Scott Brown's sermon, 'The Greatness of Being a Little One,' emphasizes the importance of childlike humility as a hallmark of true conversion and greatness in the kingdom of heaven. He draws from Jesus' teachings that those who wish to enter the kingdom must humble themselves like children. The sermon also highlights the dangers of causing others to sin and the responsibility believers have to avoid being a stumbling block to others. Brown contrasts the nurturing nature of Jesus with the destructive tendencies of the devil, particularly in relation to children. The sermon urges believers to be vigilant about their own pride and to care deeply for fellow believers, especially those who have gone astray. Using the parable of the lost sheep, Brown illustrates God's relentless pursuit of the lost and the importance of community in rescuing and restoring them. Ultimately, humility is portrayed as vital for spiritual growth and maintaining healthy, supportive relationships within the church community.

Come to Jesus saying Who then is greater in the kingdom of heaven and Jesus called it a little child to him said him in the midst of them and Say I surely I say to you unless you are come better and Become as a little children. They will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as a little child is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives a little child like this in my name receives me but whoever causes one of those little ones who believes in me to sin it will be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drawn into the depth of the sea. Woe to the war because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to the man by whom the offenses come.

And if you hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It's better for you enter into life lame or lame, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if you eye causes you to see, look it out and cast it from you. It's better for you enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be causing to the hell fire. They hear that you do not despite one of these little ones, but I say to you that in the heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in the heaven.

For the Son of Man has come to save the 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 ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is destroying? And if he should find it, as surely I say to you, he rejoices more over that the sheep than over the 99 that he not go straight. Even so is not the will of your father who is in the heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Our Father, our God, we pray today to open our eyes to see, open our ears to hear. You know who we are. You know what we need. We know more than the apostles, we know more than anyone. We need your grace, we need your power, For understanding your world.

I pray today. Put your Holy Spirit upon Scott Brown. To speak to us. The fear in our hearts. We need to learn from you.

We need to take the work you work very serious every day. We cannot play every day. God put fear in our hearts. Please let us understand your world and practice every day. We love you And we bless your name.

In Jesus' name, Amen. God is such a good shepherd that He would be kind enough to His people that He would bring them His Word at the right time for the right situation. I was amazed last week that on what is normally tax day, April 15th, we were in a section of Scripture on Jesus' opinion of paying taxes to ungodly receivers of those taxes. And here in our passage today, We have something that seems to me to be right for us right at the right time. And that is a passage of Scripture that focuses on the humility of a little child, which is really the heart of everything that Jesus says.

He hangs everything that he's saying on this whole matter of the humility of a little child. This passage has much to do with humility. And so in this text, Jesus is using children as an illustration to teach His disciples about their lives in the Kingdom and particularly their relationships with people in that Kingdom. And I've broken this text down into three sections in the first five verses, the greatness of childlike humility and a conversion that must happen to that humility. And then Secondly, the dangers of causing others to sin in verses 6 through 9.

And then thirdly, looking down upon fellow Christians. So that's the basic outline here. I was astonished this week when I was on an airplane, our elders had gone on a ministry trip up to the northeast to do an elder examination. And on the way back, God's providence had it that I would sit next to a woman on that plane. She was traveling back to Raleigh.

I introduced myself and after a few back and forths I asked her what she did and then she asked me what I did and then she asked me what denomination I was a part of and after I explained that I asked her about hers and then about her thoughts of God, of Jesus Christ, and eternity. And she said that she no longer went to church anymore, and she proceeded to tell me three things. First of all she told me that she the church the churches that she went to she she ended up believing that the leaders only really cared about promoting themselves above other people and so she she never went to church any really anymore and secondly she told me that when she was a little girl, the pastor of her church, a Presbyterian church, sexually abused her and many girls in the church and nothing was ever done to him. And he's still in that church with his picture up on the wall. And thirdly, she told me that she was astray in the sense that she no longer believed in God's help, but she believed in herself.

And I could not believe it when she told me that because she actually she gave me the very outline of this passage of scripture the pride that rises up and and men to exalt themselves to abandon all wisdom and childlike faith and then to cause others to stumble, as this man had caused many to stumble, and then what you do with those who are lost. And I told her I was preaching on this text, and so I pulled out my phone and I read to her this passage of Scripture and I told her that I was very sorry for the things that had happened to her and that it occurred to me that everything she said was in this, that Jesus Christ, her Maker, spoke about. And it was really a remarkable moment. But that's exactly what is here, the desire for greatness, the causing of others to sin, the seeking and saving of the lost. And then we'll deal with next week, the putting out of the church of those who continue in sinful patterns toward one another.

And so the context here in verse 1 is stated at that time. Now there's an immediacy here in the language. So right after the last scene of the Lord Jesus in a house teaching His disciples about paying the temple taxes, Immediately after that, of course, Mark tells us they were on the way and they were having an argument about who was the greatest. And so in the immediacy of these scenes here, this scene occurs. And so it's connected intimately to the previous section.

Now where are we in the ministry of the Lord Jesus? Jesus is six months before he will hang on the cross. And during this time in his ministry, he's narrowly focusing his instruction to his disciples. As we've seen, his ministry has been to the crowds. But now during this season, between now and the time that he'll hang on the cross, he has such a high focus on his own disciples.

And there's so much to teach them. He has six months left. He's going to teach them very personally and very, very carefully. Mark tells us that this happens in Capernaum, and this is the last time we'll see Jesus Christ in Capernaum. Capernaum has been the place of so many of the wonderful scenes in the life of Jesus.

This is the place where Peter and Andrew were called. This is the place that Matthew the tax collector was actually sitting in his tax office and Jesus comes and says, come and follow me. This is the place where Peter's mother-in-law was healed. This was the place where these four friends, so full of faith, took their friend on a pallet who was paralyzed. They couldn't get into the house, and so they saw, They cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down.

And Jesus says, your faith, your friends, have made you well. And so here, in this scene, Jesus is in the house again. Most likely it's Simon Peter's house. It's been a place of really significant ministry, beautiful things happening. It's hard for me to read through the gospel narratives and not notice the beautiful things that happen in households and how God has designed a home to be a picture of a heavenly home.

And He in the house has work to do in that house. And so He's doing that there in this house, the house that really has been his home base during his ministry as he's gone from there and come back many times. Most likely it's Simon Peter's house. So now he's going to teach his disciples on some really critical matters that really relate to the things that they are struggling with. Now, they are struggling with who is the greatest, and Jesus is going to meet them just at that moment.

And, you know, whenever you get people, you know, who have strong opinions, you know, it seems that people want to think that they're the greatest, that their opinion is the greatest, that their knowledge is the greatest, that their theology is the greatest, that they are the greatest, and they are there now to dominate the world with their greatness. Now, the disciples were actually struggling with this. And so when they came in, Jesus knew exactly what they were talking about, and he said, what were you talking about? He knew what they were talking about. Just like he knows what we're thinking about and how we view ourselves and whether this this poison of the desire to be great in the wrong way has gripped our hearts.

And so here the Lord is dealing with normal problems in relationships, normal problems in church life, and you know a common life creates problems. You know, we get to know one another and we think that, you know, we might deserve more attention from this person than we are And we get bitten by the greatness bug. We get infected by the why am I not seen as important bug? And that's the bug that's bitten here, the disciples. Now, in this chapter, I think you have to see it as a unit.

It's one unit. There are two questions. There's a question in verse 1 and there's a question in verse 21. We're breaking it up this way. Just understand that there is a question and then answers and there's another question and answers.

But the whole thing has to do with really one thing. How do you express childlike humility in a redemptive community? Even when someone sins against you, what do you do when someone does that to you? And we'll deal with that later on. And so the disciples have already heard much about the kingdom of heaven and now they're going to have their horizons broadened again to understand what the rulership of God includes.

They've heard about, You know, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man. It's like a dragnet. The Kingdom of Heaven is like about a lot of things. But here now, the Kingdom of Heaven is illustrated in the imagery of a child, amazingly. And so this whole section is about childlikeness and the reality that we enter the kingdom of heaven with childlike faith and then We continue our lives that way because it really can never cease.

And so this illustration is an illustration of love and care of the Father toward His children. Now this first section, the greatness of childlike humility, begins with Jesus saying, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And then Jesus calls a little child to him and sets him in the midst of them. So the subject is greatness in the kingdom of heaven. So there's this discussion that's going on.

Greatness is the word magos. And later on you'll hear the word little child, Micros. The Megos and the Micros, that's what's in play here. And The disciples had just lost a sense of their childlike humility, and Jesus Christ is going to meet them at their need. Now I don't know if anyone is in a particular need this morning of Childlike humility.

I don't know if anyone's heart has been raised up against his brother in pride. I don't know if there's ever a time that God's children did not need more humility. I know that's true of my life. I don't think there's ever been a single second in my life where I could not use more humility and be more aware of the greatness of God in my own littleness. I don't think there's ever been a time like that.

So I'm in great need of this text here this morning and the message that it contains. And so there's this argument over greatness and there's this desire to be great that everybody has. It's a universal longing. And that longing, that longing is marred by the flesh. And the sin and the flesh and the devil rise up to pervert our desire for greatness.

There is a greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven, that's right. The Lord Jesus Christ is not saying that you should not be great. But he's saying that greatness can be perverted. And here in the disciples, their longing for greatness has been perverted. In another place, we read, if you want to be great in God's kingdom, learn to be the servant of all.

So greatness is not really a problem. The perversion of greatness is the problem. And there is the perversion of longing for greatness. Greatness for yourself. Greatness such that you are known.

Greatness so that everything that you do works and everybody thinks that you are great because everything that you do works That's the perverted form of greatness That Jesus is speaking about here. There's there's the kind of greatness that's perverted to be above others, to always have to win, to always be smarter, better, more holy, more together. That's the kind of greatness that just wants to be above others, that always looks down on others, that thinks that the other person that they're talking to is somehow less than they are spiritually, mentally, physically, something. It doesn't really matter. But this is the perversion of greatness that looks at another Christian and thinks lightly of them.

And we'll get to that in the last section here, where the Lord Jesus deals with this in a different way. But the Lord Jesus here, He's showing a very different way to greatness. And then Jesus responds to this argument that they're in. He calls a little child. It's amazing.

He brings this little child right into the middle of them. A child, you know, somewhere older than weaning and younger than puberty. So it was a little child, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years old. We don't know exactly. But imagine the Lord Jesus brings this child and in the midst of them, Mark says that he embraces the child.

He actually hugs the child. It's the word for hugging. So if you can picture what's happening, there's this, you know, six-year-old child, and the Lord Jesus takes the child in His arms and hugs the child. I know some of you are holding your children right now. That's exactly what He was doing, I'm sure.

He embraced the child in such a tender moment there. And it just reminds us of the frequency of the presence of children in the ministry of Jesus. You see it in 1421, 1538, here in 183, and you see it again in 1913. But Jesus is around children, and it seems like children like to be around Jesus. They're not running from Him.

He is actually able to embrace them. He's not causing this terrifying fear in children. They seem to like Him. And so he's using this child as a visible illustration. Think of all the illustrations that Jesus has used.

Trees and mountains and light and fish, all kinds of things. Now here there's a little child that he's using to illustrate this whole thing. And he's not, of course, obviously, he's not comparing a right kind of humility with a child's impatience or a child's flightiness or the way that amazingly children in a almost a nanosecond can be crying and then in a moment later be laughing. He's not talking about the characteristics of children that might be related to sin or by virtue of just their own stage in life. He's not talking about that at all.

He's talking about a child's humility. And he's saying that this is, this kind of humility, this classification of humility is the essence of conversion. So he's taking this humble nature of a child and he's illustrating true conversion with it. And so as Jesus uses this imagery of a child, recognize this though, he's not just talking about children here, it's obvious, because he's using a child to be an example to adults. So he's talking about children, yes he is, in each one of these sections he speaks explicitly of children, but at the same time he's using this illustration to include adults as well.

So you have to think on both levels as Jesus is instructing his disciples here. And so he says, you must be converted and become as little children, and if you do not, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." So this does have to do with conversion, and conversion expresses itself in childlike humility. When a person is converted, their whole disposition changes. They have a new heart, they have been born again, they have a new life. And it's reflected in so many places in Scripture.

In Psalm 131 we read, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother. Like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever." And that Psalm is a disclosure of the converting humility that every child of God has.

And the opposite, of course, is pride and indignation, as the disciples had this indignation with one another. They were upset with one another, they were jockeying. Each one wanted to be greater, better, and the other one actually lower, not quite as worthy. Lower, not quite as worthy. You know, pride is the first sin that we see in the garden.

John Stott said that pride is more than the first of the seven deadly sins, it is the essence of all sin. Because it's the desire to be who you are, think what you want, and do what you want. That's what pride is. And then it diminishes what everyone else thinks and wants and does. And so It was self-interest, it was self-indulgence, it was self-sufficiency that had gripped the hearts of the disciples.

Has that happened to any of us here? And do we need the words of the Lord Jesus to teach us about humility? And remind us that you cannot even get into the kingdom of heaven unless you become humble like a little child. You know, prior to our conversion, we're absolute prisoners of our pride. It just runs without any impedance at all.

We actually congratulate our pride. We feed it. We bless it. We baptize it. We take the things that arise from pride and we call them good.

And we are like those in Isaiah who say, you know, woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. The unconverted heart can't even really detect the way that pride is operating on him. So without Christ, pride just runs free. But then when a person is converted and they are humbled like a child, then there's a long process of dealing with pride.

Because it's so fundamental to our character and our nature. It's the root of our sin. And so it's so pervasive. And our lives before Christ are characterized by identifying pride. If you want to know how pride is working in your life, just ask your wife.

She probably can tell you how pride is manifesting itself in your life. You can ask your brother, you can ask your sister, how do you see pride working in my life? How is it that childlike humility is gone in me? Because while pride runs raging rampant unimpeded in the unconverted heart, the Lord Jesus Christ is so kind to begin to lance the wound and to relieve the poison of pride progressively in our lives. And it's such a blessing because we become like that person who is stilled and quieted in his soul, and his heart is not lifted up.

And the problem is that pride is so pernicious, which is why in Proverbs 16, 5, Solomon says, every proud heart, everyone proud in heart, is an abomination to the Lord. Though they join forces, none will go unpunished. Isaiah 66, 2, the prophet says, This is the one whom I will look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. Now, this is a conversion that happens from pride to childlike humility. And here's just a difficult reality.

You can change your theological positions and not become like a little child. You can change on many of your positions and take a Christian position and not have the childlike humility that Jesus is talking about. You can change everything about your life. You can change your dress and the way you educate. You can clean up almost everything outwardly in your life.

You can even change your religion. But if you've not humbled your heart before God and said, oh Lord, not my will, but thine be done, then you have to ask whether you've been truly converted. Now, We know with certainty that pride does continue. And so the presence of pride doesn't equal lack of conversion. But what Jesus is saying is that conversion includes the humility of a child.

And whenever you see a person who contradicts these things, you should just pray for them and maybe speak to them about it. But humility is such a balm for the soul, and it's such a beautiful promoter of life. Let me give you six ways that it is. First of all, in James 4.10 we learn that humility actually turns around and it exalts. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.

Secondly, It causes an outpouring of grace from God. In 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 5, Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time casting all your care casting all your care upon him for he cares for you. Number three, it touches off rescue in Psalm 18 verse 27 where we read, For you will save the humble people, you will bring down haughty looks. Number four brings joy.

Isaiah 29, 19. The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Number five, beauty. Psalm 149 verse 4, he will beautify the humble with salvation. And number six, the presence of God.

Psalm 34, 17. The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit." You think back on the mercy that is released at a humble and a contrite heart even when such terrible and grievous sins are committed. When that occurred in King David's life, in Psalm 51, we have a disclosure of the sin. It's publicly displayed for all eternity, for all believers to know about his sin.

And in that psalm, it's all disclosed, and he says, Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, my mouth shall show forth your praise. You do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offering." And then he says, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise." So humility is such a balm, it's such a sweetness, it's such a help to the soul.

Which is one reason why it's just so tragic to not have a converted heart, Because it just runs rough shot over you and makes you into such a big shot before yourself alone. And it broke my heart to sit with that woman on that airplane and have her tell me that she really only could trust in herself now. And then she told me about all her accomplishments in nursing and papers that she wrote and, you know, conventions that she, you know, puts on and things like that. That was her only hope, was to praise herself for what she had done in nursing. That was all she had.

And she recognized that was all she had, not anything else. And then the Lord says in verse 5, whoever receives one little child like that, this in my name receives me. So He's telling the disciples that you have to receive those who believe, rather than look down on them. Like I said, we'll get to that later, because He speaks of that. These relational problems that happen among God's people are so common.

The ones that we have here are not new. The disciples had them together. There were those who wanted to be great. There was insolence. There was hurt feelings.

There was pride that was wounded. And they just couldn't agree to disagree. They could not have that humility. So the Lord is reminding them that they need to identify this poison in their souls, because it's still running in their souls. Now, I believe the disciples were converted, and they were still proud.

They were still struggling with their pride. That should not surprise us when other people struggle with their pride. And then in the second section here, After he speaks of the greatness of childlike humility and the true impact of it, that it's actually a converting kind of humility. He speaks of the dangers of sinning and causing others to sin in verses 6 through 9, where he says, but whoever causes one of these little ones who 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. Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come.

But woe to that man by whom the offense comes." There's so many issues that we could dial into this, dial in on this, But one of the things that really strikes me here, right at the beginning of this section, is the dramatic, stark comparison between the way that Jesus Christ treats children and the way the devil treats children. Remember in Matthew chapter 17, we saw how the devil treats children. He throws them down. He makes them foam at the mouth. He throws them into a fire.

He throws them into water so that he might kill them. Here you have the devil and the Lord Jesus and children. And as you see the contrasting disposition toward them, you see the Kingdom of Heaven. But here, this is about those who cause others to sin, things that believers do in influencing other believers. This is really important.

Now, I think we have to think about this on a lot of different levels. I want we as parents to really think about this, about how we cause our children to sin. I want husbands to consider how they cause their wives to sin because usually when a wife sins, not all the time, but Usually you can tie it. There's a first cause. Wives, how are you causing your husbands to sin?

Brothers and sisters, you who are in families, Do you cause your sister to sin? Do you cause your brother to sin? Or the brothers and sisters in the church, are the brothers in the church causing other brothers in the church to sin? Or the sisters, the adult women, are they causing one another to sin by their conversation, by their priorities, by their examples that they set, by the way they live, by the way they think, by the whole way of life? Are we causing one another to sin?

We should just stop ourselves up and ask, are we doing that? I have to ask, am I causing anyone to sin by my public instruction? These are very serious matters. These are very serious matters. So this ought to be a time of soul searching for ourselves about these things.

Now you might say, well, why do you have to bring up such a heavy subject at a time like this? Jesus and children, isn't this just such a cheery moment? Well, the Lord Jesus is instructing His disciples that there's this potential problem among them that they would cause others to sin. And he's speaking of the great dangers of it. And he gives this dramatic illustration.

He's using a millstone to explain how terrible this is when it's in play in relationships. He uses a millstone. He's talking about a large millstone. It was a donkey drawn millstone. In other words, it needed significant donkey power to pull it, to spin it.

Millstones of this kind are large. You've seen them before. And they're this thick and this big around. And they weigh hundreds of pounds. And there's a bottom millstone and a top millstone.

And the top millstone has a hole in it. And that top millstone is turning. And you pour the grain in there, and then It is dispersed out through the flutes that are cut in the millstone and moves outward. And as the millstone turns like that, but there's that hole. And Jesus is saying that if you're going to cause your brother to sin, you might as well just stick your head in that hole and be thrown into the sea.

It's an absolutely astonishing illustration. And if you've ever seen a millstone like that and think about it being around your neck, I mean you can never even stand up with one. And it would take you to the bottom in a heartbeat. It's so vanquishing. It's such a terrifying image, really, if you can think about it.

I don't know if you've ever had any bad dreams about going to the bottom of the sea or anything like that. But this would be a really, really bad nightmare. Sometimes I have dreams of I'm on the edge of a cliff and it's thousands and hundreds of thousands of feet down and somebody bumps me and I fall over. And my dream is falling down. And I always wake up before I hit.

This is really nice. But This is a really bad dream to be able to consider that you have a millstone hung around your neck and you're thrown to the bottom. See, we need to somehow viscerally, emotionally connect to this because Jesus Christ is trying to teach us something here in this church. And it really brings about just the very critical responsibility that parents have in shepherding their children to root out sin in their own lives as they're dealing with sin and their children. To have the humility of a child while they're disciplining their children.

To clean the leaven out of your house. The Lord has brought our church through a season where we're considering leaven like never before, and what do you do with it? What are the processes and procedures and relationships? What do you do to get leaven, to deal with leaven in the church. And thankfully, God has given us very specific ways to deal with leaven.

He's not left us on our own at all. And He's given us wonderful counsel for how to do that. But the beginning of the cleaning out of the leaven is in our own hearts and in our own homes. When we come to the Lord's Supper here in just a few minutes, this is a process of unleavening, of getting the leaven out of our hearts. And God has given us many different ways to deal with the leaven that's in our hearts.

It also speaks of the great responsibility that people in a church have to one another. It really matters how you live. I think it matters to you what I meditate on. I think it matters to my wife what I read. I think it matters to my children what I watch.

Because all those things form how I think and who I am. It matters. All these things matter because you have a greater responsibility than just for yourself. Well, you do have a responsibility for yourself, and Jesus talks about that. And If you have sin, then it's better to pluck out your eye or cut off your hand than to enter into hell, fully complete with your body.

He says offenses will come. This means that this will happen in the church. We should not be surprised when offenses come. We should not be overly disturbed when one person causes another person to sin. Jesus is promising that this will happen.

This is not the reason to leave a church. This is a reason to be in a church, because this is the real church where people sin and they cause one another to sin. If you want to find a church where that doesn't happen, I don't know where you're going to go. Even if you're in an internet church, you still have you and whoever you're in the room with. So you can never escape this.

So offenses will come. And there are many things that, through which these offenses come. And Jesus mentions two ways in verse 7. The world and a man. Those are the two ways.

So These are tied to two woes. Woe to the world. So there are things in business, there are activities, there are things going on in the world that cause God's children to sin. And that will always be that way. And a child of God always has to look out there into that great broad world with all these amazing things in it, and they have to ask, what of these Things will cause me to stumble.

A real Christian has to ask that question while they are free in Christ. There are so many things that can cause people to sin. And so we have to ask, what is it in the world that is causing me and my family and my church to sin? And then the second woe is a woe for the man. Woe to that man by whom the offense comes.

Woe to that man by whom the offense comes. Now, how before God can we rightly understand these things? In our own hearts, each one of us individually? How are we that man that He's speaking about? You have to remember who Jesus is.

He's talking to his beloved disciples, whom he will take to heaven with the exception of one. And so he's speaking as a tender-hearted shepherd to ask them to consider how they are causing others to stumble. Now I know we could all make all kinds of lists for how we can cause those around us to stumble. I'm going to give you a few for the home. You can neglect to read the Bible to your children.

You can neglect to saturate the thinking of your little kingdom with the Word of God, and you will cause your children to stumble. You can neglect to walk with them and be so self-absorbed and worried about everything that you're doing that you don't walk with them. Isn't life busy for everyone? You can neglect to talk to them. You can despise your spouse in your heart and before them.

You can neglect to discipline your children and you'll cause them to stumble. There are so many ways in home life this works. Now, we could ask this same question and make various kinds of lists of how that happens in a local church, in a gathered body, how it happens between friends. There are just so many ways that we need to consider this. And then he says, if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you.

Now, Again, this is another really extreme example. He's speaking in hyperbole here. He's not calling his disciples to chop off their hands, but here's what he's asking them to consider, how much they love themselves. They love their bodies so much that they actually could possibly fall into this trap of going into heaven, or facing God with a whole body and be cast into hell. And what Jesus is saying here is that the spiritual matters are more important than physical matters.

Your body is not nearly important as your spirit. And yet, you know, in our pride, in our lack of humility, we're always tending to our bodies and neglecting our souls. That can happen in a lot of different ways. But you know, when you're afraid to be martyred that somehow your body will be cut up or harmed. Or when you're just obsessed with your body and because of it you neglect spiritual matters.

There's like a whole range, I think, in the continuum that Jesus is speaking of here. But He's using this really extreme example to point to how devastating sin is in adults for their children. Because remember, He is talking about children. He is talking about the two, three, four, five-year-olds causing them to stumble. He is talking about children, but He's not just talking about children.

He's talking about all people of all ages and the seriousness of it. He identifies three ways that you sin. With your hand in verse 8, the things that you do with your hands, the way that you spend your time, and then your foot, the places that you go, and your eye, the things that you look at. Those three things have the potential to be engaged in sin. Those members of your body, which are really illustrative.

They are typological for other things. And So the Lord comes with very remarkable clarity about the seriousness of sin. And of course, the specific sin that He's talking about is what? Pride. A lack of humility.

And the Lord Jesus is saying that humility is really, really a big thing. And then the Lord, in verse 10, says, take heed. And he continues to talk about the little ones, which are little and they're also big. And he says, take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones. So there's a way in your life, you can just live your life any way you want.

There's a way to live your life that actually it works out that you're despising others. And it might be your little children and it might be your brother, your sister. So you can actually despise your brother by just running in sin. It's one way you can despise them. You take them lightly.

You don't care about them. You care about yourself. That's the whole thing that he's talking about here. The root of the problem is despising these little ones. So he's identifying what the heart of the matter is.

Despising someone else and exalting yourself. That's the whole problem. It's interesting, all the disciples were doing was arguing about who's the greatest. And now the Lord Jesus is penetrating down to every possible sin that's in their hearts. That's related to this thing called pride.

And so how we treat one another is important. And do we despise one another? The word that the Lord Jesus used has to do with looking down on someone like thinking less of them. Thinking that you are better than them, smarter than them, more spiritual than them, whatever. Thinking that you are really above them.

Does that ever happen to you? Where up is really your big goal. Not love, not truth. But maintaining your position. So the disciples were being confronted about not valuing one another rightly.

This happens in different ways in church life. James spoke about it in chapter 2, my brethren do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with partiality For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes. And you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, You sit here in a good place and you say to the poor man, you stand there or sit here at my footstool. Have you not shown partiality among yourselves? So we can think that there are people that are better because they're richer.

Maybe they have, maybe because of various disciplines, they've been able to achieve different things under the providence of God. Somehow, they might think more highly of themselves or someone might look at them more highly than they ought to. This is why Paul said, be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion." And then the Lord gives another illustration, another dramatic illustration of 1 and 99, to illustrate his point again of the seriousness of this.

He says, for 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 and seek the one who is straying? You have to ask, who is the man? I think the man is God.

He sees one of his sheep who has gone astray, who has fallen into a trap of pride or something like that. Does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains and seek the one that is straying, and if he should find it, assuredly I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so, it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." So now the children are compared with lost, and Jesus is teaching his disciples that he's a good shepherd, that he goes after the lost sheep. And again, you know, why would you not go after the lost sheep? Most likely because you think you're better than that person that's lost and you're not going to take time.

You've already written them off. You've already figured out who they really are anyway. But your Father in heaven is not like that at all. He's a good shepherd. He goes after that one sheep who's lost.

And so, you know, the question and the lost are those who believe here in this passage. It's those who believe in me, those little ones who believe in me, that's who he's talking about. These are Christian people. This is not like evangelism. This is taking care of one another and loving one another in the church.

And so the question is, do you care enough about your brothers and sisters that you'll follow them to rescue them? Or are you aloof? Or do you say, well, I'm not going to talk to them because they'll respond this way, and just condemn them by your own wisdom that's perfect and understanding of exactly what's going on in their soul. As if you know somehow how someone's going to react and so you don't do anything about it because you don't really care about them. You use this excuse that says, well, they It says, well, they won't hear me anyway.

But there's nobody that's going after them or binding up their wounds or seeking them out. Do you know anybody like that? I know some people like that. Right now, I know some people like that. In In Galatians 6-1, the Apostle Paul says, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, any trespass, No matter how grievous or how small it might seem, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself." And then the Lord speaks of this amazing reality about the angels, that the angels are involved in this whole scene. And it's again such a temptation to go speak of the beauty of the ministry of angels in the world, what they do, and how they are a blessing to the children of God. But in verse 14, the Lord Jesus really sums up, I think, the whole thing where he says, even so, it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." So a father is teaching his sons, his spiritual sons, a shepherd is instructing the shepherds on how to deal with one another and with the sheep. And what He is saying to them is that if their hearts are proud and lifted up, then they will not be able to be like Him, and they will not have been converted and are like Him, and they will not care about those sheep." But He cares about those sheep, and He states it very plainly there.

It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of the least of these little ones should perish. That's His will for the straying Christian. That's what He desires for them. You see the tender-hearted mercies of Jesus Christ toward those who stumble and fallen? Do you see how he longs to have fellowship with them?

Do you see how he has placed in the world emissaries to go to them and find them like he would do as a father? And then making this promise that He will not let them stay lost. He will not let it happen because of His mercies. Now our shepherd does not weary in doing good And how easy it is for us as we face disappointments, people letting us down, various sins that have gotten ahold of different brothers and sisters. How we get more information on one another and our hearts harden.

And our eyes are lifted up and we're talking to our brother and we're condemning them because we're smarter than they are. And we're so obsessed with their sin, we have no compassion on them at all, and we let them go. But you have a Father in heaven that would teach you, as Jesus Christ taught His disciples, to love one another. Would you pray with me? Oh Father, your love is so wonderful, your mercies are so deep and so broad and so high.

We rejoice in this glorious gospel that you have given to us, that you would save sinners by your grace through faith, that not by any work of ourselves, lest any man should boast, we enter the kingdom of heaven like children, ready to listen more and more as the days pass. Let that be so here, oh Lord. Amen.