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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.