Experience TRUTH - #3

This is Darren Kuhn with the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we search the ancient paths to find ways that God brings light into a dark world and helps set men free from the struggles that we all face on a day-to-day basis. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it. Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

Well, the rich young ruler was. We talked about it last week, and we're back on it this week. What does it mean for a camel to go through the eye of a needle?

Why is that so hard? What does Jesus say? I'm Stu Everson, and I'm so glad you're here with us on this journey through the book of Luke on Experienced Truth. With me is my partner in crime, compadre in radio, the Christian car guy himself, Robbie Dilmore. Robbie, read the Scripture, and let's get right into the passage this week as we get into why the most seemingly qualified person in history, the rich young ruler, leaves Jesus weeping after this encounter instead of joining him and his disciples on the road to Calvary.

What's up with that? Robbie, read the passage, and we'll get into these final questions. There you go. Luke 18, 18 through 25. Now, a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good but one, and that is God. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness.

Honor your father and your mother. And he said, All these things I've kept from my youth. So when Jesus heard these things, he said to him, You still lack one thing.

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 this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he had become very sorrowful, he said, How hard it is for those who have riches 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.

So this is a fascinating encounter. Last time we talked about how Jesus uses the law to expose this young man's sin. Here you have likely a leader of the synagogue. He's rich, he's young, he's a ruler. We have this account in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

It's not recorded in John. And you have a guy who we probably, most of us, would sign up to be a big hitter in all of our churches. Man, he could stroke a big check to help us with the building program, fixing the parking lot, all that stuff.

He could be a real leader. And he came to Jesus thinking, I want to get this rabbi's blessing and confirmation, and I'm going to find out for sure how to inherit eternal life. Well, he left weeping, and maybe he didn't get the answer. He definitely did not get the answer that he wanted.

And Robby, pick up with this question for review, and then we'll do these final couple questions, and we'll get through this part. What was so hard about the one thing he lacked that Jesus told him to do? I mean, he was a doer, so why was he so sorrowful?

He actually thought, he said, I kept all these from my youth. The fact is we're all lawbreakers. The fact is we're all sinners.

The fact is we all have callous layers and layers and layers of self-righteousness and our own abilities and our own good deeds covering and inoculating us from our actual guilt of our sin. And so God sent something that is the impossible standard, the law. The law, Galatians tells us, is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Jesus Christ used the law effectively in this instance. This guy was so hardened and so self-righteous, like all the Pharisees that Jesus encountered. He wasn't a sinner who cried out for God's mercy like the sinner, the publican that went to the temple to pray with the Pharisee. He wasn't like the lost son who humbly came back to his father and said, I'm not worthy to be your servant. He wasn't like the blind beggar who cried out, Son of David, have mercy on me. He wasn't like that. He was an arrogant lawkeeper who says, what can I do to inherit eternal life?

Those are exact words. So he's thinking there's a formula, and that's what our flesh craves. So Jesus uses the law to expose the one thing he lacked, because he had a deep-rooted pride and covetousness. So when Jesus said, go sell everything you have, he touched the very nerve point of what this man loved.

He loved his stuff. There's really a sense we're all like that, Robbie. We can say, thank you God, I'm not like that rich young ruler. But there is something in all of us that we hold on to, that before Christ we treasured more than Christ, and even in Christ as believers. There's a constant rushing to satisfaction and to valuing all kinds of stuffed things, people, over Jesus, right? Oh yeah. Yeah, I mean, try this out on your own.

Go sell everything I have and give to the poor. That's exactly right. So what would Jesus... Here's a fascinating question, Robbie.

It's not on the script here, but let's wander off a little bit and let's probe this question. What's the one thing Stu lacks? Jesus is standing before you right now. What's the one thing you lack under the examination of Almighty God, whose eyes of fire see right through you?

He knows exactly what you're thinking right now. Everyone out there driving, listening, wherever you are, he knows your heart. He made you, he put you together, he gave you those talents that have taken a higher place in your life than him, in love for him. He gave you that family that you love more than you love Jesus.

So all throughout the Gospels you have these messages to Jesus sprinkled in there. He says, unless you hate your father, mother, brother, and sister, you have no part of me. Unless you deny yourself, take up your cross, literally die to everything. But me, you will not have any part of me.

So there's this rub. James chapter 4 says, Friendship with the world is enmity with God. So if you love anything more than Jesus, or if anything else is your treasure, you have found yourself an enemy of God.

Now that's the bad news. The good news is that's why Jesus came. To take the seat, the highest seat in our life, and to bring the only satisfaction he could bring, is to bring us into perfect relationship with our Father. And this guy who seemed so close to God because he kept God's law, or so he thought perfectly, he didn't, because he had all the religious regalia and all of the appearing and the posturing and the posing, he had it all, Robbie.

Yet he was so far away. What should break our heart is maybe someone out there who thinks they're good enough. If you ask the average person who's lost, why should God let you into his heaven? And what's the answer they give? Yeah, I've done this, I've done that.

I'm a good person. Either what I've done, D-O-N-E, or what I haven't done, D-O-N-T, it's do, don't, what I've accomplished, and it's not focused on Jesus' finished work. Here's the real question. Jesus says, how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. He says, 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. But why is it so hard for rich people to get saved?

I mean, fundamentally, Robbie, we may complicate this, and we may get into it too much, but really, why is it so basic? It's similar, isn't it, that it's too big to fit? Yeah.

Which is my head. That's right. Well, that's exactly right. You know, that rich spirit is too big to fit through the eye of the needle. So, you know, by lessening ourselves to the point where we realize how much we need to surrender, as you were thinking, as you were describing, you know, what's the one thing that if Jesus was standing there, he would say, you lack this one thing. And, you know, that's a real issue for prayer between you and Jesus. And for me, clearly, I started praying right then. And for some reason, God took me right back to the scene in the garden where, you know, where I realized I was naked, so I hid.

Yeah, that's right. Where's the fig leaves, baby? Bring those fig leaves out. But when you said, I hid from your presence, is what it actually says in the scriptures. When I found out just this morning, because I was doing what you always suggest in reading the word, was that word presence actually means that he hid from God's face.

Oh, wow. And that, what am I doing that I'm hiding from God's face? As I began to think, Jesus, I'm going to say, well, Robbie, where are we hiding?

Where are we hiding right now? You know, you're not going to do that in front of me. And therein is some of the stuff that I got to get rid of to make it through that needle hole.

Well, it's a process. I mean, as we get closer, and the fact is, the next verse he says, you know, Jesus, the disciples say, well, this is impossible. And Jesus says, well, of course, with man it's impossible, but with God all things are possible.

And then you have this miraculous salvation, and we're going to get to it in the coming weeks in Luke, of someone who does go through the eye of a needle, someone who does get saved, who's the last person you ever would have thought. And he was a little bitty man. He's a wee little man. We're not going to tell you much more about him. He fit through the eye. But he was also of great wealth.

So there's a couple things I want to touch on here real quick, Robbie, as we wrap this up. First of all, Jesus says, you lack one thing. And Jesus, in saying that, when he brings up this, he's bringing up the first commandment and the tenth commandment. The first commandment is, no other gods before you. So really, it comes down to who you're worshiping. And the tenth commandment is, don't covet. Those two commandments inflame the other eight commandments. Because really, ultimately, if you worship anyone other than God and love anyone other than God, then you will kill, you will steal, you will even kill, as Jesus said, by committing anger in your heart. You will adulterate by committing lust in your heart. You will fall into sin when God's not on your throne.

You will chase after other gods, as it were. But then the covetous thing, both of those things have to do with one thing, the treasure trove of the heart, what you love. So when Jesus says to him, one thing you lack, go sell everything you have, it says, this man was very rich.

See, he loved his riches. And so the question is really, the negative way of putting it is, what do you lack? The positive way of putting it is, what do you love? Well, what thing do you like? Well, what thing do you love? What is that thing that I love more than Jesus Christ?

Well, I've just identified the idol. Maybe it's that thing I spend more time talking about than anything else. Maybe it's that thing I want to spend more time with. Maybe it's that person thing, treasure, wealth, hobby, job, spouse, whatever, that has the seat of my affections that is not Jesus Christ. So that's the negative way of looking at it. The positive way is, the passion in my heart aligns with the lover of my soul, Jesus Christ, and the Father who begot me by Jesus.

Suddenly, when that aligns, suddenly there's satisfaction beyond what we can even explain or describe. And this man was so far from that because he was so full of himself. But this also does not mean being wealth. Going through the camel through the eye of a needle, it does not mean it's not calling to a vow of poverty or monasticism. It doesn't mean if you're poor, if you sell everything, you're going to have eternal life. There's a lot of poor people that are going to go to hell.

Sounds like a really scary problem. One guy said it this way. It's not what you own, but it's what owns you. And then also, another thing is, Jesus did not tell other wealthy folks in the Bible to go sell everything they have. He didn't tell Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, Joseph, Joseph of everything. He didn't say, hey, go sell everything you have, because obviously their heart was believing and trusting in God, and God blessed them.

I mean, look at Abraham. He had all this cattle and all this stuff, because his heart was at a following God. So anyway, this man should have gladly accepted Jesus' offer.

Tragically, he did not. And Jesus, the beautiful thing about it, this man would not admit he was a lawbreaker, but he was. Jesus would go on to absorb the wrath of God on the cross as he took the punishment of all lawbreakers for himself.

And that's the beauty. Jesus Christ kept the law. There's only one person that didn't break the law, and he died for lawbreakers like you and me. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5.21. And that's the question of the day.

What is that thing in my life? Thanks for being with us today. Experience truth. Share the Word of God with someone before your head hits the pillow today. The words of life, the word of truth that Jesus Christ came to save sinners.