The Bible definitely, so many Scriptures,
"The Lord loved the church
and gave Himself for it."
"Christ died for the church."
"And the Lord added to the church daily
such as should be saved."
And when we use the word, "church,"
we're talking about the assembly,
the called out body of believers.
The church always takes shape
in the local body of believers
who are in union and fellowship
with one another under the teachings
of the Word of God;
committed to the ordinances
of baptism and the Lord's Supper
as laid down in the New Testament.
And this is vital.
In fact, there is no such thing as,
I call it, being a lone ranger.
Me being saved - out here - apart from
my fellowship and my participation
in the local body.
I can't know that I'm a real Christian
unless I'm in the local church.
You can't know. You can't have any assurance
that you're a real Christian by reading books
and by listening to sermons
and by being out here isolated
and saying well, it's wonderful,
oh, we love God.
Listen, if we walk in the light
as He is in the light
we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son,
cleanses us from all sin.
By this we know that we have passed
from death into life because we love the brethren.
We have to have brethren around us
to prove that we are Christians.
And we have to have brethren,
to show that we really love the brethren.
And how can we love God,
this is such a theme in the epistle of 1 John;
how can we say we love God,
and not be in union and in fellowship
and in love with brothers and sisters in Christ
in a local body?
There will be contention,
there will be division at times,
there will be misunderstandings,
there will be differences of opinion;
but these have to be in grace,
these have to be worked through,
you have to live through these things.
You have to walk through these things.
And you have to submit to one another.
You have to learn that we've been
called out from the world
and we've been put into an assembly
on earth, and this is a unique organization.
It's a unique structured, ordained work of God.
This is His will for all His children,
to be in a local church,
submitting themselves to a pastor.
Submitting themselves for accountability.
To be where you can be admonished
and exhorted and to hear the teaching
of the Word of God.
We've got to have that to be saved.
And if we forsake that, if we forsake
the assembling of ourselves together,
we fall out of the realm of teaching,
we fall out of the realm of oversight,
we fall out of the area of communion and fellowship,
we're no longer participating in the ordinances.
There's no way in the world you can sit alone
by yourself and take the Lord's Supper.
There's no way in the world you can
baptize yourself.
You're baptized by someone else.
You take the Lord's Supper with other people.
It's a supper, and it's for the family.
So, I would say again,
there's a lot of misguided, misdirected
souls that don't want to have any part
of the local church.
They're greatly in error.
And I would not go so far as to say
that all of them are completely lost,
but I'm saying this,
they are going to be very stunted
and if they're not going to be willing
to be accountable here,
they're going to have to give an accounting to Him one day.
And I sure wouldn't want to be standing before
the Lord Jesus Christ when He says,
"Why wouldn't you be a part of My church?"
I would say that even if there was assembly -
if you were not where there was the best church
or a really good altogether sound church,
if you were isolated alone,
To have fellowship, and to submit...
There are certain fundamental things
that we could not make any compromise on.
That if a local church did not teach certain things,
salvation truly by grace,
the deity of Jesus Christ,
the infallibility of the Word of God, and so on,
these fundamental things that
you can't even be in question of
and even be a Christian.
There's lots of peripheral issues that we
could make concession,
in order to go to church.
I had a friend one time who wrote a tract,
"Go to Church or Go to Hell."
It was a very enlightening little bit of literature.
The Lord added to the church
they that should be saved.
Why would the Lord have you in a place
that there would not be a church?
If you're in a place where you don't have
a place to worship and people to meet with,
you better find a place where you can
find a church.
Let's not look for a job first,
and then look for a church.
Let's look for a church first,
and then find a job.