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Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name, in the blood of Jesus Christ. Dear Lord, I thank you for this during this sermon. May you feel constant with the Spirit, that it gives you your word. I pray that you give us ears to hear and I pray that you soften our hearts to receive the message, Lord. We love you. And Jesus, I'm your friend. Amen. All right. Amen. John chapter 20. Look down at verse number 19. It says, Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you. Verse 20, And when he had so said, He showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Verse 23, Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. The title of my sermon this evening is The Importance of Church. The Importance of Church. Now, obviously, it wasn't all that long ago when we were in John chapter 20 on Sunday nights, and we gave the proper application here of what these things mean. You understand that the resurrection is obviously passed already, and Jesus is making his appearances unto the disciples, giving them their final marching orders, if you will, their final instructions. But I want to show you this evening that this is also a picture of church. This is a picture of going to church. I'm going to show you that. We're going to spend this evening looking at that. Now, the reason why I'm preaching this this evening is because there's an important trend in our society, and even throughout the whole world, for people to subvert the importance of going to church. For example, the other day I was in someone's house. The second time I've been there, I think it was there last year, maybe last May or something, fixed a fireplace. Nice guy. He goes to a real popular church. I want to see it with Stonehenge, but I'm not 100% sure about that. But he's like, hey, man, is that church still in your house? I was like, no, we're in a building now. He's like, oh, wow, you're still going to church? I was like, well, yeah. He's like, oh, okay. He's like, yeah, we're still online. I was like, oh. He's like, we kind of have like a parking lot service, but you have to be chosen from a lottery basically to attend. And I was like, oh, okay. And he's like, yeah, but I'm cool with that. You know, I'm cool. You know, I'll stay home as long as possible. It's great because we could just sit there with our families and wherever two or three are gathered. Right. You know, there he is in the middle. Right. He must be reading NIV or something. And I was just thinking to myself, obviously, I'm not going to be rude or try to teach him to auctions. Oh, okay. You know, but that is the wrong attitude to have. You know, even if the government does come down and say no more church, we're still going to go to church. We're still going to assemble. We're still going to meet together. And our government hasn't done that here in Idaho. And yet you still have these some of these churches just not just not open, just, you know, just content with the way things are. And the only thing I can think of, I guess the paychecks must still be rolling in, you know, but I'm meeting a lot of people in this community that are just fine with it. There's like no urgency. There's no no no sense of urgency to get back to church. And it's like, well, what's going on here? And, you know, we see this out in town and we get people saved all the time. And it's like, you know, they just don't get the importance of going to church. So we're going to study that tonight because it is important. It's very important. You're going to see why here. So, like I said, I want to show you that these verses here are also like a picture of church, because if you think about it, are they going to continue going to the synagogues to, you know, read and do that whole system? No, everything's changing. The death of the testator has already happened. We're now officially in the New Testament and things are going to change. We're learning about that on Sunday nights. But let's get this thing started here. Look down at verse number 19 again. It says, then the same day at evening being the first day of the week. Remember how this chapter starts off by emphasizing what? First day of the week. Right. It says, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear, the Jews came. Jesus and stood in the midst and sayeth unto them, peace be unto you. Keep your place there. But go to Leviticus chapter number 23. Leviticus chapter 23. My first thing I want you to notice, though, from that verse, the first point for the evening, is that we hold church services on the first day of the week to follow the biblical example. Obviously, you know, I've told you before, nothing's in the Bible for mere coincidence or fillers or things like that. Everything is in here for a reason. And I think it's important to note that it says that twice in John chapter 20, first day of the week. And then you say, why are you bringing this up? Because, you know, there's a lot of people out there. And even in this community that want to like hail the Sabbath. Right. Oh, you go to church on Sunday. You're going straight to hell. I had somebody tell me that one time. I don't think it was here. I can't remember where it was, but I was in Vancouver. That's right. So he knocked on this lady's door and, you know, like you go to church. And I go, of course I do on the Sabbath. Right. Right off the bat. I'm like, oh, here we go. You know, I go to church on Sabbath. You guys go to church on Sunday. Let me see. She grabs the invite. Oh, yep. You go to church on Sunday. You're going to hell. That's literally what she said. I was like, what? I was like, what the hell are you talking about? You know, I'm going to hell. And then she goes, well, I go to Casey Treat's church. Well, Casey Treat is a false prophet that's up in the, I think the Seattle Tacoma area. Right. Super false prophet. And I'll tell you what, Casey is no treat. Okay. That boy's no treat. He's a devil. But yeah, and she, she begins to just berate us for going to church on Sunday. I ain't got time for this. Right. I'm out of here. Not too long ago. I can't remember which one of you guys was with, but I knocked on somebody's door and they were like, oh, you go to church on Sunday? Yeah. Well, I'm not coming. I'll just stay home. Okay, fine. Be that way. But this attitude is out there. Right. And I think as believers, we need to understand why we go to church on the first day of the week. Look, I'm not saying it's satanic to go to church on the Sabbath. I think you can have seven services a week and God would be okay with that. You know, because what does the Bible say as the day approaches? Should we go to church more or should we go to church less? We should go more. Exactly. Right. But there's nothing in the world wrong with going to church on the first day of the week. Look, we're here Wednesday. Are we going to hell? No. Right. But some people would argue otherwise. Now I just want, I had to turn to Leviticus 23 because I just want to show you that this concept is even foreshadowed in the very beginning of the Bible. Now look down at verse number 15. I'm just going to read two verses and then we're going to go to Acts. Leviticus 23, look at verse 15, and ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Look at verse 16, even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number 50 days and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. You could lose your place there and go to Acts chapter 20. I mean, as I was studying this out, there's all sorts of examples that we could go to in the Old Testament talking about the first day of the week, the importance of it. I believe that these things here mean what they mean, but they also are a foreshadowing of the fact that we would hold services on the first day of the week, that Jesus Christ would be raised on the first day of the week. If the Sabbath was such an important day to hold services, surely it would just say it in black and white. We wouldn't have to do backwards flips and, you know, play a game of Twister to come to that doctrine. It's really ridiculous. Look at verse number seven, Acts chapter 20, verse seven. It says, and upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight. Go to 1 Corinthians 16. So we talked about this not too long ago. What do we have here in Acts chapter 20? We've got the disciples coming together for what? For fellowship, to break bread, right? And what is Paul doing? He's preaching to these people and keep this in mind that his sermon lasts until midnight. So now it goes into Tuesday. OK, so not only do we see an example of a church service on the first day of the week, we see an evening service, but we also see a very long evening service, right? This thing carries over until Tuesday. Now the Casey Treats of the world and the Sabbath lovers, you know, these Sabbath slobs that just want to spit out their garbage towards us, they probably have a heart attack when you read them this. I mean, I don't spend much time arguing with them. I just walk away because this is so stupid. I mean, how can you not even read the book of Acts and then come, you know, how can you say, oh, I'm a Bible-believing Christian. I've read the book of Acts and then come away with that doctrine. It's not going to happen. You could probably even read a false version and still get the fact that it's OK to go to church on the first day of the week. OK, look at what else we see on the first day of the week. First Corinthians 16, look at verse one says, now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. So this is a universal commandment applied to multiple churches. Verse two, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come. So right off the bat, what do we see? We've already seen a preaching service. We saw an evening service. And guess what? It was on the first day of the week. Very long service. What else do we see? Collection of the saints, people giving up their tithes and offerings. Are they doing that at Starbucks? Are they doing that at Tully's Coffee? No. Are they doing it at Red Robin? Are they doing it at the library? I mean, no, they're doing it assembled together in a church service. You see, people have this idea, well, wherever I'm at, there's church. And you know what? I'm starting to see this a lot in this community. Knock on the door, yeah, I go to church. Where? Right here. I'm always in church. As long as I have a pulse, I'm in church. That is the stupidest thing that I've ever heard of in my entire life. That is false doctrine. You know, at that point, I'm like, you know what? You're just mocking the truth. You're just mocking God at that point. Because that's not what the Bible teaches anywhere at all. Look, it is important to understand these things. There is nothing in the world wrong at all with going to church on the first day of the week. The disciples did it. The early church fathers did it. And you know what? We do it to this day. And guess what? We're still getting blessed by God week after week and month after month. Not that hard to understand. Go back to John chapter 20. John chapter 20, look at verse number 19 again. It says, Then the same day and evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews came Jesus, and stood in the midst and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. Look at verse 21. Jump down to verse 21, rather. It says, Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath done unto you. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, even so, send I you. Now keep your place there, but go to Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16. So what do we see here? The disciples, they've locked themselves in a room, right? Why? For fear of the Jews. Okay? Yeah, nothing new under the sun here. We've talked a great deal about this. But right now, these guys are having a rough week. I mean, you start off in verse number one. I mean, there's all kinds of things going on. The disciples are troubled. It says they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again. So you know the deal. They go to these guys, they run to the temple. The temple, the sepulcher, Jesus' body isn't there. They're perplexed. They don't know what's going on. They're having a hard time understanding this. They've got Mary saying stuff, and they're just like, What in the world's going on? And then Jesus says, Hey, peace be unto you. He brings them a message. Now hold that thought. Now look at verse number 14, Mark 16. Look at verse 14. Now this is the same account, but we get more insight on what Jesus told them during this time. Now look at verse 14. It says, Afterward, he appeared unto the eleven, as they sat at meet, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. Now go back to John. Go back to John. So get the picture here, right? Understand the picture. What's going on here? They're locked up. They're having a rough day, right? They're having a rough time. The Lord had been crucified. You know, they're not fully understanding what's going on. They thought the kingdom was going to come now. They thought that Israel was going to be restored in the physical sense, and things just aren't going according to the plan. These guys are having an emotional wreck of a time, right? And to make matters worse for them at the moment, Jesus comes in there, and he doesn't just say, Peace be unto you, right? He does say that he gives them comfort, but he also gives them a balance, and he upbraids them for their unbelief. Here's point number two. Church is an escape from the world and a place to prepare for the world. Church is an escape from the world, and church is a place to prepare for the world. You see, I believe that this event here pictures a church service perfectly, right? Because we go throughout the week. We go to work, or you're with your children. You're in the community, and sometimes things don't go well for us Bible-believing Christians, if you haven't noticed, right? We have, I mean, it's a rough world out there. It's a rough ride, especially when you're being a disciple like you are. People are coming at you. They're spewing all kinds of garbage towards you, and the world perplexes you. That's what it's designed to do by the lowercase g, God. And here we read the story where Jesus, you know, comes into them when they are perplexed, when they're in trouble, and he doesn't only just comfort them. That's important, right? But he gives proper balance by upbraiding them for their unbelief, and you know what? It's the same thing for us, right? We have a rough week. We come to church. Sometimes you get your toes stepped on, but you're better for it. Why? Because it prepares you to go on throughout the week. It prepares you for life, but it also gives you comfort. You notice when I preach sermons sometimes where I'm mad about something and I'm ripping on something that's not right, I always try to add some edification in there because that's what we are instructed to do as preachers, to provide a good balance, right? You don't want too much of one, and you don't want too much of the other. You've got to find that right balance. That's what makes it work, and that's why I say point number two is church is an escape from the world and a place to prepare for the world. You see, this is what you're Starbucks-loving, I'm-always-in-church guy who's just painting on his jeans, right? He's got this little machine, and he just foam paints him on there and thinks that's okay and just runs around with a Mohawk on. I'm always in church. You know, Jesus is my homie. You know what? He's not going to a place to prepare him for the world. He doesn't get that midweek escape. He doesn't get that end-of-the-week review and that rebuke. And that hardcore teaching that's going to prepare him for life. And that's why a lot of these people are a wreck, and they don't even know it. And you say, well, they've got a three-car garage, and everything seems to be going well. Yeah, but stand next to them at the judgment seat of Christ and watch that bonfire blaze, baby. Watch that thing roar. You know, that's what's going to happen. That's going to be their demise. You know what? Because church is important to God, and it should be important to us as well. Go to Matthew chapter 18, Matthew chapter 18. And while you're turning there, I'm going to read for you 1 Corinthians 14, 10, which says this. This is the great tongues chapter, but it says, Paul tells the Corinthians this. He says, hey, there are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world and none of them without signification. Right? And that is so true. There are so many voices out there in the world. I mean, you've got the voice of your flesh, the old man trying to have a conversation with you at every turn. You've got your family, your unsaved family. You know, these acquaintances that you have at work, your neighbors, your coworkers. You've got the media. You've got stuff that you can't really control. We hear voices all throughout the week, all every single day. Right? And these voices are not without signification. That's what Paul's telling the Corinthians. What's the answer to that? The answer is to take that break, get to church and hear the word of God preached so that you can be edified. You know, but it's not just the preaching. It's being around other believers that are having struggles and having successes as well. Right? And when you put that combination together, you have a recipe for success. You're creating disciples. You're creating people that are ready to go back out into the world and take on the problems and the trouble that the devil throws at you. Matthew 18, look at verse 20. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Yes, that's true. But you know what? Most people, when they're sitting in their living room on the couch with their pajamas and you knock on the door and say, you know, where do you go to church? And they're like, I'm always in church. You're not gathered in his name. You know, you're watching some wicked show on TV. Don't tell me that you're in church. Would Jesus Christ watch that garbage? Would it be OK if we just rolled down a white screen here and played the latest rated R movie? That is disgusting. That is not biblical doctrine. And look, we need to get back to understanding the importance of going to church. You know, I believe personally that going to church is like the most basic thing that you can do. I mean, is that not your reasonable service? Did not Jesus die on the cross? And it's just too much to ask Christians today to go to church. It's just so hard. Oh, I can't do it. I can't do it. What about the game? What about this? What about that? What about my friends? Hey, what about what God thinks? What about that? What about that? Nobody ever wants to ask that question. You know, everybody wants to just misapply verse 20 here and say, oh, well, you know, I'll just grab a couple of my buddies there and then ask church and Jesus is just more than fine with that. You know what? Where is that in the book of Acts? Where is that in the book of Romans? Where is that in Corinthians? Where is it? You know what? The Corinthians, they were pretty jacked up, weren't they? But you know what? You know what you don't read about them? You don't read about them just dispersing and being like, oh, well, I'll just go to the arcade and hang out and that's church. We're just always in church. Take the grace and run. No, that's false doctrine. That is not OK. And you know what? People that are saved get rebuked for it all the time because God loves his children and he will chasten you. He will chasten you. Go to Hebrews chapter number 10, Hebrews chapter number 10. So the proper application of Matthew chapter 18, verse 20, obviously, is that you know what? When we are in church, guess what? Jesus Christ is here. We are gathered here in his name. Now you say, well, what if I have a little Bible study and I find my friends over there? He is in the midst as well. But don't call it church. It's not church. Are you collecting offerings? Are you preaching sermons? You know, I mean, where are the elders? Right. There's a lot of things that go into a church service and all of them we get from the word of God. You're there in Hebrews chapter 10. Psalm 85, which says this, I will hear what God the Lord will speak for. He will speak peace unto his people and to his saints. But let them not turn again to follow. You see, we're supposed to come to church to hear God speak through his word. Look, I'm not God. God doesn't audibly tell me anything. I get doctrine from the Bible. And the Bible says that, hey, that's the word of God that goes into your heart. That makes changes. That's what gets the job done. That's why we don't have thousands of people here right now. Because the Bible doesn't tell you what you want to hear. Right? You come to church, Jesus is going to upgrade you a little bit. Yeah, he's going to say peace be unto you. Yes, he will come for you. Yes, he's going to provide that safety that you need. But what you need more than you think you need is an upgrading once in a while, a kick in the pants. That's what we all need. That's what's going to get the job done. And why does the psalmist say here? Why does he say, hey, look, I'm not going to return again. Look, I'm not going to return again unto my falling. Application, that's why. We're supposed to come to church and hear these things and make changes in our life. Remember, church is an escape from the world, but it is also a place to prepare for the world. Hebrews chapter 10, look at verse 24. It says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love into good works. How are you going to do that by yourself? Show me the little group that meets at Fred Meyer's and Starbucks. What are they provoking each other to do? Are they going out and knocking doors? Are they preaching the gospel? Are they standing up for right doctrine? Are they on the side of the King James Bible? Right? No, they're not. They're not warning people about anything out there, are they? No, they just get together. They read a couple of verses out of the NIV and they're like, oh, this is so great. There he is in the midst. We're pleasing God. We don't really need some pastor. We don't really need deacons. We don't really need elders. We don't need a mission field. This is our mission field right here in these comfy little chairs with our coffee. Look, I'm not against coffee, but I'm against people saying that that's church because that's not church. That's the will of man. Go back to John, Chapter 20. It's a point number one. The first thing that we talked about, remember, is we just saw, you know, the importance of the first day of the week. I believe it's important to come to church the first day of the week because it prepares you for the week. You say, well, I'm going through something you didn't preach about. You know what? There's always something in the word of God to help you during the week. If maybe not the sermon, maybe something that another brother or another sister has for you afterwards. Look, this is why we stay in fellowship, you know, so we can edify one another and provide that comfort and provide that preparation because everybody is going through different things. We'll have different experiences. And when we come together, you leave in better shape than you were when you got here. Everybody knows that. We all understand that. Right. But again, church is a it's an escape from the world, but it's also a place to prepare for the world. And that's what we saw in this chapter here. Right. Jesus appears and he says, hey, peace be unto you. Right. They're in fear for their lives. They think the Jews are coming after them. They're like Mary's telling us that she talked to you and we don't believe her. And then what does he do? He upbraids them because of their unbelief. Right. That's what this book does week after week. It upbraids us like every time I crack this thing open, I'm like, oh, ouch. Right. That hurts. Oh, man. You know. And you know, it's true because it's sharper than any two edged sword. Right. First, 22. It says this. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and sayeth unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sends you remit, they are remitted unto them. And whosoever sends you retain, they are retained. Point number three is this. The Holy Ghost moves during the service. Go to Acts chapter number four. I should have told you to keep your place in Acts. We're going to come back to it quite a few times. But Acts chapter number four. Look at verse 31. A lot of people think, you know, well, OK, you know, I went to church, you know, hurts the Bible. You know, I'm going to get a reward for that. Right. I'm going to get a crown of right. I'm going to get a crown of life or something. I'm going to get some great reward. Well, if you continue, you know, and you start doing some stuff, you know, you're helping the brethren out, for example, you know. Yeah, of course, you're going to get rewards for that. But you need to understand that when we come together, Matthew 18, 20 is very true. There he is in the midst. Church is very, very important. You know, the Holy Ghost is very involved with the church service. A lot of people say, I don't like what you said. You know, I think you're preaching against me. A lot of times I don't even understand your situation. Yes, sometimes I do. But you know, that conviction, you know what that comes from? That comes from the Holy Spirit prodding and poking you and saying, hey, that's you. That's you. But that's OK. You can get it right. Peace be unto you. Right. You need the upbraiding and then you need the peace. You need that whole thing. Acts Chapter four, verse 31, he says, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. Look, every single little complacent. I'm always in church type person that I've ever talked to. They could never preach the gospel to anybody. And I've had a few of them give me the right answers. But I had to draw that out of them. I had to ask them, you know, well, do you believe? Yeah, I got, you know, I was a Baptist when I was a kid or, you know, I got saved in some old school type Baptist church. I just don't go to church anymore. And that's OK. You know, we love those people. We want to get them in here. We want to we want to pray for them. But what we need to take away from this verse here, the example that is set forth, is that when we're assembled together, right, the Holy Ghost is in the service. And guess what? This is the place where you're going to learn to speak the word of God with boldness. And that's man and woman alike. Now, obviously, we don't have women preachers here, but we send women preachers out there and they get people saved and they teach people doctrine and they disciple those people and they bring them in here to church to serve. Everyone has an important role. And you didn't get that way just solely from just hanging out at, you know, Dutch Brothers or whatever coffee shop you like, right? You get that from going to church, because this is where God has ordained that his body would go to meet to learn the ways. And I mean, think about it. He told the disciples, hey, go ye into all the world. What did they do? They went and started the first church right there in Jerusalem and then started church after church after church. And so that commandment is meant to continue on and we are doing it to this very day. Go to Acts chapter 20 again. Look at verse 28. After this, we're going to go back to John. But Acts chapter 20, look at verse 28. Acts 20, 28 says this. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, into all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. Remember, we just talked about this not too long ago. Paul is preaching to the Ephesian elders here and he says, hey, the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. Well, isn't that interesting? Isn't that a big slap in the face to people that say church isn't that important? I'm OK with God. He's OK with me. I could just sit in my living room and do whatever I want to do. Week after week, month after month, year after year and not do a thing for Christ. And he's OK with it. That's not what I'm reading here. That's not what I'm reading here at all. Paul tells the elders here, the pastors, hey, take heed. That means be careful. Understand. Listen up. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, unto yourselves, into all the flock, over the which the what the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. You better believe that the Holy Ghost is involved when somebody gets ordained into the ministry. He says, have made you overseers to what? Feed the Church of God with he purchased with his own blood. You tell me right now that church isn't important. And I'll tell you, you are wrong. And you can take that doctrine and go jump on one of these canals around here because that's about what it's good for. Right. I mean, does this not scream church? Holy Ghost making people overseers, making I mean, giving them a commission to feed the people. What are you talking about? Feed them ham sandwiches, malto meal. That's how the New Evangelical interprets this verse. Oh, we're doing it. We're going out and giving people ham sandwiches, man. We're doing a great job. No, you're an idiot. You can't even tell me whether or not you're saying, you know, that's for God to figure out. Not you. We're going to learn that that attitude is very, very wrong, my friend. Very wrong. Go to John Chapter 16. John Chapter number 16. It just blows my mind that people think that church is just, oh, it's just something we do. Right. Oh, it's just something we do. You know, it's like that Francis Chan idiot. That guy's a clown, man. I heard him say, oh, you know, this whole pulpit business, we shouldn't even have this, man. You know, this was invented. I forgot what year he is. This was invented like the 1500s or something like that. You know, we should just all get together and hang out. You're stupid. You never even read Acts. I mean, maybe we should pull the false Bible out here and go through it. We don't have time. But I'm sure even these false versions have something similar to this. I mean, come on. Give me a break. Acts Chapter 16. Look at verse 13. Listen to what Jesus says about the Spirit. He says, How be it when he, the spirit of truth, is come? He will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself. But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come. So Jesus is telling the disciples, hey, when the Holy Ghost comes, he's not going to be proclaiming his own agenda. He's going to call to remembrance the things that I taught you. And that's so true. When we come to church and you hear the word of God preach you, you're like, oh, yeah, I read that right. And it makes sense. That's the Holy Ghost involved in that transaction. He's prodding you. He's calling these things to your remembrance, the things that Jesus said. Where else are you going to get that done at? Obviously, you can read the Bible in your own time and you shouldn't. We all do, hopefully. Right. But church is so important in that aspect. Look at verse 14. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. Now, obviously, Jesus is talking to the apostles here. But guess what? This applies to us as well, because he says all things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. You know what? Going to church and you get that. Oh, yeah, that's what that means. Oh, that's I understand that. That's the Holy Ghost opening up the scriptures to you. Look, these people who gather together. We go out and we play paintball. Nothing wrong in the world with that. Right. But when you want to call that church, you know, we're just a bunch of Christians. Just get together for activities week after week, week after week. There's no Bible involved. There's no edification. There's no upbraiding. There's no peace. It's just, oh, we just identify as Christians. We go do all these different activities in that church. You say you're crazy. No, those people are out there. And that trend, my friend, is growing by the minute. Look, we need to get back to convincing people. Hey, church is important. It's very important. It's not as important as you getting saved. Amen. I understand that. We get it right. But look, you need to go to church because you're missing out on so many blessings that God has for you. You're how else are you going to get that break? What are you going to get it from watching TV or get watching the news? That's not going to give you a break. That's just going to get you all upset, especially right now in today's day and age. Amen. Let's see. Go back to John. Go back to John. And I'm going to read for you 1 Corinthians 12, 28, which says this. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers. After that, miracles and gifts of healings, helps, governments and diversities of tongues. Does that sound like God doesn't care about the church? No, because he's provided apostles who lived in the past. Prophets, preachers, teachers, all sorts of people that have gifts. Why for the edification? Why for the mission to carry the truth? Remember, we're supposed to be the salt of the earth. We are supposed to be the light of the world. How are you going to do that? Sitting on your backside in your living room week after week, month after month and year after year. It ain't going to happen. Well, I click on Joel Osteen every once in a while. You know, I've ran into like five people here in Boise where I've talked to them and they're like, yeah, I go to church. I'm like, where's that? Houston. What? Yeah. My pastor is Joel Osteen. I asked one guy, does that where you send your ties? Yep. I bet you do. I really believe he wasn't lying. You know, but guess what? That's not church. That's you being a clown. We're listening to that guy, first of all. And I mean, you're missing out on everything. You have a lack of understanding, right? Those people need to be corrected. They need to be shown the truth. Hey, that's not church. When was the last time you explained the gospel to somebody? You know, I mean, tell me that it helped me understand this because I just don't get it. And the reason why I don't get it is because it's not in the Bible. John chapter 20. Let's move on here. Look at verse number 26. It says, and after eight days, again, his disciples were within and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus to the doors being shut and stood in the midst and said, peace be unto you. Verse 27, then sayeth he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless, but believing. Verse 28 and Thomas answered and said unto him, my Lord and my God. Jesus sayeth unto him, Thomas, because thou has seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they which have not seen and yet have believed. So I want you to go back to verse 26 here real quick and notice the first couple of words. This is an after eight days, after eight days. Think about that. Jesus appears to the disciples here earlier in the chapter. Right. And then a few days pass by and he comes back because Thomas wasn't there. You know what that tells me? That God cares about church. Here's point number four. Church should be important to us because it's important to God. It was important for God to go back and reach Thomas. It was important for him to make sure that everyone who needed to see him saw him and that they understood the mission. They understood, hey, this isn't about the kingdom coming back right now like it wasn't David's day. This is about further. You guys are now ambassadors. Right. The kingdom's coming. The kingdom's up in heaven right now. You're ambassadors. Don't wrap yourself up with the things of the world. Right. Carry on my mission. Be salt, be light. But he cared enough about Thomas to go back and explain and make sure that he understood it. What was the result? The understanding. Right. Church should be important to us because it's important to God. A lot of people think it's not important to God today. But I'm telling you, it is very, very important to God. Go to Ephesians chapter number five. And while you're turning to Ephesians five and read First Corinthians eleven twenty two, which says this. What have you not houses to eat and to drink in or despise you? The Church of God and shame them that have not. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. See, they were misapplying the Lord's Supper here. Right. And what do we read? We read that Paul is upset with him. Why? Because church is a place where order should abound. Right. We're supposed to have order in the service. We're supposed to do things a certain way. Now, we're going to talk about the Lord's Supper in a couple of weeks here. And one of the points that I have with that sermon is that there's a lot of autonomy left to the local church to carry those things out. We'll talk about that later on. But, you know, if it was church wasn't important, why didn't Paul just say, hey, don't worry about it, man? You know, just get your TV dinner, sit down, read a book and just talk with each other. Because Christ loves everybody and everything and every doctrine. But he doesn't say that. Why does he upgrade these people? Because they violated the order. Look, God cares about your church should be important to us because it is important to God. Ephesians Chapter five. Let's look at this further. Verse 29, Ephesians 5 29 for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord, the church. And I've heard people stop here and say this. I'm not kidding you. Well, that just means the body of Christ. He just nourishes the body of Christ. Right. Like they're downplaying the importance of going to church. Look, I understand that there are verses in the Bible and we'll look at them. It talks about the body of Christ as the church. It's in the Bible. Right. But does that mean we just throw out the local New Testament church? You're out of your mind. I mean, hopefully by now, if you've been listening, you've seen the importance of church, that there should be order, that it's OK to go on the first day of the week. There should be preaching, tithes, offerings, all of these things, edification. This doesn't come from you just living your life, doing whatever the heck you want to do. This comes from attending an assembly of believers. Look, didn't we read in Hebrews, not forsaking the assembling together of ourselves? I might have forgot to read that because it's not kind of coming back. Yeah, I did forget to read that. Kind of funny how that works. Right. See, the Holy Ghost works in the service. Right. He just reminded me, I had you turn to Hebrews and then I stopped for sure. But at least he helped me out. All right. See, that's a good application for you guys. But in Hebrews chapter 10, and you guys look, you guys know these verses. We're told not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, because there's always been this manner of people or this group, this group of people that have the manner of skipping church, not viewing it as important. Oh, it's not as important to God. What I have going on is much more important than what God has going on for me and for my life. That is not the way to live your life. That is not biblical. It's not OK. And it's dangerous for the believer. OK, but verse 30 says we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. Amen. Verse 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. Verse 32. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. I think it's interesting here that Paul gives the Ephesians this illustration of marriage and compares that to church. He compares that to church. Right. You know what? We should love the church as well, because Christ died for it. You know what? He did die so that we could assemble ourselves together. Why did he appear unto them in John chapter 20 if he didn't care? Why didn't he just go to him individually and go, hey, man, just just have a great time, you know, do great things for God. All right. You know, say Jesus every once in a while. Get a shirt that says something about me. You know, tell somebody one Bible verse and then just go on about your merry way. Why didn't he say that? Because that's not church, man. That's not reality. Go to Colossians chapter number four. Colossians chapter number four. Do pass Philippians. Go to Colossians chapter number four. Look over 16. Look at what Paul tells the Colossians here. He says this in verse 16. And when this epistle is read among you, assuming that they're going to read it, not just once. Right. But read it on a regular basis. And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. So what do I see here? What do you see here? We see. Hey, Paul's telling the Colossians, you know what? You need to read this epistle more than once. You need to read the one that I wrote to the church of Laodicea and you guys need to read these things and talk about these things and be on the same page. But notice it's to the churches, to the churches in these places. Look, the Bible wasn't just written to the believer to sit at home and do nothing with. Church is a real thing. It's found in the Bible page after page, chapter after chapter. Go to First Timothy chapter three. Very familiar with this passage here. You understand that Paul is giving the qualifications for a bishop, for an overseer, for a pastor, which who chooses, by the way, who has a hand in that? The Holy Ghost. Right. He says, hey, these things must be met if you would desire the office of a bishop, if you want to be a deacon. Now look at verse number five real quick. It says, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Is that verse five or 15? OK, good, because my first Timothy is kind of like faded. So now look at verse 14. Look at verse 14. He says this. These things ride I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long that thou may know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So where is the pillar and ground of the truth? That is the church. Right. He spends an entire chapter saying, hey, a bishop must be the husband of one wife, must have his children in order, must have all of these things. Wife's got to be grave, got to be serious, right? She's got to be on board with these things. He says the same things to the deacons and then makes this statement here in verse 15. Hey, if I don't see you soon, you understand how to behave yourself in the house of God. Now, that obviously applies in your day to day walk with Christ and the new man and that whole conversation. But it also talks about how to behave yourself in the assembly when we come together. Right. That is church and it's important to God. It should be very important to us as well. Go to James chapter number five. James chapter five. While you're turning them or if you Hebrews chapter two, verse 12, which is saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church. Will I sing praise unto thee? Now, I think it's interesting here in Hebrews that I believe Paul said this saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. You know what that tells me? That we should declare Christ's name to our brethren. When we go out soul winning and we see somebody who saved and they aren't going to church, we need to make sure that we tell them, hey, God's doing great things down here at this church. People's lives are being changed. We're learning doctrine. We're going out with boldness. We'd love for you to get on board with this thing and help us out because it's important to God. Right. We don't just have to proclaim Christ's name to the unsaved, though we do. And that's a great mission and we're going to continue it. We're going to get better at it. We're going to do more of it. But what I think sometimes we lack, sometimes what we miss is that when we do run into a believer, I think sometimes we let them go too quick because it's like, oh, this guy's already saved. Right. Sometimes, you know, I think we might need to invest a little more time into those people and see what happens. Because, look, Hebrews 2 12 is not in here for no reason. Right. There is a purpose behind this statement here. But let's move on. James 5, look at verse 14. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the Starbucks and let him serve thee well. Oh, sorry. That must be the message Bible. Oh, he says the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. Look, people that downplay church, they're just displaying to you their vast array of ignorance. That's what they're telling you. I'm dumb. I don't know anything. You know what? They just need to wake up. They need to wake up. Why? Because you know what? Things are getting bad out there. Yeah. Right. False doctrine is prevailing. People are trying to subvert the importance of going to church every single day. Look, these new evangelical churches, man, they are doing one heck of a job at downplaying church. Look, their own preachers will get up on stage and start talking trash about church. Isn't that a tragedy? Doesn't that go against every verse that we've read today? I mean, that's disgusting. That's sick. We need to fight against that stuff. We need to realize, hey, there's an important value in attending church and we should make it a priority in our lives. We don't get to live our lives like everybody else does, right? If you want to be a disciple, you want to grow and be an apostle, church needs to be a priority. Go to Revelation chapter number one. Revelation chapter number one. I'm just taking you here to simply show you the importance, how important it is to the Lord God that we go to church, to a local New Testament Bible believing church. Look at verse number four, Revelation 1, 4. If churches aren't important, if it's just all about the church, right? It's just about the church, just being saved, just being in the body of Christ. Why does Revelation start out this way? Why? Tell me why now. Oh, you can't because you're weak and because you've been lied to. That's why. Hey, you know what? We need to go out and tell these people that are already saved, hey, you know what? You're not acting like a very good king and priest right now. You know the New Testament says that you're a king and a priest? You need to act like it. You need to come to church to learn your mission. You need to stick with it so that you can act like what you have been ordained to when you got saved. Verse number seven. Hey, let's make sure we're not wailing because we know we waste our lives, amen. Let's make sure that we're cheering for that day. Verse eight. Go back to John chapter 20 and we're going to finish up here. I got one last point for you and we're done. This is about all my voice is going to handle tonight. John 20. Look at verse number 21. We need to understand that we do have a mission and that mission is very important to God. Verse 22. Now look at verse 23. Verse 23. This verse poses a big problem to a lot of people because they say, well, only God could forgive sins and that is so true. I understand that, but can you not forgive a brother who's done you wrong? Yeah, of course we can, right? Somebody wrongs you, you have the choice to forgive them. Now let me ask you this. What if a reprobate does something to you? Do you have to forgive that person? No. What does remit mean? Remit, remission, a cancellation of a debt. That's what that means, right? Point number five. You need to understand this statement very carefully. Read it one more time. Whosoever sins you remit. Who's talking here? Jesus is talking. And what is he doing? He's transferring authority. He's giving some authority to the apostles, who would then go on to start that church in Jerusalem and then go on to start churches all throughout the entire world. And guess what? This verse right here is our mission statement. We have, the Bible believing Christians, the church has the power to remit sins on some levels. You need to understand that. We have the right to say, you know what? If a man or a woman rejects Christ, they're going to hell. We have the authority to say that. Whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them, right? When you go and you preach the gospel to somebody, they believe it. They get saved. You pray with them. You know what? That is a commission from the Lord Jesus Christ given right here in John chapter 20, verse 23. But you know what? When we stand up here and we say, hey, you know what? There are some people who are beyond hope, who are beyond salvation. These sons of Belial, these sons of the devil and these filthy reprobate dog faggots out there. You know what? I'm not going to preach to them. I'm not going to cast pearls before a swan. We have a God given right from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ to do that. That's what this is saying. Those would be people that we retain their sins. We do not allow them the opportunity to get saved. Jesus has given the apostles and the church the authority to declare what God does when a person accepts and rejects the truth. But he's also given us the privilege and the authority through his word to carry out all manner of doctrine. That's really also what he's talking about here. And whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. We don't have to go give the gospel to pedophiles on Capitol Hill. And you know what? There are Baptist organizations that send quote unquote evangelists and missionaries to that area of the country to preach to faggots and reprobates and all kinds of pedophiles because they think they can be saved. You know what? They should really study and think about John chapter 20 verse 23. You know, we do have the power to get up here and say those things. And when we say, hey, look, you know what? Those people are beyond hope. I'm not going to waste my time. We're not going to waste church resources going out and preaching to a bunch of child molesting fools. You know what? That comes from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? And whosoever sins you retain, guess what? They are retained. The truth and the buck stops at the local New Testament church. Church is important to God. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for allowing us to even be able to gather here, Lord, without fear and threats from the government. We just pray that you'd continue that season, Lord, as long as you would. And I just pray that you'd fill us with great boldness, Lord, and just moving this church again this month, Lord, and help us to go out there and fill this valley up with your doctrine. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Did we get a strike? Not yet.