A Word From Our Pastor - Isaac Farnsworth
It has been my pleasure and joy to serve the Lord Jesus Christ here at Victory Baptist Church during my lifetime. I continue to be grateful to the Lord that He would call me into the ministry and also continue to be amazed at how He has prepared me and strengthened me for the task. My father, Barry Farnsworth, labored as the pastor here for 34 years or so before choosing to retire. When He retired, the church asked me if I would be willing to accept the call to pastor, and I felt led to agree. Since that time, the people here have been overwhelmingly supportive in encouragement and prayers for me and my family.
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We know that the local church is an important part of the work that Jesus has called men to during this age and is the means by which He has preserved His Word, equipped His saints, sanctified His body, and spread the good news of the gospel. We know He loves it and gave Himself for it. Ephesians 5:25 – “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it”.
Many attempt to install a "universal" church doctrine in the earth in our days, but there is no scriptural support to do so, and it has proven disastrous to the faith and doctrine of Christ. What we see in scripture is that there are churches, in the plural sense, in the earth as witnesses to the truth and that there is one church, or assembly, to be gathered together in Jesus Christ in heaven in the fullness of time. When we attempt to bring the future heavenly assembly of saints into the earth in this time by our teaching and practice, we corrupt the doctrine and as Paul says will happen when we fail to rightly divide the Word, we produce doctrines that lead to more ungodliness and doctrines that overthrow the faith.
Local churches in the earth today are witnesses of faith in Jesus Christ, professing that Christ will one day return and gather out of the world those who are His children by faith. This future body of believing saints who are to be gathered unto Him as those who have been justified by the blood of Christ through faith will comprise the body of Christ in the world to come. For now, we are called to gather in local assemblies, with each one being the body of Christ, Him being the head of each one. We are called to keep the ordinances and commandments that have been committed to us by His Word as stewards of the things of the Master of the House while He is away. All of these things can only be observed by a local, visible assembly.
That is our aim here at Victory Baptist Church. To keep the ordinances as they were committed to local churches for the preservation of the doctrine of the faith – Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. To keep the commandments of God and of Christ - to Hear the Son of God and to love one another. To keep the command to assemble in the name of Christ and to edify one another in Word and in doctrine while we admonish each other and provoke one another unto love and good works. To evangelize and minister the gospel to our community and the world through missions. To watch for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven. Ephesians 4:11 - 12 - "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:"
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Of all the places I can be in this life, none is so dear to my heart as the assembly of the saints in the sight of the Father, the presence of the Son, and in the power of the Spirit. While we wait for the Son to appear for us and take us to be where He is, this is the most heavenly place we can be gathered. The fellowship is sweeter than any other. The teaching and preaching is profitable to the soul. Oh, that we may be found walking in all pleasing and that we may be found good stewards of His house while He is away.
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Psalm 122:1 – “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD.”
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- Isaac Farnsworth