Matthew 18. Let's read the first
six verses. At the same time came the disciples
unto Jesus saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto Him and set him in the midst
of them and said, Verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted,
and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble
himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom
of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such
little child in my name, receive of 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." Now over in Mark's
Gospel, and this is recorded in three places, Mark's Gospel
says this, Let me find it here. They were
disputing among themselves, and the Lord asked them, who knows
our thoughts. They were talking privately,
and the Lord asked them, what was it that you disputed among
yourselves along the way? He knew. It says they held their
peace. That is, they hung their heads. And because they'd been disputing
who should be the greatest, and that's when he called a little
child up and sat that child down as an object lesson. It's amazing,
isn't it, that they would be disputing among themselves which
one was the greatest. Not long before this, they were
just a bunch of fishermen, a bunch of nobodies from nowhere. And
the Lord, in amazing mercy and grace, chose them and called
them and brought them to Himself and taught them and led them
and fed them and protected them and restrained them and constrained
them. And everything they received,
they received from Him. And now, just a little while
later, a couple of years, they're talking about how great they
are. That's amazing, isn't it? But we're all guilty. We're all
guilty. Pride is our greatest problem. Pride is our biggest problem,
and it's really something we should have the least of. Because what do we have we have
not received? And if we received it, how or
why would we glory as if we didn't receive it? By the grace of God,
Paul said, I am what I am. I know what I know. I am where
I am. Pride is our biggest problem,
and it's the source of most of our problems within ourselves.
If somehow we could get rid of pride, we wouldn't be offended. Nobody could really offend us,
really. And if we could get rid of pride,
we wouldn't offend others. So it's our biggest problem.
And they were in the presence of the Great One. They were in the presence of
the Great One. And yet they were thinking of
themselves too highly on that. And we are too. We are too. I don't know what your thoughts
have been this morning. I know what some of mine have
been. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves, shouldn't we, in
the presence of our great Lord? Now, you're talking about ignorance. You're talking about needing
to be converted. You're talking about needing to be changed from
a poor attitude. They needed it. And if they needed
it, how much more do I need it? The Lord used a child as an object
lesson. I've done this before, but we
don't have any children up here right now. I held your granddaughter
up here one time. I remember about six years before
that, Amber came up here and sat. And Caitlin was a little
girl. But he had a child and sat that
child either on his lap or in the midst of all those grown
men. And he said, except you be converted,
except you be changed from where you are right now. To every one
of them. There wasn't one of them that
was not guilty of this. Not one of them. Starting with
Peter, James, John, Thomas, all of them. Bartholomew, Matthew.
He said, all of you be converted, changed from then. He didn't
say, I'll reprimand you. He didn't say, I'll chasten you. He said, and it's this serious,
he said, You won't even enter the kingdom of heaven. You're
not going to be there, let alone be the greatest. Converted means
to be turned around. Turned around. Now, there's a
difference between regeneration and conversion. I wish I had
the article you wrote on that years ago. Excellent article.
The difference between regeneration and conversion. Regeneration
is being given life, being born again, a new creature. Conversion
means to be turned from something, turned from a wrong way, a wrong
attitude, converted, turned around. And now here's a key verse of
Scripture. that the Apostle Paul, the Lord
told him to write, he said this, now, be children in malice. That is, be like children in
the attitude, and we're going to go into that in depth. But
be men or grown-ups in understanding. Be adults, be mature in understanding,
but be little children in attitude. But conversion means to be turned
from something, a bad direction, a bad attitude. Turn me, O Lord,
and I'll be turned. And we all get in a bad way. Every one of us. Get it with
me. We're flesh, and flesh is prone to turning the wrong way. And we need to be turned around,
especially when we get puffed up, and we need to be converted
and become as little children. Little children. Now, know this
too. He said, except ye be converted. We cannot convert ourselves. With man, this is impossible.
We put ourselves in a bad way. should blame ourselves for getting
in a bad spirit and attitude. We're not listening to the Lord.
We're not doing what He said. And there's no way out of that
except the Lord turn us and convert us. So this is why He says so
much to us. Pray without ceasing. Whosoever
shall call shall be saved. Saved from what? Needing to be
converted. Don't get it in a bad way. Well,
he said, except you be converted and become as little children,
you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. You're not
going to be there. And whosoever, verse 4, whosoever therefore
shall humble himself as this little child, the same as the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Who humbled himself more than
anyone ever? The Lord Jesus Christ. This is
what he said in Philippians. The Lord said in Philippians
2, because he humbled himself, took upon himself the form of
a servant, humbled himself, became as a servant, therefore God has
highly exalted him, given him a name which is above every name. And you know, our Lord was the
only truly happy man, though he was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Our sorrows. He wouldn't have had any griefs
or sorrows if he hadn't had the four hours. That's a good kind of grief and
sorrow to bear in other people. Let me learn that. He was a happy
man. Why? Because he said, take my
yoke upon you and learn of me. I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you'll find rest. You'll find rest. Trying to be
the greatest. The Lord's not going to let that
happen, and you're going to be miserable. He's going to make
sure that you are. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. He'll
exalt you in due time. The Lord said, of such is the
kingdom of heaven. Little children. Whosoever shall
humble himself." What is it to humble ourselves and be childlike? Well, number one is to be lowly. It's to not think too highly
of ourselves. Little children, and I don't
know what age that would be, you know. I don't know how old
that child was, maybe four. Little, little child. I certainly
wasn't an infant, a child that could understand and speak, and
it wasn't a teenager. But a little child, I don't know
what age it is, but you know what he's saying, a little child,
little children, little children, do not think they are great and
important people. They just don't. They just don't. Be lowly. You know, we shouldn't
have to... humble ourselves in that way,
think of ourselves as lowly, remember that we are. It shouldn't be too hard to be lowly
because that's what we are. What do we have that we don't
receive? We're the most dependent of all
of God's creatures on the earth. Man, born naked. And we're going to die naked,
aren't we? And everything we get along the
way, food and raiment and protection and knowledge, comes from the
Lord, comes from above. We ought to be lowly, lowly,
humble. A little child is teachable.
A little child is very teachable, willing to listen. The Lord said
in another place, be more ready to hear. Little children know
that they don't know much. And they're just so willing to
listen. If I was going to be a teacher
in school, I suppose, well, I wouldn't want to be one, no matter what
age it is. They have a tough job, teachers
in school. But I suppose it would be preschool,
preschool, before they learn anything. before they think they
know anything. You know, first or second grade,
third grade, they really, really know a lot by then. Fifth, sixth,
forget it. The preschool, they don't know
anything. They can't read, they can't write,
they can't do anything. And they're hanging on every
word that that teacher... And that teacher can say, here's
an A. A? Wow! Show me that again. Do you remember hearing the gospel
for the first time? I mean, really hearing the gospel
for the first time. And you heard a man stand up
and say, God is merciful to the chief of sinners. Wow. Would you tell me that again?
Every message you heard was the best message you ever heard. I remember reading And I read
every one I could get my hands on. And I remember thinking,
if a man just said grace, if a man just said mercy, sovereign
election, forgiveness, I thought it was the greatest message I
ever heard. And what happens to us? What happens to us? We left our
first love, didn't we? We become rich and increased
with goods, knowledge, and have need of them. We don't need those
basic things. Oh, yes we do. If we think that,
we need to go right back and start all over again. We become
dull of hearing. Paul said we need to become,
ought to be teachers, but we ought to become as one that needs
to be taught all over again. A little child is very teachable,
very willing to listen and learn, free from prejudice and preconceived
notions. Everything you tell that child
is just there in all of it. And again, to humble ourselves
is to do what you're doing right now, to put yourself under the
Word of God. The only thing that will humble
us, things, two things basically, the only things that will humble
proud flesh, sinners, is the Word of God. The only thing. Unless God convicts us of something,
we won't be convicted of it. Unless God turns us, we won't
be turned. It doesn't matter who says what.
It doesn't matter what happened. God must speak to us. This is
how God humbles us, right here. There is no other way. And trials.
And trials. The Word of God and trials. And
thank the Lord. He chastens us and humbles us
more through His Word than any other way. We come here. I know I speak for you. We come
here to be taught. We come here to hear from the
Lord. We come here to be corrected.
I need correction. I need it more now than I've
ever needed in my life. That I've reverted right back
in any way. Lord, what's wrong with me? Haven't I learned anything? Haven't
I grown in grace at all? Let me just start all over today. Teach me. A little child is trusting. You know, children trust their
parents. And whatever a parent tells a
little child, they'll believe it. They'll believe it. But the older you get, the more
you start analyzing things. Well, what about this? Or what
about that? What about this? Our Lord says, trust Me. Trust
Me. We should trust our Heavenly
Father. We should trust His Word. No. Listen to him. Listen to her. Our Lord is going
to tell us in the next message, I am the way. There is no other way. Whatever
he says is the way. There's not a better way. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not to thine own understanding. We need to think
about that every day, don't we? That's one of your favorite verses,
isn't it? We need to think about that every day, because we start
to grow older and we start looking around and listening. No, become
as a little child. Trust your Lord. He cannot lie,
and everything He says is the only way. Trust Him. Children are trusting. Little
children are dependent, totally dependent. upon their parent
for everything. Little children just don't worry
about too much. They just don't. They don't worry
about too much. Partly, this is ignorance, but
mostly trust. They trust the love that their
father and mother has to them, and they don't question it at
all. They don't question the love
and the care that their parents have for them. Not at all. I know they take things for granted.
We do too. But there's a great deal of trust there in it. They
love me. They know it. How much more does our Heavenly
Father care for us? I'll tell you how much more.
You know how high the heavens are above the earth? I'm not
talking about the atmosphere. Go into deep space. And get in
a rocket and keep going. Long past the sun, 25 million
years. That's the love of God. We just don't trust Him. Oh,
my. Little children are dependent,
totally dependent. They don't worry about much. They don't earn anything. They don't work for anything. You don't charge your children
rent. You don't make them pay for food. They don't earn anything. They don't... You just give. You just give, don't you? Just
keep giving and giving and giving. There's nothing you love more
than to give your children. Nothing you love more. Nothing
you love more. Our God is gracious. That's his name. Grace. Grace is his name. Mercy is his
name. Love is his name. He doesn't
just show it, he is it. Why wouldn't we trust him? Dependent. Little children know everything
is provided for them and always will be. I'd love to not get beyond that,
wouldn't you? Little children are unworldly, for the most part,
unworldly. Little children, that is. They're
not caught up in the trends and the fashions of the day. They
don't care so much what other people, other kids say or think
about them, the way they look, the way they appear, the way
they sound to others. They're not too concerned about this
and that and the other, either. They don't care. They don't care
what house, they're really not, their house, they're unaware
of what kind of house they live in. They're unaware of what kind
of, little children, unaware of what kind of car their mother
drives. I've got to tell the story. Me and these parents were fairly
well off, and she got up in the Seventh grade. I got up in seventh grade, and
Lincoln Continental was in the garage. First grade. Well, that's worse. That means
you were really depraved. At any rate, women are to keep
silent. First grade, all right? Their
Lincoln Continental was in the garage, and they loaned them
a 49 Ford or something. That's what we want to ride in,
wasn't it? A 49 Ford, not that Lincoln.
But anyway, her mother came to pick her up to school, and she
didn't want to ride in that car. She was embarrassed. And what did her mother do? And
her mother came from the other side of the tracks. And her mother
said, all right, you little... I'm not going to tell you what
she called her. You just walk on. And she did. Several miles. Did you learn your lesson? Somewhat. Do we? No. Could we be content
with nothing now, after all we've had? It'd be tough, wouldn't
it? Little children are unworldly. They don't care. They're not
concerned about house or car, clothes or speech or anything
like that. Do you know what we sound like
to our Heavenly Father, to the Lord? Do you know what the disciples,
everything they said sounded like to the Lord Jesus Christ? Utter foolishness. Silly little worldlings. But he didn't upgrade them. Little
children are unambitious. They don't have great ambitions.
They're generally content with a little. They don't seek great
things for themselves. Food. Arrangement. They want
to play. But that's about it. The Lord warned the prophet about
it. Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not.
Our Lord was rich. He came forth. Solomon said, I've
tried it all, and I'm here to tell you, it's not only vanity,
but it's dangerous. Solomon's heart was turned away. Solomon did exactly what the
Lord told Moses to tell the king not to do. Multiply houses. Multiply wives. Multiply horses. And He did just that. It was
only the mercy of God that kept Him from falling away. Be as little children. Be little
children. Free from malice. Malice. Little children don't read things
into suspicions. Free from that. Little children
don't read things into what other children say. What do you mean
by that? They forgive quickly. They forget
completely. I remember fighting with my brothers,
fighting with my friends. My very best friend and I got
in the worst knock-down, drag-out fight. He bloodied my lip. I bloodied his nose. We were
inseparable companions. Marky Boggs. Mark's the one I
pulled out of the basement dead when he was 15. He's my best
friend. Carried his dead body out of
the basement. I was supposed to sleep there. Actually, I slept
there many times in that same room. I hope and pray Mark is
with the Lord. May be. Spare him. But anyway, we've
gotten a knock-down drag-out fight. And the next day, it's
like it never happened. It's like it never happened. My middle brother and I used
to get in a lot of fights. It's mostly his fault, you know. Now, let me tell you something.
Between brothers, it's always 50-50. Always. Always. I look back now that I'm older
and think, what a little punk I was. A little antagonist. But at any rate, to this day
I can't remember the cause, the reason for one single fight that
we had, brother, not one. And we love each other now more
than ever. Free from malice, easily forgive,
easily forget, quickly forget. Strife, if there's a problem,
get over it. Guile, don't harbor grudges.
Guile, no hidden innuendo, no little subtle Trickery, not trying
to swindle. Hypocrisy. Little children, what
you see is what they are. Little children. Tender. Tender, moved, touched. If you say something funny, don't
ask. Nothing sweeter than a child's
laughter, except maybe the laughter of a young believer upon hearing
the glorious gospel. If you tell a sad story, they're
going to cry. Tender. We're talking about growth
and grace here. If we grow hard, we start over
again. We'll be converted. Children
are shocked by sin. Children are shocked by sin. I want you to think of the irony
of this, that what the world calls adult material ought to be very offensive and
shocking to God's children. The world's got it wrong, all
wrong, whatever pure, We need to convert to knowing.
Starting with me. Little children are grateful
for the most part. You know this is not, there is
no perfect illustration, but our Lord used it. Little children. And then he went on to say, and
I've got to quit, I'm out of time. He said, you receive one
such little child in my name, you receive me. A little child
is a believer. He said, one that believeth in
me. Verse 6. One of these little ones which
believe in me. The Lord had called a little
child. He called this little child, right? Who are believers? Those that are called. How are
they called? By our gospel. The gospel. Those that know that live in
a true God. We're talking about people that
know the only true God. People that know their doomed and damned sinners and
unworthy and wretched, helpless, vile, blind, naked, poor sinners
in the hands of a holy God. These are just basic fundamentals,
all right? Children that know that nothing they can do, nothing
they have done, not their will, not their choice. Oh, and the
mercy, sovereign, electing mercy and grace of God to them. Children
that know Christ is their only hope. Only the blood of Jesus
Christ will put away their sin. They're not trying to put them
away. Only the righteousness of Christ will make them holy
before God, accepted in the beloved. They all know that. They're all
taught of God. All thy children shall be taught
of the Lord. We're not talking about anybody
that says they believe in Jesus. Because our Lord said in Matthew
7, many will say, we've done this, we've done it in your name,
in Jesus' name. He said, I never knew you. Many
believed in him back then, didn't they? But our Lord didn't. He
knew what was in it. But this one has been called.
It's one that's sitting in the midst of him, where two or three
are gathered in his name that worship God in spirit, rejoice
in Christ Jesus, have no confidence in the flesh. That's the true
circumcision, where two or three of these are gathered. They're
right in the middle of that. Here, soaked in that. Listen
to the gospel. And no confidence in the flesh. All right? A little
child. Now, a little believer, a young
believer doesn't know much. A young believer just doesn't
know much at all. And they have a lot of baggage,
a lot of ignorance that they're carrying over from their religion
or from the gutter that they were in. Language, whatever it
may be, you know. Habits. for an older believer to offend
one of those. What's salvation? How is anyone
saved by the grace of God, by the mercy of God, by Jesus
Christ, by faith, by works, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ? That's
it. That's it. So for anybody to
really believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to offend that one with... I'll give you an illustration. I know a preacher and several
others who made salvation such an intellectual attainment that things had to be stated
so perfectly. that he turned his so-called
church into doctrinal Pharisees. And literally, I went there to
preach, and literally, when he was done, there were no children
there at all. I'm talking no infants, no toddlers,
no teenagers. There were no, literally, no
children in that congregation. You'll know them by their fruit. And our Lord said it would be
better if a millstone were tied about the neck. Our prayer should be this, and
you know, He said in another place to receive the Word as
a little child. Our prayer should be this, Lord
let me, I need converting. I need converting. Start with
me. Start with me. Our prayer should be Not, Lord
would you keep others from offending me, but rather keep me from offending
others. To be like Christ is a growth
in grace, it's a downward growth. John put it best, he said, for him to increase, For the
gospel to increase, grow sweeter and more glorious to me. When self starts rising, grace
starts coming down. When self gets loathsome, mercy
gets higher. Thank you.