God's Boy

I want to go over a familiar passage of scripture with you today, friends. It is the story of the rich young ruler. And I believe this message is timely.

In a day of instant riches with bitcoin scams and tech stocks hitting new highs every day, there are more billionaires today than ever before. Many American middle-class families live in many mansions that a hundred years ago would have been restricted only to the very wealthy. It's a time of great prosperity in America right now, and money is the god of many.

Most of your billionaires, like Bill Gates, George Soros, and Warren Buffet, are all atheists. But you don't have to be rich for money to be your god. And I want us to peer into the life of a very rich man who came running after Jesus with the hopes of following him on to eternal life.

Vance Hafner said of the rich young ruler, The rich young ruler was a good boy, but he wasn't God's boy. And that's the title of my message today, friends. God's boy.

Because if you are not God's boy or God's girl, then you do not possess eternal life. My text can be found in the Gospel of Luke. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in chapter 18 and beginning in verse 18. Here now is the word of God, and may the spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word. Do you know why I say that every time before I preach? Two reasons.

I was absolutely humbled years ago by watching a Japanese pastor preach, and he said in Japan people did not believe in God or God's word, but he did. And he held out his Bible before him with both his hands very reverently as he began to preach, and he announced with both solemnity and authority, here now is God's word. And I thought to myself, I need to reverence the Bible more.

Secondly, when I ask God to attend his word by his spirit, I'm acknowledging my own bankruptcy without him, without the attendance of his power. If you get saved, friend, it's because the spirit of God came along the preaching of his word and applied it to your heart and conscience. Well, let's look at our text today at a good boy who wasn't God's boy.

Do you know most folks believe they will go to heaven because they are good, that their good deeds will somehow outweigh their bad? It's true. You go out on the street today and witness to folks and start the conversation by asking them this question. Excuse me, do you think good people go to heaven? Do you think you'll go to heaven because you are a good, honest person? And then listen to their response, and you'll match up exactly with how this rich unruler speaks to Jesus.

Well, let's take a look at this good boy now. And a certain ruler asked him, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Let me pause here, friends. Notice already this old boy is looking for something good to do.

What shall I do? He asked Jesus. And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? None is good, save one that is God. Now, don't miss this, friends, because I've read over this passage for years and ran right by that statement of Christ without paying much attention to it.

Notice Jesus states very clearly what this man's problem was, that he thought he could be good enough to get to heaven. Jesus says in so many words, Good? Look, friend, no man is good. Only God is good.

And then Jesus brings out the holy law of God and holds it up against this self-righteous ruler. He lays out the strictness and severity and requirements of God's law. And Jesus knows the hearts of all men, and he knows that all men have broken God's holy law, but they won't admit it, just like this old boy who groundlessly claims, All these years have I kept from my youth up.

In other words, in his mind, he is good enough to go to heaven. But Jesus sees the hard spot in this young man's life. Jesus sees the thing separating him from coming to Christ, and that's his riches.

Jesus tells him to go and sell what he has and follow him, but he would not because of that hard spot in his life he was unwilling to part with. And you can believe it, friend, that if you have yet to come savingly to Christ, it's you have a hard spot of your own that stands in the way of your salvation. You have put a stake in the ground like a do not trespass on the grass sign, and you have told God to keep his hands off that area in your life.

You will never be accepted by God, friend, until you come clean with him and be honest with yourself. That's the main problem here with this rich young ruler. He won't let loose of his love idol, his money.

And until you let loose of your love idol, you will be described by the two words which describe him. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful. Notice these two words are repeated again in the next verse.

And Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful. And you can rest assured, friends, there came a day when that young ruler died, and he dropped down into hell, and he parted with his money after all, and he was very sorrowful for all eternity. Well, I will stop there with our text.

That rich young man wanted heaven on his terms like so many of us today. He would not submit to the rights and claims that the gospel has on a follower of Christ, and we don't want to submit to those rights and claims either. We, like that rich young ruler, want to be the only one sitting on the throne of our lives and to rule there.

But if you want to be safe, friend, then self must be dethroned, and another must rule there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus must be Lord of your life, or he's not your savior. I believe the most neglected doctrine in the church today is the lordship of Christ, and it is the most hated doctrine by church members today who join the same crowd in the time of Christ who yelled, we will not have this man to rule over us.

I was speaking to a fellow evangelist late last night, David Ford. He's a man who's been a traveling evangelist for over 30 years now, and he is a man of God. He's seen it all in churches around this land, and he agreed with me that the missing element in our churches today is the doctrine of the lordship of Christ.

Nobody will preach it, and nobody wants to hear it, and neither did this rich young ruler who in his mind was a good boy, but he wasn't God's boy. Now you chew on that for a while as we go to a time of prayer. Let us pray.