Well, we will now enter into our third and final installment on our three-part series, which, as I said, the men behind the curtain have given the name to. They give titles to my sermons. But they've entitled it Shallow Christianity. So this is Shallow Christianity, part three. And you know, it does feel like we're talking a lot about that this morning, but that's only because we're talking about the fear of God. And it seems like in Christianity today, well, because it is shallow, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Well, I'm not talking about the fear of God tonight. We are talking about shallow Christianity. And as you know, the subject matter is being prompted to begin with by our brother's text message to me one time, which he had no intention of that text message becoming the foundation of a sermon, I say, well, why not let him preach and give him the luxury of just sitting there and listen to himself preach? So here we are, part three. I didn't really think it would be three parts, but there's just so many practical considerations in this study that it deserves it. Now our conclusion, some of the conclusions we came to last time in the second part was number one, Because we raised the question. Well, Brother Chuck raised the question, and I think it's a good question. And the question was raised, is it proper for the unconverted to attend the meetings of the assembly? Is it a good thing? I think that's how it was worded. Is it a good thing for the unconverted to attend the meetings of the assembly? And, well, just to remind you here, let's see, he gave a, I give you that little one word. He gave more than one word. Is it a good thing, he asked, for non-Christians to attend Clayville? That's how he, yeah, he specified Clayville, but that's still from a general principle. Is it a good thing for Christians to attend Clayville? And the first word of the next sentence is maybe. And like I say, I think the vast majority, absolutely it's a good thing. No, he said maybe. And guess what? I agree with him. So we have to qualify that and explain it. Can they attend? Is it proper for unbelievers to attend the assembly? Well, they can attend. This is a free and open meeting. Anybody can come off the street and come and listen to us. But they're not free to join. The right hand of fellowship, is for God's people. They're free to come. They're free to listen in. They're not free to join until they come to know Christ as their Savior, okay? So that's number one, this very basic principle. Secondly, we made the conclusion that the assembly, however, is for the instruction of the body of Christ. That's the function of the assembly. It is for the instruction and training of God's people. That's why it exists. And when I say that's why it exists, that's why it exists in its corporate worship. That the body of Christ doesn't disappear when we all go home. The body of Christ is still out there, but now we're all scattered. And that's where evangelism takes place. The assembly is for the instruction and training of the body of Christ. It is not for the instruction and training of the lost. That's not its function. Now, it is wrong, because what I'm saying is true and absolutely biblical, it is wrong, it is unscriptural, therefore, to design worship services for the unconverted. And this is what a lot of churches do now. It is wrong. for a minister, the elders, whoever's responsible for saying, how do we do church? But it is wrong, and it is unbiblical, to design worship services in the assembly to design them for the lost and the unconverted, to cater to them. That's not why the assembly assembles, okay? There's nowhere in scripture that teaches any such thing, not even vaguely. The function of the assembling of the saints is for the worship of God. The function of the assembling of the saints is for their learning, as we've said, and their instruction, for their growing in grace. It's for the body of Christ. It's so that they can share in their fellowship one with another, like some of those texts we talked about this morning on another subject, but they, where they spoke often one to another. So those that fear the Lord, spoke often one to another. And as I said this morning, they didn't do that via text. They didn't do it on a cell phone. They didn't do it on Zoom. Face to face, they assembled. It's the called out assembly. And when they got together, they talked about the Lord. And they were happy to do it. And that's profitable. And that's part of the major function of the assembly, for the instruction in growing in grace, of God's children. Can the lost spiritually benefit by coming through the door, sitting in, and observing all this? Absolutely. Obviously. Probably most aren't that familiar with a sound presentation of the gospel, and probably maybe most don't even know, they couldn't even give you anywhere near a definition of what the gospel is, particularly in our day. So yes, of course, the unconverted can profit greatly, even to the point of the saving of their souls within the context of the assembly. Yes, I know that. But that's a side thing. How can you say that? That's a side thing. Because the assembly is for God's people. It's a function it serves. You don't care about the loss. We have an hour, well, maybe it's a little more than an hour, but an hour in the morning. An hour in the evening, and then we got an hour on Wednesday night. We can't have that for God's people? You know, all the other time, you're out in the world. Well, I don't see there's no chance for evangelism. I need a ministry. You don't need a ministry. You got one. Lazy churches. They say, oh, well, I'm in the ministry. I go to the nursing home ministry. Well, I go to the ministry, we have a bowling league, and then we try and pass out tracks, the bowling alley. I'm not saying that's wrong, but those are things contrived by men. You've got your life. You've got relatives that the only real Christian they might know who cares for their soul is you. And you have a bigger influence with them than me. You got a mission field. It's like everybody you run across in your daily routine. We got all sorts of hours for reaching the loss. The function of the assembly is to prepare them for that. Now, some churches, I think the way you prepare them is teach them how to present the gospel, and you go to the Romans road, you start with this verse, you say this, and then they have this objection, you give that. Yeah, you can do that, there's some benefit to it, but really, that's not, the way you prepare them is giving them the meat of the word, and let the word of God sink into their conscience, and then they'll know what to do. When the word of God is being assimilated by a person who is supposed to have the Holy Spirit and be able to discern these things when they're taught to him, then he doesn't need me as some kind of master, puppet master saying, say this, do this, that, do that. And here's the order in which you do it. And then you can reach the Lord and you can win them to Jesus. No, you let the Lord instruct your heart through his word, then you'll go out. And it's like, you know, Rocky's manager says, you know what to do, he says. Oh, Mick, I can't go out there. You know, you had a heart attack, I can't fight. I don't know what to do. What do you mean you don't know what to do? Get out there, you know. That's what I feel like you're going to say to the Christians. They think, oh no, we need seminars. No, you don't. You've got this and the Holy Spirit. And you just want mechanical outlines? Something's wrong. But yes, the spirit, the unconverted can still, in spite of that, and this may, when the unconverted sit in amongst us, they could be listening to me right now. Well, we're being live streamed, right? So I'm speaking to God's people tonight. But guess what? I know when a minister speaks to God's people, the unconverted, who a lot of it might be going, what's he talking about? But yet, there's a portion that says, oh, that's not me. Brethren, they only need to get, like I told you, I only got 20% of what my minister said when I was a little kid in the adult services. I only maybe grasped 20%, but that 20% with me had authority, because that was the minister. I said, ooh, is he describing me? And there was no Sunday school teacher that had that weight with me that could do that. And it's not that I was trying to. favor him as opposed to any Sunday school teacher. I had one particular Sunday school teacher I liked a lot, but it wasn't the same. It was profitable, but it wasn't the same. So the unconverted can come and they can benefit greatly. But remember, the Garden of God, the assembly is the Garden of God. That's Roger Williams. It's like the Garden of Eden. And when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, it was hedged in about, and there was a doorway, and the angels stood with flame and sword, and they can't come back. No, they can't. You sinned, see? The assembly, the body of Christ, is the garden of God. These are God's people. They're called out of the world. And God has put a hedge around his people. The New Jerusalem has a wall around it. And the sorcerers and dogs and whoremongers can't come in. There is one way they can come in. And there's only one way they can come in. Through the front door. They have to go through the door. which is Jesus Christ. Other than that, they can't come in. That's the portrait of the body of Christ. So the gathering together, the assembly, they're the called out from the world. And then we want to have the whole world come in. They're the called out assemblage of God's elect so he can speak to them and prepare them to go back out where the sorcerers, dogs, and home-hungers are, to be a blessing and a means of grace and guidance. The assembly is for the worship of God's people to God, for their fellowship, and for their instruction, their encouragement, their strength, for their preparation of living in the world. The preparation of the battle that's described in Romans 7, between the spirit and the flesh. Now I was talking about Roger Williams' example of the body of Christ is the garden of God. And there's one little thing I left out when I was describing that last time. It's a little minor point, I don't really have to go back to it, but it's so Roger Williams, I can't not bring it up. Remember how Roger Williams, I was saying last week, Roger Williams described the church as the garden of God, and that that garden was walled in by a hedge, and that it was for God's people and not for the world. He used this as part of his argument against the Boston church with the Puritans in Boston, because they came up with a halfway covenant and people have half membership in a church. Because John Winthrop said, you don't have a civic say in your own city and town unless you belong to the authorized government approved church in that city and town that we've recognized. That's how they did it. So if you own property, you have a business and you want to have a little bit of say in your investments, you got to belong to the church to have that civic say. So these guys, people aren't necessarily showing that they're true Christians, but they want to join the church. And then they got to thinking, well, you know, we... So they came up with a halfway membership. And Roger Williams saying, you're tempting unbelievers to pretend that they're Christians. Then now, yeah, they want to have a say in your town. Now they want to join the church. Why do they? Because they love Christ? Or are they just saying they do? Because they want some control of their property. He says, it's forced worship. You're coercing them to come in as hypocrites and say they're one of you when they're not. I mean, they're motivated to do it, and you're making them do that. You're not making them, but you're prodding that. You're exasperating that. It's forced worship. And Roger Williams said, you know, forced worship stinks in the nostrils of God. It almost certainly does. It's like the new moons and Sabbaths, he hates them. Their prayers, he hates their prayers, as the Bible says. Well, there's one thing I didn't mention. Roger Williams took it even one step further, which I didn't have a chance to talk about last time. Roger Williams, I read where Roger Williams even believed that some families should not be praying together. Wait a minute, what? Some families should not be praying together. Oh, that's ridiculous. Is it? Well, which families shouldn't pray together? Well, that's the key there. Which families should not necessarily be praying together? He says families where some of their children may still be outside the faith. He says they're unbelievers. Are you going to coerce their worship? Are you going to say, Junior, why don't you say the blessing at the table tonight? This is very popular, right? Particularly with evangelical homes. They think they're training their children up. Junior, Junior they know is a little rebellious. He hasn't come to Christ. And you can tell it's not in him. And you pray too, like, you know, you learn the discipline. You're asking an unbeliever to pray in hypocrisy, because they don't believe. You say, but it's a family member. That doesn't change the fact. You see, now, Roger Williams took something that everybody can agree with true, and then he brought it to its rigorous conclusion, which offends everyone. But why should that be offensive, you know? Are we training our children that are unconverted to worship in hypocrisy? He's saying that's what they're doing in Boston. They're doing it with their church and adults. You can't have a vote in the town unless you join our church. Okay, we received Christ as our Savior, we want to join. Roger Williams saying, you're destroying the church. How could he not be wrong? How could he be wrong? And some may object and say, well, if you have little children praying with the family, they're not worshiping God. What are they doing? Well, they're just praying to God, brother. Prayer is a form of worship. Prayer is a part of worship. The Puritans, the pilgrims, in fact, I would even say today, your average theologian and even maybe your average minister, if you took it in isolation, don't set up the scenario so they get all scared. Just say, is prayer an act of worship? They would say yes. I mean, I don't know, you can't think about it more than a few minutes and then realize prayer is part of our worship to God. I mean, when we're praying to God, we're speaking as if we believe on him, we're speaking as if he listens, and we're speaking as if we expect him to answer our prayers like we have faith in him. Now, we're supposed to say that to people who don't have any of those things, now you do it too. You know, I got to thinking about this. Imagine sitting around a table, and the parents have like five children, and there's two children, they just haven't come to Christ. And when the kids are small, I don't tend not to ask small children to pray. I just think that's, a dad should usually do the praying. You know, you get older, you know, you ask your grown-up kids to pray and stuff, but can you imagine if, you know, one child asks, can I say thanks for dinner tonight? Okay, dad says, go ahead. He does. Then another child says, you know, maybe he feels a little jealous a few days later, can I do it? You say, well, Bobby, I asked you about receiving Christ as your savior, you said, well, you know, And until you have your sins forgiven, that's meaningless. And he's gonna think, I'm not one of them. You say, well, that's awfully mean. But it's true. That doesn't mean you love him less, doesn't mean you don't try to deal gently with him, but it's a fact. Let me try and illustrate this. Should we sing the Psalms? Should we sing the Psalms and worship to God? The answer is yes, right? The New Testament, sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and the hymns and spiritual songs are Psalms, okay. All right, we should sing Psalms. Are not many of the Psalms nothing less than prayers to God? How many of the Psalms? You can see, it's a prayer, but it's a prayer in the form of a song. If prayer is part of the worship of God's people to God, because they believe and trust in him, thus they come to him, and we sing those prayers, isn't singing part of our worship to God? I don't think anyone would argue that singing, the corporate singing of the body of Christ, particularly in the assembly, is part of our worship to God. Yes, it is. Is not praying to God? and are seeking divine intervention by praying, Lord, could you, we ask you humbly to do this or do that or to help us this way. Isn't that showing we have a trust in his sovereign grace and providence in our lives? That's why we're asking, unless we ask in hypocrisy and we don't even think he can, but we pray it anyway. Does God hear those prayers? The Bible is absolutely adamant, no. By praying, we're implying our faith in his sovereign power and in his love for us. And thus it is part of our worship and an extension of our faith. You know, Jesus in Matthew chapter six, he says, when thou prayest, thou shall not pray as these hypocrites do. That's what he said. Pray if not like the hypocrites, They love to be seen of men. But wait a minute, that tells us there are prayers of hypocrisy. It's just such a thing. Just because you're praying doesn't mean God's pleased. I was actually kind of having that conversation this morning. People can pray left and right. So what does that mean? Well, they're praying, so therefore God is pleased. No, God hated the prayers of the children of Israel because they were preyed in hypocrisy. He hated their moon moons and their Sabbaths. He hated their solemn assemblies, which he commanded all those things. And he says, I hate it when they do it. And again, as I said to you the other week, well, these are things God commanded us. How could he hate that which he commanded? He doesn't hate that which he commanded. He just hates when you do it. And the reason he hates when you do it is because you're doing it in hypocrisy. Jesus was very strong about hypocrisy. It's all in the New Testament with the Pharisees. Would you ask, would your average evangelical minister, I hope I have the right answer on this, would your average evangelical minister ask an unregenerate, unbelieving person to lead the congregation in prayer? As bad as things are, I don't think most ministers would do that. If they knew they were unregenerate and unbelieving, they were agnostic, something like that. Would he ask that man to lead in prayer? I would hope not. And why wouldn't they? Why wouldn't they ask those people to lead in prayer? Because they don't believe. You're asking him, you're prodding him, you're encouraging him to false worship that is insincere, which God clearly condemns time after time after time. You're asking him to worship God in hypocrisy. And you're not making him, but you're prodding him to do it. Well, then why ask unbelievers to join you in prayer? See, we're talking about Roger Williams and saying praying with unbelievers at the table. Why would you ask unbelievers to join you in prayer? Think about that. I mean, think rationally about it. You don't. You don't ask unbelievers to join you in prayer. I know sometimes people do. That would be to encourage them to a hypocritical and phony devotion that isn't there. Just do what you're told. And look at what we're doing, now you do it. We're asking them to pray even though they don't mean it. To pray in hypocrisy. Now someone may charge me as, well, Pastor Gallagher, that's fine for you to say, but you are a big hypocrite, they may say to me. Really, why is that? Well, because you stay in the pulpit, and every Sunday you get up here and you say, now let's bow our heads in prayer. And you don't say, no, just all you believers, and then put a little asterisk, say, no, if you're unbelievers, I don't wanna see you bowing your heads. Yeah, it's true, I don't do that. I say, let's bow our heads in prayer, that's true. I'm guilty of that, sure. Am I inviting unbelievers to pray? No. Yes, you are. No, I'm not. This is the body of Christ. I'm asking the Lord's people in faith to bow their heads and let's offer up our petitions to God. I'm asking the Lord's people if they would pray with me. And I would not expect an unbeliever to then feel he's obligated to pray and worship God. I mean, think about when you pray, you worship God, you honor him, you give him thanks for things, you glory in what he's done. That unbeliever doesn't feel that way. I would never want to ask him, pretend you feel that way. Then God will be somewhat pleased with you. No, he won't. It's not what I'm doing. That's someone reading between the lines. However, If that, say agnostic, they come in, they don't really believe in God, but they're here because, you know, they wanted to visit their mother and they were in town and she's a church, so they go, you know, like something like that. And then, or whatever the situation, there's some believers sitting in the pew. And I say, let's bow our heads in prayer. I don't necessarily know that man's spiritual condition, so I'm not sitting around judging, is everybody in the kingdom or not? How am I supposed to know? Let's bow our heads in prayer. This is the body of Christ. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Now, if that guy is not a believer, and he knows he's not a believer, and he says, well, I'm not going to bow my head. That would feel hypocritical, because I don't believe in their God. I'm not going to close my eyes and pretend I'm doing it. It doesn't seem honest. So he just sits there. Now, maybe some people would be shocked at this, but I can respect that. I don't respect not believing, but I respect the idea, if you don't believe, you're not going to play a hypocrite and make bad matters worse. I can respect that. I can also respect a different reaction. And actually, maybe I respect this one a little bit more, but I respect both. It could be that that unbeliever, and I say let's bow our heads in prayer, it could be that unbeliever will say, you know what? I don't want to make anybody feel uncomfortable. And out of respect to the Christians that are there, though he doesn't believe what they think. They're praying to nobody. We're here by the accident of a big bang. There is no God. But I need to see mom for lunch, so I'm here. But you know, I'm not here to make trouble. Out of respect for these people's consciences, I'll bow my head. I'm not going to pray with him because I'm not, you know, I'll just bow my head and just out of respect of the custom. I can respect that too. I don't have a problem with that. So I can't get into the mind's brain, man's brain and find out what is he really doing? You know, that's beyond me. That's up for him to figure it out. And it's between him and God and his own conscience. But I respect that, but I'm not expecting them to play make-believe. It's not right. Roger Williams wasn't wrong. It's not right. I'm not gonna ask an unbeliever to express with their lips and pretend they have love and devotion to God in their hearts and just go along and do like we do. I don't want them to do that. If they wanna bow their heads as a token of showing courtesy, I'm fine with that. Let me show you something. Let's go to Proverbs chapter 15. Proverbs 15. By the way, have you ever heard ministers talk about this? Because I was thinking to myself, I never heard anyone say anything about it, ever, you know? But, well, yes, Roger Williams is probably the first one I ever heard to say about it, and I think maybe the only one. Proverbs 15. And verse 29. The Lord is far from the wicked, but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. Which sort of implies he doesn't hear the prayer of the unrighteous. And so when you ask him to pray, why are you doing it? And aren't you asking him to do something that's not honest in his own conscience? God doesn't hear their prayers, and you ask them to pray? It's just wrong to do. Let them struggle with that. You know, don't take all the struggle away from unconverted people. Because you know what brought me to Christ? A little bit of a spiritual struggle. I kept having to face the fact, I'm not really right with God. Oh, yes I am, I'm okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, John 3.16. Oh, I'm not really right with God. Oh, yes I am, John 3.16, yeah, yeah, yeah. First John 1.9, I said, I'm sorry, Lord, so he forgave me, and the Lord kept saying, no, no, no, you've never been serious, no, no, no, until finally I had a year. Don't take the sharp edge off, as we said this morning. Look at Isaiah 1. And by the way, this is not hyper-Calvinism in the hard shell form of Calvinism. I'm not saying don't preach to the unconverted. The reason I don't say that is you don't know who's unconverted. You preach and let... The Spirit of God reap where the Spirit of God sows, you know? So I don't know why these hard-shelled Calvinists, of which there's almost none, but there is such a thing. They think, oh, we can't preach to the unconverted, so they're very particular about not preaching to the unconverted. And some would say, well, this is bordering on that. It's not that, though. Don't ask people who don't believe to pray and to worship with you. You're asking them to do that which is hypocrisy and which angers God, and that's not helpful to them. Isaiah 1, okay, I gotta turn to the pages I asked you to turn to. Isaiah 1 and verse 15. And when you spread forth your hands, which is a portrait of how, you know, oftentimes their posture in prayer, see? And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yeah, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. See, Christians want to think, you know, a lot of Christians, they talk about, well, my uncle so-and-so, my auntie so-and-so, they were praying, and I think the Lord answered their prayer. And they just finished telling you they're unconverted. Well, was their prayer for salvation? No. He was like, ah, I need a little assistance here. So I'm in a gym, and I'm in a foxhole. So Lord, help me to get that Mercedes, because I don't want that BMW, or whatever that prayer is. Hang on, Lord answered their prayer. They prayed. You know, I think the Lord tried to send them a signal. Don't say that. Don't say that. And stop speaking for the Lord, particularly in those areas. Because look what the scripture says. When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Why? Because of your sin. Now, he's saying that to the children of Israel, God's covenant nation. Well, what about the unconverted? Well, I can guarantee you this, none of their sins are under the blood of Christ. So apply the principle. Psalm 66. By the way, if this principle sounds too harsh, I think it's the most gracious thing we can do for the unconverted. Not candy coat their situation before the Lord. Don't do that. Isaiah 66, don't be mean either. You can do every good thing in a bad way, so don't do that. But verse 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear me. We can't ask the unconverted to join us in prayer and to act as though they're worshiping. We're asking a thing that's not good for them. Let them listen to us do it. Let them hear us, not judging them, but let them hear us pour our heart to God in love. And they say, how come these people feel that way? What's going on? Is this real? Let them experience it that way. It's probably better than you deceiving them. You pray too with us. Oh, see, they kind of accept me. See, God hears my prayer too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're cementing them in their own self-deception. It's not, you may feel like you're being nicer to them. You're not. I mean, you know, you got verses like this. In Isaiah 59, I'm bouncing around back and forth here. Maybe I should have ordered these together so I wouldn't have to turn so many pages. But Isaiah 59 and verse two. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God. and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. And again, I emphasize, this is directed to God's covenant people. If this principle is true for God's people, how much more true is it for those who are enemies of God, will not believe in him and are lost and still under the bondage of the fullness of their sins? The Lord won't hear. I remember when I was in an evangelical church growing up, we had a Sunday school class, and someone raised their hand. I was the teacher, and everybody was older than me. And I was the teacher, and I was like, you know, I don't know, I was like, I don't know, 20 years old, 22 years old, 23 years old, I don't know, somewhere in there. And these people that raised their hand, they were like in their late 30s, couple. It says, well, we've got Roman Catholic parents. And when I hear them pray, I think the Lord hears their prayer. Don't you think they hear their prayer? Because I mean, I don't think the Lord sees when we're trying to be sincere. And I'm like, whatever I am, 19, 20, 21. And I didn't expect that question. I just said, no, I don't think he hears their prayer, unless they're asking to be saved. I knew that when I was 19, 20, 22. And I was taken off guard by the question, But I answered it right away because I knew. It's the right answer. Why can't we do that? Because when the Lord was telling me, you're on the outside looking in, that was the best thing that ever happened to me. I'm not trying to be mean, but that's the way that it is. Our sin separated us from God. We ought to look at one in the New Testament. 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. By the way, when I say, do you ever hear anyone talk on this subject? No. You say, oh, so you're saying you just have these deep insights. I don't see it as a deep insight at all. I mean, these passages I'm looking at, they seem kind of simple to me. I don't feel the wiser for saying it. It seems like it's... Excuse the vernacular, regular Bible stuff. It's not like, oh, how do we resolve the fact that Jeconiah received a blood curse, but yet Jesus descended from Jeconiah, and no descendant of Jeconiah could sit on the throne of David. That's perplexing. Okay, maybe you need a little insight for that one, but for this subject I'm talking about, it's regular Bible stuff. Not regular Bible teaching. But regular Bible stuff, you know? I wish regular Bible stuff was always regular Bible teaching. That'd be great, that'd be great. But in 1 Peter 3, in verse 12, for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. Worship and prayer is received by God when it comes from his people because they're under the blood of Christ. Everybody else is at enmity with God. This is why men need to be saved. Prayers and worship is received by the Lord. The prayers and worship can be received by the Lord from sinners and unbelievers in one instance. when they're repenting of their sins and asking for mercy and throw themselves at the feet of the cross saying, be merciful to me a sinner. But the truth is when they do that, regeneration has already taken place. That's why they're, so even at one time we say it seems like that's the one prayer he'll listen to from the unconverted. Nope, the reason that person's praying that is because they've already been regenerated and that's why God's listening. I'm sorry, but that's sovereignty of God. Well, not really sorry, it's just a expression. Now, I go back to Chuck's text here. Paragraph five, so he says in his text to me, well, you never knew all this was gonna come out of this, right? He says, is it a good thing for Christians to attend Clayville? He says, maybe, as long as they know or come to know they're not Christians. I would think that many who listen online to YouTube or sermon audio could be non-Christian. That's okay. The important thing is that the elders and yourself do not change your teaching to keep them coming. Ah, it's like music to my ears. That's right. So you can have the unconverted sit in. They can visit. They can come regular. They can watch you on YouTube, they can do whatever. That's fine. And the unconverted can come here and sit down and listen and say, hey, I really enjoyed your sermon. That's fine, I'm glad you did. But if I'm thinking, you know, these people don't really know the Lord, they don't know that yet. I can tell by listening, they don't even really have an understanding of the gospel. As elders, we appreciate them coming But the implication by what the brother said is, the temptation for the ministry is, if you've got enough of those kind of people coming to your church, the temptation is to not tell the whole truth and to water it down so they continue to come. And this is how they do church. I was talking to a guy at work just Friday. He was raised Roman Catholic. And he knew Gene. He was the guy that said to the other fellow at work, hey, Gene, go over to Jim's church now. Gene? Gene? Gene had a certain background. He had a certain way about him. He was a very worldly man. Gene? Yes, Gene. And they were both dumbfounded. Then the other guy at work said, does he really go to your church? He goes, yes, he does. He's a completely different man. And they're astounded. And this man that was talking to Gene, and then he was going to tell it to the other people at WESCO, then that guy told it to me. And I was talking to the original guy that talked to Gene, and he's saying, oh, yeah, he was all gung-ho for a clay bowl. He goes, you know, I don't really get it, you know, because I said, Gene, that's a long ways to drive from Uxbridge. He says, no, it isn't. He says, oh, no, it's totally great. And he found it hard, he's like, you know, I was raised, and he's telling me, he's telling me face to face, he goes, well, I was raised Roman Catholic, you know, we always went to the parish in our town, you know, that kind of thing. And, well, why do people drive so far? I go, did you realize, you know, we're in Foster, we don't have anyone from Foster that comes to Claiborne. He goes, you don't? I go, no. I go, we got one man that drove from Washington State and relocated. He says, what? He says, yeah. I've never heard of such a thing. I go, yeah, we got people coming from Warwick. We got people coming from Scituate. We got people coming from Connecticut. We got people coming from Cranston. I go, whoa. I go, people don't come from Foster. I go, that's the nature of it is, unless you're a community church. But we're not. We're the body of Christ. It's okay for unconverted people to be here, but don't let them change the teaching of the truth, see? And that is a massive problem in Christianity today, to compromise doctrine and practice, to accommodate the false professors and the puwamas, and that is not helpful to the body of Christ. It's one of the most dangerous things you can do. It's a very common sin, let me put it this way, it's a common sin amongst the clergy. I'm not saying everybody does it, I'm not saying that, but I'm saying it's common. Solomon's wife, what did Solomon's wife do that were pagan that he was not supposed to marry? We're told in scripture, they stole his heart. They stole his heart. The wisest man in the face of the earth became a fool because his wives, that he never should have married, stole his devotion. Is it good for the church to be filled with unconverted people? Well, think about Solomon. Oh, unless we're wiser and better off than Solomon. Failure to separate will always bring the temptation to compromise sooner or later. And the scripture tells us, and we have it in 2 Corinthians 6, as well as the Old Testament. Come out, he says to his people, come out from among them. That's to separate. Come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing. Why? Because, not because there's something magical in it and you touch the unclean thing and it's just, oh, now my finger's soiled. No, the unclean thing will steal your heart. Separation is built on the premise of humility. I don't trust my flesh, but I want to serve the Lord, so I better stay clear of as much temptation as I can. That's only prudent, and it's wise. The assembly is for believers. It's the called-out, separated-to-himself assemblage of God's elect, and that's what it's for. Now, that brings us to paragraph six. And this is what the brother says. And this is kind of loaded, I don't know how much detail to go into this, but he says, now see the next thing he says, why would false Christians most likely eventually leave Clavel? He brought this up, you know? Why would false Christians leave Clavel? Because, and he's not saying that everybody that leaves Clavel is a false Christian. That's not the premise. But he's saying, why would, because we're talking about false Christians, people that aren't saved. Why would false Christians most likely eventually leave Clavel? And so Brother Chuck says, because truth is preached at Clavel. Convenient truth and inconvenient truth. An example would be that you always say not to choose selected proof texts, but to believe all the texts in the Bible. In other words, don't say, I want to believe this, but I don't want to believe that, so I try not to look at that. No, we're not supposed to do that. Then there are the apostles' teachings that are practiced at Clayville. These include, he just gives some examples, head coverings, communion, psalm singing, using the KJV, separation, tulip, fake Israel, and mystery Babylon, marriage until death, unions, and probably much more. In other words, these are things that are kind of distinctive nowadays. Well, kind of, very distinctive. And we teach all those things. He says, because the elders in yourself strive to understand, teach, and obey the apostles' doctrine, there's a good chance the false Christian will eventually leave Clayville. While truth taught in one or two specific areas can attract people, truth taught in every area seems to drive them away. Now that's striking at the root right there. That's exactly right, exactly right. Because we, I can illustrate this. Well, he's saying, when you teach the whole counsel of God, that's too much for the false professor. But the false professors sometimes can deal with some pretty inconvenient truths that they're okay with. It's unique, depending on the person. He says, when truths are taught in every area, that seems to drive them away. That's because believing the Bible is going to change how you think and how you live. I can say that an earlier time in my life, I would not have been happy about my present physical problems with his back and leg there. Now I have confidence that God knows exactly what is going on and everything is for my good. And then he brings up some examples of what people in the world have a hard time with. Like he brings up the example of head coverings. He says, of course, it's not hard or difficult to wear a hat, but they know what it means. that they are being submissive, and that makes it difficult to obey the command. Yeah, well, that pretty much describes it. When the whole counsel of God, and by the way, we don't know all things, but to the best of our ability with what life has given us, we try to preach the whole counsel of God. When the whole counsel of God is preached, eventually it'll drive away all the people that have selective commitment to the truths of God's word. Now that's a key phrase, selective commitment, because they can have commitment as unconverted people that are pretending to be Christians or even fool themselves. They can still hold on to some pretty rigorous doctrine sometimes. Like we can teach the doctrine of separation and say you got a false professor and he's got his family and they're all feeling pretty good. We go to Clayville Assembly and my wife, you know, she has her head covering or whatever. Well, let's say the family didn't, forget the head covering thing. Let's say the guy's there for whatever reason. He's unconverted, he's there with his family, they're all unconverted and we preach the doctrine of separation. We should separate from the world. Our world's a stinking place out there and we're special. So he likes that, you see, because he interprets it a little bit differently. We're special by God's grace. He thinks he's something special. Okay, so they can accept the doctrine of separation. They can accept the KJV. Well, yes, right, we use an authentic Bible that doesn't fool around. And they can be okay with that, and yet they're unconverted. They can be even okay with TULIP. They can even be okay with Tulip and they're unconverted. Yes, we're elect. God chose us. I'm the elect of God. Yes. And then you say, okay, one more thing. And the ladies ought to cover his head. Oh, my wife's not going to like that one. So when that comes out, maybe the spirit of God leads them to go elsewhere. You see, false professors have selective devotion to God's Word. It's one thing not to see a thing and to be mistaken, I can understand that, but I'm saying outside of that context. Or say, you know, these false brethren are here and you say, they say, head covering, I don't have a problem with that. You know, I always take the home, I just watched that film, it was a documentary on the Duggars. The Happy Shiny People, or something like that, Shiny Happy People. Remember the Duggar family, 19 kids and counting? And it's kind of like an expose. Oh, they were a nasty family after all. I'm thinking, well, how much of this is going to be the complaints for the world? And I wasn't only so interested. But I want to watch that, see how valid their things are or not. And so I listened to it. The thing is, it was three parts, and I fell asleep for quite a bit of it. But in the homeschool movement, it got me thinking, because the Duggards and the group, the organization they belonged to, Gotham, they had some excesses of belief that didn't put them beyond necessarily the pale of Christianity, but unwise and maybe a little carnality setting in. Not carnality in the way you usually think of it. But in the homeschool movement, I discovered back when we were younger in homeschooling, and we'd go to these big homeschooling seminars, there's a wing within homeschooling that is very self-righteous. Now, they'll say that about all homeschools, and that's a lie. But there's a wing in homeschooling movement that's dad is a god. Dad is the priest. Dad is the pope. Dad is the disciplinarian, and everybody is under his tutelage. Now, do I believe in the male headship of the home? Yes, I do. But some of these fellows like to bring it to an extreme. They'll tell you who to marry, when to marry, how to jump, and how high to jump, and when not to jump. And they're on a power trip. And I could tell it. And it's in some of these guys. And it may have started innocent enough where we believe in the authority structure in scripture. We want to abide by it. And then they just kept extrapolating it, extrapolating it, extrapolating it. And they had some examples from the Duggars, if what the daughters were saying were true, like, well, that's kind of a little bit beyond the pale, and it seemed like a control thing. But maybe they're misrepresenting it, so I can't say for sure. I'm not making a judgment on that. Plus, I fell asleep for too much of it, so I don't want to make a judgment on it. But you could get like a homeschooled dad that's just about, well, I like this religion, because I'm the boss. Now see, I never got that from the Duggars and the father and mother. They didn't seem like, oh yeah, okay, so all these conservative controlling thing, but he's on a power trip. He never struck me as a guy that was on a power trip. They always seemed, you know, humble and meek and very loving and forgiving. And even the daughters were trashing them after the fact when everything went south because of the one son. And he says, well, we love all our children equally and we pray for them. And just always mild spoken. So I don't think he's one of those guys on the power trip, but you know, you're judging humanity, right? But lots of men, you could tell in the homeschooling, they were on a power trip with us. And they're like, yeah. And so they're the boss. And so when you say they sit in your church and they're unconverted, they're just on a power trip, you say the women ought to cover their heads. You better, you better be that way. That's absolutely true. And that's what I expect. And see, that's because I'm a true Bible believer. And they're different than what I'm thinking. And you can say tulip and they go along with that. Then you say, you talk about divorce and remarriage and marriage is forever. And oh, he did get married for like a year or two and then he got divorced and then he became a Christian and he married. So now he didn't like that. God's gotta be reasonable. And the Lord leads him elsewhere. Now, I'm trying to end reasonable tonight. I said to Paula before we came here, I want to end on a reasonable time. I'm trying to do it. I find it so hard. Why don't you just be my cheerleader and stand up and say, hey, it's time to draw this to a close? She says, I can't do that. I go, yeah, just do that. I'm kind of fooling around with her. And this is why we're getting changed to come here. And she goes, that's up to you. And then, you know, we didn't talk about it on the way over. And then I go to the door over here, I go to unlock the door. She says, don't forget. I said, what? She says, don't forget, it's all on you. I go, I was saying to the elders, she doesn't realize how hard that is. Let me read the last paragraph. Our brother writes this. Many times you have said that you'll never be surprised at who leaves the ministry at Clayville. Actually, I haven't quite said it that way. It's not what I've said, but it's very, very close. It's not that I say, you'll never be surprised, because that's to say, like that won't happen. No, no, I say, don't be surprised. Not that you never will be, but don't be surprised, because I got this, don't be surprised at who will let you down. That's how I would say it. So it's not that we shouldn't be surprised, but don't be surprised. It's an exhortation which It's hard to practice yourself, but I'll say this. Let me dissect this very carefully. In most everyone that leaves, in the end, I say most everyone, it's not true in every instance, but the vast majority, I'm not surprised. And they might be surprised that I'm not surprised. So you say, so you're not surprised, but I am dismayed. They say, you're splitting hairs. But it's an important difference. And that's how I thought of it. I said, let me look up the word dismayed and make sure I'm describing this right. Dismayed, consternation, and distress. Yes. Every time someone leaves, I feel consternation. It's disturbing to me. And I feel distressed. Because I don't want to see that. I want to see what's best for them. And I'm thinking, I don't think they know, necessarily, what's best for them. But they're thinking that. And what are they going to run into? So I'm dismayed. And sometimes it's surprising, because, well, I didn't expect that today. Because in almost every instance, they end up, there are signals. There are signs. And usually, you know, you put the best construction, well, bad day, then, you know. There's something off, but you wonder sometimes. And then when it happens, you didn't wake up expecting that, so it's surprising to you. And you're kind of shocked, but then you give it a... I don't even know if you need to give it a couple of days, but you give it some time and you say, well, I guess it's not really surprising. but it catches you off guard, and it makes you sad, and it brings consternation. So he says, and I understand what he's saying, many times you have said that you'll never be surprised that who leaves the ministry at Claival. It seemed that all the apostles, he says, were surprised that one of them would betray Jesus, and they didn't, suspect Judas at all. So let me say this, that does happen sometimes, but I gotta tell you this, and I'm not exaggerating, that's really rare. It's rare that it's a total surprise. But it does happen, that can happen. Because like I say, there's always warning signs, it comes in different ways. Their concern, the brother writes, their concern at that time talking about the apostles who didn't expect Judas to be the one. Their concern at that time was about who sat next to Jesus. It's true, that's what they were concerned with. And then he concludes this way, I'm happy, well, I'm glad that he said that. Not everybody's always happy with me. I look in the mirror, I say, well, I understand it from the mirror perspective, I don't know, how am I getting it? I'm happy, Chuck writes, blessed and very encouraged because of Clayville Assembly. I have to admit, I like reading that. I don't like to think that my life is for naught. Whether he said it or not, I still believe that. Sometimes, you know, your flesh. Where is everybody? It's the day we're in. The way they do Christianity now, it makes it happen. Well, I can't be held responsible for that. He says, I'm happy, blessed, and very encouraged because of Clayville Assembly. I hope that many more people will find the same blessings and faithfully attend Clayville. But I'm not surprised that most can't come. Once again, he's spot on, he's spot on with that. Why is that? Because when you teach, you can be conservative, you can be God bless America, you can be King James Bible, but if you bring in all the stuff of the Bible without grace, that's usually just too much. And they don't want to adapt and change their thinking to what they're not used to thinking because they see it in the Bible. It's just too much because regeneration hasn't taken place. I'm not surprised that most can't come. He says, just look what goes on in our country. And may I say, I'm not surprised either. I'm not surprised. Maybe when I was, you know, 20 years old, I thought about going to the ministry. I thought, well, because I told you, I went on to go in the ministry like someone's got to say something. A bunch of stuff's going on, no one wants to say anything. Well, I mean, I'll say something. And I thought, and then when they hear the truth, they'll come a-flocking. Wrong. So I had to wake up and smell the coffee. But you know, a little time has gone by, matured some, and so I'm not surprised either. But it is still, to me, a sad thing to see, because I do care about people, whether they think so or not. I love the faith that God has given me, as imperfect as it may be in me. I love everything God has done for me, and I love what this assembly stands for, what it stood for when I came here, when Pastor Cugini was here, and the grace that God has shown us since. But quite obviously in our day, most other people don't see it that way. Even most Christians. Thus the series entitled Shallow Christianity. Can I illustrate this with one last thing? Yesterday Allison says, oh dad, I got a book for you. This is the book. I open the cover, and it looks like it says, chock, happy birthday, 2021. Page 16, most revealing. And it looks like it says in some sort of Nordic scribble, I don't know if that's what you want to call it. Looks like it says Eric. So I go, let me see what, this is on the head covering. The Forgotten Christian Practice for Modern Times. Allison picked this up at the Ark where she works. I look at page 16, which if that's Eric, and I go to page 16, I wonder what it says over on page 16, because I haven't read this. She gave this to me yesterday. This is what the author here. The National Organization for Women is a feminist organization founded by Betty Friedan, author of The Feminist Mystique. In 1968, they rallied their troops to have a national unveiling. Here's what they said. Now the quote I'm about to read, I have read to you verbatim, you know, some years ago when we're going through the series on head coverings. It's like, ah, I remember this quote. Let me read it for you. Betty Friedan, quote, because the wearing of a head covering by women at religious services is a symbol of subjection with many churches. Now the National Organization for Women recommends that all chapters of NOW undertake an effort to have all women participate in a national unveiling by sending their head coverings to the task force chairman. At the spring meeting of the Task Force of Women and Religion, these veils will be publicly burned to protest the second-class status of women in all churches." Now, how many times have I told you we threw off the practice because of the Women's Liberation Movement and burning their bras? And I've quoted that for you. I said, who wrote this book? Jeremy Gardner, Jeremy Gardner. You know who Jeremy Gardner is? He's the guy we sent him, I think we sent him 1,000, 1,500 bucks. He was the fellow from Canada that came down with cancer and he's the author of the Head Covering Movement, that's a website promoting women's head covering. And it was pretty nicely done. And I'd seen his website, then I found out in some newsletter or something that he had cancer and he has a bunch of kids and how's he gonna make ends meet? So I brought it to the attention of large people. We don't know him from a hole in the wall. And we sent him 1,000, 1,500 bucks, I don't know what it was, but we sent it to him and we don't know. I said, this is him. I started to read the book and actually it seemed pretty good. And then Allison told me, oh yeah, she was just telling me this today. Yeah, that book, Eric bought it and read it and then he gave it to Chuck. Then Chuck read it, and he says, well, okay, I've already read it, so I'm gonna donate it to the Ark. Then Allison's at the Ark, and she's there, you know, just doing her job, and she goes, well, look, there's a book on handcuffing. Let me grab it. And lo and behold, now think of the trajectory of this book. Eric had it, then Chuck had it, then he donated it to a public organization. The one who saw it and wanted it was Allison, and it's written by the guy that we sent money to. This is a very tight circle. It's a very small circle. Why is that? Like, why did someone else pick it up there? No, Allison did. No, I don't think anybody wanted that. It went from Eric, to Chuck, to Allison, to me, and written by the man we sent help to. That's the smallness of the world we live in. And why is that? Because of shallow Christianity. That's the truth. Bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, whatever truth you have given to us, by your grace, utterly undeserved by us, we are appreciative of, and we give thee thanks and praise for it. For we find joy in the things of your word. And we thank thee for the forgiveness of our sins and the mercy that you have shown and the kindness. Again, Lord, we have to say it is undeserved. Keep us humble and pliable in your sovereign hands. Enable us to walk by faith and to believe. and to show kindness and love and mercy and patience for those who don't believe and who don't understand or who backslide even. But help us to be the witness we need to be, to not compromise the integrity of your word. And help us to stick fast to it with grace and steadfastness, with the proper combination of the two. And for those involved with shallow Christianity, as Lord at one time, we all have been involved with it. Open their hearts and use the people of God in this place in some small way to be the witness that you would have us be and forgive us of our sins. and help us to be better equipped tomorrow to do that which thou dost command of our conscience. And may we walk in the joy of our Lord in so doing. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.