And our task is to obey, to understand, to structure our lives accordingly. So, Mark 10, verses 13-16. And they were bringing children to Him that He might touch them. And the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, He was indignant and said to them, let the children come to Me. Do not hinder them, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. And He took them in His arms and blessed them, laying His hands on them. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You are the One in whom and from whom all fatherhoods, as it says in Ephesians, families of the earth have been named. So that this is your heart from the very beginning. And yet, even as we come to you and are adopted into your family, we confess that the attitude of the world still clings to us. It still fills our veins and issues forth into something that is more unspeakably horrible And we understand. When we come face to face with it, we have a million excuses to change the subject or pretend that it is not what you say it is. So Lord, let us share in your righteous indignation against our own sin. Not looking to the left or to the right, but let us catch this holy fire And let it be constructive to make us look forward, not backward to our failures, but let it sink in, Lord. We pray that You would send the Spirit to make it sink in, to challenge us, to change us, that we would seek to speak accurately about Your love, Your gracious heart. Let us see that. Let us come face to face with it and desire that more than we desire our sin. We pray that you would do this thing that would glorify you. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. The title is Do Not Hinder the Children, so the title is in the imperative because there isn't anything else you can take from this. Except maybe to challenge yourself that. You can't get away with making the disciples into this comic book character, and you're not bad. No, this is speaking directly to your heart and to my heart today. There's never been a society, ever, in human history that has valued children as they should. Now, of course, under Christian influence, there's been advances here and there. You might think of the generations of the early church, maybe the generations of the Puritans, how they were both tender with their children and honest with their children about spiritual reality. Both. But in general, children are viewed in the world as the least important members of society. And when you state it that way and you begin to unpack it, you start to see yourself in this mirror now. We're going to see three things in this passage. First of all, how the world views children in verse 13. Secondly, how Jesus views children in verse 14. And we'll see that throughout the rest as well. And then thirdly, how children receive the kingdom. So how the world views children, how Jesus views children, and then how children receive the kingdom. And here's the big idea. That Jesus loves the little children because of the big gospel they tell. If you have, if part of your Caged Calvinist checklist was no longer singing the song, Jesus loved the little children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Wrong. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Why? Because of the big gospel they tell. They may not tell everything about the gospel, but like a parable, they tell one thing. And you should not ignore that one thing today. Last week we saw how God made every marriage to speak about Himself. And now we're going to see that God made every child. He made children the way they are to speak about Himself. So let's look at this first point first. How the world views children. Verse 13, And they were bringing children to Him that He might touch them. There's a natural desire. for our children to be blessed. And I have to keep hammering this point home. When you hear natural, it's only natural, that doesn't mean understandable, inevitable, therefore it's okay, really cute, anything like that. Excusable. Natural just means it's in your nature. And as sinners, if something is natural to your sinful nature, big red flag that it's not cute and cuddly. And excusable. There's a natural desire that this is of something good, for our children to be blessed. The they that are spoken of here may be townspeople in general, but it's much more likely that they were the parents themselves, because it specifies their intention to receive a blessing from Jesus. Luke even adds, in Luke 18.15, even infants. So it encompassed them. It wasn't just infants, but it was small children, very young children, paidion in the Greek. Now, a lot of people look at this passage and they see that even if it doesn't specifically address things like the sacraments and other church practices, in terms of a formula, it at least shows a specific attitude of Jesus to err on the side of bringing people to the things of the kingdom at as early an age as possible. Now, that's how I choose to leave it. I'm not going to go there because, on the one hand, I don't think this is a very good proof text for any specific practice in the church, because this is a cultural practice in relation to rabbis in the first century, not a church practice. On the other hand, the attitude of Jesus is always normative and should inform the practice of those that are in the church throughout their whole lives. So just learn from it as we go, and don't use it as a proof text for one thing or another like that. Learn from it. What we see in the Bible. is a constant teaching to teach your children. Even mysterious things, like how the animal sacrifices symbolize the atonement to come. We hide from deep, terrible doctrines like the blood of the cross and so on and so forth. But in the Old Testament, they were constantly told to teach your children this. Remember this. When they ask you this, tell them what it means. Go deep. I'll read you two verses from Deuteronomy. that give a mandate to all Christian parents. This is not taken away in the New Testament. It's not softened in the New Testament. It's intensified in the New Testament. Deuteronomy 4, 9 and 10. Make the works of God known to your children and your children's children. Stop. How do you as an individual teach your children's children deep things? Well, you either have to have access to your grandchildren, which would imply that you did a good job raising your children, or you have to teach your children in such a way that teaching the generations the entire Christian worldview becomes implied. I can't get my hands on my grandchildren educationally unless I've taught my children an entire Christian worldview, unless I've taught them deeply the kind of things that we're learning in this ethic class. about the whole of God's creation, the whole of the Christian mind. Make these things known to your children and your children's children. You can't do that unless your teaching to your immediate children is universal, covers all the subjects and all the depths. Gather the people to me, he says, to every Israelite. Do that. Gather the people to Me that I may let them hear My words." That I may let them. I'm God. I'm omnipotent. Let them. What's that all about? Hold that under your hat. The same thing is going on between Jesus and the disciples here. Gather the people to Me that I may let them hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so. Deuteronomy 6-7 You shall teach them diligently to your children. Teach them slothfully? No. Teach them officially? Check the box? No. Teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise. Total Christian worldview all day long in everything you do. Total content. Total atmosphere. All truth is God's truth. And if you don't communicate that to your children, you're a liar. And disobedient. These people in Mark were bringing their children to someone that they believed was a rabbi. Even if a very great rabbi. Teacher. So much did they want to bring them near to God. Well, if they only knew. who Jesus was. But we do, right? We know. To stop at nothing to bring them in all of their playtime, in all of their friendships, in all of their subjects in school, directly to the school of Christ. Or are we ignorant that there is such a school of Christ and that it covers every subject at every minute? In other words, if you have a natural desire to bless your children, You're not going to find any other book or any other idea that outstrips you in doing good for them than this book. Proverbs 29.15, the rod and reproof give wisdom. But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Is your approach to your children to lead them to themselves? Let nature take its course? Well, they have to make their own mistakes. Well, that's true, but there's no virtue in stepping in the same hole twice or the one that you stepped in. A child left to himself brings shame to his mother. So the Bible has this theme. And we have this natural desire to rise to the occasion of this theme, right? Here's the trouble. We don't mean it. We don't. You might think your kids are really cute and cuddly when you bring them home from the hospital, when you pick out clothes for them, when they're babies. We may have very strong feelings about their place in our hearts and the memories we make with them, but the moment the Bible demands that we treat them like developing humans, with souls that take in truth through the intellect, souls that will never die, we begin to squirm. We begin to change the subject. A lot of people say all the time, oh, I want to have a baby like it's a puppy. Strictly speaking, there's no such thing as having a baby. You're having a human. They start as babies, but they're not puppies. They're not little rings on your finger or dolls. When you take them home, they're going to start making a mess on your carpet. They're humans. They're developing humans. And that means that their souls work basically the way adult souls work at a beginning stage. Through the intellect. shaping their soul in the school of Christ. We don't like that when the Bible has that theme. We say things like, well, that's just Old Testament. Well, you can't really mean that. Well, if God knows my heart, bad thing to say always. So we have this natural desire to bless our children. That's natural. Everybody wants to do the best for their children. Everybody wants to pass on to their children something better than they have. But here's another natural thing we have. There's a natural aversion to the futility, and I'm going to put that in quotes, of children. We have a natural desire to bless them, but we have a natural suspicion that they're the least important members of society, at least at this point. I'll get to that in five minutes. I know they're important, but I'm doing something more important. The disciples rebuked them. Why did the disciples rebuke them? Weren't the disciples just told one chapter earlier that true disciples receive little ones? Of course they were. Just like you are told. Just like I am told again and again. And we forget again and again. And we grow cold again and again. Nature by itself cannot produce in you the appropriate approach to your children or anybody else's. Whether you're a parent addressing children or a teacher addressing children, you do not have in you the natural sufficiency to approach your child as you ought. Nature is at war with the way things ought to be because nature is cursed. A mother's love, perfectly natural, but a mother's love is perverted in the fall. A father's discipline, absolutely necessary. But a father's discipline is perverted in the fall. Mere nature is like blind Isaac. No more blessings left for the child, only a curse. If you leave things up to natural desires and natural wisdom, then you will find two natures at war with each other. And your natural desire for your child to be blessed will be no match for your natural aversion to waste time on your children. We all have idealistic views of how I'm not going to be like my dad, and I'm going to do this for my kids, but when the rubber meets the road, and the phone's ringing, and the iPod's on, and I got better things in five minutes, your natural desire for them to be blessed is no match for your natural suspicion that they are a waste of time. Whether it's because of ambition on your part, or laziness. And don't avoid letting the Word expose your heart here. by imagining these disciples as these Ebeneezer Scrooge-like characters who are bending down a few feet and barking at these little toddlers. Get away from him! That's not the sense of the word here. The sense of the words, the disciples rebuked them, means that they were rebuking the parents of these children, which means that it may have been a very calm, very composed, very reasonable sounding tone. They may have taken them by the shoulder, taken them off to the side, very maturely, very prudent, very calculated reasons. Why in this instance, the Master could not be bothered with such things, so far down on the list of the things we just have to do. Test yourselves here at this point. How far down the list for you is bringing the children directly to Christ? How did Jesus, view the children. Well, let's look at it starting in verse 14. But when Jesus saw it, He was confused. No. He was slightly bothered. He lectured them, but in the voice of Mr. Rogers. No. That must be the TNIV Bible. He was indignant. and said to them, let the children come to me. Do not hinder them. He was indignant. God is indignant. The disciples have done a lot of stupid things in these three years. The disciples have done a lot of things during this whole ministry that Jesus responds to with correction, often frustration. But there are few things that the Bible says make Him very angry at His own people. And He is indignant toward us when we put the cultivation of our children's souls anywhere down on the list of kingdom priorities. They belong at the top. And of course, this applies immediately and mostly to the example that we set in front of our children. The words that we use to them. The time that we spend. The things that we allow them to continue doing without loving correction. or without us apologizing to our children. What does us apologizing say about God? God doesn't apologize. Well, apologize for sinning and find out what that says about God. But He issues a command. Let them come to Me. Remember Deuteronomy? So that they will let them come to Me. Let them come to Me. Do not hinder them. The assumption is that human beings on their own, even with their natural, oh, aren't they cute and cuddly, a puppy, by definition, by nature, inevitably, we are stopping Him. Let. Do not. In other words, no, stop that. Now. The disciples are active and involved in stopping the work of Christ. Can you imagine anything over which God would have to say to you and me, get out of My way. Stop stopping Me. I don't want to be in the way of that kind of fierce love. This is not a neutral passive sin. In other words, we know we're guilty of this sin when we are being intentional about committing it. Structuring other things in our lives in such a way that we don't have to deal with our children. Not this comic book, ha, I don't matter if my knees are screwed, you know, and get out of here, I don't have time for you right now. It's not that, oh yeah, I'm not that. It's not that, oh yeah, I'm not that. It's not that, oh yeah, I'm not that. It's not that, oh yeah, I'm not that. It's not that, oh yeah, I'm not that. It's not that, oh yeah, I'm not that. It's not that, oh yeah, I'm not that. but in your heart, structuring other things in such a way where we don't have to deal with them. Structuring things in a way using language that avoids conversations that will put this back on the center stage. Language and conversations and thoughts that subvert conversations about the school of Christ. Failing to see the eyes of our children or in their words and actions crying out to us, teach me when my heart is tender When I'm still here. When I still trust You. Please. Even though they can't articulate that. We fill our lives with other things in order to pretend that we can't hear it. And as our heart hardens, we actually can't hear it. But there's no innocence in that deafness. We are still hindering a mandate of Scripture. for fathers especially, to teach your children and their children, meaning teach the generations the whole counsel of God's Word. The king makes exactly this kind of a kingdom. Jesus, now in verse 14, is going to anchor the approach that we ought to have toward our children in the Gospel. This isn't just something in the Old Testament. This is something that says something about the Gospel. For, or because, to such belongs the kingdom of God. Now, don't misapply that. Children don't receive the kingdom because they are children biologically. They are sinners. They are dead in their sin. If any child is saved, he or she is saved in the same way that anybody else is saved, whenever it happens. But children have a special role to play in the kingdom because they are a constant reminder, they are a sign that God has given of something very important of what a truly born-again Christian must be like. Do you remember that Jesus has already said last chapter, chapter nine, verse 37, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. There's a strong link between what Jesus has already taught them about receiving children and receiving the kingdom. In order to receive or enter the kingdom of God, you have to receive its king. And Jesus is a servant king. He's a lowly king. In fact, He made Himself a baby. When He shows up in history to solve all the world's problems, how does He show up? A baby. When He came the first time, He promised that He would come like this through the prophet Zechariah 9, verse 9. Behold, your King is coming to you. Righteous and having salvation is He. Humble. and mounted on a donkey. Kings don't ride into the capital on a donkey. Not just that. On a colt. The foal of a donkey. This is the kind of kingdom we're talking about here. The kind where only children are allowed. Only children, in one important sense, can be in heaven. What important sense is that? Lowliness. Lowliness. Even if the child can't spell lowliness, the king wouldn't have it any other way. Psalm 138, 6 says, For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. And Job 5, 11 says he sets on high those who are lowly, who get saved lowly. Who's he saved till the end? Lowly. Who make up the citizens of his kingdom? Lowly people. Why? What's the king like? He's lowly. He says to all of us in Matthew 11-9, Therefore, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. In this one sense, not every sense, in this one sense, the king makes himself like a child. So that when He created children from the very beginning, this is what He had in mind. And you know that God, when He made the world, He could have just parachuted everybody in full grown like He did with Adam and Eve. You know that, right? He could have designed the world in a way where we didn't start out as helpless, bungling, annoying, they don't get it until they're three or thirty kind of people. He could have done that. But, In light of the gospel, in light of the kingdom, he carefully constructed and invented children in a way that you would have to push past the offense and the waste of time to see something of the lowly king. To see something of the glory of God and what time management really looks like. How do children receive the kingdom? This is his last point, starting at verse 15. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child, shall not enter it. Which doesn't mean get saved like a child does, because that's true. A child gets saved the same way an adult gets saved. Only one way of salvation. Nor is he saying, enter the kingdom, get saved, you know, like children who are already saved. He's not saying that either. He's saying something about a child is like what it looks like to enter the kingdom. Matthew is helpful here in his gospel, Matthew 18, 4. In the same context, Jesus says, whoever humbles himself like this child, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So if you look over and see a child having a tantrum or being disobedient to his parent, Jesus isn't talking about that. He's talking about one thing about a child. Humility. Lowliness. Dependence. Simple trust. Not bringing an agenda. That is the motivation. That lowliness is the motivation that causes the motion of being saved. When God saves a sinner, And He zaps them. And they move like someone that just got zapped. And the Bible calls that repentance and faith. He regenerates them, they turn, and they trust in Him. That zapping, that movement, there's something about a child that's just like that. If you really get saved, you will believe everything this book says. And if you struggle... I'm not talking about a struggle like, I don't understand that. We all do that. I'm not even saying struggle like, Ah, that grates on me, but I know God's a good Father. Okay, we struggle like that. But if you just resist, you're not saved. Getting saved out of a burning building, you don't start questioning the fireman on the ladder who's holding you. You don't know what it means to be saved from hellfire if you're having those conversations left and right. Something about a child who will believe anything their parent says, is like being saved. To be saved is to receive God's grace, His undeserved favor. And so if we just think about what most basically characterizes little children, we can start to see it. A child is totally dependent on their parents, even though they can't spell the word dependent. They're always aware of the parent being at the center of their world. There's a total trust that doesn't need to be argued. A child doesn't bring an agenda into the world, and a true disciple doesn't bring conditions to our Lord. So notice that there is one quality, one quality being focused on here in a child. Not every quality. For instance, doesn't the Apostle Paul say in 1 Corinthians 13.11, when I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. So you see, that is contrasting something about maturity that's good, a virtue, with something that is a vice in a child, something that ought to be given up. So childishness is not what's being retained here in value, only childlikeness. There's a difference that you have to see. A child is like a parable of the gospel. He's created by God to say something about the good news, but not everything about it. The lowliness of this child is exalted and blessed. Verse 16, and he took them in his arms and he blessed them, laying his hands on them. What was despised at one second, God lifts up. This is always what God does in history. Just as He did with Christ. God did that with Christ. Isaiah 53, 2. For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men. a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not." God just described about the Savior's coming the exact attitude that the world has always had about children. Since the beginning of the world, children have been humiliated and dehumanized and scarred and left for dead. So that at the dead center of history, God would be humiliated and dehumanized and scarred and left for dead. He made himself a helpless baby and he made himself a mutilated lamb. And Paul says in Philippians 2, therefore, because of that, God has highly exalted him. What you despise in your children most, because of your sin, because of my sin, God will exalt. God will lift up what was despised and a waste of time, with or without your help. But you don't want to lie about him, do you? You don't want to waste your life and your child's childhood and your parents' parenthood telling a different Gospel? Finally, this implies that our time instructing our children in the ways of God tells what we really believe about the Gospel. If we are intentional about communicating the Gospel and the Christian worldview to our children, then we really do believe at least two things. We really do believe that their souls are worth it to us. And then secondly, we really do believe that their hearts represent the most fertile mission field, the most ready disciples, the most powerful display of glory that we will ever get our hands on. Think of the reasons we don't do it. Something bigger. Oh, I don't say that. Yes, you do. But there's nothing bigger than this. Eighteen years of packing that missile with a Christian worldview. Nothing you ever get your hands on will make a bigger explosion than that. I'm a guy, that's the way I put it. War stuff. There's nothing bigger than this, than what you can communicate to your children. Deuteronomy 32, again another verse that says it in the fighter verse. This is their instructions to go and inhabit the land. And that's why some of these instructions to parents and children are motivated by and anchored by, so that you will live long in the land. So you will whip your enemies. So that I won't show up and whip you if you don't do it. And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to Israel, he said to them, take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today. Stop. The Great Commission to Christians inhabiting the spiritual land, is go into all the world and make disciples. Yeah, all the world. Eighteen years with them. The most fertile mission. What does he say? And teach them all that I have commanded you. Just like Moses is saying here. Everything I ever taught you. You know the Bible is a big book, right? You know your whole reason for not getting through the Bible in a year program is because it's like a sand trap. So you know in your own argument, this is a big book. You don't have time to farm this out to somebody else. All the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. There it is again. Teach your children all the words of this law, so stamp it upon their hearts that they can't help having all these words to impress upon their children. That's how you teach the generation. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life. And by this word, you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess." Your whole life. There is no part of life, but not that, Matt. There's experts for that sort of thing, waiting in the land that we're to possess. Then you don't know God. as you ought to. He made that stuff to talk about Him. The book of Romans ends by saying, you are confident to counsel each other. Romans 15. You are confident to teach. The psalmist says, your word makes me wiser than all my teachers. If you don't believe that, you don't believe God. He equips you and He's given to the church the business of equipping you and serving you to do that. You don't believe God if you don't believe that. It is not true that these two decades, which by the way, from a world's perspective, these two decades, 20 and 30, your mind, you're going to lose it after that. You're going to. These are the best years of your life and you are going to pour them out like a drink offering on these little people that don't even care. That's the temptation. These are the best years of your life. You will never be sharper. You will never be able to move more if you have to get a physical job while you're doing that. You will never be able to strike out in the world with more glory and get more of a name for yourself if that's what you're into. You know, like the Tower of Babel, that's what you're doing. But it is not true that these two decades plus that are the finest years of our lives, in which our investment into our children will guarantee that we do much less on the worldly stage. It is not true that this will waste our lives. This is life." Deuteronomy 32, John 6. These words that I am commanding you this day cover everything. They are your life and they cover the whole of life in this land that you are to possess. And if we trade this moment to build a kingdom of our own, in an office, on our gadgets of communication, or just for a little bit of more suburban breathing room, there will be a day when the lights turn on. I hope it's before Judgment Day. But there will be a day when the lights turn on and we will curse the day that we could have sown into them the words of the kingdom. We ought to be indignant with it. This is not time to compare yourself to other people. We ought to be indignant with ourselves, with the righteous indignation of Christ at the moment of these temptations. Let me give you two points of application. First, I'll bring you a little law. The law of the Lord for the Christian is for our instruction. We see it, and we see the reflection of God. We don't see our own reflection. If you still see your own reflection in the law, you need some more gospel. You need to remember the gospel and what Christ did for you. When we look at the law now, there is no more condemnation. Forget about how you messed up this week. Forget it. It's done. You're a new creation in Christ, so get over it. Get over it, get back up, and look at the law so that you can be instructed for the next moment and tomorrow. There is a biblical doctrine of education. I could have applied this in several ways. A biblical doctrine of your child's leisure time and you're watching it carefully. That's good. But a biblical doctrine of education is something I've thought about for a decade and a half as I studied philosophy. I have studied the philosophy and the history of the philosophy of education. I know it like I know my own blood. And the eighth week of the class on ethics, if you don't come to anything else in ethics, come to the last week on a biblical doctrine of education. This is not about comparing yourself to others. Because I'm telling you right now, a mother in Soviet Russia had to kiss her kids in the morning and send them to a place and say to them in their ears, remember, if you rat out mommy and daddy, we'll go to jail and you'll never see us again. And when they came home, they had to homeschool. There is no difference in the level of courage of that mother and the mother who can do that because the law says she can. So don't make this about comparisons. The law of God doesn't work that way. Take this to your own heart. But the first principle is tough. So get ready to gulp. And it comes right from the Bible in Mark 9, 42. We've already seen it. The first principle of Christian education has already been given by Jesus. You want to hear it? Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a giant millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If I was invited by the teachers' union to give an address, I would start with that verse. And then I'd preach the Gospel. Children don't belong to you. They're not your property. They're not a little puppy that you bought. They're gods. He has given you them as a stewardship for a little while. And you are trespassing on his property. Parent, teacher, whatever. It's not about condemnation. It's about setting our minds straight first. You're not going to know the gospel is that good until you realize you really should have a giant millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the sea. I can't think of too many ways more horrible to die than that. But remember what Josh said, that's a comparison between that and hell. Hell is worse, infinitely. But that's what you deserve. Not for this. This is a separate issue. No, everything was created to speak about God. That's what he means when he said all has sinned and fall short of the glory of God. These things are God's property. You're spitting in his face. You're lying about His glory. You're saying that thing has nothing to do with God. God's glory isn't a big deal in that area. We made that up. That's our ideas. We're clever. He's not. You're lying about God. That's the first principle of Christian education. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him that a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. You know, we debate all the time the merits of this or that form of education. And it's true, the form is not any more neutral than the people who supply the content. But however parents may work out those details, I've already shown you in that extreme case of a mother in Soviet Russia. The way it looks and the timing is going to vary. Parents are going to work out those details, but the principle has more to do with what you yourself are actually causing. Do you have the freedom to do this? Given what you have the ability to perform, at that point where you are the actor, Christ's words speak to your heart. What cause in you is causing one of these little ones to stumble? Which one of those causes that causes one of those little ones to stumble are you willing to commit? To what degree and by what assumptions are you the cause of the child's stumbling? What can you do differently to present the child with the biblical view of all things as opposed to the non-biblical view? Within the limits that society or finances or whatever are imposing on you, and there are such limitations, but at that point, God knows your heart. He's looking into your heart. at that point where you can do something differently, why aren't you doing something differently to sow in the biblical truth about all things? What Jesus is saying in these passages is that He has wrath, He has anger, He has indignation toward the one who knowingly, willfully, not someone who is confessing their inabilities and will do it differently than somebody else, but somebody in that who is knowingly and willfully presuming to stop Jesus from getting to the child's heart and mind. Are you willing to stand in His way like that? What makes it worth it to you? Listen carefully. What makes it worth it to you to slip into those chains that that giant millstone is tied to? To say that these things are neutral. That it's not worth the sacrifice. And there are sacrifices that have to be made. There's details I have on the chalkboard, they're below the line. It's negotiable stuff. It can look different this or that point. But the mandate is not negotiable. the mandate for mothers and fathers to inculcate the entire Christian worldview and shape anything, if it's not happening, to change what you're doing, whatever form that is. Change it now so that it can happen to the fullest. There are sacrifices that have to be made, but that reminds us that often the results are going to look different based on legal, financial, medical, psychological issues, many other issues, where you are in history and culture, But if you can't even take in this teaching, if it's so abrasive and offends you, and if you can't begin assessing those factors, your heart is hard. You have a hardened heart. You have your fingers in your ears. You think that children belong to you, but they don't. You are not God. You are not God. And you think you are. These children belong to God. And you and I don't have the right to obscure their soul from Christ. So go home and love your children with the love of God. Tell them what He's told you. Share with them all the good things that He has mercifully shared with you. None of those things are ours. Not even our time. Not even our best time. to the one who is finding themselves right now as the sinful hinderer, and I would include myself in that number, if you find that you have hindered the sight of Christ from your child. We've all hindered the little ones from seeing Christ. But here's the good news. can hinder God from getting His own children. He says that in John, no one will pry them out of the Father's hand. No matter how you have messed up, if you have trusted Jesus as your Savior, then you are God's child. And all of your sins are forgiven, including this sin that He is angry at. This anger, you know what happens to this anger? He doesn't explain this anger away. He doesn't say, well, it wasn't a big deal. And it won't be a big deal in the future if you do otherwise. He's not saying that, but what he does is he takes this anger that is aimed against hinderers between his gospel and his children, and he takes that anger and he says, it is real. And it is the first fruits of an eternal anger. Storing up his wrath for the day of wrath, as Romans 2 says. But, if you have trusted in Christ's work for you, then that anger has been poured out on him instead. All of it. Every sin. And as He says to the adulterer, so He says to the educational adulterer, and the leisure time adulterer, and the, I'm just doing this in the home, it's no big deal, they know better, it's okay, they understand, I joke about it with them, adulterer. And He pours that wrath against that out on a substitute. On His child. And His child can bear it. And did. And if you trust in Him now, He says to you, A. I love you. And I will never let you go out of My hand. And B. Go and sin no more. Let's pray. Father, we thank You. that You care infinitely more about every detail of this creation than we do. We thank You for Your great mercy to us when we rise up and say, why don't You care about evil? Why don't You care about disease? Why don't You care about sickness and confusion and doubt when You're the only one who cares about it and we are full of it? Lord, thank You for Your patience, listening to that villainous, chattering, from little people like us. Lord, I pray that as You have put us in our place with Your words, that You would reach down with much grace and give us a new heart and a new mind, that You would remind us that You drive our sins as far as the east is from the west, but that You also come to us and as You clear out the Pharisees and right on the ground their own sins, and even the playing field, yet you do say to us, go and sin no more, that you do not condemn us. Thank you. Thank you for your provision. Thank you for the wisdom of your Word and help us no longer neglect it. Make this truth so resound in our hearts that it would naturally issue forth and ring forth through the generations that come from this church and come from this hearing of your Word. We praise You for it. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.