Luke 18:18-27

This morning, invite you to turn with me to the book of Luke 18, chapter 18 through 27. It will be our text again. We’re talking about evangelism and faith in Christ or coming to Christ. So let’s look at this passage. And a certain ruler ask him saying, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, for I callest thou be 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 thy mother. And he said, all these have I kept. from my youth thought. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, yet lackest thou one thing. So all that thou hast, and distribute under the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. When he heard this, it was very sorrowful. He was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God? What is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, for 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? He said, things which are impossible with men are possible. With God. We have talked about the repentance that Christ called this man to in verse 22. But we need to talk about that end phrase there. Come. Follow me. Come follow me. And what that entails and what that means to do so. We’ve been dealing with Christ’s method of evangelism. We have talked about how far our churches today have moved from what Christ taught. And it’s so drastically different. that we wouldn’t even recognize it as biblical. The modern so-called Christian often cannot be distinguished from a world length. There is no change of life after they’re supposed coming to Christ. Few people realize the reason for this is the evangelical method being applied. and this is the problem that we have in dealing with today’s evangelism. Our text, of course, has talked about a rich young ruler who Cray and the Christ for eternal life. He’s a very religious person. He’s instilled with moral values. He doesn’t understand the character of God, nor the spirituality of the law. Jesus has emphasized there is none good but one and that is God. And he has called on this man to repent of his particular sin, which seems to me, to be covice. Jesus now directs him to calm to him. Be his disciple. Follow me. So let us to begin here this morning by saying this. Biblical evangelism demands that you come to Christ. Now, I have to say this this morning. You must not equate coming with walking forward during an invitation at church. When I was growing up in the fundamental circles in which I traveled, they all had altar calls after each service. In fact, if you didn’t have an altar call, you were looked upon as someone wasn’t interested in people coming to Christ. So, after every service, there’d be an invitation to come forward and we would be singing just as I am. We sang, I don’t know how many time, but we sang a lot. And many times, we sang it over and over and over and over again during one session as they dealt with people. So the expression come to Christ is a good one, but there’s a much ignorance associated in confusion with it. You know, most of the time, you know, hearers of the message equate coming to Christ with coming forward or walking in out. It’s so blatantly easy to see this. At the time, I wasn’t as clear on this as I should have been, but it’s obvious that when they said come to Christ, they met you come forward during the service at the end of the service. And go to the inquiry room and someone will lead you through, you know, the gospel message and have you pray the sinner’s prayer. And that would be coming to Christ and you’d make a profession of faith. And that’s how they counted up souls in coming to Christ. If you press people that they might admit that coming forward during a church service like this, afterwards doesn’t actually save you. But they equated the two together. And by equating the two, there’s a lot of confusion. Because the impression is giving that if you walk the owl, if you go through the procedure that you were given when you walk the owl, you’ve come to Christ. Indeed, the older called, were never practiced in the church in the first 18th centuries. It should wonder how they even multiplied, huh? The people, God. Neither James or neither Jesus, the apostles, or the early church, used this method. You don’t find it in Scripture. The origin of altar calls can be traced to Charles Finney. 1830, 1850s. Now this man had been defrocked by the Presbyterian Church on doctrinal charges, but it became the tool of many so-called evangelists because it provided, I think, an easy way, count up the results on their ministry. You could see the result. You could say, Oh, we had so many people come forward and they made these professions of faith and you could write all that down and chalk all that up. I remember reading about Johnny Cash, the internationally known country rockability folk singer who was hailed as one of the greatest musical stars of his age. He got into the music field gutted anphetamines and went from a hundred pounds to 140 and he got hooked on narcotics. And one of the side effects was he got into a severe car accident. His marriage fell apart because of his drug use and infidelity. And then on May 9th, 1971, he sat in a pew of a small church in his hometown. The pastor finished the sermon, and he gave an altar. He appealed to the congregation to come to the front, make things right with God. Cash walked a few steps to the wooden altar, supposedly came to Christ. Later, you recall the evangelist Billy Graham, use Cash in his crusade. states. Cash claimed to be a believer, was he? Did he come to Christ? By walking down a church out. Well, subsequent history, things seem to prove that he did not. I raised the issue as many people, men, women, and children, are being deceived about their state before God by this kind of unbiblical practice that was very prevalent in my day and I think is still prevalent today. So you must not equate this coming with walking forward during an invitation at the church service. But you must come to Christ by faith is what the Bible teaches. Obviously, Jesus is not inviting the rich young ruler to do any physical movement here. that ruler has come before him, has knelt before him. And Jesus, when he says, come here, I think it’s clear that he means come to him by faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Your Bibles, if you will look at John, Chapter 6 and 35, We read these words. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth in me on me shall never thirst. Notice that coming to him is equated with believing in this verse of scripture. Look at chapter 7 and verses 37 and 38. John. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture have said, out of his belly, shall flow rivers of living water. Again, coming and believing are connected directly together here in this, that’s the scripture. So there’s many passages that we could go to, but they will be sufficient. So when Jesus said, come unto me, all you that labor are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He means, come to me my faith. Trust in me. Believe on me. If the ruler repents of his covetousness and he comes to Christ by faith, he will have eternal life. The man must voluntarily assent to the truth revealed to him about Jesus Christ. That he’s God manifested in his flesh. That he has a right. to judge all men. And that coming to Christ is coming to a Savior. And so what is said about God and the law and Christ, about himself, must be believed. Scripture teaches that you must with the heart. This means you can’t have any just outward profession that’s not real. It has to be real. just external, but true belief where the heart is involved. Virgin once said this. He used to give altar calls. But he said this, you sinner, sitting where you are, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, shall have eternal life. Do not stop to you pass into an inquiry room. Do not think it essential to meet with me. Do not suppose that those, that I have the keys of the kingdom of heaven, or that these godly men and women associated with me can tell you any other gospel than this, that he that believeth on the sun hath everlasting in life. We fear that in these rooms, those rooms, men are warmed into fictitious confidence. Very few of them of the supposed converts of the inquiry room turn out well. Go to God at once, where you are now. So he turned away from these things, realizing. that was led to a lot of false professions. You’ll notice that repentance and faith are inseparably joined together. You must give up your covetousness, turn away from them, have a change of mind, and you must follow Christ. Come to Christ and follow. Biblical evangelism calls upon people to trust in Christ, not walk in Christ. now to know the Lord. So the biblical evangelism demands you come to Christ. Now notice secondly, biblical evangelism demands you submit to Christ as Lord. Come, follow me. You are quarantined to believe on Christ as Lord as well as Savior. How did Jesus? present himself to this man to be followed. He must come as one submissive to Christ will, a learner at Christ’s feet, an imitator of Christ’s feet. An imitator of Christ, follow me. He had called Christ’s master. The man, now is for the man to be a servant to the master. Jesus is not merely young. interested in lip service. He said, don’t, you know, don’t call me master and not follow me. Follow me. As Lord over you. The Lordship of Christ is part of the gospel message. No one will be saved who does not come to Christ as Lord when coming to Him by faith. Paul once prided. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. 2 Corinthians 4.5. And, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Colossians 2.6. You have to acknowledge Christ’s lordship. Believing with a submissive heart, a will beg to him as the master. over you is the very fiber here of saving faith. The Bible says if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus in Romans 109. Believe in your heart. Now shall be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and now shall be saved. Acts 1631. That to be no mistake, Jesus demands to come to him with a heart that is submissive that is a bond servant heart your faith in Christ results in discipleship he says to take his yoke upon you you know that a yoke is used to bind two oxen together or two horses in order to do work maybe plow a field or pull a load of of wood or whatever. Jesus expects you here be under his command pulling a load for him if you would. Submissive to him means being a willing servant to take his yoke upon. So you are inquired to believe on Christ as Lord as well as Savior. You do not find taking Christ as Lord an optional second step here. You know when I was growing up you could just believe on Christ and they would classify you as saved. And then if you want a victorious Christian life, you’d have to let Christ have to let Christ have the throne of your heart and take him as Lord. But you could be saved. You could have insurance from hell if you just believed on him as the Savior. This is unbiblical. The Bible doesn’t teach this. It’s interesting to note here the Great Commission is not get people to accept Christ. His disciple all nations. Discipled them. Bring them under submission to Christ. Jesus do nothing of the modern day evangelism of making Christ’s Lord after you believed on him. As if the sinner can somehow have Jesus a Savior and his Lordship over you is optional. So we see this altered message is skewing the converts that we’re making. Several years ago in the early stage of a man’s ministry he was on a cross-country flight. Man seated next to him noticed that he was reading his Bible. The man introduced himself and after a brief conversation he surprisingly said excuse me who wouldn’t know how I could have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, would you? You know, with such a hot prospect before him, the minister was spawned in this manner you simply have to believe on Jesus Christ. as Savior. He briefly explained that Jesus died and rose again so that people might have eternal life. He closed by saying all the man needed to do was receive Christ as his personal Savior. The man said, I’d like to do that. The minister led him through the sinner’s prayer, and the man asked Jesus to be his Savior. The excited minister, was eager to get the man baptized into church. However, after a short time, the man broke off all relationships with the minister. The minister was discovered that his continuing interest in Christ was not going to be there. What happened? Well, the minister later said, It’s easy to get people to profess faith. Getting them to follow Christ is as much more frustrating experience. The problem really boils down to not declaring the need to believe on Jesus Christ as both Lord and Savior the first place. It’s time for the people of God. to cast aside this false notion Christ’s lordship over your life is kind of a secondary experience and blessing. It’s not true at all. Thirdly, biblical evangelism demands that you weigh the cost of coming to Christ. Now, Mark’s Gospel adds take up the cross. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, but we find just a reverse in modern-day evangelism. Modern-day evangelism says, if you come to Christ, it will solve all your earthly problems. Everything will be rosy. And so the sinner is told that Christ has answered all the earthly problems. Well, I hate to tell you this, but when you come to Christ, things may get much worse. You get the persecution and hatred of the world against you. There is no suggestion of any sacrifice in today’s evangelism. Whereas the Bible is very clear. Jesus tells you plainly, you can expect it, and you can count the cost. There is a cross to bear. So we see that happening. You know, a military recruit. when these recruiters are going after people to get them into the military, they tell them all the best things about the service. They’re going to tell them about, you know, the beautiful uniform they have and how sharp it is and how the girls like it. Maybe you get to travel around the world. You get to use all the most sophisticated machinery, the guns and equipment and so forth. and it’s exciting. They don’t tell you about boot camp. They’re not going to tell you how hard it is, you know, to be scrubbing the latrine with a toothbrush. They’re not going to talk about all the marching you might have to do at four o’clock in the morning and all the hardships associated with being in the Army, or the Marines. So they just tell you the best parts. When you join you all of a sudden you realize there’s all kinds of problems that you might have trouble with in the in the in the army and so you know Christ tells you right up front here be careful realize this situation evangelical even a biblical evangelicalism warns you on the cost of coming to Christ There’s some gravity here when it comes to coming to Christ. The Bible warned you. You can’t, you know, put your hand to the plow and then turn back and give up. Falling Christ is a weighty issue. It demands serious reflection. Rather than a spur of a moment, emotionally charged, uh, experience. So let me close for saying this. I’m like many today who use the altar call to say that’s how you come to Christ. The Bible doesn’t teach that. The Bible teaches you believe by faith. This version said you believe right in your seat. You don’t have to come down here walking out or anything like that. We’d be better off to tell people to believe right where they say. trust in Christ. Or are you following Christ? Example. When you evangelize. Are you talking about lordship? Salvation? Are you dealing with people about faith in Christ and believing in their heart? I’m not talking about walking down and out in some superficial manner of classifying themselves as Christians. Well, may the Lord bless to us his word this morning. We have one more study we need to do, and that is the sovereignty of God in evangelism, because as we see, Jesus says it’s a hard for a rich man entering the kingdom of God. And the disciples are going to say, well, how is that possible then, Lord? well, with God it’s possible. Because he’s sovereign and he can grant salvation. We’ll talk about that, Lord willing, in another study next week. Let’s close with prayer. Father, you thank you for your goodness, your grace, your blessing upon us. Care for us, Lord, for we need your blessing and your encouragement and your wisdom and witnessing the others. Bless us. and watch over us. In Jesus’ name, amen. Let’s stand for the benediction. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.