by Rev. Donald MacLean, Glasgow.
(This Sermon was preached before the administration of the Sacrament of Baptism on Sabbath, 22nd September, 1968, and was taken down by a hearer.)
“And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them: and His disciples rebuked those that brought them.
But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.
And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.”
(Mark; ch. 10, vv.13-16).
We have this incident recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and it is clear from these other gospels that the children referred to here had numbered among them, if they were not all, children who were infants. These were children, who, in other words, were small, and young in years. They were brought to the Saviour so that He would bless them. As we see here “His disciples rebuked those that brought them,” being under the impression that those infants had neither part or lot at the present time in the mind of Jesus of Nazareth, that His teaching and doctrine was for those who were of more mature years, and that the kingdom He was setting up in the world was a kingdom in which those children did not play much part.
Now, as we see, the Saviour “was much displeased” at His disciples on this occasion. “When Jesus saw it, He was much displeased.” This was something that incurred His Divine displeasure as the King of “the kingdom of God,” to which He referred on this occasion. He said, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me,
and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” He also taught, as He had done on another occasion, that those who receive this kingdom must have, in a spiritual sense, the spirit of a little child. They had to be meek and willing to receive the Word of God. He had already taught this when He had put a little child in their midst, and indicated that one must become like this child, believing and trusting the word of his parents; one must come spiritually to believe and trust the Word of God if one is to receive the kingdom of God which consisteth not in “meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Now, it is not that second teaching that we desire to remark on this morning, as enabled, but the first one: that “for of such,” that is for children as such, “is the kingdom of God.”
The Saviour teaches here plainly and without any dubiety, that children have their own place in the kingdom of God, and that it is the duty of parents to bring their children to Christ in order that He might bless them. “He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.” Now, first of all, we shall make a few remarks on “the kingdom of God,” which is referred to by the Saviour here. This kingdom undoubtedly involves many teachings, and among them the one we desire to deal with at the present time. It refers to the visible church of God in the world. “My kingdom” said Christ, “is not of this world,” but although it was “not of this world,” it was in the world, and known as the church of God. That is what is brought prominently before us here by the Divine Saviour. “Of such is the kingdom of God.” The particular point we wish to deal with is “the kingdom of God” in the visible church in the world.
In the second place, we shall notice the conduct of the parents on this occasion. They brought these infants and children to the Saviour, and when they did so, it was their desire that He would bless them. That was their desire, clearly taught in the other accounts given, and in this account here. “They brought young children to Him, that He should touch them” and bless them.
In the third place, we shall notice the mind of the Saviour with regard to the disciples’ zeal in rebuking those who brought their children. Then the Saviour rebuked them, and “He was much displeased.” The words “much displeased” stress the displeasure He felt, and the displeasure that was to be seen on His
countenance, and the displeasure that was contained in the words, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God.” “And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.”
First of all, with regard to “the kingdom of God” which the Saviour refers to here, we notice that the King of this kingdom is, of course, the Person Who was speaking here. The One Who was the anointed, appointed King of this kingdom is the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He is the One to Whom all authority and power is given in this kingdom as the Mediatorial King of Zion, and as the Divine Head of the church of God. The second thing with regard to the kingdom we mentioned already. The Saviour, the King of this kingdom, declared, “My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight.” The kingdom which is set up in this world, under the kingship of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is “not of the world.” The principles that are in it are the principles revealed and made known by the King of this kingdom in His most holy Word. This kingdom is thus a spiritual kingdom. It “is not of this world” in the sense that it deals with spiritual realities. Those who are in this kingdom may enjoy much of this world’s goods and much worldly prosperity, “with persecutions,” as the Saviour said to Peter: “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake, and the gospel’s but he shall receive an hundredfold now, in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” The King of this kingdom does provide for the temporal welfare of those who are in this kingdom. He Who is the “Lord of Heaven and earth” easily secures in His providence that His people should have sufficient to carry them through this world. But principally this “kingdom is not of this world” because it deals with spiritual realities. It has to deal with the fact that man has a soul and is journeying to eternity. It has to deal with the fact that man is a sinner in the presence of a Holy God. It has to deal with the great question propounded by Job. “How should man be just with God?” It has to deal not with men preparing for time, but men preparing for death, eternity, and for the judgment which is to come. These great, solemn, tremendous, spiritual realities that “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,” “God hath prepared” in this kingdom
“for them that love Him.” They are spiritual realities, they are realities bound up principally with the needs of the soul, and they are realities which can be met only in this kingdom, and met in the King of this kingdom, in Whom the fulness of the kingdom dwells. This brings before us principally this great question, How can a “man be just with God?” How can a man who is a sinner, who is under the sentence of eternal death, who is included in the description given by the Word of God “the soul that sinneth, it shall die,” come to have this promise that in “the world to come” he would have life eternal, as Christ spoke to Peter on that occasion? This kingdom reveals the only Way, and the only Way is in the King of this kingdom. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” The Scriptures bring before us that this King Who is the King of Zion, Who is “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God” in the Person of the Son, became man. He became man so that as the King of this kingdom He might put away the sins of all those Whom He loved with an everlasting love, that He might die the death that their sins required, and that He might empty the curse of God that lay upon them of the death which that curse involved. Therefore, you find later on in the history of this King that when a superscription was put over the cross of Calvary, He was called “The King of the Jews.” When He was on the cross of Calvary, although He was the King of Zion and although He was then “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God” in the Person of the Son, was His portion a “crown of thorns.” This was the crown that belonged to this King as He engaged to make an end of sin, as He engaged to bring in an everlasting righteousness, as He engaged to open up the way for the mercy of God to flow to the chief of sinners. The crown He wore was a “crown of thorns”. The very presence of thorns in the ground is a testimony to man’s sin. It is a testimony to what the Scripture says, “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” The bearing of those thorns by the earth indicates that the whole creation is groaning and travailing because of the load of man’s sin, and because of the load of guilty sinners on their way to a lost eternity who tread the earth of God. How little men think of that! How seldom, if ever, do they think of it when they go about their worldly business, when they are “dead in trespasses and sins,” and when they are bearing the weight of their sins on their way to
death and to eternity. The very creation is groaning and travailing as it bears the load that they are bearing on their way to death and to eternity. Let me ask you. Did you ever feel that weight yourself? Have you ever felt the weight of your own sins? Have you ever felt the weight of your own sins crushing your spirit right down to the earth? The reason why you have never felt it, those of you who do not know what this means, is because you are “dead in trespasses and sins.” It is because sin has never been made a solemn reality to you by the power of the Spirit of God. But the creation groans and travails in pain on account of the sins of man, and it brings forth thorns and briers as a testimony to that.
Now when you come to this Person, the King of Zion, on the cross of Calvary, as He drank the cup the Father gave Him to drink in order to make an end of the sins of His people, and in order to obtain for them the “life that shall never end,” you find the Saviour groaning and in travail. This was in order that these words would be fulfilled, “He shall see of the travail of His soul.” He shall see the fruit of the death that He died on the cross of Calvary in the eternal salvation of a number that no man can number of the human family.
This kingdom is a spiritual one also, because the blessings of this kingdom are conveyed by the unction and power of God the Holy Ghost. As the Saviour said on another occasion, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.” All the blessings of the kingdom, the blessing of pardon, the blessing of peace with God, the blessing of being adopted into the family of God, the blessing of being sanctified in one’s soul, the blessing at death of being glorified as to one’s soul, the blessing on the morning of the resurrection of being glorified in the body, all this is done by the power and the unction and the grace of the third Person in the Godhead Who has been given to the King of Zion without measure, in order that the purposes of Jehovah might be carried out.
“O but the counsel of the Lord
doth stand for ever sure;
And of His heart he purposes
from age to age endure.”
They are sure “from age to age” in that God the Holy Spirit brings the blessings that Christ obtained by His redemptive work to the souls of sinners in this world, and applies them by Divine power, so that they are called effectually “out of darkness into His marvellous
light.” They are united to Christ by faith and they are on their “way to Zion with their faces thitherward.”
This kingdom is spiritual, and yet it has a visible aspect. The visible aspect, is of course, the visible church of God in the world, where the ordinances set up by the King of Zion are observed, and these are wells in “the valley of Baca.” You remember in Psalm 84 we read of those who were journeying to Zion? They were going “through the valley of Baca,” and they were digging wells, and waiting for the rain to come down from heaven to fill those wells, so that they could drink water with joy out of those wells, which were to them “the wells of salvation.” Now that indicates and teaches this fact, that while “the kingdom of God” is spiritual, it has its visible aspect. Its visible aspect is to be seen in connection with the ordinances of God’s house, in connection with the preaching of God’s Word, in connection with the singing of God’s praises, in connection with praying to God, in connection with the commemoration of the death of Christ, and in the administration of the other sacrament, the Sacrament of Baptism. These are all visible aspects of this spiritual kingdom. They are all visible aspects of the way in which the Holy Spirit works spiritually in the souls of sinners in this world. The preaching of God’s Word, the worship of God in public where the preaching of His Word is observed, where calling upon His name is observed, where singing His praises is engaged in all this is the visible aspect of the church of God in the world. The reign and rule according to Christ’s Kingship by office-bearers in the church who are raised up by God for this particular purpose, so that the Word of God is preached by those who are called to do so, and the rule in the congregation and in the church administered in regard to spiritual things by ministers and elders, and in regard to temporal things by deacons, are visible aspects of the church of God, and what we call the visible church of God.
This brings me to a particular point. It is evident from what the Saviour said here, “of such is the kingdom of God,” that He is referring to these children. He is teaching this doctrine here with regard to the visible church of God, that children are members of the church of God. If you look at the teaching about divorce in this chapter, you find that Moses gave them permission to give a bill of divorcement in certain circumstances. The Saviour deals with this feature, and points out that it was because of the hard-
ness of their hearts that the bill of divorcement was given according to Moses, “but from the beginning it was not so.” The Christian church was to move back to this position in its administration of marriage. Marriage is for life, apart from the sins of adultery or such desertion as cannot be healed by the individual, the state, or the church, which give the innocent party grounds for divorce. But when He is teaching that children belong to the visible church, He is teaching something which was known to the very people, the very disciples, who rebuked the parents on this occasion. I think this is very important. I know, of course, that anabaptists deny baptism to children. They also try to get away from this verse here as though it had nothing to do with baptism, but they cannot get away from it. It is all very well to close one’s eyes to the full revelation of the Word of God, and take up a position, and imagine that as long as one is taking up that position, it is sound. But the Saviour says here with regard to children that they were members of “the kingdom of God.” “Of such,” He says, “is the kingdom of God.” This was not a teaching that was unknown. This was a teaching that these Jews under the Old Testament dispensation knew all about. It was common knowledge to them, that children were members of the visible church. They were circumcised on the eighth day, and circumcision was that which brought them into the visible church. In virtue of their being born into their parents’ houses, who were themselves practising the religion of the God of Israel, they were circumcised. Now, this is very important, far more important than people are ready to believe or to understand — this particular point about children being members of the visible church. The Divine Saviour Himself says here, “of such is the kingdom of God.” It is the King of Zion Who is speaking now. He is the One to Whom all power has been given in heaven and in earth, and He is saying with regard to infants and children, “of such is the kingdom of God.” They have their place as members of the visible church. He says, “Forbid them not.” Now, you see anabaptists, those who deny baptism to children, are very bold. It is a pity that they should be so convinced that they are absolutely right when their view is in conflict with the Word of God, and in conflict with the whole history of the Church of God from the days of Abraham downwards, and in conflict with the principles of the Reformation. You feel when this is discussed with them that they really do not understand what paedo-baptism, the baptism of children, is about. You can see here, with regard to the visible kingdom, that children
are members of it. Those who brought these children to Christ here, who were inside the visible church themselves, did this as something that they did not need, as it were, to be specially taught to do. They had learned it from their fathers. It had been in the history of the church from the days of Abraham when he circumcised Isaac on the eighth day. They were embraced in the visible church of God in the world, and the Saviour says now to the disciples who rebuked those parents, as though the Saviour had no mind or heart for children, “Forbid them not.” Christ said, “Forbid them not,” and it is the King of Zion Who is speaking here. “He was much displeased.”
That brings me in the second place to notice this. These parents did this particular thing. Others brought the sick, others brought the diseased, others brought the blind, others brought messages of various descriptions and kinds, and the One Who said, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick,” manifested His love and compassion in healing the sick, and raising the dead, etc.
“The Lord doth give the blind their sight,
the bowed down doth raise.”
But these parents brought their children. They brought their children to the Saviour, and they brought them to the Saviour for one purpose, and one purpose only — that He would bless them, that He would lay His hands upon them, and that they would receive a blessing from the King of Zion. That was the reason why they brought these children to Jesus.
We do not know how much they knew. We do not know how much they understood, but the one thing we do know is that these children needed Jesus. It may well be, and indeed one would think as one reads the narrative that it seems very likely that these parents, or some of them at least, understood this — that their children needed more than food or drink, they needed more than the home, they needed more than the love of their fathers and of their mothers, and they needed more than the care that their parents bestowed upon them. They needed more than to be prepared for this world and its needs. They needed Jesus, and they needed Jesus because He is the One of Whom we read.
“Men shall be blessed in Him, and blessed
all nations shall Him call.”
They needed Jesus because they were guilty, because they were sinners, because they were lost and undone in themselves, as well as others. They needed Jesus because He was the One Who alone could teach them the Way of Life as surely as He could teach their parents. You see when you consider it – children need to be taught by Christ as much as adults, and adults need to be taught by Christ as much as children. The man who has reached twenty, thirty, forty years, and who is “dead in trespasses and sins” is as ignorant of spiritual realities as the child of ten or twelve or eight or nine years or younger, who is also “dead in trespasses and sins.” They need the same King Who has “the tongue of the learned,” and Who is able “to speak a word in season to him that is weary.”
They brought their children to Jesus, and they brought their children to Jesus for this end – that Jesus would bless them. The same principle operates here. Circumcision is gone. Circumcision is something which pertained to the administration of the visible church in Old Testament times, and in the place of circumcision has come baptism, as we read in Colossians, chapter 2, verses 11 and 12, where baptism is called the “circumcision of Christ.” So that the children of those who are inside the visible church are to be baptised. Parents who bring their children forward to be baptized should have this in view. You must remember, and you must continually remember this point, that bringing a child for baptism is not a mere matter of form. It is not something done to be respectable, not something you do just because your father and mother did it. You ought to do this to the Lord, and you ought to do it from this point of view – that you are bringing your child to become a member of the visible church of God in the world by baptism. You are bringing your child to Jesus, not to a minister, not to a kirk-session, not to a congregation. You are to bring your child to Jesus, to the King of Zion Who has instituted this ordinance in the world, and when you bring your child to Jesus this is to be the desire of your heart, that Jesus would bless the child – the child that God gave you.
We read in connection with Hannah, you remember, when she was granted a son she called his name Samuel which means “asked of God.” The child she got was the child that she asked of God, and the child she received from God. What did she do? She returned the child to God. This is the view that parents should take of this particular act of theirs of bringing their children forward to the
ordinance of baptism in this world. They are bringing their children to Jesus. They are bringing the child they got from God back to God through Jesus Christ, and they are to bring their child to God in this way, seeking that Jesus would bless the child. This is the view that these parents had here. They brought their children to Jesus, desiring that He would bless them.
That brings me to notice the mind of Christ with regard to this. No doubt the disciples thought that Jesus was too much engaged in preaching the Word of the gospel, in healing the sick, in raising the dead, in these mighty and wonderful works which He alone could do and He alone could accomplish: that He was declaring these wonderful doctrines that caused men to say, “Never man spake like this Man,” and that consequently Jesus had no time for little children. That is what they thought. They rebuked these parents. They told them to go away. And Jesus “was much displeased.” The King of Zion, my dear friend, “was much displeased,” disciples though they were, and though they had in view s it were, to protect the Saviour from what they thought was the undue attention of these parents and children. Jesus “was much displeased.” Did they not know that it was “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings” that God had ordained praise? Was His eye set forward to the time when as the King of Zion He entered Jerusalem on “the foal of an ass,” and the children began to sing as well as others. “Hosanna to the Son of David?” Jesus “was much displeased” at this act on the part of His disciples and He rebuked them. He said unto them, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such” He said, “is the kingdom of God.”
Not only was He “much displeased” at what they did, but He showed His willingness, His compassion, His love, His mercy and His delight in the act of those parents and their children. He did not merely speak to them, as it were, at a great distance. He did not merely, as it were, lay His hands upon them. He did not acknowledge them, as it were, with a nod of the head, but “He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.” He took them up in His arms.” He is the “great Shepherd of the sheep” Who is to take the lambs in His bosom and Who is to “gently lead those that are with young.” He delighted in these children being brought by their parents, inside the visible church, to Himself, in order that they might be blessed by the King of
Zion. You see how completely He did this, how completely He signified His pleasure in this particular work, for He took the children in His arms, and He “put His hands upon them, and blessed them.”
Now there is one last point I would like to make. The parents of these children were inside the visible church, and Baptism is administered to those who are inside the visible church. In other words, it is administered to those who have been themselves baptized, and who in their walk and life and conversation in the world conform to the practice and beliefs of the visible church of God, who profess that there is no “other name under heaven given among men “whereby they or their children can be saved. Those who are seriously engaged in this ordinance of Baptism, in bringing their children in this way to be brought into the visible church by the sacrament of Baptism, are to have this before their minds: they are bringing their children, my dear friends, to Jesus. It is to Jesus they are bringing their children, to the King of Zion, to the King of the church of God. If they are bringing their children in sincerity, then they themselves in their walk, life, conversation, and knowledge, must be consistent members of the visible church. They must walk according to the Word of God, and they must seek to make manifest that in truth and in reality they wish Jesus to bless their children. They should desire to be delivered from everything and every way of conduct that would cause that the blessing of Jesus would not come upon themselves or upon their children.
Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God,” and what I would like to stress with regard to this verse is that while this verse itself does not directly deal with Baptism, yet in the analogy of the faith, and consistent with the doctrines of God’s Word, we have brought before us here that children were brought to Jesus. This is one of the ways in which they are to be brought, in their being brought for baptism.
Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” The grace held forth in baptism is particularly that of regeneration, and justification, and when in the purpose of God this is applied in due time by the Holy Spirit, the sinner is baptized with the Spirit of God. This, of course, is what we ought to be seeking for, and what we must be seeking for in connection with Jesus blessing the children who are
received into the visible church: that He would bless the ordinance, and that He would follow the Baptism of water with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, which, of course, is the only Baptism which does effectively, savingly, bring the soul “out of darkness” into God’s “marvellous light.”