Luke 18:18-27

I direct your attention this morning to the book of Luke chapter 18, verse 18 to 27, as we continue our study on the rich young ruler. Luke 18, beginning with verse 18. And a certain ruler asks him, saying, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? None is good, save one that is God. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor thy father and my mother. He said, all these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these, things. He said unto him, yet lackest thou one thing. Sell all that thou hast, and distribute under the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. When he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he was very rich. When Jesus saw, he was very rich, and when Jesus saw, he was, he was very sorrowful, he was very rich. When Jesus saw, that he was very sorrowful. He said, how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God? Or it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said, who then can be saved? And he said, he said, said, the things which are impossible with man, men are possible with God. Let’s have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, I confess by inadequacy to explain your word. I ask for your blessing, Father. upon us as we ponder it this morning. And I know, Father, I need your help to teach your word. May your spirit work in my life. May it help me. May he help me in this work. And may we have edification and an honoring of Christ this morning. In Jesus’ name. Amen. You know, often people claim They belong to Christ’s people, his team, if you would, the church. But they stubbornly live any way they want to. The modern day so-called Christian often cannot be distinguished from the world land. There is no difference. There is no difference. There’s no change of heart. or life after their supposed conversion to Christ. Few people seem to realize where the problem lies. And I think it lies in the issue of evangelism. The problem can be traced to the evangelistic methods that we use. For they are far from this example that we have. this text that Jesus Christ provides. Our text relates to the rich young ruler has come to Jesus and he has asked about eternal life. He’s a very religious person. Instilled with some strong moral values. He is very respectful of Jesus. He is very respectful of Jesus. Calls him good man. However, he really doesn’t understand the character of the Lord. He doesn’t see him as the Lord God. Nor does he understand the spirituality of the law of God. This man believes he has kept the law from his youth up. That he’s really not a bad person. person in God’s sight. And Jesus now emphasizes his need to repent by addressing his particular sin. The biblical gospel requires you to repent. Jesus demands your repentance here. Jesus has revealed the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, and that there is none good. Noah on. the problem was that the young man did not want to accept the fact that he is a terrible sin in the eyes of the Lord God. And he needs to repent. Christ’s use of the law should have pointed out the ruler’s guilt. But this moral man. that thinks he’s observed God’s commandance. He does not see himself as a sinner. At this point, Jesus attacks the rich young ruler’s darling sin, and that is covetousness, the 10th commandment in verse 21. But it’s more than just a dart aimed at this man’s violation of the 10th commandment. He insists. the man sells what he has, give to the poor. He’s actually calling upon this man to repent. Jesus did not use the word repent here, but he got to the heart of true repentance, showing the man that he could not have two gods, God and Mammon. This was the… was not an arbitrary test. But it’s a call for this man to turn his back upon his green God and give up his covetousness that he might have treasure in heaven. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones used to tell a story about a farmer who one day happily reported to his wife that his best cow had given birth the two cats. twins, one red and one white. And he said, you know, I’ve been moved to the Lord, give one of these calves to the Lord. We’ll raise them both and take care of them. And then when we sell them, I’ll take the proceeds and give the half of it to the Lord. His wife, Ask them, well, which, you know, which cow is going to calf is going to be the Lord’s? And he said, well, it doesn’t really matter. We’ll just sell them both and split the proceeds. Well, several months later, the man entered into the kitchen. Quite upset. He looked to his wife and he said, the Lord’s calf died. His wife said, well, how do you know it was the Lord’s calf? He said, weren’t making any decision about this. He said, no, I always counted the white calf as the Lord’s calf. And so, it was the Lord’s calf that always died. And as Martin Roy Jones pointed out, it’s always the Lord’s calf that dies. You know, that’s the way man is in his covetousness. Man has to repent. or he will perish. There can be no eternal life, no matter how eager the man is to receive it in any other way. Repetance is a change of mind. To reconsider the change one’s view implies a disapproval of your past thinking and actions. An adoption of a new way of thinking. Jesus is not demanding the rich young ruler here work his way to happen, but to reveal a chew change of mind. And he could only do that if he sold his great wealth. That’s showing fruits of repentance. To be saved as a covetous person. Must not have an all-consuming passion after wealth. You must repent with such a mindset. Paul said, I have suffered the loss of all things. Do count them but done that I might win Christ. He’s willing to lose it all in order to have Christ. What he valued before believing in Christ, he now despises. He had a change of mind. This is what Jesus demands of the rich young ruler. You should realize that repentance is a vital element in the gospel. Repetance is given great prominence in scripture. Even though his He’s spoken of in today’s evangelism. Jesus and John the Baptist said, repent that the kingdom of God is at hand. When Jesus sent out his disciples to evangelize the Israelites, they understood this truth. They went out and preached that men should repent. Mark 6.12. When Jesus when Jesus gave the Great Commission to his disciples. We read it in the book of Luke chapter 24 and 47 it says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among the nations beginning at Jerusalem. Repetance is to be preached. On the day of Pantacost Peter urged, those with pricked hearts to repent and be baptized everyone in the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul confronted the Greek intellectuals on Mars Hill preaching that God commanded all men everywhere to repent in Ephesus. Paul reminded the Ephesian elders that his ministry involved testifying both to the Jews and also the Greeks repentance for God faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul giving his defense before King Agrippa declared that he preached preached to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. I can go on. You see the fundamental teaching that there is a command in the gospel to repent, and the Apostles were simply carrying out the Lord’s Great Commission. Does it not seem reasonable and imperative? Did you command sinners then to repent? So the biblical gospel requires. you to repent. Now, secondly, to find the biblical gospel requiring you to repent, ignore. Ignore. Repentance is not part of today’s evangelism. People are told to acknowledge they are sinners and to confess their sin and ask for Christ’s forgiveness. Forgiveness. Well, this is certainly necessary. It is not the same as repentance. For if there is a change of mind, a person simply if there’s not a change of mind, a person simply goes on living the way they were living. Confession by itself isn’t enough. Your heart must purpose to turn from your sins. Nor just to confess them. Remission of sins in the scripture is closely associated with repentance. You cannot cling to the pleasure of sin and have assurance of eternal life. 319, repent ye therefore and be converted. Be turned in mind, if you would, that your sins may blotted out. Proverbs 2813. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but whosoever confesseth, and forsaketh them shall have mercy. So we see a need here for the change of mind. Sorrow confess, sorrow and confession may be a good thing, but remorse is not repentance. Confessions. is not repractance. Let’s take a man that perhaps murders his wife. Eventually the police and track him down and arrest him and find evidence against him. And as the evidence mounts, the police ask him to give closure to the rest of the family by acknowledging what he has done. And they discovered that he was willing to confess what he had done, but his heart was not changed in what he had done. He still felt that he, you know, that his murder, remember his wife being murdered was a just thing for him to do. So confess. with the irreconcilable evidence linking him to crime in the hope of the reduced sentence held out to him. The man confesses to the assault and the murder. But this man is not a man that we could let out of prison and think that he’s not going to murder again. He has it in his heart to be a murder. He hasn’t changed his mind about it. He has not repented. You know, when Moses was sent by God to Pharaoh and told him, let my people go, Pharaoh’s heart was hard. He wasn’t about to let the people of Israel go. And so God sent all these plagues upon him. The water changed the blood, the frogs, the lice, the flies, the the moraines. the boils and the hail. And all along, Pharaoh offers various compromises that he wouldn’t have to do all that that Moses had said and let all the people of Israel go, and their cattle, and so forth, an attempt to avoid God’s command. When, however, the Lord’s plagued Egypt, with locus, you find that Pharaoh began to crumble. And he acknowledges, I have sinned against the Lord your God. Please entreat the Lord, your God, that he may take away from me this death only. pray to God take away these locusts. And so God, as Moses pray, and all the locusts get picked up by a wind and swept into the red sea. But then Pharaoh renegs. Once he finds relief, doesn’t let them go. So he confessed this sin. But he didn’t have a change of mind. He didn’t repent of this sin. We can bring a sinner to a sense of remorse. The question is, is there a change in heart? Is there a change in the way he’s thinking? That he would not go on in the future and do the same thing. You cannot tell the thief just to confess his sin to the Lord and then let him return to his life of crime and think that all was well. He’s going to continue as a thief. he cannot be converted. The mindset isn’t changed at all. So those who refuse to bring forth fruits for repentance, I have never repented. And so that’s the problem we have. You cannot simply let the adulteress confess our sin to God without telling her, to break off her sin. That this requires a change of mind about the way she’s living. And so we find that this is a major problem in our society. God says, you know, know you not, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not to see. Either fornicators, nor adulterers, or thieves, shall inherit the kingdom of God. You can’t go on doing these sins and have eternal life. Now let me say this. Today we have what’s called the carnal Christian theory. And it’s really a cover-up for the failure to demand proponents. No doubt the rich young ruler would have have received the modern gospel joyfully, and probably people would count him to be a Christian. Churches are filled with professing Christians who know nothing of the Bible’s command to repent. The problem is this. What is usually taught on the carnal Christian theory is this. You can hate Christ as Savior without taking them as Lord. you want a victorious life, you have to have Christ as Lord over your life. But you could be a Christian and you run your own life. And Christ is not Lord over your life. But what happens is these people have added a little religion to their life. But they’re not changed in heart and in mind. And this leads to the church being full of people. who do not know the Lord. Thus, the problem exists. Now I’m not talking about those who are babes in Christ and have maybe a carnal area in their life. I’m talking about those who are carnal and live like the whirlwinds around them. That’s what I’m speaking. And we find that this is a major problem in today’s society. Does the church today have a right to lower Christ’s demand of repentance? Does it have a right to lower Christ’s demand of repentance? Does it have a right to ignore what is a fundamental aspect here of the gospel? My answer to that is it does not. And yet it does. We see it doing. doing it all the time. This is why there are so many who professed the Lord who are really far from the kingdom of God. This is a real problem for the church. Because we’ve not followed Christ example. And when you don’t follow Christ example, you get into trouble. So here’s where things are changed for most people. Christ tells this man, you’ve got to sell all your goods because you’re a covetous man. And this is the only way you can show a change of heart. That’s not more important to you than following me. But he’s not willing to do that. And we’ll have to look at that next week. See what the Lord says about that. But here we see. I think something that we should carefully with a lot of evangelical people you will meet them you will run into them all over the place we’ll go to church some who you know claim to be Christians but their life just does not cut it there’s something wrong this is the answer they’ve not really repented they’ve not really had a change of heart. And they certainly aren’t bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. Let’s close with the word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we confess before you that our best efforts are weak and that we are sinful people and in all of ourselves. But we pray, Father, that we would indeed have repentance as a major force in our lives, even as Christian, that we would be willing to turn from our sin and realize the importance of that. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to show an example before the others who have morals or religion what a true Christian should be like. Bless us, Lord, as your people. And remember our struggles. For it’s in the name of Christ, we ask these things. With Thanksgiving. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.