The Answer to Life's Greatest Question, Part 3 B

It's not about whether people want a better this, a better that, happier things here, da-da-da. What it's about is eternal life and it is about accepting the indictment of Scripture that you are headed for eternal hell because you do not love God and love others perfectly. And if you're going to try to sustain your own sense of self-righteousness, you cut yourself off from salvation.

That's the issue. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. In the Nobel Book of Answers, 21 winners of the Nobel Prize offered answers to some of the biggest questions out there, questions like, what is love? And why are some people rich and others poor?

And why does war happen? But of all the questions that book addressed, it didn't answer life's most important question, the one John MacArthur urges you to consider today on Grace to You. Stay here as John shows you how Jesus answered the greatest question, namely, what must I do to be saved?

Here's John now with a lesson. Luke 10 verses 25 through 29. I come to this passage again with great anticipation. Let me read it to you, starting at verse 25, and behold, a certain lawyer stood up and put him to the test saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, What is written in the Law?

How does it read to you? And he answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.

But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? The key to this text is the question that appears in the first verse. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? This is about eternal life and that is the compelling question. What we have here is Jesus in a discussion about the most important question that can ever be asked or answered, the question about eternal life. And so we said that in evangelism, the first point that we learn here about effective evangelism is the person has to have a recognition of eternal life. So if you're going to be dealing with somebody about the gospel, they have to be on the wavelength of matters that are eternal.

So first of all, we began didn't we? Number one, a recognition of eternal life. Number two, motivation for eternal life. The man had the motivation, verse 25, he stands up, he puts Jesus to the test, testing whether Jesus' theology was accurate. Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

He knew the answer. Evangelism then requires two things, a recognition of eternal life and a motivation to receive it. That is how we evangelize.

You have to get to that point. We can't evangelize on a superficial level about issues in this life. Then we thirdly came to, last time, a discussion of the complexion of eternal life, recognition and motivation and complexion, meaning the complex, the order, the nature, the structure.

That leaves us with one point to close. The last feature in this look at Jesus' approach to evangelism, recognition of eternal life, motivation for eternal life, understanding the complex of ideas of eternal life, finally the acceptance, or let's say the acquisition of eternal life. This is where you want to bring the sinner, to reach out and take what is offered. Verse 29, this is really sad, but wishing to justify himself. We can stop right there. This is a problem.

This is a big problem. What I would like to have read is, and he wishing to humble himself, and he falling on his face cried out for mercy and he grieved over his own sin, and he broken and contrite...that's not what it says...backed into the corner, his wretched pride and self-righteousness in which he was so skilled took over. And wishing to justify himself, he failed to deny himself. You would have hoped that he would have said, I deny everything that I've claimed in the past, I'm not a righteous man. On the surface I've been law-abiding, on the surface I've done all the Jewish stuff like Paul, but I now deny myself.

I refuse to associate any longer with the person I am and I cry for mercy. He didn't say that. It just says, but wishing to justify himself. He knew he didn't love God perfectly. He knew it.

He knew he didn't love his neighbor like that. He knew he needed to admit it. He knew he needed to repent. He knew he needed mercy from a pardoning God who shows mercy to thousands. He knew he needed to hear from God who is marked by loving kindness in the Old Testament, the God who forgives, the God who removes sin, the God who buries sin, the God who forgets sin, the God who doesn't hold iniquity against the one who repents.

He knew he needed that. He should have been like the publican in Luke 18 and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. But he was like the Pharisee who proudly boasted about his righteousness. But wishing to justify himself, literally in the Greek means desiring to proclaim himself righteous...desiring to proclaim himself righteous.

And this was a public event. Remember now, he stood up in an environment where Jesus was very likely teaching. He stood up and in the middle of everything that was going on with the people sitting around, this man was not about to confess the reality of his wretched heart. He wanted to maintain the deception. So he rejected the pangs of conscience that prompted the question.

He disdains the conviction of sin which he feels on the inside and he seeks to publicly reaffirm his achievement as righteous. This is a problem. This is a big problem...big problem for the Jews.

Let me show you why this was going on here. Go to Romans 10 for a moment and we'll come back to this. Romans 10, very definitive Scripture. Here in Romans 10, Paul starts out, "'Brethren, my heart's desire, my prayer to God for them...that is for Israel, he's been talking about them...in chapter 9, my prayer to God for them, for Israel, is for their salvation.'"

How sad is that? He was praying for the salvation of the Jews. Why would he pray for their salvation?

Because they weren't saved. Back in chapter 2 of Romans, verse 17, if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the Law and boast in God and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, that was them. You have the name Jew, you rely on the Law, you boast in God, you know His will, you approve the essentials of the Law, you're instructed out of the Law, you're confident that you can guide others because you know the Law, you're a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, you literally have in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and the truth. Then verse 23, he says, you who boast in the Law through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?

Oh yes you do. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you...because of you. And down in verse 28 he says, he's not a Jew who's one outwardly. Verse 29, he's a Jew who's one inwardly. So go back to chapter 10, that was where their pride was, but they weren't saved, they were blaspheming God.

Why? Verse 2, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but not in accordance with knowledge. No one is more concerned about God than the Jews. No one was more concerned about the God of Israel than the Jews. No one was more concerned with religious truth than the Jews. The leading rabbis, often scribes themselves, were the possessors and they were the protectors, they were the purveyors of religious truth, they held power over all the people because of their knowledge of the Law of God and their Judaistic traditions. Jerusalem itself was the center of religious study, the rabbis and the scribes were there, they were so highly trained and highly skilled, they knew so much more than the people that they were highly revered. In fact, their teaching is rarely ever questioned in Jewish history.

You just don't question the teaching of a rabbi no matter how bad it is, no matter how off it is, no matter how unscriptural it is. They were not only regarded as the experts in interpreting the Law, but they were actually thought to have mystical powers of spiritual discernment that could see the secret things that weren't even on the page and their Word became absolute Law. That's why the Jewish tradition replaced the actual Law of God because they gave to the rabbis the same authority they gave to God because they thought God gave them secret insight. Lawyers were called scribes, sometimes called rabbis, sometimes called masters, sometimes called fathers, as in Matthew 23. They had a dominating influence over the Jews. Zealous scribes, really, zealous lawyers started the rebellion in 66 A.D. That finally led to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Historians ascribe that to the zealous scribes. They were so zealous for the Law, they couldn't tolerate the presence of the Roman occupation.

They started the rebellion that led to the terrible destruction of 70 A.D. Whenever there was a banquet, whenever there was the feast, the lawyers and the scribes wanted the chief seats. Remember Matthew 23? And in the synagogues, they would sit in an elevated place and they sat...there was a big cupboard, if you've ever been in a synagogue, I've been in a number of them in Israel, an orthodox synagogue, there's a big box, a big armoire, cabinet and inside are the scrolls of the Scripture, the Law of God. And the rabbis, or the scribes, all sit with their backs to that box. They sit with their backs to the cabinet containing the Old Testament scroll and that is symbolic of the fact that the Old Testament comes through them to the people. They are the only true and authorized interpreters of the Old Testament. So they sit with their back to the box and their face to the people, the Law comes through them.

Their tombs, scribes' tombs were so revered with awe and superstition that after their death their memories were embellished with bizarre legends. But in spite of all of this reverence they were given, they didn't interpret the Law in Matthew accurately and Matthew 15 says they substituted the traditions of men for the Law of God. And verse 2 says, they have a zeal for God but with all that information it's not according to knowledge. They don't have the true knowledge of God, they're lost...they're lost.

Why? What prevented them from getting the epignosis, the deep knowledge, the true knowledge? Here's why, verse 3, very key, for not knowing about God's righteousness.

Boy, what a telling statement that is. You say, well how could they be ignorant of God's righteousness? How could they be ignorant of God's righteousness when they had the Old Testament?

Here's what that means. They seriously underestimated God's righteousness. They seriously considered God less holy than He is. They thought God was more tolerant of sin than He was. They came to believe that God would allow hypocrisy. So they were ignorant of God's righteousness.

Simply think of it this way, they thought God was less holy than He is. And then it says, not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. If they had subjected themselves to the righteousness of God, what would have happened? They would have fallen on their face, beat on their breast and cried for mercy because the righteousness of God is articulated in the Law, summarized in the Ten Commandments and summarized again in the Law to love God and one's neighbor perfectly. If they really, really subjected themselves to the righteousness of God revealed in His Law, they would have cried out for mercy.

They did not do that, but rather sought to establish their own. So they seriously underestimated God's righteousness and overestimated their own righteousness. They thought God was less holy than He was and they were more holy than they were and therefore they could meet God's demand on their own terms.

If you want to understand Judaism, that's it...that's it. God was less holy than He was in their minds and they were more holy than they were in their minds. They lowered the Law and elevated themselves. They lowered the standard and raised their own ability to maintain it and they therefore could please God by their own efforts. They should have been driven to their knees. They should have been driven to reject their own self-righteousness. They should have seen it as Paul did, manure in Philippians 3.

Time is true today. You're going to get the sinner against the wall. You're going to pin the sinner against the wall about eternal life. You're going to convince the sinner that he doesn't love God perfectly and love his neighbor perfectly and the sinner is going to have a battle on the inside and the only way he can escape the dilemma is to make God less holy than he is, make himself more righteous than he is and think he's okay. The natural sinner hates a God who is absolutely holy and hates to admit that he is absolutely sinful.

And so what does he do? Lower God and elevate himself. Verse 4, Romans 10, Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes. All you have to do is realize that when the Law has indicted you and you've accepted that indictment, receive Christ, put your faith in Him and that's the end of the Law. That's the goal.

What is the goal? I thought the goal of the Law was to get people to heaven by obedience. No, the goal of the Law is to get you to the point where you know you can't keep it. And the Law then, Paul says, Galatians, is our school master to bring us to whom? To Christ. The Law indicts you. The Law brings you before the court, renders you absolutely guilty, asks you to cry out for mercy. The judge provides the mercy because Christ has paid for the sin.

That's the gospel. Christ is the goal of the Law. You say, well, didn't the Law pass away? No, the Law still has a function. The Law of God has not changed. The holy standards of God have not changed. They are still there to drive the sinner to the end of himself. And when he's at the end of himself, and when he knows he can't keep the Law, and he sees Christ like Paul did in Philippians 3, and he saw that there would be a righteousness of God granted to him, not a righteousness of his own which he couldn't achieve, he considered all the other things manure and embraced Christ. The word end there really means the goal, the objective is to bring you to Christ to believe in Him. Verse 5, for Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on Law shall live by that righteousness. Okay?

You're going to go on the Law? Then you have to live by that righteousness. And what does that righteousness require for life, eternal life? Do this and you will live.

Break any of it and you will die. You want to live on Moses' terms? Perfect, perfect keeping of the Law. Leviticus 18 5, do this and you will live. But, verse 6, the righteousness based on faith, that's Christ, that's what we want.

Drop down to verses 9 and 10 quickly. How do you receive the righteousness based on faith? If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved for with the heart man believes resulting in righteousness and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation. How do you get saved?

Not by your works, but by realizing you can't come by Law, but realizing that the Law of God has brought you to Christ, you see Christ, you believe in Christ, you confess Jesus as Lord, you believe that God raised Him from the dead, which means you believe in His sacrificial death and resurrection and by that you receive the righteousness of God and salvation. And verse 12 says, doesn't matter whether you are a Jew or a Greek, doesn't matter what your religious background has been. Well, as you can see, this is the background.

Go back and we'll close in Luke. This is the background of what was in this guy's mind. He was used to the standard of Romans 10. He was used to the standard of righteousness by the Law and he wanted the people to think that he had achieved it, so proud, wishing to justify himself, desiring to proclaim himself righteous. He said to Jesus, and I'm sure with cynicism, who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? Very much like the question of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, I've checked my life and I...what am I lacking? What am I lacking?

All the laws I've kept from a child, what am I lacking? And this guy says, well you know, maybe you could expand my definition of neighbor, which is to say, as far as I know, I love God perfectly and I love my neighbor perfectly unless maybe you've got a better definition of neighbor, which poses the question, what was his view of neighbor? Oh well, his view of neighbor, another Jew, if he was that magnanimous.

And maybe...maybe only another scribe? Was he implying something like, you're not telling me I'm supposed to love an enemy, are you? You're not telling me I'm supposed to love a Gentile, are you?

You're not telling me I'm supposed to love a liberal Sadducee, are you? You know, he says to Jesus, you know, I guess I do love God perfectly and love my neighbor perfectly unless I somehow don't have the definition of neighbor right. You know what's startling to me is that he jumped across the loving God part completely. He just leapfrogged that, did his little inventory, well we've got nothing to talk about loving God since that's clear.

I certainly do that. That was sort of easy for him to escape because that's something you couldn't see, but how you treat other people is visible. He just does not admit that he doesn't love God perfectly. What keeps people from being saved? I've said this so many times in so many passages. What keeps people from being saved when they understand the gospel is the issue of whether or not they will admit their wretchedness.

Please, folks, it's not about whether people want a better marriage, a better life, a better this, a better that, happier things here, da-da-da. What it's about is eternal life and it is about accepting the indictment of Scripture that you are headed for eternal hell because you do not love God and love others perfectly which demonstrates that you are a sinner and that violates the perfect law of God. You can't keep it, you better cry for mercy and if you're going to try to sustain your own sense of self-righteousness, you cut yourself off from salvation, that's the issue. That's why they tried to kill Jesus in Luke 4, went to the synagogue. He said to those people in the synagogue, you are the poor prisoners blind and oppressed and if you don't see yourselves as poor prisoners blind and oppressed and cry out for mercy to God, you will not believe and receive the gospel. And they took Him out after one sermon in His hometown, tried to throw Him off a cliff and execute Him, not because they didn't want eternal life, but because they hated the indictment that He had rendered upon their true spiritual condition.

But that's where you have to go. He's no different than the rich young ruler. I love God perfectly.

Well we could maybe talk about it. I think I love my neighbor perfectly, but maybe you can define neighbor differently. I mean, this is sickening, isn't it? What horrendous self-righteousness. All he would have had to have done was cry for mercy. God would have on the spot forgiven him. Jesus would have embraced him. Eternal life would have been granted to him. What about his sin? Oh, that was about to be paid for by Christ, but God would already apply that payment to him because, as I said, he was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. The only way for a sinner to escape is to lower the righteousness of God, raise his own righteousness, and then live in that deception. He had the opportunity to come to the acquisition of the eternal life he sought, his self-love, his pride, his religious self-righteousness.

As far as we know, damned the man. Father, this is so helpful for us. This is so clear, constructive. We thank You for it. Confirm its truths to our hearts and use us mightily in this evangelism effort. We pray in Christ's name.

Amen. No one can justify himself before God, and yet God saves those who repent. Staggering truth from John MacArthur today on Grace to You. John is chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, and today's lesson is from his series, What Must I Do to Be Saved? Well, John, I think believers tend to assume that evangelism is a solitary task, but I think about 1 Corinthians 3 verse 6, where Paul says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. And one implication of that verse is that evangelism is a team effort. Grace to You is a good example of this team evangelism. You preach the sermons, but our staff and radio stations and countless listeners work together to proclaim the gospel. Yeah, and I think that's bound up in the simple statement that the apostle Paul uses when he says it's required of stewards that a man be found faithful. Paul even says, who then is Apollos, and who is Paul?

I mean, we're nobody. God does the work. God gives the increase. We each play a part, and that part is defined as being faithful. That is constantly on display in the ministry of grace to you, and we need to thank all the folks who are part of that. It takes more than the staff here at our Southern California headquarters to produce programs like today's program and distribute biblically-centered resources across the U.S. and all over the globe. The fact is, you can have an active, vital role in this ministry yourself.

How can you do that? Well, if you're thankful for grace to you, let me encourage you to pray for us and to invest in this ministry, whatever the Lord will put upon your heart to give. Pray for the team at the radio station, obviously vital to our daily work of proclaiming God's Word. And if you have benefited from what you hear on grace to you, then you ought to find other folks and get them connected to it and use it as a way to begin evangelizing.

Even people who don't know the Lord are Christians who aren't being given the opportunity to study and grow in grace. So we're all in this together. Everything and anything you can do to help us is to advance the kingdom, and God pulls it all together and accomplishes His perfect will. And again, if you're able to come alongside and support our work, you'll have a tangible role in delivering verse-by-verse teaching of the transforming Word of God to people all over this globe. And you'll meet some of those friends one day in heaven. Thanks for standing with us.

That's right, friend. Thank you for the part you play in connecting people like you with verse-by-verse teaching from God's Word. To express your support, contact us today. You can mail your tax-deductible gift to Grace2U, P.O.

Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412. Or you can call us at 800-55-GRACE. Thank you for your financial partnership in taking clear biblical teaching around the world. And again, to stand with us financially, call 800-55-GRACE, or you can donate online at GTY.org. And thank you again for praying for Grace2U. That's the most important way you can partner with us. Also, if you'd like to review any lesson from John's current series, What Must I Do to Be Saved?, remember all four of those messages are available for download free of charge in MP3 and transcript format at the website GTY.org. In fact, all of John's sermons—3,600 total—are available online for free download.

The website, one more time—GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur and our staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for joining us today and be back tomorrow as John unpacks the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan, showing you how you fit into it and what it has to say about salvation and the way to eternal life. Join us then for another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace2U.