Now as I announced this morning,
we would be considering together a portion of the Gospel of Mark
this evening, Mark chapter 10, and I will read in your hearing
verses 13 through 16. Mark chapter 10 and verse 13. And they were bringing unto him
little children, that he should touch them, and the disciples
rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was
moved with indignation and said unto them, Suffer, or permit
the little children to come unto me. Do not forbid them, for to
such belongs the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he
shall in no wise enter therein. And he took them in his arms
and blessed them, laying his hand upon them. Now let us again
pray and ask God for the help of his Holy Spirit as we seek
to understand this portion of the word and above all to have
a fresh sight of our Lord Jesus in all of his welcoming grace
to sinners. Let us pray. Our Father, we have already sought
your face several times in our gathering tonight, and we come
again to seek you that your grace would prove sufficient for preacher
and people alike. that your word may come to us
not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit
and in much assurance. May we all together be conscious
that we are not left to our own pathetically weak resources but
that we may be enabled by the Holy Spirit both to speak and
to hear your word as we ought. We plead through Christ our Lord
Amen. Now as we come to this portion
of the Word of God, we want to spend just a moment having a
little bit of understanding as to its setting in the overall
unfolding of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus. We see in
the first verse of the 10th chapter that Jesus arose from Thames,
that is, from the northern area of Palestine up in the area of
Capernaum, and now he comes down south and a bit east into what
is called the region of Perea. And as he does, according to
Mark's account of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, we
are told that multitudes come together unto him again. And as he was accustomed, he
taught them again. As he is making his way down
to Jerusalem, where he will lay down his life to die for his
people, We will find our Lord again surrounded by multitudes
and also taking more and more time for personal instruction
with his own disciples. But as so often has happened
in the ministry of our Lord, not only is he surrounded by
eager multitudes and by the inner circle of his own disciples,
but the Pharisees were constantly dogging his steps, seeking to
catch him in his words. And we read in verse 2 of this
chapter, there came to him Pharisees and asked him, is it lawful for
a man to put away his wife, trying or tempting him? They were trying
again to catch him in his words, to see if they could listen to
him saying something that could be the occasion of bringing charges
against him, ultimately with a view to get rid of this one
who had become such an irritant to them. Well, after responding
to these Pharisees, the Lord is alone with His disciples,
verse 10, and in the house the disciples asked Him again of
this matter. And it could well be that immediately
or shortly after the thing that Mark has recorded here, that
while our Lord is still in a house, and I'll give you a reason as
to why I think that may be so, We are told that these unnamed
people were bringing unto Him little children, that He should
touch them, the disciples rebuke them, Jesus responds and gives
us one of these amazing statements in which He says, Amen, or verily
I say unto you, Now, as we come to the passage, I want you to
notice with me, first of all, simply in opening up the facts
of the narrative, the activity of these unnamed adults. We are told in verse 13, And
they were bringing unto him little children, that he should touch
them. Now, who are the they? We are
not told. They are an unnamed group of
people. Most likely fathers, mothers,
perhaps grandparents, perhaps older siblings, we are simply
not told. There is some hint in terms of
the gender of one of the pronouns when we read that the disciples
rebuked them. It is a masculine plural pronoun
indicating that it may have been some fathers or the word them
could be used more generically. Whoever they were, these unnamed
adults or older siblings, are coming into the presence of the
Lord Jesus bringing unto him little children. Now the word
used here for little children is a word that has a wide range
of use in the New Testament. There are several times in the
Gospel of Luke chapter 1 for example in verse 56 it refers
to a baby eight years eight days old. It can refer to a child
up into what we would say the age of puberty. In the parallel
passage in Luke's gospel, the word brethos is used which refers
to a very small infant, a nursing child. But also we are told in
Luke that they were also bringing unto him brethos, little ones,
so it could well be that taking the insights of Matthew and Mark,
which tell us that they were bringing little children, and
Luke's additional word, also infants, it could be that some
were carrying very young infants, and others were bringing along
with them toddlers and pre-adolescent children. But whatever the particular
age bracket, we are told that these unnamed adults were bringing
unto Him little children, and they had a specific design and
desire in coming into the presence of the Lord Jesus with their
little ones. Notice what the text says. They
were doing this that He should touch them. Now, what in the
world was in their minds bringing them to Jesus that He should
touch them? Was this the kind of superstition
that people show in Roman Catholic countries? When Pope Paul comes
to visit, they'll do anything if Papa can but touch their children,
feeling that somehow if the Vicar of Christ will but touch their
children, it will leave some kind of a good mark upon them
for the rest of their days. Well, according to Matthew 19.13,
this was not the case at all. For in this parallel passage
we read, Then there were brought unto him little children, that
he should lay his hands on them and pray. They were desirous
that the Lord Jesus would lay his hands upon them. that ancient
symbol of the patriarch putting his hands upon his progeny to
pronounce blessing upon them, to pray for blessing upon them. These unnamed adults were bringing
their children, their little ones, to Jesus that they might
receive from Jesus his benediction and his blessing, that he might
lay his hands upon them and pray for them. Now obviously they
did not share in the sentiment of the Pharisees. You do not
bring your children to be blessed by a charlatan. You do not bring
your children to be blessed by someone you're convinced is possessed
of devils. You do not bring your children
to be blessed by someone that you regard a blasphemer. These
were some of those in Israel who saw something in Jesus beyond
the current opinion of their religious leaders. Were they
part of that number who were the Israel within Israel? Who
had themselves personally embraced the Lord Jesus in all of his
claims as far as he had unfolded those claims until now? We do
not know. But all we know is that here
were parents in a setting where they may well have been aware
of the hostility of the religious leaders who are convinced that
Jesus is more than that which he is held to be in the opinion
of their official leaders. They are convinced that there
is something to be had from Jesus, not only for themselves, but
for their children. And so they come into the proximity
of where our Lord is, possibly within a house, bringing their
little children, that those children might receive Jesus' benediction,
that He should touch them. Well, that's the activity of
the unnamed adults. Now note with me, secondly, the
action of the twelve disciples. At the end of verse 13, And the
disciples rebuked them. The disciples rebuked them. And it's an imperfect verb, which
means the disciples were continually rebuking. They were continually
bringing, but the disciples were continually rebuking them. And the word rebuke here is a
strong word, found several times in this very gospel record. They
were solemnly, seriously charging them to bug off, back off, get
lost, don't bother the master. Now if we ask the question, why
were the disciples rebuking them? That is, rebuking these unnamed
adults or older siblings who are bringing little ones or babes
in arms, possibly, to be blessed by the Lord Jesus. Well, just
as we must not question the integrity of Peter's motives when he rebukes
the Lord Jesus and tells him, this shall never be unto you,
when Jesus announces that he's going to go to Jerusalem and
suffer and be killed and the third day be raised from the
dead. We must not question the sincerity of the motives of the
twelve disciples. It could well be that they felt
since these children could not receive instruction with any
degree of intelligence, since they were not sick and did not
need healing, maybe they were desirous of sparing our Lord
the intrusion of these parents who are clamoring to get their
kids into Jesus' arms that He might touch them. You can only
hold them one or two at the most at a time. And if there were
quite a number clamoring, perhaps the disciples were seeking to
protect our Lord from this unnecessary pressure and intrusion. Some
suggest that they may have imbibed the current notions of the relative
worthlessness of little children that was extant in that day. Since a number of these disciples
came from the Galilean region where Gentile influence was very
strong, Some suggest that perhaps they had imbibed the current
attitude toward children. We're not told. Any of those
things are possible. But one thing is clear. They
were determined that these little children would not be brought
into close enough proximity to their master that he would touch
them. That is, that he would lay his
hands upon them and pray for them. So we've seen the activity
of the unnamed adults. They were bringing unto him little
children that he should touch them. Secondly, the action of
the twelve disciples. They were rebuking them. But
now note in the third place, the reaction of Jesus. Verse 14. The reaction of Jesus. And it is a reaction that is
both emotional verbal and physical note what our text says in verse
14 but when Jesus not heard it but saw it could that be a hint
that Jesus was looking out through a window inside this house mentioned
in verse 10 and sees these parents coming with their little ones,
and as he perceives with his eyes what they are doing, then
he reacts and responds to what the disciples have been doing.
Rebuking is a physical activity, but the text does not say, but
when Jesus heard it, but when Jesus saw it. It could well be
that this was something our Lord perceived primarily by the eye
gate, but once he knew what the disciples were doing, namely,
rebuking and thereby hindering these parents from bringing the
little ones, and thereby hindering the little ones from coming to
him, that he might take them in his arms and pray for them,
that he might touch them, that he might bless them. The reaction
of our Lord Jesus is described in these three categories. Note,
first of all, his emotional reaction. He was moved with indignation. You would get the idea from that
rendering that it was a passive verb, but it isn't. It's an active
verb. It should be translated, He became
or was indignant. Now it's very interesting. This
is the only place in all the gospel records where it is said
that Jesus became indignant with his disciples. In Mark chapter
3, we are told that he became angry when he saw the hardness
of heart of the religious leaders, and there the word used is orge,
for the anger of God. But this word found here, though
it is used in the New Testament of the irritation and anger of
others, It is only used of our Lord Jesus here and is the only
recorded instance of Jesus becoming indignant with his disciples.
Our Lord is disappointed in his disciples and he expresses disappointment. What? Could you not watch with
me one hour? He expresses that disappointment
when he says, oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken. But this is the only recorded
instance where Jesus becomes indignant with his disciples. There is an emotional reaction
in the soul of our Lord Jesus. He becomes indignant. He is moved with indignation
now remember he's on his way to Jerusalem to die the just
for the unjust so that there was not one millionth of a gram
of sin in his indignation it was pure unsullied absolutely
holy indignation Our Lord's holiness extended far beyond his words
and actions, and touched the deepest springs of the attitudes
and dispositions of heart, so that when Mark records that he
was indignant, it was a pure and holy indignation. Our Lord's
reaction is described, first of all, in terms of its emotional
dimension, but then notice, secondly, the verbal response. He was indignant
and said unto them, Suffer, or permit the little children to
come unto me. Forbid them not, for to such
belong the kingdom of God." Two terse imperatives. First of all,
he says, permit the little children to come to me. and do not be
forbidding them or stop forbidding them. A present imperative. Two
imperatives. Permit the children to come to
me. Now it's interesting. Jesus did
not say permit the parents, permit the grandparents, permit these
who are bringing them to me to bring them. He doesn't focus
on the action of those who were bringing the children to Jesus.
But he says, permit the children themselves to come to me, and
do not forbid them. Do you see that in the passage?
That's where he puts the emphasis. Permit the children to come to
me. Could it be that the parents
had some toddlers and some a little bit older than toddlers who,
once they were accompanied to the place where Jesus was, were
themselves, under the instruction of their parents or grandparents
or older siblings, told, we're bringing you to where Jesus is
because we want you to go and receive the prayer and blessing
of Jesus. so that when they got close enough
to the proximity of that home or wherever they were, the children
themselves began to make their way to where Jesus was. And in
that setting, the disciples are rebuking them. And Jesus says
to these disciples, you must not further engage in this activity. Permit the little children to
come to me. Do not forbid them and then he
gives his reason note in the text permit the children to come
to me do not forbid them for to such belongs the kingdom of
God pay careful attention to those words he doesn't say to
these belong the kingdom of God Jesus is not here saying that
all of those children who were being brought to him were in
the kingdom. No, he says, to such as these
the kingdom belongs. It is to such as these, to those
who in some way or another are like these little ones, the kingdom
belongs to these. And then he follows that statement
with one of these magisterial sayings recorded in the Gospels,
Verily I say unto you, always preceding an unusually important
and solemn statement of our Lord Jesus, that whosoever shall not
receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no
wise enter therein." Now sermons have been preached and books
have been written on what it means to receive the kingdom
as a little child. And some say, well, the child
is humble and the child is teachable. And until you become humble and
until you become teachable, you'll never enter the kingdom. Well,
it's true. Until you become teachable and until you are humbled, you'll
never enter the kingdom. But I am perfectly confident
in my own mind that the position taken, especially helpfully by
B.B. Warfield in his articles on children
and some of the commentators that I consulted in preparation
for tonight, that what our Lord is saying has nothing to do with
any subjective condition within the mind or soul of the child. For remember, and here I ask
you to turn to the parallel passage in Luke, in the gospel of Luke
our Lord makes a similar reference Luke chapter 18 and verse 15 verse 15 is the beginning of the section,
verse 17, Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the
kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. And in this context, the little
child, verse 15, is the babes, the brethas, the infants who
have yet to develop their cognitive faculties. That when our Lord
says, unless you receive the kingdom as a little child, He
is not pointing to any subjective internal state in the mind or
soul of the child. Children are notoriously self-centered
and egotistical. The Bible says they go astray
from the womb speaking lies. They are notoriously manipulative. Look at some of the precious
little ones around here. They can wrap us all around their
finger like a piece of putty, with their smiles and with their
coochie-cooing. And they know when they're doing
it. And we're silly enough to let them do it. We're vulnerable
to it, aren't we? No, what our Lord is doing is
focusing upon an objective state of a child. And the foundational
element in that objective state is its utter dependantness. The babe does nothing for its
own provision, its own protection, its own sustenance. Everything
is done for it. The child is not an independent,
self-sustaining adult. It is an independent, a dependent
creature. And our Lord is saying, whoever
shall not receive the kingdom as a little child, that is, receive
the blessings of His saving grace and mercy, in a posture of utter
nakedness, helplessness, and dependentness, unless we thus
receive the kingdom, we shall in no wise enter therein. It's little children who enter
the kingdom, that is, those who have come to the place where
they stand in the presence of God and say, I have nothing,
I can do nothing, I can present nothing to commend myself to
God and to His grace. I must receive the kingdom in
this posture of utter dependentness. That's our Lord's response verbally. And then notice his response
physically, though there is a little verbal element mixed in with
it, but for the sake of thinking through the passage, verse 16. And he took them in his arms
and blessed them, laying his hands upon them. He took them
in His arms. He wrapped His arms around them. One by one or two by two, He
took them up in His arms. Now you know well enough, if
you're going to take a child up in your arms, you're going
to get down where the child is. You don't say, hey kid, jump
up. Sunday after Sunday at that door, I bend to take children
into my arms. Picture the Lord Jesus bending
again and again to wrap His arms around these children. And having
wrapped his arms around him, what did he do? Look at the text.
He blessed them. And this word, found only here
in the New Testament, is not the ordinary word for blessing.
It has a preposition in front of it. that intensifies it, He
blessed them exceedingly. He blessed them with great intensity. His whole heart and soul were
engaged in conferring blessing upon them. And the tense of the
verb here is that imperfect again that speaks of past action of
a continuous kind, taking them into his arms. He was continually,
intensely, may I say it vehemently, if we can think of blessing with
vehemence, vehemently, intently, passionately with his whole soul,
blessing them while laying his hands upon them. Can you picture
the scene? They're up in his arms. He is
calling down the blessing of His Father upon them, perhaps
pronouncing blessing upon them using some of the language of
the Aaronic priesthood. I do not know the precise form
of His blessing. I could find no commentators
that agreed on what the precise form would be. But whatever He
was doing, He was manifesting the goodwill and the intention
of His own heart and the heart of His Father by blessing them
intensely and passionately and one upon another laying this
hand upon one and this hand upon another in that tender expression
as it were sacramentally visibly with his hands indicating what
he was doing with his words and with his prayers to his Father. That's what he did physically. So we see the response of our
Lord Jesus to this scene where the unnamed adults bring their
little ones that he should touch them, and in that setting the
response and reaction of the twelve disciples constantly rebuking
them, the reaction of Jesus emotionally, verbally, and physically. Now having given this brief exposition
of the passage, I want to bring to you three very pointed words
from the passage. And the first is what I will
call a word to everyone without distinction gathered in this
room tonight. I don't care how old you are.
I don't care what your background is. I don't care what your present
or past knowledge of gospel truth has been, presently is. It matters
not what it is about you that makes you differ from the person
sitting next to you. You may be a man. She may be
a woman. You may be a child. It may be mom or dad next to
you. It makes no difference because here in this magisterial saying
of our Lord Jesus, there is a word that is equally applicable to
every single one of us without exception. Look at the words
again of verse 15. Verily I say unto you, here is
a word of unquestioned and supreme authority. This is Jesus, truth
incarnate, speaking. If this word is not true, and
if this word can fail of its fulfillment, Jesus is a liar. To state it bluntly, if there
is any exception to this word, Jesus is not the truth. He states
the integrity of who He is as truth incarnate when He says,
verily, amen, I say unto you. It is not only a word of unquestioned
authority. It is a word, obviously, of universal
application. Look again at the text. Verily,
I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God
as a little child, he shall in no wise end to therein." The
whosoever here is as broad as the whosoever of John 3 16. Wherever
you find a whosoever in the scripture, God is opening the net of his
concern as broad as the human race. And here our Lord is saying,
whosoever shall not receive the kingdom. And this is the issue
that is applicable to every one of us. The question is, will
I take the posture of a child, in all of its helplessness and
dependantness, to receive the kingdom? You see, there's where
the rub comes to human nature. It's the fact that the kingdom,
the blessings of God's grace in Jesus Christ, The pardon of
our sins, a righteous title to heaven, is something not to be
earned, but to be received as a free gift of God. And that's
what Jesus said. Whosoever shall not receive the
kingdom. The kingdom is something to be
received. The kingdom comes to us as the
gift of grace. the forgiveness of our sins,
acceptance before God, adoption into the family of God, the gift
of the Holy Spirit, and all of the blessings of the kingdom
of grace, they are there to be received. But to be received
only by such as the little children, those who take the posture of
utter dependantness. They do not come, as it were,
to the gate of the kingdom. There, to hold up to the King
of Grace, the coinage minted in their own efforts and their
own subjective states of heart and mind, they come to receive
the kingdom. In all of their dependantness,
in all of their nakedness, in all of their vulnerability, they
come to receive the kingdom. Now would you know the blessings
of the kingdom of grace? Would you know the forgiveness
of your sins? Would you know peace with God? Would you know
what it is to pillar your head tonight confident that if Almighty
God decreed that your heart should stop beating tonight, the last
beat of the heart would be the first sight of Jesus in glory? and you've got to receive the
kingdom and you've got to receive it as a little child, as a little
child, as a little child, as even a baby in arms that is utterly
dependent for its nourishment, its protection, its transportation
from one place to another. Receive the kingdom as a child
The kingdom is to be received by such and by such alone. But you say, Pastor, that sounds
so simple. I know it does. But Jesus said it. I didn't.
Jesus said it. He knew that to say this would
be very costly to him. He's on his way to Jerusalem.
where he's going to suffer, he's going to be spat upon, he's going
to be bruised, he's going to be insulted, he's going to be
scourged and stripped naked and hung upon the cross. He's going
to undergo the baptism of agony of feeling in his own soul what
it was to be plunged into outer darkness until he will cry, my
God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He will die. He will commend
his spirit to his father. He will be raised again from
the dead on the third day. He has commissioned his disciples
to go forth and preach repentance unto the remission of sins in
his name among all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. And they
are to tell men everywhere, believe on the Lord Jesus and you will
be saved. That is, receive the kingdom
as a little child. received the kingdom as a little
child. That's the word that comes to
every one of us, without exception, sitting in this room tonight. But then, I want us to consider,
secondly, a word to all adult disciples in this room. And we
have many, bless God, adult disciples. Those who could have been part
of this unnamed group who were bringing their children unto
Jesus, the very ones that the disciples rebuked. They were sincere, adult, possible
disciples, those who were bringing the children, but when it says
the disciples rebuked them, that's referring to the twelve, those
who unquestionably, outwardly, in the case of Judas, attached
to Jesus. And what has struck me in my
preparation for tonight is that If the only recorded instance
that Jesus became indignant with his disciples was an instance
where they were standing in the way of children receiving the
blessing of Jesus, that ought to be a matter of deep concern
to me as an adult disciple, that I be and do nothing that would
hinder any child from coming to Jesus. Jesus was indignant
then when he saw these disciples hindering the children from coming
to him. He is moved with indignation
and says to these disciples, permit the children to come to
me, do not forbid them. And I do not believe that there
is any true disciple in this room who would knowingly deliberately
be the occasion of hindering any child from coming to Jesus. But we can hinder them from coming. We can hinder them from coming
by what we do. The devil is all too willing
to try to put doubts and cynicism in the minds of our children
with respect to all that they hear about Jesus. Is it real? Is Jesus all mom and dad and
the Sunday school teacher and the preacher and the hymns and
the Bible stories say that he is? Does he do all that they
say and claim that he does? And they have a right to expect
it when they live with you and with me. Not that they will see
perfection, but that they will see the reality of the power
and presence of Jesus in us. And Jesus said some very sobering
words. It is necessary that offenses
come, but warn to him through whom the offense comes, it were
better that a millstone were hung about his neck and he were
drowned in the sea, than he cause one of these little ones, and
that's not referring to little children, but true sons and daughters
of the kingdom to stumble. And we need constantly to pray
that God will help us in all of our interaction with our children.
that we never provoke the indignation of the Lord Jesus by becoming
a bona fide hindrance to their coming to Christ, by inconsistency
that is justified and not dealt with by repentance and confession
before God and where necessary before our children, that we
be nothing in our lives and do nothing in our lives that would
hinder them. from going to the Lord Jesus
in the confidence that he is ready and willing to receive
them. But I want to address the very
real possibility that we can be a hindrance by our words.
In this case, It was the disciples rebuking those parents by words
they were putting up a barrier. And when Jesus said, permit them,
don't forbid them, it was words that had become the barrier.
They were rebuking them. And can it be that our words
can unwittingly become a barrier to our children coming to Christ? You say, Pastor, what do you
mean? Well, this is what I mean. in our deep passion that our
children not be presumptuous and in our deep awareness of
the deception of our own hearts and in our great fear that the
second and third generation will be but mere formalists could
it be and that's all I'm doing is raising the question I'm not
making an accusation could it be that we have so placed before
our children the fear of presuming that they are saved when they
are not saved, that we have not adequately encouraged them to
believe that the Lord Jesus is ready and willing to receive
them now. Could it be? I only ask the question. Could it be? Could it be that
we have allowed, not willfully and not deliberately, but by
the subtlety of the enemy of their souls, could it be that
we have unwittingly allowed unnecessary barriers to be placed in their
way of growing up into self-consciousness from being babes in arms with
a picture of the Lord Jesus that this passage ought to bring home
to their hearts. When they think of Jesus, how
should they think of Him? Distant, arms at His side, a
stern look upon His face saying, Whitewashed sepulcher. Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, Or do they grow up with
a picture of Jesus, who is stooped over, arms outstretched, ready
to envelop children in his arms, to lay his hands upon them, and
to bless them passionately? I ask the question. I've been
asking it of my own heart. As a parent, as a preacher, Have
I sufficiently, adequately set forth a picture of Jesus? Not spun out of the stuff of
my own sentiment, or current religious sentimentality, but
out of the stuff of the Bible. The only Jesus we know is the
Jesus of this book. And we are told in Hebrews 13,
verse 8, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And by whatever
means children from little infants in this place are brought into
proximity to Jesus, how will they find Him? They will find
Him not rebuking them for their presumption to think they could
come to Him and He would receive them, but rebuking anyone who
would stand in their way. That's the Jesus of this passage. And no doubt it was his universal
disposition, or these unnamed adults would never have felt
the boldness to do what they did. They were convinced that
whatever disposition was being manifested by the disciples was
not the disposition of Jesus. Because again, the nuances of
the Greek verbs is beautiful here. They were continually coming,
the disciples were continually rebuking, but their coming, because
Jesus saw what was going on, was finally rewarded. and the
rebuking of the disciples ceased. And so I simply raise the question
for your prayerful concern as parents and as the people of
God and for us as a congregation of God's people desiring to constantly
have our thinking and our practice stand under the scrutiny of the
word of God. I say to all adult sincere disciples
in this place Could it be that the Lord Jesus is indignant with
us when we have raised unnecessary barriers? Perhaps in our passion
that our children not presume they are saved, we are assuming
they are not saved. When their hearts are toward
the Lord Jesus, they welcome the instruction we give them.
They welcome the opportunity to learn of Him, to sing of Him.
Family worship is not all drudgery. Sometimes, yes. Aren't your devotions
a drudgery sometimes? Yes or no? Do you come with equal
passion to your devotions day after day? If you do, tell me
your secret. I don't. Are we expecting a perfection
in the pattern of grace in little ones? Now if there is evident
rejection of the truth in submission to Christ, no desire to please
Him, no tenderness when sin is pointed out, no willingness to
confess the sin, then surely you are seeing a pattern that
gives you no ground to believe that grace has been operative.
But if there is in your children a discernible disposition to
go to Jesus for His blessing, Don't hinder them. Don't discourage
them. Don't treat them as though you
knew that their going was not sincere and was not real. It
may well be the seeds, and more than the seeds, the first springings
of true divinely implanted spiritual life. Which is, I have said many
times in the past, in the case of children reared in Christian
nurture, and under sound preaching, and under viable examples of
Christian life, many times they won't have a clue when they pass
from death unto life. They'll struggle with assurance.
They'll struggle with a number of things. But let's not make
them struggle with unnecessary barriers to their going to Christ. Do you sense something in my
heart? I'm not accusing tonight. I'm not indicting. I'm asking
out loud the questions I'm asking of my own heart. So there is
a word for all of us without distinction. There is a word
to us as adult disciples. And now I'm thankful I can close
on this note. There's a wonderful word for
your children, for you children. Remember Luke's gospel says there
were brethos, that is little babes in arms. Mark and Matthew
say they were bringing children, anything from pre-toddlers all
the way up to what we would call, some of you, children in middle
school or in elementary school. Let me ask you this question.
How do you think of the Lord Jesus? You've got to think of
Him some way. I don't mean what kind of a face do you picture
Him having. God does not want us to try to picture what the
physical features of Jesus' face looked like, except that it was
a normal, ordinary human face, as was his human form. But if
you picture now, if you were to close your eyes and say, if
the Lord Jesus were to appear before me tonight on that platform
right over there, how would his countenance be if he looked at
me as a little child, as a boy? as a little girl, how would Jesus'
eyes meet mine? Would they be stern eyes? Intimidating
eyes? Threatening eyes? Or would they
be eyes that said, my heart is toward you in love? That would
make you as a child take a second look and say, he's got a kindly
look in his eyes. And then when you look down from
his eyes, How would you expect his arms to be? Like this? About
ready to give you a scolding? Would his arms be here like he's
ready to do nothing? Or do you think his arms would
be like this saying, come? I love children. I welcome children. I say to grownups who stand in
the way of children, get out of the way! Don't hinder them,
let them come. That's the Jesus who's in our
Bibles. He says to you in his word, every
one of you, come, you come. And his gestures would be reflective
of his heart as well as his eyes. No doubt they flashed with a
measure of holy anger when he rebuked the disciples. He was
indignant and no doubt it registered in his countenance. But oh, when
the children come, They don't jump up in the arms of a man
that looks like he's just eaten a half a dozen lemons. Kids don't
do it. They recognize a welcoming face
and a welcoming posture. And would you believe, now let
me ask you kids, would you believe that Jesus would, I gotta use
a smaller word now, I was gonna use validate, that Jesus would
say amen to the look in his eyes and the posture of his hands
Do you believe He'd take you in His arms and lay His hands
upon you and bless you passionately? Bless you with intensity? That's what He did to these.
Now notice, He didn't stop. And say, now, Father, please
let down the role of your elect that I may see if little Joshua
here or little Isaac here or little Joseph here or little
Abraham is one of your elect, because it would be terrible
if I were found blessing a child who is not one of your elect.
He didn't do that. And don't you paint a Jesus who
does that. Don't do it. Every child who
saw in Jesus a welcoming Jesus would find him to be exactly
what he saw him to be. Now children, doesn't that make
you want to go to him? Go to him now if you've never
gone to him and keep on going to him every day of your life
until you go to him when you die. And then you'll see him
face to face and you won't find him to be something other than
what you knew him to be through his word and by his spirit. Would you turn aside from a kindly
man, just a man who was seeking to show goodwill to you, who
bent down, stretched out his arms with a kindly face? Well,
I had that happen to me this morning. Pastor Lamar taught
us from the confession in the adult hour about God's providence
extending to every detail of our lives and little did I know
God was going to give me such a clear illustration for the
sermon tonight. I've looked very carefully to
make sure the visitor's not here tonight and he's not here so
I won't embarrass him. We had a visitor this morning who had
a little girl with him. And when he came to the door, introduced
myself, and as usual, when I saw he had a little one, I can't
remember when I was that small, but I got enough sense to know
that we adults can look very intimidating, and kids have got
to look all the way up, and especially someone who's been up in the
pulpit thumping and hollering and carrying about like I do. So I always get down in my inviting
posture. So as he was about to introduce
his little daughter, I got down, got on her level, stretched out
my hand, put on my most kindly face, And he said, so-and-so,
this is Pastor Martin. You know what she did to me?
She went like this. I'm not kidding you. Turned her
head away from me, looked about 45 degrees at an angle here,
got this sour look on her face, and stuck her tongue out four
or five times. And the embarrassed father said, oh, she does that
to everyone. Don't feel so bad. Something
along that line. Well, it took every bit of grace for me not
to give him a lecture. and say, how can you look yourself
in the mirror and call yourself a man, allowing your daughter? But I thought, Lord, thank you
for the illustration. Let me ask you something, children.
Is that what you do to the Lord Jesus? He says to you in the
word and promise of the gospel, come to me, come to me. You're a sinner. You see, that's
the silliness of this idea when Jesus said, except you become
as little children, as though there's some virtue in the child.
That would mean I've got to get some virtues before I can enter
the kingdom. No, there's no virtue in a child.
You children know your hearts well enough. You know your Bibles
well enough to know. You are sinners. Yes, you are.
You've lied. You've been nasty. You've been
stinky to your brother and sister. You've disobeyed mom and dad.
You've sulked. You've pouted. You older children,
I don't need to tell you what your sins are. No, coming to
Jesus and being welcomed is not because you're only half a sinner
or just a little bit of a sinner. No, you're a bad enough sinner
for God to send you to hell. That's what the Bible teaches.
But, dear children, Christ invites you as a sinner and says, you
come to Him as a sinner. And you keep coming to Him. And
you come, and you come, and you come. And how will you find Him?
You will always find Him with a kindly look in His eye. and
the outstretched hands and the welcoming heart. Now what are
you doing to the Lord Jesus? As he stoops to welcome you with
his kindly, gracious, loving look in his eye and his outstretched
hands, are you doing what that little girl did to me? Turning
your face away from him and going, is that what you're doing to
Jesus? Why would you do that to him?
Why would you do that to him? He just wants to receive you,
to forgive you, to cleanse you, to wash away all your sins, to
make you his child, to put his arms around you and guide you
through every passage of life and at last take you home to
heaven. Why would you make a sour face,
turn away and stick your tongue out at Jesus? Is that what you're
doing? If you are, you know what repentance
means? Stop turning away and sticking
your tongue out, and you run into the arms of Jesus and say,
Lord Jesus, what you show in your eyes and in your arms is
no fake thing, because you went to the cross and died for sinners
like me. And you have said, if I come
to you, you wouldn't turn me aside. Whoever comes to you,
you will in no wise cast out. Lord Jesus, I come and I continue
to come. And listen to me, children, don't
get hung up and say, well, I did that once and nothing happened.
It's not something you do once. You get into his arms and you
stay there by daily and hourly going to Jesus, going to Jesus. And when you sin and when you
goof and when you do what's wrong, you go to Jesus for forgiveness. And when you need strength to
overcome a pattern of your life that isn't free, you go to Jesus
for strength and grace and health and wisdom. That's what we moms
and dads and grandpas have to do. We go to Him again and again
and again and again and again. Become part of those who keep
going to Jesus. Who keep going to Jesus. That's the word I want to bring
to you children. And it would grieve me no end if any one of
you ended up in hell because you had a false view of the Lord
Jesus. The Jesus to whom we point to
is the Jesus of the passage that says, permit the little children
to come unto me. They need to come to me. They
need me as their Savior. They don't have some salvation
based on their childhood innocence. No, they need to come to me.
But don't hinder them from coming to me. Forbid them not. And it's far more likely that
you will take the posture of a child inwardly, dependent,
utterly without anything to commend to God. Far more likely that
you'll do that in your youth and in your adult and older years.
when through the hardening process of sin you begin to think you're
somebody when Jesus said he welcomes nobodies into his kingdom. Well, may God be pleased to bless
this word to our hearts and give you children the joy of knowing
that you have joined those children who have been taken into the
arms of Jesus to be blessed with his grace. and with his mercy. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for
this portion of your word and we pray that the Holy Spirit
will write it upon all of our hearts. Father, for those of
us who are parents and as adults have had the privilege of influencing
others, If we have unwittingly in any way failed to give a full
and proper representation of our Lord Jesus as the one who
welcomes children, O God, forgive us. We pray that you would have
mercy, that we would never, never, never stand in the way of any
child. being brought to the Lord Jesus. We now bring our children and
grandchildren, the children of this place to you, pleading with
you that they may not turn away with an angry look and stick
their tongue out at Jesus, but that they may run into his arms
and keep on running there and stay there through all of their
days. Father, bless your word, seal
it to all of our hearts, Dismiss us with your blessing. We ask
in Jesus name. Amen.