Faith Series: Childlike Faith

Faith Series: Childlike Faith

Matthew chapter 18 beginning in verse number one we read, at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them. And said, verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And then I'd like to read one other passage in Mark 10 this morning, Mark chapter 10 and verse number 13. And they brought young children to him that he should touch them, and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased and said unto them, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them and blessed them.

And we'll draw from these two portions of Scripture this morning for our message and our series on faith. And so let's mark our Bibles if you have your finger in both of them, mark them there, but at least to mark them to Mark chapter 10 this morning. Let's bow our heads and acknowledge the Lord in prayer.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that as we saw with Your Son this morning that we cannot go wrong if we have a tender heart toward and an obedience to Your Word. A tender heart of faith in an obedience toward Your Word. Help us, Lord, as we've come here today. We know our week ahead is probably filled with many things that the thoughts of which may come into our minds, but Lord, help us to put those things out of our mind for this time. May it be not only a sanctuary in the physical sense, but may it be a sanctified hour where we can just draw aside from all of our experiences of the past week and the things that are ahead of us for the coming week and just be still before You and listen to what Your Word has to say. And help us, Lord, as we listen to listen wisely and make the application to our lives. We know that even as we will depart and go our way today, we know we'll talk about probably the weather or something else going on in our world, but help us also to talk about You and to make that the preeminent thought of our hearts today as we go. What is it that You have to say to us? What is it that You want us to learn? Maybe something we have You've blessed us with this past week or even through the Word today that we may be able to share it with another, Lord, and just talk of Your faithfulness and talk of Your goodness. Now we pray that You bless us as we continue in this worship service, bless in every aspect we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Last week we observed that faith can be seen in two contexts. It can be personal faith, trust. We mentioned the idea of putting one's weight upon God, right? And the firmness of our faith depends on the object upon which our faith rests. And so we mentioned last week in the message as well that the body of teaching or doctrine that we hold to be true, that we trust is called the faith of the gospel. It is the faith that the saints are to contend earnestly for, are to hold to the faith. Paul talked about having kept the faith, but that was by personal faith in the faith of God's truth.

When we talk about faith, when we put confidence in something just like you're putting confidence in the pew that you're sitting on this morning, you believe you have reason to believe the pew is going to hold you up. You didn't even think twice about that pew holding you up. And it's solid. It's something that is true. It's not a facade. It doesn't look like it's going to hold you up and then it doesn't actually do it. So when we put our faith and our confidence in any one or anything, we are believing that this thing is true. It's genuine, right? It's not a mirage, just not an appearance of something that seems to be what it actually is not. You can say that about a product that people say, I have faith in this product. I have faith in this company. People use that term a lot. This is the real deal. This is going to do what it says it's going to do. This person is who they say they are. They're going to do what they say they're going to do.

My middle name is McCoy. I was named after the real McCoy. Actually, after my grandfather, but he had a heater. Didn't he call that the real McCoy? Anyway, you've probably heard that term too. The real McCoy. It's the real thing, right? Well, we don't want to… We don't want… I mean, he was trying to get people to believe, you know, hey, this is the real McCoy. Because people already were familiar with that term, right? This is the real deal.

Now, we mentioned those words last week. Infidel. Confides. Confidence. We had the word fiduciary or bona fide. All of those are words that we get from the Latin. The root and the Latin meaning faith. To put confidence in something. To put trust in something. Sometimes we say don't take my word for it. This is what I use, but don't take my word for it. Because when a person becomes sold on a product, we might say, then they become the best testimony or give the best testimony of themselves because they believe in that thing or that person or that place.

Now, all of that being said, what we're talking about with the faith is not a product to sell. It's not something we're marketing. It is the truth of God that has been given to us. And we must individually. The point is, we must individually have faith in the faith. The word of God. Josiah this morning, he read the whole hall. We must have faith in the whole word of God. Not just, well, I like that chapter. I like that verse. I like that part. No, the whole, the word of God is true in every part. Every, every bit of God's word is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness. That we may be through, we furnished unto all good works. We might be perfected in what the word wants to do in our lives, completed mature.

And then last Sunday night, we saw that when we received Christ's righteousness, His offer righteousness, we are believing the love that He has to us. We're believing the love that God has to us. We believe the record God has given us of His Son. We're resting in what He's accomplished for us. All of this would not even be possible. We're not for the fact that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We're no longer under condemnation if we're in Christ. We are liberated from the fear of death. We're in time past. We were held subjects in bondage to this fear of death. But Christ sets men, women, boys and girls, He sets men free from the fear of death.

When you put your confidence personally in the Lord Jesus Christ, what you're doing is you're believing the love that He has to us. He came to deliver us in love. And then we saw in Galatians chapter 5 verse 6 that in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision. But what was it there in that verse that said, a faith which worketh by love. Faith that the word energize there is the word we get energy from, right? Faith that is operating by love, by the energy of, well, where did the energy come from? We don't have the energy. God is the one that enables that faith to operate because now what are we doing? We're simply responding in faith in love to the God who loved us first. We love Him. Why? How? Because He first loved us.

And if you have a faith that doesn't operate by love, then it's not genuine faith. It's not real faith. It's not a faith God has outlined for us in His Word, a faith that's motivated by fear. Those are antonyms. They're opposite of each other. The flesh operates by fear. The flesh fears man. The flesh fears what's going to happen. We used to live in the flesh, controlled by the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye. And there is a religious flesh. But this flesh is not, cannot be motivated by the love of God. It cannot be. But instead we see that fear is the hallmark of the flesh. Fear, fear, fear. What's going to happen if? What does he think? What do they think? It's a whole world of bondage.

But love to God, a faith motivated by love and energized by love to God, is what avails, what profits, what is pleasing to God. Without faith, without this kind of faith, it is impossible to please God. It's impossible. You can try all you want, but you cannot please God without a faith that operates by love. It's impossible.

So, when we see against that backdrop here this morning, I want to speak about childlike faith. There's other things about the child we're going to see as well that are very much in the context and in the text. But in Matthew 18, as we think back on Matthew 18, the Lord was teaching His disciples some very important things using a child. When He calls the child here, look at Matthew 18. And before we even look at verse two, let's look back at verse one, and what is the context here? The disciples are saying to Jesus. They're asking the question, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Who is the greatest? Well, the child becomes an answer to the question, doesn't it? The child that is not told, whether it's a boy or a girl, it doesn't matter. So the point is it's a little child.

And to answer the question, Jesus answered a lot of questions with more questions to make people think, but sometimes he answered them with object lessons and questions. And he called a little child unto him, like me saying, Lucas, come here. Or, Lily Marie, one of these little ones. Come here. And the child came. The child came. He called the child and the child didn't say, sorry, busy, I got a big work week ahead of me. He came, the child came. And didn't say why, but the child in the coming, there was no pretense. The child just listened and the child came. And so he said, verily, I say unto you, except you be converted. There needs to be a change. In your thinking, right? There needs to be a change of heart and mind and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

But then he gets to the point here, whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, right here, wonder what you're looking at. You saw him come when I called him or her. And this little child is just sitting here waiting for me to give further instructions. Just came. Didn't need a full explanation of it. Just trustingly humbly just came. The same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And so, what is it that, what is it they were asking? They were asking who is the greatest? Isn't that a natural question? Isn't that a natural thing? We want, we covet naturally speaking apart from God. We will covet the best.

Look at children. You cut a piece of cake in half and one side is one millimeter wider than the other side. Well, who's going to naturally speak? She got a bigger piece. You know how you do what that is. You let the child cut the piece and the other one choose which one they want. Because they, well, if you cut it incorrectly then that's not on me. You get it. Well, we don't have as many problems with that anymore. But it was an issue there for a little while. But the child, the natural tendency of human beings is that, well, I got to be, and we get to thinking as sin begins to affect our minds more and more as we get older and older, I want the best. I want first place.

But the Lord says, my thoughts are not like your thoughts. My ways are not like your ways. You need to, you need to seek the lower seats at table. You need to, the first shall be last. Last shall be first. It's completely, those that humble themselves will be exalted, those that exalt themselves will be humbled in the base. All, it's different than Christ's kingdom, isn't it? Different than our natural way of thinking. The Lord did not say, I'm going to call into our midst, to teach you all this, and I'm going to call into our midst, the gladiator. I'm going to call into our midst, a Roman centurion. I'm going to call into our midst a great philosopher or athlete. No, he called into his, into their midst, a child. A little child.

The child is dependent, isn't it? The child, a child naturally trusts. I don't know what we're doing. They might ask a lot of questions, but they just say, okay, I'm coming. Okay, we'll do this. And they just take things at face value, don't they? They don't, they've not become too smart. And they're not even very good at hiding things either. They're just right out there. They're just like this humble little child. There's no pretense. There's no image to preserve. It's just, they just come when they're called in a humble fashion.

When a person truly trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ, naturally, automatically, there's a stripping of pride, isn't there? It's not about, look at me. It looks at what all I can accomplish. Now it's God, be merciful to me a sinner. God, be merciful to me. I cannot do anything to attain this salvation. And God has been merciful. And there is a, there is a humbling, help me. I'm just a little child. And that's the attitude. That's the humility of a little child. It's not the Lord. I think I'm better than everybody else is. That's not the attitude. And Lord, I think I'm not like other men are. No, God be merciful.

I heard of, I heard of a sister in Christ who grew up in a southern Baptist church. And, you know, she came to realize that there were things about that church, kind of like our Dr. Peacock senior realized and Pastor Peacock realized, you know, that there were some issues with, especially as they were dealing with a lot of liberalism at that time going on. You know, this lady and her children, they were going by this church. And they looked at how people were dressed going in the church. And they looked like they were just going to a sporting event. It was nothing different between that and the, and the church service. And they kind of said, oh, they're just not dressed very good for church or whatever. And she said, well, we ought to pray for them. We ought to pray that the Lord will just put a conviction on their heart and change them instead of just, you know, wailing on them, I guess we can say, pray for them. She said, because I was one of those people. I was one of those people that did not see the difference. And now I did. We need to pray for, we need to pray for sinners. But I'm getting off the point. The point is, with, when the Lord deals with us, we're going to be humbled. I think, well, we're going to be humbled about her own needs before Him.

And we noticed that in John, I'm Luke 7, if you'll turn it over there with me, Luke 7, verse 28. It says there, Luke 7, verse 28, for I say unto you, among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. Okay? What about him? But he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Well, you know what I'm going to say next, don't you? What does John say? John said, he must increase. I must decrease. John had a very short ministry. John had an unpretentious ministry. He did not go and study at the great university, so to speak. But the Lord used it. And the biggest key was his heart. I must decrease. He must increase. It was not about, look at the image, look at the brand that I've created for myself. No, it was about the Lord. He was simply a pointer, but he says he that is least in the kingdom is greater than he. He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

A child, I remember being a child, looking at teenagers, and I thought, wow, they're trees. Look how big they're strong. They're fast. They can do all kinds of things. I can't do. You know, they're just amazing. Look, look at dad. He's so strong. He can pick me up and put me in the airplane spin. You know, you know, how does mom and dad know all of this stuff? How do they know all of these things? There's a sense of awe in the child that I'm small. Everybody else is kind of, you know, greater than me. He's adults. It's the humility naturally that should be in a child. Not the things. Nobody can top me. I'm the best. No, that's not the natural thing of a child. Shouldn't be anyway, right? That's not the normal way that a child thinks.

The child adores. His parents are should adore them. He loves his mommy and daddy. She loves her mommy and daddy. If the child thinks the parents have something that's happened to them, they've been gone too long or daddy's been away too long or they cry. My parents, what happens? Or I lost sight of them in the store or something like that. They want to spend time with their parents. They take the things their parents say as facts. Well, that must be the truth because mom and dad said it, right? I just trust that my, they're greater than I am. That's just a child, isn't it? It's a normal and natural thing.

And it's children of God. One of the natural, the things that should be natural in the spiritual realm for us as children of God is that when God says something, we say, I believe it. That's true. And if I'm my thinking's wrong on it, I need to be corrected in my thinking on this. I want to learn what it is that God wants me to learn because he is, he is true. He is great. And I'm just a little child. There's nothing great about me. I know nothing except I know it through what God has showed me. That's all that I know.

You ever said to someone? I've said, hopefully it's not been said of you or me. You can't tell him anything. You can't tell him anything. Because he knows it all already. Well, we didn't start out like that, did we? But sometimes we can get like that if we're not careful. We're pride, we're in. You can't tell him anything. Well, a child is not that way. Come here, son. Child comes. Come here. I want to talk to you. I want to tell you something.

Well, in Mark 10, let's look over there. In Mark chapter 10, we see in Mark 10, verse 13, we read. And Mark 10, verse 13, we noticed there. And they brought young children. This is more than one. This is multiple children to him that he should touch them and his disciples rebuke those that brought them. They rebuke the people bringing the children. Here's another teachable moment for the disciples, isn't it? Another teachable moment for them. And it said that in 1st century Jewish society, children were, you know, there was something to be kept up with not to be, certainly not to be an example for anything, right? There just, you know, and there's a certain sense in which children, we're not putting children at the, you know, leading the home or something like that, but they were, they were saying that it's somewhat of an inconvenience. You know, the Lord doesn't want to be bothered with these children.

But the Lord said, suffer them to come to me. Suffer those children to come to me because of such is the kingdom and I have something to say about those children to you. Well, here in verse 14, we read that when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased. Think about that. There's a, there's a world of thought we could stop and just dwell on right there. When he saw what the disciples were doing, what were they doing? They were just, they were just following what would be the, probably the cultural norms. Don't let these children come in here and upset this scene, you know, that the children don't need to be here. And he steps in and says to them, he was much displeased and said unto them, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of God.

There's a lot of things that we're used to doing in our, maybe in our culture or in ways that we naturally think that are probably a lot of times they're not in line with what actually God says in his word. What God's will is. Jesus said, don't forbid these children from coming to me because of such is the kingdom. We noticed that he was pleased by the hungry humble trusting spirit of a child.

When people, the tendency is, and I think about this individual we're praying for right now, I think God is working through his son to even create a greater interest in reading the Word of God within. What a blessing. God uses my children to get my attention. Children are a blessing heritage from the Lord. And they can help us to see things in a simple way sometimes. It's refreshing to me. It's refreshing to me. Sometimes when I work, I'm teaching a Bible lesson. And it may not even necessarily always be in a Bible lesson, but a lot of times it's happened in a Bible lesson. And I'll open it up and allow them to give some thoughts and input and some things the way they put things. My children put things sometimes. I couldn't have said it that simple, but that's true. That's a very good way of putting that.

As we get older, we get our minds get full and we get so many responsibilities and cares of life. And sometimes we tend to overcomplicate things. And it's really not that complex. It's just simple. It's just so simple. What a child can understand it. A child can understand even the children that were saying, who's Anna? They understand this is the son of David, right? When Jesus came, they knew who he was even though the learned doctors of the law didn't. Well, they might have known who he was, but they didn't acknowledge who he was, right? They didn't acknowledge him as Messiah.

Without faith, it is impossible to please him. It's impossible to please God for he that as we saw recently cometh to God must believe that he is. And that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. As we grow older, we can become somewhat jaded because we say, you ever said, you just can't trust anybody, right? You can't trust anybody. Well, I hope we don't come to that point when we say you can't trust anybody. But in the sense that we trust the Lord fully, no, we can't trust anybody fully like we trust the Lord. We can have relationship. We can have a relationship, go on trust. I've preached about that this past year. But as it pertains, there's no one truly that we can trust like we can trust the Lord. We can go to him with anything. He knows all about our troubles. He knows all about our struggles. He will guide us, as the song says, till the day is done. There's not a friend, like the lowly Jesus, no, not one.

You know, as we live sometimes, we, you know, there's people who are affected by, maybe they were in a bad, abusive situation with as a child. Their parents didn't discipline them in love. They beat them, you know, they beat the child. They screamed at the child. They hit the child and did not. This wasn't a difficult correction, right? So they might be through that pain from their child. They might now have come to the place where they say, well, we're going to sort of cut out some of these verses in the scripture, because they don't say that. But effectively, what they're doing is we don't believe in, you know, corporal punishment. We don't believe in discipline with the rod, because somebody did it the wrong way. We can say that about a lot of things. But we must come to the Word of God with childlike faith. We must come to the Word of God and just say, this is what the Lord says. No matter what may have happened to me in the past, or no matter what may have been done improperly, what is God's word saying? That's the heart that God wants us to approach His word with a tender. We saw that in Josiah this morning, a tender heart, a receptive heart.

And we see it here in this passage in Mark 10, in verse 15, verily, verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, He shall not enter therein. And He took them up in His arms and put His hands upon them and blessed them. Well, the little children freely, the Lord said, let them come to me. They call the little child into their midst and the king. And we need to be just as accepting of God when He speaks to us through His Word. Just take Him in His Word. Don't complicate the matter. Don't have a lot of qualifications for it. Just say, yes, Lord. Just submit. Believe the promises. He, the warnings, obey the commands, follow the principles. That's really what it breaks down to, isn't it? If He gives us a warning, He did. If He gives us a promise, trust Him.

We don't, if we don't do that, what are we going to do? We're going to do us right in our own eyes, aren't we? We're going to say, but I, like in the Garden of Eden, Eve was manipulated in her mind by the serpent, deceived into thinking somehow in a twisted way God was going to condone what she was doing. When God had just simply said, you're not to take of the fruit of the tree, of the knowledge of good and evil, and you're not to, you're not to eat them. Not to, not to eat them. It should be simple, right? But somehow the devil was able to get her thinking twisted, and then you have Adam who knew full well he was disobeying, but he justified it somehow anyway. Those are, those are bad examples for us, right? We're not to follow those examples. We're to be careful to obey God. Even if we don't always understand before why this and why that and the other, we don't have to understand at all. A child doesn't have to understand when Jesus said, to him, he didn't say, well why, I need you to give me a list of reasons. No, he just came with humility. And that's how we need to approach God's word, right? We humbly listen to God, we must do that, and let his word order our steps.

Well, I have this emotion welling up in me. I have the feeling that I want to get revenge. Well, I will say, no, you're not supposed to do that. So I feel like I want to retaliate. I feel like I want to do this or think this way or say these things. God's word must guide us when he says come, then we come, when he says go, then we go. When he says no, then that means no. When he says no, it's simply that. We can justify just about anything that we, you could probably even find a scripture to justify disobeying God if you want to. But that's not what the Lord is saying here.

The disciples in the beginning passage, who is the greatest? We want to make a name for ourselves. We want to be first. And here in this last passage that we read here, what is the problem? Well, they were rebuking the children from coming. They were rebuking. They were thinking according to the cultural norms of that day. Well, this is going to be a trouble to the Lord. We don't want these troublesome children coming in here. And Jesus says, no, let them come. He says no, let them come.

When the Lord comes to us and says, Daniel, maybe you're doing something that's traditional, but it's not what I want you to do. Maybe you're doing something because that's the way you've always done it. Well, if God's word entrusts me about that thing, then I need to say, yes, Lord, I'll do what you want me to do. I'll go where you want me to go in this thing. Even if it may be uncomfortable to me to allow that thing or to do that thing because God has made it clear in His Word that it is His will. The key is a tender heart toward God so that we can hear what He's saying.

I was blessed again recently listening to Gordon Greer's CD and one of the songs that He's singing on there was, speak Lord for thy servant hears. It goes like this, speak Lord for thy servant hears. Speak Lord for thy servant hears. I am but a child, yet thou hast called my name. There must be a special task for me to claim. Speak Lord, tell me all thy will. Speak Lord and a voice so still. Though the task be great or though the task be small, I will trust and be alone and give my all. I don't ask for riches. I don't ask for fame. I don't ask the honor of the heat upon my name. That's what the disciples were wanting, right? I only ask thy presence to ever be the same. Speak Lord for thy servant hears.

Let's say it's a child like me, isn't it? Come Lord, take me by the hand. Please come Lord to teach a child to stand. Show me where to go and tell me what to say. Give thy word to light my path and point the way. Yes, Lord, thy command is heard. Yes, Lord, I obey thy word. Now I feel thy power and now I see thy plan. Mold me as a useful vessel in thy hand. I don't ask for riches. I don't ask for fame. I don't ask for honor or that honor be heat upon my name. I only ask thy presence to ever be the same. Speak Lord for thy servant hears.

May God help us to have this kind of faith. A faith, as we said last week, that operates by love. The God's love, but a faith that doesn't question God or doesn't say, look, I really want this out of this Christian life. I want to be somebody. No, it's just as bad as those that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare. And many hurtful lusts, right? Those that would be great, those that would think I want to be somebody. No, you need to be like John the Baptist who said, I must decrease. I must stand with all the little child when Jesus speaks to me and say, yes, I'll come. Yes, I'll do what you'd have me to do. That's what Jesus was wanting His disciples to see. It's not about how much you know. It's about how much you trust and simply obey. There's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and to obey. We complicate the Lord simplifies it for us with a little child. He simplifies it for us that we may be converted and become as this little child that we see in the text.

Heavenly Father, thank you for these moments we've had in your word today. Help us, Lord, not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Help us to think soberly, circumspectly and wisely. But Lord, as we sing in that hymn this morning, really the key is turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And we are to do that as we open your word every time. We're going to help us to behold the Lamb of God when we open the word. Help us to see Christ and not just hear the memorized words perhaps, but help us to see our Lord in the sacred pages of Scripture and to stand in all to truly with John say He must increase. I must decrease. We pray and ask these things in Jesus name, amen.