today. The way I intended to start this particular sermon off was kind of helpful already by Kevin and Laurel's testimony as they came and told us basically their story about how they came to know Christ as their Savior and their religious upbringing. Religious, I didn't say necessarily faith-based, right? I think Kevin said it as the idea that he didn't really care He didn't really have a lot of questions going around in his mind about things. It didn't matter to him until it mattered. And so what I was starting off today with is just this idea, do you ever come to church with spiritual questions on your mind? Maybe you're here this morning and there's something that has your attention and you're just wondering, is there something that the preacher could say that could actually help me understand this circumstance in my life? Is there something that will, maybe somebody in church, maybe a song, maybe a prayer, maybe something will be said that will help me understand what's going on in life. I thought of some questions that I have thought about. Not all of these have I thought about because I actually, the first one, I never questioned the existence of God. But some people do. I was raised in a moral home, a church going home. We went to church every Sunday. I just didn't know it really applied to me because I thought I was a really good person. This question never even crossed my mind. But I know it does on a regular basis for people. Maybe you're here this morning wondering, I'm here because really I was invited to come, it was a nice thing to do, I'm just trying to be respectful, but I'm not really sure if God exists. Or maybe you're like me and you don't ask that question, but you may wonder from time to time, does God love me? Does God love me? Does He really care what's going on? Is He such a far off God that He doesn't care about my little issues in life? You might be asking yourself, am I good enough to go to heaven? That was one of those questions that, honestly, this one probably didn't get my attention too often either because I thought I was good enough. as I compared myself to my older brothers. I was like, I'm good. And if they're watching, it's true. All right. I did compare myself. Maybe you've compared yourself to others and you're like, well, you know, if we're dealing with a spectrum of belief, then maybe I'm good enough or maybe I'm not. How about, why do I struggle to do the right things? Why do I struggle? Paul even says it, the things I don't want to do, those are the things I do. The things I do want to do, those are the things I don't do. And I don't think Paul is alone. And we might be here as a long time church attender and really struggle with this idea, I just want to do what's right. I remember my son asked me that question, he was just a little guy, and his friends were intent on doing wrong, and I sat on the edge of his bed just talking to him as he was sad, and he said, Daddy, why don't my friends want to do right? Maybe there's a little Pharisee in him, I don't know. I'm just, but, hey, if you're watching, just kidding, all right. Why is there so much suffering in the world? This is one of the questions that Mark Farnam, when he was here a number of weeks ago, that he addressed. Why is there evil and suffering? And that bothers people, and it ought to bother people. All these questions are legitimate questions. Maybe that's a little too far off for you. Maybe this one's more appropriate. Why is my life so hard? Why is it that I have to go through these hard times when it looks like other people aren't? So with all those questions in mind, let me just say, the correct answer, there's answers that people will give to all those questions, but the correct answer, as in God's answer to your spiritual questions, will always point you to Jesus. And I hope that as we engage in this text today, that you will maybe have some of your questions answered, or maybe it will cause questions to come to your mind, I don't know. But I can say, whether I say it right here from this pulpit, or whether we talk later, or whether you're reading your Bible on your own, or talking to a Christian about your questions, they're there for us, and all the correct answers point us to Jesus Christ. So as we look at Matthew 19, we're gonna be, this is a passage Christina already read for us, verses 16 through 30. We're gonna see that Jesus answers two spiritual questions that ultimately point to him. Excuse me while I get rid of that little thing. There it is, all right. So spiritual question number one, these are not full questions. I kept them vague on purpose, because we're gonna see them unfold in the text. But spiritual question number one that Jesus is gonna answer is, what do I lack? There's a man who is going to ask this question, and we're gonna spend the majority of our time looking at Jesus' response and his answer to this man's question of what do I lack. And spiritual question number two is gonna come from the mouth of Peter, and that'll be many minutes from now, okay? And that will be the question, hey, what do we get? All right, so what do I lack as an unbeliever? What do we get as believers? It's kind of the outline of the text today. All right, so let's get into Spiritist question number one, what do I lack? We see, now behold, one came to him and said, good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? We're gonna talk through some of the details of this, but I actually need to, as I feel it's my responsibility, if you don't have a New King James Version or a King James Version, which is fine, right? You may have an ESV, English Standard Version, you may have a New American Standard Bible, NASB, you may have another English translation, And it's not worded the same. This is one of those verses. I tend to call those out because I think it's good to know. When I'm preaching and you don't have the version I'm preaching from, then you could be like, why is he talking about this? So when we get into the ESV and other English translations, we're going to see simply in verse 16, good is added in the New King James and the King James, but it's not there in the other English translations. Now there's reasons for this, and we're not going to get into the reasons. I'm just going to go ahead and point out the differences. And that's a minor one that's there. But verse 17 has a little bit more. So we see in the New King James, so he said to him, why do you call me good? And this is, when you go to the ESV and other English translations, they don't ask that question. The question is, why do you ask me about what is good? You see the difference there? One is focused on the person of Jesus. The other one is focused on the reality of doing good works. And there is a difference here. So in the Matthew text, we see this difference. But what I want to call your attention to is if you go to Mark 10, 18 and Luke 18, 19, in the New King James Version, it actually asks the question, why do you call me good? In the parallel text to this particular passage, you will see this question reiterated. So the question actually did happen. The question was asked, Jesus did say, why do you call me good? Because it's recorded for us in both Mark and Luke. But in the Matthew text, for whatever reason, for Matthew's purposes, it is believed that he did not actually add that. And that somebody basically trying to smooth out the parallels just added it in there for sake of clarity and for consistency in the Matthew, Mark, and Luke passages. But the reference really is, I think the emphasis because of the context of the passage is, why do you ask me about what is good? And we'll get back there. So we'll go ahead and just deal with the New King James passage right now. Those differences are there. They're there because of translation. They're there because of history. And I can't possibly explain all that to you right now. But what I can do as we move on is focus on what the rest of the text, it's consistent in all the translations, and that is this. Jesus' response to this person, he says, you know, good teacher, what good things must I do to have eternal life? What good works do I have to do to have salvation, to go to heaven, to be in God's presence for eternity? All the different ways we can ask this question. What must I do, Jesus? And he says, well, he goes, if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. Now as you think about this, depending on what your religious upbringing might be, this answer will either surprise you or confirm your belief that you already have. And that's this idea of what is the role of the commandments in our salvation? So I put this little graphic up here. It's simple. I tried to go as simple as I possibly could and readable. We see the two tablets that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. The tablet on the left is the commands that are dealing with Israel's relationship between them and God. And then on the right side is the relationship Israelites had with one another and their neighbor, right? So we'll talk through these as we go through the text, but this is just a simple graphic I want you to see. Jesus says, listen, if you want to enter into life, if you want spiritual salvation, maybe one of your questions today is like this, man, what do I have to do to get to heaven? What do I have to do so that God will be happy with me? What do I have to do? And Jesus is saying, well, if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. Seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it? Then we see the man's response, another question, he says to them, which ones? Now we're gonna walk through these in a different way in a few minutes. He says, which ones? Jesus said, first of all, you shall not murder. Now I want you to picture this guy, he's coming to the spiritual leader of all spiritual leaders, Jesus, he does not have faith in Jesus yet, but listen, he's coming with his own questions, and he's coming to Jesus, and so I want you to picture him checking these things off. All right? Jesus says, well, don't murder. Check. Got that one. Maybe you're feeling the same way. Good to go. All right? Two, you shall not commit adultery. I hope you're able to say check. But we understand there's physical adultery that is rampant in our world. There's mind adultery, the idea of lusting after someone. Certainly, we know that's true. But as he's listening here, he's like, no, no, no, I got that one. All right? Jesus says, you shall not steal. Well, that one's on there. He says, you shall not bear false witness. On our graphic it says, thou shalt not lie. There's more to discuss there, but we're not gonna discuss it today, but it's the idea. Don't lie, don't bear false witness, don't say something that's not true, all right? Don't do that. And so he's going check, check, check, check, and then Jesus gets to verse 19. He says, honor your father and your mother. Oops, we saw that one at the top. Good thing we checked that one off. All right, so he's good to go. And then Jesus says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That one's not on there. What are we supposed to do with that? You love your neighbor as yourself. Well, one way that it was customary to look at the Ten Commandments were to distinguish between the different slates, the different stones. The left one is talking about love God, and the other one is love your neighbor. If you're gonna love your neighbor, you're gonna honor your father and mother and do not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie. Those are the things that you're gonna do. And this man is going check, check, check, check, check. Now this is what we call the great commandment. We're gonna see this, and I switched to red just so you understand, this Matthew text is coming when we get to chapter 22 in a few weeks. It says in Matthew 22, it says, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the law? And Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like to it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Then he concludes this passage with the statement, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. And so when we talk about the Great Commission, we are told to go and make disciples. We're told to do that. We're supposed to go and make disciples. This is called the Great Commandment. We're to love God and love our neighbor. And that's what those two tables represent. And so when he says, which ones, and Jesus says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, he goes on, and that's where Jesus finishes. But then we see the response of the young man. The young man, first of all, this is the first time we're actually told he's young. This man is often referred to as the rich young ruler. He was someone of prominence, we know that, I should say of wealth, because of the text that's coming here in a few minutes. But here we see the young, he's young in verse 20, and he said, all these things I have kept from my youth. Let's go back. I'm sorry, I should have put that slide there. He's been checking him off. He even said, loving his neighbor, I have kept all these things from my youth. And then he asks the question, which I think is behind even his first question, what must I do to gain, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? It's really, he's asking the question, what do I still lack? There is something going on in the heart and mind of this rich young ruler that says something's just not quite right in here. And maybe that's what some of the questions you might have come this morning are revolving around in your own life. What's going on in here? Where do you feel a lack? Where do you feel empty? Where can you put words to what is missing inside of you? Because he has come to Jesus. He's asked the question. Jesus has partially answered the question. And then he says, but what do I lack? And so that's the first question. What do I lack? Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, Now that's a loaded word, is it not? If you want to be complete, if you want to be able to, really, I'm gonna just roll in the rest of the New Testament teaching on this. If you want to stand in the presence of God righteous, holy, without blame, spotless, if you want to do that, if you want to be perfect in the eyes of God, he gives this man two commands. He says, go sell. What you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. That's the first command, go and sell. And then the second command is, and come follow me. Jesus is laying it on the line here. And it's beautiful what Jesus is doing. He's loving this person for who he is. It says, but when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. We're familiar with the story if we've read the Bible a few times, certainly the Gospel of Matthew, and it's, like I said, it's in the other Gospel passages. But here, what I want to do is basically talk about this interaction with this man and Jesus. And I want to do it from three ways. First, I want to just say, what did he get right? What did he get right in this area? Because, you know, I asked you, did you come today with questions? I hope you did. Coming with questions is a good thing. So what do we get right? One, he came to the right person. I would say you came to the right place. All right, why? Why is this the right place? Because we're Merrimack Valley Baptist Church? No, because we actually believe what the Word teaches. We actually believe the Bible. And have we mastered all of it? Not on your life, and not on mine. But we are students of the Word, and we seek to study, and we seek to grow and mature in our faith, and we invite you to do that along with us. But this young man, he came to Jesus Christ, so that he's the right person. He also, he asked a great question. And again, maybe it's the question you're asking, what must I do to be saved? And so it's a good question. There are other questions. But he asked a really great question. And then thirdly, he knew he lacked something spiritually. I think this shows a certain level of insight on this man's part. He is a, at minimal, he's a God-fearer. In other words, he's recognizing God for who, that he is God and that this man is not. But he's sensing a lack. So I think these are the three things that he got right. What didn't he understand? I think there's a lot more that he didn't understand, and so we'll spend a few more minutes on this one. One, he didn't understand the means of salvation. Well, how do we know that? Well, he said, good teacher, what good things shall I do that I may have eternal life? So he said, the means of salvation. How is a person saved? Is it through good works? Is it through obeying the commandments? Is it as, air quotes, sorry, as simple as that? And we're going to learn, no, it's not. But he didn't understand the means of salvation. We are told in Galatians 2.6. This is Paul writing to the Galatians. He's saying, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, keep the commandments, which I'm going to equate for these purposes as the law. And this man, but which ones, he says. He says, well, listen, Paul is teaching us based upon what he knows from Jesus Christ and what has been taught to him, that a man is not justified to made right. That idea of justified to be made right in the eyes of God. that you are holy and you have been pardoned from your sin, right? A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Remember I said all your questions will ultimately point to Jesus. That's what's happening here. Jesus is pointing this man to himself. He's teaching, well let me clarify, Jesus is teaching that man about himself, but Jesus is pointing that man to Jesus. And we see that even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. Salvation is not from obeying the law. That is what Galatians teaches. So we have to wrestle with what is Jesus saying, right? We'll get there. He said, what didn't he understand? He didn't understand the means of salvation, which we would say is a personal faith in Jesus Christ. That's what Galatians is teaching us. The rich young ruler did not understand the purpose of God's law. And maybe you struggle with that. What's the relationship between the Ten Commandments, again, simplifying it is the Ten Commandments, and this salvation thing? What's the purpose of God's law? Well, we can also see that he doesn't understand this because he says, Jesus said to him, you know, obey the commandments. He said, which ones? As if you can pick and choose what to obey with God. How does that work in your home, by the way? All right. Did that work for you growing up when your parents told you, you know, well, I just chose to obey you here, here and here, but I really just kind of, you know, I'm not going to obey those things. Those are dumb rules, mom and dad. Right? Maybe you said it, but more likely you thought it. Okay? Maybe it's going into your home right now. Kids, don't believe it. You need to follow all the rules. You need to follow all the rules. Jesus is telling him, he said, listen, keep the commandments. Jesus didn't subdivide them. He said, keep them all. And we understand he didn't understand fully what the purpose of God's law is because he said, which ones? We see from, again, Galatians 3 now, the chapter later, it says, Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. This is the relationship. We preached the Galatians a couple years ago, but as we understand this, this is talking about the purpose of the law. God's law, the Ten Commandments, is our tutor. It's teaching us, training us to understand something. One, that God has rules that must be obeyed, and two, that it is impossible for us to keep them. That is a clear teaching. And as we think about this rich young ruler, I think I have a slide that will point this out in a couple minutes. When we think about this man, he didn't keep all the commandments. He said, I kept all those from my youth. He was self-deceived. But he's confused here on the means of salvation, the purpose of God's law, and he's also confused on his nature as a child of Adam. What do I mean by that? He says, listen, all these things I have kept from my youth, well, I don't know many kids that keep all the commands and all the rules. We mature and we grow in these things. But he's saying, listen, I've done all these things. If we look at Romans 5, we can help him understand. No, you haven't. Romans 5, 18. As through Adam's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. Even so, through one man's righteous act, talking about Jesus Christ, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. So in the Romans text, Paul, now running to a different group of people, but he's explaining the gospel and he's saying, listen, if you look at the nature of man and you look at the nature of Jesus Christ, we have to understand that all in Adam are condemned. They're all sinners. Romans 3, 23 talks about all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's the bad news of the gospel. And this is also why we say the ground is level at the cross. Because no one has come to a faith in Jesus Christ without first recognizing their sinfulness. Because Jesus hung on that cross to pay for sin. Not his sin, but for everybody else's sin. Jesus is the spotless lamb. He's the innocent one. He's the one that never committed a single sin. He is the second Adam. He is the final Adam. He is the one who was born into this world sinless through a miracle of God and the life of Mary. He lived a sinless life and he hung on that cross as a ransom for you and for me. He paid the debt that we owed. It's just the gospel. And this is what Romans is telling us. By Adam's offense, all men are under condemnation. That means you and me, by the way. And if one of your questions is, does God exist? He does. And if one of your questions is, are you good enough to go to heaven? You're not. But God loves you. That was the answer to another question. And he sent his son to die in your place. Folks, it doesn't get any more stark than that. The love of God is clearly evident in sending his son to die on that cross to pay for your sins. I never quite got that as a young person until I was about 19 years old and a person confronted me with my sin and told me I needed a savior. And through the reading of Romans, I came to faith in Jesus Christ once and for all. And we invite you to do that. If you're here this morning and you just don't understand what all this church stuff is, that's okay. We can help you work through that. What you have to walk away with today is understanding that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. Because all of us, we're all children of Adam. We're not like Jesus. We weren't born sinless. We were born with a sin nature. Our parents sinned, our grandparents sinned, our great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents, all the way back to Adam, have sinned. They're all in need of a Savior. And the good news of the gospel is that it says here, even so through one man's righteous act, talking about Jesus Christ dying on the cross, the free gift came to all men. Now it's not talking about universal salvation. We don't have time to get into this. It's talking about the free gifts that's available. His sacrifice on that cross paid for sins of all people of all time across the globe. His sacrifice is sufficient. for your sins to be forgiven, resulting in justification. If you want to be justified before God, you must come to faith in Jesus Christ. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. And we invite you to come to faith in Jesus Christ. Moreover, the law entered that offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded more. I forgot this text was on here. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The grace of God. We're coming up to Thanksgiving. We're going to give testimonies of Thanksgiving. Are you thankful for God's grace? God's unmerited favor? You didn't deserve salvation, but God is offering it to you anyway. And if you come to faith, he will grant you salvation. So we see that the young man said, all these things I've kept from my youth. And so the one thing that Jesus did not list, and I'm sure this man at one point was like, whew, I'm glad he didn't get to the last one. Do not covet. This is the idea of your focus is on the things of this world. Your focus is on things. You know, don't covet your neighbors, anything of your neighbors, right? Whether it be a living thing, such as an animal or a spouse. Don't desire anything tangible, whether it be, whatever it might be. Money becomes the main thing that Jesus will focus on here in a minute. He doesn't list it. By Jesus not listing it, he brings it to the forefront. when he says, go, sell all you have. And what did he do? He couldn't do it. He couldn't do it. And so what we have to understand in this relationship, by not keeping one part of the law, he has violated all the law, we're told elsewhere in the New Testament. But we're also told, we also see, do not worship any other gods. This is idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry. And so we have to understand this is alive and well in our lives. I'll challenge you with that in a few minutes. But this is, Jesus, by not listing it, actually set the guy up for, hey, I'm good. Until Jesus said, go sell all you have and come follow me. So what did he get wrong? Well, we talked about what he got right and what he didn't quite understand. What did he get wrong? Well, first of all, he was sorrowful for the wrong reason. Notice what it says in the text. Jesus says, go sell what you have, give to the poor, you will have treasures in heaven. I didn't highlight it, but you will have treasures in heaven. And then he says, come follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful. That word sorrowful is the same word as grieve. Remember when Jesus told his disciples a few weeks back, we were talking about how Jesus said, listen, I'm going to Jerusalem, I'm going to be betrayed, I'm going to be crucified, I'm going to die. Well, actually, he didn't necessarily say he was crucified. He said, I'm going to die and I'm going to resurrect. He told them that. They got so focused on the death part, they were grieved. Same word. This man was grieved. He was sorrowful. Why? He had great possessions. So what did he get wrong? He was sorrowful of the wrong thing. He was sorrowful because he had to leave his great possessions rather than enjoying the treasures of heaven. He was wrong in the main way because he walked away from Jesus. He went away. He came to the right person, he came with the right question, he understood his weaknesses, he was willing to consider and evaluate his life, but when Jesus got to the point, he went away. He could, it was a bridge too far for him because he had too many possessions and he walked away from the very person that would have filled that void. Remember I said your questions, all your spiritual questions when they get the correct answer, they all point to Jesus. Jesus pointed this man to himself and he walked away. I know many people have walked away from Jesus, maybe you do too. Maybe they're in your family, maybe they're co-worker, friends. and you've loved them, you have pleaded with them, you've talked about the gospel with them, you've talked about the love of Jesus, and they just can't get past whatever it is they can't get past. For some, it's shame. For some, it's riches. For some, it's any number of things that get in people's way. But we have to understand, people walk away from Jesus, and when they do, they are responsible, not God. If you have never come to faith in Jesus Christ, God is offering you his grace, and to come to faith in his son, but if you walk away, that's on you. We don't want that for you, God does not want that for you. We pray that you come to faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, that idea again is the idea of being perfect in God's eyes, go, sell, come and follow. This is the context that we're in. And so the spiritual question was, what do I lack? Well, he lacked. Jesus saw the lack. And he said, I have the remedy. Go sell, that was the tangible, but the spiritual, come follow me. He had received an individual invitation to become one of Jesus' disciples. Have you ever thought about would you have liked to have been a disciple of Jesus Christ? Would you have liked to have gone and walked with Him and talked with Him and experienced all that? I mean, yeah, I would love to be there. Although when Jesus says, hey, listen, son of man doesn't have a place to lay his head. It was rough living. always dependent upon others, you know, sleeping outside oftentimes, you know, people actually hating you. It was a tough thing to follow Jesus. But I think as we consider this text, this was the answer for this person. Because he knew he lacked something. He knew he lacked. He lacked faith in Jesus is what his problem was. But as we consider our needs, what do we lack? What would Jesus have said back here? If you want to be perfect, go do something and follow me. So there's many of us in this room. I would say the majority of this room would say that we are followers of Jesus Christ. Did God call you to leave something to follow him? I'm not gonna give a personal testimony on this one. I really want that question to hang in the air for each of us. Did it cost you something when you came to faith in Jesus Christ? Because oftentimes coming to faith in Jesus Christ means God has called you out of something to himself. And it may have been, as we're gonna see in a little bit later, it may have been people that we love. places that we, you know, enjoyed. But I believe that we are called to also go and do something, not for our salvation. This is not to earn our salvation. This is to demonstrate in our life that Jesus is ultimate. That's what Jesus was doing for this man. He's like, listen, I am worthy. Jesus is saying, I am worthy for you to sell everything and follow me. Jesus didn't hold, he didn't hold back. I am worthy for you to sell every little itty bitty major thing, whatever it might be, sell it all and follow me. It's worth your while. And folks, I'm telling you, I think that we live in a world that likes Jesus, but they don't like to follow him. So many people in this world are not followers of Jesus. They'll respect them in one way or another, but to say, follow me, giving up whatever it might be, the priorities of their lives, like, no, no, no, no. They want to do, as I heard a preacher say recently, they wanted to sync, you know, we sync our phones, we sync our computers, we do these syncing things where we get everything to where they met. We wanna sync our life with God's life and say, I want all that you have to give, but I want everything that I already have. I want to live life my way, God. I'll accept everything you say to a point, but then I'm the one really in charge. And we just know that's not truth. That's not life. That's not real. We are called to follow him. It's a non-negotiable. Follow him to the core. There's nothing that supersedes Jesus. He is the ultimate priority of life. And we have to ask ourselves, does our life demonstrate that priority? So what do I lack? He lacks faith in Jesus Christ. He goes on to teach now to disciples about this idea of idolatry and how it keeps people from entering the kingdom of God. I didn't want to show this slide, I just explained it. If there is something that is in your way to coming to faith in Jesus Christ, you can't give it up, if it's a person, if it's finances or whatever, then you are guilty of idolatry, which is that first command of the 10, right? It says, then Jesus said to the disciples, assuredly I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And then this is a way of teaching, right? Jesus says, okay, this is a hard thing, it's hard, but let me show you how hard it is. And again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Throughout history, there have been people who have tried to dumb this down. They've been trying to explain it away. You've probably heard them. I've heard it. I heard it before I was ever a believer. I heard someone dismiss this. This isn't really talking about an actual camel, the largest animal that they would have probably known next to maybe an elephant. They would have said, listen, they can't possibly be talking about a camel fitting through the eye of a needle. But that's exactly what Jesus is saying. It's a way of talking about the impossibility of something. Jesus is saying, listen, it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Let me tell you how hard it is. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. What would you think about that? Well, probably the same thing the disciples thought, because they said when they heard it, they were greatly astonished. saying, who then can be saved? Do you see the parallel thoughts here? This rich young ruler comes and he says, what must I do to have eternal life? What must good thing, what good work must I do? Jesus says, you can't do it on your own. It's impossible to keep the law, you have to come to faith in me. And the disciples are saying, listen, if it's hard for a rich man, why is it hard for a rich man? Why are they astonished? There are many rich people in the society. Some people were rich because of ill-gotten gain. Think tax collectors, thieves, politicians, those type of people. But there were actually rich people within Jewish society. And they used their wealth to do good things. And this young man was probably one of them. He would help feed the poor. He would do different things, you know, with some of his money. But what we see here, Jesus is saying, excuse me, the reason the disciples are astonished is because they looked at rich, Jewish, faithful Jewish people as experiencing the blessings of God. God blessed them with finances so they could do these things for people. He didn't certainly bless the fishermen, these poorer people, right, the ones that had to toil with their hands, they didn't have money handed down from generation to generation. People respected rich, I would say wealthy Jewish faithful people for all the things that they did. They would build synagogues, they would do different things. But Jesus looked at them and said, with men, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. This is Jesus at his most teachable moment of this passage. He's using this man that just come, asking about salvation, and Jesus pointed to him, you can't do it on your own, sell all you have, come follow me, I'm worth it. The disciples are saying, wow, this is, you know, Jesus said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye than a needle. They're like, what? That doesn't make sense to us. He says, listen. What is with man, what is impossible is possible with God. This is the nature of salvation. It is all of grace, not of works. I grew up believing that I could be a good enough person to please God and earn my way into heaven. And when I was confronted with the good news of the gospel, I had to understand the bad news first. All has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But by grace are you saved through faith, Ephesians 2 tells us. It is by God's grace, by coming to faith in Jesus Christ, that anyone can get saved, even a rich person. So the question is, are there idols in our lives? There certainly was in this rich, young ruler's life. And for sake of time, I'm not going to dwell on this too long, but I do think I challenged myself this morning. I have to look in the mirror before I look out the window. I use that analogy on a regular basis. I have to look in the mirror. How is God's Word penetrating my heart and mind today? Am I guilty of idolatry? Is there something that's so precious to me, whether it be wife, or child, or income, or church family, or prominence, or whatever it might be? Is there something in my life that has become an idol? Is there a good thing that has usurped the greatest thing, the greatest person, which is God? And I ask you, you have to look in the mirror first. Before you start looking at all the people around you and looking out the window and seeing and judging others, I bet you that's idolatry for that person. Be careful with that. A rich person finds it very hard to get into the kingdom of God. You know who usually doesn't have a problem with that text? Poor people. Poor people don't struggle with that text. Yeah, you tell them God, right? Their poverty may be an idol. your riches may be an idol, your 401K, your savings account, your weekly paycheck, your, what's the word? The income that you have that you can do whatever you want to with it. It all matters. And thankfully, God does not ask for all believers of all time to give everything away. That was that person. But when we talk about resources, all of our resources are worthy to be submitted to the sovereignty of God, to the kingship of Jesus. So spiritual question number two, just because we're running out of time here, this is Peter comes on the scene and he's basically saying, okay Jesus, we learned that lesson, we saw that man, we understand about rich people, but hey, now that you've said all that, what do we get? Peter answered and said to them, see, we have left all and followed you. Therefore, what shall we have? There's a legitimate question. And by the way, I'm always in favor of not treating Peter more poorly than he should be. He has plenty of rope to hang himself with, right? He says some dumb things. But here, I think he's in conversation with, I think he's one representing all the disciples at this point. But he's saying to Jesus, listen, he says, we, They really had left everything. They left their nets. He left his family. They literally are following him wherever he goes and doing whatever he says. He says, listen, what does it look like for us? I think this is a legitimate question. I don't think this is a foolish question. I think he's processing. So Jesus said to them, one reason I believe that is because Jesus does not rebuke him. And we know that Jesus isn't shy to rebuke Peter. He says, so Jesus said to them, assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration, what is that regeneration? That is talking about when all things are made new. Sin is dealt with. Jesus has returned. There's a new heavens, a new earth. Everything is regenerated. Everything is alive. There's no more sin. There's no more death. There's no more tears. Surely I say to you that in the regeneration when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, this is talking future for us folks. You, talking to the disciples, who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Cut yourself a break. We do not know exactly what that means. We're not expected to know every aspect of this. We do know that for the followers of Jesus in His day, in the New Testament, we're also told that we as believers will judge angels. We're told that. But there is some aspect of this future time when we are in God's presence and Jesus says, all who have followed me will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Maybe those 12 individuals minus Judas, but put Matthias in there, maybe they'll come and maybe they will do something special. We don't know fully exactly what that looks like. But then he goes on to say, Sorry, I skipped all that. And everyone, now this is talking to us, and everyone who has left, notice, houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, or lands. If you've left any of those for my namesake, Jesus says, shall receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life. That's the true gift, by the way. Eternal life in the presence of God. We are able to live in light of that in this world right now. We are able to live, Romans 6 says, we are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. We're actually able to live in a way that glorifies God that we can never do prior to the time that we came to faith in Jesus Christ. But here we're told that everyone who has left, this is why I asked you, when you came to faith, did it cost you something? For me? Oh, sorry, when those emotions well up, I just have to stomp them down sometimes, right? For me, it was my mom. My brothers had already left the Catholic Church and gone into Mormonism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they had already left, and it tore my family apart. So when I came to faith in Jesus Christ, I knew I would be put in the same boat in my mother's eyes, and I was, and it was hard. I told my mother, I finally know what it means to be a Christian. And she was offended by that statement. And she did some of her own clarifying and trying to establish her understanding of things, which I knew was wrong. But it cost me something when I came to faith in Jesus Christ. It didn't cost me the love of my mother. But I had to see pain brought into my mother's life, more pain. She'd already experienced some, and I was now the reason that she was experiencing more pain. But I had to do it. There was no other choice. And many of you are in the same boat. Maybe you've had to leave. Again, I know a guy from years ago. He had to leave his job because of his faith in Jesus Christ. He had to literally give up his well-paying position because he knew what he was doing was ungodly, and he could not glorify God through that act, and he took a step of faith, and he left. Did God leave him penniless? No. God blessed him. Have you had to leave brothers or sisters, father or mother, wife or children? Are you in a home where you're the only believer? You came to faith. And you have all the shared memories of everybody else in that family, but now you look upon them and you actually dread some of those memories, some of those things that you did, and you're realizing, no, that was not godly, and I grieve over those things. For which things your family does not grieve over. Listen, if you did it for Jesus' sake, he says, you shall receive a hundredfold. Do we know what that means? We don't. We do know that if you go back to the Beatitudes, similar terminology is used there. There are blessings that come because of faithfulness to Jesus Christ. But ultimately, we will inherit eternal life. And then he concludes this section, and this will probably be built upon next week as we get into chapter 20. But many who are first will be last in the last first. What does that mean? Well, first in the world means last in eternity. Some people believe that that means that you're the last one in the kingdom. No, when you're in last place, pretty much you would be called a loser. You're in last place. That is the idea of if you're first in this world and you're enjoying all the riches of this world, and you never come to faith in Jesus Christ, you never submit yourself and recognize who He is. and submit yourself to him, you're last in eternity. That's an idea of eternal punishment. But last in the world, if you have given houses, family members, whatever, if you've experienced all that loss because of your faith in Jesus Christ, you become a citizen of God's kingdom. And so let me just leave you with this thought as we close. Following Jesus is the total commitment, excuse me, following Jesus is a total commitment that brings eternal rewards. I don't know how well you're following Jesus. I think all of us who are following Jesus legitimately could say, I could do better. Yeah, and it's true. We've never not arrived. But don't be foolish to think that Jesus doesn't require every aspect of your life. If you're a Christian here today, he wants it all submitted to him, whatever that looks like in your life. And if you are holding on to something and will not submit it, that is the very thing God is going to bring up to the surface, and bring up to the surface, and bring up to the surface, trying to get his children to understand, no, that one needs to be submitted to me. So we come to faith in Jesus, that's called salvation. We live in faith in Jesus, that's called the Christian life, and it's all to be done understanding that Jesus is the priority and deserves our total commitment. And yes, there'll be eternal rewards, but there are rewards in this life as well. Let's experience those rewards together. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word and for this simple passage. It is so simple. I pray I haven't made it more difficult than it needed to be. But Father, we come to church and we have spiritual questions. We have spiritual issues. We don't always understand exactly what you're doing in our lives. But Father, you are faithful and you love us. And you have determined that you are going to mature us to look more and more like Jesus Christ. And you're gonna allow us to ask these questions. You're gonna allow us to find the answers. And I pray, Father, that we would find the answers sooner than later so that our life might bring you more and more glory here and now. And that we might be a witness and a testimony to the saving power of Jesus Christ in our life so that others can see it and come to faith as well. Lord, may we submit to you all things. And if there is anything that we have refused to submit, Lord, I pray you'd bring that to our minds and heart. and you would do your work, the power of the Holy Spirit, to help us to let it go and to follow you completely. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.