All right, let's begin at verse
13 of Matthew 19. It says, then were there brought
unto him, unto Christ, little children. Now, we learned, I'll
put in your lesson, we learned from Luke, in his rendition of
this, Luke 18, there were infants among these children. So it wasn't
just toddlers, it was also infants. And it said that he should put
his hands on them and pray. The implication is that these
children may have been sick and they were looking for healing,
the parents were looking for healing for their children. But
it says the disciples rebuked them, they rebuked the parents.
So the parents desired the Lord put his hands on them and pray.
And we're not told really exactly what they had in mind. Like I
said, it may have been that these children were sick and they were
looking for healing. It could be they were looking
for some kind of blessing because the laying on of hands in the
Old Testament, for example, was a ceremonial way of indicating
blessings, conveying blessings. And we see that in the early
church, you know, the disciples, the apostles laying on of hands.
You know, people say, well, we can do that today. Well, I wouldn't
argue with that. I know we pray for one another,
but the apostles had the God-given power to convey blessings and
even spiritual power to other believers. They had that. I don't
believe we have that today because we have the power of the Spirit
through the preached word. And that's us. We do pray for
one another when someone is sick, just like, you know, we think
about Lazarus, you know, he whom thou lovest is sick. We pray
for them. We pray for our brothers and
sisters who are suffering, going through treatments. I want you
to pray for me, you know, and my little back problems and whatever,
and I pray for you. So we're to pray for each other.
But there's no guarantee of healing in this life. But now Christ
healed everyone who came to Him who was sick. The Bible tells
us that. And of course we know that the
main reason for that was to point sinners to His deity. This is
the Messiah. This is God manifest in the flesh. He has power over all disease. And so as you see Him go through
His earthly life, You see his power over the elements, his
power over his enemies, his power over the devil and demons, and
his power over sickness. And only God has that power.
Now he had the power to give that same power to his disciples. I don't have the power to give
that to you, and you don't have the power to give that to me.
But he had that power. And again, that pointed to his
deity specifically, not just to his deity, but to his messiahship
as both God and man in one person. So, but now one thing I want
to caution you, I put this in your lesson, whatever the case,
it's absurd to assume that these infants were saved, or even these
toddlers, and that the Lord was sprinkling them in some sort
of infant baptism. Because there are a lot of people
who go to passages like this and say, see, bring your infants
to be baptized, you know, all that. And that, you know, the
Catholics believe that that washes away original sin. Well, that's
absurd. That's ridiculous. We know that
the only thing that can wash away our sins, what is it we
sing? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
And those who are washed are those whom God brings to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works. But here we have him displaying
his power. And the disciples rebuke them,
and it says in verse 14, but Jesus said, suffer or allow little
children, and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such
is the kingdom of heaven. Now what I believe he's shown
us there, that these children are typical of sinners saved
by grace. They're typical. And it's kind
of like what he said back in Matthew chapter 11, when he,
after he upbraided the cities of Chorazin and, if I can find
it here, yeah, Matthew 11, the cities of Capernaum and Chorazin
and all that. And he said in Matthew 11, 25, He said, at that time Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, now that's
the natural man in his self-righteousness, rejecting the truth, and hast
revealed them unto babes. Now, what does it mean that he's
revealed it unto babes? I've heard a lot of preachers
go to passages like that and see, they say, well, just like
a baby, you don't have to know anything. You don't have to have
a mind or an intellect to understand the gospel. That's not what that's
preaching. The type, and going back to Matthew 19, he said,
for such is the kingdom of heaven. When God brings us into the kingdom
by the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit, power of the
Holy Spirit and the gospel, what does he show us? He shows us
that just like an infant, we are absolutely and totally dependent
upon Christ for our whole salvation and eternal well-being. Now,
he teaches us things. The Bible says that. And it tells
us those who are ignorant of God's righteousness are lost.
going about to establish a righteousness of their own. Christ established
this righteousness, you see, and he brings us to understand
it. The Son of God hath come and
given us an understanding. So we're not like infants in
that we don't know anything. We're like infants in that what
we do know and what we have and what we possess, it's all totally
dependent upon Christ, our Savior, God our Heavenly Father. Just
as much as an infant is totally dependent upon its father and
mother to take care of it physically, we're totally dependent upon
our heavenly father in Christ to take care of us spiritually
and eternally. So what's he saying? Our salvation
is totally by the free, sovereign grace and power of God. It's not conditioned on us, it's
conditioned on Christ. And it says, he laid his hands,
verse 15, he laid his hands on them and departed thence. Now,
that may mean he healed them, and that's okay. But we can look
at it this way. In our spiritual salvation, unless
the Lord lays his hands on us in spiritual power, we won't
enter the kingdom of heaven. You must be born again. You must
be given eyes to see and ears to hear, hearts and minds to
understand and know the kingdom of God in Christ. Who he is and
what he did and why he did it and where he is now. So that's
the lesson there that Christ used in this episode to teach
his disciples. Don't turn them away. And he
says, all who come to me shall be saved. In verse 16, this is
where we turn to the episode of the rich young man. It's one
of the, I think, one of the most illustrative episodes in Christ's
life to teach that salvation and eternal life is all by grace,
sovereign grace. And listen to this man in verse
16. And behold, one came and said
unto him, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have
eternal life? Now Luke tells us in his version
that this man was a ruler. So even though he was a young
man, he must have been very, very adamant in religion. A ruler
probably means one who was a member of the court, the Jewish court,
the rabbis. Mark tells us that he came running
and he kneeled before Jesus indicating zeal and respect for Jesus of
Nazareth. Don't believe he did that in
worship knowing that Christ was God because of how Christ responds
to it. So the man said, good master.
Well what does that mean? Literally it means good teacher.
Like a rabbi. But so it's obvious in this,
if you look at all three of the passages, that this man came
to Christ not thinking him to be the Messiah, God manifest
in the flesh, but just a good moral teacher, even a prophet. You know, Nicodemus said nobody
could do what you do unless he sent from God, even his healing
power. The prophets of old in the Old
Testament, some of them healed people. So he was looking at
Christ as being a good teacher, a good prophet. And then his question, what good
thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? I preached a message
up in Ashland, I think I told you about it last week, from
Ecclesiastes 3, how God has set eternity in the hearts of every
person, a sense that causes men and women naturally to ask the
question, is there life after death? Can I live after death? Is that the end of it? And, you
know, I dealt with that, that void, you know, can God, I pray
that God will fill that void, and of course He fills it with
Christ and His truth and His grace. But the natural man seeks
to fill that void with his own self-righteous works, materialism,
other things that dishonor and deny God. Deny Christ. Well, this man came with the
question. What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal
life? And what's he revealing? He's
revealing that like all of us by nature, we think eternal life
is conditioned or based upon something we can or try to do. What good thing must I do? And he had a zeal, just like
in Romans, he had a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
He was ignorant of God's righteousness. He was ignorant, we're gonna
see in just a moment, he was ignorant of the perfect standard
of righteousness that's found in the law that can only be found
in Christ. And so, He felt like that he
could establish his own righteousness and he had not submitted himself
unto the righteousness of God. He didn't realize that salvation
and eternal life cannot be attained or earned or maintained by our
works, by the law. For by deeds of law shall no
flesh be justified in God's sight. And that runs through the Bible
from Genesis to Revelation, the message. of grace. Well look at how Christ answers
him in verse 17. He said in him, why callest thou
me good? There is none good but one that
is God. Now let's deal with that part
of the question first. Why would Christ answer him?
And you know there are people who go to this and say, well
see there Christ was not claiming to be God. He denied that he
was God. No, no, no. You're missing the
point. You gotta look at how the man
approached Jesus of Nazareth. He didn't approach him as some
of the others who approached him as God manifest in the flesh. You're just a good teacher. You're
just a good man. And so Christ pointed him to
a very basic issue that is really taught in the law. And that is
this, that among natural men and women, There are none good. No, not one in God's sight. Now
we're talking about God's standard of goodness here. And how do
you know we're talking about that standard? Because we're
talking about eternal life. And it comes from God. When we
look at people in the world, there are people we say, well,
that's a good person. And there's some we say, well,
that's a bad person. And we realize that we're judging
according to man's standard of comparative goodness. For example,
you would certainly say that the Pope of Rome, in the eyes
of men, is a better man than Adolf Hitler. You'd say that,
wouldn't you? I mean, as far as being among
men. The Bible tells you that the
Pope of Rome is just as evil and deadly as Adolf Hitler, because
he's the leader of a religion that is so false and works-oriented
that denies the very God of salvation, the God of the Bible. And this
man was using his natural way of thinking. to compare goodness,
good master. So Christ says, well now look,
we're talking about eternal life. We're talking about issues that
only pertain to God. And he says, if you don't think
I'm God, then why are you calling me good? Because we read in Romans
three and verse 10, there's none good, no, not one, 310 and 11
and 12. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. What does that simply say? We're all sinners. We do
not have in ourselves and we cannot attain through our works
the goodness that would lead to eternal life in God's sight.
We can't do it. That's why salvation's by grace.
So when it comes to looking at these issues of goodness, What
he's doing here, he's getting ready to turn this man's eyes
towards the standard of goodness, which is Christ himself. And
to understand that if I'm going to be saved by my law keeping,
then I have to be able to say that I can attain the perfection
of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. And I can't
say that, you can't either. There's none good, there's none
that seeketh after God. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified in God's sight. And so there you have it. So
this man didn't realize that eternal life cannot be earned
by our works. It's a gift from God in Christ. God saves sinners. God justifies
the ungodly. And so Christ said in verse 17,
yeah, in verse 17, he says, if thou will enter into life, keep
the commandments. Huh? Keep the commandments? Well,
was Christ saying that this man could be saved by the works of
the law? No. I guess the best way to say it
is he's setting this man up to understand what reality is. He
was in no way saying that this guy could be saved by works of
the law, but he was showing that anyone could be saved by works. If anyone could be saved by works,
that person would have to keep the law perfectly. That's right. That person would have to keep
the law perfectly without any sin whatsoever. I think about,
I've got cited in your lesson there, Galatians chapter three,
it says, let me just read this to you if I find it here. Galatians
chapter three in verse 10. And it says, for as many as are
of the works of the law are under the curse. What that means is
if you're trying to be saved by your works of the law, you
don't realize, you may not realize it, but you're under a curse.
Why is that? For it's written, and this comes
out of Deuteronomy, which is one of the law books, the second
version of the law. Cursed is everyone that continued
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. When it comes to the law of God, and if you're trying
to be saved by your works of the law, you can't pick and choose.
You can't say, well, I'm keeping this part, but not this part.
Or you can't say, well, this part is in force and this part
has been abrogated. No, in all things. And that's what Christ was telling
this man, the least sin renders salvation impossible for any
sinner who seeks salvation by their works. So it's impossible,
you say, by deeds of the law, again, shall no flesh be justified.
The law was given to show them their sinfulness and their depravity. And it was a way in the types
and the pictures of the law, the Old Testament ceremonial
law, of picturing Christ and salvation and righteousness that
can only come through him. showing how God chose a people
to salvation. He justified and redeemed them
from the curse of the law by the death of Christ. Christ was
made a curse for us. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. I'm gonna be talking about that a little bit in the
next message. So he says, keep the commandments. Well, now look at the man's reply
in verse 18 of Matthew 19. He saith unto him, which, which
law? Well, you can't pick and choose
now. But look at what Christ does. Look at the wisdom of our
Savior here. He goes to the second table of
the law. You know, the law had two tablets.
You had the first four, which had to do with man's relationship
to God. You know, thou shalt have no
other gods before me and worship God alone. Thou shalt not take
the name of the Lord thy God in vain. All of that, even the
Sabbath keeping, the fourth commandment. That was man's relationship to
God. But the rest of the law had to do with our relationship
to each other. man's relationship to man. And
listen to what he says. He saith unto him which, Jesus
said, thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor
thy father and thy mother, verse 19, and thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Now why would he just quote the
second table of the law? I'll tell you exactly why. And
I've seen this in false religion. You know, it's easy for us to
talk about how much we love God, whom we have not seen. You know? Oh, I just love God. But when it comes to bragging
about our love to one another, that's a little more difficult
to do when we see how we act a lot of times toward each other.
You know, that's what the Bible says. I think I've got it cited
in your lesson. It said, how can you claim to
love God whom you haven't seen and not love your brother whom
you hath seen? That's a pretty potent statement. You know, if my love for God
is gauged upon how much I love my neighbor, considering that
my neighbor includes my worst enemy, How much do I love God? Is my
love for God perfect? No, it's not perfect. And so,
but look at how the man responded. Look at verse 20. The young man
saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up.
What lack I yet? Well, I've done that. And this reveals his ignorance
of the law. It reveals how he had been taught
wrongly by the Pharisees. You remember what Christ said
in Matthew 5 20, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter the
kingdom of heaven. And that's what he's talking
about. What good thing should I do that I may have eternal
life? The Pharisees taught that as long as you kept the outward
form of the law, that it didn't matter what you thought inwardly.
And of course, Christ destroys that. The law requires obedience
not only in the act, but in the thought and in the motive. And the young man says, well,
what lack I yet? Well, I tell you, number one,
he lacked a perfect righteousness. that answers the demands of God's
law and justice. He lacked faith in Christ. Listen
to what Christ said. He puts him to the test in verse
21. He said, Jesus said unto him,
if thou wilt be perfect, complete, all right, go and sell that thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven,
and come and follow me. Now is Christ telling him, well,
then you better get real busy here now and go sell everything
you have, and if you do that work, you'll be, no, that's not
what he's saying. In history, there have been individuals
who have given up ransoms, king's ransoms, to do spiritual things. Buddha was one of them. He was
a prince. He gave it up all. Thomas, not Thomas, Francis of
Assisi, He was a prince, and he gave all that up, and the
Franciscan monks, they're the ones who take a vow of poverty,
so they gave up all their money. Now this guy wouldn't, we're
gonna learn later on, we'll talk about this next week, he loved
his riches, and of course, that's the love of money that destroys
a person. They had that. But what did he
lack? Well, he loved himself, he loved
his riches, he loved his work, and he didn't believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ said, come follow me.
The way to eternal life is Christ. Is the Christ crucified and risen
from the dead? And he tells us, he says, the
law was given to show them their sinfulness and the impossibility
of salvation by their works and their deeds. And to drive them
to Christ for salvation and righteousness. There's no righteousness outside
of Christ. And even if he did give up all
of his riches, what did Christ say? Come follow me. Buddha gave
up all his riches, but he didn't follow Christ. Francis of Assisi
gave up all of his riches, but he didn't follow the true Christ.
He followed a counterfeit. There's no eternal life without
Christ. And anything, whether it be riches,
self-righteousness, or whatever, that hinders a person from coming
to Christ and submitting to Him as the Lord our righteousness
will bar us from eternal life. Christ is the way of eternal
life. His blood, His righteousness
imputed alone, and there's no other way. And we'll finish that
out next week as we finish the story of the rich young man,
okay.