Grosey's Messages

Luke 18 The Rich Young Man

18 And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 19 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'" 21 And he said, "All these I have kept from my youth." 22 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." 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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." 26 Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?" 27 But he said, "What is impossible with man is possible with God." 28 And Peter said, "See, we have left our homes and followed you." 29 And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers²  or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life."

31 And taking the twelve, he said to them, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise." 34 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

At the end of chapter 17 the Lord Jesus has explained to us that it is utterly necessary for us to be in the Kingdom of God.  And He has explained to us that we enter the Kingdom of God by faith in the Lord Jesus.  We saw that Luke is describing to us what real faith looks like. Chapter 18 reminds us that real faith is dependent, like a baby. "Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it" (18:17) encapsulated the truth that the recognition of one's total helplessness is essential to salvation.   A trusting faith in God understands that it has no righteousness of its own to claim.. like the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax-collector.

Now we have another description in real life of what true saving faith looks like. The rich ruler in the passage is just the opposite of a helpless babe. "He was extremely rich" and had the clout that went with it (v. 23; cf. Matthew 19:22). He was powerful and affluent. "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God" is literally, With what difficulty rich people enter the kingdom of God.  Again, this is about the Kingdom of God and the sort of faith that enters the kingdom of God.

We are instructed here about real faith

See His Inquiring Heart

Evidently this ruler (probably a civil magistrate, maybe a ruler in the synagogue) had watched Jesus tenderly hold the little children, lift his eyes to Heaven, and pronounce individual blessings. And he was positively attracted to Jesus. He had also heard Jesus' enigmatic words about receiving the kingdom "like a child" and was further drawn to the Saviour. He then responded with an impressive question: "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (v. 18). The ruler was a sensitive man with unusual openness. He was not testing Jesus. He truly wanted to know what to do. Though he had meticulously observed the Law, he evidently had found no assurance of eternal life. He assumed he needed to do something more. And he was willing to do it. He had always been able to pay for what he had in this life, and he was quite prepared to do so now. "Name the price! I'm ready to do whatever it takes!"

But there is a subtle problem here; the ruler's question assumed that he had the inner power to do whatever was required and that he was intrinsically good. No doubt, he was "good" when compared to most men.

Jesus responded graciously: "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone" (v. 19). God's goodness is clear in the Old Testament scriptures: "Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good" (1 Chronicles 16:34). "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!" (Psalm 34:8). "The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him" (Nahum 1:7).

It wasn't an acceptable thing to call Jesus "Good Teacher." There is not one example in the Talmud of a rabbi being addressed as "good."

Whatever the reason is, Jesus used the occasion to turn the conversation so that the man could reflect upon his own soul.

See The Lord's Investigation Of His Heart's Faith

"Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone"  Jesus challenges him to reflect on Jesus' ministry as it related to God as the only truly good person in existence. If the ruler could see this level of goodness in Jesus' ministry, he would realize that the kingdom of God was present.  "If I am good, and if only God is good, then who am I, and what am I doing?"

Having pushed the goodness question, Jesus then focused upon the insufficient goodness of the ruler. Jesus did so by calling him to keep the second half of the Ten Commandments, the commandments that have to do with our duty to other people. "You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother'" (v. 20). Jesus knew that if the ruler would do some deep reflection here, he would see that he was totally unqualified for the kingdom he was seeking.

Tragically, the ruler missed the whole point: "And he said, 'All these I have kept from my youth'" (v. 21).  He was so ignorant of the tragedy of his own human heart. He really did think he had kept the Law. But he was ignorant of the commandments' spiritual meaning, so ignorant that he sincerely thought he had fulfilled all the commandments. Yes that is the tragedy of the human heart.

Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. (Romans 7:7–9)

Spiritually illuminated, Paul saw that his entire interior life was filled with coveting. And when he tried to abstain from coveting, he did it all the more. The Law killed—it condemned him! Now he knew who he was, and he felt the sentence of death. Unchecked coveting precipitates the breaking of the second table of the Law, bringing evil acts of murder, adultery, theft, and lying.

Significantly, the rich ruler's problem was covetousness, and the Lord went after it. "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" (vv. 22, 23). The rich man loved his possessions more than he loved God. His materialism indicated that he did not love his neighbour as he loved himself and therefore was not a keeper of the Law (cf. Galatians 5:14). He simply was not as good a man as he had thought.

This man's deep heart faith was in his own goodness and his own money. And the Lord has exposed both of them.

What are you putting your faith in? Do you think you are ok to get onto heaven under your own steam?

Do you think that you are doing ok so far as God is concerned?  Then how would you feel if the Lord Jesus said to you right now:  '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.'

Would you feel that your security is based on your wealth?  

Would you feel that your security is based on how well you do at playing the God business at church?

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?" (vv. 24–26)

Paul told Timothy, "As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches" (1 Timothy 6:17). Pride, arrogance, insensitivity, indifference, harshness, self-satisfaction, worldliness, and other ungodly mind-sets feed on affluence. Most tragically, wealth can steel one against the indispensable requirement for entering the kingdom of God—helpless dependence.

See the Lord's Invitation to True Faith Which Can Enter The Kingdom of God

What sort of faith will you exercise to enter the Kingdom of God?

It is A Faith That Renunciates Everything and Anything Else You Might Be Trusting In.

The Lord Calls You To Renunciation Of Other Trusts

How is it then that our Saviour said just, "One thing you still lack." 'One thing thou lackest?'

Because it would have been tedious to convince him of all his defects, and therefore Christ would take the shorter way, and insists upon just one thing, which was enough to show that he was not perfect, as he vainly dreamed. If a man brag that he is able to pay a hundred dollars, you convince him that he is broke when you press him to pay one dollar, and he cannot.

This one thing was sure, and would strike home; for our Lord knew his heart, and therefore he touched him where it hurt.  He told him to do something that would really put him off and show what was really in his heart. Many think so highly of themselves, and yet each has a secret idol in their hearts. The Lord exposed his sinful heart.

That one thing which he lacked was the main thing, the principal thing of the law, which was loving God above all things; the sum of the law is, to love God above all, and our neighbours as ourselves.

To answer the call of Jesus Christ does require a negative. He requires you to renounce all other hopes of salvation.  He wants you to see your sinfulness. Your sinful heart can't help you. He wants you to see your covetousness. He wants you to see tat just like the rich ruler, you covet your own things, your wealth, your treasures more than you covet God. And if the Lord were to say to you today, "sell everything you have and give it to the poor," would you?   The rich ruler tried to evade the fact of sin, and many try to evade it to. But you can't. Your sinful heart betrays you. You need to renounce your hope of saving yourself and see your own sinfulness, see your own covetousness, see your own selfishness. 

Jeremy Taylor described the progress of sin in a man: "First it startles him, then it becomes pleasing, then easy, then delightful, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed: then the man is impenitent, then obstinate, then resolves never to repent and then he is damned."

It deceives until it destroys.

Because of sins deception the Lord Jesus begins with a negative. You have something to renounce: your own sinful heart.  Get a knowledge of yourself and see the depths of your sinful heart.  Renounce all trust in yourself. Jeremiah 17:  7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,  whose trust is the LORD.   8  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?   10  "I the LORD search the heart  and test the mind,   to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."

 13 O LORD, the hope of Israel,  all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you  shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.

This renouncing includes a renouncing all other lords and masters which are in opposition to Christ,  the devil, the world, and the flesh. The devil: Col. 1:13, 'Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.' Before there is any entrance into the kingdom of Christ there is a translating from the power of darkness; that I take to be the power of the devil. The world: Gal. 6:14, 'The world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.' Then for the flesh: Rom. 8:12, 'We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.' In our natural state we are under the power of all these three, as it is set forth: Eph. 2:2, 3, 'Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom we had all our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind.

What sort of faith will you exercise to enter the Kingdom of God?

It is A Faith That Turns From Sin To Jesus Alone.

The Lord Calls You To Salvation

Come to Him! "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money,

come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  2  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.  3 Incline your ear, and come to me;  hear, that your soul may live;  and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,  my steadfast, sure love for David."  Isaiah 55.

Matthew 11: 28  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

John 6: 35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

There must be a believing in Christ, or a resting upon him alone for salvation. Faith in the Son of God is the great qualification necessary to Christ's disciples, that as they forsake the devil, the pomps and vanities of the world, and the inclinations of the flesh, so they may cleave to him alone as Lord and Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins to his people: Acts 5:31, 'Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.'

What sort of faith will you exercise to enter the Kingdom of God?

It is A Faith That Follows The Lord Jesus.

The Lord Calls You To Consecration Follow Me.

It is required that we resign up ourselves to do his will, and walk according to his directions, if we would be Christ's disciples; for otherwise we do but give him an empty title, and we may as much mock him as the Roman soldiers did, that put a robe upon him, and cried, 'Hail, king of the Jews.' When we cry him up as our Lord and Saviour, and do not resign up ourselves to his use and service, we mock him as they did. Take three scriptures to prove this: Luke 6:46, 'Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?' Tertullian. It is a mockage to give Christ a title, and deny him the duty which belongs to it. The greatest part of the christian world live in a bare outward profession of Christ's name, without any care and conscience to walk answerably; they seem to have renounced the devil, the world, and the flesh, but their hearts are in a secret league with them still; they call Christ Lord and Saviour, but do not rest upon him for salvation, nor obey him, therefore this will be of no use to them as to eternal life. So Mat. 7:21, 'Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father that is in heaven.' Though we profess Christianity, and seem to have a great respect to Christ's memory, yet without the practice of faith and obedience, we shall have no benefit by Christ, and shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven. Only those who, being condemned by the law, fly to Christ by faith, and study to bring forth the fruits of newness of life, shall be saved by him. Again, John 8:31, 'If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.' There are disciples in name, and there are Christ's disciples indeed, such as are so in truth, life, and practice.

What sort of faith will you exercise to enter the Kingdom of God?

It Is A Faith That Grows In Commitment And Trust

The Lord Calls You To Compensation

The promise before us is a very peculiar one. It does not refer to the believer's reward in another world, and the crown of glory which fades not away. It refers distinctly to the life that now is. It is spoken of "this present time." The "many times as much" of the promise must evidently be taken in a spiritual sense. The meaning is, that the believer shall find in Christ a full equivalent for anything that he is obliged to give up for Christ's sake. He 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. In short, the Lord Jesus Christ shall be more to him than property, or relatives, or friends. The complete fulfillment of this wonderful promise has been often seen in the experience of God's saints. Hundreds could testify in every age of the church, that when they were obliged to give up everything for the kingdom of God's sake, their losses were amply supplied by Christ's grace. They were kept in perfect peace, staying their souls on Jesus. (Isaiah. 26:3.) They were enabled to glory in tribulation, and to take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in distresses for Christ's sake (Rom. 5:3. 2 Cor. 12:10.) They were enabled in the darkest hour to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and to count it an honor to suffer shame for their Master's name. (1 Pet. 1:8. Acts 5:41.) The last day will show that in poverty and in exile--in prisons and before judgment seats--in the fire and under the sword--the words of Christ before us have repeatedly been made good. Friends have often proved faithless. Royal promises have often been broken. Riches have made themselves wings. But Christ's engagements have never been known to fail. – J.C. Ryle

J Macarthur "The Lord's reply, "The things that are impossible with people are possible with God," reiterated the truth that salvation is humanly impossible, and that only a sovereign act of God can change the heart (John 1:11–13; 3:3–8; 6:44; Eph. 2:8–9).

In contrast to the rich young ruler, the disciples had abandoned everything to follow Christ. As Peter noted, "Behold, we have left our own homes (no word for homes is in the Greek text, so that all their possessions are in view) and followed You." Matthew 19:27 records that Peter followed up this statement with the question, "What then will there be for us?" The Lord's reply introduced the second point in His comment on this incident, the riches of poverty.

Peter's comment and question were legitimate, and Jesus did not rebuke him for them. Instead, He gave the wonderful promise, "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." The Lord affirmed that, unlike the rich young ruler, the disciples (and all who forsake everything for the sake of the kingdom of God), had been granted by God the full blessings of eternal life.

To yield up everything in this life to gain access to the blessings of His kingdom is the greatest wealth (cf. Luke 9:24–25). God, in His lavish grace, promises that the redeemed will receive many times as much at this time in addition to receiving, in the age to come, eternal life. This is the great exchange: believers receive the treasure hidden in the field (Matt. 13:44) and the pearl of great value (Matt. 13:46) when they willingly give up the right to all that they possess."

Jesus call us! O'er the tumult Of our life's wild restless sea,  Day by day His sweet voice soundeth,  Saying, "Christian, follow me": 

Jesus calls us from the worship Of the vain world's golden store,  From each idol that would keep us,  Saying, "Christian, love me more!" 

Have you heard Him? Have you heard His voice calling you? This Son of God who can give you eternal life and everlasting bliss and joy—He is calling you. Can you say with the hymn-writer, 

Jesus calls us! By Thy mercies,  Saviour, may we hear Thy call,  Give our hearts to Thy obedience,  Serve and love Thee best of all.  Cecil Frances Alexander