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[0:00] Matthew chapter 19 this morning our focus of verses will be verses 16 through 30. We'll be finishing up the 19th chapter. We'll be in Matthew 19 starting at verse 16 and getting down to verse 30.

[0:12] I dare say it will be a very familiar set of scripture to us and as always the danger in which we come to scriptures which we are at least a little bit accustomed to, we need to ensure that the familiarity of the text does not remove the power or the authority of it as it speaks to our hearts and minds.

[0:26] Again, we are in a text that is recorded in all three synoptic gospels. That means it is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is not recorded in the gospel of John, but that is okay. We get differing viewpoints from this when we read each of those three synoptics.

[0:40] It is found in the 10th chapter of Mark and the 17th chapter. Let me see if I'm right. I think it's the 17th chapter of Luke, 17th or 18th. You'll have to check me on that and I expect that you will check me on that and I appreciate you for your diligence.

[0:53] But we will be reading the account as Matthew records it in the 19th chapter of Matthew 19 starting in verse 16 and going through verse 30. So if you are physically able and desire to do so, I'm going to ask if you would join with me as we stand together and we read the word of God and then we'll go from there.

[1:10] It says, And someone came to him and said, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life? And he said to him, Why are you asking me about what is good? There is only one who is good.

[1:22] But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. Then he said to him, Which ones? And Jesus said, You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

[1:36] The young man said to him, All these things I have kept. What am I still lacking? And Jesus said to him, If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.

[1:49] And come, follow me. But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

[2:04] Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, Then who can be saved?

[2:16] And looking at them, Jesus said to them, With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Then Peter said to him, Behold, we have left everything and followed you.

[2:28] What then will there be for us? And Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, that you who have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

[2:41] And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or farms for my namesake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

[2:55] You may be seated. Matthew 19, verses 16 through 30, is often the account of the rich young ruler. We find out that he is young here.

[3:06] We find him to be a ruler in the other gospel accounts, and I know that some of the accounts may read a little bit different in the New American Standard, of which I read from. If you're reading from the King James, the New King James, there are some additional words.

[3:18] He refers to him as the good teacher, which is something that we find which correlates with the gospel of Mark, and also Luke. It is there that he is referred to as good, even though we understand it through some of the earliest manuscripts we have.

[3:31] Matthew did not record that word, good teacher, just refer to him as a teacher. But let's put it all in its sitting here. We know that through the historical backgrounds, we've been making our way through the gospel of Matthew, that Jesus is now, starting in Matthew 16, with the great confession of Peter, as to who Christ was or is, everything changes, right?

[3:51] No longer is there the validation of the king. No longer is he trying to prove and to validate the reality of who he is. Now man has finally grasped who he is, and now he begins to speak of what he's going to do.

[4:03] And we have said that he's set his face towards Jerusalem. We get that with the reading and the combining of the three synoptic gospels, and we count all the festivals at which he celebrated, and that's how we come up with our historical timeline.

[4:16] But at this point, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. Historically, he's on his way to Jerusalem for the last time. This will be the time when he is at Jerusalem that he has the triumphant entry.

[4:27] He comes in, and they end up handing him over at the Passover festival. He is the lamb slain at the Passover, and we understand that he is going for the last time. This will be the time of his crucifixion, his death, his burial, and eventually his resurrection.

[4:42] We know that while he's on that way, a lot of questions come to him. They spoke about who's great in the kingdom of heaven. How can they do this? The little children were brought to him. People tried to discourage that, but yet he called them and set them upon his lap, and he blessed them, and he prayed over them.

[4:56] And here we find, again, as he's on his way, that one comes up to him with this staggering question. And I want us to see this morning that we have the Savior here, if you have to have a title, is Answering Man's Greatest Question.

[5:10] Answering Man's Greatest Question. And we understand this because this essentially is the great longing of man. And that's the first thing we see is this longing of mankind to which is brought before Christ.

[5:26] In 1991, a professor named Dr. Rue stood before the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and gave a speech.

[5:38] And in his speech, the title of his speech was The Saving Grace of a Noble Lie. And in his speech, he went through the reality that science has since discredited God and come to the conclusion that man came out of nothing and man is essentially returning to nothing.

[5:56] Since we came from nothing and we are going to nothing, and there is no greater power, according to Dr. Rue, because science has in the last couple of years or the last couple of centuries determined at that time that man no longer needs this crutch of religion, that man now has to find a way how to live cohesively with one another because man without a higher being or man without order all of a sudden is left up to his own being.

[6:22] And when man comes to the conclusion that he is the final end and that when his life is over, it's over, then all of a sudden it is very becoming upon him to preserve his own life at all costs and all things are permissible.

[6:35] By the way, if that was going on in 1991, how much more in 2022? And when man came to the reality that since there is no one that we are accountable to and since there is no one that we are going to give an account of our life before and since we are not going to anything, then essentially anything is permissible.

[6:58] That is, by the way, the end conclusion of the reality that God does not exist, that if there is no higher being, then there is no order, then there is no creation, then we can do whatever we want to.

[7:11] This is how we get the shifting and changing of what is true. And in order to alleviate that problem, Dr. Rue said, man needs to convince himself of this noble lie.

[7:23] And the noble lie is essentially that there is a reason for me to live and there is a reason for me to care what happens to you and there is a reason for me to be concerned what I do to you and there is a reason for me to concern myself with what goes on in society.

[7:36] Because without that noble lie, we'll just kill one another. And since science could come up with no other reason, we must lie to ourselves and try to convince ourselves, contrary to scientific understanding, that there is a reason for life.

[7:56] And what he was trying to propose, and I know it gets a little deep, but what he's trying to propose is that man has this great longing. And since man in his understanding can't figure it out, he's going to have to try to figure out a way to answer that longing.

[8:10] That longing was the very same thing that was brought to Christ. When someone approached him and said, teacher, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?

[8:23] Because the book of Ecclesiastes tells us that God has set eternity in the heart of man. From the very depth of our being, we wrestle with the reality that this cannot be it.

[8:39] That surely there is more to life than what is around us. That the end cannot be the end. That there has to be more. And even when we cannot understand it intelligently, and when we cannot understand it in some parts scientifically, and when we cannot understand it through all the great reasoning of man, we still have this longing within us that says, but there has to be a reason.

[9:04] There has to be an order. There has to be something that I'm going to because I have come from somewhere. And man has this great question.

[9:17] Some try to answer that question with a noble lie. They try to lie to themselves and say, well, there's nobody I have to give an account to. I just have to convince myself it's worth living good.

[9:27] And even them, even then they have a hard time reconciling what they claim to know and how they actually live. Some try to discount the longing and to fill that void, this vacuum within us with entertainment.

[9:41] Or as S.M. Locker says, some drink it away, some smoke it away, some puff it away, and some dope it away. But everybody's trying to do away with this great longing, and we see at least this one was intelligent enough to go to someone.

[10:00] Because as Christ is on his way to Jerusalem, it says, and one came to him and said, teacher, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?

[10:12] How can I answer this thing which is prodding inside of me? How can I answer this nagging within me which I cannot get rid of? That surely there is more to life than what's around me.

[10:25] But here we come upon the crux of the issue. Because as with so many others, this unnamed individual, and we do not need to know his name because it could have been any one of us, he was convinced that there was something he could do that would ensure he could answer the longing.

[10:45] What good thing must I do to fill this void, to answer this question, to meet this longing?

[10:56] What can I do to overcome this desire within me? And here is the wrestling of so many. Because when we come to the end of the matter, and we realize that there is nothing we can do, there is no pursuit of intellect, there is no pursuit of wealth, there is no pursuit of fame, there is no pursuit of happiness, there is no pursuit of ambition.

[11:17] And in the end, as the Bible tells us again in Ecclesiastes, that in the end all is vanity, vanity of vanities, everything is worthless, though he had all of the riches, all of the wealth, all of the pleasures, all of the society, the preacher there is referred to in the book of Ecclesiastes, says in the end, everything is vain, nothing matters.

[11:37] Because if in the end, it all goes back into the box and life is just over, then it really doesn't matter. Nothing we can do answers this great question.

[11:49] And here we find with this individual, he is asking the same question that so many of us, and so many in today, or I would say not so many that everyone in today is also asking, what good thing must I do?

[12:05] And when man realizes there's nothing good he can do, then we are confronted with the question, do we cast off all that is good and we do whatever we would want to do, or do we radically transform our lives and do what he's called us to do?

[12:18] And here, this individual comes up to him and says, how can I live? What can I do? William Lane Craig once said, that man, when he has removed God from the equivalent, can no longer live consistently and happy at the same time.

[12:37] That he cannot be consistent to what he claims to know and be happy at the same time. Because without the creator, there is no meaning to anything. And when there is no meaning, then there is nothing that brings us happiness.

[12:49] And here's the great longing. How do we reconcile that which God has put within our hearts and within our minds? How do we reconcile that which he has put to the very depth of our core being?

[13:00] Because the heart, by the way, in scripture always refers to the seed of emotion. So when it says that God has said eternity in the heart of man, it says he put him to the very core of his emotions. How do we answer that which we know, even though we may not know it intellectually, but within us, we know it to be true.

[13:16] How do we find the answer to that? How do we understand what is it that we can do? Here is the great longing of man. And Jesus responds to him and shows him the weakness of effort.

[13:31] The great longing of man is what can I do to inherit? And Jesus immediately points to him the weakness of effort. He says, why do you speak to me about what is good?

[13:42] There is only one who is good, and that is God. Now to us, that doesn't seem to make sense. But when we take it in this context, we understand. Because this individual had come to him asking about a good work.

[13:53] And Jesus says, there is no good work. There is a good God. There is nothing that you can do which will make you good. But there is only one who can declare you good. Now understand that, okay?

[14:03] There is no work which you can do which makes us good. There is only one who has the authority to declare us good. To be declared good is so much different than being made good, right?

[14:17] I can declare that you are good. But that doesn't mean that you have made yourself good, right? I can declare that this thing is right. That does not mean that you have earned that.

[14:28] And Jesus says, why do you talk to me about what is good? Why are you asking me what is it that you can do to be good? Because the reality at the end of that is there is nothing that you can do which would make you good.

[14:40] But there is one, namely God, who has the authority and the ability to declare you good. So rather than seeking what you may do, seek him.

[14:51] He misses the point. And Jesus wants to drive the point home. So he goes a little further with it and says, but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.

[15:04] Now we need to understand here that Jesus is not laying down a law. So Christ said, if I keep the commandments, I enter into eternal life. That's not what he is saying. He says that if you want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments.

[15:15] And he is setting him up to show him how he is not doing the very thing he proclaims to do or he claims to do. And he says, what do you mean? He says, well, if you want to keep the, if you want eternal life, just keep the commandments. He says, which one?

[15:26] And then Christ goes to listing the commandments, right? He's pretty, pretty clear in this. He says, you shall not commit murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness.

[15:36] Honor your father and mother. So far, everything is good, right? We have five commandments. And he adds one that's kind of the fulfillment of the commandments. It's not necessarily in the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. This is one given from Leviticus in which Jesus said was one of the two in which the entire law hung upon.

[15:51] Remember when that scribe came to him and said, you know, what is the fullness of the law? And he says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength. And the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself, right?

[16:02] So those are not the Ten Commandments. That is the Ten Commandments in a nutshell. He says, upon these, the whole law hangs. So then he makes this addition from the book of Leviticus. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

[16:14] By the way, that's intentional because he's going to show them how he's not doing that very thing. But in his own pride and in his own effort, this young man looks and says, all of these I have kept from my youth up. I've been doing this.

[16:24] And we're not here to discount his claim because Jesus never says you haven't done those things. You're not doing those things. He is really testifying to the reality that according to his efforts, he has done the best that he could for the entirety of his life.

[16:38] From his youth up, he has done what he could to do these things. And we have to kind of take it at face value. When they refer to him in the other Gospels as a ruler, more than likely he was a Pharisee, right?

[16:50] He was someone who was of the Pharisee at party. Much like what Paul would have been. Paul laid out in one of his writings his least testament of the law that he was a Pharisee.

[17:01] He was a keeper of the law. He was zealous for the law. He did all these things blameless according to the law. Now, this is not boasting. This is just testifying to the reality. And here we have this individual who says, I have been doing all of these things.

[17:15] But pay attention to this. Though he's been doing all of these things, there's this one prodding question. And he asked it, what else can I do? Though I've been doing everything you lay out for me, he says, all these things I've kept, what am I still lacking?

[17:34] Because here's the testimony. I have been keeping the law. But it doesn't seem to be enough.

[17:45] Not according to the standard of anyone else. But even in my own mind and even in my own being, I feel like I'm still lacking something. Here is one who could testify to the reality.

[17:57] I have been living legalistically. I have been living according to the standard which you've put out. But yet within me, something doesn't seem right.

[18:11] If the law could bring eternal life, then this man would have never asked the question, what could he do to inherit or to gain eternal life or to obtain eternal life?

[18:22] He is looking to obtain something which he has no claim on. Remember, if you were with me on Sunday night and Wednesday nights, we have just finished the book of Joshua.

[18:33] We're now in the book of Judges. Man, what a great book the book of Judges is, right? Very difficult book. We're going to make our way through it. But in the book of Joshua, there's this very particular word that is used when it speaks of the distribution of the promised land.

[18:45] Remember that? Each of the tribes got a part of the promised land. And they were broken up. You see it back there in the back of your Bible, that map. It's all color-coded in different colors. And there's a tribe of Judah in the middle of it.

[18:57] It's a tribe of Simeon. And then over here is Gad. And way up here is Gad, actually. And then there's Ephraim and Manasseh and all these, the Reubenites and all these different tribes that are there. Remember how the book of Joshua used this one particular word?

[19:08] And it's a word that was intentionally used. It says that this was their inheritance. That to each of them was given their inheritance.

[19:19] Not their earnings. Not their rewards. But their inheritance. Because an inheritance is something freely bestowed by the Father upon his children.

[19:31] Not earned as a return for good efforts. When this young man came to Christ, he asked about obtaining life. How can I earn it? And he was asking for an inheritance.

[19:44] But he wanted to earn it. He wanted to obtain it. And he wanted to get it by his own efforts. And Jesus tells him, well, if you think you can earn it, then do these things. He says, I've done all these things. Yet there's still this longing inside of me.

[19:57] There's still this nagging voice that tells me I still lack. What else do I need to do? How am I still lacking in being faithful? The reality is this, my friend.

[20:08] I know this seems to be a very technical message. But the reality is this. No matter how much good you do, you will still lack a full assurance that you have gained eternal life.

[20:23] I think it was Matthew Henry who once said, salvation is such a difficult matter, it is hardly believable that any would attain it.

[20:36] But yet when we understand and we comprehend, he goes on, the goodness of God, it is a wonder of how few seek after it.

[20:46] Yet when we are reminded of the sinfulness and wickedness of man, it is astounding that any are saved.

[20:57] The reality that God is so good and yet we are so not is the very thing that testifies to us there's nothing good enough we can do to ensure we're accepted before him.

[21:15] He is perfect and we are not. And this young ruler testifies to that. He says, what am I still lacking? So Jesus now goes beyond the legalistic and he gets to the heart of the matter and he starts dealing with the spirit.

[21:31] And we get to the third thing and that is the calling of the Savior. Now I love what Mark says here. Mark says, and Jesus looking at him and loving him said.

[21:45] Which means that everything that comes after this comes from the love of the Savior. So he wasn't looking at him and trying to impose some unattainable standard.

[21:55] He wasn't looking at him and doing something that he knew that just to be mean. He was doing it because he loved him. He was about to call him to something out of love for him.

[22:05] And looking at him and loving him, he said. Matthew doesn't record that. Mark records it for us. He says, if you want to be complete or perfect, go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor.

[22:21] Which, by the way, is the end fulfillment of love your neighbor as yourself. He says, if you really tell me that you love your neighbor as yourself, then go give your neighbor everything you've kept for yourself.

[22:34] Now, just to be clear. This is not a legalistic expectation for all believers. This is Jesus dealing with this one individual before him.

[22:46] Don't make it a law and letter. Don't make it legalistic. Let's see what Christ is doing with it. He proclaims to have kept all these things. So Jesus challenges him on one of those things which he claims to have done.

[23:00] He says, then go sell everything you have. Give it to the poor and you will have riches in heaven. And come follow me. And he did that as a result of his love for him.

[23:12] But it says that this young man, his countenance fell. He became very sad because he had many, many possessions. And he walked away. Because, see, the call of the Savior is not to a greater devotion to law keeping.

[23:28] The call of the Savior is not to greater effort. It is rather a call to a greater commitment to himself. He is meeting him where he's at. And he claims to have kept these law to the latter.

[23:41] He says, I'm doing everything that you've told me to do. And he says, okay, well then let's test that. Are you willing to take it to its natural end? And he wasn't willing. Because man wants to go so far in his efforts.

[23:52] But Jesus is asking for a full surrender of commitments. And the call of Christ here is not necessarily to sell everything and give it away. It is to trust that the Savior is enough.

[24:05] And to be willing to live all and follow him. Now he doesn't ask everyone to sell everything they have and give it to everybody and follow him. But let's also not say he doesn't ask anyone.

[24:17] Because there are some that he asks to do that. There are still some today which he looks at them and says, sell everything you have and give it away and follow me. But he doesn't do it for everyone.

[24:28] But I will say this. For everyone he looks at us and he gives the same command. Be more committed to me than you are to anything else. It is the same call.

[24:42] Whatever it is that you're trusting on. Whatever it is that you're relying upon. Whatever it is that brings you confidence and comfort and hope and peace and what you think is perceived security.

[24:54] Whatever it is that is your trust. Give that up and trust me more. It is the same call. To freely give up whatever and follow after me alone.

[25:11] And that's a very difficult call. We like to read the Bible accounts and at least assume that they would never happen again. And that assumption I think at times gets us in trouble because we say, well, he really stuck it to that man.

[25:27] When in reality he's really sticking it to all of us. He is showing us it is not a greater show of obedience. It is not a greater living according to the letter. It is rather a greater commitment to the Savior that he's calling us to.

[25:42] And you say, well, what do you mean, Pastor? Well, the question is, is there anything you wouldn't give up for Christ's sake? Is there anything in your life that you would never let go of for the sake of the Savior?

[26:01] Anything. That you just have to have. That you would choose it over Jesus every time you say, no, I would give up everything. What challenge yourself? Would I give up this?

[26:11] What about this? What about this, this, this, this? Go down the list. And see, the telling comes when we come upon something and we're like, well, I don't know about that.

[26:24] And that's the commitment that Christ is asking us to make. He's calling us not to a greater effort, but to a greater commitment.

[26:37] He's calling us to a greater devotion to who he is. That everything in our life is open and laid bare. That everything is there on the altar.

[26:50] That all of our hopes, our ambition, our plans, our desires, everything is there. Everything is free for him to take.

[27:01] And everything is free for him to leave. I like to say we live open-handedly. Whatever it is that we have, he can leave it there or he can take it away. But it doesn't change our joy, our devotion, our commitment, or our calling.

[27:19] And when we're very honest with ourselves, there's this wrestling in which we realize that maybe there is something we're not willing to give up. Maybe it's a sin that we're saying, well, I'll follow Jesus as long as I can do this.

[27:31] Maybe it's not a sin. Maybe it's a good thing. Was the money that this rich young man had sinful? No, it became sinful when it became his idol, right? When he began to trust in his riches more than he trusted in his Savior.

[27:42] There's some very wealthy people that Christ uses throughout Scripture. David's pretty wealthy. Solomon's pretty wealthy, right? We understand Solomon fell because of his wealth as well. Then there's Nicodemus who came to him by night.

[27:53] And then there's Joseph of Arimathea that Christ definitely benefited from his wealth because he had a new tomb that was hewn out in the rock there. There's some very wealthy people that are used in Scripture. And it's okay.

[28:04] He leaves that wealth there. And there are people that he calls that wealth from. But the question is not really what is it that we have to give up for Christ. The question is what will we not give up for Christ?

[28:18] For some, it's our family. Our family is more important than our Savior. That's dangerous ground. Our family is important underneath our commitment to our Savior.

[28:32] Some of it is our jobs. I've told people this and they look at me like I'm kind of nuts. And people say, well, I'd love to be in church. I'd love to serve the Lord more.

[28:43] But my work just, it won't let me. And I said, well, then leave the work. He said, Pastor, I've got to have a job. And you're absolutely right. You do. You need to have a job. I understand. I've been there before.

[28:54] And I'm not telling you to leave the work. I'm just saying, have you ever thought about it? Have you ever considered it? I know. I mean, I understand. There were some jobs where God left me there for a while. And it did hinder my commitment to the church.

[29:05] And there were other jobs he called me to leave so I could be greater committed to the church. And there were some jobs that, I don't understand. You've got to be as wise as a serpent but gentle as a dove. See, those are challenging.

[29:17] You say, Pastor, are you telling me I need to leave my job? No, I'm just telling you to bring it before the Savior and ask him what he's asking you to do. Big difference. If he wants you to stay there, then stay there.

[29:28] Listen, there were jobs I wish he would give me the permission to leave that I couldn't leave. I didn't like them. I hated them. And he was like, no, you're going to stay there. And I was like, well, I could serve you more if you call me away. And he's like, but you're going to stay there, right? That's called a growing process and a molding process.

[29:41] And he left me there. But the difference is I went to work with him instead of without him there, right? I had to go to work with him because I hated it. And then there were jobs where I really loved and I wanted to stay there.

[29:52] And I was like, boy, this job's so great. I can serve you all day long. And he's like, okay, now give it up. But no, I like this job. He said, what are you talking about? You're a pastor. I did other things before I became a pastor, okay?

[30:04] Actually, I think I had like a world record number of jobs before I became a pastor. I don't know why. God gave me a little bit of everything. But you just have to bring it before him and say, Lord, okay, where is it?

[30:17] What is your calling upon my life? And you lay it bare before him. And here's the fourth and final thing, and it will be quick. And it is the expectation of the follower.

[30:29] You have the longing of man. You have the weakness of his effort. You have the calling of the Savior. And you have the expectation of the follower. Because Peter, got to love Peter.

[30:41] Peter says, but Lord, we've left everything to follow you. Now, before we get there, let's make sure we answer this other question. Because when this young man walks away, Jesus says, how hard it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

[30:53] And he says, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And I remember when I was in high school, I had a teacher tell me. And it's really something historically that's there, but we need to kind of refute this a little bit.

[31:06] There were gates in the walls around Jerusalem. There were smaller gates, and they refer to them as the eye of the needle. That, by the way, is a historical fact. There were gates like within gates. So, you know, you have like this big gate, and there's a smaller gate which a man could walk through.

[31:17] But beast and bird couldn't walk through. And someone, many years after Christ, had gone there, and I want to think it was like in the 1800s, and found out that they called these small gates the eye of the needle. And in order for a camel to go through the eye of the needle, the gate, he had to unload his load, and he would crawl across on his knees or kind of scoot through there, and he could make it way.

[31:35] So the response for a while there, the popular response is, well, for a camel to go through the eye of the needle, he had to unload his baggage and get on his knees. And even in the early church, in the days of Orygain and all those, like in the 300 ADs, right, it was taught that if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, offload your burden, then come in on your knees before the Savior.

[31:54] That's not what Christ was saying, because those gates were referred to as the eye of the needle because of what Christ said, not leading to what Christ said. Because what Christ was giving them was an illustration of the largest land animal they knew and the smallest opening they were aware of.

[32:12] There's a camel. They didn't have elephants running around Palestine at that time, okay? Here's a camel, and here's an eye of a needle in your house. Now, if he was referring to the gate, then the disciples would not have been astonished.

[32:26] And he would not have said it's impossible because it was possible for the camels to go through those small gates if they did it right. But he makes this declaration, it is impossible with man.

[32:39] Now, the reason it astounds the disciples is because they saw riches as the favor of God, and that if one was righteous, then God would bestow his favor upon him and enrich him.

[32:49] And really what they're saying is, so if even those who are favored by God have a hard time entering in, then where do the rest of us stand, right? We're not rich by any means. He says, with man it's impossible, but with God all things are possible.

[33:03] We'll actually have that verse on my wall in my office above a world map. Because reality is, is salvation is an impossibility for man.

[33:14] That great question we ask is impossible for us to answer on our own. Yet it's very possible for God to bring it to us.

[33:29] And we see this now. Then what can I expect when I'm willing to surrender everything? Peter asks this question. He says, we've left everything. What about us? And in a nutshell, Jesus says this.

[33:42] Whoever has left all will be rewarded. The other gospel say, in this age and in the age to come. A hundredfold it says.

[33:53] Now we shouldn't take that literally. So like if you leave your mother, you're not going to get a hundred mothers in return. If you leave your house, you're not going to get a hundred houses in return, right? You leave your family, you're not going to get a hundred families in return.

[34:04] What Christ is saying is the reward that comes to you after you give it away is so much more than what you left behind. The promise that is extended for the follower to expect is that what we gain is so much more than what we gave.

[34:25] This is why anytime we sing the song, I surrender all. I like us to sing it with a smile on our face. Unfortunately, so many times we sing it like doom and gloom.

[34:40] Like it's a bad thing that Christ asked us to surrender everything. But there is that line in that song that speaks that we surrender everything we have to gain what he gives us.

[34:51] And from what I have found in scripture, that when I give up my righteous works, which are like filthy rags in the presence of Almighty God, when I surrender my filthy rags, he gives me a crown of glory.

[35:07] Now I'll trade rags for a crown any day. But until we come up, but until we come to the realization that we have more on the other side of surrender than what we have on this side of holding on to, we'll never be willing to surrender all.

[35:23] Because Jesus tells us that the follower can expect to always gain more than what he ever gave. The gain is always far greater than the sacrifice.

[35:35] And here is the answer to man's greatest question. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you for your word. Lord, we pray that you would speak to our hearts and minds now, Lord.

[35:49] Lord, by the power and presence of your spirit, would you show us what it is you're calling us to do for your glory. May it not be for man's recognition, but may it be for the glory of the Savior and the Savior alone. We ask it all in Christ's name.

[36:02] Amen. Amen.

[36:15] Amen. Thank you.

[37:15] Thank you.

[37:45] Thank you.

[38:15] Thank you.

[38:45] Thank you.

[39:15] Thank you.

[39:45] Thank you.

[40:15] Thank you.

[40:45] Thank you.