Well, the text I want to focus
on is the bulk of the passage that we read earlier, but particularly
verse 17, where Jesus says this to those who are listening to
him. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom
of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein. Whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall
in no wise enter therein." And I've entitled the message, Receiving
or Not the Kingdom. Receiving or Not the Kingdom. the kingdom of God. What is the
kingdom of God? Well, it isn't a physical earthly
kingdom, it isn't a physical earthly realm. The purpose of
the church of God is not to set up a state on earth, where those
that are good are kept therein and those that are not are foreigners
and aliens. It's not like that. My kingdom,
said Jesus, is not of this world. It's a spiritual realm. The kingdom
of God is a spiritual realm, not a physical realm, a spiritual
realm, where Christ is its king. where its citizens are those
who are redeemed. You know what redeemed means?
It means bought. It means purchased. It means
the price has been paid, bought back. Like you buy something
back. When you lend an item to a shop,
it used to be very common, for money, the PAWN shops, the pawn
shops. You lend something, an item of
value, and they give you money. And then when you got paid, you'd
go and redeem the item. You'd buy it back. The citizens
of the kingdom of God are redeemed. What are they redeemed from?
Christ Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? He was made a curse for us. He bore the curse in the place
of his people. That is how he redeemed us. What
was the currency he used? What was the money he used? His
precious blood. Not redeemed with corruptible
things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. And on the
basis of his redeeming his people, he has justified. The law has
nothing to bring. Who shall bring any charge against
God's elect? Christ has died. That's the reason. That's the answer to that question.
Who shall bring any charge? Nobody shall. Why? because Christ
has died for them. There is no more justice to fall
upon them. It's a kingdom of peace as a
result. Not the enemies of God, but those
who've been reconciled by the blood of Christ, who've been
brought near, who've been given the adoption of grace, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father, who have been made the righteousness of
God in the Son of God, who has made the sins of his people in
their place. It's a kingdom of eternal bliss.
It's a kingdom of heavenly glory. But what about now? Where is
it now? Verse 37 of the previous chapter.
Where the body Where the body is, what's the body? The one
who has been slain. Who has been slain? The Lord
Jesus Christ has been slain. Where the body is, where the
body is lifted up, I, said Jesus, I, if I be lifted up, will draw
all men. He doesn't mean every man that
ever lived, he means all his people. I will draw all of them
unto me. When he is lifted up in the preaching
of the gospel, he draws his people. And what are his people? Eagles.
Those who are the people of God, they mount up on wings of eagles. Many places in the scripture,
the people of God are called eagles. The eagles will gather.
The eagles of the kingdom of God will gather together around
that body, that one who was slain, to worship him. I, if I be lifted
up, will draw all men, all his people, all his eagles, gather
around him. And there, We rejoice in Christ
Jesus because this is the true circumcision. Not those who do
religious things on the outside, but we are they who rejoice in
Christ Jesus. Firstly, we worship God in the
spirit. Not in outward, external, physical
things. We worship God in the spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
we have no confidence in the flesh. And we're a people that
is a praying people. When the Apostle Paul, when Saul
of Tarsus, was met by the risen Lord Jesus Christ on the Damascus
road and he went to the house of Ananias in Damascus where
he was told to go and wait there when he'd lost his sight. And
God said to Ananias, he said, receive him. Oh, I'm suspicious
of this man. Ah, says God to Ananias. He's
praying. He is praying. And in the first
eight verses of chapter 18, we see a praying people. There's
the parable of the unjust judge. And he's talking about As an
example, if even the unjust judges of this earth will do things
because of the persistence of people they don't want to do,
he says, how much more shall your heavenly father, how much
more shall God avenge, how much more shall God get justice and
meet all the needs of his justified elect people? Shall not God avenge
his own elect, verse 7, which cry day and night unto him, though
he bear long with them? He does bear long with his people.
He's long-suffering. He bears with his people. And
it's a blessed condition to be in. A blessed condition to be
in that Kingdom of God. That Kingdom of God. What a glorious
place. What a glorious thing. What a
glorious hope. What a comfort. This is why the
Psalmist can lay him down, Psalm 4, verse 8, I think it is. He
said, I'll lay me down and sleep in peace, for thou, Lord, only
makest me to dwell in safety. It's that place, that kingdom
of eternal bliss and of eternal safety. But what will keep you
out of the kingdom of God? If it's such a glorious place,
what will keep you out of the kingdom of God? For you look
around, and as Jesus says, when the Son of Man cometh, shall
he find faith on the earth? It's a rare thing. True faith
is a rare thing. In all ages, true faith is a
very rare thing. Don't ever think that the mark
of the kingdom of God is thousands of people, all lifting the rafters,
all raising the, not at all. When the Son of Man comes, will
he find faith on the earth? No, true faith is a rare thing. The majority are outside of it.
Why are they outside of it? Well, here's one. Here's what
the main reason. in its different guises. Verse
nine, he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others. Self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is what will
keep you out of the kingdom of God. Self-righteousness is a
heinous sin before the eyes of the living and holy God. Self-righteousness
is vile. It's detestable in the eyes of
God, self-righteousness. We see a parable of two very
different men. In verses 9 down to 27 we see
a parable of two very different men and living examples of acceptable
and unacceptable approaches to God's kingdom. We see a Pharisee
We see a young ruler, we see a publican, and we see little
children. That's the order. I know it's
not the order in the passage, but that's how I want to break
it down. I want to consider the Pharisee, then the young ruler,
then the publican, and then little children, to see what will keep
you out of the kingdom of God. The Pharisee, look at him. Two
men went up to the temple, verse 10, to pray. The one a Pharisee,
the other a publican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men
are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. Looking
down his nose as if there was a bad smell there. I fast twice
in the week. I give tithes of all I possess.
That was his view of himself. He trusted in himself that he
was righteous, as Jesus said in verse 9, and despised others. He stood there saying effectively
what Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 65 verse 5 when God condemns the
self-righteousness of those people. He says they say this, stand
by thyself, come not near unto me for I am holier than thou. You know, this feeling of pride
and betterment, and I am better than you, don't come near to
me. He thought he possessed the righteousness that God requires. He thought he'd done everything.
He thought with his pharisaical legalistic religion, he'd done
everything that was necessary to have the righteousness that
God requires. The holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord. He thought he had it. Oh I've
got it, I do all these things, look, I'm not an extortioner,
I'm not unjust, I'm not an adulterer, though he probably was, or even
as this publican, I fast twice in the week, oh don't I do good
things. How many meetings do I go to? How many things do I
do? I give tithes of all I possess. Oh, aren't I good? I possess
all the righteousness that God requires in his own mind, the
holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Jesus said
earlier, In the Sermon on the Mount, he said to those all around
him, except unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Pharisaical righteousness was
on a certain level that the society saw as being much better than
most of them had. But Jesus says you need a better
righteousness than that. You need a righteousness that
exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
And if you don't have it, you shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven. They had righteousness in their
own eyes. They had self-righteousness,
but it wasn't the righteousness of God. To enter into the kingdom
of heaven, you must be made the righteousness of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you can only have that by
faith, by faith of Jesus Christ. Experienced, apprehended by faith
in Jesus Christ, that gift of God which he gives. And what
is it to stand before God declared righteous? Who is God? God is the creator of all things. This materialistic world gives
no credence, no credibility to the concept of God and yet he's
all around. That which is most obvious, Paul
says in Romans, they are without excuse because the things of
God are manifest all around. He's the creator, he's the sustainer,
he's the source of all life. He is holy, he is of purer eyes
than to behold iniquity, and he is the judge whom we must
meet when we die, for it is appointed to man to die once, and then
the judgment, and his justice is not like ours. It's absolutely
strict, absolutely unbending. It's the unchanging attribute
of God that he is holy, and he will in no wise clear the guilty.
He will in no wise sweep sin under the carpet. He will in
no wise say, oh, it doesn't matter. He cannot be God and say, oh,
it doesn't matter. And so therefore the question
comes, Job's question, how should a man be just with God? The Pharisee
thought he already had what was necessary to be just with God.
He was brimful of self-confidence, of self-righteousness. He was
just with God in his own opinion. I thank you that I'm not like
these others, but I'm just with God. He reminds me of the student
who is full of confidence going into the exam. Yeah, it'll be
fine, I'll be alright. And they get in the exam, and
the exam finds them out. I've done that before now in
my younger days, thought I was prepared, got in the exam room,
and the questions pretty soon revealed that I wasn't in the
slightest bit prepared for it. This Pharisee thought he was
ready for the judgment seat, the exam room of God. He thought
he'd be ready. But the law of God and the truth
of God finds us out. Be sure your sin will find you
out. It will find you out. It will reveal what you're really
like. Look at his prayer. I thank you that I'm not as other
men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I do
this, I do that. It's full of self-righteousness.
He's self-confident. He's so pleased with himself. Oh, what a dreadful thing. So
pleased with himself. He's better than others. But
that's all of us, isn't it, in our flesh? Isn't that all of
us in our flesh? You know, you say, oh, that's
that Pharisee, and there are people no doubt today that are
like that Pharisee. Do you know every last one of
us in our flesh is self-righteous? We have a high view of ourselves
in our flesh. We think we're pretty good in
our flesh. It's in the Adam nature that
we all possess to excuse ourselves, to blame others for the faults
that we have. but it's in our flesh. It's the
pride of Cain that brought his own works before God, and God
rejected it. It's the pride of our religion,
because this thing of self-righteousness, beware, it flourishes best in
religion. That's where it flourishes. And
I'm not just talking about the religions that have lots of external
show, I'm talking about evangelical circles as well. Self-righteousness
flourishes there. Oh, it's good to go to meetings.
But how many people in the flesh that go to these churches are
doing little tick boxes each week of the number of meetings
they've been to, of the all-night prayer meetings they've stayed
up for, of this, that and the other that they have done, and
they count themselves better in the eyes of God as a result
of it. They're self-righteous. Self-righteousness is in the
flesh. Oh, how much outreach have we
undertaken? Oh, how many tracts have we handed
out? Oh, how pure is our doctrine
compared with the faulty, erroneous doctrine of others? What doctrinal
purity we have maintained? What traditional practices we've
kept up? Oh, you know, Yes, we may look
like a bit of an anachronism, but you know, we're keeping up
the old traditions and how well we've done. You see, many of
those things, there's nothing wrong with them. Many of those
things, it's commendable to meet together. It's commendable to
study God's word. It's commendable to pray together.
It's commendable to do works of charity. It's commendable
to do, but how prone the flesh is to be self-righteous about
them, even in those circles. Oh, we're not like other men.
No, no, we dress a certain way. We have a certain format of service. We do all of these things. This
self-righteousness isn't just found in religion either. It's
found in the world, you know. Those who have no claim on religion
whatsoever, you talk to them, they're pretty pleased with their
self-righteousness. They're pretty pleased with what
decent people, good neighbors they are, colleagues at work,
all this sort of thing. No, self-righteousness is rampant. in human nature, in the human
condition. And it's such a harsh thing.
It's so judgmental, especially religious self-righteousness.
It's so harsh and judgmental. It's unsubmissive to God's word. It's so full of its own self,
like this Pharisee was. and can't see its true state
before the holiness of God. It's like it's looking at a laundered
white sheet that it thinks is as white as it can get and then
you put it next to the fresh fallen snow and you see what
it's really like. You see the stains, you see the
marks, you see what it's really like. It has no need to trust
Christ, especially not to trust Christ alone, because it likes
to trust in its own righteousness as well. He thinks he is justified,
but look at verse 14. I tell you this man, the publican,
went down to his house justified rather than the other. This Pharisee
was not justified. This Pharisee was not in the
Kingdom of God. This Pharisee with his self-righteousness
was barred from the Kingdom of God. the Pharisee then. Secondly, a young ruler, verses
18 to 27, a certain ruler asked him, saying, good master, what
shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him,
why do you call me good? None is good save one, that is
God. You know the commandments, do
not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false
witness, honor your father and mother. And he said, all these
have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things,
he said to him, Yet lackest thou one thing, sell all that thou
hast, and distribute to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure
in heaven, and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was
very sorrowful, for he was very rich. He was very rich. This young ruler, this young
politician, in the society there. He was like the Pharisee in many
ways. He was pleased with his own righteousness. He was proud. He thought he was
going to get a tick in the box for being somebody who was qualified
for the kingdom of God. He had status. He had the tradition
of his family and his culture. He had a track record. He was
a rich young ruler. He was somebody of standing in
society. Good master, what shall I do? You see, he'd probably been listening
to Christ's preaching. And what did Christ preach? He
went about preaching the kingdom of God. He went about preaching
eternal life. He went about preaching the distinction
between those in the kingdom of God and those out of it. As
we saw at the end of chapter 17, there shall, in the night,
there shall be two in one bed and one shall be taken and the
other left. Two shall be working together, one taken and one,
two in the field, one taken and one left. He'd heard this preaching
of Christ about the distinctiveness of the kingdom of God. What shall
I do is his question effectively. What shall I do to make sure
I am one of those counted in the kingdom? So Jesus says, you're
talking about what you should do. What does the law say? Because
the law tells us what we should do. The law says this do and
you will live. This do but offend in one point
and you are guilty of all and the law must exact its penalty
for that transgression of the law. No, the law says this do
and live. Do the works the law requires
and this young ruler like most men think that they do a pretty
good job Maybe not perfect, but you know we don't do too badly.
We do a pretty good job. So he says, okay, which bits
of it? Which bits of it? Which bits of it? Well, let's
start with the bits relating to your fellow men. How you interact
with your fellow men. Don't murder anybody. Don't commit
adultery with another man's wife. Don't steal that which doesn't
belong to you. Don't tell lies. Honor your parents. Ah, no problem there, he thinks.
I'm a pretty respectable guy. Of course I've not done any of
those things. Surely that means I'm okay then,
aren't I? I've done those things. I'm counted righteous. I'm counted
fit for the kingdom of God. I've got no external visible
transgression. See if any in this crowd can
come and say, oh no, we know about him stealing this or we
know about him lying, we know about him murdering, no, none
of that. So Christ pinpoints his problem. His problem is this, there is
no surrender. There is no willingness to surrender
to the kingship of Christ. If you would enter the kingdom
of Christ, you must surrender to the kingship of Christ. He
says you've got plenty of goods. Yes, you've done nothing externally
that this crowd can accuse you of, but what's your heart like?
Take of what you have and go and sell it and give it to the
poor. Surrender to me." He's not telling
us all to go and sell everything that we have, but he's making
a point in this young man's life that if he would display true
submission to Christ, he would go and abandon that which he
clung to most vehemently. Go and sell it and give to the
poor. J.C. Ryle said this, the Bishop of
Liverpool many, many years ago, We must be willing to part with
anything, however dear it may be, if it stands between us and
our salvation. You hear that? We must be willing
to part with anything. However dear it may be if it
stands between us and our salvation, we must be ready to cut off the
right hand and pluck out the right eye to make any sacrifice
and to break any idol. Life, we must remember, eternal
life is at stake. This is what matters. Eternal
life. One leak neglected is enough
to sink a mighty ship. You know, if you're in a ship,
you don't say, oh, the ship's leaking, but it's only a little
leak, it doesn't really matter. No, you do something about it.
because one little leak, if you neglect it, will sink the whole
ship. One besetting sin, obstinately clung to, is enough to shut a
soul out of heaven. The love of money, secretly nourished
in the heart, is enough to bring a man, in other respects moral
and irreproachable, down to the pit of hell. This man wanted
everything. This man wanted favor with God,
he wanted the assurance of eternal life, but he wanted to cling
on to as many of the things that he thought he had the right to
possess. Did you ever hear the account of, you know when you
used to go into a sweet shop, when I was a young lad, you'd
go into the village sweet shop and all the sweets were in jars,
they weren't in these plastic packets, they were all in jars.
And you'd want a quarter of pineapple chunks or pear drops or whatever
it might be, whatever took your fancy, and the sweet shop owner
would get the jar down, and they had a fairly narrow neck, and
he would give the jar a shake to break the sugar so that it
loosened up, and then he'd weigh you out a quarter of a pound
of the sweets in a little white paper bag, and that was how you
bought sweets in those days. And there was always the idea,
oh, if only I could put my hand in that jar and grab a handful.
But do you know, if you put your hand in the jar, you had to point
your fingers straight and you'd grab your handful and you couldn't
get your hand out of the jar. Your hand was too fat to come
out. You had to let go to get your hand back out. Is that not
what it's like? He wanted to cling on to the
things that were his, but he couldn't. He couldn't. He wanted
to cling on to his own self-righteousness, his own self-worth, his own possessions. And Christ says, no, if you would
enter the kingdom of God, you must surrender totally to him. He said to them, he was sorrowful,
for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw, verse 24,
that he was sorrowful, he said, how hardly shall they that have
riches, and he's not just talking physical riches, he's talking
spiritual riches, How hardly shall they that have riches enter
into the kingdom of God. If you've got riches, things
that you cling to, he's talking particularly about riches of
self-righteousness. How hard shall it be to get into
the kingdom of God if you have that kind of riches, riches of
self-worth and self-righteousness. How hard is it? It's easier for
a camel to go through the needle's eye than for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of God. In other words, it's impossible.
a great big, maybe there was a camel walking by. It's easier
for that to go through the tiny eye of a needle than it is for
someone that's clinging on to their self-worth and their self-righteousness
and their riches and the things that go in the place of Christ
than it is for that to go through an eye of a needle. It's easier
for that to happen than for a man who possesses his own self-righteousness
to get into the kingdom of heaven. And they that heard it said,
who then can be saved? Oh, that nails us all. That absolutely
nails us all. There's nobody that can be saved.
That is a harsh thing. It's impossible. If it's like
that, the camel going through the eye of a needle, that will
never happen. So you're saying, are you, Master, Lord, are you
saying nobody will ever be saved? And he said, the things which
are impossible with men are possible with God. The things which are
impossible with the will of man and the purpose of man are possible
with God. Let's look at the example of
the publican. The publican, back in verse 10, there was a Pharisee
and there was a publican. The publican was the collector
of the Roman taxes. He was despised by society. He was openly immoral. He was
corrupt, corrupt. He was notorious for his corrupt
practices. He was in the pockets of the
Romans and he did their bidding and he creamed off plenty of
money for himself. But this publican was enlightened
by what? By the grace of God. Remember
what we sang in hymn 89? A sinner is a sacred thing. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. But how many are there that know
it? Only those that the Holy Spirit makes aware. Only those
that the Holy Spirit gives the gift of repentance to. Who shows
them what they are. Who shows them that they are
vile by nature. Job, I've told you many times,
but it's worth repeating. In the reckoning of God to Satan,
Job stood head and shoulders above his fellow men in terms
of the righteousness that men call righteous. But when Job
eventually saw who God truly was, he said, I despise myself. I hate myself. I repent in dust
and ashes. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. He was like the Pharisee in this.
The publican was like the Pharisee. They both went to the temple
to pray. They both were seeking acceptance
with God, but they were so different. The Pharisee brought all that
he was and all that he'd done before God as his righteousness. And the publican, what did he
say? He said, Verse 13, the publican
standing afar off, in a position of shame, would not lift so much
as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God
be merciful to me, a sinner, and actually the literal translation
is the sinner, as if in his mind there was only one sinner that
mattered, God be merciful to me, the sinner. All he could
plead was mercy, not merit. Unlike the Pharisee who came
with his own self-righteousness, pleading his own merit. This
one, the publican, came because by the grace of God, he'd shown
him what he was, he could only plead mercy. God be merciful. God be propitious. God be, turn
away your anger. Turn away your just anger from
me. Reconcile me, the sinner. Psalm 25 verse 11, For thy name's
sake, O Lord, not for my sake, for thy name's sake, O Lord,
pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. This is what the Holy
Spirit teaches the child of God in regeneration. For thy name's
sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. What is he praying?
Count me. among the number for whom the
Messiah will at this time, but in our case has satisfied justice
by paying their sin debt. Count me amongst that number
for whom the Messiah, the promised one of God, the Christ of God
of the Old Testament, count me among that number for whom the
Messiah has satisfied justice by paying their sin debt. whilst
you remain just as God, be merciful in justifying me, the sinner,
on the basis of what he has done. May the sacrifice, may the death
of the Lamb of God for the sins of the elect Pictured in all
those Old Testament temple animal sacrifices, may that death of
the Lamb of God for the sins of the elect, may it fulfill,
may it keep the holy law of God for me. How is the law of God
kept in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ? This is important.
Listen to me. The law of God demands one of
two things. Perfection or death. One of two. Perfection This do and live,
be perfect in every way, but there is none righteous, no,
not one. Every one of us, all fall short
of the glory of God, all have sinned. So what does the law
require? The law requires death. How do you keep the law? By the
death of the sinner. How do you keep the law? by the
death of the Messiah of Christ in the place of sinners. That's
how the law is established. That's how the law is honored
in our Lord Jesus Christ. He died in the place of his people
to fulfill the law for them. Fulfill keep the holy may his
death be for me count me is what this publicans praying among
the sinners of whom I'm chief that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save 1 Timothy 1 15 Let me feel that love of God
the love of God God commends his love to us in that while
we were sinners Christ died for us verse 14 I tell you says Jesus
I This is the Messiah, this is the Son of God, this is God the
Word in flesh. This man, this publican, went
down to his house justified. because he came with no self-righteousness.
He came stripped of everything. He came only able to plead mercy,
and he went justified. It's impossible with a proud
man. It's impossible in the flesh. It's impossible by the will and
the decision and the choice of man, but it's possible by the
grace of... It's as impossible as a camel
going through the eye of a needle. if it's down to the flesh, but
it's possible by God's grace. Do you know enough to enter God's
kingdom of eternal life? Have you earned enough favor
to enter in? Have you passed the entrance
exam? Have you won the scholarship
into the kingdom of God? No, not by works, not by status,
not by self-righteousness, but by childlike submission. Verses
15 to 17. Let's just look briefly at these
little children. And they brought unto him also infants, and he
would touch them. But when his disciples saw it,
they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him
and said, Suffer, allow little children to come unto me, and
forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily
I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God
as a little child shall in no wise enter in. just a little
comment. This doesn't say a solitary thing
about infant baptism. Nowhere is infant baptism taught
in the scriptures. Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere. Beware,
beware of evangelical churches having dedication services for
infants. I'll tell you why. Because in
the eyes of flesh, it's a christening. It's an infant baptism. Don't
do it. Don't go there. This says nothing about infant
baptism. But it does illustrate the result
of the Holy Spirit's convicting grace, the Holy Spirit's convicting
work in bringing sinners to Christ, because what does he do? He strips
of self-righteousness. He strips of pride, and of arrogance,
and of status, and of standing, and of knowledge, and of reputation,
of everything that the Pharisees then, and their modern equivalents
today, because they're everywhere, Everything that they respected,
the Holy Spirit strips a man or a woman of those things. And
the only acceptable way to receive the Kingdom of God, and what
is it to receive the Kingdom of God? It's to bow to Christ
as King. He's the King of His Kingdom,
and we bow before Him as our King. We trust Him and be confirmed
in His electing grace. The only way is with childlike
simplicity. Childlike sincerity. Childlike
modesty. I know there's some bad behavior
amongst children, but you know what our Lord is teaching us
here. He's teaching not the arrogance and the pride of the adult mature
person, but the childlike simplicity of a child. The love of a child. The love of a child. in an attitude
of teachableness. A child is teachable above all
else. You know, they're soaking up
knowledge and information and wanting to do things with you
and try things. An attitude of teachableness and utter dependence
on God. That's what these little children
teach. And Jesus says that's how, not in any hint of self-righteousness. Would you receive the kingdom
of God? Plead like that publican for God to strip you of all self-righteousness
and give you a childlike attitude of utter dependence on the grace
of God displayed in the saviour of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to him that we come in faith. Amen.