I think I'll entitle this, there's different things I could title it. Christians and Churches That Are Not Serious. This evening, I told you we have a mystery guest speaker. And he is a mystery speaker because, well, I haven't told you who it is, so it's a mystery. But he is a mystery guest speaker in a way that is beyond the fact that you don't know who it is. And I say that because the mystery guest speaker doesn't know that he's going to be speaking. And, however, he's going to find that out in just a moment. So I'm sure there's maybe a few men that are thinking, oh boy, this doesn't sound good. But fear not, brethren, fear not, because our speaker, if not anyone that's here this evening, you say, well, when are they going to show up? Well, they're not going to. No, our speaker this evening is Chuck Eberle. Brother Chuck is going to be speaking this evening. Well, in a manner of speech, he's going to be speaking this evening. One time I wanted to read part of a text that Chuck sent to me and I told you that he'll send me one or two a week and usually there's one that's fairly long and he's He's mulling over and consuming that which he just heard, could be from a Sunday morning sermon, a Sunday evening sermon, a Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible study, and he'll send me a long text and he texts it out and he's just making the observations of what was said, then making his own input and expressing his joy in hearing those things and how much it means to him, but then make an application. And they just come out picture perfect. They're just so well constructed. And so I said, well, I want to read part of what you said, but I don't want to read it. He sent it to me, and without his permission, he said, he says, Pastor, anything that I write to you or text to you, if you feel that the Lord's people can benefit from it, then yeah, you don't have to ask me. So I'm not asking you, Chuck. But little did he know, because he doesn't know what I was going to do. I'm assuming he's live streaming. Little did you know, you're in the hot seat tonight, you know, so. You say, well, how much of a text did he give? Well, actually, it was a fairly long one, because I printed it out. Well, I didn't print it out. I typed it. Well, I had Paula type it for me. I'm like, I don't have time for this. Will you type this? And so, you know, single space, it's like a full page. Well, a page. and a little bit of another page, you know. But, you know, when I'm texting, you know, my fingers, I have to keep going back. I hit the wrong thing. My fingers are too, you know. I text that long, you know, it takes too long. It's like I'll call the guy before I have to, well. Well, Chuck sends me those texts and they're always models of spiritual appreciation and insight. And so I thought I'd share his text with you. And obviously, just decided to, you know, I'm going to take the template of his salient points. and then speak on that for our profit and our benefit. And I think we can profit. Now, I've done this before. I had guest speakers this way. One time it was Pastor John Robinson. He didn't know he was going to speak. He'd been gone a long time. And there was another one of the pilgrims. I'm trying to remember who it was. I can't even remember the sermon. But there's a sermon I did, and I really took a lot from his sermon. And I said, he was our guest speaker. So we have Pastor John Robinson of the pilgrims. who didn't come over on the Mayflower, because he stayed with the majority. And we have the other pilgrim father that did come over on the Mayflower, and he had a wonderful sermon. I wish I could remember what it was off the top of my head. And then there's Chuck Eberle. So he's in pretty good company for being a preacher at Clayville when he's not even here. I thought I'd read the text for you up front, but I think that'd be too time-consuming, but I'm going to read it as we go along, paragraph by paragraph, and we'll make the points that we need to make. I think we all miss Brother Chuck, and he'd be coming back tomorrow. Let's bring part of Chuck back early, even though he didn't intend on it, and that's what we're doing. So, with that in mind, Christians and churches that are not serious. I'm gonna, let me start, I'll read the first paragraph here. The first paragraph, of which I don't really have that much to add, but this is what he says. Hi, Pastor, you asked an interesting question Wednesday evening during the Bible study. By the way, he sent me this, it was towards the end of July. So it was relatively recently here. He says, you asked an interesting question Wednesday evening during the Bible study about what kind of assembly or church false Christians would most likely attend. And in parentheses, he defines false Christians, those who do church activities but are not regenerated by Christ. What kind of church do those people attend? And that's the question we asked. And you probably remember that with just probably three weeks ago or something. Part of the answer given was that they would avoid serious Christians. In other words, if they're not really Christians, what kind of church would they go to? And we kind of were talking about, well, they'd avoid serious Christians. And that claim, he says, is different because it's a serious place, okay, right? Then we get to the second paragraph. He says, of course, many people used to attend church but weren't serious. Some still do today. Some go because it's expected of them. Some go because that's how they were brought up. It's a habit. Some go to church just because of who else is there, like their boss or a political leader or a well-known speaker. Nowadays, many people go to church for the music or children's program. Okay, so as I'm reading this, I was like, okay, I can identify with everything he's saying here. Yeah, I understand. Look, I've been out there, I know. So that's the second paragraph. Let me talk about some of what he said here. He's basically describing the less than serious reasons that false Christians employ to justify their going to a particular church. So why do people who have been deceived, they maybe think they're right with the law, they're Christians, but maybe they're not actually. What kind of church do they go to? And we're saying, well, they don't go to serious ones. And what does that look like? He says, well, many attend church that weren't serious, and they still do today. And one of the reasons that some people will go to a church when they're not serious is they go because, as our brother says, it's expected of them. Some people go to church, and some people go to a particular church singularly because It's expected of them. Now, that's not necessarily illegitimate. I mean, it can be. That's not a good enough reason for a grown adult that still has his breeches on, but in some instances, that's proper. I mean, think about small children, right? You have small children raising a Christian home, Christian mom, Christian dad. It's Sunday, and they're going to the meetings of the body of Christ. And Junior's going too, you know. And it's not up for a vote. The family's going. And mom and dad have that kind of rule, not because they're talents. First of all, when the children are small enough, you can't leave them by themselves. Secondly, we're to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I would think that Christian parents that have a place that they can attend in good conscience, and they don't, bring their children, particularly their small children, and they don't bring themselves, they don't bring their children on a regular basis, I'm sorry, they're not really raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord the way the Lord would have it, because the Lord has provided something for them, a place to go, because not everybody has that. So sometimes that You know, we require of children, there's nothing wrong with that. That's proper. Now, the modern age we're in, they'll say, hey, that's involuntary servitude. And as a father, I just say, you better believe it. That's exactly right. You know, Junior will make his decisions when he becomes of age. But, you know, he might not want to eat his fruits and vegetables. Well, you're going to eat your fruits and vegetables and your red meat. Don't let them kid you. And you just do those things. You're gonna clean your room, you're gonna come out and help me cut wood, you're gonna do whatever, you're gonna learn a little bit of responsibility. Those aren't options for children. So sometimes people go to church because it's expected of them, it's proper. But obviously there are sometimes people go when it's expected of them, and really that's not a reason for the vast majority of people to go to church or particularly any particular church. Because it's expected. I mean, that's it. You talk about the bottom rung. That's the bottom rung. But it happens. And Chuck says, these are kind of connected. He says, some go because it's expected of them. Some go because that's how they were brought up. It's a habit. And that's true. Sometimes it's just they grew into the habit. So they were young and they had to go. And then when they got a little older, Well, they may have had some friends in church now, so now they want to go. Why do they want to go? Well, because we have friends. We want to see them. That's not a good reason. Every church I left, I had friends. I made friends when I was there. And there's a sad part of me that was dragging my feet. I never have a hair trigger leaving an assembly. Well, I've only left the church twice for conscience sake. Well, one, two, yeah, twice for conscience sake. One, I'd just grown so lukewarm, nothing was happening, and there was always a simmering cauldron of revolution waiting to happen. Okay, I'm not going to raise my family this way, so I'm not here to, I don't go to church to have a fight. So, And then I went to the Fundamentalist Baptist, but then I came to the realization, being there for whatever it was, a couple years, I came to the realization of what dispensationalism, I learned what dispensationalism was by going to one, a church like that. And then as, you know, my convictions grew and my understanding grew, in spite of what I was hearing, I said, no, this is not right for me to be here. And so that was out of conscious. But the other churches, it was because I was moving and I had to leave and was moving and had to leave and just, you know, the churches were, you know, okay for the moment, but I wasn't, it wasn't planting my feet. There were issues, but I want to go somewhere. You don't have to find perfection. You never find perfection. But sometimes when children get a little older and they become adults. They're used to going to church. It's how they were brought up, and it becomes a habit, as the brother says, and they continue the practice of going to church. And it's something they should do, and now it's not something they should do because mom and dad are saying you should. They're old enough. They may have their own family, but they've been doing it their whole lives. They got used to it. They realize at church you learn, at least you learn You get to expose yourself to the, oh, I hate to say it this way, the art of public speaking. But it is true. I found out when I gave my first speech in college, which I almost didn't go to college because I didn't want to do a public speaking course. It scared daylights out of me. Like, oh, I wanted to go to college, but no, no, no, I have to do that, you know? I mean, it scared me witless. I almost didn't go. Well, when I gave my first speech, which I've told you before, the first speech in the public speaking class was five minutes. You had to do three in the semester. Five minutes, and then the second one was 10 minutes, and I think the last one was maybe like 14 minutes or something. And so you start off small. My first five-minute speech was on snake bites. You can do it on anything, we just want to hear you. But everybody really enjoyed the speech. And they couldn't see, I was standing behind the teacher's desk, there was a little podium on the desk, but my knees were knocking together, something horrible. And they couldn't see that, but I'm like, you know. snake bites, and there's one kind of snake, he has his curved teeth, and when he bites, he can't get his teeth out, so he's trying to dislodge his teeth against. I said, it looks like he hangs on and chews. When I said that, everybody broke out into laughing. I'm like, oh, okay, this is going okay, but I was just scared witless, but I wasn't showing it. And I realized after the fact, you know, why did I do so well then? Because I've been exposed to the preaching of God's Word. And you don't think of... Preaching God's Word is not giving public speeches and honing your... But, I mean, there is an overlap there because you're trying to present thoughts in a logical manner. And when you're constantly exposed to that, you do gain an appreciation for, to some degree, for how that's done. And so sometimes children, as they grow up, they get to feeling like they should go. I mean, you get good things out of it. You hear discussion and debate and argumentation, and there's some skills you can learn. The people are moral and they're decent. And there are things they stand for that are upright. It makes you feel like, you know, I have a purpose to my life. And I believe in the sense of responsibility. You get some good things out of it. And when you just go out in the world, you do nothing but TV and work and the baseball game. The bigger picture, And the meaning of life and the ideas of integrity and stuff, they kind of easily slip through your fingers because you're just going through the routine of life. And that's how many people are. So church gives some people a general sense of purpose. I'm sorry, that's not a really good reason. It's not a bad reason, but it's not a proper reason. Yeah, I mean, going to church may seem good and proper and respectful, and like, it's right. It's right to do. Well, washing your hands before you eat is good, proper, and the right thing to do, you see? But I think, hopefully, meeting with God's people as commanded by the Lord, with Him in our presence, and the Spirit of God uniting God's people in the knowledge of the truth, well, I think that ought to go beyond washing our hands before we eat our hot dogs, you know? Go to Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two. If you're gonna eat a hot dog, eat a soggy. I know a lot of you guys like to grill in black, but I think a soggy deserves to be boiled because all the juices are somewhere, and when you eat it and it pops, So if you're gonna get down in the gutter and eat hot dogs, get a soggy. My little plug for Alan. Okay, so we're reading Colossians chapter 2. The brother says, they go to church because it's how they were brought up and it's a habit. Well, what are we talking about? It's how they were brought up, it's a habit. Well, it's just their tradition. That's been a part of their tradition for their whole life. We go to church. And then they finally morph into going willfully on their own with their own family. It's a tradition. Now in Colossians chapter two and verse eight, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments, which is the elementary principles of the world, and not after Christ. Hmm. All right. So Paul is warning the believers to beware. Do not be deceived. See, he says, beware lest any man spoil you. You'll be deceived. And there'll be a corrosive thing that happens. Don't be deceived by the philosophy and the traditions of men. Well, some of the philosophies and traditions of men is going to church. And even standing up for Jesus, it can be just Tradition. Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Do you go to the meeting seeking Christ and His will for your life, and His grace and His power in your life? Or is it one of these many other reasons people go to church, but they look good doing it? that can be deceit, that is the philosophy of man, and it can be vain deceit. Paul doesn't want us to be deceived with that kind of thing. All this human philosophy comes from the tradition of man. Now, in Paul's case, writing back then to the Colossians, I'm sure he had in mind, at least in part, Judaism, Talmudism, Pharisaism, the tradition of the elders, which was problematic, which was contrary to that which is of Christ, yet they were going to church. Oh, they were the ultimate church people. They went to the synagogue, they went to the temple, they went wherever they could go depending on where they were. And they looked like they took God's word seriously. Surely the Pharisees looked like they took the law seriously. But Jesus says, you didn't. Unfortunately, that's oftentimes what happens. And as part of the carnal thinking of the world, you can go to church for carnal reasons and with carnal motives and expectations and not really be seeking after Christ, not seeking after the things of the Spirit. So human tradition even a good one, can be contrary to God's spirit and God's truth. The tradition, like I say, can be even good. It can be an honorable tradition. For instance, like going to the meetings. But that honorable tradition is no substitute for the real thing. And as we're going to see, somewhere in this sermon. As we're going to see, God never commanded people to come for the sake of coming. But even good traditions can't take the place of the real thing. Let's go to Isaiah chapter one, Isaiah 1. In verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. Is Isaiah preaching to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah? No. Well, we know who he's speaking to by looking at verse one. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah, and Jerusalem. Isaiah is the prophet who's prophesying to Judah and Jerusalem and he refers to them as Sodom and Gomorrah. And if you notice in verse two, he also refers to them as the heaven and the earth. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth. Hmm, an eschatological observation that we don't need to go into, but you're very familiar with it. Well, he speaks to the nation. the theocracy of God as Sodom and Gomorrah. Doesn't sound good. And look what he says, verse 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? He's speaking to people that sacrifice to Jehovah, according to the law. And he says, you're Sodomites. And then, The Lord says to them through Isaiah, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Sayeth the Lord, I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. The Lord saying your sacrifices serve no purpose. They are required of Judah. As part of the law, hey, you sin, offer a sin offering. Go to the house of the Lord as commanded. That's all true, not denying that. But the way they were going, they were not fulfilling the commandment. Oh, they showed up, but they weren't fulfilling the commandment. And the reason I say that is because it wasn't from the heart. Those that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth. They were doing it out of dead routine. They were doing it out of human tradition. How can you call it human tradition when God commanded it? Because they weren't doing it the way God said. It was human tradition that achieved nothing. And look at the last part of verse 11. I am full of burnt offerings. I've eaten my full. My stomach's full. I don't want any more. I'm tired of looking at it now. I'm full of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts. I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he goats. Do you ever eat so much of your favorite food, you know, and then pretty soon it's no longer your favorite food? Well, this never tasted good in the mouth of God. He wasn't deceived for a while. Then he woke up and said, well, maybe I don't like this so much. No. He's informing them the way it is. And in verse 12, when ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? I like that. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? In other words, I didn't command you to come to me the way that you come to me. I don't require you to come to the temple and to the house of God to offer up sin offerings for your sins the way you do. Did God command them to do those things? Yes. This is why they had the three great feasts and festivals in Israel. They had the gold there. It was commanded of God, that's true. However, the Lord, in essence, is saying, who is required of you? Who was it that required of you to come shuffling into my house and tread my courts with your dirty, muddy feet? I didn't invite you. Oh, yes, you did. I didn't tell you to come like that. Who told you to come in here and tread my cause? You think you're doing it, well, you're supposed to come to me. Well, we came to you, so we're obeying you. No, you're not. Who invited you to do this, what you're doing? See, they're thinking, well, we showed up. They brought their offerings. God never asked for their mere bodily presence. He's never asking for that. It wasn't as if the Lord was saying, look, hey, look, just show up and you're good with me. You know, bring some blood and sacrifice. You're good, just show up. No, that was never God's intent. See, part of the problem the Jews had, they just tried to keep the letter of the law, but not the spirit. God was never about the letter, he was about the spirit. They were to come in spirit and truth, not in dead tradition and as a form of habit. You know, you think of Corinthians and some of them came to the Lord's table and they'd get drunk. Drunk at the Lord's table or at the Love Feast, depending on how people want to read that. And then some of them would be putting on the feed bags while some of the poor in the congregation didn't have anything and no one paid attention. They came to the Lord's table and didn't discern the Lord's body. Who commanded you to come in to my body and my assembly and tread my courts? with your sham representation of the Lord's table. I didn't command you to do what you're doing. We came, we're doing the Lord's table. You're not doing anything I told you to do. See, it's the same thing. You can update it. There are traditions that the church develops, but they look very Christian. But they're not. You know, now churches have their way of doing church. This is not your father's Oldsmobile anymore. So, you know, we got Christian Rock. And you got to have a performance, right? There has to be a praise band, and they're performing. On memory of my dad, she should put a nipple on that bottle. There you are at the church, and the praise band came out, and the lead singer was always singing. She had a warm body. And we knew, you know, she was just so thirsty, you know? Yeah, I'm just, you know, I'm here to praise Jesus. We're on the way home and my father said none, he would never come up with something negative. But I'm a little antagonistic. I say, Dad, what'd you think about that worship service? He's in the back seat with my mother and Paul around in the front seat. I just hear my, I don't even get to look at him because I'm driving. I just hear over my shoulder, she should put a nipple on that bottle. So he said, Dad, you're so right. That's a good summation. Christian rock. It's one big nipple. Praise bands. They bring their junk Bibles. You say, is that a tradition? It is. It's a habit. You ask people, why do you use that Bible? Oh, I kind of like how it's worded. It's easy to understand, and they don't know anything. It's just what people do. It's what's expected of them. It's routine. It's what they're used to. It's God's word. Take it a little more seriously. I look at modern day churches and this is the, if I had, you know, I just quickly came up with this thought and it was, man invented praise. Big check mark, that is so important. You need to have a good praise and worship session. Because they really get in tune with God's word and with the Lord Jesus who they can feel his presence. They really know how to worship. That's a big check for a church. A guy came in here, where's the drum set? There's no drum set, no Holy Spirit here. The door you came in, you can go out. So you get a big check for Man-made worship. Then you get a little bit smaller check. But it's important. The minister has to always employ a light way. Particularly, he has to work into it like amusing stories and jokes. And that way, he's friendly and approachable. And he's just a regular guy. And they don't want anything else. They don't want anybody that can say something that might disturb them. And so, you know, they feel warm. And so it's really important to have a praise and worship session, because then it's all about me. But it's pretty important, not quite as important as that, but that the minister be very approachable and just relatable. and gentle, but with a little bit of light comedy. You know, a lot of times ministers have to start with a joke. And they start all their sermons with a joke. And I'll be the first one to, you know, in my wry disgust, say something humorous to make my point. I mean, look, you know, it's part of the way how I naturally think and talk. But so they like a little light comedy. And then there's one more category. And this gets the smallest check. Oh, yes, they're preaching, too. Praise and worship according to man's imagination. A nice, approachable, gentle, not too offensive pastor. Oh, and the sermons are important too. That's why they're 20 minutes long. But the service is an hour and a half. Traditions of men. When we sit down at a conference table and say, we think this would be the most spiritually advantageous way to approach things. Traditions of men. Children's church. Where's that in the Bible? I don't know of anything about that. Children's church? I don't know. Sunday school. You do realize Sunday school is a recent invention. We're in 1800 plus years. No Sunday school. If kids got training that way, it was during the week in their schools. Women's groups. church softball league, church basketball league, all these things they come up with. The church we went to when I got married, they had a superstar basketball player, so they built a superstar basketball full court in their church, and it drew in the young people, and whoa, lots of young people going, and gee, God's working. And I went to some of their, come on, we got Friday night basketball, and I wasn't coming, okay, I'll come. Yeah, I went like twice. I never went again. They didn't know how to control their tongues. There was no adult there that could keep them from controlling their tongues. He said, we don't need this. Burn that thing to the ground if you have to. How old was I? 23? That's how I thought. What is this? Traditions, plays. Churches do plays now. They have dramas. Or sometimes you can see these women wearing sheer clothing and running around with no shoes with banners and flags. Like they're doing a harem dance, and all the men must be sitting around with their legs crossed on pillows. What is this? Is this a church? I mean, I've never been to one like that, but, you know, you see them on TV or on YouTube, usually in these charismatic churches or these charismatic-leaning evangelical churches. We come up with these things, you know? Slaying in the spirit. It's a tradition of man. It is not of God. And for a lot of churches, just women in the pulpit preaching. No one ever questions it. Well, you know, Mary was the first preacher, we're told, you know? And look at Dorcas. Well, yeah, what about her? Well, what about the prophetesses? Yeah, how many of them were elders, teachers in the assembly? Did God give a spiritual supernatural gift of revelation in that first century to men and women? Yeah, and it was prophesied that that would happen, which is part of the miracle of the thing. The Jews wouldn't even allow the women to give testimony in a court of law. But then God says, I'm going to give prophecy and gifts. But that didn't mean they became ministers and had authority. Why not? And our churches today, well, hey, they don't even know what they're talking about. It's a tradition of men. Well, it's a tradition of women. And the man says, yes, dear. And then some traditions in some churches, particularly in ones that seem like they're, well, no, it's not limited to, but the ones I've had exposure to, they're supposed to be conservative, they're supposed to be reformed. And you know what one of their traditions is? It's a tradition. Rag on the King James Bible. It's a pastime. Why? So I can listen to your ESV? These are human tradition. And according to the apostle, these human traditions can do a lot of damage. And the traditions of the children of Judah in Isaiah 1 were all on the outside, biblical commandments, and none of them were acceptable to God. They were human traditions because of how they approached them. In verse 13 of Isaiah 1, so he says in verse 12, when ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Useless, profitless acts of obedience, because they were supposed to bring oblations, but vain, don't bring your vain oblations. Don't put your dirty Federal Reserve notes into the offering plate when you really don't care about the kingdom of God. God'll crumple it up and throw it out the window. Incense is an abomination unto me. But they would do that in the temple of God, yeah? The new moons and Sabbaths, which the Lord commanded to be observed, The calling of assemblies, which God commanded them to do that, I cannot away with. It is iniquity. You're going to church is a sin. You're singing hymns, you're singing Christian rock is a sin. You're singing hymns is a sin. You're singing Psalms can be a sin. Sin. Even the solemn meeting, when you attend the solemn meeting, I see it as sin. Rather than appeasing me, it causes my wrath to burn. Verse 14, your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth. Look, I can only say, I only can speak from the principles of God's word. I can't fill in the blanks, but I have to wonder, how much churchgoing does God hate? And I think some Christians don't think that's ever true. They are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. He doesn't profit from them. He just bears them and he's getting tired of it. Of course, you know, it's a language of accommodation. You can't wear God down. And when you spread forth your hands, oh yes, they are left there, holy hands of the God. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yay, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. So in the following verses, it basically says, you need to repent. You need to repent. Without that repentance, all this is a waste. I've got Chuck's thing here. He says some people go to church because it's how they were brought up. He says it's a habit. Some go to church just because of who else is there. Like their boss or a political leader or a well-known speaker. Nowadays, many people go to church for the music or children's program. There is no example, as I've already indicated in God's word, of a children's program. There's nothing about Sunday school. There's nothing about any ministry that is a family dividing mechanism for the public worship of God's people. Let's go to Acts 20, the book of Acts. You say family dividing, oh yeah. Oh, when you go to church now, you got the little nursery, you got the children's church. Sometimes you have a young people's church. Some places they'll even have a young adults church. What is all this balkanization of God's people? When they come to worship God, we're divided. I don't know about that. Acts 20, I gotta get to Acts 20 myself. Acts 20 and verse seven. And upon the first day of the week, the Lord's day, Sunday, when the disciples came together to break bread, The body of Christ came together on the Lord's Day in honor of his resurrection and they broke bread. Paul preached unto them. Well, what do you expect? Ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus. being fallen into a deep sleep. Just checking to see if anybody's sleeping. And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead. And Paul went down and fell on him, and embracing him said, trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, imagine, you arrive from the dead, and the first thing you do is eat food. It sounds like a human being. And talked a long while, even till the break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted. Eutychus, we're told, was a young man. That phrase, young man, if you look up the Greek word translated for young man, in the Young's literal translation, it says a certain youth. In the literal standard version of the Bible, it translates it as certain youth. But in all honesty, that word can also mean a youth in the sense of a young adult male, even upwards towards 40 years old. So it depends on the context. But Eutychus was a young man in a certain youth. Well, you know, so I'm just wondering, why wasn't he in Sunday school? Well, maybe he was a little bit above that age. Well, why wasn't he in the young people's program, the young adult's program? How come he wasn't there? How come he wasn't doing that? How come he wasn't teaching Sunday school or the young adults program while the preacher was doing the real serious business for the older adults? It's not the sense of the whole text that all were gathered together as one to hear the apostle teach God's word. You know, we live in New England. And it's true. You just drive through New England, up through Rhode Island and into Massachusetts and Vermont and New Hampshire. And in the center of town, there's a white clapboarded church with a white steeple that goes up really high. It's kind of oftentimes in the town square. It's usually a congregational church. And those congregational churches, of course, congregational churches, some of them have gone very, very liberal, Unitarian and that kind of thing. But there are some that still hold to some sort of more conservative Calvinist view because those congregational churches were Calvinist Puritan churches. And they were always rectangles. And when you walked into the rectangle, there sometimes would be a vestibule where you could Rest your musket and hang your hat. And then you went to the doors and there was one room. Maybe there was a pastor study somewhere, a little tiny place. The outhouse was out back in the woods. But you went in there, it was a one room building. There was no Sunday school. There was no youth program. There was no young adult program. All the Lord's people came together like they did here to hear the Word of God preached. And I have told you myself, it is no exaggeration. And it was never when I told the stories, I wasn't thinking about the point I'm making today, but I'm just telling you my experience. I sat in Sunday school. We had Sunday school. And we had Sunday school. A teacher taught us at our level. We used David C. Cook. Evangelical material. And it was meant for our level. And as we graduate, it gets a little more depth to it. And we had a teacher that would speak to us in small groups at the Sunday school. And so it was more intimate. You might have six or seven kids in your class. So the teacher can really one-on-one. And so it's very effective. And you're in that moldable shape. But none of those Sunday school teachers. And I had a couple that were good. But none of those teachers. You could take all those Sunday school teachers and combine them. They didn't have anywhere near the effect as sitting in the pew as an eight-year-old boy. Now, because Sunday school was before the service upstairs. And then sit in the pew and listen to Paul's dad speak, because he was my minister when I was growing up. And what he said just had all the weight in the world to me. It's not that I blew off with the Sunday school. I take it seriously. You ask me, well, why? I was such a young, why did it make that difference? I never sat down and thought about it when I was young. I just, I, this was the minister. This is an adult. They're speaking to adults, the heavy things of God. And so maybe I don't, maybe I'm grabbing, you know, 20% of it, but the 20% meant everything. Well, that's how the Puritans operated. And I don't see any other example in the scripture of the balkanizing of the family of God when they come to worship Him. See, there's lots of things that aren't evil in themselves. Is it wrong to teach children? No, right? Let the older women teach the younger women. But that doesn't mean, okay, Paul's preaching, but, you know, we got a young person's program downstairs. No, no, you're gonna sit down and listen to the Apostle Paul. By the way, just a little side note, little side note. He was long preaching. You know, just to vindicate myself to some pathetic degree. He was long preaching, and actually went to midnight, and actually, and things didn't end till sunrise, like you and I in my backyard. So here they are on the Lord's day, breaking bread, getting in their one room, One room congregational church, and where's the praise band? Couldn't find it. Maybe it just wasn't recorded. That could be. Where were the silky harem dances with no shoes on? I don't think they were there. And I'm pretty sure there are no drum sets either. And I like the drums. I'm not against drum sets. I don't really want it going on when we're singing Psalm 91. I just don't. See, Chuck makes good points. Paragraph four, well, I'm going slow here. Paragraph four, Chuck says, what kind of church are false Christians attracted to? You see how he's thinking? He's thinking like he's preparing for a sermon. I say, no, no. He took what we talked about for maybe five minutes and he mulled it over and he thought about its implications and he wanted to talk about it. Yeah, I like that, you know. He says, what kind of church are false Christians attracted to? He says, I would guess churches that meet their immediate personal needs. Could Clavel Assembly meet the immediate personal needs of any believers? I would say yes. There are some who could be attracted to the traditions in the Bible that are not practiced in other churches. Yeah. Well, I go to Clayville. You know, that's where women come to it. I'm a real conservative. You mean Pharisee. That's the same thing as conservative. They might want to come to Clayville because we practice things other churches don't. That makes them feel, you know, I got this spiritual one-offmanship, you know. We use wine at the Lord's table. Another Baptist church is saying, it's liquid devil. And then, well, okay, let's do a little Bible study about your liquid devil. They come to find out those ministers don't know what they're talking about. See, so we know some things and some people just out of pride, they want to have bragging rights. I know things that you don't know. It's really not the thing you want to see. That is one reason that some people can find their needs met at Clayville because they can find some distinctives and that gives them the upper hand in their imaginations. Some could be attracted to the conservative political teachings. Yep, you get the John Birch Society. We've had the John Birches come in and go, Remember we had a wave of sovereign citizens that came in, and the sovereign citizens came in, they make their own license plates, and they never got a birth certificate, and they don't have to pay the mortgages on their houses, and then they go to jail. See, it doesn't matter how right they are, we know who owns the guns, and who owns the metal bars that make up a jail. And then their life falls apart, their wife divorces them, and they become bitter. Then they grab guns and they incline towards violence. I'm not saying all those people. By the way, lots of people want to say all the sovereign citizens are dangerous militia. Well, it is true about some of them. A lot of their points are valid, but they're not living in the real world. Make the points, but be wise. You've got patriotic pastors. You know, sovereign citizens, that's the kind they like. One guy told me, you're gonna be, he was a sovereign citizen, you're gonna be our patriotic pastor. You're gonna be our guy who's gonna lead the charge. And what he means really is, we're gonna have a Christian brigade and we're gonna overwhelm Washington, D.C. It's like, well, it's not gonna work that way. They mean well, and I liked the guy a lot. I liked him a lot. But he had, A lot of these patriotic Christians, it's God and country, but it's really country and God. And that is a massive distinction in my mind. And you just have moralists. Some people want to come because, you know, there's some good morals here. Well, is that a bad thing? People want to be around people that promote moral views, particularly in the craziness that we're in now? Well, no, that's a good thing, but that's not a reason to go to church. It's a good practical reason to try and keep yourself sane and from going off a deep cliff and crazy thinking But that is not a proper function of the body of Christ to just to serve that need He says Some are attracted to conservative political teachings. Some could be attracted to conservative moral teachings as I've indicated some could be attracted to its location and Location? Sure. I mean, we're in foster. And if you live in foster, that's convenient. But we're so bad, it's not that convenient. I don't think anybody in foster. So we're just so, I guess that convenient advantage we have with foster rights just doesn't work. But do people really go to church because of locations? Oh, sure. You know, I live in Wallach or Cranston, say. It's just a nice country drive to come to Clavel, you know? You can come down Route 12. You go down Tunk Hill Road. You go by the reservoir. And these city folk used to going out on the way out boondocks, so forth. And yeah, it's a pleasant thing. And then you get a long feeling. You see the trees. And all of a sudden, they become John Walton. They feel God because they saw an oak tree. He says, it could be attracted to its location. These are false believers. Why do they go to certain churches? Why would they come to Clayville? It could be they're attracted to our moral teachings, our location, or our size. Yep. Yep. You say our size? Well, I know the masses want a big church where they can have a hoedown for Jesus. But there are some people that realize, eh, there's a little bit of a horse and pony show going on. And I've always been inclined to, I like smaller churches, not that I don't want to see people come to Christ, but they let themselves, they get to a certain size rather than pairing off and starting a new one and maybe spreading out the locations to make it more convenient people and that kind of thing. Oh no, it's a power thing, you go bigger, bigger, bigger, and now we're into the mega church movement. But I think a lot of serious Christians appreciated a more intimate experience because they want the Lord They're like the prophet this morning we read, he says, I guess it was Job, wasn't it? Job saying, Lord, what is the number of my iniquities? And teach me what they are. They want to hear from the Lord. And in a small assembly, there's like nowhere to hide. And if you're really thinking, if you're trying to deny that you're If you're fooling yourself and trying to deny that you're fooling yourself about your salvation, it's very uncomfortable in a small church when they're serious. But in a serious church that's huge, you're all buried in the numbers. And there's safety in that. But some people like the small church because, oh, it's just intimate. Remember after 9-11, the next day, a guy came in the church with his white shorts on, white shirt, t-shirt and shorts and sandals, and he come ready with a light of candle. And here I am saying, it's a day after September 11th, and I am saying, reaping what we've sown. Oh yeah, the first day all the preachers come out of the closet and God is on our side. We've got an enemy. Oh, so now you've been hurt. So now all the sins you've been preaching about for the last 10 years all got on the drain because the Lord allowed you to be touched. What about all that preaching the last 10 years? It just rubbed me the wrong way and I was maybe over the top in expressing myself, but I don't think I was. We're out gallivanting on neocon wars and murdering people and lying about it. I don't think the Lord's too happy with that. But we were so self-righteous. The brother says, they could be attracted to our size. You know, just something intimate, a nice place. And they find out, oh, wait a minute, this is more like a nuclear bomb, smaller. And all of a sudden, they don't like small churches anymore. Some could be attracted because they know good, honest people are there. You know, there's a sense in which I appreciate that. It's not a reason. The church isn't just so you can feel better. The calling is so much bigger. I mean, if you want good and honest people, you can go to the Mormon church down the street. I hear they're really nice, upstanding people. Well, paragraph five, I'm not gonna finish Chuck's sermon. I can't finish Chuck's sermon. No, I can't even go to paragraph five. No, I got too much good to say there. See, Chuck just lays the foundation, like a, oh, let's seize upon that. Because it's everywhere in the word. And the thing, he's saying, now you know what, I'm just gonna read to you. I'm gonna take the time because I don't have it. But I'll just read to you, we've done half the page, maybe a little more than half the page, but about half of what he wrote. So we've come down to paragraph five. So let me read consecutively what he's stated so far. And then next time, which won't be next Sunday, and he'll have to be here to weather through me preaching his text, we can do the rest. But let me just put together that which I've separated by my commentary and looking at scriptures and making evaluations. Hi, Pastor, you asked an interesting question Wednesday evening during the Bible study about what kind of assembly or church false Christians would most likely attend. Part of the answer given was that they would avoid serious Christians. And that Clayville is different because it's a serious place. You know, I just realized, I'm interrupting myself. I'm reading it because my voice, I just realized subconsciously, I was reading it the way I was because that's Chuck. Chuck is even keeled. He's a prudent and even-keeled, level-headed, practical, balanced fellow. And I appreciate that. I'm a little bit more, you know, and I kind of like the fact that, you know, a guy like him can appreciate someone like me and a guy like me can appreciate someone like him. Well, that's the way it's supposed to be. You're not supposed to be me and I'm not supposed to be you. I like the way he is. We need more of it. Anyway, he says, of course, many people used to attend church, but weren't serious. I can't interrupt anymore. Some still do today. Some go because it's expected of them. Some go because that's how they were brought up. It's a habit. Some go to church because of who else is there, like the boss or a political leader or a well-known speaker. Nowadays, many people go to church for the music or children's program. There are other people who attend church, and they're seriously, they're serious, but seriously wrong. See, I skipped that paragraph. There are Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. There are Pentecostals and Arminians. There are the Dispensationalists and Catholics. Many of these groups are certain about what they believe and not afraid to talk about it. Some become missionaries. They boldly teach falsehoods through television, around the world, and they are serious, just seriously wrong. What kind of church are false Christians attracted to? I would guess churches that meet their immediate personal needs. Could Clayville Assembly meet the immediate personal need of any believers? I would say yes. There are some who could be attracted to the traditions in the Bible that are not practiced in other churches. Some could be attracted to the conservative political teachings. Some could be attracted to the conservative moral teachings. Some could be attracted to its location or its size. Some could be attracted because they know good, honest people are there. And the next paragraph, which we haven't gotten into, and this is what it's about, is it a good thing for non-Christians to attend clavel? He asked that question. I realize I have to spend some time on that one. So, you know, I really appreciate a text like that, because, you know, when you preach, you never know who's truly absorbing a thing. You can't tell, you know. And even if someone is very animated, that doesn't mean, I've seen some pretty animated guys, And then, you know, they get out of Dodge right quick, like with the smallest little bit of a twig of a, you know, just a little tiny thing under their fingernail. That's too much, I'm out of here. That big baby. Well, what happened to all that zeal and devotion that they expressed? Well, I'll tell you, when I came here, Pastor Cugini challenged me. When I was first hearing him say certain things, like, oh, man, he's totally going over the top. I'm thinking, man, I totally have one foot in the door, one out the door. But it's like the Lord says, have you shown that he's wrong in those things you think he's wrong in? Well, they got to be. Well, I should prove that. I'm assuming that. Let me go check it out. And that went for six months. I said, oh, he was right here. Oh, he was right there. Oh, he was right there. I think, wow. And these are very practical biblical observations, and they're good observations about human nature. And that human nature is in every church. It's in every person, including you and I. It's a matter of allowing the Spirit of God to control us, or it to control us. And when the Spirit of God dwells in His people, if we allow the world to control us, The Lord will use his spirit and our conscience, which is guided by his spirit, to chastise us and condemn us until we repent. And the Lord will see to the discipline of his own children. He brings them around. It doesn't mean because you make a mistake today that you'll be all squared away tomorrow. Maybe not, but you will be the day after. Because the Lord sees to his children. He knows what he's doing. And I'm thankful. And everything Chuck's saying, it just clicked. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. He can say it, you know. Our brother left Washington State. That's where he is right now. He's probably listening to us right now over there in Washington. And he has family there and it's very obvious he's close to his family and he loves his family and they appreciate and love him. There's not a family that we've divided. He didn't know me from a hole in the wall, okay. And that makes sense, because I'm reading his text. Yeah, that's that guy. That's that guy. But it isn't Chuck. It's Christ and his people. And not everybody maybe express themselves the same way or with the same eloquence. That doesn't necessarily require it. But I can see in Brethren here certain realities that are true in your lives that stick out. You know, one person has this, another person has that. And I say, that's God working in them. We all have personality defects to some degree, right? We all got problems. And so, you know, you overlook those problems, because you say, well, you know, you got your own. But then you see the grace of God, and you say, that's the grace of God. There's some people that come and go, and some people that might not say much of anything. Well, they haven't come and gone. I remember Richard Stein would talk about all the people that left, and he had close family that left, and one of his close family members was an elder here, and he kind of half instigated the original brigade that left. Richard came up the stairs when his wife was in the nursing home, and he was one of the few times, one of the, towards the end, when he couldn't make it anymore, he came up the stairs, and it was a little hard for his legs to get up, you know, at his age, and he gets to the top of the step, and I'm standing there, and he goes, Pastor? He goes, if I have to crawl up these steps, I'm gonna do it till I die. I said, oh, Richard, you're a good man. But you know, he didn't do it till he died. You know why? Because his wife got sick, and she went into a nursing home. And he had his hip replaced and knee replaced, and then he started to have issues. And to be honest with you, I think he set himself up to get into a nursing home a little earlier than he had to. He couldn't stand the thought of his wife being there without him. And I'll never hold that against a man. Imagine, and I, you know, he did have issues, but I don't think they really rose to the point, but he wanted them to, because he loved Alice, and to thought that she'd be there all day long, and she's completely in her mind, nothing going away, he had to be with her. Even something like that, I can say, you know, look at that. Everybody's out there divorcing their husbands and their wives, but this man, He was ready to crawl up his knees and he meant it. Oh, now I have immediate obligation, didn't expect this. And he meant it. God's grace comes in different ways. Sometimes this way, sometimes that way, and there's other ways. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we do thank thee for thy grace. We pray for it in our own lives. where sin is saved by grace, but we have a battle with sin. We have a battle with our flesh. It's a constant battle that is there. It surrounds us every day. and it can rage even from within. So we pray for your spirit, that you would give us wisdom, that we would immerse ourselves in the glories of your truth, that we would seek out those opportunities to bear a witness for thee, that we would fulfill our purpose that thou has called us to, and therein we would know joy and fulfillment and peace. We thank Thee for our brother who has brought these thoughts forward for our consideration. And most of all, we thank Thee for Thy Word, which gives us instruction as to the wisdom of these exhortations. We need the discipline of Thy Word. Without it, we are nothing. We don't have any wisdom outside the context of that which has been revealed in Your Word. It is the knowledge of Your truth. that enables us to exercise spiritual wisdom so that we can be a blessing to society, not a draw, a blessing. So Lord, make us a blessing and use us even as we go from this place this evening and back out into the world. Help us to be a source of truth and grace to those who know us most, but that don't know you at all. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.