i invite you to turn with me in your bibles to the book of mark i know the bulletin says chapters 13 through 22 and that would be very difficult since mark only has 16 chapters that was a typo on my mistake it's supposed to say chapter 10 verses 13 and following so mark chapter 10 page 4 846 in your pew bibles i'm used to reading this out of a different translation than the ESV, so I was trying to practice this earlier. You know, you get these phrases in your mind in one way, and they're worded a little differently. The Gospel of Mark, chapter 10. Please hear the reading of God's Word, beginning with verse 13. And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, Let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not fraud, honor your father and mother. And he said to him, teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth. And Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, you lack one thing. Go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me. Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said to them, children how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, with man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. Peter began to say to him, See, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions. and the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first, and thus concludes the reading of God's word. Excuse me. Well, since I didn't open up the service, I didn't have the opportunity to give any kind of a greeting. I've been sitting here and standing here wondering if it's appropriate for me to do so because it's not really an element of worship. But Dr. Godfrey's nodding his head, so I guess that works. But I do bring greetings from Linden United Reformed Church. And it's the first time I've ever been in this pulpit. And I appreciate the invitation. It's a great privilege to worship with you, to lead you in worship, and to minister the word of God to you. I consider that to be a great privilege and a great responsibility. And I pray the Lord might sustain me in this endeavor and that you might be blessed. And I do want to affirm what your pastor said. I have grown to love him with great affection. And not only has he been a great encouragement, I've been an encouragement, hopefully to him, that's encouraging to me. But he's been a great encouragement to me. And there's still a few people in Linden that are a little sore that you took him. And, you know, it's twice now. I'm told that Camminga came from Linden before he came to Escondido. And now Reverend Gordon. I think that's the end of the pattern, though. I think you would be pleased if that's the end of the pattern. Anyways, Mark's Gospel, I've been preaching through this on Sunday nights, preaching through Numbers Sunday mornings. I thought this would be a good compliment to Sunday morning, since you're in Exodus. This is a text we're all familiar with. It's a text that undoubtedly you've heard sermons on before. But I learned a long time ago, when you're a guest preacher, you try to, don't do anything novel. Don't mess anything up for the guy whose ministry you're trying to compliment. And so that's why I try to do this evening. The text begins with little children, parents bringing their little children to Jesus. We're not told the exact age of these children. Are they infants? Are they toddlers? Are they being held by their parents? How old are these children? It really doesn't matter. There's probably a variety of ages, but nonetheless, we're not even told whether these children are sick or there's some kind of physical infirmity, But they're being brought to Jesus, the rabbi, that he might bless them. And he lays his hands upon them. And the disciples are indignant. They are offended by this. And I really think that a text like this is hard for us to understand because there is a cultural disconnect here. There's a radical difference in the way that we view our children versus the way children were viewed in the first century. A child in the first century had the social status of a slave, a servant. I remember when I was a very young man, and my father would be in adult company, and I might try to contribute to the conversation. And my father would look at me and he'd say, Son, children would be seen and not heard. And I knew that I should be quiet. Now, that shows you how much of a shift there's been within my own lifetime here, because I haven't heard a parent say that for a long time. Children are to be seen and not heard. We live in a world today, literally, where we indulge our children. I think back about this culturally. You know, I look at my grandparents, that generation, and they suffered. Life was difficult for them. They made great sacrifices. And I'll never forget hearing all the time these older people saying, or adults, they seemed old when I was little. And they would say, you know, I don't want our children to struggle to suffer the way we did. And they provided. And there was a certain amount of indulging of children. And now that generation is raising children. And it really occurred to me, after my wife and I had children, and the grandparents came to visit. And they're sitting around, and the entertainment was watching the grandchildren. We are very child-centered, aren't we? Very child-centered. I mean, we're on the end, possibly, of almost having an idolatry in terms of our children, almost worshiping our posterity. We are very child-centered. We struggle with even the life of the church. I mean, children will come up and interrupt a parent who's having an adult conversation. Or, I've even heard children correct their parents in front of other people. That is not the culture of the first century. In the first century, children have the social status of slaves and servants. It's more like the attitude my father had. And therefore, from the perspective of the disciples, it makes perfect sense. Jesus is a rabbi, and his ministry is growing, his popularity is growing. He's an extremely busy man. There's intense demands upon his time. And these parents are coming and bothering him. They're interrupting a very important man that he might bless children. The disciples saw this as poor use of his time in interruption. But that's not the way Jesus saw it. Jesus responded, instead of affirming his disciples, he rebukes them with indignation. The Greek word Mark uses here means indignant. There's actually a state of anger that Jesus portrays that he experiences as a result of his disciples. Listen closely to what he says. Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God. How should we understand this statement, for such is the kingdom of God, let the little children come to me? This is where many sermons evaporate. at this point. And we hear things like, children are nice, disciples behave badly, be nice to children, Jesus was nice to children. That's not the message of the text, not at all. Is Jesus a moralist? Is he teaching us that we are to be nice to children or childlike and we will inherit the kingdom of God? No, absolutely not. Again, this is where it's easy for a sermon to derail. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. That has to be explained. What does it mean to be like a little child and to receive the kingdom of God as a child? What's that mean? Well, what is unique about children? One of the most basic qualities that are unique to a child. It occurred to me recently when I was standing down on the, not in this congregation, but another one, and I was performing an infant baptism. And the father is holding this infant. And this infant is decked out. The gown, I don't know how many generations of children have worn this gown, But it's handmade, it's got all this lace embroidery. I mean, it's beautiful. I was looking at that child, and I had to just pause and have this extemporaneous moment. You know, what is this little child capable of? Did that little child dress itself in the gown? Did it put the little bow in the hair? It was manicured. The child looked beautiful. The parents are smiling. That child couldn't even change its own diaper. It couldn't dress itself. It couldn't clean itself. It literally was absolutely vulnerable. It couldn't do anything except squawk. It could holler, claim, cry and complain. Help me, help me. And they're born with that ability. Totally dependent, weak, without strength. I remember being a parent and thinking, you know, this is a drag. I mean, you've got to do everything. I mean, we had twins. That's 24 diapers a day. Not only is it expensive, it's messy. I became very good at changing diapers. Can't say I enjoyed it. I mean, I was thrilled to get past that stage. And then I remember these little buggers, they've got to learn to tie their shoes. This is terrible. You know, you're always bent over, you've got to learn to tie your shoes. And I had several children that were totally content to let me tie their shoes. No, we've got to get this figured out. The point I'm trying to make here from the text is what's unique about children. Children are weak, they're vulnerable. They require care. You know, when a child is sick, they can't even tell you what's going on. As a parent, you have to decipher and figure out, you take their fever, you figure out, is this just kind of a tummy ache, or is this more serious? When do we take them to the doctor? They don't call you up and say, okay, mom, schedule a doctor appointment. I need to go see the doctor. You have to make all these decisions because they're vulnerable, they're weak, they're dependent. And that's one of the qualities that Jesus is speaking of here. The other quality is this one, which is so unique to children also, and that is their ability to trust. I was profoundly impacted as a father by the utter confidence and trust that my children had in me. I thought, if they knew me better, they wouldn't have this kind of confidence in me. They had much greater confidence in me than I had in myself. And I realized, I mean, it was humbling, I realized I could literally tell my children the moon was made of cheese and they would have believed me. And therefore, we have two qualities associated with children here. We have the weakness, the vulnerability, and we have the ability to trust a caregiver until they're violated. This simple confidence and trust. I remember I would toss my children a little bit up, and I'd catch them. And some of these older ladies would say, Pastor, you shouldn't do that. You're going to jostle their brains. And they had no fear. Trust. It's a beautiful thing. I believe that in the Gospels, we find these pericopes, these passages, And the way that they're positioned, part of the message and part of the theological message is understanding how they relate one to another. And I think this is really true here of this passage. Because what we have juxtapositioned is you must enter the kingdom of God like a little child. Juxtapositioned with the rich young ruler. As we are introduced to the rich young ruler, we are introduced to a man who has status, He's rich, he enjoys the respect of his peers in the community, he's a ruler, he's probably a member of the Sanhedrin. This is a man of resources. He's the polar opposite of the vulnerable child who's weak and dependent on a caregiver. This man is dependent on anybody, humanly speaking. He comes to Jesus in his strength. He's introduced to us as a man of status and respect and strength and a man of wealth. Now, here's something we, sometimes I think we often forget, especially in our communities. Let's pretend for a moment that you have a daughter, and she's the age where she might, she could marry. And let's pretend for a moment that she meets this fine, good-looking, well-respected man who's wealthy, well-educated. As a father, you look at that young man, you're thinking, oh, my daughter's marrying well. If she marries this guy, she's set for life. He will take care of her. They will live well. They're going to be respected. Oh, what a great family to marry into. And you go tell all your friends, and you can't wait to tell your friends, yeah, they're engaged, they're getting married. Give them the credentials. That's who this man is. He's religious. Very religious, very devoted. Very devoted. He's the kind of son-in-law we'd all love to have, isn't he? You know, I remember being on one occasion, a celebration for a holiday, and this man of great means and respect handed his father-in-law a Christmas card. And when the father-in-law opened up the Christmas card, there was a check and a little note to it. And this son-in-law had called the bank to find out how much this man owed on his house. And he wrote a check so he could pay off his house. It's really hard to compete with a brother-in-law like that. Can't do it. That's the rich young man. That's the kind of guy that he is. How do we know this? We know this partly by the question that he asked When he asks Jesus, he comes, he's seeking everlasting life, eternal life. He wants to enter the kingdom of God, and he says, what must I do? What must I do? I'm surprised how few commentators pick up on the fact that he's really asking the wrong question. What must I do? That assumes that he can do something to inherit eternal life. It also assumes that he's not in dire distress. it assumes that he's not helplessly dead in sin that he doesn't need to have somebody spiritually cleanse him from the pollution of his heart like the child that has to be cleansed by their parent and their diaper has to be changed and they have to be clothed by their parent this man comes in his strength and he basically says to Jesus tell me what I have to do and I'll do it and he's actually I believe relieved when Jesus begins to list the law to him the second table of the law. And enlisting the second table of the law, Jesus basically exposes the idolatry of his heart and shows him that he's not keeping the first table of the law because really he's trusting in his wealth as opposed to trusting in a savior. This man, there's no discussion, there's no question about, I'm a sinner. What must take place for me to be saved? See, that's a radically different question, but that's not the question he asked. He asked the question, what must I do? You know, I've had the opportunity, and I'm sure many of you have too as well, to be around some wonderful people with means. And to be honest with you, it's kind of fun to do stuff with people with means. You know, I grew up, and my father was a logger, and I remember what it was like to go fishing or hunting with my father, and it was a wonderful experience. But I also know what it was like, my father was injured in a serious accident, wasn't able to always do those things later on. My mother worked for a medical doctor. She managed the whole office. And there was a number of these doctors. And I grew up around these doctors. I used to think to myself, if I believed in reincarnation, I want to come back as this guy's kid. And I figured out real quick that one of the things that money does is money opens doors. This man had five kids, and they all went to Stanford. What if he went to Stanford and got a P degree? Who does that? That's a waste of money. But money opens doors. And, you know, I remember going fishing with one of these gentlemen. He's like, you know, he was telling me all the stuff I need to bring. Do you have this? And he knew me. I grew up with this guy. And he's like, don't worry about it. If you don't have it, I'll provide it. Well, where are we going to stay? Don't worry about it. Well, I didn't know. Do I need to bring my sleeping bag? Yeah, I can bring my sleeping bag, but don't worry about it. When we get to the lake, he owns a house on the lake just for fishing. He bought a house just so when he goes to fish on this lake, a couple of his doctor friends. But this is a lot different than I'm used to. Money opens doors in this world, doesn't it? Humanly speaking. If you have money, you can provide a better education for your children. You can send them to a better school. If you have money, you have the ability to provide better medical care. If you don't qualify for Obamacare, it's no big deal because you can buy the good stuff. You know, if you've got money, you can live in a nicer house. You can enjoy a better lifestyle. When you recreate, you can do it in a more comfortable way. Instead of staying in a tent, you can stay in a motel or a cabin. It changes everything in terms of opening doors. And when you look at verse 24, I believe it is, I put my glasses on, this Bible has such small print, I can hardly read it. the disciples were amazed at his words but jesus said to them again children how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of god it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god and they were exceedingly astonished and said to him i need to read verse 23 i believe and jesus looked around and said to his disciples how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of god and the disciples were amazed at his words but jesus said to them again well the whole point that jesus is making here i'm going to allude to this i'm getting ahead of myself a little bit here is that jesus is talking about those who have confidence those who have confidence see money opens up doors humanly speaking in this world there's no doubt about that and therefore if you have resources and you're used to your money your resources opening doors and all of a sudden you raise the question how does one enter the kingdom of god and money will open up every other door and all of a sudden now you discover that this one door in terms of entering the kingdom of god is a door that will not open through human means money or any other kind of means and therefore jesus is using the law here literally to crush this man we would call that the first use of the law he's using the law to expose this man's sin and the fact that he's really not a righteous man he's an idolater and i find it fascinating that when jesus puts before him the challenge sell everything you would think that if he really understood the value of entering god's kingdom he would sell everything remember the parable about selling everything to purchase the pearl of great value that pearl of infinite value and therefore if you could sell everything you have humanly speaking and gain that which cannot really be purchased. That's a good trade. But he goes away sad. He goes away sad. And often when I preach this text, I begin to work towards a conclusion here, but I want to continue here a little further. The disciples, I find this fascinating because the disciples are very puzzled by this. They raise the question. If this man, if this man is unable to enter the kingdom of God, then how can anyone enter the kingdom of God? And you have to understand, they're working from the ideology that if you are wealthy, well, God has blessed you. It's logical. If you are wealthy in this Jewish context, and God has blessed you, he must view you with favor, and therefore you must be a part of this kingdom or certainly very near to the kingdom. And Jesus turns it on its head and says those who trust in their wealth will not inherit the kingdom of God. In fact, it's difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And he goes so far as to say it's the equivalent of a camel going through the eye of a needle. And that's a phrase I realize that many have speculated about. I tend to agree with R.C. Sproul. Some have talked about how there was this, you know, we talk about that in terms of Jerusalem and the gate around Jerusalem. You've got the East Gate and the Dung Gate and all these various gates. We read about it in the Bible. They're described to us. Well, some have suggested that there was a little tiny gate and that merchants could use this gate to enter in. And they would have to unload their camels, which is very inconvenient, and then haul all that through the gate. And the camels would have to get on their knees and go through the gate, and then you'd put the merchandise back on the camels. And therefore, the idea is that everybody enters the kingdom on their knees, whether they were rich or poor or whoever. And, you know, it sounds really great. The problem is there's no historical evidence that gate existed until maybe the ninth century. And therefore, it's very unlikely here, Jesus is saying, it can't happen. He says, specifically, with man, it can't happen. But with God, all things are possible. It can't happen. Because we don't have the ability to produce faith. And we do not have the ability to truly repent as God's law requires us to repent. we don't have the ability. God's law exposes our sin. I want to press this. I was struck by an experience I had years ago. I was with a group of young people, and we were doing ministry, so-called. It was a past life. We were in Los Angeles working at the Los Angeles Rescue Mission. We'd choir, and they would sing, and I would preach. And during the day, we would work and do all kinds of services around the rescue mission. And it was evening, and we had, the choir had sung, and I had preached, and I went outside the rescue mission. I noticed there were people still camping out in their cardboard boxes, and their grocery carts were with them. I went up to an elderly lady, who all she had was a few items in this cart. I said, ma'am, there's beds inside here. They're clean, there's warm water, there's food. Come on in. Don't spend the night on this cold concrete. And I'll never forget what she said to me. She looked at me and she pointed her finger at me and she said, I got pride. She said, I got pride. If I go in there, I've got to submit to their rules. They're going to take my clothes and they're going to wash them and they're going to give me new clothes. And I don't want them to wash my clothes and I don't want to wear their clothes and I don't want to follow their rules and they're going to go through my stuff. No thanks. You can have your warm bed. I ate the meal, but I'm not spending the night there because you have to spend the night there on their terms. And I got pride. I'm living by my own, I'm my own boss. Now we would look at that woman and we would say that she is destitute. But that woman was unwilling to reject her righteousness and enter the kingdom on God's terms. You don't have to have great wealth in terms of property or money to cling to your own righteousness. You see, the rich young ruler was bankrupt, spiritually speaking. And he was in the presence of the true rich young ruler, Jesus Christ. And the true rich young ruler, Jesus Christ, was in a position to forgive his debt, forgive his sin, and to clothe him with his perfect righteousness. But no man believes apart from a miracle. And therefore we enter the kingdom of God by sovereign grace. Sovereign grace. It's only by the working of God's spirit through the gospel ministry that we come to acknowledge of our spiritual poverty and we understand how destitute we really are. Like the little child, we see how vulnerable we are, how weak we are, how utterly dependent we are like the little child. And like the little child, we have utter confidence in Jesus Christ. Utter confidence in Jesus Christ. And one of the great challenges facing a community like Lyndon, I suspect a community like this, that you have so many really nice people. And I mean that. Really nice people. And people, because of their Calvinistic work ethic, they've been successful in their jobs and their careers, and they're just nice people. And some of them are religious people. And some of them are very good at living the, quote, Christian lifestyle, like the rich young ruler was. and our children are raised in a pretty comfortable environment. A pretty comfortable environment. They're taken care of, they're protected, they're provided for and we depend upon the Holy Spirit. May God have mercy and may help us and through our covenant nurture in our homes and through the ministry from this pulpit he must confront all of us with our sin our weakness, our need that we might reject our righteousness and that we might enter his kingdom like a little child in utter weakness and vulnerability but absolute confidence in Jesus Christ children teenagers, adults you don't enter the kingdom because you were born in the church. You don't have the kingdom because you were baptized. You must believe and place all your confidence in Jesus Christ. He's the true rich young ruler. No confidence in anything else. Faith alone. In Christ alone. And the thing that I marvel at is God is faithful. As his gospel is preached, directly preached, he calls, affectionately calls, born again. By the time you realize you believe and you have confidence in Christ and there's a sensitivity to your sin and you acknowledge your sin, you're exercising the faith that the Holy Spirit has already produced in you. It's a miracle. With man, it's impossible. With man, Moses would have been eaten up by the crocodiles in the Nile River. But was in a sovereign working of grace. Just as God raised up Moses, he was drawn from the water, and he became a salvation figure for the nation of Israel. God has provided us a Savior in Christ who far exceeds Moses. And his salvation is perfect and it's done, it's accomplished in its fullness. We don't experience it yet, but it's fullness. But there's nothing more to add. His life, his death, his perfect righteousness, his resurrection, his ascension, it's all good. It's perfect, it's done. Therefore, come to him, believe on him, be forgiven. Enter the kingdom like a little child. Understanding how vulnerable, weak, and have no status. You don't enter through human strength. But may you come in faith and confidence in Jesus Christ. And even if you have entered God's kingdom many years ago, may he continue to remind him, remind you. We continue to live in his kingdom in this age as children, don't we? We continue to be vulnerable, and we need his protection. And we need to grow in our confidence in Christ. As you mature in the kingdom of God, you never quit being a child. There's that realization that you're weak, and the moment you put confidence in your own resources, your own status, your own doing. That's not maturity. That's unbelief. That's deception. And therefore, we continue to live in this kingdom with an understanding of who we are as children. And may we grow in the confidence we have in Christ and his care, his provision for us, his protection. Oh, may we live. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Think of the peace and the comfort a child has as they have absolute confidence that their parents are going to be there and provide for them, protect them. May we have that kind of relationship with Christ. Let us pray. Father in heaven, especially as we grow older, maybe we see the fruit of our labors upon this earth and we do all we can in this life to make our lives comfortable, to have some kind of earthly security. We spend so much energy. Lord, help us to understand that spiritually, that ultimately before God, we're weak. We're vulnerable. We're without strength or status. Humanly speaking, we've received great wealth, but it's come from Christ. Lord, help us that we might have greater faith, greater confidence in Christ, that we might rest in Christ and the comfort of the gospel. May we trust our children to Christ. May we strive to live in obedience as a response to what we have received, not because we're trying to secure something. Even as we teach our children and nurture them and train them, and may we do that, may you give us strength, and may we be intentional in the way that we do that. May we do it in humility with an understanding that we depend upon your grace, your kindness, your favor. May our children pick up on that. May we see evidence of faith in the lives of our children at a tender and young age. As they show sensitivity to their sin and confidence in their Savior, Jesus Christ. And may we model that in our homes, in his church. May Christ be exalted. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.