I invite you to turn tonight to Matthew 19. Matthew 19, reading together verses 16 through 26. When you have found Matthew 19, please also turn in the back of the Psalter hymnal to page 12, page 12, Lord's Day 5. the first Lord's Day of the second section of the Catechism, entitled, Man's Deliverance. We look to Lord's Day 5, first of all, and give expression to these answers together. Question 12. According to God's righteous judgment, we deserve punishment both in this world and forever after. How then can we escape this punishment and return to God's favor? God requires that His justice be satisfied. Therefore, the claims of His justice must be paid in full, either by ourselves or by another. Can we pay this debt ourselves? Certainly not. Actually, we increase our guilt every day. Can another creature, any at all, pay this debt for us? No. To begin with, God will not punish another creature for man's guilt. Besides, no mere creature can bear the weight of God's eternal anger against sin and release others from it. What kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then? He must be truly human and truly righteous, yet more powerful than all creatures. That is, He must also be true God. Matthew chapter 19, as we begin our reading at verse 16. Hear now the Word of God. Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life? Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus replied. There is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments. Which ones? The man inquired. Jesus replied, Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself. All these I have kept, the young man said. What do I still lack? Jesus answered, If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sad because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, Who then can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. May God add His blessing to the reading and consideration of His Word tonight. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, living and dying in the joy of true Christian comfort, as we have said, begins by traveling the difficult path of knowing how great my sin and misery are. It's hard knowledge. It's difficult knowledge. No one, I suspect not one of us here, cares to be told how worthless we are. But that hard knowledge is necessary knowledge, or we will not know, we will not think, we will not believe that we need help, that we need salvation from our sin. It begins there by showing us our desperate and deadly condition, our hopelessness, and once understood by faith that one then is also comforted with the knowledge of how I am set free from all of my sins and misery. Notice not if I am set free, but how I am set free. Remember, this is the believer's confession. The unbeliever doesn't care. The unbeliever is unconcerned about these things. This is the believer's confession. And this is the message of the Bible. How I am set free from all of my sins and misery. This is the message of the Gospel. That there is a Redeemer. And after considering our sin and misery in depth in only a few Lord's days, this second portion has the heading Man's Deliverance. From how great my sin and misery are to man's deliverance. Deliverance. What a joyful sound. Deliverance is a joyful sound for prisoners and much more than just for those who may be only serving a life sentence or on death row in this life, as terrible as that might be, yet those, we know, will come to an end for those prisoners. But this deliverance, What a joyful sound for those who were facing eternal punishment, which comes with absolutely no prospect for hope, absolutely no prospect for freedom or for any sort of good ever. Knowing our deliverance, beloved, ought to bring forth a response such as the response of the released captives of God's people that we sang about in Psalm 126. When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter. Our tongues were songs of joy. In captivity for God's people, the days and the hours melted together. And with each new day, there was no prospect of hope. They had no idea if they were going to get out. And one will only understand freedom when that freedom has been taken away with no prospect of getting it back. And then one day, the Lord brought His people back and it was like a most wonderful dream that they thought might end when they woke up. But it was real. It was true. And their sorrow and their gloom was replaced with never-ending joy and praise to God. And that describes man's deliverance from sin and misery. It is real. It is true. And the very sound of man's deliverance rings with hope that man can be saved. Boys and girls, fallen angels, demons, they cannot be saved. There's no hope. Animals don't need to be saved. There's hope. Man can be saved. Yet, Lord's Day 5, we know, is the first Lord's Day in the lengthy section of Part 2 of the Catechism. and it almost seems as if Lord's Day 5 belongs with part 1, with sin and misery, because it immediately summarizes the truth of Scripture that this hope that is not in any way, shape, or form found in oneself, because we are hopeless. This first Lord's Day in many ways is a confession of our unworthiness. Yet, Lord's Day 5 does properly belong to part 2. Notice question 12 again, the very spirit of question 12. According to God's righteous judgment, we deserve punishment both in this world and forever after. How then can we escape this punishment and return to God's favor? As we have said from the beginning of our consideration of the Catechism this time through, there is a path that the Catechism takes one on, a path of breakdown, you remember. Because man wants to make all kinds of excuses. Man wants to cast blame and accusation and find a way to escape. And that's what we have seen up until this point. But now you notice with this question 12, there is a humble acknowledgement and a confession of sin. We deserve punishment both in this world and forever after. And there is a desire for escape from this punishment. And there is a desire as well to return to God's favor. And that humble acknowledgement of sin only comes from one who is born again, from one who has been released from bondage to sin and Satan. Lord's Day 5 properly belongs with this section on deliverance as Lord's Day 5 teaches the message of Jesus to His disciples in this portion of Scripture that there is hope for the hopeless. Verse 26, Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, But with God, all things are possible. What is he talking about? What is impossible with man? What is possible only with God? He is talking about salvation. He is talking about deliverance from sin and misery. He is doing so in the context of his lesson taught to this rich young man that there is hope for the hopeless, but this hope, first of all, is impossible with man because of God's justice required against sin. Sin which, well really if you think about it, sin is not really so offensive to you and me. That is, the sin of another. It's really not so offensive to you and I because we are sinful too. Oh, we might get angry if somebody sins against us. But we tend to forget it, we tend to let it go, we tend to become numb to it. In fact, we might become more upset at the result of another's sin than the sin in their heart itself. We might become more upset that the thief stole something from us and violated our privacy and took from us than we are that that sin resides in the heart of that one. But God is perfect in purity and holiness with never a possibility of sin in Him. And therefore, He hates sin with a righteous hatred. He answers sin with a righteous anger through eternal punishment of body and soul. A torment unknown in this life, no matter how difficult life might become for you and I, no matter how stressful or anxiety-filled we might become, or no matter what kind of physical pain we might be called upon to suffer, it does not compare with the eternal punishment of body and soul, which is an unbearable burden in the next life. As answer 14 includes this phrase, no mere creature can bear the weight of God's eternal anger against sin. No one can pay the whole price. No one can stand up under that burden, that weight. Boys and girls, you can bear your parents' punishment. What I mean is it may hurt for a time, but the punishment itself only lasts for a short time and the sting goes away. I remember in third grade I did something really bad and my parents grounded me. I can't remember exactly now. It was either for a month or two months. At that time, whether it was a month or two months, it was an eternity. But that was about 40 years of months ago. It was a very short time. You can bear the burden of your parents' punishment, but God's punishment for sin will never end. And the terrible pain and the torment of body and soul, whatever that may be, continues throughout eternity. This hope is impossible with man because of God's justice required against sin, but also because of man's inability. Inability to do what God requires. Inability to do anything. Now, answer 12 gives us a little bit of hope. You notice again, the question asks, is there any sort of escape? And the answer doesn't just come right out and say, no, absolutely none. God requires that His justice be satisfied, therefore the claims of His justice must be paid in full. That too is not so comforting after considering the first section of the catechism. But then it goes on, either by ourselves or by another. There's a glimmer of hope there, But yet, the natural response then comes in question answer 13. Can we pay this debt ourselves? Certainly not. Man's inability includes his false estimate of himself. Can we do it? Certainly not. The rich young ruler, Luke calls him a ruler. The rich young ruler most likely was one of the officials in charge of the local synagogue. And he believed the popular view of the teachers of the law of that day that he could earn, that he could acquire, he could get his hands on and hang on to eternal life by his own effort. Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life? Now, in a sense, we can say that there was something commendable about this man because he doesn't seem to come in arrogance. He seems to have come to Jesus in sincerity and with a degree of reverence. It was good that he cared about eternal life. It was bad that he thought that he could secure it. Today, some might respond to a question like that, giving the four spiritual laws and asking for this person's personal commitment to Jesus and sending them off and everything is okay, but not Jesus. Oh, indeed, He says, come and follow Me. But He first leads this man on the path to show him his false estimate of himself. To show him his inability. Jesus points the man to God who alone is good and has already revealed what pleases Him in His law. Jesus says in verse 17, there is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments. Which ones, the man inquired, which itself was not a question that might have been out of the ordinary because by that time, the teachers of the law had begun to expand the law to all kinds of commandments. Which ones? Of course, Jesus directs him to the law of Moses, to the Ten Commandments. Jesus replied, Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony. Honor your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself. All these I have kept, the young man said. What do I still lack? Mark and Luke also record this episode with some of the same commandments, some of the different ones. Matthew here, Jesus points the man specifically to commandments number 6, 7, 8, 9, then back to number 5, and then the summary of the second table of our relationship with fellow man. Love your neighbor as yourself. Now, we need to understand that Jesus is not pointing this man to the law as a way that he is able to earn eternal life. He is not saying what this man can do. He is not saying what he was able to do. But indeed, Jesus was pointing him to the way of a righteous and a holy life and obedience that God requires. Up to this point, this man is quite confident. All this I have done. What more? Now, he may have still been a bit unsettled as if there's got to be something more, or maybe he felt prematurely victorious as if he expected Jesus to say, nope, you've got it. You're in. Jesus doesn't do that. Instead, Jesus, He does not rebuke Him. He does not scold Him for saying, well, all these I have kept. But with gentleness and compassion, and I believe an example for you and I as we deal with the world and try to go out and make converts, make disciples. That we are called to deal in gentleness and compassion, not in an argumentative way, but Jesus shows a beautiful way of doing apologetics, defending the faith. With gentleness and compassion, He comes down as with a sledgehammer. Is that possible? To come down with a sledgehammer gently? But Jesus does, notice. With gentleness and compassion, he comes down as with a sledgehammer crushing the rich young ruler's pride. Revealing his lack of understanding because God demands, God deserves, God expects perfection. Answer 15. Well, what kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then? He must be truly human and truly righteous. There is only one way to be made right with God and that is through the righteousness of another. But this man was far from the love that God requires. He had a false estimate of himself because of his indwelling sin. In verse 21, Jesus answered, If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sad because he had great wealth. Now understand, Jesus is not giving a new commandment. He's not giving a new law for rich people. He's not giving a law for us that we all have to go out and sell everything we have and give it all to the poor. There were many, many rich saints in the Bible. Abraham, for example. But in this particular situation with this individual, Jesus was exposing the covetousness, the lack of the Tenth Commandment, the covetousness in the heart of this man. He was exposing his heart in this one specific application. Jesus never agreed with this man with regard to that man's assessment of the other commandments. He never said, yeah, you're right. You've done pretty well. He never argued with the man about the other commandments saying, you've got to be kidding. You're nuts. You haven't kept him at all. Again, gentleness and compassion. But instead, he exposes the man's heart that no matter how good he may have been or thought he had been at outwardly keeping the others, he failed with his heart and therefore failed in the entire law of God. And he was incapable of giving perfect obedience to God and instead he was being called to follow the only one who can and did. This man was attached to the things of his life. He loved his wealth more than God and others. He did not put his faith and his hope and his trust in God alone, but in his stuff. The law did not justify him as he thought it did. But it condemned him. And that's why Jesus places him before the mirror of the law of God to show him his need. To show him his lack. To show him his desperate situation. And he says, come and follow me. But of course this man was not willing to follow Jesus. And Jesus points out the danger of riches. Indeed, the Bible says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Not wealth itself. But He points out the danger with an understandable illustration. Then Jesus said to His disciples, I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. He uses the largest animal most likely known at that time and the smallest little instrument. He's talking about a literal needle, whatever kind they had at that time, and showing the impossibility of something. Yet the disciples pick up on the truth of Jesus' words. Notice that. They pick up on the truth that Jesus is calling for total, uncompromised allegiance to God and that anything placed before, anything loved and trusted more than God, which all men struggle with, disqualifies us all. Verse 25, when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, who then can be saved? Some suggest that maybe the disciples had kind of followed the view that at that time, rich's wealth was evidence of God's blessing. And if it was, And the rich, it's impossible for the rich to be saved. Who then can be saved? Beloved, even as believers, we tend to put our confidence at times in many things in this life. Financially, in the economy, or in our investment portfolio, or in our business contracts, or in the government to care for us. All kinds of things. And when these things are threatened, we become anxious and discouraged and begin to worry, well, can God even rescue us then? As well as believers, we have so many things that we really bring before God, expecting these things to mean something to Him by way of making Him happy with us or making ourselves acceptable to Him. But as we were wonderfully reminded this morning, they have no value before God, meaningless to Him. No value. Yet we have so many things like our prayer life or our worship attendance or contributions, giving to the poor or helping and volunteering, all things that are good and wonderful and necessary as an expression of our faith. As an expression of being set apart to God in holiness. But sometimes in our minds, while we have so much to offer Him, Certainly, it must do a little. Well, question 13 puts us in our place. Can we pay this debt ourselves? Certainly not. The older version of the catechism says, by no means. Yet, beloved, we know that there are many religions and many people who say by any means, By all kinds of means, we can satisfy God and we can earn our way with Him. Yet the truth, as the catechism points out, is actually we increase our guilt daily. We are bankrupt, boys and girls. We have no money to pay our bills, as it were. We have nothing, even if we could be perfectly obedient from this moment forward for the rest of our lives, we have nothing with which to pay our debt up until this moment. And the truth is, we have nothing by which we can perfectly satisfy God for the rest of our lives. We are hopeless, perfectly unworthy, and incapable of securing favor with God, of securing salvation. It is impossible with man. No possibility. Nothing in my hands I bring. We are filled, as it were, with emptiness. That's all we have to bring. yet we have hope which alone is, in the second place, possible with God. With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. He alone is able to save the unsavable, those unsavable in themselves, and we can only see this hope by faith when we see and acknowledge and accept our hopelessness. This hope is possible with God, God who accepts another. As Paul says in Romans 8, verse 3, for what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. He accepts another. And not a mere creature. Can another creature, any at all, pay this debt for us? No. To begin with, God will not punish another creature for man's guilt. Besides, no mere creature can bear the weight of God's eternal anger against sin and release others from it. To put it very simply, man sinned body and soul. Man must pay body and soul. And that rules out angels helping us out because they have no body. It rules out animals because they have no soul. But the point is God was angry at man. Well, it still seems a bit hopeless, doesn't it? Question 15 again. What kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then? He must be truly human and truly righteous. Well, the Bible reveals that impossibility. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one. Yet, Scripture also reveals a glorious mystery that is summarized in this answer. Yet, more powerful than all creatures, that is, He must also be true God. The God-man, fully God, fully man. That's the one we are to look for. That's the one we are to expect. Now, the catechism, we know, does not reveal the name of that one until Lord's Day 6, but it points to the hope of the Word of God that salvation and deliverance is possible with God because He alone is able to save because He is righteous and He alone can bear the burden of the weight of His own anger and punishment and He is willing to because of His desire for His glory and because of His love for His people, He accepts another and He provides the other. God did. I think that's one of the most beautiful phrases in Scripture. God did. As John 3.16 says, We know well for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him should not perish but have eternal life. Or Paul in Galatians, in the fullness of time, God sent His Son. He gave Him. And this one beloved is worthy of complete surrender. He says, come and follow me. He placed the law in front of this rich young ruler to show him his need, to show him his lack, to show him his desperate condition. And then he showed him the way. Come and follow me. He is the only one in whom to find the help that we desperately need. He is the only one who is able to pay for our sin and satisfy the wrath of God against us. He is the only one worthy of our complete trust. The things of this life, no matter how strong, how grand, how massive, how wonderful they may seem, the things of this life are temporary. They're insufficient. They waste away. He is the one who transforms hearts by the regenerating and renewing power of the Holy Spirit to believe in Him. To reject the world. To follow Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings God's people to confess sin again. We deserve punishment both in this world and forever after. He alone brings the believer to pray for relief. How then can we escape this punishment? And He brings the believer to desire fellowship with God and return to God's favor. You see, having the punishment removed, having our sins paid for is indeed wonderful. But, you know, that's not the end of the matter, is it? That's not sufficient. That leaves deliverance incomplete. We need more than our sin is paid for. We need to be restored to fellowship with God, which is by righteousness alone. For a child, if the punishment is removed, that may be wonderful insofar as it goes, but the child desires the smiling face of the parents. Things are not right yet if the parents are still angry with the child, fellowship with God must be restored. His face smiling, shining upon us. Moses was told a time when God said, just go, just go into Canaan before they were turned around again. And Moses said, if you will go with us, we will go. If you will not, we won't go. Because Moses knew that it would be better to be in the wilderness with God than to be in the land flowing with milk and honey without God. For those who believe, beloved, salvation, this hope is not only possible with God, but actual. It is a reality. As Hebrews 7.25 says of Jesus, therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him. There is hope for the hopeless. And therefore the question that is appropriate to ask tonight is, where is your trust? Where is my trust? Really? Where is it? Our only hope is in the blood of Jesus to pay for our sins, to wash away our sins. And in the righteousness of Jesus, by which alone we are acceptable and accepted by God. And God's certain promise and our assurance is that whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. Indeed, we still struggle with sin, but not in hopelessness. And therefore our prayer ought to be that may God, may He detach our hearts, our allegiance, our trust, our security more and more from the things of this life and attach our hearts more and more to Him and open our eyes to see how quickly that riches and possessions of this life that might make us feel secure for a time can be swept away. We've witnessed that vividly in the last month and a half with the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan. Man, literally, things collapsed to the ground and possessions swept out to sea by the water in this past week with the tornadoes. Again, literally wiping out towns and neighborhoods, just leaving debris. Nothing left. All the possessions have been taken away from so many people. These things are worthless. They do not last. And they certainly are meaningless with regard to our salvation or any hope that we might have. And beloved, may God use us to bear witness to Jesus Christ, the only hope for man, the rock of refuge and strong shelter. Maybe you work beside someone day by day who might someday ask you, well, how could a loving God let bad things happen to good people? How could a loving God let all kinds of innocent people die in Japan in the tornadoes or to lose all their belongings. How could a loving God do that? Or as we talked about with election a couple of weeks ago with regard to Lord's Day 4, how could a loving God save some that He calls His children and let the rest simply go to hell? How could a loving God do that? Well, beloved, our answer is difficult in many ways. In some ways, all we can say is God's ways are mysterious and yet we all deserve the worst. And may it be that our God would use us, be pleased to use us in showing another their sin and their need for a Savior in a compassionate, gentle way and indeed showing them that there is a Redeemer. That there is hope. And then we can look back at these disasters, for example, and say that these are a vivid reminder of how weak we are. They are a vivid reminder of how temporary life is. And if something like this should come upon you, where will your hope be? Because this life is temporary. This life will come to an end. And for those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, a greater disaster of such a magnitude that we cannot even begin to imagine will come upon those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one hope for eternity. Not in things, not in money, not in oneself, but only in the Lord Jesus Christ. and beloved for all who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God the eternal walls of hell with all of its torment have been removed crushed demolished we are set free we have been delivered and it is not a dream that will be gone when we wake up and therefore we can face this life not with worry and anxiety and pessimism but with joy and laughter and singing praise to God going about the tasks and duties that He gives to us day by day in the name of the Lord dedicating all that we have and all that we are to God's glory and use following Jesus with confidence that only His kingdom is forever and we are citizens of His kingdom only because of Him. Dear people of God as those who are delivered from the bondage of sin and from the threat of eternal punishment, let us heed the word of God and go forth in His service and be strong in His might, living for Christ alone, rejoicing in the God of our salvation. Amen. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, You have revealed to us so clearly, so vividly, our only hope and our heart's desire in Christ Jesus. And humbly we do thank You for that great salvation. We also confess, Father, that at times we are tempted to put our confidence in the things of this world. We are tempted to think that we can make ourselves more holy. That we can do so many things that are pleasing to you. And Father, quickly remove from us those vain thoughts. We praise you for the work of the Holy Spirit, that you are the one alone who makes us holy. And you are the one alone who directs our worship, and may our worship, too, be pleasing to you. You are the one who gives back to us so much more. Rewards your people with your reward of grace. Indeed, both in this life, but ultimately in the life to come. We thank you, O Lord, for the glory and your glorious presence that we might look forward to. And until that day, Father, may we be those who rejoice in such a great deliverance. With a joy that is evident to those with whom we have contact. with a joy that can be seen through a sparkle in our eye, through the words that we say, with a smile on our face, through our actions. That, Father, You might use us in this world to demonstrate that joy and the blessing of salvation through Jesus Christ. We thank You again, O Lord, and praise You for Your mercy and Your grace to us. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen. Thank you.