Why No Children?

The Question of Admitting Minors to the New Covenant Community

0:04 This adult Sunday school class was held on March 25th, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now, most of you are aware of the fact that a few weeks ago we completed in this class a study on infant baptism, scrutinizing that practice in the light of the Word of God. That series, brought to us by Pastor Nichols, concluded with a positive presentation dealing with the issue of how we are to regard and deal with our children, since we do not regard them covenant children and proper recipients of the sign of inclusion in the covenant community merely because they are born of us, how do we regard them? Now, that series of studies concluding on that positive note, very naturally has led us into the subject that has occupied our minds for the past two Lord's Day, and will occupy our minds again this morning and, God willing, next Lord's Day morning in the adult class. Now, that subject, that very naturally flows out of the preceding, can be couched in the question, is there biblical warrant for admitting minors into the ranks of the new covenant community with all of its responsibilities, privileges, and liabilities? Is there biblical warrant? Not psychological warrant, emotional warrant, historical precedent,

1:40 but is there biblical warrant for admitting minors into the ranks of the new covenant community, that is, the church, with all of its responsibilities, privileges, and liabilities? And in our attempt to answer that question, we have conducted a quick survey of the relevant data of the New Testament. We've considered the New Covenant community as begun under John, expanded under Jesus, and further developed under the ministry and tutelage of the Apostles. And the conclusion which our survey has pressed upon us is that there is no biblical warrant, either by precept or example, for admitting minors into the visible community of the new covenant. Now, obviously, if you're just beginning, you can. visiting with us this morning you probably have a number of questions that have been raised by this summary that I have written out very carefully and read verbatim almost verbatim in order to condense 50 minutes of study times two into three minutes but these tapes are available and if you want to consider the material I urge you to obtain the tapes and consider that material now obviously we've not been exhausted to give you some idea of the work that went into this study

Distinguishing the Visible Church from the Invisible Church

3:05 these sheets that I hold up before you are an exhaustive treatment of every single instance in the new testament where any word the six words in the minor or young adult family are found in the new testament and the classification of every single use in the new testament and that's the kind of study that went into the groundwork of wrestling with these issues among your elders and I just say that again for some who may not know that we are very cautious in making statements that assert such fundamentally vital issues without seeking to be thorough in our homework now before we move on to take up the next strand of our study it needs to be emphasized again that the question we are dealing with is not whether minors can be and are indeed saved by the grace of God one of the elders put it this way after last week's study when we met for prayer that the company of the saved some would use the term the invisible church and the visible church are not co-terminous now you can use the word

4:21 co-terminous or con-terminous both are correct and it means occupying the same boundaries if I draw a circle on the board and I say I am now making a circle with broken lines these two circles are co- or con-terminous they occupy the same territory however if I surround the first circle with a larger circle made of broken lines these two circles are not co- or con-terminous and we need to grasp this principle that the visible church made up of visible professing disciples visible all right that's right okay and the people of God or what some would term the invisible church are not co-terminous there are people in the visible church whom God knows are not part of this body and there are people here who are not a part of this body so the question is not whether whether minors can be and are indeed saved by the grace of God and incorporated into the people of God. And if they died in that state, would go to heaven.

5:43 The question is whether the word of God gives us warrant to include minors in the visible community. And that very naturally leads us to articulate this second very vital principle that the biblical conditions for becoming part of the true people of God and the biblical conditions for becoming part of the visible community of God's people are not the same.

6:10 The thief on the cross, the moment he believed, became part of the people of God. Had he lived and come down from the cross, he would not have become part of the visible community unless he was what?

6:26 Baptized and formally identified with the people of God. But the fact that he was not baptized did not in any way preclude his becoming part of the people of God. Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. And I believe much of our confusion comes from failure when we come to the biblical data to keep those two things distinct.

6:48 The people of God and the visible church are not coterminous and the conditions for admission into the ranks of the people of God and admission into the visible church are not identical.

Why No Inclusion of Minors: Radically New Basis for Inclusion

7:03 All right? Now then. We come on. We come to the next very vital question.

7:07 The first major question we addressed is, is there biblical warrant for admitting minors into the ranks of this New Covenant community with its privileges, responsibilities, and liabilities? And we have yet to uncover such biblical evidence, which leads us then inevitably, logically, to take up this question. Why was there no inclusion of minors in the New Covenant community? Why was there no inclusion of minors in the New Covenant community?

7:43 And let me set before you two very fundamental factors that comprise the answer. Number one, because of the radically new basis for inclusion in the New Covenant community. Because of the radically new basis for inclusion in the New Covenant community. No longer will the Covenant community be perpetuated primarily by physical descent, but by spiritual birth and the whole-souled intelligent commitment to the life of radical discipleship.

8:22 Now that's a mouthful, but again, I've chosen my words carefully and you'll forgive me if I stick very closely to my notes this morning because these are very vital things and I do not want to be a part of it. I do not want to relinquish accuracy for the sake of eye contact. So bear with me. No longer will the Covenant community, as in the Old Covenant, be perpetuated primarily by physical, which was perpetuated primarily by physical generation, though occasionally you had proselytes who came in and by circumcision were made a part of that community.

8:56 But the New Covenant community is radically different in terms of the new covenant community. It is only by birth from above which manifests itself in a whole-souled intelligent commitment to radical discipleship. Now that's precisely what John emphasized in his ministry. Matthew chapter 3, verses 8 and 9.

9:24 And notice the vigor of his language. And it's precisely what our Lord emphasized in his calls to discipleship.

9:34 Verse 8 of Matthew 3. Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance. And do not think to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. Inclusion in this new Israel demands positive fruits of repentance.

9:56 Do not think to say we have Abraham to our father. We have proper bloodlines, for God is, able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And then in Matthew chapter 10, we find our Lord enunciating what I have termed whole-souled intelligent commitment to a life of radical discipleship. Matthew 10, 34.

10:25 Do not think that I came to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. I came to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's foe shall be they of his own household. He that loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me.

10:52 He that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He that doth not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He that finds his life, shall lose it. He that loses his life for my sake, shall find it.

11:07 Here's a call to radical discipleship in which we must be prepared for the, not the unification of families under one covenant bond because of bloodlines, but the very fracturing of the most intimate ties of human relationships. And you'll notice the same emphasis in Luke 14. This call to radical discipleship by which alone Christ, will own us as part of his community. Luke 14 and verse 25, there went with him great multitudes and he turned and said unto them, if any man comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And then he goes on to lay out the necessity of sober counting of the cost, summarized with the word, the words of verse 33, so therefore whoever he be of you that does not renounce all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. If you would be part of my new covenant community, you must heed from the heart intelligently, soberly, with the whole of your soul, my call to radical discipleship. And it's this same Jesus that says, he said to his own,

12:34 go into all the world and make what of all the nations? Make disciples. On what terms? The very terms that I've made them.

Why No Inclusion of Minors: Nature and Position of a Child

12:43 Calling them to whole-souled, intelligent commitment to a life of radical discipleship. Now, with this perspective and commission, there is no record that the apostles admitted minors into that community. Why didn't they? Because of the radically new basis for inclusion in the new covenant community, and now the second part of our answer flowing out of that, because of their recognition of the nature and position of a child which precludes such inclusion.

13:21 Because of the recognition of the nature and the position of a child which precludes such inclusion. Inclusion in this community is to be a voluntary, intelligent, personal decision to embrace all the duties, privileges, and liabilities of identification with that community. It has its duties, its privileges, and its solemn liabilities, the highest of which, of course, is excommunication. When this body, cast out of its ranks, one who no longer manifests that he has the root of the spiritual reality necessary to be in those ranks and is treated as a heathen and a publican. Now I say the very nature of the child precludes such things. Now what do I mean? Well, let's turn to the scriptures.

14:19 Several vital scriptures. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. And as questions arise, please take notice of them.

14:32 I hope to have opportunity for them at the end. But I must unfold the line of thought first. So you bear with me while I do some straight teaching and lecturing. Now what does Paul say about the nature of a child in 1 Corinthians 13?

14:51 Verse 11. He's using an illustration, but this illustration used in the context of his treatise on love and the permanence of love and the temporary nature of certain gifts. When I was a child, I spoke as a child. And this is one of your New Testament words for a minor.

15:11 Used very clearly here. Never used with regard to anyone regarded as a disciple, but used very freely here. When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I felt as a child.

15:23 I thought or I reasoned as a child. Now that I am become a man, I have amplified, extended, and refined my childish perspectives. Is that what he says? What does he say?

15:41 I have put away childish things. And the word in the original for put away is a form of the verb katargeo, which means utterly to abrogate, to cancel, to destroy, to bring to an end. So he says, when I was a child, I thought, reasoned, thought, reasoned. When I became the man is the full-blown development of that which began at conception. There is continuity in the processes of thought, of reasoning, of feeling, of speaking. But Paul is emphasizing in this particular passage that there is not only continuity, there is disparity. There is a putting away of certain things characteristic of childhood.

16:47 Now what are the outstanding characteristics of a childish perspective, a childish mind, and soul, and spirit as it thinks, and feels, and reasons? Well, according to the scriptures, there are two predominant characteristics. Can you think of what they may be? And give me a scripture to underscore it.

17:08 Folly, Proverbs 22, 15. Folly is bound up in the heart of a child. Foolishness, all right, that would be what we would call a morally culpable quality. But these are not morally culpable qualities.

17:20 They're just qualities of the immature. Yes? Jeff? Okay, Johnny?

17:26 All right, Ephesians chapter 4. Instability, and someone think of a second one? All right, let me give it to you. He says to adults, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.

17:43 What's he underscoring there? What do we call that in a child? It's simple. It's what?

17:49 Innocence. Not so much innocence. Simplicity. We're getting close to it.

17:57 Simple faith. Simple trust. Credulity. All right, let me summarize it this way.

18:04 One author says, humble trustfulness. Humble trustfulness. Now put those two qualities together. Humble trustfulness is the mindset of the average child.

18:20 Now there are exceptions. There are children who are very, very young, very, very early, show an almost precocity of skepticism. They are precocious in their skepticism. Everything is looked at with this kind of a look.

18:35 But by and large, the characteristic of a child is humble trustfulness. You take your child out, a little two-year-old, a three-year-old, on a beautiful clear night in the full moon, and you say to him, now son or honey, look up at that moon. Do you know what that moon is made of? You see when mommy fixes cottage cheese and puts it on the thing?

18:59 Well, that moon is made of cottage cheese. Is it, daddy? Who eats it? What does it taste like?

19:08 Does it taste like? That is humble trustfulness. Things are taken simply on the word of authority. Now it's that very quality that Jesus says must be implanted by grace in a person or they will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

19:22 It is there in a child by nature. In a child of the kingdom, it must be implanted by grace. But credulity, believing, simple trustfulness is one of the marks of childhood. Alright?

19:39 Second thing, according to Ephesians 4.13, is, as I think Johnny mentioned, that you be no more children, tossed to and fro. Ephesians 4.14.

19:53 No longer children, tossed to and fro. Instability. Now Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his comments on this passage writes as follows, very accurately.

20:07 Let me get the proper page, 224. The apostle goes on to show that children have certain particular characteristics and tendencies. He calls attention to these words, with these words, henceforth that we be no more children, tossed to and fro. According to the apostle, there are two main tendencies in children.

20:31 The first is instability. He uses a most picturesque phrase to describe this, tossed to and fro, literally tossed like waves. That is the characteristic of the childlike state. Its fickleness, and its changeableness.

20:52 And then he goes on to say the second major characteristic is its tendency to be misled and deceived. Because of its credulity, humble trustfulness, it can easily be misled and deceived, carried about with every wind of doctrine. This is simply a graphic and pictorial way of saying a child is always liable to be imposed upon, because it tends to believe everything it is told. The child, because it is a child, readily falls a prey to any imposter that comes along.

21:28 The apostle is particularly concerned about this, and then he goes on to show its relevance for the context of Ephesians. But you see, those characteristics, we are not going to the worldly psychologists for an analysis of the characteristics of a child. We are extracting them directly from the world. The word of God.

21:49 Now any sound psychology will affirm that. And any psychology that denies it can go back to the pit of error from which it came. But here are the characteristics. Now, not only then does the nature of the child preclude its intelligent personal decision to embrace the duties, privileges and liabilities of the new covenant community, but its position as a child.

The Child's Position Under Parental Authority

22:17 Precludes a whole-souled, voluntary, intelligent, personal choice. For what is the position of the child? According to Ephesians 6.4, what is the position of the child?

22:30 Under the authority of its parents. Fathers, nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. Children, obey your parents. When?

22:40 When they simply tell you to take out the garbage, or when they tell you you are going to church, you are going to pray, you are going to read your Bible, you are going to learn your memory verses. When it says, children, obey your parents, what does that include? Not simply general duties, not simply general directives, but all of the specific religious training that you give. In other words, the position of a child, and in the providence of God, I am so grateful Pastor Nichols is dealing with this in the evening, because I won't need to go into as much explanation.

23:13 The position of the child demands that parents enforce not only Christian standards, but even attempt to place, and follow me closely now, the language and the disposition of grace in the mouth and hearts of your children. Let me illustrate. You've got two young'uns, and they get into a fight. And after you've sorted out all of the issues, you realize that Johnny was wrong in taking Mary's doll.

23:43 And you say to him, now Johnny, that was wrong, that was selfish, that was breaking God's law. Now I want you to say, I'm sorry to your sister. And if he sits there and says, what do you do? You spank his behind until he says, I'm sorry.

23:58 And if he says, I'm sorry, you say, no, I don't want you to say it like that. I want you to say, I'm sorry from your heart. And if you spank him again until his spirit is broken, you say, I'm sorry. You say, that's a good boy.

24:20 Now let's go and ask God to forgive us. You pray after me, dear Lord. Lord, I'm sorry I took Sister Dolly. I'm sorry I took Sister Dolly.

24:33 And you put the language of repentance into his mouth, and you'll even discipline him if you judge that it doesn't seem that that's the disposition of his heart. Now is that your responsibility as a parent? Yes or no? It is.

24:49 You put it into his mouth, and as much as you can discern, you continue to apply correction until you have some semblance that the spirit of it is in his heart. And that's your duty. And you carry him to the house of God and you make him sit and listen and sing the hymns. And when they get so they can read or they memorize the hymns and they won't sing, you say, sing.

25:09 God is worthy to be praised. If you won't praise God, when you and I get home, you're going to get your bottom warmed. That's right. That's your duty.

25:16 That's your duty. That's your duty. That's your duty. That's your duty.

25:21 That's your duty. Now, that being so, if that's all done in the context of love, of real, wholesome, emotional interaction between parent and child, what's the most likely pattern that will be seen in the life of that child? The pattern of a, quote, Christian child. Right?

25:44 Singing hymns all have such whole stations. All of the models that this child has, the men and the women that he's taught to admire, express Christian virtues. Now, some may rebel very early, but generally speaking, know that programming of consistent godly example and training will produce what appears to be the fruit of grace in your children. They'll pray.

26:17 They'll weep over their sins. They'll be sensitive to sin. And you say, for sure, a work of grace must have been done. Well, it may be that a work of grace has been done, but it may be that what you're seeing is simply the fruit of common grace working by means of your godly Christian nature.

26:39 Now, when do you have reason to believe with some degree of confidence that you're making a valid judgment? Not until the child has come to sufficient maturation of perspective, of will, of affection, to say, I voluntarily, intelligently, take upon myself the god of my mother and my father. And I am prepared to accept the responsibilities, privileges, and liabilities being identified with the people of God. If a week from now, my mama and my daddy, I'm not down in Yazoo City, my mother and my father, when I'm down south, I always say my mama and my daddy. They don't know what your mother and your father is. It's your mom and your daddy. So I'm back in Yazoo City with my mom and my daddy.

27:40 That if mom and daddy, if mom and dad deny these things, I will be prepared to be disowned by mom and dad in order to follow Jesus Christ. He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Now you see, until the child exercises sufficient independent judgment and personal volition to express his own independent values, it is unsound psychology to encourage that child to take this step, just as it is unsound psychology to tell him he can't be saved. If he professes to be saved and the outward light seems to indicate it, you don't tell him he isn't. But neither are you about to say I'm as certain as a human being can be that you are. You take a position of sanctified agnosticism. We'll wait and see.

Biblical Warrant: Moses' Example of Mature Faith

28:45 We'll wait and see. Now is there a scriptural warrant for this? Well let's turn to what to me is the pivotal passage in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 11. Remember what we're examining.

28:59 Why did not the apostles and our Lord and John the Baptist include minors in the New Covenant community? Because the nature of that New Covenant community, radically different from the old, precluded it. And because the nature and position of the child precludes it. And now we're examining that whole matter of the position and the nature of the child.

29:22 Hebrews chapter 11. In this wonderful passage, many call the hall of fame of the faithful for the Old Testament. We read concerning Moses, verse 23. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid.

29:41 Here you have a passive verb. Something was done to Moses and it was done as an expression of faith. Not his faith, but the faith of his parents. By faith, Moses was hid three months by his parents because they saw he was a goodly child.

30:01 Now that little phrase fascinates the commentators and they write on for pages what in the world it meant. They saw he was a goodly child. And at the end of the day, you have to say, only they knew and the writer to Hebrews knew. But the rest of us will have to wait till we get to heaven.

30:14 They saw he was a goodly child. But by faith they hid him. And they were not afraid of the king's commandment. So faith in the parents did something for the child.

30:26 They hid him. And you know in the providence of God what that resulted in. Pharaoh's daughter comes down to bathe by the riverside. God pinches baby Moses just at the right time.

30:37 So he screams and hollers. And she's touched with pity. And Moses' sister is standing on the river bank. And you know the story.

30:45 He ends up in the court of Moses. But there's a beautiful picture of believing parents surrounding the child with the expressions of their faith. And in a very real sense, if I may speak metaphorically, we parents hide our children by our faith. We seek to hide them and protect them from the violent and battering intrusions of the world's philosophy.

31:14 So we carefully guard the use of the television if we have it. Carefully guard their reading material. Carefully guard their associations and playmates. Carefully guard their education.

31:26 Carefully guard all that would keep them from being unnecessarily vulnerable to the molding influence of the world. We, by our faith, seek to hide them. By our prayers, we seek to hide them under the canopy of God's grace, under the canopy of His loving kindness and tender mercies. By faith, we do something to our children.

31:50 But now the time comes with them as with Moses, when if faith has been engendered in them by the Holy Spirit, they must do something. Now notice, that time came with Moses. By faith, Moses, when he was growing up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing to suffer ill-treatment with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Now the key phrase is this.

32:22 Moses, when he was grown up, literally, from the Greek it means, great having become. And the commentators speculate on what this phrase means. Great having become. Or having become great.

32:36 And some say, well it points to the time in his life when he came at age 40 and stood in position to have tremendous wealth fall to him and all of the rest. But it's very interesting that two of the most responsible commentators, neither one a Baptist, both of whom included children with the sign of the covenant so they had no axe to grind dealing with the phrase. John Owen and John Brown demonstrate that this phrase is better translated as the American standard has it when he was grown up or when he was mature. Listen to Owen.

33:15 In the first thing expressed is the time or season or the condition when he acted his faith. Say we, when he was come to years, not accurately, megas, genomenos, and then he goes on to show what that Greek phrase means in certain places and how it's used. But although this be true materially and has an especial influence upon the commendation of the faith of Moses, it is not intended in this expression. For having declared the faith of his parents and the providence of God toward him in his infancy in the foregoing verse, the apostle here shows what was his own way of acting after he grew up unto years of understanding. And then he quotes some of the pagan writers who use this phrase. who use this particular phrase in classical Greek. I was an infant, Seth Telemachus, and now I am grown up, or here's the phrase, grown great.

34:14 And then he shows how it's used in the Latin in parallel phrases. When he was grown up, that is when he came to years of understanding. According as he grew up in stature and understanding, he acted faith in the duties whereunto he was born. He was called.

34:34 And John Brown, in a similar vein, says when he came to years, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. The phrase, when he was come to years, literally signifies when he became great. And taken by itself, might refer to that elevated station in society to which Moses was raised in the Egyptian court. It seems, however, plainly contrasted with the phrase when he was born and is just like equivalent to when he arrived at maturity.

35:07 He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. When he was come to years, that is arrived at mature age, he refused. These words intimate that he voluntarily renounced the honors and advantages connected with the title son of Pharaoh's daughter, even though knowing that he did this, he goes on to say it would involve suffering affliction with God's covenant people. He had come to sufficient maturity to understand the implications of voluntary identification with God's covenant people.

35:50 And that's the great principle. When he was come to years. Now, all kinds of questions arise. Well, what age limit do we set?

35:59 We'll take that up next week. We don't set age limits. You cannot in any situation, in any culture say people pass over the threshold from children to manhood, childhood to womanhood at age blank. Can't do that.

36:14 But all we're seeking to do is come to grips with these overarching biblical materials and this wealth of biblical data that the Bible recognizes that there is that distinction and that only those who we have reason to believe have arrived here belong in the new covenant community. A second verse that sort of is a parallel to this is John 9, 21. The blind man was healed and the Pharisees come to the parents and they say, look, he is of age. He can speak for himself.

Tragic Results of Admitting Minors to Church Membership

36:45 Ask him. So the recognition you see that maturity enables someone to accept responsibility for that which they confess and profess. Now, what do we say in summary and conclusion of these materials? If we are prepared to treat as fundamentally the same the profession of a four-year-old, a 14-year-old, a 24-year-old and a 64-year-old, what will result?

37:16 If the four-year-old can say, I'm a sinner. I know Christ died for sinners. I'm trusting only in his blood and I want to follow Jesus with all my heart. A 14-year-old says the same thing.

37:28 A 24-year-old, a 64-year-old. If we treat, all of that confession and profession the same, what will result? Here will be some of the tragic results. Number one, we'll create a climate for presumption in our precious little ones.

37:42 If we're prepared to take the confession of the eight-year-old and baptize him or her and receive him into the church, the child will assume if those older and wiser whom I have been taught to respect all regard me as a believer, then I must be. And even when that soul begins to develop to the point where there is independent judgment and independent volition in the sense of the volition of maturity, the child begins to conclude, I do not see in myself those things which the Bible says are the marks of grace. He will be tempted to say, ah, but all those whom I respect say, I'm in, so I must be. We'll create a climate for presumption and that is not theoretical, dear people.

38:27 I have seen it in church after church after church when I've been preaching on what's involved in real conversion and I see teenagers begin to get upset under that preaching and question whether they have the real thing, their parents come along and stroke them and say, you're all right. I remember when you made your decision at age eight and you've been baptized and professed Christ, you're all right, and stroke their precious children into hell. As long as this preacher has breath, death will never happen here. As long as these elders have breath and have grace in their hearts to stand by the word of God with love for the souls of your children, what we've proposed is not cruelty, it's kindness, to save them a context in which they'll be encouraged to presume. Secondly, we create a climate for a double life. If we take the profession of four and six and eight and ten year olds and are willing to accept it as though it were the profession of a mature person, what do you mean we create a climate for a double life? Simply this, here they are, properly nurtured, and part of that nurture is they've learned there's a doctrine of doing things to please your mom and dad.

39:40 Doing things to please those who help you. That's a biblical doctrine all the way through the Proverbs. My son, give me joy. Follow my directions.

39:48 My son, give your mother joy. Follow our counsel. That children should be raised with the thought that pleasing mom and dad is a powerful motive is thoroughly biblical. Thoroughly biblical.

40:00 Don't anyone let you be bullied out of that. That's biblical. That they should want to please their pastors, their Sunday school teachers. Thoroughly biblical.

40:09 So what's happened? Under that conditioning in their credulity and in their instability and gullibility, they've taken everything upon our testimony and they give all the marks of loving Christ, loving his word, but then as they enter that stage in life where the mind begins to act independently and they begin to think through issues, they have serious doubts and questions. But what happens? They've already been identified with the New Covenant community that confesses all these things.

40:39 And they say, if I express my doubts to mom and dad, it will grieve them. If I go to my pastors, it will break their hearts. So what happens? They drive the doubts inward and downward.

40:48 And then as they find that those doubts may be well-founded, they have no heart to live a holy life when they begin to know what a holy life means. It just meant saying no to the kids on the block when they wanted to tell a dirty joke. But now they've come to maturity, and they feel that tremendous, high-powered engine of sexual appetite driving and pulsing through them, the longing for peer acceptance and all those things that begin to be a real burning issue for the teenager. And they find that the flow of all of those passions and appetites is away from God and Christ and the Bible, and they have no heart to follow biblical norms.

41:28 What happens? They say, if I go and tell mom and dad this, it will break their hearts. If I tell the others, it will break their hearts. So they're driven into a double life.

41:36 And that's not theoretical. I tell you, that's not theoretical. Thirdly, we encourage formalism and nominalism. What do I mean by that?

41:48 People who may never find, due to their chemistry, due to common grace, never find themselves desirous of leaving the security of this community. They've been baptized, taken into it, pre-puberty or at puberty, or just barely post-puberty. Nothing that could be called the threshold of their womanhood and manhood in their late teens. Nothing that could be called that.

42:11 And what's happened? By the time they come to maturity, nothing has really been done in their hearts, but their external lives are respectable. Their creed is orthodox. There's no occasion to excommunicate them.

42:23 And what happens? You get more and more people like this, and the church has given over to nominalism and formalism. People have no discernment. And when decisions are made, they are made in an unspiritual manner.

42:35 By the majority vote of these polite, lovely, unconverted people who were brought into the church as children. And then, fourthly, we give up the concept of the church as a church of gathered disciples. People who know they're in a war and are prepared to shed blood and die for Jesus. People who know they're joining the ranks of the army of God, and then will eventually make, in the fifth place, a mockery out of baptism.

43:06 Because what will happen is, with those that are true to their spiritual instincts, even though they've been baptized and brought into the church as kids, and later on manifest they didn't have the root of the matter in them, when God does save them, they know their baptism was invalid, so you have people being baptized two and three times. And you make a mockery out of baptism. Now, my friends, do you want any one of those five options? Create a climate for presumption.

43:31 Create a climate for a double life. Encourage formalism and nominalism. Give up the concept of the church as gathered disciples and make a mockery of baptism? I, for one, don't want it.

Analogies: Marriage and Warfare

43:42 And I hope you share that conviction with me. Intelligently and biblically. Let me close with this illustration, then we will have time for at least three or four minutes of questions. Take the analogy of marriage and of warfare.

43:57 Suppose you had a 12-year-old, 13-year-old came to you and very seriously one day says, Dad, I really believe I'm in love. Oh, you do, son. That's right. You do, honey?

44:09 Yeah. Tell me all about it. And they're serious. I mean, this is...

44:13 They know this is not puppy love. This is the real thing. And here the young man tells you, Yes, he said, I've known so-and-so in the church for six, seven years. And I've watched her.

44:21 And she's a godly young woman. And Dad, we've talked together. And I really believe we're both in love. And we want your permission to get married.

44:29 14 years old. What do you tell him? Well, I hope what you wouldn't do is make a mockery out of it and say, What do you know about love? You put your arm around your son and say, Now, son, maybe what you feel there is real love.

44:44 It could well be. It's not ordinary that real love is gendered in the 14-year-old heart. But sometimes it happens. I know someone here that fell in love at age 12.

44:53 Eventually married that particular woman and lived with her for many years until the Lord took her home to glory. So you're not going to make a mockery out of it. What do you say? You say, Son, if you really love her, that love will grow.

45:05 That love will develop. And someday when you're a man, ready to accept the responsibilities, the liabilities, as well as enjoy the privileges of marriage, nothing would make me happier than to see you and Susie walk down the aisle. Isn't that what you'd say? But if he can give you all the characteristics of real love and even give you what seems to be a good structure of theory about what marriage is all about, are you going to say because he has the language and the knowledge of these things, in his mind, and can articulate them with his lips, he's psychologically and emotionally prepared for that awesome responsibility?

45:48 Who among you would do it? Not a one of you. Being a Christian in the Bible is likened to what? Being married to Jesus Christ.

45:57 I take the analogy of warfare. Some of us can remember this very vividly because we were little kids when we went to the Second World War. And everywhere you turned, patriotism was pumped into you. That was back in the day when you wept when you saw an American flag.

46:13 And there was a sense of patriotism. Everywhere you turned, there were posters. Somebody talked. And you'd see this gruesome picture of a hand going down under the water in a ship sinking.

46:22 I mean, you were made to be aware we're at war. And all the factories would have flags of merit if they produced more than was expected of them. And we used to take our gum wrappers and save them and make balls of them and turn them in. Everything was here.

46:37 We are at war. We are at war. And even as a young boy, I can remember feeling that surge of patriotism that I was willing to go fight. Now, suppose I went down.

46:47 I was born in 34, so you figure it out. Ten years old just before the war closed. I'm 44. And I said to the local Marine recruiting sergeant, you know, I've been reading Life magazine about that tremendous battle over there in the South Seas with the Marines.

47:02 And I want to go and serve my country in the Marines. Now, if he was a wise recruiting sergeant, would he laugh at me and say, get out of here, kid? Now, he'd put his arm around me and say, now, son, I'm glad to know you love your country. I'm glad to know you're ready to go and fight for your country.

47:19 But, son, this is not a war for boys. And if that spirit still burns in your heart when you become a man at age 17, you come on back. And if I'm still here, I'd count it a privilege to sign you up. And he'd pat him on the head and send him along home where he belonged.

47:38 The Bible says you join this community. You're at war. Jesus said, count the cost before you go to war. You see the analogies?

47:48 You don't discourage the patriotism. You don't discourage what may be the beginnings, the embryonic form of true love. But you say love and preparedness for marriage are two different things. And patriotism and going to war are two different things.

48:08 And what may well be the seeds of true faith and attachment to Christ in our children needs to be encouraged and nurtured without a lot of emphasis on making a decision. Most of our children will not know when they pass from death unto life if God by the Spirit is pleased to bless our godly nurture. And we should not put a lot of emphasis on the time and the place. But we will not have biblical grounds to believe that what we see is indeed the fruit of grace until we can say when they came for years.

Conclusion and Practical Implications

48:42 Well, that's my case from the Bible, dear people. And you noticed I used human analogies only at the end to put the capstone. All right? Got two to three minutes.

48:52 You got all kinds of questions. Next week, God willing, we hope to take up some of the practical ones. You may even give me some fuel by questions raised. Now, our comments.

49:01 Any of my fellow elders want to bend a nail over or pull one out? Remember when I said how vital this is for our church life? Our brother, Cliff Kitchen, has done us admirable service in doing an entire census of the kids in Trinity Church, even the ones in the womb. And since he did this three weeks ago, the number of those in the womb has changed from eight to seven, thanks to the Smiths.

49:32 All right? But here's the tabulation. Age 0 to 6, at that time, eight of them in the womb, now only seven that we know of. See, expecting here.

49:43 All the ages listed, 106 children, four to six. Age 7 to 12, 39. Ages 13 to 18, 26. And that's just with members.

49:57 171 children. And more coming all the time. Do you see how vital it is that we think this issue through from the Word of God? The future of Trinity Church, next to probably the quality of its leadership, the degree to which the rank and file of God's people walk in holiness and prayerfulness, no other issue is more critical to the future of Trinity Church than our thinking and acting biblically on this issue.

50:30 I believe no other issue is more critical. Because these kids are going to grow up, and I believe the vast majority of them, by the time they're eight years old, are going to be able to look us straight in the eye and say, I love Jesus. And I trust in Jesus. And I want to follow Jesus with all my heart.

50:49 And God have mercy on us if we don't encourage that and nurture it. But God have mercy on us if we're prepared to take that for biblical warrant to put them in a war and send them down a marriage aisle. God have mercy on us. So if I go down in that plane as it goes over the puddle, this will be my last will and testament to you in this class.

51:12 And I hope it would ring in our ears if we ever dare to move from these biblical perspectives. Well, I've done so much preaching, probably you feel it's impudent to ask questions when I preach. That can be threatening, I know. But our time has gone.

51:25 And I usually don't do that. But dear people, these things have burned in my own heart. And I believe God has given light and help after many months of agonizing prayer and crying to God for direction. Lord willing, next week we'll take up some of those practical questions.

51:43 When does a child become a man, a woman? What do we do to the sincere desire of our children who say they believe the Lord has saved them and want to be baptized and become church members? We'll take up some of those practical questions. It should take me maybe 20 minutes or so to address the questions I've prepared.

52:03 And then, God willing, the rest of the class will be given over to questions and answers from you as the Lord's people. Well, let's pray together. Father, we're so thankful that you've given to us your holy word. That word which is a lamp unto our feet.

52:25 A light to our pathway. That word sufficient for all things pertaining to faith and to practice. We thank you for giving light and help to your servants in past months as we've wrestled and prayed and talked about these vital issues. For giving us oneness of perspective.

52:49 Now we pray that you will carry us in the way that you will carry the minds and the hearts of your people into the very direction of your holy word. May every single thought be brought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ. Lord, hear our cry. Have mercy upon our precious children.

53:10 We think of these 170 and more coming. Oh God, may we never do anything that would prejudice their salvation. May we do everything that will in your blessing become the instrument of grace and life and then of seeing our children take their place when they come to years voluntarily, intelligently with the whole soul choosing to cast in their light with your people. Oh, hear our cry and give us the desire of our hearts to your praise and to your honor.

53:49 Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.