WWUTT 155 Attending Church On the Internet?

When I was a kid, I tried to come up with all manner of excuses to get out of going to church, but my dad always made me go, and I'm glad that he did, because scripture commands us that we have to attend church when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text, promote sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.

Here's your host, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everybody. This is the Friday edition of the program, which you're hearing on Monday.

I did not get this done Friday in the timeliness that I wanted to complete it. I was trying to get the latest what video done, which was on the topic of don't go to church, be the church.

And I wanted to address a question related to that subject, but I just got so delayed trying to get the video done that particular week that never even got the

Friday program done either. So this is the question that I was going to respond to on Friday.

And at some point today, I'll even include today's Bible lesson. So you get two for the price of one on Monday, April the fourth.

But first, let's go ahead and do the video. This is that latest video entitled, don't go to church, be the church.

And then I'll throw the question up here. It's kind of funny.

The number of churches saying don't go to church, be the church as witty as they think that is. They're inadvertently telling people not to go to church, but they'll still throw it on signs and graphics and even make it a slogan.

Hey, everybody. We don't go to our church. A few have altered it a little. Don't just go to church, be the church.

But the problem is still the same. The message being communicated is that church is not a place you go to. You can be the church right where you're sitting or where you work or where you shop.

That might not be the intended message, but it's what's being said. But here's the thing. Going to church is being the church.

Let's understand what the church is. According to Ephesians one 23, the church is the body of people filled with Christ representing

Christ in all creation. So the church is people, not a building. Let me repeat that again, though, because somebody is saying, ha, see, church is not a building.

I don't have to go. The church is people. Plural. You yourself are not the church. According to Peter, you're a living stone, part of the church made up of the people who have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and have the

Holy Spirit dwelling within them. The Lord commands us to gather regularly. If the church gathers in a building, then that's where you go.

If it's on Sunday, you go on Sunday. The church is where we as one body grow in the word of Christ, listen to exhortation and teaching, sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, pray together, eat the

Lord's supper together, celebrate baptism and marriage, rejoice in life, mourn in times of mourning, and encourage and admonish one another.

We can't grow together if we're not meeting together. So go to church to be the church when we understand the text.

Yeah, it's one of the most ridiculous slogans that churches use out there. And some of them don't even use it as a slogan.

For some, it's like a gimmick. Like you'll have a church that doesn't attend church on a particular Sunday. Instead, the members of the congregation are out doing service projects around the community and they'll call it.

Don't go to church. Be the church Sunday. Come on, folks, you can be doing that in the afternoon on Sunday or going about and doing that in the community all week long.

It's silly to not gather as the saints to hear the word of God proclaimed and instead think that going outside the church is just as much being the church.

But as is stated in the video, going to church is being the church. We are instructed to gather regularly and have the word of God proclaimed, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.

You can't do that unless you are devoting yourself to the teaching of the word of God. Now, I was in radio for over 20 years.

I went to conferences and seminars. I did marketing. I've done commercials, public service announcements.

If there's anything that a radio DJ is supposed to do, you name it and I've done it. Marketing 101.

You never tell a customer not to engage in the product that you want them to invest in.

Like, for example, you don't tell somebody, don't go to our sandwich shop and order our sandwiches. No, that's ridiculous.

You tell a person where you want them to go and what you want them to buy. So in our seeker friendly mentality in the

American church, the different gimmicks that we try to do to entice people, particularly those who are not churchgoers to go to church.

It's the it's just the most ridiculous thing to think it's a good idea to say, don't go to church, be the church.

It's like the absolute worst thing that you could come up with because you are telling somebody you're giving them a negative right at the start of the slogan.

Don't go to church. And then it also kind of creates this thinking that I don't have to go to church to be the church.

I can be the church anywhere. And I've had constant conversations with people about this, particularly through the ministry when we understand the text, because there are some people who are devoted to attending church on the

Internet instead of finding a solid congregation that we can be a part of. And that actually is behind this question that I have received that I'm going to answer today.

This is from Daryl in Texas, and he says, Dear, what I have a question about attending church on the

Internet. A lot of my college friends and I met at an on -campus ministry. But over time, we stopped attending church and eventually we weren't going to our weekly gatherings that I'm assuming he's talking about.

The campus ministry weren't going there anymore, either. I got convicted about it not too long ago.

I found a solid church and started going back. I invited one of my former roommates to go with me, and though he said that he would, he never has.

He told me that he agrees that a Christian should attend church, and he does. But he goes to church on the

Internet. We listen to a lot of the same teachers, so I guess that I should be glad that at least he's listening to good preaching.

But there's still something about it that doesn't seem right. What am I missing or what can I tell him that would try to compel him to actually go to church?

Well, Daryl, you bring up a very good point. In fact, going to church on the Internet is not going to church.

And if I could quote Dr. Al Muller, the Internet is a really bad place to go to church, but it's also not attending church.

You're not growing with the saints. There are people that you are fellowshipping with. You're not being held accountable by anybody.

You aren't teaching someone else and having them teach you in Hebrews chapter 10. We read the following, and this verse was in the video that I played, but you were just hearing the audio, so you didn't see the verse pop up on the screen.

But Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 23, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

And all the more, as you see the day of the Lord drawing near, that's probably one of the most point blank passages of scripture that tells us that we need to go to church.

But you also have to consider from an from a hermeneutic standpoint, who's being addressed in the

New Testament, largely churches, right? Every one of Paul's letters was written to a church with the exception of first and second

Timothy and Titus. But they were written to men that Paul was charging to be overseers in the church and giving them instructions on how to do that.

And then you have Philemon, but Philemon was likely hosting a church in his home. And Paul had some specific instructions for him on accepting

Onesimus as a brother in Christ rather than looking at him as a slave.

First and second Peter written to churches, all of John's epistles written to churches. The book of Revelation was written to churches.

The New Testament addresses the church of Jesus Christ. And so when we're reading these epistles in the

New Testament, what we are reading is addressing entire church congregations.

These letters would have been read before those congregations. And so it's absolutely ludicrous of us to think that the church is not supposed to gather or churches, something that you can just do by listening to audio sermons or this, that or the other.

We're straight up told that we need to gather as the saints and the instructions that are given to churches are given to entire bodies.

Like when you read the instructions in Philippians four, where it talks about, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything with thanksgiving through prayer and supplication, present your request to God.

Right? Well, a lot of times we'll read a verse like that and we'll give it personal application, which it does have, but understand that Paul was addressing an entire congregation of people.

So this was not just with an understanding of how you pray as individuals. It's how you pray as a church congregation.

And you can't do that if you're not attending church. You also look at the instructions that you have in scripture to respect those who are overseers in the church in, uh, to the

Thessalonians, Paul says, first Thessalonians five, 12. We ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the

Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

So when you don't attend church, you are not letting yourself be subject to the authority of a teaching of a church, the subject to the, uh, the elders and the overseers that have been placed in charge of caring for that particular flock.

And you are therefore disobeying a basic instruction that has been given to attendees of a church to be subject to the teaching authority.

You also have Hebrews 13, seven. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you, the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

When you're trying to go to church on the internet, there's nobody there for you to observe as to the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Now, somebody might be able to say, well, yeah, I can see how John MacArthur lives his life or John Piper lives his life or, or any of these guys and I can imitate them.

No, you don't. You really don't see how they live their lives. What you see is the hour that they've delivered their sermon, but you're not seeing the ways that they are loving their wives, loving their families, engaging with both believers and unbelievers, caring for their church, praying with other people.

You don't observe any of that by watching sermons on the internet. And this is part of the ways that we learn how to be godly people in this world by even observing the behaviors of others, observing the behaviors of our overseers and our elders in our churches.

You are only able to do that when you are attending a church. There's just simply no way around this.

You have to go to church. Christ commanded us to be disciples and go and make more disciples to disciple them means to attend church, teaching and admonishing one another according to the word of Christ.

So let us do that again, as it says in Hebrews chapter 10, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, which we do person to person when we are together in church and all the more as we see the day of the

Lord drawing near. Our great God, I pray that we would be convicted on our hearts to gather as the people of God.

If we are your children, then we'll desire to want to be with the other people of God.

So give us solid gospel sound, teaching churches that we can be a part of and grow with the saints in ministry.

In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt