Luke chapter 18. Luke 18. Let's read verses 15 through
17. Luke 18. They brought unto him
also infants that he would touch them. But when his disciples
saw it, they rebuked them. Those who brought his children,
they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him. His disciples called them. And
that's us, isn't it? And he said, Suffer little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not. For of such is the kingdom
of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall
in no wise enter therein." No way you're going to be in God's
heaven if you're not like a little child. I hope and pray the Lord
will make us, if we're not already, make us like little children.
to hear this and receive it. They brought, who brought these
children? Well, mothers, fathers, someone
brought little children, brought their babies, their infants for
him to touch them. And Mark's gospel said to lay
his hands upon them and bless them and pray for them. Now,
there's no such thing as infant baptism, you know, Roman Catholic
practice of christening. That's not in the Bible. Presbyterians
even did it. That's not in the Bible, but
it's a good thing. And right here in Scripture,
an act of faith and love and hope to bring your babies, to
bring your children to the Lord in prayer. That's how we bring
them, primarily, in prayer to the Lord. And ask Him, Lord,
lay your hands upon them. Lay hold of them. Get a hold
of them. before the world does. Lord, save them. I can't save
them. The preacher can't save them.
Nobody can save them from this untoward generation, from this
world. They can't. No one can save them from themselves.
No one can convince them what they're doing to themselves,
what they're going to go through. Lord lay hold of them at an early
age. Scripture says it's good for a man, a young man, a young
person to bear the yoke in their youth before the evil day, before
the world gets hold of you. It's going to happen. And it
will only be by the mercy and grace of God if it doesn't save
you from this world. So we bring our infants, our
children, our adolescents, our teenagers, those we love, we
bring them to the Lord in prayer. Lay hold of them. We pray for
them, but we want Him to intercede for them. There was a young man who was
expecting their first child, and he was a believer. The man
was a believer. And he told me later, he said, I asked the Lord
to not give me children unless they were his leg. Because it would be better not
to be born and not be born again. It's just one more sinner. It's a serious matter, you know. So we bring them to the Lord.
Now, our Lord said, and he was highly displeased with his disciples,
and he called them and said, Suffer, allow the little children
to come unto me. Forbid them not. Of such is the
kingdom of God. Of such. The kingdom of God is
made up of those who were once little children or those who
in spirit and attitude are little children. Okay? Scriptures are
very clear. that the Lord saves infants,
unborn, and little children. There's no age of accountability. If you're old enough to sin willfully,
you're old enough to be punished for it. There's no age of accountability.
But the Lord, the Scriptures does say, and you remember the
message from Psalm 116, the Lord preserved it, the simple. Those
simple-minded people, born with, you know, brain defects and all
that. The Lord is so merciful. And He saves the sinner. The
Lord would not have allowed David or had David to write in 2 Samuel
12 about his infant son dying. He said, he cannot come to me,
but I'll go to him. Remember that? The Lord would
not have had that man, after his own heart, write that for
mothers to read, who've lost their little babies, and have
hope. Would he? Oh, no. Oh, no. Now, David said that, and it's
true. It's true. And so many other
scriptures, Romans 5 talks about those who have not sinned after
the similitude of Adam's transgression, meaning willfully, rebelliously. Okay? John Newton, whom I esteem
so highly, that man had more wisdom, I think, than I'll ever
have. But he died at 58, younger than me. The Lord gave men like
that such wisdom. And he said, no doubt that the
majority of those in heaven are children. How else do you explain a number
which no man can number, when at any given time there's a few?
That Lord, well, Wednesday night, are there few that be saved?
Who can be saved? It's so straight and narrow.
Eight souls during the flood. Eight? How do you account for
a number which no man can number? Abortions, infant deaths, diseases,
wars, and so forth. The Lord is so merciful. He's
more merciful than us. I've known men to get angry and
mad and talk about this, you know, and why? How could you? How could anybody
not want them to be saved? You know, maybe that person's
not saved. This is what our Lord said. He
said, you become His little children. You're not going to get anything. You remember when Pharaoh took
thousands of babies and threw them in the river? Who did that? Pharaoh? Did Pharaoh of his free
will say, I'm going to kill all these Jewish children? No way. God did that. And what he did
was threw his children in the river of his mercy. And it took
them to the throne of glory. And they didn't go through a
life of misery. and sin and cause pain and suffering. They didn't endure pain and suffering.
They didn't cause any pain and suffering. Lord's mercy. What
about Herod? He had all those thousands of
babies killed in Bethlehem. Do you think for a minute that
anybody dies for the cause of Christ, that God won't honor
that? I'm telling you, anyone Christ
died for or saved, anybody that dies for Christ is saved. They
say, let's believe. Oh, they do. As soon as they
walk into heaven, they believe. Are you saved because you're...
Were you born again because you believe? Or did you believe because
you were born again? Salvation is of the Lord. Now
this is what these disciples thought. Children can't. Children don't have the capacity.
Children can't believe. What can they go through? What
can they know? The question needs to be asked is, what do I know? All right, they thought, here's
what they thought. They thought children, they're too insignificant.
Get these children out of here. We're a bunch of adults here.
They're insignificant. They're unimportant. Look at 1 Corinthians 1 with
me, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. As you know, the scripture says,
those that think they're something are what? Nothing. It says, if
any man thinks he knows anything, as he ought to know. What does
it say? He knows nothing yet. You need
to start all over again. Paul rebuked the Hebrews, all
of them. He said, you ought to be teachers,
but you're just babies. I'm going to have to go back
and teach you like babies. That's what he said. You ought to be teachers,
but dull appearance. They thought the children were
insignificant and unimportant. Look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse
26. You see your calling, brethren? You know, salvation is to be
called in it. Have not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble to call? You see that? God has chosen
the foolish things of the world. People think little children
act foolish. We're going to talk about that in a minute. To confound
the wise, God hath chosen, verse 27, the weak things. Little children
are weaker. Are you strong? Am I strong? He said, base things, verse 28,
base things, lowly, methods, insignificant, things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, things which are not, to bring
to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his
presence. Any man glory says he that glory,
let him glory in the Lord. And every one of God's people,
if we get the glory, every one of God's people, now all are,
but if I'm one of them and I get the glory, it's going to be 1,000% the mercy
and grace of God that got me there. It's going to be in spite
of me. It's going to be in spite of
me. And he said in Isaiah 46, he said, I've carried you. You
have to carry little children around. He said, I've carried
you from the day you were born to your hoary head. I'm going
to carry you all the way. If he sets us down for a minute,
we're gone. We're gone. Like a little infant. Children can't walk in it. Little
infants can't walk in it. They thought they were insignificant.
No, it's us adults who are insignificant. Those who think they're something,
they're insignificant. You know what the scripture says
about man in Isaiah 40? Grasshoppers. How much more insignificant
can you get? Inhabitants of the earth, reputed
as nothing. Put them all together, he said.
They're weighed in a balance. They won't weigh up anything.
They'll come far shorter. On the contrary, the Lord came
into Jerusalem riding. They were hosannas. He smiled. He rejoiced. He said, Have you
not read Psalm 8? Out of the mouths of babes and
what? Sucklings, hast thou ordained
strength. Let me give you an illustration. Luke caught his oldest daughter
when she was about three years old, I guess, two or three years
old. She'd been hearing the gospel, you know, since she was born,
and talking about how people need to know the Lord, need to
know the Lord, need to know the Lord. Well, she was on the way
to church one morning with her parents, and there was a man
out there cutting his grass. And she said to her mom, asked
her dad, her mom said, why isn't that man going to church? Why
isn't he going to worship the Lord? And they said, well, he
doesn't know the Lord, honey. She said, well, doesn't somebody
need to tell him? Somebody ought to tell him. How much wiser can you get than
that? This is life eternal. They might
know Thee, the only true God. How are they going to know? How
are they going to hear without a preacher? Somebody ought to tell them. I told you about Panda when she
was three years old or so. We were in a restaurant. And
they're waiting on her food to come, and she just starts singing,
He is Lord, He is Lord. He's sitting there in a little
high chair. He is risen from the dead. She was taught that
from a child. And we both said, Honey, honey, honey, honey. Then
we both caught ourselves and thought, No, let her sing. If we don't, somebody needs to. Maybe somebody here had a mouth
of bait. They thought these children were
insignificant. They thought children were too foolish, too frivolous. They play with toys. Really? Who is more foolish, a child
playing with toys or adults? One foot in the grave, we like
to say, one breath away from eternity, still playing with
toys. Still given to the things that...
Tell me who's the most foolish? Someone who's one breath away
from eternity, from meeting God, and still taken up with this
stuff. Who's the fool? The old saying
is, there's no fool like an old fool. And there's no one more
foolish than somebody that can fool themselves. Children don't
fool themselves. They're just a little bit foolish. Right? I can't help it. We can help it. Well, they say children don't
know enough. My pastor said this, and so you
won't get mad at me. He'd been preaching quite a few
years, 30, 40 or more, and he looked out at the congregation
and he said, I've been preaching the gospel for many, many years.
We've gone through verse by verse by verse by verse. Here, in here,
we've looked at 42 books of the Bible, some of them more than
one. Romans three times, John, Luke the second time, and on
and on it goes. And he asked the congregation, he said, you
adults, he said, if I were to ask you to quote three verses
of scripture, What could you do? Just three, after all these years. Children don't know enough. These disciples, these disciples
were the ones that said, you know, get them out of here. And
after three years, they acted like they had never heard a thing
he said, didn't they? They saw wonders, so have we.
They heard wonders, so have we. They saw miracles, so have we. They experienced mercy and grace,
innumerable mercies and graces from the Lord, so have we. More
so than that. And after three years, they were
so frightened like little children. And he said, why is it you have
no faith? Faith comes by hearing, hearing
by the word. Why do they have any faith? Because
they weren't listening. They didn't hear, they didn't
learn, they just didn't. What's their hope? What they
know. You know, this better be our
hope. This better be our hope. Listen
to Isaiah 45. I brought the wrong glasses.
I can't see out of this. Wrong prescription. This better be our hope. Surely
shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength.
This needs to be our hope, and it is, God's true people. This needs to be our hope. By
His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify me. It's His
knowledge of me that's going to save me. Paul said to the
Galatians, he said, he began talking to the Galatians, are
you become so foolish? Have begun in the Spirit, now
you're made perfect by the flesh. He said, who hath bewitched you?
Who could talk you out of coming to hear the gospel? Who? What?
And then he went on to say, now after you've known the Lord,
or rather, he said, are known of the Lord, how could you turn
back to the beggarly element? He said, after you've known,
or rather, I meant, after he knew you. He said, that's our
salvation. The thief on the cross, this
better be our, this is our only hope. He had one thing to say. After
it was all said and done, he had one hope, one plea. Lord, remember me. Because I just don't know much. I just don't remember much. You know, if we live to be 70
or 80, 90, you know what you'll become all
over again? A child. My dad was not a wiser
man in our generation, but I became his father, and I had to make
the decisions for him. Did he mind? No, he asked me
to. He said, I don't have the capacity anymore. He said, whatever
you say, I'll do it. And not only that, but, boy,
did he hear the gospel like a little child? Oh, Ron, didn't he? Every
message was just the greatest message he'd ever heard. He would
tell me that often. He said, I've never preached
like that. Well, I'm glad you think so. That's what it means
to hear as a little child. I want to get into that in just
a minute. Look, if we live to be 70 or 80 or 90 years old,
our memories will be gone, won't they? What's our hope? They'd be gone. You know the
lessons you'll remember when you get older? You won't remember
what happened an hour ago. You know what you'll remember?
You'll remember what happened to you as a little child. Lessons
instilled from you. Or certainly the word that you've
learned as a little child. You'll remember those lessons.
Train a child up in the way it should go, and when it's old
it will not depart from it. It means lessons instilled. You'll
learn. But you'll forget everything that happened yesterday. when
you get old, but you remember lessons learned as a youth. So
what's most important? What's important? This. This is it. What we're
hearing right now. Nothing more important. Children are so dependent, aren't
they so needy, so simple. Children, the disciples, they
don't have the capacity to believe. What have they gone through?
What can they believe? What is faith? It's not faith simply belief,
trust, is it? I ask you, who is more believing
than a little child? You tell a little child something,
they'll believe you. Brother Byron used to tell preachers
that, be careful what you say, somebody's going to believe you. Well, little children, they believe.
Faith is received. Faith's not a decision that you
make as a grown-up. It's received. you see and you
know little children if the Lord deals with that they're capable
of receiving the truth. My wife has very very early recollections
of serious daily the Lord had serious dealings with her as
a nine-year-old girl and they never left her. John the Baptist had the spirit
from when? Faith is not obtained. You don't obtain. It's not something
you obtain. I'm sorry, attain. It's not something
you attain or work toward and finally attain it. It's obtained. You receive it. You receive it. And faith is not in the head,
in the heart. You don't bypass the head. Nevertheless, out of the heart
are the issues of life. And it's simply to believe, to
trust. And children actually have a
great capacity to believe. You tell a child something, they'll
believe it. If you're their parent and they
love you, and you tell them something, they'll believe it. Why? Well,
they've never seen it. They've never experienced it.
They don't believe it. Why? Because you don't know. Because you're the father. I
said so. Okay. Okay. I believe it. Now, granted, religion
You know, they're full of extortion and they extort kids into professions
of faith. And, you know, I think I could
get most of our children baptized. That's evil. Evil. It's like putting a notch on
your belt. But we just preach to our children
like we do to adults. We have special programs for
our children. What we're doing right now is pretty special.
This program, this thing of preaching the gospel, that's the gospel. It's the power of God and salvation. To whom? Everyone that believes,
be it young or old. Right? But if the Lord saves
you, you're what? Born again. How do you start
out? A baby. Not a dog. You don't hit the ground running,
you start crawling. Now our Lord said that. And it said in Mark's gospel,
he was highly displaced. He rebuked them sternly. He said to these disciples, he
was talking to them, now you listen to me, and he was highly
displeased. He said this with a frown on
his face. I remember my dad, you know,
his countenance, when his countenance was to change,
my heart smoke was smitten. Was your dad like that? Oh, just
let him look at me, and I withered. That's what we need. That's what
needs to happen to us. And blessed are they that are poor and can't
try to tremble at my Word. This is our God speaking, our
Father, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to us. Now you listen.
Whosoever shall not humble himself in our text, as a little child,
Whosoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child
is not going to be there. No way you're going to be in
the country. Now here it is. Here's what it
is to receive the kingdom as a little child. Here's the attitude. And Paul said in 1 Corinthians
14. I was going to have you turn, but we don't have time now. He
said, Be children in malice. Meaning children don't harbor
grudges, children don't get mad and stay mad. They get mad, but
they don't stay mad. My brothers and I, we were kids,
you know, we'd get in knock-down drag-out fights. And none of
them were my father. But I had older brothers, but
they, you know, we just, you know, and my parents, that's
made them, my parents madder than anything, when the kids
didn't get along. And often they'd punish all of us. That's not
fair. No, what it is, Sarah, is you
didn't get caught for what you previously did, now you pay for
that. So it's a wipeout, it's a wash. But anyway, we get knocked down,
dragged out of fights, and just an hour later we're just smiling,
laughing, hugging, sleeping in the same bed together. It's like
it never happened. That's what he said. You love his brother.
If not, you're not going to be in the kingdom of God. You're
not going to be there. If you don't love like that,
you haven't experienced the love of God. Because that's the way
God loves you. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another. How? As God, for Christ's sake,
has forgiven you. And my second brother, oh man,
he did some million things to me. He really did. But I can't
remember. I just remember he did some million
things to me. But I don't know who I'm against. I love him.
It's over. That's past. Who cares? Who cares? Now I, in turn, did some million
things to my sister. I tormented her. She's the only
one I could pick on. Enough of that. What is it to
receive? It's to humble yourself. It's
to receive the truth humbly, to receive the kingdom humbly.
Salvation is by grace, not work. Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee,
knew the law and all that, you know, blameless and all that.
God had to humble him, bring him down to the dirt, and look
up. He had to look up to a man named Ananias. Who was Ananias? We don't even know who he was.
Like Obadiah, a farmer. Who's he? He's a nobody. He's
no Pharisee. He's just a preacher. Paul thought
he was the greatest preacher he'd ever heard in his life.
And it says he looked up at him, esteemed him highly, respectful,
received the kingdom of God as to be thankful, to be appreciative,
respectful. There's some people older than
me in this congregation that call me pastor. Some ladies call me my dear pastor. And you don't have to tell me
what I am. I know, but I'm a nobody. Nobody knows what a nobody I
am like me. But this is people that God has
given such a love for me, such an esteem, such a respect for
me. God has to do it. And others would never call me
that. Don't esteem me as such. That's humbling to me, and that's
proof. That's proof that God has made this person to sit humbly,
like a little child under somebody even younger than them. Well, Brother John Sheeley came
up to me this morning, and he said, Thank you. I just want
to thank you again for holding the services together back when
this plague started last year. He said, I just want to thank
you for holding the services back. You know some people got mad
at me for doing that. For doing what I'm supposed to
do. A shepherd keeping the sheep together. A preacher preaching
faith. And people get mad at me. You don't know what that means
to me, y'all. He's still here. He was here
before I got here. And he's still here. And he hears every message
like a little child. He never fails to thank me. A little child is teachable.
You know, adults examine everything you say. Well, you know, I'll
go home and search that out, like the Marines. Okay. You do that. I remember my dad
saying this one time. He said, don't make a rash judgment
in five minutes of something I've been studying for 50 years.
Don't all of a sudden say, well, I'll think about it. It's something
I studied for eight, ten hours, two or three days. Somebody asked
him one time, how long did it take you to prepare that message?
He said, 50 years. We wouldn't question, you know,
we esteem people and professions in this world, doctors and lawyers
and scientists and all that. We just hang on their every word,
like their wisdom itself. But the scriptures say it's foolishness.
Finished. When a man is preaching God's
Word, faith, precept upon precept, he has no ulterior motives, he's
not out for your money, he's not out for you, he's not flattering
you, he's not just telling the truth, just trying to feed you,
just trying to feed you, trying to lead you, trying to lead you
and guide you. He doesn't want the job. He doesn't
want the job. He doesn't feel worthy of the
job. He doesn't feel capable of doing the job. But somebody's
got to do it. Be teachable. Adults like to
argue and debate and analyze. Little children, they just believe
it. Little children are enthusiastic. Enthusiastic. I used to read
to Hannah, and because she was such an avid hearer, that I would
really embellish it. And just, I loved reading to
her. Almost as much as she wanted me to read. And then our grandchildren,
I got to do it all over again. Both of them. I had one on this
side and one on the other. Boy, I was in the middle of that bed. These two, they're just waiting
anxiously to hear this story that they heard 100 times. They'd already heard it 100 times. Tell us again, Pawpaw. This is the greatest story ever
told. We don't deserve to hear it.
That's what Jacob said. I'm not worthy of the least of
all thy mercies and all the truth that you've shown. You ought
to leave me alone. Don't tell it to me again, because I'm dull
of hearing and I don't receive it with grateful heart every
time. You ought to leave me alone like
you do the rest of this world. But God, Rich in mercies. What does He do? Keeps telling
you. Christ said, You're My friends
because I keep telling you. I keep warning you. I keep teaching
you over and over again. Do you hear that? And this is what it is to be
a little child receiving. It's to receive the Gospel as
if you've never heard it before. And there are times like that.
Oh, for more times like that. Every time we hear the word mercy,
we ought to say, how are you? Shouldn't we? Grace. Amen. But we don't. Why? We're adults. Adults are not supposed to act
like that. Or we're all going to be a bunch
of hollering babies in heaven. All right. Enthusiastic. Adults. Adults are the cause of all the
problems in this world. And children suffer because of
it. You know that? All the wars. Children don't
start wars. Adults do. Children don't get mad and put
out and want to kill you. Adults do that. Suffer the little children to
come unto me, of such is the kingdom of God. He said, I say
unto you, except you receive the kingdom as a little child,
you have no wives to enter into. Seriously. Oh Lord, make me a
little child. You know, the growth and grace,
everything in this world that grows, grows upward. Spiritual
growth is down, down, down, down. Like a corn stalked corn, you
know, that ear starts getting full of fruit and full of food,
it's just going to hang its head. And that's what we ought to do,
the older we get, just hang our heads. And cry from the heart,
Oh Lord, I'm a little child. Teach me. Save me. Okay. May the Lord bless you.