“And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them,” Mark 10:13-16.

We come to the third point that I want you to notice from these words.So far we have considered:

(1) The youngest child may be brought to the Lord Jesus.

(2) Christ’s disciples can act foolishly and be rebuked by Him because of it. Now we come to the final consideration:

(3) The smallest child may teach us how to get saved.

See what the Saviour said to the disciples, the grown-ups.“Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”

1. The very first word shows how important this truth is. ‘Verily’. The Saviour often used this word when He was saying saying something very important. The word means ‘of a truth’. It may seem strange that the Saviour said this of an infant BUT, it is nevertheless true! Its first use in the New Testament: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled,” Matthew 5:18. This was ‘truly’ a very important doctrine.

2. It was not what the infant said but how the infant acted is what we must learn. When the Saviour reached forth His hands and took the infant up in His arms IT DID NOT RESIST, OBJECT OR TRY TO GET AWAY! There is the lesson. “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”

3. Surrendering, submitting to Christ and yielding to His hand as it draws you to Him, is the only way to enter the kingdom of God. It is very common for sinners, touched by the hand of the Lord Jesus through the preaching of the gospel, to pull away and resist.What these little infants did IS NOT COMMON! Babies howl when a stranger would try to life them! But these infants didn’t and so showed us how we should respond to the Saviour’ hand.