I invite you to turn back to the other side of your bulletin. And there you will find our Scripture passage for this afternoon. We will continue in our consideration of Luke's Gospel. And this afternoon we will be looking at Luke 18. 18-30. Luke 18. 18-30. And a ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And he said, all these I have kept from my youth. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, one thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me. But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard it said, then who can be saved? But he said, what is impossible with man is possible with God. And Peter said, see, we have left our homes and followed you. And he said to them, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time and in the age to come, eternal life. Amen. Well, I think all people, regardless of who they are in life, like to consider what we think are the most important and the most deep questions of life, the most important things we can consider. I was reflecting as I thought about this passage about how in my personal experience this has so often been the case and like a college dorm room at 1 a.m. seems to produce these kind of discussions about the deep questions of life and for us at the time in these college dorm rooms it was Questions like Michael Jordan versus LeBron James. Who's the greatest basketball player of all time? Who's the greatest rapper of all time? At a Christian college, we got into questions about predestination, philosophy, whatever the case may be. But we all recognize that there are some deep, what we think at least are deep and important questions that we ought to consider. And we find in the scriptures in particular that there are a set of the most important and fundamental questions that we as human beings must consider and must have an answer to. And in our passage this afternoon, we find this ruler bring to Jesus one such important question. How, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Can we have eternal life? How can we have eternal life? When can we have eternal life? These are all the questions which Jesus answers in response to this ruler's question. He answers affirmatively, yes, we can have eternal life, but seeks to show how we can have it. What is the heart that receives eternal life? How can we receive it? And even as we get into our passage, I think it's important for us to note, as you have probably seen as we've read through it, that Jesus makes the connection between eternal life and the kingdom of God. Those two things are synonymous in his mind. The kingdom of God is the place. the sphere in which eternal life is found. And so, as we consider this passage, we ought to see that eternal life and the kingdom, and particularly the king of the kingdom, are all synonymous and go together. So as we consider Jesus' answering of this question in our passage this afternoon, I'd like for us to see three points which Jesus makes in response to the ruler's question. First, we see in verse 19, Jesus teaches us about the one who gives eternal life. The one who gives eternal life. You can look again at verse 19. Jesus begins in response to the ruler and his question to confront the way in which the ruler has addressed Jesus. So notice again how he has addressed him in verse 18. He comes to Jesus and he says to him, asking him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Good teacher, that's what he thinks of Jesus. He thinks Jesus is a good teacher, and notice the way Jesus responds. Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. I think on a surface reading of the passage, we might think that Jesus' response here is sort of petty, maybe even nitpicky, that he's trying to maybe show up this ruler as he's come to him. What exactly is Jesus getting at when he responds to the ruler in this way? And Jesus, in responding to him, I think we ought to see, is making a profound and important point about the doctrine of who God is. The doctrine of divine goodness. He wants us to understand what goodness is and how God has it. Most of us will know that God is good. Probably not a controversial opinion. We've, as most of us as Christians, have experienced the goodness of God in our lives. And we can think of numerous places in the scriptures in which we find this stated clearly to us. Exodus 34, when God reveals himself to Moses and declares his name, part of that, at least in the King James translation, is that God declares that he is abundant in goodness and truth. Psalm 136 verse 1 calls us to give thanks to the Lord for He is good. So we know that God is good. It's a thing we state all the time. But Jesus in our passage is seeking to make an even deeper statement than just the simple attribute of God's goodness. See, we see that because he's stating not just that God is good, but that no one is good except God alone. There is no other good thing. No one else has goodness, Jesus says, except God. So we might ask, what does he mean by that? We in our lives think of many people in our lives that we would describe as good people. We experience many good things in creation. In fact, one of the theologians who writes about this describes how someone might insist that we see in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 31, God creates all things, that he sees that all things are very good. So what does Jesus mean here when he says that God is the only one who is good? And what Jesus is getting at is the difference, the fundamental difference which we all must understand between God the Creator and us as creatures. God the Creator and us as creatures. And we see this distinction in this attribute of God's goodness. This theologian that I just referenced, a man named Petrus van Maastricht, a Dutch theologian, describes God's goodness in distinction from the goodness of everything else and has some very helpful points. He notes that God's goodness is an essential and simple goodness. Meaning that God's very essence is good. He is goodness himself. He doesn't merely have goodness, he is goodness. He doesn't just have it. It is his very essence, in distinction from us. We are not goodness itself. God's goodness, he describes, is independent. So we, as creatures, and all other creatures, have goodness and derive our goodness from something else besides ourselves. In particular, we derive our goodness and receive our goodness from God. But the point that Jesus is here making is that God has goodness not from anything outside himself, but from himself. He is the fount of all godliness. He has all goodness originally in himself. He says that God's goodness is perfect. While our goodness is mixed with imperfection and with sin and ungodliness, God's goodness has no such mixture. It is a pure and perfect goodness. God's goodness is infinite and unlimited. He describes it in this way, that God's goodness is without any capacity of increase or decrease. It can't grow and it can't wane. He says, while creatures are never so good as that they could not become better, His goodness is infinite, while ours is limited. He says that God's goodness is eternal. It has no beginning. It is without beginning, without flux, without end. Well, since the goodness of creatures has beginning and flux, it has an end, or at least it can have an end. And flowing from all these things, he describes how God's goodness is great. While our goodness is small, even as he describes as like a tiny drop, God's goodness is great and immense and cannot be measured. And the summary from all these things is the point that Jesus is seeking to make. God alone is good. He alone has goodness. He alone is goodness. He alone gives goodness to his creatures. And as Jesus seeks to make this foundational point about the nature of God, he seeks to do so to confront the way that the ruler has approached him. See, the question that Jesus is posing back at him is, if goodness belongs ultimately and essentially to God alone, then why do you call me good? If you are calling me good, then you are calling me God. So we ought to, I think, understand it in that way. He's not rebuking the ruler, saying that the ruler should not have called him good, as some heretical groups in the history of the church have interpreted it. But what Jesus is getting at is seeking to show the ruler that he ought to view Jesus rightly as who he is. Jesus, in saying that he is good, is declaring that he is God. Jesus can rightly and truly be declared to be good because He is God. He has an eternal, essential, infinite, independent, and perfect goodness in Himself. And the point we ought to note from all this, even at the very beginning, is that this really is the foundational problem that this ruler has. We'll get to the immediate problem that Jesus addresses with the ruler in his love of wealth, but the fundamental problem that the ruler has is he doesn't know who Jesus is. He thinks, as Van Maastricht says, he thinks that Jesus and views Jesus as a guide to the good. He's a teacher. He's a good teacher, a man who can help me get to good things, particularly eternal life. But what we ought to see and what Jesus would have us see in these verses is that he is not just the guide to the good of eternal life, but he is goodness itself. He has eternal life in himself. He is the life and the light of the world. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And so if we, like the ruler, would come to Jesus and seek to have eternal life, Seek to have that goodness of life that he gives. We must know who Jesus is and embrace him as who he is. We must know the one who gives eternal life. That's the first point which Jesus makes for us in our passage. But secondly, we also ought to see the heart which receives eternal life. The heart which receives eternal life. So Jesus goes on, after asking this rhetorical question to him, to address really the particular problem in the heart of the Pharisee. So notice Jesus then points him to the Ten Commandments, particularly the second table of the Ten Commandments, and points him to these things, these commandments which the ruler must keep to have eternal life. And I think it's significant for us just even here to note that Jesus, when he points him to commandments that he ought to keep, points him to the Ten Commandments. There's a reason that we speak of the Ten Commandments as the moral law of God. that applies to all people, in all places, and at all times. These are the foundational things which God calls us to. So he points them to these things, and the ruler thinks that he has kept them. Look again at verse 21. He responds to Jesus' statement and says, all these I have kept from my youth. Now as those, many of us who've grown up in the church, who know the Bible, we ought to recognize that that is the wrong answer. Matthew Henry, in his commentary, describes what the ruler should have said instead of saying, all these I have kept from my youth. He said, all these I have broken from my youth in thought, word, and deed. We know this to be the case. And Jesus, even here, could have confronted him at this point. No, you have not kept all the commandments. But notice Jesus goes even further. In his divine wisdom, he He sees and recognizes really the heart of the problem that this ruler has. And so he tells him in verse 22, one thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me. He calls him to sell all that he has. And really the emphasis upon the text is the all that he has, to sell everything. Every single possession he has, all that he owns, he's to sell to the poor and to come and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it's important for us to note that there are points in the Gospels in which Jesus heals and saves people, and they want to follow him, and he tells them to stay. But here he's calling this ruler to follow him, to leave all that he has and to come. because he knows the particular problem of the ruler, and we see that in verse 23. But when he, the ruler, heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. For he was extremely rich. See, the ruler is sorrowed because he cannot receive what Jesus has to offer, because he has different things that he loves. He has things that he loves over the Lord Jesus Christ and the eternal life which he gives. Namely, he loves his wealth. And the text tells us not just that he was wealthy, but that he's extremely wealthy. And because he is extremely wealthy, he is extremely sorrowful at Jesus's words. He loves his possessions. The things that he has that he's accumulated, his house, his possessions, all the things that he owns, he loves them and treasures them above all else. And as Jesus confronts him on this point, we see here in this interaction part of the heart of the call of the gospel which Jesus gives to all people and to each and every one of us. The call of the gospel which Jesus has and gives to us is that we must, by faith, follow in the Lord Jesus Christ, follow in his steps, walk with him, and that means that we, as Matthew Henry describes, sit loose with this world, sit loose to this world. It means that we die to this world, and to its pleasures, and to its riches, to the promises that it offers to us. There is a sense in which all of us, in coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, die. We die to this world and all the things that it has to offer to us. This is expressed, as Jesus calls to the ruler, to sell all that he has and to give it to the poor. It's expressed, as Peter says later, that the apostles and followers of Jesus Christ have left their homes. They've left all that they've had. And they have much less than the ruler had, but they've left it. It encompasses, as Jesus says later in verse 29, those who have left house and wife, brothers, parents, or children, the closest relationships which we have on this earth, given to us by God, that we're willing to leave. And this is certainly the case for many Christians around the world. In many places around the world, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ means literally to leave home and to leave family and friends. It may even call us literally to sell what we have. But I think we ought to see that while maybe not all of us are sort of literally leaving home and a wife and parents and children, while maybe not all of us are literally selling all our possessions and giving to the poor, though that's not the particular call to all Christians, the call of the gospel to all of us is that we would break with a love of this world. that we would die to it, that we would be weaned off it, that Christ would become of greater value to us than all the things that we have, all the relationships we have, and all the possessions that we have. And therefore, we would hold all that we have in this life loosely and in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the call of the gospel. But notice again that as Jesus confronts the ruler on this point, we see the problem. the ultimate problem which the ruler has and which all people have. that we as all people are enslaved to a love of this world. Notice that's the point that Jesus is getting at in verse 25, verses 24 and 25. He notes how it is difficult for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. He says it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Particularly those who have wealth, it's difficult for them because they have many things, things that they love, things that they're tempted by. But even here, I think we ought to see that it's a confrontation and a warning to all people, whether we are extremely rich or not. We are all enslaved to a love of this world, a love of the things of this world. Verse 26, the response of all this, of those who heard it says, who then can be saved? How can any of us be saved? Notice Jesus says in verse 27, what is impossible with man is possible with God. See, while the problem of sin is that all of us are by nature enslaved to a love of this world, the hope of the gospel is that what is impossible for us to change what we love on our own. and to love and value the Lord Jesus Christ above all things. What's impossible for us is possible for God. And he does this by the powerful work of transforming our hearts and producing within us a love of himself over against the love of this world. He gives to us the gift of eternal life, not by our own works and not by our own changing of our hearts, but by his powerful work of saving us and giving us new hearts. and therefore enabling us to heed this call, to die to the world and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a call which we are continually called to, which is continually put before us. We as Christians are continually, day by day, to die to the world and to live to the Lord Jesus Christ and to value Him above all things. And so we see, first we've seen the one who gives eternal life, Secondly, we have seen the heart that receives eternal life. And thirdly and finally, we ought to see the consolation of eternal life. The consolation of eternal life. Notice how Peter, voicing evidently the thoughts of the disciples and apostles of Jesus, says in verse 28, See, we have left our homes and followed you. He says, what about us? What you said to this ruler we have done. Though maybe we didn't have as much as the This rich ruler has, we left our businesses, our families, our homes at the drop of a hat and followed you. We have done what you said. What about us? Will we receive these things? I think part of the concern that arises behind this question and that maybe arises in all of our hearts is that as we do daily die to the world and the things that it offers, And we don't live as everyone else around us lives, and we don't seem to enjoy the things which they enjoy and reap the benefits which they reap. We can think, really, is following Christ worth it? If we lose all of this, is it going to be worth it for us? We're leaving behind wealth and pleasures, even at times close family relationships. Is it going to be worth it for us? And notice what Jesus says in response to this in verse 29. Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive many times more in this time and in the age to come eternal life. We ought to see here what Jesus says as he points us to the abundance of the consolation which he gives to those who follow him. He says in verse 30, you will receive many times more the things which Christ gives to us, all of the spiritual blessings which he gives. justification, adoption, sanctification, peace, joy, assurance. His fatherly providence in our lives is persevering us through all the things of this life. Ultimately, the eternal inheritance which we have in heaven. These things are of greater wealth and a greater abundance than all that we could gain by living according to the wisdom of this world. And here we see the foolishness of the ruler displayed. While he held on to that which he had, his extreme riches, he failed to see that if he gave them up, he would receive even greater riches of greater abundance and of greater value. J.C. Ryle commenting on this says that he, speaking of the believer, shall find such peace and hope and joy and comfort and rest in communion with the Father and the Son that his losses shall be more than counterbalanced by his gains. This is a promise of the Lord Jesus Christ, an abundance of blessings that extends to all of his people. Notice he says in verse 29, truly, there is no one who has left these things who will not receive it. There is no one who gives up all to follow Christ who will not receive these blessings. Ryle again describes this and says that this is a promise which is the property of all of God's people. It is the property of each and every one of us. And notice finally in verse 20 the timing in which we receive this consolation. Many of us may think that it is an eternal gift, eternal blessings that God gives to us. that while we may not prosper like those who live worldly lives now, while they sort of win now, we will win later. And while that is the case, notice what he says. we will receive many times more in this time and in the age to come. Even in this life that we live on this earth, we receive greater blessings, greater benefits, greater joys than we could receive anywhere else. And we know that ultimately these will be fully given to us at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we ought to be encouraged by this passage. We ought to be convicted by it. We ought to heed the call which Jesus gives. that we would daily die to this world and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would know who Jesus is as the eternal Son of God, and that as we persist in these things that we would be encouraged by the hope of the gospel that Jesus Christ gives to us many times more than we will lose in this life as we pray together. Our God in heaven, we give thanks, O Lord, for your great grace to us, which is greater than all of the wealth and treasures of this earth. O Lord, cause us daily to die to this world, to not be filled with a love for this world, but to be filled with a love for You. Help us, O Lord, to know truly who You are and to walk faithfully in obedience to You. We ask all this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.