We Are Still Children

You know, I think everybody should participate in something like this, get up here and do this. It is quite interesting. Let's just put it that way. But this was a very pleasant experience to be able to ask God's blessing over the futures of our children. That God will be with them every step along the way. I think all of us want that, don't we, for our children? I know we had our boys blessed. You know, the most important thing that we do, I think, when we go off to the Feast of Tabernacles, is we celebrate a family reunion. I don't know if you've quite looked at it that way. You probably have. But, you know, we, of course, along with many of you, probably spent time with our children, our sons Stephen and Jonathan. And it was very, very special to be able to do that. Oftentimes we're over in Hawaii, and sometimes they're not able to come over there due to the cost. It's just prohibitive for them to do that. This year we were able to do that with our children. It made it very, very special. And, of course, seeing all the new people that we saw and the people that we've known a long time as well. But we spent time with our family. And, you know, one of the most wonderful things this year was very special, is we spent time with our little-month-old grandson, George. Now, George is a newbie in this world. He's so tiny. He's so cute. And, you know, just soft, you know, very soft. Sometimes I would, you know, nuzzle up. You know, if Melanie was carrying little George around, I'd nuzzle up and just go out and smell him, you know. You know, they just smell better, don't they, when they're small?

Now, when they're little boys, they may not smell very good, you know, after they sweat it and all kinds of stuff that they do. But, you know, it's just remarkable when you look at a little tiny package, a human being like that. And we've, Joan and I have had great joy out of seeing all of our grandsons grow up. But little George, of course, he's the baby now, and we will be giving him a lot of attention, I'm sure. But, you know, the thing about little children, though, is they're different. You know, animals, you know, are quite different, obviously, than we human beings, and how they grow and they develop animals, like a calf or a colt, when they're born, it's not, it's just a short period of time, and they're whopping and running. They're out. You know, they, they're, it's like they're born for that. You know, it doesn't take very long for that to happen. But, you know, think about humans, you know, when we begin our existence, humans aren't born with instinct. We're not born with the capacity to function right out of the womb. You know, of course, that would be really terrible, wouldn't it? If right out of a woman, a little, little baby gets adventuresome. But maybe God, of course, was wise in doing what he did with that. Can you imagine a baby being born one day, and next day you don't know where he is? But, but, you know, one thing that no one can miss about little kids is, you know what, is they need absolute 24-7 attention. You gotta watch them like a hawk all the time. You gotta be on them all the time. You know, and they have to have care all the time. They've gotta be fed. They gotta be burped. They've gotta be rocked to sleep. They've gotta have their diapers changed. They've gotta be bathed. They've gotta be medicated with salve. You know, the clothes have to be put on them. You have to talk to them. You have to sing to them. And they have to be carried everywhere they go. And again, you've gotta watch them like a hawk all the time. From the time that they're born, to ensure that they're safe. What we learn is a newborn is totally helpless.

Slowly, though, of course, a child begins to grow and develop and mature so that they can take care of some needs. And maybe by the time they're 30, they can take care of most of their needs. But infants and babies are there. And Christ gave babies as a children, as an object lesson to us, to teach us that no matter how old, brethren, we may be or get, frankly, that we are, from a spiritual perspective, absolutely helpless before our God. We're like little babies born, like the little ones we were blessing today. I know we're adults, and I'm going to say a little bit more about that.

The title of the sermon here this afternoon is, We Are Still God's Children. We are still God's children. Let's go to Matthew 19. Matthew 19, and over in verse 13. And here it indicates that, again, that Christ blessed these children. But in verse 13, Then little children were brought to him, that he might put his hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. So they wouldn't allow these children to come. They thought, you know, the Master's much too busy for these little kids.

And Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and departed from there. So he literally laid his hands on them, like the elders here did. And, you know, as we prayed along with each of the elders here. But Jesus Christ used kids' children to demonstrate what it takes to be in the kingdom of God. And perhaps from the womb, the Bible indicates that God assigns angels to little children to watch over them.

And that's, again, to show us something about ourselves, what God does for us. And I'll mention a little bit about that as we get into the sermon. But in Matthew 18, let's go to Matthew 18. Like I said, the disciples argued about who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God. And of course, everybody felt that they were going to surely be higher than another. But the kingdom of God is not going to be that way.

It's not about that. But in Matthew 18, here in verse 1, it says, And at that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And then Jesus called a little child to him, and said him in the midst of them, and said, Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted to become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me.

I'm sure they were scratching their heads for decades on what Jesus Christ said here and just what he meant. But, you know, we have to, and we can read that very clearly here, we have to become converted, brethren, and humble as a little child if we're even going to be in the kingdom of God, to be there in God's family.

Like I said, though, on a physical level, we can think if we're grown, you know, that, well, that's it. You're grown, you can take care of yourself. You don't need any help. I remember when I became a teenager, I went through an independent stage, and I didn't like anybody telling me what to do. You ever been there, by the way? You know, I'll say it the way, Robin Weber does, can we talk? You know? And have you ever been there?

All of us have been there. We don't like people telling us what to do, do we? When we certainly in our teen years and in our 20s, maybe I can do it myself. But you know what? My parents had to explain it to me. That, yes, I do need help. And I have to say, too, experience sort of explained it to me. I understood it after I went through some experiences. You know, my parents had the same talk with me that probably had with all of you.

You know, that your parents had with you. Who pays the food bill? How about the water bill? The electric bills? Who buys the clothes? Who provides the shelter? Who, you know, has made it possible for you to go to school?

Who does all that? Who pays for all that? Who changed your diapers? Who taught you how to blow your nose? You remember what it was like if you've had grandkids you know about this, or you have your own kids? Kids? You know, children coming into the world, they don't know how to even blow their nose. You have to teach them how to blow. Now, blow out. You know, you got a little tissue, and you say, now, blow out. And, you know, they usually go, go the wrong way. You got to come through the nostrils. It's just a hard thing to teach, but you do finally teach them. You got to teach them, of course, to go to the bathroom, what to do, and whatnot. You've got to teach them all of these things.

And, you know, it's like my parents had to have that talk with me.

Who loves you more than anybody else on the planet? We do. Nobody else is going to love you the way we love you. You know, who sacrifices for you? And, you know, after a while, it takes us a while. But finally, we get the point of how much our parents really did for us. That we didn't know that they did all these things for us. And if you don't learn it by the time you, you know, get out of your teen years, you will learn it. I guarantee you, you will learn it. Because you'll be wanting to go back home and live with mom and dad. One other thing I learned is, once you move away from mom and dad, you can't go back. You know, it just doesn't work that way. Because when you're out and you're on your own, frankly, your parents don't want you to be back. Oh, they don't mind you visiting. But, you know, they don't want you, again, moving back home. They want you to get out on your own. My dad told each of us, you know, I pray for you all the time. And I remember saying to my dad, why? Because I thought, why do you need to pray for me? I've grown. This is, of course, when I was a teenager as well. I thought I was all grown up. And, you know, why he was praying for me, because he knew what kind of a person he was when he grew up and all the trouble he got into. And he can only imagine, you know, with six boys, the trouble that they can get into.

But he prayed for us all the time. Mom and dad did pray for us. Well, brother, in order to understand what Jesus Christ is saying about children, we must shift our minds and begin to think on a spiritual level. It's abstract to our minds, you know, humanly, especially if we do not have God's Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit can help us to understand. The world does not understand. It simply does not. It cannot get it. I'm sure all of you have seen the book, God is Not Great. It was a bestseller by Christopher Hitchens back in 2007. I'm not recommending these books, but they were out there. The God Delusion, 2006 by Richard Dawkins, you know, an Oxford biologist, you know, that thought he had it all figured out. And basically, the messages of both of these books, by the way, is that religion has poisoned everything. Now, on a certain level, I would agree with that. False religion has poisoned everything, not God's way of life. It hasn't done that, but this is what they basically purport in their books. And they compare God to the mythical gods of Greece and Rome. You know, they don't know that, in fact, the God that we worship, you know, the Almighty God that dealt with the children of Israel, defeated all the gods of Egypt, you know, the so-called gods of Egypt, which were not gods, as a matter of fact.

And, you know, in their books, though, they talk about this. I remember when I was going to Northeastern State University, we were studying way back then about the gods of the Roman Empire, the Grecian Empire, and, you know, and going through a lot of that, as they probably tried to then pollute the minds of young students at that time, basically to try to knock in the head the idea that there is an Almighty God in heaven. But these books, again, God is not great, and the God delusion tried to put that forth, you know, that idea. Or they make the argument also in these books of how could there be a God with all the suffering in the world. I mean, who among us has not heard that argument? How many of us have seen the booklet, you know, and we've studied the booklet, Why Must Men Suffer? And then we finally come to realize why it is like the way it is, that God has left man to himself to show man that, frankly, he cannot rule himself through, you know, the experiences of pain and suffering, that he's proving he cannot rule himself, and he's God to direct him. They say also in these books, by the way, that the Bible contradicts itself, and it's flawed. And they show, in fact, interestingly, they show that pagan practices are condemned in the Bible that are now being practiced in Christianity. Oh, we learned about that a long time ago, didn't we? That the false religions of the world are practicing, you know, false pagan holidays like Halloween. Who, then the world would even do anything pertaining to Halloween, but even that is done sometimes in the churches of the world. And, of course, Christmas and Easter and Valentine's Day and all of these days that are done, you know, in this world. But, you know, Jesus Christ, by the way, made the statement that the Scripture cannot be broken. But He did not say, brethren, that the Bible couldn't be misunderstood. He didn't say that. He said the Scripture can't be broken. But many people misunderstand what the Bible says, and humanity has not understood the Bible. You know, sometimes also, as these books do, they ask the question, well, where did God come from? Where did God come from? And, of course, they support that man evolved from primordial soup, and then they sort of crawled out of the, you know, the swamp, I guess, and became man eventually over a period of millions of years. You know, it gives rise to the old quote about evolutionists, given anything, anything can happen. Given enough time, anything can happen.

But, you know, the creation, as we understand it, demands a creator.

So all of these kinds of claims that these books purport, by the way, are typical of atheistic thinking or the beliefs and ideas of even some agnostics that think this way.

But read the Scripture, brethren, over in Psalm 14 and verse 1. It says, a fool has said in his heart that there is no God. A fool. The Bible says a lot about not calling anybody a fool.

But, you know, when somebody says there is no God, they might as well stand up and say, I'm a fool. You know, right, you know, it's like there's one comedian says that some people are stupid. They ought to have a sign around their neck that says, stupid, you know. Well, if somebody, you know, doesn't believe in God, they ought to have a sign around their neck that says, fool.

And there are many in the world that are thinking that way.

And it goes on to say, corrupt are they and have done abominable iniquity. There is none that does good.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. You know, Paul probably was one of the most intellectual of all of the apostles, as a matter of fact. He certainly was one who was very prolific in terms of his writing ability. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 over here, and down in verse 7, let's notice here, Paul says to the Corinthians, and this would have been probably the most educated group of people at that time. They were the New York of their day. But it says, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 8. But none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 2 But as it is written, the eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

So what God has planned is so fantabulous, if I can use that as a word, so fantastic that man cannot even conceive it. And though we do not speak in words that are, you know, say the words of the intellectuals, even still what we say is a mystery to human beings. What Christ came teaching is a mystery. Even though he came speaking in simple, you know, language that could be understood, they could not understand it. They could not grasp what Christ was saying. And sometimes people cannot grasp, cannot understand, again, about the importance of the lesson he gave about children, of who we are as man. You know, like the first message about what our identity is. Who do we identify with? Do we identify with our Creator? Or do we, you know, identify with the rebel? You know, the adversary of our Creator.

Going on, let's go down to verse 12. It says, now we've received not the Spirit of the world.

The world spirit, basically, is a disbelieving kind of an attitude, trying to find any way not to believe God. But the Spirit, which is from God, which we might know the things which are freely given, it says to us by God. And it says, these things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct us, but we have the mind of Christ. Those that have God's Spirit can understand what God's plan is. We may not understand, you know, every in and out of the plan of God. You know, we're still learning, aren't we? We're still growing those things as God's people. And I think we've got a lot more to learn in the church. But our minds have changed. We don't think the way other people do because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. We can understand what few people have understood. We can see what is unseeable by human beings, apart from God's Spirit. No, they don't have God's Spirit. They can't see it. But somehow, it's the Holy Spirit's like having on magic glasses. And you see it. You understand it. All of you have gone through this. I mean, many times I have studied things and I could not understand it. I asked for God to reveal it to me. And then you wonder why he never saw it before. I visited a man, in fact, not far from here many years ago when I was pastoring here before in the 90s. And the man was very religious, very, very religious. He was a Sabbath keeper. And I began to explain to him the truth about the resurrection. All the basic scriptures, you probably could quote them, those scriptures. And I started going through each scripture one by one. And I looked over and he had tears coming down his cheeks. And I was a little bit surprised. I thought he would be overjoyed, but he was crying. And I said, is there something bothering you? He says, you know, I've read these scriptures a million times. I have never understood them. But he didn't have on his... then he didn't have it on the magic glasses to see. Maybe I shouldn't use the word magic. Special glasses, let's put it that way.

So, brethren, we have that gift through the Holy Spirit that can let us see those things that are unseeable by man. We can know the truth now if we believe God. You know what, brethren? You and I can know the truth now about many things.

The only evidence you need is faith, and that is believing God. If you believe God, you know, you're going to believe the right thing. Okay. You may not know all the intricacies of it, but you will know the truth because what God says is true. And it will come to pass. And the word of God cannot be broken. It just simply cannot be broken. You can misunderstand it, but it cannot be broken. And this book has proven many people over time. Many have said, well, you know, that couldn't be true. And then archaeology reveals, well, actually, you know, we sort of, you know, stuck our foot in the mouth because it is true. What's in this book and what it says. On a spiritual level, brother, we've been blessed to mature enough to see that, you know, the truth comes from God, and we've been able to see what God has done for us.

It would be good for us, brother, to have our Father. If we don't understand what God has done for us and what He's revealed to us, it would be good for us to have our spiritual dad sit down with us and have that talk that we'd understand, like my parents did when I thought, you know, that I didn't need any help. When I was growing up and finally come to realize, well, yes, I guess you are helping me, Mom and Dad. I'm not doing it on my own. I need somebody to tell me what to do. I need somebody to be there to help me, and they were there, thankfully. Well, if we don't realize, brother, how much God is doing for us, then we need to have that talk with our Father in heaven. Because no matter how old you may be, brother, you and I depend totally on God, just like little George. We depend totally on God the way little George depends on his parents, you and me.

Again, no matter how old you may be, if you're 85 or 90 or whatever it is, or if you're 20, you depend totally on God. You're like that, our little grandson, George, who sort of had bobbles around. You know how little babies are. You hold them, and as they develop, they weave around all the time, and finally they'll get their balance. It won't take long before they will get it.

Perhaps, brethren, when we wonder where God is in our life and what he does for us, maybe we need to open our eyes. Look around. Look around what God has done with you. Look around what he's doing right now.

You know, God created the entire universe.

He created the earth. He gave us the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil, the ground we walk on. What would we do, brethren, if we didn't have soil to grow crops in? Where would we be?

You know, like I say, we have the ground to stand on. God has done all of that for us.

He created the living plants and animals. What would our lives be, brethren, without those? Do we take those things for granted that we have? That there'll always be there? Well, I know certainly the world does, but you know what? Sometime in the future, all that's going to be gone. Then who are you going to depend upon? Who are you going to depend upon then? Now, think about the fact that Adam and Eve were even given life, and as a result of that, by extension, you and I have been given life. We wouldn't even be here. We wouldn't be breathing and sitting here, you know, in these chairs and with a Bible in our hand and listening to what's being said here if we hadn't been given life. And not only has God given us life, He's given us more than that. He's given us an understanding of life. He put eternity in our hearts.

So we could think bigger than an animal thinks. Our future is much bigger, of course.

In Genesis 2, let's go over to Genesis 2.

Of course, we understand that from a standpoint of the Hebrew word for an animal or for a man, it's the same Hebrew word, nayfesh, as a living creature. But of course, man is dramatically different than an animal. But here in chapter 2 and verse 7, it says, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living being. Or a soul, nayfesh, as it is in the Hebrew. A soul in the King James Version. It is used very often here, but here a living being.

And man was given an existence then. So God took dirt. Adam means red clay, and he formed him into the form of a man. And voila! He breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul. Question, though. Okay? What is life? What is life?

Go down to the library and look up that topic. What is life?

I'm sure they've got a whole section on that. What is life?

With all of man's knowledge, he hasn't answered this question. Human beings are a complex machine that has, you know, through the elements of this earth, we've been given a physical chemical existence. But we're more than just, you know, the physical elements of our body. I think the body used to be worth, I don't know what it is now, but it used to be worth 89 cents. Pretty cheap human being, right? You can build a human being for 89 cents.

I guess God could roll them out all day long, huh? 89 cents.

Sure, glad man can't do that. But we are complex machines, aren't we? Interestingly, scientists have experimented so much, and they really think now they can create life. You've probably seen some of the articles about that. They can create life. You know, God was sitting on his throne in heaven when a scientist, you know, said to him, Lord, we don't need you anymore. Silence has finally figured out how to create life out of nothing. In other words, we can do what you do and did in the very beginning.

And God says, Oh, is that so? Tell me.

Well, says the scientist, we could take dirt, we form it into the likeness of you, and we breathe life into it, thus creating man. We zap it with a little power and voila, you've got a man. And God says, Well, that's interesting. Show me. So the scientist bent down to the earth and started to mold the soil.

And God said, Oh, no, no, no. Get your own dirt. You've got to create your own dirt.

Your man is not as smart as he thinks he is. But God created all those things.

He created all of those things. A new area of science, by the way, is nanotechnology. Building on a molecular level.

And they have built and are building tiny machines which are built the size of molecules.

I remember it was quite a number of years ago, probably 20 years ago, maybe a little less than that, that Mr. Bill Morgan came to me, and he showed me an article 20 years ago that had a picture of a small model T, as I recall it. It was very, very tiny. That was a working model.

I don't know how big this thing was, but like the size of a postage stamp, it might have been smaller than that. But apparently it started up. And I guess now they've got to invent a little man to fit in there. But they've been doing this a long time, and they're getting better and better at it. One day, scientists want to inject nanorobots into the bloodstream of your body so that it can repair your body if it's broken somewhere. Imagine all these little nanobots and you're going through your heart, maybe cleaning out all the things in the heart that are bad or wherever it might be.

Imagine again this going on. Anyone who does this will certainly be given great acclaim. But it is interesting to me. Theodore Waite, who is the founder of Gateway Computer, said this, and this is true about many things, but he said, the greatest discoveries in nanotechnology have been 20 years away for 20 years.

When they get there 20 years, it's 20 more years away. But think about the fact, brother, that God has already done it. Been there, done that. God's already done it. And much more. Because every cell, brethren, works like a well-built machine. DNA is the code of God's creation of the human body. In an article entitled, Thinking Strater in Christianity Today, it says why the world's most famous atheist believes now in God. This is back in 2007, by the way. His name is Anthony Flew. I don't know if you've heard about him. But again, world-famous intellectual philosopher, atheist, though. But Anthony Flew, according to this article, a leading philosopher in the first or in the last 50 years, that great of an individual, was at one time an atheist and now thinks it's impossible to have the fine-tuning of creation on molecular level without a creator. He doesn't believe in God, but he calls himself a deist. He's impressed with intelligent design. He cites his affinity with Einstein, who believed in an intelligence that produced the complexity of the creation, as Einstein put it. Christianity Today article, by the way, doesn't quote him, but Flew, by the way, also has said this, and I quote, My one and only piece of relevant evidence is the apparent impossibility of providing a naturalistic theory of the origin from DNA of the first reproducing species. In fact, the only reason which I have for beginning to think of believing in a first-cause God, he said, is the impossibility of providing a naturalistic account of the origin of the first reproducing organisms. A deity or a superintelligence, quote-unquote, is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature.

I now realize that I have made a fool of myself by believing that there is no presentable theories of the development of inanimate matter up to the first living creature capable of reproduction. So this is the guy who's one of the top. He's not an atheist anymore.

Think about the fact, brethren, when Charles Darwin set forth his theory of evolution, you couldn't see on the molecular level. You couldn't see these things to that level. Now you can see right down to the DNA. So if a person set forth a plausible theory, at one time, if it made sense, people would believe it. But now, obviously, you can't just say anything. People can peer down again and see the smallest particles. Now, interestingly, even so, that is the case. People still believe in evolution.

God gave the human body, brethren, with many complexities which allow our physical bodies to function. I want to throw some of these things out to you. I know statistics are not that exciting to us necessarily, but it's hard to imagine what our human body does. You're sitting here in these chairs today. Your body is just cooking along. It keeps chugging along, doesn't it? Maybe your body is like a train going up a hill. This is what the human body does, the human heart. The heart beats 40 million times a year.

Imagine a machine that did that every year, every year, for 70 years, 80 years, 90 years, 100 years.

It produced enough energy in one hour to raise a ton of weight three feet off the ground.

An average human heart will beat three billion times in a lifetime.

Average heart pump pumps 48 million gallons of blood in a lifetime. 48 million gallons.

The left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart. Now, how did that evolve? Now, how about the human brain?

The brain generates more electrical impulses in a single day than all the world's telephones put together.

Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles an hour.

I think mine slowed down a little bit, actually. But, I think I'm maybe 168 miles an hour. Just kidding about that.

Nervous system. One square inch of your skin has four yards of nerve fibers, or 1,300 nerve cells.

Your nervous system has 45 miles of nerves in the skin of a human being. 45 miles. Now, who set up the scaffolding for that?

Your human body. The body regenerates constantly, making a complete skeleton every three months.

New skin every month. 50,000 cells of the body will die and be replaced while I read this sentence to you. You're changing right before my eyes.

Whether you're aware of it or not, you're changing.

One square inch of skin has 100 sweat glands, 3 million cells, and 3 yards of blood vessels.

The stomach produces a new layer of mucous membranes every two weeks, or it would digest itself. Again, how did that evolve?

Remarkable, isn't it? The average human produces 10,000 gallons of saliva in a lifetime.

The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot repair itself.

It takes an average of 43 muscles to frown and 17 muscles for a smile. Hey, let's certainly start smiling a lot more, huh? It's easier.

A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 100 miles an hour. Some of our kids will like that one.

Every 2,000 frowns creates one wrinkle. So if you're trying to cut down on wrinkles, your ears and your nose continue to grow your entire life. I guess we're all Pinocchio, aren't we? He keeps growing.

That is from The Magical Mind, Magical Body by Deepak Chopra. I do not recommend his book, by the way, but I thought that was interesting. But think about the fact that God created this complex human being in Adam, of which we're the same. We're from Adam, Adam and Eve. And God created two perfect human specimens with all of this paraphernalia in them and more. And God put them upon the earth in the Garden of Eden. Why did he do that? You know what? Why I believe he did it is to expose them to perfection. To show them what perfection was.

And God allowed them to be in the Garden of Eden. And what did Adam do when he lived in an absolutely perfect area of the world that would have taken care of him and Eve forever? It would have done that for them. Adam rejected God in favor of the devil. And what did God do? He ejected Adam and Eve from this perfect place, Eden, to prove, and they could go out and they could prove that their way would not work and that Satan's way would not work. And he gave to Adam and Eve this ability. He gave them the ability to reproduce themselves. Imagine this marvelous machine that God gave man could replicate itself. Tiny male cell and a female cell uniting to produce one cell called a zygote, which turns into an embryo and becomes, over time, a short explanation of a human being. Comes a little George. And Adam and Eve have produced offspring probably 40 to 50, who knows how many billion offspring since that time, like the grains of the sand of the sea. Now, even though God gave man this opportunity, man rejected God and the father sent his only son to rescue him. Now think about that. God put them in this absolutely perfect place. They rejected God. Then God says, I'm going to send my son to rescue you. Let's go over to Isaiah 59.

In Isaiah 59, verse 1, it says, Oh, God's there. He sees what's going on. But your iniquities have separated you from your God. This is what has happened to the world out there. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood. Your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice. He's describing the world we live in, brethren. Nor does any plea for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies. They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. They hatch vipers, eggs, and weave the spider's web. He who eats of their eggs dies. And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out. This is the world we live in. Down in verse 7, their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known. And there is no justice in their ways, and they have made themselves crooked paths. Whoever takes that way shall not know peace. You see, God sent His only begotten Son to rescue man from this. He was sent to a world that does not cry out, brethren, for the suffering and the violence in the world. As it should. Oh, I know people don't like to see suffering in the world. But they don't cry out to God. God, what are you going to do about this? They accuse God. They write books. God is not great.

They think in those terms, many of the intelligentsia especially. But in spite, brethren, of that rebellious attitude, He sent Jesus Christ a world which blames Him, blames Him for all of the trouble in the world, and refuses, this humanity, refuses to obey God, refuses to stop practicing the way that leads to violence and war, and death, and pain and suffering, and all the other evils of the world. No, God is quite righteous, isn't He? God has been watching over man since he was created, six thousand years ago or about.

Because God is about the business, brethren, of reproducing Himself. He's reproducing Himself. He hasn't given up on His creation. He's not giving up on a solitary one. Everybody's important.

God doesn't leave anybody out. Everybody's important.

Over in Acts 17, over here, Paul here had gone to the Mars Hill in Athens. This is where many people were gathered, I'm sure, to see the attractions then, even, that were there. But in verse 23, let's look here at verse 23 of Acts 17.

Paul begins here, he says, For as I was passing through and considered the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inception to the unknown God. Unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing Him, I'm going to proclaim to you. I'm going to tell you about Him. So they were so superstitious. They had even a statue here to an unknown God.

I'd love to argue about those types of things. And Paul goes on to say, God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Not like, you know, the gods that you worship. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. He is made from one blood. Every nation of men did dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and we move and we have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also His offspring. We're His offspring. We're His children, is what Paul is telling them. And God wants and desires offspring, a godly offspring. When Adam and Eve were created, they were not created all there. And before they could get all there, they were evicted from the Garden of Eden and the way to the Tree of Life was cut off from them. And only since Christ came has God opened it up to the church where larger numbers could have access to the Holy Spirit.

But God wants and desires, brethren, offspring. And this is one of the great purposes of marriage. And divorce destroys marriages and harms that goal. Malachi 2 says that God hates divorce.

And he said that marriage, Malachi says that marriage was intended to bruise a godly offspring. What do we do, though, on this planet, brethren? The World Health Organization says that 40 to 50 million abortions take place every single year in the world.

Amazing. Think about that. Multiply that over the last, you know, dozens of years and you talk about some pretty healthy numbers there.

All of these things, brethren, though, God sees, He has seen.

And God Himself, even so, loves us and cares for us, brethren, and has a plan for us to rescue us. Even though man still rejects God, and we'll do so up until the time, I think, that certainly the kingdom of God is established. They'll be doing it up until the time that they die on this earth. Some will probably have a problem even at the beginning of the millennium, for that matter.

But they won't be able to refuse God's rule then.

Brother, we owe everything to God. So when we see a child, brethren, it behooves us to realize that we are still children. God's children, His offspring, He hasn't ever abandoned us. He's never abandoned the earth. He's always had a plan to rescue, brethren, mankind. Christ told the disciples that little children were the object lessened to us. We are to become childlike, humble in order to be in the kingdom of God, in God's spiritual family. We understand what that means. When we're in God's family, we won't be physical anymore. We'll be spirit beings. But before somebody can enter into that special family, you've got to become as humble as a little child.

Maybe, brethren, we've missed one of the most important object lessons of all, that we are still children. And like all children, we get disciplined. Sometimes we go through disciplinary action. We're God's offspring. God is constantly watching us, brethren. He cares for us like little George. You know, Stephen and Melanie are going to be watching after him constantly as they do their other children, like all of us. All these little children up here, they'll be watched. The parents love them. In the same way, brethren, God loves every one of you. All of us. He watches over us. He cares for us every step along the way. And Jesus Christ said that the angels of little children watch over them, and it says, they bolt, behold the face of God. The angels that watch over them behold the face of God.

Paul, by the way, over in Hebrews 1 verse 14, tells us that the ministering spirits are sent forth, the minister to who? The heirs of salvation. And they also appear before the face of God. They see the face of God. Same thing. That our angels that are watching over us, brethren, are there to convey to the Father about us. The Apostle Paul said that the work that God has begun in each one of us, brethren, He's going to finish it. He's going to fulfill it until it is finished. And the Bible says that God will never, never, brethren, leave us or forsake us. So, brethren, in this day, let's ponder the innocence of children and other qualities as we should. But we should be aware, of course, that children don't know what in the world is going on. You could tell that up here, you know. Probably if they remember anything, they'll remember all these hands coming. But we need, brethren, their purity. We need to be moldable in God's hands. However, brethren, let's reflect on how much God has already done for us as His children. Let's think about that, what He's done for us. Let's praise Him and thank Him, brethren, for being a wonderful parent to each one of us. He's watching over us always, brethren. He's going to bring us to the final conclusion. If we'll be with Him, if we'll endure with Him, never forget, brethren, that you are still God's children.