Amen. Right, so we're up to Matthew chapter 19, and we did half of Matthew 18 last week, the second half of verse 15 it was.
We looked at the way to handle a brother who trespasses against you, and obviously there were some key things.
It was a brother, it was someone, you know, in a brother or sister in Christ.
We would also add into that as well, and it was trespassing against you.
And we talked about how often that passage of scripture has been misused by many.
But we had a look into that and looked into how to deal with that and the stages that should go through,
what you should do and go up to them on your own if it's something that's an individual thing between each other.
And then after that, if needed, it would go to witnesses and finally to the church, being the church leadership there.
We looked at the, after that, the limitless forgiveness of a brother and the stipulations for that.
And, you know, 70 times, seven times, look at that, 490 times, seven times in a day.
But the point being that it was someone that was repenting, it was someone that was to go and rebuke them.
And then if they repent, forgive them.
And again, how misused passages like that have been even on the back of him talking about going to this person alone in the church.
And if they won't hear you take it to witnesses.
Yeah. So many people take little verses on their own in the Bible and just run with it and make all these false doctrines and things which aren't what the Bible says.
And then at the end of that, we looked at what is quite a long parable about the king and his servants and saw that that was talking about,
again, on the same theme of between brothers and again, you could add sisters in Christ,
people in church settings amongst themselves and receiving all that daily forgiveness that we receive in life from the Lord for the many,
many things we do after salvation and how we should also extend that to our fellow believers.
But again, we saw that example, the believer went up and sought that forgiveness.
Now, on the back of that, what I was saying to people is that it's not to say, oh, you know, if someone doesn't ask for forgiveness,
I'm going to be so much happier if I hang on to some sort of grudge.
No, look, you're happier if you can forgive people.
Yeah. When you don't forgive people in life, it just eats away at you in general, doesn't it?
However, the Bible doesn't say you must forgive if someone isn't coming up to you and seeking that.
I think we should anyway, and you should try it in your heart.
But sometimes there's situations when you can't, and that's quite normal.
And people like to act like, what sort of Christian are you if you're angry at someone who's done something horrendous and you won't forgive?
Well, you know, the Bible, the Bible said if they repent, if they come to you, if they hear you.
OK, so there are some stipulations there.
And we looked at that last week.
Now, we're going to continue now with Matthew chapter 19 and verse one, where we now see a kind of change of focus that says,
and it came to pass in verse one that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee and came into the coast of Judea beyond Jordan.
And then he came to the coast of Jerusalem, and he came to the coast of Jerusalem, and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there.
I'd like to pray and then we'll carry on.
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this great chapter of the Bible.
Thank you for, you know, the truths that are in there.
Please help me to just preach these accurately and boldly and clearly.
Lord, help everyone to have attentive ears and hearts and just want to hear what your word's got to say, Lord, and just help to keep their distractions to a minimum and help me to just preach clearly and loudly.
Now, I'm not now from his final entry into Jerusalem, but he's on the outskirts right now on the other side of the Jordan River is what it means here.
He's still healing many people.
He's got the multitudes following him.
Then it says in verse three, the Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him and saying unto him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
Now, putting away is divorcing his wife.
Now, if you remember back in Matthew five, Jesus was teaching many of his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount.
He was teaching his disciples quite early on in his ministry.
But he said this in Matthew 5 31.
It has been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.
But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery.
Now, this was likely pretty groundbreaking, considering the question here and the way it seems that their kind of society has gone with this.
Words probably gone around about this.
He taught this, you know, the Sermon on the Mount was to many.
I think that the vast majority were believers.
I think they're what you can be considered to some.
I don't think he was just with the 12 there.
Again, it doesn't really matter.
I believe, you know, maybe he's taught this since as well.
They're trying to catch him out now with this, basically.
OK, so they know that this is what he believes.
Then this is what he's taught.
And look, even though it's been a couple of years since he's taught this, they still just want to catch him.
They want to catch him in his words.
And the truth is, when you preach the word of God and whether you're preaching behind the pulpit or you're going out, you're preaching the word, you're trying to live godly and everything else.
People want to catch you out, OK?
People want to catch you in your words.
And it's something you have to understand and people have to understand as they preach and go to preach.
And as we grow with time and maybe there'll be new churches and things like this, especially if you're behind the pulpit preaching the Bible, people just want to catch you out.
And it's a sad truth.
They want to find something you say that they can go, well, you said this, this and then you said this and people do it, don't they?
And especially with social media and with, you know, we choose our type of church says, yeah, we should preach from the housetops.
Yeah, so we preach live on YouTube.
We keep our sermons up.
We don't cut it all off.
We don't we don't remove it.
We don't preach private little sermons, you know, because we don't want people to hear that sort of message.
We don't have like a members only kind of log in where you can hear.
No, we preach to the world now.
Yeah, the whole world doesn't listen to our sermons.
It'd be great if they did, but they don't.
However, they are able to, aren't they?
OK, it's very easy to listen to.
So with that, look, at the end of the day, I'm going to I'm going to get things along sometimes.
I'm going to say things that maybe I didn't mean to say.
I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to change my mind with time as well.
Yeah, preachers do that.
Shock, horror, someone can actually change.
Yeah, you could change your mind as you learn, as you grow, growing throughout life.
People are going to change your mind.
And many pastors and preachers you've listened to already have changed their minds on things over time and will continue to do so.
That's life, isn't it?
Now, sadly, what you will have with that, though, as well as you'll get those that are literally just paying attention, just waiting.
One day I'm going to get, you know, I'm going to catch it.
And here's the thing is, I mean, I've seen some of these, I try and avoid them.
They're pretty they're pretty much a waste of time.
I've seen these odd kind of attack video type things.
And you know, I always think I just think whoever's sitting there waiting for that stuff
has got more issues than anyone else they're trying to expose.
I mean, you've got to be pretty sad, haven't you?
Do I? And look, some of them will have sat in churches doing this and like make it mental.
And I remember this day when he like said that and that sounded a bit off and everything.
Look, if it's damnable heresy, fair enough.
Yeah. But however, most of the time it's not.
It's just people trying to grab this, studying someone's YouTube channel to take what they can.
Like that, that is pretty messed up, isn't it?
There's a lot of crazy people out there.
But it's nothing new because Jesus Christ had him.
Here they're like, you said this.
Let's see if we can catch him out now.
Oh, this is contrary to what Moses taught.
Because these guys are so Bible illiterate anyway,
they're not even saying, they don't even know what the Bible's saying.
So they're like, oh, we got him, we got him on the divorce thing here.
OK, so this is what they say.
They basically said here, they've said,
is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
Now, just just last point on that is that
unlike all the rest of the preachers that have been from,
you know, thousands of years ago, up until now,
there's one preacher who never made any errors
and didn't say anything wrong and didn't say anything incorrect
and didn't slip up or say the wrong word, and that's Jesus Christ.
So they've got their work cut out
because they're trying to trip up Jesus Christ or something he said.
But they're not going to be able to do that, are they?
Because Jesus Christ is the son of God.
Jesus Christ doesn't make mistakes.
So anyway, they've tried to they try to come up with this.
They've said
or they basically think, look, you know,
they're going to he's going to change his mind somewhere now.
We're going to we're going to catch that.
We're going to we're going to show him he's wrong.
It says, And he answered and said unto them, Have you not read
that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female
and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother
and shall cleave to his wife, and they twice should be one flesh.
Wherefore, there are no more twain, but one flesh.
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
So Jesus said that once they're married,
they become one flesh joined together by God.
Did it have to be a Christian wedding for it to have been of God?
No, because I've been asked this question before by people.
Well, it wasn't in a church.
They look like church weddings on in a church.
They're in somewhere called themselves a church.
It's got nothing to do with God.
Yeah, they're just in a place that kind of loosely uses the word church.
No, the whole physical, spiritual and public union of marriage.
They all go hand in hand.
It's all ordained by God.
OK, marriage comes from God.
When you get married, you're doing an institution of God.
So it doesn't matter whether it whether you had your fingers crossed
during it, whether you were saved, whether you weren't saved,
whether you were in a church, whether you weren't in a church,
whether you were in a mosque or whatever it was.
It's still an institution of God, and there is only one God
and there's one true God, and it's the God of the Bible.
And when you get married, it's a commitment that you're doing
in front of God, ultimately, because the whole thing comes from God.
Now, before I carry on with this sermon, let me just make it clear with this.
Look, we're a Bible preaching church here.
We're going to preach the Bible.
And I understand like topics like this can be hard truths for some people
and they can be hard and you can feel like a bit like the focus is on you,
because many people have done things, whether before or after salvation,
made mistakes and other things and been in situations that can't change it.
Or if not, maybe they have family members that have friends that have they have,
you know, whatever it is.
However, if we didn't preach sensitive subjects,
probably wouldn't preach much of the Bible, would we?
OK, and this stuff needs preaching and it needs preaching for the kids'
sakes as well and needs preaching for the married couples' sakes.
And it's not an attack on anyone that obviously it has been
on the wrong side of divorce.
Let's keep going with that.
So basically saying here, look, marriage is an institution of God.
We shouldn't be breaking up marriages.
He said, he said here, wherefore there no more twain but one flesh.
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Because look, many people try and break up marriages through one way or another,
whether it's their own marriages or people trying to break up
other people's marriages or the best friend in the background
going, you shouldn't have to stay with that person or vice versa.
You know, there's so many people that try and break up marriage.
But marriages of God.
Verse seven, they say unto him, why did Moses send command
to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away?
So he said, look, there's no reason.
OK, God's put together.
There's basically no reason to divorce.
There's no justified reason, he said here.
But we're going to see see that that one reason in a second.
Verse seven, they said to him,
why did Moses then give command to give a writing of divorcement
and to put her away?
Now, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 24, which is what they're referring to.
OK, well, that's where they should be going.
But instead, they've taken a divorce part.
They've gone, oh, he gave a reason for divorce
and we're just going to run with it now and say divorce is OK
in multiple situations.
They've just asked him, is it OK to put away your wife for any cause?
They're like, yeah, come on.
There's got to be a got to be any reason, can't you?
You can just get divorced, can't you?
Maybe they just heard it, preach and heard it, preach.
I don't know, but they got it wrong.
Deuteronomy 24, verse one says,
when a man have taken a wife and married her and it come to pass
that she find no favor in his eyes because he had found some uncleanness in her,
then let him write her a bill of divorcement
and give it in her hand and send her out of his house.
And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.
Now, did it say if he doesn't like her anymore, give her a bit of divorcement?
Did it say, you know, well, she's not, you know, not quite who I...
We've fallen out of love.
Did it say that? It didn't, did it?
Did it say, well, you know, we just drifted apart?
No, it said, it said, and it come to pass,
so when a man has taken a wife and married her,
it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes.
It looks, this is like recently, he's just taken her.
When a man had taken a wife and married her and it come to pass
to find no favor in his eyes, because he had found some uncleanness in her.
Is that that she just doesn't get in the shower very often?
One of those types of women is, you know, a bit of a bath dodger.
It's not what he's talking about.
He's basically, he's discovered,
he's discovered that she's not
as pure as he thought, basically.
OK, so for want of a better word, basically, this would be a situation
where maybe someone's marrying someone and they assume
they are led to believe maybe really that she said
she's a virgin and then he finds out that she's not.
OK, and in that situation, there's a caveat there
that that's kind of the one time because of probably the destruction
that it could cause and the bitterness and there's something that maybe this guy
because it let's let's kind of take off our 20, 22 glasses right now.
OK, is really anyone a virgin?
You know, sadly, yeah, that's the state of this nation.
We're talking about we're talking about a few couple of thousand years
plus ago when, yes, yes, that was normal.
Yeah, that should have been normal.
People should have been pure going to their marriages.
And that's a big deal.
Yeah, the swinging sixties and the rest of it and the Hollywood
and all the brainwashing propaganda and the filth and the smut
on every corner has just perverted so many so many people's minds
where they're like, really?
Well, that's OK to divorce someone just because they're.
But if we get our head where God wants our head to be, we'd be going,
yeah, I mean, you can understand why that would be such an issue.
However, however, we're going to see in a minute.
It was actually still because of the hardness of their own hearts.
Yet this was the one reason.
So, OK, so this isn't years later.
He's found some uncleanness, not dumped her off
because of an uncleanness he was well aware of.
OK, so just to bear that in mind, it's not like, oh, yeah,
we're 10 years down the line.
Well, yeah, actually, she wasn't a virgin.
It's time to divorce her.
OK, no, he's just found some unclean.
He's just discovered actually she wasn't what I was led to believe.
OK, I go back to Matthew 19.
I mean, here, you know,
give some further rules for remarriage, but we don't have to look into that
for now. That's the key point that we're talking about here is the reason
he then says afterwards that she wouldn't be able to marry
someone else and go back to him.
OK, OK, so Jesus explains what we've just read here.
He said they said to him, why did Moses then give command
to give a righty of divorce and to put her away?
So why did Moses say it was OK to divorce?
He said, under them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts,
suffered you to put away your wives.
But from the beginning, it was not so.
And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife,
except it be for fornication and shall marry another,
committeth adultery, and whoso maryeth her, which is put away,
doth commit adultery.
Jesus said that this sort of loophole is only because of their hard hearts.
So really, in an ideal world, they would turn around and go,
well, I still love this woman.
Yeah, that wasn't the deal.
I didn't, you know, that's kind of really hurt me and upset me that,
in fact, I thought that I was marrying someone that hadn't,
you know, had already been with some man.
However, look,
I've made a commitment.
We've got married, I'm married over front of God.
We're going to stay married.
However, because of the hardness of the hearts,
because they're more likely to just be so angry and bitter
and the marriage is going to be a mess and a disgrace,
he's given this one loophole, one loophole.
So that's the only thing that Moses said where where you could write.
There could be this writing, this bill of divorcement.
And that's what fornication is.
OK, because fornication is physical relations before marriage.
And some people try and debate this because of false Bible versions.
OK, because of false Bible versions, trying to change it,
trying to change the meaning of it.
And they want to debate it because really people just want a reason
to divorce or people want a reason to justify divorce.
People want to go, well, actually, no, it was all right now.
Now I can remarry because it was actually because of adult.
Well, if I could prove it was adult.
Well, in fact, Jesus said that, look, you're the woman to lust after.
He's committing adultery in his heart.
So if I could just prove
that this guy or this lady looked at someone lust after him.
Oh, we're all right, aren't we? Divorce is fine.
I mean, you can imagine what a mess that would be.
And it's ridiculous because that's not what the Bible says.
Fornication is physical relations before marriage.
We're going to see this in a second.
Finding some uncleanness is like I said,
that your wife isn't a virgin, you are led to believe.
So if you've been, now, I don't know.
Yeah, you might have someone here, someone watching in the future,
someone watching now that it's been hoodwinked by the Bible pervertors.
We had a guy a while back trying to kind of, we had some online
stalk on this, and again, they're usually just morons anyway.
But trying to like, you're wrong, you know, the Bible doesn't say that
and trying to give these reasons why fornication is actually some umbrella
term for which includes adultery and all sorts of basically,
you know, improper sexual conduct.
Anyone heard this before, heard this argument before?
Yeah, we've got a few out there. OK.
Right. So turn to turn to First Corinthians seven.
Well, I read First Corinthians six, nine.
And it just these are just a couple of points with the passage.
Well, it's just for me makes it clear.
OK, you're turning First Corinthians seven, if you want, if you're quick,
if you're there, First Corinthians chapter six and verse nine says this.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God,
be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves and mankind.
So is fornication the same as adultery?
No, they're two separate types of people,
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers.
Then he goes on, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves and mankind.
These are all separate types of people.
And by the way, effeminate is different to what, you know,
we're not going to go into the abuse of themselves and mankind thing here as well.
These are all different types of sin.
Yeah. Yes.
Just quickly on that, effeminacy is a sin.
Shock horror. Yeah.
Yeah, it's a sin that we should be making sure with our kids that we don't encode.
And let's be honest, it's going to be the same the other way around, isn't it?
So raising like butch women is that is a sin.
Yeah, that's what the Bible says.
Nor effeminate. That's talking about just just sins here,
which and of course, as we know, it's grace through faith.
But however, we don't want to be encouraging sin.
Anyway, clearly two separate types of sin are fornicators and adulterers.
1 Corinthians 7 and verse one, Paul says this.
Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me,
it is good for a man not to touch a woman.
So he's saying, look, if you're able to live like that, great.
And we're going to look at that in a second.
Nevertheless, to avoid what? Fornication.
Let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband.
So if adultery was a form of fornication, this verse would make no sense.
So to avoid fornication, get married and then you can commit adultery.
And it makes no sense, does it?
OK, because fornication is outside of marriage. OK,
pretty clear. And that's why back if you go back to Matthew 19 and verse nine,
Jesus said, And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife,
except it be for fornication.
And we've just seen, we've just referenced Moses, where he's talked about finding
an uncleanness in her, which is something obviously from before marriage.
It says, And shall marry another, commiteth adultery.
Two separate things, fornication and adultery.
And whoso marrieth her, which is put away, doth commit adultery.
Clearly differentiating between the two.
OK, pretty clear. Right.
So just like the Pharisees here, people want to justify divorce.
OK, and now you might be sitting there thinking, wait a second.
Are you saying that someone could just be committing rampant adultery
and it wouldn't be OK to divorce it?
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
But you know, what I'm saying with that as well is that under God's law,
under what should and you know what?
And there are nations and I don't know if they probably probably still are
actually now where adultery is is a crime and it should be a crime
because under God's law, guess what it would be punished by?
Death. The death sentence.
And too right.
And it's a bit extreme.
Yeah, because if there was a death sentence for adultery,
there'd be a lot less adultery.
And adultery ruins marriages, ruins lives, ruins children,
ruins so much of society.
That's why God is so serious about it.
Yeah, just because we live in some wicked world,
you can just have these no fault divorces or just some like ridiculous
kind of tick box. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Some issue or other.
Yeah, it's a mess, isn't it?
But God takes it seriously, doesn't it?
Now, again, just look, many people here will have had things
and done things in the past.
OK, that's not what I'm preaching about.
And I'm preaching about how we shouldn't behave going forward.
OK, how people here, if you're in a marriage, there is there is.
Look, adultery is wicked.
Yeah. And I'll tell you something.
Oh, well, there's no death penalty.
So what happens there?
I tell you what, you're going to get worked.
This that's how I see it.
I think if the government's not doing its job and you are married to you
and you go out and you commit adultery and you're you're a child of God.
I think your loving father is going to work here.
OK, I think he's going to.
I think I don't see any reason why wouldn't.
A loving father is going to chastise you, isn't he?
And if he didn't, then
what's he going to chastise you for?
That's a death penalty sin.
Oh, well, he wouldn't chastise me for adultery.
But he would if I went and killed someone who got away with it.
No, he wouldn't. He's going to chastise you.
OK, you're going to get chastised.
So it's like what?
Look, you're going, oh, well, it's all right now, isn't it?
No. And in Old Testament Israel, you would have got the death penalty.
That's how God thinks about it.
God doesn't change.
God doesn't change your world.
Yeah, he's got a bit more peaceful now.
He's kind of like, yeah, well, there's been enough Hollywood movies
with like happy, happy adultries that have ended up with him
living happily ever after.
I've changed my mind.
Oh, you know, old whoever, Bernstein in Hollywood.
He's convinced me now.
He's up there going, yeah, no, I just needed to watch a few more movies.
No, it's wicked.
OK, it's wicked. And that's how God sees it.
So and by the way, it does work both ways.
Mark 10, 12, the parallel passage, Avsanah says this.
And if a woman shall put away her husband
and be married to another, she committed adultery.
OK, so it's not just just the man.
It's not all on the man here.
OK, parallel passage talks about the woman doing the same
and she's committing adultery if she does that.
Now, in the same way, that would be exactly the same.
Let's let's be honest, because there'd be a lot of men
that have divorced their wives really to commit adultery in God's eyes.
There are many that will have just gone, yeah, well, you know, I'm kind of.
She's already bared the kids now, you know, and now I'm looking for us.
I'll get to go for like a different different time now.
You know, I've been watching too much smut and my eyes are wondering.
So would we fallen out of love?
You know, see you later.
That's adultery, isn't it?
Oh, well, that's OK, because they went to some court
and wrote something that's not OK.
It's wicked. And many men do that.
But many men get a divorce and five minutes later.
Oh, what a surprise.
They happen to be with their secretary or whatever else.
And I know it's a bit cliche, but that goes on a lot, doesn't it?
And let's not go on to that whole topic of women
submitting to people's husbands in the workplace, this crazy, crazy
world we live in.
OK, so verse 10 is disciples say unto him,
if the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.
So they're thinking, well, look, this sounds pretty tough.
Yeah. What on earth?
I mean, you know, do you even want to get married there?
You can't you can't even get a divorce.
But so clearly for me, I look at that thinking their society's
really messed up by this point.
Since Moses has written this sort of 1500 years
beforehand, it's clearly gone downhill, hasn't it?
To the point where they're going, well, maybe it's good not to marry at all.
Verse 11, but he said unto them,
all men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.
For there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb.
And there are some eunuchs which have made which sorry,
which were made eunuchs of men.
And there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs
for the kingdom of heaven's sake.
He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.
Right, so just like so we're going to move on for a second here,
but just kind of the last point on that, on adultery and divorce
and all that sort of thing.
Well, in fact, we're going to look at some things
that you can go on to from that.
But look, the Bible is clear about this, isn't it?
I mean, that is a clear passage about that, isn't it?
Very clear now.
Yeah, the Bible pervertors will want to try and change what fornication means
and change this and try and justify and find a way.
But we're not we're not idiots, are we?
We know what the Bible says.
We know how the Bible wants us, how God wants us to live.
And we know how we want to raise our children.
And this stuff can't be preached enough nowadays, can it?
And look, we're going for a Bible study.
We got to Matthew 19 and Matthew 19 talks about this.
But this stuff needs preaching regularly
because we need our kids to understand as well
when they're going into marriage, they're going to marriage for life,
not just marrying them off just quickly.
Oh, well, they seem all right.
They seem like it's a big deal, isn't it?
And dads that we need to be careful with our daughters,
with who they end up marrying, because people can be look, people can con you.
People can act the part and everything else.
And then they can absolutely ruin your daughter's life.
Yeah. And same way.
And with our sons as well,
want to make sure they're marrying the right people as well,
because look, this stuff is a big deal, isn't it?
You'd marry your daughter off to someone.
Oh, they seem nice.
They go to so-and-so church.
They must be all right.
Two years later, they've divorced her and she's she's that that's her done.
I mean, look, it's a big deal, isn't it?
It's not that we want to.
But we don't want to stop them getting married either,
because that's what they're saying.
Well, they're saying it is not good to marry them.
What does he say?
Verse 11 says, But he said unto them,
All men cannot receive the same, save they to whom it is given.
And then I just read you, for there are some eunuchs
which were so born from their mother's womb, etc..
What's a eunuch?
Well, strictly speaking, it means bedkeeper.
OK, the translation of the word is basically a bedkeeper.
OK, these were servants that worked around the bedrooms in palaces.
OK, so these were people that worked in the like in a chamber,
OK, as a servant in palaces or for the very wealthy women here.
So commonly, what became the norm in many societies is that they were castrated.
OK, they were castrated so that there was no virility, no desire.
And then they were a safe bet to be looking after the princess or whoever else it was,
you know, the lady that they were then working around their bedchamber.
OK, now, the word came to mean someone castrated,
but the point was that they had no physical desire.
So I believe it could apply just to someone with who has a check on at least
or doesn't have those desires for some reason or another
that we're going to look at in a second.
And just to make it clear, this has got nothing to do with sodomites.
OK, because there are some that have taken this sort of these these verse
and then try to apply this to sodomites, like somehow some deranged sodomite
is actually what Jesus is talking about a eunuch here.
Oh, no, well, they've been eunuch, some were made eunuch for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Saying, what are you talking about?
Because the Bible says that sodomy is a sign of them being given over to unclean lusts,
given up on, rejected.
So that's not a eunuch, because people look, people in our study act like,
oh, well, the sodomites are right.
They're not attracted to women.
Fine, we'll have sleepovers together.
Oh, go on, get a sodomite best friend for your wife.
They can like top and tail in bed because he's a sodomite.
But that's not the truth, is it?
Because really these people are sexual sex deranged sexual perverts.
You don't want anyone near your wives or anyone else for that matter,
because they're predators and because they've gone so far for some, maybe,
well, maybe they've gone so far that it wouldn't even do it for them anymore
because they're so because their mind is so twisted and perverse.
However, look, that's not what it's talking about here.
That's not what a eunuch is.
OK, these people are dangerous people.
The Bible's very clear about that.
Look, society throughout history has shown that it's only now
that we've kind of got to this bizarre point in the last couple of decades
where we're trying to act like these are just just normal people.
Yeah, just just think a different way.
Funny that, because throughout history, throughout civilization
of very intelligent people, they've known that a dog's a dog. Yeah.
OK. However, let's continue. So.
He's saying that there are some that are born with no desire,
there are some that have been castrated
and there are some that have chosen a life of serving God.
No, they haven't gone for an op.
OK, I don't see that.
I don't think the apostle Paul went for an op.
OK, he didn't like, oh, I better go and get some sort of in whatever way,
you know, who knows how they would have chosen to do that.
It's just that they're choosing to avoid marriage
and are able to keep a check on that desire for that.
OK, for the kingdom of heaven's sake, we just saw there in verse 12.
And we're going to go back to First Corinthians seven again.
Sorry, I should have maybe got you to keep something there.
Jesus said, well, if you're able,
then so be it.
But the truth is that many and most aren't.
OK, First Corinthians seven and verse six says,
But I speak this by permission and not of commandment.
OK, so this part is Paul's opinion.
OK, he would prefer it if they were able to live single like he could.
He said, for I would that all men were even as I myself,
but every man had this proper gift of God,
one after this manner and another after that.
So when he says like himself, Paul was unmarried.
OK, and no, Paul wasn't a pastor for the people that try and go,
oh, look, see, Paul.
Yeah, Paul wasn't a pastor.
Paul was an apostle.
OK, he did plant churches, but he wasn't a pastor.
I say, therefore, to the unmarried and widows,
it is good for them if they abide even as I,
but if they cannot contain, let them marry,
for it is better to marry than to burn.
And this is talk about burning in lust, not talk about burning in hell.
Some people are able to contain and can therefore serve God better.
OK, some people, look, it's not an issue for them.
They're just focused on serving the Lord,
serving the Lord with all their heart, soul and mind.
Look, for them, they're able to do that
and they don't really have to think about, you know,
women or vice versa, women thinking about men,
and they just want to serve God and they're able to contain.
Now, that, for me, is what Jesus is talking about here.
I don't think he's talking about someone that's gone for some operation.
It's just somebody who's able to contain.
He's able to be, in effect, a eunuch, OK?
He said, art thou bound unto a wife?
Seek not to be loosed.
Art thou loosed from a wife?
Seek not a wife.
So, look, there's nothing wrong with being unmarried, yeah,
or previously divorced, OK?
We're not here going, oh, I'm not sort of a sinner or anything else.
No, look, you're loosed from a wife for whatever reason.
OK, that's happened for whatever reason.
It might be, you know, from...
Sadly, it could be that someone's widowed or whatever it is.
You have more opportunity to serve God, yeah?
If you're loosed, seek not a wife.
Look, you're able to serve God more, you have more opportunity.
Look, there's less distraction, there's more free time.
Look, that's the truth, isn't it?
I mean, look, many of us here, you know, we know in a marriage,
look, you need to give time to...
If you're not giving time to your wife,
then you're going to have a failed marriage anyway, vice versa.
Her wife's just like, yeah, but sorry, I've got, you know,
it's Bible reading now, and then I'm here and I'm doing this,
and I'm sorry, love, I'm off soul winning it.
If she does nothing for her husband, it's going to be a failed marriage, OK?
But it works both ways, yeah?
There's less distraction, there's more free time and everything else,
and, you know, I've said this before, look, if you're single,
if you're single, believe me, you'll never have the time that you do.
Especially if you're single, you know,
whether you've maybe got kids from previously or whatever before,
look, a lot of the time you still have a lot more time, OK?
Look, if you're a guy and you're married, you need to keep your wife happy,
you need to look after your kids, you need to provide for your wife as well,
probably have to work longer hours, et cetera.
Look, you could serve God like no-one else here can.
And it's funny because so often when you look at churches,
and I'm not really talking about ours,
but so often you'll see that it will be like the married women
with multiple kids and the married men doing, like,
the bulk share of everything in the church,
yet they're the ones with the least time.
And those that don't have any of that have so much more free...
I mean, I don't even... What is free time?
Still trying to work out what it is, you know, like, free time?
What would you do with that, you know?
And if you have that, you are able to serve God.
And that's a great thing to do, really, isn't it?
And if you are put in that position for whatever reason,
what a great opportunity, what a great thing you're able to do
and something that you get eternal rewards for forever.
He said here in verse 32, if you jump forward to verse 32,
so I did jump forward to verse 27 earlier there.
Verse 32 then says,
But I would have you without carefulness.
He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord,
how he may please the Lord.
But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world,
how he may please his wife.
There is difference also between a wife and a virgin.
The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord,
that she may be holy both in body and in spirit,
but she that is married careth for the things of the world,
how she may please her husband.
OK, that's how it should be.
That's how it should be, isn't it?
OK, the unmarried woman should be thinking about the Lord,
how she can care for the Lord, how she can do these things.
I've said this many times as well.
There are many singles in the...
Look, it's hard.
You know, I think sometimes...
Praise God I'm not, you know, a single Christian.
That's tough, you know, because it's not exactly like
there's just, like, tonnes of people around.
Because, look, you go and find some unsaved girl or guy,
singles and kids as you grow up here,
you're going to ruin your spiritual life, yeah?
And it's not like there's just all these hundreds of people everywhere,
save, let alone who want to serve the Lord,
want to be part of a proper church
and don't want to just go down the fun centre somewhere.
But, you know, here's the thing with that.
Look, if you are single, what should your focus really be?
Serving the Lord.
And if you're serving the Lord and you're just, like,
focusing on God and the things of God and everything else,
look, you know, and you have that design,
you want a wife, you want a husband, things are going to work out.
But if your whole life's just spent, like, trying to find...
Oh, I've got to find a...
If I get on that Christian dating site, it's got to be one saved.
Look, what a waste of your time.
What a waste of your life.
Let's continue.
That's how it should be. It should be that, look, you're serving God,
you're doing the things of the Lord while you're able to,
while you have that time.
OK, go back to Matthew 19 and verse 13.
OK, so he said here, he said...
Well, we'll go back to verse 13.
So in one second, let's just have a look at verse 12 one more time.
So he said, there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb
and there are some...
So there are people that may be just born either.
You could argue there could be some with some sort of actual,
you know, physical issue there,
or it could just be that they just don't have those desires.
There are people like that.
They just want to serve the Lord that don't have that,
or at least don't have those desires, regardless of that.
And there are some eunuchs which have made eunuchs of men, there is that.
And like we saw here, this was kind of a...
could have been a common thing amongst many sort of kingdoms and stuff.
And there'd be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs
for the kingdom of heaven's sake.
He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.
Because remember, we see the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.
I think it's Candace, isn't it?
Queen of the Ethiopians, he serves and he's very wealthy.
A lot of them, they would have progressed
because they had a lot of trust and everything else.
And they spent, you know, many, you know, many hours of the day
with their masters there.
OK, so let's continue.
Go back to, well, we're going to look at verse 13.
So then they were brought unto him little children,
that he should put his hands on them and pray,
and the disciples rebuked them.
But Jesus said, Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me,
for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
So the disciples, it looks to me like they're still looking down
on the kids a bit here, aren't they?
And I know we've kind of looked at this topic in quite a bit of length
with my parenting series and obviously,
I think the last chapter, 17 maybe, or beginning of chapter 18 as well.
But many people do look down on kids, don't they?
And it seems like the disciples have got that there.
There is this kind of culture where kids are kind of like an extra annoyance.
Pack them off, send them off, get them out over here,
get them with whoever, just find someone to take them.
Whoever, anyone, you know?
But that's not how Jesus sees them, is it?
Okay, Jesus doesn't see it like that.
And they're not some sort of lesser citizens.
And here's an interesting thing here.
He said here in verse 13, he said,
so they're brought unto little children, sorry, verse 40.
He said, Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me,
for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
Now, if the Bible teaches, and it does teach this,
that when young children die, they go straight to heaven, yeah?
Considering the amount of ritual child sacrifice in our nation alone,
I mean, I think the last stat I saw was something like 220-odd thousand abortions
in the last year they collected the data from.
That's in our nation alone, yeah?
Heaven has rightly got a lot of kids up there, hasn't it?
Heaven must have a ton of kids.
It's basically just like a massive nursery.
So here's the thing, yeah?
Because a lot of people won't get saved when they get older, will they?
Seems most don't.
Yet all these kids are going up to heaven.
You kind of need to get used to kids now,
because otherwise you might be a bit disappointed when you're in heaven
and they're all running around up there.
Because look, the way I see it is there's a lot of kids in heaven.
And he just said that.
He said, Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me,
for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
So now I know obviously we've looked at how there's that spiritual rebirth
and becoming as children when you get saved, et cetera.
But you could look at that at face value as well and say,
yeah, there's a lot of kids in heaven, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
So we don't want to kind of put them down here and everything else.
Kids are important, yeah?
Kids are massively important.
And again, one of the reasons why we want to have them listening
to the word of God preached in its entirety in our church
and not colouring pictures in the back room somewhere.
OK, verse 15, because we're going to move on from that,
because we've got a bit to get through.
We've got about 20 odd minutes to try and get through the last of this.
So verse 15, he laid his hands them and departed them.
And behold, one came and said unto him,
we're going to read through this passage quickly,
Good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?
And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good?
There is none good but one, that is God.
But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Honour thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
The young man saith unto him, All these things were kept for my youth up.
What lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect,
go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.
When a young man heard this saying,
so that saying, he went away so forth, for he had great possession.
So we have here what should be a great passage of scripture.
However, it's been regularly used and abused
by various false prophets to teach work salvation.
So this is kind of a favourite go-to of the false prophet
claiming to teach the Bible, who wants to go here and teach work salvation.
Now, it's interesting for me this as well,
because I was at a church before our church started here,
and it was a church down in Brighton.
I don't remember the name of it now,
but the pastor was a guy called Jonathan McClure,
and he used this passage,
having claimed he believed grace through faith,
he believed, you know, and I pulled him up,
because he had on his leaflet something about repent of your sins.
He claimed he just meant you've just got to acknowledge you're a sinner.
So I kind of explained to him,
well, you can see how that would be quite confusing for someone,
considering him, OK, he even changed his Christmas flies
to cough repent of your sins.
I thought, oh, OK, it's looking good.
You know, thank God that maybe it was one of those guys
that you hear out there that just haven't really heard
what repent of your sins might actually mean,
you know, how that would appear to most people.
Well, then he preached a sermon on a Wednesday evening
that I wasn't there, and a couple of people were there
and then, you know, told me about it and looked it up,
and it was on Facebook, and he used this passage to teach,
and these are some of his quotes,
and he said, you must repent of your sins.
Bearing in mind, we'd already had this long discussion about that,
which was very awkward.
There must be a turning of your back on the world.
Are we going to turn from our sin and turn to Christ,
or are we going to hold on to our sin?
He wanted to have eternal life in his comforts and joys on earth.
You can't have both.
Anyone reckon that's the gospel?
OK, so obviously this guy was a lying false prophet,
but what was funny with him is, like I said,
he was behind a pulpit teaching Ephesians 2.8 and 9,
it's grace through faith, it's not of yourselves,
it's a gift of God, not...
Time and time again, and suddenly out of nowhere,
he just suddenly preached this.
Well, I know. Like I said, he'd had this on the fly,
but he even claimed he didn't believe that either.
And it's out of the abundance of the heart and the mouth
speaking for these people, and I've said this many times,
oh, well, I've heard them preach the gospel right,
they must be saved.
No, that doesn't mean that, yeah,
because eventually what they believe comes out, OK, it does.
And this guy, it came out.
Then as it was, we already had this on,
like it was ready to go, it was kind of, we were ready,
we'd been doing Saturday meetups
and running through practice services,
and we, you know, we kind of pressed the trigger
and this started and it all kind of worked out.
But I did, I was talking about this earlier,
we did go there and I did rebuke the guy
and then suddenly this is what he believes.
It's like, where did that come from?
I mean, come in here for the last, whatever it was,
six months or more.
And there were some wicked people out there
and they'll lie, they'll pretend
because they want you in there
and they just want to poison you
and ruin you and destroy you.
And I think there are a lot of these types of churches
about, OK, and they kind of, they're ambiguous.
So like we were talking about this earlier,
they have like on their statement of faith,
something like repent and believe.
Well, OK, yeah, the Bible says repent, you know,
and believe the gospel, that sounds right.
But that way they kind of cover both bases, haven't they?
They'll go, well, I've always said you've got to repent
when eventually, you know, they do
and that kind of keeps the work salvationists happy.
But just in case they're pulled up,
they could go, well, I didn't say repent of your sins.
And there's all these types of churches around
and these people, they're never out
trying to preach the gospel, very rarely.
You know, you can see really what they are,
but the whole goal of them is just to poison you,
just to weaken you, just to soften you up,
just to have you there.
And there are people that we know of around the nation
that are in these types of church
and they're doing nothing now.
They're not soul winning anymore.
They've just been chipped away and chipped away
and chipped away and chipped away,
while saying to themselves, well, at least I'm going to church.
There's nothing wrong with trying to find a right church
and if there's no church to go to,
trying to find something that you think
is at least got the gospel right.
But when they start coming out with this sort of stuff,
like that's done, yeah?
There's no, well, yeah, I don't think he really believes that.
He just kind of said it, you know,
because I heard him say the gospel right the other week.
No, he's done, yeah?
Okay, yeah, how'd you say that behind the pole, Peter?
Like that, I mean, and that was in a big passage,
saying all this sort of stuff.
They were just the most blatant stuff about it.
It wasn't that he just kind of said something
the wrong way round by mistake and didn't realise.
This was like, he was preaching work salvation.
Okay, so what's this passage really saying though?
Because if it was saying that you had to basically
sell all your stuff, give up your old life,
all this stuff, it would negate so many passages
about salvation, wouldn't it?
Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, like we said,
for by grace you say through faith and not of yourselves.
It is a gift of God, not of works as any man should boast.
That'd be quite a big work,
selling all that you had, wouldn't it?
That's a big work, isn't it?
And most people are unable to do that,
sell all that they have, give it all to the poor
and follow Christ.
Look, and you don't even have to do that to be a disciple.
Do you sell all that you have?
However, we're going to look at why he said that
to this guy in a minute.
Romans 4-5, but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted.
For actually some of that works not at all, it's his faith.
That's the only way we're getting into heaven
is faith in Jesus Christ, okay?
There is no works, there is no giving up your old life,
or any of the rest of this stuff is work salvation.
Okay, it's work salvation,
whichever way round you want to do.
Oh, well, as long as I continue to persevere
and give up all my things and I won't lose,
that's work salvation.
It's all work, it's all you.
It's one or the other.
Romans 11-6 makes that clear, yeah?
And if by grace is it no more of works,
otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it be of work, is it no more grace?
Otherwise work is no more work.
It's one of those, you can't have both, okay?
And so many people want to teach both, don't they?
And really what they're really teaching, work salvation.
Them, me, look what I've done.
And let's look at this passage,
because this is basically, you know,
this guy in a way is kind of asking that,
and we're going to see what these prideful,
false prophets are missing here.
And they miss a lot because they're not saved.
So they can't understand passages like this.
They just see work because they just want to see works.
They so want to see work,
so want to see some sort of self-justification
for getting into heaven.
But what does this passage say?
And behold, one came and said unto me,
good master, what good thing shall I do
that I may have eternal life?
And he said unto him, why callest thou me good?
There is none good, but one, that is God.
But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Now notice the difference between this guy
and the rest of the people that have come to Jesus
for healing, et cetera.
We saw in chapter 17, a guy coming to him,
kneeling down, calling him Lord.
We saw in chapter 15, the woman, you know,
the sire of Phoenician saying,
call him Lord, thou son of David.
She's going, Lord, thou son of David.
Then she worshiped him, okay?
And that's a common thing with those seeking Christ.
We've seen it many times in the Gospel of Matthew
and coming, worshiping him, calling thou son of David,
calling him Lord, all this sort of stuff,
going down on their knees, et cetera.
Whereas here, he says, good master, good master.
Now, this is the kind of classic people
that you come across when you're trying to preach
the Gospel, trying to preach the truth, talk about Jesus.
Oh, well, I believe he was a good person.
Oh, well, you know, yeah, I mean, he was definitely,
he definitely taught some good stuff.
He was definitely a wise man.
He was a good man or something.
This is this sort of person.
They don't believe he's the Christ.
They don't believe he's the son of God.
And this guy didn't believe he was the son of God.
Now, he is showing respect in Mark's Gospel.
He kneeled to him, but good master isn't the Christ, okay?
It's not the Christ, good master.
For eternal life, you have to believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God, don't you?
Okay, the Ethiopian eunuch said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, yeah?
And that's why he was able to get baptized
and make him equal with and therefore God.
That's the point, isn't it, yeah?
Okay, so Jesus makes this point first off, yeah,
in, and we're gonna see this,
because look at, if you look at Mark 10,
yeah, flick over to Mark 10.
And we're gonna go there a little bit.
It's a parallel passage with this.
Mark chapter 10, but we're gonna be coming back obviously
to Matthew 19, Mark 10 and verse 17.
Mark 10 and verse 17 says this.
And when he was gone forth into the way,
there came one running and kneeled to him
and asked him, good master,
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good?
There is none good but one that is God.
Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery,
do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness,
do not honor thy father and mother.
And he answered, said unto him, master.
All right, so what's he just taken out there?
The good.
What did Jesus Christ say to him?
He said, why callest thou me good?
There is one good, that's God, saying, I'm God, yeah.
So he then calls him master next.
And he asks to send them to him,
master, all these have I observed from my youth.
So he definitely doesn't believe he's a Christ.
He definitely doesn't believe he's God.
He's taken out, I better just call him master now then.
Master, all these things have I observed from my youth.
Okay, so you don't think Jesus is good.
But secondly, did the man say to him, how do I get saved?
Is that what he said?
He said, good master, how do I get saved?
Good master, I need a savior.
Did he say that?
No, he said, what good thing shall I do
that I may have eternal life?
But what Jesus says is true in a way,
if you want to earn eternal life, keep the commandments.
Hey, you want to earn it, you want to do a good thing,
because it isn't just one good thing.
Many people want that good thing, don't they?
Well, you know, as long as I kind of, you know,
are good to my fellow man.
He's heard this one, as long as I'm kind to people.
You heard that one on the door?
What do you think you got to do to go to heaven?
Yeah, everyone's like, put your hands over it there, yeah.
Well, I think as long as you're kind to people.
Really, I don't remember that bit in the bio.
As long as you're kind to people,
you're going to go to heaven.
Well, that's kind of, everyone could say
they've been kind to someone at some point, yeah.
Oh, what good thing shall I do
that I may have eternal life?
Look at verse 18 in Matthew 19.
He saith unto him, so, because he obviously says to him
to keep the commandments, yeah.
He saith unto him, which?
Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder,
thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness,
honor thy father and thy mother,
and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Now, Jesus gives this list of commandments
and you'll recognize that if you've read
the 10 commandments, obviously,
is kind of the second half there of the commandments.
What's interesting is that when you compare
the accounts of Mark and Luke,
the last one is unique to hear in Matthew,
where he says, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, okay.
Mark's gospel has defraud not,
instead in the middle of those there.
Luke's gospel has just the other five.
Because if there's one that we know for sure
he hasn't kept, it's the loving his neighbor as himself,
isn't it?
Okay, but it's also something which summarizes
the kind of second half of the 10 commandments,
you know, the last six there, really.
This commandment was originally in Leviticus,
but jump forward to chapter 22 of Matthew where we are,
where Jesus explains how along with one other commandment
it encapsulates the whole law, yeah.
So chapter 22 of Leviticus and it says in verse 34,
but when the Pharisees had heard
that he had put the Sadducees to silence,
they were gathered together,
this is, sorry, not Leviticus,
this is Matthew 22 and verse 34.
Then one of them which was a lawyer
asked him a question tempting him and saying,
Master, which is a great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart and with all thy soul
and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophet.
So here's the thing, if you love the Lord
with all your heart, soul and mind,
that would include not worshiping other gods, wouldn't it?
It would include not taking his name in vain,
not worshiping graven images,
profaning the Sabbath at that point in time still, yeah?
The 10 commandments being a kind of summary
of the rest of the law, yeah?
And then he's even just narrowed it down even more
to loving the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind
and loving your neighbor as yourself, yeah?
If you love your neighbor as yourself,
you're not going to murder, are you?
You're not gonna commit adultery,
you're not going to steal,
you're not gonna bear false witness,
you're not gonna covet their things.
And by the way, that was missing there.
And we're gonna talk about that in a second.
And if you take these commandments towards your neighbor,
which Jesus listed in chapter 19,
the coveting's missing, yeah?
The coveting's missing.
In all three gospel accounts,
he doesn't mention thou shalt not covet
as one of the commandments of this man.
He's clearly listing those 10 commandments
or those second half of those 10 commandments.
Chapter 19, back to chapter 19 and verse 18,
he saith unto him, which he said,
thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness,
honor thy father and thy mother,
and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
The young man saith unto him,
all these things that I kept from my youth up,
what lack I yet.
Anyone come across people like this
when you're preaching the gospel?
I keep the commandments.
I follow the 10 commandments.
What are you talking about, you liar?
So he thinks he's kept them all.
Now look, maybe this guy's a really righteous guy anyway,
and obviously he hasn't kept the commandments,
but maybe he's had a good crack in here.
Maybe he's pretty wholesome.
He hasn't done that much wrong yet.
Now he's definitely prideful,
but regardless, what Jesus does here
is he points out where his heart really is, doesn't he?
Jesus said unto him, so he's kind of like,
it's almost like he set him up.
He like kept away the covetous bit.
He set him up.
The guy's like, oh no, I've kept all that.
I've kept all that.
And he says, Jesus said unto him,
if thou wilt be perfect, he said,
look, if you're going to earn your way to heaven,
and you think you're good enough to go to heaven,
go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven
and come and follow me.
So he's saying, if you will be perfect,
sure, go and sell everything you've got
and come and follow me.
Yeah, you're perfect.
You've done it all.
You've earned your way.
You've kept all the commandments.
Why don't you go and sell all your stuff
and come and follow me?
Now, is he saying we have to sell all our goods
to inherit eternal life?
Did John 3.16 say, for God so loved the world,
he goes, I've only forgotten something,
whosoever sells everything he has, gives support,
and believes in me shall have eternal life.
No, of course he doesn't.
And that's not what he's saying, is it?
And what the false prophets do,
because none of them have sold all their stuff,
forgive me, the books are all a cup of a sponge anyway.
So they go, you've got to be willing to.
So they suddenly change it.
They go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
See, like Jesus said, all of it.
You've got to be willing to do that.
You've got to be willing to give up your old life.
You've got to be willing.
And then they just start like making it up
as they go along.
But remember that he said, what good thing shall I do
that I may have eternal life?
And he claims to have kept all those commandments
from young.
Jesus said, if thou wilt be perfect,
he said, okay, you think that you're good enough,
earn some extra rewards too then.
So he's not saying, oh, okay.
He said, well, if thou wilt be perfect,
he said, sell all thy have, give the poor,
come and follow me.
And knowing full well what his issue really is, okay,
the one sin off those six of the 10 commandments
that he missed out.
It's like glaringly obvious.
Yeah, like that's his biggest.
Now look, don't get me wrong.
This guy's, I'm sure he's bared false witness.
I'm sure he hasn't honored his father and his mother
his whole life, yeah.
Might not have killed someone.
He might not have committed adultery,
but I'm sure he's done this sort of stuff, yeah.
However, this for me is like his glaring issue.
And how do we know that?
What's the giveaways?
Because he's rich.
And because it so often goes hand in hand
with wealth, his covetousness, yeah.
But when the young man heard that saying and look,
he went away, saw a fool for he had great possessions.
So, look, Jesus is pointing out
that no one can earn heaven, okay.
They might be morally upstanding, well-raised, respectful,
but everyone has sinned, don't they?
Everyone has sinned in their life.
This guy's was quite a glaring one as well
with the covetousness.
But James 2 10 says,
for whosoever shall keep the whole law
and yet offended one point is guilty of all.
And no one is going to earn their way to heaven, okay.
That's the point here.
Verse 17 said, there is none good, but one, that is God.
He said that, he already said that, there's none good.
I mean, he said it at the beginning.
He made it clear at the beginning, but this guy's like,
yeah, what good thing can I do then, you know?
And then trying to claim
that he's kept all the commandments.
But if he didn't love his wealth,
maybe he would have sold it and followed,
look, he has got God in the flesh talking to it.
And obviously he didn't believe that, yeah,
but you're standing in front of God
and God's in front of you.
And he says to you, why don't you sell all your stuff?
I thought, I don't know,
it would be pretty tempting wouldn't it?
I'll follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
I can have God in the flesh, leading me around,
teaching me, being like that,
what an amazing prospect that would be, right?
And maybe, but obviously he's not saved, yeah.
Now, obviously it's not a requirement for salvation,
but look, if you want to somehow earn it yourself,
good luck to you, yeah.
And look, if covetousness isn't your issue,
something else that everyone's got sin in their life,
everyone is a sinner, there's none righteous, no, not one,
all have sinned and come short to glory of God.
Jesus just point this out clearly to him here,
and sadly with the rich in life, money is often their God.
Now, here's an interesting thing.
He said in verse 23,
then said Jesus unto his disciples,
rarely I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter
into the kingdom of God.
Mark 10, 24 says it like this, it says,
and the disciples were astonished at his words,
but Jesus answered them again, and said unto them,
children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches
to enter into the kingdom of God?
So we see a rich man or those that trust the riches,
do you know why?
Because they usually go hand in hand, don't they?
People that are rich usually trust in the riches.
That's just the truth of life, isn't it?
But so, and it's not just, oh,
they trust that like their riches are getting to him,
it's, they believe that they're blessed a lot of the time,
don't they?
They think, well, I'm doing all right, you know,
I must be okay.
God must be looking down with favor on me
because I've got money.
But so often it's a snare,
and so often it ruins their lives, doesn't it?
And they go hand in hand, trust your riches and riches.
Okay, and verse 24, it says,
and again, I'll say unto you,
it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
And no, there's not some,
and this is because I've heard a preacher,
I have actually heard someone preach this and claim
that there's a gate in wherever in Jerusalem
called the like eye of the needle gate.
And it was just very difficult
to somehow get the camels under it.
But it is possible, no, because it says it's impossible.
It's so ridiculous, isn't it?
When you know about, you know,
it's all these morons, you don't know anything.
And all they're just trying to do is just,
because a lot of the time they're wealthy, aren't they?
They're like rich, false prophets trying to go,
well, not everyone, it's just difficult.
Luckily, I've been good enough to go to heaven, yeah?
That's really what it comes down to,
doesn't it, with these people.
But it is hard to get rich people saved, isn't it?
We're not going to go into that, we're running out of time.
Verse 25, when his disciples heard it,
they were exceeding in may, saying, who then can be saved?
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them,
with men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible.
So, obviously impossible, that's a point.
And a camel through an eye of a needle
is literally what he's saying, it's just hyperbole.
It's just saying, look, you're not going to be able
to get a camel through an eye of a needle,
it's just an impossibility.
However, he said, with men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible.
So, on one hand, obviously salvation
is only possible with God, okay?
It's only because of what Jesus Christ did,
it's only because we have a saviour
that we're able to be saved in the first place.
But on the other, you could say as well
that those that are rich and trust only riches
still have a chance due to the power
of the word of God as well,
because with God it is possible.
Like, we have, there are rich people that do get saved,
but it's not because of your own greatness,
because I just really managed to get to the, you know,
to the meat and bones of what is supposed to get saved,
it's because of the word of God,
because with God all things are possible, aren't they?
And obviously, salvation as well then.
Now, so is the point of this interaction, yeah?
That all of the many clear verses in the Bible
about salvation, that the whole of John's Gospel,
that all of those passages that many people hear,
know and love, that half the book of Romans,
all that is actually all wrong,
and in fact you need to sell all your stuff to go to heaven.
Obviously not, yeah?
The point is that the proud work salvationists
will never achieve salvation because they all have sin.
They're never gonna earn their way to heaven, okay?
That's one point about it.
Doesn't matter how well raised, well brought up,
this guy maybe came from money, he's got good manners,
maybe he's got some good morals in life,
some good principles, he's living pretty well,
maybe that's why he thought that he was doing pretty well,
maybe that's why Jesus chose those ones,
maybe that guy has got a fairly good record
on all those things, you know?
He's not, you know, he kind of can't think back
to doing too much wrong, but we all have sin, okay?
No one is good enough.
And some of the worst for the proud works
are the types of the wealthy, aren't they?
They can be so, so hard to get through to a tour,
to even get to open your Bible up,
because they're just so proud of their money,
proud of their house, proud of their car,
proud of their job, proud of their so-called intellect,
proud of the blessings they receive,
they're getting if they do believe in some form of God,
or proud of the fact that they don't need God
because look how wealthy I am, you know?
So they can be very difficult.
But the last point here is that turn over to Mark 10,
because Jesus, the point Jesus made
wasn't just to everyone reading this in the future.
So obviously, look, you know,
it's amazing the word of God, isn't it?
That these events really happen,
and the ones that are recorded,
and the way they're recorded teach us so much, don't they?
And how that works, you know,
you can't even get your head around, can you?
How so many like real events,
like real events are picturing like futuristic events,
and just the way it all goes,
the way the Bible works is absolutely amazing, isn't it?
It's awe-inspiring, reading this book
and seeing just how he does all of this somehow.
Can't even get your head around.
However, it wasn't just about that.
Look at Mark 10 and verse 19.
It says, thou knowest the commandments,
do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal,
do not bear false witness,
defraud not, honour thy father and mother.
And the answer said unto him,
Master, all these have I observed for my youth.
Then Jesus beholding him loved him.
Jesus beholding him loved him and said unto him,
one thing thou lackest, go thy way,
sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven
and come take up the cross and follow me.
And he was sad at that saying and went away grief,
he had great possessions.
So Jesus was also highlighting it to this man
because he loved it.
God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son,
that Jesus wanted to get this guy saved, yeah?
But obviously at that point in time,
going, you covetous, this and that,
probably wasn't the right angle with him, yeah?
And that's one of the reasons why
when we go and preach on the door,
we don't just start shouting hell fire at people
that don't want to hear necessarily,
or we don't start listing what sin
they must have committed and everything.
You're this, you're that, you know, we don't do that, do we?
Jesus here, he's treating this prideful guy quite delicately.
And I say that because there's a temptation
all of us could be guilty of this where, you know,
good luck then mate, you know, type attitude, yeah.
Well, good luck with your riches.
He's going to be burning in hell, you know,
and that's not Jesus's attitude, is it?
Jesus's attitude, look, he loved this guy.
He wanted to make it clear to him, look, you're a sinner.
Look, we want to show people that in a nice way.
And hopefully maybe then, who knows,
maybe Jesus Christ came across him another time.
Maybe he did get saved later, like maybe he didn't,
I don't know.
But Jesus loved him and showed him what his sin was.
And it says that he was sad at saying
when he went away grief, he had great possessions.
And look, maybe showed him where his heart was.
Maybe that guy thought about that
and realized he can't earn his way to heaven,
that the money, the riches, the covetousness.
He, maybe this guy, if he knew like,
I've kept this, I've kept that,
maybe he knew the commandments
and he would have gone, he never mentioned covetousness.
He never mentioned covetousness.
And then he said to me, why don't you sell all you have?
And he just pointed out my covetousness
without even saying it, you know?
And for me, Jesus Christ wanted to get him saved.
He dealt with this guy delicately.
Who knows what happened after that, but he did love him.
You know, he still wanted to get him saved.
We still want to get these people saved.
We still want to give them a chance.
That's why we knock every door in this area.
And we're not going to go on a soul winning marathon
to like, you know, Westminster or something else.
We're not going to go to like exclusive neighborhoods
when we have a limited amount of time to get people saved.
However, the reason we're doing every door policy
in around our churches, because look,
we still want to give people a chance, don't we?
We still want to get the gospel out.
We still want to try and get, preach the gospel
and we don't have to do it by just being rich, posh.
Nevermind, we still want to give people a chance, don't we?
Verse 27, then answered Peter and said unto him,
behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee.
What shall we have therefore?
Okay, and remember that in verse 21, it said,
Jesus said unto him, if thou will be perfect,
go and sell that thou has and giveth the poor
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come follow me.
So Peter says, wait a minute,
we've also done now, what treasure are we getting?
Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto you
that ye which have followed me in a regeneration
when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory,
ye also shall sit upon 12 thrones,
judge of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Now the regeneration is referring to the millennial reign
when Jesus Christ rules and reigns
for 1,000 years on this earth.
The 12 apostles, not including Judas,
he said ye which have followed me, by the way,
he ain't following, he ain't following Jesus anyway,
Judas, right, will be reigning underneath him
and for me, it would be the apostle Paul there
but some might believe it was Matthias,
it was up to you on that
but this is where the dispensatious clans will say,
look, see, God's not done with the Jews.
Look, they'll be judging the 12 tribes of Israel
because the Jews aren't done yet
but can anyone show me which tribe
any of these followers of Judaism nowadays are?
Anyone know which tribe of Israel they're following,
thereof, sorry, anyone know that?
No, because they're just converts to Judaism,
they're not any of the tribes of Israel.
It's referring to half the rapture
and all the dead in Christ shall rise
and receive their glorified bodies
and will be living, ruling and reigning with Jesus Christ.
At the top is Jesus Christ,
underneath that will be the 12 apostles
and there's gonna be a lot of the 12 tribes
that died in Christ over however many thousand years
before Jesus Christ came, right?
That's what it's referring to.
Anyone?
Let's keep going because we're done now.
Verse 29, and everyone that hath forsaken houses
or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife
or children or lands from my name's sake
shall receive an hundredfold
and shall inherit everlasting life.
So you say like, not only will you sit on thrones
ruling with me, but you'll also receive these things too.
Okay, when?
Mark and Luke's accounts make it clear
that it's in this life here, yeah?
Mark 10, 30 says, but ye shall receive an hundredfold now
and this time house of brethren and sisters
and mothers and children and lands with persecutions
and in the world to come eternal life.
So he said, he said, in this time, in Mark 10, 30.
So Jesus is saying, not only are you inheriting
everlasting eternal life, okay?
It's like, the way he's saying it is,
you shall receive an hundredfold
and shall inherit everlasting life.
So look, you're getting the everlasting life,
you're getting the eternal life.
However, however, if you're forsaken houses
or brethren or sisters or father or mother
or wife or children or lands,
and we saw here, you know, the same sort of list in Mark,
you're gonna receive an hundredfold here in this life.
Now you might say, hold on, wait a second, brother.
I've forsaken things, you know, family.
You know, family given up on me
because I believe the Bible.
Because I dare to believe the Bible,
my family want nothing to do with me anymore
because I stand on the word of God.
You know, they, instead of addressing the sin in their life,
instead of addressing their stuff,
instead of just having to understand and go,
okay, fair enough, you wanna live for God, I don't.
Instead, I'm just gonna make out
like you're some sort of wicked person or something.
You're some sort of extremist
because you believe the Bible.
You didn't just pick and choose the bits that you liked.
Yeah?
Well, you might say, oh, you might go,
look, I've given up possessions for this.
I've given up possessions to be part of this church,
to get on board with things.
I've given up wealth, I've given up this, whatever it is.
Where's my holiday home?
Where's my country home?
Yeah, I could have had a house in wherever,
nowhere near here where it was cheaper.
I could have been owning by now.
I could have been on the property ladder.
Where's my holiday home?
Well,
when you really end up forsaking these things for his sake,
and look, many claim they do and haven't,
you will receive more with time, but it's, what is it?
It's like, how's it staying?
I talked about this before.
You know, I would hope that if, you know,
if the heat got worse
and I ended up getting evicted out of my home,
I would hope there are some believers around,
hopefully this church and others
that would put up my family for a bit
while we got back on our feet.
I would hope if you're a believer
and same with each other and everything else,
you're gonna, you do have,
you do have the option of homes
that maybe you wouldn't have got
from the unsafe family or friend that might promise a lot,
but probably won't when it comes to it.
Maybe brothers and sisters,
you might've been given up on by your siblings,
but don't we all have a lot of brothers and sisters
in this room?
Yeah?
A lot more than we ever had, you know,
than we ever had enough in our, you know,
when it comes to physical brothers and sisters.
Parents, there are many that, you know,
there are young here maybe that as they get older,
they'll see other church members as parent figures,
as father figures, as mother figures.
There are those that will see the kids here.
There are those who will get older
and maybe their kids have forsaken them,
but maybe there are people here
that will help look after them in their older age
and do things for them
and do those jobs and everything else.
You, look, it's not gonna be the way the world looks at it.
Well, where's all the money and the wealth
and everything else?
But look, there's even lands,
place you could go and stay.
Look, I know, you know,
I'm sure if I've rung up people,
Christians in certain nations said,
look, I need to get out there for a bit.
I need someone to stay.
I know, if I needed it,
it's not like to take liberties with that, is it?
Oh, well, I fancy a free holiday,
so I'm gonna go live in someone's home
and get their kids kicked out of their bedroom or something.
No, however, if you really needed it,
I think, look, if it's because you've been forsaken,
because you've had to forsake things for his sake,
but it does come with persecutions, doesn't it?
He did say that.
I think what we just read in Mark,
he said, with persecutions
and in the world to come, eternal life.
So this life isn't just a bed of roses.
Just because you've forsaken things for Christ
doesn't mean you're gonna have like this,
like great relaxing, you know, feet up,
like the health, wealth, prosperity, false profits teacher.
That's not what it's saying.
But when you forsake things really for Christ,
not because, well, it sounds good to say I have,
when you really do things for Christ,
yeah, there's gonna be persecutions
when you're living for him.
However, you're gonna receive hundredfold
these things in this life,
and obviously you also have that eternal life to come.
And don't forget that, don't forget that,
because it's so easy to forget that,
that you've got eternal life to come.
But there's many, many rewards
you can earn up there while you're here,
or you can just go, well, at least I've got eternal life.
It's up to you.
He said, but many that are first shall be last
and the last shall be first.
And then that's a phrase that we see a few times,
which for me just means that those
seem to have the most, the top of the pile,
are the least likely to get saved and vice versa.
Those that kind of give up the most a lot of the time
will receive the most when they're up there as well,
and there's many ways you can look at that.
But we're out of time.
Sorry about that, it's cool, I went over a bit.
There's a lot to do there, let's pray.
Well, thank you.
Thank you for, well, just a great chat to the barbers
and great truths there.
Help us to all just take those on board to just,
to not just kind of be in one ear out the other,
but to dwell on what parts of your word tonight
have really spoken to us.
Help us to, you know, to be sure in our faith for you
to not be, not stumble at kind of passages
which can be hard to understand for some
and misused by others.
Help us to be confident in showing why,
why what we believe is true,
why the Bible and, you know, is just such a great book
that with just that little bit of study with that,
with going line upon line and precept upon precept,
here a little, there a little,
that the true doctrines just stand firm
no matter what people try and throw at them.
Doctrines like the most important one
which is going to heaven is grace through faith.
It's all about what you do, not what we do.
Help us stand strong on that.
Help us to also to just teach our kids
and be strong about marriage
and how important it is in your eyes
regardless of what mistakes we or family members
may have made, but just to help us
to bring up this next generation
and, you know, in just 100% truth
and not to be poisoned by the world
and its ever-changing standards.
Help us to have a good week now, Lord.
Help us all get home safe for Santa,
return on Sunday for another day in your house.
Jesus' name, pray all of this.
Amen.