Jesus Blesses Little Children, Part 2

Introduction and Review of Mark 10:13-16

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, January 11th, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now let us turn together to the Gospel of Mark and the 10th chapter, Mark's Gospel and chapter 10.

0:27 And as we did last Lord's Day morning, so again this morning, we shall give our attention to verses 13 through 16. Will you follow in your Bibles as I read this paragraph?

0:42 The first plural pronoun, they, refers to an unnamed group of what was probably adults, possibly all parents, relatives, older brothers and sisters. We simply do not know. The text tells us that they were bringing unto him, that is the Lord Jesus, little children, that he should touch them. And the disciples rebuked them.

1:11 But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation and said unto them, Permit the little children to come unto me. Do not forbid them. For to such belongs the kingdom of God, or better translated, for to such is, or of such is. Of such is.

1:38 The kingdom of God. To such is a very poor rendering of the original, as almost all grammarians are agreed.

1:49 Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them. Now let us again. Let us again seek the face of God for his help in the study of his word.

2:18 Our Father, we thank you for your gracious presence with us in our worship together this morning. For drawing out from our hearts confessions of our sin. The praise and gratitude that you've placed within us for your grace and kindness to us in Christ. Prayers for your grace and kindness to us in Christ.

2:42 Prayers for your people and your servants and our nation. And now, O God, we come again to thank you that the needed help for our study of the word has been promised to us. And yet we know that your promises are given not to make us indifferent or presumptuous, but to become the very fuel for our prayers. So we turn to you again in prayer.

3:11 Reminding you of your promises. That if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will you, the heavenly Father, the gracious, sinless, holy Father, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. So we ask that the Spirit may come and attend his own word. May he come as the Spirit of illumination.

3:36 The Spirit of instruction. The Spirit of conviction. The Spirit of empowerment. The Spirit of discernment.

3:43 To do what we know is your will. Hear us and help us. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

3:57 Now, as I've already intimated, we come this morning to our second study in this moving account of Jesus and the little children. Jesus and what Luke informs us were little babes, at least some of them. Little infants in arms. In our first examination of the passage, last Lord's Day, we sought to grasp the basic contents of the narrative and then to focus upon its one central personal application.

4:33 And we noted on that occasion that the contents very naturally arranged themselves under three very simple headings. First of all, Mark informs us of the activity. The activity of these unnamed adults. We do not know who they were, but we are told that they were bringing unto Jesus their little ones, as Luke informs us, possibly only, but certainly including their babes in arms, in order that the Lord Jesus should touch them.

5:10 That is, according to Matthew 19.13, that he should lay his hands upon them. And pray for them. That he would express the goodwill and favor of God in giving these little ones a blessing.

5:28 And secondly, we noted the reaction of the twelve to this activity. Mark tells us that as often as these unnamed adults were bringing the little ones, the disciples were rebuking them. Not merely hindering them. But scolding them.

5:48 Telling them enough of this business of bringing your little ones to Jesus for a blessing. And though we are not told why they did this, most likely it was an effort to protect our Lord from what they felt was an unnecessary intrusion upon his time and an unwarranted expenditure of his energy. For at this time, as we are told in chapter 10 in verse 1, our Lord was again, Impressed by the multitudes, and engaging in the activities of teaching and of healing. And then thirdly, after the activity of the unnamed adults and the reaction of the twelve, the rest of the passage is taken up with the record of the response of Jesus to this reaction of the twelve. And the response of Jesus is described in three categories. His emotional response. We are told, That he was indignant.

6:48 He was gripped with a holy irritation that they would dare to forbid and hinder these adults from bringing their little ones to him for a blessing. Then, there is the record of his verbal response. He gives a two-fold command. Permit them to come.

7:10 Stop hindering them. Then a striking explanation. For, For of such, For of such, that is, those who have this distinct character trait, is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was irritated that they should hinder little ones from coming to him, not only for the blessing that he would confer upon the little ones, but according to the text, it was primarily because they were keeping from close association, with Jesus, those little ones who were the visible expression of the character trait that was dominant in all true sons and daughters of the kingdom. For, here's the reason. He says, Stop hindering them. Let them come.

8:04 For of such is the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom that I am instituting among men by bringing the reign of grace to their hearts, finds a marvelous expression in the concrete helplessness and vulnerability and dependantness of little children. Therefore, do not hinder them from coming. And then Mark records his physical response. He took them up in his arms and intensely blessed them.

8:39 Not the ordinary word for mere blessing, but a compound word, found only here in the New Testament. For Peter, who gave the account to Mark, obviously could never forget that in the blessing that Jesus conferred upon these little ones, that is in calling down by prayer the gracious power and favor of God, for that's what blessing is, the opposite of cursing. In the New Testament, again and again, it's set in opposition to cursing. Luke 6.28, Romans 12.

9:14 14, 1 Corinthians 4.12, and other passages. There was an intensity. There was a dimension of blessing that Peter conveyed in his description to Mark that warranted the use of this word, which could rightly be translated, he was intensely, wholeheartedly, earnestly blessing them.

9:40 And then we noted, after opening up the contents of the passage, its central personal application, and we do not need to deduce it, Christ Himself makes it. Verse 15. He gives this magisterial statement, Verily I say unto you, whenever we read this passage, the predominant pressure of it upon our hearts ought to be precisely where Jesus placed it. This magisterial statement about entering, or receiving, the kingdom.

10:17 Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. The little child not in terms of any subjective character traits, for as B.B. Warfield himself has so clearly stated, in a babe in arms there is no prevailing disposition of soul, even yet, yet form.

10:46 But it is the babe in arms, in all of its dependantness, its helplessness, its condition of having to receive all and give nothing, that we have this clear trait of those who are brought by grace to enter the kingdom. Verily I say unto you, if you are not prepared to receive the kingdom as a child, if you are not prepared to receive, what God in grace has provided in the person and work of His Son, coming down off the horse of self-importance and self-righteousness and self-justification, and stand helpless, vulnerable, naked and needy as a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now then, I said last, Lord, say that I wanted to make some secondary applications and fully intended to complete them this morning. But as I got into my preparation, it became evident that either the message would be too long or the treatment too surface. And so what I propose to do is, in the time that remains this morning, to take up the first of these remaining three applications or treatments of the passage

Addressing the Controversial Issue of Infant Baptism

12:14 and then, God willing, take up the other two tonight. The central personal application is found in verse 15. And it presses upon us the question, have I received the kingdom as a little child? That is the dominant note that should ring in our ears and the question that should press in upon our consciences.

12:38 However, because this passage has been used in other ways and because it sets forth, the marvelous demonstration of what Christ-likeness involves, that central personal application is not the only necessary or warranted application of the passage. And so we shall take up, God willing, this morning, the relationship of this passage to the practice of infant baptism. That's the ecclesiastical or doctrinal, I'm sorry, the doctrinal or the polemical application. And then tonight, God willing, we'll take up the ecclesiastical application, the relationship of this passage to the church and its treatment of little ones. And then thirdly, the familial or family application, the relationship of this passage to parents in our treatment of our little ones. But just this one secondary area of application this morning, the relationship of this passage to the practice of infant baptism. Now as we take up what is obviously a controversial issue, I confess that I do so both with reluctance and with fear. And

14:03 that reluctance and fear is rooted in my settled desire before God to have the opportunity to have nothing to do with stirring up sinful passions. The moment we get into anything controversial, even though it's biblical, it is so easy to stir up sinful passions. And God has witnessed that I have pleaded on my knees before Him that there would be nothing in my manner or substance of treating the passage that would unnecessarily stir up sinful passions. Now, if someone's prepared to reject the testimony of the Word, like those to whom Stephen spoke and have sinful passions stirred up that result in murder, that's not Stephen's fault. If it's men's determination to say, don't confuse me with facts, my mind's made up, then I'm sorry. If the truth of God stirs up passions of animosity and bitterness and even hatred directed to me, then I must be willing to bear that. I must bear that in a manly way for the sake of Christ.

15:12 But I am reluctant and fearful to take up the subject because it's one in which it is easy unnecessarily to stir up sinful passions. Furthermore, I'm fearful that I should in any way lessen your esteem for men of God in the past and the present whose works in print ought to be household items with many of us. And I would hate, having to cite proven guides in the Scripture on this matter, in any way to prejudice your mind to say, well, if someone could be so wrong on that issue in this passage, can I trust them anywhere? It would grieve me if that would be the result of our study together. However, having mentioned my fears and reservations, we cannot deny two very stubborn facts. Facts are stubborn things. So stubborn that Stephen's enemies, Stephen's enemies didn't try to argue with his facts.

16:10 They just gnashed on him with their teeth and got rid of him. They didn't argue with his facts. No, the facts were unassailable. They were rooted in their very Scriptures.

16:22 But you see, they couldn't stand the presence of facts, so they tried to get rid of the one who reminded them of them. And there are two very stubborn facts. Number one, that large segments of the Christian church have for centuries practiced a rite called infant baptism. Now, that's a fact.

16:45 We may not like it. We may like it. But it is a fact. Now, I'm not concerned with apostate anti-Christian systems that call themselves Christendom, such as Romanism, liberalism, and other isms that deny fundamental saving truth.

17:02 I do not include them when I say large segments of the Christian church that have for centuries practiced a rite called infant baptism. I'm speaking of those Christian communities such as those formed under Luther and Calvin and the Reformed churches in the continent and the New England Puritan congregational churches and American Presbyterianism in days past and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the PCA today, etc., etc. Christian communities where saving truth is loved and known and experienced.

17:42 And I'm speaking of those Christian communities that have for centuries practiced a rite called infant baptism. It is a fact that large segments of the Christian church, and that's what I mean by Christian church, have for centuries practiced a rite called infant baptism. That's fact number one. Fact number two.

17:59 In defending this practice of infant baptism, this passage is used again and again and again and again. That's a fact. One can say, I cannot read in the writings of the men who represent these segments of the Christian church that practice this rite of infant baptism, either in their systematic theologies when they come to the sacraments or in their commentaries without coming to the conviction that this passage expounded last Lord's Day morning in its essential content and in its primary personal application is a rite of infant baptism. It is a very vital passage in the defense of that rite. You cannot read long in the proven guides in Scripture on this particular passage without being confronted with its constant usage in the defense of the sprinkling or even in the case of the Greek Orthodox Church, the immersion of infants. Let me give you several examples that I encountered in the commentators whom I continually consult in my preparations to study in the book of Mark. In other words, I didn't go out and dig these up.

Commentators' Defense of Infant Baptism from Mark 10

19:23 They came across my desk in the ordinary course of preparation in which I ordinarily consult some 15 to 20 commentators every week in the course of my preparation for these expositions. Listen to the saintly, godly Matthew Henry and I hope he is a household item with you. He said, He says at the end of his treatment of this passage, quote, Our children are happy if they have but the mediator's blessing for their portion. It is true.

19:56 We do not read that he baptized these children. Baptism was not fully settled as the door of admission into the church till after Christ's resurrection. But he asserted their visible church ministry as a membership. In this passage, Jesus is asserting the membership of infants in his church.

20:22 That's what Matthew Henry is saying. And by another sign, circumcision, bestowed those blessings upon them which are now appointed to be conveyed and conferred by baptism, the seal of the promise which is to us and our children. And I shouldn't have put that parenthesis without saying circumcision or, laying hands and praying over them. In other words, what Matthew Henry is saying is, though in this passage there is no record that Jesus baptized them, only one reason.

20:54 Baptism was not yet appointed to be the sign and seal of admission into the church. So he used another sign, either referring to the circumcision they already had or to his act of laying his hands on them and blessing them as being a substitute. But now that baptism has been fully instituted, we are to use the baptism of our infants to demonstrate our conviction shared with Christ that they are members of the church of Christ. That's Matthew Henry's usage.

21:30 A rather, I would say, mild usage, but a usage nonetheless. But then we move on to John Calvin, or I should say move back. Matthew Henry died in 1714, wrote most of his commentaries just around the turn, of the century, between the 16th and 1700s. Now listen to John Calvin going back into the 1500s, commenting on this passage in its harmonized form for his commentaries on the gospel come as a harmony of the gospels.

22:04 I quote, From this we gather, that is, from Christ laying his hands upon the children. From this we gather. Here's what you're to deduce when you study this passage. This is what you should have come to as you listened to the exposition last week.

22:20 From this we gather that his grace reaches to this age of life also. And no wonder. For when the whole race of Adam was shut up under the penalty of death, it was inevitable that all should perish, from the least to the greatest, except those whom one Redeemer should rescue. It would be too cruel to exclude that age of life.

22:45 It would be too cruel to exclude that age from the grace of redemption, that is, the age of infants in arms. Therefore, it is not thoughtlessly that we oppose this shield against the Anabaptists. The Anabaptists were those who insisted that baptism was only for confessed disciples. So they were called the Anabaptists, those who re-baptized while their contention was, no, we are simply practicing biblical baptism.

23:15 So Calvin says, this is the shield we raise up against them. They deny baptism to infants because they are not capable of understanding the significance of its mystery. You see, the reason we do not sprinkle infants, Calvin says, is we don't understand its mystery. If only we did, we'd sprinkle our little ones.

23:34 We, on the contrary, argue that since baptism is the pledge and figure of the free forgiveness of sins and of divine adoption, it should certainly not be denied to infants whom God adopts and washes with the blood of His Son. The objection that it also figures repentance and newness of life is easily resolved. They are renewed by God's Spirit according to the measure of their age until by degrees and in its own time this power hidden within them increases and shines forth openly. Because God regenerates them, we baptize them, and in due time, the principle of life that came in regeneration will manifest itself openly. And I go on quoting now, they contend that we are reconciled to God and become heirs of adoption only by faith. We confess this is true of adults, but that it applies to the infants, this passage proves to be false. The laying on of hands was certainly no frivolous or empty symbol, nor did we, nor did Christ put forth His prayers into the empty air.

24:49 But He could not solemnly present them to God without giving them purity. In other words, if He truly prayed for God's blessing upon them, He had to actually, internally, effectually apply it to them then and there. That's Calvin's logic. And I'm just trying accurately to represent him, not to debate the point at this juncture.

25:10 And what was His prayer for them? Well, I don't know. It doesn't tell me. It just says He blessed them.

25:15 He laid His hands upon them and blessed them. But Calvin knows what his prayer was. What was his prayer for them? But that they might be received among the children of God.

25:28 From this it follows that they were regenerate by the Spirit in the hope of salvation. I'm quoting. And finally, that He embraced them was a testimony that Christ reckoned them in His flock. And if they were partakers, of the spiritual gifts which baptism figures, it is absurd that they should be deprived of the outward sign.

25:53 It is an irreligious audacity to drive from Christ's fold those whom He nursed in His bosom and to shut the door on them as strangers when He did not wish to forbid them. End quote. That's Calvin's use of this passage. And Calvin would say that we, we are guilty of irreligious audacity by shutting the door to our little ones by not applying the water upon them or to them.

26:28 Then, we move to what we would call the cream of American Presbyterianism back in the days when there were mighty giants in the land. And I quote from J.A. Alexander in the best of the old Princeton tradition.

26:43 This is his closing comment on the passage in his excellent book, Commentary on the Gospel of Mark. Jesus blessed them in a two-fold sense of praying for them as a man and of answering his own prayers as a divine person. The application of this passage to infant baptism, although scornfully rejected as absurd by its opponents, is entirely legitimate, not as an argument, but as an illustration of the spirit of the Christian system with respect to children. Now, listen very carefully.

27:21 Every reader must determine for himself whether those who sneer at baby sprinkling and repudiate as folly the bare thought of a child's partaking of this sacrament are more like the disciples who rebuked the children or their friends on this occasion or like him who said, forbid them not. You see what Alexander says? If we forbid them, we are like the disciples who forbade them. If we are to be Christ-like, we must be prepared to baptize our infants.

27:58 And then the great Lutheran commentator, Lenski,

28:03 and I quote him because, you see, the Lutherans go further than most evangelical, Reformed, and Presbyterian people would go. Lutherans teach that grace is actually conferred by means of the ordinance of baptism. Not that grace is conferred for some other reason and is to be signified by baptism, that's Calvin, or that hopefully they are within the orbit of grace and we pray it shall be conferred as many evangelical Presbyterians we baptize them in the pledge and hope and promise that they shall be partakers of grace. You see the difference?

28:42 But now with Lenski and all Lutherans, it is because grace is actually conferred. And here is his, his comment on the passage. This is only part of it. Because their elders have been misled by such thoughts, the little ones have been left outside of the kingdom until their receptiveness for grace passed away and their salvation became jeopardized.

29:07 By refusing to baptize infants, what we do is we leave them outside of the kingdom until their receptiveness for grace has passed away and their salvation became jeopardized. And their salvation has become jeopardized. Baptism in particular was denied them and this sacrament itself was regarded as a mere symbol that gives and conveys nothing but only pictures something. Baptism was called an act of obedience that is possible only for an adult and no longer an act of the triune God which adopts babes as his children, deeds to them, and gives them a place in heaven and gives them the new birth in the Spirit. Who will count the crimes that were thus perpetrated against helpless babes even in the very name of Christ by denying them the one divine means by which they can be brought and can come to their glorified Lord? End quote. You see the accusation of a consistent Lutheran?

30:18 These are nothing less than countless crimes perpetrated against helpless babes by denying to them the one divine means by which they can be brought and come to their glorified Lord.

30:37 And then from William Hendrickson, again the man whose commentaries have been an unusually wonderful gift of God to the church in the 20th century. Young pastors often ask me if I were to be limited to nothing but my body, my Bible, and my Greek Testament, what commentary would you recommend? I've said get all of Hendrickson that he was able to do on the New Testament until he went to be with the Lord. If you had to have but one commentary on the New Testament and that esteem that I have is shared by many men whom I esteem and respect.

31:12 Listen to Hendrickson. The fact that the Lord regarded these little ones that were brought to Him as being already in the kingdom, as being even now members of His church, must not escape our attention. And I wrote in the margin, it has escaped mine.

31:31 And I don't mean that to be cheeky. It escaped mine. But he says it must not escape our attention. He definitely did not view these children as little heathen who were living outside the realm of salvation until by an act of their own they would join the church.

31:48 He regarded them as a holy seed. 1 Corinthians 7.14 How wonderful that in later years believing parents would be able to say to such a child now arrived at the age of understanding. Think of it.

32:02 When you, my child, were just a suckling, Jesus took you in His arms and blessed you. Then already you were the object of God's tender love and He has been with you ever since. What then is your response? On the basis of such a passage as Mark 10, 13, and 14 to which should be added and then He adds several other passages in the Old and New Testament the belief that since the little children of believers belong to God's church and to His covenant baptism, the sign and seal of such belonging should not be withheld from them this conviction must be regarded as well founded.

32:47 In later years through parental, etc. instruction applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit the divine blessings received earlier becomes a mighty incentive to wholehearted personal surrender to Christ. End quote. Now dear people some of you who have attended upon this ministry for over 20 years you will know that perhaps rarely if ever have I ever taken 16 minutes to quote commentaries in a given point of a sermon.

33:19 But I've done it this morning and I've not done it carelessly I've not done it as filler. I did it for one simple reason.

33:27 For many of you this has come as a shock. You didn't know there was such an overwhelming consensus among large segments of the Christian church that Mark 10, 13 to 16 is the great bastion of defense for infant baptism in the records of the Gospels not the epistles but of all the text ever even brought forward to defend and justify the practice of infant baptism found in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John this one takes the field. All right. What then do we say in the face of these comments?

Spurgeon's Rejection of Mark 10 as a Basis for Infant Baptism

34:11 Matthew Henry John Calvin Alexander Lenski Hendrickson I could add that one of the main heads in Bishop Ryle's expository thoughts on the Gospels in Mark is that this provides a wonderful sense and statement of the basis of infant baptism and then he goes on for a couple of pages to demonstrate how. What do we say? With this passage before us we ask the question what does this passage say about the baptism of infants?

34:47 Well I can give no better answer than that which Charles Spurgeon gave when in response to a tremendous outcry that followed his preaching a sermon against the doctrine of baptismal regeneration as it is expressed in the liturgy of the Anglican Church. He preached against baptismal regeneration. Then he got such opposition that he subsequently preached a sermon on this text and you know what he entitled the sermon? Children brought to Jesus not to the font.

35:24 He preached it in 1864 when he was 30 years of age and he was a man when he'd been in London for about 10 years and was experiencing the concentrated opposition of not only the sacramentalists those who think grace is in the water but even evangelical Anglican leaders who were incensed that he demonstrated from their own liturgy their own prayer book that when the water is applied the words if they mean anything mean that grace is conferred and worked in the heart of an infant. Well when Spurgeon set the context of his sermon on this and gives an account of how he was opposed he then said now let us turn to our text and he said my first head is this and I quote now Spurgeon's head.

36:16 Spurgeon's heading in treating this text head number one was this. This text has not the shadow of the shade of the ghost of a connection with God. This is baptism.

36:34 End quote. Now here's baptism an institution of God. Something or other may be connected to it. Now Spurgeon's statement is this.

36:44 Whatever is connected to it this passage Mark 10 13 is not even the shadow of the shade of the ghost of a connection. You see the imagery? Here's a connection and it has a ghost or a spirit. The spirit has a shadow and the shadow has a shade.

37:04 He said this text does not have the shadow of the shade of the ghost of a connection with baptism.

37:16 Well was he just the humorist? The Victorian pulpiteer playing with words? No. He was at that point an accurate exegete and a sound theologian.

37:29 What is the passage all about? The passage is about unnamed adults bringing little ones or babies to Jesus. Isn't that what it says? They were bringing their babes or their little ones to Him.

37:47 Why? That He might touch them.

37:54 And by touch we are told in Matthew that He might lay His hands upon them and pray for them. Any water in that?

38:05 The disciples were forbidding and hindering them. And Jesus rebukes them. And what does He say? He says permit them not to come to any water, drops, or cups, or He says stop hindering them.

38:24 Let them come to Me. And in the context that means only one thing. Let these who are bringing them to Me for My touch and My prayers let them come and bring their babes to Me. Stop hindering them.

38:44 Permit them to come. And then what did He do? He makes the reason, gives the reason for of such the magisterial pronouncement. No water in that.

38:58 He says except you receive the kingdom as a child. It's the kingdom, not water, not baptism. And then it says He took them up in His arms, not took them to a font, took them to a pool, took them to a bath, took them in His arms,

39:16 and He did not anoint them or sprinkle them or pour anything over them or dip them. He blessed them.

39:27 So, Spurgeon, head number one is this text has not the shadow of the shade of the ghost of a connection with baptism. It is about people bringing little ones to Jesus, disciples hindering them, Jesus reacting with indignation, speaking to them, welcoming them, taking them in His arms and blessing them. And dear people, those of you who may sit here having come from a background in which infant sprinkling has been practiced and whose minds have been disposed to feel that somehow if we deny that sacred ordinance to our little ones in some way, or another, it must be an act of cruelty, may I now turn from the polemics of the thing to lay before you in a positive way the threefold expression of genuine love and concern that lies at the root of our refusal to baptize infants. First of all, contrary to what Alexander says that we are guilty of the narrow, indifferent spirit of the disciples, contrary to what Lenski says that we are perpetrating

Refusal to Baptize Infants: Loving Obedience to Christ's Word

40:55 unnamed and numberless cruelties by denying the means by which our infants get into the kingdom, we are first of all refusing to sprinkle them because it is an expression of loving obedience to Christ and His Word to baptize, only confessed disciples. It is an expression of loving obedience to Christ and His Word to baptize, only confessed disciples of Christ. You see, the Gospels are not silent about baptism, nor about baptism in connection with Christ. Look at the testimony of John 4 and verse 1. John 4 and verse 1. When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John.

42:10 Although Jesus Himself baptized not, He did not actually perform the ritual but His disciples. Now, dear people, do you see the pattern? News went up. News went abroad that Jesus was taking the field away from John.

42:26 It says that all men had been going out to John the Baptist and they were baptized of Him in the river Jordan. Now, word goes out that Jesus is taking the place front and center in the stage of God's redemptive activity. And the crowds are now flocking after Him. And Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John.

42:52 Though in the actual baptizing He does not baptize them. It is His disciples who baptize on His authority and for Him and in His room instead.

43:05 Now the Lord Jesus who instituted that pattern in the very presence of His disciples. The same Jesus who said to these disciples in Mark chapter 10, 13-16, Stop! Stop hindering them. Permit them to come.

43:25 He speaks with the same authority at the end of Matthew's gospel in what does He say? All authority has been given unto Me in heaven and upon earth. Going therefore, you make disciples of all the nations baptizing them.

43:51 Now the same voice that said, Let them come. Stop hindering them. Is the voice that as He's about to ascend back into the presence of God says, All authority is Mine. What I speak to you, I speak as the great mediatorial King of the church and of all the created order.

44:17 All authority in heaven and in earth is Mine. Going therefore, make disciples and baptize them. It doesn't say them and their children. Them and their offspring.

44:31 Make disciples and whoever is made a disciple through the preaching of the Word and through the response of repentance and faith wrought by the Holy Ghost. Baptize them and teach them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. The text is clear. It is not only extensive and broad, encompassing all the nations.

44:58 It is exclusive and it is narrow. None are to be baptized who are not made disciples and all who are made disciples are capable of receiving instruction in the commands and precepts of Jesus Christ. If the text says anything, dear people, it says that. Does it not? Am I reading anything into the text?

45:25 I ask you, in the theater you've your own conscience and judgment before God. Have I read anything into the text? Make disciples of all the nations. To say this passage only applies to the initial thrust of the gospel into missionary situations.

45:41 That's nonsense. The Lord didn't envision such a limitation. He says all the nations and look how he concludes it. And I am with you even unto the consummation of the age.

45:55 This commission encompasses the church. In the entirety of its conquest by the grace of God.

46:06 So when we do not baptize our infants, is it an act of cruelty? Is it partaking of the spirit of the disciples? Jesus can't be bothered with kids. Go away, go away.

46:17 He's got more important things to do. No, dear people. It is an expression of loving obedience to Christ and His Word who has said baptize only. Confess disciples.

46:33 And who said in John 14, 21, He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. Dear people, we refuse baptism to our children not because we don't love our children. All you need to do is come around here one Lord's day and stand off in the corner. Plant yourself on the wall like a fly and just watch.

46:56 And see how little ones are loved and fondled and honored and cared for and doted over. You cannot say, you know it's not true that we don't love our children. We love them dearly. But there's someone we love even more than our children.

47:14 And it's the one who says if you do not love me more than father, mother, husband, wife, children in your own life, you can't be my disciple. And that's Jesus. It's because we love Him. We're determined to obey Him.

47:28 And He said make disciples and baptize them. And we will not. In the name of Christ, perpetrate an ordinance that has no warrant from the word of Christ. For to do so would be to forfeit the smile and the approval of Christ.

Refusal to Baptize Infants: Loving Concern for Children's Spiritual Well-being

47:46 And some of us would rather die than do that knowingly. So you see, the first point I would make is that our refusal to baptize our infants rather than an expression of ill will is an expression of loving obedience to Christ and to His word. Let me hasten and give you the other two points quickly. It is secondly an expression of loving concern for our children to withhold baptism from them until they responsibly confess their attachment in faith to Jesus Christ.

48:28 It is an expression of our loving concern for our children. You say, wait a minute. These men say it's an expression of ill will that you don't baptize them. We say, no.

48:42 It's an expression of our loving concern that we withhold baptism until they responsibly confess their attachment to Christ in faith. Why? Now listen carefully, especially those of you who may be struggling with this issue in your own heart. Listen very carefully because I want to give you a challenge that I hope will take you to the Berean spirit of searching the Scriptures.

49:08 Baptism, whenever mentioned in the New Testament, always signifies the application of the blessings of salvation. Now listen carefully. Baptism always signifies the application of the blessings of salvation. Now I didn't say wherever someone is baptized, he has the blessings.

49:32 Simon Magus, he believed, it says, and was baptized. Later on, Peter said, your heart is not right with God. You have no part and a lot in this matter. Hypocrites sometimes undergo the ordinance.

49:43 What I said is this. Baptism always signifies the application of the blessings of salvation. What are they? Forgiveness of sin, cleansing from sin, death to the dominion of sin, resurrection to newness of life, attachment to Christ in faith.

50:02 Those are the blessings of salvation. Baptism always signifies the application of those blessings. Not the hope that they may one day be applied. That is not what baptism signifies.

50:19 And no man has a right to make it signify something God never intended it should signify. Now that it signifies that is not a Baptist doctrine. Listen to the great classic statement of Presbyterianism, Puritan Presbyterianism, in the Westminster Confession of Faith. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church, but to be unto Him.

50:55 To be unto Him. That is the party baptized. To be unto Him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of His engrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of His giving up to God through Christ to walk in newness of life. I didn't write those words.

51:19 That is what baptism signifies. And at that point, the framers of the Confession have all kinds of footnotes of biblical text to say that is what baptism signifies. But when they try to say that is what it signifies in the case of infants, the texts become very thin and few and forced and stretched. Now you see, we do not baptize our infants because we have a loving concern for their spiritual well-being.

51:52 You say, I don't quite see the connection. Oh, I hope you see it now. Do you want to confuse your children by saying to them in the ordinance, you have a right to admission into the church of Jesus Christ because you happen to be born in the right family. You have the sign and seal to be unto you a sign and seal of your engrafting into Christ, your regeneration, your forgiveness, your newness of life.

52:27 And then when that little babe in arms begins to understand that little ones are brought to the front of the church and in the solemn ceremony, and I am not mocking it, dear people, I don't want any laughter, but in the solemn ceremony, water is applied to them and prayers are made. And he says, Mommy, Daddy, what does this mean? Oh, we did that to you. Why?

52:45 Well, you're a covenant child. Mommy, what's that mean, covenant child? That's a big word. I thought I was just a kid like anybody.

52:51 Oh, no, you're very special. Because you were born into our family, you are a member of Christ's church. I am? What did I do to deserve that?

53:00 Nothing. You just were born in this family. And by virtue of being born, you're, oh, I am. Well, how come they put water on the little kid's head, Mommy?

53:08 Well, that signifies cleansing. Cleansing from what, Mommy? From sin. You mean I'm cleansed from my sin?

53:14 Oh, see the crunch now? Now you either have to take the position of Calvin and say, yes, you were. Thank God for it and rejoice in it and show your love by a life of obedience. Or you've got to say with Lenski, yes, you were.

53:30 Yes, you were. By baptism, the Spirit of God brought the blessings of salvation to you. Now rejoice in them. Or, or, you have to say, well, it's a very difficult thing, son.

53:48 It's a very difficult thing, dear. Now, yes, we did put water upon you signifying cleansing and union with Christ. But, you see, you're a sinner. And you need to repent.

53:58 And you need personally to embrace Christ and trust in Christ. But, Mommy, if I already have forgiveness, why do I need to trust to get it if I got it by simply being, oh, no, no, no, we were not saying it was actually given to you then. But, Mommy, they put the sign on me that I had it if I didn't. My dear friends, we love our children too much to put them in that hopeless cauldron of confusion.

54:27 When they ask, am I any different from the neighbor's kids, we say, yes, you're greatly privileged. You were prayed for before you were ever conceived. And we didn't even know what we were praying for. At our wedding, the pastor prayed that if God would bless our union with little ones, such and such would be changed.

54:51 Such and such would be true. You were prayed for at our wedding. And when Mommy told Daddy that God had started life in her womb, we began daily to pray that God would watch over you and protect you and bring you to normal development and to safe birth. And in due time, God would save you and make you His child and bring you to do His will.

55:17 Oh, yes, my dear, you're a very privileged child. You're not like the neighbor's kids. Their mommies or daddies never prayed for them before they were born, never prayed for them after they were conceived. They don't pray for them now.

55:31 You are the object of many prayers in your grandmother and your aunts and your uncles. Oh, yes, you're different. You're greatly privileged. Furthermore, you have the Word of God taught to you at home and Sunday school and church and pastors and people that love you and caress you and are concerned about you and ready to enter into all your concerns when the neighbor's kids know nothing of that loving, caring support system.

55:56 Yes, you're different. You're highly privileged. And furthermore, you have a great responsibility that they don't have to whom much is given, much is required. Yes, they are different in privilege, different in responsibility.

56:10 But if the child says, But, Mommy, do I have as bad a heart as little Johnny next door? What do you tell him? Are my sins as vile? Yes, they are.

56:27 Do I need to be saved by blood and by power like little Johnny? Yes, you do. For except a man be born again, he cannot see, he cannot enter the kingdom. You see, dear people, we love our children too much to confuse them with the water.

Refusal to Baptize Infants: Loving Desire for Parents to Think Biblically

56:46 And frankly, I find an element of what I believe is holy resentment when I'm told it's an unnumbered act or I'm guilty of perpetrating unnumbered acts of cruelty when it's an expression of love to wait till that child can responsibly confess himself or herself to be Christ's disciple and then upon that confession to do what Jesus said, baptize them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So, our refusal of the water to our children is an expression of loving obedience to Christ and His Word. Secondly, an expression of loving concern for our children and their souls. And thirdly and finally, it's an expression of loving desire towards Christian parents. Our refusal to baptize infants is an expression of loving desire towards Christian parents.

57:53 And what is that loving desire? That every parent should think biblically and realistically about his offspring. That's it. We want every parent to think biblically and realistically about his offspring.

58:07 Now, what is the truth about our offspring? The truth is John 1, 12 and 13. As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. The realistic truth is that my children need an intervention of almighty, omnipotent grace.

58:39 And having the right bloodlines does not prejudice God's sovereign application of saving mercy. Having the right bloodlines does not prejudice the exercise of God's sovereignty. Galatians 3, 26 to 28 says, Ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, in whom there is neither bond nor free city, and et cetera. He says all of these distinctions of men are blotted out when men are brought by the sovereign work of God to faith in Jesus Christ.

59:24 Ye are all one new man in Christ Jesus. Now that's reality, dear people. And we love our parents too much to keep them out of touch with reality, to fill them with any notion that somehow their task is a little less arduous because it's most likely that they have the seeds of life already planted in them. Or God has some special and peculiar and inviolable commitment to save them.

59:57 And He must save them because they are my children. One will search the Scripture in vain for such commitments on God to any parent no matter how godly he may be. And so we want parents to have this honest, realistic assessment of the state of their children so that as they train their children, they will help them to face the fact that they are lost without a work of God upon their hearts. And this will move both parents and children to cry to God and in their instruction they will bring them unto the means of grace not to see the life already implanted, nurtured, but to pray that those means will become effectual to the implantation of life. Now in all honesty it must be said that many, thank God, many who sprinkle their infants do all of this. You see, their doctrine of infant baptism which is not found in the Bible does not shove aside the many other things they see and read in the Bible. And as parents they deal with their children faithfully out of the Scriptures.

61:10 Thank God for that blessed inconsistency. Though they have already regarded them members of the church and given them the sign and seal of engrafting into Christ, new birth, cleansing, newness of life, they treat them for what they really are, privileged pagans. Privileged, unregenerate children who need to be born again, who need to be converted, and thank God. But you see, in so doing they give up a biblical doctrine of baptism because when God answers their prayers and blesses their efforts and the child comes forward and says, I believe God has wrought a work of grace in me.

61:49 I do want to follow Christ with all my heart. What does God require of me? As you just go before the elders now and make confession you can start taking communion. That isn't what Jesus said.

62:02 He said make disciples and when they have been made disciples baptize them. And in that inconsistency though the greater issue of the child's soul is not jeopardized, the issue of the proper place of baptism in the will of Christ is set aside. Now dear people, we dare not touch the fabric of God's own institutions and it is not narrowness of heart and meanness of spirit that denies the water to our little ones. But it is as I trust I've demonstrated by the word and what I trust is common sense reason to your judgment.

Pastoral Application: Call to Obedience and Clarity

62:41 It is an expression of loving obedience to Christ and His word to baptize only confessed disciples. An expression of loving concern for our children to withhold baptism until they responsibly confess their attachment to Christ. And it's an expression of loving desire towards Christian parents. Now then, what do we do?

63:03 Sitting here this morning, sitting here today, as we bring this service to a close, let me ask you the very simple question. Are you sitting here this morning as someone who was sprinkled as an infant? And are you so deceived as to rest in that ritual performed upon you? Thinking all must be well, I had good bloodlines, I had the sacrament, everyone assumed I was a Christian, I've always acted in a Christian way.

63:29 But my friend, the question is do you know Christ in a way that only the Holy Ghost can cause you to know Him? Do you know your own sin? And do you know the salvation of God in Jesus? Paul in Philippians 3 is the great prototype of what a man must come to, a woman must come to, who has all of the good breeding and sacraments and all the rest.

63:57 He says, I count it all but refuse that I may win Christ and be found in Him. Well, if you say, no, I'm not resting upon that, upon that watery ritual, I have come through the prayers and instruction of my godly parents who had me baptized to embrace Christ and I have no silly notion that my baptism brought me into Christ or I was in Christ because I was born in the right bloodlines. No, Pastor Martin, I'm not a sacramentalist. I am an evangelical.

64:30 I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as my only hope of life and salvation. You do? Well, then I ask you, have you done what He says you ought to? Confess that gracious work of God in His institution which is confessor's baptism, discipleship baptism.

64:52 Oh, but you say that would be to disrespect my parents. Not necessarily. It is simply to say that my godly loving parents were wrong on that issue. As much as they were wrong when they told you, don't talk about sex, that's dirty.

65:11 I hope you've repudiated that. Or if you carry with you into adulthood that unbiblical concept, sex is dirty because mom and dad told you. No, you say, I know better than that. I've seen in my Bible.

65:25 Well, my friend, it's not an act of disrespect then to throw off that which your parents taught you. If they were teaching you that your supreme allegiance is to God and His Word, you honor them by saying what they had done to me is not what Jesus requires. I want to be obedient to my Lord. That's not disrespecting your parents.

65:46 If they're Christian parents, that's the best way to respect them because whether they knew it or not, what they were praying for is you'd come to the place where you'd obey Christ above anyone else. So I entreat you, obey the Lord Jesus if you've not been baptized. In your dealing with your children, if you see from the Word of God, oh, I see that it was wrong. My friend, don't go through life crippled.

66:11 Sit down with your children and tell them what mommy and daddy did in sincerity we now see was sincerely wrong. We trust it hasn't in any way undermined the clarity of the Gospel message. And then you just openly acknowledge what's the big deal with that. Frankly, I don't understand why people will cling to this thing as though life itself were bound up in it when the testimony of the Word is clear.

66:39 And then I say to you, dear children, more of that tonight, but I say in closing, we do love you. That's why mommy and daddy teach you the Word of God. That's why we pray for you. You didn't know it, but many of you sitting here, you were prayed for the first Lord's Day among hundreds of people, the first Lord's Day after you were born.

67:01 You were prayed for by the whole congregation with the hope that God would deposit that concern in the hearts of all of God's people. Many of you were prayed for in the secret place of prayer by many of us with recurring cycles of prayers. We pray for your mommy and daddy. We pray for you.

67:20 We plead with God on your behalf. But we can't come to Jesus for you. We can bring you to Him for His blessing. But you must come to Him in faith in order to know that blessing which in grace He holds out to you in the Gospel.

67:37 May you believe on the Lord Jesus. Trust in Him with all your heart. Love Him and serve Him all your days. Well, there's our first secondary application.

67:49 I appreciate your patience. We took a little more time in the opening part of the worship. And I did want to set forth what I trust is a positive statement of why we do not baptize infants based on this passage or any other passage. That it is not an act of cruelty.

68:08 But an expression of genuine love. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for Your holy, for Your infallible Word. And we pray that that Word on the subject of baptism would be a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway.

68:33 That all human tradition and all ecclesiastical pronouncements notwithstanding, we may be determined to be obedient to Your Word no matter what the cost. No matter what the cost may be. We thank You for the example of our Lord Jesus who had a heart for little babes, who had arms that held them, hands that touched them, a mouth that prayed for them. We would be like our Lord Jesus.

69:03 We would have a heart that reaches out to encompass them. We would have arms to hold them, lips to pray for them. But, O God, we cannot give them new hearts. We cannot confer grace.

69:16 Do what we cannot but wish we could do. O Lord, have mercy upon our little ones. Have mercy upon us as parents, any here who are confusing their little ones by applying an ordinance to them to which they have no right merely by birth. O God, may Your Word correct all misconception and may it carry the day in our hearts and in our wills.

69:45 Hear our prayer. Dismiss us with Your blessing. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.