Our lesson this morning is in
John chapter 9 verses 45 through 50. John chapter 9, or Luke chapter
9, I'm sorry, verses 45 through 50. We'll read these verses together.
Luke 9 verse 45. But they understood not this
saying, And it was hid from them that they perceived it not, and
they feared to ask him of that saying. Then there arose a reasoning
among them, which of them should be greatest." That seems almost like a contrary
statement, don't it? They didn't understand what he
was talking about. He just admonished them and told
them that what they'd seen on the mount, and even that unbelief
that they saw, and the Lord's power in healing that man's son,
had a connection with his cross, his death in Jerusalem. And he
said, you let that saying sink deep down into your ears. What
he's telling them is, you remember that saying. But they feared to ask him about
it. And then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should
be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought
of their heart, took a child and set him by him and set unto
Then whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth
me. And whosoever shall receive me
receiveth him that sent me. For he that is least among you
all, the same shall be great. And John answered and said, Master,
we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him,
because he followeth not us. And Jesus said unto him, forbid
him not. where he that is not against
us is for us. Now there are many dangers that
we're taught to avoid. They can be avoided. I told my
children, I've been down the road, and I feel like it's in
every pothole in it. And if you listen to me, I'll
tell you what these potholes are. But if you'd rather fall
in them and learn the hard way, there's the road. There's the
road. Go down and fall in. There's dangers out there, and
the scripture's clear in its warnings about these dangers.
He said, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the
manner of some is. Don't do it. Why? There's a danger
in it. There's a danger in it. If God
is going to speak to you, he's gonna do it through this pulpit.
That's just so. He ain't gonna speak to you out
on the river, he ain't gonna speak to you over here, over
there, he's gonna speak to you from the pulpit. And he tells
them, don't do this, don't do this, as the manner of some is. But exhort one another in so
much the more as you see the day approaching. The pastor cannot
have his fingers on the pulse of the congregation unless they
show up for worship. I have to hear what you're saying.
I hear what you're saying in common conversation. We talk
about whatever. We talk about logging or fishing
or whatever you're talking about. But somewhere in that congregation,
if there's a spiritual error, it'll come out. And I'll hear
it. And my finger is on the pulse
of this church. I don't want to see anybody in
here fall into this mess, for lack of a better word. I just
don't want to see it. I want to help you if I can.
I'm not going to get up here and single you out and do all
of that, but I will try to work it into my message so that you
can learn and do better. And I can't watch for your souls.
That's what he said they are. Obey them that have rule over
you, for they watch for your souls. How am I going to watch
for your souls if you ain't here? And that's another problem. These
little groups off with no pastor. I can't watch for their souls.
I'm up here. I'm not over there. And then another danger to avoid
is hanging out with the wrong crowds. Be careful. Be careful. Be not deceived,
he said, evil communications corrupt good manners. And many
other things. Many other things. But here in
our lesson he gives us two tragedies, absolute tragedies to avoid.
And the first is pride and arrogance. Pride and arrogance. Solomon
wrote seven things are an abomination to the Lord. That's a frightening
word, ain't it? Abomination to the Lord. You
think of the thing that would rub you the most the wrong way,
would offend you the greatest, you think of that, and that can't
even compare to something that's an abomination before God. At the very top of the list,
first thing he said, top of the list, he said is to proud Luke. God hates it. Believers are men
and women who have nothing to be proud of. What have we got
to be proud of? Paul said, what have you gotten
if you haven't received? And if you received it, why do
you act like you didn't? It was the gift of God. God's
in control of providence. And you can go back and you can
say, well, you can think, well, I'm a self-made man. Others played
the grasshopper. Man, I was the ant. I was gathering
in. Who gave you the want to to do
that? You didn't muster it up. It didn't
come out of your nature. Destruction and misery are in
your ways. If you did anything right, God
led you to it. He blessed you with it. And it's
contrary to the work of God for a man to stand around with his
thumbs in his overalls bragging about what he is and what he's
done. It's contrary. And this is especially true in
the matters of spiritual things. And first of all, I'm gonna give
you some reasons. First of all, because pride's contrary to our
state before God. Here was his disciples, those
that he had named apostles, chosen for the highest office in the
church, and he's given them, he took three of them up on the
Mount of Transfiguration and let them peek into glory. and
see what his life and what God's providence and all was about
to do. The climax of all eternity was
about to take place on the cross. And these men come down and had
no understanding at all about what they see. None whatsoever. And instead, they're walking
along, and somebody started this conversation. I just imagined
it now. I'm filling in some blanks between
the lines, and I'll tell you wide open, it's just my thoughts.
My thoughts. Peter, James, and John was on
the mountain. They wasn't down here. And when those disciples
couldn't cast out them demons, they weren't there. And when
the Lord addressed them over the issue, and said, oh, faithless
generation, oh, faithless and perverse generation. And he's
talking to these, well, these three are sitting back there.
Well, they needed it. I've had people in this very
church tell me after I got done with a message, boy, I wish he'd
been here to hear that. I wasn't talking to him, I was
talking to you. Talking to you. Oh, my soul. It's so contrary
to our state before God. Paul cried out, oh, wretched
man that I am. Not that I used to be, but that
I am right now. Right now. Everything I do is
tainted with sin. Everything. David said, I acknowledge
my transgressions. Do we? Do I? Do I acknowledge them? to understand
them. I acknowledge my transgressions
and he said that my sin is ever before me. Ever before me. And so the scripture asks who
is man that are mindful of him. Pride is contrary to our standing
before God. We're just a mass of maggots
feeding on the corruption of this world. And even worse, being
saved and acting like sin has been eradicated. It hadn't been
eradicated. It's been substituted. It hasn't
been eradicated. We're sinners being saved by
grace. Where is boasting, Paul said?
Are you listening? It's excluded. You mean, yeah, it's excluded. I had an old fella down at Kitchen
Creek years ago mowing grass. I took him some water. We talked
a little bit, and he said, well, I asked him if he went to church
anywhere. He said, well, no. He said, and I haven't always
done the right thing, but one thing I can say. No, he can't
say anything. Boasting's excluded. especially
before God. And Paul said, it is of faith
that it might be by grace to the end a promise might be sure
to all the seed. Pride is an abomination to the
Lord. It denies His mercy and His grace
and His love and His kindness. It just mocks those things. And
also it denies the testimony of God about our sinful condition. We just act like I didn't hear
God when he told me what it was. God hates a proud look. And the
fear of the Lord, the scripture said, is to hate evil. And pride
and arrogancy in the evil way and the forward mouth do I hate.
I don't like it. That mouth that snaps back, huh? You're never down here snapping
up there. You're up there snapping down
here. That pride, arrogance. Pride is a state of mind and
heart, and it always brings division. And then secondly, pride's contrary
to our calling. Men and women of faith are called
of God. They're called of God, called
out of darkness, death, and ignorance. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter six. Talking about pride being contrary
to the believer's calling. 1 Corinthians chapter six. Look
down here at verse nine. These people were raised heathens. They were wise men, but man,
immorality and wickedness was just rampant. And he said, Know
ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Verse 9. Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. Now watch this. And such were
some of you. Why ain't you still? Because
he called you. That's why. He called you. You're
washed. but you are sanctified, but you
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God. When God calls a sinner, he convinces
him of his sin, of what he is. He knows what he is. He believes
what he is. He understands it. He has to
live with it. so much so that the sinner gets
on God's side against himself. That's what David said. I said
these things that thou mightest be justified when you judge. This is God's judgment on me.
I'm a sinner. Well, I'm gonna get on God's
side. That's what David did. I said these things, I confess
these things that you might be clear, clear of all wrongdoing
in your condemnation of me. justified when thou speakest
and clear when thou judgest. Can anybody who's experienced
this calling be proud? Well, it's a sad truth that we
can, that we can. And that's being demonstrated
to us in these apostles. We'll soon be brought to despise
ourselves for doing it. Beware of pride. All that is
in the world, he said, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, it's of the
world. Avoid it. Avoid it. I can't tell
you what a catastrophe it'll bring. Dangerous. And then secondly, here's the
second danger. It's ideas, principles, and concepts
of the world. Many of the young people here,
when you're at school, you learn mathematics. Good. I want you
to. I want you to. You're going to
have a hard time surviving in this generation with that. You
learn geography, you learn trades, and so on. But be careful not
to swallow their philosophy and worldly principles. Don't swallow
them down. Beware, Paul writes, lest any
man spoil you through philosophy. What's he talking about? He's
talking about philosophy. Build it out. What's it mean? It means philosophy. And vain deceit. Where's it come
from? It comes after the tradition
of men. after the basic principles of
the world and not after Christ. And if I'm reading these verses
correctly, Peter and James and John had come down from the mountain
with Christ to discover these men's failure to cast out the
demons. And then immediately after, with
them thumbs and them suspenders, they started talking about who's
gonna be the greatest. He took us upon the man. He didn't take you, he took me. Oh my. Three things lead to such foolish
things. And the first is this, ignorance
of the scriptures. Don't put this Bible on the coffee
table and leave it there. Read it. Get acquainted with
it. You might not understand everything
you read, but get it in your head anyway. A lot of times I
quote scriptures up here. If you had it in your head, you'd
know that is the scriptures. He's quoting that right. I read
that. Ignorance of the scriptures.
When the Sadducees tried to trap the Lord about whose wife, they
said, this man married this woman and then he died. And so his
brother come in and he took her to wife, and then he died. And according to Jewish law,
the next brother took her to wife to raise up seed for that
family, and he died. And after everything said and
done, she died. Now whose husband she gonna be
in glory? Whose husband she gonna be in glory? You remember what the Lord said?
You do err not knowing the scriptures. You wouldn't have said that if
you knew the scriptures. Well, these men were scribes. They transcribed the scriptures. They knew the scriptures. They
knew wherever period went, wherever comma went. He said, you search
the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life,
and they are they which testify me, but you won't come to me
that you might have life. You don't understand. You don't
have an understanding of the scriptures. In another case, he said, that
very thing I just quoted to you. They testified me, but they didn't
understand the scriptures because they didn't come to him. And the reason why most are so
easily drawn away from the truth is because they're ignorant of
the scriptures. A man will half quote a scripture to you and
you don't know the difference. He said all scriptures given
by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, which
is what the Lord was doing to them. and for correction and
for instruction in righteousness that the man of God might be
complete, truly furnished unto all good works. And then secondly,
ignorance of Christ. Not only ignorance of the scripture,
but ignorance of Christ. The Jews were ignorant of who
the Christ was. Christ is not who the world says
he is, he's who God says he is. He's not who I think he is. He's
who he says he is. There's a difference. Ignorance
of the word of God leaves us in a state of ignorance as to
the Christ of God. And these disciples of Christ
still clung onto a sort of dispensational premillennialism. That's a great
big long word. They believed that that the Lord's gonna come back,
and they're gonna rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, and he's
gonna restore the Jews as a nation, and then there's gonna be a thousand
year reign before the millennium. And these disciples of Christ
still clung to that. These men still believed that
the Lord was gonna establish an earthly kingdom, and their
debate was about who's gonna be the prime minister. That's
what they were debating about. Who's gonna be the prime minister
in the kingdom? Who's going to sit at his right hand? This whole nation, this whole notion rather of an
earthly kingdom is not teaching. It's not the teaching of Holy
Scripture. It's not the teaching of Christ. Don wrote this. He said the idea of a carnal
earthly Jewish kingdom is a carnal doctrine. It's a carnal doctrine. And as a carnal doctrine, it
brings carnal ideas and carnal motivations. I taught these very things these
disciples were taught. Going to church, grew up on them,
believed in them, till the Lord opened to me the gospel. There's
no such thing as a secret rapture, a seven-year tribulation, or
a literal 1,000-year reign on the earth. And such carnal reasonings
promotes pride, stirs up division, and motivates men and women with
carnal lust and material gain. Sending up lumber to build my
mansion. That's what I heard a lady say
on TV the other day. Sending up lumber. Carnal religion promotes carnal
hope and carnal hope promotes carnal desires. And it denies the word of God
because the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject
to the law in that particular place there in Romans, it means
word, the word of God. Everything God says is law because
he's God. And then the third reason why
we must avoid these ideas and principles of the world is because
they don't know God. You can't tell what you don't
know, old brother Barnard used to say, any more than you can
come back from somewhere you haven't been. Here's a man who don't know God,
and he's going to tell me about God? I don't think so. He's going to blabber on about
what he was taught. You can't know God apart from
knowing Christ. Scripture said, no man knoweth
the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal
him. And we know, John said, that the Son of God has come
and given to us an understanding. We may know him that's true,
that we're in him that's true. And having perceived their error,
he called forth a little child, and he set him down beside him.
There's this little old kid, and he sat him down beside him,
probably about three, four years old. And he said, unto them, whosoever
shall receive this child in my name. In my name. You mean that little old child
could be received in the name of Christ? That's what the Lord
said, isn't it? Fact is, he set him as an example. He set him as an example. He's received based on Christ's
love for him and not ours, on Christ's mercy to him, on God's
grace toward him and not by our approval. God chose him to salvation
and made full provision for him. Christ came into this world to
represent him and be a substitute. And he was fully redeemed by
Christ and reconciled to God by Jesus Christ. He's God's child. He's God's heir. And he's God's
seed. And it's the same thing with
all God's elect, whether they're three years old or whether they're
70 years old. Where his workmanship, Paul said,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. And that's not talking
about your giving and all that. He's talking about good works
like faith and making us meet to be partakers. He's talking
about things like repentance. We have to be led to repentance.
You ever have to take one of your children, Luke, and lead
him? Did it all the time, didn't you? All three of them, you had
to lead them. That's what the Lord does. He leads you to repentance.
Because he's angry at you? No. Because he loves you. It's
the goodness of God that leads us through to repentance. We're his workmanship created. He that's least among you all,
the same shall be great. Got nothing to brag on. That
little fella hasn't done anything. He didn't have a home. He didn't
have a business. He didn't have anything. He's
just sitting there. He's just a little child, helpless little
child. Everything had to be done for
him. The Lord said, here's the model citizen in the kingdom
of God. You want to be great? Be like
him. Be like him. He that's least among you all,
the same shall be great. And this is not talking about
you getting rid of all your belongings and going to a monastery and
becoming some kind of a monk. That's not what this is talking
about at all. This is talking about a state of mind and heart
realizing what we are before God. Realizing what we are by
nature. And then John up and tells the
Lord, He said, there was some folks down there preaching in
your name, casting out devils. And we went down and told them
they couldn't do it anymore. Lord said, don't do that anymore.
Don't rebuke them. They was preaching in his name.
His name. They cast out demons in his name. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. One name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved. You can't preach in that name
and be contrary to God. You can't do it. If they're not against us, they're
for us. Well, I don't like your attitude.
Then don't go down there. Don't go down there if you don't
like their attitude, but don't go down there and start forbidding
them and trying to line them up. My soul, these guys weren't
in line. Lord rebuked them twice in less
than eight hours. We need to stop excommunicating
folks because they don't follow along with us. If they're doing
what they're doing in his name, then they're ultimately for us,
whether they ever identify with us or not. Our Lord said Satan can't cast
out Satan. His kingdom would be divided
if he could do that. Be content, find satisfaction
in the Lord and his gospel, and be ye kind one to another. Kinderhearted,
boy, I tell you, I need to stand before the mirror and just keep
saying that until it gets into this heart. Tender-hearted. Tender-hearted. Hurt when you're
hurt. Understanding when you're suffering. Tender-hearted. Forgiving one
another. Well, I'm gonna forgive, but
I ain't gonna forget. He puts this in there also, forgiving
one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. You know what he said about that
forgiveness? Thy sins and iniquities I will remember no more. No more, oh my soul. I don't
care who I forgive, I still remember what you did. God said, your
sins are iniquities. They said, I'm so fully satisfied
with my son and his sacrifice that the memory of your sins
is completely erased. It's gone. It's gone. Boy, I'm
rejoicing that, Jesse.