Thank you, Brandon. I was thinking
as he read that passage of scripture, I was thinking of a song. And
if I can find it, just bear it with me a minute. That song wants for all. And
the last verse goes like this. Children of God, O glorious calling. That's mighty glorious that the
Lord would call us his children. And then he said, surely his
grace will keep us from falling. Passing from death to life at
his call, blessed salvation once for all. Isn't it wonderful to
be one of the Lord's children, to be one of his little ones?
And that's what this passage is about that Brandon read to
us from Matthew chapter 18. And the first 14 verses, it's
about the Lord's little children. So I've entitled this message,
Little Children. We're not big children, we're
little children. Fully dependent upon our heavenly
parent, even God who is our father. Children of God. We're his children
by adopting grace. Ephesians 1 talks about being
predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto
himself. You who are believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ, your heart should be ever joyful that God
adopted you into his family. and he purposed that before he
made this world. He himself chose you unto salvation,
and he predestinated you to be adopted with all the rights and
privileges of adoption, legally and eternally adopted into the
family of God. No wonder Philip Bliss in that
song said, children of God, O glorious calling. We're his children. The scripture
says that we're called, we're children of the resurrection.
That's in Luke 20 and verse 36. You see, our Lord Jesus, according
to Romans chapter one, he was declared to be the son of God
with power by his resurrection from the dead. How do we know
that we're children of God? We've been resurrected from the
dead. We were dead in trespasses and sins. We were dead to God. We were dead to Christ. We were
dead to all that is holy and righteous and spiritual. But we've been resurrected. We're
children of the resurrection. We're not dead anymore. Well,
God made us alive. And you hath he quickened, Paul
said, who were dead in trespasses and sins. You were dead, but
you're not dead anymore, while you're children of the resurrection.
You see, regeneration is not something we do for ourselves. It's that which only the God
of life can do for us. He has raised us from spiritual
death. We're children of the resurrection. We live. We live in Christ, who
is our living head. In Galatians 4.28, we're called
children of the promise. As Isaac was promised by God,
To Abraham, so the chosen of the Lord were promised to Jesus
Christ before the world began. In Psalm 22, it says a seed shall
serve him. It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. For his children, Psalm 22, 30.
We were given to Christ in the covenant of grace. Wedded to
him eternally. One with Him, He is the head,
we're the body. Never ever shall the body be
severed from the head. As the head is holy, so the body
is holy. As the head is righteous, so
the body is righteous. We're one with the Savior and
never ever will there be a division between the head and the body. This idea that salvation can
be yours today and then you'll lose it tomorrow by some sinful
act that you commit, that's absolutely foreign to the Word of God. You
live because your head lives. We have life in Christ. We have
salvation in Christ. We have righteousness in Christ. We have forgiveness in Christ. And as long as the head lives
gloriously over all and blessedly forever, as long as the head
lives, that's how long the body's gonna live. We're one with you. We're children of the promise
given to Christ, promised to him in the covenant of grace.
A remnant according to the election of grace, Paul wrote. We're children of the promise.
And I'll tell you something else, we're children of light. Children of the day, we're called. For ye were sometimes darkness,
but now are ye light, and the Lord walk as children of light. Ephesians 5a. 1 Thessalonians
5, 5. You're all the children of light
and children of the day. We're not of the night nor of
darkness. We're children of light. What
does that mean? We're children who've been enlightened. There was a time when we were
in the dark. The darkness in the Bible, darkness
stands for error, wickedness, evil, and sinfulness. We were over the night. We were
in the dark about God. We're in the dark about ourselves.
We were in the dark about the person in the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're in the darkest to the reason
He came into this old poor world. We were in the dark. But we're
not in darkness anymore. We're children of light. The
light of the grace of God has shined in our hearts, giving
us a knowledge that a holy God demands holiness, but we can't
produce that either. And God has enlightened us to
show us in Christ the Lord, we're the righteousness of God and
the holiness of God. We stand absolutely secure in
him. We're not children of night. We're not children of the darkness. We're children of God's blessed
saving light. We're enlightened children of
God. John wrote in 1 John 2 and verse
12, I write unto you, little children, because your sins are
forgiven you for his name's sake. 1 John 2, 12. This is a privilege
and a matter of great joy. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. that we should be called, that
we should be called. Us sinners who drink iniquity
like water. Us wretched people whose thoughts
are impure. And even at our best state, we're
altogether vanity. And yet how gracious is our God
that he calls us the sons of God. We're his little children. Here in this passage of Scripture
in Matthew 18, the Savior is talking about his little children. Our Lord was in, he was in Capernaum,
having been invited to somebody's house, and while he was there,
his disciples came to him. And it says in verse one, At
the same time, came the disciples unto Jesus saying, watch this,
who is the greatest in the kingdom of God? Who is the greatest in
the kingdom of God? The first thing I want to say
here, this is an arrogant question. It's just absolutely full of
pride. The disciples made this inquiry,
and that's what inspired this sermon preached by our Lord Jesus. And the illustration of calling
unto him a little child, they didn't bring him a baby, he called
the child to come to him. And he gave this discourse to
his disciples and to us about humility. the humility of his
little children. Now this is not the first time
these men talked like this. And I'm sure it's due to the
fact they lacked an understanding of exactly what the kingdom of
God was. They still had this idea that
Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, they believed him. But they had
this idea that he had come to this earth to set up his kingdom
physically, and that he was going to rule from Jerusalem, and that
by his own power and authority, he would draw an army to himself
to drive the Romans completely out of the borders of Israel. And in this kingdom that they
thought and imagined that he would establish, they wanted
to know if they could have outstanding positions of rank and power. Like I say, there's so much pride
in this. In fact, look at Mark chapter
nine. Just hold your place there. Look
over at Mark chapter nine. Mark gives us a little bit more
information about this. Mark chapter nine in verse 33.
Mark 9, 33. And he came to Capernaum, and
being in the house, he asked him, what was it that you disputed
among yourselves by the way?" You was arguing about something.
Now remember, our Lord never asks a question in order to get
some information. He's God over all, blessed forever. He's omniscient. He has all knowledge
of all things. He hears not only the words that
we speak, but the thoughts that we think. That's kind of ominous, isn't
it? He knows your thoughts, and he
knows your thoughts before you even think them. He knows the
words you're gonna speak before you even speak them. And if it wasn't for the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we'd never have any peace. You couldn't have any comfort
in your heart. You couldn't have any joy in
your soul. Because if you ever understand
just how sinful you still are, even as a believer, The only
way you can have any lasting peace and joy is to have an understanding
of the fact that your sins, which are many, have all been washed
away in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a blessed,
blessed truth. So he came to Capernaum and being
in the house, he asked, what was it that you disputed among
yourselves by the way? And they held their peace. They didn't want to say. Too
embarrassed to say it out loud, but they sure were thinking it. They held their peace, for by
the way they had disputed among themselves who is going to be
the greatest. Back in the book of Matthew,
we won't take the time to look at it, but the mother of the
sons of Zebedee, James and John, pulled our Lord aside and said,
could I talk to you for just a minute? Certainly. She said, when you
come into your kingdom now, I want my boys. One of them is set on
your right hand and the other one is set on your left hand.
That's what she wanted. I kind of think they put her
up to that. Because this is what they always
wanted. Very prominent positions. Look with me, here's another
passage I'll give you. Look at Luke 22. This one, it's
another occasion when this happened. when they were seeking prominence
over others in the kingdom of heaven. And what's amazing about
this one is the words of the Savior just before these disciples
talked about if they could be the greatest in the kingdom.
Look at Luke 22. Verse 21. But behold, he said, the hand
of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. Judas Iscariot. And he says, and truly the son
of man goeth as it was determined. All things you see have been
determined by God from before the foundation of the world.
All things were determined eternally. Somebody asked me recently about
the decrees of God. I said, well, the decrees of
God are just like God himself, eternal. They're as old as God is, they're
as ancient as God is, and he's the ancient of days. I've been asked before, are you
one of those primitives? I said, well, the gospel is a
primitive message. For Christ is the Lamb who was
slain from before the foundation of the world. This is the oldest
message there is. Salvation by grace. He goeth, the Son of Man goeth
as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom he's betrayed. At verse 23, and they began to
inquire among themselves which of them it was that should do
this thing. And there was also a strife among
them. Our Lord has just talked about
going to the cross. He's just spoken to them about
the necessity of his sacrifice, of his blood shedding. of being
the substitute of his people, of suffering the wrath of God
as it was determined. of agonizing under that awful
fury of the vengeance of God against our sins. And this is
what's on his mind. This has consumed him from before
the foundation of the world. He's been looking forward to
this and now it's drawing near to him at the most serious time
since the beginning of creation. And what are his disciples, what
are they thinking about? Well, there was a strife among
them, which of them should be accounted the greatest? Which
of us is gonna be the greatest? They desired a rank and a recognition
above all others because they were apostles. This was so carnal of them to
think they gonna have a higher position in the kingdom of God
than other men. I'll tell you, there are those
today who think that the apostles deserve a higher place in the
true kingdom of God, because after all, they were apostles. But don't you remember what that
one who said, I'm not, I'm less than the least of them and yet
there's none greater. He said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. And he said, all that I did,
all that I have suffered, all that I have labored is by the
grace of God. That's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 verse 10. You see these men, naturally
folks think the apostles deserve a higher position in the kingdom
of God. Why would you think that? Did they choose the Lord or did
he choose them? Did they seek out the Lord Jesus
or did he seek out them? Did they create a righteousness
of their own pleasing to God, or is He their righteousness?
What did they have that they did not receive from God Himself? And there are still people today
who think that in the kingdom of God, in the glorious heaven
that awaits all of the children of the resurrection, In the glorious
kingdom of God, there are people who still think there will be
some who will have more rewards, more acclaim, more importance
in the kingdom of God than others will have. Where did that fleshly,
kernel idea come from? It comes from man's deep-seated
desire for his works to be recognized. Let me tell you something. In
the kingdom of grace, all are equal. There is but one head
of the church. That's Christ Jesus himself.
There is but one who sits upon the very throne of glory. That's
the son of God. And as far as the crowns that
believers are gonna receive, every believer will receive all
five of the crowns that God has reserved for them. And we cast
our crowns at the feet of Christ Jesus. You'll get no recognition when
you get to heaven by God. All glory goes to Him. David
said this, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Not unto
us. Are you looking for a pat on
the back from God? You looking to get a higher position
in heaven than anybody else gonna get? For the children of God,
hear me now, for the children of God, we have one portion and
that's the Lord himself. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, and he can't give me any more than himself. I've got all things in Christ
Jesus. To think that one believer will
receive more rank, a higher rank, or receive more rewards in heaven
is a leftover from our days of works religion. That's all that
is. You see, it's natural to men
to think The more I do for God, the more God will give me and
the more He'll do for me. That is absolutely contrary to
the principle of grace. The fact of the matter is you
have never done anything for God that was of any worth. Except first of all, He gave
you a desire to do it, And then when you did it, the blood of
the Lord Jesus had to wash away all the sin involved in you performing
that work. And perfuming your work with
his blessed righteousness so that he gets all the glory and
the saints of God say, that's the only way we want to have
it, is for him to get all the glory. The Lord said in Luke 17, after
you've done everything that is required of you, just say, I'm
just an unprofitable servant, that's all I am. I tell you what, if any of us
are used to be a blessing to anybody else, it's not us. A lady told me just recently,
said, you're such a blessing to my family. And I said, well,
I thank you for that, but if I'm a blessing to your family,
it's in spite of who I am and what I do. Give glory to God. I tell you
what, preachers couldn't put two words together that would
be of any sense, of any truth, were it not for the goodness
and the grace of God. We're just sinful men preaching
to other sinful men and women and telling them about a glorious
Savior who is our all in all. So here's this arrogant question. This is just, it's terrible that
these guys were like this, but it's terrible that we're like
we are too. We're just sinful people. And so our Lord, He stressed,
here's the second thing, he stressed the necessity of conversion.
He says this, verse two, Jesus called a little child unto him
and set him in the midst of me. He didn't say, bring me your
baby. He called a little child, five,
six, seven, eight years old, I don't know, and said, come
over here. And I'm sure the disciples said,
bug-eyed, you know, what in the world's he doing here? Come over
here. And that little girl or little
boy walked over to the Savior and Christ set him in the midst
of them. And he looked at these men, Peter,
James, John, Matthew, all the rest of them. He said, verily
I say unto you, listen to me, I'm gonna tell you something,
it's absolutely the truth, you need to pay attention to me,
he says, verily I say unto you, except you be converted and become
as little children, you should not enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Here you are worried about a
position in the kingdom of heaven, unless you're converted, you
ain't gonna be in the kingdom of heaven. That's a weighty statement. What is conversion? It's a change. It's a change in spirit. It's
a change in attitude. A change in understanding. If
these men weren't converted, they'd need not debate and argue
who's gonna be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They won't
even be there. What a revelation of the greatness
of the work of conversion. You see, let me put it this way. How many times has somebody regenerated? So there's a difference between
regeneration and conversion. How many times has a person regenerated? One time. One time, you're birthed
into the kingdom of God. You must be born again is what
Christ told Nicodemus in John 3. You must be born again. This is a necessity. God said
it. But conversion is kind of ongoing. You remember, our Lord even said
to Simon Peter, when our Lord told Simon, you're gonna deny
me. He said, when you're converted.
Remember he said that? When you're converted. So whereas
regeneration is a one-time thing, an act of God, using the good
seed of the word of God. by which he makes us spiritually
alive, and the result of that is repentance toward God and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whereas regeneration is a one-time
thing, conversion is perpetual. We're still being converted. Conversion's necessary. Because
by nature there's no fear of God before our eyes, there's
no love for God in the soul, there's no faith in the Lord. Just corruption and sin. Christ
stressed the necessity of conversion. The nature of this conversion
is it's a constant turning of the center to the Lord, constantly
turning. How many times have you, in essence,
turned away? The Lord turns you back. He turns
you again. He turns you again. You get caught
up in the things of the world and the your own problems and
trials and family issues and financial issues and job issues,
one thing and then another, and you kind of lose sight of that
which is really vital, and the Lord just turns you again. He
converts you again. We're constantly being converted. It's an ongoing, continual operation
of grace. See, just like you don't regenerate
yourself, you don't convert yourself either. And then he uses a little child
to instruct them. We're the Lord's little children, born of the same father, born of incorruptible seed by
the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. We're begotten
of God. This is not about a decision.
It's about being begotten of God. It's not about walking an
aisle. It's not about raising your hand.
All those foolish things that preachers still involved in today. that have nothing to do with
salvation. They have nothing to do with
regeneration. They have nothing to do with
conversion. And yet, such is the power of
the evangelists and the preachers who preach these things. Raise
your hand if you mean business with God. Come down here to the
front. Such is the power of the persuasion
of men that they think that these things have something to do with
our relationship with God. They have nothing to do with
it. You see, regeneration, that one-time act and conversion,
that's a matter of the heart, which only the Lord can bring
about. We have to be born of the Father's
seed. And we have the Father's name.
We're children of God. My father's name is Earl Byrd. And though he fell asleep in
Jesus in August of 1975, he's still my father because he still
lives. He lives in glory. I'm James
Byrd. I have his name. And those of us who have been
brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we're children. We're little children of God. We bear his name. He's God. We're the children of God. We're
totally dependent upon our Father. When you were little, You were
dependent upon your father to bathe you. Our father has bathed us in the
blood of the Lord Jesus. He has washed us and we're clean. We're dependent upon our father
to not only bathe us, but to clothe us. We're robed in the
garments of the bridegroom. The garments of his own provision.
He is the Lord our righteousness. We're dependent upon the Lord
to provide for us. He has provided for us a righteousness
that'll stand through eternity. He has provided for us a pardon
of sin that will never be revoked. And our Father feeds us. He feeds
us good food, it's the best food. He sets before us in His Word
and through the preaching of His preachers, gospel sermons,
He sets before us a banquet of mercy full of all sorts of deities
of God Himself. Righteousness and forgiveness
and privilege of prayer and all of the other blessings that God
has given us. We come to the banquet house
of mercy. He says, come and dine. Come
and dine. And I'll tell you what, if he
calls you to come to his table and dine, he'll give you an appetite,
and he'll feed you with the gospel of his grace, and you'll go away
saying, oh, that was so good. That was so good. Thank you,
Lord, for feeding me. Thank you, Father, for giving
me the bread of life, the staff of life, Christ the Lord himself. And he makes us teachable. Because by nature, you know,
we're not very teachable. And I tell you what, When he
births you into the kingdom of grace, he'll give you a teachable
spirit. Preacher, I got all kinds of
questions here for you. Will you help me? I know when
we was over in Honolulu, and probably some of them are watching
right now, I hope so. Greetings to you, brethren, if
you are. But after the service, we had
a lot of time to sit and talk. Questions arise. The Lord feeds us with the blessed
good news of salvation in Christ Jesus. We're children of God. And as his children, as his little
children, he will correct us. And we'll say thank you, Lord,
for your discipline. Thank you for correcting me.
Because if you be without chastisement, You bastards are not sons. Lord
has a way of dealing with his children. I remember when I was
growing up, I know you can't even imagine this, but every
once in a while I had to have spanking. I know you think, Jim,
you're perfect. Not quite. But my mom or my dad
would give me a switching, and usually, Dad would send me outside
to the tree behind the house and have to cut my own weapon
that he's going to use on me. And then he'd say something like,
this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you.
I never answered anything about that, but I thought, yeah, right. He chastened me because he loved
me. because he cared about how I
was gonna wind up. Our heavenly father chastens
his little children. Sometimes he takes things away
from us that seem to be very near and dear to us. He deals
with us in various sorts of ways, but he always deals with us in
a manner that is good for us. And sometimes he does remove
from us something or somebody who's dear to us. Because you see, the Lord knows
what we have need of better than we do. We're as little children. And the father is very protective
of his little children. Look at verses five and six. Whosoever shall receive such
a little child in my name receiveth me, but whoso shall offend one
of these little ones, and here's the key, which believe in me. He's talking about people who
believe him, people who trust him, people who embrace him. people who follow him. My sheep
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. We follow
because he draws us. We believe him. We believe he's
God. We believe he's man. We believe
he had to obey all of God's law to show his fitness to be the
Passover lamb. We believe that his death pacified,
satisfied God's justice and put our sins away. We believe him.
We believe that he ever lives to make intercession for us. Our Lord says, if you offend
one of my little ones, one of my little children, it'd be better
for you than millstone hung around your neck. You're drowning at
the depths of the sea. Don't mess with God's children. Don't mess with God's children. Any parent in here will readily
admit concerning their children, even if your children are grown.
Maybe your grandchildren. Don't you mess with my child
now. Don't you mess with my grandchild. We've even got a great grandchild.
Don't you mess with my great grandchild. I'll come after you.
But don't you mess with any of the Lord's little children. He
takes that personally. That's a blood-bought, righteous,
clothed child of the kingdom. Be careful how you treat God's
children. And then, just real quick here,
all who are not the Lord's children shall perish in their sins. And
that's what he's talking about there in verses seven through
nine. And he's not talking, when it says, you know, if your hand
or your foot offend thee, cut them off, cast them away. He's
not talking about bodily humiliation. What he's saying is if there's
anything between you and Christ, Anything or anybody that stands
between you and the Lord Jesus, cut it off. Get rid of it. Whatever it is, whoever they
are, they're not worth perishing in hell for. Just get rid of
it. And then he says this in verses
11, 12, and 13. He says, God came into the world to save
His people. For the Son of Man has come to
save that which was lost. Was that you? Were you one of
the lost ones that came to save? That's me. I was lost. I was lost and didn't even know
it. I was in religion, but I was still lost. I tried to be good,
but I was still lost. I joined the church when I was
a little boy, but I still lost. I was lost and had no idea of
the greatness of my lostness. But He found me. And He saved me. So it says, how think ye if a
man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray? That's
me. Is that you? That's me, I went astray, I went
astray in Adam. But I tell you what, he left
the 99. He goes into the mountains, he
went into the mountains of Virginia. And he's sick at that which has
gone astray. That's what salvation is, is
the Lord seeking and finding lost sheep. And even today, he's on the trail
of his lost sheep. And he'll find every last one
of them. And so then he says in verse
14, and I'll quit here, it's absolutely impossible for any
of the Lord's little children to perish, even so, It's not
the will of your father which is in heaven that one of these
little ones, one of his children, shall perish. That's impossible.
Because you see, God's purpose of grace can't be broken, can't
be frustrated. I tell you what, if he chose
you in Christ before the world began, you're his. And his son has already paid
your sin debt. And he's gonna teach you that
one of these days. Spirit of God's gonna make you
alive. You'll be one of the children of the resurrection. And you can't perish. He chose you. He redeemed you.
It isn't possible that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ would
be shed for somebody and that somebody perish in hell. That's
an impossibility. The debt's paid. I know I have
professors in college that say, yeah, the debt's been paid, but
you got to accept the payment. The payment isn't offered to
the sinner. The payment of the Lord Jesus
Christ for the indebtedness of his people is not offered to
the devil, it's not offered to the sinner, it's offered to God. And he accepted the payment price,
and everybody whose price has been paid, they're gonna wind
up with him. That's all there is to it. And the Spirit of God, he's gonna
make sure they don't perish, because he's gonna call them
by the gospel. He's going to arrest their attention. Has your
attention been arrested? I tell you what, if the Lord
ever convinces you of what you are and who Christ is, if he
ever gets a hold of you, he'll convince you real good. And you'll say, oh, this is the
Savior I've gotta have. And you'll rejoice in him. all
the rest of the days of your life and rejoice in him throughout
eternity. I say these things to the Lord's
little children. Little children. Let's close
by singing a final hymn, number 11. It's when all thy mercies,
talk about the mercies of the Lord and mercies that we trust
will go with us all through this week. Number 11.