Well, happy Palm Sunday. Hosanna, right. Hosanna. Thank you. We will be looking more specifically at that text as it comes up in Luke very, very soon, so we're not going to be looking at a specific Palm Sunday text of Scripture this morning. But I want to talk about children. I'll read the passage here in a second. I'm sure you all realize that there is a war on our children today. Broken homes, defective public schools, human trafficking, drugs, families with one parent or no parents, permissive parenting styles, Every day, on a multitude of battlefronts, Satan is deploying weapons of mass corruption against our children. Our modern culture today has been systematically designed with an agenda that is aggressively anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-Scripture, intended to corrupt and consume young, impressionable hearts and minds. You all are realizing that we are in an ideological conflict and eternity is at stake. Our culture has lost its way in respect to the family, in respect to parenting, That's why the church is needed, because our culture is like a rudderless ship without a compass. It lacks a sense of direction and purpose. Many people have children, but don't want to be parents. And so the parents that are out there, whether they're two-parent homes or more likely one-parent homes, they spend minimal time with their children. And the whole notion that I need to spend time with my kids because that's what a parent is supposed to do, to raise my kids and to train them and to teach them and to influence them for right things even, even if for a non-Christian family you want your kids to do right, I would think, but not so much anymore. And so we are a culture adrift. In the midst of that, we come to a passage of Scripture today in Luke chapter 18, where we see the heart of Christ towards children. So if you're not there already, turn with me to Luke chapter 18. We're gonna look at just a few verses here, verses 15, 16, and 17, just three verses this morning, talking about the subject of how Jesus links children and the kingdom of God. Follow with me as I read from the New American Standard, Luke chapter 18, verse 15. And they were bringing even their babies to him. in order that he might touch them. But when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them. But Jesus called for them, saying, Permit the children to come to me, and stop hindering 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, shall not enter it at all. Now, this passage is in the context of Jesus discussing the kingdom. which goes back to chapter 17, verse 20, and it continues here through chapter 18. Jesus has been talking about the kingdom of God, because the Pharisees come along one day, back in chapter 17, verse 20, and they question Jesus as to when the kingdom of God was coming. Because the Pharisees expected the things that they read in the Old Testament, earthquakes and bizarre cosmic display of God's wrath and anger to pour down upon the world, and then the kingdom would come. And those things are going to come. But see, what the Pharisees did not understand was that there's two aspects of God's kingdom. There's a spiritual side and there's a physical side. And much of the Old Testament is describing what's going to happen when During that time of the tribulation that we've been talking about in the book of Revelation, that's found in Revelation 6 all the way through Revelation 18-ish, right in that period, right in that span of Scripture, when God has poured out His wrath on the world and the sun is blocked out and there's all kinds of weird judgment events that take place. Read the book of Revelation. It's the only book that says that you're blessed by reading it. Now, obviously, you're going to be blessed by reading the others, 65 as well. But so the kingdom of God, the physical side of the kingdom of God is going to be be brought in by a series of judgments, and then we enter into the millennial kingdom. But Jesus, in Luke chapter 17, verses 20 and 21, is talking about the spiritual side of the kingdom, because he says in verse 21, the kingdom of God is already in your midst. It's in you. It's already been existed, it's imperceptible, it's internal, and it's spiritual. It's already in your midst. So he talks about the kingdom of God is already here in verses 20 and 21 of chapter 17. Then beginning with verse 22 all the way through 37, Jesus gives a description of what will lead up to the kingdom, a series of judgments, and he likens it to Noah and the judgment of the flood and the time of Sodom and Gomorrah with Lot. when God poured out His wrath, there's going to be a time of wrath that's going to precede the coming of the Millennial Kingdom. That's described in verses 22-37. So he's saying to the Pharisees, look, these kinds of events are going to take place, but the Pharisees, again, did not understand They didn't understand two comings of Christ, that there was a first and second coming. They just saw Christ coming, Messiah coming rather, and setting up His kingdom in Israel at the top of the totem pole where Messiah would rule. But there is coming a time of judgment, a description of the lead-up into the millennial kingdom. And even in verse 25, Christ mentions the fact that Christ, the Messiah, must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. I mean, Jesus told them that over and over again. And we think of Palm Sunday, Jesus riding in on the back of a donkey, and they were praising him, albeit a kind of, in many ways, sort of a hypocritical, a feigned kind of glory, because here is the Messiah, the king of the universe, coming in to Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. Read Revelation 19. He doesn't come in Revelation 19 on the back of a donkey. It's much more glorious than that when he comes to, I mean, exponentially more glorious. So Jesus is talking about the kingdom. So first of all, in verses 20 and 21, just to repeat, the kingdom is internal, it's spiritual, but there's also a physical external side that is led up with a series of judgment events, even the death of Messiah, verse 25. Then you come to chapter 18. Jesus is still continuing the theme of the kingdom in chapter 18, verses 1 through 8. He's saying that during this time between the first coming and the spiritual kingdom, and the second coming, which is going to bring about the physical or external kingdom, you need to be diligent in prayer and not lose heart. So he describes this widow and this unjust judge. And the whole purpose of verses 1 through 8, that little parable there, verse 1 tells us what the purpose was, that men ought to pray and not lose heart. Because in between his first coming and his second coming is a long time in between those comings, and there's going to be a lot of injustices and a lot of corruption and sin. And before he comes back and brings final judgment, you need to be persistent in prayer Just pray, pray, pray, and not lose heart. Pray, pray, pray, and not lose heart. But then, in verse 9 through 14, continuing the kingdom concept, he's still in this discussion about the kingdom. This is all one big piece of scripture here on the same idea. In verse 9 through 14, Jesus answers the question, well, who gets to enter the kingdom? And you see the Pharisees and the religious elites in Jesus' day who were all part of this cultic form of Judaism. And I say cultic because it had become cultic. It wasn't the same form of Judaism that Moses brought them back in the day when they had left Egypt. And God instituted true Judaism in the book of Leviticus. But it had, over the years, over the centuries, been corrupted by man-made ideas. And so now, there's a sense in Jesus' day where I get to enter the kingdom by simply being righteous, and morally good, and upright. And my morality, my religiosity, earns me a place in the kingdom. Jesus says, no. In fact, Jesus does what was to the Pharisees and the religious elites. He tells this parable of certain persons who trusted themselves that they were righteous, verse nine, and viewed others with contempt. And he talks about two men going up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other tax gatherer, And the Pharisee does his thing, and how righteous he is. And the tax gatherer, knowing that he was unrighteous, feeling the pressure and the sense of his own unrighteousness, he simply beats his chest and says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus says, the thing that angered the Pharisees, it was this unjust tax collector who went to his house justified. That just blew their little brains. how anyone could be justified like this tax collector. So who gets to enter the kingdom? Those who recognize their need are the ones who come into the kingdom. The ones who are spiritually part of this kingdom and then enjoy it physically one day are those who recognize their needs, that they are bankrupt, spiritually bankrupt, and they say, oh Lord, I'm a sinner, be merciful to me. They're the ones who come into the kingdom. Again, the Pharisees' minds were blown. It's reminiscent of the fact that even the Apostle Paul came to that place. The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee. He was Saul of Tarsus, the great Pharisee. But then one day he was thrown on his backside as he was chasing down Christians to hunt them down and to throw them into prison and have many of them executed. He was hunted down by the Lord Jesus Christ, thrown to the ground, and marvelously saved. And you find Paul's pedigree in Philippians chapter 3. And he gives a whole list of his things that he thought earned him heaven, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the things touching the law of Pharisee and righteous. And he describes himself in Philippians chapter 3, but then he says, but what things were gained to me, those things I counted loss, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things that I may win Him, be a part of Him. And so, in verses 9 through 14, we see who does not get to go. Those who think they're righteous and the ones who recognize their spiritual poverty and plead out for God's mercy, they are the ones who enter the kingdom. Now, you come to verse 15, And it naturally ties in to that little parable about the two men who went to the temple to pray. Verse 15. It describes those who were bringing their babes to him. Now, before I get there, the whole point of today's message is this. This ties on to what he's just said. Verses 15 through 17 just tie on to verses 9 through 14. Jesus saves sinners who come to Him humbly and apart from any of their personal achievements, or the things that they think are achievements, like a child. We're going to see in verses 15-17 that Jesus saves those who come to Him as and like a child. realizes he has no credits that he can claim. He has no achievements that he can say, well, look what I've done. A child is typically humble and penitent and lowly. You say, well, you haven't seen my kids. Well, we understand that kids are, as we'll discuss here in a minute, kids are still sinners. and they aren't, they are born in sin, in terms of having a sin nature. But kids do not come to God and say, look at all, they haven't had enough life experience to say, look at all the great things I've done that earned me, and they can pat themselves on the back and say, look how great I am. No, not when they're six months old, 12 months old, 18 months old, they don't come to God like that. And so this is going to be an important truth to learn. It's a truth that the world needs to realize, that Jesus is using a child to describe what it means to come into His kingdom. And we're going to find out that there's actually not only that, but there's another side to this little passage that I think is important, namely that this is not only describing how you come, but it's also gives us a sense about children themselves and how precious they are to our Lord. There's a sort of a dual aspect to this passage, I believe. This passage gives kingdom citizenship both to children and those who come to Christ as a child. Now I'll answer that, I know it maybe confuses you a little bit, but let me just throw that out. The main aspect is that we need to come to Christ as a child. And there's several points here, verse 17 being the key verse, truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. Now there's four points here this morning. And I don't want to get too bogged down with the outline. Sometimes I can emphasize the outline so much that we lose the point, and I have to be careful about that. But we find in verse 15, what I would call, in the first part of verse 15, parents bringing their children to Christ. Christ is teaching. And verse 15 says, and we find sort of the aspiration of parents. Point number one. And we see in verse 15 that they were bringing even their babies to Him in order that He might touch them. Stop there. Again, parents, all along the time when Jesus is teaching, He's going from village to village, they would want to bring their kids to Christ. Parents are always concerned about the spiritual hearts of their children. Their ambition is to have their children know God. to know who He is. And so, parents are now all along throughout Jesus' crisscrossing Galilee and now into Judea as He's making His way to Jerusalem, just a few weeks out from the time He enters Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, the day as we know, Palm Sunday, and a week later He's placed upon the cross. And it says here in verse 15 that parents were bringing, which suggests it was an ongoing, repetitive thing, verse 15. They were bringing. And the word there is the word for babies in verse 15. The Greek word is brephos, B-R-E-F-O-S, to put it into English letters. But the Greek word is brephos, and it's describing those who are anywhere from a fetus status to those who are infants up to a year old, or still nursing infants. It's describing very, very young babies, we would say. So the New American Standard rightly translates that with the English word babies. And so they were bringing even their babies to Him. Why? Because they wanted Him, they wanted Jesus to touch them and to bless them, to embrace them, to take hold of their children and to shower them with some kind of blessing that they felt that only Jesus could give them. Parents desire that for their kids. You still desire that for your kids, even if your kids are grown. I have found that all my kids are grown and I'm still a parent. I still worry about what my kids are doing or what they're thinking. Are they drawing close to the Lord? Are they walking with the Lord? You know, even though they're in their 30s and they're grown, I still... And we're all like that as parents. And sometimes, because of that, we have, I mean, there's a sentiment, that kind of sentiment, I believe, has given rise to what we call infant baptism, whereby many believe that such an action, that you baptize little infants or babies, that that kind of baptism provides some kind of participation with God But that's something that the Bible never teaches. The Bible does not teach infant baptism. It teaches believer's baptism. But there is that belief today, even in our culture today, that if we bring our children, our babies to church, and the pastor will sprinkle a little bit of water on the head of the baby and say some words. And it means well. People mean well by it. But obviously that kind of practice is not something that I find. I do not see infant baptism in the Bible. But the heart, the thing behind it is legitimate, that you want your kids, and a lot of times what I've done in the past is, in previous churches, I haven't done so much here at Heritage, is that we would have a brief little thing in a morning worship where it's not so much an infant, not an infant baptism, but it's a parental dedication. where mom and dad and little baby come up and they want to publicly dedicate themselves to the teaching and training of little Johnny or Judy. Or whoever the baby is. Briella. And so, So we see the aspiration of parents in verse 15, but we also see in verse 15 the assumption of the legalist, because what happens in verse 15 when the disciples discover what was happening, they began rebuking them. Here are these parents trying to bring up little Johnny or Judy up to Jesus, to be touched by Jesus and blessed by Jesus, and Jesus' own disciples are rebuking them. The word for rebuking there in the Greek is epitemo, epitomeo rather, which speaks of a strong censure or disapproval. The disciples began to censure these parents or to disapprove of them, to push them away verbally and maybe even physically, saying, no, no, don't do that. You're bothering the Lord. You're interrupting him. The Lord is not interested in your child. After all, the disciples had grown up with the teaching by the religious elites of that day, the Pharisees, that children could not or really weren't worth that much because they haven't done much, and they should not take up anybody's time. This was sort of a legalist perspective that value before God is tied to one's good works. The things that we do earn us favor with God. That was even the thinking of the disciples. the assumption then that children are excluded from the kingdom because they haven't done anything. They're ineligible for God's favor because they haven't done anything. In fact, one writer said in some quarters they were viewed, even children, were viewed as pre-people, unable to receive the grace of God and are therefore merely there to to bring up in the nurture of the Lord. They haven't done anything yet. Now, we want to honor our children by teaching them. We want to bring them before the teaching of the Scripture. I was reading another text of scripture, another writing, a commentary rather, and one writer was noting the fact that in Jesus' day, people would actually take their children to synagogue and to present their children to the elders at a synagogue to pray over their child. They would do that even in their synagogues in that day. And they would pray something to the effect that this child would grow in their knowledge of the law, that this child would be faithful in their marriage one day and abundant in good works. And some good things that they would do in praying over the child that was brought to a synagogue service. They would pray for their children's salvation, in a sense, that their children would be right before God. Now, by the way, in the parallel account to this, over in Mark 10, verse 14, when the disciples began rebuking the parents for bringing their kids to Jesus, in Mark 10, verse 14, it says Jesus became very indignant, is the word that the NAS uses, indignant towards his own disciples for preventing these kids to come to him. He would say, permit the kids to come to me. Jesus, in a sense, got a little upset at his own disciples for doing this. And so we see there in verse 16, we see thirdly here in your outline is the assurance by the Savior. Because it says there in verse 16, Jesus called for them saying, Permit the children to come to me and stop hindering them. You're not with me here. You're preventing the kids from coming to me. Stop hindering them. Why? For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Now, the word children in verse 16 is a different word than the word that's used in verse 15. The word in verse 16 is the Greek word plodion, which means children. Plotion is a class of children that's older. And so Jesus, in a sense, is saying, he's saying, bring the kids to me, not just the brephos, not just the babies. They're all allowed to come to me. There's sort of an unqualified An announcement here. In direct opposition to what the disciples were doing, in direct opposition to how the religious leaders in Jesus' day felt, Jesus declares that children are under God's special care. He loves them. And this is where I get into the whole idea that I think this passage, because I know other scriptures, I think this passage, there's a dual sense to this passage. It's not just saying that you and I need to come to Christ as little children, having the same attitude as a child, but I think it's also describing the heart of God towards kids. And what I mean by that, I'll just cut to the chase here, and I'll try to prove it a little bit here, I'm saying that any, it is my belief from scripture, and I'll show this here a little bit, it's not the clearest or the easiest thing to show, but I do believe that any child, any baby that is born, and any child that dies before whatever the age of accountability is, that that child, because that child has a special relationship with God just because he or she is a child, that child goes to heaven. Now, it's not something I can just say it's crystal clear. But there are a lot of men, godly men, who really want to make this point. And I kind of agree with them, all right? I've read up on some of them. I mean, I've read men like B.B. Warfield and I can't think of all the other men, Calvin, and other men who are going to make this point that children who die before the age of accountability go to heaven. If that's true, think of all the babies that have been slaughtered in the womb. Think of all the people that are gonna populate the millennial kingdom and the new heavens and the new earth who never walked this planet, who never touched the ground here, who never breathed the air here. There's going to be literally millions and millions of people in heaven who died before they even got a chance to live here. So Jesus gives us assurance here. Now, I want to make it very crystal clear that he's not saying that children are without sin. In making this point, any baby that's born has sin. For instance, David says over in Psalm 51 verse 5, he says, I was brought forth in iniquity, Psalm 51 5. In sin, my mother conceived me. He's saying that when my mom and my dad conceived me, I was wrought in a sinful nature. I was brought forth in iniquity. Or Psalm 58, verse three, the wicked are estranged from the womb and they go astray from birth. We are born as sinners. So no one is saying here that little babies, when they're born, are without sin or sin nature. We're not saying that. The scripture's not teaching that. However, the Bible talks about, repeatedly, about children at a certain point, early on, are declared to be innocent. For instance, there's other passages like this, but Jeremiah chapter 19, verses four and five, this is in the context of back in the day when Israelites and others were offering, doing as the pagans around them were doing, and offering child sacrifices to the god Molech. You've heard of that before? Jeremiah wrote, as he was inspired by God, speaking for God, Jeremiah wrote, because they have forsaken me and have made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices to other gods that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known because they have filled this place, here it is, with the blood of the innocent. God is describing and declaring a certain class, in this case, of people, of babies. He describes them as the innocent. That's not just a term that I think the Bible just sort of willy-nilly throws out there. I think it's describing a class of people whom God has given a special dispensation of grace, if you will. You see the same thing over in Deuteronomy chapter one, verse 39. Jonah chapter four, verse 11. They don't know the difference between the right hand and the left. They aren't able to discern what evil is. There's phrases like that used to describe infants and babes. And so, again, this is not negating their sinfulness, but babies do not understand their sin. And therefore, God is gracious with them. There's one other passage. Oh, I forgot the second part of that verse. And have built the high places to Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal or to Molech. Molech was another god that they did that to. A thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter my mind. This is what they did. They would have child baby sacrifices. But there's a passage over in 2 Samuel. This is one that really, in my mind, kind of cinches this idea. Remember, David was home, and his guys were out fighting. And David went to his housetop one day, and he looked out, and he saw on the next house over, they had those flat roofs, he saw the wife of one of his generals sunbathing herself. And her name was Bathsheba. And he made a connection with her. And the next thing we know, without just getting to the point, they had a sexual relation. And out of that relation came a baby. And for nearly a year, David lived denial of it. I mean, he lied about it. They lied about it. David even had, he tried to get Uriah, his general, to go and quickly come home and sleep with his wife so that he could not, so he could say that the baby was not his or, you know, that Uriah would be thought of as the father. And Uriah was too honorable of a man to do that, to come back home and relax while his men were out there in the field fighting and giving them lives. Uriah was too honorable a man to do that. Well, when one day Nathan the prophet comes in, and Nathan knew about it because somehow God revealed it to him. And Nathan confronted King David and said, you are the man who have done this. And so there was a period of time that David was deeply grieved, and Bathsheba was about to give birth at some point. And they prayed, and they didn't know what was going to happen. Well, when Bathsheba birthed the baby, the baby shortly thereafter died. And then David said this. This is what he said after that child, a child that was the product of their illicit relationship. This is what David said in 2 Samuel 12, verse 23. David said, but now he has died, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? Answer is no. I will go, now here's the phrase. I will go to him, but he will not return to me. I will go to him, but he, that is this newborn babe who has just died, he will not come back, but I will go to him. What is that inferring? That's inferring that that little baby that has just died went into the arms of God or Christ or however you want to express it, into heaven, and David one day says, I will see him again. suggesting very, very strongly that babies, when they die, and older kids, perhaps you would say even kids that are mentally, somehow mentally retarded, there are kids in that category, they are not able to think. God knows every situation, every heart, And many of those kids, when they die, go into the arms of Jesus. So there is an age. There's a special place in the kingdom of God for his little ones. That's the point I want to make here, is that David says that here. Jeremiah says that. Other places say that by using the phrase, innocent. There's a category of people that God has exercised special grace for. And so in summary to this idea, the age of accountability is not clearly identified in Scripture. I think in large measure it's up to the parents. You have a child and you raise that child. At some point, little Johnny, little Judy will come to the place where they understand sin. I remember when our kids were born, I remember our firstborn, and it came to a place, you know, you would teach your kids, no, Justin, don't do that, no, and they wouldn't necessarily understand you. But then there was a time, remember, we would say, no, Justin, don't do that, and he looked back at us, and he looked at the thing that he wanted to do, and he went for it. He knew. He knew that that was the wrong thing to do. And when I saw that, at that point, I'm going, I'm going to bust his butt. He's going to know how I feel. But up until that point, it's just teaching them and loving them and just saying, don't do this. You can do this, but you can't do this. And you're trying to teach them. But there comes a point you realize that they realize what right and wrong is. And so they've reached that point, I think, God knows for sure, of that age of accountability, of that age where And many other men that I read, and I didn't get a chance to incorporate some of the things that they said here in my notes, but men, I mentioned B.B. Warfield, men like Charles Hodge, and there were other guys that I read through my vast array of computer books and notes that I have from other sources. And, well, I got this quote here from Calvin. John Calvin said this, he said, those little children have not yet any understanding to desire His blessing, but when they are presented to Him, that is to God or Christ, He gently and kindly receives them and dedicates them to the Father by a solemn act of blessing. from the grace of redemption those who are of that age, that is, before the age of accountability. To exclude them from God's grace, Calvin says, 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. unquote. And there were others like this. So we come back to our text. We find then the text is specifically talking about how, in general, people are to come to God. We come as children. But there's also the sense behind this text, perhaps even a dual sense. And I want to be careful here, because I don't think you can necessarily read a dual sense into all of Scripture. I only say this because there are other Scriptures that seem to affirm this idea. If all I had was this text, I couldn't say it. But I have verses like this verse here in 2 Samuel 12 where David says, I will go to him, but he will not come to me. That is pretty clear to me that David is describing a situation where little Johnny, or whatever he named the baby, it probably wasn't Johnny, he said, I could go to him, recognizing where that baby has gone. God's grace is on that child in a special way that would not be true of someone who knew their sin, of someone who was aware of their sin, that would not be true of them. He could not say that about an unsaved uncle, aunt, brother, sister, who's older. But he says that about a brand new born baby. That's what we're saying here. That's the point. And so I'm going to close here. I've beaten this to death, but there is a fourth point. in which we've already said, is the availability, point four in your notes, the availability of the kingdom. Verse 17, and I have the verse again up here. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child. See that's saying, the prime sense here is that those who come into the kingdom must receive the kingdom like a child. But I'm also saying, Jesus loved to receive the children because he had that special relationship with them. So there's this dual sense here I find here because I find it in other places hinted at in the Bible. And so people are not saved on their accomplishments, but on the basis of God's sovereign grace. No one can force their way into the kingdom by saying, here are all my accolades. Here are all my degrees at seminary and post-seminary and all the things I've done. Oh. I find this refreshing, that children, the idea of children here is a metaphor on how dependent a sinner must enter the kingdom of God. So in a sense, the idea of a child here is a metaphor for dependency and helplessness. That's how we enter. Not like the Pharisee in verses 9-14 who says, I'm not like this guy. I fast twice a week. I give all that I have to the poor. Not like that. So I close, and I ask the question, why is it so hard for people to come into the kingdom? Why is it so hard for people to become followers of Christ and to know that their sins are forgiven? Answer, because people, generally speaking, are too proud and too self-righteous to admit that they can't do it. People naturally think way too highly of themselves. I can do this myself. Okay, well. Have fun doing that. We'll see how it turns out in the end. To whom does the kingdom belongs? It belongs to the lowly, the humble. It belongs to children, those who cannot achieve anything morally, spiritually, religiously, or in any such way. Our Lord loves children. And he uses them here as a metaphor of how all of us are to enter his kingdom. And he reminds us in other places in scripture that children have a special relationship with him that is totally of grace. And that children, for lack of a better term, who have not gone to the age of accountability, receive so much grace that when they die, they go to be with Him. God saves sinners apart from any of their personal achievements. Do you know Christ this morning? If you were to die right now and God says to you, John, Judy, Steve, Sonia, whatever your name is, why should I let you into heaven? If you pull out your list of achievements, you've just eliminated yourself. You've just pronounced your own benediction not to go to heaven. But if you come and you say, you know, I only can come to heavens because of what Christ has done for me, because I'm a sinner and I need a savior, And I embraced Jesus as my Savior because He did for me what I could never do for myself. He who knew no sin became sin for me that I might know the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5.21. One of my favorite verses in the Bible. 2 Corinthians 5.21. If you're here without Christ, I beg you to consider where you stand with God before it's too late. And if you're here as a Christian, then you need to share this message with others. Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your grace. Thank you for using the illustration of children to show us your heart towards them and to show how we must be in our hearts in order to receive the kingdom as a child. We thank You, Lord, for Your wonderful grace that sought us out and did for us what we could never do for ourselves. We praise You and love You and thank You in Jesus' name.