Let's turn today to Matthew chapter 18 and
verse 21.
Then Peter came and said to the Lord
Jesus, Lord, how often shall my brother sin
against me, and I forgive him, up to
seven times?
And Jesus said to him, I do not
say to you up to seven times, but
up to seventy times seven.
There is a tradition among the Jews, there
was in those days anyway, in the times
of Jesus, that one was to forgive his
brother three times.
Peter knew that Jesus was teaching a higher
standard, and so he asked the Lord whether
it would be alright if he went a
few steps higher than the Jewish tradition, and
if he would forgive his brother seven times.
And that means seven times in a whole
lifetime.
But Jesus replied saying, not seven times, but
seventy times seven.
It's not just that the new covenant is
quantitatively superior to the old covenant, but qualitatively,
it's a matter of quality, of forgiveness.
And here, when Jesus said seventy times seven,
it's clear that what he meant was infinitely,
forever and ever.
And when we compare the scripture with what
Jesus said in Luke chapter 17 and verse
4, there he says if he sins against
you seven times a day, and returns to
you seven times, saying I repent, forgive him.
Before we look at seventy times seven, we
could look at Luke 17.4, where Jesus
spoke about forgiving your brother seven times in
a day.
And remember that the Jewish day was just
twelve hours.
So, assuming that your brother sinned against you
at six o'clock in the morning, and
he came back at seven o'clock and
said, I repent, we've got to forgive him.
At eight o'clock the same morning, he
comes back and sins again.
And at nine o'clock, he comes back
and asks for forgiveness, saying he repents, you've
got to forgive him.
At ten o'clock, he sins again, a
third time.
And at eleven, he comes back and asks
for forgiveness, you've got to forgive him.
At twelve, he sins again, and asks for
forgiveness.
At two, he sins again, and asks for
forgiveness, and so on.
Seven times in a day, every two hours
from six in the morning till six in
the evening, and he comes back and asks
forgiveness.
I wonder how many of us would really
be able to believe that his repentance was
genuine.
No wonder in Luke 17.5, when the
Lord said this, the apostles said, Lord, increase
our faith.
Help us to believe that this man's repentance
is genuine.
It really requires faith to have that love
which believes all things, which takes a man
at his word.
In other words, the Lord was teaching us
there, don't go digging into the roots, by
their fruits you shall know them, that which
is visible.
If he says he repents, accept it.
Don't go judging a brother's motives.
1 Corinthians 4.5 says we don't know
the hidden things, we don't know whether the
repentance is genuine or not.
That's for God to judge.
We've got to go by the outward expression
of repentance, and ask that he asks, and
we are to forgive him.
And now when we compare Matthew 18.22,
70 times 7.
If Jesus meant this was 70 times 7
in one day, that increases the frequency of
sinning and the frequency of forgiveness.
490 times in a day.
That's every few minutes.
The point of it all is this, that
Jesus was teaching that you must never hold
anything against a brother.
You must forgive him.
In another passage, in Luke chapter 6, which
is really a parallel passage to the Sermon
on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6 and
7.
In Luke chapter 6, Jesus expressed it like
this, in verse 37.
Luke 6.37, do not pass judgment and
you will not be judged.
Do not condemn and you will not be
condemned.
Pardon, or as the literal Greek word there
is, release, and you will be released.
Forgiveness is releasing a person.
And that comes out very clearly in this
story that Jesus spoke in Matthew 18.23
-35, where he says the kingdom of heaven
may be compared to a certain king who
wished to settle accounts with his slaves.
And when he had begun to settle them,
there was brought to him one who owed
him ten thousand talents.
But since he did not have the means
to repay, his lord commanded him to be
sold, along with his wife and children and
all that he had in repayment to be
made.
The slave therefore falling down prostrated himself before
him, saying, Have patience with me, and I
will repay you everything.
And the lord of that slave felt compassion
and released him and forgave him the debt.
But that slave went out and found one
of his fellow slaves who owed him a
hundred denarii.
And he seized him and began to choke
him, saying, Pay back what you owe.
So his fellow slave fell down and began
to entreat him, saying, Have patience with me,
and I will repay you the same words
that the other slave had spoken to his
master.
But this slave was unwilling, and he went
and threw him in prison until he should
pay back what was owed.
And when his fellow slaves saw what had
happened, they were deeply grieved and came and
reported to their lord all that had happened.
And then the lord summoned this unforgiving slave
and said to him, You wicked slave, I
forgive you all that debt because you entreated
me.
Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow
slave even as I had mercy on you?
And his lord moved with anger, handed him
over to the torturers until he should repay
all that was owed.
This is a very important parable that Jesus
spoke for all of us who are slaves
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because here is a story spoken about a
slave, one who was a servant, and who
could be forgiven so much and who was
unwilling to forgive others another, even a small
amount.
What does this amount mean?
How much did the Lord forgive the slave?
It says here 10,000 talents, or in
terms of Indian rupees that would be, it
says here in the margin, about 10 million
American dollars or 140 million rupees.
140 million rupees.
Just imagine that.
There are very few people in the world
who even own that much money.
And here is a picture of how much
we owe to the Lord.
The sins that we have committed are equivalent
to a debt of 140 million rupees that
we have to pay back to God.
Sin is a debt.
Every time I sin, in thought, word, deed,
attitude or motive, I build up a debt
towards God.
And it's something that I have to repay.
And if I don't repay it, I have
to be thrown into prison till I clear
it.
There is no way out.
This is why God couldn't forgive just because
a person repented.
He forgives only on the basis of that
debt being repaid by Jesus on Calvary.
And that's why Peter says in 1 Peter
1 that we have been redeemed by, not
with silver and gold, but with the blood
of Christ, which is far more valuable than
all the silver and gold in the world.
And so we see that forgiveness is not
cheap.
It's cheap for us, but it costs Jesus
everything.
The Lord of that slave felt compassion, Matthew
18, 27, and forgave him that debt.
But the slave himself, when he went out
and met a fellow slave of his who
owed him a small amount, and how much
was this amount?
This is about three rupees.
Three rupees.
A small amount.
And he was unwilling to forgive that.
A small amount of money like that.
And it says here he caught the fellow
slave by the throat and began to choke
him.
He was ready to take revenge straight away
for this small amount.
And when we think of the greatest crime
that another human being has done against us,
remember, the greatest crime that another human being
has ever done against us is only three
rupees worth compared to the 140 million rupees
that we owe to God.
That's about the proportion of the guilt of
another human being, however great his crime against
us compared to our guilt before God.
We need to see this proportion clearly.
Then only forgiveness becomes easy.
And there we see how evil an unforgiving
attitude is.
When God has forgiven us 140 million rupees,
for us to be unwilling to forgive three
rupees to another human being is the picture
of a person who cannot forgive another.
And there Jesus said that this Lord handed
him over to the torturers.
And then he said in verse 35, So
shall my heavenly Father also do to you,
if each of you does not forgive his
brother from your heart.
It's not just forgiving with our lips.
We got to forgive from the heart.
From deep within our heart we got to
forgive.
In other words, it's not just a matter
of externally saying to a person, I forgive
you, but of changing our whole attitude towards
the person.
This is the meaning of forgiving from the
heart.
And if I haven't changed my attitude towards
that person who has done harm to me,
if I've still got a bitterness even though
I'm pleasant on the outside towards him, then
I still haven't forgiven him from the heart.
And then the Lord said, So shall my
heavenly Father do to you.
What will the heavenly Father do?
Read verse 34 and 35 carefully and see
what the heavenly Father will do.
It says he will hand you over to
the torturers.
Imagine a father handing his son over to
the torturers.
But then that person is not behaving like
a son, he's behaving like a child of
the devil when he doesn't forgive another person.
He's not releasing a person, he's got somebody
by the throat.
And I want to ask you, dear friend,
have you got someone by the throat inwardly?
Have you holding on to someone, not forgiving?
Well, then the devil has got power over
you.
The torturers are Satan and his evil spirits.
And they get a hold of many believers.
This is why many believers are sick.
A sickness that multitudes of pills and injections
don't cure.
What is the reason?
They haven't forgiven someone.
Harassment of Satan and evil spirits on the
mind, bringing depression, gloom, so many things.
Very often the reason is an unforgiving attitude.
So shall my heavenly Father do to you.
It's a warning.
Let's take it and learn to forgive everyone
wholeheartedly, completely.
Let's turn now to Matthew chapter 19 and
verse 1.
And it came about that when Jesus had
finished these words, he departed from Galilee and
came into the region of Judea beyond the
Jordan.
And great multitudes followed him and he healed
them there.
And some Pharisees came to him testing him
and saying, Is it lawful for a man
to divorce his wife for any cause at
all?
And he answered and said, Have you not
read that he who created them from the
beginning made them male and female?
Just a passing word about verse 2.
In the healing ministry of Jesus, we find
a number of occasions where he healed everyone.
In fact, we do not read of a
single case of Jesus laying his hands on
someone and the person not being healed or
of his praying for someone and the person
not being healed.
There is only one recorded instance of Jesus
laying his hands on a blind man's eyes
and the person being healed partially.
And when he said that he was healed
only partially, Jesus prayed for him a second
time and he was healed completely.
And the reason for this was certainly not
any limitation of power in Jesus himself, but
there was a lesson that Jesus was trying
to teach through that two-step healing of
that blind man recorded in Mark's gospel.
We also read in Matthew 13 of the
lack of faith on the part of those
who were from Jesus' hometown because of which
Jesus could not do many miracles there.
But in such cases, he never prayed for
anyone either.
I mention this because this is the distinguishing
difference between the ministry of Jesus and the
ministry of many who claim to have healing
gifts today and it's important to see that
distinction.
Jesus always healed those he prayed for.
Every person he laid his hands on was
healed completely.
The rate of success was 100% because
he never prayed for everyone.
Where he sensed a lack of faith, he
did not pray, he did not do miracles.
He went into the poolside of Bethesda and
he healed one person, as we read in
John 5, and came away.
But there were other instances like here in
Matthew 19 where we read that they were
all healed.
Now we see in verse 3, the Pharisees
coming to test Jesus about the matter of
divorce.
The Pharisees were the ones who wanted to
keep the law in such a way that
it wouldn't inconvenience their life.
They were always looking for loopholes in the
law through which they could escape.
And this was the difference between the Pharisees'
attitude to the law and Jesus' attitude.
The Pharisees' attitude was, it's the legalistic attitude,
what is the minimum that I have to
do in order to please God?
Now Jesus came with another spirit, and this
is the difference between the Old Covenant and
the New Covenant.
The New Covenant spirit is, what is the
maximum that I can do to glorify God?
What is the maximum that God can get
out of this one earthly life that he's
given me?
A legalistic attitude is, what is the minimum
that I have to do in order to
please this hard and demanding God?
And it's amazing, if we were to examine
our life, to see how it's possible that
such an attitude can lurk behind some of
our service for the Lord.
What is the minimum that I have to
give up of this world and still be
a Christian, still be a disciple of Jesus?
What a different attitude Jesus had.
What is the maximum that I can give
up so that I can glorify God and
use my time and my money and my
energy in a way that would please the
Father more?
The Pharisees came testing Jesus, because they knew
that Jesus would be against divorce.
They knew that in the beginning, but they
asked Him questions to test Him.
And Jesus replied saying, Haven't you read that
He who created them from the beginning?
Jesus went back to the beginning, way back
in Genesis 2, before sin came into the
human race.
There we have a revelation of God's will.
God made them male and female.
And this statement from Genesis 2, verse 24,
Jesus quoted in verse 5, For this cause
a man shall leave his father and mother,
and shall cleave to his wife, and the
two shall become one flesh.
That is a statement found in Scripture before
sin entered the human race.
It was a law God laid down.
Adam didn't have a father and mother to
leave, but it was a law God laid
down for marriage before sin entered the human
race, in Genesis 2, verse 24.
And there we have God's original will for
man.
The two shall become one flesh.
And therefore there is no question of divorce.
Therefore Jesus said in verse 6, Since God
has said that, they are no more two,
but one flesh.
What therefore God has joined together, let no
man separate.
It is wrong to separate two whom God
has joined together.
And since marriage is not a religious institution,
but something that God has ordained for the
whole world, everyone, even if he's not a
Christian, can be married.
And even if it's a non-Christian who's
married, God has joined them together.
Because marriage is something that God has ordained
for society, for the human race.
So it's not just when Christians are joined
together that God's joined them together.
When two unbelievers are joined together, it's God
who's joined them together because he has allowed
them to come together as part of his
will for human society.
And it's he who blesses even the marriages
of unbelievers with children.
Children are the gift of God.
Not just believers' children.
It's important to remember this because we find
nowadays in the world people making a distinction
between unbelievers divorcing and believers.
There is no difference.
God has ordained marriage for human society and
when God has joined two people together, they
are husband and wife.
They are one flesh.
And divorce is not permitted.
And that's clear.
And they said to him, the Pharisees, why
then did Moses command to give her a
certificate and divorce her?
And here we see the wrong attitude of
the Pharisees towards the law.
When you read the actual passage of scripture
which they were quoting in Deuteronomy chapter 24
and verses 1 to 4, what Moses said
was when a man takes a wife and
marries her it happens that she finds no
favor in his eyes because he's found some
indecency in her and he writes her a
certificate of divorce and puts it in her
hand and sends her out from his house
and she leaves his house and goes and
becomes another man's wife.
And if she's again put out by the
latter husband then the former husband is not
allowed to take her again.
And if you read Deuteronomy 24 verses 1
to 4 carefully you'll find there was no
command to divorce at all.
It's very clear.
What Moses was saying was that if a
man has divorced then what he should do
he was certainly not giving a command there
to divorce.
But this is the quirk of human nature
enslaved to the flesh that we read into
the scriptures what we want to read to
justify our sinful actions.
And God allows those who don't love the
truth to be deceived like this as we
read in 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 10 and
11.
And the Pharisees were deceived.
It's a great warning to us that when
we read the scriptures if our desire is
to justify ourselves we will read into it
on any subject, in any matter that which
suits our position.
This is why we need to fear when
we come to God's word.
We need to let God's word judge us
not make God's word fit our circumstances and
justify our actions which may be worldly and
sinful.
And there we read the Pharisees coming to
Jesus in Matthew 19, 7 and saying, why
did Moses command to give her a certificate
and divorce her?
And Jesus didn't get into a theological argument
with them trying to prove to them that
Moses did not actually command it.
He just told them because of your hardness
of heart Moses permitted you.
He didn't command it.
There is a difference between permitting there is
such a thing as the permissive will of
God and there is the perfect will of
God which are his commands.
They didn't understand that.
Under the old covenant many things were permitted
which were not in God's perfect will.
Here is one of those things.
Divorce.
That is not in God's perfect will.
But it was permitted.
Why was it permitted?
Because of the hardness of the hearts of
those Pharisees and of people generally under the
Old Testament.
In Ezekiel chapter 36 we read that the
new covenant promise was I will give you
a new heart.
Ezekiel 36 verse 26 I will take away
that hard heart and give you a soft
heart.
Now no one could have a soft heart
until Jesus came and the Holy Spirit was
given.
It's when the Holy Spirit is put within
us Ezekiel 36 verse 27 that we get
a soft heart.
So under the new covenant divorce is not
permitted.
Under the old covenant because they didn't have
the Holy Spirit God's standards were lower.
That's so clear.
There are many things that we permit a
little six month old baby to do because
it's ignorant which would be more serious in
a 15 year old son.
A three month old baby slapping his mother
is not as serious as a 15 year
old son slapping his mother.
There is a world of difference between the
two.
Divorce under the old covenant wasn't serious.
It's very serious under the new covenant.
It's forbidden.
And I say to you, verse 9 whoever
divorces his wife except for immorality and marries
another commits adultery.
There is only one condition under which Jesus
said divorce was permitted and that is immorality
where one partner has in a sense broken
that vow by sexual immorality.
But when we compare the other passages of
scripture dealing with this in Matthew 5 verse
32 whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery
it's clear that even where divorce is permitted
for immorality remarriage is still forbidden.
The divorced person must remain single until his
or her partner dies.
So Jesus' standards are quite different from the
standards of this world.
That's only to be expected.
And Christians who are looking for loopholes who
are not seeking God's highest can be led
astray even in this matter of divorce.
If you seek for God's highest you will
not miss it.
Let's turn today to Matthew chapter 19 and
verse 10.
This is the passage where the Pharisees had
come to Jesus and asked him why Moses
commanded divorce.
Verse 7 and Jesus replied saying in verse
8 that Moses hadn't commanded divorce it's because
they misread the scriptures that they got that
message out of it.
In Deuteronomy 24 Moses had permitted it It
was God's permissive will because of the hardness
of people's hearts under the old covenant.
Because they did not have the Holy Spirit.
When a person receives the Holy Spirit his
heart becomes soft.
Soft in the sense that he can live
up to a higher standard.
Just like in our study of Matthew chapter
5 we saw how whereas the old covenant
merely required that people stay away from physical
adultery in the flesh Jesus commanded that we
were not even to commit it in our
thoughts.
That's the result of getting a soft heart.
It's impossible to do that if we haven't
received the power of the Holy Spirit within
our heart.
In fact this teaches us when we compare
it with Ezekiel 36 verse 26 and 27
that the primary purpose of the gift of
the Holy Spirit is that this hard heart
is taken away and we're given a soft
heart that's responsive to God's commands and that
seeks not the minimum needed to please God
but what the maximum is by which we
can please God.
And when a person approaches this subject of
divorce he will find that if his attitude
is what is the minimum that I have
to do he'll get some other answer out
of the teachings of Jesus whereas if his
attitude is what is the maximum which can
please God through my life he'll get the
right answer.
God has made it like that and that's
why you find even among believers there can
be a difference of understanding in the subject
but that reveals only the condition of those
believers' hearts whether they're going to the scriptures
to find a justification for their wrong actions
or for their worldliness or whether they're going
to the scriptures to find out with sincerity
of heart how God can be glorified in
their life.
It's a fundamental principle concerning all areas and
all subjects in scripture that we can get
the right answer only when we go with
the right attitude to scripture which is the
attitude Jesus had.
What is the maximum that God can get
out of this one earthly life?
How can God be glorified?
Most through my life not what is the
minimum that I have to do to obey
the commands of Jesus.
And so, as I have just said if
we approach the scriptures with the attitude of
Jesus we shall see clearly that divorce is
forbidden for Christians except for immorality whereby one
partner breaks the marriage vow but even in
such a case when we compare all the
scriptures on the subject, in all the gospels
it becomes clear that a divorced person cannot
remarry because they have been joined together by
God.
And just because one person has become unfaithful
does not mean that the other person should
be unfaithful too.
Just because one person has broken his vow
doesn't mean the other person should break his
vow also.
Just because one person serves the devil doesn't
mean the other person serves the devil too.
One person in a marriage contract may go
against God's word, but the other person must
keep God's word if he is a disciple
of Jesus.
That is clear.
When the disciples who never knew anything about
the new covenant standards yet really heard this,
they said if the relationship of the man
with his wife is like this, it's better
not to marry.
In other words, they found it a bit
of a strain to have a command like
this.
The disciples understood it correctly, but they felt
it's very difficult to be married if we
don't have permission to divorce and remarry.
There we see that the disciples themselves found
this a difficult and a hard statement.
But Jesus did not modify it.
And he said to them, not all men
can accept this statement to remain single.
That teaches us clearly that single life is
a gift that God gives and a calling.
Just like it would be wrong to leave
a secular occupation and go into full time
Christian work without a specific clear calling from
God, it would be wrong to choose to
be single without a specific clear calling from
God.
If we believe that God has a plan
for our life, as we read in Ephesians
2.10, that God has foreordained before the
foundation of the world good works that we
should walk in, that he's got a plan
for our life for the future, then he's
got a plan, and in that plan, in
that blueprint that he's got for your life,
it's also determined whether you should be single
or married.
All you need to do is to seek
what is in God's blueprint for your life.
Some, like Paul, were called to a single
life.
But Jesus made it very clear that not
all men can accept this, only to those
to whom it has been given, and the
word given means a gift.
Single life is a gift from God.
It's a calling from God.
And only such people, he said, should accept
it.
This is why it's wrong for anyone to
teach that if you are in full time
Christian work, or what they call a servant
of God, that you should be single.
That, Paul says in 1 Timothy 4 verse
1 to 4, is a doctrine of a
demon, those who forbid marriage.
Marriage is never forbidden.
Hebrews 13 verses 1 to 4 makes it
clear that marriage is honorable, not to be
forbidden.
And celibacy must never be forced on anyone.
Only those to whom it has been given
can receive it.
For there are eunuchs who were born that
way from their mother's womb, Jesus said in
Matthew 19.12. There are eunuchs who were
made eunuchs by men.
And there are also eunuchs who have made
themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom
of heaven, meaning that there are people who
have stayed single for the sake of the
kingdom of God to spread the gospel, so
that they can be free to travel.
He who is able to accept this, let
him accept it.
In other words, if you don't have the
ability, then you should not accept it.
Jesus' teaching was so clear and so balanced.
And then, here we see another aspect of
that balance.
He's just been speaking about the gift of
a single life.
And then, we read in verse 13, the
beautiful balance in scripture.
The gifts, the gifts that come from married
life.
Then, some children were brought to him.
These were the gifts that God had given
to married people.
So, immediately after Jesus speaks about the gift
of a single life, we find here the
Holy Spirit recording the blessing of marriage.
Some children were brought to him, so that
he might lay his hands on them and
pray.
And the disciples rebuked them.
They'd just heard about the glory of being
a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven's sake.
And they thought that Jesus would have no
time for children.
How mistaken they were.
And Jesus said, let the children alone.
Permit the children and do not hinder them
from coming to me.
For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such
as these.
Yes, there is a balance.
There are those who have made themselves eunuchs
for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
But then, there are those who are married
also for the glory of God and for
the kingdom of heaven.
For the kingdom of heaven belongs to little
children.
We read about the one man in the
Old Testament about whom it is said first
of all in Scripture that he walked with
God, Enoch in Genesis chapter 5.
And we read this wonderful word in Genesis
5 verse 22 that after Enoch became the
father of Methuselah, he walked with God for
300 years and had sons and daughters.
His having sons and daughters did not hinder
him from walking with God.
And it need not hinder you or me
from walking with God.
That is a doctrine of a demon which
says that if you have children and if
you get married, it will hinder your walk
with God.
The first man who walked with God was
not hindered and no one has ever been
hindered.
Children are the closest to the kingdom of
heaven here on earth.
That's what Jesus said in Matthew 19 14.
And he laid his hands on them and
he departed from there.
Notice Jesus did not baptize them.
He laid his hands on them.
And it's important to see what Jesus did.
Because in John chapter 4 we read that
Jesus did baptize people through his disciples but
the children he only laid his hands on
and blessed.
And it's very interesting to see that Jesus
didn't make a mistake there concerning what to
do to adults and what to do for
children.
John chapter 3 verse 22 says Jesus and
disciples came to the land of Judea and
there he was spending time with them and
baptizing.
But when children were brought to him, he
laid his hands on them and he departed.
Verse 16.
Behold, one came to him and said, Teacher,
what good thing shall I do that I
may obtain eternal life?
And he said to him, Why are you
asking me about what is good?
There is only one who is good.
If you wish to enter into life, keep
the commandments.
This was the Old Testament standard.
There was only one way to enter into
life and that was by obedience to the
commandments.
The new covenant had not yet been established.
And he said to him, Which ones?
And Jesus said, You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness.
Honor your father and mother.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The commandments relating to man and the young
man said, All these I have kept.
Here was a God-fearing man who had
kept the commandments from his childhood.
And Jesus said to him, If you wish
to be complete, go and sell your possessions
and give to the poor, and you shall
have treasure in heaven and come follow me.
But when the young man heard this statement,
he went away grieved, for he was one
who owned much property.
Among the commandments that Moses gave, the ten
commandments listed in Exodus 20, there were four.
The first four that had to do with
man's relationship with God, and the next six
in man's relationship with his fellow men.
And out of the next six, Jesus mentioned
to this rich young ruler, holy five.
Holy commandments five to nine.
He never mentioned anything about commandment number ten.
He came to that finally.
For what was the tenth commandment?
You shall not covet.
You shall not desire.
Now you can take it literally according to
what is written in the tenth commandment and
say you didn't covet what is another's.
But when you have the attitude to find
out what is the maximum one has to
do to please God, one can find that
even a wrong attitude to money is a
form of covetousness.
And that is what this person had.
That's how he missed the kingdom.
Mark 10, 21 says, Jesus told him, You
lack one thing.
And because of that, he missed the kingdom.
A wrong attitude to money is covetousness.
And it can make us miss the kingdom.
This is why we need to pray that
the Lord will deliver us from the love
of money.
Let's turn today to Matthew chapter 19 and
verse 20.
This is the story of the rich young
ruler who came to Jesus, wanting to follow
him, wanting eternal life.
And Jesus tells him in verse 21, if
you want to be perfect, go and sell
your possessions and give it to the poor.
You shall have treasure in heaven and come
follow me.
Jesus didn't tell Mary, Martha and Lazarus to
sell what they had.
And even Zacchaeus, when Zacchaeus was converted, we
read in Luke 19 that he told Jesus
that he would give half his money to
the poor and return four times what he
had cheated others of, which still would have
left Zacchaeus with a certain amount of money.
Jesus did not tell Zacchaeus to sell everything.
Because it was clear that Zacchaeus had been
freed from the love of money.
But in this particular person's case, it was
also clear to Jesus that he was enslaved
to money.
And where a person is enslaved to money
like this, Jesus has to use radical measures.
And he told him to sell all that
he had.
The young man went away grieved.
Remember, the question the young man came with
was what shall I do to obtain eternal
life?
And here is the answer.
Be free from the love of money.
Because you cannot serve God and mammon.
Most people in the world serve mammon.
Money and material things or as they say,
the good things of this life.
And those who live for that can miss
eternal life.
Because you cannot serve God and mammon.
You've got to hate one and love the
other.
And you can have your choices to which
you're going to hate and which you're going
to love.
But you cannot love both.
You cannot love God and money.
And if you love God, you've got to
hate money.
That's very clear in Luke chapter 16 verse
13.
If you hold on to God, you've got
to despise money.
Jesus taught us that we could use money,
but we were not to love it.
We were to hate it and despise it.
Luke 16 verse 13 is clear on that
point.
And one who doesn't do that cannot serve
God.
The danger is not in having.
The danger is in loving.
The love of money is the root of
all evil.
But it certainly is more difficult for those
who own much not to love it.
Those who have much will certainly love it.
And Jesus said to his disciples in verse
23, I say to you it is hard
for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of heaven.
This does not mean that all those who
are poor enter the kingdom.
We enter the kingdom through a genuine repentance
and genuine faith.
But it's difficult for people to repent genuinely
when their heart is so much set on
earthly things.
And that's why he said it's hard for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of
heaven.
And again I say to you in verse
24.
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.
It's impossible, we know, for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle.
That's impossible.
And it's impossible for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of God too.
And the disciples heard this.
They said, then who can be saved?
For most people in the world love money.
How can they be saved then?
And then looking upon them Jesus said, with
men this is impossible.
But with God all things are possible.
In the context what does it mean?
It means that God can do such a
work in a man's heart.
Even though he is rich.
To free him from his riches.
And take him into the kingdom.
But not if he is not freed from
his riches.
God alone knows whether a person has been
freed from attachment to money and material things.
The next time you lose some money, ask
yourself whether God is not perhaps answering your
prayer when you prayed that you might be
freed from the love of money.
When something expensive that you have bought packs
up or is lost or stolen, ask yourself
the same question.
Those who wholeheartedly pray to God asking to
be freed from attachment to material things will
get an answer.
God will certainly answer them, but the answer
can come in painful ways.
In ways in which they did not anticipate.
But if you are wholehearted and you say
Lord, I really want to serve you.
And I don't want any mixture in my
life.
I don't want to serve God and money.
Then God will take you in hand and
take you through various trials in the financial
area to free you from the love of
money.
And any sincere wholehearted Christian will certainly pray
that prayer.
For dear friends, the love of money dwells
very deeply in our flesh.
It's one of those sins that dwells very
deeply.
Like selfishness dwells very deeply in our flesh.
And if we don't identify it and hate
it and ask God to deliver us from
it, we shall spend our earthly days not
getting that spiritual education that God wants us
to have.
We shall fail in one subject constantly and
that subject is the love of money.
God wants us to pass.
God wants us to be free from it
before we leave this earth.
Completely free.
And the earlier we are free from it
the better because then we can be true
servants of God for the rest of our
days on earth.
Otherwise we can waste our life.
A man who lives on earth without being
free from the love of money, even if
he calls himself a believer, has wasted his
earthly life because he could not serve God.
Whatever he calls service for God was not
service for God because Luke 16.13 says
you cannot serve God and money.
Money is the big alternative master to God.
Not Satan because no believer serves Satan.
But money.
Many believers do and they don't realize that
when they do that they cease serving God.
And Peter when he heard this he felt
a little complacent and self-satisfied because he
wasn't like that rich young ruler.
And that is a warning to us.
Here is the other side of the coin.
Here is a warning for those who are
not rich young rulers, who don't own so
much property and who can feel self-satisfied
and smug and complacent like Peter.
He said, well Lord, we are not like
him.
We have left everything and we have followed
you.
Can you see that self-congratulation there?
What will that be for us?
Well, he missed everything.
But what we don't realize is that the
man who has owned property and given it
up may be at a far higher level
than the one who never had very much
to give up.
Peter had a job but he didn't probably
own much property.
So you couldn't really put Peter and the
rich young ruler on the same level.
One wonders what Peter's condition would have been
if he owned much property.
If his heart were sincere, no doubt he
would have left everything.
But the fact is he had not been
tested in that area.
That's a great danger that we can compare
ourselves with others when they are being tested
perhaps in deeper areas and we ourselves are
not being tested there.
And to think that we are spiritually or
morally superior to them.
That's what we see in verse 27.
We've left everything.
How much had Peter left compared to that
rich young ruler who had to give up
so much?
And Jesus says to them, first of all
he says yes, if you have followed me,
then in the regeneration that is when the
world is regenerated, the whole earth, when the
millennial kingdom is established, Jesus the son of
man will sit on his glorious throne and
you also will sit on twelve thrones judging
the twelve tribes of Israel.
They had indeed forsaken everything.
And Jesus recognized that and he appreciated it
and he said to them that they would
sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes
of Israel in the millennial kingdom.
So it's obvious that that is yet to
take place and that is the time when
Jesus spoke of as the regeneration of this
earth.
The earth is going to go through a
new birth where everything becomes new compared to
what we see now.
And everyone who has left houses or brothers
or sisters or father or mother or children
or farms for my name's sake shall receive
many times as much and shall inherit eternal
life.
Everyone if you have had to give up
something for the Lord, is it a house?
Maybe you were cast out by your brothers
or sisters or by your father or mother
or children or maybe you've lost property you
were not included in the Father's will because
you became a wholehearted disciple of Jesus and
you have suffered a loss of these things
for the sake of the name of Jesus
Christ.
The Lord said you will receive many times
as much or a hundredfold.
And in another passage it says with persecutions.
We will have persecutions as well.
But you will also inherit eternal life.
This is the answer to the rich young
ruler's question.
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
Well, here it is.
Put Jesus first and forsake everything else.
And here it says you shall inherit eternal
life.
This is the real meaning of faith.
He who believes has eternal life.
Compare it with this passage and you find
that you cannot believe unless you have forsaken
your attachment to everything else.
Because to be united to Jesus is like
getting married.
It's a spiritual marriage and you cannot be
married to a man.
A girl cannot be married to a man
if she is still interested in other men.
She has to forsake the others and cleave
just to one.
And so also the bride of Christ is
to forsake her attachment to all earthly things
and cleave to the Lord.
And everyone who is left that shall inherit
eternal life.
But many who are first will be last
and the last first.
And there Jesus went on to speak a
parable in chapter 20 verse 1 to 16
which was an answer to Peter's question.
What will we get who have left everything?
Jesus was trying to explain to Peter that
that attitude of yours is wrong.
You can have forsaken everything and no doubt
you have and you will receive a reward
for that.
But if you keep this attitude of what
will we get?
1927 Matthew 1927 What will we get out
of it?
In other words, Lord, I have sacrificed so
much.
I've given up so much.
What am I going to get out of
it?
That attitude Jesus said was wrong.
Then he went on to speak this parable
about these laborers who made a contract with
the master.
And who at the end asked this question,
what are we going to get?
Aren't we going to get more than those
other laborers?
This was to answer Peter's question.
Aren't we going to get more than this
rich young ruler?
If we come to serve God with the
attitude what shall we get?
Even if we serve a lot on this
earth and we are first in the eyes
of others as being dedicated self-sacrificing servants
of God, we'll end up as last in
spite of our service because our attitude was
wrong.
Our service for the Lord must be a
love service without any thought of reward.