Call me nearer, nearer, nearer,
Lord, to the home where Thou hast died. Call me nearer, nearer,
nearer, Lord, to the Texas field. All right, back to Luke chapter
9. I also want you to turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16. Luke chapter 9 is our text. Chapter and verse divisions are
very helpful in finding passages of Scripture. I'm glad we have them sometimes. The Word of God is not written
in divided form like this. It was added by the translators
for ease of location, locating the Scriptures. Sometimes it
can be a hindrance. As is the case, I believe, in
our text tonight. You know the old saying, you
can't see the forest for the trees. Sometimes we miss the
whole message of chapter and verse in the vision. 1 Corinthians
15, this is a very good example of this. I'll give you an example
of this and also an English lesson in the process. 1 Corinthians
15, this is the passage of Scripture that most persons give as a short,
concise description of the Gospel. But they usually stop at verse
four. Look at 1 Corinthians 15. Paul
says, "...Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also you have received, even
through any extent." Now, first of all, he needs to Go back and
read what Paul wrote in the first fourteen chapters. You can't
forget these. And over there, he says, I declare
unto you the gospel. By which you're saved, if you
keep the memory of why I preached unto you. All right, verse three
and four, he says, I delivered unto you, first of all, that
which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according
to the truth. And we know that in that statement,
you will find the Gospel according to the Scriptures, according
to Leviticus 16, according to Exodus and so on. And we know
that, all right, so go on. And how then he was buried and
he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Now, now,
wait a minute. You can't stop there. Every verse on that tribute
begins with what's called a conjunction. Conjunction. I want to enter
your former school picture. Conjunction means it's in conjunction
with what was said before. But he's drawn to it. He goes
on to explain a little further what was already said. All right. And stop there. I want you to
look at every single verse. It's the first letter, the first
word. And, after that, after that,
and, for, but, therefore, now, but, and, yea, for, and, then,
if, but, for, for, but, then, for, You see that? You can't stop with verse 4.
Especially because you've got to get to verse 25. Look at verse
25. For he must reign. You can't have a gospel without
him reigning. Alright, it says he rose again
according to the scriptures, but now he's reigning. And movement
has to go over it and it says that all of him has run away.
You see? So right there is the end of
that thought, of induction. You see that? Stop. These first
decisions were bad ideas. And most people make that mistake. They stop at the first door and
say, that's the government. You believe the project died
and buried, goes again, that's the government. And it goes a
little further than that. And it was all with him sitting
on the throne. Seek and satisfy the conqueror. All right, back
to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9, I had never noticed,
made the connection in what the Lord said to His disciples in
His first few verses with what followed. But you'll see an end,
and an end, and an end, and an end after all these verses. All
right, so there's a connection. I haven't seen it until now.
Now the title of this message is A Lesson in Humility and Compassion. A Lesson in Humility and Compassion. And it's a lesson that from the
oldest to the youngest, that we all need. We all need it. All right. Verse 46. There arose a reason among them
which of them should be the greatest. Now they no sooner had come down
from the mount of transfiguration where they beheld the glory of
the only begotten of the Father. That's what Peter said. That's
what John said later on. They just saw the glory of Christ. They heard the voice of God commanding
them to hear Him and Him only. They saw that right after that,
they came down to the mountain, they saw Christ cast out devils
from the heavens, and they couldn't do it. They tried. They failed
miserably. And they saw Christ cast out
these devils. They were told later, Christ,
the power of God. And then Christ reminded them,
verse 44, Christ reminded them, let these things sink down into
your ears. Do you remember us looking at
that? He said, this is what you need to be absolutely taken over. Christ crucified. Some man shall
be delivered from the hands of men. Well, it was no sooner,
he no sooner said that than they started arguing among themselves.
It was great. Pride. Pride. Pride knows no bounds. Pride
plays no favors. Pride is found in everyone, in
everything, in every situation. Everything we are, everything
we do, everything we say. Right. Because it's a weed that
grows in the bush. And you can't eradicate it. You
can't eradicate it. Rich, poor, young, old, male,
female, it grows well in any type of soil. Right. Turn to Isaiah 23. Isaiah
23. This is the most remarkable passage
of Scripture. I'll never forget when I first
read this. This reveals what God Almighty
thinks about pride. Isaiah 23. Pride, as you know,
from Proverbs 16, is the thing God hates the most. And He's so open to reason that
God wants to show His strength. Really, pride is behind unbelief. Pride is behind us. Pride of
life. Pride of life. Well, how does
that 23 and 9, verse 9, it says, The Lord God hath purposed here
to stain the pride of all glory, even cause himself jealous that
because he's not going to share his glory with another, not through
a sinful way. And to bring into contempt, God's
purpose, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt
all the honorable Americans. That's a powerful portion of
truth. And this is why salvation, Salvation
is a humbling experience. Salvation is designed to humble
sinners. Because if we do not first humble,
then we'll be exalted. If we're humble, then we'll be
exalted. And God is going to first Time,
the first word of conviction to everyone that he purposes
to say. The first word of conviction. Convincing us of sin, which he
brings back, of our guilt before God. Until the end. Until the time that we go to
be with him. It's a humbling experience. The
word of God comes to us. It causes us to know that we
are nothing, because we're nothing. Thus, that we know nothing. All in one place. See, we're
not even sufficient to think anything. What am I saying? Think life on it. And we can
do nothing. Christ said, without me, you
can't do nothing. And that will never amount to
anything. Unless he does something for
me. And he's summing all that up,
and I call it sovereign grace. See, salvation is a humbling
experience. That all we are and have is by
grace. Again, received from above. One
of my favorite verses of Scripture. What do you have if you have
not received? Now that you've received, How do you go into
that conversation? No cost, no room for budget. Well, these disciples lost sight
of it, and we all did. We all did. We all did. Some. Verse 46, they began to reason
among themselves which of them should be greatest. You think about what the Lord
found himself. And out here in the arch, I don't
know if it's great. It's not as if Brother Henry
found him in some exquisite stool somewhere, you know. With great
potential and great natural gifts, he found him in a poke. Most
of them were found in a poke. There's one of them, Luke. Yeah,
Luke wasn't one of them. All the apostles were for the
light, from nowhere to right now. And that's where the Lord
found them, down by the sea, and the lightning. Now here they
are, just a little while later, they are back to secretion. My
father-in-law, I don't know if this is a true story or not,
but he always tells his story about his wife Joyce. How did he found her? Remember
he always tells this story, he said he found her, and it may
be true, there were four back then. He said he found her down
at Central Park picking up pop rocks. I don't doubt that, because
that's where he was too. But he always tells that story,
and while that may or may not be true, And we sure can't remember the
pit from which we were to be put off to. But the Lord found us. Don't
forget it. You know, the scripture said the goodness of God meets
us through Him. You despise the riches of His
grace? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no And that goodness is like David,
like Nathan, who reminds us today of where the Lord found him,
and how good he had been to him all his life, and where he brought
him to, where he found him, and the point to which he brought
him to now. That's the goodness of God that leads a man to heaven. And David was just a
shepherd boy, just a lad that had his own. God put him on the
throne of Israel, and his apostles, and his brothers,
and put him on the throne of Israel. Well, disciples
talked to him over in Mark chapter 9 and said they were doing it
privately before him. And I asked them, I said, well,
what are you talking about? And he confronted them and said,
what was the reason among yourself? And they, they were embarrassed. They got caught. And, uh, by a few days, the pastor
reminded us, a couple of weeks ago, this time we should be borrowing
the site. Because we're all good. You know,
any time that we talk about someone else, What we are doing against that
is exalting ourselves. That's exactly what we're doing. We're all beautiful. All right. What is he talking
about? And they were embarrassed. They were ashamed of themselves
for what they were talking about. And he admonishes them, he says. All right. Verse 47, seeing the
thought of their heart, he took a child, and sent him by him. A little child brought him up
and set him right beside him. And he laughed. But then he looked
at him, and he said unto me, Whosoever shall receive this
child in my name, receiveth this. Whosoever shall receive me, receiveth
him that sent him. For he that is least among you
all, the same shall he receive." But the Lord is teaching us that's
meant to do it, and He's using a child as an example. Now, in
the other Gospels, the emphasis is on being converted, becoming
little children, receiving the Word as a little child. And that,
you never need, you never need to recite that. You receive the
Word as little babies. The diary of the Spirit filled
with the Word, we receive it, and then we've never heard it
before. and humbled and submissive to it, and all of it amazed by
it, and willing to submit to it. But the end of the lesson
he's showing up here, and we'll see that by the time, is receiving presence. All right? The Lord is teaching
us what our attitude, first of all, should be about ourselves and what our attitude should
be about others. That's what He's teaching here in this sermon.
All right? We need to lightly shame ourselves. Anybody think he's something
when he's wise? No. Well, he's standing right
now. Scripture says we can look on
things as others. How is this thing? But he's just
seen others as others. Better than ourselves. Our Lord
said this. He said if we would judge ourselves,
judge ourselves, we wouldn't even judge our brothers. But
if we see that we've got a beam in our eye, we wouldn't bother
with the flame in our eye. If we would be strict on ourselves,
we would be compassionate to God. This is what we've been
taught here. So, he's going to go on and go
straight ahead. All right? How we will receive
us. All right, let's go to verse
forty-nine, too, in context. And, now, right after the Lord
said this, John must have not heard what he said. I killed
him. You can kill anyone. Most sinners have already taught
me something from this Word that I speak out and act like it is
the only Word you see. But John, verse 49, answered
and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name,
and we forbade him, because he followed not with us. And Jesus
said unto him, Forbid him wrong, for he that is not against us
is on us. Do you see the connection there?
I never met this connection before. They had this illustrated to
them by experience, all right? They went out, and then eventually
they saw some fellow preaching, and now devils, what catch that
devil? There's only one thing you can't
do out there. The gospel. Alright? Just go preach in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright? And the disciples said,
you can't do that. God, you're not with us. You
don't know nothing. You're not with us. You can't
do that. And the Lord said, either it's not against us, it's for
us. Now listen to this. I need this. We need this. And things are said against one
another. We've been talking about, we've
been studying the letters in Revelation, how the Lord told
them not to be tolerant of certain errors and heresies. Well, this is said over at Kinsey.
We can be tolerant of ignorance in people. and at the same time
be intolerant of error. You hear that? We can be tolerant
of the ignorance of people at the same time as being intolerant
of their error. We can be tolerant of people
without being intolerant of God. Right? We can, as you said, hate
the garment that was spotted with the pledge without hating
the person that's wearing it. It's all such worth something. Everyone, especially those who
came out of it. All right, in verse 49, they
said, he knows he's not following us. And we told him to quit. They should have been more like
John, who saw who was following him and said, who's following
me? He followed the lamb. Well, you see, he's not following us.
He's not following us. Well, if you want the Lord, that's
what you need to do. Not us. You want to be one of
us. Well, now here's a lesson in
compassion for these young preachers, these young apostles. I told
you, I knew this. I knew this. And to put this
in modern, modern interpretation, There have been young men, and
are still young men, who did not have the advantage of growing
up in a place where the gospel was preached 40 years ago. did
not have the advantage of experience, pasture, and elders, and men,
and women, as exactly members of the church, as exactly to
him, and yet he learned the gospel. He hears the gospel, he learns
the gospel, and he knew the pastures by then, so he began his pasture. What does he do? Not necessarily, but not necessarily. You know, these disciples, when
the Lord sent these disciples out at first, how much did they
know? How much? Now, but the Lord says, and He
is good. And I bet if you asked every
single man that ever stood in a bullpen, every true Christian,
these men that have done this, everyone would say that when
he first started, he had no business where he came from. Would you say that for a moment?
Would you agree with that? When he first started, eventually
he jumped back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, And it's true. But he said, God had mercy on
the church. It was 24-year-old fashion. And God is so weak, you know,
so humble, he would lead that way. And he, God got mad with
his hands. God did have mercy on that church. That's what I'll do here when
I'm 30. Oh my, so much that I would like to retract and live over
again. It can't be undone, it can't be undone. So that's a
lesson in humility and compassion for young priests. That's the
mission, all right? Here's just a prayer box, right
here, verse 61. And so it came to pass, now that
provided Now, whoever is preaching, he's
not compromising the gospel. That should go without saying.
Now, I think of all the men that have been, that I've heard preached
to, various preachers and that, and have graciously been encouraging
them in the ministry, have been preaching their bullshit, I think. But, uh, the gospel is not a
common thing. Okay. But, uh, they were in his
name. They were preaching in Christ's name. Christ said they
were in his name before he was preaching Christ. All right.
Verse 51. Now this is for everyone. Lesson in compassion for God.
He came to pass, and when the time had come that he should
be received of us, he set fast and set his faith to go to Jerusalem." This is right here in the Gospel
of Matthew, and it says, can I just stop right here for a
second? He says, he says, in that passage of the
Book of Revelation, from the moment that Christ's
child's eyes were opened, Every purpose that God wants to do it, every step that Christ
took before it, every step Christ said, so this cause he
came into the world to redeem his people by the sacrifice of
himself on Calvary tree. And this is why Paul said, God
forbid that I, we should go over and save the cross before he
comes. That's what he means by the cross.
He preaches to say, now let this thing down in your ear. I'm going
to come. And that's how I'm going to have
a great day out there. And what I'm going to do with
it is just take a step back. God forbid that we should go
away. Nothing in I am, but glory in
the great I am. Nothing in I do, The glory and
all that He has done. That's our glory. Go to verse
62. And so He sent messengers before His face, and wasn't He
sure? That is the memory of the truth of God. He goes before
the perplexed. And they went, and entered into
a village of the Samaritans, and they prayed for Him. And
it says they did not receive Him. I believe that they didn't receive
Him. He sent two messengers before, and they didn't receive Him.
They came in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they said,
we don't want you. And our Lord said that. He said, he that receives you,
receives me. He that doesn't, doesn't receive
me. He that hears you, will hear
me. So that's an illustration of that. And I believe it was
James and John that he sent, because James and John were the
ones that got married. They were the ones to teach the
lesson. They were the principal characters involved in his pregnancy
business. Remember? James and John's mother
ran off with him. You remember that? James and John's mother said,
my boy's off to be pregnant. Frankly, one was on the right
and one was on the left. But they're clearly superior
to the rest of these folks. Well, James and John were the
ones that he learned his lesson from. Well, I'll take my place
with James. And, well, they came into this
town, carried it away, and the people did not receive them.
All right. Well, the same holds true with
us. Now, we come to somebody and we tell them the truth and
tell them about Christ. We come to our family, we come
to our friends, we come to our co-workers or whatever, our neighbors,
and we tell them the truth, and they get mad at us for what we
do. Let's be mad at them. No. No,
they're not mad at us, he said. They're not mad. No, they are, but they're not.
Christ said, it's not you they're mad at. Don't touch me personally. Well, and I believe Christ has
decided to meet us in a dignified manner. Time before they were
killed in dignity. Well, as you can see. And who's verse 54? When the
disciples came to John and called him, they said, Lord, will thou
that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume
them even as the lions did, let us burn them all up. Lord, let
us burn them up. Have you ever wanted to do this?
I feel good, guys. I understand. I'll speak out. I understand. I still love this
country. I'd like to tour again. Look at that, look at that big
building there in Eastern Mississippi. Now, it has the biggest sundry
school in the world right now, in Eastern Mississippi. Had a thousand in a sundry school
earlier. There ain't nothing too bad. Let's call down fire. Let's burn
it up. There's some people in there
that tell you where you're at. Now there's some people in there. There are. There are old sodomites.
Let's burn those sodomites. Let's burn these guys. Who wants
to be in there? Who wants to be in there? Let's
give these guys burgers. That's okay. Or let's call them
fire on these, these, these ignorant Armenians. It doesn't make sense. Such work, so many years. Just
burn up that place, that seven-adage place up here in town. Let's
burn this set fire to the whole building. Burn them all away
to think of things. Because there's no need to fire
to think of things. It's never going to have a purpose. They get what they want. They
don't. And, Lord, when we think of this, that over time the scriptures
of the Lord will be reduced to every
one of these signs again. Amen. And I was talking to one
of the doctors, and he said, well, I just always happen to
say that he puts all of them, and for me, it is much stronger
than the purge. And he said, well, I don't know if you can
get it, but if you've been assigned to it, it looks like you can
get it. Whereas he said, in turn, if
you think that you don't know what matters, you don't get it. You know what you're after, don't
you? That's what you're saying. You know what you're after, don't
you? You can do whatever you want. And this is what we're getting
at. You know what you're getting at. You're not killing. You're
not killing. You're destroying man's life. That's what you're saying. I'm tempted to destroy. Christ
didn't come the first time to destroy me. That's it. He didn't just add additional
words at the time. It doesn't need to be an additional word. Right here, you don't want
to call it a fire. It's not. He's not a powerful man. God said the first time,
he said that he was talking to the devil. So, everybody's off. We don't know who he's talking
to. We don't know who they are. We don't know when the Lord will
bring them to Him. Or how. Except the gospel. And let the gospel be the advance.
All right? Let's do the advanced gospel.
In every one of us there's much that's dangerous. If we can present
the gospel, like Paul said in Timothy, Paul said, the servant
of the Lord must not sigh, but be gentle unto all men, act and
teach, and find out the way. But the Lord, thanks for his
vengeance, gives him the pen to denounce the sin of the world. We were down there in the Armistice. And the only fire, the fire that
God called down upon us was a fire of self-pity. That burned up
ours, the three of us, like that. But fires were false in the New
Testament. All God's love burned us whole,
that's right. The right man, he's still the same. The door
in the ark, here's an illustration. God's purpose is to destroy the
whole world and save those of his family. So what's the sign?
After he's got those of his family in the ark, what happens? He's waiting, seven. That's the picture of a long-suffering
Bible. Long-suffering is more established. I'm not ready for
them to call me a fire-fished kid. That's what I'm saying to
you. That's what I'm saying to others,
you know. I say it to Mary, and I say it
to her. So thank you. So thank you. Remember this,
and when you do, I'm glad you didn't call us by our own voices. And he didn't feel that at all.
He thought that he had to leave that reaction, and it was just
out of the box. So, in closing, here are both
of them. May we have a question on this? Okay. Well, I don't want you to turn
and close in five minutes, but all of the words down are so
perfectly connected. If we had the capacity, if we
had the understanding, we could see that out of everything our
Lord said was absolutely correct. Now, it starts out with a lesson
about the four. Do you know how many places we need to go? Let's go to Mercy. Let's go to
Mercy. Those are the four that reaffirm
themselves in need of a new mercy. Let's go to the New Testament. So Philippians 2 illustrates
this. Philippians chapter 2, quote. Now, so the Lord teaches us a
lesson in humility. and compassion. He teaches the
disciples a lesson in humility, and they don't learn it, so he
reduces them. That he that is gracious is gracious. He that
is gracious among you is good. He that is gracious among you
is a servant. There's no seniority in heaven. If there was, brother Daniel,
the last new birth of something, Right? Eleven hours we pay the
same goes to him over here. Chief's seat is the seniority
there, and the chief's seat belongs to the last one there. He's going to call the chief's
seat. Boy, that's, that's a lot of
work. That's great. But if there's no chief's seat,
there's nothing. Now, well, So the Lord teaches
us humility there, and they don't learn it from Him, so He refused
them. Well, look at this, let me conclude, you know this well.
It says in verse 3, Let nothing be done through strife or painful,
but in lowliness of mind that each should think other better
than the first. Paul wasn't there, but he learned the lesson there.
He was one of the apostles, Luke chapter one, at a due time. And
he learned, the Lord taught him this. So he said, Look not every
man on his own thing, but every man on the things of others.
Let this man be in him, which was also his pride. Verse seven
says, He took upon him the form of a servant unto himself, wherefore
God exalted him. And Luke chapter one, verse 15.
So he says, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without fear. I'll have it, I'll never leave
it. And there's no danger of being
abused. You should stay loved. That's
a good life too. Stay loved, stay nice. You're a little child.
You should stay loved. You need to be pleased. That's
something humility and compassion have in common. Our Mercyful Heavenly Father,
we're grateful and thankful to Thee for Thy marvelous grace,
which Thou hast sent. Father, we're thankful for Thy
love, Thy patience, long-suffering, and kindness to us. Our Father,
we're thankful for Thy Word. Thankful, our Father, for this
passage. Thankful, our Father, for bringing
us here, here today. Our Father, may we not soon forget. May we always remember this message. May we grow in grace and in the
knowledge of Christ. Maybe this will be more like
him. Show forth kindness, love, out of an attitude of loveliness
in ourselves. Our Father, may we see ourselves
as God sees us. Father, may we ever look to Christ,
who is our life, who is our all, bless us in our hearts and bless
us in our location, in our homes, in our schools, and our Father,
enable us to show forth Christ. Let there be light in the end. We will humble ourselves. So
be faithful to us. Father, we're thankful. In Christ's
name, give thanks. Amen. We have to have some deals, right?
We have to have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right?
We have to have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right?
We have to have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right?
We have to have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right?
We have to have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right?
We have to have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right? We
have to have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right? We
have to have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right?
We have to have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right? We
have to have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right? We have to
have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right? We have to
have some deals, right? We have to have some deals, right Thank you. I don't know. I don't know.