In the sermon titled 'Singleness and the Sovereignty of God,' Scott Brown explores the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 19:10-15 regarding marriage, singleness, and the kingdom of heaven. Jesus corrects the cultural misconceptions of marriage and divorce held by his disciples, emphasizing that these views were influenced by societal norms rather than God's intentions. Brown highlights that singleness is not an inferior state but a gift given by God's sovereignty, akin to salvation. The sermon discusses three types of eunuchs: those born as such, those made by men, and those who choose singleness for the kingdom of heaven. This choice reflects a unique calling by God and is not just a personal decision. The sermon also addresses the disciples' misunderstanding of children's roles in God's kingdom, emphasizing childlike humility as essential for salvation. The overarching theme is the importance of aligning one's thoughts with Jesus' teachings, overcoming culturally influenced beliefs, and recognizing the sovereignty of God in all aspects of life, including singleness and marriage.

This morning I'll be reading from Matthew chapter 19 verses 10 through 15. His disciples said to him, If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry. But he said to them, All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men. And there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.

He who was able to accept it, let him accept it. Then little children were brought to him that he might put his hands on them and pray, But the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and departed from there. Please pray with me.

Oh Lord God, we do thank you for your word you've given to us this morning. And we thank you for this time to hear the preaching of the word. Lord, I do pray that you would put your spirit within all those who hear the word that we might understand what is spoken. Lord, I pray that you would be with Mr. Brown, that you would help him and give him words to speak, words of truth and light that would help us to understand what you're speaking to us here in the scriptures.

Lord, we thank you so much for this time and we pray that it would be profitable and for your honor and glory. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Please be seated. When these words were given, our Lord has been teaching His disciples about what the kingdom of heaven is all about. And As we have been walking through our Lord's explanation of the kingdom, you can see what a wonderful kingdom it is and how good it is to live in a kingdom that is governed by God the Father, by the Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of God.

And so the Lord has just finished correcting the disciples' view of marriage and then their view of divorce because they become so saturated with a bunch of wrong ideas about marriage and divorce that the Lord sets the record straight, takes them back to the Scriptures that establish the foundational principles of marriage and divorce. And so now he turns from the issues of marriage and divorce to the issues of singleness, and we'll spend most of our time there, and of children. And what has happened to the disciples has happened to all of us, and that is deep within their hearts were thoughts and philosophies of life that were raised up against Christ and his kingdom. And while they believed that man could divorce his wife for any reason, while they believed that marriage was temporary, as temporary as a man wanted it to be, He came and corrected them for that, for that wrong view. And, you know, in their culture, the pagans and the people of God were in agreement, basically, about marriage and divorce.

The disciples had the same view that Herod had, that you could do anything you wanted with your wife. And so here the Lord comes and as such a good shepherd of the sheep, He's always leading his sheep to the cleanest water and to the most succulent pastures that there are. Here before us is this issue of singleness. So the question is, What do you think about singleness? What are the principles that flow through in your thinking?

How do you think about single people? Because the Lord here now is going to make commentary on this whole matter of singleness. What are your thoughts about your single children in their 20s or maybe you're in their 30s? What are your thoughts and attitudes toward the single people in your church? What's your self-talk?

What are you thinking about this whole matter? If you're single yourself, maybe in your late teens or your 20s or 30s and you're single, how do you think about your singleness? I mean, I think you need to understand how Jesus thinks about your singleness and It would be really wise if you were single to think the same way about your single as that he does. Wouldn't you think that would be reasonable? So this morning we have that opportunity to try to set before all of our eyes, whether married or single, what Jesus Christ has to say about it.

And so the timeframe that these things are being spoken of, really near the end of Jesus' ministry, He's only a few months away from the cross. It's probably somewhere between the end of December and April 30th A.D. And so after the Lord has just instructed about marriage and divorce, saying, what God has joined together, let no man separate. And whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery. After he says that, now he begins to take on this other subject that the disciples were actually very confused about.

So, in verse 10, we see this, this just culture-bound response. It was an honest response from the disciples. They're speaking from their hearts. They're speaking out of the medications of their hearts about this particular matter that is before them. And so the response of the disciples here when they say if such is the case of the man with his wife it's better not to marry.

They had been so deeply affected by the culture that they were. They had just drunk the cultural kool-aid just like everyone else had and they would they would they would rather you know they would rather alienate their wives. They would rather think of singleness wrongly. And they had adopted elements and philosophies of the hyper-patriarchal pigs of their society, the Pharisees, who felt that men could do anything they wanted with their lives. And here he's contradicting that in every possible way, including this area of singleness.

And they weren't thinking about it right at all. Now remember, these are the disciples. They've walked with Jesus for two and a half years. Don't you think after you'd walked with Jesus for two and a half years, all your thinking would be straight? No, that's not the truth.

I don't know how long you've been walking with Jesus, but these men had an opportunity to walk with Jesus in a very special way. However, you have the Holy Spirit in order to illuminate, reveal the truth of the Word of God to you. And so in their corrupt nature, they're thinking wrongly about this whole matter of singleness. And then the Lord says something that must have stunned them. He said, but all cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given.

All cannot accept the idea that it's not good to marry, but some can, and that it's only been given to some. And here the Lord is saying that singleness really is a matter of the sovereignty of God. And He's saying you don't volunteer for this. This is given. It is something that God imposes upon you.

You don't impose it on yourself. This is really contrary to the whole Roman Catholic idea that you volunteer as an act of service to go be celibate. And you consider in your heart, heavily, whether you should do it, whether you should become celibate and take the vow. And you have authority over your own life to make yourself celibate. And the Lord says, no, it's given.

It's not something that you figure out that you ought to do. It's not a matter of man's choice. It's a matter of the sovereignty of God. So if you've been praying, if you're single and you've been praying about whether you should be single for the rest of your life, I would just encourage you to stop doing that. You may pray and say, God, have you given me the gift of singleness?

That's a different question. Have you set me aside for that? And are there various factors that make that obvious, that you have been set aside to be single? And so what we learned from the Lord Jesus here is that there's a range of acceptability, of lifestyle when it comes to marriage. That it is actually given to some by the sovereignty of God not to be married.

And that's a good thing. It's a matter of his own will. At the same time, he also has established marriage. Marriage is the normative majority lifestyle that will be on the face of the earth. But there is this range of acceptability and we should see both of them as a blessing from God.

And so he speaks here of the gift of singleness. It is given, but it is not given to all. Now there are many things that are given. How about salvation? In Matthew chapter 13 verse 11, he answered and said to them, because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven But to them it has not been given.

It's the very same kind of language here The kingdom of heaven is given It is a matter of the sovereignty of God. No one can come to the Father unless the Father draws him. And so the entrance in the Kingdom of Heaven is a matter of the sovereignty of God. So is this same matter. It is given to some and it is not given to others.

So we should dispense with our minds, from our minds, this whole idea that at least in the kingdom of heaven, that singles is something that people just figure out that they ought to choose or not. It's greater than that. It's a matter of the sovereignty of God. Of course, our Lord Jesus Christ was single. The Apostle Paul was most probably single.

There's a debate about that. And he says here that the gift is rare. He says all cannot accept this saying. And so you cannot choose this. It's chosen for you.

And so it does little good for you to plan your life out for this, but that you ought to look at what Jesus Christ has said about it and ask yourself whether it applies to you or not. That's the issue. And so what is the disciples' disposition about this? Do they believe that there's a God-glorifying way to be single. Do you believe that?

I mean, do you believe that a person can be single all life long and glorify God? Do you believe that? Jesus believes that. And he here in this passage establishes three different kinds of eunuchs or three different kinds of singlets. We know that it's wrong to forbid marriage as 1 Timothy 4.3 says, that It's one of the doctrines of demons to forbid marriage.

Now Jesus goes on and explains that there are different kinds of people that are single for the glory of God. There are ways to be single for the glory of God, and our Lord Jesus Christ is going to itemize them here right before us, beginning in verse 12. And he speaks of this idea of being a eunuch. And what does it mean to be a eunuch? And the term in scripture has a flexible meaning.

It can mean just a castrated male, someone who abstains from marriage for different reasons. It can also be used interchangeably for officials and court officers. So the term can include a physical act, but it also can include something different than just the physical act. A life set aside without marriage for particular purposes. And he says, for there are those, for there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb." These are eunuchs who are born that way.

That's the first category. And you know, in the same way that people can be born without hands and without feet or various other organs, these are people who are born either without organs or perhaps they're disfigured or not useful or maybe they're actually people who are born with ambiguous organs in this whole realm. And one of the requirements of marriage is that these characteristics are there so that marriage can be fulfilled, so that the basic commands and principles of marriage can be carried out. And if you're not born with those things, then you are, by the sovereignty of God, have been ordained not to be married. And here Jesus is saying that He is sovereign.

He's saying that He has done this. This is given from heaven. So when a child is born and the child has this kind of condition or various classifications of this condition, then they need to go back to this verse and realize that God in His sovereignty has done this. That there are units who are born thus from their mother's womb. Now when this happens generally in the world, people regard it as a gigantic tragedy.

That's one thing that they do. And they act as if something horrible and evil has been done in the world. That God is now a monster. That He's created such a being. But Jesus is saying that He did that.

The Lord Jesus is saying that He is sovereign, that some are born eunuchs, that He's made it that way. You know, how differently we think than Jesus does about these kinds of things. Something like this happens and we fall apart. That's one thing that happens. On the other hand, the wicked take it and they so disfigure it and it becomes the territory of the transgendered community.

And they so defile that child because it was born for the glory of God to display this very principle that Jesus is speaking about. And they make it into a wicked thing and they make them wicked and they co-opt this whole Enterprise that doesn't happen very often in the world, but it does happen and it happens enough. I've actually I've met I've met some of them and unfortunately the ones that I've known about have been defiled by the LGBT community. Some of us have been witnessing some of these events and we've met some of these people who've been so harmed by these wicked people who do not understand that God has sovereign. This child was born for a purpose, for a divine calling, for a way to glorify God in his singleness.

And so Jesus is saying something so radical here to his disciples about singleness. It's not a tragedy when someone is born a eunuch. We have to get over this man-centered view of life. We have to quit saying that God does things wrong. He does all things for His glory.

And He even glorifies Himself in the birth of someone who is a eunuch. Is it a tragedy when a baby is born with Down syndrome? Is it a tragedy when a child is born blind? Is it? Do you think that way?

When you have a child coming, you find yourself saying, and people ask you about it, and they rejoice with you and say, well, as long as the baby's healthy. That's what we say. Why do we say that? What do you mean by healthy? When all you think about is healthiness, have you lost A sense of the sovereignty of God and the wisdom of God in the world.

He does all things well. He sums up all things in Christ Does it Does it mean I hope they're not born with Down syndrome? God glorifies himself in these kinds of... Some of you gave blood to a Down syndrome baby a couple weeks ago. And glorified God that you did that.

I think we should stop saying, as long as the baby is healthy. I think we should start saying, as long as God is glorified in His body. People in its body. People have what we call defects from birth. This happened, this conversation about this very thing happened.

The Lord Jesus was in this conversation in John chapter 9 verse 1. Jesus passed by. He sees a man blind from his birth. From birth and the disciples ask him, who sinned, this man or his parents, so that he was born blind. And Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents sin, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day." So even a blind person has the ability to glorify God in his body. And a person who's born a eunuch also has been born for that very purpose, born for the glory of God. So there are eunuchs who are made eunuchs from their mother's womb. And then secondly, the second kind is that there are eunuchs made eunuchs by men. But what has amazed me as I've just been working through this text this week is just is how wicked the devil is.

How he takes everything that God does and he desires to defile it and to destroy the people that have been carrying these things that were under the sovereignty of God. And how he takes matters of sexuality and attacks them so viciously and even gets Christians to think like the disciples did. And then there are eunuchs made by men. This is a different, a second category. Eunuchs made by men.

Something that something has happened, either A, by the providence of God, or B, by the wickedness of men. That someone was made a eunuch. And Daniel and the Hebrew children were most likely made eunuchs as they made their way into Babylon after being captured by Nebuchadnezzar. They were made eunuchs by men. They were castrated.

And so you have this kind of thing going on here. But there are many other ways that there are eunuchs made by men. I think it's fair to mention the whole modern eugenics movement is under this category. In fact, there's a judgment now being considered in the North Carolina House for a $10 million compensation for 7, 500 people who are forcibly sterilized by the state of North Carolina by the Eugenics Board from their 30s to the early 70s here in North Carolina. There are 1, 500 of them left alive.

They're going to give $50, 000 to each one of them. That's what's before our civil government. And these people were made eunuchs by men. That's what happened. There have been times when sex offenders have been castrated.

There's this whole matter of cultural eunuchs. There's this whole matter of The whole culture of birth control, in a sense. There are people today who are trying to save the planet by sterilizing themselves. I read a story about a 27-year-old young woman who was just sterilized in order to quote protect the planet. She says having children is selfish.

It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet. So she became a eunuch by man. This whole philosophy of life, this whole anti-child philosophy of life has so many different expressions in the world today. Last week, Fox News was reporting on what was happening in Japan. Japanese statisticians are predicting the extinction of Japanese people in about 1, 000 years, because their birth rates are like 1.35 babies per woman.

And there are only 16 million children under the age of 14 in Japan right now. And these researchers at the Tokyo University's website, they have a ticker, a clock, an extinction clock. And they're just calibrating according to the current birth rate. They're paying people money to drive the birth rate up, but it's probably too late to do it, because there's sort of a point of no return in this whole statistical model that you have to build. And there are many...

What the article said is that a number of things. Well, one of the reasons people are getting married in Japan is because people prefer, quote, virtual friends with a robot or on the internet. I'm quoting the article. And so young people are shunning ideas of babies. And what was really astonishing to me is what the article said is that the whole younger generation has really despised the whole idea of intimacy.

And they reported amazingly that the big diaper manufacturer in the country announced last week for the first time ever Its sales of adult diapers exceeded those for babies. So there's this whole culture of eugenics. There's this whole culture of making yourself a eunuch. Man-made eunuchs. It's being driven by philosophy of various kinds.

It may be that you desire to be rich and you think that having babies are going to slow you down. It may be that you just like your quiet lifestyle and you don't have children. There are reasons that this happens. Maybe you're trying to save the planet. This is what happens in a culture of eunuchs who are made eunuchs by men.

And then thirdly, there are eunuchs for the kingdom of God, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it. So there is a godly and acceptable way of being a eunuch, and that is to dedicate your life for the glory of God, for the kingdom of heaven's sake. In other words, you have the ability in your soul to set aside marriage. It's an acceptable thing to you.

It's something that you can conceive of. It's something that works for you. And it may have to do with some kind of desire or fitness or something, but there's just something about you where you say, I just can't relate to being married. I just don't get it. And it doesn't mean that there's a sinful desire in your heart.

It means that you are able to accept it, and you can accept it for the glory of God. I mean, if you're a parent, this is the attitude you should have toward your children. You should not make them outcasts if they just don't, they can't accept this whole idea of marriage. There are some, And I think most of us would believe it's a very small number who can accept it. And that's why the Lord says, He who is able, because not very many people are really able to do it.

But if someone is able, it would be so wrong of us to make an outcast out of them to make them feel that they're some kind of second-class citizen in the world. Jesus says they're not. It's important that we don't over-exalt marriage. The Mormon church does that. The only way you can get into the celestial kingdom is to get married.

You have to get married in the right place, the right way. And that's how you ascend into Godhood. It happens through marriage. Well, Christianity Celestial marriage is the gate to exaltation, and exaltation consists in the continuation of the family unit in eternity. That's Mormon speak about marriage.

So you can you can be like the Mormons and and think wrongly about marriage, that marriage is the ultimate, that Marriage is the thing that makes you fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. Now We should be preparing our young people to think this way about singleness. They shouldn't only be thinking about marriage. They should be considering this other condition. It's Acceptable for people to stay single You know there's so many arguments for marriage.

I mean if you open up the Westminster Confession You know there are it lists the undue delay of marriage as a sin. You know, five times in scripture you come across the terms, the wife or the bridegroom of your youth. You have to hold these things in balance. God does exalt marriage, but he doesn't over-exalt marriage. He makes a big deal about it, but not too big a deal about it.

Because there are exceptions that he's just listed in this text. There are challenges for singles. The Puritans really dealt with this as they tried to interpret Psalm 68, you know, he sets the solitary in families. And they, the Puritans in New England had fines for singles who just lived alone. They wanted to have singles, you know, living with families, with quote, well-governed families.

That's the way they applied that. There's so many problems that have to be addressed when you deal with this subject of singleness, the whole dysfunctional modern dating culture, the challenges that are there. Hey, the singleness is absolutely on the rise in America. And there's so many statistics that really, I think they're scary to me, because of the denigration of marriage. I want to give you nine points just sort of in summary.

Number one, singleness is not an inferior state. It is the will of God for various people. In Mark chapter 12 verse 23 the Lord Jesus says in the resurrection they will not be married or given in marriage. Number two, singleness is a gift for the glory of God. God makes much of singleness so much that Paul would say, I wish you could be as I am.

Number three, singleness gives a reminder of heaven, where there is no marriage or giving in marriage. There is a wedding of Christ and His bride, but Singleness is a parable of the future. Singleness opens up the window of what the kingdom of heaven is going to be like, except there is a bride and a bride groom. And while there is no marriage like we know on earth, there is a marriage. And it is the fullest, most wonderful marriage that has ever existed.

So there's that kind of marriage in heaven. But it's between Christ and his church. Number four, wrongful use of the single years should be avoided. Living for weekends, selfish independence, wasting time on worldly matters. Number five, a single person can be happy.

Our Lord was the happiest of all the disciples, so says Hebrews 9. You can be happy and be single. Number six, a man can be a real man and be single. A man can take dominion, fulfill the word of God, fulfill the will of God, to do exploits, to be useful in the kingdom of heaven. Examples, the Apostle Paul, the Lord Jesus Christ, Jeremiah himself.

Number seven, singleness does have its advantages. Scripture says that those who are not married do not have the same cares of the things of this world. The cares of this world is not a negative statement, I don't believe in that context, but there are just, there's a different load, there's different engagements, there's different labors, there's different responsibilities that happen in marriage. They are blessings, they're from God, They're helpful. They're helpful for both husband and wife to have them.

They're not curses. But they are extra responsibilities that are good, but you're relieved of those. Singleness does have its advantages. Number eight, God chooses whether we are married or single. He uses many means for this.

Jesus has just mentioned three of them. Number nine, you must give an account for the years of your singleness. Have you deployed your resources to please God? Have you squandered the time that God has given you as a single person? Have you used your single years for the greatest advantage of the kingdom of heaven?

While you would have been spending time with your wife, young man, you could be spending your time preaching the gospel to someone who could be married to Jesus Christ for all eternity. So every single person has to ask, how am I using my single years? Am I using it for the greatest advantage of the Kingdom of Heaven? Or am I just sort of in this waiting period? Is singleness just like hell on earth for you?

If it is, you're not thinking like Jesus. You're not thinking thoughts after the beauty of the kingdom of heaven. If you're just waiting for that and life is not happy and you're sort of debilitated, you're not useful. We could go to Isaiah chapter 56. I'm just going to mention it briefly.

If you start in Isaiah 53 and move sequentially to Isaiah 56, Isaiah 53 of course is this great prophecy of the coming Messiah. His coming kingdom and what it is all about. Isaiah 54 opens with these words, Sing, O barren, you who have not born, break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman, says the Lord." This has to do with the spread of the Gospel under the New Covenant. That the work of the Spirit in the spreading of the gospel, the fulfilling of the Great Commission happens even through barren women. And then in chapter 55, there's just this great call, ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

And then chapter 56, in chapter 56 verse 4 we read, for thus says the Lord, to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and those and choose what pleases me." So there are eunuchs who are pleasing God here in Isaiah 56. Who are they? Well, he's speaking of those in the New Covenant who've dedicated themselves to God, who are single for the kingdom of God, for the glory of God. That's who he's talking about. And he says, and they hold fast to my covenant, even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters.

I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the forerunner who join themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord and to be His servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds My covenant. Even to them I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer." And what the Lord Jesus is saying here through the prophet Isaiah is that there are eunuchs who have a better name than sons and daughters because of their usefulness in the Kingdom of Heaven, in the time of the New Covenant, as a result of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. So The disciples just got themselves a lesson on singleness, and so did we. I hope we can think like Jesus when we think about singleness.

So now after instructing the disciples of matters of singleness, he instructs them on matters of children. And so we see here in verses 13 through 15 that the disciples were pretty culture-bound in this area too. Not only did they not understand the will of the Lord regarding marriage and divorce and the whole matter of singleness, they had wrong ideas about children and the Lord Jesus is going to use these children as an example to help them understand something greater than children. So verse 13 reads, And then little children were brought to him, that he might put his hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for such is the kingdom of heaven.

And he laid hands on them and departed from there." So the Lord has just given a proper exaltation of singleness with its qualifications that had to be there, and now He's blessing the fruitfulness. He's blessing the fruits of marriage as he brings these children. He desires the godly to be fruitful and multiply, and he desires to be a blessing to these children. And of course, in the culture, Roman society had denigrated children. In many, many ways, infanticide was common.

You can see the ethos and hered slaughter of the babies in Matthew chapter 2. In contrast, though, Hebrew culture was different. Children are a blessing from the Lord. Rachel says, give me children lest I die. So there's a whole different view in Scripture that the disciples had some grasp of, but there were some things that they missed.

And these were little children, probably under the age of 12, some of them very small. And the first thing you see here are these hopeful parents. They were brought to him that he might put his hands on them. So these parents are bringing their children to Jesus. That's what they're doing.

In the Talmud, there was instruction that parents ought to bring their children to the synagogue and that the elders would pray for them. So this was kind of a common deal. And the father would first pray for the child and then hand that child over to the elders in that synagogue, and then the elders would put their hands on the child and pray. So this is a common kind of a thing. And it seems like parents were kind of lined up, you know, expectantly for Jesus to lay His hands on them.

Because the verbs that are used here in Mark are things that are just continuing to happen. The parents are continuing to bring their children. The disciples are continuing to rebuke. The conversation is rolling on. It's not just this little snapshot.

There are a lot of people coming with their children and the disciples are continually not happy about it and they don't stop talking about how unhappy they are about it. So that's the scene that we're in here. Mark uses the term, uses a masculine term perhaps indicating that it was really fathers. Like it wasn't just a whole line of, you know, hopeful mothers. Most likely it was a line of fathers, which would be really unusual in our day, wouldn't it?

Because usually it's really the only women that really care about the children all that much in our culture. And then you see the presumptuous disciples. The disciples rebuked them. They're trying to protect Jesus, apparently. And they're continuing to do this.

They just don't think the same way that Jesus does. That's so obvious. For like three chapters, we've been seeing how the disciples just do not think like Jesus thinks about things. Really big ticket items like marriage and divorce and singleness, now children. And then the Lord Jesus says something in verse 15.

He says, let the children come to me and do not forbid them for such is the kingdom of heaven. And He laid His hands on them. Now Mark tells us that Jesus was indignant about the behavior of the disciples. And we see that He loves these children. You see many miracles in the Gospels that included children, the nobleman's son, Jairus' daughter.

Remember the demonized boy who was thrown down, foaming at the mouth, and then stiffened at the feet of Jesus, and the disciples could not heal him. There's this boy who had been harassed by these demons since he was a very, very little child. Jesus has compassion on children here, as he has many, many times. And what Jesus says, here's that children can genuinely respond to God. Now, he's not saying that all these children were saved.

He's saying that salvation is like becoming like a child. He says, such is the kingdom of heaven. It's like this. He's not proclaiming the salvation of children because they have some relationship with their parents or because they're children. He's saying that they show us something about the Kingdom of Heaven.

He's not saying these children were saved. He's saying that these children are an illustration of being saved. In Mark 10-15, it reads, "...assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter into it. So Mark gives us more. He helps us with more of the detail of what Jesus said so that we can get a grasp of what he was saying.

And so this child is an illustration. When he says little children, in Matthew 18, we'll get to that passage in a minute because he says some similar things. It includes adults who believe in him, but he's using children as an example here in the same way that you know John refers to his disciples as little children. That you have to become like a child in order to enter in the kingdom of heaven. I mean you find children responding to Jesus in many, many places.

You know, when we get to Matthew 21, the chief priests are observing the wonderful things that Jesus is doing and the children are crying out in the market and crying out in the temple and and they're saying hosanna to the son of David and Jesus says out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have perfected praise. He's saying there's something, a child can respond to Jesus Christ. And the way that that child responds is the same way that everyone responds in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven. You know, children, a child brings nothing. In this context, a child brings nothing, but he receives everything.

He receives the King of Heaven. In the next segment of this passage of Scripture, you have the rich young ruler here. And this man, he brings everything, But he has nothing. And that's the illustration here. A child just doesn't bring anything to the table of value.

A child is humble. A child is dependent. A child believes. Just a few days before this conversation in Matthew 18, a very similar conversation took place in chapter 18 verse 1. At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Then Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, Assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, You will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me." So he's talking about the humility of a child. And he says unless you are changed, unless you are converted and become like a little child. And so conversion always includes a childlike humility.

A childlike humility that says, Lord, I don't bring any righteousness to the table here to secure my salvation. It's like the words from Rock of Ages, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. That's childlike cross, I cling." That's childlike faith. It's the humility, humiliation, the dependence It's part of the act of salvation. Well there's nothing more refreshing, there's nothing more life-giving, There's nothing more soul-satisfying than to think like Jesus thinks about everything.

And it's hard, isn't it, because it runs cross-grain against so many of the things that we've learned as we've grown up. But our Lord is a good shepherd. He's such a good deliverer to give us thoughts that are different from our own, so that He would save us from ourselves, that He would save us from our sins, that He would come and begin to refresh our souls with the cleanest, clearest water of life. And how he delivers us from that brackish thinking that comes upon us because we grow up in this world. And so he delivers us from so many destructive thoughts about marriage, about singleness, and about children.

It's like what Colossians 1.13 says about the nature of the kingdom of heaven. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. And so here we've just observed our Lord Jesus as such a good and faithful shepherd, such a beneficial guide to his disciples, and I pray to us as well to help us think rightly about all these things. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we pray that you would open our minds to understand wondrous things from your law, that you would help us to love Your words, to understand the many nuances, the breadth of instruction from Genesis to Revelation, how so many things are said to nuance all other things, how every single one of them is true and stands in the light of your glory in order to come and be a blessing to mankind.

Oh Father, I pray that you would help us to thank your thoughts after you. I pray that you would give us the humility of a child before you, that we would be such humble disciples before you. We thank you for your glorious kingdom. Amen.