 Let's begin here in Matthew chapter 18 at verse 1. I'll read to verse 5. We'll get into our study. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child to him and sent him in the midst of them and said, assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one little child like this, in my name, receives me. And so as we begin chapter 18, we need to remember that Jesus had just instructed, at least in Matthew's account, last time we were together, we'll put it that way. Jesus had just instructed Peter to go to the Sea of Galilee in order that he might catch a fish and pull a coin from the mouth of the fish in order that they might be able to pay what is called the temple maintenance tax. And there was enough money in the mouth of that fish that would pay not only for the apostle Peter but also for Jesus. And as I mentioned to you, this particular tax called the temple tax was received to keep the temple in proper condition and also defrayed the cost of temple service supplies as well as incidentals. So as Peter is leaving and Peter has left to go and pay this tax, Jesus is now having a conversation with the other men. So Matthew tells us in verse one at that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? So Peter is not there at the moment. He's out there paying the temple maintenance tax. The other disciples have approached Christ and they're asking a question. And as this is taking place, we see that Jesus is about to teach him a lesson concerning greatness in the kingdom of God. Now by combining Luke and Mark, we once again will receive greater insight into what is happening here because in Mark chapter nine, verses 33 and 34, it says that he came to Capernaum and when he was in the house, he asked them, what was it you disputed among yourselves on the road? But they kept silent. For on the road, they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest? In Luke 9.46 it reads, a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be the greatest? So they were having an argument amongst themselves and the argument related to who is the greatest in Messiah's kingdom. Now it is possible that the enemy, Satan, it is possible that Satan provoked this argument. It's interesting there are other ancient Bible translations that seem to at least infer that when you look at the ancient Syriac and ancient Arabic translations, they translate this verse by saying, a thought entered into them. And so there are commentators who say it may be that the enemy prompted them to argue about who was the most important because that kind of concern would be useful to destroy the unity that was needed to fulfill their calling. You see, one of the things that we need to understand, and let me lay this as a foundation as we look at the key to greatness in the kingdom, one of the things that we need to understand is that we are always most effective when we work together. And therefore unity has to be valued and unity has to be safeguarded. Paul, when he was writing to the Ephesians in chapter four, verse three said that the church was to be endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And so if you want to accomplish a task, it is always better to be united as you do so. We know that Satan is the author of division. He introduced division by provoking the angels, a portion of the angels to fall with him. We also know that he divided the very first marriage. He is the author of division. And so Jesus in Matthew 12, 25 said, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. So from the beginning Satan has authored division. So these ancient translations of the Bible are inferring at least that it could have been a provocation from the enemy to divide the unity of the apostles and thus undermine the work that Jesus intended to do through them. Remember how that the apostle Peter had rebuked Jesus when Jesus began to speak concerning his impending death and that Jesus in response spoke directly to the influence that had provoked Peter to say such a thing. Remember how Jesus had said in Matthew 16, 23, get thee behind me Satan, thou art an offense to me. And so we know that Satan intends to keep Jesus from doing the work that Jesus would do. Not only would he come against Christ himself through provoking an apostle in influencing an apostle to try and undermine that work but he would actually continue to do that because he knows that the Lord Jesus Christ in order to put an end to his reign if you will to disarm him that in order to make that function perhaps not possible at least in his way of thinking. Well the best thing to do is just to undermine the unity of the apostles and provoke them to be influenced to if not keep Jesus from going to the cross then to divide the unity that they have. We know that Satan provokes people to evil. In Luke 13 verse two it says supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas the Scarlet Simonson to betray him. We know according to John 13 too that Satan provoked Judas and actually influenced him in the direction of betraying Christ so we know that he has that ability to do that and so what is happening here is Jesus's men are involved in an argument and I want you to see what this argument is. They're involved in an argument concerning who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now when it says in verse one who then is greatest, that word greatest speaks of the most important. Who is the preeminent one? Who is the stronger one? So what is your argument about? What are they disputing? Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Messiah? So as you look at this, and I want to develop this a little bit further, as you look at this they're picturing an earthly kingdom and they're arguing about who will be in the position of greatness. They're not speaking about spiritual greatness by the way. They're not arguing about who's going to be the most successful preacher of this gospel. They're not arguing concerning who is the most loving and they're not arguing concerning who is the most humble. Can you imagine an argument between people as to which one is the most humble? No, they're arguing about who is going to be the greatest. Now what does this reveal to us? Well it reveals to us insensitivity. When Jesus had made the announcement of his impending death, Mark had told us in chapter nine verse 32 that they didn't understand what he meant and they were afraid to ask him about it. So they should have been discussing this amongst themselves and not the question of who is the greatest. Again, this reveals their fleshly insensitivity, their selfish ambition, their lack of love for Jesus Christ. They want places of honor. They want places of authority in the kingdom of God. And it seems that what is provoking them at this time would be what we call in scripture selfish ambition. The Bible speaks concerning selfish ambition. They want to establish, if you will, a pecking order of greatness. They want to model this system after the failed system of the world, our fallen world. Jesus speaks about that in Matthew 20 verses 25 through 28 where Matthew said that Jesus called them to himself and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, those who are great exercise authority over them, yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let them be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you, let them be your slave. Just as a son of man did not come to be served, but to serve to give his life a ransom for many. When Paul was writing concerning this attitude in Philippians two verses three and four, he said, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interests of others. And so the disciples need to learn a basic lesson that modern disciples need to learn also, the lesson of humble service to God and other people. In Mark 935, it says he, speaking of Jesus, sat down, called the 12, said to them, if any man desired to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all. In Matthew 10, 24 and 25, the disciples not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord, it's enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord. And so if you took notes, you might want to note that the key to greatness in God's kingdom is possessing the heart of a servant. D'Almoudi, great evangelist of another time, once said the measure of a man is not how many servants he has, but how many men he serves. And so Jesus embodied that and his men needed to learn that. Ambition for greatness is to be replaced by humility. Having people serve you because you're so important needs to be replaced by your service to somebody else. Like he said in Luke 22, 27, who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who's at the table? But Jesus went on to say, but I am among you as one who serves. So the men needed to learn to die to selfish ambition and the need for attention, the need for attention will destroy your walk with the Lord. It'll undermine your effectiveness. If you become the person, if I become that person who constantly needs to be known, to be recognized, I'll undermine the effectiveness of ministry. If you have a heart and a calling to serve the Lord, which we all do in one capacity and another, obviously. Let's say you want to plant a church or do a work, some ministry that's gonna place you in a position of leadership where people will look to you as a spiritual mentor or look to you as an example. Keep that in mind because it's very important. The desire to be the center of other people's attention is not a good desire to have. The desire to be known is really not a great desire to have. There's only one person that you ought to ever worry about knowing you and that would be Jesus himself. I want to hear him say, well done, my good and my faithful servant. The Bible tells me that the shepherd goes before us and he calls his sheep by name. So for me, when I hear my name, I'd like to hear it on his lips. And rather than doing ministry to be seen by men, to be known by men, and by the way, in this era of the church, at this time in these last days, there seems to be a tremendous, tremendous movement towards giving attention to men and forgetting who Jesus is. We need to put our eyes back on the Lord. Well, on the one hand, it's great to have. Amen, you can clap. I think that's a good thing. It is a good thing because the need for attention will destroy humble service. You'll get to the point where you're saying, you know, they don't know me. You know, it's kind of funny. You know, when I first went on the radio in different places, you know, I didn't know what it would feel like to go somewhere and to do ministry in Holland because they didn't know who I was and I was in other states. And so they didn't know who I was and I can still remember, and this is something that it was, we're talking on 20-some years ago now or more, but I can still remember going to places like Chicago or do ministry in New York and we were on the radio. And nobody, we weren't posting my picture on or anything like that. You didn't have that. You didn't have the internet doing those kinds of things at that time. And so people were not, you know, going onto web pages and all of that. So we were just on the radio and they'd say David Rosales is gonna be in Chicago this Friday inviting his radio listeners to come so we can have a radio rally. He used to call them radio rallies. And I would walk in and nobody would know who I was because nobody had seen me before. And so I'd stand next to people and they'd be talking and I wouldn't speak. I just would kind of just stand there and it was kind of fun to be invisible like that. And I can still remember, I would go up behind the platform. They said, let's welcome our guest today, David Rosales. And I'd walk up and the people would just be staring at me and I'd say, all right, you're surprised, right? I don't look like anything like you thought, right? And they'd nod their heads. I said, because you know my last name, you expected something different, didn't you? And I said, you thought, I really said this. I probably shouldn't tell you, but I'm in a good mood, I will. But I said, I would say, you thought that I would be a little heavier, black hair, dark complexion, probably thick black mustache and very ugly. I'd say, you got me confused with Rawl. And they'd all laugh. You know, Rawl's a very dear friend of mine and I would play with him like, I saw him just yesterday, he's a very dear friend of mine. But I would tease like that. But the funny thing is, is being able to go in and walk amongst him, without this, I wish they knew who I was. Not enough pictures of me. Not enough pamphlets about me. Because from the very beginning, the Lord was teaching us, it's not about us, is it? It's about him. And if people can see him, that's what real ministry is. Many of you have been here for a while, maybe you're here for the first time, but that's what that verse behind me is intended to communicate. We would see Jesus. That's a scripture out of John chapter 12. When the Greeks approached and asked, they were saying, we would see Jesus. And so for me, that's real ministry. That's what the Lord is telling us. And so what we need to do is we need to be careful that we don't get enamored with the need for attention so that people know who you are. Because let me tell you something, when you're serving the Lord and somebody forgets to say thank you, you can get mad. Well, I'm serving children's ministry or I'm out there in the parking lot, I'm a nusher, I'm working in the cafe and I'm serving and nobody's saying thank you. Well, you know what? You can do it yourself. Well, when you have that attitude, that's not service now, is it? And so the Lord would say, listen, you guys have it backwards. You don't understand it. Listen, you go to a restaurant and you're seated there, who's the most important person? The server or the person who's ordering the food? Well, if you ask the owner of the restaurant, he'll tell you. He'll say customers come first because they're providing the income that pays that server. And so Jesus says, but I'm one who is seated amongst you. As a server, I'm the one, and therefore use me, Jesus would say, as your example, you want to be greatest in the kingdom? Greatest in the kingdom is a servant of all. When I was in high school, yes, they had high schools back then. When I was in high school, one of the things we had to do in order to pass our PE class or a gym class was we had to tread water for 30 minutes. And so I'm not a swimmer, you know, I'm not a swimmer. I can, you drop me in the ocean, I can survive five minutes, I can, but that's about it. I'm not a swimmer, never have been. And so I was next to the edge, you know, so if I needed to reach up and grab the lip of the pool, save myself from drowning, that was possible. So I was there by the edge and we were supposed to tread water for, I think 30 minutes. And as I was there next to the edge, some of my friends and I were gathered around, we're talking, treading water, trying to get that credit for that class and all. And so as that was happening, there was a freshman. I was either a junior or perhaps a senior at this time. But there was a freshman who got on the high dive and was standing on the lip of the board. And as he was standing on the lip of the board with his toes kind of curled over it, he began to yell. He yelled out, coach, look at me, I'm going to jump. And so when he was yelling that in front of all of these kids, you know, coach, look at me, I'm going to jump. The coach wouldn't pay any attention to him. The coach was doing something over on the other side and he kept yelling and he did it several times. Well, you know what happens when you get a bunch of upper class high schoolers and a freshman yelling, look at me. We all started yelling, coach, look at me. And we started waving our hands, coach, look at me. You know, and we're laughing because boys are mean, we're evil. You women know that. So we're yelling, coach, look at me. I'm going to jump, I'm going to jump. You know, how mean. But anyway, we did that. And then finally the coach turns and looks in his direction and this young boy jumps off and jumps into the water and we all clap for him. But do you want to know something? The Lord taught me a lesson. He teaches me lessons in the weirdest ways. Forgive me, but he does. He said, don't you dare be that boy on the lip of a diving board yelling, Jesus, look at me. Or church, look at me, look at me. Because you're not supposed to be looking in that way at me. You're supposed to be looking to him. And that's what Jesus is teaching his men. And by the way, these are the men who are going to take that message to a world. They had better, better understand that. Listen, if you do ministry for Christ to be seen by men from men, you get the reward. But when you do things secretly, God rewards openly. Your heart has to be right with God. That is so basic. And perhaps some of you right now, who cares, move on to the next verse. But there are others right now who need to hear this because you may be getting weary in doing good. Wondering, when is someone going to pay attention to me? Let me remind you, someone is paying attention to you, the Lord, and he rewards openly. He does, don't forget that. It's very, very important to know that. And so Jesus embodied servanthood. And so how do you illustrate that? Verse two, Jesus called a little child to him, sat him in the midst of them and said, assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now he speaks of this little child, he's a toddler. So Jesus is scooping up, if you will, a small child and is ministering with this child in his arms, holding him close to his heart, if you will. And he says this, and it's very important as Jesus speaks, because here's this child in his arms and all, as he's there calling this child to himself. And he says to them, unless you are converted and become as little children, he's teaching a lesson. I want you to notice what he says, unless you're converted, you will by no means enter. The word converted means to change. It speaks of really turning away or turning back. A person must turn away from their worldly ambition and they need to humble themselves to enter into God's kingdom. Now, the fact that a person must enter assumes that he is first born outside. So before he is saved, he is not a citizen of the kingdom. Now the Bible makes it clear that before we're saved, we're actually, instead of friends of God, the Bible makes it clear that we're actually God's enemies. In Romans 8, 7 and 8, Paul said the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. The Bible makes it very clear that I actually am in hostile opposition to the Lord. I have a nature, a sin nature that opposes God. And as such, I am only fit for judgment. So Jesus is saying, listen, you need to be converted. You need to turn around. Converted speaks of the other half of repentance. Repentance speaks of changing your mind. Conversion reveals the change. So when I repent, metanoia, when I repent, it's a change of mind towards the things that I thought were proper to begin to accept the things that God has declared. So when I repent, I change my mind, I'm converted, I change my behavior. My life changes. There is a different way that I live. And so Jesus here is speaking concerning being born again. The aspects of being regenerated or born again to become a Christian. Because we are not automatically Christians. We are not born, born again. We're born fleshly. And that's why Jesus said, unless a man is born again, he cannot see nor can he enter into the kingdom of God. There needs to be what is called a conversion experience. There's a transformed life. There are many who acclaim to be Christians whose lives don't speak of any Christianity whatsoever. And so the Lord would say, listen, if you really have changed your mind, you're also gonna change the way that you live. That comes, by the way, through the Spirit, by the power of the Spirit and by God's word. Now, in Colossians chapter three verses 12 through 15, Paul said it like this. He said, since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. You must make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love. Love is what binds us all together in perfect harmony and let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts for as members of one body, you are called to live in peace and always be thankful. Entrance into the kingdom demands the qualities of a child. There's no other way to enter the kingdom of God but as a child. That's what he says, notice again in verse three, unless you are converted and become as little children, the key to entering in, humbling yourself. To be converted requires that I be willing to be like a child by humbling myself. Like it says in James chapter four, verse six, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Small child, children have interesting qualities that we can learn from, just look at them. I have been blessed by the Lord to have eight grandchildren, six of them are little girls and two of them are little boys. And my little girl, one of my little girls, Zoe, Anna's baby came to visit Marie and me yesterday, last night actually. And so the door opens and here comes my daughter Anna and she's with her daughter Zoe, Zoe's two years old. And Zoe's a little ball of energy. And so Marie loves her babies and here's one of them and so Marie is in the kitchen and she comes around a corner and stands waiting for Zoe to come to her and she's standing there going, come to Grammy, baby, come to Grammy and you hear Zoe say, no, I want Papa. And I felt so bad for Marie, I really, I want Papa. No, come and give Grammy a kiss. No, I want Papa. Long story made short, she comes this high and all of that and it's time to eat and then she's in the kitchen and Marie is very persistent, very persistent, kiss, Grammy, Grammy wants you to, and I say, honey, don't try so hard. That's why it took so long for me to ask you to marry me. Stop trying, stop trying. Just let it be, let it flow. But so what happens? Well, Zoe decides to let grandma know she didn't want to kiss her, so she hits her, hits her Grammy and then Anna sees that. You don't hit my mama, Anna says to Zoe and all of a sudden I hear Zoe yelling out, Papa, Papa, save me from the wicked witch of the West also known as Anna and she comes running. She comes running from the kitchen to where I am, climbs on top of the couch and grabs hold of me, puts her arms around my neck. Well, Anna is saying he can't protect you from me, he can't protect you from me. And I'm holding on to her and Anna's trying to take her out of my arms and I'm not letting go. Oh really, I had to let her go. But one of the things the Lord reminded me of is this, he has a little child, what do they do? They run to the one that they think will protect and keep them, right? That's what I do with the Lord. Who do I run to? If I run to man, can man protect me? No, I thank God for those who are equipped to do so in a variety of ways, civilly and all, but ultimately can a man protect me spiritually? No, only God can, only God can. And so one of the things that I see about it, little child is the little child runs to the one who protects and holds them, cares for them. And there are other things obviously, when you look at kids, you know, I learned this as I raised along with Marie, when we raised our babies, we learned for example that children are very trusting, they're very trusting. If you make a promise to your child, they trust that you're gonna keep that promise. Isn't that true, mom and dad? I mean, if you said to them, listen, you clean your room, do this and that, we got a surprise for you, we're gonna take you to Disneyland. Did they ever forget a promise? They never forget a promise. They do forget to clean the room, but they don't forget that you said you take them to Disneyland, they don't forget that. Another thing is they're very forgiving. You've discovered that is if you're a parent, that small children, your children are very forgiving, especially as they're very little. If you've had a bad day and you're short with them and you may not speak to them in the way that you would prefer and it makes them sad. If you walk up and say to them, I am sorry, which incidentally parents ought to do, I'm sorry, I should not have been upset. You know the first thing that they will say to you is it's okay? First thing, it's okay, daddy, it's okay. They're very, very forgiving. They're very loving, they're very simple. They don't require long answers, do they? The kid walks up to the daddy and daddy, I wanna know where I come from and daddy says, what? I wanna know where I come from. Where's your mom? She's not here right now, daddy. Can you tell me where I come from? I've been dreading this conversation, sit down, I'll let you know. Starts giving the birds and the bees and afterwards, after they're all through, the father's been sweating bullets. The kid says, listen, I already learned that at school. What I meant was, where was I born? Was I born in Ontario? Was I born in Chino? You know, they need just simple answers. I've discovered that also. They're very innocent in many ways. They're very dependent. They will rely on their caretaker, they're dependent on that caretaker. These are all things that we need to remember and also, a child does not resist receiving a gift. How many of you have kids who on Christmas will say, oh, you've given me too many gifts? It's their birthday. And I'm sorry, you gave me four gifts, I really only needed one. Let's give the other three to our, no, they don't do that. They do not resist a gift when it's offered to them. And what is the gift that we have from the Lord if it isn't eternal life? You need to be converted like a little child. You need to receive what I'm offering you. And as a little child is dependent on a father, on a mama, even so, you need to be dependent on me as a little child trusts and believes the promises and have a sweet innocence to them. Even so, these are the things that are qualities of a follower of Christ. And so in verse four, whoever humbles himself as this little child, well that's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, humility draws you to a deeper dependence on God. Now he says in verse five, whoever receives one little child like this and my name receives me. Now that's interesting, until you think of it in this way, it's impossible to separate Jesus from his people. Receiving one little child like this in my name receives me. So whoever receives a child of God in the name of Christ, he's saying in reality is receiving me. In other words, they're embracing not only you as a person, but the one who sent you. It's like what it says in Matthew 10, verse 40, he who receives you receives me, he who receives me receives him who sent me. Now I want you to notice he's not speaking about receiving just any child. He said one little child like this. So this toddler represents the children of God. It represents Christians. The physical in other words represents the spiritual. Verse six, continuance makes it clear, whoever causes one of these little ones to believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. What do the world because of offenses? For offenses must come, but what do that man by whom the offense comes? If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off, cast it from you. It's better for you to enter into life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. If your eye causes you to sin, plug it out, cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire. Now as we look at that, I want you to notice a couple of things with me as we look at it. Notice how in verse six says, whoever causes one of these little ones to believe in me. So believing in Christ obviously is a very, very important thing to talk about because there are those who think they're Christian who really don't believe in Christ. When he speaks of believing in him, he's speaking of spiritually being united by faith with him. Believing in him is not a conceptual belief. I mean, if you ask many Americans, if you believe in Jesus, they will say, yes, there was a Jesus. Most Americans to this day continue to say, well, yes, I believe there was a Jesus. How do you know there was a Jesus? Well, we celebrate his birthday and then they have Easter still and that's pretty much as far as they go. So believing in Jesus is not simply saying in your mind that there was one called Jesus. The Bible makes it very clear. It speaks about embracing him by faith and when you believe in him, you're actually transformed. It's like what it says in John 647 where Jesus said, most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. In 1 John 5, 11 through 13, it says, this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son. He who has the son has life. He who does not have the son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the son of God. So when you speak about the ones who believe in me, he's saying those who are spiritually united with me, those who have been born again. And so in that reference, he goes on in verse six to say whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for them to have a millstone tied around their neck and dropped in the deepest part of the Sea of Galilee. Now, when he says causes one of these little ones to sin, who offends one of these little ones, the Greek word is skandalizo, and the word skandalizo speaks of to cause, to stumble or to fall. It is used in reference to entice someone to sin, to cause someone to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey. It speaks about causing someone to fall away. I go to college, it's in the 70s, continues to this day and probably even more than then, though I had this happen in several classes, I didn't always go to Bible college, Christian college, I went to secular college. At Cal State Fullerton, I had a professor of cultural anthropology who was vehemently against Christianity, vehemently. I had a history professor that vehemently was opposed to Christians. When I went to Cal Poly Pomona, I had a social psychology professor on the very first day of class asked this question. He said, how many of you are born again Christians? There was a class of about 30 of us. A handful of us raised our hands. Very first day of class raised our hands. I feel sorry for you. You believe in this little black book called the Bible and you let that book guide your life. He says, I trust in science and I trust in studies. That's where I find my hope and peace in. You find it in your superstition, I find it in science. That was my introduction to the class. That was our first class. Later during the class, several weeks into the class, he stood up and said this, I'll never forget it. He stood up and said, there are various studies that I cling to as a smoker that demonstrate that cancer and smoking, lung cancer and smoking are not connected. He said, you can smoke and not get lung cancer. And I have studies to prove that. That was part of one of his lectures. He died of lung cancer. What's the fact? He died of lung cancer. He felt sorry for me because I trusted in God. He trusted in science. And so I expect, I expect the world to scandalize. I expect the world whenever you turn your TV on or you go to a movie or you turn on secular radio or you see a magazine, you watch Newt's, whenever I expect the world to have a certain perspective. I don't expect them to have a bunch of evangelical preachers sharing the gospel. I expect the world to say, this is what we believe. You guys believe in no one is art. You guys are really backwards types. You guys are intellectual hillbillies. I expect that. And so Jesus is making it clear. You know, offenses will come. A woe into that person that brings those offenses. One of the things that we as Christians though, we need to really take to heart in this warning is we need as believers to understand that we can also stumble a brother or sister with sometimes our opinions or our perceived liberties. We need to be aware of that because sometimes people who are genuine believers take the liberties that they believe they have in Christ and use them in such a way as to cause others to stumble. We need to remember the tremendous influence that we have on one another. We need to understand that though I may have liberties in Christ for a variety of things, that the love of Christ within my heart ought to motivate my behavior towards other people. And thus I should not put any stumbling in front of any of you or my family or my friends or my neighbors because I don't want to scandalize you. I don't want to offend you. I don't want to stumble you. Now there are a lot of people today that I encounter and I've encountered them quite often who say, well, you know what, if they're bothered by it, that's their problem. Who cares? That's their problem. They have to grow up. That's their problem if they don't like it. Well, that's not love. What that is is that selfish. You're not thinking about other people. So Jesus is teaching us that in the world, there will always be offenses. But he says it's especially something I'm concerned about when people stumble one of these little ones who believe in me as a matter of fact he says it would be better if a 500 pound stone were tied to their neck and they were dropped in the middle of the sea. Now when he says that, he's speaking of the Sea of Galilee, he would be referencing something that had happened when the Romans had actually taken some of the Jews who had rebelled against Roman authority and had actually dropped them in the sea and killed them. So Jesus would be referencing something that these people were familiar with and he would say it would be better for them to be to perish in such a way. And so offenses he says in verse seven will come but you have to be aware that that's what happens in the world's system. It's inevitable that enticements to sin will come but woe to those who encourage believers to sin. You see ultimately each individual will give a personal account before God at judgment. Now when he speaks in verse eight if your hand or foot causes you to sin cut it off cast it from you. It's better for you to enter into life lame or maim than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out cast it from you. It's better for you to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire. Obviously what he's doing is giving us a picture that is not to be taken literally or ours. I'd be standing up here with one foot, one hand and one eye. None of you would of course all of you would be in perfect health but me I'd be the one eye preacher, one hand preacher. So he's obviously giving us a picture and what would he be speaking of here? He's not saying self-mutilation because self-mutilation doesn't lead us closer to the Lord because it doesn't cleanse the heart. What he's speaking of is what you do, where you go and what you watch. He's saying you are personally responsible for all of these actions and all of these activities. What am I supposed to do? He's saying, well, dedicate yourself entirely to serving the Lord. What you do, where you go, what you watch, those things are to be dedicated to him. Sometimes you might think if you've been in the search for a while that Pastor David has a legalistic bent to him. You can think that. But let me give you one quick illustration and then move on. Some of you have heard this and maybe you've heard it more than once. Forgive me for repeating myself to you but others haven't heard it and I was just speaking with the brother about this just yesterday. So let me share this with you. Again, I mentioned to you a moment ago that there are liberties that you may perceive yourself to have that no one's gonna argue with you about. I grew up as a non-believer obviously as we all did and I began to abuse alcohol at an early age. Became a confirmed drinker and probably would have been classified alcoholic by the time I was 18 and was not one of these guys could drink a beer. I drank a six pack. If I wasn't a guy who drank a glass of wine, I drank a half gallon. I didn't drink a shot of whiskey. I drank a pint and that's how I would start my Fridays and my Saturdays. That's how I started. That's not including the dope that I smoked or dropped. So I was pretty into that lifestyle and it was killing me. It was killing me. Rested three times for drinking related offenses. It was killing me. Sent to a psychologist after my third arrest. My dad said there's something wrong with you. We've gotta find help for you. Alcohol related offense and burglarizing a jewelry store smashed my car into a light in the center island. I drank to excess waking up in places I didn't even know how I got there in the back seat of my car with vomit all over me. I was bad. I was a drinker that drank to excess and then I get saved. Then I get saved. And I didn't drink like I did it before. Once in a blue moon I'd have a beer and I'd say, ah, but I didn't do that anymore and went in the military, got out. I had a friend of mine that I started hanging around with and he had been raised in the church and I was going to his church at that time. I was 23 or 24 years old. And no longer was I addicted to drinking and my sin had been overcome by the blood of Christ and I was free, but he'd grown up in the church and I was only two and a half years old, three years old in the Lord. And he started telling me things like, you know Dave, he said, there's nothing wrong with having a beer. There's nothing wrong with drinking once in a while. Now I looked at this guy and I thought, well, he's been a Christian a lot longer than me. Maybe I have freedom in Christ. So I drank a beer. Not every day, once, twice. He and I go some place together and as we're in Huntington Beach, sitting in a pizza parlor. He says to me, you know what goes good with pizza? And I say, what? He says, beer. And I said, yeah, probably. He orders a pitcher, pours the glass, pours his own glass. I'm sitting there, a piece of pizza, a beer. I'm not gonna get drunk. I'm not gonna get drunk. I sip the beer. When I sip the beer directly across from me on another table, but looking straight at me as an older gentleman, frail. I still remember very white hair, frail gentleman, directly in front of me. He couldn't have been 12 feet, 10 feet away from me. He was the table next to us. And I'm looking right at him as I drink my beer and he's looking in my direction. I put it down. The Spirit of the Lord speaks to my heart and says, go tell him I love him. And I say to the Lord, I can't. And he says, why? This is true. You can say this old man's making up a story. It's true. The Spirit is speaking to my heart in a very direct way. Go and tell him I love him. Tell him about me. I can't. Why? He saw me drink this beer. He'll think I'm a hypocrite. As God is my witness, two people, two young men come walking off the street, walking to this pizza parlor. One man sits on his right side. The other one sits on his left. And I see this guy pull out a Bible, open it up and start sharing the gospel with this old man. And the Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart and said, if I cannot use you, I will use somebody else. I have never forgotten that. I, forgive me, it's real. I wanna be used by the Lord. And alcohol will not enable that to take place. I don't care if you claim you have freedom. It's deeper. It is deeper than that. It is a soul. Your freedoms cannot be used in such a way that you cannot be used by God. I will put aside those things. Like Paul said, I'll put those things aside so I can be used by Jesus Christ. That's the key. That's not legalism. That's love. That's love for God. And that's love for people. Don't use your freedoms as an excuse to continue the flesh. And Jesus said, do not stumble, this little one who believes in me. In Colossians 3.17, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So when he's speaking, he's saying, deal with sin ruthlessly because it has eternal consequences. The eternal consequences are spoken of in verse eight. It's referred to as everlasting fire. And verse nine, hellfire. Hellfire is Vienna. It speaks of hell. And the Bible makes it very clear that hell was not created for man. It was actually created for the angels who rebelled. Matthew 25.41 says, he will also say to those on the left hand, depart from me. You curse it into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. It's a place of torment for those who reject God. According to Psalm 9.17, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. He says in verse eight that it is everlasting fire. It's a fire that will never be extinguished as the picture he's given to us. It's a punishment that lasts forever. And therefore he says, this is what takes place. You don't want that in your future. He said, it's more important for you to follow me. Moving into verse 10, take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones. I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. So when he says, do not despise that word despise. Don't look down your nose at. Don't consider them to be inferior. As a matter of fact, you're to love one another, not to think yourself to be better than you actually really are. You should treat one another with love because God intensely protects you. God loves you. When it speaks of the angels always seeing the face of my Father who is in heaven, we need to remember, according to Hebrews 1.14, that the angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation. He's saying angels are constantly on the alert, ready to minister to God's children when they're in need. And then finally, verses 11 through 14.4, the son of man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the 99 and go to the mountains to seek the one that is trained? If we should find it assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the 99 that didn't go astray. Even so, it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. God loved these people enough to send his son from heaven to die for them. And therefore they should not be treated poorly. Jesus said, I have come to save them. In Matthew 9.13, learn what this means. I desire mercy and sacrifice. I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. John 3.17, God sent not a son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He says, I sent my son, I came, Jesus saying to seek and to save those who are lost. It's not the will, he says in verse 14, of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones who are trusting in him should perish, to be brought to loss. God doesn't desire them to be brought to spiritual stumbling, he wants them to grow. It's not God's will for them to be not cared for, but to be cared for. God wants them to grow, and therefore he says, don't stumble them. You wanna be great in the kingdom of heaven. Use Jesus as your model. You wanna be great in the kingdom of heaven? Don't stumble a brother or sister. You wanna be great in the kingdom of heaven? Step away from the things that are distracting you and taking you away from God. You wanna be great in the kingdom of heaven? Become the servant, the serpent of all.