That's Mark chapter 10 and verse
13. And they brought young children
to him, that is to the Lord Jesus, that he should touch them. And
his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus
saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the
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, he
shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms,
put his hands upon them and bless them. Amen. May the Lord bless
to us this reading from his word. There's a lesson in this little
passage that we need to note at once, right at the very beginning
of our thoughts together today. And that is this, that no matter
how insignificant we might feel, or how unimportant we consider
our circumstances to be in the greater picture of things, our
Lord Jesus Christ teaches us from this passage that he is
ready to hear and to help and to uphold us in all our ways. Nothing is too trivial to the
Lord Jesus Christ and no one is so small as to be without
significance to the Saviour. We live in uncertain times. We don't know what another few
days will bring. We seem to be back to the days
of the Cold War when the children used to be taught to sit underneath
their desks and be ready for a nuclear war. These things are
a reality once again to us and who would have thought that that
would be the case. These are uncertain times, and
in our feelings of weakness and vulnerability and unworthiness,
the Lord Jesus Christ is ready to draw close to us. And what
this little passage actually teaches us is that those very
qualities of weakness and vulnerability and unworthiness are the very
qualities that characterize a proper approach to the Lord Jesus. So if you feel a bit down, if
you feel low, if you feel beat up, if you feel anxious today,
then I've got something to help you. I've got a message which
I trust will be an encouragement and a blessing to your soul. Next Lord's Day, a little bit
of a preview here. Next Lord's Day, God willing,
we're going to learn something about a man who is called in
scripture, the rich young ruler. And that man came full of pride
and presumption and self-importance to the Lord. And I'm not going
to steal from next week's sermon, but I want to say this, that
what the Lord seeks is not pride and presumption and self-importance,
but humility of spirit in those who come to him for help. and
allowing us to feel our own inadequacies is his way of encouraging us
to come to him as might a little child. And that's the great lesson
of this passage to us. Now let me say something else
here in this part of our thoughts today. About 20 months ago I
preached from this exact passage in a sermon which I called Suffer
the Little Children and I know that some of you heard that sermon
at the time so I'm not going to repeat it. If you have not
listened to that sermon, then what I've done is I've put a
link underneath the information. If you're looking at your screen
and you can see a little bit of information below where it
says New Focus Church, It'll say show more under that. And if you click on show more,
then it tells you the hymns that we're singing today, gives you
one or two links to our website, that sort of thing. And I'll
also put under there a link to the sermon, Suffer the Little
Children, that I preached, as I say, about a year and a half
ago. And you'll be able to listen
to that again if you haven't heard it, because I don't mean
to repeat myself today. Today I want us to think not
so much about the children being barred from coming to the Lord
by the disciples. The disciples made a mistake
and they learned their lesson. But rather I want us to dwell
on the result of the Lord calling these children to himself and
welcoming these children to himself. And I want to set the scene with
an introduction and then make three particular points. In truth,
probably the introduction will take up half of the time that
I have at my disposal today, and then we'll have these three
points quickly afterwards. But let's just think about the
first part. Maybe I should have said I'm
dividing the rest of the sermon into two. And here's the first
part of that. When we think about the Lord
Jesus Christ, a key principle in the Lord's dealings with us
is that we have a welcoming saviour. Come and welcome to the Lord. We have a welcoming saviour who
delights and who relishes his people coming to him. He delights
to receive all who come to him by faith. And this incident reinforces
the Lord's words that no one who comes to him will ever be
turned away or will ever be rejected. And that is a principle that
I want us to lay hold upon today as we begin to think about these
verses. Now let me qualify that statement
that I have just made so that there is no confusion and then
we're going to enjoy the good stuff after that. Here's the
qualification. Free will preachers always talk
about coming to Jesus. And many indeed think if they
haven't given an invitation to come to Jesus then they've not
preached the gospel at all. As if the gospel is the invitation. Well it's not. The gospel is
the whole plan of grace. God's grace. Purposefully. wisely and successfully accomplished
by the triune God for the salvation of His people from their sin. That's the Gospel. The Gospel
encapsulates, it includes, it summarizes the Father's elective
purpose from eternity the Son's redemptive sacrifice on the cross,
and the Holy Spirit's quickening call and effectual conversion
of sinners who are otherwise dead in sin. And if we exclude
any part of that divine work from our message, we have not
preached the gospel, despite all of the so-called invitations
that are made from pulpits up and down the land. Many people do not give the Lord
Jesus Christ a second thought. They're content without him. They're happy to face eternity.
They're happy to face their own mortality with no plan, no hope,
no saviour. They've no desire to come to
the Lord Jesus Christ and they're offended if we suggest otherwise. Well, let me just be plain. If
you don't come to Christ, you cannot be received by Christ
and you will never be saved. You will go into eternity lost. But, there is also a right way
and a wrong way to come to Christ. Look at the phrase that we've got in
the second verse of chapter 10. You might just have to go back
a little bit. But verse two of chapter 10,
we read it last week, says this. And the Pharisees came to him
and asked him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife, tempting
him? Now do you notice what happened
there in that verse, what Mark tells us? The Pharisees came
to Jesus. But you see there's a right way
and a wrong way to come to Jesus. And that's what the Lord is explaining
in this verse. He is telling us that we have
to come as little children. If you come as the Pharisees
came, you come by your own means, you come in your own strength,
you come through your own wisdom, you come by your own religious
practices. The Pharisees were the self-righteous
religionists of their day. And when self-righteous religious
people come to God on their own terms, by their own wisdom, offering
their own goodness, looking to their duty obedience of whatever
kind and nature that might be, in order to impress their maker,
They are knocking on heaven's door and they are saying, we've
done all that God requires of us. Let us in. And that's not coming as a little
child. That is coming like the rich
young ruler that we'll hear about next week, God willing. And you
and every self-righteous religionist will go away sorrowful like the
rich young ruler if you come to Christ like that. The Lord
will say of you, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that
work iniquity. Mark chapter 10, verse 15. rather
tells us, whosoever shall receive the kingdom of God as a little
child, he shall enter therein. That little phrase there, the
Lord uses a not in there. Let me read it again. Whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he
shall not enter therein. But I just flipped that over
and took the negatives out. If we are to receive the kingdom
of God, we have to receive it as a little child. And if we
don't receive it as a little child, then we will not enter
in. Let me point to something else
that the Lord says in John chapter 6 because I want to connect that
with this verse that we have here in verse 15. The Lord says
in John chapter 6 verse 37, All that the Father giveth me shall
come to me. and him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. This is the point I was making
about our welcoming Saviour. If we come to the Lord aright,
if we come to the Lord as little children, He will not cast us
out. everyone, let me paraphrase these
two verses then for us, everyone the father has given to the Lord
Jesus Christ in the eternal covenant of grace shall come to Christ
as a little child would come and no one who comes as a little
child shall be cast out. Now coming as little child. Coming to Christ as a little
child does not mean that we are saved when we are young. Though
you can be saved when you're young and it's wonderful if you're
saved when you're young. It means you've got your whole
life to serve and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It's best
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ when you're young. But what it
means to come as a little child, it means to be converted and
to be changed from trusting in our own wisdom and our own goodness,
like these Pharisees who came to Jesus, tempting Him, and to
trust rather in the wisdom and goodness of God. The wisdom and
goodness of God, or To say it another way, the gospel and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the gospel is God's wisdom
and the righteousness of God is His goodness and His good
gifts to us. So the gospel and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the grounds upon which we must come
to Him. Little children don't boast about
their natural wisdom and they have no natural goodness with
which to appeal to God. And similarly those who are converted
and become as little children have nothing to boast of before
God except their need of a saviour. All who come to the Lord Jesus
Christ leaning on his righteousness and believing his gospel shall
be welcomed by the Saviour with wide open arms. A verse that I really want to
dwell on and which will take up the second part of what I
have to say to you today is verse 16. And he took them up in his
arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. And here's
what we can discover from this welcoming saviour to whom we
come as little children. And there's three points, and
they'll be quick. First one is this. Jesus welcomes
all who come by taking them in his arms. In the gospel, every believer
has the privilege of taking every blessing and every promise personally. In the gospel, every believer
has the privilege of taking every blessing and every promise personally. And that's true here in this
passage as it is elsewhere in the Word of God. Jesus takes his children, that
is his covenant converted people, in his arms. That's what he does
to us when we're saved. He is gathering us up in his
arms. That's what he does to us every
time we go to him. He gathers us up in his arms. And what a delightful thought
that is. Moses himself all those years ago, back in the Old Testament,
when he wrote those first few books of what's called the Pentateuch,
the Old Testament early books. He says in Deuteronomy chapter
33, the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting
arms. Moses liked the idea of coming
to Christ and being embraced in the arms of his Saviour. Underneath
are the everlasting arms, he wrote. And we have much uncertainty
in this world. We've got enemies, we've got
dangers, we've got doubts, we've got fears. We have physical weaknesses,
we have fleshy temptations, we have opposition from spiritual
wickedness in high places. But the Eternal God is our refuge
and he builds walls around his people. He protects us and defends
us. He supports and upholds us in
his arms. And Jesus' arms are arms of strength,
arms for protection, suited to tenderness and gentleness, and
they provide healing and affection and give comfort and encouragement
to the little children. When the disciples, at the insistence
of the Saviour, stepped back from barring the way of these
little children and stopping their access to the Saviour.
They opened the way for the children to approach the Lord. It must
have been quite a wonderful sight to behold. I kind of alluded
to that yesterday in my preliminary thoughts, saying it must have
been a wonderful thing to see that happening. Do you think
those children walked slowly to the Lord? I doubt it. I imagine it to be a race. I
imagine that they ran to the Saviour. They ran to the Lord
Jesus. They were clearly there in the
middle of a crowd at a time of excitement that the Lord was
performing these wonderful miracles and they must have been excited. And as they ran to the Lord,
what did the Lord do? He opened his arms and he embraced
them. I don't know, he's called the
Lion of Judah. I sometimes wonder if there's like a big bear as
well, just gathering those children to himself. I imagine excitement
and joy and laughter. I imagine the delight on those
children's faces. And I imagine that that delight
was mutual, that the Lord was happy to have them in his arms. May we not picture that moment
like the father who ran and fell on the neck of his son, the prodigal
son, and kissed him? May we not apply the words of
Solomon when he says to his bride, rise up my love, my fair one,
and come away? I'm sure the Lord will embrace
us in his arms when we enter heaven. And why not think about
that here and now? Because it is a picture which
is merited from the analogies and the metaphors of the Word
of God. The Lord, the Holy Spirit, is
showing us this. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 11 says,
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the
lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom and shall gently
lead those that are with young. The Lord Jesus Christ welcomes
his people and he welcomes us with an embrace and he welcomes
us in his arms. And here's the second thing that
we're taught from this little verse as well. Not only does
the Lord Jesus Christ welcome us in his arms, he welcomes all
who come to him aright by putting his hands upon them. So he lifted them up in his arms
and he placed his hand upon them. The hand of the Lord is the hand
of power and the hand of purpose. Sometimes life appears confusing
to us and that is because we're time-bound and we're uninformed
about the will of God and the providences of this life and
the circumstances of our days. But Isaiah tells us that our
God dwells in eternity and he does all things, he does everything
according to his own good purpose and his own good pleasure. Isaiah says in chapter 46, verse
10, that he, that is God, declares the end from the beginning. and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel, my purpose, my plan
shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. It's God that says
that. whatsoever happens in this world
is according to the counsel and will and purpose of God and he
will do all his pleasure. So that the psalmist can say
in Psalm 31 verse 15, my times, says the psalmist, are in thy
hand. Deliver me from the hand of my
enemies and from them that persecute me. So brothers and sisters,
because the hand of the Lord is upon us, nothing can touch
us, nothing can harm us, nothing can trouble us beyond that which
the Lord allows for our good. Does he not say, touch not mine
anointed? And has he not anointed us with
the hand of love and mercy? Here's one of these pebbles for
free will believers to chew on. Proverbs chapter 21 and verse
1 says, The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord. Mr Biden
and Mr Putin and all the other Prime Ministers and Presidents
all over the world, they need to know that. The King's heart
is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. And we've been encouraging one
another in recent times to bring our little ones to the Lord Jesus
Christ. But maybe you say, oh, my family
long ago turned their back upon the Lord. Their hearts are hardened
against the gospel now. But that little verse in Proverbs,
the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, he turneth it whithersoever
he will. That tells us that the Lord turns
the heart of man according to his will. not man's free will. That is why we can hope in the
sovereign grace of a sovereign God. That's what gives us a freeness,
a liberty to go before the Lord with our prayers and petitions
and intercessions for those that we love and care for. We bring
our children to the Lord and under the gospel when they are
in our charge and we carry them to the throne of grace when they
turn their back and walk away. We're often in scripture supplied
with a connection between the Lord's healing power and the
laying on of his hands. And although there's no real
connection because many of the Lord's miracles involve no immediate
touch, nevertheless a touch was often sought by those desiring
healing for themselves or for others. And maybe, as far as
these children were concerned, their parents had brought them
because they were sick or because they were diseased or because
they had some condition and they wanted a touch of healing. And
there may have been a touch of healing here as the Lord laid
his hand upon them. We know the Lord healed many
children from sickness and even from death. Be that as it may,
When the Lord's hand alights upon a sinner, he brings spiritual
wholeness, spiritual healing, spiritual happiness, spiritual
life. And that brings us to our final
point. When the Lord Jesus Christ welcomes
his people to himself, he gathers them up in his arms. He comforts
and protects them. He lays his hand upon them. He heals them. And he demonstrates
his power amongst them. And what else does he do? Well,
the verse tells us he blesses them. Matthew, in the parallel
passage to this one in Mark, tells us that that blessing was
in the form of Christ's praying for those children. Brothers
and sisters, if the Lord Jesus Christ prays for us, if the Lord
Jesus Christ intercedes for us with his Father, we are blessed
indeed. And be sure about this, God the
Father denies no request from God the Son. If Christ blesses
us with a prayer, such as his prayer in John chapter 17, then
we have grounds to rejoice. I said earlier, when we were
speaking in the first part, I said that In the Gospel, every believer
has the privilege of taking every blessing and every promise personally. The Lord said in John chapter
17 verse 24, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which
thou hast given me. The Lord Jesus Christ asked it,
and the Father says, done. If you want it, you've got it.
Of course there's a continuity here, there's a consistency.
The Lord Jesus Christ wasn't asking for something that the
Father was unwilling to give, because it is one God. Our triune
God is one God. And here is a consistency of
purpose from the eternal covenant. The Lord God gave him those people
and the Lord Jesus Christ died for those people. God the Holy
Spirit quickens those people. And the Lord Jesus Christ says,
I will have those people with me. And the Father says, of course
you will. Of course you will. And again
we're reminded of the fact that God the Father had given the
Lord Jesus Christ that covenant people. It is these people who
are gathered in their Saviour's arms. It is these people who
are touched by the Saviour's hand and blessed with their Saviour's
prayer. These are the people who are
welcomed to the Lord Jesus Christ. They run to their friend as little
children run to the object of their joy. And we're wrong to
think about that as being a conversion experience. You see, this is
the problem about these free willers once again with their
talk about coming to Christ. Coming to Christ isn't a one-off
event that we do when we're, I don't know, 6 or 10 or 20 or
whenever it might be. Coming to Christ is a daily experience. Coming to Christ is an all of
life experience. We come to Him day by day, hour
by hour, minute by minute with enthusiasm and with confidence,
with joy, with excitement as little children running to the
arms of Jesus that day. free will preachers have stolen
that word come from the church by their invitation system of
salvation. We come every day to feel the
arms of Christ around us, to receive his touch and to re-hear
his intercessory prayers on our behalf. We come and we are welcome
over and over again. And no one, not even a disciple,
has the right to hinder us or stand in our way. When the Lord
Jesus Christ says, suffer the little children to come unto
me and forbid them not, we ought to prick up our ears because
he's speaking about us. Every discouragement must fall
away. Every barrier claps. Every hurdle
is removed. and we may run to Jesus' open
arms. What a joy it is to be in the
embrace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yesterday I wrote in my little
sermon introduction and suggested to you that I didn't know why
the disciples would block the way of these children, would
block access to the Lord Jesus Christ for these children. Well,
today I have the answer. It was so that the Lord might
speak. It was so that Mark might record. And it is so that you and I might
have the privilege of hearing the comforting words of Christ
in his gospel as he declares, suffer the little children to
come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom
of God. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.