Good morning, can we stand and
turn to hymn number one, please? Oh, worship the King All glorious
above And gratefully sing His power and His love Our shield
and defender The Ancient of Days Pavilion in splendor And girded
with praise. O tell of His might, O sing of
His grace, Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space, His
chariots of wrath, the deep thunderclouds fold, And dark is His path on
the wings of the storm. Thy bountiful care, what tongue
can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines
in the light It streams from the hills, it descends to the
plain and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. Frail children of dust and feeble
as frail, in thee do we trust, ? Nor find thee to fail ? Thy
mercies how tender ? How firm to thee is ? Our Maker, Defender,
Redeemer, and Friend Hymn number 17, please. Number
17. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above Praise the mount I'm fixed upon
it Mount of thy redeeming love Here I raise mine Ebenezer Hither
by thy help I'm come And I hope by thy good pleasure Safely to
arrive at home Jesus sought me when a stranger ? Wandering from
the fold of God ? He to rescue me from danger ? Interposed His
precious blood ? Oh, to grace how great a debtor ? Daily I'm
constrained to be ? Let Thy goodness like a fetter ? Bind my wandering
heart to Thee ? Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it ? Prone to leave
the God I love ? Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it ? ? Seal
it for thy courts above ? Mark chapter nine, and happy
Father's Day to all you fathers. I'm gonna start reading at verse
33 down through verse 42. And he came to Capernaum, and
being in the house, he asked them, what was it that you disputed
among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace, for
by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be
the greatest. And he sat down and called the
twelve and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the
same shall be last. of all and servant of all. And
he took a child, set him in the midst of them, and when he had
taken him in his arms, he said unto them, whosoever shall receive
one of such children in my name receiveth me. And whosoever shall
receive me receiveth not me, but him that sent me. And John
answered him saying, Master, We saw one casting out devils
in thy name, and he followeth not us. And we forbade him because
he followeth not us. But Jesus said, forbid him not,
for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that
can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us
is on our part. For whosoever shall give you
a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ,
Verily I say unto you, you shall not lose his reward. And whosoever
shall refend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and
he were cast into the sea. Our most gracious, blessed God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come into your presence. Oh Lord, and we don't want to
be rash with our mouth or hasty with our foot. We're on the earth
and you're in heaven. You're holy, gloriously holy,
infinitely holy, sovereign, got all power in heaven and earth.
And so Lord, we're here into your presence and we come to
bless you. for being God, for being the
one true and living God, the one who gave your son power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him. And we thank you, Lord, that
he prayed not for the world, but for those that you gave him
out of the world. And Lord, I'm thankful that you
gave a people to him And that he took our responsibility, took
responsibility for us before you, took our place before you,
bore our sin before you, satisfied your law and justice for us to
satisfy you. Lord, what a blessed, blessed,
glorious gospel. What a blessed salvation you
gave us in Christ. And so Lord, we thank you. And Lord Jesus, we pray that
you'd meet with us today. We're so thankful to have a place
to worship, so thankful to have a people to preach to, people
that you've brought to yourself. And Lord, we pray now for the
unconverted in our midst. Oh Lord, we know that the work
is yours, but your word will not return unto your void. Lord,
the work is yours. And if you're pleased to open
a heart, we'd bless you. If you're pleased not to, we'll
still bless you. But Lord, bring glory to yourself
in the service today. Have mercy. Have mercy upon our
children and grandchildren, husbands, wives, sons, and daughters. We
ask these things in our blessed Savior's name. Amen. Amen. Clock of Ages. When this passing world is done,
when the sun gone ? When I stand with Christ on high
? ? Looking o'er life's history ? ? Then, Lord, shall I fully
know ? ? Naught to this how much I owe ? When I stand before Thy
throne Dressed in beauty not my own When I see Thee as Thou
art Loving with I'm sinning hard, then Lord, shall I fully know? Not to them how much I owe. Chosen not for good in Me Wakened
up from wrath to flee Hidden in the Savior's sight By His
Spirit sanctified Teach me, Lord, on earth to show
By Thy love how much I owe Let me give you the title of
my message this morning. Three points. Pride, prejudice,
and preciousness. Pride, prejudice, and preciousness. And it says there in verse 33,
He came to Capernaum and being in the house. You know, our Lord
had a house. I don't know where it was, but
whatever house it was, that's where, you know, they said, when
His disciples said, you know, when He was first revealed himself
to him, he said, where you going, where you seek me, where you
going? He said, why are you seeking
me? He was going to wherever he was staying at that particular
time. But as I read these verses today,
I personally, I personally don't have any problem finding myself
my sin and my salvation in God's Holy Word. I don't have any problem
at it. When our Lord exposes the sin
of His disciples, He's exposing my sin. When He's teaching them
something, I hope and pray that He's teaching me something. And
when He's warning them, He's also warning me. You know, when
we read God's Word, we can't read it for somebody else. We
read it for ourselves. It's speaking to us, speaking
to us. And that's another thing that
a lot of people are really, they should never do, said, I wish
so and so had been here to hear that. If God intended them to
be here to hear it, they would have heard it. But whoever he's
speaking to, he's speaking to them. When you read the Bible,
God's talking to you, not talking to somebody else. And I, you
know, so here are three things in succession of his disciples.
First you have their pride. Look what it says there. Our
Lord asked them in verse 33, what was it that you disputed
among yourselves by the way? And they held their peace for
they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. Who
should be the greatest? You're talking about pride. Let's have an argument this morning,
see which one of us is the greatest. See what our Lord would think
about that. And I'll tell you what, that's what he said. First,
they were so proud, so proud. And secondly, you see persecution. And he said, John answered him
down in verse 38. He said, Master, we saw one casting
out devils in thy name, and he followeth not with us, and we
forbade him not. You know, he's not one of us.
He don't agree with us. He's not walking with us. He
don't understand us. And he's not going around with
us. So they had prejudice. Now the Lord said that we forbade
him. We said, don't do it. Our Lord said, why in the world
you do that? Why'd you do that? And then the preciousness of
that Lord's people. Our Lord Jesus said, whosoever
should give you a cup of cold water in my name. All right,
let's look at these things together. And I'll tell you what, remember
this, that our Lord taught His disciples about His death, His
death that was coming. And over, look with me in Matthew
chapter 18. Let me show you this. He just got through telling them
about His death and what was gonna happen at His death. And
when this happened, these fellas got to debating about who's gonna
be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. You remember, that
John's mother and James's mother went to the Lord. Jesus says,
Lord, when you enter into your kingdom, said, I want my two
sons to be your right hand and left hand man. I want one of
them to sit on your right hand, I want the other to sit on the
left hand. She went to the Lord and said,
that's what I want when you come into your kingdom. She was so
proud of her boy, she said, I want John to sit over there on your
right hand. And I want James to sit over your left hand. Now
that's how proud she was of her sons. And that's pride goeth
before destruction and haughty spirit before a fall. But look
what he said here in verse 18, Matthew 18, verse one. At that
same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who's the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Lord, tell us who's gonna be
the greatest. Oh, they was concerned for their
position in the Kingdom of Heaven. Who should be the greatest? Who
s going to be the greatest? John and James and mother, like
I said, and Peter, James, and John were close to the Master,
close to the Master. And premillennials believed that
they will have a great, great power and position in the Kingdom
of Heaven. I've heard so many of them say
over the years, you know, I'm gonna, God's gonna give me this
great, I'm gonna win this reward and that reward and this crown,
that crown, and I'm gonna rule over this many people, I'm gonna
rule over that many people. And as you're talking about pride,
pride, and I'll tell you something, pride is natural. It's natural
for the natural man. But for a child of God, it's
awful. For a child of God, it's awful
to be proud. Oh, it's awful to be proud. And
I tell you, like I just said, pride, pride goes before destruction,
haughty spirit before a fall. What do we have that he didn't
give us? Tell me what we have right now. What home do you have that he
didn't give you? What sense do you have that he
didn't give you? What money do you have that He
didn't give you? What health do you have that
He didn't give you? What have you got that He did
not give you? What do we know? What do we know
that He didn't teach us? We can't glory in anything at
all. What do we know that He Himself
didn't teach us? Do we know grace? He taught us.
We know our sinfulness? He taught us. We know our inability? He taught us. We know our weaknesses,
He taught us. We know we're without strength,
He taught us. He taught us that salvation's all of the Lord.
He taught us that. We did not learn that on our
own. We didn't get up one day and decide, I'm gonna become
a Christian and I'm gonna go to Jesus. No, no, everything
we know, He taught us. You know anything about yourself,
He taught you. You know anything about the Bible?
He taught you. He taught you. And oh, what do
we give? And anything that we give, he
first had to give it to us. People say, well, you know, it's
mine and I'll give. No, no, nothing you got belongs
to you. It really don't. And I mean,
anything that you give, He had to give it to you before you
could give it. Ain't that right? Had to give
it to you. But oh my, let me show you a
couple of things here about what this pride does. Look in Luke
chapter 14. I want you to see a couple of
things. Luke chapter 14, what our Lord said about this. This
is, And I remember Bruce Crabtree one time. There was a young preacher
come up and preach for him. And this young preacher, and
I'll tell you what, it's awful, you know, pride. But Bruce told
that young fellow after he got through preaching, he said, boy,
keep yourself humble before God. Stay humble, stay humble, stay
humble. No, he didn't. He didn't. He did. But I do know this, if
you belong to God, if you belong to Him, and old Scott used to
say, make your headquarters in the dust, and God will bring
you to, you will make your headquarters in the dust. You really will.
Look what he said here in Luke chapter 14 and verse 7. And he put forth a parable to
those which were bidden, talking about going to a big party, a
big meal, and he marked out, they chose out the chief rooms,
saying, people got in there and said, I want to stay over in
this room, I want to sit at that table, I want to sit, and look
what he says now. When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding,
sit thou down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man
than thou bidden of him. And he that bade thee and him
come and say, give this man place, and thou begin with shame to
take the lowest room. But when thou art bitten, go
set down in the lowest room, that when he that bade thee cometh,
he may say unto thee, and for him go up higher, and thou shalt
have worship in the presence of them that sit and meet with
thee. This is what I want you to listen
to. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted. The world, that article, it's
in the bulletin. The world, they want to be first. They got ambition, they got pride.
They want the best of everything. They wanna be first in everything.
Politicians wanna be first in everything. They want power,
they want control. But God said it's just the opposite
with us. If you wanna be first, guess
what? God said you're gonna be last.
And oh, look, I'm gonna show you over in Matthew 23. Look
in Matthew 23 with me. Look in Matthew 23. These things I think are very,
very important for us, for me. I shouldn't say us, I should
say me. But oh my, they had such pride. Oh Lord, who's gonna be the greatest?
Who's gonna be the greatest? They debated among themselves,
argued among themselves. And look here, starting in verse
one. Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples,
saying, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All therefore
whatsoever they bid you, you observe and do. But listen to
this, but don't you do after their works, for they say and
do not. They bind heavy burdens and grievous
to be borne, lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves
will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their
works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad the phylacteries,
enlarge the borders of the garments, love the uppermost rooms at feasts,
and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the market to
be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be ye not called Rabbi, for
one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. Call
no man your father upon the earth, for one is your father which
is in heaven. Neither be called ye masters,
for one is your master, even Christ. He is the greatest among
you, shall be your servant. Whosoever shall exalt himself
shall be abased, and he that shumble himself shall be exalted.
God's ways is the opposite, opposite of nature. Absolute opposite
of nature. Absolute opposite. Now, how did
our Lord answer these fellows in their pride? How did he do
it? Back over in our text. Oh, he said, watch you argue
among yourself. What are you talking about? Oh, they had disputed,
had an argument. Who should be the greatest? I'm
sure Simon Peter said, listen, being the Lord Jesus, we're just
like that. John and them said, oh my, listen,
I lean on his breast all the time. They argued about it, argued
about it. And then he sat down, our Lord
sat down in verse 35. He sat down and called the 12. I want you 12, just you 12 sit
down right here. I want you to sit down and call
them 12 around there, gathered around him. He's sitting down and he saith unto them, If any
man desired to be first, you wanna be first, you wanna be
first in the kingdom of God, you wanna be first in the church,
you wanna be first in this thing, first in that thing, first in
every other thing. And he says unto them, if any
man desired to be first, he said, I'm gonna make sure that that
man shall be last of all, and he's gonna be servant of all.
That's what I'm gonna do. And look what he said now. And
then he took a child, He took a child, picked up a child, and
that people gathered around him, set him down right in the middle
of them. Set that little child down right
in the middle of all these people, right in the middle of his 12
disciples. And he says this, and listen
to this, now I want you to listen to this. And when he had taken
him up in his arms, he took that baby up in his, I think it was
an infant. I think it was absolutely an
infant. Picked him up, held him in his arms. Held that baby in
his arms. You think about that. Our Lord
says, you know, except you receive the kingdom of heaven as a little
child. Somebody, you know, for Christ
to have, you have to come to Christ and to trust His arms,
not your own. Trust His strength, not your
own. His love, not your own. His compassion, not your own.
His strength, not your own. And he took that baby up and
held him in his arms, held him in his arms. And you know what
he calls us? Children. He said, children,
have you any meat? John, the disciple, how many
times John in his little epistle said, little children, little
children, little children. And our Lord Jesus, look what
he took that child, set him in the mist, took him up in his
arms. And look what he says now. Whosoever,
you know what a child does? To receive me, he who has received
one of such children in my name receives me. Oh my. Whosoever receives this child
in my name, my name, is to receive me. And to receive me is him
that sent me. But why did he take a child?
Why did he take an infant? And I believe it really was an
infant or a child that just barely could stand, but Christ took
him up in his arms. And oh my, why not? Now he's
talking about a child, not a child who thinks they're grown up.
Oh, not a child who thinks they're grown up. But a child has unconscious
humility. They have unconscious humility.
They don't have to try. They really are little babies.
They have an unconscious humility. They're humble, but they're not
aware of it. And a child that has entire dependence on somebody
else, a child does, they have to depend on somebody else. And
everything concerning their future depends on somebody else. You know, children today, I don't
know, And I'm so thankful for the parents here that's taught
their children right from wrong, taught them how to act in a service,
taught them to respect elders. I'm so thankful for all that.
I'm thankful for every bit of it. But where we was at last
weekend, there's little kids everywhere. I mean, little youngins
running everywhere. And them little fellas, a lot
of them just came with other people, but all those kids, they
just got together. They don't have to be told to
get together. Kids are attracted to kids. And so the next thing
you know, them little old kids is running everywhere. I mean,
they're just running and ripping and playing and having a big
time, and you know one of them would say, listen, you get in
the swing and I'll push you, and you get, now we'll take turns.
And their little old body's just so wet with sweat, their hair's
wet in sweat, and they just, they was unconscious of anything
going on around them. And how many times have we said
about our own children, when they was little, that's the best
time that they'll ever have in their life. when you pick them
up in your arms, and you care for them, and you love them,
and you sing to them, and you pray for them, you pray for them
before they're born, because you love them, and you want them
to be right, you want them to have some respect, you want them
to have some sense, you want them to have some, be able to
understand what's going on in this world. And oh, why a child,
not one that thinks he's grown up. And a child has entire dependence. Dependence. And I tell you what,
that's, you know, just like today's Father's Day, everybody thinks
their father's probably the greatest man in the world, the biggest
and the best. But I'll tell you something else about children,
little children, they're teachable. They are teachable. and obedient. And that's what our Lord said,
he that's least among you is the greatest, he said in one
place. You know what? When we're talking about this
here, a child looks away from self and looks to the needs. You know, a child of God looks
away from his self and looks to the needs of other people.
I mean, you look in Philippians chapter two. I want you to see
this. I want you to see this right
here. You know, oh, teachable. He that's least among you looks
away from self, looks to the needs of others. God, he said,
he that's least among you, let him be servant. Look what our
Lord said here. Look what the Bible says here
in verse three of Philippians chapter two. Let nothing be done through strife. That's what those fellas were
doing. They were disputing. They were striving over who's
gonna be the greatest. And listen to this, or vainglory.
Any glory that man seeks for himself is vainglory. But listen
to this, but in lowliness of mind, lowliness of mind, take
my yoke upon you for I'm lowly. My burden is easy, my yoke is
light. But in lowliness of mind, let
each esteem other better than themselves. Does anybody in here
esteem others better than themselves? Well, I know that it's in our
heart, it's in our desire to do it. I do know that. I do know
that. And oh my, and look what else
he goes on saying, verse four, look not every man on his own
things. Don't be talking about yourself
all the time and what you've accomplished and where you're
going, what you've done. Look not every man on his own
things, on his own way, but every man also on the things of others. Now take care of your things,
but look on somebody else's things. The world don't revolve around
you. And look what he goes on to say. Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus. Now that's the kind of mind Christ
had. That's the kind of mind Christ had. And oh, look away
from self. Now look back over here and look
at their prejudice now. Their pride, their prejudice,
look what he says now. And John answered him, instead
of, Paying attention to what was said, John jumped up and
said, listen, I got something to say. Our Lord just said, you know, if
he's gonna be greatest for me first, he's gonna be last. Well,
John jumps up, I'm gonna be first. I'm gonna be the first one to
speak. And look what he says. He answered him and said, master,
didn't pay a bit of attention to what our Lord just taught
him. Didn't pay a bit of attention to what the Lord just taught
him. Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he
falleth not with us, and we forbade him because he falleth not with
us. But Jesus said, forbid him not, for there's no man which
shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of
me. Oh, now who this fellow was,
we have no idea. Why he was not with the disciples,
we don't know. But we do know that what he was
doing, Christ didn't forbid him. We do know that Christ said,
forbid him not, for who shall do, no man shall do a miracle
in my name can lightly speak evil of me, for he that's not
against us on our part. But we do know that doing it
and he was doing it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what he was doing is doing in Christ's name, in Christ's authority.
And I say this, and I believe this, I believe evidently he
was a believer. I believe he had seen Christ,
I believe he knew who Christ was, and I believe that Christ,
he was a believer in Christ. And John said, we forbid him.
We forbid him. Why, John? Because he's not with
us. He's not with us. He's not in
our church. He's not with the rest of us
12. He's not with us that know everything. He's not with us
who's been obedient. He's not with us that follows
you. He's not with us. Look how our Lord answers him.
Forbid him not. Forbid him not. He that's not
against us, he that's not against us is on our part. He pronounces
our Lord Jesus Christ upon this man that John's talking about.
Our Lord don't praise Him. Our Lord don't blame Him for
His work. Our Lord don't blame Him for not following with the
disciples. He just plainly declares that He's not against us, He's
for us. That's what He said. Now I'll
tell you something. Hard words, hard words never
yet may change one man's mind, never once. You know, hard words,
being mean, being hard, never changed one person's mind, never
has. Unity is never, never brought
about by force. Paul says, you know, some preach
Christ of pretense, some preach Christ of faithfulness, and yet
he says, nevertheless, Christ is priest, and that's all rejoicing
in that. And oh forbid him not. Now I
tell you what, you know Moses when the They come down off the
mountain, they was all a bunch of people, and there was a group
gathered around Moses one day, and the Spirit of God came on
a bunch of them. And they started preaching. They
started preaching. And Joshua run up to Moses and
says, Moses, these men are preaching. These men are prophesying. They're
saying things. And he said, you forbid them,
tell them to stop. He said, I would to God that
all of God's children were prophets. Or would they always prophets?
Or would they always able to teach? Don't be offended by me. Now, let me tell you, this doesn't
mean that we're indifferent to sound doctrine. I'm not indifferent. We're not indifferent to sound
doctrine. Yes, we know Billy R. Jeropolis said that this is
the first place he preached after he learned the gospel. I was
just learning the gospel, Scott Richeson, the first person ever
asked me to preach in a grace church. First time I ever preached
in a grace church was at Katie Baptist Church. And you know people, we're not
against sound doctrine. We got to have sound doctrine.
And oh my, we're not immune and we're not against the message
of the gospel. We're not against it. We must
not talk or act like it doesn't matter what men are or what they
believe. Like a Jew, a Jew doesn't believe
that Christ is the Messiah. The Jews doesn't believe that
Christ is the one, they're looking for one to come yet. And then
the Muslims, Catholics, people say as long as they're earnest
and sincere, that s not true. We re not against sound doctrine.
We want sound doctrine. We want the gospel. But let us
never hinder or forbid those who are truly laboring for Christ
and His gospel. I often wonder, I get on places
and I look for Churches named Sovereign Grace or certain preachers,
and I run across a young preacher down in Georgia, and there's
a young preacher, I can't think where he's at, he's a Presbyterian.
But I've listened to him preach, I couldn't tell you how many
times. And every single time, he has been as clear on the gospel
as anybody you ever hear. He was going through Romans 9
and he talked about the justice of God in hating Esau and loving
Jacob in a Presbyterian church. He said God's absolutely right
and God's absolutely just to love who he wants to love and
who he wants to hate. And you think I'm gonna write
that film and say, no, listen, listen, because you're not in
our church. You're not with our group of
people. I wonder how many people are
out there preaching the gospel. Nobody knew who I was. And Scott
Richardson hit me up one day and started asking me some questions.
And then he said, listen, You're talking about making a fella
feel good. He said, listen, I know you're a busy man. I know you're
somebody. And if you got any other appointments
or anything, If you got time, you look in your appointment
book, if you got time, would you come preach for us? And when he asked me, you could
have gave me a $100 bill and I couldn't have spent it. But somebody, somebody has to
recognize somebody preaching the gospel. And when you find
one, listen to them. When we first started learning
the gospel, you remember this, years ago, if anybody, we even
suspected somebody's preaching the gospel, we'd get in a car
and drive forever, drive miles and hundreds of miles to go somewhere
to hear somebody preaching. I heard about that, they're gonna
have a meeting over there. Let's get in the car and let's go. You hear about somebody bringing
a good message, the first thing you say, you need to listen to
this message, you need to listen to that message. You just wouldn't
believe what, this is one of the best messages I ever heard.
And then you know in about a year or so, you'll say, listen, this
is one of the, I believe this is the best message I ever heard,
you need to hear this. We're always hearing the best. You
know why? Because the gospel is the best. And we don't care who's preaching
it as long as it's the gospel. And these fellas was prejudice.
So let's not be prejudice. Let's not be so harsh on somebody
that we think is learning something and needs to know something.
Let's not do that. Let's not do that. And then look
what he said, look at now, look at the preciousness of what our
Lord said now. He's talking about receiving
me, receiving Him that sent me. If you receive this little child,
guess who you receive? You get me. You receive this
little child, you get me. Because you're receiving Him,
you get me with it. You get me with that little child.
He said, not only do you get me if you receive this little
child, but you'll get God the Father who sent me. God, you'll
get the father, you'll get the son. And that's what he's talking
about here. And then look what he says now.
And he goes on to say this. For whosoever, this is how precious
the Lord's people are to him. For whosoever give you a cup
of water. One place said a cold cup of
water. Whosoever give you a cup of water to drink in my name.
They sent water out here for me every Sunday, every Sunday
night. Our Lord said, give you a cup
of water, a cup of water. Christ is the water of life.
But he said, you know, you give him a cup of cold water. And you do it for my name and
my name. This is one of your children.
This is somebody who may not know you, but I'm gonna give
you a cup of cold water. Here, you thirsty? Let me give you
something to drink. Let me give you something to drink. He said,
who shall ever give you a cup of water to drink in my name?
Listen to this, because you belong to Christ. Ain't that something
to belong to Christ? He said, belong to me. He said,
belong to Christ. You know, Everybody belongs to
somebody, you know, and this this is my son. This is my daughter
You know, I met some folks the other day and I introduced myself
to him and then a little boy there He's he he's my little
he's my son or this is my daughter and everybody's got somebody
But let me tell you something He said him that belongs to Christ. I Oh my goodness. Oh. Belongs to Christ. Can you imagine
belonging to Christ? Huh? Belong to Christ. They're them that belong to me.
Oh my. Oh my goodness. Belong to Christ because they
belong to Christ. The very last day unto you shall
not lose his reward. And now the reward he's talking
about is what you get in this world right here. It's not talking
about what you get up yonder. You know, he told us, he said,
Peter said, we left all and forsook all for you. And you know what
he told Peter? He said, he that's left all, he said, in this life,
he'll receive a hundredfold. Houses, lands, fathers, mothers,
brothers, sisters. We stayed in a house last week.
One of the most beautifullest, most biggest houses. Beautiful,
wasn't it, Shirley? I mean, it was gorgeous. Beautiful
home. Beautiful home. They built it,
you know, themselves. Oh, a beautiful home. And that's
such a relaxing home. And the couple was so, so... You know, I had a home when I
went up there to stay in. I had a brother and a sister
up there. I've got a grandma sitting right
back there, that little white-headed woman, Elder McSherry. Huh? That's my grandma. You know, I've got grandmas,
that's my brother and sister. I got folks to stay with. I've
been in California, places to stay. Oregon, places to stay. Washington, places to stay. Kentucky. You know why? That's what you
get in this life. And I'll tell you what, you think
about all the places and all the people that you know in this
life right here that God's blessed you to have, that's your reward. That's your reward. A good night's
sleep is a reward. But look what he goes on to say.
Oh, and listen, and then he goes on to say this. We're talking
about prejudice now, and look what he said. Whosoever shall
offend one of these little ones, that's what he called him. Still
talking about that child, one of these little ones, that's
what he calls them. Belong to him, and these are little bitty
fellas. These little ones, these little
ones, that's how Christ, in light of Him and His glory and His
power and His authority and His majesty, we're little, little
ones. He said, whosoever shall hurt
one of these little ones, offend one of these little ones, hurt
their feelings, offend them, that believe in me, you know what it'd be better
for them to do? That a millstone be hanged about his neck, and
be cast into the sea. That's while our Lord regards
his people. That's how precious he is to
them. You hurt one of them, you mistreat
one of them, and I tell you what, you know, talking about pride
and prejudice, you know what happens to men who don't humble
themselves? I don't know how long I've been
preaching, but you know what happens, going back to pride,
you know what happens to men who seek to be the greatest?
Remember what happened to Nebuchadnezzar? Old Nebuchadnezzar walked out
and looked at, this is great Babylon that I've built. God turned him out seven years,
took his mind away from him. Took his mind, for seven long
years, God took his mind away from him. Set him out there and
he was eating grass and doing the best. His fingernails grew
so long he looked like eagles wings, eagle sounds. Hair grew
long and just got way down on his back. And you know what he
said? He said, when my understanding
returned. He said, you know what I found out?
That all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as what? great
bunch of folks, good people, good people, good moral people,
good church people, good Bible believing people. No, no. He
said all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
He does according to his will, the army of heaven among the
inhabitants of the earth. Ain't nobody gonna stop him.
And oh my Herod, We went through acts here recently. And remember
old Herod, you know, he gave a big oration and they said,
it's the voice of a God, it's the voice of a God. God smote
him and he died in just a little less than 24 hours. That's what
happens to men make themselves great. But then there's people
that humble themselves. And you know who, you take the
centurion. when he said, oh, listen, I got
a service sick. And our Lord started that way.
He said, I'm not worthy. This is what he said. I'm not
worthy that you could even come under my roof. You just say the
word. Just say the word. And that woman
that brought her daughter to the Lord said, it's not right
to give the children's bread to dogs. Yes, Lord, you're exactly
right. But even a dog like me gets a
crumb from the master's table. Will you be a dog? Will you be
that fellow and say, Lord, I'm not worthy? I'm not worthy. Oh, pride, prejudice, but oh,
how precious the Lord's people are to Him. How precious. Our Father, our blessed, blessed
Master, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for meeting
with us. Thank you for your precious word.
I pray that we would lay these things to our heart, lay them
to our soul. Oh, God, help us to pride. Pride is one thing you said.
The first one that you said is an abomination. It's pride. It's
pride. You said it's an abomination.
It's pride. Just a proud look, you said,
is an abomination. And Lord, never let us Mistreat people. Never let us force our doctrine
on anybody or our opinions on anybody. Help us not to do that. And Lord Jesus, help us to love
your people. Do everything we can for them.
Wait on them hand and foot if it's your will. Love them, care
for them. Pray for them. Meet the needs
of their homes. meet the needs of their lives,
husbands, children. Oh, God, help us, please, for
Christ's sake, to truly, truly love one another, esteem others
better than ourselves, and give us these graces, Lord Jesus,
for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth
will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace. See you tonight, 6 o'clock, God
willing.