Yuba-Sutter Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda.
The scripture for our sermon today is found in Matthew 18,
verses 1 through 10. I've entitled this message, Christ's
Little Ones. There are at least four important
lessons in this scripture. First, the Lord Jesus Christ
uses a little child to depict and illustrate the God-given
nature of every believer. He sat a little child down in
the company of his disciples and referred to him as one of
these little ones who believe me. In doing so, our Lord taught
that believers are his little ones. Secondly, Jesus used a
little child to illustrate the nature of true conversion. He
said that we must be converted and become as little children
to enter heaven. Third, our Lord used a little
child to emphasize that because of his great love and tender
care for every believer, we must treat the least believer as one
of Christ's own little ones. Whoever receives one such little
child receives me, Jesus said. And finally, our Lord gave a
most solemn warning to all who attempt to lead astray the very
least believer in Christ. For any who attempt to lead Christ's
little ones away from faith in Him to trust another, it would
be better that a millstone were tied around his neck and he was
cast into the deepest sea. He goes on to say that it would
be better to mutilate your body than to sever your eternal soul
in eternal damnation by causing one of Christ's little ones who
believe him to stumble in their faith. Now, in the book of Mark
we are told what took place just before Jesus' disciples came
to him in Matthew 18. Jesus asked his disciples there,
what was it that you disputed among yourselves by the way?
But they held their peace, for by the way they had disputed
among themselves who should be greatest. Before the disciples
came into the house where Jesus was, they had been disputing
among themselves about which one of them was greater. They
had argued about who should be greatest among them. Though Jesus
was not with them, he knew what they had been disputing, though
they were ashamed to admit it. This helps us understand what
God is teaching here in Matthew 18. The Lord frequently teaches
truth by first showing what truth is not. Therefore, against the
pride and self-promotion of the disciples, we read in Matthew
18, verses 1-10, At that time came the disciples to Jesus,
saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus
called a little child to him, and 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. Whosoever therefore shall humble
himself as this little child, the same is 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
offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to
that man by whom the offense 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 you 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. Now, there are at least four
clear lessons in these 10 verses that we must not miss. The first
lesson arises from disputing disciples. The lesson is this,
the pride of self-righteousness, envy, and a desire for self-promotion
is the root of all evil in the world, especially in the church.
Proverbs 13.10 says, only by pride cometh contention. Mark
it down. Where there is contention, the
underlying cause is pride, self-righteousness, envy, and a lust for self-promotion. Scripture is full of examples
that contrast the pride of self-righteousness and self-promotion with God-given
humility that lives by faith on Christ. In the Book of Esther,
for example, Haman wanted the highest position in the kingdom.
He hated Mordecai because Mordecai would not bow to him. In self-conceit,
Haman thought the king valued him above all others. His high
opinion of himself and his lust for preeminence was his downfall. It was Mordecai, not Haman, that
the king valued and would honor. The king sentenced Haman to die
for his murderous ambition. Nebuchadnezzar is another example
of pride. He was driven from men to the
open field and ate grass like an ox for seven years because
he lifted himself up in pride. He said, is not this great Babylon
that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of
my power and for the honor of my majesty? Daniel 4 verse 30. He remained with the beasts of
the field until he learned that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom
of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. Another contrasting
example of pride and humility in scripture is the Pharisee
and the Publican. The Pharisee trusted that he
was righteous in himself and despised others. Self-righteousness
always has this effect. Whenever I find myself thinking
low thoughts of others, it is because I am self-righteous and
have self-conceited high thoughts of myself because I have low
thoughts of God. Human pride opposes God's glory
by seeking for itself the glory that belongs to God only. This
attempt to rob God's glory is especially seen in salvation.
Men attempt to do something to make what Christ did work for
them, to manipulate God into saving them by their works or
their attitude. But God alone gets all of the
glory in salvation. The Pharisee thanked God for
good things he saw in himself. But the publican knew he was
nothing but sin, therefore he would not lift up so much as
his eyes to heaven. He knew that he was unfit even
to take the truth of God into his own wicked heart, so he smote
upon his breast where he knew the root of his problem lay,
saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. The publican went
down to his house justified, but the Pharisee remained under
the condemnation of God. Another example is found in the
third epistle of the Apostle John. He said there, I wrote
to the church, but deatrophies, who loveth to have the preeminence
among them, receiveth us not. Third John, chapter 1, verse
9. And you will recall that the devil is the premier example
of pride. What is his pride? He wanted
God's glory. He thought in his heart, I will
ascend above the height of the clouds. I will be like the Most
High, Isaiah 14, 4. And for that thought, he will
be eternally cast into hell. Hell was made for the devil and
his angels. Then, too, remember the Garden
of Eden? It was to thoughts of pride and
self-promotion that the devil tempted Eve. He told her, in
Genesis 3, verse 5, that if she and Adam ate the fruit that God
told them not to eat, they would be as gods, knowing good and
evil. In all of these, we see by contrast
how greatly the disciples did err in their hearts when they
argued about who should be greatest among them. Let you and I take
this lesson to ourselves. We must either be saved by grace
alone or we will never see the kingdom of God. God will not
give his glory to another. Negatively, pride is the most
destructive force in the church and in our own salvation. But
positively, our salvation is by God's grace alone, by His
work, and not for anything in us. Therefore, every sinner,
humbled by the grace of God, runs for refuge and draws comfort
from this clearly stated truth in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30
and 31. Of Him, of God the Father, are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
He that glorieth, Let him glory in the Lord. In my own short
life, the thing I have come to fear most in myself is the proud
thought of self-righteousness. I fear when I am tempted to find
assurance before God by something I do or say. And I fear when
I am tempted to distinguish myself among men by the same thing.
Oh, how I hate this evil tendency in me. We must be converted,
we must be made as little children, or we will not enter the kingdom
of heaven. Pride causes strife and contention. Pride sows division. Pride separates
brethren. Pride puts one man above another. Pride in man's heart causes him
to think he has a righteousness of his own making. This deception
is agreeable to our sinful natural self. On the one hand, pride
sets men looking for and trying to establish their own righteousness
by their own will, by their own works, by their knowledge, by
their experiences, or by something, anything from themselves. And
on the other hand, pride leaves guilty, weak sinners in hopeless
despair, because if God requires anything from me, a sinner, other
than what He provided in Christ, I cannot be saved. If I think
God requires something from me, I will spend my time looking
within, rather than looking outward and upward to Christ. An honest
sinner agrees with God. He can produce nothing that God
requires. I need a saving substitute to
answer every examination of me, answer it in my place, and then
I need my substitute to plead himself for me. Unless all I
am before God is what I am in Christ, I cannot enter heaven. Self-promotion is the cause why
many in the church are offended and stumble. Galatians 5.14 says,
let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another,
envying one another. Sinners stumble when they try
to make themselves acceptable to God by their religious duties,
by ceremonies, by emotional experiences, by their dedication, by their
giving or their commitment, or by their service. Sinners stumble
when they are told God left something for them to do, something small
or great that depends upon them. But everyone taught of God knows
this. I cannot come up with one thing
God will accept. As long as I am not fully persuaded
that God has provided all things for me in Christ, that He accepts
from Christ all that He requires from me, I cannot and will not
worship God in true joy and peace. The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians,
let no man glory in men. He told the Galatians, if I please
men, I should not be the servant of Christ. When men try to persuade
men to honor them, they cause others to stumble. When men exalt
themselves in the church, they teach others to trust themselves. This is a most deadly doctrine. It is idolatry. Psalm 115 verse
1 says, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. And then
the psalmist describes the gods of unbelievers. He says, Their
idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. Idols are
the work of men's hands. When we trust what we are, or
what we do, or anything about ourselves, we worship and idol
the religious works of our hands, idols of our own making. Now,
the second lesson Jesus gave in Matthew 18 arises from the
trusting humility of a little child. Through this child, Christ
teaches his disciples and us a lesson of incalculable importance. The lesson is this. Unless we
are converted and become as little children, we will not enter the
kingdom of heaven. Conversion is not a one-time
event. It is an ongoing occurrence in
our lives. Jesus told Peter that Satan desired
to have him and sift him as wheat. And then he said, But I have
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. Luke 22, verse 32. Peter was
a saved man. Yet after he denied the Lord,
he needed to be converted. Conversion is the work of God. Matthew 18, 3 says, you must
be converted, not you must convert yourselves. Because conversion
is the work of God, Israel cried to the Lord in Psalm 80, turn
us again. And through the prophet Jeremiah,
God said that Israel would say, Turn thou me, and I shall be
turned, for thou art the Lord my God, surely. After that I
was turned, I repented, and after that I was instructed, I smote
upon my thigh. To rise, we must sink. To look up, we must be bowed
down. That is what conversion is. Jesus
said to Zacchaeus, Make haste and come down, for today I must
abide at thy house. Luke 19, verse 5. And Proverbs
15, 33 says, Before honor is humility. Christ taught humility through
the example of a little child, and he taught humility by himself
as an example. He said, I am meek and lowly
of heart. Nowhere is Christ's humility
seen more than in his own incarnation, and life as a servant, and in
his own obedience unto death, even the death of the cross.
Jesus said we must be converted and become as a little child
or we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. The characteristic
that our Lord requires and does himself provide is the humble
trusting of a child. Let us take careful note of this.
A child trusts his mother and father not for what he finds
in himself, but for what he finds in them. A child believes what
his parents tell him. A child believes his parents
will faithfully love and provide and care and comfort him whenever
he cries because from infancy they have always done so. A child
is persuaded that his parents will never leave him because
from infancy his parents have answered his every cry. A child
does not consider his own wisdom. He believes his mother and father
are all wise. A child does not limit his parents'
ability to care for him by his own ability to care for himself.
A child does not measure his parents' ability and strength
by his own ability and strength at all. A child spends his time
in carefree play, oblivious to all that his parents do to provide
for him. And our great God and Savior
tells us in Psalm 81, Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. Just as baby birds in a nest
constantly open their mouths and their parents give them food,
so we are to come to God by faith in Christ, waiting and expecting
Him to feed us on Christ. Little children know they are
ignorant, they know they are weak, and they are content to
live in total dependence on their mother and father. From infancy
they grow up believing and trusting their parents for comfort in
all things. It is only as we grow older that
we lose our trust in our parents, because we begin to trust ourselves
more than them. Haven't you found this to be
true in teenagers and even pre-teens? How often do young people think
they know more than their parents? It is usually not until much
later in life, perhaps not until age 30 or 40 years, that we come
to realize that our parents know more than we do. In the same
way, we must come to God trusting Christ as all of our wisdom,
all of our strength, all of our righteousness. The prophet Jeremiah
wrote, thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches, which is just a synonym for our own righteousness, but
let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and
knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which exercise lovingkindness,
judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things
I delight, saith the Lord. Faith glories in Christ. Therefore, we see that the strength
of a child's faith is the strength of the object of his faith. The
object of a child's faith is his mom and dad. Because a child
believes his mother and father, his strength and his wisdom is
the strength and wisdom of his parents. A child never considers
his faith or his trusting as a basis for his life at all.
He never thinks his believing is the reason for his parents'
love or the reason why his parents provide and care for him. Now,
this is the trusting humility of every child of God. God first
brings us down. He shows us that we are not what
we imagined at all. We are positively wicked. We
are ignorant of how we are accepted by God and how we walk with Him. We are ignorant of what to answer
Him in our conscience and in judgment. We are without strength
against our sin and unbelief. We have no potential in ourselves. We are unprofitable. We are utterly
unable to save ourselves. It is then that God gives us
a sight of Christ and Him crucified. He persuades us that Christ is
everything in our salvation. He enables us to look away from
ourselves to Christ alone. This faith is the evidence that
we are the sons of God, that we have been born of His Spirit. God births us as His sons when
He makes the Gospel shine in our hearts and gives us faith
in Christ. 1 Peter 1 Verse 23 and 25 say,
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, the word
which by the gospel is preached to you. When God shines the light
of his gospel in our hearts, we are then persuaded that all
God requires of us he finds in Christ. This faith is not only
the faith we have when we first believe, but it is the faith
that grows as we cry out of the guilt and corruption of our sin.
The Lord mercifully answers our cries time and time again from
the gospel. It always comes back to this,
look to Christ. In looking we find joy and peace
in believing because the gospel teaches us that God himself looks
to Christ for his people. Time and time again we are comforted
with the gospel of Christ. Because time and time again we
are brought to know that in Christ we have received double for all
our sins, that we have been perfected forever by His one offering,
that we have been clothed in His righteousness. By God's grace
we come to know that we have no righteousness and that we
can never produce any. As the psalmist said in Psalm
71, 16, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine
only. Now consider what Jesus told
his disciples. A little child sits in their
midst. They had been arguing over who
would be greatest. Jesus said, unless you are converted
and become as a little child, you shall not enter the kingdom
of heaven. When God gives us faith to see
that Christ is all, that we are complete before God in Him, that
all we have, or will ever have, we have only in Him, then we
lose all need to elevate ourselves compared to others. Having Christ,
we have all things. This truth, believed in the heart,
is the faith of all of Christ's little ones. And the third lesson
in Matthew 18 is what Christ thinks of His little ones. His
people, His little ones, are dear to Him. We must therefore
think about the least believer, pray for the least believer,
and act towards the least believer. In short, we must receive the
least and weakest believer as one of Christ's own little ones. Jesus said, who so shall receive
one such little child in my name receiveth me. The lesson is clear. What we think and say and do
to the least believer, we think and say and do to Christ himself. We must see by faith that the
least believer is a dearly beloved child of God. When we realize
that in ourselves we are the chief of sinners, and when we
realize how Christ loves and watches over his people, then
we will treat others better than ourselves. God the Father set
his eternal love on those he gave Christ to save. He called
them by his spirit to life and faith in Christ. If God so loved
your believing brother and sister, how much ought you and I to love
them? If God gave His only begotten
Son for that believing one, forgave that little one an incalculable
debt of sin for Christ's sake alone, and received that little
one with Christ when He raised Him from the dead, how much ought
we to love and to highly esteem and forgive the very least believer
for Christ's sake? Christ loved and served His Father
for His people. He took their nature into union
with His divine nature. In fact, He took them into union
with Himself. He obligated Himself for all
that God required of them. He answered all for them. He
bore their sin as His own. He suffered their punishment
in His death. He rose and now rules over all
and intercedes to save them to the uttermost. So great is His
love and so close is this union that they are members of His
body and of His bones. Therefore, He says, whoever receives
one such little child in My name receives Me. If the Spirit of
God, who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together
with Christ, by grace you are saved, then do not grieve the
Spirit of God with bitterness toward your brother and sister
in Christ. Rather, be ye kind one to another,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you." Ephesians 4, verse 32. Angels serve Christ
and his little ones. They are ministering spirits
sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. Hebrews 1.14. If those noble,
mighty servants of God so watch over these little ones, how much
more ought we, in love, to consider the needs of our believing brothers
and sisters? And finally, our Lord warns all
that severe judgment will come on any who attempt to turn the
weakest believer from faith in Christ. He said, Whoso shall
offend one of these little ones which believe 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. To have a millstone
around your neck and be cast into the deepest sea described
everlasting punishment. Beware of causing one of Christ's
little ones to stumble. Our Lord corrects his disciples
for their pride and self-righteousness and envy and self-promotion.
These were things that absorbed their thoughts and arguments.
But Christ warns them and us, it would be better to go through
life mutilated in body than to suffer the everlasting punishment
of hellfire for causing the least believer to turn from Christ
to another gospel. If you believe that God saves
you because you accepted Jesus, because you made a decision,
or because of works you have done, you are trusting an idol. God does all in salvation or
he does nothing at all. He gives faith and that faith
looks to Christ alone and finds in Christ covering for all my
sin and a robe of perfect righteousness. That same faith comes to God
by the blood of Christ trusting God to receive me for his sake
alone. Anything else robs God of his
glory and causes men to trust something other than Christ.
May God deliver me and you from our self-righteous pride and
enable us to trust and glorify Christ alone. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at ysgracechurch.com.