This morning, we return once again to our study of Mark's gospel. So if you will take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 10, we will be looking specifically at verses 13 through 16. Before I read the text, may I say that as a pastor, there are a number of things that are very painful to deal with. And as I come to this text, some of those things emerge. One of the most difficult things is having to deal with a family that has lost an infant or a young child. We all know how heartbreaking that is. And many times, families will ask, did my child go to heaven? Or did my child go to hell? What happens to a child when he or she dies? Something else that brings great grief to my heart is the pain of seeing parents that really have no desire to bring their children to Christ. They have no desire to really seek the Lord's blessing in their child's life, they just kind of let them grow up on their own. And then a third thing that is very difficult, is to see sinners who need to come to Jesus on his terms, but they prefer to come on their own terms, and therefore they will never enter into the kingdom of heaven. Each of these difficult issues are addressed in the passage that we have before us, as well as the parallel passages in Matthew 19, and Luke 18. So let me read this passage to you. Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse 13. "And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them. But the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, 'Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child will not enter it at all.' And He took them in His arms, and began blessing them, laying His hands on them."

I would like to examine this passage under four categories that I hope will be helpful to you. First of all, we will see the priority of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. Secondly, we will look at the obstacles of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. And thirdly, we're going to examine the nature of the Lord's blessing on our children. And finally, the Kingdom promise for all who come in childlike faith alone. I trust you will all humble yourselves before the teaching of the Word of God.

Now, let me give you the context here. It's very important. Jesus is on the eastern side of the Jordan River Valley, in the region of Perea. He's with his disciples, he is gradually making his way towards Jerusalem. And he has just finished another round of conflict with the self-righteous Pharisees that have tried to embarrass him, tried to humiliate him and turn people against him. And they have tried to do this over the issue of marriage and divorce and remarriage and so forth. And of course, he constantly exposes their hypocrisy, and they are furious with him; they want to see him dead. And now in this next scenario that occurs, with parents bringing infants and little children to Jesus, Mark is really striking a very stark contrast with the Pharisees that believe they can earn their way into the Kingdom versus these children that have nothing to offer, and such as these can enter the kingdom. In fact, the next recorded scenario is one where the Lord encounters a rich young synagogue ruler, convinced he would inherit eternal life because of his religious law keeping and so forth. And so that will be yet another contrast. So that's what's going on here. Also, according to verse 10 of this chapter, we see that Jesus is still probably in a house with his disciples, meeting together with them. And this brings us to what happens here in verse 13. And this is under our first heading, the priority of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. Verse 13, says, "And they were bringing children to Him, so that He might touch them." The grammar of the passage indicates that this was kind of an ongoing thing. They must have been lining up to bring their children to him. Now, the text doesn't tell us if these people were believing in Jesus, perhaps some did, they certainly knew his reputation. But it was customary among, especially the Jews, in the first century, to bring their children to a prominent rabbi to seek his blessing upon them. And throughout the gospel, we also see accounts of Jesus, laying his hands on those who are sick, those who are needy and so forth. His personal touch was not just an act of blessing, but it was it was a tangible expression of his unconditional love for people without any distinction, because he did this to the clean and the unclean, something the Pharisees would never do. Now, mind you, Jesus is really focusing on teaching his disciples. And so they're watching all this. And they still have much to learn, as we all do. They're watching, they're listening, and they're learning. So verse 13, says, "And they," referring to these parents, "we're bringing children to Him." The term "children," "paidion", in the original language is just a general term for a young child. It can include an infant all the way up to a preteen child, and they are bringing them to him so that he might touch them. And Luke's account adds a little bit more information. He uses the word "brephos", which means infant, they were also bringing infants, little babies, and that term includes an unborn child, even an unborn child in the womb. One that has not yet weaned; in Luke 18:15, we read, "And they were bringing even the babies to Him, so that He would touch them." So we have a steady stream of parents here, probably coming up to this house. Imagine the scene, they're seeking a blessing from this famous rabbi.

And I might pause here for a moment. What a great lesson for each of us as parents, especially those of us who obviously know who Jesus is, to do everything we can to bring our children to Jesus. That should be the supreme calling of every parent, the highest calling, a priority, that will yield the greatest joy in life, not only for the parents, but certainly for the child. And I want to ask you, parents, do you long for Jesus to bless your child? And if so, what are you doing about that? I hope you do. I hope you long for his touch, his loving embrace, his tender stroke, a stroke from the omnipotent hands that healed the sick, that gave sight to the blind. That even raised the dead. And we read later in verse 16, "And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them." Dear friends, I hope you yearn for the Lord's blessing on your children.

I remember my grandparents, on both my mom and my dad's side, they love the Lord. And whenever I spent time with him with them, which was quite a bit, they made sure that I was in Sunday school. They made sure that I was in church. We had devotions, and certainly, we had that with my family, with my mom and my dad. And I praise God for that. I remember when a man came to our house and he was selling this, it looked like a set of encyclopedias, it was called the Book of Life. And dad bought that because it was all these Bible stories. And they got increasingly more theological, shall we say, you know, with every volume so that you could start with someone that didn't know much at all, a little child, and then it would go on from there. And I remember many, many, many times, my parents sitting down with me, and we would look at those pictures and they would read that story. I remember parents that made sure we never missed a church service. Not that it was legalistic, but they wanted to expose me and my sister to every opportunity to know who Christ is. Whatever a man or a woman sews, that's what they're going to reap. And I know way too many parents who have sown the wind and now they have they are reaping the whirlwind. I can tell you hundreds of stories. Over the past several months, I've had the opportunity to speak with several public-school teachers, and those that are substituting and they tell stories, especially of the middle school children who are so depressed, well, they're angry. So naturally, they are very vulnerable to the satanic deceptions of the whole woke ideology, the LGBTQ insanity, the transgender nonsense, how sad? How different would it have been for these kids and how different would it be if their parents would have exhausted themselves to make sure they brought their children to Jesus?

So we first see the priority of seeking the Lord's blessing. Secondly, I want you to look at the obstacles of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. In verse 13, we read "but the disciples rebuked them." And again, the grammar of the text indicates that this was an ongoing thing. It's like as you can almost see it, it's like go on, no, Jesus doesn't have time for this. Go, go. No, no, no, no, he doesn't have time for this. Now, we don't know that's what they said, but it had to be something like that. Now why did they do that? It doesn't say, perhaps they thought, well, Jesus has more important things to do than mess with little kids, you know, parents of little kids. Or maybe they were thinking to themselves, you know, we just kind of want Jesus to ourselves here. You know, "us four no more, bar the door," even though there were 12 all right? We don't know. But beloved may I say very clearly, we want to be careful to never prevent anyone from coming to Christ. We want to have a burden for the lost, we don't want to tell people to get lost. And so, especially with parents in the church, or people that need help with their children, we want to do all that we can to help in that. So, this is what we going on here.

And what's also interesting in verse 14, is what Jesus does. He says, here in verse 14, "But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant." The term carries the idea of being aroused to righteous indignation, to righteous anger. He is indignant and said to them, "'Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them.'" Again, a present tense verb, it's the idea of, "stop preventing them, let them come, I want these parents, I want these children to have full access to me." And by the way, that needs to be the priority of every single person in ministry, you need to be accessible to your people. That must be a priority. Every Shepherd needs to smell like sheep. Let them come. Full Access. He says, "'For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.'" Luke adds another dimension here, he says in Luke 18, in verse 16, "Jesus called for them." So, can't you see it? He said, Hey, you guys knock it off, let them come. Hey, you, come on, come on in. That's what we see happening here. So, the Lord encourages parents to bring their children to him, that he might bless them. And if that is his priority, beloved, should it not also be yours? Sadly, many professing Christian parents see no real need to invest themselves in such a way; invest themselves through prayer and through example, through discipline, through instruction. And then a lot of parents give up with the obstacles. And boy, don't we all know what the obstacles are today. We might not have the disciples out there saying don't come in, but we've got our own obstacles, many times the ones that we create ourselves, I'm too busy, I'm too tired. Too tired to go to Sunday school. I've got too many responsibilities. There's too many distractions in my life. I don't have time to sit down with my children and read them Bible stories and help them understand who Jesus is. After all, that's what the Sunday school teachers are for right? So many obstacles. I think of so many parents that I've seen over the years, that will exhaust themselves physically and financially, so their child can do something with a ball. But they have absolutely no time, or energy or finance, to help them understand who Jesus is. Talk about misplaced priorities, talk about obstacles. Well, whatever the obstacle, Jesus knows this, and Jesus wants you to press forward. He's inviting you to come. So, we need to take advantage of every opportunity that we have to expose ourselves to Christ.

By the way, this requires spiritual discipline. We live in a very undisciplined society today, we tend to just do whatever feels good. And there's no real priority to do the right things at the right time. But this requires spiritual discipline, I think of Psalm 16, verse eight, where the psalmist says, "I have set the Lord always before me." "I have set the Lord always before me," which would translate into therefore as a father or as a mother, I'm gonna set my children in front of me and the Lord and I'm gonna set the Lord before them. And he went on to say in that passage, "Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken."

So we see the priority and the obstacles of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. And then this moves into some deeply theological issues that I want to address briefly, but hopefully, it'll be enough to help you understand what I believe the Scriptures teach. And this is under the heading of the nature of the Lord's blessing on our children. What was he really doing there? Spiritually speaking? I mean, why would he bless them knowing they had a sin nature? What is the nature of that blessing? Now, obviously, Jesus knew these infants and the small children, perhaps even some that are still in the womb. He knew that they were sinners by nature. Every child has inherited the imputed sinfulness of Adam. In Romans 5:12, other passages, in fact, and I know this is hard for us to hear, that precious little baby that smiles at us is capable of the most heinous sins, because that little child has a sinful nature.

God said in Genesis eight, verse 21, "The intent of man's heart is evil from his youth." David wrote in Psalm 51 Five, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me." In Psalm 58, three we read, "The wicked are estranged from the womb, those who speak lies go astray from birth." And any of us who have raised children know exactly what that looks like. You don't have to teach your child to lie and to be naughty, it comes natural. Romans three, verse 10, and following, "There is none righteous, not even one, there is none who understands There is none who seeks for God, all of turned aside, together, they have become useless. There is none who does good, there is not even one." So Jesus understood their depravity, obviously. But beloved, he also understood that they had no moral awareness. They were unable to understand the gospel, to understand sin and the cross and who Jesus is, what he would do for them, et cetera. They also had no ability to exercise saving faith, or to even reject Christ. Now, the text makes it clear that there was no dispensing of saving grace here in his blessing or in his laying on of hands. So why did he want them to have access to him? Well, I believe primarily it is because they were innocent in his sight, as we will see, and simply because he loved them. In verse 14, we read "The kingdom of God belongs to such as these." The kingdom of God here, in this context, refers to the sphere of the redeemed where Christ reigns in the hearts of those who have trusted in him. But it says that this kingdom "belongs to such as these", it doesn't say merely "to these." He did not say the kingdom of God belongs to children, but to "such as these", which is a very precise way of indicating that he was referring to everyone just like them. And I believe there's two categories that we can see here, as we look at these children, the first category, they are those who are utterly helpless, to save themselves. They come to him with unassuming humility. They have no credit. They have no clout. They're utterly dependent upon his mercy and wholly trust in his grace alone. But I think the second category is that innocent children have no moral awareness. That's what we have here with these children. They have not yet reached an age of personal accountability. Let me address that issue first.

Prior to the age of accountability, infants and children are temporarily protected by God's grace until such a time as they are old enough to know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. As we look at Scripture, nowhere in Scripture does God bless unbelievers. He would never bless those incarcerated in the domain of darkness, Colossians 1:13. In fact, he speaks of them in John 8:44 is those who "are of their father the devil and want to do the desires of their father." So practically speaking, as it relates to the death of an unborn infant, or a child or a mentally disabled person that has no moral awareness, because of God's gracious protection, if that person dies in that condition, despite their sin nature that deserves the wages of sin, which is eternal death, because they are unable to savingly believe, I believe the Scripture teaches they go straight to heaven. Once they reach an age of accountability, then they lose that innocence. But they don't lose their salvation. And I'll address that more in a moment. At that point they become culpable for their sin and God holds them responsible if they fail to repent and trust in Christ. But nowhere in Scripture do we read of anyone going into eternal judgment, because of their sin nature. We see that no place. Judgment is always pronounced upon those who rebelled against God who violate his law, which would include the sin of unbelief. God never condemned sinners for sins that they had not committed. Phil Johnson says this quote, "Whenever Scripture describes the inhabitants of hell, it always does so with lists of sins, and abominations they have deliberately committed." End quote. Obviously, that can't be the case with these children. Infants and little children have no moral consciousness and therefore they have no culpability of deliberate willful sin. Yes, they have a sin nature, but they have not committed sinful deeds. Nowhere in Scripture do we read of an infant child being damned for anything. Imagine the utter enigma, the unfathomable mystery in the mind of an innocent child, suffering in the torments of hell, when they had absolutely no knowledge of what they had done, or of the holiness of God. Incomprehensible. In his book, "The Theology of Infant Salvation," which was written in 1907, a great Presbyterian pastor and theologian Dr. R.A Webb, addressed this issue, he said this, quote, "If a dead infant were sent to hell, on no other account than that of original sin, there would be good reason to the divine mind for the judgment, because sin is a reality. But the child's mind would be a perfect blank as to the reason of its suffering. Under such circumstances, it would know suffering, but it would have no understanding of the reason for its suffering. It could not tell itself why it was so awfully smitten and consequently, the whole meaning and significance of its sufferings, being to it a conscious enigma, the very essence of the penalty would be absent and justice would be disappointed, cheated of its validation." End quote. Again, these little ones were unable to savingly believe because they had no moral consciousness, no moral awareness, and therefore no culpability for acts of rebellion. And again, this would include those that are mentally disabled. Yet the kingdom of God belongs to such as these, the helpless, the meritless, the humble, the dependent, the trusting. So one might ask, so okay, do they lose their salvation? Once they reach the age of accountability? And I believe the answer is not at all. And here I stand on the shoulders of other eminent theologians like John Calvin and BB Warfield, Charles Hodge, R.A Webb, John MacArthur, etc. The innocent child does not lose his or her salvation after reaching the age of, of accountability, but rather, it would appear that God temporarily protects them in his protective custody of his grace until they reach that age. Practically speaking, they remain innocent until they develop into a stage of moral consciousness. Let me give you an example or two of this in Scripture.

We see this for example, in Deuteronomy, chapter one and verse 39. In that context, God exempted the infants and little children in Israel from his sentence upon the entire generation of Israelites, because of the rebellion against them or against him in the wilderness, they wouldn't, they would not be allowed to enter the land, but their children would be able to enter and why the exemption? We're going to see in this text it was because they had no knowledge of good and evil. They were not in a conscious, willful state of rebellion against God and they had committed no acts of disbelief. Let me read the text to you Deuteronomy 139. We read "your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil shall enter there," referring to the promised land, "and I will give it to them and they shall possess it." Again, to be sure little children and infants are incapable of making conscious, willful, rational, intentional choices.

Jeremiah chapter 19, verses four through five God speaks of the, quote, "innocent" children that were sacrificed to Baal. Ezekiel chapter 16, beginning in verse 20, "you took your sons and daughters whom you had born to Me and sacrifice them to idols to be devoured... You slaughtered," and then he says, "My children", they were his possession, "You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire." Jonah chapter four and verse 11, "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand", I believe in reference to the children that were there. And again, I believe God's gracious, protective custody would apply to miscarried children as we're going to see. Stillborn children, I believe they go to heaven when they die. Job contrasted the blessing of eternal life, for the stillborn in heaven with the sorrows, the miseries, the wickedness, the weariness of life. In fact, he wished he had been miscarried or stillborn, rather than alive in the misery that he was dealing with; Job chapter three beginning in verse 11, "Why did I not die at birth? Come forth from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me? And why the breasts that I should suck? For now I would have lain down and been quiet, I would have slept then I would have been at rest." He goes on to say in verse 16, and following. "or like a miscarriage, which is discarded," In other words, why couldn't I have been like that? "I would not be as infants that never saw light." There, referring to heaven, "the wicked cease from raging and there the weary are at rest," and so forth. King Solomon, another example, made the same assertions pertaining to the preferred blessings in heaven for the stillborn child or the miscarriage child in Ecclesiastes six beginning in verse three, "If a man fathers 100, children and lives many years, however many they may be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial. Then I say, better the miscarriage then he, for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity and its name is covered in obscurity. It never sees the sun, and it never knows anything, it is better off than he." We see this as well in the story of David and Bathsheba. In Second Samuel 12. Remember as part of God's judgment upon David and Bathsheba because of their sin, because of the sin of adultery, and the murder of Uriah, God said that his son with Bathsheba would die. And you will recall the story; the child was born, it was very ill, David fasted and prayed. Even the text says that he even was laying on the ground all night long. He did this for seven days, and then the child died. And we read this in Second Samuel 12, beginning in verse 20, "So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he came into the house of the Lord and worship. Then he came to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate. Then his servant said to him, 'What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but when the child died, you arose and ate food?' He said, 'While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, 'who knows. the Lord may be gracious to me, that the child may live', but now he has died, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?" Then he says this, "I will go to him, but he will not return to me." The text indicates that God had forgiven David. He was heaven bound. And he also knew that that's where his son was, and that's where he would one day be reunited with him. I know there's a number of you that I've dealt with over the years that have lost a child through miscarriage, through stillbirth, and some even after the child was born. And I know what a heartbreak it is, but I hope this brings comfort to you. Because I believe that if you know and love Christ, you will be reunited with that child. One day, though we sorrow greatly, what a blessing it is even to know that they escaped the miseries of this world, amen? Regarding this scenario, in Mark 10, John Calvin also offers some insights, helping us see that this has been the teaching of Orthodox Christianity, all the way back. He said this, "Those little children have not yet any understanding to desire His blessing," referring to the texts we're talking about, "but then they are presented to him, he gently and kindly receives them and dedicates them to the Father by a solemn act of blessing." He went on to say, "To exclude from the grace of redemption, those who are of that age, would be too cruel. It is presumption and sacrilege to drive far from the fold of Christ, those whom he cherishes in his bosom, and to shut the door and exclude as strangers, those whom he does not wish to be forbidden, to come to him."

So, again, when Jesus says, "For the kingdom of God, belongs to such as these", can we not also even assume and I don't think this is too far of a stretch, that he also intends to indicate that the majority of the inhabitants of heaven are those that were aborted and miscarried and stillborn. Little children, like those that he held, even in his arms and blessed and justified by his grace. What an amazing picture of God's love. Again, notice verse 16, "He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them." The phrase in the original language, "took them in His arms", means to take something into the crux of one's arms as to hold it, or to enfold one's arms tenderly around a child. And we all know what that looks like, we take a child and we, we hold them like that. That's what Jesus was doing with them, with little ones. And while doing so, he blessed them. He laid his hands on them. Oh dear Christian, can we not see the tender loving compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ as he caresses these little children? What an amazing picture and oh to have the Savior's embrace and blessing. Dear friends, this is a matter of eternal life and eternal death. No wonder the Lord Jesus so strongly rebuked his disciples for preventing these parents from bringing their children and their little toddlers to him. May we never be such an obstacle. And again, I would plead with you parents ask yourself, does this apply to me? Am I a help, or am I a hindrance to my child, coming to a place of understanding the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do I lead the way or do I get in the way by my example? The eminent 19th century, Princeton theologian BB Warfield, also affirmed from Scripture, the salvation of infants, especially as it relates to God's sovereign purposes in election, which I might also add for you theologians that, as you look at it from the perspective that he gives in that I'm addressing here, you will see that this is just one more reason to thoroughly refute the Armenians system of soteriology. In fact, I might also add that the Palladian, semi-Palladian, Armenian claim that individuals are born morally neutral, rather than having a sin nature is disproved by the simple fact that babies die. The wages of sin is death. Here's what Warfield said concerning the salvation of infants, quote, "Their destiny is determined irrespective of their choice by an unconditional decree of God, suspended for its execution on no act of their own. And their salvation is wrought by an unconditional application of the grace of Christ to their souls through the immediate and irresistible operation of the Holy Spirit, prior to and apart from, any action of their own proper wills." He went on to add, "And if death in infancy does depend on God's providence, Providence," which I might add, it certainly does, "It is assuredly God in His providence, who selects this vast multitude, to be made participants of His unconditional salvation. This is but to say that they are unconditionally predestined to salvation from the foundation of the world. If only a single infant dying in infancy be saved, the whole Arminian principle is traversed. If all infants dying, such are saved, not only the majority of the saved, but that was the majority of the human race, hitherto entered into life by a non-Arminian pathway." End quote. And of course, he's referring there, to the grace of God in unconditional, sovereign election.

So this was the nature of the Lord's blessing upon these innocent babes, he loved them as one of his own. For the kingdom of God belongs to the helpless, to the humble. And that's what we have here now. I pondered the thought of what the Lord must have prayed in this blessing. And certainly the text does not tell us. What is the nature of this dedication? What were the words we don't know? But I will say that given the providence of God, in his elective purposes, for every image bearer, each individual image bearer that he blessed, he prayed for them in ways that we could never comprehend. These are things beyond us. But the Lord knew. No doubt some of those children grew up to come to faith in Christ, and others did not. But what an unforgettable experience for each parent, right? Again, many of them were probably, in fact, probably most of them weren't believers. Even though they knew something about Jesus, they knew he was this incredible miracle working rabbi. But to think one by one, Jesus calls you in and he takes your child, and he speaks to that child, and he holds that child and he blesses that child and those parents, one by one, he holds them in the omnipotent hands, that would soon be pierced. Later, I'm sure many of those parents would remind their children as the children grew up, remind them of that momentous occasion. Son, Daughter, let me tell you about the day when...and they would describe what happened. And undoubtedly, some of those children grew up to come to faith in Christ. And they would be able to tell their children, let me tell you what my mom and dad did when I was a little baby. They took me to see Jesus in this house. I don't remember it, but he called them and he took me in his arms and my mother and my father pressed their way through the crowds through all of the obstacles, so that I might receive a blessing from the lover of my soul that I now serve. No doubt, dear friends, we will see some of those people one day, won't that be an amazing thing?

So we've seen the priority and the obstacles of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. We've seen a little bit of the nature of the Lord's blessing on our children. And finally, we want to look at the kingdom promise for all who come in childlike faith alone. He says in verse 15, "'Truly'", which could be translated, I tell you the truth, "'Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.'" Beloved, can there be any greater proof that salvation is solely by grace alone than in this statement? In this scenario? I think not. May I remind you again of verse 14, he says, "'Permit the children to come to me, do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these,'" not to these, but to "such as these", again, a very precise way of indicating that you come like these children. Not only was he referring to, obviously the innocent children with no moral awareness that had not yet reached the age of accountability, but also to anyone that has the same characteristics as these children. And may I remind you, once again, what these characteristics are, because this is how you come to the kingdom. If you come any other way, you will not enter the kingdom. These children were utterly helpless to save themselves. When we truly come to faith in Christ, we have nothing to offer but our sin. They come to him with unassuming humility, with no credits or no or clout, utterly dependent solely upon His mercy. And you know how trusting a child is. I mean, they will basically believe anything, right? And when you come to Christ, we have to trust in what he has said. I think of what Jesus said in Matthew five and verse three, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The poor in spirit refers to those who are so burdened by their impoverished spiritual state, that all they can do is cry out for what they know they do not deserve, what they know they cannot accomplish on their own. Broken and contrite in spirit, like a cowering beggar; Lord, I am desperate, please be merciful to me, a sinner. Again, verse 15, "'Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child will not enter it at all.'" Won't you notice the word receive; we receive the kingdom as a gift. We don't earn it through some meritorious acts, we don't earn it through some spiritual act. Now, let me get more specific. We do not come into the kingdom through infant baptism. You do not come into the kingdom through the sacrament of christening a baby. You do not enter the kingdom through water baptism, through some ritual, through confirmation, through church membership, through denomination affiliation. Nor do you come into the kingdom, on the coattails of your parents. We receive the kingdom like a child, otherwise, we will not enter it at all. You can only receive it as a gift of God's grace, when you humbly trust in him as a dependent and helpless child.

I remember when the Lord saved me by His grace when I was nine years old. I remember a lot of the specifics of that time very, very clearly. One of the things that I remember is that I knew very, very, very little theology. But I did know this, that I was a great sinner, and Christ was a greater Savior. I feared hell. I understood the basics, so that I could cry out to Him and in repented faith trust in Him to save me. I didn't need someone to explain to me the creation of the universe. I didn't need someone to explain to me that the Bible was truly the infallible word of God. I didn't need a lot of apologetics. I didn't need a lot of theology to understand how there is relationship between and a harmony between man's responsibility and God's sovereignty. I didn't need all that stuff. I was a child and I came to him as a child. And every adult that comes to Christ must come the same way. And then you know what? When you come to saving faith in Christ, there is a miracle called regeneration that takes place. There is that supernatural, instantaneous impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead. The spirit comes into your heart and you begin to understand scripture in ways that you never did before. Oh you still have to study, you still have to learn, but the Spirit of God illumines your mind, and all of the magnificent truths of his Word begin to build upon one another. And you begin to put the pieces together by God's grace. But you don't have to have them all put together to receive the kingdom. That's the point.

I want to close with a quote from Charles Spurgeon that I think is a great summary here. He said this, "A little child believes with an unquestioning faith, which makes everything vivid and real. Believe just so, “he says, "the child believes in all humility, looking up to its teacher and receiving its teacher's word as decisive. Believe in Jesus, just so. Say Lord, I am a know nothing. I come to you to be taught, I am nothing be you, my all in all. A child when it comes to Christ comes very sincerely and with all its heart. It knows nothing of sinister motives or of formality. It's repentance and faith are genuine. I wish you would come to Christ this morning," he says. "You pour guilty ones in real earnest just as you are. Do not play at religion anymore. Do not look for fine words with which to trim yourselves and make your prayers look neat and pretty. Become as a child does in all simplicity, not ashamed to talk, because your heart feels when a child believes in Jesus, it cares nothing for critical points. That is the way you must come to Christ. You that have always been inventing religious conundrums, you that for many years have been readers of the last new novels and modern theology. For they are mere novels, and nothing better. You that have added your brains with the vain thoughts of vain men, come to Jesus as you are. And believe what Jesus says, Because Jesus says it. Take Christ at His word and trust Him. That is the way to be saved."

Dear friends, I hope you've all come to a place of saving faith in Christ. And you have heard today the characteristics of that kind of a person, and how you receive the kingdom. May it never be said in this life or the next, that you were never warned, that you were never explained the gospel of Christ. For today, you have been told, today you have been warned. And I plead with you as a minister of the gospel to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And for you parents, may I one more time, plead with you. Do everything you possibly can to bring your children to Jesus. Pray for his blessing, pray for his touch, that your children might be saved. And we will all rejoice together in this life and in the life to come. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the truth of your word that brings such clarity to the various issues of life that we all struggle with. I pray that your spirit will find accessible hearts and that we would apply the things that we have heard that we might not just know them intellectually, but live them out practically, that you might be exalted in our life. That we might enjoy the fullness of all that is ours in Christ and that he might be glorified, both now and forevermore. Amen.