The Impossibility of Salvation

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 3

Psalm 3 ESV

A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah

Scripture Reading: Psalm 103:8-12

Psalm 103:8–12

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Sermon

Good Morning Church! I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord! One of my biggest pet peeves is when people rip scriptures out of context because they like the way that it sounds. The most famous example: Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” But today, we have another one! Matthew 19:26 “But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”” What is Jesus talking about here? What is impossible, what is jesus talking about, yes God can do all things as sort of a true-ism, but like, he is omniscient and omnipotent, so… that's not saying much, what is Jesus talking about here and what makes what is being said here so important? it is these questions and more that we will hope to answer today. We have a whole whole lot to cover today so lets just dive into our passage for today this morning.

Matthew 19:13-30 is what we will be looking at which takes us to the end of chapter 19!

READ THE PASSAGE

These are the words of the Lord for us today, Lets Pray

Our Father in Heaven, Holy, great, powerful and perfect is your name! We pray that you would meet with us here today. May your kingdom come. in fact, as we gather as your people we pray that we would be your kingdom. Use us, shape us and make us new. Conform us into the image of your son, our lord and our savior. Speak to us today according to your holy word. May you use it in our lives to accomplish your will. Teach us to live lives worthy of the calling we have recieved as we are molded by your word. it is in Jesus name we pray. AMEN

They say that for a good sermon you are supposed to have, well at least the joke is “three points and a hymn”. every passage, every topic, every time, Three Points and a hymn and while there are three blanks in your outline, and feeling extra clever in my pastoral duties this week, they all begin with the same letter, this passage, and this sermon then in particular are not REALLY a three points and a hymn type of sermon. I have one point really. That it is imperative that we understand and open our hearts to today. The passage I believe is at the center, well we have already talked about it. and this is why I get so annoyed when people try and rip texts out of context. So lets look at what Jesus is talking about when he says that there are things that are impossible with man but are possible with God.

and the news for you today is that he is NOT talking about it being hard to save up money to go to Disney land this summer BUT with man that may be impossible but with God all things are possible! He is not talking about winning a sporting event, some basketball or football game. What jesus is talking about is something fundamentally more important and truly I would say more difficult. he is talking about SALVATION.

At the heart of our text, at the heart of our passage that we will be looking at is this thought: If we are to try in our own strength and might, if we were to trust in our own ability or even if we were to trust in our own desire or even our own longing, if we were to try in ourselves at all, there is NO WAY that we can be saved, it is impossible. YET God saves us, he delivers us he calls us out of darkness and into marvelous light. For all who call upon on the name of Jesus Christ WILL BE SAVED! If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God rased him form the dead you will be saved. What Must I do to be saved peter is asked. His response, REPENT AND BE BAPTIZED. There is no amount of working or striving that could save us, it is, in fact, impossible. it is impossible for wretched sinners such as all of us to ever be saved. But yet with God all things are possible.

That is the heart of everything we are going to talk about today. but in this text, this thought is unpacked for us in a particular way. and so today as we think through and understand the impossibility of salvation i would like to make a few points for us this morning, hoping to drive home this very thought. And so what I would like to start with is what I have called THE COMPARISON

The COMPARISON

If you noticed we started this reading with something that should have felt a little familiar to us. Just a page or two back in Matthew 18 in verse 1 the disciples are arguing. WHO IS THE GREATEST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. and Jesus, probably a little annoyed at all the bickering and arguing decodes that this is the good time for an object lesson. Bring me a little child., Calling a child among them, verse 2 Matthew 18:2-3 “And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” and now in verse 13 of chapter 19 it is sort of the exact same thought. Here are these children, and we don't have time for them. We don't need them. the parents, it seems, are bringing their children before Jesus. Jesus bless my children. jesus lay your hands on them, Jesus pray for them. And the disciples are like: Get away, Jesus does not need this. WE have important things to do we are fighting with the pharisees, we got work to do get your snot faced kids out of here.

Jesus said. Matthew 19:14 “but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”” We are here reminded of, we talked about this a few weeks ago: the idea of “little ones”. That God saves and redeems his little ones. The ones he cares for. the parable of the lost sheep taught us that there was rejoicing and joy as God sought out and then found his lost and cherished little ones. And here they are again.

The king James, one of the few times i sort of prefer the King James has noting to do with the actual translation, but here it writes: SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN, which just makes me giggle, because we don’t talk like that, but the point gotten across is the worth and value and care that Jesus shows these little ones. Bring them to me, let them come, do not hinder them. Why? because theirs is the kingdom. and immediately, Matthew 19:15 “And he laid his hands on them and went away.” and then verse 16 AND BEHOLD! It is as if Matthew is saying, as you are still looking at these kids, as they are still in your vision, enter this young man. AND BEHOLD, verse 16 says a man came up to him.

and the differences become apparent. These children are innocent, seeking Jesus, seeking his blessing that he would lay his hands on them and pray, now the young man. this is how HE asks the question. WHAT GOOD DEED MUST I DO to have eternal life?

OK these kids, like whatever, cast them aside enter this rich young man. Probably important, someone used to being the center of attention, all eyes on him not just rich, but like wealthy. the talk of the town. OK Jesus. Now what do I have to do. we are done with this kid stuff, lets get to work. What do I have to do to have eternal life. What is it in my strength and My might and MY wealth and MY power that I need to do? We know that he is already on the wrong track. jesus asks in verse 17, why do you ask about what is good? there is only one who is good. you are not good. So you rich young man want to do good deeds to go around trying to purchase eternal life but you are NOT GOOD. for there is only one who is good and that is God. OK you want to try, keep the commandments.

the man asks: which ones? and his heart is already exposed. the correct answer to which ones must we keep is ALL OF THEM. 1 Peter 1:16 “since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”” Any sin any transgression against a holy righteous God, Paul in Romans “the wages of sin is death.” the fact atha he even asks this question is crazy. imagine if YOUR child came up to you and said I feel like I have been doing go, but how can I be a good kid? and you look at them and just say, follow the rules. and they say OK, i can do that, which rules of yours should I follow? Well, ALL OF THEM.

But Jesus sort of humors him. Matthew 19:18-19 “He said to him, “Which ones?” And 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, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”” And the man says I got that I do that, I am good enough, RIGHT? I earned it, RIGHT? What do I still lack? jesus responds: Sell everything that you have and give it to the poor. Sacrifice EVERYTHING for the sake of following me. The weight of this is meant to be striking. the man comes up to Jesus eager and excited. OK Jesus I am about to do whatever you say that it will take to have eternal life. Just kidding. I would do anything for salvation, but I wont do that. and he went away sorrowful. verse 22. For he had great possessions.

This is an extraordinarily heartbreaking thought. enter this young man, eager and excited to follow Jesus, but he leaves heartbroken. Not because his heart is broken over the weight of his sin, or the beauty and grace of his savior, he leaves sorrowful because I just love my stuff and I guess I can’t have both.

The issue when we start to see this comparison and see these little ones, these children brought before Jesus and then seeing this rich young man, becomes clear. Jesus says Let the children come, Matthew 19:14 “but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”” This is it, it is this innocence, this understanding of a need to come to Jesus. that is what gets you in. It is not your good deeds and the things that you can do, it is not your riches, or your possessions. it is not YOUR ABILITY in any way shape or form. Salvation is impossible, but with God all things are possible. So be a little more child like. Trust in him, know that you cant do it yourself. Children it seems are more willing and able to admit they can’t do it.

I will always remember, to embarrass Jayden a little, when he was little, he would always run up to me with some broken toy or something that was not working and he would say “FIK ITS, daddy” please fix it was just to hard. Willow does the same thing, HELP ME PLEASE! and while usually she is wanting help getting into places and things she is not supposed to be in, that is the sort of heart that we need.

But even as we talk through this, I want to make sure we note THE COST

The COST

The cost of salvation, is infinity high. For this rich young man it will cost him everything he owns. OK. If you want to be perfect Jesus says, Go sell everything you posses, SEE IT ALL, abandon it all, build up treasure in heaven then come and follow me. Abandon whatever work was giving you all this money, leave your family that you were going to inherit these riches from, leave the comfort the pleasure the riches of this life, leave it all.

So jesus teaches. Matthew 19:23 “And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.” it is going to cost. He repeats it. Matthew 19:24 “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”” Sell everything, get rid of everything, be poor and destitute for the sake of the kingdom. it is worth it, but it will surely cost you. but note. The cost is still not what earns your salvation.

Some people read this and they take it very literally, OK if I am going to follow Jesus I will need to sell everything I own. No, that's not how to read this passage. but two, I mean, maybe. The two responses that we usually have to passages like this are often that's exactly what He means, you have to sell everything means that you gotta sell everything, and so you gotta sell EVERYTHING OR that's Not what he means, lets work our way out of this. Here’s the heart, there will be a cost. Jesus expands it later in the passage. Matthew 19:29 “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” Abandon these things the comforts and home that you thought you once had, it WILL cost you to follow Christ, the question is will you pay the cost.

But to this I would like to make a second point. Lat night I had the blessing of Going to the recital of Mrs York’s students and I was blessed in a big way. Actually I got to participate. i got to do the reading before the final song, a hymn that many of us are familiar with, and many of us have heard. “Jesus paid it all”. and here is the ultimate point of this, the cost, no matter how high it is, has already been paid. Because truly it is impossible for us. Living life like this, giving up everything, doing everything, living life perfectly, following the law perfectly never doing these and always doing others we cannot do it. but Jesu paid it all.

And so the picture here i would like to press is one that Dietrich Bonhoeffer would call costly grace. In the first chapter of his book “The Cost of Discipleship” which is one of the best books ever written, i read through it around once a year, because I think there are some good reminders in this for us. So i want to read what he writes about when he talks about Costly grace. he starts by talking about CHEAP GRACE.

Bonhoeffer p 44-45

for this rich young man, the cost, from one point of view is go sell everything you have, be perfect, live a perfect life, and he could not and would not pay it. but in truth the hope of salvation is that Chrsit already paid that for us. Trust in him, cry out to him, find in him the perfect savior. For the salvation that is impossible with man, in our own strength and might, with God is possible.

So I want to end by looking at the Consolation

The CONSOLATION

And consolation is maybe not the right word, Because what we end up with is the greatest treasure mankind has ever known.

Here is the question: Who can be saved? Well with man it is impossible but with God all things, even this, even your salvation, even your complete restoration is possible. It may cost you, you may have to abandon hopes and dreams, thoughts and things, again verse 29, Matthew 19:29 “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” SO you will be saved. You receive 100 fold AND inherent eternal life.

the hope that we have is that unlike this rich young man we don't have to go away sorrowful. For we can come to Jesus Christ and find in him the perfect savior. in every meaning of that word., So many times we wast so much of our lives trying to earn and work our way towards the perfect gifts. We come and we say what must I do to have eternal life just like this rich young man. And then when some legalistic standard is laid out we say: i think I can do that. and we work and we strive and we try and MAYBE we get to a point where we have some external feeling of Pharisaical righteousness and we think: yep I did it all. i said the right words I did the right things i lived the right life, so what do i still lack, why do i still have this hole why am i still not saved. Well it is because you gotta keep going, be perfect, you did all that fine, go sell your stuff. give MORE, live BETTER, sin LESS, just keep doing better. And we work and we strive and we work and we strive and we end up with NOTHING. because with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible

So instead we trust in the perfect gift of our savior. He came, he was born under the law to redeem us from the curse of the law. he lived the perfect life we could never live. he fulfilled, theologians talk about the active and the passive obedience of Christ. He did nothing that the law said he could not do, he did everything the law said he must do, living in the fullness of perfect righteousness so that he could offer himself for us. THAT is your consolation!

As I think of this rich young man, i was struck, this is how I thought through this this week, this is the thought that ministered to my heart this week. his struggle it seems, we could say in one sense it is the sin of greed, I would argue that it is a bit more fundamental and is idolatry, but he loves his stuff. but the great tragedy is that Jesus could forgive that sin too. if only he would trust. this rich young man came thinking he was perfect. but if he could just realize he was broken he would find in Jesus the perfect savior. I don’t give to Christ all that I should in every way I should at every moment I should I still find in him my perfect savior. Because though this is impossible, yes even my salvation is impossible with man, with God all things are possible.

I opened this sermon joking about every sermon needing three points and a hymn, and how I wanted to only lay into one point. but we have three thoughts and I would like to finish by reading to you the words of a hynm. I have alredfy mentioned it. I had originally planned on just the chorus, but last night I was reminded about how good the versees are too, So i am gust going to read the whole thing,

Jesus Paid it all

I hear the Savior say,

“Thy strength indeed is small;

Child of weakness, watch and pray,

Find in Me thine all in all.”

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.

Lord, now indeed I find

Thy power and Thine alone,

Can change the leper’s spots

And melt the heart of stone.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I

Whereby Thy grace to claim,

I’ll wash my garments white

In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.

and the last verse:

And when before the throne

I stand in Him complete,

“Jesus died my soul to save,”

My lips shall still repeat.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.

Lets PRAY