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who call out to the other children, and say, ‘We played the flute
for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did
not mourn.’” He said to not behave like them; they are always
discontent. They are fickle. One wants to play this game and
the other wants to play that game. Be like a child but don’t
believe like a child and don’t be humble like a child and don’t
behave like a child. What does it mean to be like a child?
I think the answer is in Luke 18:15, “And they were
bringing even their babies to Him so that He might touch them,
but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them.” They
brought their babies to Jesus.
I have a book that I enjoy by a man named Kenneth
Wuest. He gets into the Greek. I don’t know Greek, so I’m
thankful for people that can help. In this verse he translates it,
“They brought their infants.” Have you heard of B. B.
Warfield? He was a great theologian who taught at Princeton
University in New Jersey before they turned away from the
Lord. He translates this as “infant of days”. A mother gave
Jesus an infant of days.
Just before I came to this conference, the Lord gave me
my fourth great grandchild. I haven’t seen him yet. He’s an
infant of days. That’s the child that Jesus had. They are too
young to have a disposition. They are too young to have faith.
They are too young to be humble. They are too young to be
naïve. They are too young to behave. When Jesus said that we
must be like children, He wasn’t talking about a disposition. He
was talking about a condition, a condition of a newborn babe
and its helplessness; total dependence. The indispensable
condition of redemptive living is helpless dependence. Do you
see that powerful illustration?
On one side you have the disciples asking, “How can we
be great?” On the other side you have an infant of days;
helpless dependence. That’s the indispensable condition. What
is the indispensable disposition that we must have? Now I’d
like to share what that is.
I think it would be helpful if we used a Bible illustration.
I’d like to take that illustration from the Song of Solomon. If
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