Faith You Can See | Romans 4 | Pastor Miguel
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We are going to jump right into reading today’s text.
Found in
And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 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.” The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 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.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Now right off the bat most of us would probably read this text and think that it is about..… money 💴
Don’t get me wrong that is a part of it. BUT do you think that God
The creator of the universe needs your money?
NO
In fact, God does not NEED anything from us. He has all of the power and control in His hands.
So, what is the meaning of this text then?
We are going to dive down into this passage this morning and get to the core of what it means.
Before we do let me tell you a little about this man that comes up to Jesus:
This story is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Meaning...it stuck out enough for these disciples to include it in their writing.
We do not know this ruler’s name but we are told that he is:
Young
In Luke’s account we find that he is a ruler (one with authority and high status)
Wealthy, He has stuff and probably is not hurting for earthly wants
He seems to be a “good” person… at least according to worldly standards
Illustration
YOU CAN DO NOTHING
This young man comes to Jesus and asks,
vs. 16 “What good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
Now before we judge...how many of us have ever wondered what it takes to receive eternal life? No one really wants to go into the unknown without knowing where you are going to go.
But even with this opening question, this young ruler is demonstrating a flaw in his thinking. “What must I do”.
See he is basing whether or not he will receive eternal life on the work he has done.
Like Salvation/ Eternal life is a reward for good behavior.
Illustration:
The other night we had friends over and I usually offer to make lattes for anyone who wants it.
I have a nespresso machine so I do what I usually do...
Get the milk out,
while it’s warming up I put the coffee pod in the machine.
Make sure the water is new and filled.
Get the espresso into the cup,
after heating the milk I use the little frother to foam up the milk with some sugar or honey.
Then I pour it into the espresso.
I did all of this correct, following the right steps with the right ingredients.
Handed it to our friend Jon...he takes a drink and says “Something aint right”
I’m thinking maybe he doesn’t like the kind of Coffee I used. I did everything right it should be fine.
I think it was Pastor Gio then tastes his and says, yea something is off.
So I go to check the milk...pull it out of the fridge, open it up and...right away I could tell that the milk was spoiled.
Needless to say I threw it away and opened up some fresh milk to make good tasting lattes.
YOU SEE
I did everything right...or so I thought. On the outlook it seemed like I did.
But it didn’t matter because of what was on the inside of that milk container.
This young ruler is coming to Jesus asking this question because he thinks he is acting righteous enough for eternal life.
Jesus responds, “Why do you ask about what is good”, There is only One who is good. (Meaning God, man is not good- For all his sinned and fallen short of the glory of God-Romans 3:23) Then says if you want eternal life keep the commandments.
The man says...”Which ones”
This is funny 😁 How many times do we do this to God. We might feel like God is asking us to surrender something, to obey Him deeper. And we say “Ok, what area of my life do I need to give to you Lord?”....ALL
But Jesus response but trying to dig at this man’s intentions and make him see the true reality of His heart:
In verse 18-19 Jesus recites 6 of the 10 commandments: The ones that relate to others (not God). He does this to further make this man think...and on the outward, based off of what people could see. This young thinks he is pretty good.
So he responds: “All these I have kept, what do I lack”
He is like me making those lattes:
What is wrong? I did everything right? I am sure this man has heard these laws hundreds of times like many other Jews. He would have known them and he is basing his
Salvation on them...
Forgetting to check if that milk has spoiled...
forgetting to check if his heart ♥️ is pure.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Why is not of our own doing that we have salvation?
Because non of us would have it! No human apart from Christ is able to stand before God blameless. We have all sinned. We have all fallen short including this man in the scriptures.
WHAT DO I LACK? Sometimes we stand before God and say Lord I’ve done everything. What else do you I need to do.
I recently heard someone say, “How often do we become too wrapped up in doing things for God, that we forget to do things with Him.”
Those first few commandments Jesus didn’t recite:
You shall have no other gods before me. (There is only one God; worship Him alone).
You shall not make any idols. (Do not worship or bow down to images or created things).
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. (Use God's name with reverence and respect).
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. (Set aside a day for rest and worship)
These point to your heart towards God. These point to our priorities.
We can do nothing, we cannot earn salvation we have fallen short, and what shows this more than where our priorities lay.
2. RIGHT PRIORITIES
Verse 21, Jesus answers this mans question. If you want to have eternal life, if you want to be perfect (because that is what is required for eternal life, PERFECTION).
Then, Go sell everything and follow me.
Ooooo Jesus is getting to the spoiled milk.
See this man may have been keeping those outward commands but he WAS falling short:
Martin Luther (The priest that tacked up 95 theses to help reform the Church said this ) "There are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, the mind, and the purse."
Heart- Surrendering your emotions and soul to God
Mind- Your thoughts/ world view. and
Purse- Possessions , money, Priorities”
He had other gods, he had idols, He was not holding God as the most holy and reverent thing in his life.
When studying for this sermon I read, “The commandments weren’t meant to save him—they were meant to shatter his self-righteousness and reveal that his ultimate loyalty belongs to wealth, not God. Jesus wanted this man to stop trusting in his wealth (his “god”); if he gave all his wealth away, the only thing left to trust for eternal life was Jesus”
What was keeping this young man 👨 from eternal life....his Priorities.
Vs. 22-”He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”
What a powerful scripture.
So many think that if they just had more money 💰 then life would be good, they could be happy. This scripture is so incredible because it goes against everything that the world would teach...
He left Christ (Who possessed the means to salvation) he left sad. And why?
Because of his wealth.
He had approached Jesus with confidence, ready to feel solidified in his reward of eternal life because of what He had done.
And this was shaken in light of his true priorities:
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
His heart was not with God. And Jesus’ request exposed that.
He had not kept the commands, he had fallen short.
His priorities were flawed.
3. IMPOSSIBLE
My first point was
YOU CAN DO NOTHING
RIGHT PRIORITIES
and my last...
3. IMPOSSIBLE.
The man walks away, Jesus turns to his disciples now vs. 23-24, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
When I was younger my family and I took a trip to south Dakota , where we saw a tunnel called the Needle’s Eye....
I was like 8 years old, and whenever I would hear this scripture I would always think.
Jesus must have been talking about this tunnel. It just didn’t make sense.
Unless he is talking about this tunnel or there are not going to be wealthy people in heaven.
Well Jesus wasn’t, he was talking about the impossible tasks of fitting a big camel into the little eye of a sewing needle.
IMPOSSIBLE.
Well thank goodness the disciples had the same follow up question as me:
vs. 25, “Who then can be saved?”
They asked this because I think they knew what this meant.
If it was impossible for a rich man to set aside his wealth for God and be saved.
Then it would be the same for all others who did not keep God’s commands perfectly. Jesus had just said himself that if the man wanted eternity it would mean he needed to be perfect.
perfect is impossible.
Why is God’s law in the Old Testiment so important still?!
Because it shows us the most important thing to recognize in order to come to repentance....THAT WE ARE NOT PERFECT, THAT WE ARE FLAWED AND WE NEED TO REPENT. It is only in recognizing our own shortcomings that we can receive God’s gift.
It is in his disciples recognizing that no one will be able to be saved because everyone has broken God’s commands, that one of my favorite and power scriptures was spoken by Jesus.
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
BUT WITH GOD
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
I was when Jesus hung upon that cross and paid the price for our sin that the impossible for us, became possible with God.
Conclusion:
This morning.
Have you gotten caught up in thinking your own actions bring about salvation.
Have you been busy doing “good” things for God, that you have forgotten you were created to do things WITH God.
Have you set up your priorities wrong? Are you holding
Family
Money
Work
Worries
What others think of you
above God?
Do not give up on the impossible....instead bring it to God.
Bring everything to God. What is he asking you to lay down and trust him in that you haven’t already? What is he asking you to surrender to his control?
He want’s it all.
But with God all things are possible.
