I assure you Rex, and I mean
this, the pleasure's all mine, it always is. I appreciate y'all
having us. Turn to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, we're gonna
pick up in verse 15, and this is our Lord sitting with his
disciples, and many people around him. Verse 15 says, and they,
these are parents, brought unto him also infants. These kids
would have been anywhere from brand new babies to five, six
years old, somewhere around there. That he would touch them. But
when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called
them unto him and 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, just
like a child, shall in no wise enter therein. Now, if you read
through the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, It's a chronicle
of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, just given from different
perspectives of the different disciples. And along the way
they chronicle many of the different miracles our Lord performed.
If you read through those miracles, I spent some time on this, it'd
be fascinating to see how many of those miracles were performed
on and involved children. Many of them. I'll give you an
example. It seems as if the scripture places a particular onus on our
Lord's dealing with children and their purpose behind that.
But I'll give you some examples here. It says in the scriptures that during
our Lord's earthly ministry, he only raised three people from
the dead physically. And I fully recognize that when he ascended
back to his father and he was resurrected, every member of
the elect was resurrected in him. But physically, he only
resurrected three people from the dead. The most notable one
is probably Lazarus. And the Holy Spirit is not pleased
to give us his age. Probably a middle-aged guy, something
like that. What's interesting is that's probably the most notable
one, and yet that's only mentioned in one of the Gospels. It's only
mentioned by John, just once. The second one is the widow's
son in the land of Nain. The Lord's walking by the funeral
procession. He touches the baird of the coffin.
He says, young man, rise. And he pops right back up and
starts speaking. We don't know his age. He says he's a young
man, something like that. Once again, that's only mentioned
once out of all the four gospels. And then you have Jairus's daughter.
You remember Jairus. He was a leader in the synagogue.
He comes to the Lord and he says, my daughter's sick. Will you
heal her? The Lord says, I'll come. And he has to make a stop along the
way. He's got one of his sheep he has to pass by and that woman's
going to walk on her hands and knees, crawl on her hands and
knees, just to reach out and touch the Lord and be healed.
And during all that, Jairus's daughter, she dies. And they
said, don't trouble the master. She's already dead. The Lord
says, where is she? I'm going to her. He goes down there and
he kicks everybody out. He puts his hand on her and he
brings her back to life. That story is mentioned in three
of the four gospels. And that is the only one where
the Holy Spirit is pleased to give her age. She's 12 years
old. She is defenseless, she is helpless, and she's completely
unassuming. She's a child. There's something
to that. The scripture places a particular onus on that. And
we don't have to stop there. What about the Syrophoenician
woman? She came to the Lord and said, my young daughter, just
a little kid, five, six years old probably, she has a devil.
And the Lord healed her, left her lying neatly on her bed,
cast out that devil. Another man, he had a son who
the scripture describes as having a lunatic. He was a lunatic.
He had an evil spirit, a particularly sinister evil spirit. This was
sinister in this respect. Anytime they'd go by a body of
water, this spirit would tear that little boy and try to drown
him in that body of water. Or if they'd go by a fire, he
would tear that little boy and try to put him in that fire.
You think how terrible that would be as a parent, how terrifying
that would be. But the Lord healed him. He cast out that devil.
The disciples couldn't do it, but the Lord could. I've given
you just a taste. You read through the scriptures,
I've given you just a taste of our Lord's dealing with children,
these miracles he performed. The question is why? Why so much
emphasis placed on children? Why does the scripture return
to this over and over and over? Many reasons, but this being
one of them. Children are the greatest type
in illustration of who the Lord comes into this world to save
than any other. And the truth of the matter is,
if you or I will be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, we're
going to have to be made little children. We're going to have
to be made babes in Christ. And I'm going to spend the rest
of this message trying to explain what I mean by that. Now, the first
thing I'd actually consider is this. What did the disciples
do? in all this. What were their
actions during this interaction? These parents are bringing their
little children, their infants, their toddlers, they're bringing
them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what they want. In
our text here, it says that they wanted to touch him or they want
him to touch them. And then in Matthew's account,
it says they wanted him to put his hands on them and to pray,
to pray for these kids. And then in Mark's account, he
adds two things. It says, the Lord took them up in his arms.
When you think about this picture, think of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's holding just a little baby in his arms. He took them up
in his arms, he laid his hands on them, and he blessed them.
Now, this is what these parents wanted. That's what they were
asking for. That's what they were seeking at this time. And
how in the world could you blame them? That's exactly what I want
for my children. I want my children to be as close
to Christ as possible. In fact, my great hope is that
they are in him, because everybody in Christ is saved. What do the
disciples do during all this? They do something that is shameful,
something that is unknowingly blasphemous and completely ignorant. They try to keep these small
children from coming to Christ. Now, what is their motivation?
What are they thinking? We don't know. It doesn't tell
us in the scripture. But I think we can hypothesize
a little bit. Maybe they thought this. They thought these kids,
they're just kids, right? They can't contribute to our
cause in any way. They're completely dependent creatures. There's
nothing they can give us. They can't bring anything to
the table. They can't put a roof over our head. They can't give
us any money to go around and do what we need to do. They're
just leeches. They're just mooches. They can't
come to Christ. Well, if that's what they were thinking, they're
right. But here's where they're wrong. No man can contribute. Two points here. One is this.
The Lord Jesus Christ does not need me. And he does not need
you. And he doesn't need anything
from me. And he doesn't need anything from you. He is the
eternal God. He had no beginning and he will
have no end. He is completely self-sustaining
and independent. The scripture says he has life
in himself. And folks, he has absolutely
no needs, and he doesn't need anything for me or you. He doesn't
need my praise. He has the angels in the heavens
sing his praises. He doesn't need my money. He
says the cattle on a thousand hills are mine. If I were hungry,
I wouldn't tell you. He doesn't need me to preach
his gospel. He can raise up a beast. Balaam's asked to do just that.
He does not need me or you. We need him. Here's the second
thing. Not only does he not need us,
he won't accept anything from me or you. Isaiah 64 6, I bet
everybody in this room can probably quote this scripture. But we
are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. Two words I want you to focus
on. Number one, all. Number two, righteousnesses.
Isaiah is not even dealing with the things we know are bad. He's
not even dealing with the evil thoughts that we know we think
and the evil deeds we do and the evil motives that are in
our hearts that we're aware of. He's talking about the righteousnesses
right now. What are those? Those are the things we think
we do that are good. That's our best works. That's
our best thoughts. That's our best motives. That's
the best we could possibly bring before God. You know what he
calls them? A pile of filthy, menstruous rags. Before God,
they are filthy and they were polluted and he will not accept
anything from me or you. It's a very simple point, folks.
If you come on the grounds of your own personal obedience,
you will be damned. And that's the truth of the matter.
Now, Maybe they thought, these disciples, these kids aren't
intellectuals, right? They're not intelligent and they
don't have a capacity for spiritual things such as repentance, faith,
love toward God. They're simple creatures. They
don't have a capacity for these spiritual things. And if that's
what they were thinking, they were right. They don't. Here's where they're
wrong. No man has a capacity for spiritual things by nature.
Read you this, Ephesians 2.1, and you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. That's how you and I are born
into this world, absolutely dead, having all the spiritual capacities
of a dead man, absolutely none. Man can't believe on Christ.
Now that's gonna be the theme of this message, come to the
Lord Jesus Christ, believe on him, but the natural man cannot.
If you'll notice, these kids had to be brought to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Same thing has to happen to you.
The Lord has to actually regenerate you and give you life and give
you the ability to come to him. The natural man can't come to
Christ. And he can't repent. He can't change his mind about
who God is. He can't change his mind about who he is. He can't
change his mind about how God saves sinners. He lacks that
ability. I want to say this carefully
but correctly. The same actions that are necessary
to save an infant are the same actions that are necessary to
save a full-grown adult. The Lord does it all. Before
the foundations of the world were ever built, before time
ever began, God had to love that child or that man or that woman
with an everlasting love. He had to choose them unto salvation
and divine election. He had to give them to Christ
in the covenant of grace. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
agree to be their surety. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
come into this world and establish that creature's righteousness.
He had to bear their sins in his body and bleed and die and
justify them before God. And in time, the Holy Spirit
has to regenerate that creature. And you know what the response
is to salvation every time? He believes. Every single time. Notice, faith is not the cause
of salvation. Faith is the effect of salvation.
What happens when the Lord saves the man he believes? Every single
time. Now, maybe they thought these
kids had insufficient life experience. They thought, listen, they need
to hold off a while. They need to not come to Christ until they see
a little more, until they understand a little bit more, until they
have some sort of an experience, something like that. Whatever
their motivation and whatever their reasoning here is, it's
wrong. And I say they did this unknowingly
because if they knew what they were doing, if they knew the
type here, they never would have done it because what they were
doing, keeping these kids from coming to Christ, is conveying
the greatest lie that has ever been told. And it's this, there
is something you need to do or wait for to make yourself acceptable
before you come to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the greatest lie
that has ever been told. You come just as you are, as
a filthy, wicked sinner, and that's the only way he'll take
you. Revelation 22, 17 says this.
And the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth
say, come. and let him that is a thirst
come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely. Now let's check some boxes here.
What does it mean to be thirsty? It means you have a need. That's
all that means. Do you have a need of salvation? You know who needs salvation?
You know who needs Christ to do it all? A sinner. That's it.
If you're a sinner, listen to this, whosoever will. Everybody in here is a whosoever.
Are you willing? Willing to do what? Are you willing
to be saved by a savior who will get all the glory in your salvation
and you will get absolutely none? If you will be saved by Christ,
nobody's gonna pat you on the back. No one's gonna tell you
you've done a great job. No one's gonna commend you. You
are simply going to be a trophy of His power and His grace, and
the only contribution to your salvation you will be attributed
with is the sin that made it necessary. That's it. Most men, and I say most because
this is how the natural man is born in this world. Every man
who is born in this world who has not been regenerated, he
will not be saved this way. I'll give you an example. There's
Naaman the leper, and I may have given you this example before.
I'm going to use it again. Naaman, he's a Syrian general. He's a
big deal, right? Very powerful man, an honorable
man, a mighty man. And he's got a problem. He's
a leper. That's his problem. And he finds out there's a prophet
in Samaria. There's Elisha. And he's going to go down, and
he's going to see Elisha. And he comes down there, and Elisha
sends a servant down to him. He says, you go dip in the Jordan
seven times, and you'll be clean. And Naaman gets mad. He goes
away. He's wroth. He says, I thought he was going to come out to me.
I thought that he was going to make a big to-do. And the servants
stop him along the way, and they say, Master, if the prophet had
told you to do some great thing, you'd have done it. If he'd have
told you to climb a mountain with your bare hands and feet,
the tallest peak, and you'd have been healed, you'd have tried.
And if he would have said, you go down here and you slay this
army all by yourself, you would have at least tried. And you
would have tried those things because if you would have been successful,
you could say, all hail Naaman, look what I did. I earned my
healing. There's glory in it for you. But all he's telling
you to do is dip down in that dirty Jordan River. And you won't
do it because there's no glory in it for you. The natural man,
the way we are born in this world, he will not be saved by Christ
alone because there's no glory in it for him. But if you will,
it is only because you have been made willing. Right now, if you
are a sinner and you are willing to be saved by this Christ who
will get all the glory for himself, that's not natural. The Lord
has done a work of grace in your heart and absolutely nothing
stands in your way from coming to Christ. Because here's the
end of the verse. Whosoever will, here's the one prerequisite,
let him take the water of life freely. There's only one prerequisite. You have to take it freely. You
have to come with absolutely nothing to buy with. You have
to come as an empty-handed sinner. And if you come to Christ an
empty-handed sinner in complete need of Him to do everything
in your salvation, He'll receive you. Now, what does it mean to come
to Christ? I'm gonna read the scripture to you. This is John
6, 35. It says, and Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of
life, He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth
on me shall never thirst. Now you see the connection between
believing and coming. Coming to Christ is believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing on Christ is coming
to Christ. They are precisely the same thing. This is the act of spiritual
life, it is faith in motion. Now, when you are coming to someone,
you are leaving someone else. When we're coming to Christ,
we're leaving ourselves. It's called repentance. We are
leaving any hope of salvation based on anything I do, anything
meritorious, based on something I've done, based on something
I've said, a thought I've had. In any way, we leave ourselves
and we come and we cling and we trust the Lord Jesus Christ
for every aspect of our salvation. So what are some of those aspects?
And this list is not all inclusive. But I think we can use our example
here, our text, as a good illustration. Now, what are the things that
these parents wanted the Lord Jesus Christ to do for their
children? The first one was this. They wanted the Lord Jesus Christ
to touch these kids. Here's the first thing I thought
of, Matthew 8, 2 and 3. And behold, there came a leper
and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him, saying, I will. Be thou clean. Now, folks, we
come trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. We come believing on
him, first for this, that he will touch us with his blood
and he will cleanse us from our sin disease. And that's our hope,
is when the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, he went bearing
my sins in his body. They were actually taken off
of me and placed in him and he suffered and he died. And when
he said, it is finished, those sins truly are gone. As far as
the East is from the West, they are gone and I bear them no more.
And that means there is no more anger of the Father toward me.
There is simply peace between me and the Father because of
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. That's the first thing.
That's the first touch. Here's another touch. I want you to
look at this. Turn over to Mark chapter 8. Look at verse 22. And he cometh to Bethsaida, Mark
chapter eight, verse 22. And he cometh to Bethsaida, and
they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.
And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of town.
And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he
asked him if he saw it. And he looked up and said, I
see men as trees, walking. You know, when the Lord Jesus
Christ first gives us sight to actually see him, it's dim eyes,
isn't it? You don't see a whole lot. You don't see hope real
well. But what you see is he's my only hope. The only hope I
have is he died for me. But here's the thing. You never
graduate past that. Now you learn more things. You grow in grace
and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, but you never graduate
past that. He's all I've got. But look what happens now. Look
at verse 25. After that, he put his hands again upon his eyes.
and made him look up. And he was restored and saw every
man clearly." Now, this is going to sound paradoxical, right? When we're coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ, when we are looking to him and trusting him in faith,
I'm not just trusting him in faith, I'm trusting him for faith.
He says here, I see every man clearly. I'm trusting him to
give me eyes that I might see the Lord Jesus Christ clearly.
I might actually be given sight to look to him. And like I said,
I know this sounds paradoxical. Coming to Christ is the act of
faith. Spurgeon said this, and I can't quote it exactly, but
what he was saying was, in coming to Christ, especially in our
early comings, it's not so much in faith, it's for faith. We
are trusting him for the faith to trust him. And he says, I
see all men clearly. I'm trusting him to give me eyes
to see myself at least somewhat clearly. That I would see that
I'm nothing but a sinner and I won't be given anywhere to
look but to Christ alone. That need, folks, God has to
supply that need too. Now, what else did he do for
these kids? It says he prayed for these children. This is my hope. When we're coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ, when we're trusting Him, I'm trusting
Him as my great high priest. I'm trusting Him as my intercessor.
I'm trusting that He is coming before His Father and He is making
intercession for me. Now let me read you this. This
is Romans 8, 33. It says, Who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of the Father, who also maketh intercession for us. Now this
is my hope. My hope is this, is that right
now the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of His
Father, and I am actually in Him. And when he comes before
his father, he makes intercession for me. He says, save him, I
demand it. The father says, on what grounds
do you make this demand? And he says, my cross and my
blood. And the father says, there is
therefore now no condemnation for him. He's justified. If this great high priest prays
for you, if he represents you before the father, you must be
saved. What else did he do? It says
that he took these children up in his arms. Now, once again,
I'd ask you to think about the beauty of this. Think of the
Lord Jesus Christ holding a brand new baby in his arms just like
that. And think of the safety and the security. Like, if you're
the parent, right, and you see this, that's the safest place
that kid has ever been, right? I have no worries right now.
It's fantastic. We're trusting the Christ for
safety. security. Now Psalm 27 5 says
this, For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion,
in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me, he shall set
me upon a rock. Now there's many applications
to that verse but let me give you one. There is actually going
to be a day of judgment. There's going to be a day where
the Lord is going to unleash his wrath on men for sin. And
it talks about that in Revelations. It says men are actually going
to beg rocks to fall on them to hide them from the wrath of
the Lamb. But during all that destruction, when all that chaos
is flowing down and men are begging for a hiding place, there is
going to be one place of safety and one place of security. There
will be one place where the wrath of God is not falling and that
is on the Lord Jesus Christ. And my hope is that I am in Him,
in Him, and that wrath is not going to fall on me because I'm
in Him. And the reason that wrath is
not going to fall on him is because it already fell on him. Also
this, this safety and security. I am trusting him that he is
going to carry me through this life in faith all the way to
the end. Now, if my preservation is dependent
on me keeping myself, I will fall away, and so will everyone
else in this room. but he's the preserver. Listen to this, this
is Philippians 1.6. It says, being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Who begun the good work in you?
Who gave the new man? Who gave the faith? Who gave
the love to God? He did, and he promises this.
He who hath begun it, He's going to finish it. He's going to carry
it out all the way into the very end, to the last breath. Here's the last thing he did.
He blessed these children. I couldn't help but think of
Ephesians 1. It says, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. Well, what blessings are those?
Everything I haven't talked about up to this point. the blessing
of election and predestination, being predetermined to be conformed
to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessing of sonship,
being heirs of God along with the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessing
of sanctification and glorification, the blessing of forgiveness and
redemption, everything that is necessary in salvation. Here's
the point. When we say we are looking to Christ, we are trusting
him, that means for every aspect of salvation. Now, these are the Lord's final
words in this scenario. Luke 18, 17 says, verily I say
unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as
a little child shall in no wise enter therein. Now, what does
that mean? What does it mean to receive
the kingdom of God as a little child? What is this child-like
faith that they're talking about here? I'm gonna give you an illustration,
and I think everyone can get in on this, because everyone
in this room either has children, has been a child, or is currently
a child. So everybody can get in on this.
Let's say you have a child, and they're about three to four years
old, right? What is the chief attribute of that child? Dependency. Check your taxes. That's exactly
what they're called. Dependence. This is the chief attribute of
the man who come to Christ. He is completely and utterly
dependent on Christ to do everything. Now think about this, that same
three to four year old child, when they get hungry, what do
they do? They go to their mom because their mama is the one
who feeds them. And it walks up to him, and it just makes
its case plainly, I'm hungry, feed me. And you know what? It
doesn't ask where she's going to get the food from. And it
doesn't ask how much money is in the bank to buy the food.
It doesn't ask questions like that. All it knows is, this is
the one who feeds me, and I'm hungry. And he comes to her. That's it. Child gets scared. What does it do? It runs to its
mother. It curls up in its mother's arms. And it trusts its mother
is going to protect it. And it doesn't ask questions
like, hey, how capable are you right now? Have you been working
out? Are you going to be able to handle this crisis, whatever's
going on? It doesn't ask those questions. It just curls up in
its mother's arms and it trusts, this is the one who protects
me. She's going to protect me. Kid gets hurt, gets sick. Where
does it go? It goes to its mama. It says,
I'm hurt. You're the one who heals me.
Heal me. And it doesn't ask about what medicine she's going to
use or if she's following the best medical practices of the
day. It doesn't ask questions like that. It simply says, I'm
hurt. Heal me. And the mother heals
him. That's it. That's how you come to Christ
with a childlike dependence. Folks, salvation is a big word.
It involves a whole lot of things, things I'm not even sure of.
But I know this. Whatever needs to get done, he
did it. And I'm trusting him to do it. Now, I'm going to remind everyone
in this room Everyone in this room is commanded to come to
the Lord Jesus Christ. You are not requested and you
are not invited. You are commanded to come, everyone
in this room. Now, somebody says, what about
John 6, 44? No man can come to me except the Father which has
sent me. Draw him. It's absolutely true. You can't,
not by nature. The Lord has to do a work of
grace in your heart. You have to be drawn by the Holy Spirit. But
you know why you can't? It's because of John 5, 40. and
ye will not come to me that you might have life. We talked about
this earlier, whosoever will. Now, are you a sinner? Are you
a dependent creature that can't bring anything before God? Are
you a whosoever? Will you be saved by a savior
that will have all the glory for himself and none will go
to you? If that's the case, take the
water of life freely. It costs absolutely nothing. And the only way you'll be turned
away is if you try to buy for it. I'm going to leave you all
there.