I want you to open your Bibles
this morning to the book of Mark. I'm going to be reading from
the 10th chapter of the book of Mark, Mark chapter 10, and
my text will be taken from verses 25 through 27. Now, here's the
message. This is my topic. Impossible
with men, but possible with God. Impossible with men, but possible
with God. Now listen to the scripture.
Mark the 10th chapter, verse 25 through 27. 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. Now this is the Master speaking.
This is Christ our Lord speaking to his disciples. And the disciples
were astonished out of measure. They were completely amazed by
what the Lord had just said. And they said among themselves,
they didn't say this to him, they began to ask one another,
well, who then can be saved? Our Lord had said this, he 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 the disciples
were astounded, just completely astounded, he said, out of measure.
And they began to look at one another and say, Who then can
be saved? And the Master, looking upon
them, knowing what they were saying, understanding their thoughts,
replied with men, It is impossible, but not with God. For with God
all things are possible. Now, there are two questions
asked in this chapter. I want you to go back and read
the entire chapter, but of course I don't have time to cover the
whole chapter. in a message of less than 30
minutes. But I want you to go back and read the whole chapter
later on, and you'll find there are two questions asked in this
chapter. The first question was asked
by a rich man who came running and kneeled to the Master, and
this was his question. And Matthew gives us an account
of this, and Matthew says the rich man asked the Lord, Master,
good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life. I'm interested in eternal life. I'm interested in heaven. Now,
good master, tell me, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit
or earn eternal life?" The second question was asked by the disciples. They asked among themselves,
they asked one another, well, who then can be saved? And our
Lord, I believe, answered both questions with this one statement.
It is impossible with men. Salvation, justification, eternal
life is impossible with men. It is utterly, completely out
of the question and impossible as far as men are concerned,
but not with God. With God, all things are possible. Now, let's go back and learn
a little bit about this rich man who came to Christ and asked
the first question. We can learn a great deal about
this man from reading the context. First of all, I know this. I
know that this young man was very zealous. He was very interested
in eternal life. It says he came running. No procrastination there. No
indifference there. Nobody had to go out and beg
him to come to the meeting. Nobody had to go out and beg
him to come to church. Nobody had to go out and beg
him to come and meet with them and inquire about eternal matters
and salvation and eternal life. He came running. He came unsolicited. He was zealous and interested
in eternal life, and he came running. And not only do I know
that he was zealous and interested in eternal life, but he seemed
in the Scripture to be very reverent and very humble. It says he came
running and kneeled. He fell down before Jesus Christ
on his knees. He knelt before the Master. He
knelt before the Son of God. a man, a rich man, a wealthy
man, a proud man, on his knees before the Lord. I'll tell you
something else about this man. He spoke to the Lord in a very
reverent fashion, in a very respectful manner. He said, good master. He didn't call the Lord Jesus
Christ by some blasphemous title. He didn't ridicule or make fun.
He spoke to the master in a very respectful manner. He said, good
master. As he came running and knelt
before the Lord, he spoke in a reverent tone. He said, Good
Master, now what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life? Here's another thing I learned
about this man. He thought that eternal life
and salvation was a prize to be won or to be earned by good
works. That's what he thought. He really
did. He believed that He could earn
or merit eternal life by what he did. Now, Mark doesn't give
the account that way. Mark simply says that he came
running and knelt and said, good master, what must I do to inherit
eternal life? But Matthew, reporting the same
incident, said the rich man asked the Lord, what good thing shall
I do that I may inherit eternal life? That's the world's philosophy. That's the religious world's
philosophy. That eternal life is something
you earn, something you work for. It's a reward for service
that you've rendered to God by way of your fellow man. That's
what this man thought. Some of you may think the same
thing. And so you can learn from what our Lord tells this man
and how our Lord deals with him. But the next thing I know about
this man is this. He knew nothing, absolutely nothing,
as most people today do not know. He knew absolutely nothing about
the spirituality of God's holy law. He knew nothing about the
spirituality of the holy law, because when our Lord reminded
him, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not
commit adultery, and so forth, oh, he said, I've kept all these
from my youth up. I've never broken one of those,
I've never killed anyone, I've never committed adultery, I've
never stolen anything. I've kept all those from my youth
up. There's no way, my friend, that
a man can keep the holy law of God as it's applied spiritually
by the Holy Spirit. You don't even keep man's law,
let alone God's law. You don't go a week without in
some way violating the laws of men, let alone the laws of God. This man did not understand the
spirituality of God's law. Our Lord gave it. Matthew chapter
5 and we'll get to that in a few moments, but you see the law
of God reaches not just to the to the manners but to the Imagination
not not just to the acts but to the attitude of the creature
God looks on the heart God looks on the forming of the sin God
looks on the desires of sin God looks on the thoughts of sin
and the thoughts of sin The thoughts of foolishness of sin. So this
young man had no conception of the holiness of God's law, the
spirituality of God's law. I'll tell you something else
I learned about this young man. He loved his possessions more
than he loved God. He wanted this world a whole
lot more than he wanted eternal life. He just thought he wanted
eternal life. He just thought he wanted to
know the Lord. When it came to a choosing between
following the Lord and keeping his wealth and riches and materialism,
He made his choice just like you and I do every day. He loved
his possessions, the world, he loved more than he loved God
and more than he loved his neighbor. The Lord understood his covetousness
and the Lord exposed his covetousness. The Lord exposed his evil heart.
When the Lord said to him, you know the commandments and so
forth, he said, well, all these have I kept for my youth up.
And the Lord said, all right, go sell what you have and give
it to the poor. and take up the cross and follow.
Oh, oh, he found out he didn't love his neighbor as himself.
He found out he didn't love God with all his heart, soul, mind,
and strength. And he went away sorrowful. He
thought he could have eternal life on his terms by his works
as a reward for his good deeds. And when he found out that he
had to part with these possessions and riches and materialism, he
went away sorrowfully. No man can serve two masters,
and Christ is not your Savior if he's not your master. You
know, a lot of people seem to think that Christ is our Savior
and the world's our Lord. Christ is our Savior, and possessions
and materialism and these things, that's our master, but Christ
is our Savior. No sir, my friend. Christ said,
he that's not for me is against me. No man can serve two masters. No man can serve God and the
God of this world. The fault is not in riches. I
must make this clear. It's not always a rich man that's
covetous. Sometimes a poor man is just
as covetous or more so than a rich man. The Bible doesn't say money
is the root of all evil. It says the love of money is
the root of all God. In the scriptures, there's been
some wealthy men that knew God. David was a man of great power
and great wealth, but a man of great faith. Abraham was a man
of great faith, but a man of great wealth. Job was a man of
unusual wealth and power and influence, but a man who walked
with God. You see, somebody says, well,
riches have ruined this generation. No, that's not true. This generation's
ruined riches. That's not what caused our ruin.
Our ruin was in the heart. And we were in the, I hear them
say, drugs have ruined this generation. No, this generation's ruined
drugs. I was just recently in the home of a woman who has rheumatoid
arthritis. And I thank God for the drugs
that could relieve her of some of the pain. I thank God for
drugs. I thank God for people who've
gone through operations and have the privilege of being put to
sleep. But drugs didn't ruin us. We
were in drugs. They say sex ruined this generation.
No, man ruined it. This is the problem. The problem's
not in things. The problem's in the heart. And
these things, we try to possess them and love them and dedicate
ourselves to them. And that's our problem. It's
a heart problem. Adam was wealthy. Adam was surrounded
by everything. Adam was a man of power when
he walked with God. Adam had dominion over the fowl
of the air, and the fish of the sea, and the beasts of the forest.
Everything was his. A man of great, outstanding wealth. But it was a means instead of
an end. He used it. And he walked with
God. But today, these things are using
us, and dominating us, and controlling us, and dictating to us. instead of just being means to
an end. And when Christ, he saw this
man's problem, he saw that materialism and wealth, these things were
his problems, and Christ said, get rid of them and follow me,
and he couldn't do it. Now one reason why the disciples were
astonished, now this is the reason, and the disciples, when our Lord
said, after he told the rich man, he said, go sell what you
have and give it to the poor, and come follow me. And the man
was sorrowful because he had great possessions. And he went
away sorrowful. And when our Lord watched him
go, he turned to the disciples and he said, it'd be easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle. And I know that
a lot of people who talk about the gates in Jerusalem were called
needle's eyes and the camel had the stoop to go under. But let's
just don't argue about that right now. Our Lord said what he said.
He said, it'd be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. How hardly shall
they that are rich. into the kingdom of God. And
the disciples were troubled. They were astonished, out of
measure. And they said, well, who can
be saved? Who can be saved? Who can be saved? You see, they
thought that the kingdom of God consisted in riches and materialism. They thought it was a material
kingdom. They thought it was a kingdom
of power. They thought it was an earthly kingdom. They thought
it was a Jewish kingdom. They thought it was going to
be set up on this earth. You can judge that by their conversation.
Lord, when will you restore the kingdom to Israel? Or like James
and John's mother, who said, let my son, when you come into
the kingdom, one sit on your right hand, one on your left
hand. That's what they thought. And that's the reason they were
astounded. They said, well, who's going to be saved? You condemn
the Pharisees for their self-righteousness. You condemn the rich for their
covetousness. And you condemn the religious
for their idolatry. Who can be saved? And that's
when the Lord said, With men, it's impossible. It's impossible. Now, why is salvation impossible
with me? Just tell me why. Well, I'll
give you three good reasons why salvation is impossible with
me. And the first reason is this, I mentioned it a moment ago and
told you I'd come back to it, because of the strictness of
God's law. Tell me, you that would be justified
by the law, You that would find your righteousness in the law.
You that would present yourself to God by keeping the law, like
this rich man. Don't you hear the law? Don't
you hear the law? The law demands and commands
and requires you to love God with all your heart, mind, soul,
and strength. And requires you to love your
neighbors yourself. That's what the law says. If
anybody's wife has to die next year, let it be mine and not
yours. That's me loving you like I love myself. If anybody's boy
has to go off to war, let it be mine and not yours. If anybody's
got to lose his job, let it be me and not you. If anybody's
going to get promoted, Lord, let him get promoted, not me.
Huh? You don't love anybody like you love yourself. You never
have and on this earth never will. And the law says to offend
in one point, to be guilty of the whole law. Christ said, you've
heard it said by them of old times, thou shalt not kill. I
say unto you, to speak harshly, to call a man a fool, is to be
guilty of murder. Every one of us are murderers,
aren't we? You ever been angry with someone? Just real angry. Just put out with them. Just
said, well, you fool, you just killed him in your heart. Christ
said to love. Desire to look with one will
look upon a person with desire is to be guilty already of murder.
Don't you hear the law? No, we don't hear God's law.
We hear our laws. We hear we hear a watered-down
Version of the law that we fixed up so we can keep it. That's
what we hear We hear all these little Sunday school rules back
Don't go to the show and don't take a drink don't smoke and
and don't go to the ballgame on Sunday and don't dance and
don't play cards That's no law The law of God deals with weightier
matters. It deals with justice and mercy
and righteousness in the heart. And all these preachers running
around here claiming to preach against sin, like one old-timer
said, they ain't within spitting distance of preaching against
sin, yet they don't even know what it is. They're talking about
the byproducts of sin and the products of sin and the fruit
of sin. Sin is an attitude, a spirit,
a principle in the heart. That's where we violated God's
law. I'll tell you the second reason why this thing of salvation
is impossible with men, because of the strictness of that law,
which most men don't hear. But secondly, because of the
corruption of human nature. I'm talking about my nature and
your nature. You know what the Bible says
about our nature? It says the natural man hates God. Not his God, not his idol God,
not his version of God or his conception of God. He hates the
God of the Bible. He hates the living God. The
natural mind is enmity against God. He is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. Christ said, you don't know
me nor my Father. You let another come in his own
name and you'll receive him. Let me come in my Father's name
and you receive me not. The scripture says there's none
good, no not one. God looked down from heaven and
he saw that every imagination of man's heart was only evil
continually. You got that problem? When you
would do good, evil's present with you? You delight in the
law of God and yet you find another law warring within your mind
and your heart, bringing you in captivity to sin, do you?
That's your nature. The fallen, corrupt nature that
you receive from Adam in my flesh dwelleth no good thing." Now
what you call good, God doesn't call good. That which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination to God. Here's the third reason. Christ said with men it's impossible
because of the strictness of God's law, because of the corruption
of man's inward nature, and thirdly because of divine justice. Now listen to me. The demands
of divine justice are these, the soul that's finished, it
shall surely die. That's never been repealed, that's
never been changed. The scripture says God will by
no means clear the guilty. The scripture says sin, when
it's finished, bringeth forth death. God has, will, and must
punish sin. He must. If he's going to be
God, he's got to punish sin. How do I know God will punish
sins? He spared not his own son. Christ didn't have any sins of
his own. Christ was bearing my sins and your sins. And yet the
Father turned it back on his own son. So, my friend, salvation
is impossible with men. It's impossible with men either
by law or by merit or by good work or by righteousness or by
baptism or by church membership. Because the law must be honored.
Perfectly. Perfectly. Inwardly and outwardly.
Now if you're going to pick out a few rules to keep, you better
bone up on all of them. Because if a man starts toward
God in the direction of the law, he's under obligation to keep
the whole thing. So if I was you, I wouldn't try
that route. I'd come by way of counsel. It's
impossible with men because of the strictness of the law, because
of the corruption of human nature. And thirdly, because of the demands
of God's justice. Who shall stand in his presence?
That's a good question, isn't it? Well, David answers, he that
hath clean hands and a pure heart. Well, by nature, we don't have
that. Well, then we'll not stand there, but we'll be like the
chaff which the wind drives away. All right, then, but our Lord
didn't stop there. Thank God He didn't stop there.
He said, with men it's impossible, but with God all things are possible. He's able to save. God's able. Man's not able. God's able. God's
able to save to the uttermost them that come to Him by Christ.
Why? Because He's God. Because He's
God. And He's not only able to save
because He's God, but because He's performed all that justice
and righteousness and holiness demanded to be performed in order
to save us. Now, I'm going to go back and
pick up a few things, about five or six or seven, and I want you
to listen closely, will you? Just get comfortable there with
me now. With God, it's possible because he's God. And because
he has performed all that the law requires, that justice demands,
and that the sinner needs to save some folks. Now, first of
all, he determined. He wouldn't leave us alone. He
wouldn't pass us by like he did the angels who fell. The angels
who kept not their first estate are reserved in everlasting chains
of darkness unto that great day. Christ took not on himself the
nature of angels, but he took on himself the seed of Abraham.
But God determined to save a people. He determined to have some people.
Heaven to inhabit glory just like his son. He determined to
have a people like Christ and Before the foundation of the
world he chose those people. He said I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious Christ said the father had given me a people in John
17 and that great priestly prayer He prayed for them six times
those that the father gave me And he said, All that my Father
giveth to me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I am
no wise cast out. I came down from heaven, not
to do my will, but the will of him that sent me. This is the
will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath given me
I lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day. So the Lord
God determined to have a people. He would not leave us in our
darkness, but he determined to have a people, all right? He
made Christ our surety. Before there was a center, God
provided a savior. That's right. Christ was the
lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Christ was our
surety. You see, Christ was not an afterthought. There was a savior before man
fell. A lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. Christ is the surety of the eternal
covenant. Not the temporary covenant of
works, but the eternal covenant. He's the surety. He's the representative.
And all the way through the Old Testament, Christ fulfills every
type. Each of those types pictures
Christ. The law, the ceremonial law,
is the schoolmaster that brings us to Christ, that teaches us
the character of Christ, the work of Christ, the offices of
Christ, the sin offering of Christ, the priestly work of Christ,
all of those things. And then he sent his son into
the world, in the fullness of time, when he'd given all of
the promises and the types and the pictures and the shadows,
in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, made of a
woman, made under the law, under the laws which you're born under,
which you're obligated to obey. Christ was born under that law.
And as a man, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, son of a
woman, but son of God. He obeyed that law in every jot
and tittle. He said I didn't come to destroy
it, but to fulfill it and then our Lord went to the cross and
there He who knew no sin was made sin for us. He bore our
sins in his body on the tree He was wounded for our transgression
there the justice of God Fulfilled every demand on the body and
the soul of Jesus Christ You know when our Lord told the disciples
don't fear a man who can harm your body, but can't hurt your
soul fear him who's able to cast your body and soul into hell.
Christ not only gave his body an offering for sin, but his
soul, he made his soul an offering for sin. And justice wrought
out upon Christ every requirement to satisfy a righteous God. And then our Lord was buried,
and then he rose again as our justifier, and he ascended to
the right hand of God where he is our mediator. And Paul said
if we're in Christ, No one can charge us, because God justified
us. The highest court in the universe
has justified us. There's no further appeal. There's
nowhere else to turn. There's nowhere else to go. God
justified. Well, how come we're not condemned?
Because Christ died and was buried and rose again and intercedes
for us, and no one can separate us from the love of Christ. And
in due time, God regenerated. What's that mean, regenerate?
It means to give life. It means to raise from the dead
and make alive that which had no life. It means to reveal to
the heart and the soul the life of Christ. It means to put within
this dead man a living man, a new man, a new creature. And he regenerated
us and brought us to faith in Jesus Christ. So I would say
this to you. Cease from your works. Not cease from your works. in serving your fellow man, but
cease from your works to try to make yourself acceptable to
God and rest in Christ. Trust in Christ. Believe on Christ. Receive him. Glorify him in your
heart. With me it's impossible, but
not with God. Salvation's possible with God.