And all of you here at Todd's
Road Grace Church for doing this and for having me, I appreciate
it. Thank the Lord for you all. I'm
particularly proud of Todd for the masterful way that he made
out the preaching schedule this year. Life is good when you're preaching
first. You guys that are preaching Sunday, I don't want to rub it
in on you, but it must be terrible. You're going to be thinking about
it all weekend, and I'm going to be enjoying the rest of the
conference with these fine folks without a care in the world. But I'm looking forward to this.
This is going to be a blessed weekend. I pray the Lord will
bless it. Matthew 19 verse 16. 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. And he saith unto him, Which? And Jesus said, Thou shalt do
no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness, honour thy father and thy mother,
and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith
unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up, what
lack I yet? 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. And 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, and this is the title of the message tonight and what
I want to, I pray, see and answer from God's word, Who then can
be saved? And Jesus beheld them and said
unto them, With men this is impossible. But with God all things are possible. Now I actually heard someone
preach to me one time and others that were there that were Lord
talked about a camel going through the eye of the needle that this
was referring to an archway or a passageway that was in that
area. that was well-traveled and well-known
to them, that they knew what he was talking about, this archway
that was shaped like a needle's eye, and it was difficult to
get a camel through there. If you were traveling with camels
with maybe a load on their back, you had to maybe lighten the
load and get them. It was hard to get them through that eye
of the needle. And so the Lord used that, as
they said, as an illustration of how difficult it is to be
saved, to make a decision for Jesus. Religion will stop at
nothing in explaining away or trying to the utter inability
of man. Our Lord said in the context
it is impossible. That's what he's teaching not
it's difficult. Not there's some things you know you're going
to have to do in order to make it happen. It's impossible. With me it's impossible and this
is humiliating to the flesh of man to acknowledge that there
is nothing we can do to be saved. It seems ridiculous to religious
man that God would command a sinner to do something that that sinner
cannot do. But that's how God saves sinners. Christ's message to every sinner
was and is come to me. And the spirit and the bride
say come and let him that here is a calm. And let him that's
thirsty calm. That's the message and he clearly
said in John six forty four no man can come. To me. Except. He didn't say nobody
can come. He said nobody can come except
the father which has sent me draw him. And I'll raise him
up at the last day. So who can be saved? This is
illustrated by practically every miracle our Lord did. When he
said to Lazarus, come forth. The words of our text apply to
that our question, but who? With men, it's impossible with
Lazarus, it's impossible. In the words of John 644, Lazarus
cannot come forth except the father which sent his son draw
him give him life it's the same with rise take up your bed and
walk with men it's in pot with that man it's impossible stretch
forth your hand that's the one thing that man couldn't do why
do you think the Lord told him to do that one thing Because with me and salvation
is impossible. The answer to this rich young
rulers question in the context here he said what good thing
shall I do that I may have eternal life. You know what the answer
to that is with me and it's impossible. Why didn't the Lord just tell
him that then he did. He did. He just didn't say those exact
words to him. He went one better. He showed
him, instead, that it was impossible for him. If left to himself,
our Lord forced that young man to live the fact that he could
not be saved if left to himself. As the Lord showed us that, it's in salvation it's it's he's
still saving us in and it's still impossible with us without him
we can do nothing if salvation is an exercise of
the free will of man it wouldn't be impossible why would the Lord
say it's impossible if he's done all he can do and now it's up
to you why would he say with you it's impossible It's either an exercise of your
free will, or it is impossible with you. It can't be both. And this is a vital matter for
two reasons. It's vital because the very glory
of God hangs upon it. If you can be saved by a decision
of your free will, then the glory and salvation is yours. Then
God just gets honorable mention for giving you a chance. But if with you, however, it
is impossible and you are hanging upon the free mercy of God in
Christ, if you are completely and utterly shut up to Christ,
who said, I give life to whoever I want to give it to. If salvation is not you doing
something for God, but is, as we've seen in these scriptures
already, God freely and graciously doing something for you, then
all the glory in saving sinners is his. Where is boasting then? It ain't fixing to happen. It's
excluded. And 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 yours. With men, that's impossible. It is the gift of God, not of
works, and here's why. Because God's going to get the
glory, and you're not. And by his grace, we kind of
like it that way. By his grace. This is why he
said in 2 Thessalonians 2, 13, we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you brethren. We're not bound to congratulate
you and brag on you. We're bound to thank God because
he from the beginning chose you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and faith in his truth, in his word, belief of
the truth. Did you hear what he said? Belief of the truth,
faith in Christ is the means through which God's electing
eternal grace is bestowed upon you freely. Also, it's the glory of God. And that'd be enough alone. But also, if you're going to
be saved, God's going to tell you how. You're not going to
be saved thinking you did it. He's not going to save you like
that. You can't go on thinking that you need to get saved. You
must be taught by God. We must be taught by God that
salvation is of the Lord. Look at it again in the text.
Let's look at it together in Matthew 19. This man went away
sorrowful. and could not follow Christ.
There is a reason given why he couldn't do it. You see that? For he had great possessions. And the Lord told his disciples
that the reason the young man did that is because it's impossible for
him to do otherwise. The man was confronted with a
choice. And that's what religion confronts people with, isn't
it? A choice. It's your decision. Well, here's your decision right
here. And it's impossible for you to decide anything else.
If you're given the choice between yourself and the Lord Jesus,
it is impossible for you to choose him over you. Not gonna happen. But then, you know, the Apostle
Peter in verse 27, we didn't read this far, I don't believe.
But then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken
all and followed you. And of course, we'll just stop
there. We'll give Peter the benefit
of the doubt here. Our Lord was gracious to him
and he always is. Thank God he's gracious to us.
We're so stupid. But he said, we've left everything
and followed you. We did what that man refused to do. Can we be saved? You see the
context. Who then can be saved? With men
it's impossible. Christ just said, what that man
could not do, he didn't do because it's impossible for him to do
it. And Peter said, we just did it. Well, you see, the Lord didn't
say it's impossible. He just said, with men it's impossible. Oh, isn't that good news? It's
not impossible. It's not impossible for you to leave everything and
follow Christ. It's just impossible with you.
Isn't that good? What a blessing of his grace. Because that's exactly what we
do. The Lord didn't rebuke Peter
for saying that. He deserved rebuke for the rest
of it that we didn't read. but rather acknowledge that indeed
that was exactly what Peter and the others had done. They had
done the impossible. How can I do the impossible with
God? All things are possible. Now
let's trace this back now in our minds. You know what we just
read. Most of you are probably pretty familiar with it. What
was the difference between this rich young ruler and the Apostle
Peter? Well, we know that with men there
is no difference. All are sold under sin. All have
come short of the glory of God. There is no difference with us,
but there is a difference. Our Lord highlighted the difference
in the very context of this a few chapters back in Matthew chapter
16. Look at it with me. Matthew 16 and verse 13. Matthew 16, 13, When Jesus came
into the coast of Caesarea of Philippi, he asked his disciples,
saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they
said, Some say that you are John the Baptist, some Elias, and
others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. And he saith unto them,
But whom do you say that I am? You see what the Lord's doing
here? He's making a distinction. There's what they say, and there's
what you say. There's them, and there's you. Who do you say?" And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the
Christ, the Son of the living God. Now think about this, for
this rich young ruler in our text in chapter 19, for him to
have obeyed the Lord and sold everything that he had and given
it to the poor and Counted it but done He would have to know who Christ
is If he if you knew The gift of God An eternal life if you
knew who was speaking to you if you just knew You would ask
You would ask me and I'd give you what you need if you just
knew. He would have to know who he
was. Peter knew who he was. How was Peter able? He said,
we've left all and followed you. How is he able to do that? He
knows who he is. That's how. Well, how could Peter do that?
Verse 17 of where we just read. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee. With men it's impossible. You
didn't figure it out. A man didn't tell you, convince
you, talk you into it. My Father which is in heaven
revealed it to you. With men it's impossible, but
it's not impossible. For that rich young ruler to
have obeyed the Lord and left all that he had and come and
follow Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ would have had to have
been worth more to him than all of his great possessions. 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. That's what had to happen. But
with men, that's impossible. How'd this man find this pearl?
Why was it so valuable to him? With men, it's impossible. But
with God, by faith, Moses did what this rich young ruler could
not. He thought his possessions were worth more than Christ,
the Son of God. Judas thought 30 pieces of silver
was worth more. That's us by nature. With men,
that's what it is. But by faith Moses, when he was
come to ears, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
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 in Egypt. For he
had respect unto the recompense of the reward. For that young
man to sell everything he had he would have to think like that.
Well how was Moses able to do that? By faith. Where did his
faith come from? We just read it a while ago.
It's the gift of God. With God, all things are possible. How did he know that Christ was
worth more than all the treasures of this world? Flesh and blood
didn't reveal it to him. But God the Father did, which
is in heaven. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, you
must be born from above. Salvation is by free, sovereign,
distinguishing, electing grace. Now does that mean we go around
telling sinners you can't be saved? You can't be saved. Well, yes and no. We have to make it clear as the
scriptures do that with men it's impossible because we We do that
because as we've seen it's a question of who gets the glory now And
I'll tell you this you know what our problem was is We refuse to give God the glory Satan whispered you shall be
as God's you'll decide what's good and evil And I guarantee you the remedy
to the problem is not going to have any glory in it for you
and me. That's our problem. But do we tell people you can't
be saved? Well, we say with men it's impossible. There's a deluded
sinner that thinks that he can do anything to be saved. You'd be better to hear nothing
than the gospel of this day and age that has sinners going down
some kind of road or making these decisions and things. The gospel
command is repent and believe. And we issue that command as
ambassadors of the king as those sinners were able to obey it
because God might just very well enable them to obey it. We know that God gives grace
and power to do the impossible. If a man with a withered hand
can stretch forth his hand by the power of God, the grace of
God. And so we say repent, believe
on Christ, come to Christ, the Spirit and the bride say come,
even though you can't come. But you can't come except, you
see. And when the disciples asked, who then can be saved? Our Lord
didn't say it's impossible. He said with men it is. We are
shut up to Christ. The one that we crucify. 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. But
turn to Acts chapter 2, look at Acts chapter 2, verse 36. Acts 2.36, therefore let all
the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when
they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, they were stabbed,
they were pierced in their heart. And said unto Peter and to the
rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And
then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. and
you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for the promise
is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate. Whom he did predestinate, then
he also called. The promise is unto you, and
our message is repent, believe on Christ, confess Christ, commit
yourself to Christ. religion would deduce and do
deduce in their fleshly reasoning that if these sinners were commanded
to repent, then they must be able by an act of their free
will to obey that command, but the scriptures teach otherwise.
Paul said, wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy 2.25, in meekness instruct
those that oppose themselves, they're their own worst enemy,
if God peradventure Maybe God will give them repentance. And if he does they'll say that's
the truth. To the acknowledging of the truth.
If sinners are going to stop believing what they believe by
nature and start believing God's truth concerning themselves concerning
God himself and concerning how God saves sinners by free grace
through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. God's going
to have to give them something, a free gift, the gift of God,
not of words, lest any man should boast. But you see how that Peter
in Acts 2, when these men said, what shall we do? He didn't say,
well, maybe God will give you repentance. He may well have been thinking
that and praying for that. Maybe, maybe God will have mercy
on them. But what he said to them is repent. Repent. We preach Christ crucified. We
preach that what the law could not do in that your flesh was
weak and you're unable to measure up to this holy standard of God's
law. What the law could not accomplish because of your sin. God sent
his son to accomplish. And to die for the sins of his
people, his elect, and declaring the gospel of Christ and his
finished work of redemption for sinners, we in God stand, in
God's stead, as ambassadors of Christ, we beseech you in his
stead and command all men everywhere to repent. Be ye reconciled to
God. And as we do, we pray. I guarantee
you, your pastors and these men that preach to you, they're praying
that God will grant you repentance and faith in God's Son. And if you're saved tonight,
the reason God saved you, because he loved you from eternity. Romans
9, 13, and because he loved you, he chose you to salvation. Second
Thessalonians 2, 13, and 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 a perfect life in your place
as your representative, to die vicariously in your stead for
your sins. Redeeming you from the curse
of God's law, being made a curse for you, Galatians 3 13. And
having done all of this for you. You see salvation. God was saving you before he
ever made you. And he's still saving you if
you're saved. And he's going to plumb save
you one of these days. And having done all of that for
us in Christ, He brings that salvation work that was done
for us home to us by doing a work in us. We experience it by His
work in us. He regenerates, He gives life
by His Holy Spirit. The Spirit blows where He pleases. If He's pleased to go your way,
you're going to be born of the Spirit. And then you'll enter
the kingdom of God. You'll see the kingdom of God. You'll give life to the soul.
You who were dead in trespasses and sins, he quickens. By the
power of his Holy Spirit, you must be born again. He gives
repentance of sins and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a
free gift of his grace. When he turns us, we'll be turned.
He'll make us willing in the day of his power. He'll make us willing to sell
all that we have and count it but done that we
might win Christ and be found in Him. With men that's not going
to happen, but with God it happens all the time. God who is rich in mercy. There's
no difference in us. We are by nature the children
of wrath, even as others, but God. There's our text right there. With God, when I say all things
are possible, don't think of it in terms of a possibility
as a matter of statistics. It could happen. It's possible in this sense.
It's a matter of power. It's a matter of ability. Now,
it is a possibility to us because we must say with Paul, peradventure.
Peradventure, God may grant repentance. But when God says, when the Lord
says, with God all things are possible, he's talking about
power now. Our Lord, not just saying there
in our text that God just might do this. What he's saying is if he wants
to, he'll do it. He'll do it. And may we say by
God's grace, as we pray for ourselves and
those that we love, Lord, if you will, you can. do for us what we cannot do for
ourselves. I was asked once in a conversation
about the sovereignty of God and salvation that I had with
a friend of mine. We were eating at a restaurant and that friend
of mine, he pointed at a fellow across the restaurant and he
said, well, what about that? What about that man over there?
Can he be saved? Can that man be saved? If that man over there
asks you, Chris, can I be saved? What would you say to him? And
I don't remember what my answer was. I hope it honored Christ,
whatever I said to him, and was true to the Word of God. But
listen to this. Turn with me, if you'd like to,
to Ezekiel 37, or just listen if you want to. Ezekiel chapter
37, verse 1. Ezekiel 37 1 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 and Caused me to pass by them round about and behold
there were very many in the open valley and lo they were very
dry And he said unto me son of man Can these bones live? That's exactly the same question
I was asked in that restaurant 20 some odd years ago. Can that
man be saved? Can these bones live? And the prophet answered, O Lord
God, thou knowest. The only one who can answer that
question, can that man be saved? Can that man be saved? Can these
bones live? The only one that can answer
that question is the one who has the power to give life to
dead, exceeding dry bones. The only one who knows the answer,
can that man be saved, is the one who has the power to save
him. I know this, with men it's impossible. But if God will,
He can save him. He'll save him. And I'll tell
you what else I know by God's grace. I know who will be saved.
I know who will be saved. I don't know who can be. I can't
answer that. I can tell you who will be. All
that the Father giveth me, every sinner that God Almighty, the
Father, gave to His Son in the eternal covenant of grace, from the foundation of the world,
they're going to be saved. I know what else I know about
him. I'll tell you what else I know about him. Him that cometh to
me, every sinner that comes to the
Lord Jesus Christ as that leper, Lord, if you will, as that woman
of Canaan, Lord, I'm a dog and I don't deserve a crumb, but
even dogs get crumbs. from their master's table. Continuing to read there in chapter
37, again he said unto me, prophesy upon these bones and say unto
them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Who can be saved? I don't know,
but I know who will and I know how. Don't you? If there's somebody that you
love, Everybody in here, there's somebody
you love. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
somebody that you love that's lost. I don't know if God will
save him or not, but I know how he'll do it if he's going to. See that they hear the gospel.
Like those men bearing that man on his bed and lowering him down. I know it's not right to say
we get somebody to Christ, but you know what I mean? But there's
something there, isn't there? There's something there. I don't
know if he'll save them or not, but I know how he'll do it. Preach
into these bones. Behold, I will cause salvations
of the Lord. I'll cause breath to enter into
you and you shall live. 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 God's going to get
all the glory. You're going to know who's God
and who's not. Thank you. Several times you quoted John
6, verse 44, where the Lord said, No man can come to me, except
the Father which has sent me draw him.