How tedious and tasteless the
hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds
and sweet flowers, The midsummer sun shines but
dim. The fields drive in vain to look
gay. But when I am happy in him, December's
as pleasant as May. His name yields the richest perfume
and sweeter than His presence disperses my gloom and makes
all within me rejoice. I would, were he always done,
I have nothing to wish or to fear. No mortal less happy as
I, my summer would last all the years. Content with beholding his face,
My, all to his pleasure resign. No changes of seasons or plays,
Making his chains in my mind. While we're blessed with the
sense of his love, a palace, a toy would appear. And prisons would palaces prove
if Jesus would dwell with me there. Dear Lord, if indeed I am thine, Why do I languish and pine, and
why are my winters so long? Oh, drive these dark clouds from
my skies, thy so cheering presence restore. Or take me unto thee
on high, where winter thick clouds are no more. Let us look today to Matthew
chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18. Reading the first 11 verses. At the same time came the disciples
unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 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 and become as little children,
you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever
therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same
is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And 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 was drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world
because of offenses. For it must needs be that offenses
come. But woe to that man by whom the
offense cometh. Wherefore, if thy hand or thy
foot offend thee, cut them off, cast them from thee. It is better
for thee to enter into life halt or maimed rather than having
two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if
thou and I offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.
It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye rather
than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that
you despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you
that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my
father which is in heaven. For the son of man is come to
save that which was lost. Before we began looking at this
passage, I want to remind us of two truths. If you notice
in verse three, the word converted, except you be converted. The word conversion, convert,
or converted. Let's be sure that all of us
understand what that word means. It means, literally, to turn.
To turn, to be converted is to be turned or to turn. It's used
in two different ways in the scriptures. Sometimes it refers
to that initial salvation experience when a person comes to faith
and repentance, when a person turns to the Lord Jesus Christ
in faith. For instance, in Acts chapter
three and verse 19, the apostle Peter in his message said, repent
you therefore and be converted. Now he was talking to men and
women there in the temple who did not know the Lord. And he
exhorted them to repent at his turn. Turn, repent, ye therefore,
and be converted. To turn here is to turn in faith
to Christ. To turn to Christ, to look to
Christ. You know, the Apostle Paul confessed
that during his time in Ephesus, he had not failed to preach these
two things, repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's true of everyone who
is brought to know Christ as Lord and Savior. We turn, we're
converted, that initial experience. But this word is also used in
the New Testament to speak of conversions after that initial
conversion. After all, the word means turn.
The prime example, of course, is the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ to Peter. Peter had already confessed the
Lord. The Lord had said, Blessed art
thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. What was it he
confessed? Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. But sometime later, approximately
two years later, the Lord Jesus Christ told Peter, and this was
just before the Lord was crucified, I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not. Now listen, and when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren. So the word conversion or convert
or converted is used in these two ways. Sometimes it means
that initial experience when a person, as we would say, is
saved, is saved. When God saves a sinner. And
God does the saving, doesn't he? He's the one who does the
saving. I never like to hear a person
say, well, I got saved. it'd be better to say the Lord
saved me. The Lord saved me. And when the
Lord saves a person, always there's faith. There's no salvation apart
from faith in Christ. He's the savior. It's his blood
that cleanses us. It's his righteousness that justifies
us. So there must be faith and there
is repentance at the same time. You know that old question, which
comes first, repentance or faith? Which goes, when a bullet, when
a person shoots a bullet or gun and a bullet goes through the
piece of paper, what comes first, the hole or the bullet? What
comes first, repentance or faith? They come together. You can't
have one without the other. You cannot turn to Christ without
turning away from self and sin. So there is that initial conversion,
but there is, as we go through life, there are times when we
need to be converted. We're wrong. We've misunderstood
something. That was the case with Peter.
He had denied the Lord. He said, I don't know that man.
And with the host. Now the Lord said, when thou
art converted, when your turn, Peter, strengthen your brethren. Now, in this passage here, I
want to mention a few things before we actually look at the
verses here. This incident is recorded in
both Matthew and Luke, as well as Matthew. And when we put them
together, this is what we find. The Lord Jesus led his disciples,
and he took Peter, James, and John onto a high mountain, and
he was transfigured before them. And the scripture says his face
did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. We're all familiar with that.
Nine of his disciples he left at the bottom of the mountain. He took these three disciples
up. When he comes back down, there's
a multitude of people, and there's a man in that multitude who has
brought his demon-possessed son to the disciples, but they could
not help him. They did not have the power to
cast that demon or that devil out of that man's son. And that's
the man who said this to the Lord. You've all heard this. He put the if in the wrong place. This is a man who put the if
in the wrong place. He addressed the Lord Jesus Christ
and he said, if, if you can do anything, Help us, have mercy
upon us. He put the if in the wrong place.
The Lord Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe. There's
no if about his power, about his authority, about his ability. No, the if, if thou canst believe,
all things are possible. And we know the Lord cast that
demon out of that young boy. And then they make their way
to Capernaum. Peter had a house in Capernaum
and our Lord made his residence in Capernaum most of the time
that we read about when he was here upon the earth. And that's
the reason he said thou Capernaum. shall be brought down to hell.
Why? Because of the privileges, the
blessing. They had the Lord Jesus Christ
living there in their city, and yet they didn't believe. They
didn't follow him. To whom much is given, much is required. That's what the word of God teaches. To those of us who live in this
country, when you can buy a Bible for Five dollars, probably, maybe
even less. Much more is required of us than
a person, let's say, in a country where to even own a Bible, you
would be executed. Much more is required of us. Why? Because of the privileges
we are given, granted by God. Anyway, When they came to Capernaum,
the people who collected the temple tax, they asked Peter
if his master paid taxes, paid the temple tax. And Peter, of
course, quickly, as usual, answered, sure. But he didn't have any
money. How's he going to pay that tax?
Well, the Lord Jesus Christ here shows his omniscience in two
different ways. First of all, he told Peter,
Peter, you need to go wet a hook, wet a line. And the first fish
that you take up in that fish's mouth is going to be a satyr. There's going to be a piece of
money. And with that money, you can pay that temple tax. When
that came into the house, then the other disciples, all of them
come together now. And the Lord again shows his
omniscience because he knew what they had been talking about,
what they had been discussing in the way. And what was it? Well, we find it here in verse
one, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Who is the
greatest? Just picture in your mind, if
you will, the Lord Jesus Christ in Peter's house, most likely. Peter had a wife, we know that.
There were children in the house and his disciples there. And
the question is, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And
the Lord Jesus Christ gave one of his greatest object lessons,
didn't he? He was so good, he was so good
a teacher, how often did he use object lessons to teach? And the scripture says, he called
a little child unto him, that's in verse two, and set him in
the midst of them. Hear these big disciples, important. Who's gonna be the greatest?
I'm sure each and every one of them had something that they
felt like would mean they would be the greatest. Andrew, he was
the first one of these who was called. Maybe he thought, well,
I'm gonna be the greatest. No question about that. And then
Peter, of course, was such a vociferous type person, you know, always
speaking. I'm gonna be the greatest. Matthew,
he'd been a publican. Well, surely I'm gonna be, all
of them had something, no doubt, that caused them to believe they
were going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And
the Lord sets this child in their midst, and they're to observe
the child. Now, first of all, why did the
disciples need this lesson? Well, it's so obvious, isn't
it? They were taken up with pride. They were full of pride. Each
one was seeking his own self-aggrandizement. Now, I think of our Lord's words
to two of them after this. They wanted to call fire down
out of heaven and destroy a whole village because they didn't receive
the Lord. You remember the Lord said, you
know not what manner of spirit you are of. He didn't come to
destroy, he came to save. Why did they need this lesson?
Because of their pride, because of their haughty spirit. Here you are debating which of
you should be the greatest Is that the spirit? Is that the
spirit of anyone who is a follower of the Lamb of God? Can I be
the greatest? Am I the most important? Will
everyone look up to me? Everyone take off their hat to
me? Is that the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Remember in Philippians, the
apostle wrote this, of him 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. He did that. And now here, his followers,
they're asking who's going to be the greatest. In the Apostle Paul's list of
qualifications that he wrote to Timothy concerning pastors,
he said this, this is one thing he said, not a novice. In other
words, don't set a man apart to the office of a pastor, not
a novice. Now listen, lest being lifted
up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. What
is a novice in that case, in Paul's case here? Who is a novice? Well, a novice is a man who has
just recently come to the knowledge of the truth. That's what it
means. You shouldn't call a man to be
the pastor who has just recently come to know Christ, come to
confess Christ. And what is the condemnation
of the devil? What is that? Well, I believe
it was his pride, Satan's pride. He said, I will be like the most
high God. He was lifted up and he then
was condemned. And the same thing is true of
men and women when we're lifted up with pride. And I want to
say something in defense of these disciples. I'm not defending
their pride. I'm not defending their haughtiness,
their self-seeking. But I would say this, they had
been deceived. They had been deceived by the
false teaching of their day. And that was that the Messiah,
when the Messiah came, after his resurrection, he would set
up an earthly kingdom of glory. They believed that. That's what
they had been taught. They'd been taught that, that
when the Messiah came, yes, they were looking for a Messiah, but
they had been taught that when the Messiah came, when the Christ
came, he would set up an earthly kingdom. It would be likened
to the kingdom of David. When David reigned over so much
territory and had such a great throne and kingdom and Solomon,
that's what they were expecting. And when you have a kingdom like
that and a king, you're going to have important people in that
kingdom. Just like in our country today,
if I could use this as an illustration, we have the president and then
he has his cabinet. And there are certain positions
in that cabinet which are more important than others. And what
these men wanted was to be like the prime minister. be the greatest. Sure, the Messiah would be the
king, but they would be right under him, right next to him,
and ruling over many people. You know the disciples of our
Lord, they never, until the day of Pentecost, until the day that
God poured out His Spirit upon them, they never completely were
free. of that false teaching. On the day of our Lord's ascension,
this is recorded in Acts chapter 1, they were still asking this
question, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom
to Israel? Now I've said this before, sometimes
it's hard to unlearn things. It really is. I know some men
who, as children, were in a sovereign grace church. They never heard
any message but God's sovereign grace. And when they were older
and God called them to preach, they didn't have to unlearn a
whole lot of stuff. They never heard. And I tell
you, there's some of us who came through such Arminianism we have
had to unlearn. And I feel the same way about
these disciples. They had to unlearn what they
had been taught, which was wrong, which was not the truth, was
never God's purpose to set up an earthly kingdom. He said,
my kingdom is not of this earth. My kingdom is among you. In other
words, when Christ comes, When He saves a sinner, when we receive
Him and know Him as our Lord and Savior, we know Him as the
one mediator between God Almighty and us. The only way we can go
to God is through Him, through Christ. That's what the Word
of God says. And He's prophet, He's revealed
unto us the will of God, He's priest, He's reconciled us unto
God, and He's King. He sets up His throne Where? Not in Jerusalem, not in Washington,
D.C. Where does he set up his throne? In the heart of his people. And he reigns. He has made us,
washed us from our sins by his blood and has made us kings and
priests unto God. That's what the scripture says. So that's the reason they needed
this lesson, this object lesson, was because they were guilty
of pride, no doubt about it. They needed to be taken down
a notch or two. Well, second, what are some of
the lessons that we could learn or they could learn from just
observing a child, just thinking about a small child? Well, first
of all, it's humility. And I say that because that's
what our Lord said here in verse four, whosoever therefore shall
humble himself. The first thing that we can learn
from a small child is humility. As a general rule, now there
may be exceptions, I don't know, but as a general rule, children
are not ambitious of recognition and they're not guilty of thinking
of themselves as above others. I mean, a man, he may own a,
a great farm and, and he has a lot of workers on his farm
and here this young boy is, he's a, he's a son of the owner and
here these other boys are, they're, they're workers or children of
the workers. They don't have any problem playing
together. He doesn't see himself, even
though technically he's above them as far as finances are concerned,
but he doesn't see himself above others. I mean, they just play
together and there's no seeking recognition above others. That's
just true of children. to the Christians at Rome, the
Apostle Paul wrote, condescend to men of low estate. There's
nothing worse than pride. Someone said pride of face. Pride of face. You have a beautiful
face. You have a great physique. Who gave you that? What'd you
have to do with it? God did. God made you. Pride of face and the worst pride
of all is pride of grace. Pride of grace. Someone said every human being
is a creature of God. He is the work of his hands and
is fearfully and wonderfully made. He has a soul more valuable
than the world. And that's so. Every man made
fearfully and wonderfully made. And have a soul that is more
valuable than the whole world. What should a man give in exchange
for his soul? If you had this whole world at
your fingertips, it was all yours. You could use it any way you
wanted to. You could not with everything,
all the gold and all the silver. you could not put away one of
your sins. You couldn't do it. Another thing
about children is they're put down confidence, but I think
of they're trusting. A child has absolute trust, absolute
confidence in his father. His father promises, Oh, that
settles it. It's as good as done. Why? Because his dad told him he was
going to do it. Child just trusts his father.
He doesn't question his father's word. And at the same time, he
doesn't mind reminding his father, Dad, you told me. Dad, you said. We can learn from that, can't
we? Sure we can. If we're God's children, to trust
him, to believe his word, and to remind him of his promises. That's what praying really is. A third thing is a child's willingness. I started to put down patience.
I thought, oh no, people are not going to believe that. Children
are not known for patience. I know that. The way I want us
to see this is, how many times does a child come to his dad
and say, why? Why? Why can't I do this? Or why can't we do this? And
the father says, I'll explain that later, or I'll tell you
later. And they may not at first agree
to that, but they learn, don't they? They learn to know that
at the present time, they're not going to get an answer. And
you know, that's something we need to learn as God's children. Some hard providence comes in
your life or my life, and it's just almost a reaction to ask
why. Why? We have to learn to wait. God
will tell us why if it's good for us to know. I think of the
Lord's words when he was washing his disciples' feet. You know,
Peter did not want the Lord to wash his feet. And our Lord told
them, what I do now, thou knowest not, but thou shalt know hereafter. And there's a lot of things we
go through in life that we just have to wait. We're not going
to get an answer. We're not going to know why.
And we don't need to know why. Why? We have confidence in our
father. We know he's too wise to do anything
that would hurt us too good. A fourth thing about children
is love. Children love their parents,
don't they? And they should, no doubt about it. The parents
are the ones responsible for bringing them into this world.
and disciples. We love our Father. We love Him
because we know that He first loved us. We love Him because
we know apart from His love, we would have never had any interest
in the things of God. We know that. He made the covenant
of grace with us in Christ before He ever made the world. And we
love him. He sent his son into this world
to be our savior. And he's the one, everybody here
today, God crossed your path with the gospel. If he hadn't before, he is now.
God crosses your path with the gospel. There's a lot of people
that come into this world and go out of it never having heard
the gospel of Jesus Christ. The fact that you have heard
the gospel, that's not by accident, is it? It's because of God's
great love. Now, I want us to turn to two
scriptures because there are two cautions in these two scriptures
about children. Now, there are things we can
learn, no doubt about these four things I've mentioned here hurriedly
this morning, we can learn from children. Humility, trust, and
love, and willingness to wait until it's the right time. But
there are two things the scripture says that we're not to be like
children. I want you to look in 1 Corinthians
chapter 14. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 20. The apostle said, brethren, be
not children in understanding. Now in the context here, he's
dealing with spiritual gifts. spiritual gifts. And you know,
some children, they get taken up with something that looks
shiny, may not be worth 10 cents, but it sure does look good. Sure
is shiny. The same thing is true about
these spiritual gifts. Some people were more concerned
about gifts that put them up in front of other people. But
the apostle makes it clear that the gift of preaching, the gift
of prophesying, that's the most important gift. And some of these
other things that are mentioned here, be not children in understanding. Some people think, well, if I
could just speak with tongues, I could speak in another language.
Someone maybe today, if you had the gift right now of speaking
in a language, let's say the Chinese language. There's several
of them, I'm sure. But one of them, and you were
here today. Now, what good would that do
any of us? We can't understand Chinese.
All I said, I'd rather speak, what was it, three words with
my understanding than 1,000 words without understanding. Be not children in understanding. Recognize the difference in these
gifts. And then, if you will, in Ephesians,
turn over a few more pages, Ephesians chapter four, and verse 14. The apostle said that we henceforth
be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. We're not to be like children
in the sense of everything that comes down. And some of us have
been in The grace of God long enough,
we've seen a lot of things come down in religion. There's a new
Bible, a new formula, a secret formula in the Bible. You count
every letter, and I mean, just all kinds of things have come
along, right? That's what he's warning against.
Some people, they follow every new thing. Solomon said, there's
nothing new under the sun. No, let's stick with the old
paths. Let's not remove the old landmarks. These things I told a young man
this just recently. Young people, you know, they
want to ask questions about, what about someone in Africa
who's never heard the gospel? Don't, what's concern, what about
your sin? That's what you need to be concerned
about, not someone in Africa. What about your relationship
to God? You're going to stand before
God? You're going to give an account one day. You'd better
be concerned about your salvation, your relationship to God. And
I tell you, the gospel has withstood many attacks, and it's still
standing, and it's still good. It still gives God's people peace. It still brings us into a relationship
with God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Now let me close. Go back, if
you will, here to Matthew chapter 18. I have a couple of other
things I wanted to mention. Who are, notice in verse five,
he said, whoso shall receive one such little child in my name
receiveth me. Now, who are the little children
here? Who are they? Well, look in the next verse. But whoso shall offend one of
these little ones which believe in me. Now, when a person is
born of the Spirit of God, we are babes. That's what he's talking
about. He's not, of course, we wanted,
We want to treat everyone right, and especially little children.
We think of them as innocent, and we have no desire in any
way not to treat them in the best possible manner. But to
receive a baby is not what our Lord is saying here. If you receive
that baby, it's not like receiving Christ. you receive one of these
little ones that believe in me." In other words, a child of God.
Just like he said in Matthew that, inasmuch as you have done
it unto one of the least of these, you've done it unto me. You've
fed them, you've clothed them. He's talking about believers,
about God's children. And then he said, take heed. not to offend. Offenses come
and they're going to come to God's children as long as we're
in this world. But he sounded a warning about,
take heed, not to offend a believer, a brother, a sister in Christ. And then he gave two reasons.
First of all, remember they're angels? We all have angels who are ministering
spirits, and the angels always behold the face of God. Better
be careful. Better be careful of offending
one of God's children. We should do everything we possibly
can to help each other, encourage one another, and hold each other
up, and pray for one another. Gotta be careful about trying
to, or setting, offending one of God's children. Because of
the angels, first of all, and number two, look at that last
verse, verse 11. For the Son of Man has come to
save that which is lost. In other words, the Lord is,
this is the reason I'm here. He's talking to his, this is
why I'm here. Why? To save, to save that which
is lost. To seek and to save that which
is lost. I pray the Lord would bless these
words and thoughts to us here today.