You want to turn in your Bibles.
We're going to read three different passages of Scripture today about
children. The title of this message is
The Children's Savior. The Children's Savior. Or I could
entitle it For the Children, because this message is for us,
but it's especially for children. Now, I hope you don't think that
because this message is for children, that it's not also for you, as
you'll see as we go through this. But first turn to Matthew chapter
19. These texts of scripture mean a lot to me. When we were younger in 1995,
we had a little son who only lived about six days. And when
he died, I looked at these verses of Scripture very carefully because
I was looking for a reason for hope that the Lord Jesus Christ
would be merciful to my son. And so these did bring me great
comfort. Look at Matthew chapter 19 with me. First, we're going
to turn to three different places. Matthew 19. It says this in verse
13, Then were there brought unto him little children. The one
that they brought them to was Jesus. They brought little children
to Jesus. And this is why they brought
the children to Jesus. That He should put His hands
on them and pray. And then it says that the disciples,
Jesus' disciples, rebuked the people that brought the children.
These children were little, they didn't understand, but the disciples
thought that Jesus didn't want the children to come, so they
told the people that brought the children, take them away,
don't bring the children. But Jesus said this, he said,
suffer, it means let the little children come to me, and forbid
them not, don't keep them away, forbid them not to come to me,
for of such is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven,
that's where Jesus is. That's heaven itself. He says
that all those who are in heaven are like little children. They have to be like little children.
And now, if you turn over to the book of Luke, actually go
to Mark first, chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. I want you to
see all of these. These are all the same account
given by three different servants of the Lord, Matthew,
Mark and Luke. And in Mark chapter 10, verse
13, it says this. And they brought young children
to him, to Jesus, that he should touch them. And his disciples
rebuked those that brought them. They told them again, don't bring
the children to Jesus. But Jesus, when he saw that,
he was much displeased. He was not happy. And he said
to them, to the disciples and all around him, allow or suffer
the little children to come to me and forbid them not, for of
such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say to you, whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he
shall not enter therein." You have to be as a little child
to enter heaven. And then it says, and look at
carefully, he says, and he took them up in his arms and he put
his hands upon them and he blessed them. Do you see that? Jesus
took up children in his arms, put his hands upon them and blessed
them. He wasn't too busy, was he? He wasn't interested in other
things that were more important. And he blessed the children.
Now look at Luke chapter 18. And the setting in Luke is actually
inside, and so are the other settings, but especially Luke
is inside a chapter which really has to deal with this same subject
in many different ways. The first account in Luke 18
is about a woman who was a widow, and the widow had an adversary,
someone who was mean to her. and who was not treating her
right, who was not just. And so she came to a judge and
asked him for help. And he asked the judge over and
over and over, and finally the judge said, I'm tired of this
woman coming to me. And he said, though I don't fear
God and don't fear man, I'm going to help this woman. And Jesus
said, and shall not God Himself hear His own elect, His own people,
though he dare long with them. And so that's the first one.
And then the next story in Luke 18 is about two men who came
to the temple. One was a Pharisee. He was proud,
very proud. And he thought bad of others.
He looked down on them. But the other man was a sinner.
He didn't really think he should come at all. But when he was
there, he asked the Lord. He beat on his chest. He bowed
his head because he was afraid to look up. And he said, Lord,
be merciful to me, a sinner. And that's when Jesus gave this
story. Listen to it in Luke 18, verse 15. And they brought unto
Him also infants. Do you know what an infant is?
It's a little tiny baby, still nursing. And He says, they brought
unto Him also infants that He would touch them, that Jesus
would touch them. But when His disciples saw it,
they told them again not to do it. They rebuked them. But Jesus
called the children to him, and those that brought the children.
He said, no, no, suffer little children to come to me. Do not
forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God. And then he said
this, and the word verily here means this is certain. You can
know this for certainty. He said, Verily, I say to you,
whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child
shall in no wise enter therein. You know what I want to do? I
want to receive the kingdom of God as a little child. What does it mean? We have to
think first about these people that brought these children to
Jesus. These children were small. Some
of them were just babies, little tiny babies who couldn't bring
themselves. They had to be carried. Their
moms and their dads or whoever loved them brought these children
to Jesus. People saw Jesus heal the sick. People who couldn't walk were
made to walk. Men who were blind, He opened
their eyes. Even people who were unable to
move off their own bed or get up out of their bed were carried
to Jesus. He raised them up. He healed
them. And there were men who were dead,
and He actually raised them from the dead. And now these people
brought children to Jesus. Why would they bring their children
to Jesus? Why would you want to do that?
Because these people knew these children needed the Lord Jesus
Christ. And faith, that's the word that
means when we believe on the Lord as He truly is. Faith looks
to Christ as the only hope. for itself and the only hope
for our children. That's what faith does. And faith
looks to Christ because the same Savior, the same grace, the same
life that comes from God, from the Lord Jesus, that we need
is also the same Savior, the same grace, and the same faith
that we need in our hearts. And so faith finds a way. Faith believes. That if the grace
of God save me, then the grace of God can save my children.
Because you know what? God's grace doesn't require anything
from us. God's grace saves us without
any help from us. Isn't that amazing? God's grace
doesn't look for something good in us to save us. In fact, when
God looks at us, He finds us to be wrong. He finds us to be
sinful, to be against Him. And He has to save us in spite
of our sinfulness. Nothing makes us good before
God. He has to save us independently
of ourselves. And so, these parents brought
their children to Jesus because they thought, if the Lord can
save me, then my children also need to be saved. That's the
first thing. And then the other thing I see here is that faith,
what God gives us to believe in, always looks, it looks for
ways to try to find a way to bring others to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Why? Because, the same reason,
God saves sinners. Sinners need to be saved. Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ, is the Savior of sinners. And so faith,
what God gives us to believe Him, looks for ways. It causes
us to think, how can I bring this person that I know who is
helpless, who is like a little child, can't do anything for
themselves, how can I bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ? That's
what faith causes us to do. Because faith causes us to love
the Lord for saving us from our sin. You know what, when the
children were brought to Jesus, did He look at those little children,
those babies who couldn't even walk to Him by themselves? Did
He look at those babies and say, ah, there's a strong man, I can
use that strong man in my kingdom because he's so strong, he's
strong like Seth. Did He say something like that?
No, he's a little baby, he couldn't do anything. All he could do
is just lie there, helpless. And did He look at them and say,
Oh, this little baby can really sing loud and well, and therefore
I will be nice to this baby. No, He didn't say that at all.
The Lord Jesus looked at these babies. They didn't have anything.
that they could contribute to His kingdom. They were only able
to be the object lessons of His grace, only able to be taught. They couldn't teach themselves.
They couldn't teach others. The Lord Jesus had to teach them.
They had no strength. He had to be their strength.
And they couldn't even call upon Him. He had to bring them. They had to be brought. And so
these children were absolutely without strength. And that's
the way God saves His people. Every one of them are saved in
the same way. Of such is the kingdom of God. Everyone who
enters heaven will come as a child or he won't come at all. And
that's why the man who came to Jesus, this publican, when he
came to Jesus, The Pharisee stood up and he said, he prayed and
he prayed in front of everybody. And when he prayed, everyone
could hear him. And he prayed, he prayed to,
he thought he was praying to God, but he was actually praying
with himself. And he prayed and he said things like this, God,
I thank Thee that I'm not as other men are. And he said all
the things that he did right. He said, I give what I have.
I go without food sometimes to show that I'm really a religious
person, really intent on God and things of God. And he even
said, I'm not a liar. I'm not unfaithful to my wife
and I don't do all that. And like that publican, I'm not
like him especially. He hated publicans because publicans,
you know what they were? They were sinners. And he didn't
like that. And Jesus said that that man
was not pleasing to God. But the other man, the publican,
he stood there and he didn't even come to the front. He stood
way back in the back where no one could see him. He was afraid
to even lift up his head. But he beat on his chest because
that's where his problem was. It was inside of him. And he
prayed, Lord, receive me only for Jesus' sake. The way he said
it was, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus said, that
man went down to his house. justified. God honored him. He
gave him everything that he needed. All of his sins washed away at
perfect righteousness before the Lord. That's what Jesus said
about him because he was like a child. And so these people
brought their children to Jesus so that the Lord would save them.
Do you know that nothing is impossible with God? Nothing is impossible. In fact, right after the children
in Luke 18 came to Jesus, another man came. And he was also young,
but he was a little older, maybe 20, 25. A young man. Maybe he was a teenager. And
he came to Jesus and he thought, you know what, Lord? What must
I do to inherit eternal life? Eternal life means being in heaven
forever. And Jesus said, well, you know
the commandments. And he said, and Jesus told him
what they were. Don't steal. Don't lie. Honor
your mother and father. He told him all these things
to do. And you know what that man said? He said, I've done
everything, everything you've said. I've done it since I was
a little child. And Jesus looked at him and he
said, One thing you lack, just one thing. He says, take everything
you have, sell it, and give everything to the poor. And the man, he
was young. Even though he was young, he
had a lot of money, a lot of things. And he thought, eternal
life, or what I have, all my things. And he decided he couldn't
let go of his things. And so he went away from the
Lord Jesus because he couldn't come as a little child. What
does it mean? What does it mean to come to
Jesus as a little child? Look at Matthew chapter 18. Matthew
chapter 18. Now, this is where I was going
to ask Jack if he would do something for me. Jack, would you mind
coming up here for me? Just set your paper aside. I
have a request for you. Yeah, after Jack. Here, sit right
here on this little... I put this right here for you. Sit
right there. Okay, let me read this. See if
you can hear this. It says, at the same time in
Matthew 18, 1, it says, the disciples said to Jesus, who is the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child
to him, just like I had Jack come up here and sit. Jesus called
a little child and he set him in the midst, right where everybody
was, in the midst of the disciples. All the disciples were around.
And Jesus said this to his disciples, like I would say to all you people,
Verily I say unto you, except you humble yourself. I have to
read it. Except you be converted and become
as a little child, as little children, you shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven. And therefore, he said, whosoever
therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same
is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Okay, Jack, you can go
now. Now, you see, what this... You can come up here now. Sit
right here on this chair, but you have to be really quiet,
okay? What Jesus did in doing this, when we look at a little
child like this, sitting with the disciples around. Can you
imagine Peter, the fisherman? He was there, and John, and James,
and all these fishermen. Big, strong men. And as they're
sitting around looking at this child, what do you think the
little child thought? The child was probably looking
around wondering about these big men. And Jesus was there,
and that child knew something as he was sitting there. I'm
the smallest one here. I'm the very smallest. I'm the
least significant person here. I'm the very smallest and the
least significant. I have nothing I can do to help
these men. These men are huge and strong
and able to do things. I can do nothing. Why am I even
here? Because he was an object lesson
of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to save. Okay, so you see here in these
lessons how the Lord used these object lessons to teach us, because
we can see this. I imagine that when Peter and
James and John and all the disciples and Matthew and everyone was
looking at this child, and Jesus said, unless you're converted
and become as a little child. And they were looking at this
child, feeling so small and insignificant. It reminds me of something. that
Paul, the apostle, said about being small and insignificant.
It reminds me of a lot of things. And this is what I want you to
think about now as the adults, because we have children, don't
we? And we want to be like children because I want to be in the kingdom
of heaven. But what does it mean to be like
a little child? What does it mean to teach little
children so that they can fear the Lord? You know what it says
in Psalm 34, verse 11? He says this, and this is a psalm
of David, he says, Come, ye children, hearken unto me, listen to me,
and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What does it mean
to fear the Lord? And what does it mean to teach
children the fear of the Lord? If we understand that, we will
be as little children. Because you can't teach what
you don't know, can you? You can't really. You can talk
about it as if it's an experience or something that happened out
there, but you can't really teach it. You can't live it, because
that's what teaching is. It's living and teaching what
you know, what God has taught you. And what does the Lord teach
us if He's taught us the fear of the Lord? I want you to think
back now, a long time ago, way back before there was anybody
else on the earth except The first people on the earth. Who
were they? Who was the first man and the first woman who ever
lived on the earth? You know? Adam and his wife Eve. You remember that? Adam and Eve. And they had two boys. The first
was Cain and the other was Abel. Cain and Abel. And Cain was the
oldest, Abel was the next. And you know what Adam and Eve
had to do? They had to teach their children the fear of the
Lord. But how did they do that? Do
you know what they had to tell them? You know what they had
to tell them? Adam had to tell his sons what
he did in sinning against God. He had to tell his two little
children all the way from their birth how he himself had sinned,
and because of his sin, they were going to die with him as
sinners. That's what Adam had to tell
his boys. Do you think that made him feel big or small? Do you
think that made him feel great or little? Do you think that
made him feel Good or bad? It made him feel really bad to
tell him, to tell his children what he had done. He had sinned
against God. God had cast him out of the garden.
God told him, in the day you eat of that tree, you're going
to die. And now his children are there
before him, Cain and Abel, and he's telling them about what
he had done, and the sin, and how before God he and they were
going to die. But do you know what else he
told them? He said, even though I have sinned, God promised something. God promised something huge,
something bigger, more wonderful than you can imagine. And you
know what the promise was? He promised him that one day
God Himself would send a Savior. And the Savior, the way He would
save, He would be born, and the way He would save is God would
put Him in the place of those who sinned against Him. So that
all of the punishment, like a cup full of wrath, God's anger, in
a cup, all of God's wrath was in this cup. And this one, the
Lord Jesus Christ, would have to take that cup of God's wrath,
and He would have to drink it until it was all gone. There was nothing left. He had
to drink all of the wrath of God as punishment in His own
soul. Until there was nothing, no punishment
left in God's cup of wrath for His people. Everything that God
would punish them for, He had to be punished for. And Adam
and Eve taught their children this. And it made them feel so
small in themselves, but it made them feel so glad for the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, that's what they had
to teach them. That's how they taught them.
And then there was another man also who had to teach his children
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And we think about these things. And this man's name was David. He's the one who said these words
in Psalm 34, 11. Come, you children, hearken,
listen to me. I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. This is what happened to David. He was running from
the king, from King Saul, and he ran to the enemy camp, the
place where the enemy king was. His name was Achish, and he came
to the king's And they put the gates of the city closed. And
David was inside. And David had actually killed
the greatest man in their army, Goliath. Remember David, the
sling? He threw that stone and killed
Goliath? Right. And so he was there in this city.
And he was inside the city and there were these gates. And David
was afraid for his life. And so he acted like he was crazy. What can I do to make myself
seem crazy? I know what I'll do. I'll scratch on the door.
Like, I'm crazy. And his drool came down on his
beard. And he's looking strange. And
the king, Achish, looked at him and thought, that man is crazy. Why did you bring this madman
to me, this crazy man? And so David felt before this
man, this king of the enemy, he felt very small before him.
But as he was there feeling very small, he trusted that the Lord
would deliver him. And he said these words, Come,
ye children, hearken unto me, listen to me. I will teach you
the fear of the Lord." Because he knew that in his condition,
he had no power to deliver himself. He knew that only God could help
him, and so his hope was in the Lord. And he said that. He said,
the Lord is the one who has to deliver us. And then there was
another man. And this man was a very, very
bad man. He was a king. He was so bad,
when he was 12 years old, he became a king. His name was Manasseh. And King Manasseh was 12 years
old when he became king. He was king for 55 years. He was king for a long time.
He did so many bad things that God said no one had ever been
so bad as this king. And he hated God. He hated God's
people. He killed little children. He
was so bad. And God, one day, at the end
of his life, two years before he died, made his enemies come
and carry him away to the other city where the enemies were.
And they were mean to him. They took thorns and other things
and they made him... It was so painful for him that
he began to humble himself. And he called upon the Lord.
And Manasseh called upon the Lord. And the Lord was merciful
to him and saved him out of his trouble. And then it says in
2 Chronicles, then the king Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. And that was being humbled like
a little child. When we are humbled like a little
child, you know what God teaches us? First, He teaches us that
you are a sinner, that you are guilty before God. You have done
what is wrong. Have you ever done something
wrong? God has to show us that in our heart. Not only that we've
done wrong, like tell a lie or take something or be mean to
somebody like that. That's wrong. but that what we've
done wrong is actually against God. It's not just against my
brother or my sister or even my mom or my dad. It's against
God. God has to teach us that our
sin is really bad. The second thing God has to teach
us about our sin is that it's what we are. Our sin is our nature. Our nature is to do sin. What we are is sin. And our nature
is so sinful that we can't change ourselves. That's what we are
by nature. We cannot change ourselves. We
can't erase our sin. We can't make it go away before
God. We can't bear the wrath of God against ourselves. God
has to do something about that. And we can't take away our nature.
Here's a verse in the Bible in Jeremiah 13, 23. It says, Can the leopard change his spots? Have you ever seen a leopard?
They're spotty. They're like lions, but they have spots all
over them. And God said, can a leopard change his spots? And
the answer is no. And then he says, how about a
man whose skin is black? Can he make his skin white? No,
he can't. An Ethiopian can't change his
skin. And God said, this is the way sinners are. Neither can
you, who are accustomed to doing wrong, do right. That's what
sinners are. God has to teach us that we're
sinners and that our nature is to sin. Our nature is to sin. And we, and this is the third
thing God has to teach us, we cannot help ourselves. We are sinners, our nature is
to sin, and we cannot help ourselves. We can't turn ourselves. Like
children, we can't bring ourselves to God. We can't make ourselves
better so that God will look on us. The young man who came
to Jesus and said, but what one thing can I do to inherit eternal
life? He couldn't do it, could he?
He couldn't do it. Even though eternal life was
in front of him, he couldn't let go of the things he had. That's our nature. We cannot
change our nature. We can't turn ourselves. We can't
change our mind because it's the way we think. It's the way
we are. We're sinners and we're entirely
in bondage to sin, and unless God does something, we cannot
be saved. So what does God have to do to
save a sinner? What does he have to do? He has to find a substitute,
someone who can drink. The punishment of God's wrath
against sin until there's nothing left in God's cup of wrath. He has to drink it all. Until
it's all gone. And there's nothing left. And
that's what Jesus did on the cross. When the Lord Jesus came
into the world, and He was born as a baby, do you know what they
did? The first thing they tried to do? They tried to kill Him.
A king tried to kill him. He says, find him and kill him.
But they couldn't find him because God had a time when He was going
to do what He wanted to do. And so Jesus grew up. He became
a little boy. Finally, He was twelve. And later
on, He became a man. He grew up. And He took, God
laid the sins, all the wrong of His people on the Lord Jesus
Christ so that when Jesus lived, He lived for His people. He obeyed
God instead of them. Remember Adam? Adam sinned. And because of Adam's sin, his
children died. Remember? But when the Lord Jesus
was on the earth and He obeyed God, He was obeying His Father
for His people. And not only did He obey Him,
but He also suffered for their sins in their place. That's what
he did. And then he died under the wrath
of God. And God punished him until there
was no anger left in him against our sin. And that's what Jesus
did. When God says you must receive
the kingdom of heaven as a little child, He's telling us you must
understand your sin, your sinfulness, and your helplessness before
God. And you must look to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only
one who has saved you from your sin. And you have to trust Him. You have to call upon Him. And
what does it mean to call upon Him? Well, look at Psalm 131. Take a look at this Psalm 131,
because here's a man, King David again, who was like a little
child. He recognized, I'm like a little
child. I want you to see this with me.
Psalm 131, very short psalm. He said, Lord, my heart is not
haughty. That means I'm not proud. nor
mine eyes lofty." Not like the man who said, ah, I've done all
the good things that would make God happy. I've done everything
I need to do to be a good Christian. I do all these things. I'm not
like those people there who are just sinners. David said, No,
I'm not lofty like that. Neither do I exercise myself
in great matters or in things too high for me. I have behaved
and quieted myself as a child, weaned of his mother. My soul
is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from
henceforth and forevermore. Jesus said this, Father, I thank
you that you've revealed these, you've hidden these things from
the wise and the prudent, imprudent, the important people, and you
reveal them unto babes. You reveal them to babies, like
children, little baby children, because it seemed good in your
sight. In the psalm, in this song here that David wrote, he's
saying, Lord, I'm not haughty. How can you not be haughty? How
can you not be proud? And this is a tricky question. How can you not be proud? You
know the way we think of not being proud? I'm going to walk
around with my shoulders low and my head low and look really
humble. That's not what it means to not
be haughty. You know what it means to not
be haughty? It means that you know that you are actually proud. And that you're so proud that
unless God humbles you like King Manasseh, unless God humbles
you like King David, Unless God humbles you like blind Bartimaeus
who cried out, Lord, be merciful to me. He said, Jesus, son of
David, have mercy on me. And the publican, he said, God,
be merciful to me, a sinner. Unless you realize that and God
has humbled you, you will be haughty. We will be proud. The
way we teach our children is we teach them how God has humbled
us because of our sin. And how God, even though we were
unable to save ourselves, God has saved us in spite of our
badness, in spite of our helplessness, in spite of our insignificance
and weakness. And just like little children
who need to be brought to Jesus, we need to be brought to Him.
Because a person who's proud thinks, The preacher stands up
and says, you need to come to the Lord. And they say, okay,
I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm coming. I've done that now.
What else do I need to do? Well, they give you something.
I can do that. I can do that. No problem. Here, lift this.
Fine, do this work. I can do that. Be good. Okay,
I'm good. And people start thinking that
they're able to do what God commands. But you know what humility is?
It's recognizing who I am. And then it says, God lifts me
up. The Lord Jesus Christ took these
children. He lifted them up in His own arms. He put His hands
on them. I wonder if the disciples were
standing there and looking at Jesus, putting His hands on these
children, holding these children in His arms, and they were wondering,
I wish I could be a child again. I remember when my mom used to
pick me up out of the bathtub when I was little. It was a long
time ago. And she'd scoop me up. And she'd
wrap me in the towel. And she would pat me dry with
the towel. And I felt so good because I
was all warm and wrapped up in the towel. It just felt so good
to be held by my mom. And I wonder if the disciples
looked at Jesus holding these children and putting His hands
on them and blessing them, if they were thinking, I want to
be a little child again. Because I want to be blessed.
by the King of Glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be humbled
as a child. I am a sinner. I need to be brought. Jesus has come. And I need to
pray, Lord, bring me. I need to repent. And I have
to pray, Lord, turn me. He says, believe. I need to have
Him convince me and persuade me and cause me to believe. Because
a little child depends for everything upon God, upon His Mother. It says in 1 Peter 2.2, as newborn
babes, as infants, still nursing at their mother's breast, desire
the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. If
so, be you tasted that the Lord is gracious. Because if God has
taught you of His grace in Christ, all you want is to drink of Him,
to learn of Him. And you know what children like
to do? I like to hear the story again. Would you tell me that
story again about how David killed Goliath, that huge king? He killed
him. It was this little boy. Because
that's just how Jesus killed my sin. That's just how he defeated
the devil. That's just how he defeated death
and brought his people out of sin and death and out of the
prison house of the devil and saved them from the wrath of
God. That's what he did. And the children
knew. Have you ever told a child, They
say, Grandpa, would you wrestle with me? And you say, Yeah, I'll
wrestle with you. And you know what they do? They
believe you. I'll do that. Sure, he's going to do that.
And they're just waiting. They just stand there waiting
patiently. As soon as Grandpa gets done, he's going to wrestle
with me. And they know that whatever he says, he's going to do. They
believe that. That's what a child does. Do
you know what David did when God told him he was going to
bless him? He said, just like a little child, he said, Lord, Do as you have said. Do what you've said. Do you know
what Mary, the mother of Jesus, said when the angel told her,
you're going to have a child. He's going to be born. You don't
have a husband, but God himself is going to put the child in
you and he's going to be Jesus. And you know what she said? Be
it unto me according to your word, because a child believes.
That's what I want, a heart that just believes God. God said,
salvation is in Christ alone. Listen to these words in Hebrews
1.3. It says, By Himself, He purged our sins and then sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, the Lord Jesus
Christ. By Himself, He removed our sins from us. He washed us
from our sins. And then when He was done, And
God rewarded him for having done all that he said he would do.
He sat down on the right hand of God, on the throne of God,
ruling over all things, because he finished God's work. He's
the one that's strong. He's the one that's good. He's
the one that saves us from our sins. You know what the name
of Jesus is? What is Jesus' name? Jesus. You know what that means? Jesus. It means He shall save his people
from their sins. That's what it says in Matthew
1.21. His name is Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. You know what little children
cried when they saw Jesus riding into Jerusalem to go to the cross
to save his people from their sins? You know what they cried?
Hosanna! Hosanna! And you know what that
means? Oh, save us. Oh, save us. That's what he came to do. And
so they cried. Did they know what they were
saying? God says in Psalm 8, 2, Out of the mouths of babes
and sucklings thou hast perfected praise because of the enemy. Because of the enemy, the enemy
of the devil, the enemy of our sin, the enemy of the world and
of our flesh and all that would bring us under the wrath of God
and keep us there. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save us. And these children knew that because God spoke the truth
through them when they cried, Hosanna, Hosanna. And so the
publican says, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And the blind
man, blind Bartimaeus, he says, Jesus, son of David, Have mercy
on me." Because he needed God to save him. He was the son of
the unclean, Bartimaeus. That's what his name meant. And
so he needed that. And parents and friends of children,
to teach the children, we teach them what we are like Adam before
God. I'm a sinner. I need a substitute,
a savior. One God promised. One who actually,
when He died in the cross, actually put away my sin. made it so that
God would send His Spirit to open my eyes, give me faith,
and bring me to Himself to glory. That's what a child does. And
that's what all who fear the Lord do. And they love it. May
God give us the grace to see the Lord Jesus Christ and save
us for His namesake like little children. Let's pray. Father,
we pray that You would save us for Jesus' sake. We know that
You're able to do anything. Nothing is impossible for God. Our sin is bad. We can't get
ourselves out of it. But You have said that Jesus
came and You made Him sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. We need an obedience that's perfect
before God. He obeyed perfectly. to have
the wrath of God removed from us. He Himself bore our sins
and carried our sorrows. And He endured the curse of your
law, that the curse might not be on us. Lord, help us to know
that we can't even decide for Jesus. He had to decide for us. He had to choose us. because
we wouldn't choose Him. He had to save us because we
couldn't save ourselves. And He has to keep us and bring
us and present us to Himself perfectly, wholly, without blame,
by His great power. All these things we ask, dear
Lord, to do for us in the name of Jesus our Savior. In His name
we pray. Amen.