If you don't have a Bible this morning, I would invite you to turn to Mark chapter 10. You may well be familiar with this passage because this is the story of the rich young ruler and we're going to start reading earlier in the story of the rich young ruler. But we're not really focusing on that so much today, but verses 23 through 27 of Mark chapter 10. Let's begin reading at verse 17 and we'll read through the 27th verse. And as Jesus was setting out on his journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him and asked, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother. And he said to him, teacher, all these I have kept from my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him. And said to him, you lack one thing. Go, sell all you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And then come, follow me. Disheartened by this saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And now our text. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, with man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God." Usually when this passage is preached, we focus on the rich young ruler. We come and talk about how he was earnest and moral, et cetera. as he came up to Jesus, and then Jesus' strange reply to him. Or else what we do is we begin to park on that last verse we basically read, with man things are impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. And we focus on that verse and not on the other verses around it. At the outset, I want to remark that the Lord is powerful. He is not merely the great I was. He is a great I am. And we can recount answers to prayer, both little things and, in our mind, big things, where the Lord is answered in a powerful way. But the way this text, that nothing is impossible with God, is taken mostly today is this idea. It's with a fascination with healings and miracles and even resurrections. That's how this passage is often looked at and used as sort of a proof text. Now let me remark that the charismatic movement of the last 120 years has some good points and it has some bad things, but one of the negative things that they have is they look at miracles and especially healing sort of as a dime a dozen today. Let me read the lyrics of one popular song on the radio done by Brandon Lake. You're a wonder-working God, you're the wonder-working God. All the miracles I've seen, too good not to believe you're a wonder-working God. And then he goes on, and I've seen cancer disappear. I've seen metal plates dissolve. Don't tell me he can't do it. Don't tell me he can't do it. Because I've seen real-life resurrection. I've seen mental health restored. But don't tell me he can't do it. Don't tell me he can't do it. And he goes on, when I see it, this precious girl receive arches in her feet, and my eyes don't lie, and I saw the metal plates dissolve from that man's leg, and my eyes don't lie, they don't lie. My ears don't lie when we hear of resurrection power, of that precious boy who we sung over, this precious girl sung over, and this boy comes back to life. He was breathless. Now he's back to life. He's living. He's breathing because of resurrection power. There's nothing our God cannot do. There's nothing our God cannot do. There's nothing our God cannot do. When we have this verse in our text this morning, it almost seems that our brothers and sisters in that other communion have this verse on their side. For God, nothing is impossible. Are we guilty as Reformed Christians of disbelief because we don't believe those things happen normally today? Well, I think we need to step away from the question a little bit and not just have slogans as we go through it. So Bible verse and Bible verses are wonderful things for us, but what does it mean for all things to be possible with God? We're going to look at that. We're going to look at the context of the passage and then some implications of the passage as we go. First, think about it. Absolutely everything possible is everything possible for God. If you stop and step back from it a minute, You have to say, yes, that's true. There are some things that are not possible from God in the absolute sense. We go to our children's catechism and we're helped. We begin to get in the right frame of mind. It asks in question 13, can God do all things? And the answer is God can do all His holy will. The catechism question and answer realizes what the scriptures say, that God does his holy will, and that God is limited by his will to a certain extent, and he's limited by his character. For instance, sin is not a possibility for God, because it is the opposite of his character, and it's outside his will. It is not possible for God to do, because he is totally holy, holy, Holy. And so when we see this ideal, all things are possible for God, we want to be cautious as we think about it. Sometimes what happens as we pray for things or look to things, we don't pray in the Lord's Prayer, not your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Sometimes we want our will on earth to be done by heaven rather than rest in what the Lord's will is. A second thing that as we think about this is helpful is the fact that just because God did it in the past doesn't mean he will do it today. Generally, that's true. If he did it in the past, he will do it today. But that doesn't hold fast every time, every place. What do I mean by that? Think about the creation story in Genesis 1 and 2. God began by creating all things out of nothing. We call it creation, ex nihilo, that by divine fiat, he did it by his word. and things came into being there. Since God did it in the past, does it mean he's doing it today? I'm doubtful. We talk, according to the shorter catechism, about his works of creation and his works of providence, and we're in the time span of providence. So maybe he will, maybe he won't, but that isn't a given that just because he did it in the past, he will do it today. A third thing, as we set the table a bit on this, is to recognize different stages in the history of God's dealings with his people. If you look at the miracles of the Bible, you'll find them in basically six segments. There are the Exodus period, there is the conquest of the land, then there's the powerful ministry of Elijah and Elisha, then there's Jesus' ministry, I forgot Daniel and his friends, and then there's the apostles and their associates. there is when the miracles happen. And interesting enough, if you pull out the Book of Acts, one thing to recognize, first, is more miracles were done than were recorded. And second, the miracles that are recorded happened over a period of about 30 years there. And so you have to see what's God's doings and what's his purpose in it all. And then fourthly and lastly, as we do it, we find from the book of 2 Corinthians that the signed gifts were these miracle gifts to authenticate an apostle. We find that from Hebrews 2 and the book of 2 Corinthians. So now that I've discounted the verse, what do we do with it? What do we do with it? Well, then again, recognize the context. That's what's often pulled out of context in this passage. It's often ignored. The context of the whole statement in verses 23 through 27 is the absolute bankruptcy of human resources for entering the kingdom of God. Let me repeat it again. The absolute bankruptcy of human resources for entering the kingdom of God. Let's set the setting again. This guy comes running up to Jesus and he wants to know what he must do for eternal life. And you would figure Jesus would get them on television. He would do a lot with them there. He would do a lot. But instead, our Lord cuts them off at the knees. And the disciples are flabbergasted. They don't understand it. Because if ever there was a candidate for the kingdom, it was this man. He was earnest. He was moral. He was rich. He was upright as well. And what are you doing, Jesus, by turning them away by your answer to this rich guy? You've got to dig underneath it a little bit. There were common assumptions of the day, and Jesus' disciples had them. They looked at somebody with these four attributes of earnest and rich and moral and upright there. They looked at people like that as having a head start on the kingdom of God. It's springtime and we've been through probably high school track season. The way the disciples looked at it was this way. It was a 100 meter dash. What happened is someone who was rich lined up at the 90 meter mark, coming out of the blocks with only 10 meters to go. And everybody who was normal and otherwise was other places there. And so this guy, in their mindset, was in like Flynn. You wanted him. But Jesus cuts him off at the knees. And Jesus cuts us off at the knees. Notice verse 23, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. You might say, I can grant that it's difficult, especially for rich people there. But then notice the response of the disciples. They were amazed at his words, but Jesus said it to them again. He didn't give up on it. Then he generalizes it's even more, as he says, rather than just the rich, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God in verse 25. And so he's ratcheting up the difficulty as he goes along. And then verse 26 he comes to the next one, or verse 25, he says, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Rich people, poor people, very, very difficult. In fact, notice the disciples' response in verse 26. They were exceedingly astonished and then noticed their command, or their question, then who can be saved? Now perhaps you've heard this before, that there was a way to get the camel through the walls in Jerusalem. There was a gate called the camel gate. And if a camel got down on his knees and had a load on his back, he could get through that gate. And so Jesus is not saying it is impossible. You might've heard that. Don't waste your time trying to find the needle gate. You're not going to find it. You know Jesus' words. They're very clear there. Basically, he makes it impossible by human resources to enter the kingdom of God. Let me use an analogy, and none of you better laugh because I'll take your names and write them down. I was skinny in high school, if you can believe that. I had a 26 waist or inch waist, thereabout. Can you imagine if today I tried to squeeze into my pants my jeans from high school? There would be a lot of pushing and shoving, but it wouldn't even happen because I have layers of flubber, we'll say. And who laughed at that? You're in trouble now. My uncle used to brag about how he could fit in his high school pants and clothes when he was in his 40s or 50s, and he took great pride in it until one day my dad said, yes, you were awful chunky in high school. In case you haven't caught it, our Lord is saying it's impossible by man to enter the kingdom of God by his own works or efforts or even in a raw sense his own decision. Now there is a decision in salvation, I don't deny that. What it's saying to us is nobody can enter the kingdom of God on their own. It only comes about by the Lord himself. By the work of the Holy Spirit, whether they're rich or poor, moral or immoral, by the work of the Holy Spirit sovereignly changing our hearts, as we read in the canons of Dort, so that we see the depths of our sin and the need of a Savior and the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who did the works that we should have done and undid all the bad that we did, who died upon the cross and rose miraculously from the dead, who did even more than that. It is only by the grace of God working in our hearts and giving us the gift of faith that we trust the gospel. Notice these disciples. They're dumbfounded. They understand Jesus' words. They can't figure it out. The new birth is really a human impossibility when you look at it. It's like Jonah chapter 2 where it says salvation is of the Lord. Yes, indeed it is. It's of divine initiative. You come over to the book of John in chapter 1 verses 12 and 13. and listen to the end of the verses here particularly, but to all who did receive him, who believed on his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, now hear this, nor of the will of man, but of God. There's the secret to all of it. It must be the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, where someone is the object of God's grace and mercy. The New Testament calls this being born from above or born again. John 3, it's like the work of the Spirit is like the wind. You don't know where it's coming from or where it's going, and you can't really control it. Here is the wonder of wonders is God makes anybody a Christian. Here is the biggest and most normal wonder that God does today is make anybody a Christian. It turns on the Lord alone. And so it is beyond the control of human beings because there's the utter inability to obtain the kingdom by humans apart from God's sovereign work. Oscar Coleman, some good stuff, some bad, but he was right here when he said, moral effort does not bring a man into relationship with God. The relationship with God is given by God himself. Salvation doesn't depend on what we do for ourselves. Yes, we must believe, but it depends on what God does in and for us. That anyone that is a believer in Jesus Christ, is proof positive that all things are possible for God. Think about your own becoming a Christian and thank the Lord this morning for it. It's all of grace from beginning to end. Thirdly and lastly this morning, what are some of the implications of this? statement. There's more than I'll draw out, but I'm just going to draw out three of them for you. The first one is almost self-evident. If God is a God of heart change, who do we ask to change hearts? Self-evident there, basically, God to do it. I had a seminary professor Don't report this, what I'm going to say, to Pastor Lems, because he knows that I'm from Chicago. I could be from New York or New Jersey, and the mafia was around and strong in Chicago. My seminary professor, let me assure you, was not part of the mafia. But he had a section on his weekly prayer list which he called his hit list, his hit list. And what it was, he would put non-Christians on there and he would pray that God would get a hold of them and convert them. And so he was praying for their conversion. Let me tell you about the power of the Lord and this is not to exalt me. in these stories I tell you, but to exalt the sovereign grace and power of God. There was a lady named Mary, not a real name, who was not a believer. And I'll try to be discreet enough. She had a wildlife, drunkenness leading to blackouts, orgies, bisexuality. She had a brother-in-law and a sister who were praying for her conversion. You see, Mary played the organ at a liberal church in the morning, started coming to the OP church in the evening, and within six to 12 months, Mary was born anew. It was amazing. I ran into her about 15 years later on the airplane, and she was faithfully walking with the Lord. At Emanuel, we had a man caught up in sin for many years, deep sin, his family. prayed and prayed for him. And the Lord worked when he was 57 or so and brought him to himself, and now he's a faithful follower of Jesus. So what do we do? We pray. We pray. And we pray. A PCA pastor said that the reason we don't see many conversions in Reformed churches is that we don't pray for them. And so, my friends, I would encourage you to have your own hit list of people that you're praying for. A second thing that is implication comes to witnessing. We know that powerful text in Romans 10, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the preaching of Christ, Romans 10. And we're reminded in that passage of the importance of bringing people underneath preaching, ourselves and others. And so it's very important to invite people to church. You start maybe by inviting them to the church picnic or a game night and then you move to worship or you start right out in worship. You invite them to come there and the Lord often works. Sometimes he doesn't, but he often works. The preaching of the word is powerful and our standards remind us of that as well. But then there's personal witnessing as well. Let me tell you the story of Tom and Connie. Tom and Connie were not believers. They wanted to get married. They came to the pastor of the church. I was interning at, and they asked him to marry them. He said, sure. You're both non-Christians. I can do that. He said, please come to our church. I befriended Tom, and I took him out for pizza one night. It was a long night, four and a half hours for pizza. He peppered me with questions. I directed him to the scriptures, and before my very eyes, he became a new creature in Christ that very evening. Remarkable. Maybe you don't know how to present the gospel. And I often will use this little track. Sometimes it's of a blue color, the older version of it. It's called Two Ways to Live. And it's done by Reformed Anglicans and is doctrinally solid in that. And I use it different ways. At times, I'll end up running through the whole thing or part of the thing with the people that I'm I'm working with. And sometimes what I do is I just hand these out sort of like candy. I'll say, would you like a gift? And you reach your hand out. Not many people are going to refuse you giving a gift. Usually they'll take it and then you might add something. I would really like you to read this. What happened in my life is Jesus Christ came into my life and transformed me. It's a presentation of the gospel and you can see me later if you're interested in that at all. But it guides you through the process. Well, lastly and thirdly, one of the implications comes with confidence and anxiety, confidence and anxiety. Sometimes because we don't believe the statement here, all things are possible with God, when we witness to somebody, we become anxious and obnoxious, folks. I joined that club before. I've done that. You know how it is, how you run over people with the gospel, you just kind of harangue them a bit. Sometimes it's like those cop shows or military movies where the bad guys are hung up in a building and the good guys are trying to subdue them. And so they throw in one of those flash grenades and the light blinds the bad guys and they come in and disarm them and take them away, arrest them, whatever. we like to throw in gospel bombs and run out. It's like the wife whose husband is not converted, so she's always giving him books and articles on the Christian faith. She has the Christian radio or maybe a podcast on and she turns the volume way up. He's not hard of hearing, but she wants to make sure that he hears it all the time. And so she leaves it up that way. Now, I'm not saying don't witness to your husband, don't talk to him about the gospel, but the inspired apostle Peter has some advice. Likewise, wives be subject to your own husbands so that even if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by the conduct of their wives. For when they see your respectful and proper conduct, Do not let your adorning be external abrading of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. Think about it today. With God, all things are possible. Some of the folks from Mission can attest to this a little bit. About two or three years ago, there was a lady in her 80s, PhD, and I believe psychology, was invited by another senior in her housing complex to come to church. That week they were just happening to come to Emanuel Church. She came, this lady, and enjoyed the service and the message as well. She didn't have a Bible. She said she would like a Bible, and so Bonnie gave her one of the Bibles that we had around church, and she started reading it. And she kept on coming to church. It was much closer to go to mission. So she came to mission. Well, in the process, she came to know Jesus savingly. It's a remarkable thing to think about all things are possible with God. You think that you tend to write off older people for coming to know the Lord, but in fact at 83 and with her background, she came to know him. Let me tell you one last story about Roy. Roy came to take care of his father who was a ailing member of our church. Another family member, a brother of Roy, not his real name, stayed with his dad 24-7 for two and a half years until his dad passed away. In the course of taking care of his dad, as it can be on caregivers, he went into depression, Roy did. And the rare time that Roy got out is when I would go out for a meal or Coke or golfing with him. I tried, when I visited his dad, I would simply spend 20 or 30 minutes with Roy, talk shop about different things. I would ask if I could read a little scripture and pray with him, and I would do that at the end of our visits. You have to realize this about Roy. Roy was a recovered alcoholic who was mad at God for some very tragic and terrible things that happened when he was a young boy. Roy's dad died. I had the opportunity to do the funeral. About six or eight weeks later, I get a call from Roy, and he says to me, Jim, I've become a born-again Christian. Oh, how heaven rejoiced. How I rejoiced at that. and how he came to the idea, again, all things are possible with God. Trust Him not so much for healings and resurrections, not for those things, but the wonder of regeneration. God alone brings about the impossible. What humans cannot do, God can. And the new birth is God's big business. What a wonder. What a wonderful thing. Are all things possible with God? If you're from the Dakotas, you would say, you betcha. And I hope even people from Wisconsin can say, you betcha. All things are possible with the Lord. Let's bow together in prayer.