Good morning. I'll be reading from Psalm or the entire Psalm 8. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Who displays your splendor above the heavens. From the mouth of infants and nursing babes, you have established strength because of your adversaries to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I see your wonders and the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have established, what is man that you remember him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels, you have crowned him with glory and majesty, You make him to rule over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the animals of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. You may be seated. Well, this morning, with God's help, we'll hear Jesus citing that psalm we just heard read to us, Psalm 8, to remind us that He gladly receives the worship of little children, the youngest among us. God's grace is such that little children can receive Christ and praise Him and serve His purposes in wonderful ways. Of course, this is a work of grace. It always is. And yet it's a reminder to us, church, that our children And by that I mean just the children who are a part of this church family must be encouraged in this way, not only from their parents but from Us older folks, let's put it that way, in their church family, they need to be encouraged to follow Jesus, to believe upon Christ, to live for Him, as opposed to what? As opposed to being shushed. As opposed to being disregarded. As opposed to being thought of, because of their tender age, somehow not quite ready, or less than. And it's that sort of negative reception of children that I just described that we find here in Matthew 21. I'm going to begin reading with verse 12. This is Jesus in Jerusalem. And Matthew tells us in his gospel that Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers. the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a robber's den. And the blind and the lame came to Jesus in the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the marvelous things which he had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, saying, Hosanna to the son of David, they became indignant and said to him, do you hear what these children are saying? And Jesus said to them, yes, have you never read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for yourself. And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there. And all of this happened on the Monday following those events we looked at last week in Matthew's gospel, the events that we now refer to as Palm Sunday, just days before Jesus' crucifixion, that's the context of this passage. God's anointed savior and king, Jesus, had already entered Jerusalem to much fanfare. Jesus had come to the temple late that Sunday and looked around the temple courts and then turned and left for the night, presumably in disgust at what he saw. And what is it that he saw? Well, he saw that commerce had replaced contrition among many of God's people. He saw that profiteering had displaced penitence and prayer among many of God's people. And you say, well, that's a weird thing, isn't it? Well, just try to imagine a holy day being turned into a largely commercial endeavor. I mean, just try to picture what that might look like. And now the king returns to the temple the next day, and he's come to clean house. He's come to restore reverence and worship among the people of God, actually, A renovation that would go way beyond moving some things around. And let me just say, in case you're curious, we will spend another message, Lord willing, looking specifically at the cleansing of the temples. I don't want you to leave here this morning thinking you got ripped off. It's just that today, what's on my heart, and I trust it's of the Lord in light of the text, is that I just want us to focus on these kids. Matthew alone in his gospel tells us about the kids. And I kind of got stuck on that. This is very purposeful. We're meant to learn something about what's going on with these children. These children that we just read of are overwhelmed by the marvel that is King Jesus entering the temple healing the blind and the lame. He has with great authority and righteous indignation shut down the religious shopping mall that had long been running in the outer courts of the temple. And the effect of all of this commotion is that these particular youngsters on this day that we read of in the temple are awestruck And they shout a glad welcome to Christ as Israel's king. And the children were shouting in the temple, says Matthew, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. Remember from last week, Hosanna, Lord save, or save now. Kids are doing this. And then, Son of David, meaning what? Israel's long, anticipated Messiah and King. The promised descendant of David, whose rule would be an everlasting rule, has come. And God is pleased to use the voices of these children to hail the coming King. The Greek word that is translated children here, peis, refers to boys and girls before adolescence. And so we've every reason to think that there are kids who are, say, Luke's age, up to, say, where'd the Delahooks go? Russell's age. Is he here? He's over there. There he is right there. And the same word. is used of Matthew back in chapter 18, when Jesus took a little child in his arms, so I'm just talking about little kids and not so little kids, okay? Jesus took such a child in his arms and he said this to his disciples, unless you are converted and become like little children, You will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Remember that child in Jesus' arms became in that moment an object lesson of saving faith. God's children of any age must come to Christ humbly, dependent, needy, trusting, and he'll gladly receive you. And so I wanna just ask you straight up this morning, regardless of your age, and you all can decide whether you're older or not, that's not my concern. Have you come to Christ this way? Because a whole bunch of people in the temple in Jerusalem knew lots of stuff about the Messiah and did not. Have you responded to Christ this way? Have you come to Him humbly, needy, knowing that He alone pays the ransom that must be paid for you to be liberated from the curse of sin? I'm talking about the sin within you. Well, we'll come back to that. Matthew says in chapter 21, there's a whole gaggle of these paeus, these children, worshiping Christ as the deliverer of God's Israel. And there are those who believe, let me just say this as an aside, because I know a lot of you read commentaries, and I think that's a wonderful thing. May your tribe increase. But every once in a while, you read a bunch of commentaries, and you figure out, I don't think there's really agreement on this thing. And you will hear from some commentators that this word peis maybe refers only to boys, and maybe these are boys who have just finished their bar mitzvahs and they've come to Jerusalem to celebrate their first Passover as young men. That's possible. But here's the thing, I tend not to think so in light of Jesus citing Psalm 8 in verse 2. Either way, The salient truth is this. Young children can receive Christ. That's simple, right? Young children can receive Christ. It is a work of God's grace. As with all works of God's grace, how it happens is a mysterious thing. But God is pleased to save little kids by granting them faith in King Jesus. And you say, well, I wonder why he's telling us this. Is he short of material? Has it come to that? No. We want to be a church that fully embraces this reality that the youngest among us are absolutely capable of receiving from God his saving grace. Remember, you're still listening. Remember Samuel, in your Old Testament, Samuel hearing the voice of God three times while the chief priest, who was it, Eli, doesn't hear it, sleeps through it. And Samuel's response is what? I hear you, Lord, speak. Or think of the little Israelite girl taken captive, serving Naaman's wife, and it's that little girl who speaks up for having faith in the God of Israel. And God is pleased to use kids. And a person might think, in light of that point you're looking at on your screen, Well, I mean, what if they don't have a well-developed soteriology? What if they can't spell that? What if they can't explain the doctrines of grace to their friends? What do they think of Martin Luther? How about that? Listen, all of that stuff has its place. Don't misunderstand. None of it is necessary. for salvation. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its word. It sounds like music in my ears. The sweetest name on earth. Oh how I love Jesus. Because he first loved me. Of course we want our children to grow in grace and to have a better and better developed understanding of some of the things I mentioned earlier in the same way that we want to grow. We older folk want to grow in our understandings of these great truths of God, but that comes next, not first. So even the youngest among us can receive Christ for who he truly is. And church, I want us to just consider the implications of this then, simple as it is, even the youngest among God's people can worship Him and serve His purposes. We don't want to have the mindset as a church, nor would we want to have the mindset as parents, that somehow that's for later, when they get older. And that is why, this next part doesn't count against my time, I'm freelancing here, but that is why having parents stand before you as they just did with their precious little ones, committing as they did to point these kids to Jesus, and having you, and I didn't see any of you disagreeing, although there's peer pressure, isn't there? I mean, to hear you all agree, yeah, we got skin in the game too. That is a blessing, guys, because it's God's design for us as a church family. Well, okay, now it does count against my time. In this instance, in Matthew 21, the kids are unwittingly shaming the self-righteous, the highfalutin, the hoity-toity religious leaders with their simple believing worship of Christ. And this is a work of grace, again, it always is. It's not true of all children anymore than it is true of all adults in this room right now. But God is pleased to put his saving grace on display in this way. And so we don't want, as a church family, to miss this children's lesson. God is often pleased to reveal to young children spiritual realities that more learned adults fail to grasp. and I'm not making this stuff up, it's just look at the Bible. God has ordained and enabled praise from those we often might be tempted to consider the least among us, the weakest, the comparatively unable. I mean, that's what it is to be a child. And he uses those we might consider the least of these for what purpose? So that God himself is glorified. Don't miss that. The children are not glorified. God himself is glorified. And that is why the enemy of souls twists this kid business around in such a way that we have parents and grandparents who basically think they ought to be worshiping their kids. That's not what this text is saying to us at all. It's saying just the opposite. These precious children can be, by God's grace, recipients of belief in salvation in such a way that God himself is glorified. And so Matthew, you still listening? Matthew here doesn't include this little episode with the kids for us to just sit back and say, well, how cute this is. Look what the kids are doing. Kids say the darndest things. They should make a TV show about that. Well, children are wonderful, and they absolutely say the darndest things. But the point here is that Christ is wonderful, and even little children, by God's grace, often see this, and he's glorified. Do you realize, church, that some of the most heartfelt, sincere worship among us on a Lord's Day comes from among our youngest family members. And I don't wanna, well, I actually am gonna say this. Not too long ago, there was a family seated behind me, and Pam, and at the close of our worship time, we sang a hymn, I can't remember the name of the hymn, but the kids behind us, and I'm not gonna name the families, I don't wanna embarrass the Delahooks, but there was a, this family, the kids are just belting out this hymn. They knew all the words, and they were so full of joy, and there was this unhindered worship, and I was so blessed by that in my heart. because this is a work that God so often is pleased to do in little ones, some of the most heartfelt worship. among us on a Lord's Day doesn't even occur in this room, because we've got another gaggle of little ones that meets in the family center, where they're learning all about Jesus, and they're learning to worship the King, and some of them, by God's grace, have come to faith in Christ. We don't wanna forget that, and somehow view our youngsters as, you know, not quite ready. Does that make sense? God is pleased to exalt his name as he transforms even the youngest among his people. Now, some of our kids do not know Jesus yet. Again, salvation is of the Lord. Just like some grown-ups in this room here right now, perhaps, do not yet know the Lord savingly. But nonetheless, there's a lesson here for us. Young children can receive Christ, young children can praise the Lord in ways that are pleasing to Him, and they can serve His good purposes. And when they do, the point isn't how cute are the kids so much, the point is God is exalted. as he ought to be, exalted among his people. And the thing of it is, we're making great time here, the thing of it is, if you look at verse 15 and you realize, not everybody likes this. Not everybody likes this. Notice the interaction between Jesus and the chief priests and scribes, let's call them the unbelieving religious folk. when the chief priests and the scribes saw the marvelous things which he had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple saying, Hosanna to the son of David, they became indignant and said to him, do you hear what these children are saying? And listen, they're not questioning Jesus' hearing. That's not what that is about. What they mean is, do you understand the implication of not silencing these kids? Do you understand, Jesus of Nazareth, that they are in fact worshipping you? Do you understand that they are worshipping you as if you're God? Indignation, anger even, is unbelief's common response to being in the presence of unbridled, joyful belief. And parents, grandparents, we want to prepare our children for this. I'll say more about this later, but joy in the Lord is an irritant to religious posers. And there is a reason why there's this weirdness that happens in our culture this time of year. when people are really happy to sing about Jesus until they begin to understand that He has a claim on them as Savior and King. Are you hearing this? Jesus' response then comes straight from the very Bible that these chief priests and scribes knew so well and were teaching others, Jesus said to them, yes, I'm aware. Have you never read, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself? Again, Jesus isn't asking them literally, have you ever read Psalm 8? They had Psalm 8 memorized. They taught Psalm 8 to other people. They knew all about Psalm 8. He's asking them, have you guys ever really thought through what Psalm 8 is about? Have you ever considered that Psalm 8, as with many of the Psalms, is a messianic Psalm? Have you considered that Psalm 8, which is to do with the majesty of God, bears the fragrance of our Savior, the greater David. In Psalm 8, David sings of how creation itself displays the splendor and majesty of God. The heavens and the moons, I guess other planets have moons, plural, don't they? I'm pretty sure we only have one. Last I checked. And all bear the fingerprints of God. Open your eyes, sings David. It's there for all to see, this majesty of God in creation. And then he says, mankind, the image bearers of God, are the crown of creation in the sense that human beings have. The privilege of reflecting the very nature of God and have been created for relationship with God. You guys ever read Psalm 8? Jesus is asking them. You understand what that's about? How are guys like you ever gonna have a relationship with God? In this way, even infants and nursing babies bring praise and honor to God without words. In a mysterious way, they serve God as a rebuke to his enemies. And so David sings, from the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have established strength because of your adversaries to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. And you see, that's exactly what's happening. in Jerusalem's temple here in Matthew 21. But you know, you cannot consider the miracle that is the birth of a child and not see something of the majesty of God. That's why the scripture says, only the fool says in his heart, there is no God. But David is saying more than that. A child's dependence and trust Though that child is weakest among God's image bearers, brings glory to God. Now, let me just say what I often say. Pay attention now because we're going in a direction. All of that is kind of context. Infinitely more marvelous than any child being born is the child born to us that we've been singing of. and singing too. Infinitely more marvelous is that God has condescended himself to enter into humanity as a little child, as a newborn. Helpless in that sense, dependent in that sense. I'm talking about Christ and his humanity. You step down from heaven. Humbly you came, God of all creation, here with us. And Psalm 8 continues, what is man that you remember him? And the son of man that you care for him. Son of man, ben adam, that simply means mankind. God is mindful of his image bearers lost In the darkness of sin's curse, as all of us are born into. The sin within us, not just the sin around us. What are we remembering this time of year? Well, hopefully it's not just this time of year, but the whole world gets in on this, really. God stooping to humanity. with love in his heart to save sinners. Call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. And son of man, as David sings, is used so often in Matthew's gospel, why? Because it's Jesus' favorite self-designation. When He referred to Himself, He most often referred to Himself as the Son of Man. Why? Because Jesus is God who has visited us in His humanity. He's the greatest expression of God's mindfulness of you, the sinner, born under sin's curse as you've been. God has visited us personally in the person of Jesus Christ. What child is this who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping? And this child, this son of man, grew up to be everything the first Adam failed to be. He grew up to be every day of his life only loyal and obedient to God, something you haven't done today, me either. Grew up every day of his life in such a way that his perfections in his humanity would be for you a perfect substitute before God. and further lived toward that cross, that is just days away from where we're reading of here in Matthew 21, where he would take upon himself the judgment, the hell that sinners have coming from God. And let me just say this for the sake of clarity. You, regardless of age, must repent and believe upon Christ if you are to have shelter from this judgment that is coming. We just sang those words in a matter of sense, didn't we? In a starlit manger, Emmanuel, light of the world, here to save. And so you consider these children regarding Jesus rightly in Matthew 21, and their worship is a rebuke of those who know all the stuff they think they need to know about God, and yet are rejecting God's Messiah, man's Savior. Is that you? I mean, it's possible you're here today because you heard there were gonna be some baby dedications, and that's always a good time. But wouldn't it be ironic to be here for something like that and get the picture? I mean, always get the picture for sure. But to have done that and miss the message, miss the personal call, to receive Christ as a little child? Well, the young people praising Jesus don't understand all that there is to know about soteriology. They know nothing of the doctrines of grace. Jesus has not yet gone to the cross yet. They don't have a well-developed theology of any of that, but here's the thing. They recognize Jesus for who he is. Do you? Let me just end with trying to put some skin on the bones here because some of you are looking at me like, well, what in the world does this have to do with us? Let me just tell you. I just want to say you have skin in the game here as a member of this church. as a person who belongs to the family of God, if that's you. How do you suppose these youngsters know to worship Jesus in this way? Well, I can think of a couple reasons. One, and foremost, this is a work of the Spirit of God. And there is a mystery to this. The text does not tell us that every kid in Jerusalem did this. It tells us that these kids did this. And so this is absolutely a gift of the Spirit of God to illumine Christ in such a way that he is received as he is. But the Holy Spirit uses means, doesn't he? And one of the means of the Spirit is simply the instruction and the example of godly parents. That's why, again, these child dedications that we are blessed to do from time to time are actually consequential. They well may be eternally consequential. I don't mean the day itself, but I mean what they represent. The work of God in the hearts of a mom and a dad to do whatever God graciously enables to point their kids to Christ. Dads and moms have a stewardship to instruct their children to worship God as he truly is. So if you're a parent, or if you've had parents, that'll come to you later, I urge you to consider this. This is a multi-generational thing. Grandparents in the family of God have skin in the game too. And so Paul says to Timothy, hey Tim, I think it's wonderful that this unhypocritical faith of yours reminds me of something I once saw in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and I rejoice in that, Tim, because I have a sense that I'm seeing that in you. This is a means that God uses to build his family. Psalm 127, I read that earlier, but let me just say a little bit more about it. Verse three, behold, children are an inheritance of Yahweh, the fruit of the womb is a reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them, they will not be ashamed when they speak with enemies in the gate. What in the world does that last bit have to do with anything? Well think about what an arrow is. Arrows are to do with warfare. What's going on in the gospel? God is reclaiming his people and his world for his glory. And he is accomplishing this, and he will accomplish this, and it involves spiritual warfare. What are children in Christ-centered families. They are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. What is the blessing of a quiver, a family that has some children in this kind of a context? Moms and dads may well live to see their children well-prepared and well-established and unashamed of Christ So they stand firm when they are unleashed out into the world that hates Jesus. Like, what would that look like? Well, it would look a little bit like what you see happening here in Matthew 21. Spurgeon puts it this way. He says, little children, when they are rightly taught, early praise the Messiah, and as they grow up, with deeper voices and fuller volume of sound, but perhaps not even with truer heart. They praise and bless the God of their fathers. And you see, it's always helpful to read at least some of these old dead guys, because you think about the last little bit of what Spurgeon said in that sermon on Psalm 8, perhaps not even with truer heart. Do you see what he's saying? It helps us understand why would there be a whole bunch of religious people in the temple on this day we read of seeing the same things in Christ and yet not receiving him for who he really is. But the kids get it by grace. that the kids get it. And so parents, I just want to commend those of you who even now are very deliberate about this, training up your children in God's ways, teaching your children to worship God as he is. Teaching your children the truths of God. I'm talking about the scriptures. It's not a foreign thing in your home to open the Bible and read the word of God. Modeling your children what it really looks like to follow King Jesus in a world that hates Jesus. And I want you to know, on behalf of your church family, we're for you. We pray for you. And we love you, and we wanna help you in the least creepy ways available to us, all right? I'm not talking about busting into your lives. But God will enable us to see need, and we can trust the Holy Spirit to get us moving in the direction of that need, and we can trust the Holy Spirit to work in your heart so that you'll be receptive of such. And if you're a parent here this morning with kids still at home and you're feeling a twinge in your conscience because you're thinking to yourself, you know, I've not been very deliberate about this. I've not been very deliberate about it at all. Maybe you're a grandparent and it occurs to you that you've sort of just figured that was the parent's deal, that your season has passed. Let me just say, well, first of all, you're in good company, you're not alone in that, and you don't have to stay stuck in that spot. And please know that stepping into this role is absolutely the will of God for your life. You don't have to doubt that. Well, I've strayed from the text and I'm out of time, so let me, Let me just return to it and we'll end. Here is Jesus scolding these self-righteous religious leaders of Israel, people who know all about God, people who know all the songs and presume to teach others about God, but the thing of it is is they don't know God. So that when they see him in the flesh, they cannot and will not receive him for who he is. And so they're put to shame from heaven's perspective by the praise of these children. That is a fulfillment of Psalm 8 verse 2. Have you never read, says Jesus, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself. And let me just speak to the church now that doesn't have kids at home still, or maybe doesn't have little ones, you know, grandparents with little ones around. Is this a lesson for you as well? Absolutely it is. Absolutely it is. If God prepares praise for himself from among the youngest among us, surely the rest of us have a stake and a stewardship in this as well. It isn't just that God-fearing parents raised up some of these kids in Jerusalem rightly. It was actually something that had been embraced by the entire family of God. Now, unbelief among them was such that they rejected Jesus. They didn't receive him for who he is. But when this gospel labor is energized by the Holy Spirit, the Lord works with that. A lot of the big people, as kids would say, in Jerusalem, failed the little people in Jerusalem on this day, simply because they had turned Passover into this hurried, harried, pragmatic exercise the meaning of which was completely lost, so that when the Passover lamb himself stood before them, they missed it, they missed it. So there is a warning here for us, and we'll get to the warning later when we look at the temple cleansing, but I wanna just end with kind of a call for action. Church family, we are meant to embrace fully this love of our King for children. And that is why when we hear little ones cooing and crying and doing the other things that children do, when we gather on the Lord's Day, we're glad for that. Because it's a reminder to us that that's how we sound when we cry out to God. And aren't you glad we're not shushed and disregarded? But you know, there's more to be said about it, though. We want to continue as a church to do our part in pointing these little ones to Christ. Let's pray that God gives them grace. Pray for the little ones in our fellowship. Let's look for opportunities to come alongside believing parents as they're training up their kids that we might be a help to them. Listen to what Israel's King David said in Psalm 34. He said, come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of Yahweh. Here is something right in Israel's hymn book that God's people would have sung, is it sung or sang, nobody knows, that they would have set to music together as a commitment. from the people of God en masse to teach their children the fear of the Lord. So we have a responsibility here. And I wanna just share one more verse with you from the Old Testament just to convince you that this has always been the vibe of God's family. Listen to Joshua 8 verse 35. It says, there was not a word of all that Moses had commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel with the women and the little ones and the sojourners who were going among them. And that is why you see, Church, in the New Testament, a call to older men, for example, to come alongside younger men for the purposes of encouraging them in their walk with Jesus. Is that your deal? That is why you see in your New Testament an encouragement to older, more mature spiritually women coming alongside younger women to encourage them in their journey as moms who are walking with Jesus themselves and training up their children to do likewise. This is not complex. You might just ask yourself, is that your deal? Are you open to that? Because that's the kind of stuff we're pledging when we do these child dedications. It's meant to have some skin on it, you see. Nurturing children. to receive and praise and serve Christ is a stewardship for all of God's family. Amen? All right, that's it, let's close. Lord, we thank you for this precious narrative of our King, Jesus. Jesus, we thank you for showing us the gladness with which you welcome true worship, pure worship, from children of any age. Lord, I pray that you would work in our hearts in such a way that we embrace your design, not only within our individual families, but in this church family, to be those who see the little ones among us as a stewardship for your glory. And Lord, as always, I pray that if there are those of any age here among us who have yet to heed your call, to come to you humbly and dependent and needy and expectantly as a little child, I pray, Lord, that you would grant repentance and faith on this day. And we ask you this, Jesus, for your name's sake.