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