[0:00] we're going to use a couple of questions from the Heidelberg Catechism.
[0:17] Now we're going to return to the ideas that we find here as we come to Jesus' teaching later. But as we consider what God's law requires, and as it causes us to reflect on how we have done in terms of our obedience, that then leads us to see the importance of confessing our sin.
[0:39] And we're going to use a section of Daniel 9 to help us in that. So again, this is a couple of questions and answers. If I read the question then, if you're able, you can share the answer with me.
[0:50] What does God's law require of us? Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22, 37 to 40.
[1:00] You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.
[1:13] And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
[1:25] The next question. Can you live up to all this perfectly? No, I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.
[1:39] And as we recognize that in our own hearts, let me lead us in a prayer of confession drawn from Daniel 9. Lord God, we would confess with the prophet Daniel.
[1:54] We are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. We have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept his laws.
[2:05] We have rebelled and sinned against you. We have broken your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. We also confess that you are the Lord who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments.
[2:24] You are the Lord who is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against you. Lord, hear our prayer. Show us favor and forgive us.
[2:36] Amen. Amen. And then we remind ourselves of some of the wonderful promises that we have in the gospel.
[2:48] John chapter 3, verse 16, speaks to us of the certain promise of forgiveness and eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
[3:10] Or as we have it again in Romans 8, verse 1, And therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And now we're going to hear God's word.
[3:24] And Neil Campbell is going to come and read that for us from Luke chapter 18, beginning at verse 9. Thanks, Neil. To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable.
[3:48] Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
[4:05] I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
[4:19] I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
[4:33] People were bringing their babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
[4:49] I tell you the truth. Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. A certain ruler asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
[5:04] Why do you call me good? Jesus answered. No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery.
[5:14] Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not give false testimony. Honor your father and mother. All these I have kept since I was a boy, he said.
[5:24] When Jesus heard this, he said to him, You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
[5:36] Then come, follow me. When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.
[5:50] Indeed, 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. Those who heard this asked, Who then can be saved?
[6:02] Jesus replied, What is impossible with men is possible with God. Peter said to him, We have left all we had to follow you. I tell you the truth, Jesus said to them, No one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and in the age to come, eternal life.
[6:28] Let's come and pray to God once again.
[6:40] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that throughout the pages of the Bible, we hear you, our God and Father, we hear Jesus, the Savior, inviting us to come to you, come when we are weary, come when we are burdened, and to find rest.
[7:06] Thank you for the reminder from this scripture that anyone can come to you and find mercy, that eternal life is not a matter of earning our way into the kingdom, but rather it's humbly and independently receiving, just like a child.
[7:27] Lord, we thank you for your great grace and your mercy that you show to us in and through the Lord Jesus. And so we would ask that you would give us a fresh measure and experience of your grace and your goodness, your kindness and your mercy today.
[7:46] And we pray especially for those who are here today with heavy hearts for different reasons, those who are struggling physically, those who are carrying heavy burdens to do with families and friendships, those who are concerned about health matters and financial matters, those who are burdened down in so many ways.
[8:18] Lord, may each of them and each of us be coming and laying our burdens down and resting in the Lord Jesus and knowing his kindness in a special way.
[8:30] Lord, we pray for anybody who perhaps feels particularly discouraged today, finding that following Jesus is hard.
[8:40] Pray for those who are giving up hope and wondering if things will ever get better. Lord, may the light of your glory shine in a new way today for them, that you would give living hope as you remind us of Jesus, our living Savior.
[9:03] Lord, we pray too for our families and our friends. We think especially of those who as yet are not followers of the Lord Jesus.
[9:14] Lord, one of the things that causes our hearts to feel so sad is often to think about the people we love the most who are far from the kingdom, who seem to have so little concern for their eternal well-being, who don't seem to want to hear the good news of the Lord Jesus.
[9:35] And we recognize that what's impossible with us is eminently possible with you, a God of powerful, saving grace. And so we pray to see transformation by your grace, that you would break down barriers, that you would soften hearts, that men and women, boys and girls, young and old, those who we pray for often, those who we've prayed for for years, that you might be drawing them so that we and they would give glory to you together.
[10:09] Lord, help us to pray and not to give up. Help us to remember that you are the God who loves to save. Lord, we pray too for our city and for our nation today.
[10:24] And we pray for those who are in authority over us locally and nationally, that with the burdens and responsibilities that they carry, Lord, with the wisdom that they need, that you would cause them to humble themselves and to seek your wisdom, to seek your faith.
[10:43] Help us as your people to support them in our prayers, to honour them in the way that we obey, in the way that we speak of those who rule over us.
[10:56] And Lord, we give you thanks too for our emergency services. And we thank you for those who sacrifice so much for us, between our health service and the police and the fire services, those who give of themselves, those who take great risks for our health and peace and security.
[11:19] Lord, we pray in particular for those we know who are Christians who are serving there, Lord, that you would keep them, encourage them, especially sometimes when it's so hard to get to church regularly because of responsibilities at work.
[11:32] Lord, give them times of rest, times in your word, times to pray and to know your presence and the joy of fellowship with you. Lord, we pray for the work of the gospel in our city and in our nation.
[11:51] Lord, we pray that rich and poor and old and young, people who have always called Scotland home, people who have moved from different parts of the world, that together we would discover the joy of knowing Jesus, that you would be at work through your words, you'd be at work through your people, Sunday by Sunday as churches gather, week by week as your people scatter, to be a blessing in our communities.
[12:21] Lord, be pleased to point many to hope in Jesus. And Lord, we pray for our world. We recognize there is so much darkness, there is so much sadness, there is so much warfare and strife.
[12:41] Lord, we pray for the ministry of the Prince of Peace. And we pray for a day when true peace would reign, peace of the Lord Jesus that passes understanding would be formed in people's hearts and lives.
[12:59] Lord, we recognize lasting hope and lasting change is found ultimately and only in the Lord Jesus. And we thank you for the promise in your word that there is a day coming when the Lord Jesus will return, when he will make this world new, when he will deal once and for all with all that is evil and unjust, when his people will live in a world made perfect forever, that we will enjoy perfectly restored bodies and minds, able to worship, able to truly love.
[13:37] Lord, give us a longing for that day to work, to see your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Hear our prayers we ask in Jesus' name.
[13:50] Amen. Now, before we turn back to Luke chapter 18, we're going to sing another section of a psalm, this time from Psalm 19, a reflection on the beauty and the value of the word of God.
[14:05] Psalm 19 from 7 to 11, and we'll stand together to sing. The perfect love of God revives the soul of man.
[14:26] His statutes, which are sure, make wise the simple one.
[14:37] The precepts of the Lord are right, God's radiant command and shed light on what we see.
[15:01] The fear of God is pure and lasts eternally. The standards of the Lord express His perfect truth and righteousness.
[15:25] of far more worth than gold, than much pure gold they are, than honey from the comb, than honey sweeter far.
[15:48] they warn the servant of the Lord in keeping them His great reward.
[16:03] Now, if you have your Bibles, perhaps, you can have them open so we can consider these words together.
[16:16] Page 1052 if you're using the church Bible. We're thinking today about how to gain or how to miss eternal life. As we begin, I wonder if you find yourself this week sparing a thought for the man called John Cheeks.
[16:35] If you are paying attention to some of the more obscure items of news this week, you might know that John Cheeks was the man who is suing the lottery in America.
[16:49] In January of 2023, the U.S. lottery was testing all its machines to make sure that they were functioning correctly. In error, it printed some lottery numbers online.
[17:05] Guess whose numbers came up? Mr. John Cheeks. On that day, he thought he had gained $340 million until the lottery recognized their error.
[17:20] He missed out on that jackpot. He's suing them for emotional distress. He wants to get his money. He thought it was his. Turned out he was wrong.
[17:32] The story of John Cheeks helps us into the story of some of the men we meet on the road with Jesus. There's an individual, a rich ruler, and there's a group of people who presume, they presume they have ultimate gain, a gain that makes winning the lottery seem like small change.
[17:51] They presumed they were in God's kingdom. Eternal life with God was theirs for sure, but it turns out they were in error.
[18:03] They thought they were measuring up perfectly to God's standards. Jesus is going to tell them they were wrong. They thought God's kingdom worked on the basis of merit, and they had merited a place at God's table.
[18:18] Again, Jesus is going to tell them they're wrong. Jesus provides a reality check to warn of this error.
[18:34] He tells a story where the hero of the story, the one who's in the kingdom, is the tax collector. And against those who are trying to earn their way into the kingdom, Jesus says the kingdom belongs to those who are like little children, those who bring nothing to the table, as it were, they are in.
[18:57] It can be a hard lesson to learn. Let's go back to our playground days. Some of us, they're still here. For some of us, we have to go a little bit further back.
[19:09] Remember how teams were picked in school, how teams probably have always been picked in school? You would have captains, and those captains, they would decide who got to choose first. And of course, when it comes to team selection, you choose whoever you think is the best.
[19:26] And maybe you also choose those who you're friends with. So gradually, it works its way down until there's just one or two people left at the end.
[19:38] Well, as we grow up, we probably realize the pattern doesn't always change so much. In our workplaces, typically, it's the skilled and the successful who get the special responsibilities, who get the promotions.
[19:52] In friendships, typically, it's the funny and the outgoing who get the party invites. So the problem comes if we apply that way of thinking to religion. God's kingdom must work like the rest of the world works.
[20:06] God will accept me because I am. Well, here is Jesus, and He's walking closer to the cross, the place where He will die, and He needs us to hear and to understand that the greatest of all gains, the gain of knowing God and having eternal life, doesn't come because we earn it.
[20:26] It comes by God's gift. It comes because of grace. So how does He help us to get there? Three questions that we can take from our text. The first question, ask the question, how do we measure?
[20:42] This is verses 9 to 14. Look at verse 9, to some who are confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable.
[20:53] Last Sunday, I was down in the borders, I was preaching down in Galashios, in the community center there, we shared space with a group called Rugby Tots.
[21:04] So little two, three, four year olds learning the basics of rugby, learning how to catch a ball, learning how to pass. Some of them, they were all very cute, some of them seemed quite decent, but not any of them were on the same level as the Six Nations team that played yesterday.
[21:21] The best rugby taught in the Scottish borders was not playing for the Scottish national team yesterday. But imagine the three year old in Galashios who was feeling particularly good about their ball handling skills, thinking, I'm the best rugby player ever.
[21:39] if they'd switched on the TV yesterday evening, if they'd watched Gregor Townsend's team play, they would have received an important reality check.
[21:51] How we measure matters. And so Jesus uses a parable to deliver a reality check to a man, to a group of men who are measuring themselves against other people.
[22:05] And they're feeling really good about themselves, and they're despising other people, and they're really confident of being in God's team. And so Jesus tells a parable.
[22:16] He paints a picture of two praying men. Two people come to the same place of worship. There's a number of different things that are the same, one or two that are very different, and key is how they measure.
[22:35] Listen to how Jesus describes the religious man. The Pharisee, he stood by himself. He is standing apart because of his pride.
[22:50] I don't want to be associated with these lesser mortals over here. We hear it in his words, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people.
[23:03] I am so thankful that I'm in a different moral category. So, interesting, he's clearly very sincere and religious. I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all I get, but his heart is not right before God.
[23:24] But then, Jesus introduces the rebellious man, the tax collector who robs his own people, who works with the enemy, the tax collector two.
[23:37] He stood at a distance. He stands apart, but he stands apart because he feels and he knows he's unworthy. He would not even look up to heaven.
[23:53] Standard way to pray. He doesn't feel he deserves it. He beats his breast as a sign of deep grief and repentance, because of his sin.
[24:07] And how does he pray? He prays, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Literally, God, be propitiated to me, a sinner.
[24:19] God, turn your anger away from me. I know I am a sinner. I know I deserve your anger, but please have mercy. Turn the anger away from me.
[24:33] As Jesus tells the story, he's reminding us of why he is going to the cross. Jesus is going to the cross to be a substitute so the anger of God against our sin might not fall on us, but it might fall on Jesus.
[24:49] Now, we get to the sting in the tail, don't we? This would be a total shock to Jesus' original hearers. We already know, we've decided, we've heard the gospels probably, so we know who the good guys and the bad guys are, but in Jesus' day, the Pharisees are the elite.
[25:07] These are God's men. Jesus says, I tell you, this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.
[25:18] Who is the one who is declared to be in right standing with God? Who is the one who is in the kingdom, who is on his way to enjoy eternal life? It's the bad guy. God because he shows true humility.
[25:33] He confesses his sin. He knows he needs mercy and he seeks mercy from God. That would have shocked the crowd in Jesus' day.
[25:44] And actually, this teaching still shocks people today. sin. I don't know if you've ever had those conversations where you understand that this sinner's prayer can still cause a great scandal and offence.
[25:59] As people understand that Jesus has come to save anyone, anyone who confesses sin and trusts in Jesus will be saved. Maybe I've conversed, you mean the very worst of criminals?
[26:14] They could be saved if they trusted in Jesus. You mean a horrible tyrant and dictator could be saved even if as they were dying they turned to put their trust in Jesus?
[26:26] And the answer is yes. God is gracious. Jesus' grace is wonderful and shocking. Jesus explains why the tax collector was justified.
[26:42] It's this principle of reversal that Jesus keeps introducing end of verse 14. All those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
[26:54] What goes up must first go down. Unlike the Pharisee who compared himself with others, compared himself with the bad guys to feel good about himself and to look down on them, the tax collector is justified because he knows how to measure.
[27:10] He has measured himself against God's perfect standard and when we do that we see that we need mercy. That's what Jesus wants to expose in verse 9, a spirit of self-righteousness, a mindset that thinks I can win or I have won God's favor by my actions.
[27:31] And so this story reminds us we need to be so careful with the measures that we use, the measure that we use towards God to recognize that God is perfectly holy.
[27:45] He cannot bear to look on sin, he can have nothing to do with sin. We also need to understand that his requirement is perfect obedience.
[27:57] Unlike when we sit an exam, it's not enough just to scrape a pass. You know, 70% is a good grade, but not when it comes to obedience towards God.
[28:08] 100% love and obedience is the requirement that he sets, and so we need to know that measure. The parable also tells us we need to be careful about how we apply measures towards others.
[28:23] First of all, to understand that we are truly known by God. He is the one who sees our hearts, our minds. That should humble us before we're so quick to judge others, but also to understand we don't ever truly know others.
[28:41] So we need to be super careful against pride in a critical spirit that can so easily come out. And we also need to be careful with the measure we apply towards ourselves.
[28:54] Sometimes it's so important for us to consider what God's law actually teaches, because we know, I think, whenever we measure by the Ten Commandments, or we measure ourselves up against God's command to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbor as ourselves.
[29:14] We've not reached that standard. We cannot reach that standard. So that basing our hope on my righteousness, pinning my eternal future on, well, I think I'm doing better than others, that mentality is to miss eternal life, because what we need is the gospel.
[29:35] Who we need is Jesus. Jesus is the only one who is perfectly measured up. If you want to see what perfect obedience looks like, you see it in Jesus. What does perfect love for God and neighbor looks like?
[29:47] We see it in Jesus, and we see it in the cross. As we said, Jesus will die on the cross as God's answer to the human problem of sin, to turn away God's anger against our sin, and it's only as we come to Him that we can be justified, that we can find mercy, that we can enjoy eternal life.
[30:12] So there's the question of how we measure. Do we measure against God's standard? Do we measure against our own standard? There's another question to ask ourselves, how do we come?
[30:23] Do we come on the basis of grace, or do we come on the basis of merit? Again, I'm sure many of us have been following the postmaster scandal in the news since the turn of the year, an example of perhaps the greatest miscarriage of justice in the UK legal system.
[30:44] There's a Christian apologist by the name of Glenn Scrivener. He's written a really insightful essay, and one of the key problems that he identified that the justice system is now beginning to identify is the problem of pretending there are no errors.
[31:02] You know, the whole refusal of companies and governments to acknowledge that there could possibly be any system errors led to tens of thousands being unfairly victimized and prosecuted.
[31:18] That same error, the error of pretending there are no errors, that lies at the heart of the human condition. we have that inbuilt ability to persuade ourselves that we are right.
[31:37] We have a pretended goodness. We manage to whitewash over, you know, the deadliness of our sin. Just like Adam and Eve in the garden, even as they sin and they shame, they fall into shame because they turn their back on God.
[31:54] We too try and cover our sin with pretended goodness, just like those fig leaves that Adam and Eve used. It just doesn't cut it.
[32:06] We come in verse 18 to a man, again, who is confident that he can, by his own efforts, get eternal life. How do we know that?
[32:17] Because he says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? It's already a flaw. It's good to desire eternal life.
[32:28] It's folly to try and get there on our own strength and merit. And what Jesus does as he talks to this man is he introduces some systems tests. He wants the man to see the error of this way of thinking, to throw up those errors so that he and we might throw ourselves on the mercy of God.
[32:50] The first test he introduces is the test of goodness. Jesus asks him in verse 19, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. The main point Jesus is wanting to address here is, does the man understand that God is the standard of absolute goodness goodness and that compared to that absolute standard of goodness, none of us can possibly say we are good.
[33:21] Can he, can we possibly hope to compare with the perfection of God? He doesn't seem to have reflected very deeply on that because when the second test is introduced, the test of love for neighbor, Jesus says you know the commandments and there's commandments about neighbor love, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony on your father and mother.
[33:49] He effectively says, yep, tick that box, all of these I've kept since I was a boy. Really? No anger, no lust, no cheek towards your parents, no impatience, no pride, ever.
[34:07] This man has failed to understand that the law is to function as a mirror that reveals to us our imperfections. As we spend time in front of the perfect law of God, it should show us that God is perfect and we are not.
[34:25] This man, he likes what he sees as he looks in the mirror. Why is that? Because he only ever really glances at God. He's so busy gazing at himself. He needs Romans 3.
[34:39] We need Romans 3. Verse 20, therefore, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law. Rather, through the law, we become conscious of our sin.
[34:54] Or Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He needs the Heidelberg Catechism. And by that, we're called to love God and love our neighbor, but we confess that we are prone to hate in the way that we live.
[35:14] By now, he should have been running to Jesus for mercy and grace. The third test that Jesus introduces, having introduced the test of goodness and love for neighbor, is the test of love for God.
[35:28] Verse 22, when Jesus heard this, he said to him, you still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.
[35:41] And it becomes clear that the man hasn't kept these commands. He loves money ahead of God. He is guilty of coveting. Money has become an idol to him.
[35:52] And in verse 23, when he heard this, he became very sad. Now he's reading the error report. Now he sees the problem, the idol, in his heart.
[36:05] But, having asked, how do I inherit eternal life? Jesus says, do that, give it up, to have me, to have treasure in heaven. He won't.
[36:18] He doesn't see Jesus as a treasure worth sacrificing for. And so he is left sad. Why is he sad?
[36:28] He's sad because his heart is divided. He kind of wants to be religious, but he really wants to love his money. A divided heart is always going to be a sad heart.
[36:43] If Jesus is not our goal, if he is not our controlling center, as Christians, we will have sadness.
[36:59] A half-hearted faith is a sad faith. We need total commitment to our wonderful Savior.
[37:11] Then Jesus goes on to use that ridiculous picture to make a serious point. He says in verse 24, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God and indeed it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.
[37:30] So easy to depend on our money, so easy to live for our money and the things that money buys. Well, the crowd are stunned because remember in their way of thinking, if you want to know who God favors, who God is showing His kindness to, it is to the rich people.
[37:48] I thought they had God's approval, but now Jesus is saying that's not how it works. So if it's not about earning it, if it's not about religious and moral effort, how does anyone gain eternal life?
[38:02] They asked the question, verse 26, who then can be saved? Jesus replied, what is impossible with man is possible with God. Do we hear it?
[38:13] It is impossible by ourselves to enter into eternal life. It is impossible for us to be good enough for God, but what's impossible for us is possible for God.
[38:30] And it's possible because God has sent His Son Jesus, and Jesus has come to make the impossible possible, because Jesus has come as our representative and our substitute, and where we have disobeyed the law, He has perfectly obeyed at all points.
[38:47] Where we have failed to love God and neighbor, He has perfectly loved His Father and loved His neighbor, and He showed us that by giving His life to make enemies into friends.
[38:59] He gave His life as the perfect sacrifice to make atonement for our sin and our guilt, and His perfect record of perfect righteousness is credited to His people, so that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus.
[39:24] So let's ask our big question, how do we gain or how do we miss eternal life? So far, these two groups, they've experienced a huge shock.
[39:36] They were so confident that God had approved of them, but now they're discovering from Jesus' words that no one is good enough, no one merits life with God. And in that, there's been a call to honesty, to honestly consider, can we really and truly be good and loving enough for God?
[39:56] Do we think we can meet His standards? And with that, there comes that need for humility instead of coming with those lists of credentials.
[40:06] Here's why you should accept me, Jesus, because of all these things that I've done. We come like the tax collector and we plead for mercy.
[40:20] But still wonderfully, we also need to recognize that hope is offered. It's true for us, if we listen and learn, there is hope for us.
[40:33] Last month, rather, we were learning the new hymn, Come unto Jesus. The chorus is wonderful. Come unto Jesus, lay down your burdens, because He is enough.
[40:43] One of the burdens that we carry is the burden of trying to earn our approval. Even as Christians, sometimes we get it wrong and we think we need to earn God's favor rather than knowing that He loves us perfectly in Jesus.
[40:56] We're invited to come unto Jesus and rest in His love. And to help us to understand this, in between this group who are self-righteous and they're looking down on others, in between them and the rich young man who thought He could merit eternal life, there's another group, isn't there?
[41:12] Who does Jesus meet in between? He meets the babies and the little children. And this little encounter shows us here's the way to gain eternal life. It also tells us some of the struggles that we have to accept it.
[41:25] So there's the disciples, verse 15. People are bringing babies to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked Him. Jesus is far too busy doing real ministry.
[41:37] Babies, children, they're just going to be a distraction. They're not important. Disciples are struggling to see that Jesus' kingdom works on the basis of grace.
[41:50] It's not about who earns it, who deserves it, who's the most significant in society. I think even as Christians, we can struggle and fall into the trap. I feel that God loves me more this week because I've been faithful and obedient this week.
[42:07] I feel that I'm better than others because I'm being obedient this week. Jesus is so different. What does Jesus do?
[42:19] The disciples rebuke the parents, but Jesus called the children to Him and said, let the little children come to Me. Do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
[42:30] He called them, He invites them, and they come. Why do they become a picture of those who gain eternal life? Because it reminds us how we are to come.
[42:42] We're to come with a childlike trust. We're to come with dependence. We're to come in response to the free invitation to life that comes from Jesus.
[42:57] Not asking what we need to do, not asking what we need to pay to come like children, to hear the Savior's call and to run to Him for grace.
[43:10] So, Jesus is saying to us today, don't miss eternal life. Don't miss the greatest gain of all by measuring against others and saying, well, I'm better than others rather than measuring against God.
[43:22] Don't miss out either by measuring against others and saying, I'm no good, so God wouldn't want me, because that also is to limit God's grace and God's mercy. Rather, we're invited to trust Jesus, the good and gracious Savior and King, and to come to Him.
[43:41] Remember Jesus said, those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Jesus has humbled Himself, hasn't He? The eternal Son of God has left the glory of heaven to become one of us.
[43:56] He humbled Himself by living a life marked by suffering and rejection and shame. He humbles Himself by being ready to walk the road to Jerusalem to die on the cross, to take our sin, to take our shame, to pay the price in full.
[44:17] Faith in this Jesus brings us God's mercy. faith in Jesus secures the forgiveness of our sins. Faith in Jesus means we enter life with Him now.
[44:31] With the promise and reality that united to Jesus, humbly coming to Him in faith, we will be exalted. We will have the joy of eternal life now, knowing life with Jesus.
[44:48] us and the promise of eternal life with Him when He returns, when He makes everything new, when He takes His people to be with Him. If we've heard His invitation and His call to grace, then we will be exalted and enjoy eternity with Him.
[45:07] let's not miss eternal life by trying to make it our own way. Let's seek Him for grace, to gain it, to enjoy it.
[45:22] Let's pray together. Lord, our God, we thank You.