Makes it look like the church is full. If you could come on over, we'd appreciate that. And every week we switch sides to keep you on your toes. For those that are new, we got obviously some that are new tonight. We're so glad you're here. God bless you. And we have been going through a course on Wednesday night called Answers. answers and We've been asking two questions each week, and so we're up to questions 25 and 26 25 and 26 if we could all turn in our Bibles to the book of Acts chapter number 9 x chapter number 9 Who else needs a sheet? There's one there, okay. Keep your hands up. I'm Pastor Cole, by the way. Glad to have you with us tonight. We have been studying all kinds of questions and have quite a few more to go before the end of the year on all different kinds of subjects. So, if you don't like this week's questions, come back next week and you might like those. Or if you have a question, I don't have all the answers, but I'd be glad to study it out. And you can let me know if there's something that has been on your heart. And boy, we've covered a lot of things this year and got a ways to go. Some of you won't be here next week. We'll probably be a little thinned out because of teen camp down in Butler, Pennsylvania. But that's all right. We certainly are praying that you just have a great time. Some of you adults are going as counselors and teens and we really hope it'll be a great time down there at camp All right all set okay our question tonight our first one is number 25 this year and It's this this this has come up is home churches substitute for the local church now our simple answer before we get into the verses and explanation is no and not by today's definition in practice now home churches are pretty diverse and so in a generality that's our answer no they're not by today's definition in practice the word church comes from a Greek word ecclesia what is the word church literally mean anybody know a called out assembly A called out assembly, okay? And as we're going to see by the end here, that's not really what you see happening in homes that say they have home church. And it's been my experience to meet people who have home churches, very nice people. Some of them are very, very dedicated. Some of them are very, very concerned about their children to the point where they don't want their children contaminated by the local church. or some of the youth that are in the local church and and so they stay home and but it's been my observation also to see how much that backfires and It's not the solution Jesus prayed for us in John 17 and said we are in the world, but we're not of the world and he prayed to the father and said Lord don't take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil and And so God can do that. God can give us grace, every one of us, so that as we live in the world, He can still keep us from the evil. And so the church is a called out assembly, and we have no right to change the definition of the word church. We have no right to change the definition of any word, really. For instance, in America, they've changed the definition of the word marriage away from a biblical definition. And really, I don't think anyone has a right to change a word's definition. The same thing with church. So there's a tremendous, tremendous home church movement going on in America today, probably around the world, I don't know. But I want you to notice what our verse says in Hebrews 10. in verses 24 through 25. It says, And let us consider one another to provoke... Now I'm on the sheet, I'm not in the Bible yet. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. So I want you to notice here we are admonished to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. And then it says these five words here, or six words, as the manner of some is. So apparently even back then when the writer of Hebrews was writing in the first century, there were believers who were beginning to forsake the assembling of themselves together with other believers. as the manner of some is and then it's funny it says but exhorting one another that's encouraging one another and then it says these five words and so much the more as you see the day approaching now those of you that might be students of prophecy probably see the day of Christ approaching it must be possible to see the day approaching otherwise God would not have said in his word As you see the day approaching. Does that make sense? It wouldn't be possible to obey this if it wasn't able. And it does seem like we are in the last of the last of the last days. Especially when you see things that no Christians in any other centuries have seen like the regathering of Israel back into their land. That's a big one. Keep your eye on that. Because man, that's happening right in front of our eyes. and is definitely setting up the tribulation period which is the time of Jacob's trouble or Israel's trouble so it must be possible to see the day approaching and in regard to our subject tonight and that of church attendance and church involvement it says we should attend church more and so much the more as you see the day approaching but what's happening church attendance is declining everywhere And a lot of people are staying home and having what's called home church And and sometimes if you talk to them, they'll say well there aren't any good churches anymore there aren't any good pastors anymore and Well, that's not really a an excuse to stay home either The best thing to do is to stay in the church and make it better And when I meet people like this or people who use that argument, I say, well, why don't you come and show us how to do it? Why don't you come and show us how to be a good Christian? Why don't you come and show us how to care? Why don't you come and show us how to pray for others and how to win souls and do those things and try to help our church get better? They haven't taken me up on that offer yet, but maybe someday one of them will. All right, now, notice I asked you to turn to Acts 9 and verse 31. God's will is for there to be churches all over the place. This is the verse God used in my life 10, almost 11 years ago to start planning churches. It said, then had the churches, plural, rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied. This is the first time churches, c-h-u-r-c-h-e-s, first time it ever appears in the Bible. In other words, there's more than one. We don't believe so much in the universal churches. We do the local New Testament church. They were all over the place. Churches were planted in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. So that's all those regions around probably within 70 mile radius of Jerusalem. Now who started those churches do you think? It doesn't tell us, but who do you think started them? The church at Jerusalem. The Lord said to them in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. Where? Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the outermost parts of the earth. These regions right here. And so in their obedience to Christ, they went out preaching, soul winning. And when you get people saved, the next thing you're supposed to do is get them baptized and then get them edified or built up in the faith, which requires a local church. And so they started planting churches all over the place. This was the New Testament pattern. So that's why we're trying to do what we've done here. You know, we planted this church 36 years ago in Hilltop. over 10 years ago in Brightway in Cattaraugus down there three years ago. And we should be getting the keys this week soon to the church in Perrysburg, the building we're buying out there and hopefully starting a congregation out there. The Lord willing, you pray about it, August 1st, I hope to be able to hold our first meeting there, which is a Thursday night. And of course, it's got to be the Lord, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it, all right? So, we need to have local churches. Now, here's why our answer is to the question, is home church a substitute for the local church? No, not by today's definition in practice. Now, what is today's definition in practice? Look at the word under definitions. It says, today's definition of home church is where a family gathers in their home and has Bible time, prayer, hymn singing, et cetera. This would be better called family devotions or a family altar. And every home should have that. All right, we should have prayer and Bible reading at our homes. Now, sometimes these home churches will gather together with a couple other Especially chosen families that they agree with That they don't think are going to contaminate each other's children everything and although that's noble God has not called us to isolate ourselves from the world But to go into all the world and share the gospel. I remember the there was one down here in Leon and I talked to Two of the families that were going to that one And I said to them, and I was just trying to be nice, I said, now what do you do for evangelism? And they said, oh, we don't do that. I said, well, that's the great commission of the church given by the head of the church, who is Jesus Christ. And that is to try to preach the gospel to every creature and reach out into the whole world. but they had become an isolated uh... a group of three families and they they were and I think it was noble their intentions but the world's not going to be reached that way and uh... you know just just by staying together with those people we really like uh... we're not called to like the world we're called to love the world and to reach the world with the gospel uh... and uh... the church is to be made up of all kinds of people. Now the biblical word church is a group of people who are saved, baptized, and called out of the world to assemble together. Now here's just some of the things that local church is supposed to do. They're supposed to continue in the Apostles doctrine, fellowship, eating together, caring for each other, reaching souls, praising God, baptizing and edifying one another. The local church's mission, simply said, is twofold. Inside of the church, it is the edification or the building up of the saints. Outside of the church, it's the evangelism of the sinners. Okay, that's basically it in a nutshell. We gather together to edify each other, that is to build each other up in love, so we can go out into the world and evangelize the lost sinners. Now a lot of what's in this paragraph is contained in this text that Brother Kelly is going to read to us in Acts chapter 2, 41 through 47. Now remember as he reads it, this is the pattern of the church Christ left, the church he planted in Jerusalem. This is what they continued doing as soon as he left and went back to heaven. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And they that believed were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and with singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. All right, now look up Hebrews 13 in a minute. All right, we're going to have some sword drills. Now, we only got sword drills on this lesson. The next one we get to in a few minutes has none. So, if you're going to participate, now is the time to participate. Sword drills where you grab your Bible by the binding, hold it up. I'm going to say a verse, and then you repeat it, and then I say go, and then when you find it, you stand up and start reading it. out loud and for everyone to hear, okay? All right, the first one is Luke 4, draw swords, Luke 4.16. Go, Luke 4.16. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. All right, this is the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know you probably couldn't hear that completely, he's not mic'd up. But Luke 14, and he, Jesus, came to Nazareth, where he was, had been brought up, and then notice this, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. As his custom was, that was the custom of Christ, To go to the church in Nazareth. Now who can tell me from New Testament history approximately how long did Jesus live in Nazareth? Sean? Pretty close. That's close. In between? 28 years. Jesus lived in Nazareth for about 28 years and it says, as his custom was. He went up into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. I've mentioned this before and maybe you'll see this when you go to Israel next year. They took us to Nazareth and they have excavated the synagogue that's there. And it's about the size of this section here that these folks are sitting in, a little bigger. It's not big at all. The population for my studies, some studies say 400. was the population of Nazareth in Christ's day. I've seen others that estimate it at 2,100. Either way, it's a very small town, Nazareth was. As his custom was, he went up into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. That was the custom of Christ to assemble with God's people. All right, how about the Apostle Paul? Draw swords. 17 to Go x 17 to What's that a phone? No phone Everybody hold your Bibles up again by the By the binding everybody close your bibles hold them up by the binding draw swords Acts 17 to Go All right now notice what Tracy wrote I read and Paul notice as his manner was Went in unto them and three Sabbath days reason with them out of the scriptures now the reason I bring this out is because Jesus Christ and Apostle Paul are our two greatest examples Christ of course being sinless the son of God But Christ would save Paul on the road to Damascus and Say I am going to make you a pattern for everyone that should hereafter believe So I call Paul our pattern, and I'm glad we have a human pattern. Christ is our divine pattern. He was the son of man, so he was human. He's our greatest example, Christ, by far. But God has also given us a human example, who I think four times said, follow me as I follow Christ. And so we can study Paul and learn a lot from him, too. What did we learn about him there? As his manner was, he went up to the synagogue. So follow Christ, follow Paul, and go and assemble with God's people. All right, now, at the bottom, explanation. The home church movement today is nothing like the biblical church. Now again, this is a generality. There may be some that are different, but Today's home churches have no pastors, deacons, teachers, evangelists, assemblies, evangelism, baptisms, discipleship, tithing, offerings, missionaries sent, churches planted, etc. They just kind of meet in their homes. They are under no pastors, elders, or bishops. That's a place we should all be, like it or not. I mean, I know that some, not all, but some of the ones that I have met with their home churches seem to exhibit kind of a rebellious attitude toward God-ordained authority. And sometimes also with unauthorized home Bible studies. The same way my wife and I, when we were first married, it was almost 40 years ago, we used to go to a home Bible study, one in Boston and one out in Chaffey. After a little while of going to those Home Bible studies I came up to the conclusion these are kind of rebellious people here That don't want to be in a church and don't want to be under any pastor or any authority and we got out of it and You know we said we're not going to this anymore there's a rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and there is authority in our lives that is ordained of God and government, presidents, mayors, governors, policemen, judges. In our home, the father is the head of the home, then the wife. In schools, Galatians 4, we're under governors and tutors until the time appointed of the father. And in churches, there's pastors or elders or whatever, that's the way God as ordained it to be. So read if you could a few verses on that. Hebrews 13 verse 7 first of all. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Verse 17. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as they must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Verse 24 salute all them that have the rule over you and all the Saints they of Italy salute you All right It says in those three verses those that have the rule over you know that doesn't mean a pastor is a dictator or a dominator or anything I know a verse that I try to live by his 2nd Corinthians 1 verse 24 where the Apostle Paul said not as though we have dominion over your faith and but are helpers of your joy. I've said this before, one of the things I'm trying to do is help you have a better resurrection someday when you stand before the Lord on the judgment day. I'm trying to provide you a platform and the liberty to work within that platform to live as fruitful of a life as you possibly can. But there is a God-ordained authority in every single institution. I skipped one earlier. What other institution did I forget to mention where we're under authority? Scripturally. Completely right, but Colossians chapter 3. Whatever your boss says, that's what you do. And God says, I will reward you for that, for you serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's a verse here that says in 1 Corinthians 14 to 23 on your notes, the church is to gather somewhere. Now, probably Pastor Seth, maybe some others, I've heard of churches that gather under trees in places. I remember my Uncle Don, who used to live in Perrysburg, went to Africa and they built just, they stuck poles in the ground and put like metal roofs over it. because these churches, some of them in Africa, met under trees for years, and now they have a tin roof to meet under. But they gather together in some place, the verse says, if therefore the whole church become together in one place. Now where's the home church movement get their ideas from? From these verses here, and we'll have some sword drills here real quick. But as we do these sword drills at the bottom, I want you to keep the biblical definition of the word church in your mind and plug that into the verse as it's read. Okay, ready? Draw swords. Romans 16.5. Go. Romans 16.5. All right, thank you, Brother Kyle. If you didn't hear it, it said, likewise, greet the church that is in their house. That's all we need to know besides the other names there. Greet the church that is in their house. Well, how do we explain this? How do we explain this? The church, again, called out assembly that's in their house. Keep in mind as the church is just getting started in human history, They met in synagogues. The church at Jerusalem met in the temple until they got run out of there. Or they would meet in the homes of people who had homes big enough to meet in. This church here started in a home on Long Beach Lane over in Angola, 110 Long Beach Lane. And the home of Ed and Carol Durham, and we met there until we'd grown. One time we had about 38 people in their house, and they said, we got to find somewhere else to meet. And so we met in a house, but we were a church. We invited everybody we could in for that. It wasn't just, you know, one family meeting in the home. Draw swords, 1 Corinthians 16, 19. Go, 1 Corinthians 16, 19. And Priscilla salutes you much in the Lord with the church that is in their house. Okay, with the church, the called out assembly that is in their house. Now for time's sake, we can't do the other ones here. We've got to get to the next lesson, but what was the score anyway? Six to one. Let's do one more. This one's worth three points. Philemon 1 verse 2. Go. I hear something going off. What is that? Is that Megan? Oh, it's Sharon. I see Sharon, Megan double over. Oh, she's laughing or praying or crying or something. Oh, that's you, Sharon. All right. Well, you just got out of the hospital, so we understand. I can't even find it. Where is it? Philemon? Oh, here it is. Philemon went, yeah. And our beloved Aphia and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house. Again, to the called out assembly in thy house. Some people opened up their homes for churches to meet in, because they didn't have nice facilities like this. All right, now that's a question that's pretty much going to come up in the body of Christ. You're probably going to meet some people. And you don't want to attack them. You don't want to beat them over the head with the Bible. But you want to be able to have a working definition of the word church. And God is a God of decency and order. He's got order in the church and leadership. And they're really missing out. I know there's no perfect churches. We've been through that before. Christ went to the synagogue in Nazareth, the synagogue in Capernaum for three years, and the temple in Jerusalem three times a year all of his life, and all three were a mess. Biblical history, all three were a mess. But he never quit going. He turned the tables over twice at Jerusalem. drove out the money changes and everything, but he didn't quit. He just tried to make it better. That's a good example. All right, our last question. We only got a few minutes on this one, so we're going to basically read through it. Here's another question. Is the digital church a substitute for the local church? Now, that's a new phrase that you're going to hear more and more and more and more and more about the digital church, the digital church. And that's the church that's basically come to pass because of the electronic technology of our day. Now, here's the answer. No, it's not a substitute for assembling together with your brothers and sisters in the Lord, but it can complement the ministry of the local church and reach around the world. I mean, we support Christian Radio International. It's one of our missionaries. We thank the Lord for the gospel message. They're beaming into countries that don't have churches. And some of those countries, it's illegal to meet together. So we're glad for this opportunity. Here's a couple of verses that show us that even when they didn't have all this electronic technology, it says this in Psalm 68, 11, the Lord gave the word, great was the company of those that published it. So they did what they could to publish the word of God. Another one, Acts 13, 49, and the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. All right, so they found a way to get the word of the Lord out there. And here's the definition. The digital church is a newer term used by some who do not attend a local church, but instead watch pastors on television, YouTube, live streaming, et cetera, and listen to Christian radio and podcasts. Now, you meet a lot of these people. In fact, I think there's more of these than there are of us. People in there, they just, you know, whatever, get their chair out and put their sofa out there and foot rest and watch Charles Stanley or something on Sunday morning. And he's a wonderful man, wonderful preacher. And I'm glad for radio and television ministries that can help the body of Christ, but that's no substitute. How can that person accomplish the will of God in their life when part of God's will is for us to discover our spiritual gift and then use it inside of the local church to edify others? How can you do that sitting home watching a favorite preacher or teacher or podcast or something? Now, these digital tools can be greatly used for the evangelization of the lost, the edification of the saints. They can especially help in areas of the world that are hostile to the gospel and to Christ. One of the hostile countries on our prayer calendar is Mauritania. And there have been a lot of Bible students in Mauritania who have consulted our website, fbbc.org. and downloaded all kinds of materials, doctrinal books and things where they're studying. And that's really something that has helped disciple them and edify them because they probably wouldn't dare do what we're doing right now. And so we're glad for that. Many who live in countries that barely allow freedom of religion, assembly or speech can be helped through TV, internet and radio. These tools can also help those who are sick or shut in. or believers who live in free countries but do not live near a good church. And there are some that are hundreds of miles, like Southwest. I'm sorry, the Northwest, have you ever traveled through there? Yikes. I know Independent Baptist Church, there's one pastor in Oregon told me there's only 13 in the whole state. And Oregon's bigger than New York, geographically. And you can go hundreds of miles some places to find a good church right here in America. So maybe some of these people can be helped. They can be, they can further be useful with one, when one is dealing with inclement weather. That happens around here sometimes. Or providentially hindered from attending church. That happened three times this past winter where we had to cancel services. And my wife and I watched on the internet some other church services and it blessed our hearts. But you know, we're not gonna stay home and do that all the time. But as we saw in the last question, the word church means a called out assembly. We are to be members of a church, find our spiritual gifts and use them to edify our brothers and sisters in Christ. We cannot do that from home. How will we know how to pray for the brethren? Show them our love bear their burdens who will fulfill our ministries if we're at home I wonder how many men at home God might be calling to be pastors, but They're you know God chooses prophets and teachers who are busy in the local church acts 13 1 through 6 and then sets sends them out to be missionaries and How will we support the Lord's local ministry and missionaries around the world if we don't know of them? So the church is not perfect, it's far from it, but it gives us a platform that we can serve the Lord, win souls, bring people to be disciples, support missions, and all kinds of other things. All kinds of other things, so. Now our church, we have live streaming. We have a website that's one of the most popular websites in the world among independent Baptists. It really is. Fbbc.com. We use YouTube, Facebook, CDs, DVDs, all kinds of media, but we always tell people this is no substitute. Anyone who's watching on live streaming now, I don't know where they might live, but we get a lot of people who watch Wednesdays, Sunday mornings, Sunday nights. They need to find a church. And even if it's a small dinky one that's struggling get in there and make it better so All right, well, we'll have a couple different questions totally different next week Wednesday But John's coming with prayer lists take those home Pray through them line by line for these people remember Sharon and Holly especially tonight as they recover from today's surgeries And, um...