Thank you, Tammy. I'm listening to that thinking we should have included the lyrics to the version you were playing in the bulletins. Lest everybody be thinking Danny Boy as you're playing that. One of the things that we pray about often and one of the things we lament is that there are so few churches of like mind and like faith around. And so we rejoice with great joy over those that are. And one of those is Grace Baptist Church in Woodhaven. We have developed a relationship with Grace Baptist and I with Peter. Peter and I met each other first, I don't know how many years ago, must have been, you were still at North Shore at the time, so that's over 20 years, right? I was heading down to minister in Jamaica with North Shore Baptist Church and Peter was there. I don't think he went with us that year, He was he stayed home and kept things in order But I met Peter there and then we hooked up again years later as he was pastoring Grace Baptist Church, and I've been there twice now Peter has been up here before and this is his second time and We are just thrilled with what God is doing there It was a wonderful day that I was able to have with our brothers and sisters there last week and we're glad that Peter is here this morning to open the word for us. So brother, come and do that. Well, good morning. And indeed it was a tremendous blessing having your pastor with us last week. We love him. He fed us well. Very encouraging. I was extremely encouraged, actually, as he opened up the word concerning the centrality of the preaching of the word of God. And so many of our men cornered him right away to pick his brains. And they were encouraged as well. I am sad that my wife couldn't make it I wanted her to come, she wanted to come. At the last moment, somebody who was to watch the nursery wasn't able to, and she is a tremendous servant and a good trooper, and she said, I will do it. And so she is doing that probably right now. And so, but by God's grace, I'm with you and I'm so grateful to be with you. Turn with me, if you will, to Matthew chapter 19. Looking at a familiar section, verses 16 to 22. Verse 16. Now behold, one came and said to him, good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? So he said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. He said to him, which ones? Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, all these things I have kept from my youth, what do I still lack? Jesus said to him, 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. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful that he had great possessions. Let's pray. Father, as we come to your word, your word which is truth, we ask, oh God, that you would soften our hearts to hear it, prepare them, Lord, to receive it, And Lord, that you would magnify yourself through it as we would, Lord, walk in your word and live your word. Please help me to bring forth the word of God with power and passion. And Lord, use it to make your name great and known in his name. Amen. Well, about 13 years ago, I shared the gospel with a man who was struggling greatly with alcoholism. He actually lived right down my block. And his life was a mess. And he had left a trail of hurt people all behind him. And he was tired of it. He was tired of living the way he was living. And my wife and I invited him to church. And he started coming to church. And he seemed to enjoy coming to church. And he seemed to like the people of God. And he seemed to enjoy hearing the Word of God. And one day I was with him in his apartment and we were talking about his life and about his sin and how his life was an offense to God. And we started to pray together. And as we were praying, he began weeping and sobbing over his sin. And he was pleading with God to change his heart. And I was weeping with him. And we prayed for quite some time, and I truly believed I had witnessed his rebirth. I truly believed he was brought to spiritual life that day, and I was praising God. And I went home and said to my wife, I said, Claudia, I believe God has saved David. His name is David. But I was wrong. I was wrong about a week later or so. He told me his old girlfriend, she called him and she wanted to move back in with him. And I told him, I said, David, that's not God's will for you. I said, that's not God's will for you. That you're now a new creation in Christ and sexual immorality has no part in being in Christ. And he was troubled by that. And he said that he didn't think he could give up the old girlfriend. And I sat him down and I showed him in the scriptures where dealing with things like fornication and sexual purity. And his countenance had changed. And his seemingly new joy had gone away. And from that day forward, he stopped coming to church. And from that day forward, he was no longer interested in meeting with me. You see, he wanted a new life in Christ, but he wanted his old girlfriend even more. And although Jesus and his salvation, it appealed to him, he wasn't willing to give up the old girlfriend. He wasn't willing to count the cost. And sadly, very sadly, 10 years later, took his own life. Well, today we're going to look at a portion of scripture commonly known as the rich young ruler. And he, too, sincerely, sincerely wanted the things of God. But he, too, was unwilling to surrender all and give up what kept him from God. And I would like to examine this young man and his encounter with Jesus using a five point outline. Very simple. The desire, the demand, the deception, the decree, the despair. Let's look at the desire. Verse 16 and 17, beginning of 17. I'll read those again. Now behold, one came and said to him, good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? So he said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one. That is God. Matthew tells us the man comes to Jesus. We know from verse 20 that he is young and from verse 22 that he is rich. Luke tells us that he was a ruler. which more than likely means that he was a leader in a local synagogue, which if that is the case, then that's saying a lot about him because it was unusual for a young man to be a leader in a synagogue. Mark tells us that he comes to Jesus as Jesus is walking on the road and he comes running up to him and he kneels down before him and he asks him how he might gain eternal life. Now let me say this, let me say this, what we have here is one impressive young man. He's impressive, humanly speaking. I mean, he is young, and he is rich, and he has some authority. And as we will see, he is a morally upright man. And he has, to some degree, is a religious man. And he seems to be a man of good character. And he is established in society. He's probably prominent and an influential man. And he's an observer of the law, or so he says. And he is a zealous man for the law. And he is concerned about spiritual things. This guy would make a great neighbor. And I'm sure lots of fathers would like to have their daughters connect with this guy. So this young man is a success story by all accounts. And add to that, he sincerely wants to know how to gain eternal life. And because he wants to know how to gain it, that tells us that he doesn't have it. And he knows he doesn't have it. And he is convinced that Jesus will have the answer for him. And that makes sense, because to him Jesus is clearly a man sent from God, just as Nicodemus said in John 3. And like most Jews, he figured Jesus to be one of the great prophets from the Old Testament, who had somehow been resurrected. And Jesus teaches like no man ever taught before. And he is doing mighty miracles which no one has ever seen before. So obviously this young man has heard about Jesus, or maybe he's even heard him. Or maybe he's even seen him perform a miracle, or know someone he's performed a miracle for. And he comes passionately and reverently and deliberately to Jesus. with a desire to know how to gain eternal life. And let me say this is a great question. This is a tremendous question. This is a sincere question. You see, he's not trying to trick Jesus like the Pharisees, asking if it's okay to divorce your wife for any reason. He's not asking for a healing or to have a demon cast out of some kid. He's asking instead how to obtain eternal life, which means he is concerned about the state of his soul. And brothers and sisters, wouldn't we be beside ourselves if someone had come up to us or comes up to us and asks us how to have eternal life? I mean, this is what every gospel-loving Christian dreams about, someone basically asking us to explain the gospel to them. How? Hey, how can I have eternal life? How can I get to heaven? We just saw that on Sunday school about going to heaven. How can I get there? Listen, no angsting over how to start a conversation, no debating, right? No having to listen to their crazy belief system for who knows how long until you can share the gospel with them. Just this past Monday night, we were out evangelizing, and I spent about a half an hour talking to a Muslim woman, a very nice lady. And I'm telling you, 20 of those 30 minutes were just her telling me that Jesus wasn't God. And that God was merciful and everybody was getting in. And then finally allowed me to tend to talk to her. But you don't have to do that anymore if someone just says, how do I have eternal life? I think in my 27 years as a Christian, maybe once or twice someone has come to me and said, how do I go to heaven? How do I be saved? Usually I have to work hard, I have to go over a lot of useless ground before a person comes to a place where they even see or consider a need for eternal life. Well this young man comes to Jesus and he calls him good teacher. Good teacher. And he calls him good teacher out of respect and out of honor because Jesus is a rabbi or a teacher. But this young man does not think that Jesus is the Messiah or the Son of God. And Jesus questions him and says to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one. That is God. Now some critics use this to say that Jesus was saying that he himself wasn't good and that therefore he wasn't God. But Jesus didn't say that he wasn't good, nor did he say that he wasn't God. All he said was that only God was good. And remember that this young man doesn't think that Jesus is God. He thinks he's just a man. So what Jesus is doing is showing him that his definition of good is wrong. Because this young man thinks he can do a good thing to inherit eternal life. And as we will see, he thinks he can do good and be good by observing the law. But Jesus strips that away by telling him that the standard of good is God. And because he is good, his law is good. And his law is the standard for good among men, which, of course, this guy believes he fully observes. Now, the problem that this young man has, which all the Jews had, and all mankind, for that matter, have, is that they think they could work for or somehow earn their salvation. That's why he asks, what good thing shall I do? What good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life, have eternal life? You see, men believe that in them there is some good, that they can do good, and that they are able to please God and earn favor with him. Whether it's bathing in the Ganges River, or keeping the five pillars of Islam, or receiving the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, or fasting often, or tithing, volunteering for the soup kitchen, helping old ladies cross the street with their grocery bags, or going green, or whatever, people think they can do good. And the vast majority of humanity, and sadly some, and maybe even many professing Christians, believe that they could do something where they are somehow earning favor with God. I heard a man say in a sermon once, there are really only two religions in all the world. There's the do religion, which means you have to do something to somehow gain some kind of favor with God. And then there's the done, which basically is when Jesus said it is finished, it was done, he did it all. which is biblical Christianity. The Word of God tells us in Romans 3 that there is none who does good, not even one. Ecclesiastes 7.20, surely there is not a righteous man on the earth who does good and never sins. Psalm 53.3 says, every one of them has turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one. And the reason no one can do good by God's standard is because our sin nature makes it impossible for us to do so. We can never meet God's standard of goodness. And that's because we would need a perfect goodness or a perfect righteousness in order to inherit eternal life. And the only man that ever met that standard is the man Christ Jesus. And it can only be applied to us by grace through faith in him. Well, the rich young ruler thinks if he can do some good thing, that'll secure eternal life for him. And what that good thing is, anything but keeping the law, since he believes he already keeps the law. So maybe he thinks Jesus will tell him, just be more zealous. Be more zealous to follow the traditions of the elders. Or do longer and more intense fasts. Pray more. Offer up more sacrifices. But whatever it is, he is willing to do it. Because he is uneasy in his soul. And he has no peace because he knows he lacks eternal life. But he erroneously thinks that there is something that he can do or be done to gain it. And then that he could do whatever that thing is to gain it. And so we see the desire. Secondly, the demand, the second part of 17 to 19. And there we read, but if you want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments. He said to him, which ones? Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now, what I mean by demand is the demand of the law. And what Jesus says is, OK, if you want to enter into eternal life by doing something, then all you have to do is keep the commandments. All of the commandments is what he means. Listen, if God is good, then all of his commandments are good. So if you want to do something good to inherit eternal life, then keep the commandments because they are good. Now, if this young man had asked this question to many ministers in our day, they would have told him something like, pray the sinner's prayer. Or they'd get him to sign a decision card. or have him walk down an aisle as just as I am, or Jesus I come is playing. They would immediately have this guy baptized. They would teach him that all-important doctrine of tithing. I mean, this guy is a good catch for a church, isn't he? He's young. He's rich. He'll probably be in leadership before too long. So pastors and evangelists in our day would make it real easy for this guy to become a believer and then a member of their church. Hey, bow your head, ask Jesus into your heart. Ask him to grant you eternal life and follow me in this prayer. And then welcome to your new life in Christ. Congratulations, you are now a member of the family of God. But Jesus doesn't do this. No, he looks into this man's soul and he sees a self-righteous, legalistic, covetous heart. And he's trying to move him to see it as well. So he says to him, you got to keep the commandments. Now at this point. Some may say, why didn't Jesus just tell him to believe in him instead of giving him the law? Why didn't Jesus say to him what he said to Nicodemus in John 3.16, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life? Why didn't he say what Jesus said to those in John 6.29 who asked him, what shall we do that we may do the works of God? And Jesus said to them, this is the work of God. that you believe in him whom he sent. Right? Why didn't he do that? Or why didn't he say what Paul and Silas said to the Philippian jailer? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Right? Why didn't he say, listen young man, believe in me. Believe in me and you will have eternal life. Trust in me and you will live forever. Come to me and I will give you eternal rest. Well, here's why he didn't. Because this young man thought he could be saved by keeping the law. He thought he could work his way into heaven. And what Jesus is doing is trying to get him to see that he doesn't keep the law, and that he can keep the law, and that the law can't save him. Now when Jesus says, keep the commandments, he is telling him to do something that is impossible for him to do. And he needed to come to this understanding. And remember, Jesus means all the commandments, because that is the requirement of the law, total obedience. James 2.10 tells us, if you commit even one sin, you're guilty of the whole law, and therefore will be condemned to an eternal damnation. Now, the young man's response shows us just how steeped he is in his self-righteous, legalistic, religious system. And it kind of blows us away when he says to Jesus, which ones? Which ones? You know, maybe he's been a little negligent in this one or that one. Or maybe he could do a little better in this one or that one. And you need to understand he sincerely asks this because in his mind he keeps the commands. He doesn't see himself as a lawbreaker. So he honestly doesn't know which command or commands that he needs to keep that he isn't already keeping. And Jesus goes along with him. Again, trying to bring him to a place where he sees himself as a sinner and in need of grace. So what he does is he tells him to keep the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, and the fifth commandments. He tells him to keep five out of the ten commandments, and these are called the second table of the law. The first four commandments have to do with how man relates to God, and the last six, how man relates to man. And then Jesus gives him the summary of the second table of the law, which is, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, found in Leviticus 19.18. And notice that Jesus left out one of those commandments from the second table of the law. He left out the tenth commandment, which is, you shall not covet. And the reason he left it out is because this man is very guilty of that, as he loved money and possessions. He coveted those things. They were his idol. They were his God, which ultimately made him a breaker of the first table of the law as well, as he was to have no other God but the God of Israel. And so the great two commandments are to love God with all your being and to love your neighbor as yourself, both of which are a summary of all the law, both of which no man can keep. Well, because this man is secure in his self-righteousness, Jesus takes him to the law. He measures him up against the perfect word of God, his standard, which is holiness. But to those who come to Jesus with a broken and a contrite heart, he consoles them with the gospel. So then Jesus uses the law not to tell him how to be saved, but to show him that he couldn't be saved through it. Or as Galatians 3.11 says, no one is justified by the law in the sight of God. Go down to verse 24 in Galatians 3, and it says that the law was our tutor or a teacher to bring us to Christ. So the law teaches men that they're sinners and fall short of the glory of God. And it teaches them that they are unable to meet the demands of the law. And that should bring them to a place of desperation and hopelessness, and then that should drive them to Christ. who perfectly kept the law on their behalf and paid the wages of their sin for them at the cross. Listen, if a person wants to get to heaven by keeping the law, they would have to live like Jesus did, meaning from the first breath until their last breath, they would have to live flawlessly and not even commit a sin. And even then they would still be disqualified because they were born, they were conceived in sin and guilty of it even before they were born into this world. And so we see the desire. And then the demand, and thirdly, the deception in verse 20. The young man said to him, all these things I have kept for my youth, what do I still lack? Jesus tells him to keep the commandments of God. And we would expect the young man to be broken at this point and say, wow, I haven't kept the commands perfectly. I really don't love my neighbor as myself. And listen, Jesus, although you left the 10th commandment out, I mean, I fall real short in that area. We'd expect him to say, all these things I have broken since my youth, what shall I do that my sins would be pardoned? We would expect that, but he doesn't. Instead, he says, all these things I have kept from my youth. Now, of course, he's wrong. Of course, he has broken many commandments often, but in his mind, he hasn't. This is what Paul thought before he was saved. He said in Philippians 3, 6, that concerning the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless. Meaning, in his mind, he kept the law of God. Now, the reason this young man thought he kept the law is because he didn't understand the law. He saw it as a bunch of external commands to be physically followed, but he could not grasp the spirit of the law. He could not grasp the spiritual meaning of the law. Jesus showed us in the Sermon on the Mount He showed us this in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, if you hate someone, it's as if you committed murder in your heart. If you lust after a woman, it's as if you committed adultery in your heart. So you didn't have to physically do something to sin because sin comes from within and then works itself out, whether in the mouth or through the hands or through the feet. But this young man doesn't understand this. And since he didn't literally kill anybody and probably didn't sleep with another woman who wasn't his wife, he doesn't see himself as a murderer or an adulterer. And that's because he measured himself by the externals and compared himself to other people. Thus, he saw himself as righteous. But Jesus said in Matthew 5.20 that unless your righteousness exceeds, and the Greek there is far supersedes or exceedingly supersedes, exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means, by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. And you need to understand the people he was talking to, the Jewish audience he was talking to, they would have seen the scribes and Pharisees as the most holy of people. If anybody was righteous, those guys had a lock on it, right? They were the bar in their minds. And Jesus said, they don't even come close. You have to far surpass what you think they have because they don't have it. The point here is it takes a perfect righteousness to qualify for eternal life. And this young man thinks he's achieved that, which is why he says, what do I still lack? What do I still lack? And this is interesting because although he thinks he is righteous, he still knows, he still knows in his soul that he doesn't have eternal life. And he wants it, but he doesn't know how to get it. And sadly, the one who could give it to him is standing right in front of him. But he can't see that. Because he can't see himself as he really is. He can't see himself as a sinner and a divine lawbreaker. You see, he's totally blind to his condition. And how many people are like him Today, sitting in churches today who are religious and morally upright and good by the world's standards, and they give and they serve, but they have a massive void in their soul. Christ is not in them. They are religious, but they are not righteous. They claim to be Christians, but their heart doesn't beat for him. no passion, no zeal. They don't get excited by him. They're not excited to be in his kingdom. They're not excited that he loves them and died for them. They're not excited that they get to serve him. They're not excited that he's coming back for them. They know much about religion and tradition, and maybe even theology, but nothing about life in the spirit. They can talk about the cross, and they will talk about the blood of Jesus. But the blood of Jesus and the cross of Jesus has never caused a radical change in their hearts. And like the rich young ruler, they are trusting in their works, or their accomplishments, or their church attendance, or their baptism, or their profession of faith, and ultimately in themselves. And what they lack is life-changing saving grace. So we see the desire. We see the demand. and the deception, and now, fourthly, the decree. Verse 21, Jesus answers. Jesus said to him, 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 young man says, what do I lack? And Jesus says, if you want to be perfect, sell all your stuff, give it to the poor and follow me. And perfect means complete. In this context, it means qualified for eternal life. Jesus said in Matthew 5.48, we are to be perfect just as his Father in heaven is perfect. So what Jesus is saying is, okay, you want eternal life? The first thing you got to do is lose the idol of your heart. And the idol of your heart is money. And you love money more than you love me. Therefore, you need to lose it. Now, is Jesus giving a command or making a command for all men for all time that whoever wants to follow him, you got to sell all your stuff. You got to give all your money away, all right, to the poor, right? So should we all be poor people? Should we all be begging bread? Is that what he's commanding? It's absolutely not. But this young man's God was his money, so he needed to see that, and then he needed to lose that because it hindered him from entering the kingdom of heaven. You see, you can't keep your sin and come into the kingdom. Jesus said that there was a narrow gate that leads to life, and it's narrow for a reason. It's narrow because he'll bring you through it, but he's not taking your sin with you. You can't take your junk with you in the Christian life. You wanna take your sin with you? Go on the broad road. Anything goes there, but that leads to destruction. You can't have Jesus and another God. Like Paul, we have to count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Like the merchant, we must sell everything we have to buy the pearl of great price. Well, this young man's treasure was on earth, not in heaven, and he had to lose his earthly treasure before he could gain heavenly treasure. Like the man I shared with David many years ago. If he were to be perfect, he had to lose the old girlfriend because she was a stumbling block for him to come to Christ. Now for some people, if they want to be perfect, they have to kill all their worldly dreams and ambitions and desires. Or they have to crush their independent spirit. Well, they have to part ways with the old friends. Well, they have to leave the dishonest job. Well, they have to destroy the monitor or the things that they view pornography on or spend countless hours doing fruitless things on. The point is, whatever is keeping someone from wholly surrendering to Christ, they have to let that thing go. And in this young man's case, it was his money and his stuff. This is why Paul said in 1 Timothy 6, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. So Jesus says to him, if you really love your neighbor as yourself, sell all your stuff and give the money to the poor, who is your neighbor, because they could use it. But he doesn't stop there. He doesn't stop at just give your stuff away that keeps you from me. It's not enough just to help the poor. Many unregenerated people help the poor, do they not? No, Jesus says, sell everything, give it all away, and then follow me. And Mark adds, take up your cross and follow me. But you can't follow Jesus with your idols. You can't follow Jesus dragging the world around with you. So if this young man wants to find eternal life, he must confess his sin, forsake his sin, and then he's got to follow Jesus. And following Jesus means dying to self. It is surrendering your will to his will in everything. You see, then, Then this man will be perfect and right in God's eyes. Then Jesus's righteousness will be credited to his account. Jesus's perfect, sinless life will be put to his account as if this man had lived it before God. And God will accept him on that basis. And anything less to this makes you lack something. And what you lack is genuine repentance and faith, both gifts from God. And without these, no man will know life. Because they are the evidence, the evidence is that one is truly born again. And they are not something that a man can earn or muster up. But God gives them freely to anyone who sees himself as a bankrupt sinner deserving of eternal death and pleads with him for mercy and forgiveness. And so we come to the last point, the despair, verse 22. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Jesus tells the man what it's gonna cost him, and the young man is rocked. And Mark says he was sad at his word. And we read that he went away sorrowful, why? Because he had great possessions, and he loved them, and he didn't want to part with them. You know, in that moment, He had a choice to make. Obey Jesus, sell all your stuff, give it to the poor and follow Jesus, or hold on to his possessions and keep your stuff for now. And he chose his possessions over life in Christ and life with Christ. And notice that he isn't mad. He doesn't debate with Jesus. Because he knows exactly what the terms are. He knows what's at stake. And at the end of the day, he can't part with his stuff. Oh, he'll do a good work, whatever that may be, but he won't part with his sin. And how many people come close to the kingdom of heaven, and they know what it will cost for them to follow Jesus, but they don't want to part with their sin. They don't want to part with their sin because they value the earthly over the heavenly. They value the temporal over the eternal, the flesh over the spirit. Listen, this young man could have left walking and leaping and praising God, but instead he went away sorrowful. He could have gained eternal riches, but instead he opted for riches that perish. And notice this, notice that Jesus doesn't go chasing him down. What would happen today? I think what would happen today is you'd have guys running after this guy, all right, You don't have to sell everything. 80% now, 10% in three months, and the last 10 later. Oh, that's not good, all right. 50% now, and forget the other 50%. Just come in, right? Jesus doesn't do that. It's all or nothing. It's all or nothing. He doesn't chase them down, doesn't try to reason with them anymore. Doesn't lower the qualifications or the standard of entering into his kingdom, right? It's all or nothing. Listen, he loved money and possessions more than he loved Jesus, and Jesus let him go. Jesus let him go. And we must do the same when we share the gospel with people, when we tell them the truth of the gospel, when we compel them to hear it and believe it. But we must never add to it or take away from it or somehow make it more palatable I didn't tell that man David that he could keep his girlfriend just for a while, or he could have her if he had married her right away. I said, David, no good. You're going against the commands of God. Brothers and sisters, we must never water down the gospel or make it appealing. Let's bring the full counsel of God. You and I know people don't like to hear their sinners, but that's what they absolutely need to hear. Because if they don't know the problem, the solution makes no sense, right? Well, in closing, let me say that the Rich Young Ruler is a very appropriate lesson for us and for all men. Because it shreds any hope that in any way anyone can earn any favor with God on their own. It trips a man of any goodness that he thinks he has. And it shows us the futility of trying to keep the law to be right with God. It shows us that a person can desire to be saved and they can have all the right info to be saved and yet be lost forever. It shows us that though one may outwardly seem like a righteous person, inwardly they may be a foreigner of grace. Listen, the rich young ruler had a lot going for him. And if there were ever a man that you could feel spiritually encouraged about when you first met him, I think he'd be that guy. We would say this man is very hopeful that he will be saved. But here's the end of it all. He walked away from it because he couldn't grasp his sin. He didn't grasp his sin. And his heart was set on something other than God. And although he had great advantages, and although he was personally evangelized by the Lord Jesus Christ, and although the free gift of life was freely put before him and offered to him, in the end, He walked away from Jesus. So I leave you with these questions. Have you forsaken your sin and followed Jesus? Are you certain that you have eternal life? And if so, are you wholly relying on the work of Jesus at Calvary's cross on your behalf? And is the evidence of that changed life a life of repentance and faith? Is there evidence? Do you honestly love him? And are you driven by love for him? Are you moved by his love for you? It's not enough to say, I believe, but believing is following and obeying, but that believing and obeying is anchored on love, right? We love him because he loved us. And so do you honestly love him? And if you can honestly answer yes, amen. Amen. Praise God. Keep fighting the good fight of faith. Keep persevering. Keep walking the good walk. Keep looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, because your redemption draws nigh. Keep walking. But if you can't honestly answer yes to these questions, then that means something else is the guard of your heart, and you are unwilling to part with it. And you will not only leave this world sad and sorrowful, but worse than that, you will leave miserable and tormented, and that'll be forever and ever. But the offer of eternal life goes out to you this day as it did to the rich young ruler and the man I shared with 13 years ago. But you must recognize, you must recognize your fatal condition and forsake sins and follow Jesus. And if you do, you will know the joy and gladness of what it means to know Christ in this life and you will certainly know it so much more so and the glory of it all in the next life. Amen? Let us pray. Father, thank you that you have made a way for man to be right with you, and that one and only way is through your Son. O God, we pray, those of us who know you, that we would anchor and trust in the work that Christ has done, that you would give us a freedom in that, that you would give us a loyalty to the Word, a commitment to obedience, and Lord, that we would be anchored in love, steadfast. And Lord, for those who may not, Lord, would you please Lord, stir their hearts to see a great need and move them toward the great Savior. In His name we pray. Amen.