Saved By Works? - [Luke 18:15ff]

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One of my favorite things to read outside theological things and the matters of the
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Lord Jesus is Polar Adventures, Antarctica, I think of Ernest Shackleton and the
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Endurance, one of my favorite stories of all time. And so since I'm so fascinated in Antarctica, I thought
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I'd watch a little documentary on Antarctica. And it was fascinating. I thought to myself,
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I almost got cold even watching it. And probably the most insightful or interesting thing to me was something that they talked about and it was called the
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Antarctic Blues. The Antarctic Blues. And what happens is you're out in Antarctica for so long and your thyroid is working so hard to keep your body warm, you begin to lose focus, you kind of get moody and anxious, you get irritable, your body's trying to adapt to things and before you know it, you can't focus and you just kind of have this arctic stare, they call it.
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And now they've named it, it's called the Polar T3 Syndrome and they can give you a remedy of looking at lights, red lights, vitamins, but especially if they give you a thyroid supplement, it takes away the forgetfulness and the arctic stare.
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I began to think to myself, well, I wonder if there's such a thing as a spiritual arctic stare, kind of forgetting the things that are most important in the
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Christian life, despairing because of our sin, struggling to just kind of understand life properly.
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What's the remedy for the spiritual Antarctic stare? And of course, when you talk to little children, when we had
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Sunday school, remember Sunday school? How many people are old enough to remember Sunday school? There's not
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Sunday school in the Bible, although it's not necessarily a bad thing. And you ask your little one, what'd you learn in Sunday school today? And they're like, wasn't paying attention.
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And they say, Jesus. And you're like, yes, that's the right answer, Jesus. What's the remedy or solution for kind of spiritual lethargy, spiritual depression, a lack of focus?
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And the answer happens to be the Lord Jesus Christ. It should not shock us to be reminded that we are his people because of the
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Lord Jesus. And things like this would be important for us to remember. We are not going to struggle today with our position in Christ because it's secure.
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Our sins have been forgiven. God remembers them no more, obviously the new covenant. Micah chapter seven, he hurls our sins.
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He's eager to forgive. And we need to be reminded of who we are in Christ Jesus and that we're accepted by the
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Lord because of Jesus. God's not mad at you, Christian. God accepts you based on the work of his son.
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And so today, I'd like to take a look at Luke 18, where you just finished Hebrews a while ago.
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We're doing a few one -offs. Today, we're gonna look at Luke 18. And here's what we're going to do. These are maybe some purposes as you turn your
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Bible to the gospel of Jesus according to Luke. I want you to see continuities in the
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Bible, specifically here in the gospels. Too often we look at a passage and we forget what's before it and what's after it.
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And you're gonna see in our passage today three very well -known sections of scripture, but today you'll see that they're related.
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There's a reason why one thing comes before another and one thing follows another. Another purpose for my sermon this morning is as we look at Luke 18,
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I want you to see Jesus in all his glory. Yes, he's setting his face to the cross and he will one day die and be raised from the dead, but in the meantime, he's teaching.
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I want you to see Jesus, the greatest teacher. I want you to see how he blesses people because we'll see that in our passage.
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I want you to see how he loves unbelievers and how he tells them the truth, how he evangelizes.
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I want you to say after the sermon today, there's no one like Jesus. Nobody talks this way, acts this way, does these things.
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I want you to echo what the Belgic Confession says of Jesus. For neither in heaven nor among the creatures on earth is there anyone who loves us more than Jesus does.
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Suppose we had to find another intercessor. Who would love us more than he who gave his life for us even though we were his enemies?
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And suppose we had to find one who has prestige and power, who has as much of these as is seated at the right hand of the father.
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So I want you to see, as we go through this passage, the glory and the free grace and the mercy of the
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Lord Jesus. A third purpose. If you're not a Christian and you're here today, after hearing these words of Jesus, I want you to rest in Jesus, to trust in him, to rely on him, to renounce any kind of self -righteousness and to think rightly about your sin and repent.
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And you think, you know what? I need to trust in Jesus because one day, in fact, you will die and stand before God and you need this
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Jesus, not to just be your teacher, but your savior. And then lastly, if you're a
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Christian, I want you to watch Jesus in this passage and then say, even though life is difficult,
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I can still trust him. In spite of circumstances, this God, the second person of the
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Trinity, he is faithful and he is the one who redeems.
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He not only has the power to change my life as I'm sanctified, but he had the power to give me new life and he had the power to justify me based on his perfect righteousness.
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So Luke chapter 18, and you know these three passages, we're going to look simply today at three sections and they're probably kind of marked off in your
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Bible and you'll be able to see them with the margins. We're gonna first look at Luke 18, nine to 14, the
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Pharisee and the tax collector. And then we're gonna see Luke connect the next section, verses 15 through 17, that will be our second section.
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And then finally, the last section with the rich young ruler, verses 18 and following. So I want you to see these three scenarios here in the book of Luke and I want you to connect them together because after today's sermon, you'll go, oh, they are connected together and I ought to read the rest of the
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Bible. Yes, even the rest of the gospels this exact way. So before I get into the passage, you wanna always ask yourself what's going on with the gospel of Luke.
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Luke is a physician and Luke has been inspired by the spirit of God and he writes about the good news of Jesus in an orderly fashion.
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That's what chapter one talks about. And he wants to lay it out like a good doctor would. This is exactly how you should think about Jesus.
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Why? Well, for lots of reasons, but so you might see his glory and trust in him, that's right at the top. There are other issues in Luke about Jews and Gentiles and things like that, but the main issue is,
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Jesus is the son of God and the son of man. He's perfectly God, perfectly man. You need to trust him for your salvation.
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So scene one, section one of Luke 18, verses nine through 14.
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And again, you know this well, but let's just work through it fairly quickly. The Pharisee and the tax collector.
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He, Jesus, also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.
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And if you understand when Jesus gives a parable, why he's telling it, it'll unlock it. And so whenever you read a parable, you say to yourself, why is that given?
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And in this particular case, it's simple and it's easy because he tells us. He tells us that people were trusting in themselves.
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Boy, we would never do that. I mean, this is just so odd to me and alien that I would never see anybody else do this.
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And of course, I'm exaggerating. People trusted in themselves that they were righteous. And if you look at the word righteous, the root word is right.
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I do the right thing. Therefore, I trust myself. I don't need somebody else to do the right thing for me.
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I don't need someone else's righteousness. I do the right thing. Self -righteousness essentially is worse than unrighteousness because the unrighteous person, the prostitute, she or he knows they need righteousness and that's not right, but the self -righteous person thinks they do right and therefore they don't need any other righteousness.
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They trusted in themselves over and over and over. It's a present tense. They just, that's all they do is they trust in themselves.
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They were confident in themselves. And when you treat other people with contempt, you'll be able to see that at the root, you think you're great and they're not all that.
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And so you have contempt on those other people. I do things right and other people don't.
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No trust in God with these people. Self -righteous. And so now he gives this little kind of cameo of these two people.
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You know the passage, verse 10. Two men went up into the temple to pray. Common scene, happens a lot.
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Go give a sacrifice or pray. That's what you do in the temple. Nine o 'clock or three o 'clock is when they go.
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One, a Pharisee, your next door neighbor. You want your neighbor to be a Pharisee. Keeps the law, steadfast, meticulous, holy, at least on the outside.
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And the other, you want these people to stay someplace else, a tax collector. Tax collectors were despised.
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They were despicable. They went against their own country. You hated these people. He's given us a little scenario.
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It's like the homeschool mom and the person that marches in the gay pride parade.
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They both went to pray. Couldn't be more polar opposite. The most pious people, the prayers, the
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Pharisees, and then the terrorists, the slave trader.
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Whatever you think's the worst in life. And so what about the Pharisee? Standing by himself, prayed thus.
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God, verse 11, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
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Matter of fact, I go above and beyond the law. I fast twice a week, which wasn't required. And I give tithes of all that I get.
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Literally in the Greek, he prayed to himself. God, look at how great I am. Tolstoy said of himself,
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I have not yet met a single man who was morally as good as I. That's this guy.
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And you can feel and you can sense the self -righteousness that oozes out of him. He's called self -righteous and he acts self -righteously.
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Makes up his own rules, adds extra things to the scripture so then he can keep them. Law after law, after law, after law.
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God, I'm so glad I'm me. Matter of fact, do you see the
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Pharisee thanking God for really anything other than what he was in and of himself?
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He thought he was keeping the law. He thought he actually had gone beyond the law. He was congratulating
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God for making such a fine person. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying,
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God, be merciful to me. Literally, the sinner. God, I have no righteousness.
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I don't do right. It's true what you say of me. I am sinful.
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I have fallen from the glory of God. I have nothing to bring to you. I'm not good. I have no self -esteem.
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I offer nothing. But I know you're gracious. I know you're merciful. And would you please be merciful to me?
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I'm reminded of the leper. And he said, you know what, Jesus? I know you can do it, but will you? You don't owe me anything, but I know you save sinners.
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And what's fascinating, do you notice the text where it says, have mercy upon me? That's where we get the word propitiation.
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That's where we get the word God's placated his wrath. He's assuaged his wrath. He's poured out his wrath on another, a substitute.
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God, would you punish someone else? I deserve the punishment. But in your economy of substitution, going back to Adam in the garden where the animal was killed for Adam and Eve, and then going to the
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Passover where the animal was killed for the family, going to the Day of Atonement where the animal was killed on behalf of, in the place of the nation.
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There is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, a substitute. I need a substitute, because otherwise
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I'm going to be judged. Have mercy on me. I don't have any other hope.
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Please be merciful. Let your anger be removed. He knew his sin.
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His conscience was bothering him. He was ashamed. And by the way, he doesn't care who hears, because he's only thinking about one.
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What's Jesus say about this? Verse 14. I tell you, this man, speaking of the tax collector, went down to his house justified.
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He was declared righteous. He was right in God's courtroom.
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This is the doctrine of justification. He was justified. He's no longer condemned.
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That's the opposite word. Rather than the other, the Pharisee. Now don't miss this. For everyone who exalts himself like the
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Pharisee, I am great. I'm not like these other people. I need no salvation. I'm good, thanks.
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They're going to be humbled. What's the ultimate humbling? Of course, the eternal lake of fire.
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That will be a humbling place. But the one who humbles himself, like this tax collector,
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I offer nothing, will be exalted. Did you know there's nobody too sinful to be saved?
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The blood of Christ is so great, we even take a tax collector and they could be saved.
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Jesus says this with authority. When you see the words, I tell you, that is a formula that introduces authority.
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Jesus, the God -man, has authority to do this very thing. Warren Wiersbe, interestingly said, again, we have a study in contrast.
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The Pharisee talked to himself and about himself, but the publican prayed to God and was heard.
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The Pharisee could see the sins of others, but not his own sins. While the publican concentrated on his own needs and admitted them openly.
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And so just to stop, to make sure this is not just information about other people. One day we'll all stand before God, young and old, male, female, blue collar, white collar, and everything in between.
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You have one option to say, this is why I should come to heaven, God, is because I'm good.
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I did these good things. I was civilly good. I was politically good. I was morally good.
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I was ceremonially good. I've been confirmed. I've been baptized. I've been catechized.
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I know the Heidelberg, all these other things. I've got it all. This is why you should accept me.
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And those people will be humbled, and I don't want you to be those people. What's the other option?
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Lord, I actually deserve to go to hell because I'm not doing right, righteous things.
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I'm a lawbreaker. And just one sin is enough to keep me out of your presence.
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If you just think of some kind of asbestos, you know, a sin barrier that you're going to need to be in God's presence.
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If there's one chink in the armor, James chapter two, there's one O -ring that's gone.
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It's done. To stand before God, you need a perfect obedience. You need a perfect righteousness.
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You need exact righteousness. And so be the one that humbles themselves now and looks to the
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Lord for mercy. If you're not a Christian, that'd be a great prayer. God, would you please give me mercy?
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Well, what happens is, as we go to this next section, people don't put these two together. This kind of read, and they're paragraph after paragraph, or if you're a seminary student, pericope after pericope, and you just kind of keep reading.
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But I want you to read slowly in life. It does you no good if you're a speed reader and you don't understand, read slowly.
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The divine author and the human author want you to see the connection. So we go from a
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Pharisee and a tax collector to now someone, some little ones.
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Now, before I read verse 15, do not forget the last sentence of verse 14.
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That is the key to unlock what's coming. And you're going to see the word humbled and humbles, and that will unlock for you the next section.
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Next section is not about anything except humility. Let's find out if I'm true.
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Let's find out if I'm right. Section two in the gospel, according to Luke, to get you to have a high view of who
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Jesus is and respond rightly. Now, they were bringing even infants to touch him that he might, excuse me.
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Now, they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. Is there a thematic theme?
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Does this kind of go over from verses nine through 14? They're bringing even infants.
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Now, remember, Luke is a doctor. Luke comes up with some words. He doesn't come up with them. He's given these words, of course, by inspiration, but he talks like a doctor.
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And lots of people just use the word children. It could be a child at any age. He uses the word here, infant, a tiny little one.
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Just think of like six month old, a year old. And the language in the original is simple.
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They kept bringing over and over and over. Now, there was a tradition that said, you know what, when your kids are one years old, you bring them to the rabbi in town and he'll bless them.
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And you can think about Jacob and blessing in Genesis chapter 48 and laying the hand on and switching it to give the blessing.
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That's just what they do. They would bless, blessing the children. That's a very commonplace thing.
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So there's Jesus. Hey, let's bring our children to be blessed by him. Even infants, that he might touch them.
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And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. So the scene is they kept bringing, they kept rebuking.
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The parents kept bringing, the disciples kept rebuking. What's going on here?
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Do you think Jesus loved babies? Think Jesus loves infants? I mean, you can find the most hardened man in the mafia gang member and hand them a little six month old and they love to receive those little ones.
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How much more the perfect God man? And here Jesus loving children is gonna bless them.
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The people are bringing their children for a blessing. That same word bringing is
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I bring a sacrifice for my sins. It's a religious thing. I'd like to have a blessing from Jesus.
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I want him to touch them, lay his hands on them. And the disciples are standing in his way.
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By the way, they love to do this. They don't maybe love it, but they do it all the time. Getting rid of the people.
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It was evening, disciples came to him. This place is desolate and the hour's already late. So send the crowds away.
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And Jesus said to them, they do not need to go away. Give them something to eat. Bring them here to me.
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He said of the five loaves and two fish. Canaanite woman, she keeps asking, asking, asking
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Jesus to heal the daughter and his disciples came and implored him saying, send her away because she keeps shouting at us.
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It couldn't be Jesus. You know what? These people are bugging us. You've got too many other things to do. But deep down, this is what most likely is happening.
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Do you know what? Let's save the blessings for people that can respond.
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I mean, if you're gonna spend all this time blessing some people, not the others, at least if you bless powerful people, adult people, rich people, it kind of gives you something back.
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These children, they are dependent. They are humble. They are helpless. What do they offer?
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And that's exactly going to be the point here. That's exactly the point. Verse 16, but Jesus called to him saying, let the children come to me.
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Why? Because I'm gonna bless them. Do not hinder them, stop it. For to such, look at that language carefully, to such belongs the kingdom of God.
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Leave them alone. To such, what do you mean to such?
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What do children offer the family? Love, diapers,
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I don't know, everything in between. But here's what they don't offer, and I have four children. When my daughters and son was six months old, they never contributed to the light bill, never took out the trash, never killed a spider.
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I mean, you could at least do something, right? They contribute nothing. That's the point.
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Do you see it? Do you see we're already hearkening back to, God accept me for what I've done, to there's nothing
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I can offer. Children are helpless, dependent. They're humble.
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They trust. Dad does it all. I have no claim.
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As a child, they could be singing this song by Top Lady.
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Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace.
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Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die.
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The only way you get into the kingdom is with a childlike dependence. I have nothing to offer.
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You have to do it all for me. Could you be merciful to me, Lord, the sinner? What a great picture.
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These children not only receive the blessing of Jesus, but also Jesus uses them as the perfect object lesson of saving faith and trust and rest and reliance.
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Verse 17, he confirms it with a solemn declaration. Front -loading the verily, front -loading the amen.
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Unlike other rabbis, truly, solemnly, verily, amen,
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I say to you. Here's the point, everyone. Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, heaven itself, like a child, not a child, not that you have to get saved when you're little, like a child shall not enter it.
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Double negative for emphasis. The only way to get to heaven is to have childlike faith that says,
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I offer nothing, I offer my sins, but besides that, I offer nothing to you. As my brother would say regularly, you're not gonna get into heaven and fist bump
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God and say, we did it. That's why when people say, you know what, but I'm bringing religious things, no.
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Ceremonial things, no. These children were not proud like the
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Pharisees. They were humble like the tax collector, a dependent attitude.
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And that's what everyone here needs to get into heaven. Saving faith is an attitude that says, I offer nothing, but I trust in your promises about the risen son.
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And you say, if you trust in him and believe he lived the perfect life, he was virgin born. He did all those miracles that the text talks about.
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He can walk on water. He can tell the sea waves to stop. He can raise himself from the dead.
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He's ascended in heaven. I trust in that Jesus. That's childlike faith. I found it fascinating looking at the
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Westminster larger catechism about faith. Listen to what it says. Justifying faith is a saving grace wrought in the heart of a sinner by the spirit and the word of God, whereby he being convinced of his sin and misery, listen, and of the disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receives and rests upon Christ and his righteousness for pardon of sin.
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Did you hear that? Disability in himself. I'm like the tax collector. I can't get myself to heaven.
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I'm not able. I'm disabled. I'm unable. That's childlike faith.
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No merit of our own. No wonder Romans three says, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
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Romans chapter four, and to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
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There's only two ways to heaven. Way one is try to get there by obedience, perfect obedience.
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And way two is by faith. Okay, so let's think about this for a second. Luke 18, nine to 14.
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Pharisee, tax collector. Pharisee thought he was righteous. Tax collector knew he needed mercy. So now we have an amplification of that and a description of the one who needed mercy.
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Our humility was shown. Dependence was the child. Well, now we need the other illustration, and we find that now in the next section with the rich young ruler.
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These three go together. The Pharisee is the rich young ruler. The tax collector is the child in terms of this illustration as you think through it.
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So now we move to the rich young ruler. Verse 18.
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And a ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
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Okay, good question, bad question. Don't knee -jerkly respond.
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Trick question, thinking person's question. What do I do to inherit eternal life?
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What do I do? What must I do? Okay, is it a good question or not?
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Well, many people would say, that's an awful question. That's a horrible question. He lives in a works righteousness world and he's gonna try to earn himself to heaven.
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Well, he does live in a works righteousness world and he is gonna try to earn himself to heaven. But the question is a good question.
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What must I do? That's a fair question. And people ask that all the time back in the day. What do I need to do?
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If somebody comes up to you on the street and says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? I hope you don't say, that's a really stupid question.
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Because by the way, Jesus isn't gonna think it's a stupid question. It is the question, the question of questions.
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Now there's a legal way to go about things, perfectly, entirely, exactly, perpetually obey.
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And if you perfectly obeyed God, why would he keep you out? That's the legal way. The doers of the law shall be justified,
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Romans 2 .13. But because of Adam's sin credited to us, it's impossible. Because we've committed sins in the past, it's now impossible.
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But if you perfectly obeyed God and had no sin when you died, he would not keep you out of heaven because he created you to obey him.
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That's the legal way to get in. The gospel way is, somebody else perfectly lived that life under the law.
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He didn't need to obey the law because he needed to earn righteousness for himself. He was inherently righteous.
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And therefore, Jesus obeys the law for us, to give to us, simultaneously pays for our law breaking and is raised from the dead.
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So you've got two options. The gospel option, trust. The law option, do. This guy's approaching
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Jesus with the law option. So what's he say? What do I do to inherit eternal life?
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What must I do? Now, what Jesus does first is he makes sure he has a good look at who
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Jesus is. And you can study this on your own. As it says, why do you call me good?
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No one is good except God alone. First, we're gonna deal with the goodness of God and who God is. And in fact,
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I am God in your presence. What must I do to inherit eternal life?
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Well, first of all, Jesus says, you're not good. God is good only.
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And he says, I would like to focus on this more than the last verse. You know the commandments. He did not say, dumb question works righteousness, man.
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You wanna get to heaven by obeying? Okay, obey. You know the commandments.
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Don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, don't bear false witness, honor your father and mother. If you'd like to get to heaven based on obedience, perfectly obey.
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And of course, again, it's only theoretical now because it's impossible. But Jesus is trying to show that man the law so that he would be
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Romans 3 .19, shut up to the law. When you're preaching to people like, well, I'm not really that bad.
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What do you do? You give them more law. Say, well, you know, but there's a couple of different ways of salvation.
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And you know, I think my good outweighs my bad. What do you do? You keep giving them the law because you're not gonna look to the savior until you know you're sinful.
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And so the law condemns. The law exposes. The law is good and righteous, but it does its job to make you go, you know what?
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If what you say is true, here's what the guy should have said. Maybe on the outside,
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I've kept it, but on the inside, you're right. And I'm gonna need mercy. But as self -righteousness backs itself into a corner, it just starts beating its breast more.
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Not in the good way, but the bad way. By the way, this passage, Mark's account, the man ran up to Him and knelt before Him.
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This is the easy pickings. This is the best evangelistic opportunity Jesus will ever have. What if somebody did that to you?
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Wouldn't you just say, you know what? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved? If somebody asked you, what must
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I do to be saved? What would you say? What kind of question are they asking? A law question or a gospel question?
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Acts 16, the jailer, what must I do to be saved? Is he asking a law question or a gospel question?
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A gospel question. What must I do to be saved? Is he a law question? Is it a gospel question?
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See, you're giving me the look like, what are you doing? I need to be rescued. You think it's law, what must
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I do? But I'd like to be rescued. Somebody has to rescue me. Technically, the answer is going to be, it's a gospel question because you know what happens?
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Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know you need to be saved. The law has already done its work. This man ran up to Jesus, knelt before him.
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I don't think he wants to lose his soul. I think he wants to go to heaven. I assume that's true for everyone here.
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You want to go to heaven. You don't want to burn in the lake of fire. No amnesia, no anesthesia, relentless torture in the presence of the
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Lamb, Revelation 14. If this man asked you the question, what must I do to be saved? What would you tell him?
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Let me give you the four spiritual laws. Would you tell him that? Would you say, here's a book,
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Heaven is for Real, and maybe you need to know about the veracity of heaven first. Would you say,
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I do creation evangelism, a Roman's road. Jesus just starts right away.
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You don't even know who you're talking to. Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
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Let's not talk about you for a second. Let's talk about the one you're sinning against. Sinfulness of man needs to be addressed, and then he starts with the law.
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Do you know that calling me good is calling me God? I mean, think about what the guy should have done. If you're in the presence of God, what's the right posture?
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Oh, you say he was kneeling, but it should have been a full on his face. Remember when
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Jesus was in the boat and saved Peter and the man and Peter fell on his face and said, depart from me for I am a sinful man, oh
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Lord. It should never have been, oh, I don't commit murder, I don't commit adultery, I don't do those things.
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I'm in your presence, the holy one, the good one, and I can see now that compared myself, well, to the tax collector, to other people might be one thing, but before you,
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I am undone. If you're good and you're God, I'm undone, I need salvation. He wouldn't see it, so Jesus gives more law.
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Matthew 19 of this account, Jesus said, if you would enter life, keep the command. If you would enter life, keep, because after all
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Romans two is true. 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, he will give eternal life.
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If you could only perfectly and perpetually and precisely obey God perfectly, you get in.
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But one sin will not let you stand before his indignation and abide in the fierceness of his anger, nahum.
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So what happens? He said, all these things
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I have kept for my youth, since my bar mitzvah,
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I'd done it all. So now Jesus is going to use an application of the law to even go further.
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When Jesus heard this, he said to him, one thing you still lack, sell all that you have, distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.
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That's what you should do. What must I do to inherit eternal life? And when he heard these things, he became very sad for he was extremely rich.
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The Bible makes it clear. Cursed is everyone who does not abide all things written in the book of the law and to perform them.
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So we need a representative. We need someone to do that in our place as our federal head.
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We need somebody to pay for the sins that we committed when we didn't do those things. What does the text go on to say?
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You know it well. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said how difficult it is for those who have wealth, resources, they're not helpless, they're not dependent, to enter the kingdom of God.
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It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard it then said, who can be saved?
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What is impossible with man is possible with God. If you go to Israel with us in a few months,
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I don't know if anybody will be going, but if you do go with us, they're gonna say, well, in the 15th century, they uncovered something called the needle gate.
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And it was back in the Bible days. And you'd have this camel and it'd have to get down on its knees and kind of scrunch through.
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And it was very difficult to get that camel to lay down. And I don't know if you've ever ridden a camel, but when it bends down on its back knees and front knees and all this kind of stuff.
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And you know, go through that gate, it's hard. It's not hard. First of all, there's no needle gate that was ever in the
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Bible. Jesus' point is talking about impossibility. If you'd like to be saved by your own righteousness, by your own works, by your own baptism, catechism, confirmation, your parents are
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Christians, whatever it is, it's better to say to yourself, you know what? Huh, could a camel go through the eye of a sewing needle?
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Matter of fact, one scholar determined how long that bloody mess of a dental floss looking piece of thread.
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That's what I'm looking for. A bloody thread would go on for miles if you had to jam a camel through a sewing needle's eye.
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It's impossible because you can't save yourself. It has to be done to you. That's why
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Jesus came. If you can save yourself, you don't need Jesus. Maybe just come and coach you and clap for you.
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A way to go, the law and the gospel are different.
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This is what you must do, and this is what's been done for you. And if you ask them the question, what do
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I do? I'll tell you. And then when you're at the end of yourself, then I'll tell you what's been done for you, and you need to trust in that.
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Actually, Mark says, Jesus loved this man, but Jesus would not compromise the standards of God.
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So what happens when you come to a passage like this? One of the things I want you to do is when you're reading the
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Bible and the gospels in particular, ask yourself, what is the writer doing? So then later when you see
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Judas stealing the money and the very next passage is the woman who takes the costly ointment in the nard and breaks it and puts it all over Jesus, you'll go, oh,
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I see what's happening there. The Pharisee and the tax collector parable fleshed themselves out in, the tax collector is seen as a humble one, like childlike faith, and the
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Pharisee is fleshed out to show you this is what the rich young ruler looks like. He doesn't think he needs salvation.
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Now, I don't know if you read much of Jerry Bridges, but you ought to read Jerry Bridges. For every book that you read on how to this, how to that, how to that, you ought to read about five other books, but one should be
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Jerry Bridges. A friend of mine who was racked with legalism and how can I be accepted in God's presence read the
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Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges 30 times to make sure he realized that God doesn't forgive,
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God doesn't remember your sins anymore. He forgives your sins. That even though you don't measure up during the week, you're not accepted by God based on your measuring up.
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I mean, let's just be honest, just for a quick second. How was your week this week? Do you think based on your works this week,
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God would completely accept you based on your works? We are a wicked people.
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I'm a wicked man and you are wicked. And even if it's a small little sin, it's against the infinite
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Holy God. Small sin or big sin are both against an infinitely
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Holy God. Why do you think we regularly celebrate the Lord's Supper? It's to remind you salvation is outside of you and we approach
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God today, not because we had a good week. Most of us had a bad week, a horrible week.
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If you think about how many times you didn't do the law or live up to the law, but that's when the
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Lord Jesus and his promises are felt the most, believed the most. So have you ever read with Jerry Bridges something called
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Good Day, Bad Day? And so I'm gonna just give you Jerry Bridges little scenario when closing a good day, bad day.
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Here's Jerry Bridges' good day. You wake up on time to the alarm. You go open the
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Bible and have a wonderful quiet time. You pray for people. And just the day's kind of fallen into place.
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You got the right attitude. And out of nowhere, you have an opportunity to preach the gospel to somebody.
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And you're preaching to them and you're silently praying that the Holy Spirit might save them. That's the good day.
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Bad day. You shut off your alarm and go back to sleep. No quiet time, no
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Bible reading, no prayer time. Running out of the door, gulping down breakfast.
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Kind of feel like, you know, this is not going too well. I didn't start off the day well. And you find someone who's really interested in talking about who
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Jesus is. Bridges' question. Would you enter those two witnessing opportunities with a different degree of confidence?
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The good day and the bad day, which day has more confidence? Would you be less confident on the bad day or on the good day?
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Bridges, if you answered yes to those questions, you have lots of company among believers. I've described these two scenarios to a number of audiences and asked, would you respond differently?
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And 80 % said they would. Why though, do we think this way, Bridges says, quote, it is because we do not believe that God's blessings on our lives is somehow conditioned, excuse me, it is because we do believe that God's blessings on our lives is somehow conditioned upon our spiritual performance.
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I had a good day, therefore God's really pleased with me and he accepts me.
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I've had a bad day and therefore I'm not as pleasing to God. Friend, both Christians, if you think about this passage, the just shall live by what?
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Faith with the right object. And then that drives me to say, I want to live a holy life. I want to pray.
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I want to be obedient. It doesn't make me do the opposite. It drives me to holiness. Christian, you're good with God because it's by faith in what he did, not based on your good works and never fall into the
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Galatians error that says, you know what, I'm good with God to start and now I am on my own because frankly, how's that working out for you?
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It doesn't work out. The double benefit of Jesus is justification and sanctification.
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They go together although they're separate. The pardon of sin, the power of sin.
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And you stand before God accepted today based on the work of Jesus. So go have a good day and read your
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Bible. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for these three accounts that would teach us that it is faith.
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And we realize even today that it's not something we even come up with. That faith is a gift. All of salvation is a gift.
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But we would like to keep believing. So keep us, Father, and increase our faith.
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For the Christians here, would you remind them by your spirit's power that their sins are covered, the sins are put away.
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You're not some reluctant giver, you love, forgiver, you love to forgive.
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And you have promised that for all those who trust in Jesus. And for those who are here today who have heard this offer of free grace by faith alone, for those people who will not bend the knee,
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I pray that you will not give them any rest or sleep until they trust in you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.