Alright brethren, let's go back
to Matthew chapter 18. It begins here in verse 1, and it
says, At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying,
Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? As soon as Brother Scott read
this passage, I can't remember when it was, last week I think
or the week before, but as soon as he read it, I was blessed
in my heart. I went home and I couldn't write
fast enough as I wrote down some thoughts on that passage. But,
there's been a lot of water under the bridge since I prepared these
notes. And so, as it is usually, I feel
like an utter hypocrite preaching it. You know, when you prepare a
message, the Lord first rebukes His pastor. He first conference's
pastor, whatever it is that we need, he first does that to the
pastor as he's preparing the message and as he's preaching
it. And then as it's preached to you, he does the same to you.
So, just understand with this message today and with every
message I preach, first I'm preaching it to myself. I'm first preaching
it to myself. And I want you to hear it to
yourself and to nobody else. It's a terrible, terrible thing
to hear a message and think, well, I wish so-and-so heard
that. You need to hear it. I need to hear it. And that's
how we should hear it. So I'm preaching to me, and you
hear this as the Lord preaching to you. Now, they came there asking the
Lord who is the greatest. And we're told by Mark they were
disputing about this. They were in an argument, heated
argument. And we are given an indication
of how this probably started. We don't know for certain, but
it's a good probability that this started when the mother
of James and John came to the Lord and asked for her two sons
to sit on one side and one on the other in the kingdom of heaven.
Because the scripture says when the ten heard it, they were moved
with indignation against the two brethren. And they began
disputing over who should be the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven. What is that? It's pride. It's pride. That's our greatest
vice, is pride. That's the first sin listed that
God hates, is pride. Whenever we start something negatively,
it's pride. And if we don't start it, but
we answer back negatively, it's pride. It's all our sin nature is. It's not the new man in the believer,
it's the old man. The disciples, I'm sure, were
saying, well, I've left everything. And I left a whole lot more than
you left. And I've served the brethren. Look how I've served
them. I've served better than you've served them. I've served
them more than you've served them. Well, it was truth. They all had left all. And they had served their brethren.
They really had. But they began looking at all
they had done. Looking at all they had given
up. And they fed that prideful sin nature. until they were lifted
up and consumed with pride, moved with indignation against their
brethren. They began preferring themselves
above their brethren. And, as we always do, each justified
themselves as why they ought to be the greatest. I'm sure they were given all
their works and listing everything they had done. And at the same
time, they were putting down their brethren and belittling
their brethren. That's the fruit of a proud heart. If I serve and I minister to
others, only because I want to be seen as a minister of others. I'm not really serving God at
all. That's doing things to be seen of men. If I use my serving to justify
my rebellion in some way, or if I use it to exalt myself over
others, then my service becomes no service at all before God. It becomes self-serving for selfish
motives to be seen, to get the end I have in view. Well, I should
serve others. Our Lord said, when you've done
all that you should, just know that you're still an unprofitable
servant. You just did what you should
have did. But never should I use any positive
thing that I've done to justify myself. I should never do that. I hate it when I do that. I shouldn't use the negative
things others do to me to justify my own rebellion or to justify how I treat them. That's pride and self-righteousness. After I prepared this message, my family laughs at this, I was
watching a documentary. I do like to watch documentaries.
And I was watching it about the mob. And these fellows said that
in all the crimes that they committed and the murders that they committed,
They had to justify themselves that what they were doing was
good. It was okay. Because they couldn't
live with the regret otherwise. One of them said this. And he
said in all the good things they did, they did some good things. He said they did it just to justify
themselves. To try to soothe that conscience. And eventually that conscience
will become hardened to where it doesn't even bother us, if
God leaves us to ourselves. We have three major strikes against
us. One, the devil is a master deceiver. You and I will not know we've
been deceived by the devil. That's what deception is. You
won't know you've been deceived. And what was it the devil appealed
to Eve with in the garden? Pride. He said, God's holding
back something from you. You deserve better. He knows
in the day you eat thereof, you'll be as God's. You are justified
to eat this fruit. He appealed to or filled her
with pride. And the devil is a master deceiver. You say, I have never heard the
devil speak. I have heard him. I have heard
him a lot. You have that little voice speak
to you, tell you why you're justified? You've heard the devil speak.
Loud and clear. True humility involves not losing
sight of why we're serving. It's because Christ Jesus our
Lord laid down His life for us and redeemed His people by making
Himself the very least. We do what we do because we know
that Christ's brethren are one with Him. And by serving them,
we're serving Him. It's called being constrained
by the love of Christ. Now, if I serve for any other
reason, or I begin to justify myself by my serving, I'm not
constrained by the love of Christ. It's my flesh that's temporarily
ruling over me. So, the second major strike we
have against us is every regenerated child of God has a depraved sin
nature. Every one of us has been born
of God. We still have a sin nature and it is not changed at all. It's still enmity against God. It's still only pride. And that part of us is deceitful
and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So you got the
devil that deceives you to a point you can't know you're being deceived.
And you got a sin nature that will deceive you to the point
you can't know you're being deceived. And then thirdly, we dwell in
the midst of our brethren and other people who are just as
sinful. Three strikes. At this point, we see why the
disciples had gotten in this dispute. We can't blame them. We can't stand back and say,
well, I wouldn't do that because we've done it. We do it daily. Luke says, when they came to
the house where the Lord was, they were silent. They didn't
mention this. The Lord brought it up to them.
He knew their heart. That's an example of us and an
example of Him. We don't want our sin to be seen
by God. We want to hide it. But He knows our heart. We have
a way that we want others to see about us. But Christ sees the true way
about us. The Lord always knows our thoughts.
He looks on the heart. Look at verse 2. Jesus called
a little child unto him, set him in the midst of them, and
said, Verily I say unto you, except you be converted and become
as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven. You don't even have to worry about who's going to be
the greatest. You won't even enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,
the same as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. What does
our Lord mean when He says, except you be converted? Weren't they
converted? Weren't they already born of
the Spirit and brought to faith in Christ? Yes. He means, except
you be converted from this pride, this ambition, this sin, We have
to be delivered on a daily basis by Christ from our sin nature
or it will overcome us. And He occasionally lets it overcome
you to show you that you can't overcome it of yourself. You
have to have Him to do it. My sin makes me pray to God and
I pray to Him Lord, just remove this, you know, whatever sin
it is, I'll pray, Lord, just remove this one sin from me. But you know, if He removed it,
I wouldn't cry to Him every day like I do. He says, and become humble as
a little child. He said verily before thee. That
means this is of utmost importance. Be humbled as a little child.
Now, the Scripture says God hates pride, but He loves humility. Listen to this from Isaiah 57,
15. Thus saith the high and lofty
One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. I dwell in
the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and
to revive the heart of the contrite ones. He said in Isaiah 66, 2,
To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. You know, when we're
lifted up in pride, we can't even hear the Word of God, much
less tremble at it. Our Lord said, Whosoever exalteth
himself shall be abased, and whosoever humbleth himself shall
be exalted. In another place, the Lord Jesus
said, He told them what true greatness is. in the kingdom
of heaven. Now listen to this carefully.
He said, whosoever will be great among you. You want to be great? Let him be your minister, your
servant. And whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant, even as the son of man. even
as Christ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give His life a ransom for many. To be great in the kingdom of
heaven is to be the least and to be the servant of all. That's
what greatness is in the kingdom of heaven. What does that tell
us? It tells us who the greatest
one is in heaven. It's Christ. It's Christ. Go to Philippians 2. What did
Christ do? How did He make Himself the least? Philippians 2 and chapter 6. Who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. You want to talk
about if somebody had a cause to justify themselves for not
humbling themselves for a bunch of worms, it was Him. Here's a bunch of worms and He's
God, holy God. These worms deserve nothing from
Him. You want to talk about somebody
who could have justified himself in not having any mercy at all,
he can. But he had mercy, didn't he?
And what did he do? Verse 7, But he made himself
of no reputation. Isn't reputation a problem with
us? We want other people to know
us. He took upon Him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. This is why Paul says
in verse 3, look there Philippians 2.3, Let nothing but be done
through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let
each esteem other better than themselves. Just think of how peaceful it
would be if we always did that. Wouldn't it be peaceful? He'd
be heaven is what it'd be. That's what it will be. Everybody
esteeming the other better than themselves. Paul said, Be kindly affection
one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one
another. Christ made himself the absolute
least brethren. I mean, there's never been a
man in the history of this world who made himself the least to
the degree that Christ did. Never. First of all, think of
the height from which he came. He's God of very God. But he
came down for his elect worms who could offer him nothing and became a servant. for us. He became a servant for His people
to serve God because we couldn't serve God. And He was obedient even to the
death of the cross, knowing He's going to have to bear the shame
of sin that He hates. Our Lord wasn't polluted, but
I know that it was to Him. You can hear in the Psalms, He
felt really guilty before God the Father. And that's what the shame of
it was. It says He despised the shame. That's what it was. But that's
the death that He died on the cross for His people. Being forsaken
of the God He loved. And then, to crown it all, He
was laid in a grave. You talk about going from the
height to the depth. He made Himself the least for
God the Father and for His brethren. He preferred God the Father over
Himself and He preferred all His elect over Himself. And He
made Himself the least for both of them. That's low. That's greatness. That's the greatest. The very
greatest. And it says Philippians 2.9,
Wherefore for this reason God also hath highly exalted him. What was he doing? What was he
doing by all that humility? He was highly exalting God. And what did God do? In due time
He highly exalted him. And by His finished work of redemption
now, every chosen child of God has been redeemed. What does
that mean? We are Christ's purchased possession. We belong to Him. He bought us
with His own blood. We belong to Him. and therefore
He'll give each one a broken and a contrite spirit. He's going
to fill us with the Holy Spirit and He will give us a broken
and a contrite heart. That's the only way we're going
to come to Him, is if we're the least. He makes us see we're
the chief of sinners. That's the only way we'll come
to Him. I'll tell you when a good way to justify ourselves is.
There is a good way to justify ourselves. Justify why we are
the least. Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners. I don't deserve to even be in
the kingdom of heaven. I persecuted the saints. That's a good form of self-justification. Justifying why you ought to be
the very least. But He's going to give us this
new nature and we have this sinful nature, so He's going to keep
us from being overruled by our sinful nature. Now don't misunderstand
that. Some people preach it and they
say that now you can keep the law. That doesn't mean that.
Romans 6 doesn't mean now you can keep the law. When you become
servants of righteousness, it means you become servants of
Christ who is our righteousness. Unto holiness, it means unto
Christ who is our sanctification. All our righteousness is in Christ
alone. All our holiness is in Christ
alone. The only holiness in me, the only righteousness in me
is Christ in me, who's turned me to Him. It's sort of a, I don't know
the word, but when He's in you, And there is a new man created
in you in righteousness and true holiness. That doesn't make you
try to look to yourself and look to this new man in you. It makes
you look out of yourself. It makes you look to Christ alone. So because of this, because He
is dwelling in His people and He is keeping us and He comforts
us and He exalts that new man as he needs to be exalted. And
He does it by making us the least. You know this, up in the kingdom
of heaven is down. And if you are going down in
a negative sense in the kingdom of heaven, it is because you
are trying to exalt yourself. Or I am trying to exalt myself. Up in the kingdom of heaven is
down. Going down. That is true greatness. but by Him dwelling in us, we
can't do everything that we would do in our new man. There's a
new will there. We would if we could serve Him
in humility and serve our brethren in humility all the time without
any pride, but we can't. We have to remember that about
our brethren, don't we? retaliating when they offend,
I should remember that's just sin talking. That's just their
sin nature talking. They can't help it. It's just
like mine. I know what it's like to be helpless
to that. Do you agree with what I'm saying?
Do you know how your sin nature overcomes you? When have you
ever sinned and not been willing to do it? Never. Sin is always a choice. There
is no justification for it. And we always sin willingly. But, thanks be to Christ dwelling
in us, thanks to the Holy Spirit, that our flesh also can't do
what it would, to the extent it would. He keeps us right where
we need to be, so we don't fall away So we don't become overcome
with pride. So we continue to look to Christ.
Sometimes He uses the sin nature to do that. To show us our sin
and our helplessness. And then He shows us that He
is the only one that can rescue us. And He keeps us looking to
Him. Away from these sinful, wretched
bodies. But we'd all be lying if we said
we don't go through seasons of pride. We do go through seasons
of pride. Sad to say somebody will be lifted up in
pride and say something to us and we'll say something equally
prideful back. You know how Christ corrected us and how He corrects
us? He loves us to Himself. You just can't be lifted up in
pride and anger when you behold Christ making Himself the least
for you. It's just an impossibility. It's
when we take our eyes off Him. It's when we forget what He's
done. It's when we forget why we're here and what our purpose
is. And it's our sole purpose to
glorify Him. It's when we forget what He's
done that our sin nature begins to dominate us. And we go through
these seasons and justify Everything we are doing because we look
at how much we have done for the Lord. I have not really done anything
for the Lord. To esteem others better than
ourselves is to highly exalt Christ. You want to exalt Christ? take the wrong and serve one another. And you
will highly exalt Christ. Isn't that what He did? He took
our wrong and He served for us. And that's how He highly exalted
God His Father. All the while He was depending
entirely upon God the Father. That's how He exalted Him. And
if we humble ourselves and we depend upon Him, And we look
to Him alone. And we serve our brethren, we
just take the wrong. That's highly exalting Christ. We can only do it by His grace,
but it's still a highly exalting Christ. Go to 1 Peter 5. I want you to
see this. I'm going to wrap this up. 1
Peter 5. And listen to this. He says in
verse 5, look at the right after the first sentence. He says,
yes, all of you be subject one to another. Subject yourself
one to another and be clothed with humility. That means wear
it all the time. For God resisteth the proud and
giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, looking to His mighty hand, trusting
His mighty hand, that He may exalt you in due time. Casting
all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. When Christ humbled
Himself and made Himself the least and cried out on the cross,
you know what He was doing? He humbled himself under the
mighty hand of God and he trusted God the Father to exalt him when
it was time. That's what he was doing. Rather
than exalting himself. When we rail, whether we started it or
we just responded to it, that's not exalting Christ, that's not
humility, that's not trusting God. That's trying to exalt ourselves. And that's not what Christ did.
The way He redeemed His people, the way He made us complete,
that ought to be what motivates us in everything. He's made us
complete. He's made us righteous and holy,
fully redeemed. That ought to make us want to
serve Him. Well, how did He do it? He made
Himself the least. Now listen to this, back in our
text, Matthew 18, 5. He said, who so shall receive
one such little child in my name receiveth me. When he says in
my name, he's talking about a believer who is truly a humble one. And I know that you might say,
well that brother is just full of pride. Well, he might be full
of pride, but he ain't before God. Because he's in Christ. And in Christ, in His name, he's
humble. Because God's only looking on
him in Christ, and He's already given him, in that new nature,
a humble nature. It's His flesh that's lifted
up, but God's already put away our sin. He's not dealing with
us according to our sins. He's going to correct us and
save us from it, but He's not going to judge us for our sin.
But He says here, But whoso shall offend one of these little ones
which believe in Me, it will be better for him that a millstone
were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth
of the sea. Why is that? Why is it so offensive
to God for us to offend one of His believing people? Because
we are so one with Christ that when we offend one of our brethren,
we are offending Christ. When we exalt ourselves over
one of our brethren, we are exalting ourselves over Christ. Because
we are that one with one another. If we truly want Christ to have
the preeminence, If we truly want Him to be exalted above
all, then we should prefer our brethren above ourselves. You're never going to do that
without sin. I'm not either. You're never going to do that
in a way such that you can come to God and make you boast about
something you've done. That ain't going to happen. It's by His grace though. That's
what exalts Christ. Because you trust in Him. When
it's due time, when it's time, when it's His time, He will exalt
you. I find myself more and more,
when I get maligned and men say things about me, rather than
trying to explain to people what men have done or what's going
on. Rather than trying to explain
that, I just say to myself, the Lord's going to bring everything
to light. Judge nothing before the time. The Lord's going to
bring it all to light. I don't have to worry about anything.
I don't have to explain myself. When you start getting in a way
where you want to try to defend yourself and justify yourself
by listing all the faults of our brethren, it's just like
that saying, you know, you can get in a fight with a skunk.
You might win, but you're going to come out smelling like a skunk. If I exalt myself over my brethren,
I exalt myself over Christ. I pray God give us a humble heart. That's what we need. If pride
is our chief vice, and it is, then the chief thing we need
is a humble heart. I pray God give that to us. Amen.