From Derek Thomas’ “A Rich Young Man”:

John MacArthur observes that Jesus would have failed a course in personal evangelism in almost any seminary on earth by what He does in this passage. It begins with a young man. . . .  “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” There’s a question. Have you ever asked that question? “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Do you know the answer to that question? You have two minutes, starting now! What must I do to inherit eternal life? If this was the seminary I’d ask you to take a piece of paper and I’d give you two minutes. Write it down. Tell me. What’s the answer? What must I do to inherit eternal life? You couldn’t ask a more relevant question than that. Do you know the answer? I wonder if it’s the answer Jesus gives here. Let’s look at this passage. Let’s follow Jesus. Let’s walk alongside the great Evangelist, shall we? Let’s eavesdrop on this conversation.

The first thing Jesus says to this young man is about God. That’s where He starts. He begins with God. Take a look at Jesus’ response. Do you know what He does? He picks on grammar. “Good Master,” (or, Good Teacher), “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good?” He picks on his use of the adjective. . . .

But then He takes him to the law, the Ten Commandments. Now if ever there was a faux pas in evangelism…you know this is it! This is about the last thing you want to speak to somebody who’s anxious and eager to enter the kingdom of God! He’s come running to Jesus, he’s kneeling before Him, and he’s asking the great question: What must I do to inherit eternal life? And what does Jesus do? He takes him to the law. . . .

Why does Jesus take this young man to the law? The Ten Commandments? “You know the commandments,” He says to him. Every Jewish boy knows the commandments. And Jesus rattles through commandments five through nine (what we usually refer to as the second table of the law) and adds the great commandment of neighbor-love…show no disrespect to parents, you mustn’t murder, you mustn’t commit adultery, you mustn’t steal, you mustn’t lie. . . .

Do you know what this young man said? It takes your breath away: “I’ve kept all these from a child.” It takes some gall to say that. Or does it? I wonder tonight if I were to say to you, in answer to the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” and I said to you, “You must keep the commandments,” and you will say in response, “You know, I do my best. I do my best.” It’s the answer of millions of people around the globe tonight. That’s their response: “I do my best. I try to live a good life.” . . .

Read the whole sermon or listen to it below.

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I’m at the Resolved Conference, and I’ve heard some really great preaching in the last few days.  But the best sermon I’ve heard since I’ve been here wasn’t preached here but is what I’ve been listening to in my hotel room at night.  This is the beginning of Derek Thomas’ series on Romans 8.  I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series!

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My dear friends, I want you to understand something this morning. I speak to all of us here this morning who profess to be the children of God:  The only reason you and I have not fallen into sin, gross sin, terrible sin — maybe not this sin here, but gross and terrible sin nevertheless — is not because of a lack of desire on our parts; it is because there has been a lack of opportunity.

God in His graciousness has put a hedge about us, preventing us from doing the thing that we otherwise would do. I want you all to understand that this morning. Every day, every single day we need to thank God that we have been spared from falling into certain sins not because of a lack of desire on our part, but because desire has not coincided with opportunity. And it was all of God’s doing. It was His sovereign providence. It was His graciousness. . . .

Now, friends, you understand that there are times when God removes that hedge to test us, especially when we grow too big for our boots, especially when pride lingers in the heart, especially when we begin to think that we are invincible and untouchable. And woe betide us, then, when God actually provides the opportunity and says to us, ‘Have your way. Let’s see.’ . . .

You see, my friends, sin is deceptive. It doesn’t come up to you and draw out a sword and say, ‘I am your enemy, fight me.’ It doesn’t happen like that. Sin comes like Judas, kisses you on the cheek and says, ‘I am your friend. I will honor you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I’ll make you feel good. I’ll make you a better person. I’ll gratify your most inward desires.’

Do you know what adultery is? John Piper says adultery is like casting Jesus in the title role of an X-rated movie. That’s what adultery is. You see, when we sin we take Jesus with us. If you’re a Christian, if you’re a believer, if you profess to know and serve the Lord Jesus you can’t leave Jesus outside the door like you leave your boots or your shoes outside the door, and then you come out and put them on again. You can’t do that. You are in union with Christ. Paul, in I Corinthians 6 — you know, if Paul hadn’t written it I wouldn’t have believed that this was possible — but Paul says in I Corinthians 6 about the Corinthians who were complicit in a sin as bad as this one, that when you sin, when you commit adultery, when you go and visit prostitutes (in the case of I Corinthians 6), you take Jesus with you. You bring Him into open shame. . . .

You don’t think that you could ever be brought to that position where you would commit a sin in willful defiance of what God says in His word. My friend, if you think like that, there’s a word from scripture for you: “Take heed, you that think that you stand, lest you fall.” Take heed if you think that you can stand all by yourself and that these sins will never ever darken your doorsteps, will never tempt and allure you. “Take heed, lest you fall.” David despised the Lord.

But look at the last verse of chapter 11:

“The thing that David had done displeased the Lord.”

David despised the Lord, and the Lord was displeased with David.

This is the heart of this story. Can a Christian fall into sin? Big sin, gross sin, terrible sin, awful sin? Of course. Of course, is the answer. It is all so dreadfully possible. 

This passage is here for many reasons, but it is here to warn us. It says to us, I think, several things. It says to us first of all we need to guard our minds. We need to guard our hearts. We need to make sure that the word of God is dwelling deep within our hearts. It’s telling us we need to make sure that we are keeping close fellowship with God. It’s saying to us that we need to have regular – regular – times of prayer and fellowship with God.

And if this morning I’m speaking to you and you are not the man or woman that you once were — your heart doesn’t sing for joy as it once did — you no longer sing, “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear,” and you have begun to drift and to slip your moorings, then, my dear friend, you are in mortal danger. Do you understand that? You are in mortal danger. And this morning let this passage be a warning to you to pull you back from where you are and to set your course and sail in the direction it ought to be going. Don’t let this day pass. Don’t let this day pass until you have come to God and pleaded with Him to bring you back to where you once were and set your soul aflame for Him. . . .

Our gospel says to us this morning that the blood of Jesus covers all our sins, including these. What a gospel! What a Savior! I trust, my friends, that this passage will be a warning to you and to me today to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Derek Thomas, edited transcript).

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