FACT 2003 - The Trouble with Truth - Ron Matsen

[Music] [Music] we're going to be going over a passage of scripture that for most of you will be very familiar but as is often the case familiar passages are an area of scripture which we can often open overlook the ministry of jesus christ had grown greatly in popularity within the first two years of the ministry of jesus christ the notoriety of this man had grown to a point to where literally thousands of people were traveling from hundreds of miles just to see him by the time we reach matthew 19 of course he will have already fed the five thousand to four thousand he will have walked on water he will have raised the dead i mean he's absolutely a phenomena and so the news about jesus christ is definitely out in this region of the mediterranean and we read in verse 16 now behold one came and said to him good teacher what good thing shall i do that i might have eternal life this man represents really the interest of many who are interested in seeking eternal life he really is a perfect catch for the evangelical church by definition he's someone who is young will find out in matthew chapter 19 verse 20. we find out in luke chapter 18 verse 18 that he is a ruler and of course his response to the command of jesus is that he is rich and so he's referred to as the rich young ruler the ideal sort of person that you love to see come to christ and certainly be a member of your church young full of vitality ruler has influence within the community rich well any church like somebody who's rich but he came we find to jesus in fact mark tells us that he came running and knelt before jesus and he asked what shall i do what shall i do what he was looking for was eternal life really the better translation for that would be age abiding life he was not at this point asking to enter into the kingdom of god nor to be a disciple of jesus christ he was asking what would be common to all people he was asking how he might extend what he had many people today wish they could extend their youth in fact that's the great ploy within marketing is to try to stay younger longer many would like to extend their authority have more influence longer politicians want to stay in office longer this rich young ruler came to jesus christ and he was looking for age-abiding life he wanted to stay around longer enjoy what he had longer and the question he asks is what good thing shall i do he was looking for a method not a messiah he would make a good religious person for religious expressions are based on what can i do and so he said to him why do you call me good no one is good but one and that is god but if you want to enter life keep the commandments now jesus responds to this young man in a way which is not common with most evangelical evangelistic approaches today in most evangelistic circles today the answer to the man would be wow you want to be a christian you want to you want eternal life well here's what you need to do come forward raise your hand make a public declaration accept and receive but jesus takes the man back to the very essence of what salvation is all about the first thing he does is point to the holiness of god he says why do you call me good no one is good but one that is god the second thing he does is points him to the law christianity is based on some very simple principles first of all salvation is based on the gift of god for salvation there needs to be the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the holy spirit those are the two promises offered in the bible to those who would believe on jesus christ for forgiveness of sins and the gift of the holy spirit there needs to be repentance and faith for repentance and faith there needs to be conviction of sin for conviction of sin there needs to be knowledge of sin for the knowledge of sin there needs to be the fear of god and for the fear of god there needs to be the knowledge of god and so what jesus is doing with this man is taking him all the way back to that first acknowledgement that is absolutely essential and necessary for a person to come into a right relationship with god he must first acknowledge that god is holy and man is sinful so jesus first speaks of god being holy and then he points to the law notice in verse 18 the response of this young man jesus says you need to keep the commandments and the response of the man is which ones isn't that such a predictable response it's like having a child and and and you give them a command you know clean your room and the question often can come back how much of the room clean it all you mean the all that you can see or under my bed also you see the person who is trying to purchase his own salvation based on his own good works he's interested in just how small that list can be james tells us in chapter 2 verse 10 of his epistle that whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point he is guilty of it all james makes it very clear that the purpose of the law is to convict man of sin and so jesus is first bringing this man to a confrontation of the holiness of god the law of god so that he can see his need for a savior jesus answers his question which ones and says 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 now jesus selects what i call the low-hanging fruit of the ten commandments when you speak to someone about the law of god or becoming a christian or the need for a savior very often people will respond to you well what is god looking for i've never murdered anybody i've never murdered anybody so these are the big ones and so he starts with the ones that often time are the obvious ones people love to sort of bring out before you in defense of their own righteousness i've never murdered anyone i've never committed adultery well in a sense she left me first but and then it isn't adultery then is it i mean you get that sort of sense where you begin to go down the list you shall not steal i've never stolen anything i've never lied now you begin to go down the list in terms of these commandments from the law and you begin to wonder can anyone actually say they haven't lied can anyone actually say they haven't stolen he then says honor your father and your mother and you shall love your neighbor as yourself he leaves out really the first four commandments dealing with man's relationship with god and he only deals with five commandments man's relationship with man and he adds one at the end of course he adds that commandment which comes from leviticus chapter 19 verse 18 where you to love your neighbor as yourself later when jesus is approached and asked which is the greatest commandment matthew 22 records him saying in verse 37 you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind this is the first and greatest commandment the second is like and unto it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets and so he's laying out before the man a short resume of the commandments of god testing this man to see if he will acknowledge his own need for a savior and the young man said to him all these things i have kept from my youth what a very high opinion of himself he had so often if you are attempting to share the glorious gospel of jesus christ with someone who has not yet experienced the refreshing and regeneration work of the holy spirit if they do not acknowledge nor are aware of their need for a savior it's kind of hard to sell them that idea if they don't know that they are dead if they don't know that they are blind it's very difficult to give someone good news if they don't first already know some bad news this man obviously the perception that he had in his life was that he was okay he was all right yeah is that it the sense of the question that he asks after making this statement about his own righteousness well is that it don't murder anybody don't commit adultery don't steal don't lie love your neighbor as yourself honor your father and mother i've done that since i was a young kid that's it huh what else do i lack within his question we see that there is that nagging acknowledgement that resides within the heart of everyone who is attempting to approach god robed in their own righteousness for there will always be that sense and fear that i may have missed something often times when i speak to someone who begins to explain to me what they consider to be acceptable within a character that would be acceptable before god i'll say to them so do you think you're going to go to heaven then oh yes i'm a good person by whose definition well most people would agree that i'm a you know a good person i've done good things i've not tried to injure anyone isn't it interesting how often people will define sin as that which injures another human being rather than first and foremost understanding that that which the bible defines is sin is that which injures our relationship with god but they'll defend themselves oh no i'm fine i'm okay i've kept these things from my youth but what things do i lack there's that sense within a self-righteous person that but what if he's one good deed not enough i ask people they seem to have this idea that there's a scale in heaven then when you get to heaven they're going to take your good deeds and your bad deeds and they're going to weigh the two and i love to ask people that sort of have that mentality i love to say to them so how much does a good deed weigh and how much does a bad deed weigh are you assuming the weight is the same are you assuming that you understand the criteria for what is good and bad in the eyes of this judge that you're going to meet your eternal destiny literally in the balances do you really understand the criteria of that test you see within the heart of all mankind the idea of passing into eternity is something that is a frightful experience if you don't understand what it is you're going to be confronted with and so within the heart of this rich young ruler there was this sense of i i've done all those nice self-righteous things but is there something i'm lacking is there something i'm missing here and jesus said to him if you want to be perfect go sell what you have give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me mark adds to this as jesus is telling this man to sell all that he has mark adds to it in chapter 19 verse 21 come take up the cross and follow me jesus is addressing the fact that this man is still relying on his own righteousness and his own wealth for his own well-being as a result of that he is not truly seeking a savior he's not seeking to be a disciple of jesus christ he just wants to extend the ownership of what he has currently he's lacked making god the master passion of his life the life giver to him he is like so many who approach christianity as though they are buying an insurance policy you know where you speak to an insurance agent you know that it's probably a prudent thing to do to have insurance on your home or your car what you want is maximum protection for minimum input and so that's what most people are looking for we just want maximum protection with minimum input isn't it interesting that when you speak with non-christians those who haven't come into a right relationship with god when they speak about death if you've ever been to a funeral or associated with a non-christian who's just gone through a death in the family or a friend the words they use are sort of interesting to me they'll say yes well the person's gone on to a better place now how many tombstones do you see where it says rest in peace nobody says gone to dust being eaten by worms they all have this perception that somehow after leaving this earthly abode they're going to arrive in some sort of heavenly realm which is going to be better than the one they left rest in peace god be with you so many non-christians will use those sorts of terms but this man lacked he lacked in the area of having got his chief passion now in verse 22 we read when the young man had heard these things he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions you wonder at this point what sort of a cost-benefit analysis this man did he came to jesus christ who obviously was in the midst of doing some pretty spectacular things the hand of god was certainly upon him and he came asking what good things must i do that i might inherit everlasting life jesus gave him the answer and the man went away sorrowful so in his mind the cost of giving up all that he had was too great jesus teaches in matthew chapter 16 verse 26 for what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul the man was willing to try to hold on to that which he could not keep and ignore that which he could not buy so many people are doing that today they're holding on to that which they cannot keep and ignoring that which they cannot buy salvation in matthew 13 jesus teaching on the parable of the sowers speaks of riches as being thorns that grow up around the word that is sown in and jesus says the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of deceitfulness of riches choke out the world choke out the word the deceitfulness of verses people believing that what they have will somehow be there for them when they need them when paul was writing to timothy concerning earthly possessions paul writes in chapter 6 of his first epistle and says now godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out and having food and clothing with these we shall be content but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and a many foolish and harmful lusts which drowned men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows this young ruler went away sorrowful because in his mind he was too rich there was something in his life that he was unwilling to give up now you do realize we call him the rich young ruler yet the only reason why we call him rich was because he had something that was too precious for him to give up in order to obtain salvation we automatically assumed that he was monetarily rich in comparison with the other inhabitants of israel at that time but i know people and have met people who are rich in that they trust in the meager existence of their life as being worth more than entering into a right relationship with god a number of years ago i had an opportunity to uh was with an engineering company and we needed to go out to a little island in the indian ocean called diego garcia we had to fly through manila in the philippines and we spent a few days there i went out with one of the engineers who was a filipino and we just went out and spent the day driving around manila and as we did i was amazed as we drove away from sort of the built-up hotel area where westerners stay and drove into some of the slum areas and there was a freeway overpass a flyover and underneath the flyover were all these cardboard houses and i looked to the fellow that was driving us and i said wow i don't think i've ever seen anything like that and he said what and i said people i mean they're living in refrigerator boxes and pieces of bits of cardboard and he goes oh those are the wealthy ones those are the wealthy ones they've been able to build their houses underneath the flyovers so the concrete of the road above is protecting them from the the elements you know people people those are the rich people in this area the people that live out in the open ground they don't have any protection those are the real poor people rich is really just a matter of perspective isn't it it's whatever you hold on and hold dear to your heart that's whereby you define riches jesus as recorded in luke chapter 12 verse 15 says take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses so often people think that they possess things but the truth of the matter is things possess them and they don't want to give them up whatever it is even though they can't keep them they don't want to give them up and that was the situation with this rich young ruler was he came in a state of ignorance he asked a question and he has now been given truth and that's the real trouble with truth is once you begin to see what the truth is you're faced with decision a number of years ago i brought a missionary team to england and after they had gone back i was in the north of england i needed to get back down to the airport so rather than take the train i fancy to drive for me sitting in the passenger seat driving the car on the wrong side of the road coming from america sounded exciting and so i rented a little ford fiesta and decided to take off down the motorway well i got on the motorway and i noticed there were no speed limit signs now i don't know much about driving here at that point and so but i had heard that in germany they have the autobahn where there is no speed limit and so i thought well i'll see how fast this little car can go and so i began to take it up and you know i got it up to 70 and that seemed pretty normal but people were passing me by so i tried 80 and you know now i'm with the flow of some of the traffic there it's on the m1 perhaps some of you know how fast some of the cars go there and a few people passed me going 80 and i thought well let's take this little guy up a little faster and so took it up to 90 and the car wasn't shaking and i thought well you know this is kind of exciting it's exhilarating i've never driven 90 miles an hour before and so i decided you know i let's just go up to the century let's try a hundred let's let's see what that's like you know and uh and so i just pushed it up and i went to a hundred and you know my hands are beginning to perspire and and i'm gripping on the wheel and and i'm thinking you know what i've still got some room on the gas pedal here you know let's see what this little guy can do here and and and so i push a little bit more and pretty soon i'm going about 105 miles an hour and and uh nobody's passing me anymore and uh so i uh driving along and uh pretty soon of course i needed some petrol going at that speed and so i pulled over one of these roadside stops and i went in and got some petrol and outside there was this rac man and had a booth there and i was just having a chat with him and then just in the conversation i just happened to say to him so so what are the speed laws here what what's the deal i love driving here this open motorway i mean next time i come over i'm going to get a serious big car so i can really go fast you know none of this ford fiesta kind of stuff i'm going to really get something big and and the guy looked at me and he said well the fastest you can go is the national speed limit is 70 miles an hour 70 70 like 7-0 all of a sudden there was accountability you see i was going down the motorway feeling very self-confident but i was violating the law i was ignorant to it paul says concerning the law that before the law came i was alive but once the law came i died and that's the trouble with truth it kills you we need to understand that god has a law and when not if we violate that law we're under the condemnation of that law and that was the place jesus was trying to bring this rich young ruler not so that he would experience condemnation but so that he would understand that god was ready to forgive him by becoming a disciple of jesus christ just as i was getting back into my car and thinking about what i had done i thought to myself man i i'm really glad that i didn't get pulled over by one of those guys and have to explain that whole thing how embarrassed i would have been but nonetheless the entire time i was exceeding the speed limit i was breaking the law the law kills but the law is there to lead us to jesus christ the man was confronted with truth and he went away sorrowful you know the church in its interest in seeing converts perhaps has forgotten that we need to sometimes let people go away sorrowful the church in an attempt to swell the numbers of people attending church services has really reduced the gospel of jesus christ taking it away from repent and believe in becoming a disciple of jesus christ into a metaphysical experience of accept and receive join a church be a good person nowhere in the gospel do you find jesus or any of his disciples ever telling people to stay where they are just simply change what they think about jesus in the great commission jesus christ tells his disciples to go into all the world and make disciples not converts make disciples of all men we're not just trying to get people to change their way of thinking by preaching the gospel of jesus christ we are attempting to show them that as they live in sovereignty over their own life they're dead they need to come to jesus christ and experience new life now as with any place where you are offered a decision you realize decisions create division when i go shopping with my wife which she likes to do and i like to be with her and so when i go shopping with my wife if i know that i don't have to buy anything i'm okay with that i can walk around and look at things i can look at this and look at that but when i have to buy something i've got to decide white shirt blue shirt i don't know i'm horrible at that sort of thing because once i have to make a decision it means i've got to make a stand for something there are a lot of people like the rich young ruler that are just shopping they're window shopping they're just looking around there was a time when marcy and i and my wife were first married we like so many young married couples didn't have very much money but one thing we thought we'd like to do was someday maybe get a new car now of course that was a long ways away we had no money for that but what we decided to do was to go around to car showrooms and test drive cars so that was kind of a saturday thing we did we'd go to car lots and say oh this is a really nice car and can we take over drive and then give us the keys and we'd drive it around for a while and come back and say no that's not really what we're looking for i'm an awful person aren't i and we went into this one place and we drove this car and we came back and you know we thought well let's take this a little step further let's just see what the price might be we weren't really ready to buy we just were curious you know the sticker price was a certain amount and we thought i wonder you know what our negotiating skills are i wonder how much we could perhaps get this car down to and so the guy says are you interested i said oh it depends on what the price is and so the fellow says well come on in here let's have a little talk and so they take you in that little room that's about 15 degrees hotter than the rest of the building closes the door sits behind this little table and says right and i'm all ready to kind of go through a protracted negotiation eventually laying down the trump card that says you know what you're not reaching my number and therefore we're gonna have to come back later pretty unkind thing for me to do but i just was curious what does this car go for and so as we sat down i was ready to play the game the guy looked at me and says if i make an offer to you which is in accordance with what you're willing to pay for that car will you buy that car today i said well it would have to be a very very very good offer and he goes i'm prepared to make you a very very very good offer i said well we don't ever buy anything right on the spot and he says get out of my office never been thrown off a car dealership before get out of here you're wasting my time you're not ready to make a decision you're just a shopper and that's the way a lot of people are what good thing can i do to inherit everlasting life and what they're really doing is they're begging the question attempting to validate their own self-righteousness they want you to tell them well you need to be a good person you need to attend church occasionally some sort of church have some kind of faith in some kind of deity or whatever would be the least common denominator that they're looking for they're just shopping but they're not really ready to make a decision and jesus brought this man to a place where he was confronted with truth and within that it caused him trouble jesus then said to his disciples assuredly i say to you that 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 heaven you know even in israel today there are some of the tour guides that will take you to this gate that has a very large gate and has within it a very very small gate and they call that the eye of the needle and they'll give you this story that when the gatekeeper would close the large gate at night in order for people to come in and out of the building they would have to take their camels and remove all of the baggage and force the camel to sort of crawl through this smaller gate it was a defensive mechanism so there wouldn't have to be quite so many people guarding the cities and they would give you this big story of this gate called the eye of the needle what utter rubbish that story is jesus is not talking about difficulty here he's talking about impossibility here you see the idea of just simply unburdening yourself is a religious act christianity as you've heard probably many times is not a religious discipline it's a relationship that you enter into by faith in the completed work of jesus christ paul writing to the church in rome chapter 3 says now we know that whatever the law says it says to those who are under the law that every mouth might be stopped and all the world may become guilty before god that's the purpose of the law to pierce you to leave you with the knowledge that you've been injured with a mortal wound which is going to take your life therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin but now righteousness of god apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets even the righteousness of god through faith in jesus christ to all and on all who believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god the rich young ruler came really wanting to have his own self-righteousness validated by jesus christ it was really an attempt to have a public display that he was already a good person he'd already achieved what was necessary but jesus wanted to show him just how bankrupt he was now when his disciples heard it they were greatly astonished saying who then can be saved see they understood the impossibility of it and jesus looked at them and said with men this is impossible but with god all things are possible the disciples reacted with shock you know there had been by this time a number of instances where it would have been nice to have a little more money when the disciples were led by jesus out into the wilderness above bethsaida jesus said you feed them they said we only have about 300 denarii which is a year's wage for a slave we only have about a year's wage for a slave and what is that we could buy a little bit of bread but what is that among so many they they were not a group of guys that had a great treasury as jesus is saying this before his disciples in their shock they're recognizing the impossibility of it jesus here is not talking about reformation he's talking about re-creation new life not sprucing up the old life but new life paul writing in his second epistle to the corinthians says therefore if anyone is in christ he is a new creature the old things have passed away behold all things have become new you see what's important for us to recognize is not what we believe about truth but what we do with it you have to be in christ not just be a believer in him you need to be residing in christ covered by christ john chapter 3 records the conversation that jesus had with this pharisee by the name of nicodemus many of you are familiar with this conversation where this man came by night to jesus and said rabbi we know that you are a teacher come from god for no one can do these signs that you do unless god is with him he made a correct assessment he saw the facts and he knew that these were not things that one would normally be able to do and so he's seeking the next step in the revelation of truth to him and jesus responds by saying most assuredly i say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of god nicodemus said to him how can a man be born again when he is old again he and can he enter second time into his mother's womb and be born and jesus answered and said moshe assuredly i say to you unless one is born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of god that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit of spirit do not marvel that i said to you you must be born again the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but it cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes so was everyone who was born of the spirit nicodemus answered and said to him how can these things be this teacher of the law this one who understood man's religious approaches to god was confused what do you mean a new creation how can that possibly be can't i just spruce up the old can i just regenerate the old you're talking about something brand new a new creation jesus wanted to lead this rich young ruler to a place to where he would recognize the source of his salvation laid not in his ability but in the ability of god to save him so that he would cry out when he became aware of his own unrighteousness i need a savior it's like the man who falls asleep on a boat on the river niagara as it approaches niagara falls the river is quite wide and smooth yet if you were to stay on a boat and just go with the flow eventually you would come to the falls and it's quite deceptive for the water is quite calm until it gets within a few hundred meters of the falls the land is beautiful the water is still there aren't any rapids nothing that would indicate danger if you're unaware yet if the person was there on the boat and they were enjoying the sunshine and the calmness of the water and someone were to come along the shore and begin to shout to them hey watch out wake up of course their natural response would be hey i'm okay i'm all right i don't see any wind or any waves i'm all right but what's interesting about the river niagara is a hundred percent of it goes over the falls there'll come a day when it's too late man needs to be confronted with the finiteness of his life it's important that you recognize that god has only given you breath so that you might use that breath to call out to him everything else is a bonus he's given you life so that during that life you can choose eternal life in christ robed in his righteousness the rich young ruler he's rich because he's self-sufficient he's young because he thought he would live a long time he's a ruler because he's the captain of his own life yet with all of that he went away sorrowful because in his heart of hearts he knew that he did not achieve what he set out to achieve in john in revelation chapter 3 john is instructed to write to the church of laodicea and to this church he writes because you say i am rich have become wealthy and have need of nothing and do not know that you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked i counsel you buy from me gold refined in fire that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with salve that you may see the plan and purpose of god for all mankind is that man would acknowledge their need for a savior and that they would recognize that that savior is the second person of the trinity jesus christ who came to not only show us the way but to be the way the truth and the life to be the very foundation and building within which we live our life the rich young ruler went away sorrowful because he thought what he had he could keep sadly there are those today perhaps even in this facility this morning who will leave this place sorrowful they will still be trusting in their own self-righteousness but if they pass from this life into their everlasting abode trusting in their earthly bank account they are going to be sadly surprised to find out that it will have been bankrupt there'll be nothing there it will be consumed as wood hand stubble is by fire but those who have given up that which they cannot keep to obtain that which they cannot buy they will arrive to an everlasting reward heirs joint heirs with jesus christ forevermore let's pray lord we're grateful that you've made for us a way of salvation which is independent of our ability to present ourself as righteous before you we recognize your word tells us that our righteousness is as filthy rags we rejoice lord that the righteousness that you see upon those who have come to you through jesus christ is the righteousness of christ we're thankful lord that you have made this way of salvation available to all who call upon the name of jesus lord we pray for those people here even today those who will hear this message in the future lord that you would show them that if they trust in their own righteousness they will be like this rich young ruler and spend in eternity being sorrowful we're grateful lord that when we are faithless you are faithful for you cannot deny yourself we're thankful lord that your very nature is that of being loving and merciful and that your desire is to show us your mercy so lord may we approach your throne room in the manner in which you desire and have designed for us too through the shed blood of your son jesus christ for it's in his name and his name alone we come amen god bless you

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Length: 47min 30sec (2850 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 29 2021