Experience TRUTH - #4

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show.

Stories of hopelessness turned into hope. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it.

Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Who can be saved? Robbie Dilmore, the Christian car guy, is with me.

He's an awesome man of God and a fellow Christian radio talk show host, the director of syndication for the Truth Network, and so many stations that carry Experience Truth and Truth Talk Weekend, and all of our podcasting, and who knows how you're hearing me talk to you today. But we're glad you're here, and we're so excited to buckle up and jump into the Bible bus here, getting the Word together. Robbie, read the passage this week. Yeah, Luke 18.

Yes sir, we'll get right into the questions. And those who heard it said, who then can be saved? But he said, the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

Then Peter said, see, we have left all and followed you. And he said to them, assuredly, I say to you, there's no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time and in the age to come eternal life. Then he took the 12 aside and said to them, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem on all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For he will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge him and kill him. And the third day he'll rise again. But they understood none of these things, saying, this saying was hidden from them and they did not know the things of which were spoken.

Wow, so much going on there. Robbie, ask the first question that will kind of connect us to what's happening in Luke chapter 18 here. So exactly how hard does one have to work and how much money does one have to earn to get to heaven? Yeah, some people say we're human. We're more like human doings than human beings. You know, we're earners, we're trying to accomplish. Robbie, if I work hard enough, if I do enough for you, you'll accept me.

We're people pleasers by nature. And the question right out of the gate, when the guy who seems to be the poster child, the rich young ruler, he would have been the perfect candidate to become a disciple of Jesus. He was wealthy. In that day, a sign of wealth was a sign of God's favor. He was devoutly religious. He checked off all the boxes. He even said to Jesus, all these commands I've kept for my youth.

He was right on his way, it seemed like. He sought Jesus, inquired about eternal life. Here he's coming to the Lord. He's saying, what must I do?

Interesting that language, what must I do? So he again is in that works salvation mode. It says in another Gospel account that he actually fell on his knees before Jesus when he inquired of Christ. So you have this question, can anyone be saved on the heels of the ideal candidate coming to Jesus, the rich young ruler, who goes away weeping? So the disciples are just befuddled and they're thinking, if this guy doesn't make the cut, then who can? Jesus said the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

Luke 18 27 is a great verse, a verse we should all memorize because we talk about great miracles. We talk about creation. We talk about the resurrection. But one of the greatest miracles of the Bible is the new creation and the resurrection of the dead soul. It's called regeneration. It's called taking a sinner from being lost to being saved.

That is transformation. I don't care what the dude on TV says who says he can clean up your mangled whatever you're beleaguered by, whatever your malady is. The greatest thing is why I challenge all of our pastors on TV, on radio, everywhere to preach the gospel, because the gospel is the power of God's salvation. It changes lives forever, and it is only possible that someone as sinful as the sinful publican who went to the temple to pray along with the unrighteous and then the self-righteous Pharisee, it's only possible by God's work. And then Peter boasts, he said, see we have left all, verse 28, and followed you. So Jesus comes in and he corrects that and he says, assuredly I say to you there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God. So Jesus comes in with a pretty solid, almost rebuke on this impossibility thing, and that's where we get to this question right here, Robbie, which I think hones in and then we'll get into what it means to have this.

What do we gain by losing? Well, the beauty of it is that you only mentioned the first half of the sentence, no one has left. He's actually saying no one that has left houses or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, no one who has done that will fail to receive, and we find out in Mark chapter 10 actually what God is going to do for those, and he says a hundred mothers, fathers, sisters, and for those of us who do a devotion at a retirement home, I'm going to tell you I have a hundred mothers. It's one of the joys of my life is what I think Jesus is trying to tell Peter.

Peter, look around, man! You are receiving way more brothers and fathers and sisters and even children. All that you think you've left, you're gaining way, way more in an eternal life. What's coming to you and what you have right now in Christ, the wealth, the riches you have in Him, Ephesians chapter 1 is so rich on the wealth of the believer and what we get, being blessed, being redeemed by His blood, being chosen by Him, all these things.

What we have in this massive family of saints that become your mother, become your brothers, become your sisters, that is so grand and so great compared to anything we could have left behind or could have sacrificed. I know that a lot of folks came to Christ early in life and they came from very, very Christian families. So they had that community their whole life and I sense that you did too. I mean, your parents had all these friends and you had all this stuff. But here I was in my 30s in the car business and I'm fully aware that I did not have a single friend in this world that really cared about anything if it wasn't about buying a car. Nothing about me personally. And my wife dragged me to this Sunday school class and these people there, they were like, they cared about me even though they didn't want to buy a car.

And that totally befuddled me because I was like, why do these people treat me like this? I did not realize, and it was actually one of the things that got me to inquire about the gospel, was the fact that there was a sense of community there that I could never experience outside of the Christian faith. And that's where Jesus makes all these statements, which really He makes here in a little longer form, in the form of a question and a statement, whoever gains his life will lose it. But whoever gives his life up, for my sake or the gospel, will find everything. What is the profit man gains the whole world but loses his own soul? We have that in Luke 9, we have that all over Jesus' words, and He says it over and over again. And here the rich young ruler left filthy rich, and with every connection and every name in his contact list that you could buy, that money could buy, right? From the religious hierarchy. They believe this guy was a rising star in the Sanhedrin, in the court of the Jews, in the temple as a Jewish, potentially well-versed, well-off, scholarly mind in that whole world.

But he sacrificed his soul for it. I tell you what, ask that question real quick, because I want to keep it going. What does it mean to leave all and follow Jesus? Because that's, you know, Peter's making references, he said, you know, we did what you said, Jesus, you know, the young ruler didn't, but we did.

Here we are, what about us? You know, if it's impossible with man, right, we've done, and Jesus said all things possible with God. This is really interesting, and this next half of that question goes to your point a second ago, Robbie. Yeah, what does one gain eternally by following Jesus?

And that rich young ruler, if he'd have gone to, you know, if anything happened to his wealth and whatever. Point out where Jesus said, assuredly, so this is a statement of assurance, when Jesus says, assuredly or verily I say unto you, or truly, truly I say unto you, there is no one who has left. Now look at these, look at these statements here, Robbie, there's five categories. House. Well, that speaks, I mean, think about your home, your house. When we log off our Christian radio time here today, Robbie, we're going to go somewhere. We're going to go to a house. When we pull there, we're actually going to be able to take our, you know, like the cowboy with the Stetsons, throw our hat down, actually sit down, and you're going to say, honey, where can we have some of those campfire beans? No, you're going to see Tammy, you're going to go home, and you're going to do things there you wouldn't do here, but that's like your safety.

If you showed up there and it's gone, demolished, like some of the folks in the Bahamas when that horrific storm came through, totally gone, it's underwater. That's your home, your house. So Jesus says the first thing of earthly attachment is your house, but then the next thing is your parents. Well, that's who you came from. So everyone has some kind of connection or some kind of longing built into them of parents. That is your mom and your dad. Some of you have lost parents. Some of you are adopted, and those dear souls have become your parents. So parents, that's like who brought you, then brothers. Well, those are your siblings. Those are who you grew up with. Those are your same blood, your same, you know, your family. But then it says wife. Well, that's who you left your mother and father and you cleave to.

That's your soulmate, your life partner. And then it says children. So here Jesus is bringing up every echelon, not one little word or detail. Well, children, they're your offspring. Your parents brought you into this world. Your children are going to put you in the ground and they're going to carry on your progeny.

They're going to carry on your life, your name, whatever, and they're going to be driving the truck that you own now. So even old red, Robbie, like the Christian car guy drives around. But look at this. This is the statement here that you just brought up. For the sake of the kingdom of God.

So those, I mean, this is a deep level. This is, you know, we've seen that song, I surrender all, all to Jesus, I surrender. I surrender all. But this is Jesus saying, look, I'm taking you, and you know, of course, a few chapters ago Jesus said, unless you hate your father, mother, sister or brother, you'll have no part of me. And so he uses the word hate, not in terms of hate speech like we would think, but in terms of to say there is a deeper passion and a deeper love and devotion to God that surpasses familial love and parental love and love of home. And our homesickness for heaven should be far greater than the home that we have on this earth. And even that of a child, you love Jesus more than your children. Well, these are my kids. I would never want them to go off to the mission field.

I want them to get a good job and go to a good American university. Well, hold on a second. They're not yours. See, so the love and life with Jesus invades every aspect of home life, and it's for the sake of the kingdom of God, which Jesus prayed, thy kingdom come. And he says, my little children, earlier on in Luke, I believe it's chapter 15, he says, yours is the kingdom. I've given you the kingdom. I've given you my kingdom, because Jesus is the king when He's king of your life and your heart, everything. But who shall not receive many times more in this present time and in the age of eternal life?

There's an amazing gift of God right now in the present life, right this second, Robbie. We're brothers in Christ. We don't have one ounce of relatives.

I mean, even if you go back to the Mayflower, your people came from over there, mine came from over here. But in Jesus Christ, you and I are tighter than I am with my blood relatives because of Him. See, that's a present time benefit. The present time benefit of the peace that passes on understanding, the present time benefit of Christ is closer, of a friend that's closer than a brother now, of what Jesus does for me in suffering and life and death. And then we have an eternal benefit of everything we have now with Jesus, except no sin. This is Experience Truth. I'm Stu Everson, and Robbie Dillonworth here with me. Please call upon the name of the Lord. Read Luke chapter 18 verses 26 through 34 yourself. This is the Truth Network.