Luke chapter 9, read verses 46
through 48 again. We looked at this, I think it
was Wednesday night? Yes, Wednesday night. Then there
arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought
of their heart, took a child and set him by him, and said
unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name, receiveth
me. And whosoever shall receive me,
receiveth him that sent me. For he that is least among you
all, the same shall be great." We looked at this Wednesday,
but we cannot look at this enough. Our Lord is rebuking pride. Exaltation. He says the least
should be the greatest. In another place, he said, except
you receive the kingdom of God as a little child. Not only that,
but receive little children or young believers, babes and cry. This theme or this truth runs
throughout all of God's Word. That is, humility. Meekness. I think it was Calvin who said
the three greatest Christian virtues are humility, humility,
and humility. Humility. Meekness is another
word for humility, although it goes a little deeper. Moses was
called the meekest man on the earth. And we saw Wednesday how
that when the Lord called him, he did not want to go. He did
not feel able to lead God's people to speak on God's behalf. John,
our Lord said, John the Baptist, there was not a greater man born
of woman on the earth. What a statement made by the
Lord Himself. And yet when they came to John
and asked him who he was and where he came from, his credentials,
and he wouldn't even tell his name. And he said this, he said,
he must increase. Speaking of Christ, I must decrease. So he that is least is the greatest. He that exalteth himself shall
be abased. But he that abaseth himself,
the Lord said, shall be exalted. Now, our Lord, who is the only human being,
in fact, we can call Him that. He is a man, was a man, is a
man. But the only human being who
ever lived who could be proud without being sinful. But what
do we have that we have not received? And if we received it, no matter
what it is, wisdom, health, height, strength, beauty, whatever it
may be, intellect, we got it from the Lord. And so we cannot
glory, should not glory, as if we had not received it, as if
it's something that we did ourselves. This is why the Lord hates pride
more than anything else. In Proverbs 6, he said, six things
are an abomination to the Lord. Six things that the Lord hates,
yea, seven, are an abomination. And the first thing, that's right,
a proud look. And doesn't that Doesn't that
describe the day that we live in? That's what Paul said in
the last day. We should be proud, boasters,
heady, high-minded. Don't let it not be named once
among God's people. Pride and grace cannot cohabit. Cannot dwell together. Cannot. said, and he was arguably the
greatest of the apostles, used the most by our Lord. He said,
I am less than the least. He said, I am not fit to be called
an apostle. So God made him the greatest.
But the greatest example of all is our Lord Himself. And He says,
because He took upon Himself the form of a servant, therefore
God hath highly exalted Him. In Luke 22, go over to Luke 22,
the disciples, I don't know why, well, I do know why they had
a problem with this. Because the Lord would send them
out preaching, and maybe they got a little liberty. Maybe they
went out preaching, had a little liberty, and the Lord saved some
people under them, and they kind of maybe started thinking, you
know, maybe I'm a pretty good preacher after all. You ain't nothing. You need to
remember where you came from. You're just a tool in the Lord's
hand. He can use you or He can not use you. He can discourage
you in a moment. Look at Luke 22, verse 21. The Lord said, Behold, the hand
of him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table. Truly the Son
of Man goeth as it was determined. Woe unto that man by whom he
is betrayed. They began to inquire among themselves,
Which of them it was that should do this thing, betraying, alright?
So right there, they're worried about betraying Him. Well, it
wasn't the next day until, look at verse 24. There was a strife
among them, which should be the greatest. How can we be so fickle? How can we be so seemingly wise
in one day and such a fool the next day? That's our nature. We've got
two men, an old man and a new man. Put this old man down. This old man is full of pride,
full of self-love. John 13. Go over to John 13. John chapter 13. This is where
our Lord is washing His disciples' feet. Now back then, they went
everywhere. A lot of people were barefoot. Very poor people, barefoot. Most
people wore sandals in a hot, arid climate. And you know what
their feet were like. And to wash somebody's feet,
you might wash your family's, but you're just not going to
wash anybody's feet. Well, our Lord did. He got a
basin of water and a towel, and stooped down and washed every
one of those disciples' feet. Look at this, John 13, Twelve. After He'd washed their feet
and taken His garments, sat down again, He said unto them, Know
ye what I've done to you? And we've looked at this before.
It's a much deeper picture than, just much greater lesson than
one of humility. It's a picture of who Christ
was, is, but how He condescended, laid aside His splendor and took
a robe like that towel of flesh, he humbled himself, became a
servant, stooped way down to wash us with his own blood. And this is what he meant. Do
you know what I've done unto you? If only you knew what I've
done for you and how far down I came for you, you wouldn't
think it too far down for you to do anything, anybody else.
And I look at verse 13. I like this. You call me Master
and Lord. And that's what they called Him.
They never called Him Jesus. They always called Him Master
and Lord. And He said, you say well. I want to say well, don't
you? Well, you say well when you call
Him who He is. Master and Lord. For so I am.
Read on. If I then your Lord and Master
have washed your feet, You also ought to wash one another's feet.
I've given you an example that you should do as I've done to
you. Now look at this. Verily, verily, truly, truly
I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. How your Lord has washed your
feet. Neither is he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
If you know these things, verse 17, if you know these things,
now we know this in our head, don't we? I know this in my head. I'm teaching it. I'm telling
you the truth. Is it coming across clearly?
I know it in my head. I want to do it. He said, happy
are you if you do that. And you're not going to be happy
if you don't. Trying to please ourselves is
an endless task. Nobody is ever happy trying to
make themselves happy. You can't make this fellow happy.
He is never satisfied. You can't get enough compliments.
You can't get enough praise. And the first thing our Lord
said upon following Him was, deny yourself. Deny yourself. So, I know we've
already looked at this, but my, my, have we learned it? Go back
to our text. He said you'll be happy if you
do what I say. Happy in the doing of it. Be
a servant. Humble yourself. Deny yourself. Because pride
is the thing God hates the most. Because self is our biggest problem.
It's our biggest problem. It's the source of all of our
contention. It's the source of all of our
strife in the marriage, in friendships, in the church, whatever it might
be. It's self, because we get offended. If we really thought
ourselves to be the chief of sinners, unworthy, hell deserving,
no good, worthless worms, nobody could offend us with anything
they said. Couldn't. The fact of the matter is, that's
what we are, people. The only thing that makes us
worth anything now is the blood of Jesus Christ. I want to learn this. I'll be
happier. I'll be happier instead of offended
and bitter. And it's for God's glory. It's for the good of others,
the elevation of others. Someone once said this, this
is a good statement, I think it was Booker T. Washington.
That man said some good things. He needs to be a hero to his
race, his race and ours. He said this, real manhood is
not being able to put a fellow down, but being able to pick him up.
That's a good saying, isn't it? And carry him. No, I can put
you in the dirt, buddy. That's not manhood. Our Lord
could have wiped anybody out, couldn't He? Well, He didn't. Humility is
testimony to God's mercy, love, and grace. If we really believe
and are thankful for sovereign mercy, that the Lord sovereignly
plucked us as it were a brand from the burning, chose us and
not some others. If we really believed that, we
would be the most merciful of men, wouldn't we? Nothing glorifies God more than
humility. Nothing. Nothing. And meekness, There's another
word, but it means not only humility, but it means be submissive to
God's will. Submit to whatever God does and
sends your way. Submit to Him. It's the Lord.
It's the Lord. It's to prefer His honor. It's
to prefer His service. His name. The good of others. His glory. Nothing more beautiful. Isn't it? You know some meek
and humble people, don't you? There's nothing more beautiful.
Nothing more appealing. Who do you like to be around?
Do you like to be around arrogant people? Our Lord doesn't either. He said,
to this man would I look. He said, thus saith the high
and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity. I dwell with him that
is meek and lowly of a contrary heart. That's what our Lord said. The proud, the self-conceited,
you know, and here's the mark of the proud and the self-conceited.
Their favorite subject is themselves. And nobody likes to hear somebody
talk about themselves. On the other hand, meek and humble,
This person is interested in you. They are more interested
in you. Let's not talk about me, let's
talk about you. Didn't our Lord come completely for the good of His
people? Completely. Alright, go back to our text
now. Right after that, right after that, they said, receive
a child in my name, you receive me. He that is least shall be
the greatest." John, verse 49, answered and said, Master, we
saw one casting out devils in thy name. We forbade him, because
he followeth not with us. Now, there's much here. Much
here to be seen. Right after that, they saw this
man casting out a devil. And they said, you can't do that.
You can't do that. You're not with us. So, stop. Stop that. Who was this man? First of all, who was this man?
It doesn't say. Go to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter
5. It may be this man. Go to Mark
chapter 5. It made me this demoniac. Remember
the fellow that the Lord cast the devils out of? Verse 15.
They came to Jesus and they saw him that was possessed with the
devil and had the legions sitting and clothed in his right mind.
And it scared them, the men of this town. And they that saw
it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the
devil and also concerning the swine. And so all the people
of that town prayed him to leave part out of their coat. So when
he was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with
the devil prayed him that he might be with him. I want to
go with you. And our Lord suffered him not,
verse 19, but said unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell
them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath
had compassion on thee. And he departed. And he departed
and began, verse 20, he departed and began to publish in Decapolis
how great things Jesus had done for him. And all men did marvel. This fellow started preaching,
witnessing, everybody hearing. Could have been him. Couldn't,
because in chapter 9 is the same story, in Luke 9. So it was after
that. So it could have been this Who
better to cast out devils than one who's had one? What is it
to cast out devils? The gospel is the power of God
and salvation. When the Lord sent out His disciples
to preach, He said, go preach the gospel of the kingdom, cast
out devils, and heal. This is the power of God and
salvation. Every one of us, before the Lord
saved us, were possessed by the God of this world. What cast
him out? The Gospel did. That's the power
of God. So it could have been this fellow.
So he's out preaching. And Mark 9 said in his name,
back then, and our Lord said this, verse 50. Here's what the Lord said. Jesus
said unto them, Luke 9. Luke 9. Forbid him not, he that
is not against us is for it. That person is a believer. Right? No doubt about it. To say that Jesus is Lord back
then, for someone to say Jesus is Lord, Sovereign, for someone
to say it back then, that person knows the Lord. But it's a little
different now. This is a different day. This
is the last day. Our Lord said, Go with me to
Matthew 7. In the last days, many will say,
Lord, Lord. Many will come in my name, in
the name of Jesus. Christ, even calling Him Christ.
Lord, Lord. So it takes a little more discernment
now, doesn't it? Than it did back then. There
were fewer disciples. And for anybody to say that Jesus
of Nazareth was the Christ and Lord, they're going to be hated
and persecuted and killed very shortly. And they were. But not
now. Many can say that now. It doesn't
mean they believe it. Many say that. Many come in His
name in the last day. Key words. His name. For or against. Matthew 7. 21, not everyone that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? In thy name have cast out devils.
In thy name done many wonderful works. Now this is, he's talking
about the end. People standing before him are
the judgment. I'll profess unto them, I never
knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity." So many come today in the name of Jesus. They may
even call Him the Christ. They may call Him Lord, but that
doesn't mean they believe it. It doesn't mean they're a child
of God. Alright, here's a key. Here's
a key. His name. His name. Now, we've already said it. Our
Lord said, against us is for it. What is His name? What is
His name? Jesus. At the name of Jesus,
your knees are supposed to hit the ground, and out of your mouth
comes, Lord. You know what I'm saying? At
the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue should
say one thing. He's Lord. That's what you call
Him. That's what the Lord said. You
call me Master and Lord. You say, well, that's who I am. Anyone who continually and only
refers to the Lord of Glory, God, manifest in the flesh as
merely Jesus, Jesus this, Jesus that, precious Jesus, blessed
Jesus, they don't know Him. I don't care who it is. It's
wrong. Do you see that in the Scripture?
I went through Colossians. We're going to look at Colossians
this morning. Everywhere Paul called it Christ Jesus, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus, Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ. That's
his name. In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what he said. So anyone who continually and
only refers to our Lord as Jesus doesn't know Him, doesn't fear
Him, and doesn't reverence Him. That doesn't reverence Him. We
do not call our earthly fathers by their first name. That would
be dishonoring, wouldn't it? How much more? How much less
should we call our Heavenly Father? Anything but Lord. Well, that's
what His disciples did. They called Him Lord and Master.
But many of these days, our Lord said, we'll call Him Lord. Well,
who is for Him and who is against Him? The word against means on
the other side. The word against means opposed
to. Now, you're either for or you're against him. You can't
straddle the fence, so to speak. You cannot be for and against. I believe this, and. In Exodus
32, let me just tell you what happened in Exodus 32. Some sons
of Siva, not Siva, but these, what's his name? I forget. But anyway, these fellas took
it upon themselves to prophesy and burn incense and all of that.
And the Lord had called Moses. And they rose up and said, we've
got something to say too. Well, the Lord opened up the
earth and swallowed them all up. In another place, Moses stood
back and say, who's on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. Who's on the Lord's side? What's
that mean? That's for His glory, for His
name, for His honor, for His worship, for His Son, for His
truth, for His word, for His people, for His kingdom. If whatever
you do is not for that, it's against Him. And you can go in
these places, and if what you're seeing go on in there, no matter
what they call Him, Lord or Christ, if it has the appearance of being
for man's glory, man's free will, they're against it. They're against
it. It's Antichrist. That's how serious
it is. It's Antichrist. If it's not law, it's Christ. If it has the appearance of putting
people under the law, that's against Him. We're not under
the law. We're in Christ. No matter how
doctrinally sound it may appear. They talk about the sovereignty
of God and they believe the five points of Calvinism. But if you
bring people under the law, that's Galatians. That's what happened
at Galatia. And Paul said, that's another
gospel. You bring people under the law in any way, shape, form,
or fashion. As a rule of life, as a covenant
of work. That's another gospel. That's
what Galatians tells us. That's against it. Why? Because
Christ came. He's the one that must keep the
law. And you're not, he said, you're
not under the law. That's what he said. And on and on it goes. If it has the appearance of money
and not out-and-out worship of entertainment, it's against it. No matter what they say, it's
against it. It takes some discernment. And in Exodus 32, Moses said,
every man strap on your sword. Who's on the Lord's side? Come
unto me. and strap on your sword, and if your brother entices you
to worship another god, kill him. That's what he said back
then. Aren't you glad we're not under
the law? Deuteronomy 13 says the same thing. But whoever's not For us is against us. Our Lord
said that in another place. He that is not for us, he that
gathereth not with us scattereth abroad. But here he said whoever
is not against us is for us. Alright, so this fellow who is
casting out devils in Christ's name, he has to be preaching
the truth or Christ would not have condoned what he was doing.
He had to have been preaching that Christ is God manifesting
the flesh. He had to have been preaching
that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He had to have
been preaching the gospel. That's the only thing that cast
out the devil. Right? He had to be doing it for the
glory of God, for the glory of Christ, or Christ would have
forbade him himself. And there's no doubt, there should
be no doubt, in our day, people we don't know
who preach the truth. out there. And at least 7,000
have not bowed the knee to Baal. I don't know about preachers,
but there's certainly more than we know. But the litmus test,
the acid test, is who's getting the glory. Here it is. If you're
not absolutely 100% for His glory, you're against Him, no matter
how orthodox it may seem. Whose name is it? Whose work
is it? The fear of the Lord. I hear some fellows preaching
correct doctrine, but it's just irreverent, familiar, flippant,
witty, intellect, human reasoning. I'm thinking, that's not of the
Lord. It's irreverent. Now, all that
being said, look at the rest of these verses. Verse 51. He came to pass. When the time
was come, He should be received up. He steadfastly set His face
to go to Jerusalem. And this is a message all by
itself. Set His face like a flint. That's why He came. And again,
I remind you, when Peter tried to stop Him, and our Lord called
Him Satan. And here's a good illustration
and a good lesson in what The church is all about His true
preachers and people. They're all about preaching Christ
and Him crucified. Not just the love of Jesus and
Jesus' humanity and His servitude and humility and meekness and
all that. Which is all fine, but Christ
came to be a substitute. That's the sum and the substance,
the pith and the marrow. That's the center of the universe. Christ crucified. If the church
is not, man is not standing up, declaring, lifting up Christ
crucified all the time. He's against it. Peter, even Peter said, no, don't
go to the... Satan's behind that. Satan's all in this family church
business. Anything but Christ crucified.
Anything but the offense of the gospel, right? Well, he set his
face like a flint, verse 52, and he sent messengers before
his face, and they went and entered to a village of the Samaritan
to make ready for him. He sent a couple of his apostles
in there to whatever, find lodging or whatever, prepare the way,
like John, the forerunner. And the people of this Samaritan
village did not receive him. They wouldn't receive him. Because his face was as though
he would go to Jerusalem. Now, there's so much here, but
today, there's some places where the gospel is not. Why? According to our Lord's prerogative,
joy. But here, these Samaritans... Do you remember the woman at
the well? She was a Samaritan. The Lord must need to go through
Samaria. And He went there to find this one Samaritan woman.
And he's going to use her as a witness to go witness to some
others that come here. But she said to him, when he
talked to her, how is it that you being a Jew are talking to me, a Samaritan?
The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans, or vice versa. So what it was, these Samaritans,
they hated the Jews, and the Jews hated the Samaritans. We're
going through a race thing right now. It works on both sides,
people. Racism is in every race. And back then, the Jews, the
Samaritans, well, the Samaritans said, he's going to Jerusalem,
we don't want anything to do with him. Remember, our Lord sent Paul
to the Gentiles, so the Jews didn't want anything to do with
him. So you see, that's what happened here. Alright, so his
disciples, verse 54, his disciples James and John saw this. They
said, Lord, let's call down fire on these fellas. Let's kill them
all. Like Elijah did. And he turned and rebuked them,
verse 55, and said, You know not what manner of spirit ye
are of. In other words, that's a wrong spirit and attitude. You don't know what you're saying.
You forget where I found you. So here's the lesson to be learned. Now, he'd already rebuked them
for their pride and self-exaltation. Now he's rebuking them for being
exclusive. Wanting to destroy people instead
of seeing them saved. I'm guilty of that. We're all
guilty of this. People that don't believe the
truth. Anytime we get mad at somebody that doesn't believe
the truth, that's a bad attitude. We ought to stop and think that
maybe they're one of the Lord's own and if we wait long enough,
like Saul of Tarsus, The Lord might break that old fellow. And such were some of you, right? I'll never believe that truth.
You will if you're one of His elect. We just don't know when
it will happen. Bad spirit and bad attitude.
Verse 56 sums it up. The Son of Man is not come to
destroy men's lives, but to save them. That's why Christ came the first
time. And in preaching the gospel,
this is a lesson for me. Not trying to exclude anybody,
but hoping the Lord brings some people in. So I don't want to
preach in that way. I don't want to have that spirit
and attitude. And Christ is coming the next time to do what? Destroy. He didn't come the first time.
And He hasn't come back yet, which means some of these God-haters,
some of these people who hate the truth, they've come into
the bowl. So that's what we need to pray
for. And Paul was, again, Paul was the greatest. When our Lord
one time said, greater things than these you'll do. Oh, the
Lord used Paul greatly, didn't He? How many thousands of people
the Lord saved through the preaching of the Apostle Paul and through
his letters and so forth. How many? And nobody preached
the gospel more clearly than Paul did. The truth. In no uncertain
terms. Boldly. Dogmatically. Right? Like Romans 9. Ephesians 1 and
2. Nobody. And yet, this was his
attitude. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. He said,
I could wish myself a curse for my brother, my pharisaical brother. That's what he called him. They
all wanted him dead. Paul wanted them to live. That's
a good attitude. That's a Christlike attitude.
Oh, Lord, give me this attitude. Okay. Thanks.