We'll look at verse 23 You'll
remember last week if you were here the rich young ruler has
Come to the Lord asking what he must do to inherit eternal
life and the Lord Confronted him with the law which he presumed
that he had kept And the Lord said you lack one
thing and That's everybody's problem that doesn't know God.
You just lack one thing. You could say, well, people that
don't know God, they've got all kinds of problems. They commit
this and that. You've got one problem, one need. You just need Him. You don't
need anything else. You don't need to act better.
You need Him. And then everything else falls
into place. One thing you lack. Go and sell
all you have, distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven, and come follow me. In other words, give
up everything for me. And verse 23, when he heard this,
he was very sorrowful, for he was very rich. Very rich doesn't
have to mean very sorrowful, but it will if you don't know
him. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said,
how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom
of God, for it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's
eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And
they that heard it said, who then can be saved? The disciples
were there and maybe some others that had been following him.
And they said, who then can be saved? Apparently this rich man
coming had impressed them to some extent or another that he
was asking about inheriting the kingdom of God and he was a moral
upright man. And the Lord said he can't be
saved. It's not possible with men. And they said who in the world
can be then? You see the spirit in which they're asking that.
Verse 27, he said, the things which are impossible with men
are possible with God. Then Peter said, lo, we have
left all and followed thee. It was, I looked at this passage
of scripture a long time before I put those two things together,
because usually people preaching on this, they'll stop at verse
27. But then what Simon is saying here is we've done what that
man couldn't do. You told him to leave everything
and follow you. We've done that. And look at verse 29. And he
said unto them, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that
hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children,
for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold
more in this present time and in the world to come, life everlasting. We've seen this event in two other books
of the Bible already. It's been, I think 2014 was when
we saw in the book of Mark this same event recorded there. A
little different wording. And so it's been about five years
since we looked at it. But even so, I wanted to look
at this a little bit differently than maybe we have before. Let's pray together and ask the
Lord to meet with us. Father, thank you for your word. I pray
your blessing, Lord, to give us eyes and hearts to understand
the message of your word. May nothing complicate Confuse
the simple truth that Christ is all May we see him as our
all and in all this day in his precious name. Amen So our Lord
His response to this man going away sorrowful and was to say
it's easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. I just want to mention
briefly that I've read and heard, I've heard people say this, that
camel, the camel going through a needle's eye, it was said that
there was an archway that went over one of the roads in that
area that was called the needle's eye because it was like an archway.
And if you had, you know, camel livestock with you, a man could
pass through there pretty easy. But if you had a big old camel,
you know, it was hard to get through there. And that's what
our Lord was referring to. That's just a lie. I don't know
if there was something called a needle's eye in that area or
not, but I know this. Our Lord said, it's impossible.
He didn't say it was difficult. He didn't say you've got to stoop
down. He didn't say you've got to figure this out. He said,
it's impossible. You can't do it. And this is humiliating to our
flesh, but that explanation of it just goes to show that religion
will stop at nothing to keep from being shut up to Christ.
They've got to have something they can do, don't they? And
that's us by nature now. Religious people insist on being
able to do something. God's done a lot, but we've got
to do something in order to be saved. No, you don't. If you
do, you're in big trouble because you're dead spiritually before
God. With men, it is impossible. And in our text, it said the
things that are impossible with men are possible with God, but
we know from the other accounts that it's worded this way, with
men it is impossible. And that's humiliating to the
flesh to acknowledge that there's nothing we can do to be saved.
It seems ridiculous to religious man that God would command a
sinner to do something that he can't do. He does say come, doesn't
he? He does say believe. Why would
he say that if you can't do it? Why would he say to a man with
a withered hand, stretch forth thy hand? You know why? Because he intends to save him.
He intends to bless him. He intends to do a miracle. That's
why he says it. And that's why he has me stand
up in front of you and say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. Because he intends to do a miracle
by the preaching of his gospel. He may not do it here this morning,
but he has done it. He is doing it. And if he doesn't
end this world today, he's going to do a miracle by that word
of power. You see what I'm saying? He doesn't
say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because he thinks you're
able to do that. He says it because he intends to work a miracle
of his grace. Why would you say to a dead girl,
arise? A damsel, I say unto thee, arise. She can't do that because you
intend to do a miracle of grace, that's why. And religion says, well, the
only reason he would say that is because he knows, you know,
that you're able to do. No, read your Bible. Christ's message to every sinner
was and is come to me. Isn't that what he said? Come
unto me and be ye saved. But he clearly said in John 6,
44, no man can come to me. But he didn't stop there, aren't
you glad? He didn't stop in our text either. With men it's impossible.
He didn't stop there. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me do something about it. You're
not going to do anything about it. How many times have I said to
you before, I'm not here this morning to see if you'll do something
for God. You're not gonna do anything for God. You had never
and you're not ever going to. But maybe he'll do something
for us. Oh, that would be wonderful, wouldn't it? And this is illustrated by every
miracle our Lord did. When he said, Lazarus, come forth,
the words of our text apply. With Lazarus, this is impossible,
is it not? In the words of John 6.44, Lazarus
cannot come forth except the Father which hath
sent Christ. Draw him out of that grave. He's
got to take him out of that grave and give him life. This is where
our Lord illustrates the act of saving a sinner by means of
these miracles because with man, it's impossible. The answer to this Rich young
rulers question, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal
life? The simple answer to that is
nothing. With men it's impossible. There's
nothing you can do. Why didn't the Lord just tell
him that? Why did He go through all of that with confronting
him with the law and saying, go sell everything you have and
come follow me? Why didn't He just say up front,
you can't. There's nothing you can do. He
did. He did say that. He just said it in action before
he said it in words. You think about this now. He
did. But he didn't just say the words
to him, it's impossible for you to do anything to inherit eternal
life. He showed him that it was impossible
for him to do it. He caused him to experience the
impossibility of it. You see that? Boy, you talk about
Our Lord forced this young man to live the fact that he could
not be saved if left to himself. As the Lord showed you that, if salvation was an exercise
of your free will, it wouldn't be impossible, would it? But it is impossible. So it's either one or the other.
It's either an exercise of man's free will or it's impossible
with you. It can't be both. And do you see how vital that
is? How important? How all important? This is a matter upon which the
very glory of God hangs. If you can be saved by a decision
of your free will, then the glory and salvation is yours. God gets
honorable mention for making it possible, but you saved yourself.
He just made it available to you. Gave you a chance. If with you, however, it's impossible,
then you're hanging on God's mercy. He's not waiting on you
to do something. You're waiting on Him to do something.
Which is it? If you've read this book, you
tell me which is it. He said, I give life to whomsoever
I will. He said, as the Father quickeneth
whomsoever He will, so He has given authority to the Son to
give life to whomsoever He will. And if that's true, and it is,
then all the glory in saving sinners is His, and He's worthy
of it. This is why Paul said what he
did the way he did in Ephesians 2.8, for by grace are you saved
through faith and that's not of yourselves. With men, it's
impossible. You're not going to come up with
faith. Faith is the fruit of his spirit. What did Paul say? Christ is the author and the
finisher of our faith. He's where it came from and he's
the one that'll perform it. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. This is why he said in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, we're bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. We're gonna have to thank God
for this thing, because he's the one that did it. Also, it's
the glory of God, but also, if you're gonna be saved, you need
to know how. You need to know how. You can't go on thinking
that you need to get saved. You can't go on thinking that
you need to do something or are even capable of doing something
that would please God. Sinners aren't saved that way.
You must be taught. That's what the scripture says.
They all shall be taught of God. What are we taught? Who He is
and what we are. If you know who He is and what
you are, you'll see that with men it's impossible. But with God, all things are
possible because God came down here and did what the law could
not do, what we could not do. The law was weak through our
flesh. We've got to be taught by God that salvation's of the
Lord. This man went away sorrowful.
He could not follow Christ, for he had great possessions. And
the Lord Jesus told his disciples that the reason that young man
did that is because it is impossible for a sinner to choose Christ
over themselves. And then, though, think about
this. Simon Peter said in verse 28,
that's what we did. That's what we've done, just
exactly what that man couldn't do. The Lord just got through saying
it's impossible. And Simon Peter said, we've done
it. And he was telling the truth,
they had done it. Just like it was impossible for
that man with a withered hand to stretch it forth, and yet
he did, didn't he? He sure did. When the Lord commended
it, and with the command, with the power to obey. That's why
we're commanded in the scriptures to obey the gospel. Obey the
gospel. Well, you see there, Chris, salvation
is by our obedience. The Lord told Lazarus to come
forth too, didn't he? That's a command. He commanded
him to come forth. Was his coming forth then by his obedience or
was it a miracle of God's grace? The Lord didn't rebuke Peter
for saying, we've left all and followed you. He didn't say,
no, you didn't. They did. They had. The Lord rather acknowledged
that indeed that was exactly what Peter and the others had
done. They had done the impossible. They had done what could not
be done. How? With God it's not impossible.
Now, what was the difference between this rich young ruler
and Simon Peter? Why did Simon Peter obey When
the Lord said, you follow me. Isn't that what he said to him?
The same thing he said to that rich young ruler. Follow me.
And they left their nets and their boats and they said, here
I come. How in the world was he able
to do that? Well, let's talk about this now. In order for that rich young
ruler to sell everything he had, and go follow the son of man
who had not where to lay his head even. What would have had to been true?
What would have had to been true for him to do that? Well, he'd
have to know who he is, wouldn't he? You remember in Matthew's account
of this, I believe it's Matthew's account, in the same context,
just a couple of verses, just a couple of chapters before this
story, was when the Lord said to his disciples, who do you
say that I am? He asked them, who do men think
say that I am? And they said, well, some say
you're Elijah, come back from the dead, or John the Baptist,
or one of the other prophets, come back from the dead. And
then he said, who do you say I am? He deliberately drew a
con, he made a division, didn't he? What do other people say?
Well, they're saying that, but what do you say? Simon said,
you're the Christ. the son of the living God. If you're going to forsake yourself
for Christ, you're going to have to know who he is. And how did
Simon know that? How did he know who he was? Well,
he was smarter than those ones that were calling him Elijah.
It's just stupid to say he's Elijah. Where'd they get that nonsense
from? Simon was smarter than that. Remember what the Lord
said to him? Flesh and blood hasn't revealed
this to you. You didn't figure this out. My Father which is
in heaven revealed it to you. Salvation's of the Lord. With
men it's impossible. With men, if left to yourself,
you're not gonna know who God is. And if you don't know who
He is, you're not gonna choose Him over you. How then are we gonna find out
who He is? The Father which is in heaven
must reveal Christ to you and in you. For that rich young ruler to
have obeyed the Lord and left all that he had and come and
follow the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ would have
to have been worth more to him than everything in the world. Matthew 13 45 again the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls who
when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all
that he had and bought it. He bought it. How did he find that pearl? With
men it's impossible but with God all things are possible.
By faith, Moses did what this rich young ruler couldn't do.
In Hebrews 11, 24, we're told, by faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
He refused to be considered the grandson of the richest, most
powerful man in the world, choosing rather to suffer affliction with
the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. esteeming the reproach of Christ,
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. For he had respect
unto the recompense of the reward." How was Moses able to do that?
Well, it tells us in the text in it, by faith Moses chose Christ. Where did that faith come from?
We just read it, didn't we? It was not of himself, it's the
gift of God. Not of works. lest any man should
boast. How did he believe? With men
it's impossible. How did he know that Christ was
worth more than all the treasures of this world? Flesh and blood
didn't reveal that to you, but the Father which is in heaven.
Christ said to Nicodemus, you must be born from above. You
must be born again. You must be born of the Spirit
of God. Salvation is by the free, sovereign,
distinguishing, electing grace of God. Now does that mean that we go
around telling sinners, is our message to tell sinners you can't
be saved? Yes and no. Yes and no. Our Lord didn't say
you can't be saved, that it's impossible. He said with men
it's impossible. With men. He didn't say it's
impossible. We make it clear, we do make
it clear, by God's grace we do, as the scriptures do. that with
men it is impossible and we do so because as we've seen it's
a question of who gets the glory and it's a practical question
because you don't have to know who he is and what you are that's
the way he saves sinners and because sinners are deluded
by nature into thinking that with men it is possible that's
their whole gospel false so-called gospel is based on that It's
man's, God's done all he can do and now it's up to you. Possibly the most horrible lie
ever told. You reckon? Up to you. That's
what religion loves to say. What a nightmare. What a horrible
thing to say. It's up to a dead sinner to live. What mockery. What blasphemy. The gospel command is repent
and believe. And we issue that command as
ambassadors of the king. We have a royal charge. We give
that command as those sinners were able to obey it because
they very well might be enabled by God to obey it. Like the disciples
and Moses were able to do the impossible. Just like he said,
Lazarus, come forth, we say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you'll be saved. You come to him and he'll save
you. Well, I can't come, Chris, I'm not capable of it. Come anyway.
I didn't say if you're capable of it, come. I said, come. We know that God gives grace
and power to do the impossible. So of course we say believe.
Of course we say bow to him. That's your only hope. Christ
is your only hope. We know that he does that. We
say repent because God peradventure might give you repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth. And we say believe because the
fruit of his spirit is faith. When the disciples asked who
then can be saved, the Lord didn't say it's impossible. He just
said with men it is. We are shut up to him. I tell
you this, that's the best place you can be. If you have options,
if you have a decision to make, you are in a terrible place.
The only place to be is shut up to Christ. We are shut up to the one that
we crucified. God has made him both Lord and
Christ, and neither is there salvation in any other. For there
is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must
be saved." As I just quoted part of in 2
Timothy 2.25, it says, and this is Paul instructing Timothy how
to preach. teaching a young preacher what to do. And he said, Timothy,
in meekness, instruct those. Preaching is instruction. It's
teaching. It's not just me coming up here
and shouting at you or putting on a presentation. Sometimes when people preach,
it's like they're making a presentation and whether you're there or not
doesn't much matter. They're not really talking to
you. I just wanna talk to you about Him. I just wanna tell
you, talk to you about what God said, instruction, teaching. Instruct those that oppose themselves. We are our own worst enemy by
nature. You know who's keeping you from
coming to Christ? You are. You can't blame that on Him.
You say, well, He didn't elect me, you know, why did He yet
find fault? Who are you to reply against
God? If sinners are going to stop
believing what they believe by nature and start believing God's
truth concerning His Son, concerning himself and how he saves sinners
by free grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. God's
gonna have to give them something. Listen, instruct those that oppose
themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth. God's got to give you something.
And the way he does that is by the preaching of the gospel.
He didn't say to Lazarus, come out of that grave, because he
thought Lazarus could come out of that grave. He said that in
order to give him something. Life. And that's why his gospel
goes forth. Not so you'll do something for
him. It's for him to do something for you if he's pleased to do
it. You see how that makes all the
difference in the world? That's all important. And Simon there in Acts chapter
2 in verses 36-39, they said, what are we going to do? We've
crucified the Lord of glory. And Simon said, repent and be
baptized. Repent and confess Christ. We know that God must grant repentance,
but Simon didn't say, I hope the Lord will grant you repentance.
He said, repent. That's how the gospel goes forth. Repent, believe,
bow. Love Christ! If you don't love
Him, you ought to go to hell. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Love Him. Obey Him. Follow Him. Trust Him. Believe
on Him. That's the command. But again,
it doesn't go forth because you can do that. It goes forth because
He can do that. That's our message, we preach
Christ crucified. We preach what he did. Now think about this. We preach what
he did, not to get you to do something. We preach what he
did, hoping that he'll do something else. It's all him, isn't it? It's all him. That's what Jonah
said, salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. from the start to the finish.
He's the author and finisher of our faith. He's the one who
chose us from eternity. He's the one who shed his precious
blood on Calvary to redeem us from our sins. And he's the one
that keeps us every moment, the one that's able to keep us from
falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy. And so we preach the gospel of
Christ, and as we do, we pray that God would give you repentance,
peradventure He will, and faith in His Son. If you're here this morning,
then you're saved, if you know God. You know why that is. A lot of people will say, well,
because I made a decision, because I accepted Jesus as my Do you
know why it is that you're saved? Because God loved you. Always
has. Always has. I don't know why. I don't know why, but I know
that He loved you and chose you unto salvation, 2 Thessalonians
2. There's nothing else that is
unto salvation except God's love and His choice. That's what results in the salvation
of a sinner. And he predestinated you to be
conformed to the image of his son, Romans 8 29. And in order
that you be like his son, he sent his son to live for you,
to establish, to become your righteousness. to live a perfect life in your
place as your representative and to die vicariously instead
of to die for your sins according to the scriptures redeeming you
from the curse of the law being made a curse for you Galatians
3.13 and having done all that for you he brought that salvation
work that perfect finished work that was done for you he brought
it home to your heart one day by doing a work in you Christ for you by his life and
on the cross. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. He gives you life, life to your
very soul who were dead in trespasses and sins. You hath he quickened
which were dead in trespasses and sins. By the power of his
Holy Spirit, He gives you life. He said you must be born again
of the Spirit of God, born of the Spirit of God, born from
above by the Spirit. The Spirit, like the wind, He
goes wherever He wants to go. You can hear the wind. You can
kind of see that the wind is blowing by the leaves moving
in the tree, but you can't tell where He'll come from, where
He'll go, what He's going to do. He does what He wants to
do. Our Lord said that's how it is with those that are born
of the Spirit. He saves whoever He wants to
save. And you can tell when He does. But He does it. He does it. He gives repentance of sins and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a free gift of His grace.
Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. And 2 Timothy 2, 25 where we
read a while ago. Maybe He'll grant Repentance. Lamentations 5.21, the prophet
said, turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned.
I will turn when he turns me. Psalm 110.3, thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. Not in the day of their
decision, in the day of his power. With men, all of that is impossible,
but God, who is rich in mercy, With him, all these things are
not only possible, they're certain. He doesn't try. When he gives
life, there's life. He doesn't say, Lazarus, come
forth and come up empty. He doesn't say, follow me and
fail. Our Lord doesn't just say there
in our text that God just might do this, though from our perspective
that's true. He's saying that God is able
to do this. And may we say by God's grace,
Lord, if you will, you can. If he wants to, he's able, isn't
he? He's able. Nobody can stop him
or say unto him, what doest thou? I was asked once in a conversation
We were talking about it with a friend of mine that died recently. He was a good friend to me. We
talked a lot about the gospel. We were talking about the sovereignty
of God and salvation. We were sitting in a restaurant.
We were probably eating Mexican food. That's what we did. We
did a lot of that. There's some good Mexican food in Texas especially. He pointed to, he said, what
about that guy over there, can he be saved? Can that man be
saved? He was a total stranger, I didn't
know him, he didn't either. And I don't remember exactly
how I answered that, but I know this. Listen to Ezekiel 37.1. The prophet Ezekiel said, the
hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit
of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which
was full of bones. There had been a great battle
that had taken place in this valley and many men had fallen
in battle and their skeletons were laying there and nobody
had bothered to bury them. And the Lord took Ezekiel out
into that valley And he said, and he caused me to pass by them
round about. He showed me all those bones.
He caused me to look around and walk through there. And behold,
there were very many in the open valley. And lo, they were very
dry. They were old, sun-bleached bones. And he said unto me, God said
to his prophet Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones live? That's what my friend asked me
that day. Can those bones live? And you know what? Ezekiel didn't
say yes. And he didn't say no. Some might have said no. Are
you kidding me? Look at them. They're very dry.
These bones have been there for a long time. They can't live.
They're dead. They're long dead. Some might have just said yes,
presuming that the Lord would do something and work a miracle. But you know what Ezekiel said?
Oh Lord God, you know. You know. The only one who knows whether
those bones can live or not, the only one who knows whether
that man over there, this total stranger, can be saved or not,
is the one that's able to save him. The only one who knows the
answer is the one who has the power to save that man. I can't say, but he knows. I know this, with men it is impossible,
but with God, if God will, he can. He can save him. Listen to the
rest of that passage. Again he said unto me, he asked
the question, can these bones live? And Ezekiel said, oh Lord
God, you know, you're the only one that knows that. And you
know what God said to him? Preach to them. Let's find out
whether they're going to live or not. How are we going to find
out? Preach to them. Prophesy upon these bones and
say unto them, oh ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. They can't do that. With men
it's impossible. But not with God. Hear the word
of the Lord, thus saith the Lord God into these bones, behold,
I will. I should have had you turn over
there, look at it later and listen. Behold, I will. We just found
out whether they can live or not. I will. If he will, they
will. Isn't that beautiful? I'm so
glad to preach this gospel to you. I'm glad it's not up to
you, aren't you? Aren't you? I'm so glad. What a privilege to preach the
one who has power to give life to whomsoever he will. He said, I will cause breath
to enter into you. How in the world Can he do that? These bones have been dead a
long time. I'll cause breath to enter into
you. And you shall live. You shall. The question is not can. It's
a matter of shall or shall not. You shall live. Not only can
you live, you will live. if he gives you life. And I will lay sinews upon you,
and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin,
and put breath in you, and you shall live. And listen to this
last phrase. I'm gonna close with this. You
listen to this. I guarantee you this is true
of everybody that he saves. If you made a decision for him,
you may know this, you may not know this. But if God saved you,
listen to this. I'm gonna back up a little bit.
Listen to the last phrase that he said to Ezekiel in this thing.
He said, I'm going to cause flesh to come upon you and cover you
with skin and put breath in you and you shall live. And you shall
know that I am the Lord. When he saves you, you're plumb
saved. And you know who's on the throne.
You know who's suffering. You know who did it. You know
who gets the glory by His grace. May He cause breath to enter
into us, that we may praise Him for who He is. Amen.