When Matt was reading that 145th
Psalm, there's something that hit me. Verse 16, thou openest
thine hand and satisfyeth the desire of every living thing. And that's talking about spiritual
life. He satisfies the desire. Every
believer, every living person desires to be found in Christ,
and he satisfies that desire. Now, to turn back to Mark chapter
10, I've entitled this message, Who Then Can Be Saved? Now this is the story of the
rich young ruler and when the Lord said it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God and they were looking at this fine young
man, a man who seemed very sincere and very zealous and very religious
and He said, a rich man has got as much chance to enter the kingdom
of heaven as a camel has to go through the eye of a needle,
which is zero. Which is zero. You know, I've read commentaries
and they say, well, the eye of the needle was a wall in Jerusalem,
or holes in the wall of Jerusalem where the camel would just have
to get through real, that's stupid. Talking about the eye of a needle.
A camel cannot get through the eye of a needle. And they looked
at this young man and they were astonished out of measure, saying,
and here's what they meant. If this man can't be saved, who
then can be saved? We're all in trouble. And the Lord's reply, and Jesus
looking upon them saith with men, impossible. Salvation is impossible
with men, but not with God, for with God, all things are possible. Now let's look at this passage
of scripture together, beginning in verse 17. And when he was gone forth into
the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked
him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal
life? Now, this man was in dead earnest.
He came running. He came seemingly with an outward
form of respect. He was kneeling down. But this man was in grotesque
darkness and ignorance, which is demonstrated by what he said
to Christ, good master. He was coming to the Lord as
a man and nothing more. He didn't know he was the son
of God. He didn't believe he was the son of God. He didn't
know who the son of God was, but he saw the Lord as a good
teacher, a good man. And he calls him good master.
Now, somebody may ask what's wrong with that? He is the good
master, but he was coming to him only as a man. And that is
why the Lord rebukes him the way he does. Why callest thou
me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. You're coming to with me as a
man and you're calling me a good man. There's only one good and
that is God, no one else. Now, you'll also notice when
this man came to the Lord, he came with this question, what
shall I do? What good work will I perform?
What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? He's mixing works
and grace. That's exactly what it does.
There's nothing you do to inherit anything. But this man thought
that there's something that he could do to inherit eternal life. Good master, what can I do to
inherit the eternal life? Now we use the term, he's a good
man. He's a good boy, good girl, good
woman. And that really is incongruent
to what a man is, isn't it? There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that understands. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. And I don't have any doubt that
this young man had read that Psalm. That's Psalm 14, that's
Psalm 53. It's quoted once again by Paul
in Romans chapter three. Let's look at this. I have no
doubt that this man was a, he was a rich young ruler. Now look
at Psalm 14, and this is quoted verbatim in Psalm 53. It's the
only Psalm I know of that is quoted twice, and that gives
us some idea of its importance. Verse one, the fool has said
in his heart, there is no God. Now notice, there is his italics. The fool hath said in his heart,
no, God. They are corrupt. They've done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good. And the Lord is correcting this
man for him coming to him as a man and calling him good master. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men. I love the imagery of this. The Lord looked down from heaven
and he beheld the children of men. And what did he see? To see if there were any that
did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They
are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. one. And that is why the Lord
corrects him. He's coming to him only as a
man. And he said, there's only one
good. There are no good men. Now I realize that we use the
term, and I don't know that we should use the term. I know Paul
said you're filled with goodness, but he was talking to believers.
And I guess I would rather have someone come into my house that
I knew wasn't gonna steal something than somebody that wouldn't.
I mean, wouldn't you rather have that? Boy, if you had somebody
that was gonna come in and rob you blind, I'd rather have somebody that
was not gonna do that. And we might call the person
who didn't good and the person who did bad, but no, they're
all bad. They're all bad. That's the testimony of the scripture. And this man came saying, good
master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Why
cause thou me good? There is none good. That's the
word of the Lord. There is none good, but one. Amen. You believe that? God. But the Lord meets him on
the ground he came. He says, you know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Not in
your heart, not in your thoughts. Do not kill men's body, men's
characters. To be angry without a cause is
to be guilty of murder. The Lord tells us in the Sermon
on the Mount. Do not steal. That means more than shoplifting.
Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Don't
lie. Always tell the truth. Don't
exaggerate. Don't bear false witness even
by silence when you should be speaking. Defraud not. Give everybody what's due them.
Honor thy father and mother. Now he's speaking of the second
table of the law. And do you notice one commandment
he left out? Thou shalt not covet. He didn't mention that. Thou
shalt not covet. And this young man answered and
said unto him, Master, oh, he's still very respectful. Master, all of these have I observed
from my youth. I've kept every one of them. Now I only know of one other
man who made that statement, the Apostle Paul. Touching the
righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless. Here this man makes this claim. All of these have I kept from
my youth up. Now, he is, he's letting us know how ignorant
he is of the law when he makes this statement. If you had any
understanding, if I have any understanding of the law, I'll
say all these have I broken. From my youth up to right this
very moment, he is demonstrating a complete ignorance of God's
holy law. Secondly, he's a liar. He's a
liar. He did not observe all of these
from his youth up. And he knew nothing of what Paul
said in Romans chapter three, verse 19. And we know that what
things, whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped. Every mouth, my mouth,
your mouth, every mouth may be stopped and all the world stand
guilty before God. Have I ever done that? Have you
ever done that? Your mouth has stopped. No self-justification,
no vindication of yourself, no excuses. Guilty as charged. Guilty before God. And this man had never experienced
any of this. Master, all thee. have observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him, and
that's the same word that is used when the Lord beheld Peter
denying him. What must that have been like?
Peter's cursing him, denying him, and all of a sudden the
Lord looks at him. He didn't say anything. He looked
at him. And it broke Peter's heart. Now, the Lord wasn't looking
at him with anger. The Lord wasn't saying, I'm going
to get you for this. I have no doubt he was looking
at one whom he loved. He looked at him and look what
it says. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him. Now, I don't have any doubt that
this is one of God's elect. Somebody says, how can you say
that? Because he said he loved him. Do I need to say anything
else? Jesus beholding him loved him. I don't have any doubt that this
man ended up being saved because the Lord Jesus Christ loved him. He said, as the Father hath loved
me, so have I loved you. Now can anybody that he loves
end up in hell? No. Jesus beholding him loved
him. This is one of God's elect. I
love to think he was beholding someone who'd been eternally
united to him before the foundation of the world. He was beholding
one that he was going to bear their sins and put them away.
He was beholding one who was gonna be with him eternally.
Jesus beholding him loved him. You know when the Lord said to
the Pharisees, you generation, you brood of vipers, you generation
of snakes, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Did he
love them when he said that? No. Thou hatest all workers of
iniquity. Now, I'm not gonna try to defend
them. The Lord loves who he loves, and his love is a glorious love,
but he doesn't love everybody. He loves the elect. He loves
those the Father gave him. He loves those he represented.
The Lord looked at this man, and he loved him. Now, I've said
before, some have speculated that this is the apostle Paul.
I don't know, but it was somebody like Paul. Paul was a rich young
ruler. Paul was a fine, moral man claiming to
keep the law. And like this man, Paul was eaten
up with covetousness and didn't know it. Remember he had said
in Romans 7, I had not known sin except the law had said thou
shall not covet. This man was eaten up with covetousness
and this is what the Lord is going to show him. But Jesus beholding him, loved
him. and said unto him, one thing
thou lackest. Does this mean that this man
had everything together except one little thing? And if he just
got that together, everything would be okay. One thing thou lackest. Now let's
say I'm looking at a dead corpse. Got two hands, two feet, two
eyes, a nose, mouth. One thing you lack, life. That's
all. That's everything, isn't it?
One thing thou lackest. And if you lack this one thing,
you lack everything. One thing thou lackest. Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou
hast, and give to the poor. And thou shalt have treasure
in heaven. And come, take up the cross,
and follow me. Now, preachers have used this
to show how you gotta be willing to give up everything. You gotta
be willing to give up all material possessions. You need to be willing
to give up everything and get rid of it and follow Christ.
Well, I wouldn't deny that, but that's not what it's talking
about. I mean, we ought to be willing to give up everything,
shouldn't we? Everybody say amen today, you know we ought to.
We ought to, but that's not really what the Lord was talking about.
He was telling this man, you have to become a man without
possessions, where your only treasure is in heaven. You don't
have anything. The only treasure you have is
in heaven. For a man to enter the kingdom
of heaven, he has to have nothing but Jesus Christ. And if you
have anything more than him, you won't get in. That's what
he's telling this man. You're going to have to become
a man without possession. The only treasure you have is
in heaven. You don't have treasure here
on earth. You have nothing that can recommend you to God. The
only treasure you have is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's really
all that's of value to you. He's all that's of value. You
wouldn't bring before God anything But the Lord Jesus Christ, he's
your treasure. He's all that's of value to you. Would that describe you? Is he
all that's of value to you? You wouldn't bring anything else. One thing thou likest, go thy
way. You're gonna have to want to
do this. Do you want to do this? Be without possessions and have
all you have as Christ? Is that your way? Is that the
way you want? Go thy way. Sell whatsoever thou hast. You
remember what Paul said? That he had suffered the loss
of all things and counted it, but what? Nothing. He lost his self-righteousness.
He lost his human approval. He lost everything. And he counted
that loss as done, that he may win Christ and be found in him. Now he said, you take up your
cross. Now the Lord hadn't even died on the cross. Did he know
what he was talking about at that time? I don't know, but I do
know this. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. You take up your cross and you
follow me. Verse 22, and he was sad at that saying
and went away grieved for he had great possessions. This fellow had a lot. Now, when
we, if all we think of is material, you know, it'd be, if you're
a millionaire, it'd be harder to give away your, all your possessions
than if we only had $50, you know, that's not the point. That's not the point. And here's why I know this. When
the Lord says in verse 24, children, how hard is it for them that
trust enriches? They trust in riches. They trust
in their possessions. They trust in their works. They
trust in whatever. It's trusting something other
than Christ. Now. And when he was and he was sad,
did that saying and went away, grieved for he had great possessions. Now, this man could not comply
with the terms. Have you ever seen that with
regard to yourself? You cannot comply with the terms. This man couldn't. And he was
grieved. He was sad because he could not
comply with the terms. He had great possessions. He
had a lot of money. He didn't want to give all that
away. He had a lot of stuff. He had a lot of works. He had
a lot of things about him that he felt good about. And he went
away. Now, I know. that he ended up
coming back because the Lord loved him. I know that. There's no question in my mind
about it. He ended up coming back because the Lord loved him.
You see, if the Lord loves you, he's not gonna let you leave him. You're
going to come to him. But he went away very sad for
he had great possessions. And Jesus looked round about
and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of God. Now, was Job rich? He was the richest
man in the East, the richest man in the world. What about
Abraham? The scripture speaks of him having
great riches. And what about David? Huh, all
the riches of David. What about Solomon? I mean, there's
so many rich men in the scriptures, and that lets you know that that's
really not talking about material riches. Now, it's true, not many
rich people have any interest in the gospel. That's true. And
there wouldn't be any unless God caused them to. But it's
really not talking about just somebody that's taken up with
material riches. How heartless are they that have
riches? You see, Job and David and Solomon and Abraham, although
they were very wealthy men, they all had this in common. They
were poor in spirit. That's the first beatitude. Blessed
are the poor in spirit. Those that don't have anything
to bring to the table. Those that don't have anything
to recommend them to God, they have nothing. They all have that
in common. And you know, me and you better
not ever quit being poor in spirit. When we do, we've left Christ.
That's not, you used to be poor in the spirit. I'm talking about
right now, present tense, poor in the spirit, needing his grace. Well, the disciples, verse 24,
and the disciples were astonished at his words. This man is wealthy. Why are you running him off?
Couldn't you make it a little bit easier for this man to come?
I mean, look at all the good he could do. That's the way fleshly
men think. They were upset. Look at all
how he could help us. Look what he could bring. He
could influence people. He's a famous man. He's somebody. He can't be, what's he doing?
They were astonished, they were disappointed. They didn't like
what they were seeing at this time. But Jesus answered again
and saith unto them, children, how hard is it for them that
trust enriches. And that's the key word, trust
enriches. To enter into the kingdom of
heaven It's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle. That can't happen under any circumstance. Now, in that place, the camel
was the biggest animal around. They didn't have any elephants
around there or giraffes. The camel was the biggest animal.
And he picks out the biggest animal and says, It'll get through
a needle's eye before a rich man will enter the kingdom of
heaven. He speaks of a thing that is
impossible. Verse 26. And they were astonished. Out
of measure. Saying among themselves, I can
almost see them talking to each other. Peter says to John, Thomas
says to Nathanael, Who then can be saved? If this guy can be
saved, who then can be saved? What a question. Good question. That's what I want us to finish
thinking about. Who then can be saved? Well, what is meant by this thing
of being saved? You know, people, I got saved. I hate when people say that,
or he got saved. You don't get saved. The Lord saves you. You don't get saved. You get
a cold, you get sick, you get a disease, but you don't get
saved. God saves you. Who then can be
saved? What's meant by being saved?
Well, I need to be saved from God, first of all. My sins against
Him. He's the one who has the power
to cast me into hell. I need to be saved from God,
and I need to be saved from myself. I'm my greatest enemy. I'm my
biggest problem. I need to be saved from myself.
If the Lord doesn't do something for me, if He leaves me to myself,
I won't be saved. I need to be saved from myself.
I need to be saved from my sins. My sins are ever before me. I
need Him to do something about my sins. Who then can be saved? If this man can't be, who can
be? Now let's look at the words of
our Lord in verse 27. And Jesus looking upon them saith. This is a final word with men. It is what? Say it. Impossible. with men, it is impossible, not highly
improbable, but impossible if salvation is dependent on something
you MUST do before it can happen. If salvation is dependent on
something I MUST do before it can take place, I will not be saved. I don't care what it is. If it's
something I must do in order to be saved, salvation is impossible. Do you believe that? Do you believe that if any part
of salvation is dependent on what you do, then your salvation
is impossible? You know, I believe that. I believe
that. But notice the Lord said, with
men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all things, including
the salvation of a sinful man, are possible. That doesn't mean
there's a possible and possible not. That's talking about God
saving somebody. There's nothing impossible for
God. God can take somebody like me, God can take somebody like
you and make us stand before his throne without spot where
he doesn't see any sin because there's none there. The sin has
been taken away. With God, all things are possible. Now, With God, all things are
possible in salvation because there are some things that are
not possible. Now, I don't know if that makes sense, but I don't know
how else to say it. With God, all things are possible
in salvation because some things are not possible. Romans 8.3
says what the law could not do. It was not possible for it to
do. Same word. It was not possible
for it to do what the law could not do. It lacked the ability
to do in that it was weak through the flesh. My flesh is the problem.
Your flesh is the problem. God sending his son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin condemns sin in the flesh that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us. Now, what the law could
not do is it can't give you the strength to obey. It can't save
you. And it can't really produce any
love in your heart. All you're gonna have is resentment
toward God. He's too hard on you. You feel
sorry for yourself. He's too hard on you. Law never
produces anything but that. Listen to this scripture. It
is impossible. This is from Hebrews chapter
nine. It is impossible. Maybe it's chapter 10. I don't
remember. It's either in chapter nine or chapter 10. You know
the scripture. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats
to take away sin. You know that. But it's utterly
possible for the blood of Jesus Christ to actually take away
sin. He did it. He was manifested
to take away our sins. And Him is no sin. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. It can't be done. Everything
that I do is offensive to God, is sin before God. Without faith,
it is impossible to please God. But by faith, God is actually
pleased with every believer. You see, it's faith that looks
to Christ only. You look to Christ only, God
looks to Christ only in your behalf, and he's pleased with
you. Matthew 24, 24, the Lord says,
if it were possible, talking about false prophets, I love
this scripture, if it were possible, they would deceive even the very
elect. But thank God, it's not possible.
It's not possible. What about when the Lord said,
and think of these words, Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. Now, I don't understand all that
was going on with the Lord, but the thought of being made sin
made him sweat drops of blood. And he prayed this prayer, if
it'd be possible, let this cup that I'm getting ready to drink,
the cup of the sins of the elect, if it'd be possible, let this
cup pass from me. Question, was it possible? He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, and he knew it was not possible.
This is him as a man being overcome with the thought of the wrath
of God, but he knew it was not possible. And then when Peter preaches
on the day of Pentecost, he says it was not possible that death
could hold him. You see, by his death, he completely
satisfied God, he completely saved every one of his people,
and it was not possible that death could hold him. With God, all things are possible. Who then can be saved? Everybody
he saves. Everybody he died for. All his
people, he said, that shall call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. Turn with me in closing to first
Timothy chapter one, who then can be saved? What a question. What a question. Who then can
be saved? Verse 15. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Everybody ought to jump for joy
at this and receive it as the best news they've ever heard.
That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. Two questions. Is he able to do this? Is he able to do this to save
sinners? Here's the second question. Now,
you know he's able. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded he is able. to keep that which I've
committed to him against that day." He's able. He's able. Here's the second
question. Did he do it? Did he do it? When he bowed his
mighty head and said, it is finished, everybody he came to save was
saved. I've got one other question. Who then can be saved? Here's the answer. Sinners. Sinners. Who then can be saved? Only sinners. Because they're the only people
he saves. Oh, he's got the ability to save,
he's got the willingness to save, but there's only one type of
person he saves, and that is a sinner. Paul said, of whom
I am the chief. Not I was the chief. Well, I'm
really good, I mean, I used to be a real rounder, but I'm so,
no, he didn't say anything like that, did he? Of whom I am the
chief. So here's the answer to that
question. Who then can be saved? Sinners. Thank God for that. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you that you save
sinners for Lord, we are sinners. And we know that salvation is
impossible if it's up to us. But how we thank you. That you
save sinners. And there's no want of power
in you to do this because of who you are. Bless this word
for Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen. Dwayne, come lead
us in closing hymn.