Now if you'll take your Bibles
and open them to the book of Luke, chapter 18. Luke, chapter
18, verse 15. And they brought unto him also
infants, or small children, 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. And here's our text today. Verily
I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God
as a little child shall in no wise enter therein. Now I have many people talked
to me about their young children and about their children's relationship
with the Lord. Just this past week, a couple
and I talked about their child and his professing faith in Christ. And I've been thinking about
this for several days and I asked God to give me a message on this
subject. And I want to deal with it this
morning if the Holy Spirit will give me some liberty. Now there
are many schools of thought on the matter of children and their
professing faith in Christ. Some people literally push children
down the aisle. They push them into a profession
of faith. Under heavy persuasion, they
push them into the church. And they call it child evangelism. And there are some who have a
certain age when a child automatically becomes a member of the church.
There's a certain age. I don't know exactly what it
is in all circles. But in some circles, at 11 or
12 years of age, a young child automatically becomes a member
of the church. But there are some who actually
discourage children from professing faith in Christ. There are some
preachers and there are some church members who claim that
a child does not know enough to profess faith, does not know
enough to be saved, does not know enough to be a Christian.
And so they discourage children from making any kind of profession
of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, let's find out exactly
what Christ has to say about children, and about their coming
to Him. and about their being saved and
about their entering the kingdom of God. That's what we want to
find out. What does the Lord Jesus Christ
have to say about children entering the kingdom of God? Now then,
some women evidently had brought their children to Christ. Our
Lord was sitting here teaching the disciples and teaching the
multitude, and some women brought their children to the Lord Jesus
Christ. They wanted Him to touch them.
They wanted Him to bless them. They wanted their children to
get into the presence of Christ. They wanted Him to see them,
and to touch them, and to bless them. But the disciples discouraged
these women. The Scripture says they rebuked
them. They rebuked these women. Now
when the master saw this, when Christ saw the disciples rebuking
these women, and he knew that the disciples had discouraged
the women and their children, and even rebuked them, scolded
them, the master called the children to himself. He said, you suffer
these little children to come to me. And he turned and rebuked
the disciples. The master rebuked those who
kept children away from him. The master rebuked those who
discouraged these children from coming to him. He rebuked them. And he said, Verily I say unto
you. Now the disciples had told these
women, the Lord doesn't have time for these children. These
children are too insignificant. These children don't have the
capacity, these children don't have the understanding. The Master's
saying great and wonderful things and they can't understand. Keep
these children out of the way." And the Master called the children
to himself and turned to the disciples and said, I say unto
you, I say unto you, and he said it with great authority, and
he said it with great certainty, I say unto you, that whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall
not enter into the kingdom of God. Now this settles this matter. I don't wish to discuss it with
any school of thought when I have the Master's word on it. I'd
rather go to school to Christ, hadn't you? And our Lord Jesus
Christ said, you suffer these little ones to come to me. For
such is the kingdom of God. But I say unto you," he turned
the tables on these disciples, he said, I say unto you, you're
the one that's got the problem. If you don't become as a little
child and receive the kingdom of God as a little child, you're
not even going to enter into the kingdom of God. Now my first
thought here, the one I believe the Master would have us express
to you, is that he knew the thoughts of these disciples concerning
these children. He says, Forbid them not. Let them come to me, forbid them
not. Now, the disciples thought that
the children were too insignificant. You know, if this had not been
children, if it had been some important businessman, one of
the local businessmen, You reckon the disciples would have blocked
his way? Why, they would have cleared the way immediately.
Here comes the important Mr. So-and-so. Make a way, let him
get to the Lord, you know. We're just so honored to have
him come to the Lord. Just think, last Sunday down
at our church, Mr. So-and-so, who owns a whole string
of department stores, made up a fashion of faith in Christ.
Did anybody else make up a fashion, or some little girl? But Mr. So-and-so came. If it had been
some important politician who had come to this little gathering
where our Master was teaching, I'm sure the disciples would
not have rebuked him, they would not have held up their hands
and said, don't bother the Lord. If it had been some important
politician, they would have gotten him an immediate introduction,
probably interrupted Christ in what he was teaching. If it had
been some local leader, I'm sure that they would have gotten excited,
they would have gotten an introduction to the Lord. But mere children,
just insignificant children, insignificant. What are we going
to do with verses like these? Turn to Matthew 10 in your Bibles. Matthew 10, verse 29. Listen
to this scripture here. Matthew 10, verse 29. Listen
to the Lord. are not two sparrows sold for
a fathering, and one of them shall not fall to the ground
without your father? But that their hairs of your
head are all numbered, fear ye not therefore, you are of more
value than many sparrows." Does God care for the sparrows? Does
He not care for children? If a sparrow cannot fall to the
ground without your Heavenly Father, how much more important
is one of these little ones? Here's another verse, turn to
Matthew 6, verse 28. Matthew 6, verse 28. Listen to
this. Why take ye thought for clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not,
neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which
today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" Does God clothe the lilies?
Does He care for the lilies? Does He not care for children? insignificant, unimportant. Brethren, I say unto you, it
is not the children who are unimportant to God. I turn the tables. I say that the Bible seems to
insinuate that adults are the ones who are insignificant and
unimportant. It was not children who cried,
Give us Barabbas. It was not children who cried,
let him be crucified. It was not children who cried,
let his blood be on us and on our children. Listen to what
David said in Psalms chapter 8. Turn over to the 8th chapter
of Psalms. Here in verse 2 through 4, you
talk about children being unimportant and insignificant. Listen to
Psalms 8 verse 2. Out of the mouth of babes, and
sucklings hast thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies,
that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. O God,
when I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the
moon, the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man?" What
is man? that thou art mindful of him."
Huh? What is man? It's not what is
the child, it's what is man that thou art mindful of him. Turn
to Isaiah chapter 40. Listen to this scripture. In
the 40th chapter of Isaiah, beginning with verse 15, the scripture
says this, Isaiah 40 verse 15, Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket and are counted as a small dust of the balance. He taketh up the isles as a very
little thing, and Lebanon, the forest of Lebanon, the cedars
of Lebanon, are not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof
sufficient for a burn offering. God is so great, God is so mighty,
all nations before Him are as nothing and they are counted
to him less than nothing. And vanity, verse 22, it is he
that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants
thereof are as grasshoppers. Now if you want to hold up your
hand in front of the face of one of these little ones and
say, you're insignificant, you're unimportant, Christ cannot be
bothered with you. You think about these verses.
What is man that thou art mindful of him? God considereth the inhabitants
of this earth as grasshoppers." Well, the disciples not only
thought the children were insignificant, but they, I imagine, thought
that these children were too frivolous, too foolish. You know, children, they say,
are not solemn They're not sober enough. They don't take life
seriously enough. Children play games that mean
nothing. Children have no spiritual values. Let me ask you something. What
is more frivolous or foolish than for a grown man to live
only for sensual pleasure? What's more foolish? You talk
about a child is foolish. He plays silly games. He plays
foolish games. He's not serious enough. What's
more foolish and frivolous and insignificant than for a man
to live his life only for the gratification and satisfaction
of his flesh? Drinking, eating, lusting, making
merry. That's the most foolish thing
in the world. What is more foolish, let me ask you, what is more
frivolous than for a woman to live for clothes and for beauty,
and to outfit herself and prepare herself so as she is admired
by those who see her? What's more stupid than that?
Taking no care for the inward relationship with God, but taking
literally hours to prepare this flesh that it might appear beautiful. under others. Talk about children
playing silly games. What is more frivolous, what
is more foolish than for a man to live his whole life to make
money, to get houses and farms and land and wealth and possessions? That's stupid. Our Lord said,
Thou fool! One young man said, I've got
everything I need. I'm going to tear my barn down,
build bigger barns. You talk about children are foolish? Christ said this grown man who
gave his life only for the possessions of this world was a fool. This
night thy soul shall be required of thee. And then whose are these
things going to be that you've accumulated? The child plays
with his toys, certainly he does, but so do you, and your toys
are more deadly than his. What is more foolish than adult
wars? Children have their toy guns
and adults have their real guns. Children play their games and
then go home. Adults destroy one another and
scatter their blood all over the world. What is more frivolous
than to trifle with one's soul? with God's word, with heaven
and hell, sit and listen to the gospel and do nothing about it. Don't charge the children with
frivolity. Don't charge the children with
foolishness. Don't charge the children with
not being serious. This is an adult world, and the
confusion and the chaos was not brought about by children, but
by adults. Somebody else says, well, children
will soon forget. No matter how strong the grace
of God is presented to a child, he'll soon forget it. No matter
how spiritual the words of the Master, children will go back
to their play. Of course they will. They're
children. But do not adults also forget? I've preached literally thousands
of sermons. I tried to figure out the other
day how many times I've preached in 26 years, and it came to almost
12,000 sermons. And some of you have heard thousands
of sermons. How much have you retained? How
much do you know about this book? I've just about read this whole
book to this church. How much of it do you know? We've
read a chapter a day for 17 years here. Every Sunday morning, Sunday
night, and Wednesday night, just about covered the entire book.
How much of it do you know? Sure, children forget, but you
do too. I've talked to older people.
Now, this is the truth. I've talked to people in their
80s, and they tell me that all the events that have happened
during the past 60 or 70 years, now that they're in their 80s,
that they just don't remember too much about them. They can't
tell you what happened yesterday, but they can tell you what their
daddy said when they was ten years old. Do you know that? That's the truth. I've talked
to people in their eighties and they tell me they don't remember
what happened in 1972 or 71 or 70, but they remember what happened
in 1895 when they were little children. They remember their mama, they
remember their daddy, they remember their brothers and sisters, they
remember what their daddy said, the very words that he said and
the very words his mother said. They don't remember what the
boss said twenty years ago, but they remember what daddy said. What I'm saying is this, what
God said, you train up a child in his early life and the way
he should go, in the things of Christ, in the things of the
gospel, there's a good possibility he'll forget everything else
but these early years. And when he gets to be an old
man or she gets to be an old woman, these early years are
exactly what they're going to remember. Somebody says, well,
children don't have sufficient capacity. They don't have the
capacity Well, the Lord has said so many wonderful things, Brother
Mahan. Children don't have the capacity
to receive the deep things of God. What capacity is needed
for entering the Kingdom of God? Ask yourself that question. Just
exactly what capacity is needed to enter the Kingdom of God?
Well, I say, first of all, the capacity to believe. The people
came to Christ and they said, what shall we do that we might
work the works of God? Christ said, this is the work
of God that you believe on him whom God has sent. I say that
children have us here. They've got you right here. It
is easier for a child to believe. You know why? Their minds are
not filled with superstition. It isn't a child that walks around
that ladder, leaning up against the building. He'll hopscotch
his way right under it. It's not a child that dropped
the mirror and broke it and squealed, seven years bad luck. That's
not a child. It's not a child whose mind is
filled with superstition and tradition. And it's not a child
who said when the minister brought the message, I don't believe
that, that's not what my old pastor used to preach, that's
not what mama and daddy used to believe. A child's mind is
not cluttered up with doubt and fear and falsehood and tradition
and superstition. You tell him about Christ, you
read to him the Word of God, and he says, there it is in the
Bible, I believe it. I believe it. You have so much
to unlearn, you can't learn anything. They don't have much to unlearn.
We have children right here in this church who know more gospel
than most adults in this city. Let me give you an illustration.
Sunday morning a week ago, the teacher of the class of children
9, 10, 11, 12 years old asked this question, posed this problem.
He said, you're going down the street and you find a wallet.
And in that wallet is a $20 bill. And you pick it up and look at
it and think, oh boy, I've found me $20. I'm going to keep it.
I'm going to buy me something. And then you say, no, I believe
I'd better return it to the owner. I'd better give it back to the
person to whom it belongs. So you take it and give it to
the person to whom it belongs. His question was this, is God
pleased with your actions? And some of them said, yes. One
little girl raised her hand and said, no. No, God wouldn't be
pleased. And the teacher said, why? She
said, well, the first thing that entered your mind was that you
thought to keep it. You wanted to keep it. And so
just because you took it back didn't do away with the first
thought that you wanted to keep it. That's what Christ said.
It's not that which goeth into the mouth that defileth the man.
It's that which comes out of the heart. Our thoughts are not
God's thoughts. That's what condemns us. That's
what damns us. It is not the outward actions
of the hands and the feet that please God. It is the thought. You see what
I'm saying? Prayer can be sinful praying
if the thought's not right. Giving can be sinful giving if
the thought's not right. Children have the capacity to
believe. What's another capacity needed
to enter the kingdom of God? To repent. A tender conscience
in a boy or girl that leads that boy or girl to weep over his
or her sin is better than the hardened conscience of an adult
who justifies himself in his rebellion. The child, when he's
scolded for doing wrong, will drop his eyes and weep. The adult
will begin to think of some reasons to justify himself. Well, I'll
tell you why I did it. I did it because so-and-so, so-and-so,
and so-and-so, you know. The adult justifies himself,
and the child repents. What capacity is needed to enter
the kingdom of God? The capacity to love Christ,
and loving Christ to love others. It is not children who carry
grudges for years and years and years. Sitting right here in
this congregation are people who are holding grudges against
others. Some who will not speak to others. Some who will not
seek the fellowship of others because years ago something happened
or last month something happened and you're angry with that person.
You don't have the love of God in you. You don't know the love
of God. You're not in the kingdom of
God. Christ said, if you forgive not your brother or your sister,
the Heavenly Father won't forgive you. Now just put that down,
bud. I'm telling you it's so. That's the Word of God. You can't
carry hatred in your heart and love God. You cannot hate your
brother and love God. That's an impossibility. It can't
be done. Children don't hold grudges and
hatred for years. I've known families to split.
A mom and daddy died, you know, and left some furniture and a
house, and children fight over it and split over it and quarrel
over it. That's not of God. It's not children that cannot
say, I'm sorry. It's adults that can't say, I'm
sorry. When you say the child does not
have the capacity to enter the kingdom of God, It is not the
child that has not the capacity, it is the adult that has grown
up with prejudice and grudges and hatred and inability to fall
in the dust at the feet of Christ in repentance. It's us. We got
the problem. You say the child's not big enough,
the child's not tall enough, the child's not grown enough,
the child's not great enough to be blessed by the Lord. The
child, you say, must not come to the Lord because he's not
yet a man? Listen to what Christ said. Don't say that the child may
not come to me because he's not like a man. You cannot come to
me until you become like a child. That's what this scripture is
teaching. I'm being honest with you. You say the child cannot
come to Christ until he gets to be a man? The man cannot come
to Christ till he comes down and becomes a child. It's backwards. It is not the child's disadvantage
that he's not like you. It's your disadvantage that you're
not like him. Instead of the child needing
to wait till he grows up and becomes a man, You and I got
to grow down and become a child. Is that not what the Lord is
saying? And the little children came, and the disciples rebuked
them and said, Don't bother the Lord. And the Lord rebuked the
disciples. He said, You listen to me. You
listen to me. You suffer these little children
to come to me, for such is the kingdom of heaven. And I say
unto you, I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom
of God as a little child shall not enter therein." Now go on
and play with your toys if you want to. But I'm telling you,
brother, my deepest desire is to enter the kingdom of God.
And I can take the rebuke of my Lord. This is the Master speaking.
I can take the rebuke of Christ, can you? Let him whittle me down
and strip me and break me and crush me and humble me and bring
me to his feet as a little scolded child, a whipped child. Yea, Lord, you're right, you're
right. It is not the child who needs
to wait till he's a man. to become a Christian, it is
the man who needs to grow down, down, down, down, down, and become
as a little child. Christ said, except ye be converted
and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Now the gospel sets up a kingdom. Was there ever a kingdom without
children? Actually, our Lord speaks of
the children in this way. He says, of such is the kingdom
of heaven. Old John Newton used to say,
the majority of people who are now in heaven are children. That's right. Multiplied millions
of babies and infants have died. since the foundations of this
world. Out of every tribe and kindred
and nation and tongue unto heaven, multitudes of children now fill
the streets of glory. Of such is the kingdom of God. God's kingdom is a kingdom of
children, God's children. The way of entering the kingdom
of God is receiving, not doing. Christ said, whosoever shall
not receive the kingdom of God. We don't enter the kingdom of
God by working out some deep problem, but by receiving Christ. We don't enter the kingdom of
God by producing something out of ourselves, out of our adult
strength. We enter the kingdom of God by
receiving what God, through Christ, hath done for us. God loved sinners. And God sent His Son into the
world as a man to obey the law for us. He went to the cross
and died for our sins. And the Holy Spirit has brought
the gospel of glad tidings, of good news. Christ died for sinners. Receive it! Whosoever shall not receive the
kingdom of God as a little child, having nothing, knowing nothing,
being nothing, Christ is everything, and I receive him. How does a
child receive the kingdom of God? Well, he receives it, first
of all, with humility. He's not too proud to confess
Christ. Some of you are. He's not too
proud to walk down an aisle or go into a baptismal pool and
say, Christ is my Lord. You are, you see. He can receive
the kingdom of God as a child with humility. He can stand up
and be counted. And God the Holy Spirit blesses
the gospel to that child's heart because he received it with humility. You're too big, you know, you'd
be embarrassed to confess Christ. You'd be embarrassed, you know,
to let folks know that you were depending on Christ alone. But
that child's not embarrassed. And then a child is teachable.
You say, son, here's bread. Eat it. And the child takes it
and eats it. He doesn't demand to know who
grew the wheat. He doesn't demand to know who
milled it. He doesn't ask you how long it was cooked. He doesn't
ask you at what temperature was the oven. He doesn't ask you
was it the kind his ancestors ate. He just says, I'm hungry,
give me the bread. But the adults have got to inquire
into all of the things that constitute the growing and the milling and
the baking and the providing of the bread. And then a child
receives the kingdom of God in an unworldly manner. These things
are not too important to a child. I told you that this scripture
was preceded by an example. Here's a religious man who went
to the temple and bragged about how much he'd done for God. I
fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I possess. I'm a clean, moral man. I don't
do this, that, and the other. That's an adult. That's an adult. Here's another man over here
who came to Christ, and he says, I've kept the commandments. He
had accumulated great wealth, and Christ said the first commandment
is thou should love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
thy neighbor as thyself." Now you take these possessions that
you have accumulated and get rid of them and give it, distribute
it to take care of people who have need. Oh, he said, I couldn't
do that. I couldn't do that. I love these possessions. I love
this wealth. It means more to me than the
hungry multitudes. It means more to me than the
laboring missionaries. It means more to me than those
who are out yonder without. It means more to me, it means
more to me than the kingdom of God, so he went away sorrowful.
There's an adult, there's another example. The religious pride
of the adult the possessive pride of the adult. We have plenty
of examples, but here are some little children that came to
Christ. They had nothing, they were nothing, they knew nothing.
And Christ said, You let them come. You let them come on. Don't you forbid them. This is
what the kingdom of God is like. The kingdom of God is like little
children. And anybody who cannot be brought down and humbled and
broken at the feet of Christ as a little babe, as a little
child, with humility, with a teachable spirit, with a broken heart,
he just can't enter the kingdom of God. What to do about children? I know. Preach the true gospel
of redemption through Christ to them. You let the Holy Spirit
work in their hearts, and if God the Holy Spirit teaches the
gospel to that child, you let him come to Christ. Don't discourage
him. Don't push him, but don't discourage
him. Let him come on. And I'll tell you, God will enable
that child to grow as the years go by. He won't know everything. You don't either. I don't either.
Long ways from it. In fact, the more I study this
book and try to preach, the more I find out I don't know. I think
we're being saved. I felt God moved in my heart
when I was nine years old. I think that's the first time
God really moved in my heart. I didn't know anything. I didn't
know anything when I was 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 in there. I thought
I did, but I didn't know anything. Don't know anything now. It's
all Christ. It's all Christ. And God is bringing
us to conformity to the image of his Son. And you know the
best gifts that God has on the lower shelf It's not as we grow
in wisdom and knowledge and morality and these things that we reach
up and gain the greatest blessing, it's as we're brought down. And
our spirits, our proud spirits are broken. And our proud attitudes
are humble. And we're brought down, down.
Which way are you growing? The growth, spiritual growth
is down. That's the direction, it's down.
Down at the feet of Christ. God is nigh unto them of a broken
heart. God save as such as be of a broken
spirit. That's the reason children of
God, men and women who are saved, grow sweeter as the years go
by. They have their convictions and
their principles and they stand for them. They stand in strength
for these things. But they grow sweeter because
Christ becomes sweeter to them, more precious to them, and therefore
other people become more precious. But, oh, God, deliver us from
growing more cantankerous, harder to live with and harder to get
along with. That's not little children. Two
boys can go out there on the football field and fight it out,
and tomorrow they're walking with their arms around each other.
You let two adults have any kind of falling out at all, and ten
years from then they hate each other more than they did when
they fell out. That's not Christ. Christ's not in that. He's nowhere
near that. except you become as little children, you shall
not enter the kingdom of God. Our Father, bless the message
to our hearts. By the power of thy Holy Spirit,
break us and melt us and crush us. Bring us down in the dust
that thou feed. We don't know anything. We don't
have anything. We're nothing. Christ is our
strength, Christ is our refuge, Christ is our shepherd. Humble
us in the dust at thy feet as little children. Reveal to us
Christ as our substitute and our Savior and our Redeemer,
his blood, the blood of atonement. For it is in his name we pray,
amen.