the most expensive clothes. Anyone here

has ever seen soft fabrics dyed with rich, expensive colors.

People like that walk slowly with their heads held high.

They never run, and yet this man is running. He's

running to Jesus. The contrast between the two men is stark.

One is wearing.

Clothes that radiate high social standing.

The other looks like a craftsman or a day laborer.

Now the rich man surprises us once again. He falls

to his knees in front of Jesus. Those rich robes,

they were already sweaty, but now they're covered with sticky,

sweaty dust.

What a mess.

He pauses for a moment, gasping, Then his voice trembles

with the question, good teacher, what shall I do that

I may inherit eternal life. The men close to Jesus

are smiling. This man of wealth and influence will be good.

For the cause.

Jesus' voice is even, why do you call me good?

No one is good but one that is God. You

know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder,

do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud,

Honor your father and your mother. Now, to us, as

Christian time travelers from the twenty first century, this sounds strange.

You see, we've read from the New Testament, and we

know the great theme that runs through it about how

salvation is by grace through faith.

We know what the Apostle Paul says about the law, about.

The utter futility of trying to gain anything any merit

for ourselves by obeying the law. So why did Sheesus

answer the man's question by the law? You know, I

heard once once I became aware that some people even

suggest that Jesus and the Apostle Paul disagree. Do they disagree?

Of course not, But to resolve that we need to

look more.

Closely at the question.

The question he asked was what shall I do that

I may inherit eternal life? The question itself presupposes legalism.

Jesus answered that question. If the question is how to

earn eternal life, the question is always the law. The

answer is perfect obedience every moment of our lives. And

of course we have Jesus teaching on the Sermon of

the Mount. Jesus made it clear that the law includes

what's in our hearts. So if you have ever wished

you could hurt someone by word or deed for what

they did, then we're not good enough to be accepted

based on our obedience. If we have ever allowed our

minds to contemplate or savor an immoral act of any kind,

we're not good enough to win salvation.

Through the law.

Jesus taught that the law requires us to love everyone

under every circumstance. If we have ever fallen short of

that standard, we won't make it on that basis. Romans

three twenty three makes it very clear, and many other

scriptures do as well. For all have sinned and come

short of the glory of God. Still, this man did

ask how to earn salvation, So that is the question

Jesus answered. But let's just take a post from a

story here, because I want to make one thing clear.

The law is not defective.

The law God's law is not obsolete in the Christian era,

as some people have said, what is the law good for?

What does it do? For one thing?

The law defines sin. It tells us very clearly what

sin is. Now, we could come up with other definitions

based on scripture, combining the scripture of scripture, but this

is the plainest definition of sin. Whoever commits sin also

commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. What else does it do?

It condemns us as sinners. There is none righteous, no,

not one. And then of course we have the verse

we just read, I'll have sin and fall short of

the glory of God. But there's something else it does

that we need to pay attention to.

It guides our choices.

Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. How

how crass would it be if we would come to

God profess in great gratitude for the gift of his son,

the sacrifice so infinitely deep, so gut wrenching in its agony,

and then say, in gratitude for all that, I'm going

to obey you every time. I think it's a good

idea putting ourselves in judgment against the law. Now, the law,

if we follow Jesus, the law will guide our choices.

That is its original purpose, to protect us from destructive choices.

But at the same time, as we honor the law

in what it is, we all have to remember what

it can never do. And I'm going to point out

two things here that the law will never give us.

First of all, the law will.

Never free us from its own condemnation. Therefore, by the

deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in

his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

And again other scriptures could be applied, for here the

law can never free us from its own condemnation. By

the words of the law, no flesh shall be justified

in his sight. Galatians two sixteen makes it clear that sorry,

we just read that. The other thing the law can

never do is the law can never purify our hearts.

In Romans seven, there's a powerful outline of the struggle

to try to purify our hearts by our own efforts.

I'll just read three verses of it. Here.

I find then a law that evil is present with me,

the one who wills to do good for I delight

in the law of God according to the inward man.

But I see another law in my memory, worrying against

the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity

to the law of sin, which is in my members.

So the law is important, but it has limitations on

what it can do. Let's come back to the story.

The young man says to him. His answer comes quickly

with no hesitation. He says, all these things I have

kept from my youth. But then he does hesitate for

a moment, and he adds.

What do I still lack?

What do I still Jesus is as calm as ever.

If you want to be perfect, Jesus says, interesting turn

of phrase from Jesus himself. If you want to be perfect,

and the grink behind that word means has to do

with completion and maturity. If you want to be all

in on this business, if you want to be all there,

if you want to be perfect, go sell what you

have and give to the poor, and you will have

treasure in heaven and come follow me. The men around

Jesus exchange startled looks. Their smiles are gone. There's a

brief moment of stunned silence as the youth keeps staring

at Jesus. Then slowly he lowers his eyes, he turns around, and.

He walks away.

This young man had been doing rigorous acts of obedience,

but they were not good enough. He had followed all

the rules of the Pharisees, but Jesus wanted more. In fact,

Jesus had already said, unless your righteousness exceeds that of

the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom

of heaven. Jesus was not satisfied with all the good

deeds he could ever possibly do.

What good deeds have you done?

Have you kept the Sabbath? Have you taught sabaschol? Have

you've been a missionary? Have you helped the poor? Have

you given Bible studies?

Have you.

Helped clean the church on weekends? Have you There's all

kinds of things we could list now are those can

be important and valuable things in their own place. But

none of those things, hear me, clearly, none of those

things will begin to save you. This man had been

keeping the commandments to the best of his ability. His

life was everything that a perfectionistic religion can produce. He

had applied human effort and discipline, he had studied the law,

he had taught himself to obey. But still hearing his words,

we can almost feel his terror, fear that for all

he has done, he's still not good enough. Now we

might expect Jesus having someone come to him with such

fear to call him as fears to tell him no, no, no,

You're really okay after all. But Jesus did not do that.

That would have been a lie. It would have been

a deadly lie.

Instead, Jesus offered the man a real solution.

Jesus offered the.

Man something he did not even know he needed. Jesus

offered a covenant relationship with himself, and covenant calls for commitment.

In that covenant, Jesus would have provided the man with

forgiveness based on the Cross. There would have been no

more need for anxiety about his acceptance with God. But relationship,

real covenant relationship always is founded on commitment. In Chapter

eight of the Book of Romans, we see the solution

to the struggle that we read about in Chapter seven.

In Romans eight, verse one, we read there is therefore

now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,

who do not walk according to the flesh, but according.

To the spirit.

This man, this rich young ruler, had eproached Jesus.

Longing for eternal life.

He was willing to work hard for it, but he

wanted it on his own terms, with his pride and prestige. Intact,

the life of a disciple was in his mind too

high a price to pay for the approval of God.

The Holy Spirit will never hush away our legitimate fears

with lies, but he will lead us out of those

fears and into genuine freedom and peace at the Cross

of Christ. Scripture speaks again and again of the hopelessness

of our condition apart from Christ. Trying harder and harder

to make ourselves better and better will fail every time.

The intense efforts of the rich young ruler were doomed

from the very start.

And yet Jesus wanted to give this man, to freely

give him so much more than he could ever achieve.

Jesus wanted to transform him from the inside out. He

wanted to show him the cross. He wanted to give

him the new birth experience that the apostle Paul would

talk about. He wanted to make him a true hearted missionary.

But he could do none of that unless the man

would make a choice, unless the man would make it commitment.

The man came to Jesus with human perfection, with his

very best efforts. And you may remember the Bible story

Adam and Eve did the same thing, didn't They filled

with shame and with guilt for their wrongdoing, they made

themselves coverings of fig leaves. They were crude, they were

hopelessly inadequate. Then God provided them something better. Animals that

had never sinned had to die to provide their own

clothing to those who least deserved it. Those animals symbolized Jesus,

who would die naked and ashamed on a cross, while

his clothing, his perfect righteousness, was given.

To those who least deserved it.

That was to those who put him in the cross.

And friends, that includes you and me, that includes you

and me. We see human goodness again in the sacrifice

of Cain. God had commanded a blood sacrifice, a sacrifice

that would show repentance and point forward to it to

the cross of Christ. Instead, Cain gave his very best

efforts the finest products of his farm. I have no

doubt those fruits looked spectacular in their beauty, like the

robes of that rich young ruler. They were a truly

beautiful sacrifice. They were also a pagan sacrifice, you see,

they were a sacrifice.

To the God of human achievement.

The story of the rich Young Ruler begs the basic

question that has driven the great controversy between Christ and

Satan down.

Through the ages.

Who is God really and what does he actually expect

of us?

Is he severe in exacting, ready to.

Condemn us at the slightest infraction, looking for the best

opportunity to get to write us off so that he doesn't.

Have to bring us into his kingdom?

Is he Is he indulgent and accepting, like a coach,

pennant family member in an addictive relationship. Everything goes, it

doesn't matter, everything's good.

What is he like?

Let's not guess. Let's look at his description of himself.

You may remember the story of Moses. He had been

on the mountain with God pressing closer and closer into

the divine presence. He had been pleading for God's mercy

toward the children of Israel after that disastrous episode with

a golden calf. Finally, he blurts out what may have

been the boldest prayer of his entire higher life, Please show.

Me here glory.

There was reverence in his boldness, and God did not

correct him. Instead, he explained that while no one could

see his face and live, no human can see his

face and live. He would show his back to Moses.

He would put Moses in a cleft in the rock

for protection. That cleft, that fracture in the rock represented

the wounds of Jesus Christ that protect us today. In

Exodus thirty six four through seven, we read and the

Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God,

merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth,

keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity and transgression. And

aren't you glad we worship a God like that, a

God who is forgiving, a God who'll receive us. And

then God goes on and the tone changes. He says,

by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity upon

the of the fathers, upon the children and the children's

sturn of the third and fourth generation. Now this can

seem confusing. Wait a minute, which is it? Is he

forgiving or is he?

Is he holding sins again? Which is it? Which is it?

How can he be merciful and still hold people accountable

for sin? How can he be both? Can What is

really going on here? Let me try an illustration. Imagine

with me. A young Christian woman, let's call her Joy,

has been married to Jack for just over two years now,

and things are going fairly well.

They get along well most of the time. Anyway.

They're not perfect, but they're patient with each other, and

things always seem to work out okay. Often Joy has

to Protectate, has to practice patience with Jack.

In fact, just.

Three weeks ago, he completely forgot her birthday.

That stune.

Still, she's completely committed to him, and she's determined to

be patient. And one day, after dinner, they find themselves

in one of those moments that just seem to be

made for deep heart to heart sharing and communication.

They're relaxing together in the living room and Jack starts

to open his heart.

He says, you know, sweetheart, I've noticed how patient you

are with me. You really are a wonderful wife, and

I appreciate you a lot, and I want to be

a great husband. Of course, I realize I'm not perfect,

but I am determined that starting now, I'm going to

be faithful to our marriage more than ninety nine percent

of the time.

Is Joy impressed? Now?

I think it kind of goes without saying that's that

Joy is not impressed. But let's look more precise. Yet,

why would she not be impressed? Is it because she

expects him to be perfect? Or is it something deeper?

Does she want him to She wants him to be

all hers. She wants him to be committed, and he

has just told her that he has not committed. He

has just told her, in fact, that every once.

In a while he's planning on a dalliance.

You see, by his attitude, Jack is leaving outside of

the sacred covenant of marriage.

Even in this moment when he's alone in the house.

With his wife, his commitment is not there to his family.

The rich young ruler was working on perfection and achievement.

Jesus wanted commitment. The ruler was okay talking about his

good deeds because he thought.

He was really quite good.

But when Jesus asked for commitment, his imagined goodness collapsed

like a house of cards. If he had accepted jesus offer,

he would have become a disciple. He would have received

the Holy Spirit. Then the spirit would have begun transforming

and from the inside out. This would have been a

slow but powerful process, and it would have continued for

the rest of his earthly life. In the meantime, like Abraham,

like the thief on the cross, during that process of growth,

he would have been accepted as perfectly righteous in Christ.

He would have been covered with the righteousness of Jesus. Christ,

the rich, young ruler, worshiped his wealth and all that

came with it.

They were his God.

When Jesus asked him to give them up and become

a disciple, he became very sad. He really wanted to

be right with God. He had worked hard to perfect

his outward acts. He had run to see Jesus, but

when he learned how very expensive God's approval is, it

made him sad. He decided that price was too high.

What a tragedy. Of course, God could have taken his

wealth from him, but that would not have helped. You.

See, God did not need his money.

He needed commitment, and if God had taken his money,

that would not have That would not have solved the problem,

that would not have changed him. In order for Jesus

to heal his heart, he had to surrender what was

hurting him. For him, that was his wealth. He had

to consent to spiritual surgery. Several weeks ago, I had

a physical literal surgery. Nothing was It was nothing major,

but still in order to benefit, I had to agree

to be wounded while I was at that hospital, before

the procedure was done. I think there were three separate occasions,

and someone asked me my name and asked me to

state precisely what procedure I was expecting. You see, no

one was willing to give me a surgery that I

had not agreed to, and they were right to do that.

My consent was the only thing that gave them the

right to perform that surgery. That's why discipleship Jesus is expensive.

To purify our hearts, he has to cut deep into

who we think we are. He has to cut away

harmful growths to bring us real healing. At one level,

in one sense, this test is exactly the same for

all of us as it was for the rich young ruler.

God calls for commitment. It's just that simple.

If you or I hold anything back, if we reserve

for ourselves any sin, however small we might think it is,

or however occasional it might be, we're living outside of

a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ.

If we choose to cling to anything.

I'm not talking about someone who's struggling who's committed to

Jesus but messes up sometimes. But if we choose to

cling to anything that we know to be sin, we're

not in a saving relationship with Jesus. It's that's dark

and simple. But at the level of specifics, the test

is different for different people because that commitment the details

of our lives are different. So what commitment looks like

is different for different people. For Adam and Eve, that

was simply not to eat from the tree of knowledge.

For the rich young ruler, it was to surrender his property,

which he loved more than he loved God. For Abraham,

it was to leave everything he knew and go to

the place that God would show him, without even knowing

where that place was. I can only imagine that was stressful.

The conversations of the neighbors. Hi here you're going, Yeah, yeah, where?

I don't know, but God knows. When Abraham grew older,

the test cut closer still. He said, take now your son,

your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to

the region of Mariah and offer him there for a

burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I

will tell you.

Isaac was his life. Isaac was his hope.

He was a child of Promise who was to become

the progenitor of Jesus. Christ was to save us all.

I think Abraham had some inkling of this. And to

sacrifice Isaac was to say, sacrifice everything.

For Jonah.

The test was to preach to people who dominated the

ancient Near East and what can only be described as

a literal reign of terror. The details are hideous, and

I won't relate them here they would be inappropriate, but

suffice it to say everyone loathed Nineveh. What does full

surrender to God look like in your life right now?

I cannot tell you. Maybe you know.

Exactly what God has called, what God's calling is in

your life.

Maybe you're walking with him.

Day by day as he teaches you surrender one day

at a time. Keep praying, keep asking Him to lead

you with absolute authority. Stay on that journey. Or maybe

there's something in your life that God has been calling

you to surrender for months or even years. Maybe there's

a sin that you cling to or a call to

service that you refuse. Or maybe you just know that

you and God are not in covenant relationship, that you're

living your life, that you're the one who's in charge

of your life. God doesn't have any say in it,

and everything else is just confusing. If you're in one

of those last two groups, do not despair.

Don't give up.

God knows exactly where you are, He knows who you are,

and he knows how to lead you home.

Never give up on God.

I urge you to plead with Him for a deep

and true conversion. The change might seem slow, but it

will be sure and it will be powerful. Wherever you

are in your life, take time alone with Him, linger

in his presence every day before you start the don't hurry.

Then keep asking Him during the day to lead you

as you go through your day.

Ask Him to.

Teach you complete surrender whatever it costs. We're all broken,

we all struggle against sin, and we will until Jesus comes.

But the merits of Jesus can bring us healing in

spiritual growth.

Jesus died on the cross to make that possible.

Jesus has a glorious future for him, he said, he

who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me in

my throne, even as I also became and sat down

with my father and his throne. Some of us may

be pursuing earthly prestige and power. Friends, that's beneath you,

that's beneath the calling that Jesus has for you to

share his throne for eternity.

Longs to get you ready for that.

He longs to heal you of your brokenness, your pride,

your insecurity, self sufficiency. He longs to fill you with

the third person of the God had, the Holy Spirit.

And then what does the Bible teach us as the

result when we make that choice? And by the way,

we can struggle to make the commitment, and that's okay.

We can always make the choice.

Sometimes giving ourselves to God is hard because it's frightening.

But we can make the choice, and we can ask

God to bring about the rest in us, and.

He will so. Wherever you are, however, difficult. It is.

Call out to God and He'll get you where you

need to be the results. I'd like to leave you

with three scriptures. There is therefore now no condemnation to

those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk

according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. And

we've read this before to this morning. But this is

such a precious promise that as we walk in Christ,

giving everything to Him, there's no condemnation. Jesus said, all

that the Father gives me will come to me. And

the one who comes to me, I will by no

means cast out. He will not say when you ask

him to help you out of the mess you're in, however.

Bad it is.

No, you didn't too any bad things, n you, you

didn't do what you were taught. You didn't you Sorry,

you're not good enough. No, he that comes to me,

I will in no wise cast out. It doesn't matter

your background, it doesn't matter how guilty you feel.

If you come to Jesus longing.

For his peace and his salvation, he will be there

for you, and he will receive you with open arms.

I'd like to leave you the third and final scripture.

I'd like to leave you with this morning is very

precious to me. Peace I leave with you my peace.

I give to you. Not as the world gives, do

I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled,

neither let it be afraid. Why is this so deeply

precious to me? Because we have to understand the context

of this. This was Jesus teaching to his part of

Jesus teaching to his disciples just before he went to

Gossemine in the cross, to bear your sins and mind

you see, Jesus walked through his earthly life with perfect

peace with the Father. He had no sins that he

had just learn to stop doing. He had no crimes

to overcome, He had no guilt to be forgiven. He

had no reason to have any shame or guilt in

his life. He had that perfect peace with Father, with

the Father that we could all wish for, and he

walked through life with that.

Then, before his great sacrifice, he said.

I am giving this to you, and in order to

give us his peace, he took on our torment.

He took on our shame and our guilt.

He took on all the brokenness that our sins have

brought to us, and die a shamed, naked, and as

if it were guilty, condemned by God and the cross.

Not for his own sins, but for your sins, for

my sins. My peace, Jesus says, I give to you,

not as the world gives. Do I give to you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be

of shame.

Will you invite him?

Will you plead with him to come into your heart,

to do any surgery that is necessary, and to give

you his perfect peace. Then if you do that, you,

my friend, can rest in the assurance.

That Jesus is good enough.

Heavenly Father, give us the courage to make the choice

every day to be disciples, to accept the cost, lead

us into surrender.

Day by day.

Father, we need you, We need your peace, We need

that confidence that comes with that committed relationship. And I

pray Father that your Holy Spirit will rule our hearts.

Jesus said that he would send the Holy Spirit to

convict the world of sin and the righteousness of judgment.

But Father, as we make our choice, we ask more.

We ask that not only conviction, but that you will

rule our hearts and lead us safely all the way

through this life and into eternity with you, sharing the

throne of Jesus in a glory that we cannot truly

imagine now, but we know it's real and Jesus precious name.

Amen.

Amen,