Do Babies Go To Heaven?

So this is what I want you to think about. So remain standing so I'm going to read the word. This is what I want you to think about. So most of you have that psalm memorized now. And the psalm says, Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. And then it compares brothers dwelling in unity to precious oil running down on a man named Aaron's beard and on the collars of his robe. and you should meditate on that and you should try to figure out why is oil running down on some guy's beard and on his robe somehow comparable to people and I'll say sisters too, dwelling in unity together.

How do these things even make sense? I don't want oil poured on me as a normal rule, okay? So you have to understand what's going on here. So that's your homework for the week is try to figure out what does this mean? And what is being spoken of here? So there's a homework assignment.

So we're next level church now. Alright, 2 Samuel chapter 12. We'll see if we get a big church split now with homework, right? 2 Samuel 12. 15 to 25 I'm going to read. Then Nathan went to his house.

And Yahweh afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David. and he became sick. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. On the seventh day, the child died and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead.

For they said, behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him, the child is dead? He may do himself some harm. So they're worried about him, right? I'm in verse 19. But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead.

And David said to his servants, is the child dead? They said, he is dead. Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. It's the second guy today that washed himself and changed his clothes, right? Joseph did that. Remember?

We just read that in Joseph, Genesis 41. And he went into the house of Yahweh and worshipped. He then went to his own house and when he asked, they set food before him and he ate. Then his servants said to him, what is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food. He said, while the child was still alive, I fasted and wept.

For I said, who knows whether Yahweh will be gracious to me that the child may live. But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Come, can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba and went into her and lay with her and she bore a son and he called his name Solomon.

And Yahweh loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet so he called his name Jedidiah because of Yahweh. That's the word of the Lord. You may be seated. By my often poor inability to estimate, we have a lot of material to cover today. And usually I underestimate it, it seems like. So we've got to dig in.

David, we already know what happened up to this point, if you've followed along. If you haven't, the sermons are available online, and you can also read 2 Samuel 11 and 12 yourself. But David is told by Nathan that his child is going to die because of his sin of taking a woman that was not his wife and killing her husband. And at the beginning of this passage, what we see is that Yahweh afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David.

It's interesting to me how often Bathsheba is called Uriah's wife or the wife of Uriah. It's really interesting to me. Uriah's dead. According to the New Testament, even in the Corinthians, I think, I don't remember which one. When, I don't know, in Romans 7, when a spouse dies, you're no longer obligated to the spouse. You're not married anymore.

It's just that simple. And that's why widows can remarry without any question at all whatsoever. And yet Bathsheba is called Uriah's wife repeatedly. It's an interesting thing. I don't have a lot of commentary on it. I just find it interesting.

The details that God puts in his word, like we found today. We read two chapters. It was seemingly at random. It wasn't planned from the beginning or anything. And in each chapter, a man who ultimately is a type of Christ, like gets up, washes himself, and changes his clothes. It's kind of neat just seeing these things and being able to think about that stuff.

That's what I encourage you to do is notice those details. But the point here is that David's told by Nathan, hey, this is going to happen. Your kid's dying. Nathan's a prophet. David's a prophet too but Nathan's a prophet and David in verse 16 when he sees his kid is sick sought God on behalf of the child so even though David was told something was going to happen David still goes to the Lord and he says in verse 22 who knows whether Yahweh would have been gracious to me is what he's saying that the child may live David still has some hope that even though there was a pronouncement made that destruction would come upon this child ultimately that Yahweh may be gracious That there may be a turning from what was said would happen to a form of redemption And I think David is right to think that that's possible.

I think it's right that we go to the Lord and we make petitions for him to do differently than what has been pronounced in one sense. And that we can have people changed and people can be saved. in this case we know the history now we know that this wasn't that kind of situation where there would have been a change of state in anyone where God would have then acted differently but David goes and he fasts and lays all night on the ground it says the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him from the ground but he would not get up nor did he eat food with them so David goes basically a whole week here just petitioning the Lord this man is truly humbled this might be the first time in his life you can really say he's truly humbled except maybe back when he was a shepherd boy he had some humility but David's truly humbled and he's coming to the Lord with all he has which is nothing and just begging the Lord for mercy David could have been at the temple with thousands of bulls and goats and sheep and whatever else that he could have had. He could have simply asked people to bring things, right?

David was probably one of the richest men on earth at the time. If there was anybody who could have gone to God and said, here, I'm going to bring sacrifices to you. I'm going to do things to try to make you think that I'm serious. It was David. and yet David I think exemplifies the type of poor in spiritness that Jesus talks about in Matthew 5 verse 3 when he comes to God with nothing and David's best form of coming to God and petitioning him for help on behalf of his child who's going to be punished because of David is to just come in and starve himself basically he fasts he goes without food which is a discipline that Christians probably need to do more of.

It's something that we talk about in more of our one-on-one discipleship conversations or small groups. We did have a fast a couple months ago when we were looking for our church. I called a fast for the church. I don't remember anyone talking much about it, which is fine. It's not something you're supposed to talk about a lot anyway, but in your small groups, I think it's okay.

And I think it's okay to say, hey, you know, let's take a Wednesday and we'll all fast that day and we'll pray for something specific. I think that's something our confession encourages us to do. And I think it's something to do together. But in this case, this is just David, completely despondent over what he had done, despairing of his own sin. And I don't think David was fasting because he thought, well, God will see this self-discipline of mine and reward it.

But this is just the way that serious, repentant people humiliate themselves. David got a taste for a week of what it was like to not have food, which was a taste for him of what it's like to not have the Lord. He felt the absence of the Lord for a long time as he dealt with this thing. This baby was conceived and born. We have a month's period of time at the very least. and it could have been the child was three or four by now.

We don't really know for sure. I think it was a pretty small child, but there were people that postulated that the child could have been much older and he could have even had other brothers and sisters by then. So I don't know for sure. I always imagined it to be kind of quick, but even if it was quick, you have nine months from the time it started until the time the baby's born, right?

And so you have David, his bones were wasting away this whole time when he knew he didn't have the countenance of God looking upon him, smiling upon him. And so David goes without food. And I think that it would be worth your time to study what fasting is. To even just do a word study, go through the Old Testament and see when fasting happened. See why people did it and what they did.

I'll give you one little hint. Nobody in the Old Testament ever just fasted from Facebook for a week. That's not called a fast. Nobody ever fasted from just green beans or chocolate. That's what Catholics do. They pick something they shouldn't eat anyway, and they don't do it for 40 days of Lent.

We're not Catholic. We're not asceticists. We're not monks. I'm going to recommend if you're going to fast for the Lord that you don't eat at all. and that if you're going to do anything, you do liquid. There's something about water only, or for most people it has to be water and coffee, at least something with caffeine. That might be hard to not do caffeine if you're used to that.

But I've known people who even for a week, they just would drink some juice even, because they needed a little bit of sugar, they needed a little energy. But not being able to chew food, not being able to sit and enjoy the goodness of a meal that God provides is helpful. And it's not a weight loss Kickstarter thing. This is something you do in humiliation before God because you desperately want to pray to Him and petition Him to do something.

And so these guys are worried about David. But yeah, do a word study. Read what Jesus said about it. And, you know, there's other people who do it regularly who have done it. before, you know, you don't like fast a week before you're supposed to run a marathon or something. Like be thoughtful and like wise about it, right? I did a pretty long fast once and there was a couple times that it was like man I glad I don operate machinery you know for my job So you should think about these things But I think every Christian should do it And I think we can do it together But these guys are worried about him now because he's like so despondent, right?

And they probably, like I said before, they probably know what he did. So they have some idea why this is happening. And they're afraid to tell him when the child dies. So the child goes a week long, and the child finally dies. And so David is like... I mean, if the child just died one morning, it would have been like, David goes in, my child's dead, okay, like there it is.

But it's like God gave him that week to have to think about it, you know? It's like David held on to that hope, right? That the child might live. and he was maybe daily and nightly then vexed by the fact that he was the cause, not only that the child would die, but of the sickness itself, right? I hate when my kids are sick. And I kind of do the thing inside where it's like I wish it was me instead of them, but I also kind of know it's better that I can help them.

But I hate when my kids are sick. And so you can be certain David was really bothered by this. I think he really loved Bathsheba in the end here, and I think she loved him. And so this was not a good time for him. And so they're worried about him. The servants don't want to tell him.

And this is all setting the stage for what's about to happen, for what David's going to proclaim. So they've got this guy. What happened to messengers of bad news sometimes, especially in ancient times? Yeah, if you're the guy that has to go tell the king, like, hey, by the way, the prophecy's true. Your son died. Do you want some fruitcake?

These kings could kill people, and they did. These people that were servants in David's house, they may have been the ones holding the sword at one time when another messenger came. And so they're nervous, they're scared. They also may care very much about David. They might think, well, if he's this broken up by the child being sick, what's he going to do if the child dies?

Is he going to commit suicide? they said he might do himself some harm. That's what they were worried about, right? In verse 18, 19. 18 that was. So David sees them whispering together. And he figures out, okay, the child's dead.

Or that he knows. And so he asks them, is the child dead? And they said he is dead. And so here's the moment that they're all waiting for. This guy's about to lose it. This guy's about to go. this is it and if you've ever watched a movie where a child dies you know that that's like crazy time for people if you've ever known anybody who lost a child a lot of times this it's a very hard time there's people in this room who have lost children okay there's people in this room who will lose children who haven't yet if you if we heard of someone that we didn't even know who sent you a text tonight and said hey pray for this guy, their child died.

You might even cry with them, you don't even know them. It's one of the most universally horrific things in the minds of any human being, other than total psychopaths and sociopaths, that a child would be hurt. I mean, even right now, pagans have rules and laws against it. Now, things are changing in our country, and there are certain children that are allowed to be killed.

We'll talk about that in a minute anyway. But so what David does, totally earth-shattering to them. They said he's dead. And David arose, washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of Yahweh and he worships. He actually follows in the footsteps of Job when Job's children were lost.

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. And I'm going to worship the Lord no matter what. And then he went to his own house. and when they asked him, when he asked, they gave him some food. So he finally asked for food and he eats and they're kind of perplexed. Well, why? Why for all this time you're laying on the floor, you're crying out to the Lord, like you probably hear him.

He didn't have a soundproof room. He was probably petitioning the Lord, writing psalms for us, which is kind of neat. He said, why now? Are you like, okay, like to them, this was the bad ending to the story. and then he says while the child was still alive I fasted and wept because I wondered you know maybe God will be gracious to me that the child will live maybe somehow God will be gracious but now he is dead why should I fast can I bring him back again so David appeals to reason he says I shall go to him but he will not return to me So now, David proclaims to them that his child is dead.

He doesn't use a weird euphemism or anything. He doesn't say he passed away. I get it. We like to do those things sometimes. But I think sometimes we avoid the reality of things like death by using these other terms. And I think it softens the thought of it to people.

People should hate death. I mean, death should be utterly hated. When somebody you know dies, Christian or not, it's a horrible interruption to their life. It's unnatural. It's not the way God originally designed things. Of course, we know he decreed all, but that wasn't the plan.

In the sense that death is not part of the way God does things. Death is an introduction because of sin. but David appeals to reason he says well he dead I can bring him back what am I going to do now David fasted with the hope that God would save the child Now that the child is dead David has no hope that the child will come back He has no reason to fast for that. And he says, I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.

And here we have the text for today, which is, what happens to children who die? Do children who die go to heaven to be with Jesus? Do they go to hell to be punished? Do we not know? Do we have no idea? What happens to the millions and millions of babies that are aborted every year around the world?

Are they all in hell right now? Are they all in heaven? Do we even know? Just Presbyterian kids go to heaven? Is that how it works? They were baptized?

Is that how God works? what about you children in this room? Do you have a bunch of time that you can wait and try to believe on the Lord later? Or is today the day that you're supposed to call on the Lord for salvation? So, we will do a bit of a systematic study of this. And so we will talk about what I'll call infant salvation. Now, David, I'm just going to start with this.

David's a prophet and a king, right? So Jesus is the prophet, priest, and king, the ultimate one. David was a prophet and a king. Very few guys filled two of the roles that Jesus filled. David did. David wrote as much or more scripture than most other people that actually got to write scripture.

There wasn't very many men in the history of the world that even did that. David's a prophet. He knows the Lord. He's basically the Lord's favorite guy who ever lived, according to the scripture. He's a type of Christ. he has good theology and David seems to think that he's going to see his child again and what I would submit to you today is that if the only text of scripture that could support the idea of baby salvation is that David a prophet of God thoroughly believed that this will say innocent child of any real crimes in this world he would see again and David of course was a believer going to heaven, if this was the only text of Scripture that supported that notion, I would say we're obligated to believe it.

Now, we're going to go through a lot of other texts of Scripture, and so I'm just going to spoil the ending for you now. I believe that we have sufficient reason to believe that when a child or a baby dies, that they are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. that God has elected them from the foundation of the world, not because they die as a child, but they end up dying as a baby or a child because God elected them. And that was the way he chose to get them to be with him.

So we're going to talk about some of these things. But in case you were worried, like you're sitting there, you've had a miscarriage, and you've held on to this hope that your baby's in heaven this whole time, and you thought, I was maybe going to tell you that the baby's not. I just wanted to kind of get that out of the way. I'm not going to tell you that.

But we can't do this just because of sentimentality. We can't just say, well, we like babies. They're all cute, so therefore God must like them, and they're in heaven. We can't do it that way. That would put a lot of us ugly people out of heaven, and put a lot of the good-looking people in heaven. It doesn't work that way, right?

So we have to look at things scripturally, and we have to look at them logically. So first, there's a few logical positions you could try to take. There's a lot of illogical positions you can take. So we can go over some of this in detail more privately if you want. But some of the logical positions you could take if you believe the Scripture is that all children that die in infancy go to hell.

You could take that position. I don't believe that position. I know people who do take that position because they believe that those children are represented by Adam, their federal head, that they were conceived as sinners, and that their only hope of salvation would be to hear the gospel and believe it. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

And that because they never heard the gospel, just like the remote jungle guy who doesn't hear the gospel, they go to hell because they're dead in Adam. And it's just that simple. Some people believe that. I don't. I think those people ignore the numerous texts that we're going to review today. Some people, I think, think that some kids would go to heaven and some go to hell.

And so they would kind of throw up their hands and say, well, we don't really know, but it's possible God could save an infant, but it's also possible God wouldn't. And I find that to be severely unhelpful. If it's possible he saves any infant, I would just say you might as well treat every infant as if he did for the purpose of giving people hope and joy in this world when things like that happen.

Some people would think that children of believers get to go to heaven and the children of pagans don't, which would deny John 1, 12 to 13, which says that as many who believed in him, who he gave the right to be children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but by the will of God. If it's really God's will that saves the person and not by the blood line that they're born in, then it becomes irrelevant whether you were the children of Presbyterian parents or total pagans, according to this doctrine. Some people take the position that we literally have no idea what would happen and we shouldn't even consider it or talk about it.

I find that those people are trying to be kind of lofty about things, and I don't think it's helpful. because of the numerous texts of scripture that we think give some hints as to what's happening with children. And then there's people that take the position that all babies are elect, they all go to heaven, if they die in infancy or even in the young childhood. There's people that take different positions, like an age of accountability.

Some people have said that at 20. If you've ever known a wicked teenager, you know that's crazy. but some people pick arbitrary ones some people try to read them from the Bible and find text of scripture that supports something like that I'm not an age of accountability guy if there is an age of accountability we don't know what it is and it could vary from person to person based on what God chooses to do with them church history I think comes into play Spurgeon says this would your God cast away an infant? He says, if yours could, I am happy to say he is not the God that I adore.

So, you can feel free to take one of the other positions from Spurgeon. I generally don't. It's just like a safe space. Well, what did Spurgeon or Calvin say? If you stay in those two, you're usually good. So, before we get to the proof texts, look at the confession.

I'll just read This one here, 11.3. This has been thought of before. One of the reasons we have a confession is so we can resolve disputes and we can edify one another without having to reinvent every single wheel. And it's the chapter on effectual calling. Chapter 10, paragraph 3 says, Elect infants. Dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit who works, when and where and how he pleases.

The same is true of every elect person who is incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word. So what this is saying is that there are people who are not the kind of people that are condemned because of the general revelation they receive, that, for example, infants in the womb, or even that would apply to people who have mental retardation or mental handicap. There are people who we believe that God has elected from the foundation of the world, and in a very special way, they may have been afflicted in this life in such a way that they are unable to even understand the gospel.

That's different from a guy who just never hears it, but sees the light of day. A couple things we've got to make sure of. John 3, you have to be born again to see the kingdom of heaven. And that happens however God pleases. That's the point of the effectual calling, chapter 10, paragraph 3, when it says this can happen with elect infants, is that God is not constrained to make people born again by displaying that to us in their faith in Christ in such a way that he is stuck doing that with babies.

Everyone here knows that there are children who do not understand a lot of things. The Bible talks about it too. And so God has shown in his scripture that there are ways, there is a way that he saves children without the hearing of the gospel in that sense. We can't appeal to sentimentality only. So we love babies, so therefore we hope they're all in heaven.

So we're just going to say we believe that. I know people have done that. They really hurt the actual cause of arguing this point. We can't create alternative ways of salvation. You don't want to create a way of salvation for children where what you say would actually apply to literally every pagan out there that just doesn't hear the gospel or even hears it and rejects it.

So unless you want to become a universalist, which is really bad, you have to be careful how you say these things because you don't want to create some way where other people who we do believe are condemned by God's word can somehow now escape God's judgment. That's important that we don't create another gospel. covenant theology and our belief in the federal headship of adam cannot be broken either nor can the seriousness of having a sin nature i i read many articles about infant salvation that kind of argued that infants are sort of innocent because they've never actually committed a sin. But they do have the sin nature, but God doesn't hold them accountable to that.

And that's not really what federal headship looks like. Federal headship looks like you all sinned in Adam and so did your little babies. And we're all guilty. And Adam's unrighteousness was imputed to each one of us. And so it's not, I don't think we can break federal headship. So be careful when you research this, if you read some of these like dispensational guys, they make a lot of really good arguments too, but they don't hold to the federal headship in the same way sometimes that we do with covenant theology.

And so we don't want to break that. We basically don't want to paint infants as innocent, and so now they go to heaven, which would be a totally different gospel, because that would be your own works righteousness effectively that gets you to heaven, or your own righteousness, not even your works. it is only by the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to a child of Adam would they go to heaven the question is whether God does that at all or not to people in their infancy in the womb Jesse Johnson from the Cripplegate said the Bible makes a category distinction between those who sin willingly adults and those who sin by their nature infants adults can discern between right and wrong and they love the wrong They rebel against God despite natural revelation and they will be judged for their works. Infants have a sin nature, that is why some of them die, but they do not sin in the same way as adults.

So his point there is, is that when we look at the Bible, so you can turn to Deuteronomy 1 right now, when we look at the Bible, what we see is that the Bible makes a distinction between people who have a sin nature, which is all of us, including your precious little babies, and people who willingly are sinning because they actually love that sin and they hate God and His law. And that nature, that category distinction doesn't make one innocent, but it does seem to be a distinction made in scripture that helps us see God's special love toward children and infants. So in Deuteronomy 1, here's some proof text.

We're just going to fly through now. Deuteronomy 1, 35, God is judging Israel's rebellion. He says, Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers. But then in 39, he says, And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there, and to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.

So the promised land is inherited by the children of the very people who God was punishing for their rebellion. And the reason given in this scripture is they have no knowledge of good or evil. He doesn't say they're inherently innocent because they're not actually an Adam. But in this picture of the entering of the promised land, which is a picture of your ultimate glorification one day, God says, because they have no knowledge of good or evil, they're going to go in there.

And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. So Jonah 4, a similar concept is shared with us. Jonah chapter 4. If you guys remember what Jonah is about. Jonah goes and preaches to the city of Nineveh. It's a big, huge city of like a million people or something, and they're all pagans.

They all hate God. Some of the worst people that have ever lived, the Ninevites, were in Assyria. And I forget how to find Jonah here. Sorry. I don't mark my pages in my Bible either. Where's Jonah?

I've totally drawn a blank on the order of the books here. Jonah, Micah, Nahum. Yeah, okay. There's Micah. Some of the small ones you can turn right by them too. So in Jonah chapter 4, after Jonah is mad at God because he spared the Ninevites of this destruction that he had promised them.

So this is a great example of God saying he was going to do something and then it doesn't quite happen because of the change in the state of the people. not a change in God's mind or in God whatsoever, but it's a good example of why we still pray for things to happen. But the Lord said to Jonah in verse 11, after he says, Jonah, pity the plant, he says, should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle? if God spared the children of Nineveh, He spared the whole city of Nineveh for the sake of the children. And for the fact that there were basically innocent cattle there.

God spares them. He says, shouldn't I do this? And so this is a picture of God's special understanding of the state of children. They don't know their right hand from their left. they certainly don't understand the intricacies of God's law. They don't understand what it means to be evil. In Matthew 25, 41-46, that's the passage where God separates the sheep and the goats.

And he says to the goats, I was hungry and you didn't feed me. I was in prison and you didn't visit me. He basically gives people a list of things they didn't do. And one of the questions Spurgeon asks about that passage is, when did they have an opportunity to do it, babies? It's just the idea that God seems to show in Scripture that he's going to hold people accountable for the things they did.

We're all accountable because of what we did in Adam. But it was never manifested in that way. So that's a hint for us. A lot of these passages won't convince you. Romans 1. This is more of an argument from a fire hose.

I'm not asking you to say that the hose water tastes good or that it's refreshing what I'm asking you to say is that when it all comes at you it's just too much to handle lots of verses that are all hints at something so you don't have to be convinced by any one of them you don't have to be convinced by all of them but if one of you in this room gets to a moment where you have a need for counseling and the result of a dead child you're going to get from me a promise that I think I can give you from Scripture. 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. So this is the universality of condemnation that all men are under, proclaimed by Paul.

He says, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. Because all the stuff we need to know about God has been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world into things that have been made so they are without excuse. So can anybody here tell me that there is an infant that was murdered in the womb that has any knowledge of God because of creation That they going to spend eternity being punished in hell by God And God's going to say, yeah, I gave you sufficient evidence of me.

Because they'd be able to say back to God, no you didn't. I didn't even have eyes yet. A lot of them. As if God is creating souls by the uniting of a human seed together and then the plan B pill is snuffing them out and God says, okay, I'm going to take that soul, I'm going to punish that soul in hell. I don't think that's the way it works. For you to be without excuse before God, for you to stand before God and have no excuse for your sin because you have clearly perceived His invisible attributes and His eternal power and divine nature ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, you had to at least have been born.

And I would dare say you have to be a little over two years old probably. I will say this. If you ask me, my age of accountability is probably lower than most. I think some of the kids in this room need to get right with God today. I don't think you are promised another day, and I don't think you're promised that God will have mercy on you because of your ignorance, particularly because you sit in a church that preaches the truth to you every week.

In Ecclesiastes 6.5, you don't have to turn here. Moreover, it has not seen the Son or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. Talking about a baby that dies. The preacher says it finds rest. That's not exactly a recipe for that baby died and went to hell. So we have this idea over and over that a stillborn child is better than a man that lives a long life and doesn't know the Lord.

That's Ecclesiastes 6 if you want to look at it. Romans 5.15. It'll be there in a few years. Romans 5.15. Good passage there. Well, 14.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. That verse is saying the reason why children die, even though they never actually have sinned, is because they've inherited the sin from Adam, and we're all condemned by that. It's trying to explain why some people die that you don't practically see a reason they should die.

Sin brings death. And sin brings death even on Adam's progeny who haven't themselves sinned in the same way he has, knowingly and willingly against God. Children are special to God. Turn to Ezekiel 16.21. God, I think, gives us hints. Look, there is no verse that says children go to heaven.

If that's what you want, then I guess write a new Bible. It doesn't say that. The Bible doesn't say a lot of things that sometimes we wish it said, because it would be easier to win an argument. God wants us to read His Scripture, to study it, to plumb the depths of it, and then to realize it's unfathomable, and then to continue plumbing it, and to continue meditating upon it, and learning from it.

And He wants us to draw conclusions that are reasonable and logical for it. Necessary consequences of Scripture is part of our confession. In Ezekiel 16.21, we'll say 20, Ezekiel is saying to these guys, he says, And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had born to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whoring so small a matter, he says, that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them.

There's a whole lot in that verse, but I just brought you there because it says, you slaughtered my children. God calls them my children. He doesn't say your children. He says my children. And I'm going to tell you something. There isn't a single person that's going to live in hell for eternity that was called my child by our God.

He doesn't leave or forsake his own. Jeremiah 19.4, another proof text. Again, if any one of these doesn't convince you, I want you to see the preponderance of texts that point to this. So at the very least, we can get away from this idea that the Bible doesn't speak on it because the Bible doesn't speak on it as clearly and easily as we'd like it to sometimes.

Also, get the notion out of your mind that the Bible doesn't do anything you'd like. The Bible does exactly what it's supposed to do. If you don't like it, there's a problem with you. There's something to keep in mind. but second of all the notion that all infants go to hell because they never heard the gospel get that out of your mind there's too many verses that at least hint otherwise if you won't buy them Jeremiah 19.4 he says because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocence, he says.

Again, I'll submit to you that there won't be a single person in hell who is called innocent by God. In 1 Kings 14, 13, another interesting little passage. I'm really just trying to overwhelm you here with it. I just want you excited to believe this. I want you to have confidence because I not always going to be there you going to have family members friends your own life that has to you have to deal with these things on your own You need to be prepared to do this And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave.

This is about his little baby. Because in him there is found something pleasing to Yahweh. Something pleasing to Yahweh. Wow. It doesn't sound like a hell-bound sinner to me. So that child dies, goes to heaven.

Luke 18, for such is the kingdom of heaven. That's what Jesus says about children. The kingdom of heaven is children. Alright, I'm running out of time. Job 3. If you want to read Job 3 on your own.

Job pretty much argues that had he just died when he was conceived, his life would have been better. That's not true unless you go to heaven when you die. And I don't love that personal chapter as the proof text, to be honest. So I'm just going to toss it out there that other better men than I have used it for the same argument. In Luke 141, does anybody remember what happened when Mary visited Elizabeth?

Kids? Now this should be a good kids thing. What happened when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth? Anybody remember what Elizabeth's baby did? Yeah, he leapt in the womb, right? He leapt in the womb.

And I'm pretty sure, if you look at it closely, John the Baptist is said to have been born again from the time he was in the womb. So that's not necessarily a proof text that all children will be. I think people, I'm a testimony that I wasn't born again in the womb, okay? It's a testimony that God can and will when he pleases. That's the point. In Revelation 7, 9, every tribe, nation, language, and tongue is represented worshiping around the throne room of God.

That is impossible with entire people groups of languages that have come and gone without the gospel, unless God saved some of those people. There's no way it could happen otherwise. So, logical conclusion can be that there were people in some of these remote tribes that we've never even heard of, some of them, who got saved. That makes perfect sense if we believe that their miscarriages and their child deaths, and even some of them, their child sacrifices they performed sent their kids straight to heaven. when God kills all the firstborn of Egypt how wonderful it is to think that all those pagan Egyptians who had no hope and would have grown up in that pagan society were taken straight to heaven some of them what a blessing what a blessing to be in a pagan nation and God to take you out in 2 Samuel 18 so back to the chapter or the book that we're in.

In 2 Samuel 18, we have the death of Absalom. So if you don't know who Absalom is, he's a wicked son of David. Wicked man. It's hard to call him a man, honestly. Wicked little boy, call him almost, but a wicked human being. And they tell David about his death. and in 2 Samuel 18.33 David finds out about one of his children's death, Absalom and so you remember how David reacted when his son died in 2 Samuel 12.

He got up he ate, he said well I can't change it now so I'm just going to go on with my life, I'm going to go to him soon he says when Absalom dies David was deeply moved in verse 33 and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept and as he went he said, oh my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom. He says, would I had died instead of you. Oh Absalom, my son, my son.

It's a very different reaction to his wicked son, who I think David was sure went to hell, than he had to his other son. Why would David have not reacted this way about the first son? It wasn't a lot of time passed. It's not like David's theology changed a ton. What you're supposed to figure out from this is that David was right. He knew God's mercy towards children.

He knew that God took his child to heaven, and he would go to be with him soon, and thus he could rejoice even in that moment. God will always do what is right. That is the God we serve. Job 34. We have total confidence that God will always do what's right. Job 34, 10-12, Elihu says, Therefore hear me, you men of understanding.

Far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him. Of a truth God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. I don't find it to be the best argument for infant salvation, but one of the arguments that guys like Spurgeon made was simply God, it doesn't accord with his goodness and mercy that he would look at children and say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity.

I tend to be swayed by it because of the preponderance of other evidence that the judge of the earth will do right. So here's your application, all right? Here's some things to think over as you think about this stuff. One, you've got to work this out for yourself. everyone in here should be able to sit at the side of a person in your life who's going to experience a miscarriage who's going to experience the death of a child in some other way and you should be able to give them great comfort and you should know how to do it with more than just oh it just feels good to say babies go to heaven.

So you should work this out on your own. I'll give you my notes. I don't care. You just list the verses for yourself. I had to re-look them all. It's not like I had them all memorized.

I had to look them up. But this should be comfort for those who have lost children. We don't grieve as those without hope. That's Thessalonians, right? So if you've lost a child, if you've lost a little brother or sister, I know my mom had a miscarriage I actually have great hope that right now that's the only sibling I'm going to see in heaven actually we have three miscarriages in our family I often joke those were probably the three biggest sinners and God had to save them before they really did something bad in this world it might be true God may have spared not only my children from a lot of horrible effects of the fall, but he may have spared this world from some wicked people and saved them.

Great. We rejoice that he saves any of them. But you should be able to comfort those who have lost children. You should have gladness of their present state. I honestly don't know what it would be like to spend my Christian existence thinking that my little babies were in hell. I mean, if I have an older kid that rejects the Lord, I can understand it.

I can rationalize like okay they had their chance They rejected them But I don know how I exist Like I live with the hope that I going to see my children one day It like David did I'll be on the side of David and Spurgeon and John Newton, a whole bunch of other guys. Another application, dashing children against the rocks and plagues against the firstborn of Egypt are actually God's providential mercy and goodness to pagan children. so when the Israelites were called to go and destroy all the other nations before them the Amalekites and the Ammonites and all these other people that they had to utterly destroy remember? kill the women and the children too, it was said a lot of times when these things happened we can actually have some great rejoicing that this was God's providential mercy towards some of those kids that rather than grow up in that pagan nation where they were going to be taught to worship idols to sacrifice their own kids if they made it, to whore and commit idolatry and sorcery. Some of these little children of pagan nations were taken straight to heaven by God's providential mercy.

Something like abortion, I would dare say the greatest evil of our day, is actually being used by God for the greatest revival in heaven. like you're going to get to heaven and there's going to be more people there that never saw the light of day here on earth than did you're going to see some people that never actually suffered the difficulties and afflictions we have to face too it a mercy to these children in a sense we still oppose abortion we oppose all evil even if God uses it for good But we can actually be kind of thankful that God uses it for good It gives you a chance to focus on the here and now, like David did. So while David's son was sick, David fasted and prayed. while David's son, after he was dead, Dave got up and ate and kind of moved on. I'm not saying everyone in here needs to move on as quickly as David did.

There will be a time of mourning, and depending on the type of person you are, it may take you longer to heal from some difficulties, and you should be mindful of that if you counsel others. At the same time, as believers, there is a point where we expect you to believe what God has said and to act accordingly and to be faithful to that. and you should work out your own salvation some of you adults this isn't a very big room you're all accepted as members so I can't really say I don't think you're a Christian but you adults should work out your own salvation with fear and trembling especially those of you who have the hope to see a child one day and you children in this room you should not be under any misgiving that you are somehow covered and you're going to go to heaven you are in the hearing of a preacher of Jesus Christ and you are to recognize your sin against God and his holiness and his holy law you to understand that you have a need for a savior and you to believe in him today there actually no better day to do it That the neat thing about salvation Today the day So work out your salvation with fear and trembling John Newton wrote to some close friends who had lost a young child. Listen, this is a guy that wrote Amazing Grace.

This is what he wrote to these people who had lost a young child. I hope you are both well reconciled to the death of your child. I cannot be sorry for the death of infants. How many storms do they escape? Nor can I doubt in my private judgment that they are included in the election of grace. That is your hope.

Let me pray. Father, thank you for providing so much scriptural proof of this truth. we pray that you would use it to impress upon our hearts our need for personal repentance from sin, personal repentance from our ignoring of your word at times repentance Lord that causes us to take action to do things that are the right things that we ought to do. I pray for the people here in my listening today that they would be able to go and dig deeper into these things that this would be a joy for us to understand.

And I pray, Lord, that we would never need these truths, that Jesus would come before any more tragedy should strike in this world. But Lord, as each one of us is very likely to encounter someone who loses a child, I pray that we would all be prepared to minister in the most truthful and godly way possible at that time. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.