Introduction

Well, I just realized we’re three weeks away from summer camp. And then I realized something. I think you’re old when you’re only three weeks away from summer camp and you still haven’t recovered from the last one. I feel like we just got back from winter camp. But I’m excited, and I hope you guys are too.

Pastor Jake and his family are out of town, so when he asked me if I was willing to share a message tonight, I felt really privileged and excited to do that because the story that we’ll be going over tonight, the story of the rich young ruler, is something that I’ve had on my heart for quite some time. With that, we’re going to be taking a look at the story of the rich young ruler from Matthew 19:16-26. As we do that, I’m going to open us up in prayer.

Opening Prayer

Dear heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for the privilege that you’ve given us to open your Word this evening. Lord, we pray that you would grant us understanding, that you would cause us to respond to your truth and to trust in you. Lord, I pray, help us to see where there may be affections that rival your rightful place in our hearts, and that you would grant us, by your grace, the power to forsake any idol that we may have, that we may trust and that we may follow Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Matthew 19:16-26

Matthew 19:16-26 says:

And behold, someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why are you asking me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Then he said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these things I have kept. What am I still lacking?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, 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.” And when the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” And looking at them, Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

We Are All Worshipers

We’re all worshipers, guys. We all worship something. So the question isn’t whether or not we worship something. The question is what it is, or who it is, that we worship. And the story that we just read is without a doubt one of the most tragic accounts in all of Scripture. We have a young man coming to Jesus asking about eternal life. But when Jesus exposes the idol that’s ruling in his heart, instead of forsaking it and following him, he walks away grieving, choosing earthly and temporal riches over eternal life.

This story is so well known that it’s recounted in every gospel with the exception of John. We find it in Mark 10, in Luke 18, and here in Matthew 19. In all three gospels, this rich young ruler approaches Jesus right after an object lesson that Jesus gives using children or infants as an illustration that the citizens of his kingdom are marked by humble and complete dependence. In that account, Jesus teaches that like children who haven’t done anything to deserve anything, they are simply dependent upon their father for everything. And so it is with kingdom citizens.

The Right Concern, the Wrong Assumption

I want us to take a closer look at the text. Let’s call this first section the right concern, the wrong assumption. Verse 16 reads, “And behold, someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?'”

Our text begins with “behold.” It arrests our attention right after Jesus’s encounter with the children. Suddenly, this young man comes to Jesus. Mark tells us that he came running and kneeling. It’s Luke that tells us that he was a ruler. So this young ruler approaches Jesus with urgency.

And he has the right concern, right? He’s concerned about eternal life. That’s the concern that everyone should have. But he had the wrong assumption. He’s asking what good thing he needs to do to gain eternal life. His question revealed a fundamental and fatal flaw in his understanding that eternal life is something that can be earned.

It also revealed that he believed, number one, that eternal life was something you could earn through morality and good deeds. But it also revealed an utter failure to comprehend the infinite holiness of God. In other words, listen. He had an erroneous view of man and an erroneous view of God. He believed that God’s standard of righteousness was low enough that a human could actually meet it if he just tried hard enough and did the right things.

God Alone Is Good

Jesus follows up with his own question and statement. The first half of verse 17 says, “Why are you asking me about what is good? There is only one who is good.” We can call this next section, “God alone is good.”

In Psalm 119, the psalmist extols the goodness of God in verse 68 and says, “You are good and do good.” This tells us that God is absolutely and perfectly good. And therefore, everything that God does is absolutely and perfectly good. This young man didn’t understand what true goodness was. It’s not just trying to do the right things, but good by God’s definition is absolute perfection.

I just need to make a quick point here, guys, that the question Jesus is asking and the statement that follows, “Why are you asking me about what is good? There is only one who is good,” was in no way denying his deity, that he is God. The young man didn’t understand true goodness, nor did he understand the true identity of the one who was standing before him. He knew that Jesus possessed the answer to the question that was weighing heavy on his heart. That much he was convinced of. But likely he did not know that Jesus was incarnate God. By the question Jesus asks, he’s pressing the young man to consider what true goodness is and who it is that is only and truly good. That absolute and perfect goodness belongs uniquely to God.

The Bible makes it really clear in many places that humans are absolutely incapable of this goodness. One example is in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul says in Romans 3:10-12:

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 worthless. There is none who does good. There is not even one.

Man is sinful by nature, corrupt, and incapable of meeting God’s perfect standard. I’ve heard it said, “Men aren’t sinners because we sin. Rather, we sin because we’re sinners.” That’s an accurate statement. We’re born sinners. We’re not born good and then become sinners once we sin. Rather, we’re born sinners. So when we sin, not if, we’re only manifesting our nature as sinners.

The Law Exposes False Goodness

Let’s move on to the next section where Jesus begins to answer the young man’s question. Let’s call it the law exposes false goodness. The second half of verse 17 says, “But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

Notice something here. Jesus begins by having the young man measure himself by the yardstick of God’s commands. And by doing so, it would expose the man’s false hope in his own goodness.

You might be asking yourself, why was that necessary, to start with the law or the commandments instead of just unfolding his plan of going to the cross and soon after resurrecting? The reason is because the young man needed to first understand the bad news before the good news would be received as good news. The gospel means good news, right? And Jesus would soon call this rich young ruler to follow him. But first, this young man needed to accept the bad news that he was incapable of the goodness that is only true of God himself.

Now, I imagine that the young man was probably familiar with the Ten Commandments that Moses received at Mount Sinai. Nevertheless, in verse 18, he asks for specifics and he says, “Well, which ones?” To which Jesus responds in verses 18 and 19, “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus cites five of the six Ten Commandments that deal with human relationships. He leaves out the commandment on coveting for now and then summarizes those commandments with, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Now, likely leaving out the command on coveting was purposeful because it was that very sin that Jesus would soon be putting his finger on. But even with the commandments that were listed, it should have been enough for the young ruler to admit that he hadn’t and couldn’t keep them. Not perfectly and definitely not at the heart level.

But the gospel, it’s good news whether someone thinks it is or not. It will only be received as good news by those who first understand that they can’t work their way into God’s kingdom. It’s like this. Let me ask you all a question. Who would be the most excited and willing to give up everything if they can get a cure for cancer? Anyone who has been afflicted and diagnosed with cancer, right? But what if you have cancer and you don’t know it? You need the cure just as bad as the person who’s been diagnosed and knows they have it. But because you don’t know or believe that you have cancer, then in that case, you don’t receive the news of a cure with the same joy and the same hope as the one who knows they have it. You might even know people who would benefit from that cure, but to you personally, the cure, well, it’s sort of meaningless.

So as soon as you imagine yourself, or rather I should say measure yourself, by anything less than God’s perfect standard of righteousness, you’ll inevitably convince yourself that you can somehow meet that less-than-perfect standard through your own effort and merit.

So what’s one purpose of God’s law? To explain God’s perfect standard of holiness and then to shut every man up under it, since it’s impossible for us to keep it. Listen, the law was never intended to be a ladder by which someone could try and climb to heaven. Instead, it’s more like a mirror, so that we could see ourselves rightly in light of God’s perfect standard, and then we would conclude that we can’t keep it and therefore we need a Savior.

Making the point that the law serves to point us to Christ, Paul wrote the following to the Galatians. In Galatians 3:24, Paul writes:

The law has become our tutor unto Christ so that we may be justified by faith.

So the law serves to point and direct us to Christ, that we may place our faith in him.

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained that anyone who has ever been angry toward another is guilty of murder. You guys remember that? How many of you here can say that you have never been angry at anyone? Or that you’ve never taken anything that didn’t belong to you? Or that you’ve never lied? Or how about this? How many of you can honestly say that you’ve honored and obeyed your parents perfectly and without fail since the day you were born? Or that we’ve loved everyone who’s ever crossed our path as much as we love ourselves? None of us can say that.

And we haven’t even considered the first half of the Ten Commandments that deal with how we relate to God. It was summed up by Jesus in Matthew 22:37 when he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” We’ve broken God’s commandments, guys. We’re all guilty.

Now, let’s look at how this young man responds to the Lord in verse 20. The young man said to him, “All these things I have kept. What am I still lacking?” I’ll be honest. I think he was being sincere. I don’t believe he was willfully lying. But again, he was only basing his keeping of the commandments from a purely superficial level, based on his outward actions. He wasn’t judging himself at the heart level. And you know what’s interesting? Even though he had convinced himself that he was keeping the commandments, he still asked the question, “What am I still lacking?” His God-given conscience said otherwise. Deep inside, he knew that something was still missing.

The Idol Beneath the Morality

With that, Jesus responds and would now place his finger on the young man’s idol. Verse 21 says, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.” Let’s call this next section the idol beneath the morality.

The rich young ruler was unwilling to see how he was guilty of failing to perfectly keep God’s commandments. And Jesus now explicitly calls on the young man to forsake his idol and to follow him. The call to follow Christ is the gospel. Now, to uncover the idol beneath the young man’s morality, Jesus gives him three imperatives, three commands. Number one, go and sell. Number two, give. And number three, come follow me.

Now, Jesus wasn’t telling the man that he could get eternal life just by selling his stuff and then giving the proceeds to the poor. He could have done all of that and then moved in with his parents, and he still wouldn’t have been saved. Rather, he needed to be willing to forsake his idols and to follow Christ, love him, and worship him above all else exclusively.

Look, guys, I want to be clear. Jesus isn’t commanding everyone to sell their stuff. The worship of riches and possessions was this man’s idol. The issue wasn’t that he was rich and owned a lot of cool stuff. The issue was that his riches and stuff owned him.

There was nothing the young man could do to get eternal life. Forsaking his idols wouldn’t somehow earn his salvation. Repentance isn’t a payment that we make to purchase eternal life. Faith isn’t a work that makes us worthy. Salvation is entirely by grace. But the sinner who truly comes to the Lord cannot come to him while clinging on to a rival god with a small g. We don’t give up idols to earn Christ. We forsake them because Christ is better. Far better.

The rich young ruler was more concerned with amassing treasure on earth rather than amassing treasure in heaven. He couldn’t do anything to save himself. But he was unwilling to forsake all and to follow Christ and to count him far more worthy of worship than anything in this life.

John MacArthur summarized it well. He said, “Salvation is free. You can’t do anything to earn it. And yet it costs you everything.” It requires a willingness to completely surrender everything and anything to the Lord.

This young man came running. He came kneeling before Jesus to learn the answer to the question that was weighing heavy on his heart. But when he was faced with the cost of having to completely surrender himself to the Lord, in the most tragic of tragic responses, the text tells us in verse 22, “But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.” He esteemed his property a greater treasure than Jesus and the eternal life that he was seeking.

During last week’s equipping hour, Pastor Ben James referenced the rich young ruler in his message, and he referenced him as an example of an unbeliever whose problem wasn’t that he couldn’t understand God’s commands. The issue was that he was unwilling to accept them.

So I want us to think about something for a moment. Now, this is the last that we hear of this young man. We simply learn that he walked away from Jesus grieving. So we don’t know, with absolute certainty, whether or not he remained in unbelief until the end of his life. But I want us to consider something. If he never repented, just think about this. Let’s just say even if he lived another 70 years after his encounter with the Lord, he lived another 70 years to enjoy his riches. Guys, he’s been in eternity for almost 2,000 years now. And in 10 million years from right now, he won’t be any closer to the end. There’s no amount of earthly riches that was worth what he lost.

Just a few chapters before this, Matthew records Jesus’s words in Matthew 16:24-26. Jesus says:

If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

The Impossibility of Salvation

Jesus will now turn his attention to his disciples. So let’s call this next section the impossibility of salvation. Let’s read verses 23 and 24:

And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, 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.” And when the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” And looking at them, Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible.”

Riches and possessions have a way of placing their claws deep into a person’s heart like few things can. It’s especially hard for people who have a lot of money and all the things that the world has to offer to not put their hope in all of that. It deludes. It makes one feel self-sufficient. And to drive that point home, the Lord used hyperbole to highlight the impossibility of man entering heaven through his own effort. He says that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

I don’t know how many of you have ever tried taking a thread and placing it through the little tiny hole at the top of a threading needle. But if your eyes are anything like mine, you’re going to be there for a while. And it would have been hard enough, guys, to just take a single hair off the camel’s back and then try to put the camel’s hair through the eye of that needle. So just imagine, have this image in your mind, of trying to get the entire camel and squeeze it through that tiny hole. It’s absurd. It’s crazy. And the illustration is intended to be so outrageous that you quickly conclude that it’s absolutely impossible. It can’t be done.

And the disciples, they got it. They appropriately responded in verse 25: “And when the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, ‘Then who can be saved?'” And their astonishment was likely influenced by the prevailing theology on wealth in that day, that being rich was a sign of God’s blessing and favor. So in their mind, they thought, well, anyone who’s saved and on their way to heaven, it’s got to be those that God has clearly bestowed his blessings upon here and now.

But based on what Jesus had just said and just explained, his disciples clearly understood that no one could be saved. It’s humanly impossible. And they got it. Jesus confirms the conclusion that they’ve come to. The first half of verse 26 tells us Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible.” That’s the same conclusion that the rich young ruler should have come to. There wasn’t any amount of good things that he could have done.

Listen, guys, obtaining eternal life through good works is as absurd as trying to squeeze a camel through the eye of a needle. And yet today there’s no shortage of false teachings and false religions that teach that you just have to follow some set of rules. Perform these sacraments. Just be the best version of yourself that you can be. Basically, just aim that at the end of your life your good deeds, your good works, outweigh your bad. That’s a lie.

And MacArthur again summarized it well. He said, “There’s really only two religions in the world.” The religion of human achievement: all the religions in the world that offer heaven for good works, morality, religious ceremonies, rituals. And on the other hand, there’s the religion of divine accomplishment, which offers heaven to those who admit that there’s nothing that they can do to earn it.

Salvation Made Possible

That’s a good segue to our last section. I want to call it salvation made possible. And praise God, guys, that he does. So I want us to focus on the statement that Jesus makes at the very end. The last half of verse 26 reads, “But with God all things are possible.”

Listen, what Jesus had just affirmed was impossible, for people to earn their way into his kingdom, he was going to make possible by dying as a substitute in the place of those who will follow him. For those who know that he is worth so much more than anything else that we can compare to, he’s incomparable.

Some of you might be reminded of my testimony that I shared last year during the summer camp. And I shared that my idol that I had a grip on, maybe I should say that had a grip on me, was pride and anger. I just could not imagine forgiving those that I considered my enemies. But God, he graciously granted me repentance.

Guys, some of you here have yet to forsake your idols. Maybe it’s not the same like I had, but maybe it is. Maybe your idol is pride. Maybe it is anger. Maybe there’s resentment. Perhaps it’s a relationship that you’re unwilling to walk away from. Maybe for others of you, it’s hard to imagine standing out from the friends that you’ve made who don’t know and love the Lord. Believe me, being consumed with what others thought of me was another idol that I had.

Listen. Nothing is worth losing your soul over. Guys, in 100 years from right now, everyone in this room is going to be in one of two places. Jim Elliot, the missionary who was speared to death while he was sharing the gospel to the Waodani people in the Ecuadorian jungle, was famously quoted as saying, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” There’s so much truth and wisdom in that. Jim knows that now experientially.

A Word to the Students

I want to wrap up because I do want to leave time for our discussion groups. But before I break us up, I just want to quickly speak directly to the different groups that we have present among us.

First of all, I just want you all to know that I consider it a privilege to be called one of your leaders. And I’m confident that I can speak on behalf of the rest of the leaders when I say that we carry a very heavy burden on our hearts for all of you.

Some of you here and now, you guys love the Lord Jesus, and we praise God for that. For you, this text should serve as an encouragement to guard your hearts from idols. Even if you know the Lord, you’re not immune to idolatry. Some of you are seniors, and you’re going to be going to college soon. Some of you will be starting full-time work. Others of you will be serving in the military. Listen, there will be countless temptations that will vie for your affections. Guys, esteem Jesus as more worthy than any of those things. Guard your hearts.

But there’s some of you here that know a lot about Jesus, but you don’t know him in a saving way. And for those of you, listen, there’s something that you’re holding on to that you’re convincing yourself is better than him. In fact, you might be saying to yourself, maybe you’re thinking, Mr. Rios, Fernando, I just don’t think I’m all that bad. I don’t feel like the corrupt, hopeless sinner that the Bible describes.

Listen, if that’s you, I just want you to listen to me just for one minute. I want to share a quick story that I recently heard of an old pastor preaching on sin. But before I share that, I want to be sensitive that if you feel that it describes you, I don’t want you to come to the conclusion that you don’t have hope. That’s not my intent. Instead, I’m trying to share it so that it encourages you to call upon the Lord.

I heard this story recently of an old pastor. He was preaching on sin. And what he was specifically preaching on was that the person who does not know Jesus carries a heavy weight of sin. While preaching on that, a young man stood up, interrupted him, and mockingly shouted. He said, “You say that unsaved people carry a great weight of sin. I feel just fine. I don’t feel nothing. Tell me, preacher, how heavy is sin? Ten pounds? One hundred pounds?”

The preacher then responded, “Friend, if you placed 400 pounds on a dead corpse, would he feel it?” The young man replied, “Of course not. He’s dead.” The preacher responded, “The person who does not know Christ is equally dead. And though the load is great, he feels none of it.”

Listen, guys, we all fall woefully short of God’s perfect standard, whether we feel the weight of our sin or not. But if you don’t quite feel the weight of your sin, you’re not without hope. But you do need to beg God to help you to feel it. If after sitting under his Word, you feel the weight of your sin, thank God for that and respond to him by coming to him, and he will lift that burden.

So if you know that you’re not following Jesus, ask yourself this question: what am I clinging to that I’m treating as more valuable than him? Whatever it is, it’s not worth your soul.

I want to pray for us before we break out into groups, but I want to encourage you that if God’s Word has convicted you this evening, please don’t leave without speaking to one of us. We love you guys, and we would love to be able to have the opportunity to answer any questions that you might have or just to pray with you.

Closing Prayer

Dear heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for your Word. Lord, thank you for sending Jesus, your Son. Thank you, Lord, for making it clear that Jesus is worth far more than anything this world has to offer. Oh God, open the eyes of our hearts to understand that nothing in this world is worth losing our souls over. Lord, help us. Help those of us who know you to guard our hearts against idols. And we beg you, Lord, please draw those among us who don’t know you yet unto yourself. Lord, we ask this for your glory and the glory of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.