On a cross crucified In great
sorrow he died giver of life was he. Yet my Lord was despised and
rejected again, this Jesus of Calvary. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity. Surely He has known all our sorrow. And by His stripes we are healed. He has healed my sick soul, made
me every with more. He'll do the same for you. He's the same yesterday, and
today, and forever. The healer of souls is He. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity. Surely He has known all our sorrows. and by His stripes we are healed. Surely He has known all our sorrows and by His stripes we are healed. Do you know where the majority
of our problems and troubles come from? I know you'll say sin, but one
specific sin, perhaps the root of it all, pride. It's where the majority of our
problems and troubles come from. Most of our problems come from
thinking way too highly of ourselves. Much too highly. Especially our
religious misconceptions come from thinking way too highly
of ourselves. But our problems arise from pride,
you know, our problems on the job where we work. We get mad
if somebody tells us what to do or if we get reprimanded. Perhaps we're not in the wrong,
but somebody reprimands us anyway, and we get mad as if we were
the boss, don't we? What right has he got to say
that to me? He's the boss. In the stores
or in the restaurants. Wherever we go out in public,
we get put out with the hired help when they don't treat us
just right, you know. We get real put out with them,
don't we? As if the $1.98 that I'm about to spend is going to,
if they don't have that, the store's going to go under. And in our homes, we men, we
huff and we puff and we just get beside ourselves if our wives
dared question our authority as the husband of this house. And ladies are not immune either. They get provoked at their husbands
if they do use a little bit of authority, which is rightly there. Well, we read in 1 Peter 2.1,
you don't have to turn there, it says, lay aside all malice. and all guile and all hypocrisy
and evil speakings as newborn babes, as newborn babes. Now, you can turn to this Ephesians
chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, we read
here in Ephesians four, beginning with verse thirty one. The apostle
exhorts us, rebukes us, In Struxus, Ephesians 4, verse 31, he says,
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil
speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. In verse one of chapter five,
be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, as little
children. Well, all of these problems come
upon us for thinking that we are too important, thinking too
high of ourselves, thinking we can do too much, thinking we
know too much. Pride, pride is the root of it
all. I am somebody. Doesn't that guy
know that I'm somebody? Doesn't she know that I know
something? You know, even the disciples in the presence of
the Lord himself, the disciples, God was standing in front of
them, the Lord God of glory standing right in front of them. And yet
they were arguing about who was the greatest. I mean, God was
standing in front of them. And they were arguing about who
should be the greatest in the kingdom of God. And we do the
same thing to a certain degree when God is truly with us. He examines what we hear, or
what we are saying, what we are doing. Yet we are puffed up with
pride so very often are we. Well, these disciples, they were
so taken up with themselves, they lost sight of whose presence
they were in. So taken up with themselves.
They completely forgot, just in a matter of, just a short
time, they had completely forgotten that just a little while ago
they were just mere fishermen. I mean, nobodies. Nobodies, fishermen. Well, turn over to Matthew chapter
18 with me. And this is the text, Matthew
chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18. Our Lord is speaking here. Excuse
me. He's dealing with some people
here. And he says in Matthew 18, begin
with verse one, it says. At the same time came the disciples
unto Jesus. Say. arguing, questioning who
is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus called a little
child unto him and set him right in the middle of everybody, for
everybody to see. Jennifer, come on up here. Stephen,
come on up here. Sit right over there. Sit right over here where everybody
can see you. Just sit there, no questions. Look at verse three with me.
And the Lord said, after he called up these two children or this
one child. He said, truly, 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, and he pointed to that child,
the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And he said in another
place, in Mark chapter 10, he said, whosoever shall not receive
the kingdom of God as a little child shall not enter in. So I ask you the question, I
ask myself this, in preparation, what is it to receive the kingdom
as a little child? What is it to become as a little
child? You don't mind being called a
child, do you? That's what you are. That's what they are. What
is it to become a little child? Well, first of all, it's to receive
the kingdom of God with humility. It's humility. It's to realize,
first and foremost, that by the grace of God, I am what I am. By the grace of God. You know,
the kingdom of God is not earned. It's given, right? No man earns
the kingdom of God. God just freely bestows it upon
whom he will. The Father gives the gift of
eternal life to whomsoever he will. The gift of God is eternal
life. You don't work for it. You don't
earn it. He just gives it to you, doesn't
he? Freely. You don't earn it. And these children, they didn't
earn a thing that they have. Not one thing. They haven't worked
a day in their life to receive what they have from their parents,
have they? Their parents, just out of love and out of grace,
have just given them all that they have. Just given it to them.
And I'm certain that they freely receive it, don't they? I'm just
sure that they don't argue the point that they would. I'm just
sure that they would not insist upon working for what they have.
Oh, no. Oh, far from far be from. But,
you know, a little child is never too proud to receive a gift.
But as self-righteous adults and we just insist upon working,
don't we? We just insist. And when God
says it's just a free gift. Just receive it as a little child
with humility, with humility. If you ask them where they got
what they have, you ask Jennifer where she got her toys or dolls
or whatever, you ask Stephen where he got his bicycle, they'd
readily say, Daddy gave it to me. Daddy. I mean, without hesitation. Where'd you get that? Daddy gave
it to me. Daddy. And you ask the child of God.
Where he got everything he's got. My father gave it to me. Everything. The Lord gave it
to me. We studied that this morning. We saw that this morning. How
old Jacob. He didn't take credit for what
he had. He said the Lord gave this to me. The Lord gave it
to me. You know. Children aren't so full of pride. That they lose sight of their
parents. that they lose sight of their
parents and themselves, realizing that they're little children.
They're not so proud as to lose sight of really what they are,
especially in the presence of their parents. And Christ said,
except you humble yourself and become, as a little child, totally
dependent upon the free gift of God for your salvation, the
free gift of God on a sovereign will and choice of God the Father. Upon his all-powerful blood and
the work of his son, you will in no wise enter the kingdom
of heaven. No way. No way. And you know
what? Receiving a gift, most of the
time, all a little child has to do is ask, don't they? Most of the time, they'll get
everything they want. Most of the time. If they just ask. Right,
Deborah? That's all she has to do, ask
you. And then when receiving it, To get more, all they have
to do is thank you, don't they? Just thank you, just acknowledge
you in giving them what they have. To be as a little child
then is to be humble, to receive the kingdom in humility and in
thanksgiving. It's to become teachable. To
become as a little child is to become teachable, willing to
listen, not wanting to argue about everything. Believe that
either one of these young people would debate things with you,
but rather they're ready and willing to listen, even eager
to learn the new things that they hear from their parents,
eager, free from prejudice. To be a little child is to be
free from prejudice, to be free from having preconceived notions
of things. Well, they've got some little
petty ideas, you know, children do, but they're quickly dismissed
in the presence and the hearing of wisdom and knowledge. They don't know much, so there
aren't too many preconceived notions to have. They don't know
much. So to be, you know, I'm going
to put in next week's bulletin this little saying, remember
this, the word of God is written for our obedience,
not for our opinion. The Word of God is not written
for our opinion, but it's rather written for our childlike submission
to and obedience. Every word of it, right? Every
word of it. Well, I don't know about that
verse. It's kind of, oh no. As a little child is to say,
okay, that's the way it is. To become as a little child is
to not only be humble and be teachable, but it's to be believing
or faithful, full of faith. You know, children believe just
about everything you tell them, don't they? Just about everything
you tell them, they'll believe it. These kids will readily believe
what we tell them from the scriptures. I mean anything. That's the reason
we need to take care of what we do teach them, you teach her.
They'll believe every, that story of Noah's Ark, there's no question
in my daughter's mind that that's the truth. But as my high and
mighty adults, you know, we know some things, we figured some
things out, and that's just an allegory, just a story, you know,
we're like, oh no. That's God's Word, and it's true.
It's true. That's what it is to be a little
child, is to be believing. And these little kids, these
children, They believe their parents. They just believe what
they tell them. And it's usually with wonder
and amazement. Oh, really? Wow, that's great. But us, you know, us smart adults,
intelligent adults, we have to sit down and carefully consider
these things. And generally, when we do believe
them, it's after considering the supposition of the proposition
of the, you know, and then we believe. Yeah, I'll assent to
that. There's no wonders. You know. To be as a little child, to become
as a little child is to be full of trust and dependence, total
dependence. Are you worried about tomorrow,
what you're going to eat tomorrow? What if your daddy lost his job? She's not worried a bit. Not
at least a bit concerned. Daddy didn't get no job. They're full of confidence and
trust that their daddy is going to provide them with everything
they need. Not a worry, not a doubt. Happy and carefree. They're not
worried where the next meal is going to come from, where they're
going to get the clothes they're going to wear. Christ savored
all these things people in the world are taken up with. Not
God's children, not God's children. God's people depend upon their
father for everything. They're totally dependent upon
him, and they know that what Whatever they need, their Heavenly
Father is going to provide them with. There's no question about
it. That's what it is to become a little child, spiritually speaking.
God's going to provide. And if he takes away what I've
got, it's fine. It's the Lord. He gave it. He
can take it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
My daddy knows best. He knows what's best. We're like
a little child. We don't always feel that way,
do we? Well, to become a little child is also to be unworldly. and unambitious. Unworldly, you
know, children are usually content with very little. I'd say if
you gave him a truck, a little small truck, he could he could
play for hours with that. Oh, they're very content with
very little. They can play with whatever you you give them. I
saw a little child the other day playing with a box. I mean,
he was having the best time with that box. I think his daddy told
me that the toy that went in it was about a hundred dollar
toy, but he'd rather play with a box. And you know, the child
of the rich man and the child of the poor man are alike in
that they can play with the same thing. You give them some mud
pies and they'll be happy. Not too worldly, not taken up
with. They get a little older and they
start to be concerned with what name brands they wear and so
forth, but when they're real young now, It doesn't matter.
They could wear Kmart shoes as opposed to the finest shoes available,
you know. And they're unambitious. Children,
their aspirations or their ambitions aren't too high. Most boys think
it's real honorable to be a garbage man. Don't they? What are you
going to be when you grow up? I want to be a garbage man. Well,
that's an honorable profession. I mean, really, aren't you thankful
for garbage man? Buddy, I am real thankful. Ours starts getting full up and
I'm glad somebody's around to take it off. Somebody said if
two angels came down from heaven and their duties, they were coming
down to serve God in whatever capacity he gave them, that they
wouldn't argue if one was to rule a kingdom and one was to
sweep the streets, they wouldn't argue about which one got to
which guy. Doesn't make any difference. We're in the service of our Lord.
And that's a childlike attitude. Everything's honorable in God's
kingdom. And money, even monies of no
real value, they don't have much, so they don't need much. They've
got just what they need. In fact, my daughter Hannah thinks
a dollar is about all the money in the world. Go someplace and see something
that we think about buying or something. I got some money.
Pulled out a dollar. That ought to cover it. That
ought to cover all we want. That would cover all we needed,
wouldn't it? You know, to be, as a little
child, is to be free from worldly cares, too. These children don't
have too many pressing engagements. They're not too tied down to
sit down and eat with their parents when it's time, you know. Drop
what you're doing now and come on and eat. Okay. You might have to tell them a
couple of times, but they'll come. There aren't too many pressing
engagements when asked to do something. Free from worldly
cares. Well, to be as a child is to
be free from, we read these things a moment ago, malice. Not to
hold grudges, to forgive and forget easily. I venture to say
that one of these children could get in a knock-down, drag-out
fight with one of their friends, and 30 minutes later they could
be hugging and kissing and off playing, and you bring it up
to them. That's my daughter. When I correct her, chasing her
or something, oh, she's torn all to pieces at first. But just
a few minutes later, it's like I never did anything. Strife. Free from strife, these children
are usually joyful, having a good time. What's there to worry about? Well, you ought to think about
the World War III, Jennifer. You ought to think about that.
It's serious. Guile and hypocrisy? Unpretentious. Unpretentious. The children?
Straightforward. Nothing to prove? And they're all alike, you know,
you get a bunch of them together playing and so forth. You can't
tell the rich one apart from the poor one when it comes to
play. Envy, they're not really concerned about who has the biggest
house or the best car. You know, to become as a little
child also is to be fearful of the father. Be fearful of the
father. You know, it's a fact that most
children run over their mothers. I hate to say it, but it's a
fact. You ladies, you're too easy on these kids. I see it
all the time. They run over their mothers when
they won't get by with their daddies. They fear their daddies. They fear their fathers. And
it's rightly so. It's a good illustration. of God the Father who is the
ultimate authority. You know, this world full of
unbelievers, they want to take away all the gender out of the
Bible, don't they? They want to take away all of
what they call sexism, that is, calling God a man, calling the
Son of God a son. They want to take all that away
because they don't believe in absolute authority, you see. They don't
believe that God is being the authority. But God's children,
they fear him. They fear him. A true childlike
spiritual mentality is maybe above all else to fear this sovereign
father, to fear him. And you know, all blessings come
with that, too. We'll get in that in a minute. It's not a
slavish fear, though, not a law or a spirit of bondage fear. That's not it at all. But it's
a respectful and reverent and awe-inspiring fear of the Almighty. Heavenly Father, seeing him as
he is. I wish this 20th century generation
of so-called Christians could hear this scripture. God is to
be feared in the assembly of the saints. And you know, a true godly fear
or awe and respect and reverence for the Heavenly Father, that
brings with it this characteristic also. It brings a fear of offense. Godly fear brings about a fear
of offense. If a child truly loves, if you
love your mother, if you truly love your father, you'll fear
hurting them. If a child really loves his father
and respects him, he or she doesn't want to offend that parent. Oh,
no. Far be from it. You know, Mindy
tells me this, Many times growing up, becoming a teenager, and
you young people listen to this. Many times when she was becoming
a teenager, many times when peer pressure and so forth would tell
her to do certain things that she knew was wrong, that her
parents had taught her differently, she thought about this, my mom
and dad, they love me. They really love me. And they
really want what's best for me. And I respect their judgment.
And they told me this is wrong. So it must be wrong. So I'm going
to depend on what they say. I'm not going to depend on these
people. And she said, and I say the same
thing, many times I was kept from doing many things for fear
of what might happen to my parents, what it might cause my parents
if I got in trouble for it or something. And the love of Christ
constrains a believer to do all that he does to serve him, and
it also restrains him from doing some things that he would do
in the flesh. Fear of offense and to be childlike
is also this, to have a tender spirit, tenderness of spirit. You know, little children are
easily upset. easily upset by all the sorrow
and the hurt going on around them, aren't they? I watch her
face sometimes. We're watching the news or whatever,
and she'll see something on there. Oh, and it's like, how could
that happen? Oh. She'll see somebody cry on
TV, you know. She'll start crying. Hurt, easily. It has a tender spirit. Little
children are shocked and amazed at the horrible, sinful acts
in this world, aren't they? Shocked and amazed. It shocks
their little systems, you know. How about our spirits? Are they
still sensitive towards sin? Are they hardened by sin? The things that we do, does it
still bother us? Does pain and suffering touch
us? Or are we hardened with the rest of the dog-eat-dog world? To be childlike is to be grateful
for the least gift, the least little gift or favor. You know,
sometimes even the smallest token will please a child. If I go
someplace and bring back just the smallest little, I mean,
a gun machine toy, ten-cent toy back to her, she's just happy
that Daddy thought of her. that he was thinking of her,
that he actually was thinking of her and bought her a little
something. Happy. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ. God hadn't given us a ten cent
toy. What a matter of love. He gave
his son the unspeakable gift. And we grow placing upon hearing
about it. To become as a little child is
to be proud of your parents. Proud of your parents. If we
ask these two children about their daddies, oh boy, let me
tell you about my daddy. Oh, my daddy can do anything. Yeah, he can. My daddy's the
biggest, the strongest, the fastest, the best looking. You know, he
can do anything. My daddy's better than your daddy.
Oh, boy. You know, we shudder at the thought
of being ashamed of, say, our wife. Who would hesitate to own
their wife or their mother or their father out in public? Would
anybody hesitate? Is that your wife? Her? Yeah, that's her, isn't it? Come
on, I want you to meet her. Do you flush with embarrassment
when confronted by somebody in this world about your profession
of faith? If it might get out on you that
you're a Christian, does it make you flush a little bit? that
you might have to, you might, do you shudder at the thought
of my maybe have to speaking up in the name of your God? Oh,
my soul. You know, to be childlike is
also to be more than anything perhaps in love with your parents. In love with them and desire
to be with them. Most children, would be perfectly
happy just being with their parent. And that's part of the problem
today. Nobody's spending any time with
their children. They don't even know their children. Most kids
would just be tickled, plumbed to death to have ten minutes
of daddy's time, you know. Just being in their company,
they're the happiest, I believe. Most small children, humanly
speaking now, they love their parents, they do. They love their
parents, no matter how their parents treat them. You see it. You've heard stories of abused
child that wants to go right back to its parent. But, you know, when they get
older, the affection wanes, doesn't it? They get to knowing something. Get too wise in their own conceits. They get too independent. I don't
need daddy so much after all. I can do some things myself. Let me ask you this quickly. How does one become a spiritual
child? What is it that would make a
child of God? What would make a human being
become childlike in spirit? Well, there's only one thing
that will actually accomplish this. Only one thing that will
sufficiently humble somebody. That's a sight of God humbling
himself to come down here and become a man, make himself of
no reputation, take on himself the form of a servant. Only then,
when you see all authority You see, the king on the throne come
down and become a baby, become a little boy subject to his parents.
That and that only will make you put your hand on your big
mouth. The gospel of Christ, the incarnation
of God becoming a worm. Now, is anything too menial for
us? Only one thing will make somebody
teachable, truly have a teachable childlike spirit. Only one thing.
Hearing the incomprehensible wisdom of God in the gospel.
Hearing the wisdom of God. He said, this is too glorious
for me. This is too great. Such things
are too high for me. Too wonderful. Who can understand
this? Tell me more. I got nothing to
say. Teach me. What do I know? Any man thinks he knows anything,
knows nothing, yet he ought to know. We don't know anything,
do we? We see through a glass dimly.
We hear a little bit here and there. We get a little glimpse
here and there. We don't know. Little children. Only one thing
will give a childlike belief and faith and trust, true trust,
and that is a sight of sins paid for. You mean they're gone? You mean Christ actually got
rid of my sins? Yeah, he did. Just trust him
now as salvation and well-keeping of your soul. Okay. All right. I'll do it. I don't want to do
my own work. I couldn't live up to it. Only
one thing will give a true spiritual childlike dependence upon the
Heavenly Father. Only one thing. will give this
dependence. And that is the sight of Christ
as our only hope of acceptance with the Father. Like we saw
this morning, how holy and just God is, and how this God will
by no means clear the guilty. How it must be perfect to be
accepted and to get to this God. We're going to have to get to
Christ. We're going to have to depend on Him to get us there.
Cry out, Lord, will you save me or I'll perish? OK, I will. OK, I'm leaning on you from now. That's the only thing that will
give a real dependence on Christ. See, he's our only hope. He's
my only hope. Only one thing will give us,
will keep us from worldliness and ambition. That's the side of Christ. I
mean, a real sight of Christ as being all and in all, an unspeakable
gift, an unsearchable...what? A yo-yo in heaven? He said, I am not exceeding the
great reward. That's the only thing that'll
keep us from worldliness and ambition, to see Christ as our
only ambition, as our only goal, and to win Christ and be found
in Him. That's the only thing that'll keep us from wanting
to be chairman of the board. We want to be just servants of
Christ. Sons of God. No higher position. Only one
thing will keep us free from worldly cares, being tied down
and being taken up with all these things. It'd be taken up with
him. That's the only thing. I mean, really, that's the only
thing. All these toys of doctrine and so forth, toying around with
doctrine won't keep you from these things. Only one thing
will keep us free from worldly cares. Only one thing will teach
us to really fear God, and that is seeing God punish His Son
when He found sin on Him. That's the only thing that will
make us fear God. When we see that when God found sin in His
own Son, He killed His Son. Now, what's He going to do with
me if He finds sin on me? That's the only thing that will
make you fear and tremble. Only one thing will make a man
or a woman fear the Lord, fear to offend Him. And that's real love. Real love
for Christ will restrain us from doing things and constrain us
to serve Him. Real love. You mean He did that
for me? Yeah, He did. Oh, I'm forever
indebted to Him. How could I sin against the Lord?
The One I love, how could I hurt Him? What a beast I'd be to hurt
the One that I love. And what an ungrateful wretch
I'd be to sin against my God. The only one thing that will
give a tender spirit, a true tenderness against sin, and that's
just another, again, another side of seeing Christ suffer
because of what I did. Now see, Jesus Christ died. because of your sins, not anybody
else's. That's the only thing that I'm going
to give you a tender. My Lord died because of this.
How could I take it in my bosom again? How could I toy with it
again? He suffered because of this. Dare I be taken up with it again? Only one thing will really give
us a heartfelt gratitude toward Him. It's seeing anything short of
hell, His mercy. You know, only salvation, a sight
of real salvation, will bring real joy. You can take it a while,
but it won't last, and you'll get tired playing the game, and
you'll go someplace else. The real sight. of sins forgiven,
a real sight of pardon. Oh, my. Scripture speaks of joy
unspeakable. Well, there's only one thing
that will keep us from pride in ourselves and make us to be
proud of our Father, glory in God. Only one thing that will
make us truly proud of our Heavenly Father, and that's a true sight
what's been done for us in Christ, the great love that the Father
has shown us in making us sons. That's the only thing. That's
the only thing. And lastly, there's only one
thing that will really make us love the Father and desire to
be with Him from now on, and that's a sight of full and free
and purchased, pardoned by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
only thing that will make me love the Father and the Son for
this great thing that they've done for us, for me. Only the
real gospel, only heartfelt faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will
give a man real love for this real God and this real salvation. That and that only. Real gospel
communion Two, only having really experienced this thing in your
own life, in your own heart, that's the only thing that will
really give you a desire to be with Him. You know, if you've
tasted, really tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious, that
and that only will make you want to come back for more. Right? Duty won't do it. Being taken
up with things and so forth won't do it. but heartfelt gratitude
and love for what the Father has done for us in Christ. That'll
bring you back to hear about it again, won't it? Tell me some
more. Tell me about this so great salvation. Well, I hope that's
been beneficial to you. Stand with me and I'll dismiss
this in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, We are eternally grateful. In our hearts, anyway, we are
grateful for this so great salvation, for the great work that you've
done for us in sending your Son, your only begotten, well-beloved
Son, to come down here to be a worm, to take our place as
insignificant creatures that we are, to do for us what we
what was an impossibility for us to do. We thank you. In the name of Christ, we thank
you. We love you. Thou knowest. Increase our love,
our dependence, our childlike trust in thee. Make us like little
children. For Christ's honor, for His glory,
for the worship of Him. Amen. You're dismissed.