2003 Shepherd's Conference, A Ministry of Grace Community Church 818.909.5530. © 2003 All Rights Reserved. Grace Community Church. A CD, MP3, or tape cassette copy of this session can be obtained by going to www.shepherdsconference.org
Are Children Safe?
(Handout – Study Guide)
The Issues Surrounding a Child’s Profession of Faith
Bill Shannon
INTRODUCTION:
I have been involved in Children’s Ministries in one capacity or another for the last twenty years. I have seen numerous children go through the ministry having professed faith in Christ, maybe even shown some evidences of true salvation and repentance but 20 years later never darken the door of a church or claim to know Him as their Savior.
There was one young lady a few years ago who was caught by her parents in some serious immorality and once confronted by her parents she still claimed to be a Christian. Add to that the number of children in our Sunday schools or AWANA clubs that claim Christ but when they get older either don’t remember or don’t want to remember. Some parents try to remind them of their profession in the hopes of their children desiring the things of God.
Therefore if children are giving themselves to the Savior as young ones what happens when they get older? Do they loose their salvation? Are they just “backslidden” Christians? Did they ever get saved? What does it mean for a child to desire the things of God one day and in the years to follow never have any desire for the things of God? Another question that needs to be answered is whether the gospel is any different for the children? Is the gospel any different for the child? What do they need to know in order to be saved? Hopefully these and other questions will be answered here today.
While this discussion concerns mainly a child’s profession of faith and it’s implications to folks within your congregation it never excludes your responsibility as a grandfather, father, uncle or brother for the children God places under your influence.
I. Children and understanding the gospel
A. Obstacles
1. Development Inability—Children are not able to understand abstractly. They have a naivety in their thinking that is expressed in the choices they make toward foolishness. The Scriptures tell us of the need to drive out this foolishness from a child. Proverbs 22:15 “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline will remove it far from him.” Children are naďve and the Book of Proverbs makes it clear that the study of and application of that book will help children to become wise and grow out of their foolishness Proverbs 1:1-4.
2. Intellectual Inability—As a matter of fact in child development the brain is not fully developed until the age of seven or eight and even then abstract thought does not develop until the age of twelve or thirteen. Therefore one of the most difficult responsibilities is teaching the truth of God’s word to children who cannot fully understand all that is being said to them. Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.” Children are immature in their speaking, thinking and reasoning. Paul gives a warning later in this same letter for the church about their thinking. 1 Cor. 14:20 “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.” Dennis Gundersen in his little book called “Your child’s profession of Faith” said, “We realize that children lack maturity of mind to properly understand the choice they say they want to make.
3. How can we know for sure that our child has come to saving faith in Jesus Christ? As I mentioned earlier I can give you example after example of kids from good families who have professed faith in Jesus Christ and could even articulate an accurate Biblically sound understanding. Yet those same children have absolutely nothing to do with God or the church today. (Illustration) We really cannot be sure of a child’s profession of faith. They so desire to please their parents, teachers, youth group leaders and sometimes even their friends that they make a profession. I remember when zealous seminary student who came to me one Monday morning to tell me how this ten year old had given his life to Jesus Christ the night before in our Discovery Ministry. I made it a point to follow up with the young man that week and asked him what happened on Sunday evening. He told me that the game time was really “cool.” I asked specifically what transpired between he and this enthusiastic seminary student. “Oh yea we had a really cool talk.” I asked about what and he told me he couldn’t remember. Yet another incident among thousands that a leader desires so much to see children come to Christ they unfortunately count them in the kingdom when the King hasn’t declared them in the kingdom.
4. Oversimplification of the gospel can cause problems. Since a child’s comprehension is less developed than an adult’s the temptation for the parent is to oversimplify the message and therefore obliterate that which is necessary for their comprehension.
5. A profession of faith does not equate with a true confession of faith. The solicitation of a response from children occurs often and is not profitable for a good presentation of truth to children. The sinner’s prayer is often coerced out of the child because the parent or children’s worker has such a desire for the child’s salvation. Parents and children’s workers should be faithful to present the truth of God’s Word not neglecting any aspect of the gospel just because they are children.
6. Don’t assume a profession is regeneration. Just because a child responds positively to the gospel does not mean they have saving faith (illustrate 400). One can never assume the profession of faith as reflecting the genuine work of God. Children desire to please parents and teachers or because of peer pressure or because parent pressure them to respond positively. Charles Spurgeon said that 60 percent of his church was not saved. These were adult church going folks who in Spurgeon’s estimation did not know the reality of true faith in Jesus Christ.
7. Don’t assure a child of salvation. Often parent seek to give their child a verbal assurance of their salvation. As a consequence the church is filled with teenagers and adults whose hearts are devoid of real love for Christ, but who think they are genuine Christians because of something they did as children. (Christian High School.) This assurance is better left up to the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:15-16). The church today is cluttered with many folks who truly do not know the Savior only a remembrance of what mom or dad told them they did.
II. Some difficulties in evangelizing children
How are we to present the gospel of truth? How do we know what will be effective to save the child? John MacArthur said in Faith Works–The Gospel According to the Apostles, “Twentieth century Christianity has tended to take a minimalist approach to the gospel. Unfortunately, the legitimate desire to express the heart of the gospel clearly has given way to a less wholesome endeavor. It is a campaign to distill the essentials of the message to the barest possible terms. The glorious gospel of Christ which Paul called “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16) includes all the truth about Christ. But American evangelicalism tends to regard the gospel as a “plan of salvation.”
The gospel has become cheapened by the modern approached today evangelism. All that a person has to do is walk an aisle, raise a hand or just show up at church once in a while. You know the people I am speaking of, you have met them, and they believe they are Christians because they once gave assent to Jesus Christ.
A. The character of the gospel–The gospel in not about a plan but about a person. It is not a formula that must be prescribed to sinners in a set of tapes. It does not call for a mere decision of the mind, but a surrender of the heart, mind, and will–the whole person–the Jesus Christ.
1. Teach them about God’s holiness–God is holy and you are not. Children need to develop a “fear of the Lord.” “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10, Job 28:28; Prov. 1:7; 9:10; 15:33; Micah 6:9). God loves you and will save you from hell no matter whose plan you chose for your life (Ill. of Conference Speaker). The remedy for such thinking is the biblical truth of God’s holiness. God is utterly holy, and His law therefore demands perfect holiness: “I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy. . . You shall be holy for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44-45). “You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins” (Josh. 24:19). “There is no one holy like the Lord, indeed, there is no one besides Thee, nor is there any rock like our God” (1 Sam. 2:2). “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” (1 Sam. 6:20). God requires holiness “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16). “Without [holiness] no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
2. Show them their sin. Gospel means “good news.” What makes it truly good news is not that heaven is free, but that God’s Son has conquered sin. Sadly, it has become stylish to present the gospel as something other than a remedy for sin. “Salvation” is offered as an escape from punishment, God’s plan for a wonderful life, a means of fulfillment, an answer to life's problems, and a promise of free forgiveness. All those things are true, but they are by-products of redemption, not the main issue. And when sin is left unaddressed, such promises of divine blessings cheapen the message. Sin makes the sinner worthy of death, James 1:15 “Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death.”
We would all agree that sinners can do nothing to earn salvation “Romans 3:20 “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight…”
3. Children must understand who Jesus Christ is and what He did for them. The gospel is good news about who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for sinners. There are a few things that are basic to the gospel and therefore necessary to be understood for someone who is a true believer.
a. Jesus is eternally God–John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Col. 2:9, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form”
b. Jesus is Lord of all–Phil. 2:9-11, “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and t hat every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
c. Jesus Christ became man–Phil. 2:6-7, “who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”
d. Jesus is utterly pure and sinless–1 Peter 2:22, “Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.” 1 John 3:5, “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.”
e. Jesus Christ became a sacrifice for our sins–2 Cor. 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Titus 2:14
f. Jesus shed His blood as an atonement for sin–Eph. 1:7-8, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us.”
g. Jesus dies on the cross to provide a way of salvation for sinners–1 Peter 2: 24, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” Col. 1:20
h. Jesus Christ rose from the grave and triumphed over sin Romans 1:4 “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead…” 1 Cor. 15:3-4.
4. Children must hear what God demands of them
a. Repentance–Repentant faith is the requirement. It is not merely a decision to trust Jesus for eternal life but a wholesale forsaking of everything else they are to trust in Him. Repentance is a turning away from sin and embracing Jesus Christ in trust and obedience. Luke 9:23; John 12:26
5. Advise them to count the cost of following Jesus Christ.
(Illustration about the army). “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace. So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions” (Luke 14:26-33).
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt.10: 34-38).
1. Encourage them–encourage every sign of faith and use every opportunity to teach them about Jesus Christ and His gospel.
2. Correct them–correct their behavior always pointing them to the need for the saving work of Jesus Christ on their behalf.
3. Teach them–point them to the need of a Christ-centered life. They need to live a life of integrity. They need to make church life part of who they are and how they act.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "Shepherd's Conference Collection" by:
Tony Capoccia
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