Word of Salvation – Vol. 41 No. 26 – July 1996

 

God, Our Only Help

 

Sermon by Rev. E. Rademaker on Matthew 19:25-26 (Lord’s Day 5)

Scripture Readings: Psalm 130; Hebrews 10:1-14

 

Beloved Congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Did you know that the road to hell is paved with the so-called good works of church-goers and religious people?  There are the charitable gifts of the wealthy given to the poor, or the church, or missions, in an attempt to buy the favour of God with their money.  Of course, even the not-so-wealthy at times attempt the same.

There will be many a prayer that’s been said in order to impress God or fulfil a sense of duty.  There will be many a song of praise that’s been sung, even in a choir, again, for the purpose of impressing God.

Furthermore, we may expect to see many an entire life of upright morality, even life-long chastity, paving that road to eternal hell-fire.  We can be sure there will even be acts of martyrdom there.

Then there are the tears of religious emotion, the hours of Bible-reading and the reading of religious books.  There will be many a sermon along that road, quite a few of them even biblically correct and powerfully delivered.

We will also find strewn along the way many an act of self-sacrificial service for individuals or for the good of mankind, not to mention the countless lives lived without hurting others and always minding one’s own business.  Alas, there will be millions in hell who thought they would get to heaven on the basis of such, and many more, acts of human merit.

The rich young ruler, who occasioned the words of our text, appears to have been just such a one.  The very words he used in his question addressed to the Lord Jesus show that he expected that in some way he could work his way to eternal life: “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

Jesus’ answer?  “Obey the commandments.”  “Okay, but which ones?”  In other words, “I’ve kept most of them; at least, what I consider the most important ones.  Maybe you know some that I am missing.”

In answer, Jesus lists for him commandments 5-9 plus the second part of the summary of the law.  In other words, the laws pertaining to our duty to our fellow man, with the exception of the last one, “Thou shalt not covet.”  Remember, that was the one that killed Saul the legalist, Saul the Pharisee.

Like Paul, the young man could say to Jesus’ list, “All these I have kept,” meaning, “in an outward way.”  Works-righteousness!   “What do I still lack?”

Obviously he knew something was missing.  In his soul he knew that he was not right with God, for all his moral uprightness, and religious correctness.  There was something more he had to do, and if he could find out what it was, he would do it.  He would spare no expense and no effort.  Well… almost no expense.

But Jesus’ reply floored him.  “If you want to be perfect (or complete), go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”  “He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”

Jesus went to the heart of his problem: idolatry!  His heart was wrapped up in his possessions, and not in God.  He was more keen to have treasure on earth than to have treasure in heaven.

Jesus goes on the explain to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  And 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.”

He is saying it’s hard.  Why?  Because riches tempt a man to rely on them for happiness, instead of on God.

But then Jesus says it is more than hard – it’s impossible!   If you can thread a camel, one of the largest animals in the Middle East, through the eye of a needle, then a rich man can get into heaven.  But, since the former is an impossibility, so is the latter.  Both are not possible.

Now look at the reaction of the disciples.  “And when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, ‘Who then can be saved?'”  The Greek verb for ‘to be astonished’ means literally ‘to be struck out of’; so the idea is that the disciples were struck out of their wits by what Jesus said.

They were knocked silly by it, they were astounded, amazed.  And the word for ‘greatly’ has the idea of strength, vehemence, violence in it.  Hence ‘very, exceedingly.’  In other words, it was as if, with His statement, Jesus had dealt them a crashing blow to the head, and they were sent reeling, unhinged, disoriented, and near to panic.  If the rich can’t be saved, what hope have we, who are poor, of ever seeing the kingdom?

Now we should ask: why were they so astounded at Jesus’ words?  For two probable reasons: for one thing, there is a strand of teaching running through the Old Testament that the righteous are blessed by God with an abundance of material provision.  The assumption drawn from this was that the rich are favoured of God, and must be walking in obedience to the law.

The negative side of that is that the poor and suffering must be out of favour with God, and hence, walking in disregard of the law, or at least, they must not be as righteous or pious as the wealthy.  This was the assumption made by Job’s so-called friends.  Poverty and disease and calamity had struck Job, obviously because he was living in unrighteousness.

The Pharisees showed the same assumption regarding the man born blind.  Obviously he had been born in iniquity.  Even the disciples had the same idea: “Who sinned, Lord?  This man or his parents?”

The second factor concerning the wealthy was that they were able, out of their riches, to give handsomely to the poor.  Alms giving, along with prayer and fasting, was one of the pillars of Judaistic piety.  Notice how Jesus, in Matthew 6, especially corrected false notions and practice concerning those three religious activities.

But imagine how much further ahead in this area of piety the rich must be, since they have the means to give so much more to the poor.  The other strand of Old Testament teaching was that God has a special protective interest in the widow, the orphan and the poor.  Hence, God would smile upon those who gave regularly and well to such.

It would be more than likely that some of these assumptions were embedded in the Jewish minds of Jesus’ disciples, and the Lord had just blown their suppositions to pieces.

The disciples’ question shows that they understood from Jesus’ statement about the rich, that no man, in fact, could achieve entrance into the kingdom (which they equated with salvation).  If not even the rich man, by his own piety, power and resources can work his way into the kingdom; can obtain eternal life; can merit salvation, then no one can.

That is exactly the conclusion that Jesus wanted His disciples to arrive at.  That’s absolutely right: no one can work his own way into God’s favour, into the kingdom of God.  He proceeds to confirm them in their conclusion: looking upon them intently, in a way designed to impress upon them what He is about to say, He speaks the death knell to all human merit, “With man this is impossible.”

“It cannot be done.  You are perfectly right to despair of being saved by that route.  It’s a dead end, and you must fully come to grips with that.  If salvation is by your works, if you can only enter heaven by the acts of obedience to law that you do, then you will never get there, you will perish, you have had it for good.”  “With man this is impossible!”

“But!” – there’s that wonderful word again – “But, with God all things are possible.”  “You can’t save yourselves.  But God can save you.  You cannot worm your way into God’s favour, but God can bring you back into His favour.  He can grant eternal life as a gift, where sinful man is entirely unable to obtain it by his own attempts and achievements.”

The point being made is this: ONLY GOD CAN ACHIEVE FOR US WHAT IS NEEDED TO SAVE US FROM CONDEMNATION AND UNTO ETERNAL LIFE.  That’s the whole point of Lord’s Day 5 of the Catechism.

The first question and answer show us what must happen before we can escape the punishment we’ve earned by our sins, and return to God’s favour.  All that needs to be done is that God’s justice be satisfied.  “The claims of His justice must be paid in full, either by ourselves or by another.”

In response to that, our natural, unthinking tendency, just like the rich young ruler, is to say: “Okay then, what do I have to do to pay this debt?  How can I make it up to God?”

“Go to church?  Okay, I’ll do that.  At least once on a Sunday.”

“Be a model citizen?  Alright, I’ll do my best to keep up appearances.”

“Purity of worship?  For sure!  I’ll be a zealot.”

“Right doctrine?  I’ll dot my theological i’s and cross my ecclesiastical t’s.”

“Pure speech?  Okay, no foul language on Sundays, or around ministers.  Maybe even none at all.”

“Christian giving?  I’ll tithe right down the line.”

“Honour my parents?  Okay, I’ll submit to them outwardly.”  Etc., etc., etc..!

There is a rich young ruler in all of us.  If we are unregenerate, he reigns supreme.  If we are born again, we constantly fight against and repent of his influence in our lives.  Question 13 stops us from going down that track: “Can we pay this debt ourselves?”  Answer: “Certainly not.  Actually, we increase our guilt every day.”

There you have it – “with men this is impossible.”  With you and me, dear brothers and sisters, friends, this is impossible.  We can never pay off our debt, let alone earn merit points with God.  Even if you could live a perfect life from now on until you die, there’s a penalty hanging over you for the sins you’ve already committed up till now.  That involves an eternity of bearing the weight of God’s infinite wrath.  Neither you nor I could bear that punishment, could pay that price, and live to tell.

Furthermore, even our best works are as filthy rags in God’s sight, in their own merits.  Hence, we increase our debt daily.  Left to our own devices we are in a no-win situation.  We’ve got to look elsewhere for our salvation.

Well then, if not us, how about someone else?  I have a cousin who is a minister.  Will that help?  What about Mary, mother of our Lord?  What about some of the Saints?

The obvious answer is: What about them?  They are all sinners too.  They can’t even pay for their own sins, let alone those of someone else.  Even the OLD TESTAMENT priests had to offer up sacrifices regularly for their own sins.  Another dead end!

Well then, what about animal sacrifice?  Hebrews 10:4 – “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

Let’s face it.  As the Catechism states, no other creature at all can “pay this debt for us.  To begin with, God will not punish another creature for man’s guilt.  Besides, no mere creature can bear the weight of God’s eternal anger against sin and release others from it.”

The upshot is that we are forced to ask: what kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then?  The answer?  While He must be truly human and truly righteous, the bottom line of it all is, that “He must be true God.”  Why?  Because what is impossible with men, is fully possible with God.

It is only once we’ve despaired ever of being acceptable to God in our own right, that we will be ready to receive and believe this truth from the heart.  God must do, and has done, what you and I could never do – He has paid our debt for us, entirely.

Have you come to the end of yourself, dear child of the covenant?  Have you fully understood that you cannot help yourself out of your infinite debt of guilt?  That nothing and no one can help you, so that you can only turn to God?  Have you come to see Him as your only help?  Or are you still thinking that God’s pardon depends on how well you perform in the church, in the home, in your occupation, in your interpersonal relationships, in your private worship, etc.?

If that’s the case, you’ll never make it.  That’s the wrong way to go.  No Exit!   Turn Back!   God’s pardon has nothing to do with what you do.  It has everything to do with what God has done.  You cannot help yourself.  God must be your only help.  This is the very heart of the gospel.  God must save us, or we are lost.  These are the only two alternatives.

We naturally like to think that we can contribute something towards our salvation; help God a bit.  But God is not the One who needs help.  You and I do.  We are bankrupt.  What can we bring to God except empty hands and a believing heart to receive His precious gift of forgiveness and life?  And even the believing heart is a gift from Him.  “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The very fact that Jesus was in their midst to speak these words, bore testimony to the truth of them.  What was He doing there, anyway?  Slumming it, just to see how the other half lived?  Not at all!   He was there as the God-Man to achieve precisely what no mere son of Adam could do – earn and purchase God’s pardon for a multitude of lost, but elect, sinners.  It was to offer up the perfect sacrifice we could never hope to bring to God ourselves.

The shed blood and the lifeless, but now life-giving flesh, a once-for-all payment for our great debt of guilt.  So, we should forever stop trying to earn God’s love and pardon.  Forever stop trying to pay God back for our sins.  It’s already been paid in full.  It’s already been earned.

Only believe that the body and the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ was given for a complete remission of all our sins.

Praise the Lord!   Thank you God!

Amen.