Let us read together from the
Holy Word of God. This is on the second page of
the hymn sheets. Matthew chapter 18 and we'll
read the first 14 verses. The Gospel according to Matthew
chapter 18 and the first 14 verses. At the same time came the disciples
unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child
unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily
I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever
therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive
one such little child in my name, receiveth me. But whoso shall
offend one of these little ones which believe in me, It were
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and
that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world
because of offences, for it must needs be that offences come,
but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh. Wherefore if
thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from
thee, it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed,
rather than having two hands or two feet. to be cast into
everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee,
pluck it out and cast it from thee, it is better for thee to
enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes,
to be cast into hell-fire. Take heed that ye despise not
one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in heaven
their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is
in heaven. For the Son of Man is come to
save that which was lost. How think ye, if a man have an
hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray? Doth he not leave
the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh
that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it,
verily I say unto you, He rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the
ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so, it is not the
will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little
ones should perish. Thus far the reading of God's
holy word and the word that is upon my spirit to speak to you. is in verse 3 those two words
except ye except ye there are four times in the ministry
of our Lord very distinctively he uses these words, and teaches
the necessity of a work of grace in the heart, which then is shown
forth outwardly in the lives, and without which we shall not
get to heaven, we shall perish, we won't have spiritual life,
and we can't bring forth any fruit to the honour and glory
of God. And so this morning I wanted
just to look briefly at each of these four occasions The first
one is in our reading and the teaching here in verse 3, except
ye be converted and become as little children you shall not
enter into the kingdom of heaven. by nature, we are very proud,
we are fallen and dead in trespasses and sins, and yet we walk in
pride. And the apostles here, the disciples
even, they evidenced, they wanted to know this, who is the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven? And the disciples also had this
idea that there was going to be a kingdom on earth, a restored
kingdom there, and they would be part of that. And the Lord
had to bring them to the truth that His kingdom was a spiritual
kingdom, and also the vital necessity of the new birth, to be born
again, to really be converted, and one of the very clear evidences
of this is to be truly humble, to be made childlike, teachable,
tender, And have that grace that the Lord gives, under a sense
of sin, to feel, like the Apostle said, that I am less than the
least of all saints. He felt himself to be the chiefest
of sinners. And where God's grace is and
conversion is, then it will have this effect. upon the Spirit
which is opposite to that which we have by nature, a proud spirit. So dear friends, the first thing,
accept ye be converted, conversion evidenced by a childlike, humble
spirit. The second one is to be found
in the Gospel according to Luke. Luke chapter 13 and we read there
in the first verse of those that the disciples they spoke to them
of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices. They'd suffered these things.
Pilate had slain them and mingled their blood with the sacrifices.
And our Lord then asked in the second verse, suppose ye that
these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because
they suffered such things. There was often the thought,
if someone had great suffering, the man that had been born blind,
he must have sinned, or his parents sinned in some very great way
that he was born blind. And so their thought here was,
these great sinners But our Lord brings it down, and He says to
them who no doubt were thinking, well, no, we're not such great
sinners. We don't need repentance. We don't need Godless sorrow.
But He says, I tell you, nay, except ye repent. He shall all
likewise perish. And he repeats it twice, verse
3 and verse 5. He speaks of the second time
where a tower fell on the 18 and killed them. And again he
says, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And this
is where we mention with our first hymn. the lamb is exalted
repentance to give and it's a beautiful truth the lord jesus christ is
exalted to give repentance and remission of sins unto israel
god spiritual people The Lord gives them repentance, and repentance
is an evidence of forgiveness of sin. The Apostle asked the
Lord at one time, that how many times shall my brother sin against
me and turn again and repent, and I forgive him, till seven
times? And the Lord said, no, till seventy
times seven. And our lives will be not sinless,
we are sinning constantly, but we should be repenting constantly
and seeking, as in 1 John chapter 1, that if we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. We must remember that whoso sins
in one point is guilty of all, and in the smallest sin There
is a need of repentance and of godly sorrow, and may that characterize
our lives, because the grace of the Lord is shown in giving
that repentance and in giving the forgiveness of sins. Except
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. The third word is found in the
Gospel according to John. John chapter 6, and our Lord
there is teaching on spiritual food. There are many there that
are thinking that He is speaking to them of natural food. They had been fed miraculously
the day before, and they had followed Him across the lake.
And our Lord said to them, You seek Me not because you saw the
miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled.
Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which
endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give
you. For him hath God the Father sealed. And then he says to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood,
ye have no life in you. Now, of course, this is not meaning
literally. It's not meaning even the Lord's
Supper. It is meaning a spiritual feeding. Man shall not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And
of course the Lord's Supper does set forth Christ's death, His
shed blood, His broken body, And those truths, the truths
of what Christ accomplished at Calvary, are our spiritual meat. We feed upon those words. You think of the two on the way
to Emmaus, that as the Lord opened up in all the scriptures the
things concerning Himself, their heart burned within them. That
was meat indeed, that was what our Lord says here, my flesh
is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. And this is
the spiritual food of a child of God, not on his good works,
not on those things outside of Christ, but Christ is what they
delight to hear of, to meditate in. He is the way. He is the
truth. He is the life. He is everything
to their souls. And may we have that spiritual
appetite that one dead in sins does not have. They feed upon
externals. They feed upon the pomp, the
grandeur, the religion that is all in robes, in ordinances. But Christ, to feed upon Him,
is that which belongs to a spiritual quickened child of God alone. And so we may ask ourselves,
what satisfies our soul? What do we feed upon? What do
we love to hear, to read of in the Word of God, and to meditate,
and to think upon? Because our Lord says here, except
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood,
ye have no life in you." We know in a literal way, if we do not
have food and drink, our bodies, naturally so, will die. And spiritually, if we do not
feed spiritually and have a living word to feed upon, and this is
the intention with our devotions in each morning, that you have
that spiritual food to feed upon, real meat to feed upon throughout
the day. May the Lord be pleased to give
you the appetite for it and give us the grace to give it to you,
to feed upon in the Lord Jesus Christ. But then we have the
fourth one in the Gospel according to John again and in chapter
15. And this is regarding fruitfulness. We have in the fourth verse,
abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in me, no more can ye except ye
abide in me." In other words, if we do not abide in Christ,
in faith, in trust, in hope, in union, in communion, in fellowship,
Then we cannot bring forth fruit. The Lord says without me you
can do nothing. This in John 15 is a beautiful
time of a vine. And we know if a branch is severed
from that vine, it can't bring forth fruit, it needs the sap
all the time, and that's what you and I need. There's a beautiful
word in Psalm 92 verse 14, and it is this, they shall still
bring forth fruit, in old age. May that be an encouragement
to you in the home there, because when the Lord says, from me is
thy fruit found, and then says in the prophecy there, they shall
still bring forth fruit in old age, It's saying those that are
in old age, they're still in Christ, they still have that
union. You might think in the home,
well, maybe fruitfulness is being able to, in your life, you've
been able to minister to people, to help them, to be in the Word,
and you might think in your position, in weakness, infirmities, what
fruit can you bring forth? The Word of God says, no, they
shall still bring forth fruit. May there still be those fruits
of the accepts that we've already looked at, the accepts of repentance,
the accept of abiding in Christ, the accept of eating the flesh. and drinking the blood, and the
humbleness and childlike, those fruits that come from Christ,
that you're still blessed with those. And so this word in John,
except ye.