(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Turn, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 11 in your Bible. We'll come back to Exodus chapter 2, but go to Hebrews chapter 11. What we just read in Exodus chapter 2 was the story about Moses being born, being hidden by his parents, and then becoming the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and so on and so forth. We're going to come back to that, but go to Hebrews chapter 11 where the Apostle Paul talks about this exact same story. In Hebrews 11 verse 23 the Bible reads, "...by faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect under the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible." Now the first thing I want to point out in this passage is the similarity between Moses and his parents. Look at verse 23, it says, "...by faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child," and look at that last phrase, "...and they were not afraid of the king's commandment." So when Moses' parents hid him, it makes the statement that they were not afraid of the king's commandment, and if you go down to verse number 27, it says, "...by faith he, Moses, forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible." So where do you think he got that attribute of not fearing the king? He got it from his parents. And what's interesting about this story is that Moses lived with his parents for three months and they were hiding him because the king, Pharaoh, had made a commandment that all male children would be thrown into the river. You see, the children of Israel were dwelling in the land of the Egyptians and they were having so many children that the Egyptians started to get a little bit nervous that the Hebrews were getting too strong and too powerful, there were just too many of them, and they were afraid that they would be outnumbered by the Hebrews and that the Hebrews would rebel against them. So they decided to kill the male children of the Hebrews to stop them from getting too big of a population because they were multiplying a lot more than the Egyptians were. They were outgrowing the Egyptians numerically. And so Moses' parents obviously loved him and they did not want him to be killed by the authorities, so they hid him for three months. But after three months they just couldn't hide him anymore. See when you have a little tiny newborn, it's easier to keep them quiet until they get to a certain age and they start making a lot more noise and things like that. So they just couldn't hide him anymore. So of course they built a little ark of bulrushes and Moses' mother places him in that little ark of bulrushes, puts it in the Nile River and just kind of sends it floating down the river, expecting that someone would find it. I guess the equivalent of maybe, you know, putting the baby on somebody's doorstep or just randomly dropping it off at the hospital or wherever. And so they don't know what else to do, they don't want the child to be killed, so they're just trusting that God's going to somehow take care of this child, so they put him in this ark, they put it in the river, they let it float down the river, and then Miriam just kind of goes along to watch the thing to see where it's going to end up to see who finds the baby. Well, lo and behold, the baby is found by Pharaoh's daughter, someone who's a pretty important person in Egypt. And Pharaoh's daughter finds the child, it's crying, she has compassion on it, she realizes right away this is one of the Hebrew's children. But she wants to keep it, she loves the child. So Miriam says to Pharaoh's daughter, you know, should I go get one of the Hebrew women to nurse it for you? And she says, well, that's a great idea. Because obviously Pharaoh just had a child, so she's not ready to nurse a baby, she doesn't have any milk, so she says, oh, okay, get one of the Hebrew women. Well guess who Miriam goes and gets, you know, Moses' mother to be the nurse of the child. And Pharaoh's daughter gives the baby to her and says, take this child and nurse it for me, and I'll give thee thy wages. So she gives it, and go back if you went to Exodus chapter 2, I want to show you a few details here in Exodus chapter 2, and then I'll make application from it, but look at Exodus chapter 2, Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, this is verse 9, take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it, and the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son, and she called his name Moses, and she said, because I drew him out of the water. And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens, and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, and on and on. We're not going to read the whole story, but go if you would to Acts chapter 7. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, 5th book of the New Testament, Acts chapter 7. So we have to ask ourselves, how long was Moses raised by his parents? We know he was with them for 3 months, then they put him in the Nile River, but then immediately he's returned right back to his mother because she's going to nurse the child. So from reading the story, it appears that when the child is weaned, basically when the child is no longer nursing, it's turned back over to Pharaoh's daughter to be raised by her. Look at Acts chapter 7 and verse 20, in which time Moses was born and was exceeding fair and nourished up in his father's house, 3 months, and when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds, and when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brother and the children of Israel. Now you have to get the picture here. Moses for 3 months is with his parents, then he's returned to them and nursed by his own mother probably until he was about 2 years old. If you think about when a child is no longer being breastfed at all whatsoever, I would say probably the latest is 2, probably even younger than that. I would say the average age that people today that are interested in breastfeeding, because a lot of women today aren't even interested in breastfeeding their child, but amongst those who breastfeed, usually around a year, year and a half, breastfeeding is starting to be phased out. I would put an upper limit on it of probably 2 years old, but probably sooner than that. But let's just say 2, just to go with the highest number. That tells me that Moses was only raised by his parents until he was about 1 or 2 years old, and then he was raised by the Egyptians. Now the Egyptians were not of God, they were not worshiping the Lord. When he was brought up in all the wisdom and learning of the Egyptians, I mean he's learning the heathen ways that they follow. He's being taught in their education system, all their wisdom, all their learning. And so you'd think that when he grows up, he's going to be like an Egyptian. I mean he's going to grow up and have the Egyptian mentality, and you'd think that what he received at age 1, or maybe at the most age 2 from his parents, you know, would be totally forgotten. I mean who has a lot of memories from when you were 1 and 2? Nobody. I mean, I don't remember anything from when I was 1 or 2. You don't remember anything from when you were 1 or 2, but yet somehow Moses' parents made a profound impact on his life when he was only 1 or 2 years old. Because why else would it be that when he was 40 years old, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, he refused to be an Egyptian, and he went to be with God's people, and that's how he lived for the rest of his life. How did he spend his life? The way that he was taught when he was 1, the way that he was taught when he was 2, not the way that he was taught when he was 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. He rejected all that. And yet we would look at that and say, oh, when a child is 1 or 2, that's probably the least important time in their education, they're not even going to remember anything that happened. They're not really even learning anything anyway. You know, it's when they're older that we really need to focus on teaching them the right things. So based on this story, it looks like the real formative years are in those real early years. Now this is not the only place that this concept is taught in the Bible. Go if you would to Matthew chapter 19, because what I want to talk to you about tonight is the importance of little children, especially when they're 1, especially when they're 2. I mean just little babies even, sucklings, babes, infants. I'm talking about the smallest of children and all the way up the spectrum, how important the little children are. Look at Matthew chapter 19 verse 13, the Bible reads, then were there brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them. Sound familiar from this morning's sermon? That he should put his hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven, and he laid his hands on them and departed them. And if you see Jesus here with the little children, there are people who are irritated by the children. And we have these type of people today too, you know, they're irritated by little kids, they don't want little kids around, they don't think little kids are important, and they say, you know, get these kids out of here, you know, we need to deal with the adults. And these children are rebuked by the disciples, their parents are rebuked by the disciples for even bringing them to Jesus. And they say, don't bring these kids to Jesus, and Jesus was not happy. Jesus said, no, suffer little children to come unto me. Now go to Mark, Mark chapter number 10. What does it mean to suffer them? Suffer means to allow or to put up with, okay? Now a lot of people, by the way, let me just throw this in there for free while you're turning to Mark chapter 10, you know, a lot of people will try to say that the King James Bible is outdated and that it's filled with archaic words. This is a lie. What it really comes down to is that people today have a dumbed down vocabulary, therefore they think words in the Bible are archaic when they're in current use. It's funny, I just got a book yesterday, it showed up in the mail, I ordered a book about the archaic words in the King James Bible, and it lists all the archaic words and it shows how virtually all of them are used in modern newspapers and modern magazines. It says, okay, here's all the words that people accuse the King James of being archaic and outdated, okay, here's where the New York Times used it, here's where the Christian Science Monitor used it, and it just shows how it's being used in modern day. It's just people are ignorant, okay? It's funny, there's this guy named Dr. James White in Phoenix here, you know, and he was making a video about all these archaic words in the King James. He's listing them off and he says one of them is a doe. Okay, the word is a doe, and it's not archaic. I mean, people would often say, you know, without further ado, we'd like to welcome you know, it's a very commonly used word, and a lot of these words that are archaic, let me say this, every single one of them is in a modern dictionary. I mean, if you just get a modern dictionary, and it doesn't have to be some gigantic one unabridged, I mean, you can just get a basic dictionary, you know, whatever you'd typically pull out for Scrabble, and it's going to be in there if it's in the King James. Every King James word is in a modern dictionary, because they're modern words. It's just that a lot of people have a limited vocabulary. And people will say this, no, no, the word suffer has changed in meaning, they'll say. It used to mean allow, now it means that you're going through pain and discomfort, and they'll say, you know, it's changed meaning. Wrong. Because in the King James, it also is used about pain and discomfort. It talks about the suffering of Christ. So it's not that the word has changed in meaning, it's that the word had two meanings back then, the word has two meanings now, and you just are ignorant of one of the meanings. And some dictionaries will even list that as the first definition, as the primary definition. So the word has not changed in meaning, you might just not know that meaning. But what's funny is that in the 1980s, there was a song, who's ever heard of the band Tears for Fears? Not an endorsement, but you know, I remember the song on the radio called Suffer the Children. But you know what, it was deemed archaic, so they pulled it off the radio. No, it was a pop song, a pop song in the 80s used the word suffer like this. So what I'm saying is these words are not as archaic as people try to make them out to be, is what I'm trying to say, okay? But look at Mark 10, 13, it says they brought young children to him. You say, well how young were these children? Well let's keep reading. They brought young children to him that he should touch them, and you say, well why do they want him to touch them? Well, basically just to lay his hands on them so that they would receive a blessing, you know, kind of like we talked about this morning. And his disciples rebuked those that brought them, and by the way, I brought my little children to church services and been rebuked for it before, have you been there? And it says, but when Jesus saw it, he was 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. And here's a great verse, verse 15, 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. You see, that childlike faith is the faith that anyone has to have if they're going to be saved, no matter what age they are. That's why it's so easy for children to be saved, because they have that childlike faith, that total reliance upon God, trusting in God, whereas when people get older, sometimes they become cynical, or they become prideful and start to just think, I'm going to rely on myself for everything, I'm going to rely on myself and my good works to get me to heaven, whereas the child doesn't have that pride that would keep him out of the kingdom of God, because he's not able to humble himself as a little child. So God is saying here that not only should children be allowed to come unto him, but in fact the adult must become as a child in some respects to enter into the kingdom of God. Look if you would at Luke chapter 18, the same story, and the reason I'm turning to this in all three places is that there are different details given that are significant to the meaning. That's why we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, to get different details and different angles, and I think that we get something special out of each of these three occurrences. Look at Luke 18, 15, and notice a different choice of words that Luke uses, because what did Mark say? Young children? Okay, listen to what Luke chooses as a word. Luke 18, 15, and they brought unto him also what? Infants. I mean, an infant is technically a child that is too young to walk, younger than walking age. So again, we're talking about one that is not quite one years old, or maybe just turned one year old. They brought unto him also infants that he would touch them, but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them, but Jesus called unto them and said, suffer 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 shall in no wise enter therein. Go to Matthew 21, Matthew chapter 21. Now the reason that I'm showing you all these scriptures and the reason that I'm talking about this subject is I want to talk tonight just a little bit about why we have all the children in the service right now. Because you might just think, well this is the normal thing to do, this is just what churches do, but in reality if you were to go to the average church today, you would not see all the babies and little children like you see right now. This is not typical amongst Baptists. This is not typical amongst the independent fundamental Baptist churches that I grew up in to have all the babies and all the children right here in the service. It's not the norm today because today in 99% of them, the children are removed from the church service and placed in a nursery or a children's church. Now different churches will do this at different ages. Some of them will have them taken out and put in a nursery until they're 3 years old. Some of them will be 4 years old, that seems to be the most common. Some 7 years old. I've been to some churches where children do not enter the main service until they are 12 years old. I mean, not until they're 12 years old. And they're in a nursery, they're in a Sunday school, they're in a different class, they're separated out from the congregation and I'm here to tell you, there is a reason why we have the babies and children in the service here. It's not just because we don't have the right building to figure out a way to segregate them or we don't have the staff or we don't have the ability. Look, we will never have a nursery and we will never have children's church and we will never remove the children from the main service. You know, it's funny because people used to, when we were first starting out, they used to think when the church had just started and we're running 10, 20, 30 people, they'd look at that and say, oh you just don't have a nursery because you're small. But now we have over a hundred people coming and we still don't have a nursery. And let me tell you something, if we run a thousand we're not going to have a nursery. We don't need a nursery, we don't need to remove the children, we don't need to remove the babies. Oh, they're so distracting, they're destroying the service. Well, you know what, we've functioned just fine for the last eight years. All kinds of preaching has gone forth from this pulpit, all kinds of people have been saved and learned and grown and walked with God, and somehow we're functioning and not only that, but our children are learning to sit in church and to grow up and to be like us. See you know what I want my children to grow up? I want them to grow up and be like me. And I want my daughters to grow up and be like my wife. That's what I want them to be like. And you know what, if this church is good enough for me, it's good enough for them. And if it's good enough for my wife, it's good enough for them. And you see today there is a disconnect between the parents and the children where the children grow up with a completely different mentality, a completely different belief, and a completely different outlook than their parents. Partly because they're being removed from their parents and put in school all day being taught by someone else, but partly because they're also removed from their parents and the church that their parents go to and put somewhere else. Now why are children removed? Children are removed because they disturb the service. Because they make noise, sometimes they cry, they might sometimes just chatter happily because they don't know any better at a young age. They might need a diaper change. They might need to be fed if they're an infant. They might need to be nursed. They might need to be, if they're a little older, taken out and spanked or disciplined because they're fooling around in the service. But you know what, that is a small price to pay to have the children in the service. And let me say this, everything we do should be based on the Word of God and there is no scriptural basis for removing the children from the church. Any time you see the church mentioned, you see it's a congregation of all the people, it's all God's people. They're all congregated, they're all assembled together. And there's really no biblical basis for removing them. And in a little while I'm going to show you the only biblical justification I've ever been shown for taking the children out of the service. I'm going to show you how that's not what it's teaching at all. I'm going to prove that to you. And I'll go there in just a moment. Did I have you turn to Matthew 21 verse 15? It says when the chief priests and scribes, Matthew 21, 15, saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David, they were sore displeased. And he said unto them, I'm sorry, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea, have ye never read? Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. Now look, I believe that God is pleased to hear not only the adults singing praises to God, but even the smallest child, you say, well, sucklings, they don't sing praises to God. Well, the Bible says they do. And you know what? My son, my youngest son, who is just a little over one year old, he sings, I mean, who likes it when you hear the kids singing the hymns? I mean, don't you love it? You know, and some of the kids that really sing loud and really belt it out during the songs, I mean, I love that. I think that's great. And you know what? God loves it too. That's what he said in the Bible right here. He said, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. God is pleased to hear those young children singing praises to God. And look, when we look at the life of Moses, we went through all that scripture in Exodus 2, in Acts 7, in Hebrews 11. We saw that in all those scriptures that Moses was only under his parents' influence during that short time of life when he was just one or two years old. After that he was raised by the heathen. After that he was raised by the ungodly. Yet when he grew up, which way did he go? The right way. Why? Because of that foundation that was laid in his very early formative years. You see, that shows me that these children are getting more from this service than what you think. You might look at a little baby and say, that baby's not getting anything out of this service. They don't understand any of this. But they're understanding more than you think. They're getting more out of it than what you think. You underestimate the influence that having that child in church has on them. Look, Jesus didn't think it was a waste of time when they brought infants to him. Jesus didn't think it was a waste of time when they brought little babies and children to him. And he blessed them and he rebuked those who wanted to take them out. He corrected those who said, oh we don't want them around, they're a nuisance, get them out of here, shut them up. He rebuked that and he said, no, suffer the little children to come unto me. Bring the infants to me. The children are an example unto the adults of the faith that they possess. And so we see all throughout the Bible that Jesus is promoting them having the kids there. And there's no scripture telling you to take them out. So I mean, to me that's just a case closed. But let me say this, when you go to a church where they remove the children, what's going on where the children are taken to is not the same as what's going on in the main service. In the main service we sing hymns. In the main service we're praying. In the main service there's the preaching of God's word by a man who's standing up with the Spirit of God, with the Bible, he's reading long passages of scripture, he's expounding them. That's not what's going on in children's church. In children's church what we have is a dumbed down version. Now what will often be said is, oh it's being brought to them on their level. But you know what, in reality, the Bible only comes in one volume. There's not like, okay let's start you, and you know what, by the way, people who believe in these false versions, here's what they teach. I went to a Christian bookstore and said, if somebody walks in here and asks for a Bible, what version are you going to give them? He said, well it depends on how long they've been saved. Because he said if they just got saved I'll give them a new living. New living translation. If they've been saved a little longer then we'll get them on the NIV. If they've been saved even longer, no no, there's one. It's one size fits all. There's one God, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There's one Bible. The King James Bible is what I teach my little child on my knee at home, and it's what's preached unto the gray-headed adult at church. God's Word is for all ages, and look, there are parts of the Bible that are easier for others. That's what I focus on with my children. The milk of the Word. But I don't need to give it to them in a dumbed down version. My kids read the cage. I don't give them a storybook version of the Bible. I read them the King James Bible, white pages, black ink, no pictures from the time that they are old enough to even hear anything and understand anything, and even before that. I mean they just sit there and they listen to it and they're getting something out of it. I believe that. Now what you see today is children growing up and they're forsaking fundamental churches. They're forsaking independent Baptist churches. They're forsaking this kind of a church, and what kind of a church are they going to? They're going to these mega churches, the rock and roll fun center style church, and if you knock doors with me and talk to people who go to these big giant fun center, rock and roll type of churches where there's barely any, if any doctrine going on, almost no doctrine. It's all about entertainment. It's all about feeling good. It's not about teaching the deep things of God. It's not about winning the loss. It's not about knocking doors. It's not about heaven and hell. Okay, if you go to that type of church or if you knock doors and talk to the people who attend that type of church, you'll run into a ton of people that will say, oh, I grew up Baptist. Oh yeah, I grew up independent Baptist. Oh, I grew up independent. Look, I can tell you about all the fundamental Baptists that I grew up with that are in the liberal mega churches now. Why? Well look, if you stop and think about it, it makes perfect sense. Because when I was a kid, they took us out of the main service. They take you out of the church that's a fundamental Baptist church and they put you in the children's church and the children's church resembles a charismatic church. Think about that for a minute. It resembles it. Because what characterizes the fun center? Well, you go in there, wild music. You know, wild fun music. What do they have in junior church? Somewhere in outer space God has prepared a place. And you have this obnoxious wild music. And by the way, that song's not even doctrinally correct. Somewhere in outer space God has prepared a place for those who trust Him and obey. I mean, that sounds like work salvation. I thought it was just, you just believe. I thought you just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You know, but all this kind of wild, you know, Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham, I am one of them and so are you. So let, you know, and that's what they have for church. A lot of pictures, a lot of bright colors, a lot of wild music, a lot of snacks. And then they grow up and then they want Starbucks in the lobby because, you know, they're used to their animal crackers and Kool-Aid. And the animal cracker, you know, morphs into like a scone. And then, you know, the Kool-Aid becomes a coffee drink, you know, it just becomes an extension of children's church. Hey, this is big boy church. This is grown up church. This is big kid church here, Faithful Word Baptist Church. It's not for people who want to stay a baby for the rest of their life. But look, if you put a child in the formative years in an environment of just wild music, no doctrine, dumbed down story, like let me give you an example of the dumbed down Bible story. What's the story of Noah's Ark all about? God destroying the entire earth. That's not a fun story. I mean God destroys the entire world and kills everybody and eight people survive. But when you hear that exact story in junior church, it's all about the animals. It's just all about gathering animals two by two. So what happens is you lose the meat off the bone, you lose the doctrine, you're feeding them a spiritual Twinkie instead of feeding them, you know, a three course meal of the Word of God, the strong, you know, you're giving them a dumbed down artificial version. Now look, I'm fine with, you know, breaking down the story of Noah to a level where people can understand. And you know what, that's a great thing for parents to do with their children. But that is not the function or the role of church. You can't find that in Scripture. Now look, I as a parent would be glad to break down the story of Noah to my children, but I'm still going to tell them that he drowned everybody. I'm not going to sit there and just say, oh yeah, it was just a guy who loved to collect animals. You know, he's just collecting two of each animal. You know, tell them the real story, tell them what really happened. And then they might grow up and actually fear God. You know what I mean? Instead of just looking for a, look, what is junior church? A positive only message. What is junior church? Wild and fun music, lot of snacks, lot of treats, lot of pictures. What is junior church? A female preacher. A female preacher. I mean, nine times out of ten a Sunday school teacher is a woman, you know, or whatever. You say, wow, it's four out of ten. I don't care if it's one in a million. I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Look, God's word needs to be preached by men in the house of God, and what happens is they're used to that female preacher, they're used to the treats, they're used to the positive message, they're used to the wild and fun time, they're used to going there and having this party atmosphere, and then they grow up and that's the church they go to. It resembles it in every way. Am I the only person who notices this? I mean, it's obvious. No one's talking about it. I mean, look, it's so plain as the nose on your face what's happening to the young people. They're being taught that that's what church is. Now take that kid who goes to this fun place, he's drinking Kool-Aid, he's eating animal crackers, he's getting a fun story, it rises and shines, you know, he's having a ball, and then now take that kid and it's like, okay, you're four years old now, and put him in church. You know what he thinks of it? It's boring. He thinks it's boring, because he's comparing it to that other one, and he's like, man, this is boring, and then it's like, oh here, color this, here draw on this, you know, and even worse if it's till he's 12. You know, for the first 11 years he's in the fun center, and then all of a sudden we're just going to take him at age 12 and stick him in the main service, all of a sudden the hymns seem boring, the preaching seems, he's just not used to any of it. But now my children, my children, this is just what, to them, this is what church is. I mean my children, they hear the hymns, that's church. We pray, that's church. Leather lung preacher, that's church. Singing and yelling, you know, preaching hard on sin, rebuking iniquity, to them that's just church. And if they went to one of those other fun centers, they'd be like, this isn't church. This isn't church. This is Chuck E. Cheese. But look, they'll never grow up and go to Chuck E. Cheese Baptist if you raise them in a church like this. But you know what, you raise them in junior church and in the nursery, they very well might go to Chuck E. Cheese Baptist when they grow up. I mean, it makes sense. That's a big reason why we want to keep them in here. They're learning so much more than you think, they absorb so much. My children are constantly surprising me by telling me concepts that they learned in church, bring it up, hey, hey dad, remember that sermon where you said X, Y, and Z? I'm like, I preached that years ago, I don't even remember that sermon. And they remember it years later. Little tiny kids, they're gleaning so much. Look, a child at that age is like a sponge. I mean, their brain is developing more in the first year of life than any other year. The second year, the third year, the fourth year. I mean, up through age 7 is when most of the synapses in their brain, most of the pathway, the neural pathways are being formed in those first 7 years. There's a certain window of brain activity that closes at age 7. There's another window of brain development that can be seen to close at around age 12. And even at age 30, when you reach age 30, it's a scientific fact you will not accept new forms of music that you were not familiar with before you were age 30. If you're exposed to them after 30, you're never going to like them. They've done all kinds of scientific studies on it because you like music that you're familiar with. The music that children heard in the womb and were never exposed to outside the womb when they were babies, they always preferred and chose the one that they heard in the womb without ever having heard it outside the womb. That's why, notice when people are 40, 50, 60, they always like the music from their teens and 20s. And even when they try to be hip to the new music, their favorite is always that stuff from the 60s or from the 70s, that's what they're always going to go back to. Why? Because that's the way our brains are wired that way. And there's all kinds of science behind it to prove that, that the early development is so critical, those formative years. You say, well when's the most important period? Birth. And on. I mean, that's the most important, I mean, the earlier, the more important. But you know what, in churches, it's the opposite. In churches, let's say there's a teen class, then there's an elementary class, and then there's a beginner department or primary department, you know, the really young kids, and then the nursery, they'll put their best preachers preaching to the adults. The preachers that are just one step below them, they'll put them with the teenagers. The preachers that are a step below them, they'll put them in elementary. And then the preachers, and basically by the time you get to the bottom, it's women, and nothing against women, but they're not preachers. You know, men are supposed to preach going to the Bible in the house of God. And so basically, you get down to it and it's either unqualified men, or it's even women preaching. But they'll say like, well we don't want to have women teaching the teenagers. We don't want to have women preaching, you know, we'll do them with the younger ones. But see, they have it exactly backwards. Put your best preacher with the little kids. Put the best preacher, in fact, let's just have everybody in the service just to hear the best preacher. You know what I mean? And to divide it up and segregate it out like that, it just doesn't make sense. Now go to Nehemiah chapter 8, I'm going to show you the verse that people try to use to justify this. And let me tell you something, if you believe something, and you want to find a Bible verse to prove what you already believe, you'll find it. This is a pretty long book. I mean the Bible has 1189 chapters in it. This Bible has 31,000 some verses in it that can all be taken out of context, and if you form a wrong opinion and you're just like, man I just need to find something in the Bible to back up my belief, I've got to find something in the Bible to back up what I believe. You'll find some verse, but you know what? The Bible does not teach to remove the children from the church. Now what's funny is that people who teach this doctrine of, oh we've got to split it up by age group, we've got to give it to them on their level, we've got to separate them out and take them out of the main service, they can't find anything in the New Testament to even remotely teach that. So they have to go back to the book of Nehemiah, because they have nothing in the New Testament, even though this is a church about having kids in church or not in church, but you know what? I'm okay with Nehemiah. I love the book of Nehemiah, and I believe that Nehemiah is profitable for doctrine. So if you want to go to Nehemiah, let's go to Nehemiah, because Nehemiah is God's word. But I find it funny that they don't have anything in the New Testament, even though we're sitting in a New Testament church and they're coming up to you telling you children aren't allowed in this church. And there are people who've been kicked out of their church because they refuse to turn over their kids to the nursery. We've had people tell us, you must put your kids in the nursery or you can't come to church. And we've fought this. Before I was pastoring I fought this because I would not relinquish my children. And I'll tell you why. There's too many perverts out there. In the day that we live in, God warned us. He said, in the last days perilous times shall come. We're living in those days and there are so many molesters, there are so many reprobates and predators and infiltrators that I just don't feel comfortable just dropping my kids off with strangers. I'll visit a church in another state and they'll just be, oh, drop your kid off here. No. With a stranger that I've never seen. Oh, they go to church. Look, there are Judas Iscariots in every church, except if it's not a Bible believing church. Any Bible believing church there will be Judas Iscariots, just like Jesus had one in his church. 2 Peter chapter 2 says, they shall be among you. They will feast with you. We need to beware and understand that there are bad people who creep into churches. There are bad people who come into churches and I preached a whole sermon about it a few months ago, just how they come in to destroy, you know, they come in to wreak havoc. Nehemiah chapter 8, here's what people will try to use to say, oh, we need to take the kids out of the service. Babies have to go out of the service. I've heard this from the pulpit many times. Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 1, and all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the Watergate from the morning until midday before the men and women and those that could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive under the book of the law. Now what they will try to say here is that when it says those that can understand, it's saying that they only allowed those that were old enough to understand. Now first of all, is there any mention of age? Does it say young, old, only the older people, only the ones who were old enough to understand? Now look, how old, let's pretend, let's go into fairy tale town for a minute and let's pretend that this is actually talking about age, which it's not, and I'll prove that to you. Okay, what age, how old is a child old enough to understand the words that are coming out of my mouth right now? How old? Somebody throw me a number. How old do you think a child is that can understand, what's that? Two or three, I mean a two or three year old, you can tell them go get a glass of water, go shut that door, go grab a tissue, they'll follow commands at that age and understand what you're saying. Okay, two or three. I mean look, there are adults who don't understand everything I say, just because they're not learned in the word of God or they're not learned in the English language. I mean what age is the cutoff? But let's just say okay, let's just say two and three year olds, let's just say if they're four they understand, using their logic now. I speak as a fool, as Paul said in Corinthians. Let's say from four years old and up understand, so who doesn't understand then, according to their logic, infants, one year olds, and two year olds. Now look, doesn't this verse say that every single person, both men and women who could understand were there listening? Okay so where were the kids then? No, no, no, no, they weren't there, remember? Because they were only the ones who could understand. So I guess they would have us to believe that these kids are just left home unattended. Okay, let's put a newborn and a one year old and a two year old, we're just going to lock them in, you guys can't understand, you guys stay home, don't play with any knives or anything, stay away from the fireplace, and then they just go to the preaching. You say, well now Pastor Anderson, they were in the nursery. Well hold on a second, who was the nursery worker? The Bible said, look, the Bible said that every man and woman were there. So if there was a woman that had like a bunch of kids that she's watching in some other nursery facility, then everybody that could hear with understanding both men and women weren't there and you're making it a lie. No it's not a lie. Look the Bible in Nehemiah talks about the fact that many of the people who lived there did not speak Hebrew. I mean let the Bible interpret itself. In Nehemiah 13 you'll read about how a lot of the people couldn't speak the Jews' language. A lot of people spoke half in the Jews' language, when it's saying those that can understand, it's saying people who knew the language, because there were all kinds of foreigners and all kinds of people there that didn't understand the language. If it were talking about age, then you'd have us to believe that every single person, even though the Bible doesn't say this at all, even though the passage doesn't say that whatsoever, that they're just dropping their kids off unattended, no adult, no adult. Just thousands, just imagine, thousands of newborns, thousands of toddlers unattended. And okay you say, well it wasn't for that long. Well the Bible says that they did it for like six hours. I mean you're just going to leave your newborn for six hours somewhere? You know what I mean? What in the world? Where does this come from? But you know what? People don't think. They just, they want a verse to support their doctrine, they find it and they just preach it without thinking. See! It was just the people that could understand. But they don't stop and think, okay well who's watching them? Okay well then that means all the people weren't there that could understand. Okay that doesn't make any sense. I mean does anyone still believe that this is saying that they had the newborns and infants gone? And look, the only thing that even has brought about this mentality of taking the kids out, having a nursery, is the birth control mentality, and here's why. Because if women don't use birth control, which birth control is a new thing by the way, you know as far, I mean there's nothing new under the sun, but as far as being accepted and embraced by most of our country, you know 100 years ago it was not so, 200 years ago it was not so. I mean this is a 20th century thing. In fact the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, while president in a speech said birth control is a sin. Now can you imagine Obama saying that? I mean Theodore Roosevelt said birth control is sinful. So what I'm saying is that today with birth control women have 1 or 2 kids. So people just think yeah you have 1 or 2 kids, you need to get that kid out of here, you need to get out of here, you know just during those couple of years in your life. But see here's the thing, my wife has been either pregnant or breastfeeding nonstop for the last 13 years. I mean she's either been pregnant or breastfeeding for the last 13 years pretty much. I mean she's been pregnant or nursing more than not, I mean for 13 years. So what is she just never supposed to come to church? She's just never supposed to be here? And here's the thing, if every woman were just letting nature take its course, obviously some women only have 1 or 2 kids, even just naturally. Some women don't have children for a long time. But here's the thing though, there'd be all kinds of babies, there'd be all kinds of little kids, and by the time you put them in a nursery you'd need so many nursery workers you'd pretty much pull every woman out of the church. The only way that these churches are even able to function with a nursery is because they only have 2.4 children each or something. Because if they were having maximum children it wouldn't even work. I mean think about that. Think about that. See in our church we literally will have like 1 out of 3, at least 1 out of 3 in any given service as a child under 12 years old. We counted it up before and it was like, this morning we had 104 people in church. There were 30-some kids here that were under 12. 30-some kids. And people say, oh but with all those kids nobody can focus on the preaching. Did anything I've said in the last 45 minutes go over anybody's head because a baby was disturbing you? Well babies cry every service. Babies chirp every service. You know, they need a diaper change every service, but they still need to be here. And these rooms that we have back here with the window and the door open and they can hear everything I'm saying and see what I'm doing, you know what? Those rooms right there are just provided for convenience. Even if we didn't have those we could still function as a church. And that's not to take them out. That's a place to take them and just discreetly change a diaper or just if they start getting rowdy or fussy let them play around. But the goal is to have them in here sitting in here. That's the goal. And here's the thing, a lot of reason why kids can't behave in church is because they didn't grow up like this. They're in a nursery for years and then all of a sudden you try to transplant them to the main service. You might have a problem then. But when you start them out in the main service from day one they do just fine. And if you do need to make that transition, because you know we were forced to put our kid in the nursery before we had a strong conviction on it. And then we came to the place where we just started refusing to put our kid in the nursery. But before we had that strong of a stand on it and we made that transition, it was tough to make the transition because they're not used to sitting in church. So what we had to do was we would just line them up at home, and we still do this every day, we line up our kids and read the Bible to them every day at home. That's just something you should do anyway. Either mom or dad should read to them and they all line up and read. And what we do, we line them up and they have to sit still and be quiet and listen to the Bible. And if they act up, they get a spanking. Well then they learn to sit and be quiet and then that skill transfers to church. And then they don't grow up with ADD, and then they don't grow up needing to be drugged and doped, you know, and I can't think of anything else that starts with a D to finish out that alliteration. But I'm just saying, you know, we need to go with what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that those young years are the formative years. The Bible teaches that we should suffer the children. And look, if the Bible here in this verse is saying, suffer the children, that means it could be an inconvenience. You might be a little annoyed sometimes by baby noises or kids playing, but you know what, it's worth it. It's a small price to pay to raise up a generation of godly young people that are going to grow up under this kind of preaching. And the Bible says in Isaiah, you know, who is he going to teach doctrine to? I'm paraphrasing. He said those that are drawn from the breast, line upon line, precept upon precept. That's who's going to learn the Bible. That's who's going to learn the Word of God. Look, we need the children in the church. We're not doing it out of preference, we're doing it out of conviction. We have everybody here for a reason. Everybody needs to be on the same page, hearing the same Word of God, the same truths. And honestly, our children are going to grow up and this is the kind of church they're going to go to because this is what they grew up in. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Train up a child in a different style church than what you're going to expect him to go to as an adult and you're in for a rude awakening. Suffer the little children. Let's read one more scripture and then we'll be done. Psalm 78. Psalm 78, if you open just the Bible to the dead center, it will usually fall open to the book of Psalms. Find Psalm 78 right in the middle of the Bible. It says in verse 1, Give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old. Now look, are dark sayings easy parts of the Bible or hard parts of the Bible? I mean look, are there some things in the Bible that are difficult? Are there some things that are easy? There's both. And Peter, in 2 Peter 3 says that in Paul's epistles are some things hard to be understood. There are things in the Bible that are hard. Those are what the Bible calls the dark sayings. Jesus sometimes spoke in parables and dark sayings, people had trouble interpreting what he was saying. Other times he spake clearly and explicitly. There's both in the Bible. Our utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us we will not hide them from their children. Showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he had done. Look we don't need to hide the hard parts of the Bible from our children. They just need to hear all of it. Is some of it going to go over their head? Of course. Is some of every sermon going over their head? Of course. But as I preach, I see your kid's eyes on me right now and many of them are looking at me and they're paying attention to me and they're hearing what I'm saying and these are truths that are going to stick with them for the rest of their life. They hear me. They understand what I'm saying. And not only that but they're just learning what a preacher is like. And that's the type of preacher that they're going to look for later in life. We go with what we know in most cases. I want my children to know independent, fundamental, King James, hard preaching. I mean that's what I want them to grow up with. I'm starting them at birth. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and please help us not to hide it from our children. Thank you for a church where we're of one mind and one accord, where we believe in having the children in the service with us and there are many out there that struggle with this because their church is seeking to force them to put their child in another service and turn it over to strangers and get an inferior preaching. Father, please just help the pastors across America to wake up to this truth and that they would stop forcing God's people to separate families and forcing them to turn their children over to strangers. Father help there to be an awakening of this biblical truth, to suffer the children to come unto your house and to be in the congregation of the Lord and to hear your word preached and to sing praises unto you and in Jesus' name we pray.