Good morning once again. We'll be looking at that portion
that Brother Travis just read there in Matthew chapter 19. So turn there if you could. Matthew chapter 19. The name
of the message is the camel in the needle's eye. The camel and
the needle's eye. I had Brother Travis read that
portion because we'll be looking at that today, as I said. Let's read verses 16 again to
26. And behold, one came and said
unto him, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have
eternal life? And he said unto him, why callest
thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. 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
thyself and thy mother, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
The young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept
from my youth up, what lack I? What lack I yet? My, what a statement. Jesus said unto him, if thou
wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow
me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful,
for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the
kingdom of heaven. And again, I say unto you, it is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it,
they were exceedingly amazed, saying, who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said,
with man, it is impossible. Look at those words right there.
Look at that statement by our Lord, with man, It is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. Now in verse 24, we see a statement
that a lot of people are very familiar with. But it is a very
neglected text, beloved. And nearly everybody knows it. A lot of people know when you
say that statement, it's easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
God. A lot of people know that's from the Bible. A lot of people know
that. But it's often not pondered. It's often not pondered as to
the meaning and the context in which it's placed. And that's
why I had Brother Travis read the context of the verse. See,
context is key all the time when we're in Scripture. All the time. People so often rip verses out
of context and use them for whatever they want to use them for, and
that's not what the Scripture's about. The Scripture's about
context and about what it says, and it says what it says. And
it says what it says. And so reading this in context,
as Brother Travis did, it reveals that this is a simple yet puzzling
text. Some men wonder what it means,
and yet our Lord spoke in plain and impressive terms, didn't
he? He didn't use fancy words when he spoke these words. He
used very plain words, but it was very impressive. We see in verse 25 that in the
statement, after the Lord's disciples had heard the statement, It's
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle and for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. We see in verse 25 that
his disciples are left amazed. It says, when his disciples heard
it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, who then can be saved? They knew what he was talking
about. God had revealed to them the
truth of that. And it's not hard. We're going to look. It's not
hard to figure. how a huge camel can't fit through a little eye
of a needle, right? Very plain words, though, aren't
they? And then they said, in deducing that fact, they said,
who then can be saved? Who can be saved then? Now think of this. The camel
was one of the largest animals familiar to the Jews. During
the times of this saying, the camel was one of the largest
animals that were familiar to the Jews. And the needle's eye
was one of the smallest openings in a familiar object. They used
these things. So when he said a camel and a
needle's eye, they understood what he was saying. They understood that he was talking
about a literal camel going through a needle's eye. So this expression denotes an
impossibility, doesn't it? It brings forth an impossibility. And we see that it's understood
by the disciples as an impossibility. With their very answer in verse
25, when his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed,
saying, who then can be saved? Our Lord uses the image of a
familiar animal to his hearers. And this is an
animal that's as familiar to them as a horse would be to us. In this area we're in, there's
lots of horse farms. Metamora area, right? Lots of
horse farms all around. You go down to Kentucky, there's
all kinds of horse farms. Beautiful farms. And we're used
to seeing them in the field sometimes when we drive by in our vehicles,
aren't we? So we're familiar with them. So a horse would be
as familiar to them as a camel. And in the eye of a needle, I
remember my mom sometimes asking me, Wayne, could you put that
thread there for me? As she got older. Now, when she
was younger, she could just put that thread through there like
it was nothing. But when she got older, she'd often ask me,
can you help me? Can you help me just put that? Yeah, Mom,
I'd love to do that. You know, I was a little tight.
I'd love to help your mom and dad. Yeah. And I'd get it through
there, and then she'd knot it up and tie it up. So it's perfectly evident that
Jesus was understood by the disciples. and understood as stating an
impossibility. And we will see here that our
Lord brings up the impossibility of a man or woman to enter into
heaven based upon their standing, based upon their wealth, based
upon their works. And he uses the camel in the
needle's eye as an example of the impossibility of man to save
himself. So what does this text mean?
Well, some explain it by saying there's a certain gate at Jerusalem
called the needle's eye, a gate so narrow that a camel could
not get through it except on bended knee. I heard that when
I was in religion and with its burden lifted. But such an explanation
destroys the force of the passage, doesn't it? It destroys the force
of the passage. C.D. Cole said this, I like what
C.D. Cole said, he says, the Jaffa Gate at Jerusalem is called
the Needle's Eye, now it is, but it was not so called in the
Lord's day. It's got its name from this passage
rather than this passage getting the meaning from the gate. He
said, no, it was named afterwards. And there's no proof that the
Jaffa Gate was called the Needle's Eye. No proof of that from what
he said when our Lord spoke these words. Others call it hyperbole,
which is a figure of speech or an exaggeration. But we take
it literally, don't we? Because that's what the scripture
says. We take it literally as a plain statement of fact, because
that's what it is. In the scriptures, we believe
them literally. We believe what they say. And
the scripture says, salvation is of the Lord. We believe that. We believe that. Again, in the
days of our Lord, a camel was a well-known animal, and a needle,
much like those used by women today, was also well-known. And
a definite article was not used. C.D. Cole said the definite article
was not used as it would have been if a certain gate was meant
or intended. And he said, note the verb, it's
used, it's not the needle, but a needle. So then what is the message of
this passage? What's the teaching of this text
before us today? Well, the teaching of this passage
and this message is that salvation by human effort is impossible.
Absolutely impossible. It's not merely difficult, but
it's impossible. It's impossible. If salvation
were by works, then this rich man would have an advantage over
the poor, wouldn't he? A man with money can do a lot of
things. Riches are valuable only as they are used in doing good.
Riches used to gratify the lust of the eyes and the lust of the
flesh and the pride of life are not a blessing, but a curse.
And Paul told Timothy to charge the rich in this world to be
rich in good works, but those good works no more secure salvation
than evil works. Good works can't secure salvation
any more than evil works can secure salvation. No, good works in the believer
is just, and we don't even know when we do them. We don't even
know when we do them. Because the Lord said to his
disciples when, or that group, he said, they said, when did
we do these things? He says, when you did it unto me, you
did it unto, or when you did it unto one of these, one of
my children, you did it unto me. When did we do these things?
Oh, my. The scripture plainly declares,
for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
we believe that, don't we? We believe every word of that.
We who are God's people. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he has saved us.
By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
We believe that, don't we? Not by works of righteousness
which we have done. We don't have any righteousness to offer
to God. Any good works. Scripture plainly declares there's
none righteous, no not one, that means everybody. There's none
that do it good, no, not one. That includes everybody. None. So in our text, the Lord takes
the man who has the best opportunity in human standing to enter the
kingdom of heaven by his own efforts and shows that it's absolutely
impossible. Impossible. If salvation were
by works, it would be by good works, of course. And the rich
man would have the best chance to be saved. Look at verse 16.
It says, and behold, one came and said unto the good master,
what things shall I do that I may have eternal life? Verse 16.
Here before us is a man who's anxious about his soul. He's concerned about eternal
life. And such men as this are rare. Very rare. And we see in verse 22 that he
was a rich man having a great many possessions. And he was concerned about his
soul. He was interested in eternity. He was a man of wealth and a
ruler of men. But he came before the Lord.
And this rich young ruler came to Christ and said, good master,
what good thing shall I do that I may Have eternal life. You notice a couple of words
there? Amen, sister. I. What must I
do to have eternal life? There's nothing we can do to
have eternal life, is there? But notice that right there in
the verbiage. What good things shall I do? What work shall I
do? Many shall say unto me that day,
Lord, Lord, did we not prophesize in thy name? Did we not do all
these good things in thy name? He says, depart from me, you
cursed, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. And here before us is a man who's
anxious about his soul, concerned about eternal life. Our Lord, though, knows this
man's heart just as He knows every one of our hearts. Every
one of our hearts. Every single one. He knows our
hearts. He knows them. Nothing can be hidden from Him.
Nothing. And he knew that this rich young
man was familiar with the law of Moses. He knew that. Oh yeah,
he knew doctrine. Yeah, he knew doctrine. He knew
scriptures. And he knew that this young man
thought like most people do that eternal life could be gained
by outward morality or by obedience to the law. See, our Lord could
see right through him. And he answers this man, Notice
this. He answers this man according
to the law. Look what he says to him in verses 17 to 19. He
tells him to keep the law. Look at this. And he said unto
him, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is, God. But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. He saith unto him, which? Jesus
said unto him, 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,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now look at this rich man's response
in verse 20. The young man saith unto him,
all these things have I kept from my youth up, what lack I? Oh, he thinks he's perfect. You
ever ran into somebody who thinks they're perfect? I ran into a few of those folks.
If they don't say they think they're perfect, you sure know
they think they're perfect by their words and their actions
and how they measure other people. My. And look at his response. A young
man saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth
up, what lack I? Oh, what do I lack? Now, there may be some who hear
this message who ask the same question in their own minds.
What lack I? Maybe you're very moral. Maybe
you're very respectful in the eyes of man. You may be planning
to believe God. You may know doctrine really
well. You may be of high standing in
the community. You may even claim to know the
Bible and be able to quote verses. You may be able to do all these
things. Yet, for all that you know, you're not a child of God.
You're not a child of God. You're not saved. You're not a saved sinner. You're a lost sinner, and you're
not an heir of eternal life. And knowing all these things,
the question of great concern in your heart is just, what lack
I? What have I done wrong? That's
what he's basically, he's saying to the Lord of glory, who can
read his heart, who knows that, you remember the Lord spiritualized
the law? Do you remember when he spiritualized the law and
he said, if you're angry with your brother, you kill them? We can all put our hands up,
right? As guilty, right? He said, if you look on a man
or a woman with lust, you've committed adultery. He goes on,
all these things, the way people just throw the Lord's name around
like it's nothing. See, we're all guilty before
God, aren't we? And that's what the Lord's bringing forth to
this man. And by his own words, by his own words, he brings out
his complete self-righteousness. His self-righteousness here.
This man is full of self-righteousness. He's probably hid it from people.
but he's full of self-righteousness. And he's basically saying to
the Lord, you tell me what God requires and I'll do it. That's
basically what he's saying with these words. You tell me what
God requires, I'll do it. Little does he know that he's
talking to God incarnate in the flesh. Elohim himself, Jehovah
himself. God incarnate in the flesh. And note that the Lord tells
this rich young man that all that he has, that he's to give
it away. That he's to give it to the poor,
and at least to follow him. And then you have treasure in
heaven. An inheritance in Christ, which
is incorruptible, undefiled, never fade away, reserved in
heaven for God's people. for the born again blood washed
child of God. And what do we say who are God's
people? Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. What a living hope God's people
have in Christ Jesus our Lord. What a living hope we have. We
have such a hope. Oh my. Look at verses 20 to 22
and we see here, the young man saith unto him, all these things
have I kept for my youth up, what lack I? We're gonna look
at this a little bit later. He's full of self-righteousness.
He's just absolutely full of self-righteousness. Jesus said unto him, if thou
wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the
poor. Give it all to the poor, give them everything. Thou shalt have treasure in heaven
and come and follow me. When the young man heard that
saying, he went away sorrowful. for he had great possessions. There's much about this young
man that is commendable, isn't there? He was not a base, reckless
rebel. He's a sinner, just like everyone
else, but he wasn't a base, reckless rebel. He was moral. He was religious. He was devout.
He'd been a respectful son, an obedient son to his parents. He was a good husband probably
if he was married or a good father if he was married, a provider
for his family. Hard working probably, honest
man. But he had acquired much wealth
too, hadn't he? Nothing wrong with wealth. Nothing
wrong with it. But this was his hang up. This was his problem. Just because he's wealthy, and
because he thinks, due to his self-righteousness, that he followed
all these things, the Lord brings up the impossibility of him going
to heaven, unless he follows Christ. Because
Christ said, follow me. Give it all up and follow me.
And you'll have treasure in heaven. But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Now in a day of abounding unbelief, he came to Christ of his own
accord. He came not to have some disease healed, did he? No. Not
to plead for anyone else, not to see some great miracle, but
he came out of concern for his soul. And he was earnest and
sincere. Mark says that he came running
to Christ. And we know he was orthodox in
his creed. He was a religious leader. He professed to believe
God. He believed the scriptures. We see that he believed in the
reality of eternal life. And he was probably extremely
strict and devout in his practice of religion, as were all the
Jews of his day. And probably since the days of
his youth, he had outwardly kept the law, not inwardly. Remember,
when the Lord spiritualized the law, it's over for everybody,
isn't it? And his life was probably pretty
meticulous and moral and precise. And we see that he even bowed
down before the Savior. Turn, if you would, to Mark chapter
10, verse 17. Look at this. Mark chapter 10,
but keep your finger back in Matthew, because we'll be going
right back there. Mark chapter 10, verse 17. When he was gone forth into the
way, there came one running. So this man ran to the Lord.
He ran to him and kneeled to him. He bowed down before him
and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? So like Nicodemus, this man,
realize that Jesus Christ was a teacher come from God, and
he seems to have even acknowledged our Lord's deity. When our Lord
asserted that there's no man that is good but God only in
our text in Matthew, and the young ruler did not withdraw
his statement, but he seems to have acknowledged what Christ
had said. Yet this man displayed two sorrowful
characteristics. Two sorrowful characteristics,
two things about this rich young man's character show us that
he was a lost, ruined, unregenerate man. First, he was ignorant of
spiritual truth. He thought he knew something.
He thought he had arrived. He thought he was above teaching. But he was ignorant of spiritual
truth. He knew much in a natural sense,
but spiritually, regarding spiritual things, he was an ignorant man. He was ignorant of God's holy
character, obviously, thinking that he could gain salvation
by his own words. He was also ignorant of his own
sinfulness, wasn't he? How do we know that? Well, because
he said, what lackest thou I, when the Lord told him all these
commandments? So he was ignorant of his own
sinfulness, totally ignorant. And he was ignorant of the law's
spiritual nature as well, wasn't he? He was ignorant of the law's
spiritual nature. And he was obviously, he obviously
thought that the law only required outward obedience. And he was altogether ignorant
of the gospel of Christ. For by grace he is saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. He was ignorant of that statement. And second, the rich man, this
rich ruler, was dreadfully self-righteous. Here before us, we have a warning
about self-righteousness, beware of self-righteousness. I was
talking to Donnie Bell earlier in the week, and we were talking about how
there's enough self-righteousness in the two of us to burn buildings
down. Is that not true of all of us? We got so much pride,
don't we? We do. This man, though, He was
dreadfully self-righteous. And here's a warning again before
us in the scriptures about self-righteousness. I'll tell you what, no sin's
more deadly, more likely to keep you from Christ than the sin
of self-righteousness, your pride. Why do men not come to Christ? Why do men and women not come
to Christ? Their pride, their self-righteousness. And yet there's no sin more common
to man than self-righteousness, is there? All men and women by nature are
self-righteous. It's a family disease, beloved.
It's a family disease, and all the sons of Adam are infected
with this disease called self-righteousness. All of us. From the heights of society to
the depths of society, rich and the poor. We all think more highly
of ourselves than we should. And we secretly flatter ourselves
that we're not really as bad as some other people. I remember
doing that before the Lord saved me. In our natural state, we all
think that we have something to recommend us to God. Something in us to recommend
us to God. One wise man said, most men will
proclaim to everyone his own goodness. Is that not true? You start telling people you're
a believer in Christ, and the God card will start coming out.
Norm and I, the preachers, we call it the God card. Start talking
to somebody, and they find out you're a preacher, and the God
card comes out. Oh, I'm not bad. I'm a good person. Every single
time. Every single time. We forget the plain testimony
of Scripture. It says, for in many things we
offend all. If any man offend not in word,
the same is a perfect man, and able also to bribe the whole
body. Ecclesiastic says, for there
is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
Not one. There's not one just man on this
earth in our natural state. But praise be to God, the believer
in Christ, the true born again believer in Christ, is justified
in God's eyes in Christ. As I said last week, clothed
in the royal righteousness of Christ. And don't forget, that's
a royal righteousness. That's from the King of kings
and the Lord of lords. He wove that righteousness for his people.
But in our natural state, oh, my, there is not a just man upon
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. All sinners, everyone. What is man that he should be
clean, and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Job 15, 14. As it is written, this is so
clear, isn't it? As it is written, there is none righteous, no,
not woman. There is none that understands.
that seeketh after God. None means none. In Adam, there's
none righteous. There's none that understand
the things of God. There's none that seeketh after
God. But in Christ, oh, we're made righteous, aren't we? Yes,
we are. We who are the people of God.
And we understand something, don't we? We have an understanding
that we didn't have before the scriptures. We have an understanding
of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his perfect sinatonic work
on Calvary's cross, and how he left heaven to come to this world
to redeem we, we who are his people, to purchase us with his
own precious blood. And then he ascended back up
into heaven. And you know what? He's coming again. We're going
to look at that tonight. He's coming again. The same Jesus. He went up! He's coming back!
He's coming back. Hallelujah. That's what we say,
eh? Praise the Lord. He's coming
back. And so ever since man became
a sinner, he's been self-righteous. And when man had a perfect righteousness
before God in Adam, before Adam fell, he did not glory in it
or cherish it. But ever since the fall, when
we lost all righteousness, man has pretended to be righteous.
He pretended to be righteous. How do we know that? Well, immediately
after the fall, Adam wrapped himself in a fig leaf, didn't
he? That's a picture of him trying to cover his own nakedness. Trying to cover his sin, beloved. We have fig leaves, too, don't
we, before the Lord saves us? We've got all these fig leaves
of good work, so I'm a good person, and, you know, I don't cuss a
whole lot. I'm not in jail like those awful
people in prison. You know, we have all these little
fig leaves all over our bodies, don't we? Oh, my. And, you know, Adam, after he
wrapped himself in a fig leaf and began, then he began to,
Then he began to blame his troubles upon God, and he said, this is
the woman you gave me, God. Now, is that not the epitome
of self-righteousness? Oh, my. My, oh, my, beloved. So as with Adam, so it is with
us. We try to justify ourselves before God and before man, and
self-righteousness is born within us. Well, we can, to a degree,
control our lusts and our wicked behavior. Our self-righteousness
will not allow us to confess our sins in our natural state,
will not allow us to come to God for mercy as guilty sinners. So we must be turned. We must
be made willing in the day of God's power. We must be, what, born again. We must be granted faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Millions of sermons being preached
on self-righteousness against self-righteousness, but it still
remains the number one sin that keeps men from coming to Christ,
their pride, their self-righteousness. And this man had a zeal for righteousness.
He was going up, you know what he was doing? He was going about trying to
establish his own righteousness. You know how we know that, because
he said, well, what lackest I? That's what he was saying. Going
about trying to establish his own self-righteous. He had not
submitted himself to the righteousness of God, which is Christ. And
how many people are like this man? How many people are, are
like this rich young ruler, very moral, very proud, but very lost. Very lost. And there's people that are like
this that are religious, and there's people like this who
aren't religious. Because self-righteousness is in all of us. And our Lord knew that this would
be a teachable moment for his disciples. And also think of
this, this is recorded too for our learning. Remember that all
the scriptures are recorded for our learning, for us to be able
to learn from the scriptures. See this event happened over
2,000 years ago, and yet it's still relevant for us today.
Because it shows the impossibility of salvation by works. Let's
read this, let's read on. This is a wonderful portion.
So here's the Lord, our Lord has a teachable moment for his
disciples. They're witnesses of this exchange of words, aren't
they? Between our great Savior, who's God incarnated in the flesh,
in this rich young man. They're witnesses, just like
Tom, you and I were talking, and people were coming in. They're
witnesses of you and I talking. They were witnesses of the rich
man and the Lord talking. They had heard what they were
saying. They had heard the exchange of
words between the two men. And look at verse 23 and 24 of
Matthew chapter 19. Look at this. Then said Jesus
unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall
hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again, I say unto
you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. So again, what can we learn from
this passage? Well, we can learn that if a
man with the best opportunity, wealth, and power cannot enter
the kingdom of God by his own efforts, then what chance is
there for a poor man? What chance is there for anyone
then? Well, there's no chance for anyone
to enter into heaven by their own works. None. And this passage clearly brings
forth that no man or woman can save themselves. No man can enter
into the kingdom of God by their own efforts. Look at Jesus answered
and said unto them, or listen to these words in John chapter
3, verse 3. Jesus answered and said unto
them, verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Plain statement, right? You must be born again. You must
be. You must be. And our Lord commanded this young
man to surrender to his authority. He commanded this young man to
surrender to his authority as Lord. Go and sell all that the
house and give it to the poor and follow me. Follow me. He commanded the man to trust
him. He said, come. We know coming to Christ is an
act of faith, isn't it? You've often heard me say, What
comes first, faith or regeneration? Well, regeneration must always
precede faith. He must be born again. And then
we're granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we do. And we follow him. We follow him. Scripture also declares, he that
cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him. Mark adds the words, take up
thy cross. That is to say, our Lord commanded the man to confess
him, and he commanded the young man to obey him. He said, follow
me. And these are the things which
the Lord requires of all his people, right? Submission to
him. Do we submit to him? Yeah, we submit to him. We submit
to our Lord, don't we? Willingly, right? Yeah, absolutely. What else does
our Lord? require of his people faith,
which he gives us. Isn't that amazing? He gives
us what he requires, faith. And then we willingly submit
to him, don't we? Confession, we're to confess our sins to
him, aren't we? And we cry out to him. In what? In obedience. We're to be obedient
to our Lord's commands. Absolutely. The Lord had good reason for
giving this command to this particular man. He was exposing the man's
heart. He was using this as a very teachable
moment for his disciples and also for us. He's exposing this
man's heart with these words. He's probing at the man's heart
when he tells him, well, you do this and this and this and
this. And he says, well, I've done all those things. What lack
I? His heart is being exposed, isn't it? He's exposed them right
there. And he wanted, our Lord wanted
to expose this man's point of rebellion too. He was determined
to show that this young man exactly what he was lacking. And we know
God always meets the sinner at the point of rebellion, doesn't
he? He meets us at the point of rebellion. And this man's money was his
God. Therefore the master commanded
him to give it all away. Give it all away. Follow me. And this command was designed,
again, to expose the evil of this man's heart, to destroy his self-confidence
and his pride, and show him the impossibility of salvation by
the works of the law, and to show him the necessity of the
gospel and following Christ. By this one-pointed command,
our Savior stripped away the fig leaves of the rich ruler's
self-righteousness. He exposed the foolish pride
of this man and showed him his great need of God's grace and his great need of the substitute
when he said, follow me. So what else do we learn from
this passage, beloved of God? Well, not only does man lack
the ability to save themselves because they're dead in trespasses
and sins, but we also see in this scripture, in the next few
verses, that salvation's of the Lord. How do you know when a man's
preaching the gospel to you? You've heard me say this many
times, and I'll say it again. Who gets the glory? Does God
get the glory? Where does man get the glory? Salvation's of the Lord. We'll
give Him all the glory. He's the only one worthy. He's
the only one worthy. So we learn from this passage
that salvation is completely the work of God. The work of
God. We learn from this passage, the
time-tested message of scripture, which is salvation is of the
Lord. When our Lord tells the disciples,
with man, this is impossible, and that means saving themselves,
but with God, what? All things are possible. Isn't
that wonderful? All things. Salvation is of the Lord and
it's all of grace, isn't it? It's all of grace. And you know
what this also means? This also means that the Lord's
not obligated to save anyone. But those he saves, he saves
by his grace and his mercy. That's wonderful. That's wonderful
to know that truth. Grace is the undeserving favor
of God. We do not deserve what we get.
And there's absolutely nothing of human merit or human power
or human wisdom in salvation or human effort. Absolutely nothing. Salvation is of the Lord, period. You do not move from that if
you're a believer. We do not move from that. He gets all the
glory and all the merit is in the blood of Christ, isn't it?
I love what Brother Tim James says, I hear him often when I
listen, no merit, no merit, no merit in us, but all the merit
we have before God is in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And all the power is in the Holy
Spirit of God. And the only instrument that
God uses to save is the gospel preached and proclaimed by the
power of the Holy Spirit. And those who are ordained by
God to be saved, they hear that word, not in word only, Paul
said to the Thessalonians, that you heard the word not only in
word, but in power. In power of the Holy Spirit of
God. It came to you, if you're a believer,
in power, praises mighty name. There may be a time for a while
when we just heard it in word, eh? And then one day, We heard
something. Oh, marvelous grace. Marvelous, marvelous grace. Salvation
by grace does not give the rich man any advantage over the poor
man. You know that? Salvation by grace is salvation
by grace. Period. From God in Christ. And it's glorious, isn't it?
It's absolutely glorious. And the drawing that brings man
to Christ is an inward and gracious work of God in the soul. And the coming is the exercise
of mind and heart in which a person takes the place of a sinner and
puts his faith in Christ. We see ourselves for the first
time when the Lord's drawn us to him. We see ourselves as a
sinner. I need Christ. And you know what? For the rest of our walk with
Christ, we don't ever move from there, do we? I need Christ. I'm a sinner. Oh my. He's so good to us. He's so good to his people. He's so good to his people. When
Jesus said to the Jews, you will not come to me that you might
have life. He was speaking to those who
were in his physical presence. He was saying, you're not trusting
me for salvation. That's what he was saying to
them. You won't come to me. Now he knows who the elect are.
We don't have a clue, but he knows. The believer gladly confesses,
I broke God's law, don't we? Don't we confess that? I broke
God's law. I broke it. It was me that did it. And Christ came between me and
the law. Praise his mighty name. Christ came between me and the
wrath of God. Praise his mighty name. And Christ died the death that
I should have died before God's law. And he died the death that
I should have died before the wrath of God. Praise his mighty name. And we cry out, I'm dependent
on him and him alone. I ask anyone who's listening,
are you like this young man? If so, our Savior's words to
him must be addressed to you. One thing thou lackest. You have
a fatal deficiency. Your heart is not right before
God. And if ever you are saved, your
heart must be broken. And any way your heart will ever
be broken is if God is pleased to reveal himself to you in the
fullness of his grace, in the fullness of his glory in Christ.
And unless God himself breaks your heart, it'll never be broken. And you'll never be saved. You
must be born again. And that's by the almighty grace
and power of God. A new heart must be created within
you. And then we'll cry. We'll cry
with the disciples after the Lord tells us about the camel
and the needle's eye. Who then can be saved? And our Lord gives such a plain
answer. So plain here. So plain. Look at these words. With man,
this is impossible. And impossible there in the text
means impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. So we who are the people of God
know that salvation is not in any way or to any degree dependent
upon or determined by man. Salvation is altogether the work
of God's sovereign and irresistible grace. And none but God can save
sinners. None but God can save sinners. Christ is the only way to satisfy
the holy law of God, and he did it in the place of his people.
And none but God. Now think of this if you're a
believer. Think of this. All these things that we read
of, it's just so wonderful, isn't it? That work that he's done. The fact that he's had mercy
on us. None but God can give a lost
sinner a new heart. None but God. None but God can
break a sinner's stubborn will. None but God can give life to
the dead. And we were dead in trespasses
and sins, beloved, with no hope before the Lord saved us. And
none but God can give faith to the unbelieving. And that's what
God does for his people. None but God can reveal Christ
in us. Because with man, salvation is
impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. And we who are the people of
God who have experienced that all things are possible with
God, because we know we could never save ourselves, and he
has saved us, we say hallelujah. Praise his mighty name. Amen
and amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your word. We thank you for how it teaches
us and instructs us. We who are your people, how it
guides and directs us. And Lord, help we who are your
people to learn from these passages, which we look at in the scriptures.
illuminate them for us and teach us the things of Christ. And
I pray, Lord, that as this message goes forth, if there's anyone
who hears it that does not know Thee, that's maybe like this
rich young ruler, oh, Lord, if it be Your will that You save
them. And if there's one who's poor who hears this message,
may he know that salvation in Christ is in Christ and Christ
alone, nowhere else. Whether we be rich or poor, bond
or free. Lord, we know, we who are your
people know that salvation is in you and you alone. So we pray
that you'd use this message for your glory and for your honor
and praise. In Jesus' name, amen.