Well, folks, it's good to be back with you this afternoon once again to minister and share a fellowship with you. Could I publicly say a big thank you to my hosts, to John William and Bing Lynn. and to Humus and his two siblings for their hospitality and the fellowship that we've enjoyed. Also this afternoon we've enjoyed, as we would say back home in Northern Ireland, the craic's been mighty. We have enjoyed the fellowship together and it has been a real blessing and a real refreshing time for myself. Also, I wasn't going to share any stories this afternoon, but I can't resist one where a certain person happened to get pie spilt down his trousers. It was a good job that he wasn't preaching the night, because you would have thought that he had wet himself whenever he washed it off. But it did give us a moment of great joviality, among other things. But yeah, folks, it has blown me away by your kindness and your fellowship. today, so I sincerely mean this from the bottom of my heart. Thank you very much for your kind words and your prayers. And as I said this morning, I continue to covet your prayers, to know the Lord's leading and guiding indeed for the future for both myself and Laura, my wife, and my two sons, Zach and Luke. But I'm here not to tell jokes. I'm here not to tell wee stories. We're here to hear God's word and for me to proclaim God's word to you. So turn with me please to Luke chapter 18. The gospel of Luke chapter 18. Look at chapter 18 and we commence our reading at verse 1. This is the living word of the living God. And he, that is Jesus, told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. Pardon me. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused, but afterwards he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him saying, let the children come to me and do not hinder them. For to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you. whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. Amen and may the Lord richly bless the public reading of his word to our hearts. Charles Darwin in 1859 published his thesis on the evolution of man and that That great thesis that he published has now become, in many ways, the Bible of those who would deny God and deny the creation account that we find in Genesis of how our great and wonderful creator God spoke. And with the spoken word created this word ex nihilo, out of nothing. But Darwin's theory, and that's what it is, it's a mere theory, although it's portrayed as fact today, but Darwin's theory of evolution supports this principle of survival of the fittest. The idea is that the weaker elements of society will become consumed and absorbed by the stronger sections of society. And this is something that has been prevalent down through the ages. This is no new thinking on Darwin's part. It was a thinking that has been prevalent since the very beginning after the fall of man, whenever the stronger tried to conquer the weaker. We see that even today in our modern world. very much in our minds at the moment is the might of Russia trying to usurp or annex the country of Ukraine. Now, I know that there's a debate about all the rights and wrongs and what should be happening there. I don't wish to get into that. But all I want you to realize is that this is a symptom of the ongoing idea that the stronger should conquer the weaker. And yet this is completely contrary to what Christ teaches here. Completely contrast, completely contradicts. We have in the past where we have had that vile idea of slavery where a man was enslaved either because of his religious affiliation or because of the color of his skin. And it was a wicked evil. And sadly, sadly, many Christians partook in that wicked evil as well. And yet today, we have, though we have, in our statute books, we have abolished slavery. Yet today, we have this mamere idea that we can do anything. And if you are the weaker parts of society, then you get left behind. We have this idea that man is master of his own identity. That whatever you decide for you is right for you, and whatever I decide for me is right for me, and it doesn't matter. You cannot say that I am right, and you cannot say that I am wrong. Because my truth is my truth. And your truth is your truth. And even if those two truths contradict each other, it doesn't matter. Because man is master of his own destiny. This is what we hear today. Self and ego have emerged as prevalent characteristics of our sin-sick society today. Yesterday in Glasgow it was billed as the biggest so-called pride parade that there has been. Last year it was reckoned there was 22,000 people at it. I'm not good at judging numbers, but I would question that. This year it was said that there was over 50,000 at it. Well, does that not tell us something about our society, how our society is going down the toilet? When such things are embraced, when such things are not only embraced, but promoted, and what we are saying is that we promote ourselves over the living God who created us. We have this idea today where we can say that, if I want, I can say that I identify as a six foot six, 10 stone supermodel. You're laughing? What gives you the right to laugh? You see, society says that I'm correct. It's an absolute nonsense. Of course it's an absolute nonsense. But that's what society does. We have the biggest school in Scotland, in my town. just opened two years ago. And it contains a large primary school. And in that primary school, some of the children are allowed to come in dressed as cats and say that they identify as cats. Folks, this is 21st century Scotland. And why? Why are they allowed to do that? Because self and ego have been exalted. as being superseding all other things. Even the point of denying your very identity. Pride. We know what pride goes before. The Bible's very clear about it. The King James Version of the Scriptures uses the word pride or proud. I think it's 106 times. It's just over 100 times. And never once, never once, Does it use it in a good context? Pride goes before a fall. When man becomes self-sufficient, when man becomes reliant completely upon himself, then that's whenever man starts making a mess of things. And that's why we see the world in the mess it's in today. That's why we see the world in the mess. That's why we see the United Kingdom in the mess. That's why we see Scotland in the mess. That's why we see Aberdeen in the mess that it's in today. Because man has exalted himself over the living creator God. even sadly coming into the church is nonsense, worldly things, in order to try and attract more people into the church. First of all, folks, if you think that the Bible teaches that we bring people in to hear the gospel, you've got the Bible all wrong. The Bible says that the church is for believers to be built up, to go into all the world and preach the gospel. To go out into the streets of Aberdeen and preach the gospel, or Glasgow, or Cumnock, or wherever you happen to be. But there are churches who are doing all sorts of superficial things and employing all kinds of worldly tactics to bring people in, in the hope that somehow they may make some sort of false profession. But take a box and say, well, look at the numbers we have got. Folks, this. Not worldly ideas, this is the truth. This is the future for the church, if the church is to thrive in this land. It is to get back to this word, to get back to the authority of this word, and to stand upon the savior, the one who loved the church, the one who gave his life for the church, who loved us and gave himself for us. But we have lost, we have lost sight of that gospel somewhere along the lines we have relied, began to rely upon self and we are reaping, we are reaping the rewards of that now. Well, what's this got to do with Luke chapter 18? Well, here Jesus tells two parables about relying upon the wrong things. and what the right thing is. And in the right thing, he gives us a practical illustration at the end. So as we look at these two parables, the parable of the persistent widow and the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector, the pharisee and the publican, I want us to, first of all, look at the problem of self-reliance. The problem of self-reliance. When I was a pastor, I used to be told lies every Sunday. I'm sure your pastor is told lies every Sunday. And do you know what that lie is? Anyone want to tell me what that lie is? Your pastor says to you, how are you doing? And what's the response? Fine. You're absolutely crippled with pain. You're in agony. You're upset about something. The children perhaps have wound you up and you're angry and you lost all thought of what the sermon says, but you say to the pastor, fine. It's the biggest lie that Christians tell, you know. But why do we say that? Well, one, because we have this self-reliance. We don't want to rely upon anyone or anything else. We don't want to be a burden, maybe. But it still comes back to this whole ego and this self, that we don't want to be relying upon someone else or be accountable to someone else. And the greatest example here of someone who was full of self-reliance is this pharisee. This pharisee, this teacher of the law, this one who had in some ways been given a responsibility by God to be a teacher of the things of God. And yet what does the pharisee say? When the pharisee comes to worship, What does he say? He says, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. Well, if he only knew that statement is true. That statement is true, but not in the way that he thinks. Because he's not like other men because he's far more hypocritical than other men. But he says, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Well, we know that the tax collectors was hated. We know that Jeremy Hunt isn't really liked that much as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. We know that the finance minister and Hollywood isn't particularly like, none of us like paying taxes out of our wages. I haven't come across anybody yet that says they like paying taxes, but we do. We render the Caesar that which is Caesar's, but only that which is Caesar's, not that which is God's. But these tax collectors, they would absolutely hate it. And why would they hate it? Because most of them, they were thieves. If I had been sitting at the tax booth, it would have been one for the Romans, one for Angus, one for the Romans, one for Angus. Of course, the most famous example of that is the case. And because these people were collaborators with the occupying Roman government, And because they were thieves, they were seen as detestable. And of course, this foressee, he's full of his own pride. He's full of his own self-reliance, full of his own ego. And he says, Lord, I thank you. I'm not like this man. I'm not like this tax collector. I'm not like this evil, wicked man. And what does he say? He just doesn't say, I'm not like this man. Then he goes on to say, how he's not like this. He says, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. So this man is an ultra-religious man. He's a, on the face of it, he's a seemingly pious man. He's full, full of his own self-reliance. Or as we might say, he's just full of himself. Do you ever come across somebody that's just full of themselves? They're a hard company to be in. This foresee would have been like that. He saw obedience to the law as a necessity for salvation. Let me repeat that so that you're clear on what I'm saying. The foresee saw obedience to the law as necessity for salvation. And it wasn't just the Ten Commandments and obedience to them and all the ceremonies connected with the ceremonial law. Of course, the Pharisees, they added their own interpretation to the law. It's found in what they call the Mishnah. The Mishnah includes over 1,500 directives about what you can and can't do on the Sabbath day. One commandment, 1,500 directives. the Apostle Paul in his wonderful testimony that he shares in Philippians chapter 3. He talks about how he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees and how following the law he was faultless. And yet what does he say? He counts it all as rubbish. I prefer, coming from a country background, I prefer what the King James Version says. He counts it as dung. Rubbish. worthless. And yet here's something that this Pharisee is full of his own self-reliance. He's proud. He's basically coming to God and saying, God, what a wonderful person I am. How can you not pour out your favor upon me? And he would have this idea that when he would stand at the gates of heaven, he would be looking down at all those poor sinners saved by the glorious grace of God. And he would say, God, why did you pick that one? Why did you pick that one? He's detestable. He's a drug dealer. She's an ex-alcoholic. That man done prison for rape. What did you pick them for? Look at me, Lord. Look at me. And I'm wonderful. I fast twice a week. Your law only demands it maybe once a month, but I fast twice a week. I give a tithe of all that I have, right down to the very smallest herb. Self-reliant. Now some might say, in fairness, that this guy was just trying to keep his religion pure. However, That laid an unbearable burden upon the followers of such things. And it led to a legalistic snare for people who wanted to live lives for the glory of God. But worse than that, it also led to pride and boasting in self. You know, pride was the first sin that was committed. Satan exalted himself over God. Satan tried to usurp the authority of God, and he fell. He fell like lightning, as Isaiah tells us. Full of pride. Adam and Eve, can you imagine? Imagine just for a moment, all that Adam had been given. He had been given complete and utter dominion over the whole world. We have had despots down through the years who would have loved the authority that Adam had. In the last century, we had men like Adolf Hitler who tried to have world domination. We had the uprising of communism who tried to have world domination. We have Islam today that tries to have world domination. And we have many other things that try to have world domination. Adam had it. And God had blessed him with it. God had given him everything that he would ever need. And there was only one qualification. Don't eat the forbidden fruit. In fact, when you're reading Genesis 2, sorry, Genesis 3, we see where God had actually said, don't even touch the tree. But Adam, full of self and full of ego, gave in to temptation and he brought sin and disobedience into the world. And here is a man boasting himself, who appears to have no concept whatsoever of personal sin. He wouldn't have any idea of sin in his own life. He would have denied it. He thought he was better than everyone else. And not just thinking that he was better than everyone else, but the Pharisees, they loved for their piety to be seen. They love people to recognize it. And yet over and over and over again throughout the Gospels, especially in Matthew and Luke, Jesus condemns them for their pride. And Jesus comes along and he declares their type of religion void. And the big issue here, is that Jesus used this parable as an illustration to show that this Pharisee thought that he could somehow earn his salvation. That somehow there was some good in him that God would let him into heaven of his own volition. The truth is, But sometimes, there just might be a bit of that fallacy in all of us. If the truth be told, every one of us might at times, when we see somebody who perhaps has done horrific things, or if we see a down and out in the street, or if we see a beggar, or if we see someone staggering down the road on a Saturday evening coming through the pub, And we maybe think, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like them. You see, the reality is, folks, that we are every bit like them. Or maybe not physically. Maybe we don't physically murder. But if we carry anger in our heart, Jesus tells us that we have murdered. If we lust after somebody, if we see women, and the sad thing is, gentlemen, it's very, very hard not to see the half-naked young lassies that we have walking up and down our streets nowadays. Women with no shame. And men who are willing to go after every whim. But if we look at them and we think, oh, that's a nice bit of stuff there. Jesus tells us that we have committed adultery in our hearts. If we lust after something, if we think, oh, there's something there that Joe Bloggs has, man, I wouldn't mind having it. We have committed covetousness in our hearts. We have broken God's law. So don't sit there and tell me that somehow that we are better than the man who staggers down the street drunk on Saturday night. Because physically we are not. spiritually, we are not in ourselves. If we are relying upon ourselves, we deserve to be condemned the same as everybody else. Even when we are born again, the reality is that we still deserve God's wrath because every day, even though God in his mercy and grace has saved us and lifted us out of the pit of hell, and the pit of our sin, we still sin every day. And if we sin every day, then we deserve God's wrath every day. And this is where the gospel really gets a grip on us. Because folks, the gospel is not about anything that you or I can do. All the false religions of the world will tell you that. The Pharisees will tell you that. The Jews, even today, will tell you that. The JWs will tell you that. The Mormons will tell you that. Islam will tell you that. Hinduism will tell you that. Buddhism. Even atheists will tell you just live a good and decent life and everything will be all right. And if thoughts like that enter our minds for one second, then we have lost sight of the true gospel. Because the true gospel is not about what we can do. The true gospel is about what one has done on our behalf. And this was a problem with the Pharisees. They were relying upon self. And sometimes, as I say, there's a bit of aphorisy in each one of us. Even today, the church, the professing evangelical church, is full of people who say you can lose your salvation. Well, if you can lose your salvation, make no mistake about it, you will lose it. But what does that betray? It betrays that I can't rely solely upon what Jesus Christ has done for me, that I have to do something. And folks, I don't know about you, but I know if I was left up to a sin-sick hole, if I could lose my salvation, then I would lose it. And so would you. So would you. Jesus declares clearly over and over again against such people. He says, what do you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone, blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. What are you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites? You realize that Jesus never calls his own people hypocrites. It's always the Jewish leaders that he calls hypocrites. He says, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Now you may be thinking, well, I'm not like that, Angus. Well, I mentioned a few categories of people that might be seen as undesirable. What happens if those people come in here? If they came and knocked the door now, and says, I want to come in. One man comes in, and he's absolutely steaming drunk. He's willing to sit down, but he's absolutely steaming drunk, falling all over the place. What would you do? Would you talk, look at that, look at that man, look at the state of that man. Such thoughts come into your heart, you're no better than Pharisees. How we deal with others is a reflection of what we think of ourselves. And that was the problem with this Pharisee. that he thought, he thought that he was better than this tax collector. You see, even though we wouldn't dare to think that we are saved by anything other than the grace of God, yet still we might be tempted to think that we are better than others and boast in ourselves. And that's the heart of the matter here, self-reliance. Pride, boasting in self. What does that do? It robs the glory from the one to whom the glory belongs and bestows it upon ourselves. Yet if we could see our hearts as God would be able to see our hearts, then we would see them as sinful. We would see them as deceptive. We would see them as black as your boot. That might cause us to think again. See, the problem of self-reliance is that it blinds us to the truth of the matter, to the truth of what we're really like. But Jesus doesn't just show us the problem of self-reliance. He shows us the purpose of relying upon God. Now here in these 17 verses of chapter 18, Jesus gives us three examples of people or groups of people who are utterly helpless in their own situation. In the first instance, he gives us the example of this poor widow woman. that's looking for justice against her adversary. Now, widows in the first century in Judea were often poor and oppressed, as we've seen this morning. Quite often, if there was no male relative to take them under their wing, they either had to go into selling themselves or begging in the streets. And certainly, they had little or no legal rights. And this widow's only hope to settle or to see her issue settled was with an unjust judge. An unjust judge. He didn't even want to be troubled with her. We read in verse five, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice. So he couldn't be bothered with her. He didn't want to see her coming back. He wasn't interested in handing out justice. All he wanted to do was to get this woman off his back. But here's this poor widow with no legal rights. And all she wants, or all she can do, is to rely completely upon this judge. The only possible way is for complete and utter reliance, not upon self, but upon another. And the judge hears her petition and gives her her desire so that she won't bother him again. Now folks, if a sinful and just judge can be relied upon, how much more should we be relying upon the judge of all the earth who will do right? You see, when we come to pray, we come to pray not to fill ourselves with self-righteousness, to exalt self and to show before God all the things that we believe that we are good at and that we have done correctly. No, when we come to pray, we humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God. and we show that we have nothing but complete reliance. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. Fall I to the fountain fly, wash me saviour or I die. We cannot come to God in any other way except in a spirit of humility and utter and complete reliance upon him. You see, prayer is not about bringing God our shopping list and saying, Lord, I want these things. Prayer is about exercising our conforming our will to the will of God, and to seeking his face, and to saying, Lord, I have nothing good in myself. There is nothing that I can offer you, Lord. I come to you seeking your mercy, seeking your grace. The story's told of a French woman in the time of Napoleon whose son had been part of Napoleon's army and had deserted. And he was caught, the son was caught, and he was going to be executed for the crime of desertion. And this mother of the son, she somehow managed to get the ear of Napoleon. And she went to Napoleon and she said, sir, I seek that you would spare my son's life. Have mercy upon my son. And Napoleon said to her, he says, madam, he says, your son does not deserve mercy. And her response was, if he deserved it, then it would not be mercy. Mercy is completely undeserved. This woman, she knew that she could only rely upon the mercy of the unjust judge to give her a judgment in her favor. And she had to be, she threw herself completely upon his mercy and threw herself completely upon relying on him. And then the next example Jesus gives us is in this parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. I love this parable. It's my favorite parable. I don't know how many times I've preached on it in the past. I just love it. And why? Because here's a man who is devoid of any self-righteousness. He is devoid of any self-reliance. He is devoid completely of self. He knows he's a sinner. He knows that he deserves the wrath of God. He knows that there is nothing, nothing that he should get from God except eternal punishment. And he comes, and he beats his breast, and says he wouldn't even lift his eyes up to heaven. He wouldn't even look up to God, but he beats his breast. You ever seen the news programs in some countries where the people are distraught, and what are they doing? They're beating their breast. Here was a man who was absolutely distraught, emptied of all pride, emptied of all self-reliance. And he comes, and he says, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. He didn't pray a big, long sinner's prayer or a fancy word of prayer. He cried out from his heart, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner, the same as the thief on the cross. What did the thief on the cross say? Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. It wasn't. Lord, look what I have done. No, the thief on the cross just moments before he had been cursing and blaspheming Jesus, and mocking Jesus, along with his compatriot on the other side. Then the conviction of sin came upon his heart and he cried out, Lord, remember me. This man, he knew he was a sinner. He knew he deserved the wrath of a holy God because of his sin. And yet he cries out, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. The Pharisee was full of Lord, I thank you, I am not like this man, and I do X, Y, and Z. But here's a man, a broken man, who cries out, emptied of self, cries out to the Lord for mercy. In the darkness of that sin that he has become aware of, he relies completely upon God for salvation. Both this widow and publican relinquished all of self and threw themselves completely upon others. You see, self-reliance will only bring despair. But humbling yourself and crying out to God and relying completely upon him When you humble yourself, he will exalt you. He will lift you up. Reliance upon God will bring hope, and it will bring joy. That's what the scriptures say here. Jesus says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. I had the misfortune once of watching an interview that the late Gay Byrne, who was a talk show host in the Republic of Ireland, he interviewed Stephen Fry. Stephen Fry is a well-known atheist. And he interviewed Stephen Fry. And he asked him the question, well, I know you don't believe in God, Just saying he's true, what would you say on that day, Stephen Fry, the blasphemy that come out of his mouth, and the vitriol against our creator God, our merciful God. He completely showed his absolute and utter hatred for the God who made him. He had no concept of God. Why? Because he was puffed up with his own self-importance and his own self-conceived righteousness. Compare that with this widow woman, with this tax collector. Nothing in my hand, I believe. simply to a cross I claim. And to reinforce this message then that we must humble ourselves before a pure and almighty God. Luke records for us this incident with the children. Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked him. But Jesus called them, saying, let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for as such belongs the kingdom of God. So for the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for as such is the kingdom of God. Little children. I love to hear little children in church. Shows there's a bit of life about the church. My wee mate down there is nodding her head at me. It's great. It's great. I remember being in church one day, and we had a youngster, and she was making a bit of a noise. Not overly much, but she was making a bit of a noise. And there was one of the older women rebuked the man. But for God's restraining grace, I would have blown my top that day. These children are precious. These children are precious, but they are completely and utterly reliant upon their parents. I give an example. This youngster here. He is completely and utterly reliant upon mom and dad for everything. Absolutely everything. for dressing him, for washing him, for changing his nappy, for feeding him, for doing absolutely everything. He cannot do anything for himself. And we were all once like that too. And are we still like that when it comes to the things of God, when it comes to spiritual matters? Are we still like the little child? Because folks, if we are relying upon self, then there's something wrong. There is something badly wrong with our profession of faith if we are relying upon ourselves. Because the same God who saved this wretched sinner 24 years ago is the same God who must continue to save me, who must continue to complete the work. until that glorious day of Christ Jesus. The same God who saved your pastor and will continue to save him until that glorious day is the same God who you profess to worship. But are you still as reliant upon him as the day and hour that you first believed? You see, the reality is, folks, that the closer we get to eternity, that the more we mature in our Christian life, the more reliant we will become on God. upon God. Because the more we mature in our faith, the more we realize just how filthy and wretched we are. And the more we will be drawn to Christ and the more we are drawn to Christ and His holiness and His purity and His complete and utter righteousness, the more we are drawn to that and the closer we get to it, the more we become aware of our own sin. and the more we rely upon his mercy and grace and what he has achieved for us at Calvary. And that's an upward spiral. Downward spiral is whenever we start to get self-sufficient and we move further and further away from God. But the closer we get to Christ and all his purity and all his loveliness and all his beauty, the closer we get to him. the more wretched we realize who we are in ourselves. And the more we cling to him for his righteousness. There is nothing, nothing that we bring to the table when it comes to our salvation. Jesus Christ lived a perfect, righteous life. Jesus Christ became the Lamb of God without spot, or blemish. Jesus Christ suffered the wrath of a holy God upon that cruel cross of Calvary. When the earth went dark for three hours, every single sin that was ever committed by his people was laid upon him. and God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. There was this glorious exchange where Christ became what we were in order that he would give us what he is. That we would become in him the righteousness of God. That we would one day stand before God, not claiming anything of ourselves, not claiming anything of our own merits. but claiming the righteousness of the one who came and lived a perfect life and died a death on our behalf, in our place. I have this year been reading through John MacArthur's Bible in a year. And at the minute I'm in two chronicles. And the temple has just been opened. And the blood is running like rivers in the sacrifice. And still, still that blood was insufficient to take away the sin of God's people. Only one could ever take away the sin of his people. And his name is Jesus Christ, the son of God. Is he who you're relying upon today completely? Or is there that wee niggle of pride in you that thinks I'm better than somebody else? Folks, if we are truly drawn near to Christ, we will see that there is nothing that we bring Nothing that we have to offer. But we see in him a complete, perfect savior who has taken our punishment and given us his righteousness that one day we will stand before him in glory and worship him for all eternity. If you're tempted to let pride or ego into your heart and folks repent of it. Do not become like the Pharisee, but remain like the little child. Utterly helpless and hopeless, but relying completely on a God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. A God who loved us, and a God who has given himself for us. May we forever be relying upon him utterly, completely for his glory and his honour alone. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that in your word you have given us such examples as this. that would speak to our hearts of our need to be reliant completely upon you. We thank you, God, that we have an all sufficient saviour who has achieved everything according to your glorious purpose and salvation. Father, thank you that Christ cried, it is finished. that the debt has been paid in full. Forgive us, O God, if we are tempted to think that we are somehow better than others, or somehow rely on something of our own doing. But Lord, thank you that when we come as little children, you will not turn us away. So bless us, O Lord, as you blessed those children in the past. bring us closer to Christ, make us more like him, that he alone would receive all glory, honor, and praise. For we ask it in his precious name. Amen.