Let's turn to Psalm 8. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent
is Thy name in all the earth, who has set Thy glory above the
heavens, in the earth and above the heavens. Out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of
thine enemies that thou mightest steal the enemy and the avenger."
We've probably all heard someone use the expression, out of the
mouth of babes. Perhaps we've used it, out of
the mouth of babes. But who are God's babes? And who is the strength of God's
babes? And why does our Lord choose
to establish and bring this strength out of the mouth of babes? Those
questions are answered in these scriptures. And that's the questions
we'll answer tonight. That'll be our outline. I titled
this, Why the Mouth of Babes? Why the mouth of babes? We'll
look first of all, who are God's babes? And secondly, who is the
strength of God's babes? And thirdly, why does the Lord
our Lord establish and bring this strength out of the mouth
of babes? When you think of a nursing infant,
that's what a suckling is, a nursing infant. When you think of a nursing
infant, can you think of anything weaker, anything more helpless,
anything more dependent on another than a nursing child? That's who God's babes are. We're
Those who are absolutely dependent on another, absolutely been made
to trust another, absolutely made to suck, to nurse from the sincere milk of the
word. That's who God's babes are. The
verse here tells us who they are. Psalm 8, 2. Out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings has thou ordained strength. Who are His
babes? They are the ones that He has
established, in whom He has founded, in whom He has ordained strength. That's who God's babes are. That's
who His sucklings are. He does it through the preaching
of the Word. He gives His babes a new heart. This is the strength. He gives
them a new heart to believe on Christ. To behold Him and believe
on Him. To see Him, to hear Him, to know
Him, to believe on Him. He ordains strength. The Lord
said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Out of the abundance of the heart.
We've got to be given a heart that's overflowing with abundance. abundance that He's given, strength
He's given. So we speak this strength He's
given, this praise He's put in the heart. When He makes Christ
the power and wisdom of God to us, the Spirit of God makes us
to become ignorant and poor, ignorant and weak, ignorant and
helpless. completely, totally dependent
upon another. That's what a baby is. That's
what a baby is. The Lord said, except you be
converted and become as little children, as babes, as babes. The excellency of the power is
of God. The excellency of this name that
creates this is of God. These are those God ordained.
He chose. He predestinated before the world
began. And He truly, in that sense,
founded. That's what the word means, founded.
He founded Strength. He founded these babes in his
son. And he comes forth and he makes
of God as Christ made unto us the power and the wisdom of God. We're gonna talk about that in
a moment. But then this God-given faith stands in the power of
God, in the wisdom of God, and not in men. This is who it is
that are babes and sucklings. They are no longer trying to
go about telling you about their power and their wisdom, and trying
to trust in the power and the wisdom of men, and try to make
things happen by the power and wisdom of men, they know that
it's God who's ordained strength in them. It's thou has ordained
strength. Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings has thou ordained strength. And through this gospel, he grows
us more dependent And that's our strength, Joe. The Lord said,
in weakness, in weakness, he said, my strength is made perfect
in weakness. When you get to the point where
you absolutely have no strength, when I get to the point where
I have no strength, that's when I behold my strength. It's not
me, it's another. Thou hast ordained strength. Thou hast founded, established
strength. That's who God's babes and sucklings
are. Out of their mouths, you know
what they'll say? He has ordained strength. He
has perfected strength. I want you to look over at Matthew
11. Matthew 11. And I want to read verse 25. If you want to look at Luke 10,
you can look there too, but I'll just tell you about Luke 10.
You go to Matthew 11. Matthew 11 you see David is sitting
here David says Oh Lord our Lord How excellent is thy name and
all the earth who has set thy glory above the heavens out of
the mouth of babes and sucklings as thou ordain strength You see
David is one of those babes He's one of those sucklings and he's
doing what a babe and a suckling does he's praising the name of
the Lord our Lord he's praising the name of the excellent name
he's praising the name of of this one who said his glory above
the heavens and he said out of the mouth of babes has thou ordained
strength now in Matthew 11 25 here is the babe here is the
one who is the least who is also the greatest and this is what
he says He says, at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank
Thee, O Father. Let me read to you what Luke
10, Luke 10, 21 says. Let me read this to you. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth. Does that sound like what our
Psalm starts out like? O Lord, our Lord, how excellent
is Thy name in all the earth. who has set thy glory above the
heavens, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou
ordained strength. Listen to the Lord, Matthew 11,
25. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has
revealed them unto babes. What a reason to rejoice. What
a reason to rejoice. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. Look back up now. Let's go back
up to Matthew 11, 9. Verse 9, He said to them, What
went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you,
More than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face. He said, This is my
messenger whom I have sent, John, he's talking about John the Baptist,
which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you,
Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist. notwithstanding he that is least
in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Christ is greater than
he. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets in the law
prophesied unto John, and if you'll receive it, this is Elias,
which was far to come. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Now you got to understand, all they see talking to them
is this babe, this man, Christ Jesus, who is God. That's all they see. And he's
commending John the Baptist and saying, he's my messenger whom
I sent. And they're sitting there listening
to this, thinking, who are you? And who is he? And listen to
what he says, verse 16, where unto shall I liken this generation? It's like unto children sitting
in the markets and calling unto their fellows, and saying, we've
piped unto you, and you've not danced. We've mourned unto you,
and you've not lamented. For John came neither eating
nor drinking, and they say he hath the devil. The Son of Man
came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a man gluttonous,
and a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners." But
listen to this word, but wisdom is justified of her children. Wisdom is justified of her children.
You know what wisdom is going to do? or what the children are
going to do, what the babes are going to do. They're going to
justify wisdom. They're going to justify Him
who is our wisdom. They're going to justify God
Almighty for doing things, choosing to do and save His people the
way He's chosen to save His people. Isn't that what David's doing
in our text? Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in
the earth. You've set your glory above the heavens. Out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings you've ordained strength. Is
that how we would have done it? Is that how you and I would have
done it? To pick out Babes and sucklings, those despised, those
rejected, and they weren't just poor and needy in the earth. Literally, they were, but they
weren't just that because they just happened to be that way.
And God said, well, I'm going to choose them instead of rich
folks and wise folks. He did choose some rich folks
and some wise folks and gave them the riches and the wisdom
they had. And those poor folks, he gave
them the poverty they had. and made them to be nothing in
the face of men. And He chose them. He gave them that. He gives to
all what we have and He gave them that. And He chose not many
wise, not many noble or called, but He chose foolish things.
He chose babes and sucklings. He chose those that the rest
of the world looked at and said, they're nothing. Absolutely nothing. And his people prayed. Wisdom,
that's wisdom. And wisdom is justified of her
children. The babe says, Lord, what wisdom. What wisdom. Now here is the
babe down at verse 25. Here's the babe. Here is the
one who made himself least that he might glorify God and justify
his people. save them from their sins. Here
he is. Here he is. Here's the babe, the child, the
darling son of God, the man after God's own heart, the prophet,
the priest, the king. Here is the one. He's a child,
servant of God, the righteous one. And here's what he does.
He justifies wisdom. He says, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. Who did this? Who ordained this
strength? Who founded this strength in
the mouth of babes and sucklings? The Father did. And you know
who creates this strength in them and makes them to know Him?
Look now, verse 27. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father. Verse
27, Matthew 11, 27. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father. Neither
knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and He to whomsoever
the Son will reveal Him. You see, the Son and the Father
are one. The one He just praised and said, I justify you. I praise you for hiding these
things from the wise and prudent and revealing them unto babes.
He's also God. He's also God the Son. And He,
no man knows the Father but the Son, and no man the Son But the
father, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him, he's
the one who does the revealing, even as the father does. But
that, he's the one that's ordained strength. And he chose babes
and sucklings as the father. Those wise and the prudent, they
rejected Christ and as the babes, those that God had loved from
everlasting, those He put in Christ, those He gave to Christ,
those He called by His grace, those He brought to justify Christ
and praise Him and that He brought to justify the Father. While
they were believing on Him and the others were not, Christ rejoiced. while many were rejecting Him,
while the wise and the prudent, while the ones that would have
impressed me and you the most, the religious ones that would
have impressed us the most, while they were rejecting Christ. harlots and publicans. These
ones who were the offscouring of the earth were being knit
together at his feet. Christ didn't mourn. Christ didn't
weep. Christ rejoiced. David didn't
mourn. David didn't weep. David rejoiced. Why? Because it's wisdom. It's the wisdom of God. It is
the wisdom of God to save. In this local church right here,
I'll tell you what God does. God is, He's working this wisdom. He's uniting the hearts of His
people with Christ and with each other more and more. The more our faith is focused
on Christ, The more God grows each of us in knowledge and understanding
of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus, and that's how
He grows us in grace and knowledge of Him. Of Him. It's of Him. It's learning of Him. It's from
Him. It's by Him. It's learning of
Him. And the more He makes us to desire
the sincere milk of the Word, as opposed to the feigned polluted,
enstimatic milk of this ungodly generation. And the closer he unites us with
each other. Now that's reason to rejoice.
That's wisdom. That's wisdom. He even uses the
enemies. He uses the enemies of Christ
to teach his children that what he's doing is wisdom. He really
does that. So first of all, God's babes
are those in whom God has ordained strength. Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings has thou ordained strength. That's who
they are. Secondly, who's the strength
of God's babes? We see this in our text too.
Psalm 8.1, O Lord, our Lord. That's who our strength is. That's
who they praise. Jehovah, our Lord Jesus Christ. Jehovah, Emmanuel, God with us. Verse 1, How excellent is thy
name in all the earth. In all the earth. God manifests
his name under heaven in all the earth. You know how He's
done it? By the Son of God coming down
and joining Himself, not with the nature of angels, but joining Himself with the
nature, taking upon Him the nature, the human nature, the manly nature
of His elect chosen children. That's wisdom and He's manifest
this strength to us. He's come down. He's that strength. Look at Psalm 8, 3. When I consider
thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars
which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful
of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast
made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned
him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under
his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field,
the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, whatsoever passeth
through the pass of the sea." God gave this to Adam. He gave
this glory and this honor to Adam. All the animals came to
Adam. willingly and Adam named them. He gave them names. There was
no sin. There was no bloodshed. They
had no reason to fear Adam. He had dominion over them. They
came and he named them. He could walk with them. He could
walk with a tiger. They fear us now. And all beasts
of the field have been tamed. There's just about nothing that
hadn't been tamed by man. They could be tamed by it. But
you want to see if you still have this dominion, untainted
dominion that was given, this glory and this honor that was
given to Adam before the world began? Go down to the zoo and
crawl in a cage with a tiger. See, you'll find out. You'll
find out real fast. But you know, there is somebody
that has this dominion. There is a second man, another
man, who came to this earth and who walked this earth, who when
his disciples left him and went out and said, we're going fishing.
These fishermen who knew how to fish, who knew the ins and
out of fishing, fished all night and couldn't catch a fish. Because
the one who had dominion over the fish wasn't going to let
a fish swim in their net. And when he came to them and
said, cast your net on the other side, they did it. And they couldn't
hardly lift the net up. They had so many fish in it.
Because the one who had dominion over the fish said, now swim
into the net. And they swam into the net. The
fish did. Who are we talking about? Look
over at Hebrews chapter 2. Who are we talking about? Hebrews
chapter 2. We'll try to look at this more
another time, but Hebrews 2. This is what the whole text is.
David, he's just rejoicing, his heart's overflowing at this.
Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in the earth! You've
come down and made Your excellency known. And he's just amazed at
this, and he says, But this is what Hebrews 2 says. Look here, verse 5. For unto
the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come
whereof we speak? That's the world we're talking
about, the world to come. He had put that world in subjection
to angels. But one in a certain place testified,
saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him? are the Son of Man that thou
visitest Him. Thou madest Him a little lower
than the angels. Thou crown'st Him with glory
and honor, and didst set Him over the works of thy hands.
Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He
put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that's not put
under Him. But now we see not yet all things
put under Him. Who are we talking about? Well,
all things have been put in subjection under these babes and these sucklings
in the world to come. All things will be put in subjection
under us. All things. But you know who
he's talking about here? You know who David's praising?
Who is the strength of these babes? That's what we're looking
at. Who's the strength of these babes, these sucklings? You who
believe. Who's our strength? Look at verse
9. We don't see all things put in,
but we see Jesus. By faith we see Jesus, who was
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,
and we see him crowned with glory and honor. that He, by the grace
of God, should taste death for every man. He tasted it for every
one of those that He died for, that He sanctified by His own
blood. Why? Verse 10, For it became Him,
for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through suffering. For both He that sanctified,
that's who He is, Jesus that sanctified, and they who are
sanctified, those who are separated and made perfect by Him, these
babes we're talking about, they're all of one, for which cause He's
not ashamed to call them brethren. He came down and died for them. It's just a marvel, verse 14.
As much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
He likewise took part of the same. He came down for a little
while lower than the angels. David said, Oh Lord, our Lord,
how excellent is thy name in the earth. He came down lower
than the angels, Robert, into this earth where we are. God,
our God, came down, our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer, into
this earth. Because his children were flesh
and blood, he also took part of the saying that through death
he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the
devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. You see, we didn't, he didn't
come and find us having dominion, he came and found us in bondage.
But it came that he might suffer, that he might die and lay down
his life, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, that he
might redeem us from the curse of the law, that he himself,
the fulfiller of the law, You're going to hear me say this quite
a bit. I said it to you before I left here. I said it out at
San Diego. I'm going to say it to you tonight
and I'm going to say it again probably Sunday and probably
about a half dozen more times because I'm trying to get this
point across. The righteousness of the law,
the fulfillment of the whole precept of the law is love. That's
the precept of the law. Love God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength,
and your neighbor as yourself. And those babes and sucklings
to whom God the Father gave to His Son are His babes and His
suckling, His elect, and He loved them. They had to have a perfect
righteousness. They had to have fulfilled all
the law of God. It has to be perfect to be accepted
of God. They had to have completely,
totally be righteous, having fulfilled all the law. And He
came, and His love is this, He loved them, God and his brethren
to the point of being made sin in the place of his people that
he might justify them from every penalty, from the penalty of
that broken law. And that free justification that
he accomplished by his death is the very active preceptive
obedience of that law. I've never done that and won't
ever, and you won't either. We won't love God and our neighbor
to the point that we're willingly made sin to bear hell in our
body, to bear the wrath of God in our body, that we might justify
God and justify our brethren. Justify God for having mercy
and justifying these people and doing it in truth and saying
He's a just God and a Savior. and at the same time be the one
who's justifying them from all iniquity. He did that. Only God
could do that. And He came down and did that.
And this is the marvel. Verse 16 of Hebrews 2, He took
not on Him the nature of angels, He took on Him the seed of Abraham.
the nature of the elect chosen children of God, the sons of
Abraham. That's the nature he took. He
was made a little while lower than the angels. Now he's a merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people and because He has come to where
we are and knows who we are and what we are and it was touched
with all the infirmities that are the result of sin. Though
He had no sin, though He knew no sin, though He did no sin. Can you imagine that? To be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities and yet you and yourself never
have known sin, never have committed sin, never having done sin. So
that those feelings, they just be heightened so much more if
you never knew sin. But this one, he's the power
and the wisdom of God. He's the strength of the believer.
And he's the power and the wisdom of whom we glory in. Now look,
where is he now? He said, Oh Lord, our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth. This is the strength
of the babes. But now where is he? Look at
Psalm 81. Psalm 81. who is set by glory above the
heavens." When you go out there and you look up in the sky and
you see all the works of His fingers that He's put into the
heavens, the stars and the moon and those things, and you look
at those things, He has set His glory, the One who is His glory,
the One through whom men will praise God, and the One who is
the praise of these babes and suckling, the strength of these
babes and suckling, that one, Christ Jesus, who came down and
was made a little lower than the angels. He's crowned with
glory and honor, and He's set above the heavens. That's where
He is, above the heavens. Ephesians 121. Let me show you
this. Ephesians 121. Far above all
principality, Let me read this, this verse 19. This is what Paul's
praying, that you will know, that you might know the exceeding
greatness of His power to us who believe. We're talking about
the strength. What's the strength of these babes? It's the exceeding
greatness He's wrought toward us who believe, according to
the working of His mighty power. Now what kind of power was that?
What kind of mighty working was that? It was the same power He
wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. See, these
babes had to be raised from the dead. Raised from the dead. And
sat at His own right hand in the heavenly places. Where'd
he set him? At his own right hand in heavenly
places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion
and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also
in that which is to come. He's put all things in subjection
under his feet. And He's put all things under
His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
He that descended is the same also that ascended far up above
all the heavens that He might fill all things. Who's the strength
of these babes? Thou hast ordained strength out
of the mouths of babes and sucklings. Thou hast ordained strength.
Who is I'm here is a babe. Here's a here's a here's a suckling
right here. I've been I've been nursing like
a baby all week to come to you and out of my out of the abundance
of my heart out of my mouth tell you who my strength is. It's
not me. The excellency of the power is
not of me. The excellency of the power is
of my God. My strength is the one who came
a little lower than the angels into the earth and who now has
set the Lamb in the throne above the heavens. That one that one
under whose feet all things have been put in subjection. And under
my feet right now where I am in this earth, all things are
put in subjection under me by him, by him and in him. And he's right now riding upon
the storm, he's riding upon the waves, he's riding upon the He's
riding upon the economy. He's riding upon the politicians.
He's riding in the king's heart. He's riding upon the hearts of
men in religion. He's riding upon the hearts of
those here, whether we know it or don't, whether we rejoice
in him or hate him, whether we love him or we despise him, whether
we want him to have the dominion or don't want him to have the
dominion. He's reigning right here in this place. And whatever
He's determined to do, He shall do. This is the head. This is
who we're talking about. This is the head. And His body
is His body. And He's the one that fills all
in all. And when He fills all in all,
you know what He is? Christ is in all, and Christ
is all in all. That's what He does. That's what
He does. He's the power and the wisdom
who sent the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. That's what
Peter said. He did this. He did this. He's the one who gives His babes
one spirit. He's the one who made those babes,
those ones who were despised and rejected, to cry out to Him
and rejoice in Him. And He adds to the church daily,
such as should be saved. So first of all, God's babes
are those in whom God has ordained strength. That's who they are. That's who the babes are, the
sucklings are. Secondly, the strength, the power, the wisdom
of God's babes is Christ Jesus, the power and wisdom of God.
He's the power and wisdom. It's just the name we praise
and declare in prayer, in song, in the gospel we preach is how
excellent is thy name in all the earth. That's what we declare.
Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.
who has set thy glory above the heavens, above the heavens. When
I look up tonight and I see the stars and I see that glory that
he has ordained in the heavens by the work of his fingers, there
is a glory above that glory that he is, that is the work of his hands. That's
his right hand. Christ, the power and wisdom
of God. Now why, here's the third question, why has the Lord ordained
this strength out of the mouth of babes? Psalm 8-2 tells us, out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because,
you see that word because? That means, here's why he did
it, because of thine enemies, because of his enemies, this
is why, that thou might astill the enemy and the avenger." You
see, God ordained strength in the mouth of His babes and His
sucklings because of His enemies. You know, His enemies are powerful.
His enemies are strong. His enemies are wise. His enemies
His enemy is Satan. His enemy is princes and kings. His enemies are those who have
great wisdom and power. His enemies are subtle, have
the subtlety of Satan. His preachers are transformed
into angels of light. And God chose babes and sucklings
because of those enemies? If I got an enemy who is a roaring
lion, it just don't make good sense
to me to pick out a baby to go out there and fight with that
lion. Does it you? Well, the strength, remember
who the strength is? The strength's not in the baby.
The strength's not in the hand of the baby. The baby's just
sitting forth and out of his mouth. comes to word, and out
of His mouth comes to strength. And the strength of the baby
is Christ, the power and wisdom of God. And who is it here that
He says is going to steal the enemy through the mouth of babes
and sucklings? That thou mightest steal the
enemy and the avenger. Not the baby. Not the suckling. It's just out
of His mouth that this praise and this glory is going to come,
this word of this strength is going to come. And as that word
comes out of His mouth, Thou, the strength, Thou, O Lord our
Lord, Thou whose name is excellent in the earth, Thou who sent Thy
glory above the heavens, Thou, He's going to steal the enemy
and the avenger. Who's the enemy and who's the
avenger? I'll tell you how we can recognize the enemy of the
intervention. This is what he does. His heart's enmity against
God. His heart hates God. He's wise
and prudent in his own eyes. So he despises God's means. What God's chosen. He despises God's babes. He despises the word coming out
of the mouth of God's babes. That's the means God's chosen.
Babes. Because of his enemies. To steal,
that he might steal the enemy and avenger. The enemy hates
that because he despises God. The enemy, the avenger, avenges
his own name rather than the excellent name. He avenges his own name rather than the
excellent name of the Lord our Lord. He justifies himself while
accusing Christ and His babes. That's what he does. But God ordains strength in the
mouth of babes. that He, the Lord our Lord, might
steal the enemy and the avenger. And every one of us sitting here who are able by His strength to rejoice in
Christ our strength and say, Lord, how excellent is Your name. How excellent is your wisdom
to choose out of the mouth of babes and sucklings to ordain
strength because of your enemies that you might steal the enemy
and avenger. Every one of us here who can
praise Him for that as David did right here. We were the enemy. we were the enemy. Enemies in
our minds by wicked works, children of wrath even as others. We were
the ones who thought God's means was stupid and despicable and
foolish and we despised it. We were the ones who thought
Why on earth would God ever save through something so foolish
and so ignorant and use people so foolish and so ignorant to
do it? Why on earth? If I believed that,
I'd have to commit to God's work. If I believed that, I'd have
to give myself to hearing His gospel preaching and reading
His Word. If I believed that, I'd have to trust God and trust
all my righteousness to be the Lord my righteousness, and trust
all my holiness to be Christ my holiness, and trust all of
my redemption to be in the hands of my Redeemer. I'd have to do
that. Why on earth would I want to
do something like that? I'd have to give up all my wisdom.
I'd have to give up all my prudence. I'd have to give up my way. I'd
have to lay down my life. I'd have to love somebody and
I don't love anybody but me. Why would I want to do that?
Why would I want to do that? Why would I want to turn my back
on everything I've worked so hard for and everything I've
tried to create by the work of my own hands since the day I
set foot on this earth? Why would I want to reject all
of that and bow to Him? And we thought that was ignorant.
But one day, God sent a baby in whom He had ordained strength
and who preached this word and wouldn't be turned by us being
our little selfish spoiled, brattish mouths saying,
give me something else, give me something else, don't, ain't
there something else besides Christ? But, but, but, but, but,
we kept saying. But, but, but, but, but, we kept
saying. Every time, but God who is faithful
would not be turned. And God who is the strength in
the mouth of his babes made it so his babe wouldn't be turned.
And God who is the power and the wisdom who sets forth this
gospel came into our hearts and He created life where there was
no life. He spoke the voice where there
was nothing but deadness. And He said, Be still, O thou
enemy! Be still, O thou avenger! And
when He did it, this old man withered down and a new man was
born. A new man was created. Christ
was formed in you. And you became a baby and a suckling
in whom He had ordained His strength. And ever since that day, He's
been using His babes, your brethren, to set forth this precious truth
and to keep on increasing you at His feet with this knowledge
and this understanding of Him. Because this is the means. This
is the One who ordained this. And everyone that's been called
by Him does what the babe Christ, the prophet, priest, and king
did when He walked this earth. The child justifies wisdom and
says, Father, I thank you. I thank you. Oh, Lord, our Lord,
how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Oh, your glory
is above the heavens. What wisdom that you've hidden
these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto
babe. You revealed them to a babe like
me. That's wisdom. That's wisdom. And the Lord does something else
too. He does something else too. Look at 1 Corinthians 1, and
I'll hurry. 1 Corinthians 1, and then we'll
go to another passage. But I want you to see this. 1
Corinthians 1. This is what Paul said. Paul
is saying the same thing David is. He's praising God for. He
said here, verse 21, After that, in the wisdom of God, the world
by wisdom knew not God. That was wisdom of God, wasn't
it? Not to let the world know God by their own wisdom. And
he gave them some time to try to figure him out, and they couldn't.
The world by its own wisdom didn't know God. But that was his wisdom.
And in that wisdom, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign,
the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.
Unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called. both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolish of
God is wiser than men, the weakness of God stronger than men. The
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God
stronger than men. This means in this that he's
chosen. It's still wiser than the wisest
man, stronger than the strongest man. Look down at verse 27. Well, verse 27. You see your
calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. Not just then. Oh,
it was the case then. These scriptures are breathed
by the eternal word of God. And they are as eternal as our
God. And they have as much to do today as they did in that
day. And it's still not many mighty called, not many noble
called. Why? Verse 27, God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world, babes and sucklings. Why? He said, because of thine enemies,
that thou might steal the enemy. Here's what He does. The same
way that this word comes forth, and those who are babes of His
grace, babes and sucklings of His grace, but yet enemies in
our minds. He steals us. He subdues that
old man and he creates a new man in us. But this word, though
it's a savor of life unto life unto some, it's a savor of death
unto death unto others. The more the Pharisees heard
it, the more they hated it. The more the Pharisees heard
it, the more they despised it. The more the Pharisees heard
it, the more they gnashed on him with their teeth, until at
last they justified themselves for rebelling against him by
nailing nails into his hand and doing it saying, we have no everybody
else that's going to reign over us but God. We're glorifying
God by doing this, they said. But here's what God had done
in their midst. He chose those foolish things to confound the
wise and left them confounded. God chose the weak things of
the world to confound the things which are mighty, base things
of the world and things which are despised have God chosen
things which are not to bring to nothing things that are, that
no flesh shall glory in His presence. That's what He's done. That's
what He's done. That's what He's doing today.
That's what He's doing now. Let's look at Matthew 21 and
we'll bring this down to an end. Matthew 21. You see, the same gospel. Who's
sufficient for these things, Paul said? The same God that's
a saver of life unto life unto some is a saver of death unto
death unto others. I tell you, God's using babes.
He's using babes to declare this. And a babe's not sufficient for
this thing. Not at all. But God our strength does this.
Now look, this was about, the Pharisees had stood it all they
could stand it. And at this point right here, this was the final
straw fall. They couldn't, they busted their britches on this
one. It's Matthew 21, 15. When the chief priests and scribes
saw the wonderful things that Christ did, and the children
crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David,
they were sore displeased. Here these children were crying
out, Praise, O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in
the earth, that glory you've set above the heavens. And they
were displeased. And they said unto him, Hearest
thou what these say? And Jesus said unto them, He
rebuked them using our text. He said, Yeah, I hear them. And
He said, Have you never read? How many times do you suppose
they read what we know today as Psalm 8? How many times do
you think that the men He spoke to had read that? But they didn't know what it
meant. And they looked down their noses at the fact that children
were being called, children were being blessed, and here they
were, self-righteous, will-working, God-hating, vainly religious
men who didn't get the respect they thought they should have
because of all they had done. And here Christ is, and He says,
Have you never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
thou hast perfected praise? And look what He did. He begged
them. He did everything He could to
try to get them to follow after Him. And He left them and went
out of the city into Bethany and He lodged there. You know,
as far as I can tell in reading these Scriptures, Christ never
lodged in Jerusalem amongst the Pharisees and the scribes until
the night He came into that city to be the Passover Lamb. Not
one time. You know what Christ said? Jesus
answered and said, if any man loves me, he will keep my words,
and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and
make our abode with him. That's what Christ said. We'll
lodge with him. We'll lodge with him. We'll lodge
with him. One of two things always happens
when men hear the voice of our Lord. Either the old enemy of
our flesh is steeled by His grace and we confess Him to be the
Son of God come in human flesh, or the enemy and avenger is steeled
by being put to confusion and silence. Either a babe of grace
is brought to cry out to Him and rejoice in Him, or the wise
and prudent are left in confusion and silence. And God's done it
that no flesh shall glory in His presence. Now you know what? We're learning to do here through
this word. Let me give you a word to go
home with. The enemy, the avenger, is always looking to find fault.
I'm not talking about anybody outside of this old man of my
flesh. He's always looking to find fault. You know what God's babe's doing?
This new man God's made, he's always looking to show mercy.
as two different men in each of us. One's looking to find
fault, one's looking to show mercy. The avengers want to avenge
his own name, God's babe's growing more and more to avenge the excellent
name. To justify our fellow babes and
to show one another mercy. That's the spirit Christ grows
in his children. The strength he puts in his children,
that strength that laid down his life, that laid down his
life. God's babes aren't impressive
to the wise and the prudent, yet to a babe in Christ, to you
who are babes in Christ, your fellow brethren are miracles
of God's grace. A religious man doesn't look
at that. There's nothing impressive. What this religious world is
saying That's an unhealthy church. Let me teach you how to recognize
an unhealthy church. Let me teach you how to be a
Pharisee so you can point the finger and recognize when you
see somebody that's an unhealthy church. Let me show you how to
revitalize an old, dead, dying church. It just breeds Phariseeism. It
just breeds pointing the finger, pointing the finger, unsettled,
unrest, unrest. That's all it does. But that
very thing that they hate, that the Pharisee hates, the babe
in Christ beholds God speaking His word and purging, purging
himself, purging that child of all those things that he thought
were necessary. All those things he once thought
that religion had taught him was so impressive and that religion
uses to advertise to attract men. God purges His children
of those things. So that when the Pharisees came
and looked at Christ and His disciples, they said, that's
an unhealthy church right there. They don't do anything like we
do. Look at our buildings. Look at
all we're advertising to attract people. You want to know how
we give alms? We'll be glad to tell you. Let
me list the names of ministries we have and the missionaries
we support and how much we go down to the to the bad side of town and preach
and do things. Let me show you that. Let me
advertise my almsgiving that way I can bring you in and market
that to you and get you in by it. Christ said don't do that. You don't want men coming in
because of your wisdom. That's wisdom of men. Don't do
that to be seen of men, he said. But that very thing where the
Pharisee looks and says, that's unhealthy. Look at that place.
They don't see them doing any of the things we do. And you
won't. You won't see God's people advertising
those things. Because they don't do them to
be seen of men. But they do. They do. They do. But they don't try to be seen
of men because God's purged them of that. and made them so that
before this world, they just look like babes and sucklings.
And the world looks down their noses at them and says, that's, nothing appealing about that. The means God uses do not impress
out of the mouth of babes. Yet to one who's been made to
taste God's grace, the feet of them who God uses to preach the
gospel are beautiful because the feet of Him, Christ who's
speaking through them, is beautiful." I'm going to preach on that soon,
more in depth, Lord willing. So why is it that God uses babes. Why? Why out of the mouth of
babes? Why? Because God makes his babes and
sucklings using the mouth of babes. He makes his babes and his sucklings
using the mouth of babes. And He steals the enemy and the
avenger using the mouth of babes. And God does it all. God gets
the glory for doing it. He uses that which is absolutely
not appealing to do that which only He can do. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. Do we understand that? You understand that? I've been
saying this from day one. Because you're going to have
plenty of opportunity, privilege by God to stand for what you
believe. To stand and say, I'm just a
babe, but let me tell you about my strength. And as He does this,
He's going to unite our hearts more and more. He's going to
grow His babes more and more in Him and cause us more and
more to look away from ourselves. Do you understand? Do you see
the wisdom of God in that? The wisdom that no flesh or glory
in His presence. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent
is Thy name in all the earth. who has set thy glory above the
heavens, out of the mouth of babes thou hast ordained strength,
because of thine enemies, that thou might still the enemy and
the avenger." That's how he's going to keep stilling, making
quiet that enemy and avenger in our old wicked flesh through
this gospel. You know, when I call you up,
I know you're busy. I'm busy. We're all busy. When
I call you up, I don't call you up to make you feel guilty about
something. You know what I call you up for?
I'm just going to be honest with you. You know what I call you
for? When I call you up to just talk, you know what I call you
for? I'm calling to hear some strength out of the mouth of one of God's
babies. And I rejoice in it. It just
strengthens my heart, strengthens me to hear strength out of the
mouth of God's babe. Christ, my Redeemer, speak out
of the mouth of His babe. I think what wisdom, what wisdom. Amen.