Everyone who is 16 years and
under, please raise his or her hand. All right, raise it up good and
high, will you please? All right, I want to know where
my special congregation is this morning. I don't want to miss
any of you. All right, fine, put them down. Because some of
you are clustered here and clustered there, but some of you are stuck
off elsewhere, and I want to be able to look at you while
I'm preaching this morning because What I want to share with you
from the Word of God is directly and specifically aimed at you
children, the boys and girls in our congregation today. Those
of you who come here frequently will know that often I direct
remarks specifically to you in the sermons, sometimes an illustration,
sometimes an application of the Word of God, But of course, the
bulk of the preaching is aimed at what we might call the bulk
of the congregation, which would be the moms and dads in those
17, 18 years of age and over. And this is only proper since,
in a very real sense, God has appointed them to be your instructors,
and therefore, the more they understand of God's Word and
His ways, the more competent they will be to instruct you.
But from time to time, I do like to preach directly to the children. To let you know that I'm conscious
that you're here, and my purpose for preaching to you this morning
is very, very simple. And if through the years you
kids have come to believe anything about your pastor, I hope it's
that you believe he's honest. Whatever his faults may be, one
of them is not that he's got a reputation for talking out
of both sides of his mouth. The reason I want to preach to
you this morning is very, very simple. I want to help you on
your way to heaven. I want to help you on your way
to heaven. Now, I'm assuming that most of,
if not all of you kids, have some basic facts about God, about
yourself, about sin, about the cross, about how to be ready
for heaven. And you've picked these facts
up along the way at family worship, Sunday school, in the preaching
that is done in this pulpit. But what I want to do this morning
is to sort of take some of the tidbits you've picked up here
and there and the little bits of information there and bring
them all together in a very concentrated way so that there's absolutely
no question in the mind of any one of you kids what you are
in the sight of God and what you must become if you're going
to be prepared to live with God forever. Now, as I address myself
distinctly and particularly to the children, I hope that two
other things will be accomplished in the process. I trust that
every unconverted person in this place, if you're 99, will be
not only instructed, but that your conscience will be stabbed
with the Word of God. and that you'll be moved to seek
the Savior. What a wonderful thing if God
would humble some proud adult today by choosing to save you
through a simple little message addressed to the kiddies. And
God knows how to humble the pride of the human heart. Maybe you've
come here this morning saying, well, I've heard, you know, that
this preacher here that preaches in this place has a pretty good
biblical ministry, and I'm going to come and I'll see if he's
this powerful. God's going to cut your pride
to the quick, my friend. You don't dictate to God how
he'll minister to you. And wouldn't it be wonderful
if God took your proud heart this morning and cut it down
to size by taking a simple little sermon addressed to the kiddies.
and making it the instrument of your conversion. I can preach
in the expectation that he might. And then the other thing that
I hope is accomplished is that every parent and every adult
in this place will be stirred up to pray, to witness and to
plead with your children and with youngsters that they might
repent and believe the gospel, that you might be stirred up
to true biblical childhood. All right, those are my goals. I want to help you kiddies on
the way to heaven. And I hope that God will help
some other unconverted sinner who's not a kid, and that God
will then stir us all up to biblical concern for the conversion of
our children. Now, how am I going to address
myself to you kids this morning? Well, I'm going to address myself
to you kids in this way. Why every child should repent
and believe the gospel. Or you might want to state it
this way, why every child, as a child, should flee to the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a form of a question. Why
should you, as a child, take the Bible words repent and believe
the gospel seriously? Why shouldn't you just sit here
and be sweet and kind so you don't get spanked for doing otherwise?
And then sometime later, when you've grown up and when things
are a lot more clear and when you can describe things better,
why shouldn't you wait until you're grown up to repent and
believe the Gospel? Why should you, as a child, why
should you right here this morning flee from your sins and throw
yourself upon the Lord Jesus Christ? Why? Well, I'm going
to give you three answers to that question, or three parts
of the answer, and here's what they are. You should repent and
believe the gospel, reason number one, because as a child you are
lost and you need to be saved. Secondly, because as a child
you can be saved. And thirdly, because as a child
it is the best time to be saved. And I want you mommies and daddies
to get the outline back from your kids at the supper table
today, or dinner table, whatever you call it. Why should you as
a kid, why should you as a child flee to Christ? Reason number
one, because as a child you are a sinner and you need to be saved. Now the Bible says you're a sinner
in three ways. Every one of you kids is a sinner
in three ways, everyone without exception. And I hope some of
you adults listen in. You're a sinner first of all,
and I've got to use a big word because I can't find a smaller
one, but I'll explain it. You are a sinner first of all
by representation. Now that's a big word, but you
know what it means. You say, I do? Yes, you do. And I'm going
to show that you know what it means. The Bible says in Romans
chapter 5 and verse 12, that by one man, sin entered into
the world, and death passed upon all men, for that all sinned
in that one man. In Romans 5.19, Paul says, through
one man's disobedience, condemnation came upon all the many who were
constituted or made sinners. When you pick up your Bible and
you read in Genesis, that in the beginning God made them male
and female, and that he took that man Adam with his wife Eve
and put him down in the garden, as far as the account in Genesis
is concerned, all we see is God One man, Adam, and one woman,
Eve, and then one creature, the tempter, who comes in the form
of that subtle serpent and tempts Eve, and she in turn passes on
that forbidden fruit to Adam. All we see when we look in the
garden is one man, one woman, and one God. But Paul tells us,
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that there was more than
just Adam and Eve in that garden. When Adam and Eve were in that
garden, you know who else was there? You were there. Oh, you
say, come off it, pastor. I wasn't even born yet. I was
thousands and thousands of years from ever even being born. How
can I be there? I'll tell you how you were there.
You were there in your representative, Adam. God said, I will make Adam
to be the representative, the one who will stand in the place
of every man, woman, boy or girl that ever shall be created except
the man Christ Jesus. And so Adam was put there as
the representative, the one who stood in our place so that if
Adam had obeyed and passed whatever time of trial God had ordained,
the whole human race as far as we know would have been a race
filled with nothing but holy men and women, fellows and girls.
There'd never been a spat on the playground. There'd never
been a brother or sister to get your dander up. There'd never
been anything happen between you and your mommy and daddy
that was anything other than lovely and pure and holy and
good. All of that would have been our
portion if Adam had stood. And the representative, if he
stood, would have secured all these blessings for all men and
women, fellows and girls, who would flow out of him. But the
reverse is true. Adam stands in such a relationship
that if he sins, as the representative, the whole human race sins in
him and because of him. That's why the Bible says, in
Adam all die, and so you are a sinner, and you need to be
saved because you are a sinner by representation. You and I stand condemned from
the moment we are born. And don't you listen to anybody
that says, well, you're sort of half-innocent until some time
of accountability. We were accountable in Adam,
children. When Adam sinned, we sinned. When he came under condemnation,
we came under condemnation. That's why the Bible says we
are by nature the children of wrath, even as the rest. That's why you need to be saved.
The idea that you need to come to a certain age and commit certain
sins before you're really guilty. No, no. The sentence guilty has
already come forth. It hangs over your head in the
delivery room in the hospital. Yes, we are sinners by representation,
but secondly, the Bible says, we're sinners by nature. You
ever go out to a barnyard and ask yourself, Why in the world
does a pig love what he loves? Never ask yourself that. What
in the world is in that pig that makes him love what he loves?
On the other hand, when you see that little cat perched by the
fireside constantly licking, licking, cleaning, see, what
makes that cat so fastidious? packing down every little bit
of soil and her fur. Why? What makes the birds so
happy up in the sky? What makes the fish so happy
in the ocean or in the pond? Well, you see, one thing is true
of all of those questions I've asked. Why does the pig love
his mud? Because it's his nature to love
the mud. Why does the cat constantly preen
itself and clean it? Because it's the nature of the
cat to do it. The cat's just being a cat, that's
all. And why does the bird love the
freeness of the air? Because the bird is made to love
the freeness of the air. And it's the bird's nature to
like the bird's heaven and the freedom of the sky. And it's
the nature of a fish to like to swim in the little pond. or
to swim in the ocean if it's a saltwater fish. You see, it's
the nature of every one of those animals that makes them do what
they do and makes them love what they do when they do it. Now
the Bible teaches You and I are sinners by nature. We're born with a nature that
loves to sin and feels at home in sin and moves in the direction
of sin. That's why you need to be saved
as a child. Because as a child, you're a
sinner by nature. That's what David meant when
he said in Psalm 51.5, Behold God! I was shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me. He says when I was just a
little seed way back there in my mummy's tummy, I was already
a sinner. The nature that was formed in
my mummy was a sinful nature. That's why the Bible says they
go astray from the womb, speaking lies. Why is it it's so easy
to lie? I mean, some of you got to the
place where, man, you can lie as easy as you can breathe. Why
is it so easy to lie and so hard to tell the truth? Why is it
so easy to be mean and so hard to be sweet? Why is it so easy
when mom and dad ask you to do something to sulk and pout and
pull a big long face and so hard to say, sure, mom, be glad to
do it. Why is it so easy? You ever ask
yourself that? How about it, you kids? Do you
ever ask yourself, why is it so easy for me to do what's wrong
and so hard to do what's good? I remember as a kid that question
used to plague me. Seems that everything God says
I ought to do, I don't want to do. And I don't find any fun
in doing everything He says I shouldn't do. I really enjoy doing it. What's the problem? The problem
is you're a sinner by nature. You've got a nature that's sinful.
To use the language of the Bible, you have a heart that is sinful.
Listen to Jesus' words. I quote from Mark 7 now, 21 to
23. For from within, out of the heart
of man proceed, and then listen to the things that he lists that
come out of the human heart. Mark chapter 7, verses 21 to
23. For from within, out of the heart
of men proceed evil thoughts, evil thoughts, thoughts of suspicion,
thoughts of bitterness, thoughts of pride, thoughts of meanness,
fornication, uncleanness, thefts, murders, hatred, adulteries,
covetings, wanting what somebody else has, wickedness, deceit,
telling lies, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, using your
tongue to bash somebody else down, abusing people with your
mouth, pride, foolishness, These things proceed from within. Why does the pig go to the mob
and love it? Because from within itself it
is a pig nature that is expressing itself through that pig's actions. Why is it that we find it so
easy to lie, to fight, to be selfish, to pout, to cheat, to
tease, to cheat, to be lazy? Why is it? It's because we're
sinners by nature. We have a nature that can produce
only sin and always sin and nothing but sin unless God changes it.
Now listen to me very carefully. Know the only difference between
a five-year-old who seems to be a sweet little child but who's
not been saved, and a 50-year-old man who's full of cursing and
drunkenness and abominable wickedness. You know the only difference? 45 years of letting what's within
come out. That's all. But it's all there
in the 5-year-old. It's all there. And every one
of you children has a heart that is capable of leading you to
the worst sins that have ever been committed on the face of
the earth. It's all there. You're a sinner by nature. A sinner by nature. That's why
we need a new nature, or what the Bible calls a new heart,
or what the Bible says, why we need to be made a new creature.
Why, again, to use the words of the Bible, we need to be born
again. We need to have God turn the
pig into the cat that wants to be clean. And only God can do
that work. But then in the third place,
You ought to repent and to believe, because you're a sinner, not
only by representation, we sinned in Adam, a sinner by nature,
but the Bible teaches you are a sinner by choice and by practice. Romans 8, 7 says, the carnal
mind, the mind we have by nature, is enmity against God, it is
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. All
we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his
own way. Let me ask you a question this
morning. The last time you lied, who made you do it? Did the devil
come along, or one of his imps? Lasso your tongue, and with like
strings that you have on a puppet, make your tongue say the words
that lied? Anybody force your tongue to lie? Did somebody come
up at your back of your head and hold a gun and say, now lie
or I'm going to blow your brains out? Come on now, what about
it kids, what about it? The last time you lied, who made
you lie? You lied because you wanted to.
You chose to lie, didn't you? Didn't you? The last time you
sassed your mom and dad, who forced you to do it? Was somebody
crouched behind the couch with a .30-06 rifle saying, you lie
or I'm going to knock your head off? No, no. Why did you do it? Because you want to do it. Your conscience told you it was
wrong. There was that little voice that said, uh-uh. He said,
I want to do it. It's to my advantage to do it.
You see, we are sinners not only by nature and by representation,
but we are sinners by choice and by practice. Paul describes
it this way in Romans 6 in verse 19. He uses an illustration. He said, you are sinners by choice
and practice in the way that a servant obeys his master. This is what he says. He says,
you presented the members of your body, servants, to sin and
unrighteousness. And this is what Paul is doing.
He's using what we call a figure of speech. Here's a man who owns
a lot of servants. And he says to one, Henry! And
Henry comes running right up in front of him. Yes, master?
He says, Henry? I want you to go out there and
take the garbage cans out, men. Yes, sir. Henry bows. Henry empties
the garbage. 20 minutes later, the master
says, Henry! Henry comes running right up. Yes, sir. He bows.
And he says, now, I want you to go out here and do nothing.
Yes, sir. Henry runs. 20 minutes later, Henry! He comes
running back in. Yes, sir. See? What is he doing?
Everything the master says, he presents himself unto obedience. Now, Paul says, to the Romans,
he says, before you were saved, all the members of your body,
your hands, your fingers, your eyes, your ears, your feet, your
mind, your tongue, he said you presented your members, servants
unto sin and unto unrighteousness. He says you were sinners by choice
and by practice. And this is how it works, kids.
Sin says, give me your tongue to speak a lie. And what do you
say? You say, all right, sin, here's my tongue. I'll tell a
lie. So your tongue becomes a servant
to unrighteousness. Sin says, give me your ears to
listen to that dirty story the boys are passing around at the
bathroom at school. And you say, all right, sin,
here's my ears. And you give your ears to listen
to that garbage. Sin says, give me your feet to
go down some path that mom and dad said you should not go there. And when sin said, give me your
feet, you said, all right, sin, very well, you gave sin your
feet. You see, you're a sinner by choice
and there's not a child here who, if he's listening at all
this morning, will not say, pastor, you're right. That's true. The
Bible's describing me, a sinner by choice. How does God look
upon you in that condition? A sinner by representation in
Adam? We all sin. A sinner by nature? The heart deceitful above all
things. A sinner by choice and by practice? How does God look upon us? What
would God do if He met you in this condition? Is He going to
be lenient with you simply because you are a child? Well, let's
ask the question by looking in the history of the Bible. What
did God do in the past when he entered into judgment with children
who were sinners? Well, let's look at a couple
of examples. The Bible tells us in the sixth chapter of Genesis,
that God looked down upon the earth, men, women, boys and girls,
and He saw that the imaginations of the thoughts of the hearts
of men was only evil continually. And God says, I'm going to block
them all out. You know the story. There's one
family that found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah and his
family. Now follow me. Noah and his family were shut
up in the ark. And then the waters began to
come down from above and from the fountains beneath until the
scripture says not one living thing was left upon the face
of the earth. Now my question is this, were
there any children living in that day? Yes there were. Two year olds? Seven year olds? Fourteen year olds? Did God exempt them from his
judgment upon that world? No my friend. The screams of
little rebel children mingled with the screams of hardened
adults, all of whom had turned their back upon the warnings
of God through Noah. This idea that children are suspended
in some kind of a state of semi-condemnation until they're 12 or 13 or some
other age of accountability is entirely unfounded on the Word
of God. That's why I plead with you children
this morning. Why should you repent and believe
as children? Because as children right now,
your sins provoke God's anger. Your sins call for God's wrath
and God's judgment. Look at Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham
prays, O God, if there are but ten righteous people, will you
hold back the judgment? God says, if there are but ten.
and there weren't ten, and there were hundreds if not thousands
of children in Sodom and Gomorrah. The scripture says, when the
fire of God fell, the fire and brimstone, it consumed all that
were there in those cities. Little children, little children,
sinners, consumed by God's wrath. I want you to look at a very
interesting passage, and I hope it'll strike holy dread to the
heart of some of you children this morning. It's found in 2
Kings, Chapter 2. Here's some kids who went out
one day and said, hey, vacation time, gonna have a little fun.
No school today, no homework. What should we do for a little
fun? All of a sudden, the local preacher was coming down the
street. And they said, well, let's have
some fun. How should we have fun with it? And as they noticed
his bald head shining under the sun, they said, well, let's call
him Old Baldy B. Let's just have a little fun,
make fun of him. Well, let's see what happened. Second Kings,
chapter 2, verse 23. And he went up from Thames unto
Bethel, and as he was going up by the way, there came forth,
now notice what it says, young lad, They weren't old men. They weren't even men. They were
young lads out of the city and they mocked him and said unto
him, Go up thou baldy dean! Go up thou bald head! I figured they'd have a little
fun. They'd make mockery of the prophet. Hail, baldy-headed preacher! That's innocent enough, isn't
it? I mean, boys will be boys, won't they? I mean, come on now,
let's, let's not be ridiculous. I mean, boys will be boys. They're
going to make fun of something. So they mock a prophet, call
him Obaldibe. How does God look upon it? Well,
look what happened. And he looked behind him and
saw them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came
forth two she-bears out of the wood and tear forty and two lads
of them. He went from thence to Mount
Carmel and from thence he returned to Samaria. You try to tell one
of those sobbing parents who looks down upon the torn flesh
of his little lad that there's such a thing as innocent sin
because he happens to be just a lad. You console some parent
who sees the torn flesh of his own son I tell you the lesson
came home with power to every one of those parents. Sin is
a serious thing, even in a young lad. The sin that lies behind
this seems to be the sin of making light of the Word of God, which
in those days came through the prophet of God. And God says,
you make light of My Word. And I'll show you that I don't
make light of your mockery. Oh, dear children, I'm not standing
here today trying to frighten you with concepts that are not
biblical. That's why I deliberately haven't
told you stories. I deliberately am not appealing
to your emotions, because that would not be fair to you children.
But I'm appealing to the Word of God to, under God, get you
to see that your sin as a child is not something that God takes
lightly. God takes it seriously. God says
to you as a child that He hates sin. and that his anger burns
against those that go on in their sins and go on in their unbelief
and go on in their impenitence. Why should you as a child repent
and believe the gospel? Because you're a sinner and you
need to be saved. But then secondly, you ought
to repent and believe the gospel because as a child you can be
saved. Now listen closely, you adults,
for a moment. This is where most of the children's
movements go wrong. They say that we ought to be
after the salvation of children because the ability of the child
to be saved lies primarily in the child's condition. He's not
a hardened sinner. He's not too bad off. Or as one
man said, giving, quote, the biblical basis for child evangelism,
in an adult it takes a miracle of grace. to give them new life. But in a child, there is already
the seeds of faith and all this other business. You see, the
whole focus is, let's evangelize children because children don't
need the same qualitative work of grace that an adult does.
Oh, my friend, listen. Listen. Children, you ought to
be saved as children, not only because you need to be saved,
but because as children you can be saved. And you can be saved
not because you are not bad sinners, but thank God, but because Jesus
is a great Savior. That is why you can be saved.
Jesus is a great Savior. He is able to save you, children.
The Bible says, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins, whether they are young and old
and everything in between. He is able to save you because
He is God. He is able to save you because
He died upon the cross to turn away the Father's wrath. He's
able to save you because He lives right now, able to give you a
new heart, blot out your sins, and make you fit to dwell with
God now and in the world to come. Oh, children, listen to me this
morning. What sin have you committed that is so deeply stained that
the blood of Jesus can't cleanse it? Some of you have committed
some pretty serious sins. deliberate lies covered up by
another lie and another and another until there's a mountain of lies
covering up other lies. The Bible says the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. O dear children,
what sin have you committed that is bigger and more powerful than
the blood of Jesus? Which of you children has a heart
so hard that Jesus cannot break it and melt it? Which of you
has a will so stubborn that King Jesus cannot conquer it and subdue
it? Oh dear children, you ought to
repent and believe and be saved, not only because you're a sinner
and need to be saved, but because as a child you can be saved,
and you can be saved because Jesus is able to save you, but
secondly, because Jesus is willing to save you. Not only able, but
willing. Suppose you're out riding your
bike tomorrow. And you hit a bump and you flop over, and I remember
this happened to me as a kid. And you get yourself caught so
that your leg is twisted in with the handlebar, and you're bleeding
at the knees, and you can't get yourself out. And along comes
some big strapping guy, 6 feet 2, 220 pounds, well able to take
care of you. And you look at him and you say,
well, he's able. But you look up and say, mister, would you
please help me? Small comfort if he says, sorry
sonny, I'd like to help you, but I've got to catch the 803
and I've only got 22 seconds, see you later. Doesn't do you
any good if he's able, if he's not willing, you see. But thank
God the Lord Jesus is not only able, but the Bible says he is
willing to save us. You say, how can I know that?
Well listen, listen to the word of God. In 1 Timothy 1.15, this
is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's what He
came to do. He didn't come to walk down the
street and see kids wrapped up in their bicycles and say, sorry,
I've got to catch the 803. He's out looking for kids wrapped
up in their bicycles that He might get them untangled and
on their way again. He's come, in His own words,
to seek and to save that which is lost. Ah, but some of you
say, Pastor, is there some passage where we actually see Him receiving
children to Himself? Yes, there is. Mark chapter 10
and verse 23. Beautiful passage, showing us
that the Lord Jesus is not only able, but He's willing to save
children Listen to his words. Mark 10. Sorry, not Mark 10, 23. Verse
13. And they were bringing unto him
little children. The word there in the original
is infants, that he should touch them. But the disciples rebuked
them. But when Jesus saw it, he was
moved with indignation or anger and said unto them, Suffer the
little children that come unto me. Forbid them not, for to such
belongeth the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall
in no wise enter therein. And he took them in his arms
and blessed them, having laid his hands upon them. Now notice
this passage does not say that children are already in the kingdom.
He says, let them come to me that they might enter the kingdom,
that I might give them inwardly and spiritually what they have
naturally and externally as children. He says, of such is the kingdom
of heaven. In other words, what does a child
have naturally and externally? Well, he has the characteristics
of teachableness, He has the characteristic of lack of ambition,
personal ambition, covetousness, and these things. And Jesus said,
all whom I bring into my kingdom, I give them those qualities inwardly
and spiritually, the qualities evidenced in a child naturally
and externally. The passages not say kids are
already in the kingdom. Nor does it say, though it's
been pressed to say this, that they're ushered into the kingdom
by baptism. And of all things, this passage
is pressed into the service of defending the matter of infant
baptism. There's nothing in this passage
whatsoever about baptism. Nothing whatsoever. But what
the passage does say is that the disciples were hindering
infants in arms to older ones from being brought to the Lord
Jesus for His blessing. And what Jesus says is interesting. He does not say, suffer the little
children to be brought to Me. He says, suffer the children
to come to Me. See it? He says, don't you stand
in the way of any child coming to Me. Don't stand in the way. Let them come to Me. And I will
give them inwardly and spiritually those characteristics without
which no man enters the kingdom of heaven. Those characteristics
which they have naturally and externally because they are children,
I will give them inwardly and spiritually as new children,
as born-again ones. So Jesus says to the children
amongst us today, come to me. I'm willing to save you. I am
able to save you. Oh, you kids, listen this morning.
Have you gone beyond mom and dad and their Christ to where
he's become your Christ? Have you gone to Jesus and said,
Lord Jesus, I'm not content that Mommy and Daddy pray for me anymore. Lord Jesus, I'm going to pray
for myself. I'm not content, Lord Jesus,
that Mommy and Daddy pray that I might be saved. Lord Jesus,
I'm going to pray for myself that I might be saved. Lord Jesus,
save me. Have you children gone beyond
mommy and daddy's dealings with Christ and had direct dealings
with Jesus himself? He's willing to receive you.
You need not be afraid of him. When I was a kid, if I had to
meet some important person, I always felt much more comfortable if
my father was alongside to sort of introduce me. I felt I needed
a go-between. Oh, dear children, you don't
need a go-between. Jesus is willing and able to
save him. And he bid you come. He says,
come to me. And you see what he says to moms
and dads and adults? He says, don't you stand in the
way of the children from getting to me. Don't hinder them by a
wrong theology that says they must be 18 or 20 before they
can have a deep enough understanding of depravity and grace to be
saved. God have mercy on us if we hinder
our children from coming by a wrong theology. God help us if we hinder
them from coming because of a bad example. Many a child has been
driven from Jesus by the cursed example of a father and a mother
who profess to know him. Don't hinder them by carelessness
in instructing your children. They'll come to Jesus only as
they know Him through the Word. The Spirit reveals Him through
the Word. And oh, may God have mercy on
some of you parents who are hindering your children because you're
not instructing them. No family worship. No personal
instruction. Too busy. Too busy. All right. Too busy. But you're helping
the devil to blind them and damn them. Don't hinder them. By wrong views of the covenant
relationship between parents and children and God, I've seen
many a kid hindered from coming to Christ because the moment
his conscience got awakened and he began to get convicted and
disturbed, and began to speak his mind to his mom and dad.
They said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no. We gave you to God in baptism and put the seal of
the covenant upon you. And God gave you life somewhere
along the line. And that life has been nurtured
and cultivated. You don't need to be converted.
And they stifle the work of the Holy Ghost. I've seen this happen until I
could weep. Don't you hinder them from coming.
by a false view of a covenantal relationship based upon blood
and genes and not upon grace and the work of the Holy Ghost. Oh, dear children, you ought
to come to Christ because He's not only willing, but He's able
to save. And now I close with these brief
thoughts. You ought to repent and believe
as a child because Now is the best time to be saved. You say,
what do you mean, pastor, now is the best time to be saved?
Well, let me explain. First of all, because now is
the only time of certainty. The Bible says, don't boast about
tomorrow, for you know not what tomorrow may bring forth. I was
talking with Mrs. Martin yesterday or last night
about this. Do you know in 11 years of ministry,
Though there have been one or two deaths shortly after birth,
we've not had one child funeral in eleven years in this place.
Not one child suddenly cut off, being hit by a car on a bicycle,
suddenly seized with pneumonia or some other disease. Eleven
years, not one child funeral. God's been gracious. And we can
begin to think that death somehow is immune or we're immune to
death because we're young. Oh, listen to me, dear children,
dear children. And I'm preaching now the way
I would preach if I knew I had to look into your lifeless form
in a coffin tomorrow. Do any of you have any assurance
you're going to see the light of another day? Did God come
and knock on any one of your doors this morning and say, hey,
I've got news for you. You're going to live for another
six months. That's why you ought to be saved
now. Because now is the only time of certainty. You know what
God said to a man who didn't seize his day of certainty? God
called him a fool. In Luke chapter 12. The man said,
I've got plenty of time for other things. Oh there, right now I'm
going to be concerned with my present needs. And so he built
his barns and all the rest and said, soul, take it easy. God
said, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Now is the best time to be saved
because now is the only time of certainty. But secondly, now
is the time of probability. What do I mean by that? Simply
this, the Bible teaches and history confirms that wherever the gospel
has come and been there for a while, generally speaking, if a person's
to be saved, he'll be saved in his youth. Why? Because God works by means. And you read, and some of you
mummies and daddies take this passage down, Ecclesiastes 11,
9 through 12, 1. in which God says, Remember thy
Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come when
thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. You see, children, life
is relatively simple for you now. And when the burden of making
ends meet and making a living and all of these things begin
to press in upon you, it's so easy to put eternity and heaven
and hell out of your mind. If you can slip through the week-in,
week-out instruction at home and the preaching in this church
and come to mature adulthood still unconverted, I say it's
a terrible foreboding of an awful judgment from God that may fall
upon your head. Thank God, as long as we have
the example of the dying thief, we know that a man can be saved
in the last hour. But as Bishop Ryle says, there
is but one deathbed conversion. There is one that none may despair,
but only one that none may presume. Oh, dear children, now is the
best time to be saved, not only because now is the only time
of certainty, now is the time of probability, and I close with
this word, now is the time of God's authority. The Bible says
in Acts 17, 30, God commands all men everywhere to repent. This is His commandment that
we should believe on His Son. Suppose in the midst of my preaching
in the next 30 seconds, all of a sudden, a thundering voice
a thousand times louder than my own would shake this building,
and all of us would be blanched white and grab onto our pews
And the voice said, Preacher, be still! I, the living God, will speak.
What would happen if you heard words like that? All of us would
be riveted to our seats, waiting in expectation. Then suppose
that word said, every boy, every girl, Every child, every young
person in this building, repent and believe the gospel now, for
I, the Lord God of heaven and earth, have spoken." And then
deathly silence. You say, what an impressive thing
that would be. Oh, listen. God is speaking justice
certainly and surely in His Word. saying to every boy or girl in
this place, repent and believe the gospel now. Turn from your
sins and flee to Christ now. That's why it's the best time
to be saved, because it's the only time that you can bow to
the authority of God's Word. Now as we close our study this
morning, I'm going to read from a letter that I then want to
have put in the hands of all of you children as you leave.
This is a letter from Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher
of another generation. And Mr. Spurgeon had been at
a prayer meeting where people were praying for the salvation
of the children. And when he came home from that
prayer meeting, he sat down and wrote a letter to a young boy
who was son of one of the members of his congregation. And this
is the letter that he wrote to him. And what I've done is I've
had it mimeographed and left a blank. And I want every one
of you fellows and girls to consider this as a personal letter from
your pastor. And I want you to fill in your
own name. And I've written little instructions at the top to the
parents for the benefit of children who can't yet read. Now I want
you to listen to this letter and I want you to listen as though
I were writing it to you. Dear, and you put your name in
there, you are highly privileged in having parents who pray for
you. Your name is known in the courts of heaven. Your case has
been laid before the throne of God. Do you not pray for yourself? If other people value your soul,
can it be right for you to neglect it? All the pleadings and wrestlings
of your father and pastor will not save you if you never seek
the Lord for yourself. You know this. You do not intend
to cause grief to dear mother and father, but you do. So long
as you're not saved, they can never rest. However obedient
and sweet and kind you may be, they'll never feel happy about
you until you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and find everlasting
salvation. Think of this. Remember how much
you've already sinned, and none can wash you but Jesus. When you grow up, you may become
very sinful, and none can change your heart and make you holy
but the Lord Jesus through His Spirit. You need what Father
and Mother seek for you, and you need it now. Why not seek
it at once? I heard a father pray, Lord,
save our children and save them young. It's never too soon to
be safe, never too soon to be happy, never too soon to be holy. Jesus loves to receive very young
ones. See the three things, children?
Never too soon to be safe, never too soon to be happy, never too
soon to be holy, and you're never safe until you're holy, and you'll
never be happy until you're holy. You cannot save yourself, but
the great Lord Jesus can save you. Ask him to do it. He that
asketh, receive it. Then trust in Jesus to save you. He can do it, for he died and
rose again, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. Come and tell Jesus you've sinned. Seek forgiveness. Trust him for
it, and be sure you are saved. Then imitate our Lord. Be at
your home what Jesus was at the home in Nazareth. Yours will
be a happy home, and your dear father and mother will feel that
the dearest wish of their hearts has been granted them. I pray
you to think of heaven and hell, for in one of those places you
will live forever. Meet me in heaven. Meet me at
the mercy seat. Run upstairs and pray to the
Great Father through Jesus Christ. Yours very lovingly, Pastor C.H. Spurgeon. Oh, dear
children, meet me at the mercy seat. This day, meet me at the
mercy seat. Is there any reason why you cannot
take time this afternoon on this Lord's Day to slip into your
bedroom? And if you share that bedroom
with one of your brothers or sisters, Ask mommy and daddy
if you can use their bedroom. There upon your knees, cry to
the dear Lord Jesus. And say, Lord Jesus, I'm the
sinner the pastor told us about from the word. I've sinned in
Adam. Lord, I've got a sinful nature.
Lord, I've sinned by choice and practice. Lord, I need to be
saved. And I believe what the pastor
told us from your word, that you're able to save me, that
you're willing to save me. And Lord, I believe now is the
best time to be saved. Lord Jesus, save me. Give me a new heart. Make me
a child of God. Oh, dear children, with all my
heart, I trust you'll meet me at the mercy seat, even today. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. call upon Him while He's near. And to you adults who are
strangers to grace, you've got to come the same humbling way.
You don't come parading into the presence of God and tell
Him what a great person you are. You go down on your face saying,
Oh God, I bring nothing, nothing, nothing but the rags of my own
righteousness. The emptiness of my own heart,
Lord Jesus have mercy upon me. May God be pleased to give us
the desire and prayer of our hearts that you may be saved. Why should you as a child repent
and believe? Because you're a sinner and you
need to be saved? Because you can be saved? Because
now is the best time to be saved? Let us pray.