I've entitled this message, Greatness
in the Kingdom of Heaven. Then there arose a reasoning
among themselves, which of them should be greatest. You know,
this seems to be an ongoing issue with the disciples right after
the Last Supper. Right after the last supper,
right before the Lord would be betrayed, we read in Luke 22,
24, and there was also a strife among them. There was an argument.
There was a contention, which of them should be counted the
greatest. Right after the Lord's table.
In Matthew chapter 18, would you turn there for a moment? And at the same time came the
disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven? And by that, I believe they meant
which of us are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And
Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst
of them and said, verily, I say unto you, except you be converted,
turn. Now he's talking to the disciples.
He's talking to people who were the elect. He knew that. And look what he says to them.
And he said, verily I say unto you, except you be converted
and become as little children. You don't need to worry about
who the greatest in kingdom heaven is. You won't even be there.
That's what the Lord says to his disciples. There's nothing wrong, as a matter
of fact, we ought to seek to be great at what we do. We ought to strive for excellence. We ought not be satisfied with
mediocrity. I want to be a great preacher.
I want to be a great communicator of the gospel. By that, I'm not
talking about exalting myself. I'm talking about, I want to
be able to get out of the way so the gospel is preached in a simple
and clear way and people hear. I want to be a great pastor.
I want to be a, I want to be a pastor after God's own heart. It's a humbling thing to think
that God has actually called me to this. And I want to be
a great pastor. I want to give myself to this
completely. I want to be a great husband.
I want Lynn to be happy she's married to me. She is sometimes. Sometimes. I wish it were all
the time. I'd like to make it that way, but I want to be a
great husband. I want to be a great father. I want Aubrey to be glad
I'm her daddy. I want to be great at that. And
I want to be a great friend. I want to be a friend you can
count on. That friend who's faithful. That friend who sticks closer
than a brother. That loyal, faithful friend who's
always there when everybody else leaves. I want to be that man. Every believer ought to strive
for excellence and greatness in that sense. At your job, you
ought to seek to be the best at it. The best. I don't want to be mediocre at
anything. Now, I may not reach excellence
in these things, but I ought to be striving for them. And
you should as well. But if I'm wanting to be greater
than you, that is a completely different issue. The disciples
were arguing over which of them would be the greatest, which
of them would have the most recognition in the kingdom of heaven, which
one of us are the top dog. Now, that is completely contrary
to the gospel. That attitude. That way of thinking,
that competition is what it is, is completely contrary to the
gospel. If every believer is perfect
in Christ Jesus, if every believer has the very righteousness of
God as their personal righteousness, If Colossians 2.10 says you're
complete, you're plum filled in him, nothing can be added
to you. Do you know if you're in Christ, you can't get any
more saved. You can't get any more accepted.
You can't get any more loved than you are right now. Isn't
that wonderful? What a blessing to be in Christ.
Ephesians 1.6 says he hath made us accepted in the beloved. How could one somebody like that
be greater than somebody else? If you have the very righteousness
of Christ, if you're complete in Christ, if you're altogether
lovely in Christ, how can I be greater than you? That is completely
wrong. Do I think even for half of a
second? that because I'm a preacher, I have a more significant place
in the kingdom of heaven than you are? No, I don't think that
for half of a second. We are brethren in Christ Jesus. Now this attitude, who's going
to be the greatest, this competitive attitude, it's completely contrary
to love. If I love you, I'm not going
to seek to be exalted above you. That's one of the things I think
is almost, it's almost humorous about this thing of, of, uh,
rewards in heaven. People trying to get rewards
in heaven and they're thinking they're wild. I'm going to have a higher
reward than you. I'm going to have a mansion. You're going
to be in a shack. You're going to, you're going to be serving. That's ridiculous.
We're complete in the Lord Jesus Christ and we're not competing
for positions of recognition. Let me show you a passage of
scripture I think is very interesting and Galatians chapter two, this,
this attitude is contrary to humility, seeking to be greater,
seeking to have a higher position. It's, it's contrary to humility.
Now that the disciples conducted themselves that way, that just
shows how proud and ridiculous a disciple can be. I've any of
us can be this way, but look here in Galatians chapter two,
verse 11. But when Peter, this is the apostle
Peter. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I was stood him to
the face because he was to be blamed. I publicly reprimanded
him. Now that that's a serious thing
to publicly reprimand somebody. Now what was he guilty of? Verse
12. For before the certain came from
James, these Jewish believers, he did eat with the Gentiles.
But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself fearing
them which are of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled
likewise with them in so much that Barnabas also was carried
away with their hypocrisy is what that word is, dissimulation,
hypocrisy. Now here's what he's doing. He was doing fine with
the Gentiles, but when these Jewish believers came, he said,
I need to get onto the table with the Jews. And in doing that,
he's saying God is more pleased with being a Jewish believer
than he is with being a Gentile believer. Just that simple act. And what did Paul do? Verse 14,
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the
truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If you
being a Jew livest after the manner of Gentiles and not as
do the Jews, why compel thou the Gentiles to live as do the
Jews? He did this that the truth of
the gospel might remain. And this whole thing of competition,
one being greater than another, is completely contrary to the
gospel. I look back in Matthew's account
to Matthew chapter 18 once again. At the same time came the disciples
unto Jesus saying, who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst
of him. and said, verily I say unto you, except you be converted,
turned, and become as little children, you shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven. Now I think that's awful interesting.
The Lord knew these were the elect. They were his chosen disciples. They were believers. They were
eternally secure. And yet when he speaks to them
regarding this issue, he says, except you be converted and turned,
you won't even be there. That's interesting, isn't it?
The way the Lord, he knew that they would be there, but he was
so displeased with this way of thinking. And look what he does
in verse four. Whosoever therefore shall humble
himself as this little child, the same
is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. But whoso shall receive
one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall
offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and
that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Now, I love the way
our Lord takes this child. And the language means it could
have been an infant because he held him in his arms. He set
him beside him. He takes this child. And you
can be sure that child never dreamed of being in the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven, never even entered his mind. And he
says, the person who humbles himself as this little child,
the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now I want
to talk for a few moments about this thing of humility and humbling
yourself. Humility is the opposite of pride. Scripture says, God resists the
proud. If I'm proud, God resists me. He has nothing to do with me.
He resists the proud. And he gives grace to the humble. In the book of Proverbs, we read
six things doth God hate, yea, seven are an abomination to him.
And the first thing he mentions when he mentions that one who
is proud, he says, God hates a proud look and a haughty spirit. That's what God hates, a proud
look and a haughty spirit. The scripture says pride goeth
before destruction. and a haughty, arrogant spirit
before the fall. If I'm practicing this haughty,
arrogant spirit, I'm going to fall. God promises that. And before honor, the scripture
says, before honor, there's humility. And isn't humility beautiful? Beautiful. Pride is so ugly,
it's so contrary to the grace of God. Paul said, who makes
you to differ from another? And what do you have that you
didn't receive? Who makes you to differ? What
do you have to be proud about? If you have intelligence, who
gave it to you? If you have grace, who gave it
to you? If you have ability, who gave
it to you? You don't have anything. You
don't have anything. I don't have anything to be proud
about. Whatever we have, God gave it
to us. Let me say a few things about
true humility. First of all, humility is not
an act. Time to act humble. Let's be
humble. That's wretched pride, even saying
something like that. Let's be humble. Paul warns us in Colossians 2
of a voluntary humility. You know, if you volunteer to
be humble, that's an act of pride. It's not something you decide
to be. I'm going to be humble. What pride? Humility is not saying
you can't do something or feeling like you're unable to do something.
That's like, it's humble to think that I can't do anything. You
know, the Lord Jesus Christ could do anything and he knew it. And
he was meek and lowly or humble in heart. The Lord Jesus Christ.
I love it. This is one of the things that
I, there's many things I find beautiful and attractive about
him. But one of the glorious things about him is he was meek
and lowly. Paul said, I beseech you by the
meekness and the gentleness of Christ. Now he knew he could
do anything. but he was lowly and people felt
comfortable around him. They didn't feel threatened.
They didn't, they didn't feel, they could come in, sinful men.
He was, they criticized him and said, this man's the friend of
sinners. See, he eats with sinners. Lowly. He could be around sinful
people and they didn't feel judged and threatened by him. What a
beauty. What is humility? It's a just
estimate of yourself. I've said this many times. It's
a just estimate of yourself. I am what I am by the grace of
God. It's a just estimate of yourself.
Lord saved me. And I know he did it. I'm justified. I stand before God without guilt.
And I know why he justified me. I didn't have anything to do
with that. It's something the great judge declared me to be. I'm sanctified. I've got a new
nature. I've got a holy nature. And I
know that's by the grace of God. Listen to this. I know I'm a
sinner. And that's only by the grace
of God that I know that. I know that the only righteousness
that I have is the righteousness of Christ. And that's by the
grace of God. I am what I am by the grace of
God. I'm a preacher. God's called me to preach the
gospel. His hand is on me to preach the
gospel. And I know that is the grace
of God. It has nothing to do with any
personal worthiness or merit in me. I know that. I am what
I am by the grace of God. That, if I believe that, I know
I'm saying it. God knows whether I mean it.
But if I mean that, what I'm saying, that's what humility
is. A just estimate of yourself. You know that you love yourself.
You know this about yourself. You know that when the scripture
says we're to prefer, esteem others as better than ourselves,
you can look at believers. I know some of you, you can look
at believers and see where they see their conduct and their attitude
seems to be terrible. Well, how do you esteem them
as better than yourself? You know, apart from the grace of
God, you'd be worse. You really believe that? You know that apart
from the grace of God, you would be worse than they are. And if
you're not, it's only an instance to the grace of God. A just estimate
of yourself. Now, it's the person that humbles
himself. And you know, let me also say
this, before I go on. If you think, hmm, I'm humble. Let me assure you, you're not.
Let me assure you of that. I'm humble. That's kind of like
the fellow that said to his wife, behold, I've overcome my pride.
Well, OK, good. It's the person that humbles
himself that's greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now, what
does it mean to humble yourself? The Lord tells us. Remember,
we're asking, what is greatness in the kingdom of heaven? Well,
it's humbling yourself. It's humbling yourself before
God. It's humbling yourself before
others. That's greatness in the kingdom of heaven. Now the Bible
gives us some real clear instances of what it means to humble yourself. Turn to Luke chapter nine. I mean Luke chapter 18, I'm sorry,
Luke 18. Now, these are the words of the
Lord Jesus, and he says in verse 14 of Luke chapter 18, I tell
you, this man went down to his house justified. Rather than the other, for everyone
that exalts himself shall be abased. God's going to abase
you. And he that humbles himself shall be exalted. Now here we
see what it means to exalt yourself and what it means to humble yourself.
Now look up in verse 9. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and
despised others. Now Here is the great enemy of
Christ's righteousness, self-righteousness. Any righteousness that comes
from yourself is the enemy of Christ's righteousness. Self-righteousness,
the great enemy. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted themselves that they were righteous. And
this always comes with self-righteousness. They despised. They looked down
their nose. They felt themselves to be morally
superior to others. Now he gives us two representative
men in verse 10. Two men went up into the temple
to pray. The one a Pharisee and the other
a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed,
I love the Lord's description of his prayer, thus with himself. He thought he was praying to
God. He wasn't. He was praying thus with himself. And he appears to me to be your
averaged reformed religious person. God, I thank thee. He gave God
the credit. Oh, I don't believe in works
in any way. God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are. His righteousness was comparing
himself to somebody else. I'm not as other men are. I can always find Men that I'm
better than, and I'm giving you the credit for it. Forbid that
I would give myself the credit for it, but I'm not as other
men are. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican, I fast twice in the week, and I give
tithes of all that I possess. Now, let me say this about this
fella. Everything he said was a lie.
It was a lie, just a big fat lie. He was guilty of everything,
all the stuff that he said he wasn't guilty of. He might not
have realized it. He might've really believed what
he was saying, but he was still telling a lie. He was guilty
of all those things. He exalted himself. Verse 13, and the publican standing
afar off, would not lift up so much as
his eyes unto heaven. I think of these religious pictures
of these religious, I mean, these paintings of these, these saints
are always looking up, you know, and not this fella. Not this
fella. He wouldn't even so much as lift
up his eyes unto heaven. But he smote upon his breast. He saw that's where his problem
was. an evil heart, that there wasn't anything he could do to
make it better. He smoked upon his breast with this prayer. God be merciful. And that's literally God be propitious. God be propitious to me, the
sinner. Lord, God, do something about
my sin. There's nothing I can do about
my sin. Do something about it. Cover
it. Remove it. Take it away. God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. Can you pray that prayer right
now? And mean it? You even question whether you
mean it, you're so bad. You try to pray it, and then
you don't even know if you mean it. You're so distrustful of
yourself. And all you can hope is that
God would be propitious, that He would take away the guilt,
that He would remove the sin. Lord, do something about my sin,
because there's nothing I can do about it. I'm sure some people
would say, well, He's just trying to find an excuse for sin. He's
trying to justify His health and His sin. He's blaming us.
That's the prayer that Christ said, that man went down to his
house justified. That's Christ's testimony. You
know, if the Lord says I'm justified, if the Lord says that man's justified,
you know what? That man was justified. Rather than the other, the fellow
that thank God for how good he was, God had nothing to do with
him. For everyone that exalts himself,
the Lord says shall be abased. And everyone who humbles himself
like this man did shall be exalted. Turn to Luke 14. The Lord says
this again in verse 11. For whosoever exalteth himself
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Now, what led him to say this?
Look back to verse 7. And he put forth a parable to
those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out
the chief rooms, saying unto them, when thou art bidden of
any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, lest
a more honorable man than thou be bitten of him. And he that
bade thee and him come and say to thee, give this man place,
and thou begins with shame to take the lowest room. That would
be kind of humiliating, wouldn't it? That when thou art bitten, go
and sit down in the lowest seat. That when he that bade thee cometh,
he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou
have worship in the presence of them that sit at me with thee.
For whosoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he that
humbles himself shall be exalted. Now take the lowest place, believing
that's where you belong. Not as an act of condescension,
but really believing that is where I belong. The lowest seat. Take the most menial task, esteeming
all others as better than myself. And the Lord says that is humbling
yourself. Turn to Matthew 23. Verse 12, whosoever shall exalt
himself shall be abased and he that shall humble himself shall
be exalted. Now, what led him to say this? Well, this is from the sermon
that ended up costing the Lord his life. They made up their
mind after he brought this message. We're going to put him out of
business. We're going to kill him. And here's what he said.
Verse one. Inspect Jesus to the multitude
and to his disciples, saying the scribes and the Pharisees
sit in Moses' seat, and all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,
that observe and do, but do not ye after their works. For they
say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and
grievous to be born. This is the way you need to live.
And they 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 their phylacteries
and enlarge the borders of their garments and 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, teacher, teacher,
but be ye not called rabbi for one is your master, even Christ,
and ye all are brethren. Call no man your father upon
the earth for one is your father, which is in heaven. Neither be
ye called masters, for one is your master, even Christ. But
he that's greatest among you shall be your servant." Isn't
that beautiful? Oh, may God give me the grace.
May God give you the grace to seek nothing more than to be
a servant. Turn to Mark 10. You know, if our heart is where
it should be, you know what our argument will be? Not who's the
greatest, but who's the least. If our heart's where it should
be, that's what the argument would be. Who is the least? Who takes the lowest place? In Mark chapter 10, verse 13, and they brought young children
to him, infants, that he should touch them and his disciples
rebuke them, those that brought them. And when Jesus saw it,
he was much displeased and said unto them, suffer the little
children, the infants to come unto me and forbid them not for
such as the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as an infant, a little
child. He shall not enter therein. And
he took them up in his arms, these children, these infants,
put his hands upon them and bless them. Now, how in the world does
an infant receive the kingdom of God? An infant. There's only one way
by grace. Isn't that so? The only way an infant can receive
the kingdom of God is by the grace of God. For an infant to
receive it, it would take a miracle of grace. And to receive it as
a kingdom, as a child, I love to think of a way a child believes
when you tell them something. You know, I do my famous finger
trick. Maybe I shouldn't, maybe I do
it too much, but they believe I'm doing it. Those little children,
they believe I'm doing it. If I tell them I'm taking my
finger off, they believe it. Let me believe it. You see, a child
believes what they're told. They're not sufficiently corrupted
to become doubters and critics and examining and so on. They
just believe what they're told. Oh, would to God that this would
be my attitude in hearing God's word, to hear like a little child
and just believe what I'm told. without all the preconceived
notions and receive as a child does. Now, turn back to Luke,
our original text, Luke chapter 9. Verse 46, once again. Then there arose a reasoning
among them, which of them should be the greatest in Jesus perceiving
the thought of their heart. You know, that's something to
think about, everything we're thinking. Lord perceives it. Lynn, quite often, that's somebody,
he was, I was preaching in Danville Tuesday. Lindsay Campbell got
up and said something about dying and reading my mind. And I got
upset. I, you know, one of, one of my problems with, with Lynn
is she, she, she gets mad at me for the things I'm thinking.
I might not have said it. And she just thinks if you're thinking
and she knows it, she knows me that well. And I can get in trouble
for what I'm thinking, but she's not always right. She's not always
right regarding what she's thinking I'm thinking, but the Lord is. He knows exactly what's going
on through your mind right now. He knows what's exactly what's
going on in my mind right now. And Jesus, perceiving the thought
of their heart, took a child and set him by him and said unto
them, whosoever shall receive this child in my name. Now, receiving this child means
completely embracing and receiving this child. And we do it in his
name. Now, what that is a reference
to is the fact that I received that child because I'm receiving
Christ himself and receiving them. In as much as you've done
it to the least of these, my brethren, you've done it to me.
And in as much as you did not to the least of these, my brethren,
you did it not unto me. This is the great mystery of
the gospel, union with the Lord Jesus Christ. You receive one
of these little ones, you receive Christ himself. And to fail to
receive them, it'd be better to have a millstone hanged about
your neck and you were drowned in the depths of the sea rather
than to not receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 48, And he saith unto them,
Whosoever shall receive this little 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. Now, receiving them in his name
is receiving them for Christ's sake. What will you do for Christ's
sake? Does that have power with you?
Not what will you do to earn a higher reward and be greater?
Not what will you do to avoid trials and punishment? But what
will you do for Christ's sake? This is what has power with the
believer. Will you take the lowest seat for Christ's sake? I think
of what God does for Christ's sake. I love that scripture.
Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. You do as he did for Christ's
sake. For his name's sake, we're to
deny ourselves to take up our cross daily. and to follow him. Now one other scripture, turn
to Matthew 20. This is very similar. At this time, James and John
were wanting the right hand and the left hand positions in the
kingdom of God. Their mother came up and said,
grant that these my sons may sit the one on thy right hand
and the one on your left when you come into your kingdom. And
the Fellow disciples were upset with this, verse 24. And when
the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the
two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him
and said, you know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion
and control and authority over them, and they that are great
exercise authority upon them, but it shall not be so among
you. But whosoever will be great among
you, let him be your servant. And whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your slave. Even as the son of man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many. Greatness. greatness in the kingdom
of heaven. You know, I want to have whatever
the Lord calls greatness, don't you? Greatness in the kingdom
of heaven. Anybody can be great. It doesn't take great gifts or
talents. It doesn't require great mental
strength or physical strength. It does not require great resources
or great abilities, all you have to do to be great in Christ's
eyes is to be a servant. That is greatness in the kingdom
of heaven. You remember when our Lord girded
himself with a towel and wash the feet of the disciples. Comes up to Peter, Peter says,
you're never going to wash my feet. Peter always was so impulsive
with his reactions and we can identify with him. I feel funny
about the Lord washing my feet as well. And Lord said, if I
don't wash you, you have no part with me. He said, not my feet
only, my hands and head. So you're familiar with the story.
But the Lord said, I've left you an example that you should
do as I've done unto you. He says, if you know these things,
to be a servant. To be a servant. If you know
these things, happy are you if you do them. May God enable us
to do that. Let's pray together.