Now, I've titled the lesson this
morning, Greatness in God's Church. Our lesson begins in Mark 10,
verse 35. And James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, came unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest
do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them,
what would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him,
grant us that we may sit one on thy right hand and the other
on thy left hand in thy glory. Now the only explanation for
what made James and John come up with this plot, that they
would sit on thrones or they would sit on seats of power on
either side of the Lord, is pride. That's all there is to it. And
pride is such a dangerous and ugly sin. There is nothing more
foolish to be found in any son of Adam than pride. I mean, pride
in us is ridiculous because we don't have anything to be proud
of. I mean, all we are is sin and shame. And pride is the oldest
sin, and it's potentially the hardest thing to get rid of.
It's the oldest sin. Pride is what made Lucifer say,
I'll ascend into heaven. I'll exalt my throne above the
stars of God. Now, this is a creature saying
this. I'll be like the Most High. Now
it was pride that made him say that, and it was pride that cast
Lucifer down to hell, wasn't it? It was pride that allowed
Eve to be deceived into thinking she could be like God. And it
was pride that made Adam take that fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, knowing full well what he was doing,
because Adam wanted to be God. He wanted to be the one to make
the rules and say what is good and what is evil. He didn't just
want to know what's good and evil. He wanted to make the rules
and say what's good and what's evil. And the only thing that
would make him think he could do, that's pride. Pride is also
the most destructive sin. You know why Lucifer was cast
out of heaven and reserved in chains in hell for eternity?
It's pride. And all the angels that followed
Lucifer in that rebellion found the same fate. It's destructive. Adam, because of his pride, he
murdered an entire race of people. He murdered everyone who would
ever come from his loins. He made them all dead in sin. He made them all be cast out
of the presence of God, and he made every one of them be born
with a nature that's a rebel against God. And all that destruction
came from one prideful act, just one. And it's pride that keeps
sinners from coming to Christ. I wish I had a nickel for every
time I told people, come to Christ. And how few have. Well, you know
why they don't come? It's pride that makes us think,
I don't need Christ to save me. And if they die in that pride,
they'll spend eternity in hell. Now, what's more destructive
to them than that, than that pride? And for the believer,
pride's a deadly thing. It's pride that makes us forget
that God has given us everything we have, that he gave it to us
by his grace. We didn't earn it, we didn't
deserve it, God gave it to us freely by his grace. Now, when
the Lord lays us low, and we see we have nothing, we see how
dependent we are on God, it's easy for us to call on the Lord
at that time. It's easy for us. It's easy for
us, boy, when we're in a time of trouble, we make it to every
service. We're reading the scriptures every day. We're spending time
in prayer every day, because we're in need. We see how dependent
we are. But boy, you let the Lord bless
us. materially, spiritually, however, whatever way the Lord
blesses us. And you know what our nature
does? We get puffed up and we forget the Lord. Solomon said,
deliver me from riches, lest I forget the Lord. We forget
when we're rich and increased with goods and we're living the
life of ease. We forget. I'm still dependent
on God. I think, well, I don't need anything
now. I'm not dependent on God anymore. It's pride in the gifts
that God has given us that makes us forget, I didn't earn God's
favor. He gave all these things to me
freely. Now, that's just foolish, isn't it? And that's destructive
for a believer. And pride is alive and well in
all of us. We wish it wasn't so. Especially
the believer wishes it was not so, that pride is alive and well
in me. But it's alive and well in all,
believer and unbeliever, alive. So this lesson, greatness in
God's church is for all of us. Now I wanna show you the dangers
of pride to both individual believers and to the body of Christ as
a whole. Number one is this. It's pride that makes us not
hear the gospel when it's preached. Go back up to verse 32. Let's
listen to what the disciples had just heard right before they
asked this question. Verse 32. They were in the way
going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went before them, and they were
amazed. And as they followed, they were
afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them
what things shall happen unto him, saying, Behold, we go up
to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the
chief priest, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to
death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, and they shall
mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and
shall kill him. And the third day he shall rise again." Now
the disciples had just heard the greatest story that's ever
been told. The story of salvation by grace
through the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. They heard the greatest story
that's ever been told from the author himself. They heard the
gospel of salvation preached by the Savior himself. They heard
the gospel of the sacrifice of sin, preached by the sacrifice
Himself. How that the Lord would suffer
and die, and He would put away the sins of His people, how He
would lay down His life as a sacrifice for the sin of His people, and
then He would rise again the third day because His sacrifice
had been successful. It put away all the sin of all
of God's elect. The Savior Himself just told
them that. Now you think of that. You think
of what, I mean, how all of us would love to be able to sit
at the feet of the Savior and hear the Savior himself preach
these things. And what did they do next? Lord, let us sit on your right
hand, your left hand. Let us sit on either side of you in
your throne. They were seeking glory for themselves. It's like they were thinking
up this plot. while the Lord was preaching.
While the Lord was teaching to them, they were thinking up this
plot, and that's why they didn't hear. They weren't listening,
because they were thinking up this plot of how they could get
glory for themselves. Arrogant pride made them think,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard that before. But now,
what about my importance in the church? Yeah, I've heard this
death, burial, and resurrection thing before, but what about
my importance? You'd think hearing the gospel would humble them.
But they weren't listening. And pride took over. Here's something
else. It's evil, but it's also so sad. Now these are the disciples.
These men spent three and a half years every day with the Savior.
And they're still ignorant. They're still ignorant. Even
though they'd heard the Lord say these same things about his
death, his burial, his resurrection several times before, at least
three times up to now, they'd heard the Lord tell them by his
death, his burial, and his resurrection on the third day. They'd heard
it before, but they were still ignorant. Now, ignorant doesn't
mean you're unable to learn. Ignorant means you don't know.
It's just you haven't been taught something. They'd heard the Lord
teach this before. They heard Him teach it right
now. Why didn't they know it? Why were they still ignorant?
Because pride made them not listen. They weren't listening when the
gospel was preached because they weren't hearing the Savior speak
as a sinner that needs the gospel, as a sinner that needs the Savior.
And since they weren't listening, they're ignorant. They're still
untaught, even though somebody was trying to teach them the
gospel. They still didn't see the necessity of Christ's suffering
and death in their place. They're still looking for an
earthly kingdom, and it was pride that made them think that. It
was pride that made them think, well, they're not sinful enough,
and what they're really wanting is an earthly kingdom, not a
heavenly one. They're wanting a fleshly kingdom,
not a spiritual one. You think about this. Mary Magdalene
saw it. That harlot, Mary Magdalene,
she saw it. That's why she came and anointed
the Lord for His burial before He was crucified because she
thought, after He dies, I won't have the chance. She anointed
His body for the burial before He was ever crucified because
she saw it. And these men, I hate to say this about my own
kind, but men are stinkers. I mean, men are so full of themselves
and think men are so much better than women. This woman saw it.
She saw the necessity of Christ's death, burial and resurrection
for her. But at least at this time, James and John weren't
thinking about that. So look at our Lord's answer, verse 38.
But Jesus said unto them, You know not what you ask. Can you
drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism
that I'm baptized with? Can you drink of the cup of God's
wrath like I'm going to? Can you be baptized immersed
into suffering like I am? And they said unto him, we can. And Jesus said unto them, you
shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of, and with the
baptism that I am baptized, withal shall ye be baptized. But to
sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but
it should be given to them for whom it is prepared. Now what
the Lord's talking about here is how He's going to drink that
cup of God's wrath dry, down to the very dregs of it. He's
going to drink it all. He's going to drink it dry. He's
going to be baptized. He's going to be immersed into
the fury, the justice of His Father because He's been made
sin for His people. The Lord's going to suffer and
die for His people. But the disciples were ignorant
of that because they hadn't been listening. How many times has
the Lord told them this and they hadn't been listening, they're
still thinking, how can I get the upper hand over these other
disciples and get some recognition for myself? They're so full of
themselves, they actually thought they could suffer what the Savior's
getting ready to suffer. That they could drink the cup
of God's wrath like the Savior was gonna drink it, and they
thought they could actually earn the right to sit on either side
of Him. You know, when he's sitting on his throne. Now we need to
remember this. Believers are still sinners. Let's never forget that. Let's
never forget that about ourselves. Let's never forget that about
our brethren. Yes, we're believers. We know Christ. We trust Christ.
We all say, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. But
we do believe. We do love Christ. But we're
sinners still. And our brethren They're sinners
still too. Don't be shocked if they do something
that, whether meaning to or not meaning to, they hurt you, we're
sinners still. Let's never forget that. We all
need God's saving, cleansing, keeping grace every second of
every day. And we still all have a lot to
learn, don't we? We all still have so much to
learn. I thought about that. At the conference this last week,
I've been hearing the gospel as long as I can understand language.
I'm 60 years old, and I still learn some things I never do
before. We have so much to learn. And when we learn it, see if
this is not your experience. You learn something, oh, the
Lord taught me that, I'll never forget it. And before long, you
forgot it. And then you hear it, and you
learn it like you learn it all over again. That happened at
the conference too. We have a lot to learn. We have
a lot we need to be taught. So don't think this can't happen
to us. What happened to James and John? Don't think this can't
happen to us. James and John are what we call the inner circle
of the Lord's disciples. They were two of the disciples
that were closest to the Lord. If they're not immune to this,
you and I aren't either. Just think how often we are thinking
about something else when the gospel is being preached. How
often does that happen? How often are we thinking, oh,
how can I get some preeminence? The gospel is being preached,
and all we're doing is waiting on the preacher to sit down and
shut up so we can go do what we want to do and get us some
preeminence, you know? Well, why is so-and-so doing that instead
of me? Why did so-and-so get this blessing instead of me?
It's pride. It's pride that makes us not
hear the gospel. It's pride that makes us not
be taught. And it's pride that deprives us of a blessing. It's
pride. Number two, pride makes self
more important than anything. It was pride that made James
and John ask for this honor above their brethren. They didn't ask
if Peter and Andrew could have this blessing. They asked it
for themselves. And Matthew tells us their mother was right in
on it. Matthew says it was actually their mother that came and asked
the Lord to do this for her boys. And what mattered to her and
them, it was me and mine. It was my family, it's my sons,
it's my flesh and blood, it's honor and recognition for my
family, not yours, and I'm gonna get it even if it hurts you.
I'm gonna get it. It's pride that made these two
men feel like they were more important than the other disciples
who were saved by the same grace that saved them, who were called
by the same Savior that called them, who served the same master
that they served. It was pride that made them feel
more important than the gospel being preached and being heard,
being heard by them. It was pride that made it so
that their earthly family, they thought, deserved more prestige
and more honor than the other disciples. They were seeking
to be almost as important as the Savior himself. Now, I don't
want to sit on the throne, they said, like Satan said, just let
me sit on the side. Just let me sit right beside
you, you know, in a little shorter, you know, throne. Now, you all know this, but it
needs to be said so that everybody, you know, is reminded, or anybody
who might be hearing this recording, our family should be important
to us. I love my family, you love yours, and you should. Our
family should be important to us. But this is also true. The Lord said, whoever doesn't
leave father, mother, brothers, or sisters, they're not worthy
of me. Christ must come first. Christ must come first. Christ
is the issue. Always. Do we got that? Christ
is the issue. If we ever get that through our
thick heads, we'll be a whole lot better off. And you know
what? We'll be more useful to God's
church, and we will be less offensive to our brethren. I live in fear
of offending you. I don't want to offend you for
nothing. If we'll get this through our thick head, Christ is the
issue. I am not the issue. You are not
the issue. Christ is the issue. If we'll
get that through our thick heads, we're going to see ourselves
as nothing, and Him as everything, and that's where they ought to
be. But pride makes us get that flipped around. Pride number
three. I kind of already mentioned this
before. But it's pride that makes us lose our dependence on Christ.
It's pride that made these men think in a way that made it so
that the sacrifice of Christ was not the most important thing.
Was not the most needful thing. That Christ should reign was
not the most important thing. The Savior himself is preaching
the gospel of these men. And the sacrifice of Christ,
even though the gospel had just been preached to them, the sacrifice
of Christ, His glory, His honor, the good of His people, was not
first and foremost in their mind. Because it was pride that made
them think they didn't need it as much as somebody else. I've
got this down. These fellas don't have that
down. That's why me and my brother should sit in your right hand
on your left hand. They actually thought they were so strong that
they deserved the honor to sit on either side of the Savior
in his kingdom. And you know what they didn't
know? What the Lord had to teach the Apostle Paul, and from what
I gather about in reading the scriptures, it was a painful
lesson for him to learn. When I am weak, then am I strong. Every believer knows that. We
know it by experience. It's not just something we've
heard somebody read. The Lord's going to teach every
single one of us this. When I'm weak, then am I strong. Well, then the converse must
also be true. When I'm strong, that's when
I'm weak. when I think I'm strong in myself, when I think that
I can stand on my own, when I think I can do this on my own by myself,
I think I'm strong enough to do it, that's when I'm weak.
Because thinking I'm strong enough to do it on my own makes me not
depend on Christ. And when I'm not depending on
Him, when I'm not relying on Him, when I'm not waiting on
Him, that's when I'm weak. It's pride that makes us weak. And pride that makes us lose
our dependence on Christ. And it can happen to you and
me just as easily as it happened to James and John. Alright, here's
the fourth thing. Pride causes division among the
brethren. Now the Lord hates that. The
Lord hates it. He hates those who sowed discord
among the brethren." He hates it. Seven things the Lord said
he hates, and number one on the list is a prideful look. The
Lord hates it. It causes division every time. Look at verse 41. And when the
ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and
John. You reckon? Of course they were
upset with James and John. They thought, now wait a minute,
boys, I thought we were serving the Lord together. I thought
we were shoulder to shoulder in this thing, but now I see
it's every man for himself. Now I see. And then they started
plotting how they could get something for themselves, and it caused
division. I tell you what causes hatred
and envy and hard feelings between believers. It's pride. We're supposed to love each other,
and we do. We do, but it's pride that causes division amongst
people who are supposed to love each other. That's true in earthly
families, and that's true in the family of God. Look at Proverbs
chapter 13. Here's the wise man, this is
something that he had seen, and he had learned, and he wrote
it under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so we know it's true.
Proverbs 13, verse 10. Only by pride cometh contention. But with the well-advised is
wisdom. Only by pride cometh contention. Pride is gonna cause
contention every single time. And trying to rule over our brethren
like we deserve it. You know, whether it's James
and John wanting to sit on either side of the Lord, you know, in
glory, or whether it's us trying to, you know, have some position
of authority, rule over people in the church, whatever it is,
it's gonna cause division every single time. Every time. All right, then here's the fifth
thing. Now, if you would be great in
the kingdom of God, And there's not a problem with
wanting to be great in the kingdom of God. There's no problem at
all wanting to be used of God, wanting to be helpful in the
kingdom of God. But if you would be great in the kingdom of God,
you've got to become the lowest servant. You've got to become
the lowest servant. Look what our Lord says in verse
42. But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, You
know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise
lordship over them, and their great ones exercise authority
upon them. But it shall not be among you,
but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister, and
that word is your servant. And whosoever of you will be
the chiefest shall be the servant of all. For even the Son of Man
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give his
life a ransom for many." Now, you know, we all live out in
the world. You go to work and all these things, you know, and
the way of the world, the way to power and prestige and these
things, the way to be great is up, isn't it? It's to be the
boss over everybody, tell everybody what to do, when to do it, and
how to do it. But the way of the church, The
way of the kingdom of God is always the opposite of the flesh. However it is that the flesh
operates, you just bank on this. It's the opposite in God's church.
The way of the flesh is pride. It's to get all you can for yourself. The way of God's church is humility. The way of God's church is do
everything that you can so that Christ gets the glory. Do everything
that you can do so that others are benefited and others are
lifted up instead of you and do it so nobody knows you're
doing it. Do it so nobody notices what you're doing. Do it in a
way that you try that you don't get any recognition for this.
The way of the world is clawing and scratching and scrambling
to climb your way up and it doesn't matter who you step on to do
it. You've got to get a leg up by
standing on the head of somebody else and pushing them down the
way the world is doing. In God's kingdom, the way up
is down. It's coming down in our own eyes. It's going down in the dust,
begging for mercy. The way up is down. God's never
gonna lift anybody up to the heights of glory till they first
come down to His feet, till they get down in the dust where we
belong. Now, you know that's true. The
Lord just said it. You know it's true. But everybody
here's seen examples of that. You think of the believers that
you've known. who have been the most blessing
to you and the biggest blessing to God's church. Just get that
person in your mind or people in your mind. Let me describe
them to you. They're not overbearing. They're
humble. They're helpful. And they don't
do it in a way to make a big show of themselves. That's who
has been the biggest blessing to you in God's church. You think
of the great leader, the great prophet Moses. I mean, this man
was a leader. This man was a prophet, the greatly
used of the Lord. Wasn't he a blessing to God's
church? I mean, what a blessing this man was. What a blessing
he was to Israel. He's always faithful to lead
them, to point them to Christ. He's always a leader. And think
how we're blessed today. We got the first five books of
the Bible and several Psalms written by Moses. What a blessing
it is to read and study those things. You know how God described
Moses in the book of Numbers? Now the man Moses was very meek
above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. This
great leader, great prophet who was so helpful to God's people
was very meek. That meekness is what made him
such a blessing to people. That meekness is what made him
constantly depend on the Lord to lead those people. Moses never
strut around like a peacock. Well, he did at first, didn't
he? The Lord had to humble him, send him out, you know, he killed
that Egyptian, you know, and buried him in the dust and thought
he was gonna deliver Israel by the might of his arm. Now, the
Lord had to humble him. It took 40 years on the backside
of a mountain, but finally did it. But when he came back to
Egypt, Moses wasn't strutting around like a peacock. No. And every time he got in trouble,
what did he do? Lord, help me. This people is too much for me.
I can't do it. They're this stiff neck people.
Lord, I can't do it. And Lord said, all right, Moses,
I'm going to wipe them out and start over with a new nation,
come for you. Moses said, oh, Lord, don't do
it. Lord, please be merciful to them. Please forgive their
sin. For your great namesake, Lord, would you forgive their
sin? That's me getting it. That's big. Moses had the opportunity
to be the first one in this great race of people. And Moses said,
Lord, don't do it. Oh, forgive their sin. That's
big. And he's a blessing, wasn't he? But the person who's been
the greatest blessing to God's church is who? The son of God. Now, if anybody ever had reason
to boast in his glory, it's the Lord Jesus, because everything
he boasts about himself would be true, wouldn't it? It would
be true. How did this one, who's the greatest
of all, how did he come to earth? He came as a servant. And he
humbled himself to pay a debt that he did not owe. Now, actually,
when the Lord paid that debt, the sin debt of His people, He
did make that debt His own. He was made sin for us. He was
made guilty of the sin of His people. But you get what I mean
when I say He paid a debt He didn't know. He paid the debt
of the sin of His people. We're the ones that committed
the sin. He never committed the sin. We're the ones that committed
the sin. And in great humility, the Son of God took that sin.
He took that debt and He paid it. paid the debt in full. And Philippians chapter 2 says,
now you let that very same mind, you let that very same attitude
be in you, be in you. Humble yourself, humble yourself
to become a servant. See, if we would be great in
God's kingdom, we're going to have to come down off our high
horse now. and we're gonna have to do the work of a lowest servant. I mean, no job is too small.
It's too insignificant for us to do, to do whatever it takes
to take care of our brethren, whether they thank us for it
or not, whether anybody knows we did it or not. If we would
be great in God's kingdom, we're gonna have to set aside our pride
and get to work quietly and humbly serving our brethren. not because
we're seeking recognition, not because we're seeking reward,
but out of love. Out of love for our Savior, and
out of love for our brethren, with the desire to glorify the
Savior and help Him, help our brethren, whether we get any
recognition or not. Now, if the Lord will enable
us to do that, we'll be a help. We'll be a help to our brethren.
And that's what we want. All right, Lord bless you.