Salvation By Works? - [Matthew 19:16]

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A couple of years ago, I received an email from a young man that I knew about.
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He was in the Cayman Islands. He is a Marine, or was a Marine, and he began listening to No Compromise Radio.
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Well, we met about a year later over in Clinton at a little coffee shop, and he was on his way to South Africa as a
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Marine, and he said, I'm going to be getting married in 2016. Would you preach the gospel at my wedding?
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I want to make sure the good news goes forth. I said, you know what, it would be a privilege. So yesterday,
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I drove to First Baptist Church in Worcester, and I was welcomed with a sign.
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Not from heaven, but in the parking lot. And it says, First Baptist Church of Worcester, little rainbow flag right there, and it said, a welcoming and affirming church.
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So I figured they would welcome and affirm my message that Jesus Christ saves sinners.
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My message to the congregation was simple, that although we are fallen, sinful, enemies of God, the text in Romans 5 says helpless, ungodly.
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There was one, and his name was Jesus, the last Adam, and he wasn't helpless.
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He wasn't ungodly. He wasn't an enemy of God, and he wasn't a sinner. He was the
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Savior who was raised from the dead, and all those who believe in him could have eternal life.
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And I walked away from there, I didn't really know many of the people, and I just thought, this is why I live.
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I live for this, to be able to tell people, I have good news for you. All the sins that you've committed,
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God can forgive all of those. His atoning death is so great, you can have forgiveness.
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When you preach the gospel to people, don't you feel good afterwards? I'm not saying about how do you think about it, that's a different question, but don't you feel good?
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You say to yourself, I got to have the good news proclaimed through me.
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God did it through me. I feel wonderful. When was the last time you got to preach the gospel?
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Almost an unfair question, because as we like to say in radio parlance,
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I get paid to be good and you're good for nothing. But I mean, it's part of my job to preach the gospel.
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When was the last time you got to preach the gospel to someone? It's hard to do. It's difficult, because it can disturb relationships.
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It can end families. It can get you fired from a job. Yet Jesus said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. And so we are under a mandate, aren't we as Christians, to preach the gospel that Jesus Christ saves sinners.
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I was reading a well -known researcher, Thomas Rainer, about why churches aren't evangelistic these days.
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I'll just give you a few of these. Why churches are less evangelistic today.
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Many Christians, this researcher says, and church members do not befriend and spend time with lost persons.
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Here's another one. Many Christians and church members are lazy and apathetic. Our churches have an ineffective evangelistic strategy of you come, unbeliever, rather than we go to you.
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Many church members think that evangelism is the role of the pastor and paid staff. Church membership today is more about getting my needs met rather than reaching the lost.
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Christians do not want to share the truth of the gospel for fear they will offend others. Political correctness is too commonplace even among Christians.
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So what do we do? I would like to be more evangelistic. I know you would like to be more evangelistic.
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The next question, then, is how can we become more evangelistic? How can we have an evangelist heart?
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We could pray. That would be good. We could try harder. Maybe we could read books about it. But what
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I'd like to do this morning is to just let you watch the one who was the evangelist.
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We're going to go to a passage today, and out of all the evangelists that ever lived, from Paul to Peter to Wesley to Whitefield, out of all the evangelists you've ever watched, read about, wondered about, admired, when you watch the
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Lord Jesus Christ evangelize, I think you'll have hope, praise, and a motivation for evangelism.
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Turn your Bibles, please, to the book of Matthew. We're at a little detour in the summer. We'll get back into Hebrews soon enough.
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We are going to look at the exemplary evangelist, Jesus Christ. I think
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Jesus was the Prince of Preachers, and He was the exemplary evangelist. When you watch Jesus, everything about Him as He deals with the lost, what
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He says, what He doesn't say, how kind He is or how stern He is, it's all just amazing.
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It all just garners worship in our hearts. There is nobody like Jesus. As the
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Anglican Dick Lucas said, God had only one Son, and He made
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Him an evangelist. We're going to see in the book of Matthew, in chapter 19,
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Jesus dealing with a particular person. Out of all the hordes of people, out of the masses of people, out of the hundreds and thousands of people in the
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Israel vicinity, He deals with this one person.
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That's kind of a tough passage. I like Mark Twain when he says things that I like, basically.
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Isn't that true? It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me.
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It's the parts that I do understand. This is going to be very simple to understand, but it's very tough.
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Now as you know, Matthew describes Jesus as the Messiah. He describes
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Jesus as the King, particularly to Jewish audiences. So that's why there's this flavor of lots of Old Testament quotes.
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If there are four Gospels, and there are, which one is written to the Jewish people? It's Matthew.
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Which one do you think should have the most Old Testament quotes? The Bible says it would obviously be Matthew. And in this book,
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Matthew, that proclaims Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of David, the best way you could summarize the book of Matthew is with its bookends.
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I will just read the two verses that are on the front and the back end of Matthew. Matthew 2, 2, where is he who has been born
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King of the Jews? And Matthew 27, and above his head they put up the charge against him which read, this is
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Jesus, the King of the Jews. And even the way
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Matthew starts chapter 1 verse 1, the record of the genealogy of Jesus, the
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Messiah, the Son of David, he's the royal King. Everything about this book should shout to you,
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Jesus is the Messiah. And now we come right into the stunning passage of chapter 19 verse 16.
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You know him as the rich, young, what? Ruler. In Matthew, we're not told much, we're told that he's just a guy.
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The Greek word is one single word, one, one came along as it were. And Matthew chapter 19 verse 16, as we see
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Jesus dealing with a sinner and we look at his evangelistic methods, I think you'll be encouraged and motivated to preach the gospel.
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And behold, man came up to him, one came up to him literally, saying, teacher, what good deed must
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I do to have eternal life? Mark says that this man ran up to Jesus.
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He sprinted up to Jesus. He wasn't walking up, he wasn't sauntering up, he wasn't skipping up, but he sprinted.
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And if you notice the last passage, verses 13 through 15, there's all kinds of children around and he doesn't care.
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He is on a beeline running straight up to Jesus. And Mark also says he kneels.
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So he runs up, he sprints up, and he's down on his knees. This is not very normal for those days, at least for fine, upstanding rulers and men who are leaders.
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I mean, there should be some propriety to this, don't you think? Mark uses a tense that he was asking
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Jesus about this over and over and over. This is the question.
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He knew the right question. I should have asked you just a second ago, is this the right question? He asked the right question, what must
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I do to inherit eternal life? That's the million -dollar question. That's the question of the ages. I think it's all wrong if you immediately say, he's a legalist, he's steeped in the legalism of the day, and so his default is the legalism, and that's where we direct the message.
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I don't think so. I think he knew the question to ask. This was the profound question. And it says in chapter 19, verse 16, teacher, what good deed must
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I do to have eternal life? Other passages,
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Luke and Mark, the synoptic, similar discussions of the same thing. He calls
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Jesus a good teacher. What good thing should I do? Good teacher.
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When you evangelize, you ever meet someone and they say to you, well, in light of your question, evangelist, do you think
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I'm going to go to heaven or not? I think I will because I am a good person.
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And for Jesus, what good deed, or you call me good teacher, or in our illustration, our example, our life,
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I think I'm a good person. The number one problem, the baseline issue is they have no idea what the word good means.
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They have an inadequate, a superficial view of the word good. By the way, if someone ran up to me, they don't have to get down on their knees or anything like that, but they just asked me, teacher, what good deed must
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I do to have eternal life? I would be so happy. Sit down on a plane.
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You know, by the way, for the Shepherd's Conference, when we bring a lot of guys, we have certain strategies for evangelism. I call it the
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ACDF evangelism. And of course, Caleb should know this because he's in acronym world now.
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That is, we put Bethlehem Bible Church in seats A and C, D and F, and the poor people in B and E, God help them, they're going to get saved whether they're believers or not.
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Seriously, most people don't even care about their souls today, do they? They're off in entertainment world, they're off in work world, they're off in their gardening world, they're off in their grandchildren's world, all things that in and of themselves are fine, but they're placed at the top and hardly anyone is concerned about their souls.
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That's why if you ever said to someone, do you ever consider your soul? Consider your soul. Something's going to happen to you after you die.
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I wish more people would ask such a good question, even though he doesn't understand the word good.
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I mean, today we're walking around in zombie land, basically, people too busy. There's a new biography of J .C.
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Ryle out that you ought to read. J .C. Ryle said, there are two ways by which a man may lose his own soul.
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One, he may lose his soul by living and dying without any religion at all.
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He may live and die like a beast, prayerless, godless, graceless, faithless.
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This is a sure way to hell. Number two, he may also lose his soul by taking up some useless kind of religion.
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He may live and die contenting himself with a false Christianity, resting on a baseless hope.
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This probably is the most common way to hell that there is today. I know, since you're here this morning, you're concerned about your soul.
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And here Jesus is concerned about this man's soul. This man is concerned about his soul.
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Now, if someone asked you this question, I hope they do one day, what would you say in response?
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Let's pray the sinner's prayer. Would that be your response? Would you say, why don't you just accept
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Jesus in your heart? Why don't you say, or would you say, you know what?
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What must I do to inherit eternal life? And you would say, do your best. I've heard some people might respond with, it's nice to be nice and it's good to be good, so be nice and be good.
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Would you give them the Heaven is for Real book? Would you give them the Passion of the Christ DVD? Would you say, let's go get baptized?
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Would you start with creation? Would you start with the Romans Road? What would you do? Here are the four spiritual laws.
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I almost called them the spore spiritual laws. I thought I was tired last week. I don't know what
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I said last week, but everything that was biblical, you retain. Everything that isn't, you can take that from the tape. Well, sir, if you just do a little more good than you've done bad,
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Heaven's for you. But now let's take a look at what
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Jesus, the exemplary evangelist, says. And by the way, He is going to fail
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His evangelism class. He is going to fail any evangelistic course that's probably ever been taught on earth.
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I mean, this is going to be the wrong thing to say, Jesus. He's got money, this guy does.
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He's got influence, this guy does. And He's going to be around for quite a while.
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He's not only rich, He's not a ruler, but He's a young, rich ruler.
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And so what does Jesus say? Of course He doesn't fail, because Jesus never fails, but we're not used to this.
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Matthew 19, 17, And Jesus said to him, Why do you ask me about what is good?
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There is only one who is good. If you would enter life,
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You ready? If you would enter life, you want Heaven, what do we tell people? We tell them all kinds of things.
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Repent, believe, trust. What does Jesus say? If you would enter life, keep the commandments.
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Now first, before we talk about keep the commandments part, When Jesus is discussing, Why do you ask me about what's good?
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There's only one who's good. I think here's what Jesus is trying to do to this young man.
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You're not thinking carefully enough about your words. Words matter.
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The meanings of words matter. And young man, you think you want to be saved, but you're not thinking deeply enough.
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Jesus wants this man to think about what He was saying. I don't know about you, but I rarely say things without thinking.
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It's not true. Do you really know what you're saying? Jesus said in Mark, Why do you call me good?
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No one is good except God alone. You don't know what you're saying. You don't know to whom you're saying these words.
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There's a couple of different words for good in the Greek. One of the words is externally pleasing.
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And the other word is for intrinsically good. Which word do you think is used here by Jesus?
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Externally pleasing or intrinsically good. Of course, it's the latter. It doesn't take you very long to think this rich young ruler understands the
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Old Testament. The readers of Matthew understand the Old Testament. And any and every
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Old Testament reader would know only God is good. Oh, give thanks unto the
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Lord for He is. 1 Chronicles 16, 34
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Good and upright is the Lord, therefore He instructs sinners in the way. Psalm 25. Psalm 100, for the
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Lord is good. Jesus, ever the teacher, is jolting him with, Do you really understand what the word good means?
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There are implications. Ideas have consequences. No one is good, absolutely good, perfectly good, except God alone.
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He is the standard of goodness, the source of goodness. And young man, you need to see yourself in light of the goodness of God.
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Compared to other people, you might be good. That's how people use it today. Well, compared to everybody else, I'm good. But in comparison to God, the only good one, the only good one who's intrinsically good, perfectly good.
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Hey, young man, you don't know this, but you're basically, you're calling me God. Because I'm the good teacher. One writer said, you rightly call me good, if you acknowledge that I am
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God the Son, the only God is good. Calvin writes, before you address me with such a title, you had better think soberly about what the implications are, and especially what they are for you.
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Now, here's how I evangelize. When people give me a law question, what must
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I do to be saved? I give them a law answer.
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Because that's exactly what Jesus does. Law questions get law answers. Jesus doesn't say, believe.
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He doesn't say, trust. He doesn't say, here, I'm the Messiah, and you just trust in me. Right now, if you want to get to heaven, you keep the commandments.
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Law questions get law answers. The way to heaven is perfect obedience.
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You want to get to heaven on your own? It means you have to perfectly obey. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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You can go back to the Garden of Eden, can't you? In Genesis chapter 2, you may eat from the tree in the garden, except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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The day you eat of it, you shall surely die. God was expecting from Adam perfect obedience.
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Perpetual obedience. And only obedience. And that was the test. And the implication was, implicitly it was, if Adam would have obeyed, what would have happened?
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Adam would have earned eternal life. On the flip side,
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Deuteronomy says, cursed is anyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.
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Adam owed total obedience, perpetual obedience, and so too do you, young man.
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If you want to do to get into heaven, if there are people here, I want to be good, okay? If you want to enter life, what does the text say?
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What does Jesus say? Keep the commandments. Law isn't gospel.
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Law isn't good news. This isn't good news. He's trying to force the guy to say, you don't understand
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God and His attributes, and you don't understand how sinful you are. Turn to Romans chapter 2, if you would, for a moment, because this idea is not just new with Jesus.
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Paul knew this as well. Romans chapter 2, as Paul is laying out everyone's need for righteousness, not just the
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Gentiles, but those who are self -righteous and moralistic and Jewish, they also need the gospel as well.
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How do we know that? Romans 2 .6. I mean, we understand Romans 1 well.
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We get Romans 3 well, but chapter 2 is kind of hidden. This kind of thinking is so hard for us.
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Maybe that's why it's hidden. But the text here, Paul in the epistle says in Romans 2 .6,
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He, God, will render to each one according to His works. To those who by patience and well -doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,
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He will give eternal life. But for those who are self -seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be...
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and boy, there are four terrifying words here. The destiny contrasted with the earlier verse is obvious and it's devastating.
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There will be wrath and fury, tribulation and distress.
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But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the
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Greek. Skip down to verse 13. This is the principle, but it's the law principle. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the...
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what? The doers of the law will be justified. Rich young ruler, you want to do to get into heaven?
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Then perfectly do. Keep the commandments. Do, do, do. To use a different passage, do this and live.
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The law demands perfect obedience, perpetual obedience, constant obedience. That's the only way you can be justified under the law.
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You say, well, Mike, Adam sinned and we got credit for his sin and there's imputation of Adam's sin and all that.
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I get that, but in the broad scope of theology, there's two ways to heaven. The way to get to heaven by works, they have to be perfect, or the way of faith, trusting in someone else who's completely kept that law.
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Go with me, if you would, to Luke 10, please. Law questions get law answers. Somebody comes up to you and says,
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I want to do something to get to heaven. I think you should be like Jesus and before you immediately go to the cross, immediately go to faith,
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I think law questions get law answers and this will help them realize,
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I have a need. I see where I've fallen short. I obviously have not kept all the law my whole entire life.
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That's what Jesus is trying to do and he does it again in Luke 10 .25. Law questions get law answers.
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And behold, Luke 10 .25. A lawyer stood up to put him to the test.
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This isn't a law lawyer like we think of today. This is a lawyer who's steeped in Old Testament law.
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The law of Moses lawyer. And a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying, Teacher, what should
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I do to inherit eternal life? Isn't that the same question? And you know what, friends?
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I think I've said it six times today. Law questions get law answers and that's exactly what Jesus does.
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And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
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Verse 28, And he said to him, No, no, no, you should have gone the
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Roman's road. You should have done the four spiritual laws. It's by faith and faith alone. Works are tainted. You have answered correctly.
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Orthodox answer. Do this and you will live.
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Only problem is, you have to perfectly do it. You want to get to heaven on your own. You have to perfectly obey all the time since you were conceived.
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Full obedience, perfect obedience, perpetual obedience. Keep on doing this and you will live.
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No one though has kept the whole law perfectly. Jesus uses the law to show the man his sin so that he realizes he needs a savior.
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Now we do something in our modern age that we've never done before as a history of a nation, I think. We have wellness visits.
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You ever go on a wellness visit? Matter of fact, I don't have to have a copay for my wellness visits. So you go to the doctor when you feel good.
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And every time I do that, I think, this is like the most unbiblical principle I've been involved with.
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No, you go to the doctor when you're sick. But if you don't think you're sick, you don't go. Scribe, lawyer,
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Pharisee, congregant, why go to the cross if you don't think the cross is really anything but a crutch to help you get through your marriage and through your work difficulties and your kind of self -esteem?
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Keep the whole law perfectly. Galatians says, curse it is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and to perform them.
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Not just what's written, but to do. I love the
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Heidelberg Catechism. Very helpful. Not perfect, but very helpful. Written in 1563.
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Elector Frederick III wanted a teaching system set up.
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And Zacharias, your sinus, wrote it. And you probably know the theme.
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And here's the catechism. There's three sections. Guilt, which is called misery.
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Grace, which talks about the Redeemer. And then gratitude talks about the response. That is the paradigm.
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Guilt, grace, gratitude. And early on in evangelism, Jesus is camped here.
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And by the way, we should camp there too. Because people who we talk with, the people we talk with, they don't really think they're sinful.
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They think other people are sinful. I've got a disease. I've got a syndrome. I've got a special illness.
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I've got this, that, or the other. They don't understand their sinfulness and who they're sinning against.
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Question two of the Heidelberg Catechism. How many things are necessary for thee to know that thou, enjoying this comfort, mayest live and die happy?
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I've quoted that before. In the scheme of life and how busy things are and all the info and the glut of information, just can you boil down life for me please?
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What do I really need to know? How many things do I need to know? Answer from the Catechism three.
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I can take the notes for the three. How great my sins are? Guilt. How I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries?
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Grace. And three, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such a deliverance.
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If you don't know you've got a disease, you don't want the medicine. If you don't know you're miserable and guilty, you don't look for deliverance.
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Redeemed from what? I don't need redemption. If you don't know how sinful you were,
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Christian, then there's no real gratitude now. You get too busy and life's so hectic and frenetic.
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We've been delivered from great evil, our own sin, because of the Law. The Law preached, helped us understand this.
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Romans 3 .20 Through the Law is the knowledge of sin. We should be
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Law preachers. Now back to Matthew 19, please. Matthew 19.
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Here is Jesus dealing with this man. And we're going to learn soon enough, Mark says
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Jesus loved this man. He really loved him. This is not Jesus hating the man.
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You can tell people love other people when they preach the Gospel of them. They want them to go to heaven.
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They want them to know the standards of God. They want them to know who God is. There's just no preacher like this.
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Who does this? Somebody asks you a question about how do I earn heaven? Then we give them the
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Law answer. Why? Because we want them to flee from self so they flee to Christ. He's the only one who's kept the
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Law. Before I read this passage, speaking of Jesus keeping the
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Law, if Herod could have got his hands hypothetically, theoretically, on Jesus and killed
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Him before Jesus was sent to Exodus, what would have happened? There would not have been a time for Jesus to grow up and perfectly to love
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God and to love His neighbor and earning our righteousness and earning our merit and earning our salvation.
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He would have been killed as a child, no salvation, but God keeps him alive and Jesus is a man born under Law, Galatians says, and He perfectly obeys.
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When Jesus was told by the Father, do this and live, you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments,
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He did it. He did it. So we turn people away from themselves because they know they've broken the
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Law. When I was a kid, I had a BB gun, a Daisy BB gun. And then
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I graduated to some kind of other pump gun with a pellet gun. I'm trying to remember the name of it now.
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Like 18 pumps for a pellet. Anybody know the name of it? Mack Rowski, do you know the name?
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Thank you. I knew you were at the church for some reason. For like 20 years. Why is
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John here? Thank you. Just kidding. A little
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BB through a little glass window, no big deal. But that's not like breaking the
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Law. James 2, verse 10 talks about when you break the Law, it's not a BB gun. It's like a sledgehammer.
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It's like some kind of huge caterpillar tractor bulldozing down this sheet of glass.
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And then when you realize that, how many times do I have to spit in God's face before He condemns me? I am condemned.
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God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Matthew 19, 18.
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Jesus said to him, excuse me, He said to him, which ones? Okay, which ones?
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Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and notice what
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He adds here, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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Only Matthew adds that in there, to love your neighbor as yourself. Mark adds, do not defraud, probably specifically given because that man was rich.
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Matthew 19, 19. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Two great commandments.
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Love God, love your neighbor as yourself. You want a Law, you've got a
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Law question, I give you a Law answer. Matthew 19, 20. The young man said to Him, front loaded in the
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Greek is the next word as well, emphasizing this word all. All these
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I have kept, what do I still lack? This guy's not even honest because why go to Jesus if you've done all this?
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He knows deep down he's lacking something. And maybe it's because he's been watching Jesus and listening to Jesus and he realizes how he's lacking all these things
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I've kept from my youth. Well, if you've kept all these things from your youth, why are you asking Jesus for redemption?
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Mark says something by its absence. He doesn't say good teacher anymore in Mark 10.
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He just says teacher. I think this guy really thought he was doing it.
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I think when you evangelize other people, they say I'm a good person. I think they really think they are.
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But that's the deception of sin. That's the blindness of sin. And that is the superficial thinking of sin where you say, do you know what?
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I never murdered anybody. But what does Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount? If you've ever hated anybody, where?
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In your heart. It's like murder. It's not just this external, it's on the inside as well.
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I've met people before and they've said to me, I've never sinned in my entire life. I don't know what to tell people when they say that practically.
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It's like when I meet people and they go, oh yeah, what do you do in the church? I'm an apostle. I always think if I meet an apostle,
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I say, well, could you help me understand, let's use Sunday school this morning, the ordo salutis properly.
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Because if anybody could, it would be an apostle. But you don't even know what the hypostatic union is. How can you help me?
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You're no apostle. I've kept all these laws.
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I keep all these laws. Yes, maybe externally, maybe there's a conformity.
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Externally he keeps them. Like when Paul says before I was a Christian, Philippians 3, as to the law found blameless.
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I looked up some definitions of the word Christian. Here's Webster's Dictionary. A decent, civilized, or presentable person.
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A welcoming and affirming church. Random House.
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Exhibiting a spirit proper to a follower of Christ, Jesus. That's interesting.
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Jesus, from when I was a little kid, I've never sinned.
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I've always kept the law. Whatever has been asked of me by God, I've done. Heidelberg Catechism, Question 5.
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Can you keep all these things perfectly? Here's what this young man should have said. Answer.
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In no wise, for I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbor. I can't.
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I'd like to think I'm good. I have some reasonable sensibilities and etiquette, and I know how to dress up in front of people and all that.
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But deep down in the quietness of my heart, I'm a rebel and I'm sinful. And I'm already on my knees,
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Jesus. Would You please just give me mercy? I can't appeal to Your justice because I've broken the law.
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So God, would You give me mercy? Since You are good, and I can do no good thing, it would be good of You to just give me mercy.
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God, have mercy on me. I just watched You, Jesus, in the verses before this, in the encounter just before this, and Jesus, the text says, verse 13,
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Then the children were brought to Him that He might lay His hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuked the people.
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But Jesus said, Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of Heaven.
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And He laid His hands on them and went away. God, I know You're merciful.
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I know You love children. I know what You were looking for is not that they're just little kids, but they've got childlike faith.
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What do children do with the family to help support the family? When they're little, they don't do anything.
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I was waiting when Gracie was little to help me with the 401k. I was waiting for Maddie to help me with the gas bill and those horrible oil prices years ago.
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When they were little, I was waiting and waiting. But those kids, they just took, took, took, didn't they? Little children have nothing to offer.
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And they're just trusting in their parents' Word. They take their parents at their Word. And with this childlike faith, young men, that's what you need.
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You need to believe what I say about you and your sins. You need to believe what I say about me and my sinlessness.
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And you need to believe in who I am. I'm on my way to the cross. Chapter 19, verse 21,
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Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, go sell what you possess and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.
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As I mentioned before, Mark 10, it adds this, and looking at him, gazing at him, beholding him,
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Jesus felt a love for him. King James says,
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Jesus beholding him loved him, had compassion for him.
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This guy was lost. God loves the lost. He sent his
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Son, obviously, to die for the lost. He's given this man common grace, sun and the rain, taste buds, pleasures.
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He's given him love by admonishing him to not seek himself for salvation.
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Side note here to preach a little bit, to preach to me and to preach to you. If I don't think like Jesus, I hate the lost.
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These wicked people. I read the Drudge Report, I read Fox News, I read other news outlets online and I go, you know what?
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I want to just start playing the Doors song, This is the End, and having the helicopters come across in apocalypse now.
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This is the end. It's over. I mean, these people in this world are wicked beyond belief.
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Are they not? And you can watch Jesus. He's not repulsed.
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He's drawn in. He's drawn in and he doesn't just say, hey, you know, beat it, pal. You don't listen the first time.
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He's asking the diagnostic questions. He loves the man. Sometimes, I was going to say, it's easy to love other
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Christians and I was just going to say, what am I saying? It's hard to love sinners.
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It's hard to love homosexuals. It's hard to love terrorists. It's hard to love self -righteous people.
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But Jesus loved. And by the way, for all the times I don't love people, I am so glad there is the last
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Adam who loved. Right? For all of our sins, when we didn't love like we should in evangelism, there's one who did and I cling to him with you.
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One thing you lack, go and sell your possessions. Give to the poor. You don't get saved by giving your riches to poor people because then if that's the case, you have to be broke to get to heaven.
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Then you're condemning all the poor people because now they're rich. And then you've got to hand it on to the next one kind of like musical chairs.
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Whoever gets the bullying at the end loses. This man had a root sin and Jesus, the omniscient one, knew it was wealth.
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And you cannot serve God and money at the same time. And Jesus puts his finger on the man's sensitive sternum and says, you know what,
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I know whether it's your sternum or Achilles heel is money. That's the narrow gate for you.
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Verse 22, when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful.
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Luke says, exceeding sorrowful. Mark says, grieved for he had great possessions.
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Hey, if you just tell me to give 10%, I could do it. I've got to give it all away.
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By the way, Jesus, last time I checked, he was homeless. Foxes have holes.
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Birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. You want to follow me? This guy wanted
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God, but he didn't want God at the expense of his gold. He didn't want to have childlike faith that Jesus just commended earlier.
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And Jesus now said to his disciples, verse 23, we've got to wrap up. Truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.
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Why? Because of everything's trust and faith. Rich people trust their riches.
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That's what they're prone to do. Oh, there are Christian rich people, and Abraham was rich and all that, but it is a battle.
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They don't have to trust anything else because they can trust their riches. And God is wanting them to have their faith in not themselves nor their riches, but in himself, the triune
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God. Again, I tell you, verse 24, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
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I don't have time to go through all the false, bogus interpretations about little teeny -weeny
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Jerusalem gates that camels kneel down to get through. The context is, what is impossible with man, it is possible, by the way, for a camel to go through a tiny gate, but what's possible with man is impossible...
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Start over. What's impossible with man is possible with God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished.
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Then who can be saved? They knew it was no gate. They knew it was a literal camel, a literal needle, literal eye of a needle.
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Who then can be saved? Mark says they were even more astonished. They were astonished before, but now they're more astonished.
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And then Jesus says, as he looked at them, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
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When you evangelize your friends, I hope you remember that. Left to you, they'd never get saved.
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Left to them, they'd never get saved. Left to the world system, they'd never get saved. But when God wants to save someone, he does.
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There are two ways to enter heaven, theoretically. Do this and live.
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Keep the commandment. But if you can't do that, and you've been shown you can't do that, the other one is, the just shall live by faith.
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The law convicts and pushes us to Jesus Christ. Romans 8 says, For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.
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By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law, might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
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If you'd like an assignment church, here's my assignment. Just read the book of Matthew this week, and watch the
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Lord Jesus. Watch the Lord Jesus, and you'll see how he deals with sinners. You'll see how he deals with saints, and you'll say,
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You know Lord, I would like to be an evangelist like Jesus, and tell people the truth.
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Spurgeon said, Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself.
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And he also said, Every Christian is either a missionary, or an imposter. I could scold you into more evangelism,
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I could try to be an example to be more evangelistic, but I'd rather push you to the Lord Jesus Christ, and say, Watch this
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King Jesus evangelize, and I think that will motivate you. Father, I thank you for this day, where we can come before your word, and see
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Jesus Christ. The one who is holy, holy, holy.
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Yet the one who is very merciful, good, and compassionate. The text says,
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You are in heaven, and you do whatever you please. And we are very thankful, that it's pleased you to save many sinners.
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Never heard of the rich young ruler, after he walked off, he just walks off the pages of scripture, maybe to a
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Christless eternity. Father, we have friends and relatives, who are just like that, trusting in themselves.
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Would you help us to be bold, and Christ -like, and give them good news, to give them the law first.
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And Father, for those of us here today, who are Christians, we're thankful that you intercepted us.
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We could know, and know why save ourselves, no possible way. Be like a camel going through a sewing needle's eye.
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We could never do it, but you saved us, because you were merciful and kind. We were lawbreakers,
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Jesus was the law keeper, and you have saved us, because of his great work.
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We're thankful that he's raised from the dead, and that now for us as Christians, we can look to him to say,