Let us turn again to Mark chapter
9. Mark chapter 9, and beginning
with verse 33. And he came to Capernaum, and
being in the house, he asked them, What was it that you disputed
among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace, for
by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be
the greatest. And he sat down and called the
12 and saith unto them, if any man desire to be first, the same
shall be last of all and servant of all. And he took a child and
set him in the midst of them, And when he had taken him in
his arms, he said unto them, whosoever shall receive one of
such children in my name receiveth me. And whosoever shall receive
me receiveth not me, but him that sent me. And John answered
him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name,
and he followed not us. And we forbade him, because he
followed not us. But Jesus said, forbid him not. For there's no man which shall
do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us
is on our part. For whosoever shall give you
a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ,
verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. And whosoever
shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and
he were cast into the sea. And if thy hand offend thee,
cut it off, It is better for thee to enter into life maimed
than having two hands to go into hell and into the fire that never
shall be quenched, where the worm doth not and the fire is
not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee,
cut it off. It is better for thee to enter
halt into life than having two feet to be cast into hell, into
the fire that never shall be quenched. where their worm doth
not and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee,
pluck it out. It is better for thee to enter
into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes
to be cast into hell fire, where their worm doth not and the fire
is not quenched. For everyone shall be salted
with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt
is good, but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith
will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and
have peace one with another." Now, I have thought it well this
morning to look at all of these verses together. They record
one teaching session that the Lord Jesus Christ had along with
his 12 apostles in Capernaum. And I'm going to divide the message
into two divisions. That is, there's two lessons
here that I want to emphasize. There's more lessons than two,
but two that I want to emphasize. The first is humility, and the
second is priorities. humility and priorities. And first, humility. The Lord
Jesus Christ had spoken of his death, that is, of his humiliation. We looked at that last time.
We see that in verse 31. But then soon after he had spoken
of his humiliation, his disciples were disputing about their Exaltation. Who shall be the greatest? Now
the scripture told us last week that when our Lord spoke about
him being delivered up to be killed, that his disciples didn't
understand. They didn't understand what he
meant by his death. And I would just remind us that
They held to a worldly kingdom, a temporal kingdom, and it had
such a grip upon their minds that they were able to hear the
Lord Jesus Christ tell of his death and just put that out of
their minds, not have any questions about that, but to go on with
their thoughts about a worldly kingdom. Who should be the greatest? Now, in a worldly kingdom, and
we live in a worldly kingdom, we live in the United States
of America, we live in a worldly kingdom, and every person on
the face of God's earth lives in some kingdom in this world. And in a worldly kingdom, there
are always those who have authority and those who have power in every
kingdom. And they didn't want to be just
one who had authority and who had power, but they wanted to
be the one who had the greatest power and the greatest authority
in the kingdom. Now, we read the Lord Jesus Christ
sat down, and that was a position that teachers took in that time
and in that society. Not like here, the teacher stands
and the pupils sit. But we know that the teacher
would sit down and the pupils would stand. And our Lord sat
down and began to teach them, and it is, I believe, a lesson
on humility, which is one mark, not the only mark, but one mark
of all of those who are in the kingdom of God. Blessed are the
poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God, the kingdom
of heaven. That's one mark. Humility is
one mark of every child of God. Pride is something that God hates,
something that God detests. And it's something that all of
us at times are guilty of. There's no question about that.
But it is a sin that we should all struggle with and put to
death, the sin of pride. It's not becoming of a child
of God to be proud. And our Lord as we see here,
used a child to teach this lesson on humility. We might call this
a lesson, an object lesson. He set a child in the midst of
them. And this child was small enough
that he took the child up in his arms. So it wasn't a large
child, but a small child that he set in the midst of them. Now in Matthew, the gospel of
Matthew, this same parallel passage we read there that he told his
disciples, the 12. Now he's speaking to the 12 apostles. And he said unto them, except
you be converted and become as little children, you shall not
enter into the kingdom of heaven. Plus. According to Matthew, he
answered their question, who would be the greatest? He said,
whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,
the same is the greatest in the kingdom of God. Now I want to
mention this morning four things about small children. Four things,
and there's many more things that we could mention, I'm sure.
But four things that come to my mind as we think about Our
Lord taking this small child and placing him or her in their
midst and telling them, except you become converted and become
as a little child, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom
of heaven. Four things about small children.
The first thing is they're not sinless. Now that's obvious,
isn't it? We all know that, but I think
it's important that I mentioned that we speak of small children
and babies in particular as innocence. And we know what we mean when
we use that word concerning babies being innocent. They're innocent
as to many of the things of this world, but we are not saying
that somehow they did not inherit a sinful nature. Because we know
that's true of every child born of Adam. Adam was created in
the image of God. But Adam brought forth a son
in his image, the scripture tells us. And his image was now a fallen
image, a marred image of God. And so every person born into
this world comes in with what some people refer to as original
sin, that is a fallen sinful nature. Little children are not
sinless. None come into the world who
do not need a savior. There's no one born in this world
who is not part of that group that Paul said, there's none
righteous, no, not one. None come into this world who
does not need a savior. That's the one reason it's so
important, not the only reason, but so important that parents
have their children under the preaching of the gospel, because
God has chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. No parent can infuse faith into
their children, and grace doesn't flow in the bloodlines, I understand
that, but every parent has a responsibility to have their children under
the sound of the gospel, believing that there's none sinless, no
not one, and God has chosen the gospel by which to save his people. The second thing about children
is they can be easily deceived. small children may be easily
deceived." The Apostle Paul, writing to the believers in Ephesus,
warned them, warned believers, adults, about this. He said that
we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried
about by every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning
craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive." Believers need
to be grounded, need to be founded in the Word of God. And how does
that happen? It happens by hearing the Word
of God, by reading the Word of God, by studying the Word of
God, by applying the Word of God. We don't want to be like
those that just toss to and fro, have no stability, no foundation. And our foundation is the word
of God. And sometimes we'll hear something
and immediately we may not know exactly what's wrong, but we
know there's something wrong. There's something wrong in that
statement that I've just heard. And we know that because of being
founded, having our foundation in the word of God. So a second
thing about children, they may be easily deceived. But here's
a third thing about children. They believe the word of their
father. They believe the words of their
parents. And we should all learn from
this characteristic. Now, when I say they believe
the word of their father or their mother, they don't reason it
out. They just believe. They believe
because their father told them. They believe because their mother
told them. And that settles it. Now, I thought
I'd try to illustrate that. Here's a young boy, let's say
eight or nine years of age, and he would sure like to have a
bicycle. All of his friends have bicycles,
and he'd just love to have a bicycle. And so his dad tells him on Monday,
son, Saturday, I'll get you a bicycle. Now, he doesn't sit down and
reason, well, my dad has a good job. He has a good job. He makes good money. He goes
to work every day. He gets paid on Friday. He's
going to give me my bicycle on Saturday. No, no, he doesn't
try to reason things out like that. He just believes because
his father told him, Saturday, you're going to have a bicycle.
We should all learn to just believe God and not try to reason how
God is going to work. and why God does certain things. He's given us His word. He cannot
lie. He does not change. We must believe
Him. Look with me in Romans chapter
4 concerning Abraham. You know, Abraham is the father
of every believer, the father of the faith. In Romans chapter
4, he was told something that If
he had tried to reason this out, there's no way. There's no way. And here I am 99 years old and
my wife is 90 and we're going to have a son? No way. That's just not possible. All
things are possible with God. All things. It's impossible for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle. And it's impossible
for a man, apart from the grace of God, to be saved. But all
things are possible with God. Here in Romans 4, in verse 19,
we read, and be not weak in faith. This is Abraham. Be not weak
in faith. He considered not his own body
now dead. when he was about 100 years old,
neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God. And this is the way we glorify
God. We believe him. We don't glorify
God by doubting. We glorify God by believing who
he is and his word. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, that's
all it is. That's all I need, a promise
from God, a word from God that's sufficient. And that's the way
a small child is with their father or their mother. Their parents
tell them something, and they believe it. They don't try to
reason it out, how it's all going to come to pass. No, no. He staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he
had promised, he was able to perform. Whatever God has promised,
He's able to perform. Our Heavenly Father tells us
in the Word of God, whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. You mean by simply believing
in Christ, I'm given everlasting life? Isn't that what God said? Amen? You mean I don't have to
have certain kinds of feelings? That I don't have to experience
certain things that I've heard other believers, special believers,
I mean, there's no question in my mind that they love God, they
serve God, and they tell of their experience, and I don't have
to have an experience like that? No. Believe God. Believe God's
Word, God who cannot lie. Whosoever believeth in Him, that
is, in Christ, should not perish, but have eternal life. But my
God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory
by Jesus Christ. All my needs, whatever that need
may be. We worry, don't we? We get anxious
about the future and wonder what's going to happen and how we're
going to make it and all kinds of things come into our mind. Believe God. Small children,
they just believe the word of their parent. My God shall, Paul
said. My God shall supply all. your needs according to His riches
and glory by Christ Jesus. My grace is sufficient for you.
Maybe you have something that you're dealing with today, something
that you've got to experience this coming week and you're thinking
about that and maybe concerned and anxious about that. Remember
God's word, my grace. It's not your grace. It's His
grace. And the Lord Jesus Christ, John
said, we saw Him full of grace and truth. And we have all received
of Him grace for grace. The grace that we need is sufficient
and always will be. And it's all in Christ. It's
not in the church, it's not in the preacher, that's for sure.
The grace that you need, the grace that I need, is in Christ,
and he's promised it's sufficient. Here's another word from the
Lord I think we should remember, for whom the Lord loves, he chastens. If you be without chastisement,
of which all are partakers, all of God's children, God has his
own way of chasing chastening his children, but don't try to
reason that out. Don't try to reason out, and
Brother Schrader brought this out in the Bible study lesson
just a little while ago, but don't try to figure God's providence
out for other people. We can't even figure it out for
ourselves, our own lives. We just believe God, that He's
in charge, that He works all things after the counsel of His
own will, and that He loves us in a way that we cannot even
begin to understand. He spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him freely
give us all things that are necessary? will give us. And he gives us
those things freely for Christ's sake. Now, here's the fourth
thing about children. They do not put on airs. Now, I knew what that meant in
my mind, but I thought, I don't know if everybody knows what
that means. And I don't even know if I know
what it means is right. I better look in the dictionary.
And sure enough, I found it. It's in the dictionary. To put
on airs, what does it mean? To act in a way that shows one
thinks one is better than other people. That's what it means,
to put on airs. To act in a way that shows one
thinks one is better than other people. Children do not put on
airs. They don't act like they think
they're better than other children. And this is the lesson. Christ's
kingdom. Now they were disputing on who
would be the greatest in this kingdom. But remember Christ's
kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. And it's a spiritual kingdom
of grace. And everyone who is born are
translated into this kingdom of God's dear son. We all Do
so by the grace of God and none is greater than another. None
is greater than another. We all have the same father. You're a child of God, who's
your father? You say, my father is God Almighty. That's my father too. And that's
the father of every child of God. We all have the same father.
We all have the same savior. There's only one. We all have
the same Father, the same Savior. We all have the same Holy Ghost,
the Holy Spirit, who lives in us. We are all washed in the
same blood, in the same fountain, and we're all justified by the
same imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ received
by faith. We are all called in one hope
of our calling. Now, I want to call your attention
to verse 37. Who is meant in verse 37 that
by receiving, we receive Christ and ultimately the Father? Whosoever
shall receive one of such children in my name receiveth me, and
whosoever shall receive me receiveth not me, but him that sent me. Who is it that if we receive,
we receive Christ and receive the Father? It means everyone. Everyone who believes in Christ
and has this childlike spirit. He's not just talking about receiving
little children. We wouldn't say anything and
we want to do the best for little children, right? but that he's
talking about believers those who believe in him and have been
converted and have become as little children to receive one
of them because you notice in the text here these that he is
speaking of in verse 41 belong to him notice that in verse 41
for whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my
name because You belong to Christ. That's the first thing, they
belong to Christ. They believe in Christ. They've
been converted and have become as little children. In verse
42, he says, whosoever shall offend one of these little ones
that believe in me. That's who we receive, the brethren. And in receiving believers, and
in John's first epistle, remember, he gives this as a mark of true
faith. We love the brethren. We love
God's children. And we receive them. And in receiving
them, we receive him, and in receiving him, we receive the
Father. Now look with me in Matthew 25
and see if this isn't what our Lord teaches and shows us here. In Matthew chapter 25, verse
33, we'll begin with verse 33. This is when the Lord comes again,
verse 33, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but
the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I, I was an hungered and you gave me meat. I was thirsty,
and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took
me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I
was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came
unto me. Then shall the righteous answer
him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee in hunger? and fed thee,
or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger,
and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we
thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the king
shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch
as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,
you have done it unto me. To give a person a cup of cold
water because they belong to Christ will receive a prophet's
reward. Now back in our text, who is in the kingdom a servant
of all and therefore first? Look at that, if you will. Verse 34, but they held their
peace for by the way they had disputed among themselves who
should be greatest. And then in verse 37, whosoever
shall receive one of such children in my name receiveth me and whosoever
shall receive me receiveth not me but him that sent me. Who
is it in the kingdom of heaven who is a servant of all and therefore
first. Verse 35, that's the verse I
want. If any man desire to be first,
the same shall be last of all and servant. First of all, last
of all and servant of all. Who is it in the kingdom of heaven
that is a servant of all and therefore first? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He, who being in the form of
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation, but took upon him the form of a servant. He came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, to give his life a ransom for many. He became the servant of all,
and he is therefore first of all. He's the King of kings and
Lord of lords. So the first lesson our Lord
dealt with is a lesson on humility, becoming like a little child,
not putting on airs. The second lesson he deals with,
priorities. priorities. My relationship with the Lord
Jesus Christ must be first. It must be first. It must be
before my wife. It must be before my children.
It must be before my job. It must be before everything. Christ will be first, or he will
be nothing to any believer. You look in the scripture, and
he's always presented first as Lord, and then as Savior. And it's never reversed. It's
never Savior, he becomes my Savior, and then somewhere down the road,
I make him my Lord. No, God made him both Lord and
Christ. when he raised him from the dead.
And to come to Christ, to have our priorities right, the Lord
Jesus Christ, he must be first. And all I want to do with these
verses is make three comments. The first comment is, the Lord
Jesus spoke these words of warning. And they are, in my mind, they
are words of warning. If your right hand offends thee,
cut it off. In other words, it's more important
to know Christ, to serve Christ, and he's not telling people to
cut off their right hand or their foot or to cut out their eye,
we know that, and no one's going to enter into the kingdom of
heaven maimed. Those who enter into his kingdom
all will have a glorified body like his glorious body. But he's
showing us by these words, these metaphors he's using here that
our priority must be right. Entering into the kingdom of
heaven, knowing God, knowing Christ, serving him must be first. It must be first. And I'll just make these three
comments. First of all, the Lord Jesus
spoke these words of warning. He spoke them. He who is love
in person. He spoke these words of warning. It's not like some prophet, a
great prophet who's only a man like Elijah or Moses or someone
like that, that they spoke these words. Oh no, this is the Lord
Jesus Christ who spoke these words. He spoke these words and
they are words of warning. And I think about Paul's question
to the churches of Galatia, must I become your enemy? Because
I tell you the truth. If you saw someone headed to
a disaster and you didn't warn them, if you knew they were walking
along, let's say a person is blind, he has no sight, he's
walking along and you see, there's a cliff he's going to walk off
of, would it be love to ignore that? Or wouldn't it be a show
of love to warn him? And the Lord Jesus Christ certainly
is warning men and women. I remember Brother Rolf Barnard
years ago telling a true story. about this happened over, I believe
he said, in Mississippi. A bridge was washed out one night
on the highway, and this man was driving, going along, and
he went, came to the bridge and went off down into the river.
The river flooded and flowing fast, the current was fast, and
somehow he clawed his way back up, got to the shore and clawed
his way back up, all covered with mud and everything else,
and he got out there on the road and started waving his hands,
and it took five, I think he said it took five vehicles that
just passed him on by and drowned in the river before he got anyone
who would stop. These are words of warning. They're
words of warning that our Lord issued. That first of all, before
everything else, Our relationship to God is the most important. The second thing, the Lord Jesus
spoke these words of a place, a place that he called hell.
In verse 43, he speaks that and says that some go into hell. And then in verses 45 and 47,
he says some are cast into hell. Men say, well, I'm not going
to let God put me in hell. Well, you need to recognize who
God is. We need to recognize who God
is. He's going to cast all unbelievers into hell. Those who will not
bow to his son, Jesus Christ. And the third thing. The Lord
Jesus tells us two things about this place he called hell. He
says that it's a place where the fire shall never be quenched.
And he repeats that five times in these verses. Five times over,
the fire shall never be quenched. In Luke 16, when he spoke about
a person who was actually in hell, that man said, I am tormented
in this flame. Tormented, now listen, tormented,
yes, but never consumed, never annihilated. And the second thing
our Lord says about this place, not only a place where the fire
shall never be quenched, but it is a place where the worm
doth not. Most of the writers believe this
refers to the memory or conscience of men. the conscience, the memory
that men will have in hell. And I would say this today. I
pray it's not so. But if anyone in this building
this morning should die and go to hell, you'll remember. You'll remember this message,
not only this message, but no telling how many messages you've
heard. of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
he's not only an able Savior, but he is a willing Savior. Bow
to Christ. Come to Christ. I pray the Lord
will bless this word to all of us here today. I want us to