-
Of course, I should have expected
-
that this one was coming.
-
Age of accountability.
-
Si - he says, "A five year
old missing girl's body
-
was found recently encased in cement
-
along a river bed in Michigan."
-
Now, at this point, Si heard a news event.
-
He's using that as kind of a launching pad
-
for his question.
-
He's making some assumptions now.
-
"Let's assume this child
never heard the Gospel.
-
Could a Christian rightly comfort
-
the parents of this child
-
by saying that the child
went immediately into Heaven?
-
Do all children under a certain age
-
go to Heaven?
-
Do children go to hell
-
if they never heard the Gospel?
-
Is there an age of accountability?"
-
Now, bottom line,
-
the Bible does not say.
-
But the Bible does say some things
-
about some things that we can glean from
-
and make some dogmatic statements.
-
So, the first thing that
I would say is this:
-
The Apostle Paul said this.
-
2 Timothy 3:15 - maybe some
of you know this verse.
-
"The sacred writings..."
-
speaking of the Bible.
-
He says, "they're able to make you wise
-
for salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus."
-
Well, why would I read that?
-
Because the Bible wasn't given
-
to answer every question
that we can possibly ask.
-
But you know what the Bible was given for?
-
It was given for us who can think
-
and can reason
-
to know the way by which to be saved.
-
The fact is the Bible wasn't given
-
specifically to tell us how people
-
who can't reason might be saved
-
if they could be saved.
-
It's given to those who can reason.
-
"The sacred writings are given
-
to make a person wise for salvation."
-
And you see, a lot of times,
-
people get caught up with questions
-
that they want answers for,
-
but you know what's more important?
-
The most important thing for Si
-
is to know the way of life
-
and to make sure that he has it.
-
But now, that doesn't mean
-
that this question about children
-
doesn't have practical use.
-
I'll guarantee you, it has pastoral use.
-
When you come across a mother
-
that's lost a little child,
-
what are you going to tell them?
-
You know, is there anything we can say
-
to comfort them?
-
Okay, you know where
people typically go here?
-
They typically go to David.
-
Some of you guys know
-
that David had an illicit
relationship with Bathsheba.
-
That's usually well-known.
-
He committed adultery.
He committed murder.
-
But, there was a child born.
-
You folks know about the child.
-
2 Samuel 12:23
-
You know that David was fasting.
-
He was fasting asking God to preserve
-
the life of this little child.
-
He saw some servants whispering.
-
He figured, well, the child's dead.
-
He went and washed himself.
He went and ate.
-
They wondered, well, this is odd.
-
Why did you fast then,
-
and now the child's dead?
-
It seems like you would fast and
pray now? You would mourn now?
-
He said, "now he's dead.
Why should I fast?
-
Can I bring him back again?
-
I shall go to him,
-
but he will not return to me."
-
And a lot of people have gone there
-
and they say, well, see,
-
David was a man after God's own heart.
-
We know David is a saved man.
-
We know David is in glory.
-
If David is going to go
to where the child is
-
and David is a saved man,
-
then the child must have been saved.
-
Now that's how folks would reason.
-
One thing I would say
-
in the Old Testament is
-
that they didn't have a super developed
-
theology of heaven and hell.
-
Now listen, some things are said
in the Old Testament like this:
-
God said - now think about this -
-
the same logic could be used
-
in other places.
-
Such as, think about Abraham.
-
Is Abraham in Heaven?
-
Prove it.
-
Luke 16 - that's a good one.
-
Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom, right?
-
Which means Abraham was on the good side.
-
And Jesus said too, many will
come from east and west
-
and they'll sit down
and they'll recline
-
in the Kingdom of Heaven with Abraham
-
and Isaac and Jacob.
-
Obviously, he's there.
-
Right? I mean, Romans 4 is all about that.
-
Right? He was justified by faith.
-
He's a justified man.
-
Okay, here's what God says to him
-
in Genesis 15:15.
-
He says, "you shall go to
your fathers in peace.
-
You shall be buried in a good old age."
-
Now here's what God said to him.
-
You're going to go to your fathers.
-
Okay? Logical deduction,
-
all his fathers must be in Heaven, right?
-
And yet the Bible distinctly
tells us that's not the case.
-
The Bible tells us that his father
-
and his father's father -
-
Joshua 24:2 -
-
"Joshua said to all the people,
-
thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,
-
long ago your fathers lived
beyond the Euphrates.
-
Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor,
-
they served other gods.
-
God took our father Abraham
from beyond the river
-
and led him through
all the land of Canaan."
-
You know what?
-
Basically, all the forefathers of Abraham
-
were idolaters.
-
And there's no indication that
they turned to the Lord.
-
So I mean, the very point that it's said
-
that he's going to be with his fathers,
-
a lot of times they had this mindset
-
that you know, the dead
-
are kind of going all to the same place.
-
And they talked that way.
-
In fact, you know what
comes to my mind right off -
-
I wasn't thinking about it earlier -
-
when the witch at Endor raised up Samuel,
-
didn't Samuel - now is Samuel in Heaven?
-
We would say yes, he was a righteous man.
-
Saul, I believe, was a lost man.
-
And yet, you know what
Samuel says to Saul?
-
You're going to be where I am tomorrow.
-
And I don't believe that
that's an indication
-
that Samuel was an apparition -
a demonic apparition.
-
And I don't think it necessarily means
-
that Saul was a saved man.
-
I believe what it means is
-
there's an abode where they go to.
-
Anyways, all that being said,
-
I don't think that David saying -
-
because see, we have this kind of talk
-
in the Old Testament that really showed
-
that they had this idea that the dead
-
kind of went to the same place.
-
You don't find this distinction
-
between heaven and hell
-
really vividly set forth
in the Old Testament.
-
They did not have an accomplished
theology of that there.
-
So I don't believe that you can make
-
with these other things -
-
the witch at Endor
-
and this thing said about Abraham -
-
it's very similar language.
-
And I think you could come
to the same kind of deductions,
-
which you obviously don't want to come to,
-
if you start using that same reasoning
-
with these other cases.
-
And we could probably multiply these.
-
I know that in Chronicles and Kings,
-
it likewise says things about
-
even maybe wicked kings
-
going to the place of their fathers
-
or sleeping with their fathers.
-
And some of those
fathers were righteous men.
-
Some of those fathers
were not righteous men.
-
I think it was just a way
-
that the Old Testament
saints viewed things.
-
So I say, you know, I don't think
-
you can dogmatically
prove anything by that.
-
Now what can we prove?
-
What can we say dogmatically?
-
I can tell you this,
-
children from the womb are not innocent.
-
We can prove that beyond
any shadow of a doubt. How?
-
Well, it's a simple test.
-
We've already said tonight, Romans 3:10.
-
"None is righteous."
-
That includes every little child,
-
and in fact, David himself says,
-
"I was brought forth in iniquity."
-
Psalm 51:5, "...and in sin
-
did my mother conceive me."
-
You know what? Little children
are conceived in sin.
-
Little children are not righteous.
-
Little children are not innocent.
-
Little children are conceived in sin.
-
From day one, the moment they're conceived
-
it's in sin.
-
Let me tell you something else
-
that's dogmatic.
-
Little children die.
-
You say, well, that's obvious.
-
But, hey, the wages of sin is what?
-
Death.
-
Why do little children die?
-
If they're innocent, why do they die?
-
Well, we've already established,
-
they're not innocent.
-
There's none righteous.
-
We know that everybody
is conceived in sin.
-
They die.
-
That's one of the great evidences
-
that there is indeed guilt
associated with them.
-
And then let's just think about
-
the Romans 5 argument of Paul.
-
Just the fact that, listen to this,
-
you guys know this.
-
1 Corinthians 15:22 gives us
some of the same information
-
that Romans 5 gives us.
-
"As in Adam all die,
-
so also in Christ shall
all be made alive."
-
The fact is, all in Adam die.
-
Why? Because all in Adam have sinned.
-
All in Adam are guilty of Adam's sin.
-
All in Adam are condemned.
-
All in Adam are under the judgment of God.
-
You know what the Scriptures say?
-
We were children of wrath
-
like the rest of mankind.
-
You know what that means?
-
All the rest of mankind -
children of wrath.
-
Little children are conceived
-
children of wrath.
-
They're in Adam.
-
They're guilty of Adam's sin.
-
They're guilty of original sin.
-
They are under the condemnation of God.
-
Death is a reality in their lives.
-
Death is a wage of sin.
-
Clearly, they die.
-
Clearly, the implications of sin
-
are upon their life.
-
Clearly, they're not
conceived in innocence.
-
Clearly, their conceived in iniquity.
-
Those things we know to be true.
-
I'll tell you something else.
-
God had infants slaughtered.
-
That's another thing we know
-
absolutely for certain.
-
I'll just give you one instance -
-
1 Samuel 15:3, "Go and strike Amalek
-
and devote to destruction
all that they have.
-
Do not spare them.
-
Kill both man and woman,
-
child and infant."
-
I mean, I'm in Judges now,
-
but I just recently read through Joshua.
-
I was imagining what
it would have been like
-
to have been an Israelite
-
going into those Canaanite villages
-
where they were told to destroy everybody.
-
I mean, folks, when those
walls of Jericho came down,
-
there was only one lady
and her family spared.
-
Everybody else, under the sword.
-
You think about going in with the sword.
-
You've got pregnant mothers.
-
They slaughtered them on the spot.
-
You've got a little infant -
-
they slaughtered them.
-
And that was God ordained.
-
Now you think about God
-
having little children put to death.
-
Does that speak of innocence?
-
But then let's go here,
-
we know that the Bible teaches us as well
-
God is good. Psalm 52:1.
-
"The goodness of God endures continually."
-
How about this? "God is just."
-
Deuteronomy 32:4.
-
"God is a God of faithfulness
and without iniquity.
-
Just and upright is He."
-
And you know what?
-
God didn't need to offer mankind
-
any way of salvation, and yet He does.
-
And we know that Scripturally.
-
God has offered man a way of salvation.
-
Call upon the name of the Lord
-
and you will be saved.
-
I'll tell you what,
-
little children, little infants,
-
little children in their mother's wombs,
-
cannot call on the Lord.
-
They don't have the faculties to believe.
-
And I'll tell you this,
-
if there is another way of salvation,
-
God never tells us it.
-
Right?
-
There's only one way of salvation
-
we know of in all the Scripture.
-
And little children are incapable of it.
-
Right? I can dogmatically say that.
-
How shall I be saved?
Call upon the name of the Lord.
-
They told the Philippian jailer,
-
"believe on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ
-
and thou shall be saved."
-
There's one way given among men.
-
It's in Christ and it's
by faith in Christ.
-
There is no other way.
-
There's no other way given in Scripture.
-
It can't be argued.
-
Little children do not have the faculties.
-
There are little children
-
aborted in their mother's wombs,
-
or miscarried in their mother's wombs,
-
at a day after, at a month after,
-
at a week after conception.
-
There's no faculty there
for them to believe.
-
At least, that we know of.
-
Not that we can imagine.
-
There are people born retarded
-
that we can't imagine have faculties.
-
If there is another way of salvation,
-
we don't know about it.
-
But then let me say this,
-
and this is really the last thing
-
I would say on this subject.
-
Romans 1:18,
-
"The wrath of God is revealed from heaven
-
against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men
-
who by their unrighteousness
suppress the truth.
-
For what can be known
about God is plain to them
-
because God has shown it to them.
-
For His invisible attributes,
namely His eternal power
-
and divine nature have
been clearly perceived
-
ever since the creation of the world
-
in the things that have been made,
-
so they are without excuse."
-
Can I tell you something?
-
God damns men who have
never heard the Gospel.
-
God damns men that have never
-
heard the name of Jesus Christ.
-
And He is absolutely just in doing so.
-
You know why?
-
Because what can be known about God
-
has been revealed in the creation
-
so that they are without excuse.
-
What I would say is this,
-
definitely, God tells us
-
and He wants to make it clear
-
that those that don't hear
-
are justly condemned
-
and they are without excuse.
-
Now the case could be made for children
-
that they have an excuse.
-
They never had an opportunity
-
to reject the light.
-
So it may be that in light of that,
-
they have an excuse by which
-
God in His mercies - and
because they're in Adam,
-
what Christ did on the cross,
-
although they may not have ever committed
-
any of their actual sin,
-
condemnation came upon
all men through Adam.
-
And you know what?
-
It may be that in the death
of Christ on that cross,
-
it may be that He
cancelled out Adam's sin.
-
And it may be that there is a way
-
that God has made that we know not of
-
and is not expressly
declared in the Scripture
-
because they are without excuse.
-
But you see, all I'm trying to say
is what the Scripture says.
-
And men, oh boy, they are
so dogmatic on both sides.
-
You can go talk to one
of our favorite missionaries
-
over in China,
-
and he does not believe
it's consistent with God
-
that God would have them struck dead
-
and then usher them straight into glory.
-
He believes there's an inconsistency.
-
And yet on the other hand,
-
one of our other favorite
patron saints of old,
-
Charles Spurgeon was dogmatic
-
that all children -
-
and of course, I think
the safe thing to say
-
is all elect children are in Heaven.
-
Because the fact is that when you
-
boil it all down,
-
and I know John MacArthur
wrote a book on it
-
and he's dogmatic,
-
and I know John Piper just recently
-
lost a little grandchild
-
just right after it was born.
-
And he doesn't get real dogmatic.
-
I've heard him before, he appeals
-
to this text in Romans
-
that maybe they have an excuse.
-
The fact is I've given you some things
-
I think we can be dogmatic about,
-
and there's just some things we can't be.