Let's turn in our Bibles this
evening to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18, beginning
in verse one, reading through verse 14. 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 as 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 were
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 thine eye offend
thee, pluck it out, 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 has come to
save that which was lost. How thank ye, if a man have an
hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave
the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh
that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it,
verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the
ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so, it is not the
will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little
ones should perish. I want to call our attention tonight
to three words. Three words which are used three
times in these verses that we have just finished reading. The
three words are these little ones. These little ones. Notice that first in verse 6,
but whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe
in me. And then if you will look down
to verse 10, take heed that you despise not one of these little
ones. And then again in verse 14, Even
so it is not the will of your father which is in heaven that
one of these little ones should perish. I want us to consider
the context in which these words were spoken. Our Lord spoke these
words at first to his 12 disciples. And we know that one of them
was a lost man. The Lord Jesus Christ told them,
as recorded in John chapter six and verse 70, have not I chosen
you 12, and one of you is a devil. So these words were at first
spoken to the 12 disciples of the Lord, and we remember that
one of them, Judas Iscariot, was a lost man. They had been
taught, like the Jews, of that day that the Messiah would come
to set up an earthly kingdom. And we see in verse one, they
referred to this earthly kingdom as the kingdom of heaven. And
they were concerned, they were concerned, all 12 of them, they
were concerned about who would be the greatest in this kingdom. Now, keep your places here, but
I want you to realize that about six months after this took place,
if you turn over to Matthew chapter 20, about six months later, two of the disciples, the sons
of Zebedee, their mother came to the Lord. and asked for this
privilege, that her two sons be given the greatest places,
places of preeminence, places of renown. Notice in chapter
20 of Matthew, verse 20. Then came to him the mother of
Zebedee's children, that's James and John, with her sons, they
were along with her, worshiping him. and desiring a certain thing
of him, and he said unto her, what wilt thou? She saith unto
him, here it is, this is what I desire. Grant that these my
two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other
on thy left in thy kingdom. In other words, grant my two
sons these two places of preeminence, the right hand and the left hand
of you. And then, if that were not enough,
I want you to look in Luke chapter 22. On the eve of our Lord being
crucified, the night before He was taken to the cross and was
crucified, slain, suffered, and died in the stead of His people,
In Luke chapter 22 and verse 23 we read, Our Lord told them
that one of them would betray Him, and they began to inquire
among themselves which of them it was that should do this thing. And there was also, now notice,
there was also a strife among them that same day. There was
a strife among His disciples, which of them should be accounted
the greatest. And He said unto them, The kings
of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise
authority upon them are called benefactors. But you shall not
be so, but he that is greatest among you Let him be as the younger
and he that is chief as he that doth serve. Back to our text. One of the writers gave these
three lessons for us to take from this passage of scripture
where the disciples were seeking what we must call self-fulfillment. preeminence, self-aggrandizement. Three lessons for you and I. Number one, this shows that they
were like us, the disciples. They were just like you and just
like me. They were men and women of like passions. That's the
first lesson. This shows that they were like
us, but that's not the end of that first lesson. This shows
that they were like us and so that we may become like them. The second lesson, it was an
evil hard to be cured in them and it will not easily be cured
in us. And third, the Savior took great
pains to correct it in them. let us learn from the lessons
he taught them. So here we have the 12 disciples
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ asking, who is the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven? And at this time, the Lord Jesus
Christ taught his disciples as he did on other occasions by
what we would call an object lesson. He called a little child
unto him and said him, in the midst and they looked upon the
child. That's the reason he set him
in their midst for them to gaze upon this little child. And he
said, listen, and I'm paraphrasing, of course, except you be converted
and become as, as a little child, you will not enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Now there's several lessons that
we as adults and his disciples as adults could learn by observing
a little child that he set in their midst. Little children
are usually unassuming and they are oblivious to class distinctions. Maybe a master of a house, a
plantation, and he has servants. And he has a son, and his son
goes out and he plays with the servant's children. They're his
equal, as far as he is concerned. That's usually the case. Now,
there's some things about children we are warned not to imitate. The apostle Paul said, be not
like children, that is, and be tossed to and fro by every wind
of doctrine. And little children, many times,
their minds are quickly changed, you know, and they run after
something else. God's children, God's people,
we should have our feet on the ground. We should have our faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We should trust in the Word of
God as our rule. And we should be steady. We should
be firm. We should be steadfast in the
faith. So there's some things about
children we are certainly not to imitate, but in this matter,
this particular matter, we are. In my kingdom, the Lord Jesus
said, whosoever you will be the chiefest, you want to be the
chiefest in this kingdom of mine, then he shall be the servant
of all. The Lord Jesus Christ came not
to be served. but to serve and give his life
a ransom for many. They needed to turn, our Lord
said, except you be converted and become as a little child,
they needed to be converted. Converted from what? Converted
from this desire to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They
needed to be turned from that desire, from that thought of
being the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The Bible teaches
us that there is an initial conversion that every child of God experiences. Look with me for example, keep
your places here of course, but look in Acts chapter 11. When
a person first is regenerated by the Spirit of God, there is
a turning, a turning away from sin and a turning to the Lord. Acts chapter 11 and verse 21. And isn't that, and it is, this
is what repentance means. It means a change of mind, a
change of mind. And a person's mind is changed,
he turns. Our Lord gave this example concerning
repentance when he told of a man who had two sons. And he told
both of them, go work in my field today. And one said, I'm not
going. And one said, I'll go. And the one who said, I'll go,
didn't go. And the one who said, I'm not
going, repented. He changed his mind. And he went
to work in his father's field. Here in Acts chapter 11 and verse
21, we read, and the hand of the Lord was with them and a
great number. Now notice, first of all, they
believed and turned unto the Lord. John Gill said, effectual
vocation, or effectual calling, is the call of men out of darkness
to light. And conversion answers to that
call. And is the actual turning of
men from the one to the other. In other words, being converted,
turning from the darkness, turning to the light. Turning from sin,
turning to Christ. Our Lord told Peter, you remember,
When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Peter needed to
be converted. He was full of pride, wasn't
he? Lord, if everyone, all of these
people here, all of these other disciples, if they all forsake
thee, you can count on me. Peter, before the cock crows
twice, you're going to deny me three times. Now when you're
converted, when he denied the Lord the third time, and evidently
he was in a, well, no doubt about it, he was in a place where the
Lord could look at him. And when the Lord looked at Peter,
the scripture says he went out and wept bitterly. He was converted,
wasn't he? He was converted. And he was
a strength, a help to the other disciples. That is what was needed at this
point by the disciples. And I cannot help but think,
because we know these 12 disciples, with the exception of Judas,
we think of them as the 12 apostles and the apostle Paul came along
later. And think of this. This is what
Paul said of himself. Remember, our Lord said, he that
is chiefest among you, let him be the servant of all. No, no
apostle, as far as we know, was used any more than Paul in spreading
the gospel over the known world at that time. and establishing
churches in many, many places. And this is what he said about
himself. This is the first time he spoke
about himself in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, when he said, I am
least among the apostles. There's 12 apostles, and I'm
the least among the 12 apostles. The next time we find him writing
along this line, In Ephesians, he said, unto me who am less
than the least of all saints. First, less of the 12. Now, less of all saints. You see, as a man or woman grows
in grace, we grow also in recognition of how much we owe. to God's
wonderful grace. How very much we owe. If it were
not for the grace of God, where would any of us be that are here
tonight singing praises unto the Lord and worshiping Him? We have no idea. I just know for myself, I'm so
thankful God did not let me go But he intervened in my life.
He intervened. The last time we have Paul writing
along this line is in 1 Timothy when he said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. How many times have believers
mentioned to me, you know, they say preacher just seems like
I see my sins more, I see myself more sinful now than I ever did
before. That's just the way it should
be. The more you grow in grace. If
growing in grace makes you more proud of yourself and cause you
to look down on other people, Don't call that growing in grace. That's growing in hypocrisy.
But to grow in grace, I like what the old woman said one time. She said, I believe in growing
in grace like the cow's tail. The more it grows, the closer
it gets to the ground. And remember these words the
Apostle Paul wrote to the saints in Rome. Now Rome was a capital.
There was a church there before Paul got there. We know that.
He did go to Rome, but not maybe like he thought he would go to
Rome. He went there as a prisoner appealing unto Caesar. But before
he ever went there, he wrote to that church and he said this,
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that
is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought
to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to
every man the measure of faith. The faith that you have, and
faith, there's small faith, we know that. Our Lord told his
disciples they had little faith, He told those two Gentiles, a
Syrophoenician woman and a centurion, great is thy faith. Faith is
like every grace, it may grow, God the Holy Spirit producing
the fruit of the Spirit. Faith is one of the fruits of
the Spirit, isn't it? And God's dealt to every man
a measure of faith. You didn't by nature have the
faith that you have tonight. Faith is a gift of God. Don't
look down on someone else, maybe, who doesn't have the clarity
that you have in the gospel. And then Paul wrote this also
to the church at Rome. Mind not high things, but condescend
to men of low estates. Aren't you glad that not many
mighty are called, that God has chosen the foolish things of
this world, the weak things, the things that are not, that
he might bring to naught the things that are. Well now, for
just a few minutes, let's consider the three words, these little
ones. First, I want you to notice in
verse six, But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which
believe in me, they are described, these little ones, get that in
your mind, these little ones in this passage of scripture,
are described as they which believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
the little child, the little child that he said in their midst
as an object lesson, I do not believe was old enough to believe
in Christ, because in Mark's account of this very thing, he
tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ took this child up in
his arms. Well, a man normally would not
take a child over, what, three or four up in their arms. But
these little ones our Lord is speaking of now are those who
are old enough to believe in Christ, to have faith in Christ. You might say, well, preacher,
how old must you be to believe in Christ? Well, I can't answer
that. But I can say this, everyone
who believes in Christ is referred to as a newborn babe. Everyone who believes in Christ. I don't care if they're 70 years
old or 17 or 7, wherever, whenever. When God gives faith and a person
is regenerated by the Spirit of God and comes to faith in
Christ, He's a newborn, she's a newborn babe. I want you to,
again, keep your places here and look with me to 1 John. In 1 John, chapter two. In verses 12 and 13. I write unto you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven you for His namesake. I write
unto you, fathers, because you have known Him that is from the
beginning. I write unto you, young men,
because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you,
little children, because you have known the Father. Now, in both of these verses,
we see the words, little children. but they are not translated from
the same words. In verse 12, we see what is true
of all who are born again, of every person who is saved. This
is true of everyone. Their sins are forgiven them
for his name's sake. Their sins are not forgiven them
for their faith. They're not forgiven them for
their repentance. They're not forgiven them for
their works. They are forgiven them for His
name's sake, every born again believer. Then in verse 13, we
see spiritual growth and the word which is here translated
little children, it's a different word and it can mean an infant. but most often a half-grown boy
or girl. Strong, H. Strong says, figuratively,
this refers to an immature Christian, but still a child of God. Going back to our text. So these
little ones are those who believe in Christ. Now second, in verse
10, these little ones, the Lord says, 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 has come to
save that which is lost. Now this, of course, speaks to
all men, there's no question about that, but especially, and
in particular, to preachers. He warns his disciples not to
despise little children which believe in him. They are, after
all, God's children. They are the sheep of his pasture,
and they must be cared for as such. The disciples, in seeking each
one to be the greatest, were in fact, as John Gill said, striving
to lessen one another. In other words, they were trying
to raise themselves up over others by putting the others down. Beware. Be aware, our Lord says,
of such actions, especially since so much notice is taken of these
little ones that believe in me both in heaven and in earth. These little ones who believe
in me in heaven, they're angels, are always beholding the face
of my Father. And remember that these angels
are ministering spirits sent forth to minister unto the heirs
of salvation. Don't despise one of these little
ones that believe in me. And not only in heaven, but in
earth. Don't despise these little ones
that believe in me because the Son of God, the Son of Man came
down to earth from heaven. to save them. The one sheep that
is missing from the fold, the shepherd searches until he finds
it. This is especially speaking to
preachers. Paul told the believers in Corinth,
for we preach not ourselves. That's not our purpose. We preach
not ourselves, but we preach Christ Jesus, the Lord. and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. You better not despise one of
God's children. Not to despise those that the
Lord's redeemed. They're God's children. They're
precious in his sight. They better be precious in your
sight. Now the third passage in verse
14, these little children, even so it is not the will of your
father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should
perish. It's not God's will that one
of them, one of these little ones who believes in the Lord
Jesus Christ should perish. When we read and we just read
it, when we read that it's not God's will that something not
take place, then we better know it's not going to take place. You understand what I'm saying?
When the Lord said, it's not God's will that one of these
little ones who believes in me should perish, Not one is going
to perish. He gives unto His sheep eternal
life, and He has given them into the hand of His Son. And no one
is able to pluck one of them out of His hand. This is God
Almighty who says it's not His will that one of these little
ones perish. And in Isaiah, He said, I have
purposed it. I will also do it. I have purpose
that not one of these little ones that believe in Christ,
my son, shall perish. I will also do it. He'll make
sure that not one shall perish. It's not the will of the father
of these little children, these little ones, that one of them
perish. And he has given us into the
hand of his son for safekeeping. And we are safe, those of us
who are these little ones who believe in Christ. I pray that the Lord would bless
this message, this word to all of us here tonight. I want us
to sing this hymn 64, hymn number 64. And let's stand as we sing. Oh.