LUKE 18:9-17 HOW TO APPROACH GOD2013 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 18:9-17 How To Approach God

00:00
You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2013.

00:13
A couple of weeks ago, we started out in chapter 18 and we looked at Jesus's encouragement to keep on praying and the need and the encouragement to not give up but to be persistent and continue to pray and to cry out to God for those things that are happening in our hearts and in our lives.

00:33
But as he gives this exhortation to keep on praying, now he goes on to talk about how we need to, well, really have the right attitude in approaching God.

00:45
You know, if you want God to hear your prayers, if you want to receive what God has for you, He's given us some direction, pretty clear direction on how to approach Him, how to come to Him that we might walk with Him and that we might receive the forgiveness that He offers as well as all the rest of the blessings that He wants to give to us. And so,

01:10
We're hearing from the Lord about our attitudes this morning. How to approach God is the subject we're looking at, and there's three points I'd like to share with you from our passage. The first one we find in verses 9 through 11, and that is that we are to approach God without comparing ourselves to others.

01:32
When we come to God, we need to be careful not to do so talking about, looking around, and comparing things

01:39
ourselves with the people around us. We see this from the bad example of the Pharisee here. And so we'll pick it up again in verse 9. It says that he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. And so Luke here gives us insight into the purpose of this parable. Jesus is addressing the issue of

02:06
of trusting in yourself and despising others. Now this was an issue that needed to be addressed. This is, you know, Jesus uses the example of a Pharisee because, well, it was a good example and the people could relate to it. They knew what Jesus was talking about and the Pharisees knew what Jesus was talking about because this was the condition of many of the Pharisees and many of their hearts.

02:32
But it's also an issue that needs to be addressed today. It's not just something that, you know, the people in Jesus' day faced. But you and I can fall into the same trap as the Pharisees and begin to trust in ourselves as we approach God. We can begin to look at what we do and how we are and what we don't do and think that that is a basis for, well, coming to God or having God answer our prayers.

03:02
This is an issue that needs to be addressed. These are things that you and I must guard against in our lives.

03:10
And so he tells the parable starting in verse 10. He says, So in this parable, this illustration that Jesus is giving, he shares two different kinds of people. And really two extremes that they would understand as extremes in their society.

03:34
The general view of the people at that time was that the Pharisees were the most righteous people around. I mean, they were super religious. They kept to the law. They studied the law. They were devout in their keeping of the law. The people in general looked up to the Pharisees as those who were great examples of how to be close to God and how to walk with God.

03:59
That's one extreme. On the other extreme, you have the tax collector. Now, tax collectors for the people of that day, you know, you might not be really...

04:10
you know, excited about tax collectors today. But in that day, it was especially worse. They looked at them as the worst of the worst of sinners. They were the ones who were greedy. They had betrayed the Jewish people by becoming tax collectors and working for Rome. They were, you know, basically given license to collect as much as they wanted. And so they were extortioners and they were just hated and considered the worst sinners of all.

04:39
And so Jesus giving this parable gives us these two extremes. The super religious and the worst of the worst as far as sinners are concerned. And as he's giving these two individuals in this illustration, he's using them to help us understand the way that we need to approach God. It goes on in verse 11. He says, "...the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself."

05:05
God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. So he shares the prayer of the Pharisee. And the Pharisee there prays, and just to give you a little preview, in verse 14, Jesus reveals that the Pharisee was not heard by God.

05:33
That his sins were not forgiven. The tax collector was. So that's where we're going. That's where Jesus is going with this. But he gives us the prayer here of the Pharisee. And he says that the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. Interesting phrasing there. That the Pharisee prayed thus with himself. Even though he was there at the temple. Even though he was very religious. Even though he was...

06:04
praying, Jesus is pointing out, his prayers were not really to God. His prayers really were to himself. He was praying with himself. He was speaking to himself. And he was in this prayer to himself, or praying thus with himself, comparing himself with others around him. He says, God, I thank you that I am not like other men.

06:34
He's looking around, the people around him in the society that he was in, but then also at the tax collector who's standing there as well, going to the temple to pray. And he says, God, I thank you that I'm not like all those other people. Comparing yourself to others is not a good idea. It's hard for us

07:02
to realize this many times that we often fall into this trap of comparing ourselves to others. You know, if you get pulled over, you know, one of the things you want to tell the cop is, but didn't you see all the other people who were speeding? They were going faster than I was.

07:19
As a child, you know, if your parents discipline you, you say, but what about my brother? What about my sister? And what they were doing? We often are looking at the people around us. It reminded me, and maybe you remember the account in the Gospel of John, as Jesus is talking to Peter and he's talking to him about the kind of death that he's going to die. And Peter looks behind him at John and says, what about that guy? What about that disciple? What's going to happen to John?

07:45
And Jesus tells him, hey, what's that to you? You follow me. Comparing ourselves to others is something that we kind of tend to do. And so this is, again, an important issue that needs to be addressed to not compare ourselves to others.

08:03
When we approach God on the basis of how we compare to other people, well, the Pharisee in verse 14, we find that he was not forgiven. He was just talking to himself. He was not really talking to God. Now, comparison can happen in two ways. I can compare myself to others that I think are worse than me.

08:28
So, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like Pastor George. Oh, thank you, God, so much that I'm not like him. Because I could think, well, he's pretty bad and I'm better than he is. So, thank you, God, that I'm not like that. But it can also happen the other way where you say, oh, man, I wish I could be like Ronnie. If only I could be like Ronnie, man, then I would be really close to God. Then I would really be righteous.

08:54
So you can use comparing yourself to encourage yourself or you can use comparing yourself to others to discourage yourself. And both of those are wrong. Both of those are not appropriate. It's foolishness. You will either discourage yourself or you will give yourself a false sense of security. Because as you look at somebody else around you and think about you in relationship to them and where they are with the Lord and where you are with the Lord...

09:24
The reality may actually be the opposite of what you think. God does not evaluate the way that you and I evaluate, especially as we look at each other. In Luke chapter 16, Jesus was talking to the Pharisees and he dealt with this a little bit. He says, hey, you guys justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

09:53
The Pharisees, they were really good at making people think that they were righteous. And God's saying, but what I see is not the righteousness that people around you see. I see the abomination that's happening within your hearts. And so it's foolish to compare ourselves to one another because we really don't know what's going on. And what we might think of as impressive, God might say, that's an abomination. That is not appropriate at all. And so it's foolish to

10:24
to compare ourselves to one another. It's kind of like if you and I were to go out into the parking lot and run a race. And we get to the line, we get ready to, you know, to run, and somebody says, on your mark, get set, go. And we start running. And I'm looking at you and I'm like, all right, I'm ahead, I'm ahead. And then, oh man, Lena's ahead of me, man. I should maybe just quit because she's faster than I am. So what am I going to keep running for? But I'm looking at you, I'm looking, we're running, we're running, we're running. And I'm like, oh man,

10:53
We're comparing ourselves with each other thinking, oh, I'm doing really good. I'm doing really good. I'm not doing so good. But then God steps in and says, hey guys, the finish line is the opposite direction. So you and I, we're comparing each other to each other. We're looking at each other. But we're going the wrong way. That's the foolishness of comparing ourselves. God says, you're running in the wrong direction. You're looking at each other and trying to figure out where you're at. But

11:26
No matter where you line up with each other, you're both off. You're both completely in the wrong place. This Pharisee, in this illustration that Jesus is giving, he's in the wrong direction. But he thinks he's really great. He thinks he's doing awesome. He's number one in the race. Thank you, God, that I'm not like these other people.

11:56
But as you and I approach God, as we desire to know God, as we desire to receive the forgiveness of God, as we desire to receive the fullness of what God has for us, we must approach God without comparing ourselves to others. We need to get this through our heads and into our hearts. We need to make this a part of who we are, that I would fully recognize I cannot come to God without

12:26
with my charts of how I'm doing compared to other people. I've got three gold stars, God. He only has two. So, you're welcome. I'm here. We look around and we say, God, I don't watch those kinds of movies. But they do. But I don't. I don't do those kinds of things. I don't drive that kind of car. I'm not caught up in materialism the way they are. Whatever we might say, we have these comparisons with one another...

13:00
And when we approach God with those comparisons, well, it's foolishness. We're running the wrong way. In the same way, we should not stay away from God because, well, I'm not, you know, anything like they are. We should not disqualify ourselves. I can't lead worship like Noah can. And so, like, why even bother trying? We shouldn't compare ourselves to one another and give up.

13:32
Instead, we need to look at the standard that God has set. We read this last week as we're going through the Bible in three years. In Amos chapter 7, God talks about setting the plumb line. And the plumb line was the tool that they used to see if a wall was straight. If it was not leaning over or crooked. Or they used it as well to build a wall to make sure that it was straight as they were building it. And the point there from that is that God sets the standard.

14:01
The standard is this straight line. And if God's people aren't living up to his standard, then it's clear by the standard that he has set. For you and I, we can look at Jesus as the standard for us. And so instead of me looking at you and you looking at somebody else, comparing ourselves to each other to find out where we stand with God.

14:25
We need to look at Jesus. How do you compare to Jesus? He's the standard of perfection. He's the one who is the measurement by which we are measured in God's sight. Now, the reality of that is we all fall short of that standard. Even if we have the bracelet, you know, what would Jesus do? We still fall short of that standard of perfection. And it really doesn't matter how far we fall short.

14:56
Because the point is that we fall short of the glory of God. We've all sinned, Paul tells us. God does not receive or reject people on the basis of how we compare to others. So when you approach God, compare yourself to Jesus. As you do, you'll realize you fall short. And that brings us now to point number two that we find in verses 12 through 14. And that is, we need to approach God with humility.

15:26
As we see the comparison of ourselves to Jesus, and we see that we fall short, now we should have then the appropriate amount of humility when we approach God. The Pharisee's prayer continues here in verse 12. He goes on to say, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. So he starts out his prayer saying, thank you God that I'm not like those other people.

15:55
He's despising others, but he's also trusting in himself. Here's what I do. Not only am I not like them, God, but here's also what I do. I fast twice a week. Now this again was considered, whoa, this guy's really spiritual. He's really holy. He must be really righteous because, well, the law of Moses only required one fast per year.

16:22
It was on the Day of Atonement. That was it. Just one time a year, they were commanded to fast. But the Pharisees took it a bit further. And so they would fast on Mondays and Thursdays. And they had lots of reasons for why they would do that. But we see in Jesus' dealings with the Pharisees that when they fasted, they did so with an attitude that, well, we want everybody to know that we are fasting.

16:52
And Jesus addresses this in Matthew chapter 6 verse 16. He says, And so when this Pharisee would fast twice a week...

17:15
They would disfigure themselves. They would make themselves look like they're fasting. So everybody would know that they were fasting. And so Jesus says they have their reward. Because they're just trying to look good before people. And they do look good before people. But their hearts are far from God. But this Pharisee and the heart of religious people like this Pharisee. And again, this is where you and I need to guard ourselves.

17:45
It's to trust in ourselves, in what we do, thinking that I am really holy. I am extra righteous. I am more spiritual because of this list of things that I do. I fast twice a week. He says, I give tithes of all that I possess. Lord, not only do I do this great sacrifice for you of fasting twice a week, but I make sure to tithe of all that I possess.

18:14
I go above and beyond. I don't just tithe what I earn, but I tithe on all that I possess. And I make sure that I give you the 10% because I'm, well, I'm that spiritual. I'm that good. I sacrifice greatly for you, God. I give to you. His attitude in this prayer that's being reflected is really, you know, God is so thankful that I'm on his side.

18:47
God is so grateful because I'm not like those other people and here's all the things that I do for God. And let me tell you, that is the wrong way to approach God. That is the wrong way to receive forgiveness from God. That is the wrong way to receive the fullness of what God has for you. We cannot approach God on the basis of who we are compared to other people or on the basis of what we do for God.

19:18
Instead, we need to approach God with humility. Jesus goes on now in verse 13 to give us the prayer of the tax collector. It says, and the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. So now Jesus gives us the contrast. On the one extreme, you have the Pharisee

19:47
He's trusting in himself. He's despising other people. But he looks really good to the society. He's fully convinced. He's righteous. And he's right with God. On the other hand, you have this tax collector. He was thought to be the worst of worst as far as sinners are concerned. If he would have asked the people around him, they probably would have said, why bother going to the temple to pray? You're the worst of the worst. God doesn't want to hear from you. He doesn't want to receive...

20:24
what you have to offer. The Pharisee felt worthy to approach God. The tax collector felt unworthy. And so it tells us that he was standing afar off. He was at the temple, but he was standing afar off because he felt so unworthy. I wonder if that's why the back rows are always filled. It's all the tax collectors back there. He felt unworthy. How do you feel?

21:02
How did you feel coming to church this morning? Did you feel worthy of the presence of God? Worthy of His forgiveness? Worthy of what He has to offer you? I don't know if you did because I was watching as we were going through the worship and I didn't see anybody beating their breasts. I think you maybe feel worthy. Do you feel worthy that God owes you something? That He is supposed to

21:38
Do some kind of work in your life or bless you in some way or offer you forgiveness. I mean, I must be better than you because I was beating my breast during worship. Now I'm comparing myself to you, right? We fall into this trap. The reality is we're all unworthy. We are all unworthy. But don't let your unworthiness

22:09
keep you away. Again, there's the balance. I mean, you can go to the extreme and think you're worthy. Then you can go to the other extreme and say, I'm so unworthy. Why bother attempting to draw near to God? But that's not right either. We need to recognize that we are unworthy and come to God, approach God as he's called us to. There's a really great saying. I don't know who originally said it, but the saying is that the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

22:45
When you and I come to Jesus, there's not different levels that we are at. We are at level ground. We all stand in need of a Savior. We all stand in need of forgiveness. We don't have an advantage over each other. We all desperately need Jesus. Think about this. You and Billy Graham have the same access to God.

23:18
Does that blow your mind? It blows my mind when I think about things like that. I would have used the example of Pastor Chuck Smith, but he has more access to God than you do now. But in his life, we had the same access to God. We don't have advantages over one another. We have the same access to God by faith in Jesus Christ. We're unworthy, but God still invites us to come.

23:49
But when we come, He wants us to recognize our unworthiness. That's the requirement. Recognize your need. So God invites you to come, but He says, don't come with your list of who's better than you or who you're better than. Come with your recognition of your need for Him. Don't come with your list of achievements of what you've done and how great you've been.

24:16
Come with your recognition of how much you need him. And that's how this tax collector came. He was unworthy. He knew he was unworthy. But he still came before God. And he cries out to God. He beats his breast and he says, God be merciful to me, a sinner. We get a great glimpse of his heart in this prayer. As he's beating his breast, it's a sign of great sorrow.

24:46
There's remorse. There's repentance in this. His heart is broken over his sinful condition. And so he says, have mercy on me, a sinner. But as he even says that, have mercy on me, a sinner, the word actually, it could be translated better, the sinner. He's not considering himself, you know, one of many sinners, but he's thinking of himself as the worst of the worst. Right?

25:20
I'm the one who is the most sinful. Much like the Apostle Paul, as he referred to himself as the chief of sinners. That's the heart of this tax collector and this illustration that Jesus is giving. I am, I'm the one in most of need of mercy, he says. So be merciful to me. The idea of mercy is that of not receiving the judgment that I deserve.

25:57
When he says, be merciful, he's saying, Lord, don't give me the judgment that I deserve for my sinfulness. Now, he's at the temple, right? The idea here is that he has brought his sacrifice to the Lord in obedience to the instructions that God's given in his word. So he's come to God, he's offered his sacrifice, and he's crying out to God saying, have mercy on

26:29
Be my propitiation is the other way to translate this word, be merciful. Appease your wrath for me, for my sinfulness. He's not pretending that he does not sin. He's not pretending that he comes to God with great righteousness or great things to offer. He's not trying to prove that he's better than other sinners. Instead, he is confessing his sin and

27:04
and asking for forgiveness. This is the heart that we need to have when we approach God. A heart of confession requesting forgiveness. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Jesus says this is the way to approach God. Check out verse 14.

27:30
He says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Now as Jesus is giving this illustration, this would have blown their minds. They would have been completely freaked out about this. Because in their minds, the Pharisees...

28:01
were the most righteous. I mean, they were the ones that you looked up to, that you wanted to be like, that you needed to become like. The Pharisees were the most righteous. Of course, they had the forgiveness of God, the people would think. But Jesus says, no, the tax collector is the one that was justified. Now, in their minds, the tax collector was so bad, it didn't matter how many sacrifices he offered, it wasn't going to help him. God was not going to receive him.

28:38
But that's not what Jesus says. It's completely the opposite of what they thought. They were impressed with the religious Pharisees, but God was not. They despised the notorious sinners, but God did not. And so Jesus boils it down to an issue of pride and humility. And he states this principle, which we see throughout the scriptures.

29:10
It's consistently throughout the whole Bible. We see this. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Whoever is proud will be brought down, but whoever humbles himself, they will be lifted up. That is the principle. That is the spiritual law that cannot be broken. Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.

29:45
And we exalt ourselves when we compare ourselves to others in order to look good. So when I look at you, when you look at me, and we say, oh wow, I'm much better than them. Look God, I'm much better than that person. That's exalting myself. I exalt myself when I trust in myself. When I bring to God my list of accomplishments. Look God, I read the Bible every day this week. You must be so proud of me.

30:17
You must be so amazed and so grateful that I'm on your side, that I'm following you because look how devoted I am. When we trust in ourselves, when we trust in our works, when we compare ourselves to others, we are exalting ourselves, lifting ourselves up. And God says, you will be humbled. You will be brought down because you think more highly of yourself than what is real. Instead, humble yourself.

30:59
Ask God for mercy. Approach God with humility. This guy, he was a far off, but he was still drawing near to God. He was calling out to God. As we come to God in humility, this needs to be the reality. This needs to be where our hearts are at. Recognizing I'm unworthy, but Lord, I'm drawing near because you have given us the invitation. I love Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19.

31:42
The author there says, therefore brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, he goes on to say a couple things and he says, let us draw near. Because of what Jesus did, we have boldness to enter the very presence of God and so he says, therefore, let us draw near. God invites you to draw near, to enter into his presence, to get to know him.

32:12
It's not humility to stay away from the presence of God. That's not humility. So if you think real low of yourself and you say, I'm so unworthy and so I'm not going to read, I'm not going to pray, I'm not going to walk with God, I'm not going to look for God to bless me because I'm so unworthy. That's not humility. God says, come near. God says, enter in. God says, get to know me. God says, call out to me. He invites us. He commands us. Humility is not humility.

32:48
And pretending like you don't think you're awesome. You know, like you really think you're awesome, but you try to pretend like you're not because you know you're not supposed to think you're so awesome, but you do. And pretending like you're not awesome doesn't make you humble. The other side of that is beating yourself down, that doesn't make you humble either. Talking bad about yourself, you know, I'm such a horrible person, you know,

33:21
That's not humility. Here's what humility is. Humility is an accurate view of yourself. What is the reality of who you are? Now, the accurate view of yourself is that you are unworthy and sinful and you've fallen short of the glory of God. But the accurate view of yourself also must include that Jesus Christ died upon the cross for your sins to pay the price for

33:49
That you by faith in what he accomplished for you at the cross have access to God. That's the accurate view of yourself. David Guzik puts it this way, True humbleness is simply seeing things the way they are. The Pharisee saw himself as something great when he wasn't. And the tax collector saw himself as a sinner needing God's mercy, which he was.

34:23
You see, the tax collector was humble, not because he stood afar off, but because he recognized, I need God's mercy. He had an accurate view of who he is. A sinner in need of the mercy of God. The Pharisee also is a sinner in need of the mercy of God, but that's not how he thought of himself. And so he prayed thus with himself, thank you God that I'm not like all these other sinners.

34:54
He didn't ask for forgiveness because he didn't think he needed forgiveness because he, well, he had his list of here's what I do and here's what I don't do. And so he compared himself to others. He trusted in himself and there was no humility there. But as we approach God with humility, it's going to be an accurate view of ourselves. Recognizing what the Bible says, no one is righteous. I don't have anything that I can come to God and say, look God at how wonderful I am.

35:33
None of us deserves forgiveness or salvation or eternity with God. But even though we're unworthy, Jesus died upon the cross. He paid the price. His sacrifice has infinite value because he is God. So he is the only one who can address our sin issue. And so we need to have humility. Now, if you serve the Lord, you're going to also be doing things for God.

36:08
If you love God, you're also going to be serving him. And there are going to be works. Now the Pharisee had his list of works and he was using that in his approach to God. The thing with you and I is, yes, you need to be involved in serving the Lord. But you must not keep a record of those things so that you can present them to God and say, here I am and here's all that I've done for you.

36:41
Back in chapter 17 of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus dealt with this as well. In verse 10 he says, When you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do. And so yes, serve the Lord and do what you've been commanded, but not with the attitude of, Look how much I've done for you, but with the attitude of, I'm unworthy. I'm an unprofitable servant. And so,

37:11
I'm just doing my duty. I'm just doing what God has called me to do. It's nothing to be able to present to God and say, look God at how wonderful I am. That's the heart of the Pharisee. When you approach God, recognize your need, recognize your condition, and ask God for mercy. Now, this begins of course with salvation.

37:43
For forgiveness of sins, this is how we must approach God. And if you've not approached God with this heart, with this attitude for forgiveness, then you are not forgiven. That's what Jesus said. The tax collector went home justified. That is, forgive it. The Pharisee did not. We must come to God for forgiveness with a heart of humility, recognizing who we are and how much we need him. Now,

38:19
The rest of our Christian life then needs to continue with that same heart. And so you have prayer requests. You have needs. You have things that you lift up in prayer. When you lift those things up in prayer, as we talked about a couple weeks ago, the first eight verses is Jesus encouraged us to keep on praying. Make sure that you continue that heart. That you don't come and say, Lord, please meet this need because look at how wonderful I am and all these things I do for you. Look at my list of

38:50
wonderful things that I've done in your name. Or look at my list of others that I'm better than. So Lord, please, you know, work in my marriage or provide these finances or deliver me in this area because look at, we can't come to God on the basis of who we are or what we've done. We must come to God on the basis of who He is.

39:19
And what he has done. So approach God with humility. Well the final point in verses 15 through 17. Is that we need to approach God with complete dependence upon him. Approach God with complete dependence on him. And we see this in verses 15 through 17. Where this situation happens where kids are being brought to Jesus. Verse 15 says this.

39:49
Then they also brought infants to him that he might touch them. But when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. So, you know, Jesus is there. He's teaching. There's crowds around him. He's addressing the Pharisees. He's addressing his disciples. You know, there's people standing around. And at this point, they start to bring their children to Jesus. And so the parents are there. They have their babies with them. And they're requesting, Jesus, would you bless them?

40:18
our child. Now this was a common practice. People would bring their children to the rabbis to receive a prayer, to receive a blessing. And so this is what they were doing to Jesus. Now the disciples, most likely they're thinking, you know, we got to protect Jesus. I mean, you know, his time is valuable. He's really important. And so we're going to keep the parents from bringing their kids. He doesn't have time for that. He's got to teach them

40:49
The truth of God. And Jesus rebukes them. In verse 16 it says, But Jesus called them to him and said, Let the little children come to me. And do not forbid them. For of such is the kingdom of God. In the gospel of Matthew and Mark it tells us that Jesus rebuked his disciples. Saying, your heart is wrong. This is not right. No, instead let the kids come to me. And now he uses it as an illustration.

41:25
He says, don't forbid them for of such is the kingdom of God. And then verse 17, assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And so he uses this as an opportunity to illustrate a point to say, don't stop them from coming. But if you want to enter into the kingdom of God, you need to be more like them. I can imagine the disciples scratching their heads.

41:59
Like who? Like the infants. Like the babies that are being brought. He says, you must receive the kingdom of God as a little child. Now the idea here, as you see what's going on, is these children were infants. These were not, you know, little toddlers or a little bit older, you know, where they're running to Jesus. These are parents bringing their children. They're being carried around.

42:33
And being brought to Jesus. They're bringing their kids to be blessed by this rabbi, Jesus. This speaks to us of our need, of our absolute dependence upon God. One commentator, Thomas Constable, says, Infants are humble in the sense of being totally dependent and unable to provide for themselves. They receive rather than provide.

43:11
He goes on to say, without this sense of being unable to provide for oneself and a willingness to receive from another, no adult can enter the kingdom of God. Check out this example I have for you on the screen. Isn't she adorable? That's little Bella. Now, as an infant, she's a little bit more independent now, but as an infant, she was completely dependent on

43:44
Right? Infants are unable to do things for themselves. Infants are unable to do things by themselves. You can't just leave the infant at home and go to work and come back at the end of the day and say, you know, hey, how was your day? The infant is completely helpless. And so we were appalled when John and Lena sent her to work. They didn't, right? How many infants have to work to provide for themselves? Right?

44:21
How many infants have to work really hard and present a list of things that they did in order for their parents to receive them? How could you not receive this? She's adorable. How many infants have to promise to never dirty another diaper so their parents will love them? This is the point that Jesus seeks to make. When you approach God, you need to do so with complete dependence upon him.

45:00
Complete dependence upon him. You need to approach God as an infant. The Pharisee thought he could please God with his works. So he was coming to God. He was working really hard. He was fasting twice a week. He was making sure he tithed, you know, and did all that he was supposed to do and thought, wow, I'm really great because I'm better than these other people. But all he really ended up with was a dirty diaper. That's all he could produce for all his work and striving. You can't.

45:37
impress God with how good you are, how you compare to others, what you do or what you don't do. The tax collector, on the other hand, approached God with a recognition that he absolutely needed God to work, to forgive, to receive, that he had nothing to offer. This is what God wants you to know. He wants you to draw near, but you must do so with the right heart.

46:17
He wants you to know Him. He wants to bless you. He wants to do abundantly and exceedingly above all that you could ask or think. But you need to come to Him with the right heart. Not with your list of comparisons of how good you are or your list of works of what you've done. But to come to Him by faith in Jesus Christ. Listen. There is nothing I can do to be more pleasing to God than

46:57
than believing in Jesus Christ. Once I believe in Jesus Christ, I have full acceptance of the Father. I don't have to do anything more to be accepted by God. I don't have to do anything more to be pleasing to Him. There's not more requirements. All right, you passed the first hurdle. Now, here's the second hurdle. No. Approach God recognizing there is absolutely nothing

47:36
Absolutely nothing that you can do to add on to what he's done for you. He has paid it all. If you believe in Jesus, if you receive what he accomplished for you at the cross, you have right standing with God. You have full access to God. You have full access to, well, to pray. You have full access to eternity with God when that time comes for you.

48:17
You have full access to all that He wants to do in your life by believing in Jesus Christ. Now there are things that He wants you to do. But don't get the mind, don't get the heart that says, now God's going to bless me because I've done these things and I do those things. No, have the attitude like Jesus said in Luke 17. I'm an unprofitable servant. I'm only doing what is my duty to do. God says,

48:53
wants to bless you because you've received His Son. He wants to forgive you if you'll just receive the sacrifice that He offered upon the cross. He wants to work in your life, but not because of who you are or what you've done. It's because of His goodness and His grace. Heading into this time of year, sometimes you're

49:24
People begin to ask questions. Well, you know, it's going to be Christmas time and I'm going to be with this family member and that family member. And we get questions like, you know, is it, are Catholics saved? I'm not sure. My aunts, you know, and we're going to, I know we're going to talk about it. And so, I mean, what do I tell, how do I deal with, how do I address this? Are they saved? Or this person or that person or this kind of person or that kind of person? Maybe you're thinking about that as you're preparing for Christmas and spending time with the family or friends.

49:57
This is a great passage to consider for that. Because religion cannot justify you. Nobody will be forgiven because they did religious works or went through religious rituals. There are some Catholics who are saved. Absolutely. I think you could extend that to any other religion or cult. There's a few. There's some in there. Not because of what is being taught, but because...

50:46
Well, they've encountered Jesus Christ through the Word of God. Religion cannot justify you. That's what the Pharisee was trying to do. He was very religious, practicing the law that God had given. But his heart was in the wrong place. It's not about doing good or not doing bad. It's about having the heart of humility and approaching God, confessing our sin, and calling out to Him for mercy. One commentator said it this way,

51:30
The only alternative to believing in Jesus is trusting in one's own righteousness for acceptance with God. It always results in elevating oneself at the expense of others and looking down on others. These are your two choices. Believe in Jesus, receive the fullness of what he did for us, or practice some kind of religion, approach God on the basis of your works, who you are, what you do,

52:04
And you got to choose between those two. Jesus' exhortation is come to God by faith. Receive the mercy. Don't come comparing yourself to someone else. But come with humility. Depending upon Him. Recognizing God, I'm your infant. I don't have anything to offer you. But would you please change my diaper? Because it needs changed. I'm a mess. And I need you. I can't do this. I can't change myself. God, you got to change me. Approach God.

52:48
with complete dependence upon Him. Amen? The youth is going to come up and lead us in one last song. And as they do, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do come to You this morning and we recognize that we need You. Lord, that we can't come to You on the basis of what we've done or who we're better than. Lord, we can only come to You as an infant in desperation.

53:19
saying, Lord, we completely need you. And your promise, God, is as we draw near to you with that heart, Lord, that just like the example you gave of this tax collector, Lord, we can walk away justified, forgiven, right relationship with you, full access to you, the fullness of all that you want in our lives.

53:45
And so, Lord, help us to walk in that. We get tempted, God, to stray away and to start depending on ourselves and looking at ourselves or looking at those around us. Lord, I pray that you would keep our eyes fixed on you, that we would look to you and rely upon you completely and wholly. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

54:09
We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.