Then Who Can Be Saved?

Now, we're working through the Gospel of Luke. We're in chapter 18. And this whole chapter revolves around the question of how or who can be saved. What does one have to do to be saved? And who is an appropriate recipient of salvation? We started out at the beginning of the chapter with the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee. You remember the tax collector walked right into the... right into the temple, and he was praying. And what he prayed was, thank you, Lord, that I'm not like him. I'm not like these people. I'm righteous, and I'm not miserable like this tax collector. And the tax collector, on the other hand, wouldn't even come close. And he wouldn't lift his eyes up to heaven, but he just stood at a distance with his head down, beating his chest, saying, have mercy on me, a sinner. And you would think that...

If you had to pick, if you were here that week, you'd say, okay, which one of these two do you want to be like? Do you want to be like the Pharisee before you know what he's like? Or do you want to be like the tax collector? And before we see the outcome of the parable, we say, I want to be like the tax collector. I want to be respected. I want to be powerful. I want to be comfortable. I don't want to be poor, and I don't want to be humble, and I don't want to be meek, little, insignificant, as the tax collector was.

And yet at the end of that account, we're taught that the tax collector is the one who went away from the temple that day justified. And it was not the Pharisee. And so we learned that humility was essential to being a Christian and to being saved. Then last week, we came to the account of all these parents bringing their children out to Jesus to have him hold his children. And we saw that the parents understood that their children had need. And their children had need like... like the lepers and the blind and the lame and the dead, that they had need of Jesus to bless them and to make them alive, to forgive them. And so with that understanding, these parents brought their children out, and the disciples go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, not the children. It's going to be too much of a hassle. It's going to be too much work for them, for the Lord. You keep them away for now. But Jesus says, no, no, you let the children come to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to...

And so we've got the humility of a tax collector. We've got the vulnerability and the simplicity of a child. And now this week, Jesus carries on. But this time he answers the question directly. He has a man come to him and say, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus answers his question. There's a lot more that we can get into concerning this question, and we'll work through that this morning. But from the outset, I want us to see that this is a question that we all should ask. There's no one that should not ask this question. What do I need to do to inherit eternal life? The one who is unconcerned about this question will not inherit eternal life. It's a concern that we all should share. We should not avoid it. We cannot avoid it. So, would you please stand now?

for the reading of God's word from Luke chapter 18, verses 18 through 30. This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. A ruler questioned him, saying, Good teacher, what shall 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, But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. And Jesus looked at him and said, How hard it is for those who are wealthy 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 man to enter the kingdom of God.

They who heard it said, then who can be saved? And he said, the things that are impossible with people are possible with God. Peter said, behold, 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 as much at this time and in the age to come eternal life. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So as we stated already, this man, this ruler, asks a good question. And we should take it to be a genuine question, not one where he's trying to catch Jesus. You know that often the Pharisees and the scribes would come and they would question Jesus, but it was more of an interrogation. They were trying to catch him in something that he would say. But this man comes to him and he has a sincere question. What must I do to inherit eternal life?

I want to start by talking a little bit about this ruler. There are parallel passages to this account in Luke, both in Matthew and in Mark. And we learn a little bit more about this man in those accounts. From this account, what we learn about him is that he's wealthy. This man has a lot of money. And we learn from Matthew and Mark that he's young. And so this is often called the account of the rich young ruler. So you have a rich young man who has authority. And we don't know if it's civil authority or ecclesiastical authority, but he seems to be doing well for himself. And I want us to see from the very beginning that wealth and youth do not lend themselves to asking the question that this man asks. Wealthy people are not generally concerned about their soul, neither are young men. The wealthy tend to be consumed with the cares of this world, primarily how to get and to maintain more money. You remember the man whose barns were full, and he had an excess.

And what was his concern? What am I going to do with my stuff? Where am I going to put it? I have an idea. I'll tear down my perfectly good barns and build bigger ones. And that way I'll be provided for for years and years to come. And how does that story end? You fool. Did you not know that tonight your soul would be required of you? And what we learn from that parable is that that wealthy man had made no provision for his soul. He'd made provision for his belly, but not his soul. And this is a common thing that wealth leads toward. Now, this doesn't make wealth a bad or a sinful thing, but Scripture is full of warnings and examples of how money can easily become a danger to your soul. And I don't know that there's a harder message thing that we could hear. Is there any one of us who doesn't want more money, doesn't want more provision?

More wealth. I'll do all the difficult work now. I'll suffer. I'll go without so long as in the end I get to be rich. How many of us would change the way we work right now if we had it fixed in our minds that that's how we were going to work until we died? And we weren't going to die with any more than we have right now. Would you continue to work as the way you do? Would I continue to work the way that I do? For my part, I'm not sure that I would. I'd be a lot more discouraged about it because I'd go, well, of course, if I work hard, I should get paid for it. I should have more money. I should live more comfortably. I should get a really nice house someday. And this is the danger of wealth, that it consumes you, that you fixate on it, that it becomes what your life is about. You say, I have to, I work hard so that I can have more. That doesn't sound like that. It doesn't sound bad. It sounds like, well, I want to provide a better life for my kids than I had for me.

But would you be happy if what you had right now was taken away from you? The wealth, the financial security that you have, things you take comfort in. Would you be happy if it was gone? We wouldn't. And that shows us the danger of wealth. Would you serve God if you had less? Would you serve God if you had to give up some of what you have? Would you serve God if you could be assured that you wouldn't end up with more than you have? It's a real question. And it's a real danger to our souls. And this is the danger that the man who built bigger barns faced, and he failed. And ultimately, this is the failure of this young man. We'll come to later. His wealth was a hindrance to him. And too often, wealth is just that. It's a hindrance. It's the root of all kinds of evil. Later in our text regarding this young man's wealth, Jesus exclaims, how hard is it for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God? He makes a direct connection between going to heaven,

and having wealth on earth. That it is such a temptation and such a danger to us. Not because wealth is bad, but because you and I, we are weak. And it's so easy to covet and to lust. How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. So is it possible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, whether it's a knot or whether it's an animal and it's a door in the wall or whether it's literally a big animal with humps and a sewing needle? Is it possible? It's not possible, is it? He says it's with much difficulty here, but later on he says what's impossible with people is possible with God. So we ought to be sobered by how easily we seek wealth.

as we consider the danger it is to our soul, potentially. I want to say potentially, but in reality, it's a danger. And it's one of the things that makes this young man's question so sincere is that he has money and he's actually concerned about his soul. Most wealthy people are not. Add to the fact to this man's wealth that he was young, too. If you've watched young men, you'll find that they're a very difficult cross-section. To watch. Because they make a lot of foolish choices. And they do a lot of dumb things and dangerous things. Paul tells the young men that they're to be sensible. And I regularly tell my sons, we're to be sensible. Why does Paul tell us this? Why do I tell my kids that? Well, because they're not inclined to be sensible. They're inclined to be frivolous and careless and foolish and impetuous. Anything but thoughtful. And so if you're a young man, Or if you're raising a young man, or if you would like to marry a young man, you want to see this young man's question, this ruler's question. And you ought to take Jesus' answer to heart. The sincerity of this young ruler's question is admirable. But his response to the answer is not. And so if you don't want to be like this man, you don't want to respond the way he did to the question he asked. So he addresses Jesus, this rich young ruler.

And he says, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus keys in on the word good. Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Now, why did Jesus say that? Well, it's important to remember at this point that this man's question is sincere. He's not being flippant in his question. Hey, good teacher. He really does actually believe that Jesus is good. And he's asking a real question out of concern for his own soul. He's not being sarcastic or sly. And in Jesus' response, he doesn't question this man's motive in calling him good. The reason he addresses it is to increase this man's receptivity to his answer. You ever ask somebody, you know, if you were lost somewhere and you needed directions and you didn't have a smartphone, so really unique situation. Let's say you don't have reception, okay? You're out in the middle of nowhere and you're at a gas station and you need to know how to get somewhere and your phone doesn't work.

And there's two cars in the gas station. You're in Montana, okay? And there's two cars at the gas station, and one of them has a Montana license plate, and one of them has a Georgia license plate. Who would you go ask for directions? You'd go ask the guy with the Montana license plate. Why? Because he knows the area. He knows the land. And so this man comes to Jesus, and he says to Jesus, who's the Son of God, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? You've got the right stuff to answer my question. And Jesus says, in effect, are you sure? Why do you call me good? Because it would be really, really dumb to go at the gas station up to the guy who has the Montana license plate, and he says, go this way, the highway's three miles away, but if you go that way, you're going to run out of gas before you ever find another living soul.

it would be the height of stupidity to go that way. And so Jesus says, knowing what his answer is going to be, knowing the intricacies of this man's heart, he says, why do you call me good? In effect, what he's saying is, are you going to listen to me? If you believe I have the ability to answer your question, are you going to listen to me? Do you believe that I'm good? Because only God is good. Do you believe that I'm from him? If I am, then listen to me. Jesus then goes on and says, you know the commandments. Do not commit adultery or murder or steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. He goes through the second table of the law. Everything that has to do with how we relate to our fellow man. And says, you know these commandments. And implicitly he's asking, how are you doing? Have you kept them? Have you not? Because this is the way to eternal life. Law keeping is the only way to be saved. How are you doing? And the young man pipes up.

I have kept all these things from my youth, just like the Pharisee. I'm glad I'm not like these other people. I'm glad I'm not a swindler. I'm glad I'm not an adulterer. I'm glad I'm not a liar. I have kept these things from my youth up. And so Jesus lays out the way of salvation. He says, have you done what my Father requires of you? And the man says, I sure have. And if you were here two weeks ago and we talked about the Pharisee addressing this, you know, we all want to say, liar, liar. There's no way you kept everything. You're just, you're an idiot.

You're a fool for saying that. No one can say that. And I asked you, I said, are you sure there's no one that can say I'm not an adulterer at some level? And all of a sudden we're like, well, I guess there are some people. I guess not everyone is an adulterer in the like glaringly obvious unfaithfulness to their spouse. I suppose there are people who can say I'm not an adulterer. I'm not a swindler. And there is a sense in which here what this young man says is true. Externally, at a very superficial level, he can say, I've honored my father and mother. I haven't committed adultery. I haven't murdered anyone, nor have I stolen or borne false witness. I haven't done those things. I've kept these commandments from my youth up. And in one sense, he can say that, and it can be true. But in another sense, if you have this visceral response inside of you that says, That cannot be. You're right. When Jesus spoke at the Sermon on the Mount, he took up these commandments and says, you have heard that it was said, but I say to you. You've heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman with lust in his heart has already committed adultery in his heart. You've heard that I was said to you, you shall not murder, but I say to you, any man who looks at his brother and says, you fool, a raka has committed murder. And so there's a deeper spiritual sense.

that has to be understood, and the law has to be kept at that level for salvation to be accomplished. And at that level, none of us are capable of answering as this young man did. In fact, he was not capable of answering truthfully at that level. Romans 3, 10 through 12 says, There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one. And this man comes to Jesus and says, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, keep the law. And he says, I have. And what you learn about this man, the effect of what he's done is confessed his foolishness or his ignorance, his blindness.

He doesn't understand who he is. He doesn't understand what he's done. If Jesus put the question to you, how have you done with keeping the law? What would you say? What could you say? How about, have mercy on me, Lord, a sinner. What more could you say? And so there's a problem in his response. And instead of addressing it straight on, probably how we would, saying, You're lying. Don't you know that the law is spiritual and you're a flesh sold into bondage the way Paul does in Romans 7? Jesus says, well, there's one thing you lack. Presuming that all of what you've said, if you think that it's true, I'm going to set about showing you that it's not. But we aren't going to talk about it. You asked what you should do. I'm going to tell you what you should do. Sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven, which is inheriting eternal life.

Come and follow me. This man did not understand his sinfulness. So Jesus presses the point to expose his extreme greed. The man asked the question, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life? This is Jesus' particular answer for him. Sell everything that you have and give it to the poor. And come and follow me. Jesus knew the sin closest to this man's heart. He knew what he loved. And Jesus goes for it and tells him that he has to give it up to inherit eternal life. You can't come into heaven with your love of money, is what he says to him. You can't. I will not allow it. You have to give it up. And so this man is at a fork in the road now. On the one hand, he's got eternal life that he wants, enough that he would come ask Jesus, what do I have to do? And on the other hand, he's got all his wealth and his love for it. And Jesus says to him, choose. You choose. What will it be? You can't have both.

There's a couple of places in Scripture where you see these sorts of choices happening. One is where Joshua is coming into the land. And he tells us, choose this day whom you will serve. You choose. At Mount Sinai, Moses says, I set before you life and death. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah comes and he says, how long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And we're no different than this young man. We all have lusts and sins that are very dear to us, and the question that's put to us in this text is, that or Jesus? Because you can't have both. You can't have both. You can have one, or you can have the other, but not both. And it would be easy right now to take wealth and just go off and say, wealth is so bad, and wealth is a problem, and what I've said already is sufficient to warn against wealth. But that was this man's struggle.

What's yours? Maybe it's not wealth. Maybe you kind of love money and you kind of identified with what I was saying earlier, but that's not really what makes you tick. There's something else that really is dear to you, that you think about going to sleep and that you wake up looking forward to. That's what's on the table in answering the question, what do you have to do to inherit eternal life? This young man was unwilling. In Mark's account, He tells us that at these words which Jesus had just spoken, he was saddened. And he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. And I want you to see that the decision is not an easy one. And that feeling bad and conflicted about the decision doesn't make you righteous. Him feeling bad about his love of money and the potential of giving it up wasn't sufficient to secure a place in heaven for him.

He was grieved. He was sad. But what did he do? What he did was go away. He chose. And each one of us will choose. And we'll choose initially, and we'll choose for the rest of our life. Who will we serve? What do we love? What will we have? Every one of us will do it. Every one of us does it. It also said in Mark, which is really sweet, that Jesus loved him as he called him to choose. He loved him. And so when you talk to people and they have to choose, do you love them? Is that how you call them to choose? When they're caught in sin, when they're being foolish, when they're wayward, when they're blind, when they're dead, do you love them? Or are you sick of them? Are you fed up with them? Do you want them to go away so you don't have to be bothered because they're an inconvenience like the little children? But not here. This is not how Jesus responds. He loved them.

And he warned them, and he warned those who were hearing. And this man chose, he went away. I want you to see that that's not the only response. All of us will have to choose, and not all of us have to walk away. While he walked away, the crowd responded. All who heard said to him, said to Jesus, then who can be saved if the requirements of salvation are so high that a rich young man who's come and asked a sincere question about his soul, doesn't meet the bar, then what hope is there for me? And I want you to see first that their response is different than his. He determined in his heart, I cannot be saved because I will not give up my love of money. He answered his question for himself. How can he be saved? He can't. That's what he decided. The rest of these people are saying, well, what?

What's it going to take? And Jesus says, the things that are impossible with people are possible with God. And what we see here is the necessity of faith. There's no other way to be saved other than by throwing yourself wholly and completely onto the mercy of God. There's no other way. It's going before the judgment seat of God and saying, here I am. Every recess, every corner, every... sinful inclination and desire. Here's my past. Here I am. Have mercy on me. There's no other way to be saved. It's a foolish question to say, what can I do to be saved? In one way, Jesus could have ended this whole thing and just said, nothing. And it would have been the truth. What can you do? Nothing. But if that was the answer to you, you would be left without hope. What can I do to be saved? Nothing. Well, I guess I might as well go eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow I die. What hope do I have?

And so Jesus doesn't answer the question, nothing. He answers the question, the things that are impossible with people are possible with God. This rich young man trusted in his own merits. What do I have to do? And he hoped that that would be sufficient, but it was impossible for him and it's impossible for us. What does it take for a man to give up the thing dearest to him? It takes the miracle of faith. It takes God being at work. There's no other way that it will happen. There's no other way. You sit here and you think, I've got sin in my life. I'm in bondage to it. Stuck in it. I love it. I want it. I hate it. I know I should hate it or something like that. What am I to do? Throw yourself on the ground before the cross and ask God to forgive your sin and to take away your desires that are wicked. What else can you do? Have you not proven to yourself and anyone who knows you that you don't have the ability to walk away from it yourself? You can't say no.

You don't say no. What else can you do? You can either walk away like the ruler did, or you can throw yourself down and plead for the blood of Jesus to cover your sins. And then Peter pipes up. Basically, he says, what about us? Behold, we have left our homes, and we've followed you. And it's this weird mixed bag, what Peter says. And Peter's kind of a firebrand. Tells you what he thinks. And he's here saying this. You get the impression, I do anyway, that Peter's kind of offended at what Jesus said. He wouldn't give up his wealth, but we gave up our homes and we did it, right? It'll be worth it for us, right? Right? We're not like him, are we? Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God.

who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come eternal life. And what we see here is that God is no man's debtor. Nothing that you give up for the sake of the kingdom of God will you be owed. The other thing that you learn that comes before that is that to become a Christian, you will have to give up stuff. And you will have to give up the things that are closest to you. Sometimes it will be sin, like this man's love of money. You absolutely will have to give that up. Whatever it is for you, you will have to give those things up. But Jesus goes on to say there are other things that you will have to give up, or that if you have given them up, I won't be your debtor. And he names your family and your friends and the comforts of your life, your house, your wife, your brothers or parents or children. How does it sit with you that God might call you away from those things or those people?

Peter was just a fisherman. What did he have to leave? He left his father. He was not a wealthy man. Matthew and Levi were tax collectors. They were not like the rich young ruler. They didn't have much to leave, but what they had, they left. When the Lord said to them what he said to this man, give up your life, come and follow me. They did it. They did it by faith. You've been fishers of men. You're fishermen. Come with me, and I'll teach you to be fishers of men. And what did Peter do? He left his dad by the seashore with a net full of fish, if I'm not conflating different fishermen who became apostles. And he left right then to the other man who said, let me go. My father's sick. Let me go bury my father, and then I'll follow you. And Jesus says, let the dead bury the dead. Come now or not at all. There's an urgency to it.

God is no man's debtor, and those who give up their dearest relationships and their closest sins will be rewarded. And not just in the life to come, not just with the life to come, but in this life. And that's an invaluable comfort as you process through these decisions in your life. Will I give this up? Do I have the faith to give it up? I'm convinced the Lord's telling me to give it up. What a kindness and a mercy and a promise God gives to the people who stuck around to hear that he'll be no man's debtor and that he'll repay you a hundredfold. So do we have faith to sacrifice for the Lord's sake, for the kingdom, for our own souls? Or is our conception of God such that he has to move and operate and conduct this world in a way that suits our sensibilities?

Are there things in our lives that are off limits? Relationships? People? Sins? Can't touch that, Lord. Can't have it. Maybe later you can have it. Not now. The only way all this makes sense, that you would live a life of sacrifice, is living by faith. It's the only way it makes any sense for yourself. Now, you can look at other people who've done it, and you can see that they've sacrificed. You can see that they've gone without. You can see that they're content with their lot in life. And you can be encouraged by it. Someone who actually doesn't love money. Someone who actually has given up relationships, things dear to them. And your faith and your heart will be strengthened by seeing it. But that's not the whole point of it. You're not just supposed to be encouraged by it. You're supposed to emulate it. You're supposed to do it for the same reasons that they've done it. This is what's required of us if we want to inherit eternal life.

And I can tell you that the things that there have been many times in my life I've negotiated with the Lord and said, not this, not that. There have also been times when I've said, that's yours now, and I don't have to have it anymore. I want it. It's not a bad thing. But it's clear to me that it's not for me right now. And the Lord was faithful to his promise. And so, I don't know, am I warning you or encouraging you? I'm warning you not to be like the young ruler, but I'm encouraging you. to lay your whole life out on the table before God. And when your conscience is, you know, dinging, something wrong, that's not okay. Listen. Listen. God will not be your debtor. He will not owe you. You will not go without. Life will change, but that's what it means to be a Christian, is to be changed into the image of God, more and more being conformed into the image of God, becoming more like Jesus, which means we've got to change, which means we've got to give things up.

And if you give up those who are closest to you for the sake of the kingdom, you will not be the first Christian nor the last to do it. Scripture and history are full of people who've walked that path before you. And so you're not alone, even as you give up and sacrifice those sorts of things. So don't cordon off parts of your life and tell God that he can't be a part of it, can't touch it, can't have it, or you'll end up like the rich young ruler. And I don't desire that that would be true of any of us. Not of us, not of our children, not of our grandchildren, not of our neighbors. So trust God with all of your heart and do what it is that he's put in your life to do. And you won't be sorry. Let's pray.