Let's turn back to 2 Kings chapter 4. Some time ago I was preaching and had some liberty to preach on the subject and someone came up to me after the service and said I've got to get that tape that's a keeper. Now my message this morning is a message that You may wonder right now, why am I preaching this message to you? But I promise you it's a keeper. And I promise you that if you don't need it now, particularly with the emphasis I'm giving, you're going to need it soon. The time's coming when you're going to need to understand what I'm talking about this morning. So I want you to give me your attention and listen carefully.

It's been a while now since anyone asked this of me, but I remember when I was in school particularly, and fellows like to debate issues, someone asked me, he said, if God's sovereign, if God rules everything and God is good, how do you explain such things as infants being killed by their own parents? How do you explain such things as Nations being swept away in tidal waves and being swept away in various things that happen in wars and so forth. How do you explain that if God's good and God rules the world? You explain that.

Well, I'm going to try to explain some of that this morning. And I'm going to be talking to you today about the subject of infant salvation. Now in recent weeks I've had occasion to chat a good many times about this subject to a lot of people. As you know brother, Jonathan Pledger, David Pledger's grandson, Jonathan and Mary's son, Brian, was taken home to Gloucester just a few weeks ago. So it's been a topical conversation around a lot of places where I've been. And I was asserting plainly the other day My firm conviction that infants dying in infancy are with Christ in glory.

And after the discussion was over, one man who had been listening quietly, but intently, came up to me, just pulled me aside, and he said, my wife and I lost our first son years ago as a baby. And he said, I've never heard what you just showed me through the word of God. I've never heard it. Thank you.

But I want to show you from the word of God what the scriptures teach concerning this matter of dying infants. The title of my message is found right here in verse 26. Elisha told Gehazi his servant, Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? And here's the title.

Is it there with the child? Now remember, this boy had been with his father in the field. We don't have any idea how old he was. He was just a little boy. He was something more than what we normally would refer to as a baby. He was old enough to have been weaned. He was old enough to have walked out to the field with his father while they were weeping in the field.

And when he was out in the field with his father, apparently he had a sunstroke, his head began to ache, and he cried, And the father told one of his young men to take the boy back to his mother. And when his mother got him, she sat him on her knees, so he's still small enough for her to sit him on his knees, and she loved him until noon, when the child died. And then she picked up his body and carried it upstairs and put it on the bed where Elisha would come and sleep whenever he came to visit them. And she sent for her husband to send one of the young men with one of the ashes and take her quickly to meet the man of God. And so this woman came and brought her place before the man of God, Elisha, sends his servant out to ask her concerning her dead son, who had been dead now for several hours.

Is it well with the child? And notice what this woman said. And she answered, it is well. It is well. No question about it. No question about it. Those who grieved his loss, those who hurt for the child, those who was, she was herself anxious to have her son's life restored for her benefit, she says concerning her It is well. She had absolute confidence that her dead son was real alive and that he was with God in glory under the shadow of the wings of your mother. Now, I'm preaching this message because I want all of your ears to hear it. All who has ever felt the devastating agony of having a darling child snatched from their arms by death, all who shall yet experience that pain, I want you to know that it is well worth a child.

I was flabbergasted in preparing this message. I was reading what I could find on the subject in my study for the last several weeks now. Lindsay and Todd and I were talking about it just a few weeks ago, and I began preparing the message. Well, I've been reading everything I could find.

I was flabbergasted to read one fellow commenting on this passage of scripture, and he made the statement that the child snatched from his mother's breast is an angel there, singing in the chorus of heaven. No, we're not an angel. Children don't become angels when they die. Children are still just human beings. They are glorified human beings, but they're still human beings. They're not angels. Angels are spirit creatures made by God's hand for the benefit of the elect saints before it entered the world once. But this child, dying in infancy, is with the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Triune God, and the saints of God in heaven, all the glorified around God's throne.

Now, let no one mistake my words. I say without exception, that the word of God plainly and clearly teaches that all infants dying in infancy or dying in infertility are saved by his grace. I do not say, I do not suggest, the word of God does not teach that all baptized babies are saved because baptism doesn't have anything to do with salvation.

And baptism of babies is the invention of men. It is a left over from purposes that many of our Protestant friends simply cannot let go of, but it's a doctrine that has no foundation whatsoever in the Word of God. I do not say that diarists are believing parents are saved. The faith of parents has absolutely nothing to do with the salvation of their children.

Now listen carefully. I've been in situations where I've observed how many women will talk about babies and babies and they'll come before a preacher who acts as part of the preach and they'll sprinkle a little water on the child's face and those parents promise to raise that child and say, you can't do it. You can't do it. It's not possible for you to raise your child in faith.

Faith is the gift of God. And we don't go to the ceremonies and the rituals of pretending to do so. We simply, in our hearts, without proper ceremony, commit our children to the hands of God and ask Him to have mercy on them. But our faith cannot save them and cannot impart faith to them.

But I do say this, and the word of God says this, that all infants and infants dying as such, without exception, are the objects of God's saving grace. There is a false charge often made against us who bemove and preach the gospel of God's freedom and sovereign grace. Many who cannot stand the doctrine of predestination, who despise the doctrine of sovereign election, who cannot, just cannot stomach the message that we bear of God's effectual grace.

They say, you fathers preach babies go to hell. And it's been something that folks have thrown at Christians for three days throughout history, and it's a lie, and they know it's a lie. Is that right? You better have a lie. Have you ever heard any Christian in this country even suggest or imply that they've been hurt?

You've not heard, I've not heard, I've never imagined such a thing. And for us to charge that to us, They simply cannot refuse the doctrine we preach in the scriptures for their kids to scandalize the doctrine by throwing the mud of their vain imaginations against it. They do not believe that babies grow to hair. I don't believe it. Folks who preach in the scriptures don't believe it. You've never heard it from this person.

I fully agree with John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, who wrote this. He said, I cannot be starved for the death of infants. state. Nor can I doubt that they are included in the election of grace. Perhaps those who died in the infant state are the exceeding great multitude of people, nations, and languages mentioned in Revelation 7-9 in description of the visible body of professing believers who are marked in their foreheads and openly known to Christ. Augustus Toplady, who was so constantly, incessantly scandalized by John Wesley, made this statement. He said that all dying in instances are undoubtedly saved. He said, I am convinced that the souls of all departed instances are with God in glory. Now, I could say numerous other things.

John Calvin, John Deere, John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, all of them are men who believed and taught the gospel of God's free grace, and all of them taught that children dying in infancy are saved by God's grace. Now, I make reference to these men not because I doctrine is based on what they taught, not in the least. I simply want you to understand that the doctrine I'm teaching you has been the commonly received doctrine of faithful men throughout the ages of church history. Our doctrine, we fetch our doctrine from this book alone, only from the Word of God. So having said all that, I want you to look with me now in the Scriptures and understand what the Word of God teaches with regard to infant salvation.

First, let me state unequivocally, contrary to popular opinion, children are not born in innocence. Children are not born in innocence, but rather in sin. All children are born with depraved sinful hearts. Sin is not something that a Johnny learns at school. Sin is not something that little Rebecca picks up from the playmates. Sin is something that children are burdened in their hearts. It is the inborn family disease of the human race that we pass on to our children by natural generation.

Listen to the scriptures. Turn to Psalm 51. Now, I want you to see that what I'm saying, every bit of it, comes directly from the Word of God. So you follow good of it. Psalm 51. When David is confessing his sin, and he thinks not of himself alone, but of all like him, sons of Aaron, he says in verse 5, Behold, I was shattered in iniquity.

Now, that doesn't mean that he was a son of an illicit affair between his mother and somebody else. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the fact that when he was tricked in the womb, he was tricked in the image of Adam in iniquity. He said, in sin did my mother conceive me. When did he become a sinner? As soon as he was conceived in his mother's womb he became a sinner. And so did you and I. Look in Psalm 58 and verse 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb. Estranged from whom? Estranged from God. The wicked are estranged from God just as soon as they draw their first breath coming forth from the womb. They go astray as soon as they're born speaking lies.

It's in their nature. It's in their nature. Most of you have more children than I have. But not one of you ever had to teach your children to lie. It's most natural thing on this earth. You touch and do something that's supposed to do when they're two. John did you do that? No? Got a hand in the cookie jar! Did you get a cookie? No! No! That's not my hand in the cookie jar! It's just as natural as it can be!

Children come forth from the womb speaking lies. That's the nature of man. We all become sinners through the sin and fall of our father Adam. That's how we're born. Look at Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. Numbers the 5th chapter and verse 3rd. The apostle Paul is explaining how the justification is accomplished. He has declared that man is universally defrayed, universally corrupt, universally sinful, and now in chapter 5 he comes to do the matter of justification, and through the illustration of it, he goes back to our father and our father-in-law.

How did we become sinners? Not by something we did, but by something we did in a representative man, even by the first man, Adam. And the only way we can ever be made righteous is by the doing and dying of the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not by something we did. Look at Romans 5 and verse 12.

Therefore has by one man sin entered into the world, and David by sin, and so David passed upon all men for the all has sinned. When our father Adam sinned against God, he acted as a representative man, and we sinned in him. Sinning in our father Adam, we died in him when he died. When we became a sinner, we became sinners, and we came forth from our mother's womb with our father's nature, speaking lies, born in death, in trespasses, and in sin, spiritually. Every child born in this world then, since the fall of Adam, was and is born a spiritually dead sinner.

One with a corrupt heart, an evil heart, and an evil nature departing from God. Everybody is born guilty of Adam's transgression and of Adam's depraved nature. But now listen carefully. Have I got your attention? Children are not born innocent. Children are born sinners. But the Word of God nowhere teaches, the Word of God nowhere teaches that anyone has ever been or ever shall be sent to hell because of Adam's sin. The book doesn't teach that.

The Bible addresses men and women and deals with men and women as responsible, reasonable, accountable adults. This is the reason we do not, in this place, play on the emotions of children and pull certain strings when they're going through certain difficulties and get rid of children to make professions of faith. The Word of God addresses you as mature, responsible adults. Now, that maturity and that responsibility as adults is not something that can be reasonably expected from little children. And so we do not put pressure on children to make a profession of faith.

But the Word of God clearly speaks, with reference to this famous scene, that the warnings and the promises of Scripture are addressed to people who are merely responsible to God himself for their actions. Now, while all are deserving of God's wrath, because all are sinners by nature, none are ever said to be judged guilty by God except those who willfully sin, who willfully transgress His law, who willfully disobey Him. And infants can't be said to do that.

Let me show you again Romans chapter 5, verse 14. We'll go back to verse 14. For until the law, that is until God gave the law at Sinai by the hand of Moses, sin was in the world. Now the law had not yet been given at Mount Sinai to identify and define sin, but sin was in the world. But sin is not impeded when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses. Look at this next line. even over them that had not stand after the submittitude of Adam's transgression."

Now, do you understand what that means? That little baby that Ruth's rocking back there in her arms does not have the ability. It does not have the ability to make a moral choice. It doesn't have the ability. That child cannot live with spirit, with thought, and deliver it with willing malice and say, God, I'm not obeying you. Can't do it.

That child has a sin like Adam's sin. That's how Adam sinned. That's how you sinned. That's how I sinned. We will make moral choices in our adulthood, and we say to God, no, and that's it. Or we break God's law, or we disobey His command, and thus stand against Him, not like these infants, but rather we stand after the sublimity of Adam's transgression. And so those who have not sinned against humanity, against transgression, are those, though they are born in death, they are not sentenced to eternal death. God will not eternally condemn anyone so low upon the basis of all this transgression. Let's see the scripture. Turn to Deuteronomy 24. Frequently when we talk about things like this, Mr. Reynolds, that's a fine point of logic, but where does the Bible say it? Deuteronomy 24 and verse 16 is where the Bible says it. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sins.

That means that Ian Butler, though he was born the son of a sinner, Rex Butler, will never be sent to hell because he's Rex's son. It's a very terrible thing he's saying. That's what the passage says. Is that what it says? The son shall not be put to death for the father's sin, nor the father for the son's sin, but every man shall bear his own transgression. The sinner, it shall die. Now be sure you understand this.

Infants are born sinners. Now secondly, if God has saved them, and he does, he saves those infants in exactly the same way as he saves adults. Now, if the infant is born in the state of spirit to death, lost in sin, and condemned by the sentence in the day of our Eucharist, or as our sects really die, then he cannot be saved but by the work of God's grace.

He's not saved because he's a little innocent. He's not saved because he died before he was able to reach the realms of accountability. That kind of nonsense is not taught in the Scriptures. He is saved because God does something for him. And God does the same thing for him that he does for you and me. Is there any place in the Bible where it says that a child was saved?

Let's see if we can find a place. Turn back to 2 Samuel. Let's look at a couple of them. 1 Samuel 11. 1 Samuel. Now the scriptures do speak of some who were apparently, I don't think indisputably, but I'll use the word apparently, apparently saved in their infancy. Saved before they were capable of exercising personal faith. I know that faith comes by hearing. I know that.

And hearing by the word of God. I know that God's means of grace is the preaching of the word. I know that we build our doctrine on those plain declarations of scripture and must do so. But it always tickles me just a little, sometimes a lot, To listen to men try to make God's Word fit their tiny little boxes of theology so it all works together neatly. You know what I mean? We have to get to know the God of doctrine and theology like a jigsaw puzzle.

Every year I hear, they all say, now I see it. And God throws the mucculature in. But you know what I mean? He throws the mucculature in to let us understand that he's not going to be boxed in by our puny brains. And right here are some mucculatures that God has thrown in for folks to consider. And I'm not going to make any effort to explain them. I'm just going to show you what the scripture says. Here in 1 Samuel chapter 3, God paired Samuel when Samuel was just a child. You remember Hannah had this son and she brought him to the house of the Lord and dedicated him to God.

Sometimes in Baptist churches, I was in England and I didn't know what was going on in front of me or I would have said something. So I was sitting up on a pulpit up here and there was something going on down below the pulpit. I couldn't see it and they couldn't hear me, but I knew something was going on. They were having a dedication service for a baby.

And later on I asked her, where on earth did you get that? First Samuel chapter 2. Hannah brought her baby to the Lord and dedicated him. She didn't bring him up to a prayer service, she brought him to live forever in the house of God. There's a heat side of difference. It's not talking about that kind of nonsense. But Samuel is now living with Eli, a prophet dedicated to God. And Eli is called on by Samuel, because Samuel kept being disturbed.

He didn't know, he thought Eli was calling him. Now this little boy can't distinguish what's going on in his life, but God called him. The greatest thing here, verse 8. The Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he said, oh, you meant to Eli, and said, yes, but that bitch called me. Eli, what, he called him twice? No, it's not me.

And then Eli perceived that the Lord had called, look at it, the child. The Lord had spoken to this boy. The Lord had spoken to him. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 1. Jeremiah chapter 1. In verse 5. In verse 4 the prophet says, Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Verse 5, Before I formed beans in the belly, I knew them.

And before thou cameest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. Looks to me like God did something for Jeremiah in another womb, doesn't it? Before thou cameest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. I made you whole now. I made you what you would not be by nature. And I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Now those two might be a little questionable. Somebody might explain the calling of Samuel and the sanctification of Jeremiah and so on. Now that's not talking about those babies being saved. Let's try Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. I don't think folks can wiggle out of this one. Luke 1 verse 15.

So he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, talking about John the Baptist. And he shall need to drink wine, must go and drink. And he shall be filled, filled, not influenced by, filled. Not under the control of, but filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. I suspect maybe that indicates John the Baptist was regenerate before he was ever born.

That's exactly what the pastor is talking about. Now, does that mean that happens all the time? No, no. God cares mostly what you say, but he would have us to understand His grace operates solidly where He will, and He gives us these passages specifically to give us understanding with regard to infants. How can infants be saved? If God saved Jeremiah and John the Baptist before they were born, and called Samuel when he was just a baby, obviously it is no problem for God to save His elect through bio-infancy.

But what about man's will? And what about faith? Is there salvation by faith? Yes, the Gospels address the adults. And you men must believe. You women must believe on Christ. But unlike the Arminian and the free willer, we do not believe that faith is the cause of salvation.

The word of God does not teach that faith causes God to give them new birth. Faith is the result of God's salvation. Faith is the recipient of God's salvation. Faith is the evidence of God's salvation, not the cause. Faith doesn't call the election, it comes from the election. Faith doesn't call redemption, it comes from redemption. Faith doesn't call the spirit's call, it comes from the spirit's call. So God doesn't wait on the sinner to do something before he defends his works of grace. And he does what that is. That's the very same thing he does for all other believers. And how are those who die in infancy saved? By the very same things by which we are saved. They come into heaven by the same door.

Jesus Christ the Lord. So the things God does for you, they're saved by God's eternal election. Just like you were. God chose you. They're saved by blood atonement, just like you were. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses from all sin, nothing less can. They're saved by imputed righteousness, just like you and me. So the very dying infants there had Jehovah's Virginia to be the Lord their righteousness. And they're saved by sovereign regeneration, just like you and me.

You see that which is born of flesh is flesh. But if it's chosen of God and shall enter into the world, it must be born of God and born of the Spirit and must be made a new creature in Christ. And God sovereignly takes the infant's soul and creates it a new creature in Jesus Christ and then it enters into that rest that we know of for the people of God. Alright, let's move on a little bit. dying into heaven by the same method we do, by God's election, by Christ's redemption, by our impending righteousness, and by our divine regeneration.

Thirdly, I want you to see that this is not a matter at all of conjecture. This is not a matter of theological speculation, but the salvation of infants, dying as infants, is a matter of fact, clearly revealed in Holy Scripture. Now I'm going to move very quickly, but I want to give you nine reasons for saying so. First, I appeal to the universal goodness of God.

You don't have to turn there, but listen to Psalm 145. Psalm 145. The psalmist is admiring God's goodness, and God's goodness as it stands to all his creatures. In Psalm 145, verse 8, the Lord is gracious. and full of compassion. He is slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all, and his tender words, his tender message are over all his works. Skip down to verse 15.

The eye of the bearer weighed upon thee. Thou givest them their meat in this season. Thou openest thine hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. Isn't that amazing? The spider and the lion are fed from God's hand. The elephant and the spider are fed from God's hand. Every man, every woman, every child, every beast, every lonesome creeping thing in the earth is fed from God's hand. In the law of God, God gave specific laws taking care of specific animals.

He said concerning the ox that treads out the corn. Now sometimes you tell them, I can be tempted too because I've got a big ox that kind of grazes his gazelle. I want to measure that ox. God said, don't you buzz around with the ox and trains out the corn. Not because God cares for oxen, but God's tender mercies are over all his creatures.

The sparrow shall not fall to the ground without your father which is in heaven. He falls to the ground in death by God's decree, or he falls to the ground to pick up the seed by God's decree. This doctrine tends to even the brute beast of the earth and the merciless creatures of the earth so that even the worms are fed by his hand.

How much more is it that God is tender and compassionate toward these infants dying in infancy? I cannot imagine a God who gives a decree that the raven's nest, not because she's got her young ones in that nest, would say to an infant, departed everlasting fire. And to me that just seems beyond the possibility of reason.

Secondly, our Lord Jesus plainly asserts that infants, little children, most of the large part, is not the greatest part of his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. Listen to what he says, given three times in the New Testament. Suffer the little children to come to me, and forbid them not For as such is the kingdom of heaven. That's the character of the kingdom.

This text is almost always quoted by those who try to defend the doctrine of infant baptism or infant sprinkling. But they're not aware that baptism is sprinkling in the text. The Church strictly is teaching that our Lord holds infants in tender regard in His heart as infants, and the implication is clear. He will not cast them into hell. And if you come to Him, you will have to be converted, and there is a little child coming to Him in the simplicity of simple faith and confidence. Thirdly, the basis of divine judgment forbids that any infant should be damned.

When I loaded the last boat, it comes, and he sets the ship on his right hand, and the goods on his left. He then says to those on his left hand, I was hungry, and you fed me not. I was sick and in prison, and you visited me not. I was thirsty, and you gave me no water to drink. Well, these infants had no ability to do so. And if the basis of judgment is either the breach of God's law or the neglect of the deal-dealer as the scripture clearly teaches, then those infants had never done those things.

Fourthly, the Word of God positively asserts that the number of saved will be very great in the last day, an innumerable multitude which no man can number. The covenant of God declares that his seed, the seed of Abraham, shall be as the stars in heaven and as the sand upon the seashore for a multitude.

And yet, as we look at things in time, as we read our history books, and when you search the events of time and history, God's election is the minority. Those who worship God in this world are always the minority. Those who believe the books of God have always been in the minority. Even if you took into consideration and said, all right, all who profess to believe, everybody, liberal, conservative, Calvinist, Arminian, Catholic, Buddhist, Methodist, Mormon, everybody who says, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, if you said all of them are sage, get your hat back. And you'll find out there's just a little bitty section of the world that says so. Just a little bitty section of the world. And those folks, the vast majority of them are of the same dignity. They all read the gospel of God's grace.

Well, how is it then that there's going to be an enumerable multitude which no more is a member? I'm confident that our Lord Jesus will come behind Satan in nothing, and that the number of the slain shall far exceed the number of the dead. And I know that one method by which God populates his kingdom is the saving of his elect in infancy.

Throughout history, until modern times, the vast majority of our race has died in infancy and early childhood. And in most parts of the world, probably 25 to 30 percent of the race still dies in infancy. In many heathen lands, Infanticide was commonly practiced by barbarian tribesmen. It's hard to imagine, but it was not at all uncommon in many, many parts of the world for little women to slay their children. Today, infanticide is being practiced by well-educated modern barbarians throughout the world on an ounce called a bullshit. And I'm not about to get involved in the crusade against abortion, I'm just telling you it's the murder of unborn infants.

In some places, abortion is not only legal, it's required by law. It's required by law. There are places where it's against the law for folks to have more than one or two children. And it's required that those children be aborted if a woman's found pregnant beyond that.

Now, in his infinite sovereign wisdom, In his infinite goodness, power, and grace, I am here to tell you that God Almighty overrules even those wicked deeds of men and women whereby they slave the fruit of their womb, and by that he populates his kingdom. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain. Now, let me show you several excerpts in the Bible that throw a little more weight on this.

When Israel was delivered out of Egypt, God brought out all the Israelites. Satan said, I asked you, and you men and women can go and worship God, just leave your little ones behind. And Moses said, we're not going to leave behind so much as a hoof of a heifer. They're all going home. And that was the picture of an eviction and salvation of God's elect.

Later on, when Israel came to inherit the land of Canaan, all of Israel, except for Joshua and Caleb, had died in the wilderness because of unbelief. You can read it in Deuteronomy chapter 1. They died in the wilderness, all of them, except Joshua and Caleb, and those who were called living ones, carried out of Egypt. They were brought into the land and inherited the land.

We have often spoken of David's consolation with regard to his son. after his son died, and David had quit fasting and weeping, and he commanded his servants to bring him some food to save the family. We don't understand it. When the boy was alive, you wouldn't eat. Now that he's dead, you brush your face and say, bring me some food. What's going on? And David said in verse 23 in 2 Samuel 12, he can't come to me, but I shall go to him. And was comforted with that fact. It seems strange to me that occasionally somebody will say, well, that means David was talking about he was going to die too. That doesn't quite wash. I don't see any consolation there.

When David's grandson Absalom died, do you remember how he responded? He cried, O my son, my son, Absalom, my son, my son, when to God I have died for thee. Because he knew Absalom was in hell. And he went down to his son Absalom. But this boy, he was with God in glory. And David said, I can't bring him back here, but I'm going to him. And he comforted his heart.

God's own claims in Ezekiel chapter 6. Turn over there. I want you to look at this. Ezekiel chapter 16. Declared that the dying infants, even of pagan, idolatrous parents, belonged to him. Ezekiel 16 verse 20. God says, Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto unto them, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them, these pagan gods, offered in the fires of false deities, these babies offered in the fires of false deities.

You've offered these babies to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter? This is horrible. And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms, I'm sorry, I moved down to verse 21. That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them, to cause them to pass through the fire for them.

And notice how God changes his speech in verse 21. In verse 20 he says, these are your sons and your daughters that were born to me. In verse 21, they've been offered in sacrifice to false gods. God said, they're my sons and my daughters. to even those children who had been orphaned as sacrifices to false gods by pagan poets. God said, they're my sons and my daughters, and they are.

Now God's reason, one last thing, God's reason for not destroying Nineveh. You remember when Jonah was upset because the Lord didn't destroy Nineveh? God gave Jonah a reason. In Jonah 4, verse 11, he said, Jonah, there are 60,000 babies in that town. 60,000 babies. Now, if God would not pour out his temporal judgments upon men of earth, because there were 60,000 babies who didn't know their left hand from their right, certainly he would not pour out his eternal judgment upon those same babies.

If God acted otherwise than what I've declared this morning, I would bow to him. If it was written in this book that man was dying in infancy and I lost, I'd bow to it, and I'd declare it so. But God doesn't say right. We bow to the word of God, we submit our reason and our judgment to the Bible.

We must do that in everything. Understand that. Don't ever, don't ever be so brazen as to set yourself up as a judge of God saying, now that's in the Bible, I don't believe God, I don't believe that. Oh, don't ever be so brazen. We bow to the scriptures.

But I'm confident, I'm convinced that the words of the Shunammite woman in our original text must be applied to every infant that has died or shall die. It is well with the child. is well with the child. There is one child in our assembly for whom I am absolutely confident. One child. One child, I'm absolutely certain. is going to glory. One of them. Is there one child of this assembly? I'm absolutely certain will stand with God in the perfection of holiness as a trophy of his grace forever. He'll never taste the wrath of God. That's your boy Tony. It's absolutely certain. In God's wisdom and grace, the pain and heartache that you've had to experience, you've been part of God's purpose for that boy's everlasting salvation. have no question about it, no question whatsoever.

Infants and infants dying in such a state are taken by God to glory. Now, this doctrine of infant salvation is very practical Bible doctrine. Like everything else in the scriptures, it is written for our learning and our admonition that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. It is comfort for every bereaved parent. The child who is lost, we must mourn, has been taken up to heaven. Several months ago, Rachel Coleman, one of her closest friends at school, was killed in an automobile accident out here.

I talked to David and Teresa, I said, don't hesitate to tell her that child is chosen of God. Don't hesitate to tell her by my name, that child with Christ in God. I don't even know the child. I have absolutely no question that's so. Absolutely none.

Now when that happens, and your heart breaks, as it must, I talked to David and Pat, Jonathan, Mary and their... Boyd Brown was killed, taken by God's hand out of this world. And their hearts broke. Just broke. My heart broke with them. Yours did too. And their hearts were fully comforted. Fully comforted with this blessed assurance. Oh, what sorrows that child has been spared.

John Vernon used to wish he would have died as an infant. He had struggles with assurance and peace all his life long. and he lamented so much his sin, he just looked and said, oh, if I had just died as a baby, what sorrows that child has escaped, and what grief his early death may have spared the grieving parents.

Now, you ask any who've experienced the opposite, any. Which is easier to bear? The burden and the cost of a child you won't see any more on this earth, but whom you shall see face-to-face in the glory of Christ forever. Or a child that you've raised to be a rebel, and watched grow into a criminal, and you go to visit in the prison, which is easier to bear. Those dying in infancy are spared much sorrow, and it may be that we are spared much sorrow too.

Now here is an explanation of what some men imagine are reflections against God's wisdom and goodness. When providential judgments come, Seven years ago when that tidal wave swept across Bangladesh, later the starving children of Ethiopia were on our television screens every night, and you look at them and your heart breaks for them. Those babies are suffering, so your heart breaks for them.

But then you remember, those babies are raised in lands for many, many, in the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority, worship imaginary gods. And the religion is vile, base, disgusting idolatry. And if everybody's there, they're going to be raised to worship those same stumps and stones and imaginary gods.

But God chose and in his infinite mercy and wisdom, confusing to unbelieving men, confusing to those who doubt him in God. But for those who understand his wisdom, his goodness, and his sovereignty, he sweeps them, hundreds at a time, into glory. And they shall be forever with Christ in his righteousness. The wars, the canyons, the plagues, the earthquakes, the tidal waves, the djinn-jones massacres, all of those things. God sharply uses all things for the saving of his elect.

It is infinitely better for the infants to be swept out of this world than that they should be raised by heathens to perish under the wrath of God. Now let me speak for a moment to you who are parents. You have the responsibility and the privilege of raising your children. You have the responsibility and the privilege. Bring them to God. With prayer and commitment of heart to him, bring them to God. Speak to them often of their souls.

You've young people sitting here who are yet without Christ, and adults as well. You've heard the gospel preached. Right in the pew where you're sitting, in the day of judgment, if you believe not Christ, that sheep will cry out against you. I have no question about it. You've heard the claims of Christ. Believe on the Son of God, or you will bear his wrath forever.

Parents, press the claim of Christ upon your children, and bring them to the house of God to hear his word. for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And my final word is to you whose youth is gone, with a boy that's thinking about his childhood, and he will be getting extra demands placed on them. You know how children kind of do what they can to get out of responsibilities. A little boy looked at his daddy one day and said, Daddy, I can't go back, can I? He said, No, son, you can't go back. And you can't go back either. You can't go back.

If you would be saved, you must enter into glory by the same door through which those little children enter into glory. God's election. Christ's redemption, imputed righteousness, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. And if you believe on the Son of God, it's yours. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

I wonder if you'd give me any reason for not believing. If you will, any of you who sat here and you said, no, I'm not, when you meet me at the door, come inside and give me a reason, will you? Tell me why? Why would you perish when God through Christ is willing to save and able to save all who come to God by him? God helped you now to believe.