Published: November 12, 2023 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Worship 1 - Part 10 | Scripture: Nehemiah 8:1-3
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well our discussion on the apostles the early church devoting themselves to the apostles teaching has generated a lot of discussion comment and that's good um
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School uh that's kind of what it's for I had a conversation last week with regard to um the lecture format of so many
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churches and we haven't quite figured out how to make the um sermon interactive uh so I don't think we're going in that direction but the lecture format whether it's in
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an educational environment or in a church is is really not all that beneficial because the the one who is lecturing gets no
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feedback and those of you who have taught you you know that glassy eyes could mean could mean total lack of comprehension or it could mean it's an
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8:30 class and the and the student is actually getting it but that's just their 8:30 study face normally it's the first one but um
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it's hard to read facial expressions and and determine whether people are understanding it's the questions that come back that are important now you've heard it said you know there's no such
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thing as a stupid question well that's false there are stupid questions there really are um but the point behind that comment is that whatever question
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you ask does indicate the level of understanding that you're operating from so if it is a St objectively a stupid question it does still indicate that
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you're not getting it okay so if if the lecturer if the professor if the preacher has any desire for what he's saying to actually sink in then there
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has to be some feedback so that that's a very key element to our Teaching Ministry at Fellowship Bible Church now we used to do it years and years ago with what was
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called a sharing time that was after the sermon and we did that for quite a number of years until it became apparent to the elders
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that what we were actually doing was taking away the the entire content of the of the sermon by pulled
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ignorance that was fueled by 15 minutes of thought a cup of coffee and a donut in other words these people had not been thinking about this passage until it was
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preached on that morning and then you would get well what the passage means to me and and then what happened was by the end of sharing time nobody could remember what the sermon was about
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anyhow that's not the right way to go so instead of that we I mean one of the reasons they had the sharing time was because Sunday school is such a traditional thing that early on the
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Fellowship Bible churches being non-traditional uh New Testament type churches did away with the Sunday School um was something that came from the
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denomination it's it's not really a denomination yes but it came from the the the the structure of the sermon and the sharing time and the Fellowship time
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that was part of the Fellowship Bible Church model I think that'd be a better because there's no there's no Central organization there's no headquarters no Mission board U there's no it's a non
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it's non- denominational but there are fbc's all over the world not many but they're dotted around you know the world um so we're not we're not alone in that
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but um we are alone in the way we worship versus other Fellowship Bible churches so that that is kind of how
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things were and um again when it was kind of realized by the elders that this this is just pulled ignorance this is not benefiting it's actually detracting
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it was changed and we brought in the Sunday School also another thing that the church did which was very traditional and and somewhat remarkable for such a non-traditional church is
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that pretty much when a family came to the front door they were immediately divided into various age related groups
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we had what was called a Learning Center which was another word for children Sunday school but a learning center and then um this is something that that
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really kind of bothered me early on was that um right after the singing and before the sermon all of the children were
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dismissed um basically under the age of 18 okay which which indicated that there was no understanding of the salvific
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power of the sermon okay or either that or no desire that 18-year-olds be saved okay so I'm going to give credit to the lack of understanding rather than the lack of care um but there was again the
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age segregated and you've probably experienced that in churches where family comes in the front door and doesn't really meet together until they go out that door to go home because everyone has their own thing um and you
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know that was also problematic because it seemed to indicate that uh that the the Lord was speaking to you based on your biological age and
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independently of your familiar relations um and so again that was one of the things that was changed over the years that we don't do that and in fact as you recognize
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um we don't have any set policy for uh where the children must be at a given time leaving that to the parents however that that can present
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issues on a on a different scale um that I want to talk about this morning and the key passage I think that that guides um in sort of a basic way the
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Teaching Ministry here at Fellowship Bible Church is actually in Nehemiah chapter 8 if you want to turn
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there Nehemiah and Ezra are joint uh books and Ezra factors in as a character um as the chief priest as it were in
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Nehemiah somewhat like um zerubabel and Joshua in the post exilic you have Nehemiah as the governor and you have Ezra as the Scribe who is and and the purpose here is or the whole theme is
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Revival the um restoring of uh Judaism back in Jerusalem and in Nehemiah 8 and beginning in verse one and all the
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people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Watergate and they asked Ezra The Scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord Lord had given to
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Israel uh now kind of an overarching New Testament passage to this right here is where Paul exhorts Timothy to give
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attention to the public reading of scripture okay so the the commonality between this and and that what we do and what they did is it's centered on the
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word of God which at this time was the Torah and so we read then Ezra the priest brought the law before the Assembly of men women and all who could
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listen with understanding on the first day of the seventh month okay uh the assembly there in the Greek Old Testament is the word
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Ecclesia uh which is the word translated in the English New Testament as church now I'm not one of those who calls the Assembly of Israel the Church of the Old
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Testament I think that's misappropriation of words it wasn't a church it was a nation but it was an assembly it was a
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gathering of God's people to hear the word of God but that phrase in verse two men women and all who could listen with
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understanding now that's that's an important phrase so I want to put that up on the
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that is not clarified okay clarified okay um so it could mean generally it could mean one of two things or both really two classes of people uh one class of
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course would be those who spoke Hebrew or arama whatever it was Ezra was reading those who could listen with understanding would be those who
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understood that language okay that's that's a possibility um that that's
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weak because we've already read in verse one that all the people gathered as one man these were Hebrews okay so it's it's unlikely that that they could could not understand what Ezra was saying as he read the
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law although it is said later that some of their children could not understand the language they could not understand the language they would also be servants perhaps and then just people who lived
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in the in the area so it's not it's not um beyond the realm of possibility that that that is what this means um but it can also mean what we might call those
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who were of
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oh yeah Bar Mitzvah they would go under men yeah those who were or or the Bat Mitzvah they would go under women yeah there there is an interesting fact that verse two doesn't mention children men women and children is is a phrase that
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certainly is prevalent in the Old Testament but it's not in this passage what is put in place there of children where we might expect children is those who could listen with understanding okay
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now um there there is a tendency within churches of course to determine when that age is
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um Paul says very enigmatically in chapter 7 of Romans he
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it verse n and I once was alive apart from the law but when the Commandment came sin became alive and I died okay when when was Paul alive apart from
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the law well we can't put an age to it but we can read his own words and say when the law came I died so there was a point at
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which he he became aware of the law and being aware of the law he became immediately aware of
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sin so that seems to be some indication now I'm going to I'm going to say something that might you know this is purely uh purely uh conjecture but I I have had children
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okay so at least I have that that uh background um and and we we do know that the first thing that Adam and Eve recognized when they fell was their
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nakedness now we also know that children up to a certain age don't right but but there comes an age at
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which they all of a sudden want the door shut right I don't know that that has anything to do with it but there seems to be an awareness there right that
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wasn't there before okay now we can't put an age to that um certainly there there is an average age at which a child will begin to want privacy um but
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there's also the indication they are they Sinners before they recognize that they are sinners okay yes they are so we're not talking about oh they're they're
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pristine and they innocence and they don't do anything wrong no they're they're conceived in iniquity they're born in sin we know that they don't know that apparently is what Paul seems to be indicating but then there comes a point
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in time when they do know that I
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when would I feel like you don't love me and I had to tell to tell her it's not that you're feeling like
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feel yeah there there's there is some element of us teaching so you have if we looked at an age scale of children you have a point it would seem Romans uh 7 verse
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9 and I'm just going to say unaware of sin does anybody object to
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that does that seem reasonable okay um and then there comes a point in time where they are now again Romans 7 verse 9 they are now
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aware of sin okay I think at this point they are definitely susceptible to
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Salvation um and I think that personally I think at this point they probably should be sitting under the preaching of the word right any comments I got one so I'm
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reading this into what it's not as you noted listen with understanding is not only there it's there repetitively right he says that that particular tra five
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times in a paragraph Yes I read this through the lens of have Exile we are in celebration Gathering as one people underneath Ezra go get that
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book and read to he reads he reads all day right right so I read this inclusively I wouldn't think for a second that a mother is going to come with her newborn child and go if you don't have understanding I'm going to go
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listen you're you're not and I'm not saying that you're saying that well but I I in a in a sense I am saying that but not of the newborn child because there's should there be a
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separate category then I'm about to put one up there okay yeah yeah because awareness of sin and I'm going to try to I'm going to try to
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express the the dangers involved on two extremes okay the one I think everybody's rather aware of and that is O overdosing on
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milk a diet has no meat okay um there's no nutrition and eventually there's going to be um a starv essentially a starvation of the body so that that is
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where the word is not read now there there is another uh verse that kind of correlates with verse two down in verse 8 and they read from the book from the
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law of God explaining to give the sense so that they understood the reading now that is exegesis basically not just the
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simple reading of the word word because the word of God is Not simple and anybody who tells you otherwise has not read it it is not
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simple and so this is the role this was the role of the Levites to extract the precious from the vial they were scattered throughout the tribes in order
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to teach the Israelites the law of God they did not hold it in sole possession as the Roman Catholic priesthood did or other anci ient priesthoods they were
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they were purposed to disseminate the knowledge of the will of God to the people that was their function and in response the people were to financially
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support the Levites so that they could do what they were called to do now that's a very strong pattern of the Teaching Ministry in the church okay um
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but the explaining to give the sense of it does divide this category into two other categories um the church has long
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recognized this as catechism okay that there is if if we I don't know how to draw this actually but there's a period of time of um I'm just
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going to say milk okay that there's a time that the child in Christ and this is of any age
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actually does if if a person is is regenerate at age 40 they are an infant in Christ you know and depending on their background now many of the early
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Christians converted under Paul's and Peter's Ministry were themselves Jews so they had a background that was immersed in the scriptures but not the
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Gentiles okay when when they came to the Lord they had a background immersed in paganism so there there had to be a time as the writer of Hebrew says a time of
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milk but that time must come to an end okay so there's another period in our life when while we still like a glass of milk we need
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meat right for our body and this is true it's it's analogous of course to physical development there's a point in which we need to be introducing solid food to our children's diet for them to survive
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feel like we've skipped over period of time between awareness of sin and salvation because well yes unregenerate
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child while potentially similar to the Jews and their immersion in the Old Testament just provision of milk not
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right and thank you I uh that's a good word and and what when we recognize that that a child is aware of
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sin that child I think is is susceptible of Salvation okay I think that in the past when infant mortality and in the present in places where infant mortality
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is a much um much more uh real presence there there's always been the hope that the child of Innocence God's mercy and Grace would
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extend to that child um that's a hope we have no word that says that except perhaps what Paul says in Romans 7 because he says I was alive and to Paul
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alive means something you know it's it's not just a I was biologically my heart was pumping it it means alive to God but then the law came and I died now we'll
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get to Romans 7 uh in the sermon series next session that's a difficult passage Romans 7 it really is but what it does seem to indicate um is that there was a
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point in time in which awareness of the law awareness of sin became a reality in a person's life at that point that person is truly susceptible of of
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regeneration through the gospel which is what Ariel's talking about so really yes this what I'm talking about milk and meat do no good to unbelievers in fact that what I really want to focus on is that they can do
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harm okay meat to a child can choke them and and so we as parents we have to be careful that we're feeding our
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children the right food I was maybe a little bit overboard uh I I remember my sister had no problem giving her infant toddler hot dogs okay to me
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hot dogs were like choke food okay and having had the experience of of my son almost choking on a lollipop for the next 30 Years lollipops were
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crushed up dissolved in water and they drank them you know it's like I don't like lollipops like lollipops okay uh he was 2 years old in a car seat turning blue um we were actually in the
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realtor's car seat buying a home in Greenville so you know one of those weekends house hunting weekends and um so you so you know choking is is a reality and parents
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are aware of it and so they are they are careful as to what to feed their children so as not to induce or encourage choking are we are we aware of
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that as parents in the Lord um are are we assuming that our children can digest meat well in
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fact the biblical equivalent I think of of choking is is really it leads to a rejection of the Gospel by
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presenting doctrines that that are beyond the person's ability to understand even the doctrine of election uh John Calvin called that the
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doctrine the terrible the awesome The Fearsome doctrine that God has chosen from the foundation of the world Those whom he would
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save that's not milk okay that's not actually part of an Evangelistic message okay so but in order for a congregation
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to grow in order for believers to grow that meat needs to be served eaten and digested but over the years I personally have seen adults choke on
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it okay so uh what does this mean well from the standpoint of Fellowship Bible Church what we're trying to present in the Teaching Ministry is I'm going to
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say age appropriate rather than age-based okay because the who determines who who is a who is aware of a child's becoming aware of sin not the
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elders it's the parents right I mean fundamentally the decision on on this is the parents but we we have had if you know
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anything about the history of history of parenting especially in in the west you know that it is um you know years ago when the when the Boomers we were self-parenting
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we didn't really have parents our parents were off careers and country clubs and that sort of thing now that's a generalization of
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course you you may be a boomer and you may have very fond memories of of your parents um and God bless you uh but we we were largely you we we would roam
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about the the community um and come in whenever we came in and there was like no awareness of that then then we have what are
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called the helicopter parents the parents who hover over the child okay so these are these are known sociological caricatures okay um I would
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say that parenting especially within the church today is far better than it was a generation ago generation ago than two generations ago it was far
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better because there's there's an awareness of the needs of the children there's a care for the education and upbringing in the honor and admission of admonition of the Lord um but we need to
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be wise in what we do so um over the years what we have tried to Pro provide at Fellowship Bible Church is a kind of
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a graduated level of teaching now I made a comment last week or the week before about the difference between preaching and teaching so I'm talking
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about the Teaching Ministry here as far as the preaching Ministry whether saved or unsaved from that point on we believe the child
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should be under the ministry of the word preached because Paul says it is by the foolishness of preaching that men shall be saved okay it it isn't as as arel
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said you know no amount of milk is going to save anyone and that's really the danger because what happens if a if a child is is exposed to
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Christianity there's a possibility of what I call inoculation you know you get a you get a small but live dose of the virus which
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is sufficient to render you immune to the actual disease well it's actually possible to get enough of a dose of the Gospel to render yourself immune to the
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disease called salvation um what does that bother anybody that concept of being inoculated well being perfectly honest
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yes that's why I asked we we we see it as our primary obligation for our children to read and
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instruct word in the home as well as to bring them among the family of God and receive and have them
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receive so I I'll say that I've struggled a lot with the worry of you know either I'm overbearing on them or
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not overing them enough I'll enough I'll say I've often wondered proed my has too not too
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much no I I I think yeah I think it can be too too little leads to just emaciation and emaciation and starvation uh too much by what I mean by
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inoculation I appreciate your comment because it allows me to flesh out what I'm talking about I'm certainly not not suggesting that you not teach your children or read the word or explain the
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word no that that's not really from this point on we we should be doing that um what I mean is again in the context meat
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before milk that you're first of all you're giving a familiarity with Christian doctrine that does not have an awareness of sin and
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repentance okay what what the writer of Hebrew calls the the elementary the foundational principles we have to keep going back to that because they weren't getting enough they were just they they
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were still getting milk okay Ariel and Dallas well I think my concern would actually be more would be less
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U academic than that and simply that so many children have been fed milk because we see I see this never darken the doors of the church you know they're married or living together they have a kid oh it's time to go to church now because we
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have a kid or or drop the kid at church so the kid is getting milk but he's not being told that this doesn't save and so they grow up and the inoculation is well
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I grew up at church right that's so they go off into life that's essentially what I mean is you know people people gain an awareness of Doctrine sufficient to think that they're in but they're not
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because they they haven't been given the fundamental principles of sin and repentance did you have yeah I just want I think CR is the
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gospel um you know these young ones need the gospel to toted to repent
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yeah that that's what Ariel was saying earlier and you're you're right it it's these are I'm I'm making an assumption here these are children of
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Believers um inoculation does not usually happen uh with make with make Believers okay people who profess to be
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Christians but know nothing about the doctrines of their faith I'm talking about this is this is a specifically reformed problem okay this is specifically a problem that is that is
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endemic to churches who are focused on the word and who teach the word and and that is they're they're putting they're putting meat on everybody's plate but it can lead to a um a a self
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satisfaction kind of a a a self- Salvation that I grew up in the church and of course I can I can refute anything you say because I know the doctrines but I've never had a personal
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Encounter With Jesus Christ you know I've never repented of my sin uh okay I don't I don't disagree with what you're saying
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conceptually I'm I'm going to ask two questions first one those of understanding is that understanding is that I don't I don't know Greek Hebrew arama I is that the same word that we
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see other places like Daniel doesn't understand or when Jesus is teaching the Gentiles don't understand Jews don't understand and his disciples understand is that all the same word it's the same it's the same family of words uh
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generally knowledge um you know they they don't have the the the word seems to indicate the ability to process information okay just a very
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simple again Hebrew and Hebrew is not a complex language so the word for no is going to do Yan's Duty and but you have
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to kind of read the nuances in the in the passage where up here we say they're listening but down here we see they're explaining so to understand means to be
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able to process the explanation and that's really what we see in our in our
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children the link between understanding here and it being awareness versus unawareness of sin doesn't seem to then be applied in other contexts where we have
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take jesus' disciples for example clearly aware of sin don't understand right and not Chas yeah and Jesus himself said I have many more things to teach you but you cannot you cannot
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accept them yet that yeah we we're we're assuming first of all that the child is aware of sin so um you know exposing an
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infant to the to the plum line class is just water off a du Duck's back that that's not what we're talking about here um but there there does come an age that
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the parent recognizes when the child is able to understand the explanations of the word that you're giving them or they can begin to understand what the preacher is saying on Sunday mornings
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you know at that point um they're they're susceptible to the gospel okay and then you try to lead them in that direction but again if you if you lead
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them in that direction with the with the Deep things of God that's probably not the right path okay um I think it would be better to to
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focus on um the the the the Holiness of God the fall of Man the indwelling sin but the offer of Grace in Jesus Christ
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that's kind of the components of the gospel and then even after that there's a time at which you are catechizing your child and preparing them to be able to
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digest meat Lauren and then Angela I was in that time just not join the
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assembly well not the uh you mean this one this phrase with no no that's why I said it doesn't really matter I mean at that point you just try to keep the infant quiet which everybody does I mean
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it's really good but you know it's not like the that they're not even aware really uh if we if we're taking this accurately if I'm right that there's a point at which the child is aware once
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the child is aware they most certainly should be in the assembly because it is by the foolishness of pre preaching that they may be saved by God's grace okay so I'm really talking about the Teaching
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Ministry not the preaching Ministry and and so I do think that there should be levels of teaching within the church that are appropriate according to
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the parents understanding to where their children are in the milk meat Spectrum
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I have seen so many people grow up in a Christian home go to a church Gathering solid in and whether they are 16 or they are
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36 at some point they look at their parents and they say there something seriously WR with you as a human being and Christian and it hents completely out of
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whatever because I think a lot of those Church Gatherings they say we are the theological High human beings with elevated knowledge of God come and we will teach your children and they start
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with you know 2% milk and they never really get to meet they just teach and indoctrinate them will this that and the parents are doing all
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the told except read the Bible at home and it out at home right you mentioned it's the parents job to understand where their kids are at spiritually and to
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encourage them you are a Sin and to help them see that but I see so many Church groups and so many families that have no idea my 36y old daughter children
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separating from her husband to go have a lifestyle with women like grew up in the Lord she grew up in church she was a well there you know there there's the use of that proverb
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raise up a child and the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it but that is so misused well the raising part the parents aren't raising their children the church says they are
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but if you look at the church across the United States United States especially that's not happening it's not happening and and I I don't mean for a moment to
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moment to suggest that the church is taking the place of the parents in this Teaching Ministry uh as we mentioned before from Ephesians 4 the responsibility of the
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pastors are to equip the Saints that's what we do we we're here to help you do the work of the ministry part of that Ministry is raising your children the
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the point I'm I'm trying to make is that uh and I made this in a sermon and we've talked about it in the Thursday night class that you know there there is a tremendous amount
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tremendous amount about God that we don't know and as disciples which is the most common description and probably the most accurate description of a Believer is a
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learner to learn I I find this there're you got to find people who know more than you okay and you're going to find those
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people in books you're going to find those people in podcasts you're find those people but the you know obviously in scripture and anybody who goes beyond
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or away from scripture is not someone who's going to teach you in the right way but the church is here hopefully with some men who know a little more than you and want to impart that knowledge to
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you that you might impart that knowledge to your children the problem is that that can become become a diet that
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is unpalatable and undigestible to young believers that that is a problem that we face in a Reformed Church and especially a Bible Church I remember years ago uh
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you know a woman telling me after the sermon that the the sermon went over her head I made the mistake of saying next time stand up that was probably not the right thing to say um just came out okay
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uh but you know i' I've also had the experience with somebody saying you know I really have a hard time understanding the sermon and I'll respond by saying well how much time do you spend in the
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word and the answer is very invariably not enough which means none okay um you know and that's true I mean the the the
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past the the Pastoral staff needs to be careful not to Simply indoctrinate and I think that's what I'm saying the parents though have the ultimate responsibility of preventing their children from being
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indoctrinated by what they do at home right um
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Jenny so she's inting what she knows good for and that's and that should be what the Pastoral staff and the parents are doing for their children but it also
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indicates the different levels of being able to digest and benefit from those nutrients that's really what I'm getting at so looking at the Teaching Ministry of the church not in any way Ariel did
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you have a comment I'm sorry I think I saw your only that are we maybe getting P up this is question not a comment are we getting hung up on the being under the preaching
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of the of the word mistakenly aligning that solely with Sundays and the preacher because I was looking at philli when he was on the road he preached the word to the unit
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but it wasn't a church service right so do the parents not have the opportunity and the ability to preach that word to their children I think this speaks to what Aaron was he struggling with what
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do I need to be doing for my children at home presenting home presenting yeah I would say everything that you do in your life should be or oriented around the will and the word of God I I
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don't think there's anything that you do in life that is independent if you're a believer that isn't independent of the word and the will of God so that includes of course raising your children what they see you do will be more
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powerful than anything they hear on a Sunday okay we're we're we're entirely auxiliary here this is this is just talking about one aspect of our assembly and worship
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and worship not the sum total of why we meet okay so keep that in perspective as well we're we're not simply here to teach um there there are three other things in in Acts
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two that we have yet to talk about uh elely I'm sorry
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going that milk isn't saving no milk alone can't save I mean the milk milk milk I mean s salvation comes by grace through faith salvation requires regeneration what what the
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point was is that just becoming aware of sin does not mean salvation and that that was a necessary point it it seemed to indicate on my chart that we are
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already moving in and treating someone as a Believer which is one of the problems of the Covenant thing okay Covenant children is that you're basically assuming that this child
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because born of Christian parents is a Believer well we can't do that now what what I so what I'm talking about is people children and adults who have
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made a profession of faith that that's where milk and meat then start we can't digest anything until we have that new nature that comes guess I have a problem
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what is milk and what is me
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Bas on mil yeah that's that's both you know that's Hebrews uh the writer of Hebrews says that that by this time you should be you should be teachers uh but you have need of being taught the elementary principles but he's talking to Believers yes he is absolutely yeah
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because believers are newborns in Christ they are born again and like newborns they need milk they're saved by I mean their their their understanding is
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milk level understanding exactly and so they that is understanding that can sa because the grace of God is what saves not right that's what Ariel was saying
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that that's exactly what Ariel was saying understanding doesn't save okay even understanding of the Basics you know you how many people will tell you that Jesus is the son of God
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lot you know a lot more people than are actually saved even the demons believe and tremble so so we talk about milk let me
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try to sum this up in just a few minutes go ahead Ariel judeo-christian principles that is milk turned into non Saving right ethical ethical principles
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yeah judeo-christian ethics you know that that is that is a non-singing milk um
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going that's Bas Poor Richard's Almanac okay not even that but his own his own autobiography yeah yeah not not a great model um but that that is theism that is
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what we you know really what many of our founding fathers em bibed was good moral principles um they're not salvific and many of them are based on Proverbs and many of them are based on the Bible
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they're not salvific okay we are definitely talking about Believers people who've made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ are baptized into the body now the Teaching Ministry of the
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church alongside the parents are raising up that child in Christ and again that child might be 36 years old but they are a child in Christ and so just because a
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person is an adult does not mean they should be attending the plum line classes okay I guess what I'm getting When I See This is I'm
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is I'm seeing as seeing as that the beginning life it's the life beginning teaching but then you have the meat that basically supports helps you
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to understand more so what is coming from you don't no the milk I don't need to okay milk let me let me interject um the milk that a mother gives to a child
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is after the child's birth that milk had nothing to do with the conception gestation of that child okay now that child you know that that period might be considered God's common Grace that he is
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sustaining us as we live before we come to him in Christ yes fine we're not aware of it but it's there but then the
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birth now the mother is providing milk but the child is now alive not it was alive in the womb but it's a child it it it's it's represents the regenerate
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sinner so milk is not salvific milk does nothing beneficial to an unbeliever until that regeneration by the Holy Spirit now I'm not suggesting
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that you that you not provide the gospel for your unbelieving children because that is the power of God into salvation and the elementary principles of the Gospel are
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in fact the milk that we then do ingest in church and at home these are the basic principles of what does baptism mean what does the Lord's Supper mean
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what is what is the doctrine of original sin I mean there there are basic principles of the holiness of God of
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analogy well yes but you don't start with me exactly that that is the biblical analogy that the young believer and that's why I'm saying even if that believer is an adult that young believer should not be
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fed a diet of meat okay I think it is a it it was very distressing to me to see the average age of seminaries
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these are these are pups okay and these puppies are choking on the bones that are being fed to them and they're going out into the churches
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with an with an elitist understanding but no knowledge you know there and actually I'm I'm only echoing Spurgeon Spurgeon was not
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interested in in people coming as as essentially what his in his view children I he was an exception of course an exceptional man but I think there is a level at which we're ready for meet
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and with our children we can understand that as we hear you know if we discuss the Sunday school or the sermon and we listen that's why I started out by saying I mean in in a large respect the
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essence of teaching is listening not just lecturing is hearing what people are saying and then you know putting that together as to okay I'm not
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getting my point across or you know maybe you know you're hearing each other and that's that's
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corporate teaching but until a child can can rearticulate the concepts that have been taught they're not ready to move on okay
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and so all I'm saying here very very briefly is that at Fellowship Bible Church I'm just going to use this you know we we have maybe at the
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children's Sunday school and Plum line I mean the Thursday night class is intended to be meat okay and then there are the adult Sunday school okay and those are what we
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have right now in terms of the teaching I'm not saying we don't need more in different levels but if we're going to um if we're going to pass along the
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doctr of The Faith from generation to generation then this is what needs to happen in the church okay Mark and I cannot rely solely on
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the parents to raise up successors in the eldership that that's needs to be done as a body okay while it's while you can
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say absolutely truthfully that this does not abrogate the responsibility of the parents we are not simply an assembly of families the church is the family of
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God okay so you you you have to be careful also not to ignore or to uh invalidate the role of the church in both your own and your
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children's education in the Lord so we're out of time so let's close in prayer father we do thank you for your word and for both the milk and the meat of it and we do pray that you would give
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us appetite for both we would enjoy hearing those Elementary principles by which we were brought up the milk of your grace and your mercy but also that
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we would gain sustenance and and even the same type of pleasure that we get from a a good meal when we ingest the meat of your
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word for your ways are indeed past finding out and all eternity will not suffice for us to understand fully your nature Your Grace your holiness
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your majesty so we pray that you would spur us on and by your Holy Spirit within us cause us to hunger to yearn for both the milk and the meat and teach
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us wisdom that we might know when our children are ready for meat we ask in Jesus name