You can search the web for house churches and you can find everything for why they shouldn't exist to eleven ways on how to do it and let us do the heavy lifting for you. The greatest need of every hour for God's people is they know how to step away from all the shouting about everything under the sun and spend alone time with God. Every Christian needs to learn how to battle for their time with God, to be discerning, submit to God, resist the devil, and hear God's voice. 

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Worship always begins by raising God's inerrant Word, placing His revealed thoughts first, and ending our human and fallen opinions, often based on earthly loyalties and dying to self-centered wants. Only after spending much time in prayer can we understand what God has written and what He means by what He has said. Human opinions matter very little unless the person speaking has died to denominational bias and human pride and experienced brokenness by God's presence at the foot of the cross. 

Secondly, without exception, every believer needs to learn the uncorrupted version of the Gospel. One of Satan's chief goals is to lie about the Gospel because it is the means of salvation for everyone who believes, and equally important, it becomes the source of overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil for every believer. In our educated society, which we transfer to other countries, as Christians, we absorb the idea that our intellect is the primary way to God.

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However, the Hebrew understanding of knowledge includes the whole heart. In a prophetic context concerning Israel's restoration, the prophet Jeremiah, speaking for God, said in 29:11-13, "For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." 

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According to the scriptures, the human ​heart in the Hebrew mind includes the mind, the emotions, and the will or the place where we make decisions and put what we believe and feel into action. Therefore, knowing something in total depends on more than just our intellect. To show just how much more than school learning is necessary to know the truth about the Gospel in particular and the revelation of God's holy Word, let us consider 2 Peter 2:19-21. ​​

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Just before verse 19, Peter rehearsed what Happened upon the mount of Transfiguration when the Apostles witnessed Christ in His glory and heard a voice from heaven say, "This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased..." Therefore, Peter continues, "So we have the prophetic word made more sure." The Apostles witnessed the Lord's Christ for three years and saw His miracles, death, burial, and resurrection. They are blessed having seen and heard, but we are the more blessed for believing, not having seen. How we believe and know the reality of the scripture is described no better than by Peter in the following verses. 

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"So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." 

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The lamp shining in a dark place is a hand-held lamp that gives no more light than necessary to walk without tripping over something. Peter, however, admonishes us to pay attention. To pay attention in Greek is like setting a course and bringing a ship to land. Only the course of which Peter speaks has eternal benefits. Peter paints a picture of a dark place for us, and we might ask ourselves what dark place that might be. After giving us hope that the day will finally dawn and the morning star, which is none other than Jesus, as stated in Revelation 22:16, "I, Jesus ...I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star,” where the dark place is. The morning star arises in our hearts, meaning the darkness resides there. 

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The only means of dispelling the darkness is Christ, the light that dispells the darkness of a sinful soul. The problem arises when the redeemed forgets that we are the problem. Repentance can never be a one-act play; it is a drama that lasts a lifetime of repentance that brings the sinner to the shore of heaven. We are told in Psalm 112, "Light arises in the darkness for the upright; [He is] gracious and compassionate and righteous." Old or New Testament both give glory to the God who is the light of the world and arises in the heart of those who fear Him. 

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You might ask, what does all this have to do with being part of a house church? Worshipping God in a way that pleases Him and builds up the body of Christ is more than changing a location, the size of a building, or the number of people actively involved. The basics are always important, and they always remain the same.

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The basics are these: an accurate Gospel message, the person of Christ and not merely teaching Christian principles, accountability among believers of authentic faith with transparency and love, an undying passion for the lost, a commitment to the truths that build up the body of Christ, and last but not least unwavering obedience to the commands, warnings, and example of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. ​​​​​​​​​​​​

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Three very different types of people make up the body of Christ. There are those who are obnoxiously resolved to do church the way they have always done it, no matter how anyone may prove from God's Holy Word that the way they know does not please God. I can say that because I was one for nearly fifty years. Sometimes, it's necessary to take a step back and consider the failures of greater men than ourselves, that is, men that God transformed into vessels fit for the Master's use and how they failed. Noah, a preacher of righteousness for one hundred and twenty years, built an ark to save every species of animal and, in so doing, condemned the violent world of his day. Nevertheless, afterward, he got drunk and naked, disgraced his family, and cursed his youngest son and his descendents.  

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Space does not permit me to tell of Moses, God's servant, who became angry and misrepresented God to the people. Abraham gave his wife away out of fear. David committed adultery with the wife of a godly man and had him murdered so as not to be found out. Too many to mention here. The difference between those faithful men of God and us is the clarity with which we see God through His Son's sacrifice of love at the cross. When we are disobedient, we do so, having received a much brighter light. We are warned, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation" Hebrews 2:3 and 12:25, "See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from Heaven." ​Chapter twelve and verse 25 speak about those who profess faith in Christ but do not possess eternal life and will be rejected on Judgment Day. I am emphasizing the significance of turning our backs to Christ's sacrifice for any reason and by any person. 

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Paul's Sorrow for Israel

In this section, we will consider the ramifications of Israel's changing the structure of the nation God chose for them and how the new structure multiplied their sins and advanced God's judgment upon them. 

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Before considering the structure itself, we must first consider the remnant of people God chose to be with Him forever in contrast to those who were Israeli by birth but not by faith. Israel, apart from God's sovereign choice to save whom He will by sovereign choice and not by the works of the Law, determines the path the unsaved nation would take in contrast to the path that the remnant. 

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"I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, [separated] from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the [temple] service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen." Romans 9:1-5

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All the promises above were given to the nation, but only the remnant benefited as they were chosen according to God's grace. The point I just made will become more evident in Romans 11. 

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The Chosen Remnant of Israelites

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"But [it is] not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are [descended] from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED." That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise: "AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON." And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived [twins] by one man, our father Isaac; for though [the twins] were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to [His] choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER." Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED."

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It is vitally important that we understand that the context above is only about Abraham's descendants. Gentiles are nowhere spoken of; both cases cited are children of Abraham and descended from Abraham. It was not the descendants that brought salvation upon themselves but the promise of God. 

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What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." So then it [does] not [depend] on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." (Romans 9:1-16)

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Once we have come to understand the distinction between the nation and the remnant, then we are in a position to discern how the structure change affects both the nation and the remnant. 

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The Law of Making Judgments in Israel

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Deuteronomy 17:8-13

Verse:

8 "If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses."

 

9 "So you shall come to the Levitical priest or the judge who is [in office] in those days, and you shall inquire [of them] and they will declare to you the verdict in the case."

10 "You shall do according to the terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the LORD chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you."

 

11 "According to the terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left."

 

12 "The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel."

 

13 "Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act presumptuously again."

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1st    The statues determined in Israel were to be according to the Law handed down by God to Moses. These laws were not man-made, were not determined by human wisdom, and were never optional.

 

2nd   God determined the Levitical Priesthood; one tribe was set aside and held to the same standards of the Law.

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The Prophetic Account of Israel

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Choosing a King Against God's Commands

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Deuteronomy 17:14-17

Verse

 

14 "When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,'"

 

15 "you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, [one] from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman."

 

16 "Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.'"

 

17 "He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself."

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THE KING AND ITS RAMIFICATIONS

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When God includes choosing a king in the Law, He is not saying it as His command but instead, "And you say, I will set a king over me like all the other nations is a denial and insubordination of God's Law. 

 

God set aside Solomon as the human king to build a house for Him, and he broke all the laws set forth by the God of Israel. As predicted in God's Law through the prophet Samuel, the kings would be for themselves and not for the people.

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At the end of 1, 500 years of false religous worship and idolatry in the name of the God of Israel, God tore down the last stone upon which Israel had blasphemed His Holy name. Paul, in anticipation of those who would question the assurance of salvation of which Paul spoke about in Romans 8 when they consider God's rejection of Israel wrote chapter 9  to 11. In chapter 11, he show God's faithfulness to the remnant of Israel and the fulfillment of all His promises to the coming Kingdom of Christ and a future restoration of national Israel. 

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"I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in [the passage about] Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? "Lord, THEY HAVE KILLED YOUR PROPHETS, THEY HAVE TORN DOWN YOUR ALTARS, AND I ALONE AM LEFT, AND THEY ARE SEEKING MY LIFE." But what is the divine response to him? "I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL." In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to [God's] gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace." (Romans 11:1-6)

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"What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened;" Verse 7. 

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