2 Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 3, the Bible reads,
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through a subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached,
or if you receive another spirit whom you have not received,
or another gospel whom you have not accepted, you might bear with them.
And what I want to preach to you about this morning is the subject of the simplicity of
the gospel.
And I think this is an important subject because of the fact that we preach the gospel a lot
around here.
We're a soul winning church, we go out, we knock a lot of doors, we talk to folks,
we confront them with the gospel, more than just inviting them to church, which is something
of course we do as well.
But more importantly, we ask people, we say, hey, if you were to die today, would you go
to heaven?
Are you 100% sure about that?
And we offer to show them from the Bible how they can be 100% certain and know the truth
of the gospel.
It's important to keep in mind how simple the gospel is because of the fact that even
we as those that preach the gospel sometimes can perhaps fall into the trap of wanting
to be more clever with it or trying to use the wisdom of men or something of that nature,
rather than just preaching the gospel, plain and simple and unadulterated, and just letting
the word of God and the power of God do all the heavy lifting for us.
Now, I'm not saying we don't play our part in preaching the gospel and that it's a work
for us to do, but at the end of the day, the Bible says that it is the word of God
that is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.
It's the word of God that's going to pierce even to the binding asunder of soul and spirit
and the joints of the marrow.
It's the word of God that's going to be a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart.
It's the word of God that's going to do all that for us.
So I think it's always important to remember that when we're out preaching the gospel that
we should always try to keep it simple, that we should understand the simplicity of the
gospel.
That's what makes the gospel as beautiful as it is.
The gospel is a very beautiful and wonderful thing.
It's a very great and profound and simple truth.
The reason why it is is because of how simple it is.
The gospel is very simple in the sense that it is easy.
It is something that is very easy to understand.
We're going to talk a little bit about that this morning.
The reason why it's so simple, the reason why it's such an easy thing to understand
and to comprehend is because it is in Christ.
That's what it says there.
It says the simplicity that is in Christ.
There's nothing for us to do on our part.
We don't have to do anything aside from believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved.
That's what makes the gospel simple and that's the gospel that we preach.
Paul here is warning and is in fact expressing his concern that the Corinthian people might
be moved away from that onto another gospel.
Another gospel would be that which is not simple, something that is not easy.
The gospel is very simple.
The gospel is very easy to understand.
Sometimes I think even as soul winners, we lose sight of that.
We can even fall into this place where perhaps we might even doubt and say, well, does this
person really get saved?
This person really believed because sometimes it's so easy.
Sometimes it's just so simple to lead somebody to Christ.
You find the right person who's just got that humble, meek spirit.
They're ready to hear.
They want to hear.
I'm thinking about a particular individual this last Native American trip that I went
on, this reservation soul winning trip that we went on.
I'm shuttling people around.
I don't get a whole lot of time to actually get out and knock doors these days out there.
But I got to knock a few doors.
I got out and I just knocked on this one door out in the middle of nowhere and it was an
older gentleman.
Honestly, when we get into the certain neighborhoods and bigger cities, the older crowd is the
more hardened crowd.
It's very rare that we will see an older person come to Christ later on in years because they're
just so set in their ways.
Especially if you're a younger person trying to teach them the Bible or show them.
There's a lot of pride involved often.
I was just thinking about it this week.
We've been knocking doors out in southern Tempe and Ahwatukee for nine months.
We're going out with about a dozen or so people, sometimes more, sometimes less, week in and
week out for an hour every week.
We average about one salvation per week from that.
One person.
Listen, a lot of doors getting knocked, a lot of ground getting covered, but they're
wealthier homes.
The demographic is typically an older generation that's there.
I've only led one person out there to Christ.
I'll tell you something.
I was an older gentleman.
He must have been into his 70s, had recently lost his wife, and the guy was just ready.
He was literally inside reading his Bible when I got there.
He said, hey, I was just reading my Bible.
I believe God sent you here.
He was ready to hear.
I didn't have to wax eloquent.
I didn't have to come up with a bunch of intriguing illustrations to try to get him to pay attention.
All I had to do was preach the gospel.
All I had to do was open up the Bible, take him through the Romans road, make sure he
understood it, and he got saved.
Like I was saying earlier, I was out there on the Indian reservation, and the same thing,
an older gentleman.
I've been able to lead older folks on the reservation far more often than in the city.
He got saved.
I remember just walking away from that door and just being so moved by the fact that the
gospel is so easy, that even somebody who's just a little older and well on in years can
just hear it and get saved.
And then at the other end of the spectrum, we're going to talk about this today more
specifically, is the fact that children can get saved, the fact that little boys and little
girls can understand and believe the gospel.
That's a beautiful thing.
That's the love of God.
That is the grace of God.
So let's not get caught up in this thing of trying to overcomplicate the gospel or thinking
that by our own wit or some device that we come up with or some intellectual thing that
we're going to make them think about, that we're going to win them to the Lord.
You're going to win them to the Lord with the gospel, because it's simple.
And I just want to kind of remind us of that, because again, we even as soul winners, sometimes
we'll see somebody get saved, and it's so easy, we'll go, well, did it really happen?
And it's like, well, yes, it did, you know, it did.
And it's that simple.
And you know, there is a real movement today to complicate the gospel.
There's a lot of people out there that want to make the gospel hard.
You know what that is?
It's not the gospel.
It's what Paul calls it here, another gospel.
It's another Jesus.
I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, but the gospel is simple in the sense that
it is easy.
It's easy to understand.
It's easy to believe, because of the fact that it is in Christ.
And even Christ himself tried to illustrate how simple it is, right?
He said, he said, I am the door.
If by me any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture.
He likened himself unto a door that he said that salvation is like going through him is
like going through a door.
And I got news for you today.
If you're in this building right now, you've done that.
You've gone through a door, right?
It's that simple.
Who came to the church building today and got to the door and had to Google it?
How does this work?
The doorknob, which way do I turn it?
No one had to do that.
We don't even think about it.
We just walk through doors all the time.
And Jesus said, hey, I'm the door.
And really, the gospel is that simple to understand.
It's as easy as walking through a door.
And he likened it unto eating bread and drinking water.
And I noticed some of you weren't eating bread, but you were eating some donuts, right?
No one walked over there to the donuts this morning and looked at it and just dumbfounded
and said, I really want to get this in my belly, but I don't know how to do it.
What was that thing again?
Chewing.
You know, no one had to consult anyone to have them hold their jaw and help them with that.
You know, I don't think so.
If you did see me after the service, but we'll go over it.
But it's that simple.
You know, he said, I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger.
He that believeth on me shall never thirst.
He said, it's like drinking water.
Now some of us, from time to time, we probably do struggle with that.
You know, we get the little dribble and everything, our lip leaks.
But you know, by and large, we probably got that figured out, right?
And you know, he says, that's how simple it is.
Walking through a door, eating bread, drinking water.
He said, the spirit and the bride say, come, let him that heareth say, come, and let him
that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
He said, look, it's like taking water, just going over and getting a drink.
So that's how simple the Gospel is.
You know, and this can be an offense to some people because of the fact that they are proud.
You know, proud people, they want to complicate it, because they want to have their part in
the Gospel.
They want to play a part in their own salvation.
And the Bible makes it real clear that we play no part.
It is said, it is not of works lest any man should boast.
So we're going to get into that.
And if you would turn over to Ephesians chapter 2, that is a very familiar passage, but we're
going to look at it again this morning.
So preaching another Gospel is preaching a Gospel that is not simple, because the Gospel
in its true form is very simple and easy to understand.
And when we're preaching another Gospel, if somebody comes along preaching another Jesus,
quite often they're preaching a difficult Gospel.
What I mean by that, a Gospel that requires works on your part.
They'll say, oh yeah, it's believe on Jesus, but X, Y, and Z.
They'll want to add to it, whatever it is.
They'll say, you've got to live a good life, you've got to keep the commandments, you've
got to be baptized, you've got to do this, you've got to do that.
They're adding works to salvation, they're trying to complicate it.
Often when I share the Gospel with somebody and they get saved at the door, at the end
I'll say, hey, I preached you the Gospel today, and the Gospel means good news.
I say, wasn't that good news that I just gave you?
And they'll say, yeah.
And I'll say, if I came to your door today and said, hey, you've got to live a good life,
join my church, get baptized, turn over a new leaf, repent all your sins.
If I came to your door and told you that today, would that have been good news?
And most of the time they say no.
Sometimes I'll say, yeah, I know.
I'll go, are you sure?
And they'll go, oh yeah, I know.
Because that's not good news.
Hey, you've got to do a lot of work to get to heaven.
That's not good news.
Like, hey, you've got to be a good person.
And a lot of people think this.
They think, oh, it's about being a good person.
Well, the Bible condemns that and says, you know, there's none good, no, not one.
So that's bad news, which is the exact opposite of what the gospel means.
Glad tidings, good news, right?
So preaching another gospel is preaching a difficult gospel or a gospel that is of works.
Because we understand that salvation is a gift.
Look there in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, for by grace are you saved through
faith.
Again, very familiar passage, right?
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
I mean, the Bible couldn't be any clearer here how simple it is that we have no part
in it other than to believe.
We're saved through faith, through what we believe, not what we do, right?
If we were to add anything to that, it would no longer be a gift.
If I were to say, hey, this is a gift.
You just have to do, you know, whatever, you know, you got to come shine my shoes before
any service, or you got to come clean my car, or you got to, you know, whatever stipulation
you want to add to that, that's no longer a gift.
And we understand that, you know, if we're saved, we understand that that's the truth.
You know, probably every, you know, the majority, if not everybody in this room understands
that this morning, that salvation is a gift.
But do we understand why it's a gift?
You know, sometimes we forget about this.
Why is it a gift?
Look there in verse one, and you hath he quicked, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Look, before you got saved, you were already dead in trespasses and sins.
What good work are you going to do as a dead person?
What are you going to offer God as somebody who is dead in trespasses and sins?
And that's what we have to often bring people to the understanding of when we're out preaching
the gospel, is that they're lost, is that they're dead, that they're a sinner, that
they are without hope in this world.
They are without God and without hope.
He goes in verse two and says, where in the time past you walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times
past and the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath.
You know, it's inborn, it's by nature that you are a sinner.
It's not something that you just stumble into.
You're born a sinner.
We're by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins.
Again, the Bible's showing us that without God we are without hope, that we are dead
in our sins.
This is what people have to understand, is that there's nothing you can do as a dead
person.
The illustration is, can you put a corpse to work?
Can we go down to the graveyard this morning and dig them up and hand them a shovel and
say, hey, we've got a job for you to do?
You can't.
They can't do anything.
They're dead.
What good works are we going to offer God as being dead in our sins?
So we understand why it has to be a gift, because it's not even possible for us to do
the works that would be required.
We're dead in sins.
We're already condemned.
What does the Bible say in John 3?
He is condemned already because he hath not believed.
So we understand why it's a gift, but do we understand the fullness of God's lovingness?
This is really what I want us to understand this morning, is the Gospel's simple, and
that makes it very beautiful, and it's a testimony of God's love toward us, how much God really
loves us.
Look there in verse 4.
He says, but God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us.
It's not just that God loved you.
It's a great love.
It's not that God is just merciful.
No, it's that he's rich in mercy toward us.
Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together, by grace are you saved, and hath
raised us up together and made us sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
It's not just that God rescued us from hell.
That would be enough right there.
Just the fact that God saved us from hell.
But he went beyond that, it says there, and raised us up together and made us sit in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus.
I mean there is a seat in heaven reserved for us.
We're going to sit in the presence of God because of what?
Because of our own works?
Because of the good things that we've done in life?
Because we did more good than bad?
Or we did whatever.
We got baptized, we joined a church, whatever it is that people want to say that's what
they did to get to heaven.
No, the only reason we're going to go to heaven and sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus
is because of the fact that God is rich in mercy.
Because of his great love toward us, not our great love toward God.
Look at verse 7, that in the ages to come, he saves us from hell, then he gets us there,
and that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his
kindness toward us.
Every time I read this verse it just blows me away.
The fact that we as God's children are going to be a testimony for all eternity through
all ages of God's rich grace, of his exceeding riches toward us.
When they see us in heaven they'll say that is a testimony of the fact that God is merciful.
We will be a testimony of the fact that God is rich in mercy.
That's an amazing thing to think about.
So the beauty of the gospel is its simplicity.
The beauty of the gospel is the fact that it's simple and it's able to be understood
by even the simplest of people.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist, you don't have to be the smartest guy in the room
to understand the gospel.
Quite honestly, the smarter you are a lot of times the harder it is, ironically.
But it's very easily understood by even the simplest of us.
And that would include children.
That's probably one of the great truths of the gospel is that even a child can understand
the gospel.
Are children not the simplest among us?
Granted, some are more simple than others, right?
But it's true, they are very simple.
I think a good proof of this is the fact that it says in Proverbs 14, the simple believeth
every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going.
It says the simple believeth every word.
Is that not how you could not describe a child in that way?
They believe every word.
I mean, we were just talking on the way down here.
We got the Dunkin' Donuts is running their specialty donuts is the spider donut.
And my kids are in the back and I say, yeah, it's made of spiders.
Now the older ones have caught on to how I am, right?
Karen, my first, you know, poor thing, she had to go through the gauntlet, you know,
now she can kind of warn the other kids, you know, dad's pulling your leg, you know, he's
not really going to sell you to the gypsies for a quarter.
I used to tell her that, you know, hey, misbehave, I'm going to sell you to the gypsies for a
quarter.
And she, oh, no, you're not, then later, mom, is dad really going to sell me to the gypsies?
You know, because she believes every word, you know, and we have to, we could, you know,
to our own amusement, us fathers can really exploit that, right?
For our own twisted and sick amusement, you know, and tell them things like, hey, you
know, the sun's only the size of a quarter, look, you know, and compare it.
And it sets here in Arizona, that's why everything's dry and red, you know, and tell them silly
things like that.
And you know, but here's the thing, they believe every word.
Now we laugh and chuckle about that, and it's fun, but here's the thing, there's a lot of
people out there that are willing to exploit that this morning.
There's a lot of people out there that understand the simplicity, that the children are simple
in their understanding, and they'll believe anything that an adult tells them for the
most part, until they begin to develop a sense of, you know, discernment and understand the
truth for themselves.
But they'll be told things, you know, in our public school system, they'll be told out
and out lies about evolution and the Big Bang theory and all the other perversion and filth
that's being promoted in our church, not in our churches, well, not in this church, but
that is, in some other churches, that's another sermon.
But in our public school system, it's being promoted heavily, and you know what's being
promoted to?
The simple that believeth every word, and it's a real shame, isn't it?
It's unfortunate today that the most impressionable among us are just being taken advantage of,
and having lies just pour down into their heads, and just having that forced upon them.
And they grow up believing these lies.
You see, the children are simple among us, and that's either, that's kind of a double-edged
sword, because they'll just as easily believe the truth as they will lie.
You know, it's, what do you want to tell them this morning?
And you know, I think a good example of this is, you know, Samuel.
I won't have us turn there for the sake of time, but Samuel, if you recall, you know,
he was, actually, you know what, let's go there.
Let's go to 1 Samuel chapter 3.
It's too much for me to sit here and try to just catch you up on it.
So 1 Samuel chapter 3, of course, Samuel was, you know, one of the great, great prophets
of God, and it says there in verse 1, 1 Samuel 3, 1, and Samuel, and the child Samuel, so
this is when he was just a little boy, ministered on the Lord before Eli, and the word of the
Lord was precious in those days, and there was no open vision.
And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, his eyes began
to wax dim that he could not see, and there the lamp of God went out in the temple of
the Lord, where the ark of the God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, that the Lord
called Samuel and answered, and he answered and said, here am I.
And he ran unto Eli and said, here am I, for thou callest me.
So he hears something, and he thinks it's Eli, you know, the high priest, he runs to
him and says, oh, you called me, he doesn't realize it's God, and he said, and he said,
I called not, lie down again, and he went and lay down.
And the Lord called yet again, Samuel, and Samuel rose and went to Eli and said, here
am I, for thou didst call me, and he answered, I called not, my son, lie down again.
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto
him.
And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said,
here am I, for thou didst call me.
And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child, therefore Eli said unto Samuel,
go and lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee, thou shalt say, speak, Lord, for thy
servant heareth.
Now, so he's being told, look, God's talking to you, God is, you know, this doesn't happen
today, but God is audibly speaking to him, he's calling out his name.
And Eli explains this to him, says, look, God's the one calling you, and when he calls,
if he calls again, this is what you're going to say.
Now what was Samuel's reaction, pfft, yeah right, well get out of here with that, you're
pulling my leg, you know, what are you going to tell me next, donuts are made of spiders,
you know.
But no, he just believes him, he says, oh, it must be the Lord, he says it's the Lord,
he's just believing this adult, this person who's in authority in his life, just telling
him this is what's happening, Samuel, and he goes and he believes him, just simple faith.
And he says there, go and lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee, thou shalt say,
speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.
So Samuel went down in his place, and the Lord came and stood, and called as at other
times, Samuel, Samuel.
Then Samuel answered, speak, Lord, speak, for thy servant heareth, and the Lord said
to Samuel, behold, I will do a thing in Israel, and so on and so forth.
So again, this is a great example of a child who can either be led one way or another,
you know, he could either, you know, has this opportunity to hear the truth and know the
truth that it's God that's speaking to him, and it shows us that children will just as
easily believe a lie as they will the truth.
And really, what we have to understand about this is that this makes children very vulnerable.
This makes children very dear and precious in the eyes of God.
I mean, God looks down and sees these kids and these children and their simple, childlike
faith, and it's very precious to him, it's very dear to him.
And it's a wicked thing today that it's being exploited by evil people, this nature that
children have to just believe every word, to just trust people until they learn better.
Go over to Matthew chapter 18, Matthew chapter 18, you know, and this is why the, you know,
the gospel is simple, is so that children, someone as simple as a child could believe
it.
You know what that also means is that the gospel has to be received as a child.
You know, you have to have a childlike faith to even believe the gospel.
I mean, if we think about when we got saved, how easy was it?
How simple was it to believe?
Did we have to see mountains move?
Did we have to see a sea split?
Did we have to see some great miracle?
Or did we just have somebody show us from the word of God what the Bible says and we
just believed it?
You know, Jesus said he had the faith of the grain of a mustard seed.
You could say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast to the sea and it
shall be done.
All you would need is the faith of the grain of a mustard seed.
He's saying it's not how much faith you have, it's a matter of where you're putting that
faith.
A child can have that simple little bit of faith, and if they just put it all on Jesus,
they'll get saved just as same as anybody else.
Because that's all that's required for salvation.
Look there in Matthew chapter 18 verse 4.
Jesus said, whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, if it were better
for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depths
of the sea.
That's some strong language that Jesus is using there.
I mean, it almost sounds like a hate preacher.
He would suggest that somebody should be, I mean, executed.
Is that not what he's saying?
He's saying, look, if you were to offend one of these little ones, it would be better if
you tie a rock around your neck and go jump in the lake.
You know, let's bring it into the modern vernacular, right?
Go jump in a lake, buddy.
That's what he's saying here.
And it's those that would offend these little ones, these children, those which would believe
in Christ, because they are, you know, they're innocent, they have that just simple, childlike
understanding, and somebody else exploits that.
And instead of teaching the truth, they fill their head with lies, and they offend them.
And I'm telling you, I've seen this with my own eyes.
I've had family members come up, and I mean, before they're even teenagers, hating God
in their heart, rejecting Christ.
And then, I mean, people don't understand, and it's frightening to see, but kids can
even become reprobate at a very, I mean, it's at an astonishing rate, that even kids can,
they can graduate, before they even graduate high school, be completely given over by God.
And if you don't understand that doctrine, you need to go read Romans 1, that the fact
that there are people that God gives up on, those that hate the Lord, you know, even as
they do not like to retain God in their knowledge, so God gave them up to a reprobate mind, meaning
a rejected mind.
So we could see how important it is that children, they don't receive lies, that they receive
the truth, that they have the gospel preached to them.
So in the, and this shows us also here in Matthew 18, that the gospel has to be received
in a childlike manner.
That's how anybody gets saved, is that you have to receive it as you would a child.
I'll read to you, go to Matthew chapter, well, you're already there.
I'll read to you from Luke chapter 18, it says, and they brought unto him also infants.
So these are just little babies, right?
And he would touch, that he would touch them, but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked him.
So you have these people that are trying to bring their children, their little babies, to Jesus.
You know, they just, they just, for some reason, they just want the Lord to, you know, touch
their baby, just hold them and whatever, you know.
That's a, I mean, you think about it, that's kind of a very trusting thing to do, you know,
saying, hey, hold my baby, or it's very endearing.
You know, it's a special thing.
And the disciples see it, and they just say, hey, no, you can't do that.
Jesus is way too important to just be, you know, spending time with your little infant.
You know, we've got bigger fish to fry than, you know, your eight-month-old.
You know, who do you think you are?
But when Jesus, when Jesus called unto them and said, suffer little children to come unto
me.
Now, what does it mean to suffer?
It means to put up with it.
Put up with the children, let them come to me.
You know, we as adults can, you know, his disciples are sent back like, man, you know,
why is he spending time with infants?
You know, we could be out doing miracles.
You know, they want to see some great thing.
Jesus wants to take some time and bless these kids, bless these little babies, bless their
parents, you know.
And Jesus says, look, you need to suffer them.
You need to put up with this.
You know, and this is a good principle when, you know, if you're wondering why all the
kids are here in the service this morning, it's because we suffer them.
Now, I will say this, the children in this auditorium, this room, are pretty sufferable.
You know, we've got it pretty good.
You know, if anyone's raising a fuss, it's probably my kid anyway, right?
But we suffer them.
We put up with them.
We don't have to separate them from the family and go distract them with silly games and
stupid songs.
And that's what goes on, people.
This is seven years of junior church talking, all right?
I know what I'm talking about, these junior church services.
It's silly games and candy and stupid songs.
And it's not church.
You can call it junior church all you want.
It's not this.
You know, I know we had donuts this morning, but, you know, I'm not going to, you know,
we're not going to have Bible drills and throw Jolly Ranchers at you.
That's junior church.
We're not going to sing some stupid annoying song.
I'm in right out, right up, right down, right happy all the time.
Got any requests?
Because I know a lot of them, right?
A lot of dumb songs.
And then these kids that are in these, these fun house churches, these junior churches,
you know, these spaz sessions where they just get all jacked up on sugar.
Then they grow up into adults and they come in the church like this and they go, boring.
You know, they want, they want to go find the other, they want to go find the fun church.
And you know, that's a whole another sermon.
I don't want to go off on that, but we should suffer little children, you know, with the
gospel.
We should suffer little children in our church services.
This is important for them to hear the preaching, the word of God, you know, we think, oh, they're
not getting anything out of it.
They're getting something out of it.
They're probably, they might even be getting more out of it than some adults, you know,
they're not nodding off.
Well, okay.
My kid's not, but you know, and they do, they got a long day though.
They got a lot of driving to do.
They hang out with me and, but you know, kids get something out of the service.
You know, they'll repeat things to my wife.
They'll say, Hey, the pastor said this, Hey, dad said this, you know, they'll remember
things.
So we should suffer them.
And he says in verse 15, verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom
as a little child shall in no wise enter in.
I mean, if you don't receive it as a child, you're not going to enter it.
Now that doesn't mean if you don't get saved when you're a kid, you're not going to get
saved.
He's saying your attitude, your mentality, the way you think about things, the way you
react to the gospel when you hear it.
If you don't receive it as a little child, how does a little child receive it?
They just believe.
It's just a simple faith.
They just say, I believe that.
And that's why a lot of people when they get older have a hard time believing the gospel.
And that's why it's important that we preach gospel to our children when they're young.
Because when we get older, you know, especially people that have, you know, succeeded in life,
you know, that have made something of themselves, quote unquote, in the world, you know, they
have a hard time with this.
Because the gospel says it's not of you.
It's not your works.
You have nothing to do with it.
Jesus did everything for you.
That's offensive to somebody who's full of pride.
Somebody who wants to have their part in everything that they do.
Somebody that's, you know, made something of themselves in the world.
And then they're going to say, oh, but to go to heaven, you know, you don't play any
part in it.
And we can't understand that.
And I think sometimes we have a hard time to really see how anybody could be like that.
But it's the truth.
They don't want to have that simple childlike faith.
It's, you know, they don't want to bring themselves down to that level.
So here's the other thing that, you know, we have to receive this as a little child.
Now think about it.
Now think about this.
We receive the gospel as a child, right, with a simple childlike faith.
And not only that, but when you do that, when a person does that, it makes you a child.
Spiritually speaking.
Don't go getting your hopes up.
You're going to wake up tomorrow, you know, like Naaman after dipping in the river Jordan
seven times with the skin of a baby.
You know, how great would that be, right?
But receiving the gospel as a child, you know, like with childlike faith, it makes you a
child spiritually.
Look there in Matthew chapter 18, verse 3, and said, verily I say unto you, except ye
be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus said you have to become as little children.
That ties right in with John 3.
You must be born again.
Except ye be born again.
You know, you have to become a spiritual babe again.
That's what he's referring to there.
Jesus said in Matthew 11, I'll read to you, at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the
wise and prudent.
The wise and the prudent in the world, they can't see it.
They don't understand.
It's hidden to them because they're so full of themselves.
They're too proud.
They can't understand this.
It's hidden from them.
And he says it has revealed them unto who?
Unto babes.
Unto people with just a simple childlike faith.
That's who understands, you know, the meaning of life, why we're here, you know, the profoundness
of existence, all the deep existential questions that people want to have answers to is given
to those that have a simple, childlike faith.
They understand the truth of heaven and earth and reality.
The Bible says in 1 Peter 2, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye
may grow thereby.
When we're born again, we become a spiritual baby.
Go ahead and turn over to, actually I already quoted John 3, let's just go over to 2 Corinthians
chapter 1.
You see, when we receive the gospel simply as a child with childlike faith, we become
spiritual babes in Christ.
And this is very offensive to people who are too proud in their own hearts, that are too
puffed up in themselves.
And they refuse this.
They reject it.
And as a result, it's hidden from them.
They can't understand the truth.
And here's really what I want to just admonish us to do today, is that we should not be overly
skeptical of a child's salvation.
If a child gets saved, the last thing we want to do is call that into question, especially
to them.
You know, we present, we'll do this, we'll give the child the gospel, they'll believe
it, and then the temptation is to go, well are you sure, are you sure, and then try and
test them, and now they're doubting.
Now they're confused.
And that just leans, builds upon itself.
Now they're confused, now they're giving you the wrong end, and then you're more confused
and they're confused.
It just can build up.
Look, the gospel's simple.
The gospel's easy.
It's designed that way so that God would be glorified.
And so that all could come to the knowledge of the truth, even a child.
And you know, it should be abundantly clear how important that is when we see the fact
that it's being exploited by wicked people.
That God puts emphasis on children being saved, and he made it that way so that they could
avoid that.
So that they could receive the gospel young, and not be, you know, hardened through deceitfulness
of sin.
God wants children to be saved.
That's why he made it that simple.
So let's not be overly skeptical of a child's salvation.
That's the, I mean, that's the very nature of the gospel, is that it's available to children.
It's available to the simple among us.
So don't be skeptical of it.
And I've seen this, I've seen this, people, you know, will say, I remember we were working
the bus route.
My wife led this little girl to the Lord.
Just preached her the gospel, and we came to church, and we told one of the teachers
there, hey, so-and-so, my wife told her, hey, so-and-so got saved.
You know, she was happy about it.
And she was like, and this was after they had all their classes, because this lady was
a teacher there, and this little girl that got saved would go to her class.
And I think it was after her class, my wife came and said, hey, you know, so-and-so got
saved out on the bus route today.
And she said, well, she didn't say anything to me about it.
Well, oh, I'm sorry, she didn't just burst into the room and jump up on a chair and say,
praise God, I'm saved.
You know, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
Is that what we expect from a child to do?
To just stop everything and just, you know, sing high praises to God in the presence of
a bunch of adults?
Well, I'm sorry she didn't confirm it with you.
You know, instead of asking, oh, really, well, great, you know, what did you tell her?
You know, well, we preached her the gospel, and she got saved.
And people, they call this into question all the time, and it's because it's people that
are allowing or over-complicating the gospel.
They want it to be complicated because they want to play some part in their own salvation.
They'll say, well, yeah, Jesus died for me, but I also repented all my sins.
Well, good job.
You know, that's a lie, but good job.
So don't be overly skeptical of a child's salvation.
It's the very nature of the gospel that makes it available to children.
And don't have unrealistic expectations of saved children, like I was just talking about.
You know, children, even after they get saved, are still bashful, okay?
They're still shy, they're still foolish, they're still selfish, they're still going
to say and do things that they probably shouldn't do, because salvation is not you getting reformed.
It's the new birth.
It's God's Spirit coming into your heart.
It's not, you know, we're going to talk about that later tonight, about the fact that we
still have a struggle between the Spirit and the flesh.
But you know, saved children will behave just like any other child, you know?
The difference is, is that they're on their way to heaven, and that they've understood
the gospel, because it's simple.
You know, and it's only wicked people that would try to complicate the gospel.
Now if you would, go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 1, and we'll close here.
And this is the warning.
This is, you know, this warning is throughout Scripture, that there's people out there that
want to corrupt the gospel, they want to complicate the gospel, they want to make the gospel difficult
and hard.
They want to take away the simplicity that is in Christ, and beguile you.
The Bible says in Colossians 2, beware lest any man spoil you through what?
Philosophy and vain deceit.
After the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
They want to substitute Christ with all these things.
With what?
Philosophy, vain deceit, science falsely so-called.
After the tradition of men, they want to tell you, oh, going to heaven is, you know, by
keeping all these sacraments.
Going to heaven is by doing all these good works.
That's a tradition of man.
After the rudiments of the world, whatever it is, it's not after Christ.
It's not after the simplicity that is in Christ.
Look there in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 12, for our rejoicing is this, the testimony
of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but
by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly, to you
word.
I mean, Paul here, he's rejoicing in his simplicity, and the fact that he was simple
towards people, that he didn't try to overcomplicate things, that he was sincere, that he didn't
use fleshly wisdom, that he just did everything by the grace of God.
That caused him to rejoice.
You know, we should rejoice that the gospel is simple.
Simple for us to believe, and simple for us to go out and preach.
That we don't have to go knock on someone's door and try to enroll them in an eight week
course on why they need to get saved.
Or we don't have to go knock on someone's door and try to drag them to church and preach
them down an aisle to an altar to get saved.
That we can do it right there.
We should rejoice that we have to go out there and recruit them to ride our Sunday school
bus, and go through all that rigor and reward.
You know what?
If that's what a church is doing, great.
Sunday school buses?
Go for it.
Do something.
Something's better than nothing.
But you know, we could accomplish the same thing right there at the door as you could
in a Sunday school classroom, without having to have all the burden and expense that comes
with that ministry.
And again, I'm not talking in a vacuum.
Bus captain, junior church preacher, seven years, I did it.
And there's a lot of good things, but it's just inefficient.
That's my objection to it, it's inefficient.
Because the gospel is simple, it's easy.
Why do we have to go through all that trouble when we can just preach the gospel right there
at the door?
And we shouldn't be overly skeptical, and we shouldn't have unrealistic expectations,
and we should understand that it's something to rejoice over.
So rather than sitting around and just questioning a child's ability to understand the gospel
and receive the truth, we should be capitalizing on the fact that they can.
We should be capitalizing on the fact that they have a tender nature, and we should preach
them the gospel.
And I've been convicted of this lately, I need to be better about this, is that when
we see kids out there preaching them the gospel, we have an opportunity.
Now I'm all for if you're at someone's house and a young child comes to the door, making
sure mom and dad are okay with what you're doing.
But you know what, we could probably do a little bit better.
I love Brother Fabian's approach with these kids that he sees on the street, hey I got
a free DVD.
We got all these DVDs that we give away over here, and by the way, everything over there
is free, take as much as you want.
And he goes out and says, hey if you listen to what I have to say, I'm going to give you
a free movie.
I mean, you say free and movie in the same sentence?
That kid's going to hop off his bike, put down a skateboard or whatever, and listen.
And here's the thing, when they start to listen and they receive a simple, unadulterated,
pure representation of the gospel, they are given an opportunity to do what we have all
done, which is to have a simple, childlike faith and trust in Christ.
So let's not waste that, and let's capitalize on that rather than sitting around and criticizing
it.
Let's go ahead and pray.