Luke 18:15-17

This morning, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Luke, chapter 18. We want to look at verses 15 to 17. Luke chapter 18 and verses 15 through 17. And they brought unto him also infants that he would touch them. But when his disciples saw it, they rebuke them. But Jesus called them unto him and said, Suffer little children to come unto me. Forbid them not, or of such is the kingdom of God. Nearly I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, so in no wise enter therein. May God bless to us the reading of His sacred and holy word this morning. This text is hotly disputed and is often misinterpreted as a basis for infant baptism. It has become I think dear to the Pito Baptist because of its most pleasing sentiments than any other New Testament passed. Baptists are told because Jesus was displeased with his disciples for hindering parents from seeking a blessing for their children. He’s also displeased with them for forbidding infant back. However, if you point out to them, then in every clear New Testament passage on baptism, the person baptized made a credible confession of faith in Christ prior to receiving baptism. Ethiopian eunuch, you recall, said, here is water, what does hinder me to be baptized? and Philip said, do thou believe us with all thine heart? And he said that he did. And he believed that Jesus was the Christ and so forth, and so forth, and he was baptized by Philip. Well, how do we as Baptist answer the arguments of the Pito Baptist? But they feel that their arguments outweigh that one. basic argument that we have pointed out that there’s no credible evidence of faith here. Well, we need to carefully examine this text, and hopefully this morning, as we do, it will be of help to us. Now, let me give you the position of those who see infant baptism in this text. I’m just going to quote a few people, a few lines from each one. Bishop J. C. Ryle, popular commentator on the Gospels, said this. Let us learn from this passage how much encouragement there is to bring your children to be baptized. William Hendrickson, the New Testament commenter. He definitely did not view them as little heathen who were living, who were living, outside the realm of salvation until by an act of their own, they would join the church. Since little children of believers belonged to God’s church and to His covenant, baptism, the sign and seal of such belonging should not be withheld from them. John Calvin if it is reasonable for children to be brought to Christ, why is it not allowable to admit them to baptism? The symbol of our communion of fellowship with Christ. John Murray, infants should be given the sign and seal of that which by the authority of Christ, they are to be accounted. There is nothing signified and sealed by baptism that is in excess of that which our Lord asserts infants to be, and of that which he commands that they should be accounted. Infant baptism, the position of it, run sort of like this. is assumed that bringing children to Jesus involves bringing them to baptism. And so at the very least, we cannot withhold baptism from them. That’s their basic argument on this. Now let’s talk this morning about why infant baptism cannot be founded upon this The first thing I would say is this. Baptism is never mentioned here. There is, you’ll notice, no moisture in this text. There’s not even a drop of water. You know, when baptism takes place, usually there’s a river or a lake or a sea or something. There’s not a drop of water. mention in this passage of scripture. You can take this passage, you can ring it out the best you can and a single solitary drop of water is going to be found. You can strain, you can squeeze, so your heart’s content for water, but there just isn’t any there. Christ said suffer. the little children to come unto me. He didn’t say, suffer them to come to the baptismal file. Is bringing a child to Christ the same thing as bringing them to baptism? It is not. As C.H. Spurgeon once put it, you might as well prove that he vaccinated them as to prove he applied water to them. There is not the faintest hint of baptism connected with this incident. You can’t prove infant baptism by assumption. You must have hard evidence, and there is absolutely none to be found here. There’s no dipping. There’s no sprinkling. There’s no pouring in this passage. Nothing like that. So baptism isn’t even mentioned. The children were brought to Christ. The children were not brought to Christ to be baptized. It should be obvious to everyone that, everyone that these children were not brought to Christ to be baptized. Why? I wonder if you know. You know why? It’s not possible. Well, while we’re here in Luke, let’s skip over a book to John, chapter 4, verse 2. This pretty much should settle the argument, but some people are diehard on this subject. I’ll read the first two verses, or the first two verses, yeah. When, therefore, the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not by his disciples. So it’s, it’s close. So it’s clear to us that Jesus didn’t baptize anybody. And so it should be obvious that they brought the children to Christ and he didn’t baptize anyone that obviously they weren’t baptized. I guess that’s pretty straightforward of an argument. I don’t know why it would be difficult. This really should settle the matter once and for all. It proves that it. It proves that it. It proves beyond all doubt, I think, that there is no connection between this incident and baptism. Since Christ did not baptize them, they were brought to him for another purpose. Matthew indicates they were brought to him that he should put his hands upon them and pray for them. This seems to indicate that they were seen and hoping for a blessing from Christ upon their children, which was a usual custom among the Jews. That there would be a blessing. Joseph’s sons, you remember, in Genesis 48, blessed them all before he died. Both Mark and Luke indicate that the children were brought. to Christ that he might touch them, which is interesting. The idea of touching individuals often connected with healing them in some capacity, often touched the sick and healed them. Now whether that is the case here, we just don’t know. But seeking a blessing or a healing, whatever the case may be, is not baptism. Christ baptized none, and that really should settle the math. So the children were not brought to Christ to be baptized. Notice here, the disciples’ attitude concludes against infant baptism as a common practice here. If it was the common practice of Christ to baptized children that were brought to him, Why is it the disciples here immediately put up a protest and say stop bringing these children to Christ? If that was the practice. This was, if this was common for them to do this, it doesn’t make a lot of sense here. Are they automatically in the covenant of grace because of their parents? Why were the disciples, you know, turning? them away if baptism takes the place as circumcision, as some has argued. Disciples would scarcely forbid the bringing of these children if the common custom was to bring them for baptism. That just makes perfect sense. Besides, Christ rebuked the disciples, the disciples, the perfect option. The perfect option is, the disciples. The Perfect opportunity to speak about infant baptism presented itself if this was his purpose. If Christ wished to rebuke the disciples about, you know, refusing to baptize infants, this was the moment to do it. Wherefore are you keeping the children back? I have ordained that they should. should be baptized. But we don’t have that here. There’s never been a more appropriate moment and we don’t find anything about it. So the disciples’ attitude concludes against infant baptism as a common practice. There’s no proof of these children were the offspring of believers. Well, notice this. The argument for children of believers being baptized cannot be proved when we don’t even know who these children were. Nothing in the text indicates that they were the children of believers. There’s no designation of that. There’s a bunch of children that are brought to Christ. and there’s no indication about the state of the parents. We don’t even know it was the parents that brought them. Christ here does not indicate anything about that. To prove you this, you would have to maintain that all who flock to Christ were recognized as true believers, but we know that’s not true. It’s very clear to us from the other passages where people would gather to Christ, but some of them, of course, were unbelieving, and he knew who believed and who didn’t among them. So this is obviously not the case here. We have a problem here, and it doesn’t seem to fit with the basic arguments of the Presbyterians. And what do you find Christ or his disciples attempting to discern which ones had believing parents and which ones did? All the children who came to Christ, it appears, were touched and blessed by him. That’s simple enough. So there’s no proof. that these children are the offspring of believers. These children do not appear to be born newborn babes, but those who were capable of coming to Christ on their own. They are called little children in Matthew 19, young children in Mark 10, and even the term infants, in Luke’s gospel does not require that they be unconscious babes. Neither the Greek term Piedion or Rethos require these children to be infants. The term little children, by Dion, which is the most frequently used, can indicate a child of children of children. of up to 12 years of age as the damsel in Mark 5 was called Piedion. She was 12 years old. The term infants breath-holes can be used of those who are capable of being instructed in the Word of God. For we read in 2 Timothy 315 from a child. breathels, how it’s known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make me wise under salvation. So these were not unconscious babes. There is no necessity then of the language from the language used. These were little children incapable of coming to Christ. They had to be able to walk. because in Luke it said here that Jesus called them to come unto him. It seemed it’s like they were capable of coming to him on their own. Jesus led the children to himself, called the children to himself, and he could hardly have done that if they were infants incapable of walking, walking. It’s all. Suffer little children could come under me. It applies their ability to do so. No doubt they came with cheerful faces expecting to receive a blessing. They may have been smaller children, but they weren’t incapable of moving and coming to coming to him. These are the same ones that remind us of the triumphal entry where they were crying on, Osaya, to the son of David and the highest and so forth, when Jesus entered the city. Same kind of language is used there. Perhaps they were the very ones who later did that. We don’t know, but we know that they were about the same age and size and so forth. Remember Jesus said out of the mouth of babes, thou hast perfected praise according to, I think it’s Psalm 8. So we see that the word babes there does not mean, you know, those are incapable of speaking. Or we find that that’s not what happens. when he entered triumphantly into Jerusalem. In any rate, there is no proof here. These children were unconscious infants that had to be carried to Jesus. Notice something else. The term hinder in no way suggests a primitive baptism will form it. Some have argued that, you know, suffered little children come unto me. It is part of a baptism. baptismal formula. We find it sometimes, like in Acts 836, what does hinder me to be baptized? Luke, or Acts 1047, could any man forbid water that these should not be baptized? But the term hinder is so commonly used in Scripture that it can’t be part of some kind of formula every time it’s used. That’s just not true. It’s a very common expression. So common, in fact, you can hardly build a case for it. This obvious consideration weakens the case for those who want to make this kind of formula. There is no formula here. It just don’t hear. hinder them from coming to me. So the summation, if I could summarize this all up, even the great Presbyterian Beebe Warfield said about this passage, and I think it’s important. What has this to do with infant baptism? Baptism is not mentioned or even in plot. Not a drop of water. Christ himself to whom these children came did not baptize. Disciples were not in a habit of baptizing infants, or else they would have received them. There’s no proof these children were incapable of walking to Jesus. There’s no proof that they were the children of believers. And so we find that it should be. be obvious to us that infant baptism is found. Now let’s look at the teaching of the passage for us. We have an example of parents, czaring Christ’s blessing on their children. The idea of a blessing is to invoke or to seek God’s favor for others. And here we find parents, or at least some, or some, or to seek God’s favor for others. And here we find parents, or at least some of them. one desiring the children to pray for the well-being of their children. These parents could not go home with absolute assurance that their children were saved because Jesus blessed them. There is nothing here to support that view. There’s no evidence to support that view. of saving grace being conferred. There may have been, but there’s no evidence of it. By coming to Jesus, they were coming to the only source of blessing and the only source of salvation. Certainly, this is not a once-for-all blessing, which did not need to be required. ever again, the words here, he blessed them, are not point action. It’s not a one-time thing. This is a continuous action of people constantly seeking the blessing. The emphasis here is that you, as a parent must seek to bring your children to Jesus Christ. Isn’t that the message here? He’s the only source of blessing and salvation. So you should seek the blessing of Christ upon your children. You bring their children to Christ, not to the baptismal found. You can’t physically bring them to Jesus Christ today. But you can bring them by faith to the Savior and through prayer to the Savior. And Jesus Christ may reach out and be pleased to save them or prosper them. So let us not fail to catch the drift of the passage then. Bringing them before Jesus Christ. For His blessing, there is something we should be constantly doing as we raise our children. Notice Christ is using children as an example of salvation. You see this in many passages. We’ve talked about a passage in the past already about this. You notice that Jesus didn’t say, suffer the little children to come unto me, for of these, is the kingdom of God, but rather of such as these are the kingdom of God. Such who come with a honest and a sincere desire to receive a blessing. These are the kinds of children, but like that, that that should be a sincere desire to receive a blessing. This are the kinds of children. people that should be brought to Christ. Such is the kingdom of God. Jesus meant to emphasize the blessing of the kingdom of God are for those who show evidence of childlike faith. That is the message. The blessings of the kingdom are for such. who are comparable to children in their natural reception of truth. Children do not stumble at the accounts of the miracles or supernatural events. They have a intellectual simplicity that is willing to believe what they are called. and Christ is teaching here anyone desiring salvation must come like a child humbly seeking it from God. So there’s nothing in this incident which teaches or even hints really at infant baptism. In fact, there’s no baptism whatsoever to be found in the text. But we have an indication of what one must be like if they’re going to seek salvation from the Lord. Let’s have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the word. We pray that we may properly understand it and receive it this morning. We pray, Lord, that we may stick to our guns. and believe the truth of what you reveal throughout Scripture. There needs to be a credible profession of faith before baptism. And that infants and children are not subjects of baptism unless they too show faith in Christ. Now bless us this morning. Give us your grace and meet our needs. with Thanksgiving. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction. I’m with the Lord of peace himself. Give you peace always, by all means, the Lord be with you all means. The Lord be with you all. Amen.