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Human Inability and Divine Grace (Matthew 19:23–26) · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine standing on a dusty Rd. in 1st century Judea.
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You were looking at a massive, lumbering, foul smelling beast
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of burden. Right.
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Literally the largest land animal anywhere in that specific
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region. Yeah, exactly.
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We'll spot on. And next to it, someone holds up
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a tiny sewing implement. You know, maybe a tiny Cliff, or
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a bone or metal with a microscopic puncture point used
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to thread a single piece of string.
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Just a tiny speck in someone's hand.
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Right. And now someone looks you square
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in the eye and tells you to push that massive 2000 LB beast
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through that microscopic hole. Which is, I mean, just absurd to
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even picture. It is.
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They're not telling you it will be a tight squeeze.
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They're not telling you it will require like, some extra effort.
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They're telling you it is scientifically, logically, and
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physically impossible. Which is a pretty staggering
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image to kick things off with. It really is so welcome to
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reform thinking. We are.
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We're really thrilled to have you joining this deep dive into
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the sources today. We have a lot of fascinating
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material to get through. We do.
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Our specific goal for this discussion is to examine a stack
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of comprehensive theological commentaries and, you know,
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highly detailed humans focused on Matthew chapter 19, verses 23
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through 26. And this is the text where we
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encounter that famous shocking imagery of the camel and the
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sewing needle. Right.
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But we are going to look past the cultural myths and really
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uncover the staggering reality of human inability and the
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absolute triumph of sovereign grace.
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Because that is what the text is actually about when you strip
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away the modern softening of it. Absolutely.
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We are going to analyze these texts through the lens of
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Reformed theology In the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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We want to pull apart the linguistic details, the
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theological weight of what Christ is saying to his
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disciples, and by extension, what he is saying to you.
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To set the stage properly for you, we have to establish the
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immediate context surrounding this passage.
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We are analyzing an encounter where an affluent young ruler
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has just walked away from Christ.
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And that is a tragic moment. He literally just turned his
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back and walked away. Yeah, he walked away because his
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earthly possessions held a fatal grip on his affections.
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The narrative setting is absolutely crucial here.
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Right. You can't just drop into verse
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23 without knowing what just happened.
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You really can't without grasping the tragedy of what
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just happened. Jesus's words regarding the
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extreme difficulty of prosperous people entering the Kingdom
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could easily be misunderstood. I mean, you might think it is a
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general societal critique about income inequality or something.
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Which you hear a lot today, honestly.
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People read it as an economic manifesto.
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They do, yeah. So that is not what is
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happening. Instead, Christ is interpreting
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a spiritual tragedy that has just unfolded right in front of
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the disciples. The affluent young man seemed
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like an unusually promising candidate for eternal life.
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He really did. I mean, on paper he was
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flawless. Right.
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Yet when tested, his financial abundance proved to be his
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reigning idol. What we see here is a text that
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completely shatters modern pragmatic assumptions about
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human capability. It really highlights the
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absolute core of modernistic grace.
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You know the truth that salvation is entirely A
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sovereign act of God, not a cooperative effort between the
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Creator and the creature. So let us unpack that narrative
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context a bit more. Let's look at the verses
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immediately preceding our main text, specifically Matthew
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chapter 19, verses 16 through 22.
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OK, Yeah. So the wealthy young man
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approached Jesus, and outwardly he looked like absolute
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perfection. He was morally serious.
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He was outwardly obedient to the law.
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Right. And he showed incredible respect
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toward Jesus by coming to him directly with a sincere
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question. I mean, if this man walked into
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any modern church today, the leadership would probably hand
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him a microphone and, you know, put him on the elder board
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within a month. Oh, without a doubt, he had the
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kind of polished, disciplined life that commands respect from
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everyone around him. He possessed financial
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abundance, yes, but he also possessed a religious
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earnestness that made him look like the ideal disciple.
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He eagerly asked about eternal life, which was he had a genuine
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spiritual interest. Yeah, he was not some atheist
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mocking religion. He was a very religious man
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seeking assurance. He wanted to know what good deed
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he needed to do to have eternal life.
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He was. He was kind of looking for the
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final box to check. And that outward perfection
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makes the exposure of his heart all the more striking.
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When Jesus commanded the man to sell his possessions, give to
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the poor, and follow him, Christ was not laying down a universal
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mandate for every single Christian in history to take a
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vow of poverty. Which is a huge relief to
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clarify, by the way. Yeah, definitely.
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Rather, Jesus was acting as the omniscient divine physician.
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He was diagnosing A fatal spiritual flaw specific to this
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individual man. His financial abundance was not
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an incidental accessory to his life.
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No, not at all. It was his core identity.
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It was his ultimate security and basically his false God.
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He wanted eternal life, sure, but he wanted it on his own
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terms. He wanted it without dethroning
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the idol of his wealth. The sources point out that his
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possession sessions revealed a heart that was utterly captive.
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What seemed outwardly to be an advantage, you know, his wealth,
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his societal respectability, his religious seriousness proved
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totally useless in securing his entrance into the Kingdom of
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heaven. The very thing that made him
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appear blessed in the eyes of the watching world became the
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specific instrument that revealed his spiritual bondage.
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Yeah, he walked away sorrowful because he had great possessions
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and those possessions possessed him.
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Which is just a chilling thought.
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And that brings us directly to the warning of verse 23.
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Jesus watches the affluent man walk away in sorrow, his back
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turned to the Son of God. And then he turns to his
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disciples. Right, Jesus turns to his
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disciples and utters an authoritative declaration.
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Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a prosperous
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person enter the Kingdom of heaven.
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That phrase, truly, I say to you, is always a signal of a
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weighty, monumental truth. It is Jesus is taking this
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specific, heartbreaking tragedy and drawing out a universal
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principle for you and for me. Wealth creates a terrifying
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illusion of independence. It really does.
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It blinds you. Yeah.
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When we look at financial abundance, it operates much like
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a local anesthetic. Well, that's a great analogy
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from the sources. Think about sitting in a
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dentist's chair. The blinding light is in your
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eyes, and the dentist injects an anesthetic into your jaw.
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A few minutes later, the dentist starts up the drill.
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Nobody likes that sound. No, it's the worst.
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The high pitched wine fills the room and the drill begins
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pulverizing the enamel of your tooth.
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Your physical body is undergoing severe trauma.
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Literally physical destruction is happening.
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Right. Destruction is happening, but
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because of the chemical block in your nervous system, your brain
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registers 0 alarm. You feel fine even though your
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tooth is being violently altered.
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And financial abundance does the precise same thing to the human
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soul. Yes, it numbs the heart to its
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own desperate need for God. It provides a false sense of
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security, convincing you that you have enough resources to
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shield yourself from any real danger.
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And in doing that, it completely masks the fatal reality of your
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spiritual death. So how does that analogy of the
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anesthetic connect to our present day?
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I mean, here we are in the year 2026.
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Well, in Western society we are surrounded by unprecedented
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material comfort. When we look at recent economic
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statistics from the Federal Reserve, we see high median net
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worths across many demographics compared to historical
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standards. We have 401K's, comprehensive
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medical insurance, all of that. Exactly.
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Well, right. We have technological
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conveniences that solve our daily physical problems almost
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instantly, and the sources argue that this specific environment
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breeds a pragmatic form of pelagianism.
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Now, for those listening, Pelagianism is the ancient
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heresy asserting that humans can choose God by their own natural
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free will without the necessity of divine grace intervening
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first. Right.
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And in our modern context, this takes a very practical, everyday
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form. We look around at our
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comfortable lives and falsely believe that our human effort,
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our accumulated resources, and our practical techniques can
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secure our safety. And our standing before for God.
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Yeah, we naturally trust in our investment portfolios and our
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healthcare plans to save us from physical ruin.
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Without even realizing it, we subconsciously transfer that
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same self-reliance to our spiritual lives.
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We start to think our basic decency, our problem solving
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skills and our bank accounts make us acceptable candidates
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for heaven. We assume we can manage our SIN
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the same way we manage our monthly budget.
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So if wealth is acting as this spiritual anesthetic, it
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completely changes how we view Jesus's next move in verse 24.
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He takes it to a whole new level.
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He really does. He does not just say wealth
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makes salvation difficult. He introduces an image so absurd
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it shatters their entire worldview.
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He transitions from a statement about difficulty to a
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declaration of absolute, undeniable impossibility.
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Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the
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eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enter the
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Kingdom of God. He does not soften the blow, he
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increases the weight of the reality tenfold.
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We need to pause and consider the visual imagery he selects.
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Here he is putting 2 completely incompatible things side by
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side. And the contrast is designed to
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shock the disciples into a theological crisis.
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Why would Jesus use such an extreme, almost comical
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illustration to make his point about salvation?
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I mean, it sounds like a surrealist painting, not a
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theological lecture. To grasp the sheer absurdity of
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the illustration, we have to breakdown the linguistic
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precision of the Greek terms Jesus uses.
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OK, let's look at the Greek. The word for camel in the
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original text is camilos. To the Palestinian audience of
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the 1st century, the camel was the absolute largest land animal
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they knew. Massive, cumbersome, knobby
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need. Yeah, entirely unsuited for any
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small or delicate space. Then you have the word for
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needle, which is rafis. And this is not a small
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architectural door or a narrow physical gate, right?
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No, not at all. It is a microscopic puncture
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point. It is a literal sewing needle
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used by a tailor for stitching fabric together.
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Wow. When you place the camelus and
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the rafis in a relationship of comparative impossible, you
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realize Jesus is describing a physical and logical absurdity.
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He chose this imagery deliberately.
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He is not describing A rigorous task.
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Right. He is not describing a tight
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squeeze that requires a lot of huffing and puffing.
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He is describing an event that actively defies the laws of
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physics. It is a category error.
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A massive animal simply cannot occupy the negative space of a
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tailor's tool. I have to push back on how
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modern society handles this specific verse because it seems
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like our culture and even a significant number of well
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meaning churches constantly try to soften this striking imagery.
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All the time. You will hear sermons where the
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pastor tries to find a loophole suggesting that Jesus was not
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really talking about a literal sewing needle.
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People are intensely uncomfortable with the idea of
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total impossibility. It greets against everything we
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are taught about self determination.
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Yes. So they look for a way to make
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the text more palatable. They look for a way to make
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salvation, something we can still achieve if we just try
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hard enough or we humble ourselves enough.
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Where does this urge to soften the text come from, and how do
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people try to explain it away? People look for loopholes
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because the natural fallen human mind actively hates the doctrine
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of absolute inability. We desperately want to believe
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we contribute something, anything, to our own rescue.
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We want some of the credit. Yeah, we do.
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This deep seated psychological desire gave rise to the famous
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historical error of the Needles Eye Gate.
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Many of you listening have likely heard this preached at
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some point in your life. I know I have.
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The myth claims there was a small postern gate in the wall
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of Jerusalem called the Needle's Eye.
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According to the legend, if a merchant arrived after hours, a
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camel could supposedly pass through this tiny gate if it
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knelt down on its knees and had all its heavy baggage removed.
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It sounds like a neat little sermon illustration.
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It does, but the sources we are analyzing explicitly reject the
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Smith with 0 hesitation. There is absolutely no
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archaeological or historical evidence for such a gate
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existing in the 1st century walls of Jerusalem.
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None. It is a medieval invention,
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fabricated centuries later by commentators trying to soften
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the crushing weight of Christ's words for affluent aristocrat
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rats sitting in their congregations.
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Wow, so it's just made-up to make wealthy people feel better?
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Pretty much. It is a textbook form of
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synergistic pragmatism. Now, synergism is the belief
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that salvation is a cooperative joint effort between God and
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man. By inventing this fictional
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gate, these commentators attempt to turn a divine miracle into a
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human technique. They imply that if you just shed
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your earthly baggage, maybe give some money to charity and kneel
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down in a show of humility, you can squeeze your own way into
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the Kingdom. Right, it shrinks the impossible
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down to the merely difficult. But doing that completely ruins
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the entire theological point Jesus is making.
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It completely guts. It Jesus is not telling affluent
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people to try harder, be more modest, or kneel a little lower.
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He is demonstrating total human inability.
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Wealth is simply a vivid test case for a universal truth and
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that. Truth is that sinners cannot
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attain salvation through external strength, moral
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achievement, or financial abundance.
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The imagery of the camel and the needle strips away the illusion
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that any natural advantage can assist your entrance into God's
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Kingdom. The affluent man from the
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previous verses is not some rare exception.
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No, He is the magnifying glass showing us the default condition
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of every single human heart. Fallen humanity does not need a
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list of instructions on how to take off our baggage phone.
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Humanity needs a miracle that defies logic.
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That is a great way to put it. When we invent a gate to make
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the camel fit, we're essentially saying we do not need a savior
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to do the impossible, we just need a life coach to help us
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unburden ourselves. And that realization leads
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directly into the theological crisis we see unfolding in verse
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25. When the disciples hear this
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impossible standard, Matthew records their reaction
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perfectly. The text says they were greatly
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astonished. Yes, the Greek phrase used here
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is exepla Santos phodra. This indicates they were struck
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out of their senses. They were completely overwhelmed
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by a staggering blow to their entire religious belief system.
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The adverbs phodra intensifies their reaction to the highest
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possible degree. They do not just politely raise
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their hands with a follow up question, they cry out in sheer
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existential panic, asking who then can be saved.
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This is not a mild curiosity about the mechanics of
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salvation. This is the sound of their
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theological categories crumbling to the ground in real time.
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We really have to understand the Jewish cultural assumptions they
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were operating under to see why they were so traumatized by this
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statement. Right in their cultural moment,
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they firmly believed that financial abundance equated
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directly to divine favor. They looked back at the
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patriarchs, figures like Abraham or Job or Solomon, and concluded
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that material prosperity was the visible, tangible reward for
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righteousness. In their minds, the wealthy
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elite were the absolute natural heirs to the Kingdom.
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These were the people who had the leisure time to sit and
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study the Torah endlessly. They had the financial means to
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give massive alms to the poor, which was highly valued.
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They had the resources to purchase the most flawless,
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unblemished animals for sacrifices at the temple.
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So if these people, the most religious, the most resource,
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the most culturally blessed individual in society, could not
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earn the Kingdom, then all human hope completely collapses.
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If the people at the absolute top of the religious ladder are
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excluded, the disciples realize the ladder itself is useless.
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The entire system of merit is broken.
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And this brings us to a crucial central connection with Reformed
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theology, specifically the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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What the disciples are experiencing in this exact
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moment is the classic second use of the Law.
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Can you break that down a bit? Sure, in Reformed thought the
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law of God has different uses. The second use is to act as a
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harsh schoolmaster that exposes our sin and strips the center of
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all self-confidence. So the disciples are facing the
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holy, unbending standard of God, and they are realizing their
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complete spiritual bankruptcy. Right.
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The Westminster Confession in Chapter 9, paragraph 3, states
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that man, by his fall into a state of sin, has wholly lost
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all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying
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salvation. The disciples had reached the
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agonizing end of themselves. They were forced to abandon the
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synergistic notion that salvation is attainable for the
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diligent rule follower, and they had to face the terrifying
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reality that it is an absolute impossibility for the
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spiritually dead. They realized that no amount of
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human effort can bridge the gap between a holy God and a sinful
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human being. Not even a millimeter of it.
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If we think about salvation as a towering, sheer Cliff face of a
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mountain, the modern pragmatic view suggests that fallen
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humanity is just a tired climber.
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We might be fatigued. Our muscles might be aching.
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We might need a rope thrown down to us, or we might need some
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verbal encouragement from the summit, but we still have the
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muscle to climb if God just gives us a little boost or
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points out the best hand holds. But what Jesus is teaching here,
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and what the Westminster Confession affirms so clearly,
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is that fallen humanity is not a tired climber.
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Falling humanity is a corpse lying shattered on the rocks at
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the very bottom of the Canyon. A corpse does not need a rope.
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A corpse does not need the pep talk.
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A corpse needs a resurrection. A corpse cannot cooperate with a
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rescue operation. That is the crisis the disciples
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were facing. They are looking up at the sheer
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Cliff of God's holiness, they're looking at themselves, and they
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are realizing they possess 0 spiritual life to make the
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ascent. They are dead in their
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trespasses. And out of that absolute
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despair, we arrive at the triumph of sovereign
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monarchistic grace in verse 26, before Jesus speaks the words of
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resolution. The text gives us a beautiful,
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specific and intimate narrative detail.
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Matthew notes that Jesus looked at them.
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The Greek verb here is M blepsis, which denotes a fixed,
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penetrating, and distinctly pastoral gaze.
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This is not a fleeting glance as he walks.
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Away. No, this is not a dismissive
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look. This is the Creator of the
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universe fixing his eyes upon his confused, despairing,
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panicking creatures. This solemn, steady gaze
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precedes the grand soteriological declaration of
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the passage. He looks at them to ensure they
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understand the utter gravity of what he's about to say.
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He is confirming their absolute despair before delivering the
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only valid source of hope. He wants them to feel the weight
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of the impossibility before he reveals the cure.
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With that case fixed on them, Jesus confirms the impossible
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standard. He says with man this is
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impossible. That word impossible is
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addonaton in the original Greek. It does not mean highly
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improbable. It does not mean extremely
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difficult. It means strictly, logically and
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spiritually impossible. This declaration totally negates
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Arminianism and Roman Catholic synergistic models.
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Arminianism generally suggests that God offers grace to
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everyone, but man must supply the decisive final act of faith
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from his own natural free will. Right.
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And Roman Catholicism teaches a system where grace is infused
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into a person through the sacraments, but man must
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actively cooperate with that infused grace through good works
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to attain final justification. Jesus takes a Wrecking Ball to
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both of those theological systems right here on the dusty
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Rd. He says with man.
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This is at Anatom. Zero possibility 0.
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Cooperation 0. Human merit contributing to the
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final result. You cannot assist in your own
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resurrection. Then we reached the great hinge
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of redemptive history in the second-half of the verse.
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But with God all things are possible.
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This is not a blanket generic statement about God's ability to
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do magic tricks or bend spoons. In this specific, undeniable
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context, it refers directly to the miracle of regeneration and
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justification. This.
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Is the doctor of monarchism. Yes, monarchism means that
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salvation is the exclusive work of one single party, God alone.
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The possibility of salvation lies entirely in divine
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omnipotence, not human resolve. God does what man cannot
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possibly do. He breaks the iron grip of idols
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in the human heart. He humbles the fiercely proud.
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He awakens the spiritually dead. He grants repentance as a gift
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and creates faith where there was previously only stubborn
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resistance. The affluent young man could not
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tear his own heart away from his wealth.
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The disciples could not fathom away into the Kingdom.
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But God possesses the sovereign strength to liberate the human
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heart from its false trust and raise it to new life.
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I have to stop you there because my immediate reaction, and I
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assume the reaction of anyone listening who is seriously
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wrestling with this text, is that this feels incredibly
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jarring when we consider God's justice.
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How so? Well, how does God make this
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happen without violating His own righteous law?
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If the requirement for entering the Kingdom is absolute solace,
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perfection, and we are completely paralyzed and unable
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to provide it, how does God just declare it possible?
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That is the $1,000,000 question. He cannot simply wave a magic
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wand and ignore our idolatry, our covetousness, and our sin.
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If a human judge just let a guilty criminal go free because
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he felt bad for him, we would call that judge corrupt.
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Absolutely we would. So how is God just in demanding
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a standard we cannot meet and then somehow making it possible?
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You are bringing up the absolute beating center of the gospel.
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Sweep our sin under the rug. Christ is the only human being
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in the history of the world for whom the needle's eye of perfect
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law keeping was not a barrier. He lived a life of flawless,
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unblemished obedience to the holy law of God.
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He possessed no idols. He loved the Father perfectly
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with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.
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He succeeded everywhere. The.
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Affluent young ruler failed and then on the cross.
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He willingly bore the infinite wrath of God that was rightfully
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due to our covetous idol worshipping hearts.
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He satisfied the strict demands of the law completely.
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Salvation is a. Monarchistic divine intrusion
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into the dead human heart. But it is a legal intrusion
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purchased by the blood of Christ.
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God does not. Lower the holy standard of the
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law to accommodate our weakness. Rather, Christ meets the
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standard on our behalf, and the Holy Spirit sovereignly applies
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that reality to the elect, Christ the righteousness.
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Is imputed or credited to us. That is how God.
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Remains completely just and yet still the justifier of the one
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who has faith in Jesus. The penalty is paid and the
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righteous requirement is fulfilled entirely outside of
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ourselves. That is a staggering.
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Monumental reality. Knowing this, we need to
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transition into the practical application of this truth.
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We cannot just leave this hanging in the air as an
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abstract theological concept for academics to debate.
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No, it has to hit the ground. In our daily lives, the sources
23:01
we are. Analyzing breakdown the
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application for the listener into 3 distinct categories, the
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head, the heart and the hands. Let us start with the head,
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which. Is all about renewing the mind.
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The primary application here is that you must explicitly reject
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the pragmatism of our modern age.
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You must intellectually. Accept your radical inability.
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You have to actively. Untrain your mind from trusting
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your own intellect, your moral track record, your career
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achievements, or your financial abundance to secure your
23:29
standing before God, the world around you.
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Constantly feeds you messages of self improvement, self-reliance
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and manifesting your own destiny.
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Every commercial tells you that. You are the captain of your
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soul. You have to actively.
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Fight the messages with the biblical truth of total
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depravity and sovereign grace. You must recognize that you
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bring nothing to the table of your salvation.
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Moving from the head to the. Heart.
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This text demands a cultivation of specific God honoring
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affections. We have to violently confront
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the idol of security in our own lives, so many people.
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Use their wealth, their stable careers, their zip codes, and
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their social standing as a buffer against the harsh
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realities of life and the looming judgement of God we have
24:10
to tear down. That false security.
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Furthermore, this doctrine should produce a holy
24:14
astonishment within you when you truly.
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Firmly grasped that you were a rotting corpse at the bottom of
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the Canyon and God sovereignly resurrected you without any help
24:24
on your part. It creates a very specific kind
24:27
of humility it permanently eliminates.
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Boasting it destroys the root of spiritual pride.
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You can no longer. Look down on anyone else because
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you know your rescue was entirely unmerited.
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It cultivates a. Genuine, quiet contentment and a
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singular, focused affection for Christ, the one who
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intentionally became poor so that you might receive the
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staggering abundance of His grace.
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Then we move. To the hands, which relates
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directly to grateful obedience. In Reformed theology, this is
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known as the third use of the law, the second use as.
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We discussed earlier drives us to Christ in despair by showing
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us our inability. But the third use guides us in
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how to live. Now that we are saved, we do not
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obey the law. Or give our resources away in a
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desperate attempt to buy God's favor we already have.
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His complete favor through the finished work of Christ instead
25:14
because. We are secure.
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We completely reorient our earthly stewardship.
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We hold our earthly possessions with an open hand, holding them
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loosely. We use our financial.
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Abundance to support the proclamation of the Gospel to a
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lost world, to care for the vulnerable, and to support the
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local church. We do not hoard.
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It to build a temporary fading Kingdom for ourselves.
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Think about this reality. Believers are walking, breathing
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miracles if you are in Christ. You are a literal camel that God
25:44
has sovereignly pulled through a microscopic sewing needle.
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Your obedience. Your generosity and your love
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are simply the natural, inevitable byproducts of that
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impossible miracle taking place in your soul.
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This theological. Reality also shapes how we
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gather together as a corporate body.
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Let us look at the integration of these truths into corporate
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worship in the historic Reformed.
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Tradition corporate worship is not an entertainment venue
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designed to give you an emotional high.
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It is a means of grace, the entire liturgy.
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Of a faithful church service is carefully structured to reflect
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this exact dynamic of human impossibility and divine
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omnipotence when a congregation. Gathers on Sunday morning.
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The worship service is where the Holy Spirit confirms the
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objective promises of the gospel to the hearts of the elect.
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The service usually. Begins with a scriptural
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declaration of God's unapproachable holiness,
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followed immediately by a corporate prayer of confession.
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This intentionally. Mirrors the experience of the
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terrified disciples it brings the entire.
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Congregation to a place of recognizing their own complete
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inability, confessing the persistent idol of self-reliance
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and stripping them of their self righteousness, which perfectly.
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Prepares them to receive the spoken assurance of the gospels,
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pardon and the music we. Sing also plays a massive,
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undeniable role in this formation.
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The Theological. Sources mention specific musical
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selections that historically reinforce this exact doctrine.
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For example, Psalm 49 is a perfect inspired alignment with
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Matthew 19 the congregation sings about.
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How no man can ever redeem his brother or give to God an
27:18
adequate ransom for his life. It explicitly declares the total
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impossibility of buying salvation with earthly wealth.
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Then you have robust. Historically grounded hymns like
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Augustus, Top Lady's Rock of Ages.
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Oh, that is a perfect. Example.
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Think about those famous. Lyrics Nothing in my hand I
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bring simply to thy cross. I cling naked.
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Come to thee for dress helpless, look to thee for grace.
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Notice the. Complete glaring absence of
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synergism in those lyrics. You are not bringing your 4-O1K,
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your flawless moral achievements, your impressive
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resume, or your good intentions. You bring.
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Absolutely nothing. You cling entirely to the
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monarchistic work of Christ. The singing literally trains
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your brain to reject self-reliance, the physical
28:04
sacraments. Also vividly illustrate this
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truth for the congregation. Consider the careful
28:09
administration of the Lord's Supper in Reformed churches.
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There was a serious practice called fencing the table, the
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minister explicitly. States that the elements of
28:17
communion, the bread and the wine, are reserved specifically
28:21
for those who are made poor in spirit, those who are trusting
28:24
in Christ alone. It is not a casual.
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Meal for the self-righteous, the self-sufficient, or those
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actively trusting in our own moral stamina to impress God.
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It is a meal. Exclusively for desperate
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sinners who know they could never pass through the needle's
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eye on their own. Furthermore.
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The sacrament of Baptism is the perfect, tangible, visible
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depiction of this divine intervention, A spiritually
28:46
dead. Person cannot wash away their
28:47
own idolatry, just as a physical corpse cannot raise itself to
28:50
life. Baptism illustrates the
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sovereign, entirely 1 sided action of God, washing the
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helpless Sinner and bringing them into newness of life
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completely apart from any human effort or prerequisite merit.
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To summarize the. Progression we've walked through
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today we started by analyzing the tragic idol of wealth
29:08
watching a young man. Walk away from the author of
29:11
eternal life because his financial abundance was his
29:13
reigning God we examine the. Absolute absurdity of self
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salvation through the striking, almost comical imagery of the
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massive camel and the microscopic eye of a tailor's
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sewing needle dismantling the myth.
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Of the needles I gave along the way, we felt the disciples.
29:29
Theological crisis as their entire synergistic merit based
29:33
worldview collapsed around them in panic and finally we
29:36
rejoiced. In the triumph of God's
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monarchistic grace, where the strictly impossible becomes a
29:40
glorious reality entirely through the substitutionary work
29:44
of Jesus Christ, as we conclude. Our time I want to leave you
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with a final thought to consider something not explicitly
29:50
detailed in our prior discussion, but drawn directly
29:53
from these theological realities.
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What is that? We have focused.
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Heavily on how financial abundance and self-reliance act
30:00
as anesthetics, making salvation impossible without God's
30:03
miraculous intervention. But consider the inverse of this
30:07
truth. OK, the inverse.
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Consider how the. Very struggles, the daily
30:11
deprivations or the frustrating financial weaknesses you
30:14
frequently complain about in your life might actually be the
30:17
specific merciful instruments God uses to keep you out of the
30:21
fatal snare of self-sufficiency. That is a weighty thought.
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What you view as a? Painful lack of blessing might
30:27
in reality be the severe mercy of God.
30:30
He might be intentionally designing your circumstances to
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ensure you never trust in your own strength, forcing you to
30:36
remain poor in spirit, and relying entirely every single
30:40
day on His sovereign grace. Thank you for joining.
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This deep dive on Reformed thinking, we encourage you to
30:46
cast aside your own merit, look to the finished work of Christ,
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and rest entirely in the grace of God.