Well, good evening. If you would
care to open your Bibles with me this evening to Psalm 131.
Psalm 131. Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty. Neither do I exercise myself
in great matters or in things too high for me. Surely I have
behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his
mother. My soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the
Lord from henceforth and forever." Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, oh, how thankful. we are to be able, by thy grace,
to come before your throne of grace and to call you our Father,
to cry, Abba, Father. Oh, how we thank you. We thank
you for your electing, sovereign, saving, redeeming grace. And
Father, we pray that this evening that you would enable us by thy
spirit to worship thee in spirit and in truth. We pray that the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ would be extolled and magnified
and that we might behold thy glory, that we might see the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and believe on him, rest in him
and cling to him. How we thank you for a savior
who atones for sin, who has indeed saved his people from their sin,
that all of our salvation is found in him, that we don't add
any works of our own, any works of righteousness, but it's all
in Him. Father, we're thankful. That's
where we would want it. And Father, we thank You for
the many blessings of this life. You've blessed us beyond measure.
We're thankful. Thankful for our children. Father,
I pray You'd bless them, that You'd watch over them, that You'd
bless them. And Father, above all, that in
Your time, You'd be merciful to them. Cause us to be faithful
to them, to teach them the scriptures, to preach Christ, that you might
use the preaching of your word to call out your sheep. And Father,
we pray for our country at this time. Father, that you'd move
in a mighty way, that you would give us some relief from this
pandemic, that people could go back to work and to school and
their activities. We pray that you'd be with our
leaders, Turn their heart to do good, to rule well, that they
might be used of Your hand to preserve and protect the freedoms
that we have long enjoyed in this country. Father, again,
we seek Your blessing. How we beg Your presence upon
us that we might be enabled to worship Thee this evening. Be
with both the preacher and the hearer, that You would enable
us to preach and to hear with a heart of faith and believe
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, in His blessed name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. I've titled the message
this evening, The Blessing of a Weaned Child. Charles Spurgeon
said of this psalm, he said, this is one of the shortest psalms
to read, but one of the longest to learn. It's hard to learn
lowliness, isn't it? Spurgeon went on to say, He said,
even though it's hard to learn lowliness, it is one of the highest
attainments in divine life, that we might attain lowliness and
humility. Now this is another one of the
Psalms of degrees that begins in deep humility. And very quickly,
in just a matter of three verses, it goes from deep humility and
rises all the way to confidence, fixed, strong confidence in Christ. And this is what I want us to
learn from this psalm this evening. That the only way we can have
this fixed confidence is through deep humility. Now the words
of our psalm can only be the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The first thing I want us to see is Christ the perfect servant. He says in verse one, Lord, my
heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty. Neither do I exercise
myself in great matters or in things too high for me. Now,
only the Lord Jesus Christ could say this. Only Christ could say,
He's not haughty. You and I are haughty. We come
into the world that way, don't we? We come into the world thinking
it's all about us. I mean, it's just where I'm the
only one I can think about. We're haughty. We think of ourselves
much more highly than we ought to think, but not the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is God. He can't think of
himself any more highly than he is. He's God. He's the Prince
of Glory. His name is Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
It's impossible for him to think of himself more highly than he
ought to think. When he said he was God, that
wasn't blasphemy. He was right. He is God. It's
not blasphemy for him to call himself one with the Father,
because he is. He is one with the Father. But
now look at Philippians chapter 2. While he could not be any
higher in glory than he is, yet the Savior humbled himself further
than we can imagine to become a man. Philippians 2 verse 5. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the
likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and
given him a name which is above every name, that the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things
in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. Now, the Son of God came to earth
in human flesh. He humbled Himself to appear
as a man. For a time, He humbled Himself.
And when He came to earth as a man, He came as the servant
of His Father. Now, the Lord Jesus is God over
all, yet He humbled Himself to become a servant to do the will
of His Father in redeeming His people from their sins. And the
Lord Jesus Christ is the humble serpent. He never one time sought
his own. He never one time sought his
own glory, his own comfort, or his own will. He said, I seek
not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent
me. Now he could honestly say that. He could honestly say that.
But we can't say that. We can't say, oh, I'm not seeking
my own. Because we seek our own all the
time, even when we try not to. That's all this flesh can do,
is seek my own, take care of me and my own. But the Savior,
the humble, perfect servant, said it because it's true. I
seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which has
sent me. So when the Lord Jesus lived as a man to obey God's
law and produce a righteousness by his own actions, by obeying
the law himself personally, the Savior was not exercising himself
in things that are too high for him. Now that's what he came
to do, to obey God's law. And he could do it because he's
God. Now if you and I tried to establish
our own righteousness by our own doing, what we do, what we
don't do, now that'd be haughty, wouldn't it? That'd be very haughty
of us. We would be exercising ourselves in matters that are
way too high for us because we can't do that. But it was not
wrong for the Savior to say he obeyed the Father because that's
what he came to do and that's what he did. Then you remember
the time the Lord Jesus said to that man who's sick with a
palsy, before he healed him, he said, son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. And
he cried from the cross, Father, forgive them. They know not what
they do. Now in this man, Jesus of Nazareth,
when he forgave sin, he was not exercising himself on matters
that are too high for him. And that's the whole purpose
of His coming, to forgive the sin of His people. And it wasn't
wrong for Him to say so. Now, to say that we could forgive
sin, that would be haughty. That would be exercising in ourselves
the matters that are too high for us. The Catholic priest who
says he can forgive sin, if you repeat a limerick so many times
or whatever, that he can forgive sin, brother, that man's in matters
over his head. That's blasphemy to say He can
forgive sin because only God can forgive sin. We can't do
that. That's haughty of us to think
we could do that. But it wasn't wrong for the Savior to say that
He could forgive sin and He did forgive sin because that's what
He came to do. Then when the Lord Jesus said
that the Father has given Him power over all flesh that He
might give eternal life to as many as the Father has given
Him. He was not exercising Himself
in matters that are too high for Him. He wasn't being haughty.
That's the whole purpose of His coming. He came to give His people
life. They died in Adam. Christ came
to give them life in Him. It wasn't wrong for Him to say
so. Now, it would be haughty of you and me if we could say
that we're going to give ourselves life, that we're going to earn
eternal life. We'd be exercising ourselves
in matters that are too high for us because we can't do it.
We can't do anything. darn anything from God except
death. But it wasn't wrong for the Savior
to say He gave His people life, because that's what He came to
do. Then when the Lord Jesus said, Father, I have glorified
Thee on the earth. Now you think of God's glory.
You know where it's seen? In that man, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I have glorified Thee on the earth. When He said that,
He wasn't being haughty. He wasn't exercising Himself
in matters that are too high for Him. That's why He came. To glorify His Father. He came to glorify His Father
by saving all those people that the Father gave Him to save.
And that's what He did. And it wasn't wrong or haughty
for Him to say so. Then when the Lord Jesus said,
Father, I finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And He
cried from the cross, is finished. He wasn't being haughty. He wasn't
exercising himself in matters that are too high for him. This
is why he came. He came to do all of the work
of redemption for his people and he would not give up the
ghost until the matter was done. The job was done. The work of
redemption is finished and it wasn't wrong for him to say so.
He wasn't being haughty. Now it would be wrong for you
and me to say that. It would be wrong for you and me to say
Christ came, He died for everybody, now I've done my part and finished
this work of redemption for myself. Well, that's haughty. That's
exercising ourselves in matters that are too high for us. How
haughty is it to say, yes, Christ came. But I, I have to add something
to what He did to make it work. That's haughty, isn't it? To
say I've got to do something to make it more than Christ alone?
It's haughty of us to think that we could redeem ourselves or
make ourselves more redeemable, easier to save by all of our
religious works. We can't do that. That would
be so haughty. We'd be exercising ourselves in matters that would
be like diving into the middle of the ocean expecting you could
swim out. Can't be done. Can't be done. But it wasn't
wrong for the Savior to say that that's what He did, that He finished
the work of redemption for His people because He's the perfect
servant. He did everything that the Father
gave Him to do. And second, I want us to see this. I want us to
see Christ, the humble servant. Verse two, he says, Surely I
have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of
his mother. My soul is even as a weaned child. Now hear the
Lord Jesus Christ, that he is a weaned child. He's behaved
himself. He's quieted himself as a weaned
child. Now, what does that mean? I mean,
I had to go looking for some help on this because it was not
readily apparent to me, but this is what I found out. Before a
child is weaned, when a baby is just on breast milk, before
that child is weaned, that child is not mature enough to think
about anything but himself. He's just a baby. And when that
baby, that infant is hungry, you know what that kid's going
to do? He's going to cry for milk. He's going to cry and it
doesn't matter what else is going on. That kid don't care. He's
hungry. He needs milk and he's going
to cry. Mama could be so tired she cannot keep her eyes open. That baby don't care. He's not
thinking about mama. He's thinking about himself.
All that child is capable of thinking is me. I'm hungry. I need milk. And that baby's
going to cry. He's going to carry on until
that Dog-tired mama gets up and feeds him anyway. She just can't
keep her eyes open, but she's going to do it, because she's
got to think about that baby. And mama, maybe that baby's hungry,
starts to cry, and she's just sitting down to eat herself.
And it does not matter that she's not had a hot meal for herself
in 15 years. That baby don't care. He just
don't care. All he knows is he's hungry and he's going to cry.
He's going to raise a ruckus. He's going to make the whole
house focus on him. He's just crying until he gets
what he wants. And that's all an infant can
do. And we cut slack to that infant, don't we? We cut slack.
Oh, we spoil it. You know, it begins to cry. As
soon as it begins to cry, we just go scoop it up. We just
spoil it. But it's an infant. It's all the child can do. So we cut an imp in a lot of
slack. But now once that child has grown a little bit, and once
that child has been weaned, the expectations go up, don't they?
Being weaned means more than just being weaned from breast
milk and now you can eat cereal or you can eat a little bit of
solid food, eat Cheerios or something, you know. Being weaned means
this, that the child has grown and matured And now that child
is old enough to think about somebody other than himself. Now that child is old enough
to be still and wait a few minutes until mama puts a meal on the
table. Just wait a few minutes. Mama will put some Cheerios in
your bowl and you can eat those. Just wait a minute. Well, this
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's speaking as the weaned child
who thinks about somebody other than himself. And you and I can't
truly say that. We can try. We can try. But we're
still always going to think about ourselves, our well-being first. Because that's the nature of
this flesh. Even when we're doing something that's selfless, to
help somebody else, all we can think about is how tired it makes
me doing it. This sacrifice. We're thinking
about our well-being first. Only the Lord Jesus Christ could
say he's the weaned child that thinks about somebody other than
himself. Christ our Savior behaved himself
as a weaned child. He came to earth for the sole
purpose of doing something for somebody else. That's why he
came. First, he came to do something
for his father. He came to please his father.
He came to make it so that his father could be both just and
justifier. And in order to do it, he had
to think about somebody other than himself. He had to leave
the comforts of heaven. He had to leave the glory of
heaven. And he had to come to this earth as a man to be the
servant of his father. And as he did, this humble servant,
he behaved as a weaned child that did not seek his own. He
didn't seek his own glory. He sought the glory of his father.
He sought to please his father. He didn't seek to please himself,
his own personal comforts. He sought to please his father.
He sought to glorify His Father. He didn't seek to glorify Himself.
He sought to glorify His Father. He came to do something for His
Father. He thought of someone else before
Himself. And second, the Savior behaved
as a weaned child by coming to earth to do something for His
people. He thought of that people. The Father gave Him a people.
And He loved those people. And He thought of them before
He thought of His own personal comforts. And He came to do something
for those people. that they could not do for themselves.
And when he came, he didn't seek his own comfort. He sought righteousness
and he sought life for his people. And he put a lot of effort in
doing it. He didn't have to produce a righteousness
for himself. He's already holy. He's God.
He has produced a righteousness for his people. And he worked
hard at doing it. He walked for miles one day out
of his way. just so he could meet one poor
sinner woman who could be drawn water in a well at noon just
so he could give her living water. He went a long way out of his
way to meet her. And as he went, he never one time complained.
He never complained about giving up his glory as a son of God.
He gave that up for a time. He didn't complain about it.
He never complained about being made under his own law and having
to obey the very law that he made, that he wrote. I'll tell
you why he did that. because he was behaving himself
as a weaned child. He was thinking about somebody
else before himself. His obedience to the law. He
worked hard at obeying the law. And this is why he did that.
He's thinking of somebody else. His obedience to the law is the
only way his people could be made righteous. So he behaved
himself as a weaned, as a mature child, the child of the father,
the son of God. And he obeyed the law for his
people to make them righteous. And when his hour finally came,
he set his face like a flint toward Jerusalem, and he wouldn't
be turned away. He wouldn't turn to the left
or the right. He set his face like a flint. He's going to Jerusalem,
fully knowing the agony that awaited him there. And he went
anyway. He wouldn't turn from that suffering
for even a moment. You know why? Now, that suffering
was not best for his personal comfort, but it was best for
his people. There was no other way that his
people could be forgiven. He said, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. He prayed that so we know it's
not possible. There's not another way God's
people could be saved other than him going to the cross and suffering
and dying as our substitute. His people could not be forgiven
unless he shed his blood to cleanse, to pay for their sin, to atone
for their sin, And he behaved himself as a weaned child by
thinking about somebody else, his own people, before he thought
about his own personal comfort. And the Savior also said he quieted
himself. He quieted himself as a weaned
child. He quieted himself. And like
I said a minute ago, he never one time complained about his
personal circumstances. He never complained about being
poor and homeless. He said the Son of Man had nowhere
to lay his head. The foxes do, the birds of the
forest do, the animals do. Just a statement of fact. He
wasn't complaining. He never complained about being
hated by men. He never complained about the
agony of his suffering. He never complained about the
slander, the accusations, the false accusations that were thrown
at him. He never opened his mouth to defend himself. Not one time.
Instead, he went as a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep before
her shears is done, So he opened it by his mouth. Now you know
why he quieted himself that way? The Lord never lied. He never
blasphemed by making himself God. He never made himself king
and tried to overthrow the government like he was accused of. He never
did that. He was innocent. He knew no sin. He did no sin. Yet when all those charges were
leveled at him, he quieted himself as a weaned child. He quieted
himself because he's thinking about somebody other than himself. He's thinking about the salvation
of his people. He's thinking about glorifying
his father. He was quiet because he was guilty. The charges were true. He had
been made sin for his people. He was quiet because he had no
defense. He remained quiet and went as
a lamb to the slaughter silently because that's what was best
for his people. Oh, certainly. You know, the
Pharisee said, well, come down now from the cross and we'll
believe. Oh, he had the power to do it. He absolutely had the
power to do it. And wouldn't they have been impressed?
Would they have believed him? No, they would not have. But
would they have been, oh, I'm sure they would have been. But
you know why he didn't do it? Because that wouldn't have been
best for his people. If he didn't come down from the cross, we'd
have no sacrifice. We'd have no land. We'd have
no blood. He quieted himself because that is the only way
his elect could be saved. is that He took their sin and
bore it away forever by His sacrifice. The Lord Jesus quieted Himself
as a weaned child because He thought about His Father ahead
of His own personal comfort. He quieted Himself and He suffered
for the sin of His people because that's the only way the Father's
holy justice could be satisfied. He quieted Himself and He suffered
for the sin of His people because that's the only way the Father's
attributes could be glorified. We would never know anything
about the wisdom of God. How that through Christ our representative,
how through the suffering of Christ our substitute, that God
could be both just and still justify the ungodly. We'd never
know that unless Christ suffered as a substitute for his people.
We'd never know anything about grace and mercy and the love
of God unless Christ suffered as the sacrifice for the sin
of his people. So he silently went to the slaughter. He willingly suffered because
he's thinking about somebody before himself. That's what was
best for his people. That was what was best for the
glory of his father. Aren't you thankful that the
Lord Jesus Christ was the weaned child who thought about somebody
before he thought about himself? Aren't you glad he thought about
you before he thought about himself? That he's willing to suffer?
What a humble servant. A perfect and a humble servant.
Alright, thirdly. Now that's the perfect, humble
servant. Here's the third thing I want
us to see. You trust him. You trust him. I want us to see
Christ our hope. Verse 3. Let Israel hope in the
Lord from henceforth and forever. And we can't do any of these
things that Christ did. If it was left up to us to be
a perfect servant, to be a humble servant, we couldn't do it. Well,
thank God. Those who are incapable of doing
anything to save themselves are told, hope in the Lord. Hope in the Lord. And listen,
do it right now. I mean right now. The word here,
let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth, that word is now.
Right now, right now, you trust the Lord. If you've never trusted
Him before, right now you trust Him. And if you've trusted Him
in the past, don't look to your faith of the past. Trust Him
right now. Right now. Right now is all that matters.
Now and forevermore. Trust Him. We cannot obey God's
law. Isn't it gracious of God to tell
us, us who can do nothing but break the law, hope in Christ.
Hope in Him. to make you righteous. Hope in
Him who kept the law for us. We can never wipe away our sin.
We can never cover our sin. Aren't you glad God's told us,
you hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood atones for how much
of our sin? All of it. All of it. His blood
cleanses us and washes us whiter than snow. Now trust in Him.
You know, we can never not be haughty. And those of us who
are so This flesh is so full of pride. We're told, you hope
in the Lord. Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Put your trust in Him. The humble servant. The perfect
servant. Who did what you could never
do. Who accomplished all the work of redemption for His people.
You know, we can't say any of these things in ourselves. We
can't say we've done any of these things by our own works. But
believers can say these things in Christ. In Christ. Now our
flesh will always be haughty. Always. But in Christ, we're
humbled. Look back at Job chapter 42.
You know what humbles God's children? It's when we see the Lord Jesus
Christ by faith. Just like Job did. If we see
Him, this is why we preach Christ. Because if God always fears to
reveal Christ to you, you'll be humbled. We're not going to
have a problem with this haughty business. You'll be humbled.
Job 42 verse 1. Then Job answered the Lord, and
said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought
can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel
without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that
I understood not. I've been exercising myself in
things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Here I beseech
thee, and I will speak. I will demand of thee and declare
thou unto me. I've heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear. But now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, because
I have seen thee, I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes."
Now that's being humbled, isn't it? To repent, fall before the
Lord in dust and ashes, and begging Him for mercy. That's what we'll
do. We'll be humbled if we see Christ in His glory. You and
I are haughty by nature. We all think of ourselves much
more haughty than we ought to think, don't we? We think we
can do what we can't do. We think we can please God. We are so haughty. We think we
can please God. We are so haughty, we think,
well, I know I can't be perfect, but I can keep the law well enough.
I can be moral enough. I can follow God's law well enough
and obey it well enough that God will accept me. Trying to
establish our own righteousness by what we do, it's exercising
ourselves. It matters. It's too high for
us. But by God's grace, you know, we'll quit that. We'll quit that
when we see Christ. If God shows us Christ, we're
going to be humbled and we're finally going to quit. We're
going to quit trying to establish our own righteousness and we'll
rest in Christ. If I've seen Christ, this is
what I know. I know there's no need for me
to add my righteousness to him. If Christ is my righteousness,
I can rest. And I guess it probably doesn't
need to be said, but just let me say it. You who believe already
know this. That's not a one-time thing,
is it? No, we fight that self-righteousness constantly. Constantly. Because
this flesh is unchanged. This flesh is as haughty as ever.
But what puts it down? What keeps that self-righteous
attitude from ruling? It's seeing Christ by faith.
constantly being humbled to see Him in His glory. If we see Christ
crucified, we see Him lifted up as a sacrifice for our sin,
seeing that that is the only way my sin could be forgiven.
I mean, how wretched, how vile, how guilty and black with sin
must I be if the only way God, God who can do anything, if the
only way God could put my sin away is by slaughtering his son. How vile must I be? How vile! But that's the only way sin can
be forgiven. Now forgiveness humbles a person. It humbles a person. Forgiveness
of sin means we're sinners. We're sinners against God and
we deserve to be damned. That's what sin means. But when
God freely forgives our sin for Christ's sake, not for my sake,
not because I checked off all the boxes, you know, at the local
church, not because of anything I did now, but for Christ's sake.
God forgave my sin by God's free, undeserved, unsought-for grace. That will humble me. That will
humble me. If God the Holy Spirit ever shows
us Christ in His glory, we're going to quit trusting in our
works. and we're going to trust Him. But in order to do that,
we've got to be humbled. And I tell you, the thing that
will humble God's people is seeing Christ lifted up. Seeing Him.
When I see Christ, I'm going to be humbled enough to quit
even trying to pay some of the redemption price for my sin and
rest in Christ alone. That's what a lot of false religion
tries to do is you've got to finish making the payment, right?
You ever been to dinner with someone, and the waitress brings
the check, and they scoop it up real fast. You were playing
on scooping up. They scooped it up before you
did. And what do we all say? Well, at least let me pay the
tip. At least let me leave the tip. Let me pay something. Let me pay my part. And that's
fine, you know, at a restaurant amongst friends. But that doesn't
work spiritually. No, that doesn't work spiritually.
When I see Christ, If God is ever pleased to reveal His Son
to me and in me, I'm going to be humbled. I'm going to be humbled
enough to know I've got nothing to pay. I can't pay part of the
redemption price. I can't pay the tip. I'm going
to rest in Christ and Christ alone. I'm going to rely on Him
to pay it all. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
but He washed it white as snow. I'm going to be humbled enough
and be right glad He's paying the price for me. When I see
Christ, I'm going to be humbled enough to quit trying to make
myself holy and rest in Christ my sanctification. When I see
Christ, I'm going to be humbled enough to quit going around trying
to earn eternal life and rest in Christ who is my life. If
I'm humbled, I'm going to trust Christ who's the wisdom of God. Salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the wisdom of God. That's His name. If I see Christ, I'm going to
be humbled. I'm going to be pleased with Him and I'm not going to
try to find a way of salvation that works better for me. No,
this is what works for me. Trusting Christ. And I'll tell
you when I'll trust Him is when God humbles me. When God humbles
me. But now, I know we don't want
to be haughty. We don't want to be is overconfident. I don't know.
You can't be overconfident in Christ. We don't want to be haughty.
We don't want to be a smart aleck about it. But you know what?
It's not haughty to trust in Christ. It's not haughty to hope
in Christ. That's what God told us to do.
Hope in the Lord. Hope in Christ is an expectation. It's expecting that God will
give me everything Christ earned for me. Now that's not being
haughty. Let's just trust in the Lord and do what He said.
It's not haughty for me to say I'm righteous if Christ is my
righteousness. Now, if I made myself righteous
by what I do and impress y'all, then that's being haughty. But
it's not haughty to say I'm righteous. I'm righteous before God if Christ
is my righteousness. It's not haughty for me to say
that my sin is forgiven. Not if Christ died for me, it's
not. It's not haughty of me to not fear death. If Christ died
and rose again for me, why do I have fear? I don't fear death.
It's not haughty to say, I have faith in Christ. That's not haughty.
Not if God gave me faith, it's not. See, God's children are
weaned children. But they're being weaned. They're
being weaned. God's children have been converted. They've become as little children
that are old enough now to be taught. It's not just that all
they can do is nourish. Now they're old enough to be
taught something by God's grace. Now, none of us are weaned children
in this sense that we want to brag about our maturity. We think,
oh, I'm just such a mature believer. The moment we start thinking
that, the Lord will humble us. The Lord won't keep us looking
at Him depending upon Him. But in Christ, in Christ, we're
weaned children. And we should be learning this.
We should be learning this. It's not all about us. It's not all about us. It's about
Christ. It's about Christ. And it's about
His people. And how far down the list you
find me, I don't know. But I know this. It's about Christ.
And it's about His people. That is the issue. God's children
are weaned. At least often enough, we know
it and we act this way. It's about Christ. It's about
His people. God's children are being weaned. We're being weaned
away from trusting the things of this world. We're being weaned
away from the fascination of the things of this world. That
desire is still there. Of course it is. You're in the
flesh. But we're being weaned away from it now, from trusting
the things of this world. We're being weaned away from
trusting in our own works and trusting more fully in Christ.
Now, naturally speaking, a weaned child, as a child becomes weaned,
it becomes less dependent on its parents. But spiritually
speaking, you know what a weaned child does? God's children, when
they're weaned, they don't become more independent. They become
more dependent. They become more dependent on
Christ. And that's spiritual maturity.
Spiritual maturity is growing to the point that I realize I
don't depend anything on myself, I depend all on Christ. I'm completely
dependent. That's spiritual maturity. And
those who are mature, I know that you can handle the meat
of the gospel. I know you can. But you never tire of the sincere
milk of the word, do you? You can never go wrong preaching
the most simple gospel that you can preach. The most simple declaration
of Christ that you can possibly come up with that God will ever
give you. You never go wrong that way.
Now, I love meat. I mean, I don't understand somebody
being a vegetarian to save my life. I don't understand that.
If you're going to have a good meal, meat must be involved. I can
have meat for all three meals a day and have it as a snack
too. I mean, I love meat. I mean, I just want meat with
every meal. But listen, I haven't given up milk. I drink milk every
day. That's the believer. Yes, we
love the meat of the gospel. But a weaned child, you know
what he's grown to do? To desire the sincere milk of
the word as a newborn baby. That's the weaned child. And
the more the Lord is pleased to teach us of Christ, the more
quiet we'll be. The more willing to wait on Him
that we'll be. The more the Lord's pleased to
teach us of Christ, the more we'll be happy to be completely
dependent upon Him. That's how a weaned child quiets
and behaves himself. And for the believer, I'll repeat
this, this weaning is not a one-time event. We're being weaned, being
weaned. You know, we're still in this
flesh, and this flesh will never be anything but dead, sinful
flesh. There'll never be anything but self-righteous, religious
flesh that's got to be put in the ground. That's the only way
we'll ever get rid of it. So we're going to have to constantly
be weaned. Weaned. Until the Lord is pleased
to say to us, come on. Come on. Make us appear with
Him in glory. And the weaned child says to
that, Lord, hasten the day. Hasten, Lord, the day. That's
the blessing. God's children are weaned children,
but where does the blessing come? It's from Christ. Christ, the
perfect, humbled servant. I hope the Lord will use that
to cause us to follow His commandment and hope in the Lord. Alright,
let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank You
for Your Word. How we thank You for another clear sight of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray You'd make it
clear. Father, I pray that You would take the stumbling and
bumbling words of this preacher and by Your Spirit would make
them clear to the hearts of Your people that we might clearly
see the Lord Jesus Christ, to hope in Him, to expect salvation,
eternal life, and forgiveness of sin in Him because of who
He is and what He has accomplished for His people. Father, I pray
You give each one here tonight saving faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ that we might rest in Him, that we might see His glory. And Father, I pray You bless
us as we go back home and back out into the world tomorrow.
Bless us and watch over and lead and guide and direct Protect
your people. Bring us back here when it's
time. And if you'd be pleased by your
grace to give us one more feast of the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's in his blessed name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.