[0:00] I said, now let me watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin. I'll put a muscle on my mouth while I'm with wicked men.
[0:14] When I was silent and kept still and firmly held my peace, not speaking even what was good, this made my pain increase. Because of this my heart grew hot and the fire burned strong indeed.
[0:28] The more I mused upon it all, then I began to plead. Lord, show me that my life will end. How many days I'll see. And cause me, Lord, to understand how brief my life will be.
[0:42] O Lord, how short you make my days before I sink in death. My years are nothing in your sight. Man's life is but a breath. Like shadows people go about.
[0:54] They bustle to and fro. They heap up wealth but do not know to whom their wealth will go. And so on. Psalm 39, verses 1 to 6.
[1:05] The tune is martyr. I said, now let me watch my ways. I said, now let me watch my ways.
[1:24] I'll keep my jump from sin. I'll put a muscle on my mouth while I'm with wicked hands.
[1:43] When I was silent and kept still. And firmly held my peace.
[1:57] God speaking even what was good. This made my pain in peace.
[2:11] Because of this my heart grew on. The fire's only need.
[2:25] The more I mused upon it all. Then I began to flee.
[2:38] Lord, show me that my life will end. How many days I'll see.
[2:52] And cause me, Lord, to understand How great my life will be.
[3:06] Oh, Lord, how short you make my days Before I sink in death.
[3:20] My years are nothing in your sight. My life is but unfair.
[3:32] Like shadows people go apart They bustle to and throw They heap up wealth but do not know To whom their wealth will go Let's turn again to the chapter we read In Matthew's Gospel, chapter 19 And that well-known section of verse 16 And behold, a man came up to him Saying, Teacher, what good deed must I do To have eternal life?
[4:24] And he said to him, why do you ask me About what is good? There is only one who is good If you would enter life, keep the commandments He said to him, which ones?
[4:37] Jesus said, 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 The young man said to him All these I have kept What do I still lack?
[4:52] Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect Go, sell what you possess And give to the poor And you will have treasure in heaven And come, follow me When the young man heard this He went away sorrowful For he had great possessions Now, here we meet this young man Who was really concerned About eternal life Somebody who had this notion within himself About wanting to enjoy that life that never ends And I'm sure it's true to say That most people will have a thought like that Most people would want to have eternal life I suppose to a certain extent We would all like I don't know what stage we're at in life But we're very This is all that we know Is in this world And we want to keep living
[5:52] It's not natural for us To want to die The natural thing is That we want to keep on living And I always feel sorry for people Who try to hang on to this life And only what this world has to give Because one of the things that happens When a person becomes a Christian The moment a person is born again Eternal life becomes our portion We receive eternal life That's what happens The moment a person is born again Eternal life is given to us So that we now are the possessor of eternal life It's not something that we shall have in the future We know that our bodies and our souls will separate We know that we will go through Unless the Lord comes first The process of death Where our physical body will stop Will give out I'm not a medical person by any manner of means
[6:56] But where death The actual death occurs But we know that our soul Our soul will go back To be with you Our soul will go into the immediate presence of Christ And that this life that we received Will never stop It continues It's just It's a journey out of this world Into the next And that's one of the great blessings That come to us When we become a Christian It's something the Holy Spirit Reveals to us And persuades us of And assures us of Because we know we have it And Jesus tells us in the word That we will know that we have it It is something that we are We possess It's ours We know it And that's why it's so sad for people Who do not have that And they're just trying to cling to what they have here And they're seeing that they can't And there must be so much frustration And desperation attached to it
[7:57] And that's why we would wish that everybody Would go to Jesus And believe in Jesus And accept Jesus And trust in Jesus So that As we were saying this morning That we will hang loosely To the things Of this world That we will know that One day these things Are going to be taken from us And we'll be ready To release these things Anyway Here's this young man This man And again The different gospels Speak about him In different ways We're told in Luke's gospel That he was a ruler And this young man Comes to Jesus We're told elsewhere That he was a young man And in all probability He was the kind of person Who would be held up In the community As a role model I'm sure many parents Would have said to their children Hey, see that That rich Young ruler There This man He is a pillar Of society
[8:57] He is the type of person You should aspire to be He is somebody Who lives An impeccable life He is morally So correct So upstanding You can look at him And you cannot see Any flaws about him He does all the right things He goes to the right places He is so mannerly He is so correct And he's rich And he's done well And he's achieved He's gone through The right schools He is And you could almost imagine Some parents Saying to their children Look That's the kind of person You have to aspire to be Anyway We'll see that This person is not Maybe The kind of person You should aspire to be Because this man Comes to Jesus And this man Had the great privilege Of meeting with Jesus He had a special Meeting with Jesus He came And said to Jesus He spoke And he came up to Jesus And he had this
[9:59] One to one With Jesus And you know The sad thing about it is This man missed And indeed This man messed up The great opportunity That he had When he came To meet with Jesus Because We will see Some of the things That this man missed Because he made Great mistakes Basic mistakes But great mistakes And we believe That these are The kind of mistakes That so many people Are making In this world And the first great mistake That this man made Was the mistake About salvation He's saying To Jesus You notice In this conversation That he's asking Jesus What is the thing That he has to do Teacher What good deed Must I do To have eternal life This man is focused Upon I have to do something
[11:00] And the great mistake That he is making Is he is standing In the presence Of the one Who has done The good deed He is standing In the presence Of the one Who has done Everything That needs to be done For salvation And of course That is Jesus Christ And so he's saying What must What must I do That's really What he's saying What good deed Must I do To have Eternal Eternal life And when Jesus Talks to him About keeping The commandments He says Yes I've done all that You know In a sense The self-righteousness And the arrogance Of this man And the pride Of this man Is really quite staggering Because when Jesus Begins to list The commandments About Well we see The ones that Jesus lists here Of course He's just giving A very brief He's not going Through them all You shall not Murder
[12:00] You shall not Commit adultery You can almost See the young man Saying yes Yes I know I've done that One Not commit adultery No I haven't You mustn't steal Oh I haven't done Shall not bear False witness Fine Honor your father And mother You shall love Your neighbour And it's as if This young man Is saying yes Yes yes I've done Listen Jesus I have kept All these There's not one Commandment That I have broken And from an outward Point of view As people would Look at that man's Life They would be able To say Oh it's true He has never Stolen anything From anybody No he's never Murdered anybody No he has never Committed adultery As far as we can see He has not borne False witness Against a neighbour And people might Be able to see Yes outwardly This man has been Very good But the problem With this man Is that he didn't Understand his own Heart And he didn't Come to realise That he was a Sinner through
[13:00] And through He was so Taken up With his own Self-righteousness And you know That's one of the Biggest stumbling Blocks to salvation That we will Ever come across Is our own Self-righteousness And it's something That God alone Can break Because it is Natural to us We are born With self-righteousness We think that We're all right And we look We've said it So often before But we tend To look At eternal life With regard To good deeds Versus bad deeds And that somehow At the end of the day It's a balancing act Between what We've done That is right And what we've done That is wrong And if what We've done Is right Outweighs What we've done Is wrong Then we'll be okay And so many people Live like that And we say To ourselves I know
[14:01] I am not perfect Yeah I know There are things Wrong in my life But I'm not that bad Well Unless Our righteousness Is that of Jesus Christ Then we fall short And is there anybody In here Or anywhere That can claim That by nature They are as righteous As Jesus Christ Well we can't And that's what Jesus has done He has died On the cross To take our sins And to give Us his righteousness So that when God looks upon us He looks upon The righteousness Of Jesus And as he looks At the sinner Covered By the righteousness Of Jesus God accepts God accepts The work of Jesus And the righteousness Of Jesus On behalf Of the sinner And that's it
[15:01] And there is nothing else As we said this morning There is no other way That's what Jesus said I am the way The truth And the life No one cometh Unto the Father But by me And that's true With regard to this Doesn't matter What we do It is not Good enough There is No salvation But in And through The Lord Jesus Christ And that's Unfortunately One of the sad things That this poor man Hasn't come to understand And I don't know Maybe there's somebody Here tonight And you're Resting or trusting In your parentage Or resting or trusting In your In your stock As it were And you might say Oh my grandfather Was an elder Or my granny Was a really good Christian woman And you're resting In that Well If you are Somebody And you've had Parents or grandparents Who have been Praying for you You know That's a wonderful
[16:02] Privilege And the prayers Of parents And grandparents Have often Often Often Born fruit But don't Rest your salvation Your hope Your future In that And don't rest In anything But you Personally Coming to faith In Jesus Christ In resting Your life Your Your all Upon Jesus And so This man Who was Obsessed With doing Is not Understanding That it's All been Done This morning We looked at That very thing Remember what it says Jesus said I go to Prepare a place For you His preparation Was the cross That's where he went And on the cross Jesus said It is Finished This Good man This ruler Is saying What have I to do Jesus said It is
[17:03] Finished Nothing you can do Nothing you can add to All The doing Has already Been done And so That's what The first mistake This man made Then the The next Mistake And it's maybe Not a mistake Maybe we're sort of Being Being a wee bit Harsh here But this Young ruler Comes up to Jesus And he says Teacher What good deed Must I do To have Eternal life And so He addresses Jesus As teacher And It's as if As if he's not Going nearly far Enough Now Jesus Again In one of the Other gospels I think he Calls him Good teacher Now of course Jesus is that Jesus is teacher And it's as if This young Ruler is saying I have gone Through the Rabbinical Schools And I've been Taught by Great teachers
[18:03] And maybe On occasions He might speak To people And say You know I'll have to Be honest I have heard A lot of Great teachers And Jesus And I've met Jesus He's right up There with the Very best teacher He's quite an Amazing teacher In fact There's an Authority about Jesus' teaching That's quite Remarkable Because all The other Pharisees They say They've never Heard anybody Teach or preach With such an Authority And so this Young ruler Would say Jesus He really is Quite an Amazing teacher A remarkable Teacher But Jesus Yes he's a Teacher But he's more Than a teacher Remember when A couple of Weeks ago We're looking At the Washing of The feet In the Upper room And Jesus Said to his Disciples You call me Teacher And Lord See this man
[19:04] Went so far He went as far As to recognize Jesus as a Teacher But he didn't Go far enough Because Jesus Is more than The teacher Oh yes he's Our teacher And that's one Of the things That the Christian Always has to Recognize Because we're Saying to Jesus Lord be my Teacher We want to Submit under The rule Under the Authority of Jesus And where do We find the Rule and Authority of Jesus in His word Lord teach Me your Truth Make me Willing to Understand Make me Willing to Learn Make me Willing to Submit under The truth But it goes Further than That We want to Submit We need to Submit under The lordship And under the Authority of Christ So that he Is king Not just Teacher But king And in fact If we go to Luke's gospel And this Similar account It's very Interesting that Following on From this Jesus heals The blind man And the blind Who calls
[20:05] After Jesus Doesn't call Him Teacher I want to Receive my Sight The blind man Is shouting After him Jesus Thou son Of David Have mercy Upon me The blind Man although He was blind Naturally Was seeing What this Young ruler Couldn't see He was Seeing Jesus As a Saviour He was Seeing Jesus As a Promised Messiah He was Seeing Him As the One Who was Promised As a Son of David Who was To come Into this World And although This poor Man If you Were to Contrast These two Men The rich Young Ruler And the Blind Man And you Would say Who would You rather Be I would Say Probably Everybody Would say I would Like to Be the Young Ruler But you Know It's a Blind Man Who went Away Rejoicing Not the Young Ruler And that
[21:05] Is why It is so Important That we See Jesus To be More than A Teacher Yes a Great Teacher But more Than a Teacher And so We find This again It's one Of the Great Mistakes That this Man Made But he Also Made the Huge Mistake And we Kind of Hinted at This Already About his Sin He Doesn't Realize That he Is a Sinner Notice What he Says When Jesus Talks to Him About the Commandments If you Would enter Life Keep The Commandments And he Said Which Ones And Jesus Rattled off These Commandments And you Notice what He said All These I have Kept And I Would say This really Is The Ultimate Confession Of Self Righteousness I Don't Think I don't Think there's one person In here Who would say All These I have Kept
[22:05] And this Poor man Lived A life That was All Lived On the Outward He was the Kind of person I would say Who had a Kind of an Image And his Image was an Image of Self Righteousness And you Know There's a lot Of people Who try to Live They Have a Kind of Image For life And they Try to Live According to A particular Way Well you Know that's Exhausting I cannot Think of Anything That's more Exhausting Than at the End of The day Where you've Had to Try and Live According to This Particular Image That you've Said This is What you Want to Project Yourself As Before People Well that's Exhausting Where you're Trying to Be somebody That you Aren't Really And I Believe that Happens in Many different Walks of Life where People aren't Themselves They're trying To be Somebody that They aren't And if a
[23:06] Person is Trying to Live according To the Code of Self-righteousness That's exactly How they're Going to be Living And it's A draining Lifestyle And that's What this Man has Been trying To do And that's One of the Great things That Jesus Releases Us from So that We can Just be Ourselves That's Part of The freedom And part Of the Great Liberty In the Gospel Where we Don't Need to Try And be Somebody Else Or Something Else Just Our Shills Saved By Grace If we Are to Live Like And to Be Like Anybody It is To Live Like Jesus And the Only way That we Can Live By Jesus Is not Through Our own Desperate Efforts But by His Grace And seeing Lord Change me Change me From within And if the Lord changes You from You Then you Change
[24:06] Outwardly If we Just Change Outwardly And not Inwardly Then we're Living This Life Of Effort Where we're Trying And we're Trying And we're Trying But you Know it's Hard to Live by Grace It's Hard to Understand How it Is To Live By Grace But this Is How we Have to Live And that's What this Poor man Hadn't Understood In the Slightest And so This man Hadn't Understood That it's On the Heart The Lord Looks He looks Right down And he Sees us And that's Why That's why He was Able to Say You know Some people Look at The life Of David And they Say Yeah okay David He wrote These Wonderful Psalms And yes David Was a Great man But My word David did Some things That were Really wrong Yes he Did But there
[25:07] Was a There was An integrity And an Honesty About David Wasn't Somebody Who tried To be Something Other than He was And the Flaws In David's Life They were Obvious But what David had Was an Honesty Before God In heart And David Was the One who Said Lord Search me You Search me And know Me You know All about You know My thoughts And David Fully understand That the Lord was the One who Searched Right down Into the Very depth Of our Being And you Know what The Bible Says As a Passion Is in His Heart That's How he Really is The real You The real Me Is what's In there Not what's On the Outside As a Man Thinketh In his Heart So is He That's What Jesus Said So that's Why I'm Saying we Can have All the Outward Facade We can Have all The outward And we're This and
[26:08] We're That And the Lord Says I see What you're Trying to Do And I See the Image That you're Trying to Project But I Want to Tell you The real You Is all Corrupt And that's What That's What conviction Of sin Is Where the Holy Spirit Shows to Us Hey You're Wrong You've Gone Wrong And that's What this Young man Had not Learned That he Needed to Get right With God And he Could only Get right With God In and Through The Lord Jesus Christ And so This Young man Very Very Sadly It's like The Pharisee Who stood In the Temple Remember How Jesus Contrasted The Pharisee And the Publican And the Pharisee Stood up To pray And he Said I Thank You Lord I Thank You That I I Fast You know This Lord You know What I Do I Fast Twice In the Week I Give Of my Money To the Poor In fact
[27:09] Lord I Thank You That I'm Not Like Like That man Over There That's The Pharisee Jesus Said To the Pharisees That they Were Painted Sepulchre Like Beautiful Gravestones That were Hiding The Corruption That's With Inside That's Underneath It's a Solemn Thought That's What that Man Who Was So Good In The Temple But There Was That Man Over In The Corner There And He He Couldn't Even Lift up His Head And He Just Smoked Upon His Breast Because He Realized What He Was Before The Holiness And The Purity Of God And He Said Lord Be Merciful To Me The Sinner Who Went Home Justified Who Went Home Rejoicing It Was That Man Who Couldn't Lift Up His Head And That Is The Only Way That We Can Come To God Is
[28:10] Pleading Before Him Confessing Our Sin And Seeking For His Forgiveness And That's A Tragedy Of This Man What An Opportunity A One To One With Jesus Face To Face With Jesus And He's Telling Jesus All The Good Things He's Done What One Tell Me Jesus What Else I Can Do Jesus He Highlights One Last Thing And He Said To The Man Oh Well He Said He Said If You Would Be Perfect Now Jesus Of Course Knows He Can't Be Perfect But He's Picking Up On This Man's Idea Of Perfection And Jesus Hit Right Home Jesus Who Knew Everything He Knew This Man Had A Problem And He Said To If Perfect Sell What You Possess And Give To The Poor And You Will Have Treasure In Heaven And Come Follow Me The
[29:10] Other Mistake That This Man Made Was This Very Simple That He Couldn't Let Go What Was Holding Him From Getting Eternal Life He Couldn't Let Go Of His God You See There Was A Problem This Man Was In The Grip Of Wealth Now Wealth In And Of It In And Of It Is Wrong We Often Said That The Bible Shows Us There Are Some Very Poor People Who Are Great Saints In The Bible There Are Some Very Rich People Who Are Great Saints In The Bible The Bible Doesn't Say To Us Money Is The Root Of All Evil What Does It Say The Love Of Money Is The Root Of All Evil Huge Difference Between Money And The Love Of It And That Was The Problem With This Man It Was The Love Of It Couldn't Get Enough It Had A Hold Of Him It Was It It Had A Grip On Him That Would Not Let Go And Jesus
[30:10] Is Saying To Look You Have A Problem There Is Something Holding You Back From Me And That Is Your Wealth Your Possessions And That's Why Jesus Said Go And Sell What You Possess And Give To The Poor And You Have Treasure In Heaven So I Hope Nobody And Sometimes People Have Misunderstood This In Thinking That Jesus Is Saying To People In Order To Get Eternal Life You Have To Get Rid Of What You Have That Is Not What Jesus Is Saying It Was Only Personally To This Person This One Man Who Was In The Grip Of His Idol This Was His Idol This Is What Was Keeping Him From The Lord And Again We Have To We Have To Examine Our Own Lives You See Great Wealth Is The Power To Distort It Can Be A Very Deceptive Thing And I Would Say To Anybody In Here Tonight Who Is Still Without Jesus Christ
[31:11] Who Is Still Outside The Kingdom And You Are Somebody Who Like This Rich Young Ruler Has A Concern About Eternal Life You Have To Ask Yourself What Is Keeping Me Back Is There Something In Your Life That You're Not Prepared To Let Go Of Is There Some Barrier Something That Is There And You Know That This Is Something You're Not Ready To Give Up Well Remember There Is Nothing In This World That Is Worth Holding On To At The Expense Of Your Soul Because Let Me Tell You Hell Will Be The Most Agonizing Place If If You Know That There Is Something In This World That Is Holding You Back And You're Not Prepared To Give It Up You Will Have All Eternity To Mourne Over That Fact That You Couldn't Give
[32:11] This Up For The Good Of Your Soul But Notice What What It Goes On To Say Just As We Conclude Because Jesus Then When He When This Young Man When He Heard What Jesus Was Saying He Went Away Sorrowful For He Had Great Possessions And Jesus Said It Was Easier For A For A Rich Person He Said I Tell You It It's Easier For A Camel To Go Through The Eye Of A Needle Than For A Rich Person To Enter The Kingdom Of God That Floored The Disciples They Couldn't Understand That Of Of There's A Lot In That And Jesus Said With With Man This Is Impossible But With God All Things Are Possible And Jesus And Peter Said In Reply See We've Left Everything And Followed You Then What Will We Have And Jesus Highlights Here That You Will Never Lose By Giving Up Anything For Jesus What
[33:12] You Will Receive From Jesus Will Far Outweigh Anything You Have To Give Up The Lord Is No Man's Debtor And Jesus Is Showing That Even In This Life But Especially In The Life To Come It Is Worth Everything To Give Your Life To Jesus And If There's Anybody In Here Tonight Who's Holding Back Remember That Jesus Will Give You Far More Than You Will Ever Have To Give Up And Every Christian Will Say That If They Had The Choice And Say Right Here I am I'm Following Jesus Tonight I Have The Opportunity To Walk Back I Have The Opportunity Imagine If This Could Happen I Have The Opportunity Which It Can't And Say To The Lord Jesus Jesus See Your Saving Power The
[34:13] Way You've Saved Me And You're Holding Me In Your Hand Will You Open Your Hand And Let Me Out Again I Just Want To Live For Myself I Just Want To Go My Way Again Actually I Don't Want Any More I Don't Believe That There Is Any Christian In Here Tonight That Would Say That Because The Security The Peace The Sense Of Fellowship The Sense Of Belonging The Sense Of Identity The Sense Of Knowing Where You're Going All These Things Are So Wonderful That You Would Never Turn Round And Say I Don't Want It Any More The Lord Will Give You Far More Than You Will Ever Lose Seek First The Kingdom Of God And His Righteousness And All The Other Things Will Be Added To You Let Us Pray Oh
[35:13] Lord Our God We We Pray That We May Hear Your Word We Pray That Our Souls Will Live And We Give Thanks For This Great Gospel That Goes Out Into All The World And That Men And Women That Boys And Girls All Over This World Are Receiving Salvation And We Give Thanks Oh Lord That Heaven Will Be Filled With People From All The Nations Of This World Where We Will All Be One In Christ Jesus Where The Rich And The Poor Will Be Together Where Those Who Had And Those Who Didn't Have Will All Be Together We Give Thanks Oh Lord That The Riches That We Have In Jesus Are Eternal Riches And That The Satisfaction That We Get In Jesus Is Eternal Satisfaction Watch Over Us Then We Pray Bless Us And Take Us To Our Home Safely Cleanse
[36:14] Us From Our Every Sin In Jesus Name We Ask All Amen Our Concluding Psalm Is Psalm 125 From The Scottish Psalter And The Tunis St.
[36:31] Andrew Psalm 125 It's On Page 419 Psalm 125 They In The Lord That Firmly Trust Shall Be Like Zion Hill Which At No Time Can Be Removed But Standeth Ever Still As Round About Jerusalem The Mountains Stand All Way The Lord His Folk Doth Compass So From Henceforth And For For Ill Men's Rod Upon The Lot Of Just Men Shall Not Lie Lest Righteous Men Stretch For Their Hands Unto Iniquity Do Thou To All Those That Be Good Thy Goodness Lord Impart And Do Thou Good To Those That Are Upright Within Their Heart The Whole Psalm To The Tune St.
[37:26] Andrew They In The Lord That Firmly Trust Shall Be Stry Which art, Lord, I can be removed, but standeth ever still.
[38:04] As front of the Mount Jerusalem, the mountains shall know it.
[38:19] The Lord is full, thou come as soon, from hence for time for it.
[38:35] For if men's brought upon the Lord, of just and child of life, Lest righteous men stretch forth their hands unto an inquiry.
[39:05] To love, to all those that be good, thy goodness, Lord, impart.
[39:21] And do that good to those that are upright within their heart.
[39:37] But thus for so, just turn aside, after their prudent way.
[39:52] God shall be born with wicked men, all Israel peace shall stay.
[40:08] Now may the grace, mercy, and peace of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon each one of you now and forevermore. Amen.