Then there were brought unto
him little children that he should put his hands on them and pray,
and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little
children, and forbid them not to come to me, for of such is
the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them
and departed thence." A loving and concerned parent asks important
questions about their children. Nothing is more important to
a mother or a father than their little ones. I remember as our
kids were especially young, it gave me, it chills down my, all
over my body to think that something would happen to my little kids.
I could think of nothing worse. And it worried me sometimes.
And I just pray, put my head into the covers and pray, Lord,
keep my kids. So what happens is that because
of these concerns, we have a lot of questions about children.
For example, what happens when children die? Or is there an
age of accountability with children? Does God save children? If the
Lord wants children to come to Him, should children be baptized?
All those questions and a lot more are questions that parents
have and others even have. But before we try to answer these
questions from Scripture, we must first give full attention
to what the Spirit of God has said here about the Lord Jesus
Christ and children. Notice first then that there
were brought to him little children that he should put his hands
on them and pray. These mothers and fathers and
grandmothers and grandpas, uncles and aunts, older brothers and
sisters, and many others brought their little ones to Jesus. Luke,
in his account, in Luke 18 verse 16 through 17, he says this,
They brought unto him also infants that he should touch them. These
little ones that were brought to Jesus were infants. They were
very young children. Therefore it is never, here's
the principle, it is never too early to be concerned for the
eternal souls of our children. We get that just because Jesus
said they were infants. Very young children were brought
to Jesus. What could be more comforting
to a parent of a sick or dying child than to know that the Lord
Jesus Christ desired infants to be brought to him? Mark said
this in his writing of the same account. He said that Jesus took
them up in his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them.
That's in Mark 10, verse 16. It is a stirring sight, can't
you see it, that the Almighty God in our nature would take
time out of His redemptive purpose and work to condescend and pick
up young children, to lay His hands on them, to heal them,
to comfort their parents. What does it mean to be blessed
by Christ? Remember what it says in Psalm
32? Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, lifted up, whose
sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity. And so we see that the blessings
that the Lord Jesus Christ gives are blessings of salvation. They
were young children who were brought to Christ. Why would
anyone bring a young child to Jesus? And I think the answer
we must come to from scripture is because these who brought
them understood that their child had a need for Christ. They understood
their child's need for Christ. If anyone brings a child to Christ,
it is because that child needs what they cannot give them. Isn't
that the case? You wouldn't bring your child
to the doctor if your child wasn't sick. You wouldn't bring your
child to a Savior if your child didn't need salvation. They couldn't
come to Him on their own. They could not get to Him. They
were too small, too little, too weak. They couldn't understand.
Their minds were underdeveloped. They couldn't plead their own
fears and their troubles. They were too helpless. So they
needed someone to bring them. And so we learn from this that
believing parents understand and know where help is found.
And so it was with these parents. They saw their child's needs
and they went to Christ to plead for their children. Remember
the mother in Matthew 15 whose daughter was troubled with the
devil? Remember the father whose boy was a lunatic and cast him
into the fire and water and tried to destroy him? Remember Jairus
who was a ruler of the synagogue and whose daughter lay dying
of a fever? All those brought their children
to Christ. They saw their need and they
came to Christ and pleaded for Christ who alone could help.
May God move me and you so to do for our children. for our
friends, for our loved ones. Don't you pray, Lord take my
child into your arms, lay your hands on my son, pray for my
daughter, bless my children, Lord of glory, save my children.
And the second thing we see here is that those who believed that
the Lord Jesus Christ was Jesus Christ, that he was sent of God,
that he was able to heal, Whose word was the very word of God
with all of the authority and power of God. All these brought
their children to Jesus because they believed He could help.
He could help. They believed that. But here's
a question. How did they bring them? And
the answer to that question is they brought them the same way
that they came. How do you come to Christ? If
you come to Christ, you come helpless. You come looking. You
come and present yourself to Him in simple faith, and you
ask Him to consider your case and plead your case. Look at
Proverbs 23, verse 11. The Lord says in Proverbs, if
you just go through scripture and look up those words, plead,
plead my cause, it's a very comforting thing. It says here in Proverbs
23 verse 10, remove not the old landmark, enter not into the
fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is mighty. He
shall plead their cause with thee. The Lord pleads the cause
of his people, of these little ones. If you come to Christ,
you come by hearing his word. You come in your inner man, holding
his letter, his word, that grants you access to him. Remember what
he says in Hebrews 10, 19. Having therefore brethren boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. That's our
access. That's the letter that says we
have warrant to come as sinners. In
your heart, if you come to Christ, you look to Him with eyes of
faith and you lift your voice from the depths of your need
and you cry to Him. Therefore, to bring your children
to Christ is to bring them to hear the Gospel. To bring your
children to Christ is to pray for them. To bring your children
to Christ is to tell them what the Lord has said to your soul
from His Word concerning His Son. This is what it says in
Psalm 78, Psalm 78, verse 5. We speak the Gospel. That is
what the Old Testament Scriptures was about, wasn't it? All the law and the prophets
and the Psalms, Jesus explained to his disciples the things concerning
himself. If God has taught us, if he's
brought us, we tell our children the same thing. Notice that these
parents, these people who brought their children, they asked Jesus
that he would touch them, to touch them. That he would put
his hands on them and pray for them. It's my experience that
a little child can soften the heart of a hardened man. Have
you ever heard a young child cry in an airport or somewhere,
a restaurant or somewhere? You immediately feel an impulse
to go to their help, don't you? Here's a young child just crying
and you want to help them. Why aren't they being cared for?
Whenever there's a danger, we always say, save the women and
the children. because the weak and the helpless
are the first ones we protect. The greatest crimes are crimes
against children. The greatest cruelty is cruelty
to children. Natural affection teaches us
that a mother and father will give their life for the life
of their child. Even animals teach that to us.
Therefore, if you would give your life for your child, what
would you do for their eternal salvation? The Spirit of God
teaches us here what to do. Bring them to Christ. Ask Him
to exercise His will and power and saving mercy to touch them. Ask Him to pray for them. They
have a need only He can fill. Do you want anything less than
Christ for yourself? Do you want anything less for
your adult children or the wife of your bosom, your friends,
even for your enemies? How much more then does our Savior
mean for us to bring our children to Him? And then third, by His
touch and His prayers, our Lord heals and blesses all who are
brought to Him. Wherever in the New Testament
you find people coming to Christ, you never find Jesus turning
away the sick who are brought to Him, do you? Can you find
one case in Scripture where the Lord Jesus turned away someone
who came to Him for mercy? How many times did people bring
the sick and diseased and loved ones to Christ? Remember the
four friends in Matthew 9 who brought their paralyzed friend
on a bed to Jesus? They opened the roof because
that was the only way they could get their friend to Him. And
Jesus, when He saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man,
Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. Do you believe
that Christ will speak forgiveness to your friends if you bring
them to Him? Two little words often stand
as a sentinel on the rescue mission signs. Have you ever seen it?
Jesus saves. Children need to be healed of
sin, just as their adult parents do. Are children, are even babies,
sinners? We might not think so. Sometimes
we say, my little angel. But they're guilty before God.
Are my children sinners? Yes. Remember what it says in
Romans 5? As by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. That's the first thing. Second,
God told Adam in the day that you eat, you shall surely die. When Adam sinned, he died spiritually. He enslaved his own nature to
sin. Jesus said, whoever commits sin
is the servant of sin. John 8, 34. And God also says
in 1 Corinthians 15, 22, as in Adam, all die. Therefore, all of Adam's children
are both guilty and born slaves to sin. Sin is in their nature. And we receive our sin nature
when? When do we become sinners? Look at Psalm 51. David said
this, who was a man after God's own heart. God himself said,
this is a man after my own heart. But listen to what he says, Psalm
51 verse 5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me. We are conceived with a sin nature
in our mother's womb. We receive our nature from our
father. We are spiritually dead, the
servants of sin. Romans 8 says the carnal mind,
that's the natural man, that's what we are by nature, is enmity
against God. It is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be, because we're slaves of sin.
And fourthly, because we are guilty before God, we are subject
to death in all of its forms. Remember Romans 6.23, the wages
of sin is death. We are therefore subject to physical
death. When we look upon a sad tragedy
of death, this truth echoes in our ears, doesn't it? Where there
is death, there must be sin. There would be no death were
it not for sin. Why do people die? Isn't it because
of sin? Why do children die? Isn't it
because of sin? Are children sinners in God's
eyes? Yes. They're guilty. Their nature
is sinful. They were guilty in Adam when
he sinned. And they received their sin nature at conception.
And they are therefore subject to death. Oh, how we and our
children need a Savior. One who is able to save us from
our sins. And then next notice in Matthew
19, it says that the disciples protested against these who brought
their children to Jesus, these infants. But the Lord corrected
their opposition. He said, suffer the little children
and forbid them not to come to me. From this we learn first
that it is the will of the Lord Jesus Christ that children be
brought to him. Don't you love those simple truths
from scripture? It's the will of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the judge of all the earth, the savior of his people,
that children be brought to him. We must put up with children.
That's what it means, to suffer them. Put up with them. Be patient
with them. Be patient with them. They can't
sit still any more than we can. Maybe we can sit still a little
more because we're tired and our bodies are bigger and more
comfortable in the chairs, but as a kid, it's very difficult
to just sit still and be quiet. Time to them is like children
time. It's seven times longer here
than it is for parents, isn't it? So we must put up with them
because the Lord says He desires them. Do not keep children from
coming, from being brought to Christ. It is Christ's will that
children come to Him. And so this immediately answers
several questions, doesn't it? Can children be saved? The answer
is yes. This is why I should bring my
children to hear the gospel. And this is why I should go to
Christ by faith on His word with soul supplications and with His
words in my mouth bringing my children to Him. It is Christ's
will that children be brought and that they come to Him. But
how should I bring them? Again, in the same way that you
come. How do you come? If you come
in God's way, you come by hearing the gospel. The gospel, Romans
1.16, the gospel is the power of God to salvation. And we know
that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. If
you come God's way, you come by faith. As John Newton said,
renouncing all that may be called your own and come to him by all
that is his own. In coming to Christ, we look
only to His blood and His righteousness, His mercy, His grace, His prayers. We come to Him Himself. Look
at Colossians 3.13. In verse 12, put on, therefore,
as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Verse 13, forbearing one another
and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. The Lord Jesus Christ forgave
us. That's the way we come, isn't
it? Coming to Christ because we come to Him who is full of
mercy, the fountain of mercy. Paul did this for Timothy. Look
at 2 Timothy 1. To Timothy, my dearly beloved
son, grace mercy and peace from God the
Father and Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul prayed that Timothy receive
grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, Where is there mercy
and grace and peace that we need with God? It's in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's in God our Father. We come
to Him because that's the only place. If you come to Christ
in God's way, you don't consider your obedience, do you? If you
come to Christ, you don't consider your will, or your work, your
love, your faith, or your faithfulness. You only consider Christ and
Him crucified. You consider only what He did
in His living, and His dying, and His rising, and His interceding
at God's right hand. You only consider His goodness,
and His ruling authority and power. to save the sinfulest
to the uttermost. You stake your eternal salvation
and your present grace entirely on God's goodness to receive
you for Christ's sake. If this is how you come, then
tell your children to come in the same way. bring them to hear
the glorious gospel of God's grace. And when that glorious
gospel shines in their heart, they will see God's glory in
Christ as you do. Jesus came to save sinners. Children are sinners. Therefore,
Christ tells us not to keep them from coming to Him. And the Spirit
of God teaches us here in Matthew 19 to bring our children to Christ. Christ's own word and the testimony
of God's own spirit exhorts us and encourages us and comforts
us in bringing our children to Christ. Just as you come, just
as you are, then bring your children just as they are. Our Lord prevents
us from thinking one moment that our children should not come
to Christ. He prevents us from thinking
that Christ will not save our children. He says, whoever receives
one of these little ones receives me. And he couldn't say that
unless he received them as himself. Those are the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Isn't it wonderful? But then,
the fifth thing I want you to see in Matthew 19 is that He
says, it is the will of Christ that not only children, but grown
people come to Him. Look at verse 14. He says in
verse 14, suffer the little children and forbid them not to come to
me for of such is the kingdom of heaven." We read in Matthew
18 a couple of weeks ago that unless you're converted and become
as a little child you can't enter the kingdom of heaven. You will
never enter heaven therefore unless you and I are brought
by the Spirit of God to the Lord Jesus Christ. will never enter
heaven unless we are brought by the Spirit of God to Christ.
Unless you and I come to Him as a child, trusting His wisdom,
His justifying righteousness, His sin-atoning sacrifice, His
strength and His goodness, His grace, His mercy, His power,
we'll never enter heaven. His prayers Everything, in short,
trusting Jesus only and Him crucified, we cannot enter heaven apart
from Him. So much of our time as adults,
I think, is spent unlearning the things we learned. Things
that conflict in our minds and make things complicated to us.
We have to return to the Gospel over and over, don't we, as a
mere child? Trying to understand eternal
truth as a child understands it. Isn't that the work of God
in our lives over and over? Don't you think sometimes Has
God really said, has He given me a promise that I can rest
eternity on in Christ? Can I think of one case in His
word where He's given me that hope? Don't you wonder? So we
have to be brought back again and again. When people hear the
gospel sometimes, when they hear it often, they ask, isn't there
something else? But the simple answer is no.
Why? Because we need what children
need. We need to trust as children
trust. We need to lose the complexities
that we create in our own minds for what we need to do or what
we need to know before we come to Christ. And we need to see
that our salvation from first to last is in Him alone. It is nowhere else. Abraham Remember
what he says in Romans 4? Look at this with me. Abraham,
God said, I want you to take your son. That son that God said,
in Isaac shall thy seed be called. I want you to take him and I
want you to offer him up to me as a burnt offering on one of
the mountains that I will show you. And Abraham reasoned according
to faith. He said, God said, that in Isaac
shall my seed be called, that seed is Christ. All the nations
of the world, even I myself, receive salvation only in Christ. Therefore, if God said it's in
Isaac, if he tells me to offer up Isaac and I offer him up,
God must be going to raise him from the dead. So in Romans 4.21
he says, In verse 20, He staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being,
listen, here is child-like trust, being fully persuaded that what
He had promised, He was able also to perform. That is the
definition of faith. I'm fully persuaded. God promised. God can perform his promise. Therefore it was imputed to him
for righteousness. It was not written for his sake
alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead. Abraham believed God would raise
up Isaac. His faith in God to raise His
Son was really His faith that God would raise up the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's why He says, it's
not just for His sake it was written, but for us also who
believe on Him, who is able to do what He promised. And what
did He promise? That in Christ He would bless
us with salvation for Christ's sake. And so we come to Him just
like Abraham. Sarah, look at Hebrews chapter
11. Sarah also believed God with
childlike faith. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 11. Though through faith also Sarah
herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered
of a child when she was past age. Why? Because she judged
Him faithful who had promised. What a grace this is, isn't it?
We also, as little children, must find Christ and Him crucified
to be our all. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, starting
at verse 14. Listen to these words. These
are those promises that your soul should run to as a little
child and embrace. As a little child would embrace
the neck of our Savior, verse 14, for by one offering He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Isn't this just speaking
of our Lord Jesus Christ and what He did? And then in verse
15, it says, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
For after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my
laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them,
and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." It's
according to God's eternal word in Jeremiah 31, 34. He will remember
their sins and iniquities no more that Christ offered himself
and he perfected them forever. And so he reasons, he says now
where remission of these is When sins are remitted, when there's
a full payment that's been made, there is no more offering for
sin. Now, let's take that conclusion,
I mean that truth, and take the conclusion. Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say His flesh, And listen, and having
a high priest over the house of God, he directs us first to
Christ and His work, then to God and His promise, and then
to the remission, the full remission of our sins in Christ, to enter
the holiest by a new and living way through Christ's sacrifice
in His own body. Then he says, and having a high
priest a priest who intercedes for us over the house of God,
let us draw near." How? With a true heart, in full assurance
of faith. That's the faith of a child.
Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our
faith without wavering. Why? For he is faithful that
promised. Isn't that what Abraham and Sarah
believed? They look to Christ only. Therefore, come as a child,
look upon our great God and Savior, the One who alone can save great
sinners. The simple truth is that God
saves sinners by Christ and for Christ's sake alone, according
to the riches of His grace. Therefore, see that He has answered
every demand and removed every obstacle, and that Christ is
all that helpless sinners need. And then back in Matthew 19 and
verse 15, notice this, it says, if I get back there I'll read
it to you. Matthew 19 and verse 15, he says,
And he laid his hands on them, and he departed thence. The Lord
doesn't leave us in suspense as to whether or not He will
bless these children, does He? He doesn't leave it up as a question.
It's not open for debate. He blessed them then and there.
Whatever their need was, maybe they were diseased, sick, maybe
the parents just wanted them to be blessed. But whatever their
need was, He met their need right there on the spot. Now that we
have a solid grasp of what our Lord Jesus is teaching us here
in this passage of scripture, we need to face these facts and
ask some questions. First, it is the will of Christ
to save children and sinners of all ages. Second, None should
keep children from Christ, due either to their age or to their
sin. But on the contrary, the kingdom
of heaven is populated with such as these are. And third thing
is, we must humble ourselves as little children and find Christ
to be our all, just as these parents and these children did.
And then the fourth thing, the fourth truth from this scripture
is that our Lord Jesus really does, in fact, bless children. So now let's turn to these questions.
When do unborn children become people? Or when do the unborn
become people? Is there an age when a baby in
the womb becomes a person? Have you ever wondered that?
That's what's... Claimed by abortionists, it's
a fetus. We have to give it a Latin name
that nobody understands. We'll just call it a fetus. The
answer is unborn children are people. Remember what David said? In sin did my mother conceive
me. David was David at conception. He was a sinner then. And you
can't be a sinner at conception unless you are a person at conception. Fetuses are not, if they are
not children, they can't be sinners. Then also the Lord told Jeremiah,
In Jeremiah 1.5, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.
Before I formed thee in the belly. And that teaches us an important
truth. That God knows us as a person
before we're even conceived. But he goes on in Jeremiah 1.5,
and he says, and before thou camest forth out of the womb,
I sanctified thee. So while we're in our mother's
womb, God sanctified and set apart Jeremiah to be a prophet. He says, I ordain thee a prophet
unto the nations in the mind of God. We're a person before
we're conceived, before he formed us in the belly, and then clearly
from this scripture alone, it's clear that at conception and
until our birth, we are the same person. Before Jeremiah came
forth from the womb, God sanctified him to be his prophet. And then
consider John the Baptist. Six months after his conception,
he leaped for joy when he heard the voice of Mary greet his mother,
Elizabeth. And then you know what Jesus
said in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 5, when he cometh into the world.
He's coming into the world. And he says this, A body hast
thou prepared me. And that body was prepared when
he was conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit. Therefore,
God gave Christ a human nature in the womb of Mary at conception. And then remember what Paul said
in Galatians 1? God separated Paul from his mother's womb.
His will and his spirit set Paul apart for God's purpose, even
while he was in his mother's womb. Throughout Paul's life,
Christ guided every step of his life, and at the appointed time,
God called him by his grace, and the Lord Jesus Christ made
him his apostle. Therefore, yes, people are people
at conception. And abortion is therefore taking
the life of an unborn person. A person with a body formed by
God himself. You can read about that in Psalm
139 at your leisure. The second question is, is there
an age of accountability? Are children innocent? Is there
a time when children are innocent and therefore if they die they
go to heaven because they're not sinners? No. Children are accountable. And
they're accountable at birth. They're accountable at conception.
As we saw before, they're guilty of Adam's sin. There cannot be
an age of accountability because all are guilty. They're all guilty
of Adam's sin. They're conceived by by their
father in the womb of their mother. He's a son of Adam. She's a daughter
of Adam. And they're conceived in sin
according to Psalm 51 5 and others. Psalm 58 verse 2 and 3. In any case, they're guilty and
they have a sin nature. Therefore, there is no such thing
as an innocent baby. If babies were not sinners, babies
wouldn't die. And we know babies die, don't
we? No one born to Adam can deserve eternal life. No one born to
Adam can deserve eternal life by what they do or by what they
are. Not at birth, not ever. Job in
Job 14.4 says, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Which brings us to a
very important point. All who enter heaven are known
of God before they're conceived in their mother's womb. Just
as God told Jeremiah. He said, before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee. And remember what Jesus said
in Matthew 7.23 to those who were standing before him on his
left hand in the day of judgment. He says, I never, never knew
you. Clearly, if God knew Jeremiah
and didn't know those who lived a full life and stood before
Christ at judgment, then He knows His people in eternity. And He knows them in the womb.
He knows them in life. He knows His people. No one,
therefore, will enter heaven unless he is known before by
God, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and born of the Spirit
of God. Look at Romans chapter 8, verse
30. You know what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, don't you? He says, unless a man is born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of heaven. There's only one kind of people
in heaven. Those people who were adopted
by God the Father as his sons, were given to Christ to redeem,
and who are born of the Spirit of Christ. But look at Romans
chapter 8. Verse 30, there's a chain here, he says, in verse
29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Okay,
if He foreknew them, He predestinated them. To what? To be conformed
to the image of His Son. That He, His Son, might be the
firstborn among many brethren. You can see what they were predestined
to, don't you? Sons of God, conformed to Christ. But look at verse 30. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, Them he also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. No one stands in glory but those
who are known before of God. Those who were predestinated,
those who were called, those who were justified by the blood
of Christ, and those who are glorified. Those are the ones
who are in glory. Therefore, there is no age of
accountability. There are no such thing as innocent
children of Adam. The only way we enter heaven
is through the blood of Christ, through electing love, and through
that operation of God in the heart of a man or a baby to make
them God's son by spiritual birth. And third, Here's another question
that we might have. Does Christ save children while
they are children? Of course, the answer to this
is yes. There can be no doubt about this. John the Baptist
is an undeniable example. Remember, he was filled with
the Spirit of God from his mother's womb. Remember David's son, his
first son by Bathsheba? God took his son in infancy. David prayed for his son before
he died. God took him and David said this
in 2 Samuel 12, 23. I shall go to him, but he shall
not return to me. God took his son, and David said,
I'll go to him. Not to the grave, but to God's
presence. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5.8. God is not
the God of the dead, but of the living. Therefore David's son,
who died in infancy, was in heaven. We might think, well, David was
a believer. One for whom Christ would give
his life. Would God choose a man after his own heart? And then
his son in infancy also because of David? Is that the way that
God saves? It's not. Remember he says, it's
not of blood. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not because of a man's will or because of the man himself,
his own will. It's of God. Salvation is of
the Lord. Remember this case. Maybe you
don't remember this in 1 Kings chapter 14. Let me turn you there
just briefly. 1 Kings chapter 14. I'll give
you the history. Jeroboam was king over the ten
tribes in Israel, because before him Solomon had been king over
all twelve tribes, but Solomon loved many women, His wives were
idolaters, they came from idolatrous nations, and he set up their
idols in Jerusalem and worshipped them. And God said because of
this he was going to separate ten tribes after his death, and
he made Jeroboam king, the first king, over the ten tribes. Solomon's
direct son was Rehoboam, but he took the two tribes, and Jeroboam
took the ten. But Jeroboam was the worst kind
of idolater. He was the worst kind of man.
In 1 Kings 14, the account goes, and I'm not going to read it,
but look at verse 1 of 1 Kings 14. At that time, Abijah, the
son of Jeroboam, fell sick. And Jeroboam said to his wife,
Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou may not be
known to be the wife of Jeroboam, and get thee to Shiloh. Behold,
there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be
king over this people, and take with thee ten loaves, and so
on. So he sends his wife to this prophet that had prophesied that
Jeroboam would rule over these ten tribes. He says, Go to the
prophet, disguise yourself to let him know you're My wife,
because if he finds out you're my wife, he's certainly not going
to tell you what I want to find out. Which is, will my son live
or not? Remember, the worst kind of king,
Jeroboam. His wife goes in by disguise.
Of course, the Lord speaks to Ahijah and tells him what's going
on. In verse 5, And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of
her feet coming into his house, She came in at the door, that
he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam. Why, for faintest thou,
in other words, why do you pretend? Why do you pretend thyself to
be another? For I am sent to thee with heavy tidings. Go tell
Jeroboam. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.
And he gives him all this woe, for as much as I exalted thee
from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel,
and rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave
it to thee, and yet thou hast not been as my servant David,
who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his
heart, to do that only which is right in mine eyes, but has
done evil, above that were before thee For thou hast gone and made
the other gods in molten images to provoke me to anger, and hast
cast me behind thy back. Therefore, behold, I will bring
evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam
him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up
and left in Israel, and take away the remnant of the house
of Jeroboam as a man takes away dung, till it be all gone. him
that dies of Jeroboam in the city shall be the dogs eat and
him that dies in the field all the fowls of the air shall eat
for the Lord has spoken it arise therefore get thee to that to
thine own house and when thy feet entered into the city the
child shall die but then he adds this and all Israel shall mourn
for him and bury him For he only of Jeroboam shall come to the
grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward
the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam." That is grace,
isn't it? Abijah, Jeroboam's son, found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. And what did God say? Even though
his son, his father was as wicked as could be, God found some good
thing. What was this good thing that
God found in him? It had to be the operation of
God's grace, isn't it? Clearly God knew him. Therefore,
looking back, he was known before of God. And looking forward,
he was going to be glorified by the Lord. Whom he did foreknow,
he also glorified. Remember? And in this, we see
that salvation is all of God's grace. All entirely of His grace. We're not born of blood, nor
of our will, but of the will of God alone. Remember when the
two boys were in Rebecca's womb? And these two boys in the same
womb, twins, what did they do? They struggled in the womb. And
that's the language of scripture, unborn children struggling in
the womb. Does God consider them children in the womb? He wouldn't
have talked about them as children struggling in the womb if they
weren't. And so remember she asked, Isaac's wife Rebekah asked
the Lord why. And he tells them why. There's
two nations, two people in your womb. And so when they were yet
unborn. And neither having done any good
or evil, Romans 9.12, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. Therefore,
both David's son and Jeroboam's son entered heaven when they
died. When they died. And so all of
God's adopted sons so enter heaven in the same way. The next question
we have here is, do children go to heaven when they die? Of
course they do. David's son did, and Jeroboam's son did. We might
ask this question, and I think I'm going to have to close with
this one. Do all children go to heaven when they die? That's
a difficult question, isn't it? That's probably the question
you've been waiting to get to. It's funny how we like to focus on
those kinds of questions. Do all children go to heaven
when they die? It's not bad to think about that. It's actually
good. It's okay to take all of our questions to the Lord. But
I want you to think about this. Many children died in the Old
Testament and in the New Testament, didn't they? How many children
died in the flood of Noah's day? Do you think there were any children
then? How about in the overthrow of
Sodom and Gomorrah? Do you think there were any children
that God killed then? Or in the firstborn of Egypt
when God came through that night and slew all the firstborn of
Egypt who were not in the house where the blood was sprinkled.
Do you think there were any children killed then? We know Pharaoh
killed many newborn Israelites by his decree when he was concerned
that the Israelites were growing faster than the Egyptians in
numbers. And God commanded Israel to kill
all the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15 verse 3. Not only all the
Amalekites, but their children. Samuel himself said, the children
and the suckling. Herod killed all the children,
two years old and younger in Bethlehem. Therefore, many infant
and young children died both at God's hand and at the hand
of wicked men. Question, did they all go to
heaven? Do all children go to heaven
when they die? I carefully consider this question in my answer to
this question. And from scripture, I have to
say, I cannot say yes, and I cannot say no. I can't say that all
children who die go to heaven, and I can't say that they all
don't go to heaven. Maybe they do. But I'm not going
to just leave it at that. Just because God doesn't give
us a simple yes and no answer to the question, we might think,
well, then what do we do? I believe that God answers this
question the same way that he answers the question for us when
we ask that. If I said, is Rick Warda saved?
How are you going to answer that? When you ask, Lord, am I yours?
What is God's answer to you? Does he say, yeah, you're going
to go to heaven? He doesn't say that, does he?
He says, in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Corinthians
15, 22. All, as in Adam, all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. I can be confident of
that. He says, surely shall one say,
in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Isaiah 45, 24. We know this of a certainty.
All who are in Christ live to God. All who are outside of Christ
do not live. You might ask, why are you avoiding
the question? Why don't you give me a yes or
no answer? Because as I search scripture, as I search scripture,
I'm not saying this definitively, just because I can't answer yes
or no, I'm not saying the answer is not there. But as I search
scripture, God gives assurance to sinners in only one way. As
they look to the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3.36, it says, He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. It's not said, whosoever believed
on Christ has everlasting life. It says, whosoever... It doesn't
say that whosoever believed in the past, because faith is not
a one-time act. Faith is not an action in the
past. It's a present and continuous
action. Believers believe. You're saved
if you are looking to Christ, not because you looked a long
time ago. Faith is the evidence that God
has saved you. He brings you to repentance and
gives it to you and gives you faith in Christ. And that faith
that God gives is an ongoing thing. Faith that believes Christ
comes to Christ, looks to Christ. And that faith is the evidence
that we're born of God. The just shall live by faith,
Galatians 3.11. We live in present faith. We
don't live in past faith. If we don't live in present faith,
we're not alive to God. It says in Colossians 1.23, if
you continue in the faith, not because it depends on your faith,
but because it's a given that those who believe God continue
to believe. In 1 Corinthians 15.2, Paul says,
if you keep in memory the things that I've told you. Haven't you
found in your own experience, in your own conscience, that
your only assurance comes when you are looking to Christ? When
you renounce that all that can be called yours And then you trust Christ for
all that He is and has done. The point is this, is that faith
is active, it is living, and because we are continuously brought
by God to come to Him and depend on Him and look away from all
that we are to all that Christ is, that's the way God assures
us. Therefore, just as we believe
Christ for our own souls, we believe Him for the souls of
our children who die in childhood. We leave them, those children,
in His hand and in His mercy, who is the fountain of mercy
in life. Abraham said, shall not the God, I'm sorry, shall
not the judge of all the earth do right? He asked it as a question
in deference to God, but he knew the answer. It was obvious. God
has to do right. His question was a statement
of truth. The judge will do right. Are
we more righteous than God? Are we more compassionate than
Christ? Can we therefore trust our children
into His hands? Shouldn't we? This is why we
bring them to hear the Gospel. This is why we bring them to
Christ in our prayers. We entrust our children and all
children who die in infancy into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those four friends brought their
paralyzed friend to Jesus. Isn't it enough for you and me,
therefore, to know that salvation is in Christ? And knowing this,
we will have full assurance in believing Him. Psalm 130 says
this, Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there
is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquities. We can't believe God saves all
children unless we believe that He saves them in the Lord and
we entrust them into His hand. But can we be assured that He
saves all children who die in infancy? I don't know, but I
can trust Him, can't I? Isn't that what it always comes
down to? Trusting Jesus, trusting Jesus. We trust Him. He hasn't
given us a clear word, so we trust Him, don't we? That's all
we can do. As soon as I can clearly see
from scripture that God saves all children, then I will tell
you, God saves all children. But until then, I'm going to
tell you, look to Christ. If I knew that I could tell one
person on this earth, God, my friend, has saved you, you will
be in glory. I would certainly tell him that,
but I can't. Because God says, whosoever believeth on him has
everlasting life. I'm going to ask and answer one
more question real quickly here. Should we baptize our children?
Should we baptize our children because we hope that by baptizing
them that the Lord will be more gracious to them? Somehow that
they're in our family? They were born to me and my wife.
We're believers. That makes them holy? That is
not what scripture teaches. That is not what scripture teaches.
Find me one example in scripture of God or any, I mean Christ
or his apostles or any of his disciples baptizing an infant. It doesn't appear in scripture. And yet, scripture does give
examples of baptism, and in every case, every case, those who are
baptized are believers. And in the one case when someone
asked, what preventeth me from being baptized, the Ethiopian
Philip answered, if you believe with all your heart, you may.
Isn't that a clear testimony of the fact that baptism is for
believers only? Besides the fact that they who
baptize infants and children do it by sprinkling, which is
not taught in scripture, but by immersion, because the word
baptize means to immerse. And because it represents what
happens when we with Christ died and were buried and rose again
with Him. And so no, no, the Bible doesn't teach to baptize
children. The Bible doesn't teach that
because me and my wife are believers, or that I'm a believer, maybe
my wife isn't, that my children are therefore holy to God. 1
Corinthians 7.14 simply teaches that if we have children, that
because God has sanctified marriage as marriage, that our children
are legitimate because of that marriage. And so we find lots
of funny questions that pop up about children and funny practices.
Most of them are derived by people who think that by something a
man does, something their parents do, they're going to make them
more savable to God. They're not. God never finds
in us one thing. One reason for which He can save
us. Salvation will be by grace alone or God will not save us
at all. It will be by the work of Christ
entirely or nothing that Christ did will be for us. We can't
save ourselves. That's clear. These people brought
their children to Christ and they brought them to him alone
and that's what we must do. Bring ourselves and him and our
friends and everyone to Christ and leave them there. He's the
only one who can heal them. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your goodness. Thank you for your word. You
saved the nation of Nineveh from sure destruction and said in
that city were so many, 120,000 who didn't know their left hand
from their right. You save them in your mercy and
compassion. Lord, we trust our children to
you, and we ask you, according to your word, save them by Christ. We know that he alone can do
so. It's his mercy and grace, his blood and righteousness,
his interceding before God, his power, your word, your work,
your will, is for your purpose. Lord, do it for your namesake.
Save our souls. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.